Dargaville Aero Club Open Day Today 13-4-2024

The Dargaville Aero Club held an open day at the airfield today.  I had hoped to fly up but unfortunately the remains of the recent storm resulted in pretty high winds.  However several of us Rodney Aero Club members drove up to say Hi and partake of some nice food and coffee.  They put on a good event.

There were several aircraft tied down that were of interest to me:

Alan Nelson had his Rotax 912 powered Titan Mustang ZK-LSD there having flown in the previous day.  Alan has made some changes to the colour scheme to suit his taste.

Another scale Mustang replica (although more in spirit than in form) was Derek Taylor's Horn TH-1 ZK-TLH which he had flown across from its base at Mata earlier in the week.

Here is a view of the aircraft on display including the Wittman Tailwind ZK-RET that is now based at Dargaville with a Waimamaku owner.

Another New Aircraft at Warbirds Over Wanaka

Although the emphasis at Warbirds Over Wanaka is rightly on the warbirds, there is also various trade displays of aircraft and aviation products.  One such display was by JMB Aircraft New Zealand.  They had their Rotax 912 demonstrator ZK-JMB2 on display as well as their latest Rotax 915 engined example:

The JMB VL-3TE-915 UL ZK-AJW2 (c/n 549) was registered to York Holdings Ltd of New Plymouth on 12/3/24.  It is the fourth VL3-915 model to be registered here with the others being ZK-VLT. ZK-ECO3 and ZK-TVL2.

From our roving reporter CMM

 CMM has been in the Wanaka area for some time and snapped the following photos.

This fine photograph of a 44-gallon drum is nicely enhanced by the Pilatus PC-6/B2-H4 c/n 768 ZK-SLC2 which was added to the Southern Lakes Aviation Ltd.'s fleet on 31-08-2023.

Initially built as an H2 model as HB-FGP with Pilatus Flugzeugwerke at Stans in Switzerland in October 1976. It was delivered to Kasat-Royal Thai Agricultural Division the following month to become 1314 for use in the spraying role. Converted to a B2-H4 earlier this century it was relisted to the Ministry of Agriculture and Co-operatives in June of 2002 and then to the Royal Air Sports Association Thailand in August 2020. 

It was uncrated at Heli Support NZ Ltd at Wanaka on 11-12-2023.

This Cessna 185A c/n 1850410 was allocated the US registration N1610Z in 1962, but instead became CF-OLE followed by C-FOLE in 12-1982. Cancelled on 19-11-2010 it became VH-YYQ on 13-12-2010 and VH-COW4 on 17-04-2020. It was noted flying from Bankstown to Port Macquarie on 12-11-2023 and Lord Howe to Norfolk on the 13th and then to West Melton.

More details on this when or if it joins the NZ register.

Eurocopter AS 350 B2 ZK-HCW4 c/n 4805 is still listed with Advanced Flight Ltd of Auckland but noted at Wanaka.

Eurocopter AS 350 B2 ZK-HRV3 c/n 2777 was built in 1993 and joined The Helicopter Line Ltd in January of 2014.

The seldom seen Rans S-7 Courier ZK-MYJ c/n 1001312 of Nic Kagan was found by CMM at Loburn. It has been mentioned previously on this LINK.

Pitts Model 12 Back at North Shore on 7-4-2024

On calling in at North Shore for Avgas last Sunday afternoon I was surprised to see John Eaton's lovely Pitts Model 12 ZK-PTS2 taxy in past me.

I don't know if this was from a local flight or from further afield.  I also don't know why it was back at North Shore but it has been advertised for sale for some time.

It is still a very impressive machine!

Falcon 50 N37WX at Nelson

 Dassault Falcon 50 EX N37WX c/n 309 arrived at Nelson early afternoon today 09-04-2024.

Captured here by Bill Mannix.

It has been noted in NZ since at least 2020.

It started life as N903SB with Dassault Falcon Jet Corporation o\from 26-01-2001 and was taken over by SBC Communications Inc of San Antonia, Texas from 07-06-2001.

Absorbed by Falcon Leasing of South Florida it appears to have become N37WX from 11-02-2009 with Fair Wind Air Charter. (WX being an abbreviation for 'weather'.

From 01-06-2020 it was relisted to Delaware Trust Co Trustee of Wilmington, Delaware - and it was about this time that it first appeared in NZ.

Some helicopters at Ardmore

A visit to Ardmore this morning was rewarded with a lot of helicopter activity starting with the Christchurch Helicopters' EC120B ZK-HPM5.   This was originally imported from South Africa in 2007 as ZK-IFR2 and from 2017 operated as part of the South Pacific Helicopters' fleet at Kaikoura.  It underwent a refurbishment and was reregistered as ZK-HPM in August 2023.

The AS350BB ZK-IHY was originally imported by Airwork from Papua New Guinea in late 2018 and after refurbishment added to the Helilink fleet.  In 2023 it spent 8 months in Western Australia based at Jandakot as VH-8HW with Rotorwest,  returning to NZ later that year.   It now carries both the parent company,  Salus Aviation,  and Helilink scripting.

Outside Oceania Aviation was another AS350BB, ZK-HOM3,  which was originally imported from the US in 2018 for Alpine Helicopters.   It passed onto an Alexandra owner in late 2021.

And outside Heliflite was an as yet unidentified Leonardo AW119 Koala,  which if registered here will add to our otherwise sole current 119 registrant,  Queenstown based ZK-ISR.

 

Removing the Wanaka dust.

 At Rangiora yesterday.

Owen washing the Wanaka dust from his magnificent Grumman G44A Widgeon ZK-CFA c/n 1439.

See some previous mentions of ZK-CFA  HERE

Black Sands at Te Kowhai Flyin Yesterday 6-4-2024

The re-scheduled Black Sands at Te Kowhai flyin was held over the weekend in thankfully nicer weather than when it was first scheduled.  There was a good turnout of sport aircraft including the following:

Wayne Richmond flew up from Stratford in his latest aircraft - the LM Harris CASH Aviation Model 3 ZK-LHC which he has painted in Richmond Racing colours.

Wayne told me that ZK-LHC wears the number 6 because it is the sixth aircraft he has owned.

Bruce Cooke's new mount is the Jodel D 18 ZK-JAC.

The very early model Tecnam Echo ZK-KFP is now owned by the Waikato Microlight Club of Ohaupo.

And David Signal took these photos from the beach landings at Gibson Beach,which provides the Black Sands bit.

Thanks for the photos Bruce, Wayne, Mark and David.

The L-39's at Wanaka

 The Aero L-39 Albatros's at Wanaka.

Four Aero L-39 Albatros aircraft flew as the American Eagles during the Easter Weekend Wanaka Airshow. Lined up on the Apron at Wanaka Airport are ZK-EJA "48" c/n 831148, ZK-WLM "28" c/n 332701, ZK-TCS "88" c/n 131848 and ZK-VLK "68" c/n 332630.

The pilots were 

Dean "Wilbur" Wright. #1, Flight Lead.
Dean is a retired USAF fighter Pilot with 151 combat hours and 4,000 total fighter hours. He flew the A-10 Warthog during Operation Desert Storm and the F-117 Stealth Fighter during the Second Gulf War. He also flew Hawks and Harriers with the Royal Air Force on exchange. He is also a former member of the USAF "Thunderbirds' F-16 display team.

Rob "Stache" Hutchinson. #2, Right Wing.
Rob is a competitive aerobatic pilot. He is also an accomplished skydiver and an avid marathoner.

John "Bordz" Posson, #3, Left Wing.
John has had 25 years as a commercial pilot and has logged over 1,300 hors in the P-51 Mustang as an instructor for Stallion 51 in Florida. His vintage aircraft experience includes flying DC-3s, Beech 18s. Grumman Widgeons and more. 

Paul "Sticky" Strickland, #4, Slot
Paul is a retired USAF A-10, F-5 and F-16 pilot with 270 combat hours and 3,000 total fighter hours. He served also as #4 slot with the USAF Air Demonstration Squadron 'Thunderbirds'. 

All four are members of the Patriots L-39 Jet Display Team USA.

"28" is ZK-WLM and c/n 332701 and was originally '28' with the Ukranian Air Force from about 1983. In February 2002 it popped up as N39AQ with Vintage Wings until cancelled on 07-02-2003 to become ZK-LLR with B-B Aviation Ltd (Rob Borius-Broek) of Christchurch from 21-02-2003. It was re-registered as ZK-WLM on 01-11-2004 to Rob, but now of Wanaka. It was re-listed to JetFlights Wanaka Ltd from 14-09-2006 and then sold to McCready Investment Trust of Auckland from 17-11-2010 and more recently, 26-11-2021, to Peter Beck of Howick. 

For the Wanaka Show it was in the care of FighterJets NZ of Tauranga.

"48" is ZK-EJA c/n 832248 and was '25' with the Ukranian Air Force from 1978 until becoming N39ED from 25-09-2003 with Apogee Aerospace Inc of Antioch, California. It then served with Maya Properties LLC from February 2005 and Schuster Aviation LLC from 15-10-2010 and was part of the 'Patriots' L-39 Team. 

It first flew from Tauranga as N39ED on 06-02-2014 and was registered ZK-EJA on 03-12-2014 to Easter Jets Ltd (Craig Mossman) in the markings of VMF-214.

"68" is ZK-VLK c/n 332630 and was originally white "80" from 1983. It became N139PV with Peter Vause of Chicago from 08-01-2004. Peter imported it into NZ where it became ZK-VLT on 17-12-2004 with Oilfield Equipment Rental Ltd at New Plymouth. It joined Eastern Jets NZ Ltd at Tauranga from 12-07-2023 and now wears white '68' marks.

"68" is ZK-TCS2 c/n 131848 and was originally '137' with the Ukrainian Air Force. It came to NZ in these marks to be repainted blue during its NZ certification to ZK-TCS on 05-01-2007 for the Copter Shop Ltd of Nelson. It was relisted to Eastern Jets NZ Ltd at Tauranga from 20-12-2018 and is now white '88'.

All four were operated under Craig Mossman's FIGHTERJETS.NZ label and were marked as such.

.Check out the fighterjets site   https://fighterjets.nz/Above all four on the dull Thursday pre Wanaka Airshow.

Bombardier VP-CPT into Christchurch

 The Bombardier BD-700-1A10 Global Express VP-CPT2 c/n 9509 cruised into Christchurch late this morning.

Built by Bombardier in Canada and listed as C-GPIA3 on 24-07-2012 and cancelled on 21-06-2013 to become VP-CPT in the Cayman Islands. Operators include Twinwood Transportation from 16-07-2019 and now with Jet Aviation Business Jets AG.

 Jakarta based, it flew into Sydney from Medan and Darwin then over to Auckland on the 3rd and on to Christchurch today 06-04-2024.

Another Tony McFarlin photo.

Anybody tell us what the numbers 1131 on the engine cowl are ?