Some pics from Gisborne #1

Viewer ZK-DDG has kindly sent some photographs taken recently at Gisborne.

The Gisborne Aviation Preservation Society (Inc)[GAPS] have several aircraft in their hangar at Gisborne airport.
Check out their website at http://crash.ihug.co.nz/~av8or/GAPS/
Above is the Lockheed 18-56 Lodestar ZK-BUV , c/n 2152. This Lodestar served with the RAF and BOAC during World War 11 followed by a period with the Spanish Air Force. It went to the States  in 1955 as N9930F until being purchased by Fieldair in late December of 1957. It was converted to a top dresser in Sydney. It was withdrawn from use at Palmerston North on 28-11-1972 and ferried into Gisborne on 08-01-1973. It was for some time mounted on a plinth at Gisborne. In May 1998 it was removed and placed in the GAPS hangar.
The top pic was taken at Gisborne on 21-05-2011 by ZK-DDG.
The photo below was at Palmerston North on 08-12-1972 - shortly after being WFU.

Below is the Reims/Cessna F406 Caravan 11 ZK-CEC2  , c/n F406-0012. This is on line for all weather charter with Air Charter East Coast Ltd. Built in 1987 as F-WZDU, it went to Belgium as OO-TIZ, then to the Netherlands as PH-ALE followed by a time in Nigeria as 5Y-WAW. On arrival in NZ it received major attention from Aeromotive and became ZK-CII2 on 10-08-1998. It joined the Vincent Aviation fleet in 1999 and was re-registered as ZK-VAA2 on 08-05-2003. Kiwi Air listed it from 06-12-2007 and then re-registered it again. This time as ZK-XLC on 15-01-2008. It was transferred to Air Charter East Coast Ltd on 01-06-2010 and on the 9th it became ZK-CEC2.

Piper Cub ZK-AIR

Sir Minty captured this warbird at North Shore Airfield on 16-10-2010.
It was originally shown in the following blog:-
http://nzcivair.blogspot.com/2010/10/two-north-shore-warbirds.html

I have modified this slightly a follows:-
This Piper Cub with the manufacturers construction number (c/n) of 9024 was built for the US Military as a Piper L-4A-P1 and allocated the serial 42-38455 with the USAAF - I have the date as 30-06-1942. It was struck off charge on 01-06-1946 and entered the US civil aircraft register as NC62052 with Stanley Sabihon at Wahiawa in Hawaii. It became N62052 in about 1971 with C C Jones of Honolulu followed by R L Smith in 1974. T L Hauptman took it over from 07-05-1976. It appears to have been withdrawn from use in June of 1981. It reappeared with Hawaiian Historical Aviation on 24-01-1994. Its final listed owner being J F O'Toole of Honolulu from March of 1994.
It was cancelled from the US register on 23-03-1994 to allow its entry onto the NZ register as a Piper J3C-65 ZK-AIR on 26-03-1994 to Stan & Gilly Smith/Tech-Air (NZ) Ltd of Albany.

I recently had contact with Harry Noyes who sent the following:-

"Today, on a whim I hunted down an old friend on Google and found her on your blog,

Of all the planes I ever flew, my favorite was J-3 N62052 (and the only one whose tail number I can still remember without looking at my logbook ). I am so delighted to see that she is still alive and dressed in her youthful warpaint. If only I had aged as well. She was yellow when I knew her, of course, while attending graduate school at the University of Hawaii. She was a toy basically, with absolutely no practice utility in Hawaii (I tried to get over the mountains to the North Shore one day and the plane's rate of climb wouldn't overcome the downflow from a north wind over the peaks), but God what fun! We were allowed to make touch-and-go landings at Ford Island in Pearl Harbor and flying over that area with the windows open was always a thrill. Once I saw a carrier entering harbor below me, another time a nuclear sub. Once, while I was still learning to fly taildraggers, she started running rough when we leveled off after take-off. We turned back to Honolulu International and I landed with a slight bump (you don't land very hard at 25 mph unless you do it upside down, and with Hawaii's winds I sometimes landed at about 5-10 mph ground speed) and the engine stopped. That also killed our plug-in walkie-talkie radio, of course, so we couldn't explain anything to the tower. I have always imagined that the controllers must have rolled on the floor laughing as they watched my instructor and me jump out and start pushing that teeny yellow plane off the runway onto a cross-taxiway. Thank God, it started back up when we propped it or we would have had to push it about a mile to the ramp. Anyway, I figured out that the problem was the crude gas-gauge and fuel-tank drain arrangements. The gauge consisted (from the photo, it looks as though it still does) of a wire with a cork on the end that floated on the fuel with the wire sticking through a hole in the gas cap. This let water run into the fuel when it rained, which it usually does several times a day in Hawaii. Of course, we always drain the gas tank before flying to check for water. But apparently in the Cub, someone made a bad decision to put the drain in the middle of the tank bottom instead of the rear end of the bottom. Thus when the plane's nose was pointed up (almost all the time, of course, with a Cub), water could settle in the undrained corner behind the drain pipe. After that, we always lifted the tail into the air when draining the gas tank. I think I owe some of the most precious things in my life to Piper 62052. I was chasing a girl who didn't like me much, but didn't totally reject me because she wanted a ride in that airplane. By the time she got it, she had agreed to marry me. True, she fired me from my husband job 20 years later, but meanwhile we had had two incredible kids. My daughter just got married and my son is a foreign service officer, now studying Russian before going to the U.S. consulate in St. Petersburg. If it weren't for 62052, they might not be here. On such things do the fates of men hang sometimes. Thank you for posting her photo, and if you can, please advise the owners how grateful I am that they have preserved my old friend from 40 years ago.

Harry Noyes
San Antonio, Texas "

I remember when: N119K visited.

The date was May of 1969 and the place was Invercargill.
The aircraft is Gulfstream 11 N119K.
Just aft of the open door are miniature flags of the countires that it has visited.
Operator and purpose of the visit has faded into history.

New colour scheme for Islander (ZK-KTR).

Fairey Britten-Norman BN2A-21 Islander c/n 759 began life in 1975 as G-BCZD with the manufacturer. It was sold on 14-04-1980 to Nigeria. However I can find no Nigerian history for this airframe. It next turned up on the US register as N11216 until being cancelled there on 22-04-1981 for sale in Japan where it became JA5268. It then migrated to PNG and became P2-MFZ followed by P2-VAB. It was ferried into Auckland from Norfolk Island on 09-08-2005 and then over to North Shore Airfield. It has been resident there ever since. It  has not joined the NZ register to date; although it did wear the "KTR" markings for a while. The above photo was taken at NZNE on 09-03-2008.
The shot below was taken as recently as 01-06-2011 by Jean2010 with what looks like a dose of tagging.

RAF 2000 GTX SE ZK-RCO

A report from Jean210.
RAF (Rotary Air Force) 2000 GTX SE ZK-RCO (msn H2-97-8-303), bought from Jim Service of Palmerston by B C (Rusty) Russell of Whangarei, was trailered from Nelson, where the owner was undertaking gyro flight training, to Dargaville late in May and awaits its first flight from there.
First registered on 12-02-1998 for P D King of Te Puna, passing to Mount Aviation at Tauranga on 01-07-1998. It suffered a rollover in gusty conditions at Tauranga on 20 October 1999. It went down to Dave Taylor at Taieri in March of 2000 and then to Jim Service of Palmerston on 20-08-2003

Above is a view of  behind the scene plumbing being worked on at Taieri on 17-10-2008.

Hiller UH-12C ZK-HXK

A pleasant surprise on the first day of winter 2011 was stumbling across Hiller UH-12C ZK-HXK/3 parked at Ardmore.  This classic helicopter has been on the NZ register for almost 5 years and under the ownership of a Coromandel address.

Piper PA28-181 ZK-LJI

A visitor from Taranaki at Ardmore today, 01 June, in the form of Piper PA28-181 ZK-LJI.  This aircraft recently featured in http://galonghaulnews.blogspot.com/2011/05/back-in-2008-piper-archer-n1005j-was.html when it was delivered to the Canterbury Aero Club.

During April this year the Archer changed ownership to private hands in New Plymouth.

Robinson R44 ZK-ILX

The owners of Galloway Station near Alexandra have recently taken charge of R44 Raven II ZK-HHS and it has subsequently been re-registered ZK-ILX as of mid April this year, joining another Robinson on the station, R22 ZK-HLX.

Above and below taken at Ardmore 01 June 2011

Robinson R44 ZK-HGL

Ag Ops of Kerikeri operate Robinson R44 ZK-HGL and it sports the titles of Kiwikopters, http://www.kiwikopters.co.nz/.

Interestingly though if you check out the website it now takes you to Adventure Aviation New Zealand so perhaps the titles currently displayed will soon be removed?

Above and below taken at Ardmore 01 June 2011

Cessna 182T ZK-RGZ

On the first day of Winter 2011 there was some pleasant surprises at Ardmore.  The first was coming across 2005 edition turbo charged Cessna T182T Skylane ZK-RGZ. It was registered to Huitaha Ltd of Putaruru on the 1st of April this year.