Vans RV 3 ZK-XRD at Turangi 19-3-2023

Simon Hills, Jordan Elvy and Mark Pattenden were all at the Bill Bennett Memorial Flyin hosted by the Turangi Aero Club on Sunday 19 March.  Around 20 aircraft flew in for the BBQ and there was an interesting occupant of the hangar:

Vans RV 3 ZK-XRD was registered to A R Turner of Auckland on 27/4/21 but I think it has spent most of its life at Turangi.  It has been repainted in stages but it now seems complete with stars and the inscription Achtung Baby - Even Better Than The Real Thing on the cowling.

I have seen it in the hangar at Turangi when I have passed through, and it has been in this all metal finish with the registration vertically on the tail.  (There are lots of nail holes in the corrugated iron of the hangar that you can see through).  I do not have a record of who took this photo but it is at Turangi.

And this is how it looked when it first arrived in New Zealand, taken by Mike Condon at Ardmore on 17/7/11.  It was built as N33RV by John Harmon of Harmon Rocket fame and was built with many mods (although Dick Van Grunsven discourages his designs from being modified).  It was cancelled from the US register on 20/10/09 and registered in New Zealand to North South Outdoors Ltd of Turangi on 21/10/09.  It was sold to the Alan Turner Family Trust of Auckland on 1/9/10.