Cavalier SA 102.5 ZK-ULL at Waipukurau Dawn Flyin Today

Cavalier SA 102.5 ZK-ULL attended the dawn flyin at Waipukurau today and Jordan Elvy and Simon Hills were there to take the photographs.  It has not been posted on the blog previously.

ZK-ULL (c/n 78041LF) was built by AA Forsyth of Masterton and was registered to him on 28/5/20.  On 15/11/22 ownership changed to the Cranium Syndicate of Havelock North and now it is getting out more.

Thanks for the photos Jordan and Simon.

Cessna 180 ZK-BGO

 The first Cessna 180 was a modified Cessna 170B with a Squared vertical tail and powered with a Continental -470-A engine. It first flew as N41697 on 26-05-1952.

A steady stream of 180's came on to our register with the first listing being the batch ZK-BDB, ZK-BDC, ZK-BDD, ZK-BDE, ZK-BDF and ZK-BDU on 11-08-1953.

ZK-BGL, ZK-BGM, ZK-BGN and ZK-BGO were all listed on 20-09-1954 to become the 22nd, 23rd, 24tth and 25th Cessna 180 airframes to arrive in NZ.

(To date - by my guess - we have had a total of 120 Cessna 180 airframes listed in NZ).

Construction number 31183 was rolled out at Wichita, Kansas with the Cessna/FAA paper registration reportedly being N3685C.

On arrival at New Plymouth it was assembled and registered as ZK-BGO to Rural Aviation Ltd on 20-09-1954 and delivered to Airlift (NZ) Ltd of Wellington on 05-04-1955.

We have a Nevil Drake photograph of it (below) at Rongotai on 18-04-1955, hopper equipped.

Above we have a photo it at Rongotai in early 1957, minus spinner and with underwing air drop attachments.

It was damaged in a ditch near Martinborough on 17-04-1957

In April 1960 Airlift folded and the aircraft went to Amphibian Airways Ltd from 21-04-1960 in an 'as is' condition. To the best of my knowledge it was never on floats.

Hewitt Aviation of Invercargill had it briefly in early 1961 before it was taken up by Southern Scenic Air Services Ltd of Queenstown by March of 1961.

Above at Queenstown in top dressing or carrot dropping mode.

Ag work being seasonal the hopper could reasonably easily be removed to permit other duties.

Above minus ag gear but still with underwing racks at Invercargill from Des Kelly.

On 11-11-1965 it was damaged in an incident at Bell Hill, North Canterbury, and went to Peter Lacy at Nelson for repairs and was registered to Peter on 01-09-1967 and passed on to the Nelson Aero Club from 03-06-1969, with the Club selling the Piper PA-18-150 ZK-BPG.

Below we see her at Nelson on 02-03-1971 with Nelson Aero Club script on the door.

Then we see it below at Christchurch at about the same time thanks to Des White.

On 21-01-1972 it overturned on landing in the upper Mokihinui River strip and was retrieved by Peter Tait in the Helicopters (NZ) Ltd's Aerospatiale SA.315B Lama helicopter ZK-HDX and underslung, inverted, to Nelson and deposited outside Peter Lacy's hangar.

The Nelson Aero Club Cessna 180 was carried to Nelson on 25-01-1972 after overturning in the headwaters of the Mokihinui.

The above photos shows the Lama ZK-HDX during the recovery with the Tasman Range in the background. Photo by John Reid.

In the photo below it has been lowered to the ground outside Peter Lacy's hangar.

Note the lengths of timber attached to the wing surface to stop the aircraft 'flying' whilst on the strop below the helicopter.

Following repairs it went to Glenny Johnson of Karamea from 09-11-1972, with the Nelson Aero Club acquiring the Cessna U206A ZK-DIB as a replacement in March of 1973.

Glenny sold ZK-BGO to Videosonic Productions of Newmarket from 10-11-1975 and ferried it up to Taupo and collected the Cessna 185 ZK-CAN which he operated under the Karamea Heaphy Air Charter Ltd name.

Photo above from Allan Wooller shows BGO as at September 1977.

From 09-07-1979 ZK-BGO was listed with J W Pyke, A F B Stevenson and T G Gaddum of Gisborne with a change to J W Pyke and T G Gaddum of Wherenga-O-Kuri from 22-04-1980.

Les Sutherland of Pukekohe had it from 10-07-1981 and it is seen below at Wanaka on 08-01-1983.

By 27-09-1983 it was with N B Cooper (aka Hopeful Christian) of Rangiora who operated it alongside the Cessna U206 ZK-DNG.

It was noted at Waimate on 24-06-1987 in bare metal.

I next noted it as being with D B A & S L Hart of Springfield Estate, near Methven from 06-12-1989 until being passed on to Frank Wright of Tauranga from 13-11-1990 for a rebuild to emerge in his signature colour scheme.

The new lucky owner was Graeme Dugdale of North Shore from 11-11-1992 with whom it is still current.

As noted at Ardmore on 02-12-1993.

And then again at Ardmore on 18-03-2000.

It remained in this colour scheme for the next twenty years.

17-09-2008 

13-03-2009

Above as seen at Ardmore on 27-02-2009.

Nick Furmage captured it at Ardmore on 27-03-2010.

And then at Haast.

Caught as a road runner southward bound on the Desert Road in 2013.

Above we see it at Elevate Aviation at Momona on 15-04-2021.

At Elevate Aviation nearing completion on 13-03-2023.

Engine runs at Momoa on in April2023 from Elevate Aviation Ltd.

Helicopters at Motueka

Spotted on Wednesday (2023.05.10) at Motueka Aerodrome were three choppers receiving maintainence at Argus Aviation on the north side of the aerodrome.

MD 520 NOTAR - ZK-ISO (cn LN-006)

This bright red machine, was originaly built in September of 1991 as N526FB (LN006). It first saw service with the City of Phoenix Police Department of Phoenix, Arizona.

In May of 2006, N526FB was sold off to Germany, and became D-HABF of Hahn Helicopter Flight Services Gmbh, Germany. Whilst in Germany, it operated for just under 4 years and took on the bright red scheme.

During January 2010, the airframe was listed for sale.

Eventaully, purchased by New Zealand customer Faram Aviation Group Ltd of Hastings in August of 2013, the aircraft joined the New Zealand register as ZK-ISO. Coast to Coast Helicopters of Blenheim purchased the machine in October 2018, where it still resides.

ZK-ISO was previously featured on the blog here.

MD 520 NOTAR - ZK-IEG (cn LN-016)

Built in April 1992, this machine first saw service with Heli-Max of Ontario, Canada as C-FMYW (LN-016). On February 13th 2006, C-FMYW was purchased by Heli-Transport of Trois Rivieres, Canada. LN-016 first saw New Zealand skies in 2011 after being purchased by Reid Heslop Helicopters Ltd of Wakefield, as ZK-IJW (Previously mentioned here). ZK-IJW had multiple different operators in the South Island over the next 5 years before being purchased by Heliventures NZ Ltd of Oamaru in December 2016. Heliventures NZ re-registered the machine as ZK-IEG in January 2017 before being sold off to Hanmer Springs Helicopters (Amuri Helicopters Ltd), of Hanmer Springs on the 14th of September 2018 where it remains. The Amuri Helicopters logo can be noted on the tail boom.

ZK-IEG was previously mentioned on the blog here.

Aerospatiale AS350FX ZK-HJM (cn 1671)

A second Hanmer Springs Helicopters (Amuri Helicopters Ltd) machine was next to ZK-IEG (pictured above), ZK-HJM, an Aerospatiale AS350FX (c/n 1671). 

ZK-HJM flew from Twizel to Motueka on the 27th of April 2023 with a flight time of just over 2 hours. It remained in Motueka for two weeks before travelling to the West Coast the day after being photographed above.

ZK-HJM has been featured on this blog here.

 

Some North Is Helicopters

Travelling down to Wellington the East Coast way a number of helicopters were noted en route this week starting with the Bay of Plenty Coastal Region rescue helicopter BK117B-2 ZK-HES4 at Taupo which has new sponsorship titling,  Aerocool Developments.   This was imported from Germany in 2017.

Parked up at Hastings airfield was Kahu Helicopters' Sikorsky EH60A ZK-HKU3 which has been busy assisting with Cyclone recovery work in the Hawkes Bay and Gisborne regions.

Based at Dannevirke airfield is Tararua Heliwork's Bell 206B ZK-IBP.   This was imported from Taiwan in 2021.

And at Wairarapa Helicopters' base at Wainuioru, east of Masterton, was their Hughes 369D ZK-HNT.  This was imported new back in 1979 and has been with the company since early 2021.

 

Pelorus Air's Airvan ZK-PEL on Approach to Port Gore

 When I was looking back over some previous posts about Pelorus Air to do a bit of research on their "new" C 172 taildragger ZK-MGR, I found a post I had done using photos from their Facebook page of each of their fleet on approach to landing at Port Gore in the Marlborough Sounds,  (This post is HERE),

I found a matching photo of the latest aircraft in their fleet, their Gippsland GA 8 Airvan ZK-PEL also photo'd on approach to Port Gore.  It is very scenic and should inspire us of better flying days to come.

Cessna 172 ZK-MGR is now a Taildragger

Pelorus Air have operated their 1955 model straight tail Cessna 172 ZK-MGR since it was first registered here in 5/11/14.  However in previous posts (for example HERE), it has been configured as a tri-gear model.

However Tim Gorman recently photo'd it at Wellington as a taildragger.  Maybe a taildragger is a bit easier to land on some of the remote airstrips that Pelorus Air operate from.

Thanks for the photo Tim.

Question Time = Super Cub ZK-BNW skiplane

 Anonymous was the only responder to this QT.

It is indeed a Fluidyne tail wheel ski - in this case for the Piper PA-18-150 Super Cub ZK-BNW.

It was also an upside down photo. Shame on me.

Your reward 'Anonymous' is not financial but just a common old chocolate fish.

But to receive same you will need to advise me your snail mail address.

Above is the tail wheel ski and below the mainwheel ski.

Below - skis being fitted.

The Piper PA-18-150 ZK-BNW2 c/n 18-4644/2 was built in very late 1955 and listed with the Piper test registration of N10F.

I next noted in Canada as CF-IJK with Teal Air Ltd of Winnipeg from 31-03-1957.

In December 1969 it had an incident which required a new fuselage for the rebuild - so the c/n was changed from the original 18-4644 to the non standard 18-4644/2.

It was listed to Gordon Hay of Vickers Heights, Ontario from 02-06-1975 and the registration format changed to C-FIJK 

Gerry Marcil of Lewisporte, New Foundland listed it from 09-11-2016.

It was seasonally fitted with either wheels, Edo 200 floats or Schneider 4000 (wheel penetrating) skis.

Its Canadian registration was cancelled on 07-12-2020 with around 3900 airframe hours.

C-FIJK in its winter playground above.

Its NZ certification was carried out by Drake Aviation at Barradale with its CofA being granted on 13-08-2021 and first flight being on 15-09-2021

Nearing NZ certification at Drake Aviation on 27-06-2021.

Short final into Rangiora on 18-12-2021.

Bantam B 22S ZK-TOI at Foxpine

Jordan Elvy and Simon Hills popped up to Foxpine yesterday (to catch the Bellanca Super Viking ZK-VIX that was visiting) and they were also rewarded with the locally based Bantam ZK-TOI outside its hangar:

ZK-TOI (c/n 02-201) has been owned by a Palmerston North owner since 26/8/05 but is not often seen outside.

It features its c/n on the rudder as well as a neat FoxPine AirPark logo on the fin.

And the Bellanca Super Viking ZK-VIX was there.  It has been owned by a Napier owner since 8/4/23.

Thanks for the photos Jordan.

Brett Emeny RIP

We have received the sad news that a stalwart of the New Zealand aviation community, Brett Emeny has died following complications after heart surgery at Waikato hospital.

I was privileged to have Brett show us around his and others interesting aircraft at New Plymouth on 25 March with a group from the North Shore Aero Club.  He was incredibly generous with his time as he told us about the Vampire, Trojans and Yak 52s in Peter Vause's hangar.  The above photo of Brett with his Vampire is by Markus Kavermann, taken during our visit.

Then we carried on to Brett's own hangar where he proudly told us about the Catalina that he and others spent many thousands of hours maintaining to an excellent standard.  You could tell how proud Brett was of the aircraft, and after telling us all about it he invited us to crawl all over the inside of the interesting old amphibian while he sat comfortably in the pilot's seat and told us about his adventures flying it all around New Zealand.

Then in the afternoon Brett led the New Plymouth wing of the Yak 52 aerobatic team in a polished routine.  He most recently flew with the whole 9 member team at Classic Fighters 2023, where he also flew a display with Peter Vause in their pair of Trojans.

Over many years Brett has owned many many aircraft, either under the name of his helicopter spraying company Fine Particle Application Ltd, or personally.  These have included a Hughes 300, AS 350 Squirrels, Bell Jet Rangers, a Sikorsky S 55 and a Bell Garlick UH 1B, and most recently an Agusta A 109 helicopter(s).

When I was at New Plymouth Brett showed us pretty much all his aircraft including his two Yak 52s ZK-YAK2 and YKA, his DH 115 Vampire T 55 ZK-RVM,  and his North American Trojan T 28C ZK-JGS.  In his hangar were his Stemme S 10 motorglider ZK-GDC2,   his Auster J 5A Autocrat ZK-BDW, his Cessna 320E Skynight ZK-EGN2 and his Piper Commanche ZK-CYT.

Brett will be sorely missed by everyone in the New Zealand aviation community and our condolences go out to his family.  RIP Brett.

Wanaka Museum by CMM

 With thanks to Jason Rhodes, CMM spent considerable time checking out the National Transport & Toy Museum next to the Wanaka Airport.

Here are just two of the many aircraft on site.

Above we have the Douglas DC-3C ZK-JGB2 c/n 4363 of Airscapade Affairs Ltd.

It is currently stored here.

It has been mentioned several times before Here.

Delivered into Wanaka Airport on 21-05-2022 was the General Dynamics Allison Convair 440/580 ZK-CIB2 c/n 327A ex Air Chathams Ltd.