A Memorial for Peter Mole

 

A memorial for our own Hairy Mole Rat.  Photo from Warwick Hamilton.

Nelson visitors 29-06-2025

Bill Mannix captured these two visitors at Nelson this morning 29-06-2025.

PHI New Zealand Ltds Agusta AW139 ZK-HNO2 c/n 31156 flew IFR pretty much direct from New Plymouth to Nelson this morning. 

Then carried out a VIP flight around the weather beaten area, including Riwaka, Tapawera, almost to St Arnaud, Golden Downs, Wakefield and back to Nelson.

It then returned to New Plymouth.

This Agusta AW139 began as VH-NZF c/n 31156 from 06-01-2009 HNZ Cougar Helicopters Pty Ltd of Belmont, Western Australia on lease to Helicopters (NZ) Ltd.

It was entered onto the NZ register as ZK-HNO2 on 04-03-2011 with Helicopters (NZ) Ltd of Nelson. It followed the Company name change to Helicopters (NZ) Limited from 07-07-2011 and then HNZ New Zealand Limited from 30-10-2012. This in turn became PHI New Zealand Limited from 29-09-2020.

It carries the name 'Manupaatiki on its nose.

Also noted was the Search And Rescue Services Ltd Kawasaki BK117 SD2 ZK-IRU c/n 1101, also connected to the recent weather event. 

It flew into Nelson via the Outer Marlborough Sounds yesterday and did several local flights and departed back to Wellington today.

Of 1995 vintage and ex Japan as JA6743 it served time in Australia as VH-BKS6 from May of 2011.

It was imported into NZ in November 2012 for its current owner.

It still carries the 'Waikato - King Country' titles on the lower fuselage.

Super Rallye on a Pole at Dannevirke!

I had heard about this from press reports, but yesterday Simon Hills and Jordan Elvy were passing through Dannevirke and spied the re-creation of the Morane-Saulnier MS 885 Super Rallye ZK-CGZ displayed on a pole:

ZK-CGZ (sort of) on its pole at Dannevirke.

It has been re-created as a labour of love by Dannevirke Man Trevor Beale and wears the logos of "Trevor Beale Log Transport" on the fuselage and "Kindly Donated by Schmidt Scrap and Tranz" on the nose.

ZK-CGZ (c/n 5394) was registered to the New Zealand Morane Saulnier agents Seabrook Fowlds Ltd of Auckland in May 1964 and was operated by NZ Aerosales Ltd of Paraparaumu and also by Sounds Scenic Flights Ltd of Blenheim before going to R T Fullerton-Smith of Ongarue on 11/7/67 and then on to the Waikato Aero Club.  It is photo'd here early on in its life at Rotorua on 10/10/64

And here it is at Ardmore in September 1973 just 7 months before crashing near Lake Rotoiti on 13/4/74.  It was cancelled from the register quite a bit later, on 20/10/88.

A stranger at Rangiora on the 24th.

    Parked outside the Canterbury Recreational Aircraft Club at Rangiora on Tuesday the 24th was the     Aeroandina MXP-150 'Kimbaya' ZK-RTZ c/n AA-02-14-15-056 as registered to Pan Tam Holdings       Ltd on 04-02-2025.

 For more details on this Colombian built aircraft and its close cousin ZK-RTT  See Here

Christchurch diversion for China Eastern A330 B-5943

 China Eastern's Airbus A330-243 B-5943 diverted to Christchurch from its direct Hangzhou to Auckland flight today because of bad weather.

Flight time 13 hours and 23 minutes.

The weather in Christchurch didn't look all that exciting either.

It later headed back up to Auckland and then on to Sydney and onward to Hangzhou.

With a c/n of 1520 it first flew as F-WWYJ on 03-03-2014 and was delivered to China Eastern Airlines on 24-04-2014.

ZK-LFW/2 - the Latest Life Flight Beech King Air

Tim Gorman photo'd Life Flight's latest Beech B 200C King Air ZK-LFW2 (c/n BL-156) at Palmerston North a few days ago:

ZK-LFW2 is ex VH-VAH and was registered in September 2024 and is Life Flight's fifth King Air, the others being ZK-LFA, LFI and LFL all based at Wellington, and ZK-LFT based at Hamilton.

And the first ZK-LFW was Life Flight's BAE Jetstream 32 which was ferried to the Bahamas in February 2024 to become C6-LNG.

Thanks for the photo Tim.

More MUR

Following on from my recent postings on the SIAI Marchetti SF 260C ZK-MUR, Peter Lewis has sent an undated photo of it taken from the port side at Christchurch.  Curiously it has "water" and "bedroom" painted on the side - can anyone shed any light on this?  Thanks for the photo Peter.

And I found another photo of it, taken by the late Bob Kerr at Wellington on 30/10/86.

Does anyone out there know how badly damaged it was in the Greenland forced landing?  Was it written off or possibly rebuilt in the US? 

Question Time ! Correctly answered. NAVAL N3N.

WE HAVE AN ANSWER

See below the three Question Time photos for more details.

************************.

 Question time. Two additional photographic clues.

About three years ago I snapped these photos in 'someone's back yard'.

Any thoughts on what aircraft type we are looking at ?

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

ANSWER

We are looking at a Naval N3N. 'Yellow Peril'

MARCUS was the first with the correct answer.

We had a previous 'Question Time' post on these 

see HERE

For more info on the Naval N3 see Here

We have at least two airframes in country - down South.

Restoration of the example above is making slow progress.

Same Same but Different

Wayne Grant was on site at Ardmore recently to capture David Wilkinson undertaking the first flight of the Taylor Coot ZK-JST in a very long time: 

.At Ardmore on 10/5/25.

And here is one I prepared earlier!  At Pikes Pont on 29/10/05.

Zlin Trener Master ZK-CJY returns.

The factory new Walter M-137A powered Moravan Zlin 526F Trener Master ZK-CJY c/n 1091 was registered in NZ on 13-09-1970 to David G and R H Owen of Christchurch.

The photo above was taken at Christchurch Airport on 13-11-1970. No apologies for the crappy photo.

It carried 'Mary Quant' advertising for some years.

Above - as noted at Christchurch in early 1974.

As seen at Christchurch in July 1983 by CMM.

Two views of it at Christchurch International about to be stowed in a container for its move to Australia on 08-05-1992.

Below we have the undercarriage and wing attachment points.

It NZ registration was cancelled on 25-06-1992 - as being shipped to Australia for David Owen of  Tewantin in Queensland - becoming VH-ZLN on 30-09-1992.

It had a bit of an event at Gympie on 24-11-2003.

It was returned to New Zealand arriving in July 2020.  

Above we see VH-ZLN at Ardmore in August of 2020 - thanks to Keith Morris.

Its canopy and upper fuselage have been removed.

Its 'hard to read' Australian registration is visible on its fuselage side and also on the wings in the background.

This Australian registration was cancelled on 27-11-2023.

It was restored at Aero Tech and rejoined the NZ register on 19-11-2024 - back to its original registration of ZK-CJY, listed to the CJY Syndicate of Papakura.

It has made progress towards flying again and is seen in the photo below by Keith Morris at Ardmore in April this year.

Wayne Grant's photo below shows the Zlin now wearing its full ZK-CJY registration again - doing an engine run at Ardmore on the 19th of June.