The Apex Marine Predator at Kaipara Flats Airfield

One week ago I posted about the Willy and Lorraine Morton flying the Coastguard C 182 looking for an apex marine predator that had been seen in the area of Kaipara Flats airfield, coz that's what Coastguards do!  Now one week later, here is what Willy and Lorraine were looking for:

It is a Shark.Aero Shark, the first of its type in New Zealand.  If looks give a clue it will be very fast!  Similar models of this aircraft were flown around the world in 2021-22 by 19 year old Zara Rutherford who became the youngest woman to complete a circumnavigation of the world.  And then later in 2022 the feat was repeated by her younger brother  17 year old Mack Rutherford who thus became the youngest person ever to complete a solo round the world flight.

Thanks very much to the owner Bruce for giving the OK for the photo and to publish it on the blog.

Start of the Flying Season - NAC Pancake Breakfast at NZKF

We were blessed with fine(ish) weather at Kaipara Flats for the first Northern Aviators Club Pancake Breakfast.  Half a dozen aircraft called in for Erwin's pancakes and Sandy's bacon, and more would have come but for the inclement weather in Whangarei and the Coromandel.  Here are a selection of aircraft on departure:

Brien O'Brien and Steve Woodhead off to the Tiger Club flyin at Taumarunui in Texan ZK-TXN2.

David Signal was off real early one up in his Foxbat ZK-SGI.

Gerard Kent and passenger off back to Parakai in his RV 12 ZK-RHO.

Richard Webb off for a local flight in Cessna 172N ZK-EJR.

And John Issott and passenger off back to Parakai in Tecnam P2004 Bravo ZK-TNM.

Thanks for the pancakes Erwin, they were yum!

BK117 D-HNNN at Rangiora. Amended

Detail amended 19-10-2024 10:20AM 

This MBB BK-117 B-2 c/n 7008 was initially allocated the German registration of D-HBKJ to Eurocopter Deutschland GmbH in 1983 and went on to become PK-NZH in Indonesia followed by D-HDDD5 in early 2003 then to OE-XAS in Austria and finally to D-HWWW for DRF Luftrettung.

It was used in the EMS role until being withdrawn and cancelled on 21-10-2021.

D-HNNN as seen at Baden-Baden on 28-02-2020 by Richard Blata

It was very kindly donated to the New Zealand Helicopter Heritage Museum by Salus Aviation of Ardmore.

It is seen below in their storage unit in Rangiora.

The red engine cowling came from P2-HBO.

Two Christchurch visitors on Thursday the 17th.

Updated 19-10-2024  07:45AM

 Tony McFarlin caught these two visitors arriving into Christchurch on Thursday the 17th.The Beech B200 King Air ZK-PMJ c/n BB-1600 arriving in from Whanganui and Palmerston North. It then returned to Whanganui.
It still carries "Air Wanganui" titles behind the cockpit.
A late 1997 production King Air originally registered as N480TC.
It ferried into Auckland on 26-10-2019 to become ZK-PMJ on 04-11-2019.

Also arriving was the FAA's Bombardier CL-600-2B16 Challenger 605 N90 c/n 5817.

Built as C-FZLM at Bombardier Aerospace in Canada in September of 2009.

Transferred to Bombardier USA as N605JK from February 2010 and then to N90 for the FAA.

It is Ice bound on Monday and then homeward bound on the 28th.

Beaver ZK-BVA/2

Over the last few months I have posted a series on topdressing Beavers.  The last new topdressing Beaver back in 1966 was ZK-CPE and then the Beaver fleet gradually disappeared by attrition or being sold overseas.  However after 53 years another example arrived here.

This was airframe 248 which was built in May 1952 as an L-20A and became 51-16791 with the US Army.  In December 1975 it was registered N31544 still with the US Army and in February 1979 it went to the Civil Air Patrol at Maxwell Air Force Base in Alabama.  On 12/1/89 it was re-registered to N77WK for International Publishing Corp Inc of Woodstock Illinois.  Then it was cancelled from the US register on 14/4/92 and exported to Australia. 

N77WK at Cairns in Queensland in 1992.

It was registered VH-BVA2 on 30/7/92 to Teajet Pty Ltd of Condell Park NSW who traded as Aviation Enterprises Pty Ltd and it was kept as a floatplane.  It had a series of owners in Australia and I think it was always a floatplane, as in the photo above which was taken on 24/8/00 at Whitehaven Beach in Queensland when it was owned by Heli-Aust Pty Ltd of Bankstown, NSW (Trading as Helijet Air Services Pty Ltd.

And this photo was taken at Hamilton Island in Queensland on 1/5/05 when it was owned by A Sweeny  Trading as Island Air) of Hamilton Island.  After a couple more Australian owners it was prepared for a delivery flight to New Zealand and was cancelled from the Australian register on 23/1/19.

It was flown across the Tasman via Lord Howe Island to Kerikeri on 8-9/1/19 and it was registered ZK-BVA2 to Farmers Air Ltd of Gisborne on 28/1/19.  The above photo was taken at the Healthy Bastards Bush Pilot Champs at Omaka on 2/2/19.  I noted it at West Aero Maintenance at Pokeno on 2/9/19 having a hopper fitted.

Thanks to the Chief Pilot of Farmers Air, Andrew Hogarth, we have this photo of ZK-BVA2 on its first topdressing job, at Tangihanga Station on 11/4/20.  Andrew reported that the Beaver flew beautifully and that he had a smile on his face all day!  Andrew also says that the reason they bought the dual control Beaver is that it will provide a great pathway to teaching the ag pilot skill set to new pilots before they move on to the company's turbine Falcos (modified versions of the Pacific Aerospace P-750 XSTOL)..  Andrew also posted a great video of the Beaver topdressing that you can see it HERE

And finally a nice shot of ZK-BVA2 against the spectacular backdrop of Taumarunui airfield, taken at the 2020 Tiger Club flyin.

I think it is really great that we still have some representative examples of topdressing Beavers still flying in New Zealand.  No doubt they will eventually retire from topdressing but the Beaver, now at 77 years old, will likely make it all the way to 100. 

Cessna 208B Grand Caravan VH-EIY

Noted this morning on the Dennis Thompson ramp at Ardmore was the 2004 Cessna 208B VH-EIY c/n 1050.    This was flown across the Tasman on Wednesday/Thursday this week, routing Port Macquarie-Lord Howe-Norfolk Is-Auckland,  and this afternoon flew onto Wanaka,  presumably for one of the Queenstown operators.

It started life as N40363 before moving onto Malaysia as 9M-MAR in 2008 in a skydiving role.  Mid 2023 it was acquired by Wrightsair as VH-EIY operating tourist flights out of William Creek, South Australia.

 

Meanwhile, 88 Years Ago, Jean Batten Flew Into New Zealand

Yesterday I posted that the Turkish registered Bombardier Challenger 605 TC-RSA of Redstar Aviation arrived in Dunedin on 14 October in 24 hours flying time, having left from London on 13 October.

Also yesterday Grayson Ottaway emailed out in his Today in Flying History series that in was on 16 October 1936 that Jean Batten flew into Auckland becoming the first person to fly from England to New Zealand.  Her aircraft was the Percival Vega Gull G-ADPR which is now on display suspended from the ceiling in the international terminal at Auckland International Airport where I took the photo below in 2013:

This is what Grayson wrote:  

Jean Batten arrived at Mangere in her single engined Percival Gull named ‘Jean’ (now on display at Auckland International Airport). Her world flight had originated in England on 5 October.

She left from Sydney, at approximately 6.30 a.m. (NZ time) on 16 October; bravely declaring that no one should look for her if she was to go down at sea.  She had calculated that it would take her nine hours to reach the New Zealand coast, but when she passed this mark without land in sight she became increasingly convinced that she had flown between the North and South islands, and was now heading out into the Pacific.  To her relief she finally recognised a rocky island and a few minutes later was over New Plymouth.

Batten was tempted to land there but continued on to her hometown of Auckland. She arrived at Mangere Aerodrome at approximately 5 p.m. (NZ time), ten and a half hours after leaving Sydney.

Among many records she set during the flight from Britain, she was the first woman to fly the Tasman and set a world record for any type.

The total journey from England was 14,224 miles and took her 11 days 45 minutes total elapsed time.  

Corby Starlet ZK-LDI at NZKF Today 16-10-2024

 It was nice to see Brian Taylor down at Kaipara Flats in his Starlet today:

Start up...

And lift off!  It looks and sounds really nice.

An Exotic Challenger at Dunedin

It has to be a bit different for a visiting business jet to be featured on our national news, but such is the case with the Challenger 605 TC-RSA which has been at Dunedin for the last few days, and Stuff even had a nice photo of it:

TC-RSA (a Bombardier CL-600 2B16 Challenger c/n 5857) is operated by Redstar Aviation out of Instanbul in Turkey.  According to the Stuff article it left London on October 13 flying six hours to Dubai then carried on to Kuala Lumpur in another 7 hours flying time.  From KL it flew 4 and a half hours to Darwin and after a break it flew direct to Dunedin in another 6 hours, arriving there the morning of 14 October according to Flightradar24.  That is pretty good going for nearly 24 hours of flying! 

Anyway, thanks to Alan Granville of Stuff for an interesting aircraft article.

Coastguard Cessna 182P ZK-CGD/4 at Kaipara Flats Today

The spring weather at Kaipara Flats this morning was blustery as usual but a couple of GA Cessnas were unfazed by the conditions:

Willy and Lorraine Morton flew down from Kerikeri in the Northland Coastguard Air Patrol Inc Cessna 182P ZK-CGD4.  They came down to check out sightings of an apex marine predator in the area.

Coz that's what Coastguards do!