Not civil but of interest I reckon.
The RNZAF's third C 130J Hercules NZ7013 has flown in the US. The photo is from Lockheed Martin.NZ Civil Aircraft
A blog on New Zealand Civil Aircraft.
Friday 26 July 2024
Thursday 25 July 2024
Beavers and Beavers #3 ZK-BMF - Update
ZK-BMF was one of the Beavers that Dave Paull posted about back in 2010 and you can find his post HERE However I have been able to do a bit more digging and so here is an update:
Mosquito ZK-PWL is Now Registered in the US
The DH 98 Mosquito T43 ZK-PWL was cancelled from the New Zealand register on 16/5/24 as exported, and it was then shipped to Planes of Fame at Chino in California:
It was registered N2308Z to Spitfire Ventures LLC of San Antonio in Texas on 31/5/24 (a nice play on NZ2308) after reassembly by a crew from Avspecs. I don't think it has flown in the US yet, but recently was outside where Craig Bryant took this photo and posted it on the Planes of Fame Facebook page.Wednesday 24 July 2024
Beaver ZK-BFN
Over the last few days I have posted the histories of the first two Fieldair Beavers ZK-AZB and ZK-BBX. In those posts I referenced the earlier posts on the blog by Dave Paull who had been requested to do some posts on Beavers in the run up to the Lawson Field reunion at Gisborne over Labour Weekend in 2010.
Dave did not do posts on all of our Beavers at that time so I thought I would fill in the blanks and update his original posts to bring them up to date. I will start with Fieldair's Beavers of which there were 19 in total. I have a soft spot for Beavers as I was attending Rongotai College in the 1960s when many Beavers were imported, most of them for Fieldair. And I often saw Beavers from their fleet and other companies arriving at Rongotai for maintenance.
The third Beaver in the Fieldair fleet was ZK-BFN which was first registered to De Havilland Aircraft Ltd of Downsview, Ontario as CF-HGW on 12/4/54. It was quickly exported to New Zealand arriving in May 1954.
ZK-BFN (c/n 564) was registered to the De Havilland Aircraft Company New Zealand Ltd on 20/5/54 and they used it as a demonstrator and it carried out demonstrations of air dropping fencing materials as in the above photo which was taken near Palmerston North. The photo is probably a DHNZ publicity photo and is via Janic Geelen.It acquired the standard Fieldair blue and white colour scheme as in this photo which I took of on one of its visits to Hawker Siddeley in Wellington for maintenance in the 1960s.
Tuesday 23 July 2024
Beechcraft Super King Air ZK-APL
Nelson today. 23-07-2024
Guimbal Cabri G2 ZK-IHN2 c/n 1353.
Monday 22 July 2024
Widgeon ZK-CFA In its Element
For no other reason than it is a spectacular photo, here is Grumman Widgeon ZK-CFA near the top of the Clutha in Central Otago. This was just after the Warbirds Over Wanaka airshow.
Sunday 21 July 2024
Beavers and Beavers #1 ZK-BBX -- Update
Recently I posted about Fieldair's first Beaver ZK-AZB and I referenced the post that Dave Paull had done back in September 2010 on ZK-BBX which was Fieldair's second Beaver. As nearly 14 years has passed since then, I thought I would do and update on ZK-BBX with a very early photo of it and which sadly does not end well:
ZK-BBX (c/n 324) was imported into New Zealand by the De Havilland Aircraft Company of NZ Ltd and was first registered to them on 22/8/52. Its first flight here was at Rongotai on 7/1/53. On 24/11/52 it was registered to Fieldair Ltd of Gisborne and it was delivered to Gisborne on 14/1/53. The above photo of it at Paraparaumu in 1954 is sourced from Don Noble I understand. It ran off an airstrip at Otoko and overturned on 12/5/55 and was repaired at Rongotai, making a test flight on 1/9/55. Then it was damaged in a crash landing at Elsthorpe on 13/5/67 but it was repaired again to topdress another day.Mudrovcich Pearse Replica at Classic Flyers 17-07-2024
The daring but ultimately unsuccessful Richard Pearse Monoplane replica built by Ivan Mudrovcich of Auckland was outside last week at Classic Flyers Museum at Tauranga Airport to whom it has been gifted by Ivan's son Ivan. It was on show there last week where the engine was started. There is an article and video of this event in the New Zealand Herald (see HERE ).
We have posted previously on Ivan Mudrovcich's replica ZK-RPT ( HERE in 2012 and HERE in 2019). The last I heard of it, it was attempting to fly at Whitianga but sadly Ivan Mudrovcich took ill, and he later died in 2018. Despite the best efforts of many volunteers it never flew. The aircraft was cancelled from the register as withdrawn, on 11/10/18, and has been in storage since.