The sight of a Soviet era Ilyushin IL-76 flying the skies of Auckland and Ōhakea this week should be no cause for alarm.

The strategic airlifter, built in the 1970 with a payload of 48,000 kilograms, belongs to the People's Liberation Army Air Force and is in the country on a friendly mission: to train for humanitarian aid and disaster relief operations with the Royal New Zealand Air Forces's No 40 Squadron.

The mission, code named Exercise Skytrain18, involves the Ilyushin IL-76 and it six crew members simulating missions between Whenuapai and Ōhakea for seven days starting Wednesday.

SUPPLIED The People's Liberation Army Air Force's Ilyushin IL-76 landing at Whenuapai Air Base.

It will be the first time that the Chinese are taking part in the exercise but not first time the RNZAF and the PLAAF have worked together. The two were involved in the search for Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 which disappeared with 239 people in March 2014. Twenty-four of the passengers were Chinese.

The Ilyushin IL-76 and two crew members, the navigator and flight engineer, were involved with the search.

The commander of the Chinese mission Colonel Lin Bo says they were difficult times.

Alan Apted RNZAF Base Commander Auckland, Group Captain Daniel Hunt with PLAAF mission commander of Colnel Lin Bo at Whenuapai Air Base.

"It was sad for us and I think it was sad for everyone in the world because we devoted ourselves to try our best to search and rescue but there were no survivors found. It was a sad result but we tried our best."

Base Commander at RNZAF Base Auckland, Group Captain Daniel Hunt says it was frustrating times for the New Zealand Air Force personnel involved.

"I've conducted search and rescue missions before and it does impact you a little bit when it's not successful. But the fact that you, at the end of the day, can come back and say: 'we've done our best, we've tried as best as we can to achieve the result', then you've got to come back satisfied with that."

Hunt and Lin said exercises like Exercise Skytrain18 were important for the future when the two air forces have to work together.

"These are important because whenever we do have a disaster relief or we have an international incident where we have to work together, it's important that we understand each other and we can seamlessly operate together to make sure that we can achieve the mission result as effectively as possible.

"The whole focus of this exercise is for us to work with the Chinese with the focus on humanitarian aid and disaster relief and search and rescue-type operations.

"Some of the things we'll be looking at is how we actually integrate different forces into humanitarian aid from different airports. We'll be operating out of Whenuapai but we'll also be operating out of the base in Ōhakea as well."

Lin rated the mission important and said he and his crew were looking forward to building a working relationship with their New Zealand counterparts.

Among the beneficiaries will be the RNZAF's Chinese speaking officers with the RNZAF. The exercise will give them the opportunity to practise and enhance their language skills.

"The Chinese have brought interpreters because the language barrier is one that we need to consider which is like any multinational operation where you may have French or Chinese, we need to speak their language.

"We do have air force members who speak Chinese. It's part of our diverse culture. I think it's pretty indicative of New Zealand's diverse culture that we do have people who speak many different languages," said Hunt.