There were two helicopters out during my fleeting visit.
The Hughes 369D ZK-HDE3 c/n 610992D was conveniently pushed out of its hangar just as I was strolling from the Aero Club.
This rather interesting D model began life in the US in June of 1981 and became N5016G followed by N317BM in about August of 2006.
It hit the NZ register on 09-09-2011 for just seven days as ZK-HBZ3 with Oceania Aviation Ltd of Ardmore, only to be re-registered as ZK-HDE3 on the 15th, still with Oceania, until being listed to Heli-Flightworks Ltd of Ashburton on 04-04-2012.
It returned to Oceania from mid-May of 2018 and then on to Hokitika Helicopter Services Ltd from 27-08-2018. From October 2021 it was in the care of Hoki Heli Hire Ltd of Hokitika.
It then went to Mount Hut Aviation near Methven for a major conversion to become a Hughes 369 Super D model and was listed to its current operator Alister Yeoman of Ashburton.
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Popping up from behind another hangar was the Hughes 269B ZK-HOR2 c/n 840132.
Cast your mind back to August of 1965 - because this was when this Hughes 269B N9408F first appeared on the US register.
After at least five operators in the USA it came to NZ and became ZK-HTU from 29-03-1985 and initially operated out of Hanmer.
Four more operators followed until it had an incident in the Tararua Ranges on 27-02-1994.
Following repairs it returned to the register as ZK-HOR2 on 19-12-1995.
After five more operators it joined current owner Alex Forsyth of Ashburton on 10-09-2023.
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