Another different aircraft at Wellington.

Following on from the recent posts on a "Very different aircraft at Wellington" and "Also at Wellington"

                                                    Allister Jenks sent in the following.

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Hi

I was reminded by your Gannet and Wessex posts of a photo I discovered in my late father’s collection. 

Based on other frames in the same film, he was flying a 1 Squadron Bristol Freighter through Wellington at the time, which combined with a frame showing an NAC Viscount and 737, puts the photo between 1973 and 1975. 

I cannot find any information online about this visit, which I believe will be one of the prototype Airbus A300s. 

All the information online talks about a tour to the Americas in late 1973, so I assume this was an extension of that tour.

Please excuse the poor quality. This is a significant crop and time has not been kind to this particular film. I have artificially sharpened it, which has magnified the problems quite a bit. 

If you want to use the photo, please Copyright C.F.L. Jenks.

I am not a great airliner person and I was out of the country about this time - but it has the looks of the Airbus A300B1 prototype c/n 01 which first flew as F-WUAB on 28-10-1972 at Toulouse.

As F-OCAZ it was in Australia on 13-05-1974 on a demonstration to TAA and others.

So this seems a likely time period for it to be in NZ.

After about 1600 hours of which 380 were on route proving, training and demonstrations it was 'scrapped' on 27-08-1974 with the fuselage and one wing evidently going on display in the Deutsche Museum at Munch.

More Helicopters

Noted in the Gibbston Valley this morning was Oxbow Adventures' R44 ZK-HQA4 which was acquired by the company in September 2021.   This was originally imported from the UK in 2010.

Onto Wanaka and High Country Helicopters' R44 ZK-HCR2 was in for maintenance.   This is also a UK import arriving in 2009,  and was acquired by High Country in 2019.

The Minaret Station Kawasaki Hughes 369HS ZK-HMW4 carries Alpine Helicopters titling.   This was originally imported from the Philippines in 2002 as ZK-IAC2,  becoming HMW in late 2020.

And Wanaka Helicopters' AS350B2 ZK-HCP5 is now all white being acquired by the company in 2021 from The Helicopter Line.    This was originally imported from the USA in 2014 as ZK-HSO4.

 

Some Southern Helicopters

A visit to Taieri airfield today was rewarded with the latest addition to the Helicopters Otago fleet, the 5 bladed BK117D3 ZK-ICU2.     This was acquired new back in January this year.

Returning from a spray job was Helicopters Otago Bell 206B ZK-HWI2 which has been owned by the company since import from the US in 2002

Near Riversdale at the High Country Helicopters base was the Bell 206B ZK-HQR which was added to their fleet this month.    This was originally imported from the Philippines in 1984.

And at a very wet Queenstown AS350B2 ZK-HYA3 has been returned to Heliworks after completion of its lease to Fiordland Helicopters.   This was originally imported new as ZK-HQG3 in 2009.

 

CT4E Airtrainer ZK-PTL

Noted today on the Dennis Thompson ramp at Ardmore was the last of the former RNZAF CT4E Airtrainers ZK-PTL which were acquired by BMH Ltd of Napier back in 2015.   It served with the RNZAF from 1999 as NZ1996.

 

Also at Wellington on 18-8-1971

As well as the Gannet there was also a Royal Navy Wessex helicopter from the HMS Eagle on the Western apron at Wellington airport 51 years ago:

Westland Wessex XT484 (c/n WA 306) was delivered on 2/6/66.  It later went on to serve in the Falklands and Oman.

It was a lot slower than the Gannet on take off.

Another Very Different Aircraft at Wellington 18-8-1971

Tim Gorman's photo of the Airbus A400M at Wellington recently provides a great segue into a series of old photos of another British military aircraft that I scanned recently, also taken on the Western apron of Wellington airport, only metres away from where the A400M was, but 51 years ago!

The Royal Navy Fairey Gannet COD4 model XM430 was most likely from 849 Squadron from the aircraft carrier HMS Eagle which visited Wellington around that time.  The COD model was for Carrier on Deck and was used for ferrying VIP passengers and freight to and from carriers (which seems an inefficient way of transporting what must have been a small number of VIPs).  XM430 was delivered to the Royal Navy on 22/9/56 and was broken up at Lossiemouth on 19/11/76.  It is photo'd above before start up where you can see its two contra rotating propellers.  What a spectacular aircraft!

Here with the front propeller rotating.

And now with both propellers rotating before taxying.

And a shot of the take off which looks pretty fast - my camera wasn't as good back then!

Finally a RNZ Navy photo of the HMS Eagle leaving Wellington Harbour.  You can see a Gannet. Sea Vixens and a Blackburn Buccaneer on the deck.

A Very Different Airbus at Wellington 24-11-2022

Not our usual NZ Civair post but pretty interesting nevertheless.  Tim Gorman was at Wellington last Thursday to catch the arrival of an RAF Airbus A400M Atlas.  The aircraft called in en route from Fiji to Canberra and only stayed on the ground for about an hour.

A400M Atlas ZM418 taxies in to the Western apron at Wellington.  What a spectacular aircraft with its 8 bladed props and refuelling probe out the front.  The RAF has 21 of these aircraft on strength.

Thanks for the photo Tim, very impressive!

MRC at Franz Josef - AS 350 B2 ZK-HHZ/4

The Godfather of this blog, MRC was back in New Zealand for a fleeting visit home last week.  And amongst his photos was this nice looking gold AS 350 B2 at Franz Josef:

ZK-HHZ4 changed ownership to Fox Franz Heliservices Ltd on 1/11/22.

New arrival. Airbus ZK-OYB

Arriving into Auckland International yesterday evening was Air New Zealand's latest airliner Airbus A321-271NX ZK-OYB c/n 11049.
Built at the Airbus facility at Finkenwerder, Hamburg, Germany and first flying on 08-11-2022 with the German registration D-AZAC.

Photo above shows the engineless D-AZAC at Finkenwerder on 29-08-2022 by XFWspot.

It was registered as ZK-OYB to Air New Zealand on 19-11-2022 and is seen above on that date departing Finkenwerder..

It ferried to NZ via Muscat, Kuala Lumpur and Cairns

Two photos from Wayne Grant showing its arrival at Auckland yesterday evening.

WACO UOC Custom ZK-AEL Returns to Omaka

The historic WACO UOC Custom ZK-AEL (c/n 4336) has recently returned to the register on 8/9/22 after a many years restoration by Jay McIntyre of JEM Aviation and Rex Newman.  It has recently been rolled out and looks amazing!

The aircraft was originally registered to the Marlborough Aero Club in May 1936 and was their flagship until WW II when it was impressed into the RNZAF as NZ575.  After the war it was registered as ZK-ALA and was cancelled as Withdrawn From Use in 1958.  The Waco was then transported to Australia but never flew there and languished in storage until it was returned to Omaka as a basket case 50 years later.

ZK-AEL has been repainted in the same colours that it came out of the factory with in 1935 and has been restored to its original luxury specifications.  It can be seen in the photo that it is actually a sesquiplane with a much smaller lower wing.

Hughes 369D ZK-HZI.

 The Hughes 369D ZK-HZI4 c/n 490487D was a winter project for Argus Aviation Ltd at Motueka and first flew there on 09-11-2022 with Nick Bates at the control.

From its c/n we can tell it was an April 1979 build becoming N66815 with Hughes Helicopters until a move to Canada where it become C-GPCE later that year with Liftair International out of Calgary. 
Its Canadian registration was cancelled on 14-11-1983 for it to become N4571V until returning to Canada to become C-FJJR with Vancouver Island Helicopters at Sydney, BC. 

This was cancelled on 29-10-1991 for it to become N4571V again but this time with Soloy Helicopters of Wasilla, Alaska from 31-10-1991.

It returned to Vancouver Island Helicopters from 06-06-1996 this time as C-FYED until being cancelled on 08-6-2000 for its move to Korea for Heli Korea with whom it became HL9143.
Noted at Motueka earlier this year it will go to its new owners at Taupo after completion of its test flying.

Below we see HL9143 at Daegu on 11-04-2021.

Tecnam P2006T ZK-MTW at Wanaka.

 A reasonably recent change of operator for the Tenam P2006T ZK-MTW c/n 065 was listed on 31-10-2022

This had been online with Mainland Air at Dunedin's Momona Airport but took up its new position at Wanaka on 05-10-2022 with U-Fly New Zealand Ltd.

ZK-MTW at Wanaka on 05-10-2022 with the 'U-Fly' on its port side only.

Squirrels in the Tararua district

A visit to the Tararua Heliworks' base near Pahiatua found their AS350B2 ZK-IEP now repainted in the company's fleet colours.   This was imported from the US in 2015 and acquired by the company in 2017.

Up the road at Dannevirke airfield Brian Comerford's AS350B2 ZK-IDJ3 was parked up.  This was imported from the US in 2021.

And the Heliworx Aotearoa AS350B2 ZK-IQG has now acquired the company's logo and titling.  This was imported from Canada in 2014 and acquired by the company in January 2022.

 

Cessna 172B ZK-MKW and ZK-RWC

 From an identification request - see the final photo below - we have established that the aircraft in question is the Cessna 172B ZK-RWC as seen at Ardmore recently by Ian Bevins.

A quick history of this airframe runs something like this :-

Cessna 172B c/n 48207.

This was one of just shy of 1000 B models built in the 1961 US fiscal year.

During this time period Cessna/FAA allocated a block of registrations to a production run of airframes and conveniently the last two numbers of the airframe c/n coincided with the last two numbers of the allocated US civil registration.

In this case we have c/n 48207 with the registration of N7707X. 

If the aircraft was sold to a foreign country whilst still on the production line then the airframe invariably adopted the Cessna test registration of N11B for its test flights - with the initial US registration not being taken up.

So we have

N7707X                 1961    Cessna Aircraft Co, Wichita, Kansas. Not taken up.
N11B                     1961    Cessna Aircraft Co. Wichita, Kansas. Test registration.
VH-RKC    08-03-1961    Rockhampton Aero Club, Rockhampton, Queensland.
                  18-04-1964    Kingsford Smith Flying Service, Bankstown, NSW.

                  14-04-1967    Re-registered as VH-KFG2.
VH-KFG2   14-04-1967    Kingsford Smith Flying Service, Bankstown, NSW.

                                   VH-KFG at Bankstown still with the "KS" logo on its rudder.

                    14-04-1967    Rex Aviation, Bankstown, NSW.
                    11-05-1967    W D Cleary, Camden, NSW.
                    13-03-1975    Cancelled as withdrawn from use.
                    24-01-1986    E W Carter, Miranda, NSW.
                                          To Australian Air League, Miranda, NSW.

VH-KFG at Bankstown 1986 from David Carter.

                    28-09-1990    Camden Aviation, Camden, NSW
                    12-07-1993    Michael Kevin Wills, Point Piper, NSW.
                    xx-11-1999    Michael Kevin Wills, Auckland, NZ.
                    19-12-2000    Noted at Ardmore.
                    03-04-2001    Australian registration cancelled.

ZK-MKW     20-04-2001    Michael Kevin Wills, Auckland, NZ.  Personalised registration.
                    01-09-2005    M K Wills Ltd, Auckland.

ZK-MKW at Hastings on 09-02-1007.

                   11-11-2009    Re-registered ZK-RWC.
ZK-RWC    11-11-2009    W H & C B Coop C/- Richard William Coop, Mahia.
                                           Another personalised registration.

Peter Lewis photo 2009.

                    12-04-2013    Nose wheel collapse after hitting wooden post, Mahia.

                    07-06-2013    Registration cancelled as withdrawn.

                            ?             Fuselage noted at Ardmore.

ZK-RWC at Ardmore on the first of this month.

Richard Coop replaced this Cessna 172B ZK-RWC with the Cessna 180B ZK-LMW on 07-05-2013 which was re-registered as ZK-RWC2 on 10-06-2013.

Homebuilt and Sport Helicopters of New Zealand - Ultrasport 555Ts

The 2 seat Ultrasport 555T turbine helicopter was developed from the piston engined Sportscopter 600 and is the brainchild of Dick Sybrandy who is based at Manaia in Taranaki.  In my previous post on Sportscopters of New Zealand I mentioned that Dick Sybrandy acquired the Sportscopter 600 ZK-HJY2 after it was cancelled from the register on 9/10/00.  He formed Ultrasport Helicopters NZ Ltd in September 2010 and I understand from Dick that ZK-HJY2 was developed into the Ultrasport 555T turbine helicopter and it formed the basis of the second Ultrasport 555T ZK-ITK.  Then Dick Sybrandy formed a new company Auroa Helicopters and I understand he is still working on helicopter development.

The Ultrasport 555T helicopter is of steel tube and composite construction and is powered by a Solar T62-32 turbine engine of 160 HP which gives a respectable cruise speed of 150km/hr (81 knots).  Its has an empty weight of 310 Kg (683 pounds) and a MAUW of 600 Kg (1,320 pounds).

We have had four Ultrasport 555T helicopters registered in New Zealand to date, as follows: 

The first Ultrasport 555T was ZK-HEH4 (c/n UH 001) which was registered to Dick Sybrandy of Manaia on 23/7/10.  It suffered damage on 17/11/10 at Kapuni when it lost power on takeoff due to fuel contamination but it was repaired.  It was cancelled on 20/8/15 as exported.

Next up were a pair of 555Ts that were also registered on 23/7/10 - ZK-ITK (c/n UH 002) and ZK-ITL (c/n UH 003).  These were registered to Ultralight Helicopters NZ Ltd.  According to the Auroa Helicopters website the fleet of three 555Ts flew for 130 hours in 2010 and 2011.

ZK-ITK was cancelled as exported on 12/12/12, and ZK-ITL was cancelled as exported on 28/7/11 and went to South Africa where it became ZU-RLC.  Thanks for the photos Dick.

After a gap of nine years another Ultrasport 555T was registered.  This was ZK-HJY3 (c/n UHNZL 004) that was registered to D R Hopkins of Balclutha on 5/8/19.  It is photo'd near Balclutha on 17/6/22.  Thanks very much for the photo Dave.

Helicopters in Hawkes Bay

Busy on tourist sightseeing flights out of Napier Airport is Aroha Helicopters' vintage 1965 Bell 47G3B1 ZK-ICJ.    Imported from Australia back in 2002 it joined the Aroha fleet in June this year.

Down at Hastings airfield Rotor Force added the former East Kaweka Helicopters Hughes 369E ZK-HZH4 to their fleet in June this year.    This was originally imported from the UK in 2010.

Also in the Rotor Force fleet is the AS350B-3 ZK-IOX which was imported from Canada for them back in 2020.

 

New Magni Xtreme Gyrocopters

Assembled in the Rotor Force hangar at Hastings airfield are 3 brand new Magni Xtreme Gyrocopters just registered this month.

They comprise 2 M16s, ZK-RGT and RMG, and a M22 ZK-RRR2.    RGT is destined for a Dannevirke owner, RMG to Taupo and RRR for the Magni NZ dealer.

 

The Snark Helicopter that Never Made It

In a post on American Sportscopters that I did yesterday I mentioned that Trevor Rogers was also involved in an unmanned combat helicopter called the Snark.  It is not civil and it never flew but here is a photo of it for the record:

My week of it # 2.

    At Pukaki on the 12th the Walter powered Fletcher FU24-950 ZK-DJE c/n 176 was earning its keep.

Up at Ashburton on the 15th the Brent Lucas Beech 35-C33A Debonair ZK-MEC c/n CE-167 had dropped in for lunch.
This was imported in late 1986 for Morrow Engineering Co Ltd of Christchurch - later of Rangiora and then Forest Field. David sold it mid last year to Brent Lucas of Kerikeri.
They had just been into Rangiora to take previous owner Dvid Morrow for a ride (or was it the other way around).The recently installed all glass Garmin set up.

    At Heli Maintenance, Christchurch, on the 17th, I finally caught the Aerocopter AK1-3M ZK-HKH4                                                                                                                                c/n 0092 in the air.