Titan Mustang ZK-LSD at Matamata 18-6-2018

Outside at Matamata today we have our latest Titan Mustang, Mike Adams' ZK-LSD.  It looks great!

I have previously referred to this Rotax 912 powered example in my previous post on Titan T 51 Mustangs of New Zealand - the Rotax Mustangs HERE (scroll to the bottom).

It is painted as 412943 of the USAF from the Korean war but is named Millicent Rhodes.

Cobra Arrow Mk 2s of New Zealand

The next type of sport aircraft to be registered in New Zealand was the Cobra Arrow Mk 2 from Cobra Aviation out of Australia.  The Cobra Arrow was a design of Tom Wickers and was based on the Alvarez Polliwagen.  The Polliwagen was one of the first fibreglass homebuilt aircraft from the 1970s and one of the first to have the flowing curves of gliders.

The Cobra Arrow has a length of 19 feet (5.79 metres) and a wingspan of 28 feet (8.53 metres).  Empty weight is around 620 pounds (280Kg) and MAUW is 1200 pounds (544 Kg).  Construction is from a kit of pre-moulded composite parts.  Engines can be from around 100 HP upwards, and with this power the cruise speed is around 100 mph.

We have had two Cobra Aircraft Arrow Mk 2s in New Zealand:

ZK-JQX (c/n LW7062) was built by Peter D Warner of Waipukurau and it was first registered to him on 24/10/06.  It was powered by a Subaru engine (probably an EA 81) and its first flight was on 3/12/06.  On 28/9/08 ownership changed to Trevor Claughton of Hastings.  He moved to Auckland and I think from the photo that the aircraft is based at Mercer.  It is for sale on Trade Me, where I got the photo from.

And our second Cobra Arrow Mk 2 was ZK-RMJ (c/n 06) which was built by J M (Mike) Jones of Hawera and was first registered to him on 5/12/08.  This had a more powerful Mazda Viper rotary engine of around 165 HP with an Atom prop.  It first flew on 4/3/09 and it is photo'd above at Stratford on 29/9/09.  Mike Jones later moved to Kaitaia where the aircraft was withdrawn and its registration revoked on 24/6/15.  It was noted for sale at Whangarei in APRIL 2017 and I understand that it was sold to an owner in the Invercargill area, so we may see it back in the air again.

Alexandra today - 16-06-2018

Matt Hayes was at Alexandra today - Saturday 16-06-2018 and kindly sent the following photographs.

 Kawasaki BK117 B-2 (850 D2) ZK-HUP2  c/n 1031 of Otago Helicopters Ltd.

This BK appeared on the Japanese register back on 25-04-1989 as JA9942 and joined the NZ register with Wing and Rotor on 18-09-1998. 

It was then listed to the Order of St John Northern Region (SI) Helicopter Trust Board of Christchurch on 14-05-1999 and transferred over to Garden City Helicopters Ltd from 30-03-2000.

It was in Australia for the Olympic Games in 2000 and ferried back from Sydney to Ardmore on 17-12-2000.

It joined Otago Helicopters Ltd on 30-03-2001 - and as you can see is marked as the Otago Regional Rescue helicopter.

 The locally based Aero L29 ZK-JET3 (c/n 294892) of Double X Aviation Ltd was active again.

An earlier post HERE    

 Also on site was the Cessna 208B Grand Caravan ZK-MCI2 (c/n 208B1019) of Milford Sound Flights Ltd of Queenstown.

Its arrival in NZ was nicely covered on the MRC blog Here

ZK-MVU and SOFIA

The stratus lifted for a brief period this afternoon at Christchurch International Airport and I managed a couple of shots before it descended again.

Below we have the ATR-GIE ATR-212A (600) ZK-MCU (c/n 1500) which arrived in from Brisbane yesterday.

 See more on the MRC site at Here.

Awaiting its next nocturnal mission was the Boeing 747SP-21 N747NA (c/n 21441).

See more HERE  and here

Fantasy Air Allegro 2000(s) of New Zealand

We have had only one Fantasy Air Allegro 2000 in New Zealand (and we probably won't see any more as the variety of sport aircraft now available is huge, and I think the companies manufacturing it have gone bust).

The Fantasy Air Allegro was designed by Oldrich Olsansky and built by the Czech firm Fantasy Air from 1995.  When Fantasy Air folded in the early 2000s, production was transferred to the American dealer LSA America Inc (Allegro), who produced an improved version as the Allegro 2007.  But I think that this company is also now not in business.

Fuselage construction is of Kevlar reinforced fibreglass with a steel tube cockpit frame while the wings and tailplane are all aluminium.  The wing is tapered and gives a good glide ratio.  Its length is 6.1 metres (20 feet) and wingspan is 10.80 metres (35 feet 5 inches) with a wing area of 123 square feet.  Empty weight is around 275 Kg (606 pounds) and in NZ the MAUW is 518 Kg (1,142 pounds).  The engine is an 80 HP Rotax 912UL and this gives a good cruise speed of over 100 mph.  The cruise speed is around 40 mph.

Our only Fantasy Air Allegro 2000 is ZK-DCU (c/n 06-1612) which was first registered to David Colwill of Thames on 6/4/06.  It is photo'd above in a hangar at Matamata on 12/9/07.

It was sold to R & L Hills of Tuakau on 21/7/14, and it is for sale again on Trade Me, with very low hours.