Auckland International

A visit to a busy Auckland Airport today offered the Air Chathams DC3C ZK-AWP which has recently been repainted in historic NAC Colours as "Skyliner Kaitaia"

And not blogged here before the Napier based Skyline Aviation Cessna 510 ZK-VXM which was reregistered from ZK-JAK back in December 2016

Police 3 in town for five weeks.

The Bell 429 Global Ranger 'Police 3' is to be based at Christchurch for about five weeks.

 Pictured today.

Park overs at Christchurch

 There were four ATR's parked up outside at Christchurch today.

ZK-MCB above.

ZK-MCP below.

And ZK-MCU above.

ZK-MCY was parked around between other hangars.

Also lurking about were six Lockheed LC130's.

Below in the rear we see 76-3302 with National Science Foundation titles on its lower fuselage.

83-0490 in the front with New York Air Guard marks.

 Below is 92-1095.

Parked next to the ANZES hangar were 83-0491, 83-0492 and 92-1094.

We also had the two Boeings of Jacinda Airlines NZ7571 and NZ7572

Kaipara Flats Back on 14-2-2020

Last Friday Don Wilkinson flew up to Kaipara Flats airfield on a helicoil repair mission, followed by DCM who drive Don's car up.

Don's venerable Corby Starlet ZK-TOY (and Don) have had a very long and successful flying career.  with Don's Starlet having first flown in 1982!

DCM claimed first dibs on flying back, as he had driven up

Thanks very much for your help guys - and the helicoil was eventually installed on Saturday with a successful test flight on Sunday.

Kaipara Flats Back on 13-2-2020

As my aircraft is now based at Kaipara Flats airfield I am out there more often and so I get to see some aircraft movements that happen.  Last Thursday was a case in point when Phil Haslemore flew his Europa up from North Shore.

I did not pick what type of aircraft was doing a standard overhead rejoin until it was on finals and I saw the monowheel.  Here Phil taxies to a halt in ZK-MEE.

Phil's Europa is now a resident at Kaipara Flats and lives in Bruce Lynch's big new hangar.

And then long time Kaipara Flats resident Cessna 172N ZK-EJR also taxied in.  It is now owned by Rod Miller and carries a large photo of a Keruru on the tail, that Rod took himself.

Sounds Air's Latest Pilatus PC 12 ZK-PLB

Jordan Elvy caught Sounds Air's latest Pilatus PC 12 at Paraparaumu last week:

ZK-PLB (c/n 725) was registered in New Zealand on 15/11/19.  It was previously VH-YWO of the Royal Flying Doctor Service of Australia and it still wears their colours.  It is a PC 12-47 model which has a higher MAUW than the rest of Sounds Air's PC 12 fleet which are PC 12-45s.

Thanks for the photo Jordan.

Canterbury visits

Visiting Pauanui today was the Canterbury Aero Club's Piper PA28-161 Warrior II ZK-EBC2.   This was previously ZK-MBC and was refurbished by the Aero Club in 2019 and reregistered EBC in the process in July.

Also visiting from Christchurch was PA28-181 Archer II ZK-EIP which is privately owned, but in a former life was part of the Canterbury Aero Club fleet.

RAANZ Feilding (3)

Some further interesting aircraft were at the RAANZ flyin at Feilding over the weekend, and I post a few of them here:

Stan Hyde's lovely Porterfield 35-70 ZK-POR (c/n 137) was out flying with Ross Macdonald.  I think this is the first photo I have seen of it outside.  Thanks for the photo Ross.

The Hairy Mole Rat was also at Feilding and photo'd lots of the aircraft including this Aerospool Dynamic WT-9 ZK-DYR (c/n DY314/2009) was registered to the Brunold Family Trust of Winton on 7/5/19 and the registration was changed to ZK-DYR.  It was previously ZK-FUZ from 8/10/09 and ZK-DYK2 from 9/8/16.

And the nicely decorated Rans S 6S Coyote II ZK-JBK2 was also out flying.

Thanks for the photos HMR.

RAANZ Feilding (2)

Although I couldn't make it down to Feilding for the 2020 RAANZ flyin, I was interested to see the photos posted by others.  I am particularly interested in small single seat aircraft so here are a few of them from Feilding:

ZK-FSM (c/n 46JAF3) is a Hovey Delta Hawk that was built by a group of homebuilders at Feilding back in the 1980s led by Jim Fordyce (hence the c/n I guess), and it was first registered back in December 1988.  It is great to see that it is still going under the ownership of the Anderson/Coleman/Perry Syndicate of Palmerston North.  This aircraft is one of an identical pair that were built together, the other being ZK-FSN (c/n 46JAF4) which was cancelled as revoked in May 2016.  I must dig out my early photos of them.

The Rans S 9 Chaos ZK-KOS (c/n 0890094) was first registered in April 1993 and has been based at Feilding for many years.  It conformed to the microlight regulations of the time which only required the registration to be displayed under the wing.  It is now registered to P J Budding of Palmerston North.

I know that Trevor Day is a fan of very light single seat aircraft, and he has owned and flown his TEAM Hi Max ZK-WYZ (c/n 415/MAANZ/554) for many years out of Feilding.

Trevor has also recently purchased the Light Miniature LMA-1 Cub lookalike ZK-FWB (c/n 627-02-A/MAANZ/442) that has recently been returned to the register after being refurbished at Feilding.  (MAANZ was a predecessor of RAANZ and that can be a whole other history to post in the future).

RAANZ Feilding

For 2020 RAANZ held its annual fly-in at Feilding airfield hosted by the Feilding Flying Club and Manawatu Aviation Club.   The event attracted a small but interesting group of aircraft from around the country including, all the way from Little River, the Rans S6S ZK-JBK which was registered in September 2018.

From Whanganui came Savannah ZK-JNV, registered in June 2008

And locally based Light Miniature LM-1 ZK-FWB was originally registered back in February 1990 but cancelled in November 2011 as withdrawn.  It was restored to the register on 31 January 2020.

And not seen before was Cessna 172M ZK-LJL which is registered to WENZ, Wellington after being cancelled by the FAA way back in 2012 as sold to Belarus.