Tecnam P 2008s of New Zealand (1)

In posting my (long running!) series on Sport Aircraft of New Zealand, I originally was not going to include Tecnams as they were all factory built aircraft, but I have posted other factory built sport aircraft such as Siriuss and Alpis.  So now I will include the next type of sport aircraft to be registered here which was the Tecnam P 2008.  I will later on go back and post all of our other Tecnams including the P 92 Echos, P 96 Golfs, P 2002 Sierras and P 2004 Bravos, of which there have been lots.

The Tecnam P 2008 was a new design that was introduced at Aero Friedrichshafen in 2009.  It was a departure for Tecnam as the fuselage is built from composites while the wings and all flying tailplane are all metal.  It has recently had an upgrade to the Mark II JC model.  Specifications for the P 2008 are:  length 6.93 metres (22 feet 9 inches), wingspan 8.80 metres (28 feet 10 inches) and the wing area is 124 square feet.  Empty weight is around 354 Kg (780 pounds) and MAUW is 544 Kg (1,200 pounds) for a Class 2 microlight in New Zealand, but it can also be certified as a Light Sport Aircraft with a MAUW of 600 Kg and as a certified aircraft with a MAUW of 650 Kg.

We have had 17 Tecnam P 2008s in New Zealand to date, and several that have been re-registered.  I am sure that we will see more of them in the future.  Here are the first batch of eight:

Our first Tecnam P 2008 was ZK-JAX3 (c/n 005) was first registered on 17/1/11 to Ardmore Aviation Services Ltd of Papakura.  I photo'd it very early on in its life, on 19/2/11 at a flyin at Parakai.  On 11/3/13 it was sold to Father and Son Aviation of Hamilton.

Next up was ZK-KDW (c/n 036) which was registered to K I Walker of Pukeatua on 24/2/12 and then ownership quickly changed to K I and D P Walker of Pukeatua on 28/2/12.  It is photo'd above at Tokoroa on 21/2/16.

ZK-CJN4 (c/n 041) was the third sport aircraft registered to Colin J Nagel of Masterton (following on from his 2 previous Alpi Pioneer 300s ZK-CJN2 and ZK-CJN3), on 8/5/12.  It is photo'd above at the 2014 RAANZ flyin at Feilding, on 1/3/14.  On 1/6/18 ownership changed to Peter Bannister of Hastings.

ZK-WHZ (c/n 061) was registered to the Waikato Aero Club on 14/8/12.  It was however quite short lived as it was written off in an accident at Hamilton on 24/10/13 when a student pilot on his first solo  take off crashed into a Cessna 172 parked outside the aero club.

The Waikato Aero Club purchased two P 2008s and the second one was ZK-WIP (c/n 060) which was also registered to the club on 14/8/12.  The above photo was taken outside the aero club on 20/12/16.  Shortly after this time the aero club sold their P 2008s to change to Alpha aircraft.

On 22/2/17 the aircraft was sold to the North Shore Aero Club and it is photo'd above at North Shore airfield on 7/10/17.

ZK-MBN2 (c/n 069) was first registered to John R Nicholls of Mangonui on 13/3/13 and he used it for flight training at Kerikeri.  It is photo'd above at North Shore airfield on 13/3/14.

On 26/6/18 the aircraft was sold to the New Zealand Airline Academy of Oamaru where it is also used for flight training of future airline pilots.  It is photo'd above at Rangiora on 3/5/19 with the NZAA logo on the tail.

Then on 19/6/19 it was re-registered as ZK-LBI ( to make way for another Tecnam P 2008 for NZAA with the registration ZK-MBN3 - I wonder why?)

ZK-MSA (c/n 066) was first registered to the Middle Earth Flying School of Otorohanga on 13/3/13, under whose ownership is is photo'd above at Matamata airfield in 2013.  It ha spent its life to date at Matamata with ownership changing to MB Aviation Ltd of Te Aroha on 1/11/14 and to the MBA Tust of Te Aroha on 1/6/15.

And the last of this bunch is ZK-TMA (c/n 071) which was registered to Ardmore Aviation Services Ltd of Papakura on 10/5/13.  It is photo'd above at Ardmore on 15/5/13.

It was quickly sold to the Waikato Aero Club on 6/11/13 to replace their ZK-WHZ which had crashed on 224/10/13.  On 21/11/13 it was re-registerded as ZK-WNZ2.  It is photo'd above as such at Hamilton on 20/12/16.

Then when Waikato Aero Club sold their P 2008s, ownership changed to the A R Jones Family Trust of Ngatea on 23/3/17.  It is photo'd above in their ownership at the Thames Wings and Wheels event at Thames, on 26/1/19.