Pereira GP 3 Osprey 2s of New Zealand

The Osprey 2 was designed by George Pereira in the early 1970s, and was derived from his single seat Osprey 1, also known as the Air Skimmer.  The prototype first flew in April 1973.  It is of all wood construction with a foam and fibreglass flying boat hull.

Its length is 6.25 metres (20 feet 6 inches) and its wingspan is 7.92 metres (26 feet).  Its empty weight is 440 Kg (970 pounds) and MAUW is 707 Kg (1,560 pounds).  With a 150 HP O-320 motor it cruises at 130 mph.

ZK-RJT (c/n AACA/57/2) was our first Osprey 2.  Constructed by Rex Thompson of Bunnythorpe (near Palmerston North), it was first registered on 13/12/83 and its first flight was on 13/3/84.  It was badly damaged  during test flying near Kimbolton on 17/5/84 when a part from the motor came loose and damaged the propeller, resulting in a forced landing.  However, Rex Thompson rebuilt it and it flew again on 16/12/85.   The above photo was taken at Feilding in 1986.  It was sold to AW Leggett of Takanini (near Auckland) on 9/8/91.  Finally it was sold overseas to Italy, and its registration was cancelled on 16/7/98.

ZK-KGB (c/n AACA/573) was our next Osprey 2, built by Kent G Belcher of Auckland (hence the registration).  It was first registered on 7/3/86.  It is photo'd above at Hobsonville, where it was based.  ZK-KGB seems to have been rarely photographed, so thanks very much to Derry Belcher for these photos.

ZK-KGB was sold to CM Batten of Auckland on 28/9/96, and the registration ZK-KGB was revoked on 9/9/97 in favour of a Yak 52 (I suspect the Yak made an offer that could not be refused!).  It was re-registered as ZK-OSP on the same day.  It was then sold to B Tait of Auckland on 15/4/99, and finally to VP Morris of Auckland on 23/10/10.

It is still current and is stored in a hangar at North Shore airfield (June 2016).

And there has been another Osprey 2 completed in New Zealand.  I understand that this aircraft was built by (Richard) Dick Thompson and it is photo'd here in his hangar at Ardmore.  I was told that it carried out water trials but has never flown to date.

Nor has it been registered, although it carries the registration letters (ZK-)XRT in this photo taken on 19/11/08.

Quickie Q2s/Q200s of New Zealand - Mysterious Q2 and Q200 Addendum Addendum!

In addition to the 2 completed but unregistered Quickie Q2/Q200s of New Zealand that I posted recently, another one has appeared on Trade Me.

I think ZK-JNY must be the Q2 that John Dunn was building for many years at Wellington.  The above photo was taken recently at Paraparaumu.

Question time # 161 resolved

Told you it was easy.

 It is the Aerospatiale AS 332 L1 Super Puma ZK-HHL4 (c/n 2240) now listed to Heli Harvest Ltd 

Both pics were taken in Japan.

                                                  "H" and "helikiwi" got it real quick.

"H" send me your postal address please.

Spitfire early morning move

 The Drury Spitfire.

Immediately below is the posting we did on the Spitfire after its arrival at Drury.

 

 

Supermarine Spitfire MkIX ZK-WDQ (c/n CBAF 5487) carried out a precautionary landing at Drury on 01-04-2013 whilst on its return flight from Omaka to Ardmore.

 During the landing it had a prop strike and now awaits new blades. (zoom in on prop tips in photo).

It is camped at Drury between the gliders until a new prop blade  arrives. It has had an engine check in the mean time.

Above photograph dated 02-04-2013.

 

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 The Spitfire still camps at Drury. They fitted a new prop on 31st of May. The aircraft then sat outside for week and half (because the new prop was to high for the aircraft to fit inside the hangar). It then went back inside without prop because the field turned out too wet to take off.

**************************************************

 

Yesterday (Wednesday 03-07-2013) they loaded the Spitfire on a house removal truck and it will be trucked out at 1am this morning (04-07-2013) to Ardmore.

 All photographs from Joachim Aerts

Question time # 161

About time for another Question Time !

 

                                                       Reasonably easy one I think !

 

                                                               What do you think ?

NZCH western side today (03-07-2013)

 Vary very similar :

 

Above is Robinson R44 Raven II ZK-HXT4 (c/n 10967) getting some attention at Pacific Aircraft Services at Christchurch today.

Below we have Robinson R44 Raven II ZK-IGR (c/n 12262) outside the Heli Maintenance facility.

 

 A quick snap of the Life Flight NZ Fairchild Swearingen SA227-AC Metro III ZK-NSS (c/n AC692) as listed with Airwork Flight Operations Ltd, taxiing back towards the terminal following a Rnwy 29 landing.

Anybody have an App for removing wire fences ?

Ardmore 02 July 2013

Robinson R44 ZK-HJZ of Coromandel Helicopters was a visitor at the Heliflite maintenance hangar while locally based Bell OH-58A Kiowa ZK-HPW was making a brief flight from/to Airwork.  More on ZK-HPW can be found http://nzcivair.blogspot.co.nz/2010/01/oh-58a-kiowa-zk-hpw-at-ardmore.html

Not a great way to end the month.....

Media report/s and photos from Saturday 29 June show Parakai based Cessna 182 ZK-KAL badly damaged in trees following a crash earlier that day and Rans Coyote ZK-ROY looking a little forlorn at Lake Station airfield south of Nelson.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/8858557/Pilots-escape-from-separate-plane-crashes

Great way to start the month

Looking absolutely stunning in its new colours and under the winter sun at Ardmore on 01 July was Bolkow BO-105 ZK-HVA.  This helicopter has been mentioned previously on this blog:
http://nzcivair.blogspot.co.nz/2013/04/bolkow-zk-hva4.html
and
http://nzcivair.blogspot.co.nz/2013/04/bolkow-105-zk-hva.html

It was first registered to Oceania Helicopters at Ardmore on 08 April 2013 and changed ownership to 
Van Asch Wines of Queenstown at the end of the same month.

A few strays.

 A creation of radiant beauty. The Skywork Helicopters K-Max Ltd's Kaman K-1200 K-Max ZK-HEE4 as captured at Illawarra on 05-05-2013 by Andy Heap.

An earlier post on HEE can be found at :-

                 http://nzcivair.blogspot.co.nz/2013/05/dave-eyre-from-australia-has-kindly.html
             It has also just been cancelled from the NZ register (01-07-2013) as sold abroad.

 Cessna 180 ZK-FDO2 (c/n 50017) got its pedigree mentioned recently at :-

http://nzcivair.blogspot.co.nz/2013/06/cessna-180-zk-fdo.html

 

Pic above shows her resting at Hanmer Springs on 31-05-2013.

Our first Acrolite 1C will become ZK-EMP2 in the near future. Here we see it after an engine run at Rangiora on 12-06-2013. That would be a Hirth 3003E of 102hp lurking behind that Powerfin propeller.