Whanganui Aero Club's open day Sunday 24th

Zac Yates was at Whanganui Airport today for the Wanganui aero Club's open day.

Here are a few of his photos from the day.

Scottish Aviation Bulldog Srs 120 ZK-WUF (c/n BH120/315) joined the NZ register in April of 2004.

It is Whanganui based with Paul Bayly and still wears its Cambridge University Air Squadron markings.

Richmond Harding's Supermarine Spitfire Mk26 Replica ZK-SPT (c/n 070) with its Chev V8 engine.

Super Air Ltd showed their Pacific Aerospace Cresco 08-750 ZK-PGE (c/n 016). 

This first flew as ZK-PNX2 in November 1996 before settling down in Armidale, NSW as VH-PGE until returning to NZ in September 2019.

Built by Mike Crene at Matamata for Michael Adams of Stratford was the Titan T51 Mustang U/L ZK-LSD ( c/n 172). You can just make out the 'Millicent Rhodes' name in yellow just above the exhaust stacks.

Pitts S-2A ZK-JAG2 ( c/n 2126) was originally ZK-FXT from 1991, changing to ZK-JAG in November 2006 and joining current owner Allan Higgie of Whanganui in October of 2015.

Over in the sand hills was the Mid West Helicopters (NZ) Ltd's Robinson R44 Raven II ZK-ILY (c/n 10968) which was imported from Japan in 2018 for a twelve yearly rebuild by Heli Maintenance Ltd of Christchurch.

The 1959 vintage Piper PA-22-160 Milk Stool, Pie Chaser TriPacer ZK-FJD (c/n 22-6815) was a late arrival in NZ in 2003 after many years in Australia. It moved to Whanganui in 2013.

John Luff picked up the De Havilland DH82A Tiger Moth ZK-BEF (c/n 83323) in January 2018 from the Central Hawkes Bay Aero Club (Inc). Am not sure when the pussy cat joined the team !

The Air Chathams Ltd had their Douglas DC-3 ZK-AWP (c/n 33135/16387) on site for the day.

Magnificent !

 

Around Auckland

Tripping around Auckland on a wet Sunday found Barrier Air's latest Cessna 208B Caravan ZK-SLA at North Shore airfield.  This has been leased from this month from True South to operate Barrier Air's North Shore - Great Barrier services.

Down at Mechanics Bay Heliport where it was even wetter Helicopter Me's latest fleet addition AS350B3 ZK-HTS was on the ramp.   This was acquired in October 2020 and was previously privately owned based at North Shore airfield.   It was originally imported new in 2006.

 

Pauanui

Despite the blustery conditions the airfield at Pauanui attracted a steady stream of Saturday visitors, including down from Whitianga the 1963 model Cessna 185C Skywagon ZK-JHS which has been with the same owner since import from Australia in 1993.

And up from Tauranga the Autogyro Cavalon ZK-MKH which was imported new in 2012 and has been with its current owner, SkyGy Ltd, since 2017.

 

Into wind

Tuesday and Wednesday were pretty breezy from the northwest.

Here we see some of the Canterbury Aero Club's aircraft aligned into wind yesterday.

The ANZ ATR 72-212A ZK-MCB c/n 598 which was withdrawn from service a year ago tomorrow was also nose into the wind.

As indeed was ATR 72-212A ZK-MCU2  c/n 632 was in a similar position.

Vans RV 9A ZK-RVE/2 Revisited

Tim Gorman of the ZKaviation website was at Paraparaumu airport last Sunday 17/1/21 when the local RV 9A ZK-RVE2 was pushed out of its hangar:

Observant readers will note that it has acquired squiggly airliner tracks since Tim last photo'd it.  See: https://nzcivair.blogspot.com/2020/09/vans-rv-9a-at-paraparaumu-20-96-2020.html  I am still not sure if it has flown.

Thanks for the photo Tim.

Celebrating Spitfire LF XVI TB252/ZK-NLJ

Following on from Richard Currie's post from Ardmore, some more spectacular images and a video of the Spitfire performing aerobatics over the Firth of Thames have appeared on the Avspecs facebook page.  And as it won't be here for very long we should celebrate!

I reckon the Spitfire looks very purposeful from this angle.  

And note that little black camera on the gun.

It is responsible for these spectacular screen shots:

You can see the video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kpVefKX1XoI&feature=emb_title

Around Auckland

A visit today to a busy Ardmore was rewarded with 2 "new" warbirds outside these being Spitfire LF XVI ZK-NLJ at Avspecs which had just returned from another test flight.

And at Pioneer Aero the Curtiss P-40E Kittyhawk 41-13570 is progressing towards its first flight

Outside Heliflite was Robinson R44 Raven II ZK-HXT4 which has been registered to a Fairlie owner since 2008.  It was imported new in 2005.

And arriving back the Ardmore based Bell 206B ZK-IGD2 which was reregistered from HJT in 2015 to reflect its owner G Davidson's initials.

Over at Auckland International on the Air Centre One ramp was Gulfstream G600 M-AMBA which belongs to the owner of the Ineos Team UK  America's Cup team.

 

A Couple of Surprises

 On view at North Shore airfield today was Grand Caravan N522EX.
This is not its first visit to NZ - it came here as a new aircraft on demo back in 2019.

While over at Whenuapai Cessna 172N ZK-JAF has joined the Aviation Sports Club fleet.
This 172 spent some years with David and Margaret Brown at Ardmore.

More from Pauanui

Further to yesterday's blog, visitors continued to arrive into Pauanui and amongst them was the Tecnam P92 Echo Super UL ZK-CDL2 which was imported new in 2003 and changed ownership to the West Auckland Airport Co, Parakai in January 2020.

Proudly displaying its Costa Rican military colours was the 1964 model Cessna 185B ZK-CMW2 from Mercer.  Originally imported from Canada in 1996 it was initially ZK-JAO before changing to CMW in 2002.

Up from Whakatane was Cessna A185F ZK-DKJ which was imported new in 1973,  and acquired by an Ohope owner in December 2020.

And from Ardmore came Cessna 182S Skylane ZK-LKM which was imported from the USA in 2005.

 

Long shots at Greymouth 16-01-2021

 A quick poke around at Greymouth this afternoon found these four aircraft.                                          All long shots.

From the Nelson Aviation College at Motueka was the Cessna 172S ZK-NAR c/n 172S12047.

Tim Gibb's Maule M-5-235C ZK-JQI c/n 7004C parked near the Aero Club.

In its ROA Mining Rescue scheme was the Kawasaki BK117 B-2 ZK-HJC c/n1061 of GCH Aviation Ltd.

In from Christchurch was the GCH Aviation Ltd's Beechcraft B200C ZK-FDR c/n  BL-31.