ZK-IVB

 My first shot for the new year is the MBB BK117 B-2 ZK-IVB (c/n 7061) of Garden City Helicopters Ltd at their Christchurch base today.

Below is what the NZ Aviation News Magazines said about it.

"For the last few years it seemed that all the Kawasaki BK117’s being replaced in Japan with newer machines were imported into NZ. Now that the Japanese market has all but dried up the US supply of MBB BK117’s is being tapped into. The latest arrival from the States has become ZK-IVB with Airwork (NZ) Ltd at Ardmore. This is an A-4 model which was allocated the German test registration of D-HBNI before heading State side. There it had a string of registrations, including N161BK – but this was not actually taken up – Instead it became N950MB, then N117CH with Metro Aviation of Shreveport. Next it became N312LS followed by N504LH with Vesey Air LLC and Omni Flight Helicopters. Its final US markings were N143AM from 2008 with Omniflight and Air Methods Corporation. "

It was registered as ZK-IVB to Airwork (NZ) Ltd at Ardmore on 05-08-2014. Following an upgrade to a B-2 model it was transferred over to Garden City Helicopters on 13-11-2014.