Pipistrel Sinus ZK-GPI at Kaipara Flats

 As of last week we now have two Pipistrel aircraft hangared on the airfield at Kaipara Flats:

ZK-GPI is registered to Pipistrel Aircraft NZ Ltd of Kerikeri and is flown by Alan Clarke.  Man that wing is long!  It shares a hangar with an eclectic mix of 1940s aircraft - Tiger Moth, Aeronca and the Miles Messenger.  The Messenger is for sale for NZ$175,000 if you would like to buy it.

Atlas Air 767 N664GT at Wellington.

Allister Jenks reports :-

An interesting visitor arrived in Wellington on the night of November 7th.

When I checked the next morning, it was still on gate 26 but I watched it hooked up to a tug and pushed, backwards, all the way to the government apron. For a time it completely blocked taxiway Bravo at the A5 intersection, causing a couple of ANZ turboprops to turn around on the runway and head back to A6. There also appeared to be an issue at one point as RFS trucks raced across the runway and were firing water under the aircraft in the vicinity of the main gear.

Boeing 767-31B (ER) c/n 26259 first flew on 02-03-1994 and was delivered to China Southern Airlines as B-2565 until joining the Irish register as EI-CRD for Eurofly in November of 1998. 

It then went on line with Alitalia from September 2001.

It then became D-ABUL with Condor until becoming N664GT in March 2021 with Atlas Air.

Harvard ZK-OTU at Ashburton

 Also at Ashburton during Akro Fest - and remaining there for the remainder of this week and available to the public for joy rides - is the 'Legend Aviation' North American NA88 Harvard 2A ZK-OTU c/n 88-13193.

This served with the RNZAF as NZ1044 from June 1943.

In October 1971 it became an instructional airframe with the NZNAC/ANZ Engineering School at Christchurch.

After a period of storage, it was fully restored and reflew on the NZ civil register as ZK-OTU on 10-03-2023.

Ashburton Akro Fest 2026 #2

 Also at Ashburton for the Akro Fest we see the Sonex  ZK-CSL2 c/n 1476 of Cameron Day.

See HERE for more on ZK-CSL.

The American Champion 8KCAB ZK-DCL2 is c/n 1087-2009.

See Here for a recent post on this aircraft.

Morris Tull also had his MXS ZK-MXS c/n 0013 on site.

 

And Chris Schadler had his Rihn DR-107 One Design ZK-WAM3 c/n 94-0115 down from Whakatane.

See Here for more on ZK-WAM.

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Also hanging around - but not part of the Akro Fest was the Moravan Zlin Z50LS ZK-ZSO c/n 0070 which is mounted on the back wall of the Ashburton Aviation Museums hangar.

Ashburton Acrofest Friday the 6th

 The South Island Akro Fest 2026 is being hosted by the Mid Canterbury Aero Club at Ashburton this weekend.

Below we see four partaking Pitts Specials.

Above we have the Morrice Tull Aerotek Inc S-1S ZK-FRJ c/n 1-0025.

See here HERE for more on ZK-FRJ.

ZK-KEM is a Pitts S-1D with c/n AACA/404 as listed with Alex Kaandorp.

See HERE for more on ZK-KEM.

The Brad Pearpoint Pitts S-1S ZK-PEG c/n AACA/179/2

Drill down through here HERE to find more on ZK-PEG.

And ZK-PUG the Aerotek Inc S-1S c/n 1-0020 of Andrew Love.

Click here for  Search results for ZK-PUG

The New Rescue Helicopters Story and Taranaki's New Airbus H145 D3 Helicopter

We have occasionally featured new Rescue Helicopters on the blog but in a somewhat random way.  However as investigated I found that there is a Government funded programme to upgrade the fleet in association with the six major Rescue Helicopter services around the country.  These six services are: 

-the Auckland Regional Helicopter Trust and Northland Emergency Services Trust covering Northland, Auckland and the Coromandel, 

-the Phillips Search and Rescue Trust covering the Waikato, Bay of Plenty, Gisborne, Taranaki and surrounding areas, 

-the Hawkes Bay Rescue Helicopter Trust covering Hawkes Bay and East Coast communities, 

-the Life Flight Trust covering the bottom of the North Island and the top of the South Island, 

-Canterbury West Coast Air Rescue covering Canterbury and the West Coast, and 

-Helicopters Otago covering Otago and Southland.

The Government invested $27.3 million in 2024 and 2025 (along with other fund raising by many organisations) to upgrade the New Zealand Rescue Helicopter fleet and purchase 16 new Rescue Helicopters by June 2027.  These helicopters are mostly Airbus H145 D3 helicopters with 5 bladed rotors although there are some D2 models with 4 bladed rotors.  And the Auckland Regional helicopter Trust and Northland Emergency Services Trust operate Leonardo AW169 helicopters.  These new helicopters are all twin engine models and have larger cabins with improved patient care facilities, and also have the latest technology in their cockpits and enhanced performance and better all weather capability.

Within the last couple of days the new New Plymouth based Airbus H145 D3 helicopter has been delivered and I think it is the ninth of the sixteen that will eventually be delivered:

ZK-IXC (c/n 21514) was registered on 6/7/26 to Search and Rescue Services Ltd of Taupo.

Topdressing DC 3s (9) - ZK-BKD

It has been a while since I did my previous post on topdressing DC 3s (which was on ZK-BBJ), so here is the next one in alphabetical registration order, ZK-BKD:

ZK-BKD at Gisborne on 2/6/73 and below also at Gisborne in a later scheme.

Douglas C47A-25-DK (c/n 13521)

Built by The Douglas Aircraft Co, Oklahoma City, OK with 2x 1200HP 18cyl Pratt & Whitney R-1830-92 engines as 42-93592 6 Jun 1944 USAAF 

14 Jun 1944 USAAF Pacific TSP, Manila Declared surplus 13 Sep 1945 stored at Manila 

13 Dec 1945 Australian National Airways @ 2,111 hours Flight Time.   Exported to Australia, flown. 

VH-ANU 17 Dec 1945 Australian National Airways “Lemana” Fitted with 9-cyl Wright R-1820-65 engines Converted to passenger configuration Jul 1953 cancelled 14 Jun 1955.

Exported to New Zealand flown to Whenuapai 14 Jun 1955 with 22,866 hours Flight Time.

ZK-BKD 19 Jul 1955 New Zealand National Airways Corp, Wellington “Kotare” 

17 Oct 1961 Mount Cook & Southern Lakes Tourist Co, Timaru 

Converted to Skyliner 27 Jul 1963 3 Jul 1970 NZ National Airways Corp, Wellington 

13 Jul 1970 Fieldair Ltd, Palmerston North converted to topdresser First flight as Ag Dak  28 Aug 1971 Last flight as Ag Dak flight 23 Jan 1983 @ 51,277 hrs Flight Time (8019 hours ag work) 

30 Mar 1984 Fieldair Holdings Ltd, Palmerston North.   Cancelled Oct 1987.

Put on display at a museum in Rotorua, then moved to Gisborne and placed on plinth above the Crash Palace Wine Bar without engines.

This photo of ZK-BKD was taken in 2013 and I believe it is still there.

Avid Flyer ZK-JDF update.

 The somewhat modified Avid Flyer Mark IV ZK-JDF c/n 1459D was captured on landing at Rangiora yesterday, 31-10-2026, by regular contributor Aaron Murphy.

Worthy of note is the large tailwheel and what appears to be an adjustable shock absorber mount on the main gear.

Below is an earlier photo of ZK-JDF from John Wagtendonk taken on 25-11-2023 showing the original small tail wheel and the ballast weight in the rear fuselage. 

More earlier info on this Avid Flyer can be seen at https://nzcivair.blogspot.com/search?q=zk-jdf

First flight of Challenger ZK-WLF at Christchurch

 The Bombardier CL600-2B16 Challenger 604 c/n 5560 started life with the manufacturers Canadian test registration of C-GLXH29 in April 2003 and was delivered to the Toy Store at Fort Lauderdale, Florida to become N604CC from October of 2003.

It was moved on to Stream Enterprises LLC of Natick, Massachusetts to become N604BS in February 2005. Luigi Logistics LLC of Franklin, Tennessee took it over in March 2022 and then it disappeared into the TVPX Aircraft Solutions system in April 2026.

We next see it ferrying into Christchurch from Pago Pago on 26-06-2026 with its US registration being cancelled on 13-07-2026.

It was registered in NZ as ZK-WLF on 23-07-2026 to GCH Aviation Ltd and is seen above landing following its first flight in NZ.

It carries small 'APEX' titles just behind the cockpit.

A similar Challenger ZK-JCJ2 is operated by GCH Jet Operations Ltd since February of 2020.

Microlight Aircraft of New Zealand - That's a Wrap for 1982!

I started this series on Microlight Aircraft of New Zealand in July 2025 with Pete James' powered Easy Riser which I think was the first microlight to fly here in late 1977.  Microlights were not required to be registered until late 1981 and there were quite a few that flew back then with varying degrees of success.

However from December 1981 when Murray Hagen's Pterodactyl Ascender ZK-ESS and Ken Asplin's Quicksilver ZK-KJA were registered, the floodgates of microlight aircraft registrations were flung open and the demand for this type of aircraft and microlight flying was huge!

I chose this photo because it was taken shortly after the hugely busy 1982 microlight year.

I reckon there were 134 microlights registered in New Zealand in 1982, which is an amazing number when you think about it. Of those 134, the types were Pterodactyls, Mirages (33 of them registered in 1982!), single seat Quicksilvers, an American Aerolights Eagle (which crashed with the first microlight fatality), Kasperwings, Skycraft Scouts (47 were eventually registered but the importers reckoned they bought in about 80 of them), Delore Skytrikes made in Christchurch and two other types of weight shift trikes - Ultraflight models made in Hamilton and Ultrasports models from England, Rotec Rallys, Goldwings, Vector 610s, Teratorns, Phantoms (only 2 but influential), the locally developed Re Fledge One, the German Firebird M1, DSK Nomads and Mitchell Wings.  That represents an impressive 18 types of microlights and there were a few more of the above types and others that did not get registered.

Next, on to 1983 and beyond!