A Fiordland Pterodactyl Ascender - ZK-NLC

I guess one of the Pterodactyl pilots to have a serious amount of fun would be Bruce Reay who flew his Ascender ZK-NLC extensively around Fiordland and South Westland in the 1980s.  He also took quite a lot of photos of his adventures which he has posted on Facebook, and here are some of them:

Murray Hagen flying ZK-NLC on floats very early on in its life.

Lake Te Anau 1983.

Maybe the most photogenic backdrop for a microlight photo? (above and below)

Bruce's Ascender could also be operated as an amphibian I assume as in this photo.

A couple of spectacular aerial photos taken by Bruce in Fiordland and South Westland.

In its second element on Okarito Lagoon.

 

After an accident at Franz Joseph on 14/2/89 where it lost power on take off and mushed into some trees, it was rebuilt and had new covers with new registration letters as in this 1989 photo on the beach at Okarito Lagoon.  It flew on and was withdrawn in February 1992.

Pterodactyl Fun

In researching this series of Pterodactyl microlights of New Zealand and talking to some of their early pilots, one thing that came across was how much FUN they had flying back in those days.  So here are some photos:

On Blue Cliff Beach in Southland for toheroas (when you were allowed to gather them)

Jim Barnett flying to Opotiki for a flyin with another microlight off to starboard.  This is well before GoPros were even thought of and Jim told me he mounted his ordinary camera on the wing and took the photo by squeezing a hand held bulb which set off the shutter.

Pete James had an Ascender fitted with a special cage to keep a towrope clear of the propeller and he towed hang gliders aloft, here from Waitohi (photo from Murray Hagen).

Early microlighters were never short of an audience!

You could just go flying and drop into a local paddock.

Evan Gardiner and Ann Thompson flying down Ninety Mile Beach during shooting of a North Cape to Bluff film with Peter Hillary that never saw the light of day, only lasting until around Kerikeri.

A bit of early morning fun at a Waitohi flyin with a Hovey Delta Bird (more on these later).

There are many more stories and I am not quite sure how to do them justice.

Aerosport Dynamic WT9 ZK-DYZ

Visiting Pauanui airfield today was the Rangiora based Aerosport Dynamic WT9 ZK-DYZ.  Now in a new paint scheme this was originally imported new back in 2006.

 

Perpetual Pterodactyl Photos - the Final Ones?

I think this might be the last post of new Pterodactyl photos that I sourced from AustAirData.  As before, I will go back and add them to my original posts:

ZK-FCZ flying at Waitohi.

ZK-FLJ at Pikes Point

ZK-FLR at Waitohi

I reckon this brings our total photographs to 34 out of the 57 Pterodactyls that have been registered here.  Of course if someone out there has photos of the missing ones we would love to see them.

Pilatus PC-12/45 ZK-PLS Gone

 Another of the Sounds Air & Tourism Ltd's Pilatus PC-12/45 has departed offshore.

Two photos taken early this morning at Ardmore of ZK-PLS2 c/n 363 - prior to its departure to Auckland International and then on to Samoa.ZK-PLS originally was with the RFDS Western Operations at Jandakot in West Australia as VH-KWO2 from 30-04-2001 until being delivered to Adelaide in November of 2014 for onward sale.
It departed Adelaide for Sydney on 27-01-2015 then on to Auckland on the following day. After a brief visit to Omaka it was flown up to Feilding for its NZ certification and became ZK-PLS to Sounds Air on 16-03-2015.

It flew for some time in its old Australian colour scheme - as seen below at Taupo on 20-02-2026.

Some More Historical Pterodactyl Ascender Photos

Jim Barnett's collection of early microlight photos was mainly of Pterodactyl Ascenders as he owned two of them (ZK-FFR and ZK-JFB).  It ranged over locations in Southland to some Waitohi flyins to Pikes Point airfield on the shores of the Manakau Harbour where jim was a microlight instructor.  I will post some of the general photos later but here are some Ascender photos, either of aircraft we didn't have or ones with the registration showing better:

ZK-EZB probably, with Bill Barber who went on to build Snarks.

ZK-EZD flown by Jack Hegan at the Southland Microlight Association's Jack Frost Flyin.

ZK-FCE with Garry Chiplin at a Waitohi Flyin, probably in 1986, (identified by Murray Hagen).

Ann Thompson's ZK-FFH which was flown in the film "Flying Light" was later re-covered with this white sail.  The ease of which sail covers could be changed is a challenge for aircraft identification.

Jim Barnett's first Aascender ZK-FFR at Waitohi 1986.  DAC is for Pterodactyl as they were called "dacs".

Evan Gardiner pulls his ZK-FIY, possibly at Te Anau.

ZK-FIZ, you can just read the registration under the wing.

And a photo of ZK-TOO showing the registration.

I will go back and insert these photos in my earlier posts on Pterodactyls.

Cessna 152 ZK-RJC at Nelson.

 The Cessna 152 II with the c/n of 15284568 was produced by Cessna at Wichita, Kansas and listed to Merle Frank of Gresham, Oregon in the USA in October 1980 as N5369M.

The above photo shows it at Warrnambool, Victoria on 26-01-1987 - still wearing its US marks of N5369M. 

It was pretty much a one owner aircraft when it was shipped to Australia to become VH-HCG from 01-04-1987.

The photograph below shows it as VH-HCG at Bankstown on 06-10-1988 - thanks to Tony Arbon.By August of 2008 it was with the Forbes Flying Club in NSW before moving on to Bathurst in December 2013 for the Central West Recreational Flying School. 

Its final Australian owner was Dandy Aircraft Pty Ltd of Bacchus Marsh from 17-05-2016 until its cancellation on 12-06-2025 as exported to New Zealand.

Above we see VH-HCG about to be dismantled in Australia and placed into its container for shipment to Nelson.

Roll out at Nelson in its new colour scheme.

First flight in NZ was on 23-01-2026.

And a nice new tidy office.

It took up the NZ registration of ZK-RJC with South Sky Aviation Ltd of Nelson on 15-07-2025 and was transferred to the New Zealand Aviation Academy Ltd of Auckland earlier this month.

It is seen above photographed at Nelson today (17-02-2026) thanks to Bill Mannix.

Pterodactyl Ptraveller ZK-EWS in Southland

Having started on my series of Pterodactyl microlights of New Zealand, I have found out quite a lot more about them.  This has been helped hugely by Murray Hagen who was the Pterodactyl agent in New Zealand from the beginning - thanks Murray.  Then I got a big boost over the weekend when Jim Barnett who was an early Pterodactyl owner in Southland and then bought an Ascender II+2 and flew out of Pikes Point airfield as a microlight instructor in the 1980s, allowed me to copy photos from his photo collection.  (There must be other early microlighters out there who have collections of old microlight photos - if you are one of them and have early photos, please get in contact with the Editor).

Here is one of the photos from Jim Barnett's collection.  You cannot see the registration which is a problem with lots of the early microlight photos, but with Murray Hagen's knowledge it can be identified as the Perodactyl Ptraveller ZK-EWS.  I had not known of any Ptravellers in New Zealand but now I understand that they were an early version of the Ascender that was lighter in construction and could be easily dismantled for road transport, and that had a direct drive propellor for its Cuyuna engine, and this can be seen in the photo.

I have previously posted about a couple others of these microlights when I had erroneously called them Pfedgelings (the Pfledgeling did not have a canard).  These other two were ZK-FVN and ZK-PJH.  I will go back and alter my original post to reflect this and also add the photo of ZK-EWS.

Dassault Falcon G-KOLO into Christchurch

 Tony McFarlin braved the meteorological conditions at Christchurch today and caught the Dassault Falcon G-KOLO as it arrived from Auckland.

It had departed from Southampton for Guernsey, Dubai and Singapore on the 9th and flew direct to Auckland on the 12th.

Built in 2020 as F-WWQI by Dassault Falcon 8X with the c/n of 470 and was delivered to Centerline Aviation on 26-06-2020.

Healthy Bastards Bush Pilots Champs at Omaka 7-2-2026

This year the Healthy Bastards Bush Pilots Champs at Omaka clashed with the SAANZ Flyin at Masterton (maybe it does every year?) so some pilots had a choice to make.  I noted that there were several Masterton based aircraft at Omaka.  Planefil and Tim Gorman made the trip to Omaka and have provided a few photos of the winners in the various categories:

The Aeroandinas MXP-150 ZK-RTZ flown by Donald Leach won the spot landing competition with a best effort of 0.9 metres from the mark - and his second attempt was 1.0 metres away!

Bob Swanney from Waihi Beach won the Microlight category of the STOL competition with a score of 50.2 metres (takeoff 22.1m and landing 28.1m)in his ICP Savannah S ZK-MRJ.

Innes Bint from Rangiora won the light touring category of the STOL competition with a score of 80.2 metres (takeoff 36.9m and landing 43.3m) in the ZK-BVJ Syndicate's Piper Super Cub ZK-BVJ.

And in this neat photo Tim Gorman captured both the winner and second place getter in the heavy touring category of the STOL competition.  Jonathan Battson from Christchurch won with a score of 120.2 metres (takeoff 53.5m and landing 66.7m) in the Bearhawk Syndicate's R&B Bearhawk ZK-NJB2.  In the photo Neville Bailey of Christchurch is landing in his R&B Bearhawk ZK-NSB "Bearhawk Bravo".   His score was 134.1 metres (takeoff 56.4m and landing 77.7m). 

Thanks for the photos Planefil and Tim.