This is pretty awesome…
In this post:
Air New Zealand “draws” a kiwi bird in the sky
Today (Saturday, May 15, 2021), an Air New Zealand Boeing 787-9 flew for roughly 2hr42min to “draw” a kiwi in the sky, as that’s the national bird of New Zealand.
The roughly seven year old 787 operating the route had the registration code ZK-NZE, and the flight operated with the flight number NZ4376. The flight both took off and landed in Christchurch.
An Air New Zealand 787 drew a kiwi in the sky
Over the years we’ve seen planes draw all kinds of things in the sky. For example, EL AL drew a 747 in the sky for its last 747 flight, Qantas drew a kangaroo in the sky for its last 747 flight, Virgin Atlantic drew a heart in the sky for Valentine’s Day, Russian pilots drew a phallic image in the sky in solidarity (or something), and more.
I have to say that drawing a kiwi in the sky has to be one of more the exciting shapes we’ve seen due to the turns, especially around the beak and toes.
This flight was operated for Koru Care
While it’s cool to see something like this drawn in the sky, understandably you might be wondering “why?” Well, this flight was operated for Koru Care, which is a charity that Air New Zealand is involved with. This is an organization that creates special experiences for “Kiwi kids who need them the most,” who have disabilities and illnesses.
The organization plans all kinds of special travel for kids — in some cases Koru Care offers free trips to either Australia or the United States for these children, and on top of that they organize an annual Koru Care flight, which is what this was. There were a total of 50 kids on this flight, along with the special people in their lives, and it was intended to be the flight of a lifetime.
What a fantastic cause, and what a cool flight this must have been.
Air New Zealand Boeing 787-9
Bottom line
An Air New Zealand Boeing 787 “drew” a kiwi in the sky as part of a special Koru Care flight, for children with disabilities and illnesses. These flights are operated annually to give deserving kids the flight of a lifetime, and in this case they got an especially awesome experience.
I think the reason for the flight is awesome, but my stomach would not like the turns involved in drawing that Kiwi in the sky...
Someone got extra cash to burn in jet fuel...
For those concerned about carbon emissions-
Air New Zealand is offsetting all the carbon emissions from this Koru Care flight and the flights that flew the children to Christchurch, through its FlyNeutral programme.
Victoria M. boring ! Yawn. Aviation accounts for 3% of emissions pre- Covid. The airline industry has collapsed and there are 80% fewer flights. One aircraft and environmentalists go apoplectic. When was the last time you targeted the Grand Prix ?
I love this
Love it, Well done AirNZ!
@Andrew
I don't believe in cryptocurrency either, but your points are wrong.
*Crypto isn't a bad currency as long as people are willing to take it. I'll take gold bars (in theory, also a useless metal) as payment for anything at the right exchange rate any day.
*Due to its nature, with more adoption, the harder to 'launder stolen crypto'. So yes you can get hacked, but the thief can't do much either. Think...
@Andrew
I don't believe in cryptocurrency either, but your points are wrong.
*Crypto isn't a bad currency as long as people are willing to take it. I'll take gold bars (in theory, also a useless metal) as payment for anything at the right exchange rate any day.
*Due to its nature, with more adoption, the harder to 'launder stolen crypto'. So yes you can get hacked, but the thief can't do much either. Think of stolen iPhones and 'Find my iPhone' lock. Not much incentive to do so.
*Banks and fiat currency does have transaction costs, same as crypto but in different form.
*Lots of criminal got busted from Bitcoins. Contrary to popular myth, every crypto transaction is recorded and traceable. Cash is still best for (smart) criminals.
No offence to anyone here, but reading blogs and posting comments are also bad for the environment.
@Chris
What about TikTok. So much time and electricity is wasted on this platform.
And don't even get me started on Facebook.
I don't believe in cryptocurrency either, but don't try to blame everything on it.
Sorry, how is this a “good thing” with all the negatives for the climate???
I mean the Kiwi is cool but a huge waste environmentally not to mention the wasted fuel.
Let's not forget the fact that the symbol of NZ Air Force is the kiwi, a flightless bird.
Up there with Mongolian Navy and Liechtenstein army in terms of modern miracles.
@Ben Really now. Do you think these kids cares if the plane drew a kiwi? They could just flown them somewhere that they actually would enjoy and they will have the same flight experience minus the unnecessary emission. Just because you can, does not mean you should.
Great story and especially the real purpose of the flight. Kudos to Air NZ
Let's not forget:
* crypto is a terrible currency to use in real life. There are no standards at hardly any merchants; even ones that do (like Tesla) take them away at a moment's notice.
* if someone hacks your wallet, you're on our own.
* if someone hacks your exchange (or the operator decides to fake their death), you're on your own
* it's all a shell game until people...
Let's not forget:
* crypto is a terrible currency to use in real life. There are no standards at hardly any merchants; even ones that do (like Tesla) take them away at a moment's notice.
* if someone hacks your wallet, you're on our own.
* if someone hacks your exchange (or the operator decides to fake their death), you're on your own
* it's all a shell game until people learn about network transaction fees. Then they will wonder why the transfer of value costs something when we've been doing it (effectively) for free with banks and fiat currency.
The whole crypto thing is good for criminals and smart speculators, bad for the environment and any legitimate users.
Prove me wrong, please.
@Kevin,
Aviation accounts for 3% of all emissions on earth. This takes into account the economic, political, and societal benefits that aviation has allowed humanity to achieve.
By comparison, crypto mining does nothing to actually help society except make someone who is already rich, even richer (remember, the vast majority of energy use from crypto is not someone using their gaming rig for mining, but massive crypto farms that utilize thousands of GPUs...
@Kevin,
Aviation accounts for 3% of all emissions on earth. This takes into account the economic, political, and societal benefits that aviation has allowed humanity to achieve.
By comparison, crypto mining does nothing to actually help society except make someone who is already rich, even richer (remember, the vast majority of energy use from crypto is not someone using their gaming rig for mining, but massive crypto farms that utilize thousands of GPUs costing hundreds of thousands, if not millions).
Kevin
Flights are a small proportion of all emissions.
This flight generated a lot of joy for the kids on it and that means a lot.
Wasting emissions, yet Bitcoin is deemed not good for the environment. Okay.
@ Kevin -- While I can appreciate that in general a "flight to nowhere" isn't great for the environment, if these kids aren't worthy of "wasting emissions" then I don't know who is. Unless you're proposing banning all non-essential air travel forever, I think this falls into the category of being totally fair game.