Question time. Who nose ?

 

At last weekends RAANZ fly in at Ashburton we had a selection of noses. 

All belonging to the Rangiora Squadron.

All I ask is for you to name the aircraft types - from front to rear.

Once you have got that sorted out. 

Give me the aircraft registrations.

Virtual 🐟to the winner.

Boeing 767 G-DHLK into Auckland on November 7th.

 This Boeing 767-3JHF G-DHLK c/n 37810 flew Brisbane to Auckland and return to Brisbane on     07-11-2025. It is currently operating across Asia and Australasia for Tasman Cargo and supporting their three other Boeing 767-300's.

The photo above shows G-DHLK at East Midland in the UK in October 2023.

G-DHLK joined DHL in November 2012 but became N644GT in January of 2013 with Polar Air before returning to G-DHLK with DHL in February 2013.

A Couple from the RAANZ Flyin at Ashburton

The Recreational Aircraft Association of New Zealand (RAANZ) held their annual flyin early this season, at Ashburton over the weekend of 7/8/9 November.  Tony McFarlin was there and noted a total of 59 attending aircraft, and Dave Paull was also there.  Here is a selection of the aircraft they photographed that were there:

Rans S 6ES Coyote II ZK-SBW2 of Sam and Asti Boal from Leeston was likely a first time attender at a RAANZ flyin, but it probably was at previous at flyins under its original registration of ZK-AJB2.

Another possible new attendee at a RAANZ flyin was Lyall Hopcroft in his Bristell ZK-WLH2.

A local out in the sun was Michael Chaffey's Auster Mk 5 ZK-AVH.  This was first registered in New Zealand in August 1950 so it has now been here for 75 years!

The Alpi Pioneer 300 ZK-LPT2 of Gary Montagu came from Dunedin.  This was imported from Australia in early 2020 and was previously registered ZK-YAN.

Murray Bowes' Zlin Aviation Cub ZK-ZAX flew over to Ashburton from Hokitika.  This was ZK-ZAC in a previous life.

And another aircraft probably attending its first RAANZ flyin was Paul Brydon's Rans S 21 ZK-YAW from Rangiora, still awaiting it colour scheme.

Thanks for the photos Dave and Tony.

Dimona ZK-GCB at Rangiora

Early in the month a stray turned up at Rangiora in the shape of the Hoffman H36 Dimona motor glider ZK-GCB2 c/n 3537. It had powered down from Drury and Omaka on the 2nd.

It is pictured above having just been tied down following a flight from Rangiora out to the Springfield ridges and return.

The following day it went out to the Puketeraki and Torlesse Ranges and return.

It has been mentioned several times previously on this site.

SEE  

HERE

Beech V35A Bonanza ZK-RMZ

 The latest Beechcraft addition to the New Zealand civil aircraft register is the V35A Bonanza c/n D8978.

This was initially registered as N7851R in 1969 and cancelled on 11-09-1990 on export to South Africa where it became ZS-MYN.

The only operator that I know about was Willem Nieuwenhuisa (sp ?) and Grahan Ticton out of Rand from February of 2009.

The photo below was taken at Lanseria on 20-09-2006 by Ray Barber.

It was listed in NZ on 08-05-2025 to The Tolaga Bay Trading Co of Tolaga Bay, and was certified at Napier and first flew as ZK-RMZ on 31-10-2025.

Photo below from Aaron Murphy was taken at Hastings on 01-11-2025.

It is the 4th 'V' tailed Bonanza on our register.

Pulsar ZK-DMC/2 at Waipukurau Recently

Seen recently in a hangar at Waipukurau on 2 November by Jordan Elvy and photo'd with permission of the owner:

ZK-DMC2 (c/n 325/MAANZ/510) has recently changed ownership to a Napier owner.  Of course this is the former ZK-RUS as photo'd below at Rangiora on 1 April 2017.

And it was re-registered when Northern Aviation Ltd's Yak 52 was registered ZK-RUS2 in early 2024.

Piper PA-36-375 Brave ZK-EIW

The Piper PA-36-375 Brave ZK-EIW c/n 36-7902006 was the eighth PA-36, from a total of eleven registered in New Zealand.

It was first registered to the New Zealand Piper Aircraft agents, Airwork (NZ) Ltd, at Ardmore,            as ZK-EIW on 24-05-1979. 

With an Avco-Lycoming IO-720 engine of 375 horse power - its first flight in NZ was on 11-07-1979 - it was delivered to Airwork's agricultural division on the 13th and did its first ag job on the 28th.

Above, late in 1979, a photo from CMM showing the team on the Clarence airstrip in North Canterbury.

That is Col Bolger siting on the nose, with SH1 in the background.

I'm guessing this is at its home base at Rangiora when they were using ZK-EIW whilst their 300hp Pawnee Brave ZK-EIA was being repaired following a tree strike.

                                                                                       At Timaru.

At Oamaru 26-04-1981.

From 31-08-1981 it was registered to Airwork Agricultural Aviation Ltd (PGG) of Rangiora.

This was 50% owned by Airwork (NZ)) Ltd and McAlpines (Mitre 10).

Near Waimate

On 18-11-1981 it was damaged when it failed to get airborne near Waimate.

Of the eleven registered here, two were destroyed in NZ, the remaining nine ended up in Australia.

ZK-EIW was exported to Australia and eventually cancelled on 27-03-1986 for it to became VH-SOT2 on 03-10-1986 with Shane McNaul of Wodonga, Victoria and later of Wakool, NSW from 03-09-1996.

At Wakool, NSW 07-02-1987 from Paul Daw.

From November 1998 it was listed with Shane Flack, initially at Coleambaly and then from several other bases in NSW. More recently at Jerilderie.

At Yarrawonga, Victoria 22-09-2012. A photograph from Roland Jahne.

At Jerilderie, NSW 21-02-2015. A Robert Frola photograph.

It is still currently registered to Shane Flack of Jerilderie.

China Eastern Airlines to and from Shanghai

In my last post I mentioned that I was off for a few weeks to cruise up the Yangtze River, and now we are back home again after some amazing sights and assaults on the senses.  I did not see much of aviation in China except for a couple of military helicopters at Jingdezhen which is the city where Changhe helicopters are based - they were flying in the distance and one was smaller and the other bigger so I think they were the Change Z-8 heavy army transport helicopter and the Changhe Z-10 attack helicopter (thanks to Google).  Then at Wuhan I saw a Xi'an Y-20 Kunpeng heavy lift military transport aircraft doing circuits at a nearby air base (it looks like a C-17 Globemaster).  And at several places I heard the distinctive sound of military fighter jets overhead but I was never able to see them.  Then there was a big airshow and aviation trade fair at Zuhai I think which was on TV and the most interesting thing to me was a 9 aircraft Nanchang formation aerobatics team that were all painted up identically.

And now for a link to New Zealand civil aviation!  We flew to and from Shanghai from Auckland International by China Eastern Airlines who operate several flights a day I think to and from destinations in China.  Our flight up to Shanghai turned out to be on a fairly new Airbus A350-900 (December 2023) which was a nice surprise as it wasn't the type that was on our tickets.  It was B-32FQ, note that China has now gone to a mixture of numbers and letters in their aircraft registrations.

This was the best photo I could get of it as we boarded around 10 pm in the dark.

Twelve hours later arriving at Pudong airport around dawn and you get a nice view of the landing from the screen in front of us.  I gave the pilot a pass mark for the landing.

Then coming back from Shanghai yesterday we flew in a pretty tired Boeing B777-300 B-2001.  This turned out to be the first B777-300 that was delivered to China Eastern back in September 2014.

Cessna T240 N362CS visits Christchurch again.

The Cessna T240 Corvalis N362CS c/n T24002062 dropped in from Wanaka on Friday morning - returning to Wanaka later.

                                It has featured several times previous in these pages -  See HERE

EC130B4 ZK-IJK 4

Calling into Pauanui airfield very briefly last evening was Inflite's EC130B4 ZK-IJK4 whose registration reflects its owner, John Key.   This was originally imported from Mexico as ZK-HBZ4 in 2016, being reregistered IJK earlier this year.