Aero Gare Sea Hawk ZK-SEA at Scotts Landing

Martin Farrand has a lot of experience with amphibian aircraft, having owned a couple of Coots and also the unique Seaflight Shearwater, all of which he has flown off Scotts Landing, which is at the mouth of the Mahurangi River.  Now he has another one!

Ownership of ZK-SEA transferred to Martin on 23/4/24 and he is now flying it regularly off the water.  In spite of being registered way back in March 1987 I don't think it has flown off the sea until under Martin's ownership.

Thanks for the photo Martin.

Zenair CH 750 STOL ZK-EAS on the West Coast

Seeing Dave Paull's post on the Kitfox VII ZK-ROX at Rangiora, I observed that it now has half its original colour scheme with the forward fuselage all red.

Here is another sport aircraft with "half a colour scheme", being the Zenair CH 750 ZK-EAS2.  The photo is from a Zenair Facebook page and is I assume on a river bed on the West Coast.

Have a look at how it used to be HERE

 

A new resident at Rangiora is the SkyStar Kitfox VII ZK-ROX (c/n PFA 172D-14024).

It is now with Wayne Godfrey who has on sold his Kitfox IV's ZK-CGT2 and ZK-KIV.

There have been several post on ZK-ROX.   See  Here

Seareys in Their Elements

The Mahurangi area is super picturesque to fly over with so many bays and interesting marine environments.  That makes the area a great playground for amphibian aircraft.  Last weekend the weather proved spectacular for flying and Rodger Coleclough told me that when he woke up real early and saw the glassy sea, he had to head off to North Shore Airfield and get his Searey out for some fun.  And somewhere along the line he linked up with Craig Vickery in his Searey:

Seareys ZK-SRY and ZK-FSH2 on the beach at Prospect Bay which is on the Southern side of the Tawharanui Peninsula looking out over Kawau Bay.

Back in the air Rodger took these photos of Craig in his Searey with his cellphone camera.

Thanks very much for the photos Rodger

Another off shore arrival.

 Another exotic visitor captured by Tony McFarlin on finals for Christchurch International today.

Airbus A319-115 (ACJ) B-54111 c/n 5792 arriving in from Port Moresby, having departed Shanghai on the 20th.

Built as D-AVXJ by Airbus Deutschland at Hamburg and first flying on 29-10-2013, with a registration and title change to F-WTAD for Airbus Industries at Toulouse on delivery on 07-11-2013 for cabin configuration.

Next noted on delivery to Eva Air as B-54111 on 14-08-2015.

90th Anniversary Flight Celebrations at Inchbonnie

Inchbonnie is a small farming settlement 16 kilometres West of the Otira Gorge, and it was from an airfield here that New Zealand's first scheduled air service took off 90 years ago.  Captain Bert Mercer of Air Travel (NZ) Ltd  flew in to the Inchbonnie airfield on 18 December 1934 to pick up two passengers who had come from Christchurch by train and who had alighted at the nearby Inchbonnie Railway Station, Messrs G B Christie and H Worrall.  They then flew to Hokitika and on to Franz Josef on the first scheduled airline service in New Zealand, returning later in the day in time to catch the train back to Christchurch.

On 18 December 2024, 90 years later,  a commemorative flight was carried out over the original route with an over flight of Inchbonnie.  Amazingly the flight was carried out by the same aircraft that flew the original flight - the DH 83 Fox Moth ZK-ADI which is owned by the Croydon Aircraft Company but is painted in its original Air Travel (NZ) Ltd colours.  The above photo is from the Grey District Council's Facebook page.

A couple of recent Christchurch visitors from Tony McFarlin.

 Two interesting Christchurch visitors from earlier this week.

This Gulfstream Aerospace G650 c/n 6107 was manufactured as N617GD in the earlier part of 2013 and became 4K-A188 from 18-03-2015 and is operated by Azerbaijan Airline. 

It arrived in from Hobart on the 14th and departed for Sydney on the 18th.

Airbus Industries A321-231 4K-A188 c/n 1695 first flew out of Hamburg as D-AVZA on 27-02-2002 and went on to become B-HTG followed by a return to the German register as D-AATC in May of 2013 at end of lease. 

It was registered as VH-XF4 on 15-02-2024 for operations by Express Freighter and as can be seen carries SANTAS'FREIGHT titles.

It arrived from Auckland and departed for Sydney on the 15th.

Turbulent ZK-CWE Flies Further North

Druine Turbulent ZK-CWE has recently been purchased by Maurice Honey of Haruru in Northland.  Maurice is an experienced glider pilot and also owns PW-5 Smyk glider ZK-GWW.

Maurice Honey got Peter Garlick to make the delivery flight to Kaikohe from Whangarei, where the Turbulent has spent all its life after being built by Bruce Shepherd (who also built Turbulent ZK-BWE).  In spite of not having flown for some years everything checked out well.

So Peter took off and climbed overhead then set out  for Kaikohe.  That is Whangarei Airport down there.

And here is ZK-CWE safely on the ground at Kaikohe where Maurice will hangar it.

Thanks for the photos Peter - keep them coming!

Airtrainer ZK-JMV at North Shore on 14-12-2024

As I was staying on the Whangaparaoa Peninsula over the weekend and it is quite close to North Shore airfield, it would be rude not to make the trip down there.   While I was there the NZ Aerospace CT/4B Airtrainer ZK-JMV arrived from Tauranga on an interesting mission:

ZK-JMV ex NZ1935 outside Stan Smith's hangar.

Here is a close up photo of the logo on the tail.  There must be a story to this - can anyone assist?

Seen Flying Over the Whangaparaoa Peninsula

 

I have spent the weekend dogsitting at Stanmore Bay on the Whangaparaoa Peninsula.  The weekend weather was great and I was amazed at how many aircraft flew over in all directions including lots of helicopters and scheduled services to and from Great Barrier (FR24 was working overtime).  But in the early evening on Sunday this guy cruised down the peninsula then cruised back about a half an hour later.  I reckon he would have been under 1,000 feet and I know he would have been getting great views!

It certainly qualifies as civil aviation, just not as we know it!