Air New Zealand 777 Review

2 weeks ago, Air New Zealand did a fly-by low over the city I live in, Auckland, in the north island of NZ. The aircraft they were showing off was the brand spanking new Boeing 777-200 jet aircraft (Reg. ZK-OKB) which was on its maiden voyage from in Boeing's Everett factory in Seattle to Auckland International Airport, Air NZ's hub.

I usually fly GA aircraft, but because this plane is so special, the first of its kind to be 100% digitally designed, I was interested to see the flight simulator representation so I went ahead and downloaded it. (I got it from http://www.flightsim.com/ The file name is cahan772.zip and its only 6mb)

My first impression of it was it looked fantastically new and shiny with its reflective Air New Zealand repaint, and was pleased to see ALL the doors open, as well as the cargo hatch and engine covers by pressing SHIFT+E.

I took it to the Brisbane International Airport, in Queensland Australia, planning to take it on a medium range flight across the Tasman Sea to New Zealand, then circle Auckland (like it did in real life) and fly over my house and local photoreal scenery, before touching down at Auckland International (NZAA) I couldn’t be bothered flying it all the way from Seattle, I have a limited concentration span- lol!

I departed at 15:08 local time and had a smooth takeoff, managing to lift the wheels of at 190mph. I climbed up to 20,000 feet and leveled off putting the autopilot on so that I could change to the outside view and take some screenshots of the outside in the clouds. I had a slight tailwind and managed to reach a an incredible top speed of 490kias (which is a whole lot faster than my old tiger moth :wink🙂

I reached Auckland at 20:07, and flew round the harbor nice and low, then was cleared to land on runway 23, the opposite end that I thought I was going to, so I didn’t have time to fly over my house. I touched down at 120 kias and held down F2 for all I was worth. I taxied onto the tarmac and parked up at the international terminal, dwarfing all the aircraft in sight!

It was a very enjoyable flight, but as I'm not one to fly these big jets, I don’t really know what to comment about. All I know is that for an aircraft of its size, it has great power, maneuverability, and most importantly, great looks! I would recommend it to any Air NZ or Boeing fan, as its the latest in its class and it looks so realistic, I couldn’t tell it apart from a real one (that I have seen with my own eye). So, if you do decide to download it, take some screenshots and post them here!

Thanks,
Andrew- www.cheekytrolly.tk