A sample from Wanganui on Sunday.

 A Wanganui Aero Day was held on Sunday the 18th of January.

Allister Jenks spent some time there and offers us these four images.

Providing passenger rides was the North American NA88 Harvard 2A* ZK-OTU c/n 88-13193 of Bevan Dewes Warbird Aero Ltd.

Brief history

Completed 19-04-1943 as a AT-6C with the US Army serial number of 41-33720.

Diverted to the RAF Lend Lease allocation scheme and allocated the RAF serial of EX747 as a Harvard Mk 11A.

Diverted yet again - this time to the RNZAF and shipped to NZ mid 1943 and assembled at Hobsonville as NZ1044 and taken on charge on 26-06-1943.

I was the first of the RNZAF Harvard Mk 11A's to be converted to a Mk 11A* in August 1954.

Withdrawn from RNZAF service in late 1958 and stored until sold by the Government Stores Board to the NZ National Airways Corporation Technical Training School at Christchurch on 08-10-1971.

It became part of Air New Zealand from 01-04-1978. It was stored with the School until sold in 2004 and then stored in a private barn in Rolleston for fifteen years.

It then appeared at Ashburton - still in its ANZ all white scheme - I believe with Cam McKenzie.

Purchased by Bevan Dewes in 2000 it was restored to airworthiness at Wanaka thanks to Twenty24 Ltd.

It was registered as ZK-OTU on 03-10-2022.

    We don't often get motor gliders on these pages but here we have the Stemme  GmbH & Co  KG S 10-V ZK-GSI (c/n 14-039M). 

This is a two seat, side by side, self-launching glider with a wingspan of 23 metres. 

Note - The outer wing panels are not fitted in the above photo. 

It also has dual wheel main undercarriage. 

The engine is located behind the cockpit and has a driveshaft that passing through the cockpit. 

The nose cone slides forward to allow the propeller to unfold. 

After spending its early years in the US as N8679 it was imported by Dave Crail of Blenheim to become ZK-GSI on 21-09-2015.

(David previously operated the Stemme ZK-GDC2 and currently has the Stemme S-10VT ZK-GDM2).

John Luff of Whanganui acquired ZK-GSI in August of 2023 - adding it to his Stoddard Hamilton SH-2 ZK-JDL and Micro Aviation B22J Bantam ZK-JMI.

This Jacobs R755 radial engined Cessna 195 ZK-BEB2 (c/n 7410) came on the scene in 1949 and flew in the USA as N9331A until moving to Canada as C-GWEZ in 2005.

It joined our register as ZK-BEB2 on 10-10-2013 with B B Aviation Ltd of Feilding.

Ten years younger that the Cessna 195 above is the Piper PA-22-160 TriPacer ZK-FJD c/n 22-6815.

Built in 1959 and flown with the Cessna N10F test registration it went out to Australia to become VH-TPA from 03-09-1959. It was re-registered as VH-FJD in early 1962, followed by VH-EJD from December 1965. The last Australian owners were P E & J A Mitchell of Gladstone, Queensland who imported it into NZ and listed it here as ZK-FJD on 11-08-2003.

It has been with its current local owners Rod Bryant and Ross Whetton Syndicate since July of 2013.