Rangitata Island Fly In. Sunday April 28th.

ANZAC Memorial Fly In

Rangitati Island

This year we are holding an ANZAC Memorial Fly In

on Sunday 28 April.

Everyone is welcome as always.

 

We would like to extend a special invitation to biplanes to make it

a special day.

A sausage sizzle will be held at midday and we

hope to have a few extra special things

happening.

 

Its not hard to find.

 

From the road and rail bridges over the Rangitata River on SH1, continue SW for 2km to the gravel pit beside the highway.

Turn left (Southeast) and about 3km ahead - over the HT wires - you will see four tall trees. The strip is just beyond.

 

The pic above shows Rangitata Island (NZRI) looking up vector 30. (note the four trees at the tip of pic).

 

Unattended : Call on 119.5

 

See you there.

Squirecraft SA 102.5 Cavaliers of New Zealand

The Squirecraft Cavalier was a redesign of the Minicab by Stan McLeod of Calgary, Canada.  The SA 102.5 model first flew in February 1971, and features a swept tail, wingtip tanks and a spring steel undercarriage that could be built in tailwheel or tri-gear configuration.  The tri-gear version is faster.

The length is 6.70 metres (22 feet) and the wingspan is 8.32 metres (27 feet 4 inches)  The wing area is 118 square feet,  Empty weight is 409 Kg (900 pounds) and MAUW is 682 Kg (1,500 pounds).  The Cavalier 102.5 can be powered with engines of up to 135 HP, and with 135 HP a top speed is 150 mph (I guess with the tri-gear).

We have had 4 of these aircraft built in New Zealand as follows:

Our first Cavalier was ZK-DYC (c/n AACA/252/1) which was built by Ron Longley of Tauranga, and was first registered on 3/9/80.  It is photo'd above at the 1982 AACA flyin at Taupo.  It was damaged on 31.10.87 near Masterton but was rebuilt. .  It was sold to BC Stimpson and DJ Smith of Kawerau on 10/6/02, and ownership changed to BC Stimpson on 8/3/06.  It is still current.

The next Cavalier to come along was ZK-CZF (c/n AACA/77/1) which was built by John Danaher of Auckland, and was first registered on 14/7/83.  It is photo'd above at Ardmore in 1985.  Ownership changed to the Venturing Skywards Syndicate of Auckland on 20/3/94 and to PC Small of Cust on 2/5/96.  It is still current.

Our third Cavalier was the tri-gear ZK-DJS (c/n AACA/250) which was built by Dave Stewart of Te Aroha, and was first registered on 2/2/84.  It is still current and registered to Dave Stewart, but I think it is now flown by his son.  The above photo was taken at the 1986 AACA flyin at Matamata.

And our fourth Cavalier was ZK-DJJ (c/n AACA/199) was built from plans by Gunter Barthel of Auckland. 

 It was first registered on 15-04-1986 and its first flight was at Hobsonville on 5-07-86. 

It was photographed above at the 1988 AACA flyin at North Shore.  

Gunter moved to Australia and flew ZK-DJJ from Kerikeri to Norfolk Island on 12-01-2009 and on to Lord Howe Island the following day.

It was cancelled from the New Zealand register on 2-03-10, and was re-registered in Australia as VH-EJJ on 17/3/10.  It is still owned by Gunter Barthel.

Question time # 159 resolved.

 Frank has given us the correct registration of ZK-MQA c/n BEL6 - the Evan and Penny Belworthy MOA. This first flew on 20-05-2000.

I believe the fuselage of the Auster J1B Aiglet ZK-BDQ was used as the basis of the MOA.

The last time I spied BDQ it was a rebuild project at Invercargill in 1987. The pic below shows her on the gliding strip at Wardells/Omarama on 31-12-1970.

Frank - Although you did not tell us "all"- flick me your postal address so I can send you your chocky fish.

Question time # 159

I thought it was about time for another question.

 

Tell me all.

Pazmany PL 1's/PL 2's of New Zealand

The next type of 2 seater homebuilt aircraft in New Zealand was the all metal Pazmany PL 1.  The Pazmany PL 1 was designed by Ladislao Pazmany of San Diego, California in the early 1960's and the prototype first flew on 23/3/62 with a 90 HP Continental C 90 motor.  Pazmany was an aeronautical engineer and the PL 1 was designed for homebuilding.  The PL stands for Pazmany Laminar, and both the PL1 and PL 2 feature laminar flow wings.  Soon after, the PL 2 appeared as an improved version with a wider cockpit, more rounded fuselage and increased wing dihedral.  Both the PL 1 and PL 2 have wingtip fuel tanks.

Because they proved to be excellent training aircraft, the PL 1 was license built in Taiwan for the Taiwanese Air Force. and the PL 2 was license built in Indonesia for the Indonesion Air Force as the Lipnur LT 200 with a Lycoming O-320 motor.  The Vietnamese and Sri Lankan Air Force also used the aircraft as trainers.  The aircraft are stressed for aerobatics with design limits of +6G and -3G.

The length of the PL1/PL 2 is 5.88 metres (19 feet 3 inches) and the wingspan is 8.53 metres (28 feet).  The wing area is 116 square feet.  The empty weight is 410 Kg (910 pounds) and MAUW is 655 Kg (1441 pounds).  With a 150 HP Lycoming O -320 motor the top speed is 152 mph.

Our first and only PL 1 was ZK-PAZ (c/n AACA/175) which was built by Bruce Fraser of Christchurch, and was first registered on 8/12/77.  It had a 115 HP O-235 motor.  It is photo'd above at the 1981 AACA flyin at Mt Hutt.  It was sold to JH McCoy of Auckland on 1/2/82, then to CA Wilkie of Blenhiem on 11/11/83, then to MN Brenstrum of Dargaville on 21/2/85, and finally to TJ and DC Hill of Arrowtown on 11/7/94.  The Hills moved to Australia in 1998 and took the Pazmany with them.  It was cancelled on 20/10/98 and re-registered as VH-TEZ on 25/11/98 to TJ and DC Hill of Marcoola, Queensland.  It has since had a succession of Australian owners and is still current.

And our only PL 2 (to date) was ZK-TLP (c/n AACA247) which was built over a 10 year period by Trevor Parker of Te Aroha, and was first registered on 18/12/87.  It has a 150 HP O-320 motor.  I was also living at Te Aroha at that time, and I can vouch that the quality of Trevor's work was exceptional.  The above photo was taken at Matamata early on in its life, in 1988.

ZK-TLP has been judged Grand Champion aircraft at AACA flyins, and is still in immaculate condition. Trevor told me that he has flown to literally every corner of New Zealand, and ZK-TLP has been to almost every AACA/SAANZ flyin since it first flew.  The above photo was taken in the very early morning light at the 2010 SAANZ flyin at Tauranga, where ZK-TLP is now based.

Vans RV 12 ZK-JRV at Ardmore Today 20/4/2013

A sub tropical thunderstorm day at Ardmore today, with nothing doing, turned out to be very interesting with the previously posted Waco, and also our latest Vans aircraft now painted.

ZK-JRV (c/n 120316) was registered to JM Coles of Auckland on 11/12/12.  It is scheduled to be test flown next week, weather permitting.  ZK-JRV is New Zealand's third RV 12.

Classic Aircraft Waco YMF ZK-CFL (2)

A trip to Auckland Airport with No 1 grandson today required a diversion to Ardmore to investigate the fabulous Waco biplane posted by Mike Condon yesterday.  Fortunately I could gain access to the hangar, and have a close up look at the plane, and take these photos.  It is very impressive!

The original Waco YMF biplane was built during 1934/35, and was reckoned by many to be the finest open cockpit biplane ever built.  This modern version was built by the Classic Aircraft Corporation in 1988 and features a Jacobs R 755 motor of 275 HP.

The front cockpit can seat 2 people and as you can see the top wing is set quite low to the fuselage.  This necessitates a small door on the port side to enable easy(er) entry from the bottom wing.

ZK-CFL will be flying South to its new base at Wanaka in the next few days as weather allows.

Dothy spraying 1975.

Dothistroma, or needlecast fungus was accidently introduced into the NZ Pinus Radiata forests in the 1960's.

Extensive aerial spraying has been carried out now for many years.

Below are some photographs taken by Des Smith showing his part of the 1975 operation.

 

ZK-DDA on the military strip at Waiouru in 1975.

Above ZK-DDA reloading near Rotorua November 1975.

The Team line up at Kaingaroa in November of 1975. ZK-DDA nearest.

Above ZK-DDA on take off from the Iwatahi strip, 1975.

Two shots of ZK-DDA at work.

 

For a better understanding of Dothistrama go to the following link :-

http://www.nzffa.org.nz/farm-forestry-model/the-essentials/forest-health-pests-and-diseases/diseases/Needle-diseases/Dothistroma/dothistroma-needle-blight

Classic Aircraft Waco YMF ZK-CFL

Unveiled at Ardmore earlier this week and test flown for the first time from NZ soil on the evening of 18 April was this 1988 edition of the Waco bi-plane  manufactured by Classic Aircraft of Battle Creek, Michigan.

Registered ZK-CFL on 16 April to Classic Flights, Wanaka (http://www.classicflights.co.nz/), the Waco has been on flight operations out of Van Nuys, California where it was registered N60JG and carries the serial number F5-019.

Christchurch rotaries today (19-04-2013)

A quick dash around the western side of Christchurch International Airport found these three helicopters of interest (to me).

 At Heli Maintenance was the Robinson R44 Raven II ZK-IFD (c/n 10083) of Mt Cecil Trophy Deer Stud Ltd. This was previously operated as ZK-HTZ2 from new in 2003 until re-registered on 17-02-2011.

 Two shots from Pacific Aircraft Services. Above showing the Robinson R44 Raven II ZK-HNN3 (c/n 12079) wearing Ellesmere Helicopters Ltd.

 

Below we see the Guimbal Cabri G2 ZK-IZD (c/n 1044) about to do its first take off at Christchurch this morning. It was registered to Mt Gerald Station back on 18-03-2013.