Around Auckland

Outside at Mercer airfield today was the Tauranga Aero Club's Cessna A152 Aerobat ZK-TAA now complete after its long rebuild.   This was originally imported from the US in 1990.

In the large hangar at Mercer on final assembly is the Rocket Lab Sikorsky S-92A ZK-HEV3 which is due to have its public unveiling on 13 April and attempt its first rocket stage recovery on 19 April.  It will be based in the Chatham Islands.     It is a former Bristow Helicopters' machine used in the Gulf of Mexico for oil and gas rig support.

On assembly at Oceania Aviation at Ardmore is Bell 206L-3 LongRanger N45EA which is a 1983 model formerly operated by Air Med LLC, Wichita, Kansas.

Down at Mechanics Bay heliport was the latest ZK-ITS now in use by Helicopter Me.    Back in 2006 two AS350B3 were imported as ZK-HTS2 and ZK-ITS and ultimately both were acquired by Auckland based EagleFlight Technics.     In February this year the 1st ZK-ITS was exported and then in March ZK-HTS2 was reregistered ZK-ITS2.      This allowed ZK-HTS to be reused on a brand new AS350B3 which has just arrived for an Auckland owner.

 

Tecnam P 92 Mk II ZK-EAD/3 at Tauranga

 Captured at Tauranga today by the Hairy Mole Rat is our latest Tecnam P 92 Mk II ZK-EAD3:

ZK-EAD3 (c/n 1658) was  registered to Gyrate NZ (2017) Ltd of Mt Maunganui back on 14/10/21, but has recently arrived at Solo Wings for assembly.

Pilatus PC-24 VH-FGM

With all the excitement at Christchurch International on Sunday over the RNZAF Heritage flight visit - no body seemed to notice the Pilatus PC-24 VH-FGM parked up.

Originally registered as HB-VST with the c/n 119 - it became VH-FGM on 03-12-2018 with Dalydine Pty Ltd of North Beach, WA and was operated by Pilatus Australia out of Adelaide, SA.

I recall it visiting NZ back in April of 2019 and it seems to have been based in Invercargill since about 12-12-2021 and replaces the Pilatus PC-12 ZK-TFL.

ZK-ICJ at Hastings

 Des Smith caught the Bell 47G-3B1 ZK-ICJ  c/n 3337 at Hastings today.

It is one of just five Bell 47's still registered in NZ.
Of 1965 vintage it has spent time as VH-UTQ, VQ-FBN, DQ-FBN and back to VH-UTQ again in 1976.
It became ZK-ICJ on 01-10-2002 with Clark and Jolly Ltd at Taupo.

A couple of earlier posts  can be seen on these links.

 https://nzcivair.blogspot.com/2008/07/one-and-same-zk-icj.html

https://nzcivair.blogspot.com/search?q=ZK-ICJ

Since mid 2015 it has been with Ardmore Helicopters  with a name change to Cirrus Helicopters in October 2016.

On 08-09-2017 it was listed to Unique Rentals of Hastings.

Flying Over the New Puhoi to Warkworth Motorway 4-4-2022

After what has been a lovely spell of weather for flying in the North, today's weather was also fine with light winds, so I headed out to Kaipara Flats airfield with a flight plan in mind.  I thought I would fly along the new Puhoi to Warkworth motorway to check on progress, keeping above the airspace where they might be flying drones.  I flew heading South from the Warkworth end and then flew back up the Mahurangi coast.  (You can click these photos once or twice to enlarge them and see more detail).

The Warkworth end of the new motorway with what will become the old SH 1 heading into Warkworth.  At the top left is the Matakana Link Road being constructed by Auckland Council.

South of Warkworth there are some steep cuttings!

Moir's Hill marks the highest point of the new motorway.  You can see SH 1 at the top left.

And then it heads downhill towards Schedeways Corner.

Here we have the curved Puhoi Viaduct in the middle distance, with the South on and North off ramps.

And the also curved Okahu Viaduct which will be connected to the existing Johnstone's Hill tunnels, with the Puhoi River flowing down to Wenderholm on the left.

Turning for home at the coast,

with Waiwera up in ahead...

and looking back to Hatfield's Beach and Orewa.

The sea was like a millpond with cloud reflections below the Whangaparaoa Peninsula.

What an interesting flight!

Flying In to a Wedding!

On Saturday I was honoured to be the wedding photographer for a flying friends wedding.  It was an outside ceremony and the weather was great for both the ceremony and photography.  It was the only wedding I have ever been to where a couple of guests flew in!

Rusty and Penny Russell flew in in Tecnam P 92 ZK-KFP for the ceremony...

and left again quite late to get back to Whangarei before ECT!

RNZAF Heritage Flight visits Christchurch

The Royal New Zealand Air Force Heritage Flight visited Christchurch today celebrating the 85th anniversary of the formation of the RNZAF on 01-04-1937.

This flypast consisted of the Grumman TBM-3E Avenger ZK-TBE2, Supermarine Spitfire MF IX ZK-SPI and the two Beechcraft T6C Texan's NZ1407 c/n PM45 and NZ1411 c/n PM55.

Buzzing before the break to land.

A long shot through the heat and haze of the Spitfire landing above -and below - at the fuel pumps                                                                        of the Canterbury Aero Club.

Above the Avenger though the long lens seeking the runway'

And below also at the Club fuel pumps.

Both the Spitfire and the Avenger are  listed to The Biggin Hill Trust.

Other aircraft from the RNZAF visited other towns and cities over the weekend.

Super Air Air Tractor ZK-RMW at Dargaville 2-4-2022

Another trip to Dargaville on Saturday, but this time by road for a different photographic assignment, saw not many aircraft arriving for the bring your own lunch.  However the resident Super Air Air Tractor was parked up:

Air Tractor AT-402B ZK-RMW transferred across to Super Air on 26/3/20 from Rural Air Services (1986) Ltd of Feilding.

Vickers Wave Amphibian First Flight at Hamilton

After a very long development period Vickers Aircraft Company Ltd's prototype 2 seater Wave amphibian aircraft made its first flight from Hamilton Airport back on 12/3/22.  Another first of type for Hamilton!

Vickers Wave-POC ZK-VIC2 (c/n POC 01) was first registered on 20/12/20.  The photos are screenshots from a You Tube video on the company's website vickersaircraft.com

Specifications for the Wave are: MAUW 839 Kg (1,850 pounds) with a useful load of 295 Kg (650 pounds).  The wingspan is 9.40 metres (30 feet 10 inches), the wing area is 150 square feet and the length is 7.5 metres (24 feet 8 inches).  Power is supplied by a Rotax 915iS which produces a maximum power of 141 HP and gives a projected cruise speed of 120 knots.  It is registered in the GA category.

The new ZK-RGB ! AMENDED

 Captured yesterday at Tauranga by Hairy Mole Rat was this Tecnam which had been marked in Italy as "RGA".

It is I believe the Tecnam P92 Mk II for the Canterbury Recreational Aircraft Club at Rangiora and will most likely become ZK-RGB3 to replace the previous Tecnam P92 Echo Classic ZK-RGB2 which was destroyed back on 28-04-2021.

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

Amendment

How wrong can you be ?

Todays photo (31-03-2022) from Tauranga from Hairy Mole Rat tells a different story to what the scuttlebutt in the CRAC Club House has been saying. 

Actually HMR did advise me that :-

"It arrived as ZK-RGA but I understand it is in fact ZK-RGE but not on the CAA Reg yet."

Evidence in camera.

Here we have ZK-RGE as seen today (Thursday 31st)

Dare I mention a c/n of 1657 ?

Sorry HMR