Couple of newbies

A couple of newbies spied at Ardmore 11 November.

First up is New Zealand's third Eurocopter EC130 T2 series registered ZK-IVJ to Advanced Flight who have their base at Pikes Point, just on the northern fringe of the Auckland Tower control zone.  It wears construction number 7901 and was placed on the ZK register 31 October.

Secondly is a recent import from Australia for Whakatane's Frontier Helicopters.  Robinson R44 Clipper II ZK-IID has most recently been flying across the Tasman as VH-HLP and popped up on the Kiwi register the day prior to this photo being taken.

Jim's Polar Rodent.

It is meant to be Summer - but one of Jim Hickey's Polar Rodents is just rolling in.

(About noon yesterday 11-11-2014).

 A stop over at me olde mates Biplane Adventures on the Pukaki Airfield found the Grumman AgCat ZK-CAT firmly attached to it ground towing vehicle and pointed into the healthy breeze.

A previous purring about the RedCat can be found at :-

http://nzcivair.blogspot.co.nz/2011/11/pukaki-cat.html

The only aerial activity noted today (apart from the numerous ridge and wave soaring Larus dominicanus) were two RNZAF AirStrainers drifting across the sky towards Queenstown.

Above is "Blue Bus" (aka "La Vida") at the junction of the Tekapo Canals. A fresh dusting of snow on the hills behind. The fish were not biting but the wind was.

Pseudo Military Aircraft at Black Sands Flyin 2014

Apart from the genuine ex-Military Cessna Bird Dog ZK-DOG and the Tiger Moth ZK-BLI that I have already posted about, another couple of homebuilt aircraft were painted in pseudo Military schemes (both silver with Stars and Stripes) at Black Sands 2014.

Peter Walton's Titan T 51 Mustang ZK-WSV "Miss B Havin" stands out nicely against the smoke of a burnoff to the South of the airstrip.

And the North Shore based Vans RV 6A ZK-TRV of TW and CE Watson was having a happier time than on one of its previous visits to Raglan ( see www.nzcivair.blogspot.co.nz/2009/10/ouch.html).

Comings and Goings at Black Sands Flyin 2014

One of the neat things about Raglan airfield is that you can get quite close to the aircraft landing and taking off, so nice action photos are on offer.  So I offer the following:

Carbon Cub ZK-CSS from Ardmore.

Glastar Tri-gear ZK-MPO from North Shore.

A trio of Vans - RV 6 ZK-VRV from Wellington.

Followed by RV 7 ZK-LVA from Ardmore.

And RV 8 ZK-PJH from Rotorua.

At the other end of the performance spectrum, Bantam B 22 ZK-OOI from Te Awamutu.

 Murphy Super Rebel ZK-MSR from Tauranga.

DHC 2 Chipmunk ZK-UAS from Hamilton.

And finally, Tecnam Astore ZK-AST was very active during the flyin.

Thanks very much to Bruce Cooke and his team from the Waikato Chapter of SAANZ for again putting on a great flyin.  I know a lot of people will be back again.

SAA Black Sands 2014 - video and pics

Sir Minty is busily putting together posts to cover the Black Sands 2014 event.  Kereru was on video duties and shares this little snippet and thanks to ANON for his aerial shots of the gathering at Raglan 08 November.

Black Sands Flyin at Raglan 2014 (2)

As usual, there were several sport aircraft new to Black Sands this year.  I will post some of them below:

RV 12 ZK-MBA is the example that was built by the Mercury Bay Area School, and was flown from Whitianga.

Zenair CH 601XL is now owned by the Matamata Aero Club.  The aluminium strip over the canopy is a temporary fix to cover a cracked canopy (a new canopy is on order).

ZK-ZSC is a Zlin Aviation Savage that has only very recently been registered to Sport Aircraft New Zealand Ltd of Wellsford.  It is painted in a Piper yellow scheme and carries the wording "Savage Cub" on the nose!

Murphy Rebel ZK-ERX (for Eric's) was built by Eric Breetvelt and flew down from Ardmore.

And Jabiru J 160UL ZK-BGY flew up from Feilding.  It is now has a yellow lower fuselage and I was told is is also now fitted with a Rotax 912 engine.

First Post from Black Sands Flyin 2014

A great day at Raglan today for the Black Sands flyin 2014, which was the 10th Black Sands flyin to be hosted by the Waikato Chapter of SAANZ. There were plenty of the usual suspects among the 80 or so aicraft that attended on the Saturday but some new aicraft attending caught my eye as follows:

I haven't seen many Tiger Moths at Black Sands flyins, so ZK-BLI from Ardmore was a welcome sight.

Grob G 109 motor glider ZK-GOC was an exotic visitor.

As was the Hoffman H 36 Dimona motor glider ZK-GCB. 

Both the motor gliders were from Drury.

Cessna O 1G Bird Dog ZK-DOG arrived from Ardmore and parked in a photogenic spot.

There will be more from Raglan to follow, from myself and others.

Bluebus gone fishing.

Bluebus has gone fishing.

Back when I get back.

Blog posts will be intermittent.

Tanarg ZK-JIH.

Below we have a shot of the Air Creation ARV Tanarg 912 ES/IXESS 13 ZK-JIH (c/n T09001) coming together in Doug Anderson's hangar at Rangiora. Taken 06-11-2014.

Below is what the NZ Aviation News Magazine said about it when it was first registered in January 2009:

"The Air Creation ARV Tanarg 912 ES/IXESS 13, ZK-JIH, is the latest streamline trike on the scene. Built in southern France, with a technical base at Alice Springs, the Tanarg is labeled as the Lamborghini of weight shift microlights and as inferred by its designation, it is powered with a Rotax 912 which drives an Arplast three blade propeller. The IXESS 13 designation refers to the sail which has a broad speed range and a Vne of 91kts. It was assembled at Rangiora by Doug Anderson for Maree Horo of Christchurch."

In actual fact - it was never assembled and has been stored in its box for seven years.

The engine is a Rotax 912ES (Blue Head) rated at 98.7hp to meet the French regulations (of less than 100hp)

It has a BRS system and now awaits CAA inspection.

Photo above shows the "Blue Head" Rotax engine and the Airplast propeller with its turned back tips.

The BRS system is stowed on the area partially hidden by the undercarriage strut (The hatch cover is still open for inspection).

Forecast for Black Sands Flyin Fine!

Weatherman Jim Hickey forecasting a really great weekend weatherwise for the SAANZ Waikato Chapter's Black Sands flyin over the weekend.  See you there Jim?