KIS TR 4 Cruiser ZK-TUF at Tauranga

Warwick Hamilton photo'd the KIS Cruiser ZK-TUF at Tauranga yesterday.  This has been a tough aircraft to catch up with since its move up North.

ZK-TUF was registered to D M Hill of Paihia on 9/3/23, having been previously owned by its builder Maurice Tuff at Christchurch since 2000.  It has now acquired some nice trim stripes.

Thanks for the photo Warwick.  Too bad about the photo bombing Cessna F406!

That KFC advert on television

 No doubt you will have seen the KFC ZING AIR advert on television recently.

Ian Bevins shot some of the film crew preparing the scene for its filming at Ardmore on January the 5th.The aircraft above is obviously the Cessna 680 Sovereign ZK-ZEK c/n 680-0012 of Air Ops Jet Ltd.

Check out their promotion HERE

Photo above via KFC.

Lifeflight's Latest Beech 200 ZK-LFT/3 at Wellington on 21-3-2025

Yesterday was a busy aviation day around the country and from Wellington Tim Gorman has sent in photos of Life Flight's latest Beech B 200C King Air out in the sun:

ZK-LFT3 (c/n BL-155) was registered to Air Freight NZ Ltd of Palmerston North on 6/8/24 and has been undergoing work at Palmerston North until recently.  It is ex VH-VAE and is the fifth King Air in the Life Flight fleet.

Thanks for the photo Tim.

A mixed bag at Christchurch.

A selection of what was at Christchurch International today - 21-03-2025. 

Two different views - two different photographers- of the Eurocopter AS 350 B2 Squirrel ZK-HIF4.c/n 7504. Imported from Norway in 2022 and now listed to a private owner.

Another stranger in town was the Cirrus Design SR22 ZK-FER2 c/n 3744 of TJL Rentals Ltd of Hamiton.

This arrived in from Kerikeri and Whangarei yesterday - and departed this afternoon for Te Kowhai.

A 2011 model which was originally VH-FER2 - arriving in NZ via Norfolk Island on 31-01-2020.

The Gulfstream GV-SP (G550) N888KZ captured on departure by Tony McFarlin.

See Here for more details of it last Sunday.

Aeronautical Stuff from Warkworth Today 21-3-2025

What a fabulous day for flying today!  Not a cloud in the sky and light winds.  I just had to head out to the airfield and on the way around 10 am I was surprised to see an aircraft on a trailer heading into town!  So a quick U turn:

It was Arjen Visser's new Sling 4 TSi ZK-DBV2 which was in to have its trim and registration painted on.

Then I headed out to the airfield where I pre flighted Honey Bebe and took off around 10.25 am.  I flew my usual track past Warkworth and over Sandspit marina before heading down Snells Beach.  )Click once or twice to enlarge the photos if you want).

Shades of silver.  Man it was nice up there!

Then I flew out to Takatu Point which is North of the outer coast of Kawau Island into the sun glinting off the sea with Little Barrier and Great Barrier Islands out there.

And this is Takatu Point with the long stretches of Tawharanui and Omaha beaches in the distance.

Magical!

Squirrel ZK-HUO also returns from The Ice.

Photographed at Lyttelton yesterday afternoon by Matthew Beaven, just prior to lifting off the deck of the Korean icebreaker Araon, was Christchurch Helicopters Airbus AS 350 B3e ZK-HUO3 c/n 7721.

For the earlier history on this Squirrel See HERE

A Couple of Cessnas at Wanganui

On the way back home from the AOPA meeting at Hawera, Jordan Elvy stopped briefly at Wanganui and he captured these two Cessnas of interest:

Cessna 172R ZK-WUI (c/n 17280533) has been with the New Zealand International Commercial Pilots Academy at Wanganui since 21/12/23 and hasn't appeared as such on the blog previously.  It has a previous history in New Zealand as ZK-NAO and ZK-JKB which you can see HERE

And the Cessna 152 ZK-JFY is also now with the NZICPA and has acquired some trim, having been in their ownership since 1/3/24.  Again, this aircraft has quite a long previous history in New Zealand which you can see HERE.

Lyttelton Chinese AW169 B-70C0.

 Noted today, 19-03-2025, aboard the Chinese Ice Breaker MV Xue Long 2 (Snow Dragon2) at Lyttelton today was the AgustaWestland AW169 B-70C0 c/n 69-090 as operated by the Chinese Antarctic Research Expedition (CHINARE).

First flown on the well used Italian Augusta test registration of I-EASX before becoming B-70C0 in July of 2019.

Multinational Multirole Tanker Transport Fleet T-057

 Tony McFarlin captured the Airbus A330-243 MRTT T-057 c/n 1945 arriving at Christchurch on the 14th.

MRTT is for Multinational Tanker Transport Fleet (NATO).

This first flew with the Airbus test registration of F-WWKD on 06-11-2019 and was delivered to Airbus Defence & Space on 04-12-2019 to become EC-337. It was delivered to the Royal Netherland Air Force on 01-04-2021 as T-057.

It departed Eindhoven for Brussels and Dubai on the 13th and continued on to Kuala Lumpur and Christchurch on the 14th.

New owner for Rans S-7 ZK-TKB

 Back on March the 14th I spotted the Rans S-7 Courier ZK-TKB2 c/n 0707466 doing circuits at Rangiora.

For more details from a previous blog post on this aircraft  SEE HERE

It appears to now have a Sensenich propeller.

New owners were recently listed as Innovative Aviation Ltd of Rangiora.