Beech Bonanza VH-WHH is now ZK-WHH

Martin Farrand has now registered his Beech Bonanza on the New Zealand register, making the easy transition from VH-WHH to ZK-WHH:

ZK-WHH (c/n E-1236) was registered on 10/8/23.

Thanks for the photo Martin.

Some more helicopters

More helicopter photos taken in the last week include the Eastern Airwork, Opotiki Bell 206B ZK-HTX2 at Taupo in a new paint scheme.  This was originally imported from Japan as ZK-HAY2 in 2011 but quickly became HTX and became Opotiki based in 2022.

Back at the Heli Hire base at Ngongotaha was AS350B-2 ZK-HQB3 which was imported from the US in 2019 by the company but hired out to Western Helicopters, Te Kuiti.    It was returned to Heli Hire when Western added Bell 206B ZK-HLG5 in June 2023,  and has now joined the Heli Hire spray fleet.

Up the road at Hamilton the recently imported ASS355F-2 ZK-HSK2 was under assembly.  This was imported from Japan by Rotor Flite NZ.

Nearby was Bay of Plenty Helicopters' Bell 206B ZK-HHC2.   This was originally imported from the US back in 1988 and is currently being operated in the Whakatane and Opotiki areas.

And lastly at Ardmore was the Hamilton based EMS helicopter EC145/BK117D-2 ZK-IXO now carrying all its sponsor's logos.   This was imported from Japan in early 2022 and has undergone an extensive refit for its new role.

 

First of Type - Tecnam P Mentor ZK-TET at Oamaru

Back on 2/8/23 the New Zealand Airline Academy registered a pair of Tecnam P Mentors ZK-TDT2 and ZK-TET.  These are the first P Mentors in New Zealand and represent quite a step forward in integrated flying training as there aircraft are registered under the General Aviation category as a certified aircraft that is also IFR equipped, so a student pilot can use this aircraft to obtain their PPL, then CPL and IFR ratings.  It is aimed at training airline pilots and it has full Garmin glass screens and even a mock undercarriage extend and retract switch to allow training for commercial airline aircraft operations.

The P Mentor was introduced at Aero Friedrichshafen 2022 and is based on the Tecnam Sierra Mk 2 model.  The P stands for Pascale (brothers Luigi and Giovanni Pascale founded the Tecnam company), and the Mentor is self explanatory.  The aircraft is powered by a Rotax 912iS engine.

New Zealand Tecnam agent Neil Ross was at the NZAA base at Oamaru yesterday and sent this photo:

ZK-TET is c/n 1034 and is seen here outside the NZAA hangar at Oamaru.

Thanks for the photo Neil.

 

Rallye 235E ZK-FIT/2

The SOCATA Rallye 235E ZK-FIT2 c/n 13147 was snapped at Ardmore yesterday, 26-08-2023, by Errol Cavit.                                                                               

Built back in early 1980 and listed on the US register as N356RA to the Rallye Aircraft Corporation of Morrinsville, North Carolina in January 1980. After some seven further owner it was cancelled on 22-11-2019 and entered the NZ civil register as ZK-FIT2 on 11-05-2020 with P J Fitzsimmons of Havelock North.

Its final US owner was David King of Crozet, Virginia and below is a photo of it taken at Oshkosh on 28-07-2018 by Hogo Teugels via Air Britain.

NZ Fighter Jets Now Have Three L 39s On Line

Fighter Jets NZ at Tauranga now have three Aero L 39 Albatross jets on line for jet flights with the latest one being Peter Vause's example from New Plymouth which has been painted with the number 68:

Here is the line up at Tauranga yesterday:  ZK-EJA "48", ZK-TCS "88" and ZK-VLK "68".
 

NELSON MARLBOROUGH INSTITUTE OF AVIATION ENGINEERING Part 2

                                                                 ZK-CDJ

Cessna 172D with the manufacturer's construction number of 17250492 was initially allocated the US registration of N2892U during its production on the Cessna Wichita line.

It was shipped to New Zealand to Rex Aviation Ltd at New Plymouth and became ZK-CDJ on 11-09-1963 and first flew with them on 21-11-1963.

The first operator was the Mercury Bay Aero Club at Whitianga from 15-12-1963. ZK-CDJ at Invercargill 07-03-1968 wearing "Mercury Bay Aero Club" script on engine cowling and "Air Taxi" on fuselage.

Above as seen at Paraparaumu 31-01-1971 in new paint scheme.

At Paraparaumu again in March of 1971.

Then followed R P J and M M Poole of Ardmore from 22-02-1971. It suffered some minor damage at Ardmore on 10-04-1971.

And above we see it at Ardmore on 05-06-1972. Photo by John Page via MoTaT.

Then it was with D J McGregor Ltd of Auckland from 13-09-1973 until being overturned by the wind at Ardmore on 21-01-1974. It was replaced with the Cessna 182K ZK-DSH.

It then went to Les Sutherland, Graeme Weck and F S Martin of Patumahoe from 30-04-1974 for some attention.
W A Bennett of Papakura is next in line from 19-08-1977 

Below is ZK-CDJ at Ardmore in September of 1977 thanks to Allan Wooller.With H Mc L Baxter and P Bouma of Te Awamutu featuring from 29-06-1978.

Premi-Air Aviation Ltd / Harry Maidment of Papakura are listed briefly from 10-03-1994, and then Neil and Joan Burndred of Papakura from 06-05-1994. During its time with Neil, it was used as a test bed for the electronic three bladed Aerotek 2000 propellor.

Title moved to the Burndred Family Trust on 01-06-2002 until its registration was revoked on 20-04-2006.

It was restored to the register on 18-07-2006 

                                                                     At Ardmore 15-09-2008

Its final ownership change was to Martin Patterson / Hippeastrum Trust of Christchurch from 01-04-2010.

At Christchurch 21-05-2010 on tie downs near the Drake Aviation facility, looking in need of a touch up.

Work under way at AVTEK Timaru on 22-09-2010.

Captured some five months later at Westport 10-02-2011 in revised scheme with smaller registration letters.

Noted again at AVTEK in Timaru on 17-01-2018.

It never seemed to fully recover and was noted at Timaru 04-06-2018 rudderless.

And again at Timaru on 02-02-2019.

It was listed as Withdrawn at Timaru, its registration was cancelled on 08-06-2020 and is now housed with NMIT at Woodbourne as an instructional airframe.Parked out at Woodbourne 17-04-2022

ZK-CDJ at Woodbourne 08-2023 Zac Yates photograph.

***********************************************************

                                                                ZK-TWI

The Ministry of Transport Civil Aviation Division (MOT CAD) purchased two new Piper PA-34-200 Seneca twins in 1973. ZK-DCH in May and ZK-DCI in in 10-1973. These were augmented by two preloved examples in 12-1977 as ZK-DCL and ZK-DCM.
ZK-DCL c/n 34-7250281 was bult in 1973 as N1289T and had at least four US owners before arriving into Auckland, along with ZK-DCM, on 05-11-1977 thanks to Dennis Thompson International. Both were registered to MOT CAD on 01-12-1977. The three survivors (ZK-DCH written off in January 1976) were sold to Airwork (NZ) Ltd in late 1980 with ZK-DCL being on sold to Air Gisborne Ltd from 14-05-1981.
They in turn flicked it on to Albert Smith Industries Ltd of Mount Maunganui from 14-05-1981.
Next up was Sunair Aviation Ltd, also of Mount Maunganui from 06-05-1999 and six months later to Mount Aviation Ltd from 03-11-1999 with a name change to Bay Flight International Ltd on 278-08-2002.
On 28-11-2003, still with Bay Flight, it was re-registered as ZK-TWN .
Another name change, to Bay Flight Aviation Ltd, Tauranga, took effect from 01-07-2010 

                                      As noted at Tauranga by Steve Lowe on 31-08-2010.

And also at Tauranga 05-10-2010, Mike Condon photo.

with another re-registration from 07-12-2010 to ZK-TWI to allow the Mount Aviation's newly arrived Tecnam P2006T to take up the forfeited ZK-TWN marks.

A new owner for ZK-TWI - Helipro Aviation Ltd of Paraparaumu, took effect from 23-01-2012 with an address change to Palmerston North on 14-11-2013, followed by withdrawal and cancellation from 21-11-2013. 2015.

It was re-located to Woodbourne I believe prior to January.

Piper J2 Cub ZK-AGD Update

 Following my recent post on what I claimed was the Taylor J2 Cub ZK-AGD's delivery to Wanganui, new owner Jonathan Mauchline has been in touch to confirm the the aircraft is in fact one of the earliest J2 Cubs from the Piper factory at Lockhaven in January 1938.  The Taylorcraft  Aircraft factory at Bradford PA had burned down in 1937 and William T Piper founded the Piper Aircraft Corporation on 1 November 1937 at Lock Haven PA.

Jonathan has now added more appropriate tail art to ZK-AGD as in these photos:

And here is the manufacturers plate showing the c/n of 1152 and date of 7/1/38 which must be in the English way of writing dates, as ZK-AGD arrived in NZ in early 1938.

ZK-HPB/8 - A Well Signwritten EC 130 at Kaipara Flats Yesterday

Brien O'Brien was at Kaipara Flats airfield yesterday when a chartered Airbus EC 130 T2 dropped in briefly:

ZK-HPB8 (c/n 7901) is owned by Advanced Flight Ltd of Auckland and hasn't appeared on the blog previously.

But it has appeared on the blog previously!  It has been posted under the following guises in between bouts with the signwriter:

It first appeared as ZK-IVJ on 31 October 2014 and is photo'd here at Ardmore on 12 November

After a quick switcheroo it appeared as ZK-IJV2 as seen here at Taupo on 16 August 2019

And after some more brush strokes at appeared as ZK-HBC6 as seen at the Heletranz base at Albany on 16 May 2021.

Confused!!!???

Helicopters & Others at Taupo

A visit to a very busy Taupo Airport today offered a lot that was new to this blog starting with Heli Sika's Hughes 369E ZK-HWB3 which has been with the company since import from the US in 2001, and now features a new paint scheme.

One of 2 new Ukrainian Aerocopter AK1-3Ms imported in mid 2023 is ZK-HHR4 which is registered to a Stratford owner.

Imported from the USA in 2017 is Schweizer 269C ZK-IIL2 which was acquired by a Rotorua owner in March 2022.

One of 2 Robinson R44s in Te Awamutu based Helicopter Management's fleet is ZK-IHJ3.  This was originally imported new back in 2002 as ZK-HHJ2 being withdrawn from use in 2017 and then rebuilt as ZK-IHJ in 2019.

Locally based Robinson R22 ZK-HGF8 was originally imported from Japan in 2010 as ZK-HIJ4 and was reregistered as HGF in January 2023 to allow Eagleflight Technics to use HIJ on a brand new EC130T2.

And now back on amphibious floats is Piper PA18-150 Super Cub ZK-CIA3 which was heading off for some training on river landings.

 

Vans RV 7 ZK-JTE at Paraparaumu Today 22-8-2023

Jordan Elvy was at Paraparaumu airport today and photo'd the nice Dunedin based Vans RV 7 ZK-JTE taxying out for points South:

ZK-JTE (c/n 72430) was built by Jonathan Edwards of Dunedin and it was registered to him on 2/10/20.  On 29/4/22 ownership transferred to the JTE Syndicate of Dunedin.  It has not been posted on the blog previously.

I see on looking back that I posted on Vans RV 7s of New Zealand back in May 2014 and at that time we had 8 RV 7s registered here.  The total is now up to 19 so maybe I need to go back and do an update (although I think we have covered them all now except for ZK-JMX which is being finished at Mercer).

Thanks again for the photo Jordan.

Question time.

QUESTION TIME

 Below we have a short video clip from the late Graeme Main.

Can you tell us -

What is it ?

Where was it?

When was it?

Who was it?

Note the pusher propeller out behind the pilots' feet.

Gippsland Airvan ZK-YUG/3 at Wellington 20-8-2023

Meanwhile, on Sunday Jordan Elvy was doing a bit of aircraft spotting at Wellington International when a previously un-blogged Gippsland Airvan arrived from Feilding:

ZK-YUG3 (c/n GA8-TC-320-09-146) is an Airvan TC 320 model that was registered to Capital Aviation Ltd of Wellington on 29/9/22.  I have noted it as the third use of ZK-YUG although the second use, for a Cirrus, was not taken up.  It came from Australia where it was VH-PGU and prior to that P2-MFL and VH-BQY.

Thanks for the photo Jordan.  

Air Tractor ZK-SXG at Feilding 19-8-2023

Tim Gorman was at Feilding aerodrome yesterday and captured the latest Super Air Air Tractor returning to the field:

Air Tractor 502A ZK-SXG (c/n 502A-3259) was registered to Super Air Ltd on 9/5/23, having previously been registered N502TP in the US.  By my reckoning Super Air now have 12 Air Tractors in their fleet - one AT402, four AT502As, four AT502Bs and three AT602s.

Thanks for the photo Tim.