A fleeting visitation to Ashburton on Friday the 3rd

 A quick visit to Ashburton on Friday for a pick up found the following three aircraft out                getting some fresh air.

Above we have the Tecnam P92 Echo MkII ZK-EAD3 c/n 1658 which was new to Gyrate NZ (2017) Ltd of Mount Maunganui on 14-10-2021.

Below is the Tecnam P92 Echo MkII ZK-RJR c/n 1642 which has been with the NZ agent Jetboat.Com Ltd of Gore as a demonstrator since initially registered on 25-06-2021.

Both have now been taken on by Top Gun Aviation Ltd of Ashburton and are on line with the             Mid Canterbury Aero Club.

Not very often noted outside was Kevin Langford's Yakovlev Yak - 55 ZK-JPO c/n 880609.

All three have been previously mentioned in these pages.

Thursday at Rangiora.

 And still they come.

Another of the Oamaru based New Zealand Airline Academy's Tecnams about to depart Rangiora following maintenance with Griff of Clearprop Ltd.( See HERE )

ZK-NYU is c/n 1422 and joined the Academy in February this year.

Below we have a desperation long range shot of the Michael Godfrey Kitplanes Of Africa Explorer  ZK-MSC c/n 159-01-12.

This was I believe its first flight from Rangiora following its arrival from up north and after completion of the new owners tweaking to suit his needs.

Falcon 7X N997X into Christchurch on Friday the 3rd

 Cruising into Christchurch on Friday was the Dassault Falcon 7X N997X c/n 144 as captured here by Tony McFarlin.

A product of 2011 and initially registered with the French test registration of F-WWVY before taking up F-GYBJ from 16-03-2012. In early November of 2012 it joined Jet Asia Ltd as B-8206 and then became N656FN from early February of 2018. It was re-registered to N997X in June of 2022.

Bell LongRanger ZK-IWI at Nelson

Noted at Nelson on Wednesday was the Bell 206L-1 LongRanger ZK-IWI4 c/n 45213.

This LongRanger started as N2750R before delivery to Canada to become C-GLNC in about March of 1980. In early November of 1988 it became N91ZT followed by VH-JOW with Sunshine Coast Helicopter Rescue Service at Maroochydore, Queensland from 19-06-1989. It was then operated by Commercial Helicopters Pty Ltd of Mudgee, NSW from December 2009 until becoming ZK-IWI4 with Coast To Coast Helicopters Tasman Ltd of Upper Moutere last month.

Another Bill Mannix photo.

Textron 182T Skylane ZK-VEV at Christchurch.

 Arriving in Christchurch from Oamaru today was the Textron 182T Skylane ZK-VEV c/n 18283307 as listed to Withoutalid Ltd of Oamaru. 

Built at Independence, Kansas, USA, registered as N366KT to Textron Aviation Inc, and certified on 28-01-2025 with its first flight on 28-05-2025. Title moved to Southwind Global Aviation Inc of Moundridge, Kansas from 02-07-2025.
Its US registration was cancelled on 12-08-2025 for it to become ZK-VEV from 14-08-2025 following assembly and certification at AVTEK Timaru. Its first flight there was on 01-10-2025.

Two Rangiora visitors today 30-06-2026

 These two itinerants were noted at Rangiora this day - Tuesday the 30th.

"Black 83" is the Yakovlev Yak-52 ZK-ADM2 c/n 833601.

It came in from Ashburton, did some local flying, and returned to Ashburton today.

This aircraft was sourced from Italy having previously served with DOSSAF as RA-3490K. 

It arrived by sea in March 2017 and became ZK-ADM2 on the 6th listed to the ZK-ADM Syndicate.

ZK-LAJ2 c/n 40DS003 is a Shandong Bin Ao Aircraft Industries Co Ltd's DA40D Diamond Star - a turbo-diesel powered version.

See HERE for more on the Chinese manufacturing of the Diamond Aircraft.

It was first noted with Beidahuang General Aviation Co in China registered as B-9369. It was delivered to Fieldair at Palmerston North for its NZ certification, and first flew here on 14-05-2024 for delivery to Nelson as ZK-LAJ2 for New Zealand Aviation Academy Ltd.

It passed through from, and returned to Nelson.

Cessna 172N ZK-EOK

Visiting Pauanui airfield today was the Cessna 172N ZK-EOK which has somehow eluded blog coverage in its 47 years of flying in NZ.   Imported new in 1979 it had a succession of flight training roles in Oamaru, Motueka and Auckland before being acquired by its current Pukekohe owner in 2008.

 

King AIr NZ2350 moving on out at Christchurch.

Yesterday afternoon I captured the R.N.Z.A.F Beechcraft Super King Air B350i NZ2350 C/n FL-897 taxiing out to depart northward.

This was initially built as N897HP with the Beechcraft, corporation for delivery to the Philippines to become RP-C1834 in March of 2014.

On 23-02-2018 it was delivered to Hawker Pacific Pty Ltd in Syndney, Australia and became VH-ZPF2.

Following pre-delivery work for the RNZAF it was ferried from Sydney to Ohakea on 19-11-2018 to be cancelled from the Australian civil aircraft register on 29-11-2018 to enter service with 42 Squadron as NZ2350.

Wellington from Allister of zkarj.co.nz #2

 

This is the second part of the two blog posts from Allister's own site at zkarj.co.nz Begin Again By Allister of zkarj.co.nz on 27th June, 2026 There is not much to include in this post in the way of photos, after the previous catch-up. But there is a most definite line in the sand between that post and this.  I still remember the day, in the middle of December, 1986, when I was standing in a camera shop in Lucky Plaza, on Singapore’s Orchard Road. It was there that my brother bought his Nikon DSLR and, in so doing, thrust his Cosina CS-1 at me and said something like “There you go.” It was my first SLR camera. From memory, it had a 70-210mm Tokina lens. Importantly, the CS-1 used the Pentax K-mount system for lens mounting. A dozen years later, I made it into Pentax proper with an MZ-50, along with Sigma 28-80mm and 100-300mm lenses. In 2005, I got my first DSLR, a Pentax *ist DS. Then followed more Pentax bodies — K10D, K-5, KP, and finally K-3 III. The lenses changed, too. The Sigma 100-300mm was replaced with a Pentax 55-300mm ED, then 55-300mm WR, then 55-300 PLM. Quite recently, I added a Pentax 150-450mm. I’ve had a motley collection of shorter lenses, too (from Dad’s old M 28mm to the latest 16-50mm PLM) but the longer lenses are the ones that pertain to this site. In June of 2026, very nearly 40 years since I inherited the CS-1, I bought a new body that was not Pentax. In order to fund this, I sold the K-3 III, 16-50mm PLM, and 150-450mm, but I still have (and will keep) the KP and 55-300mm PLM (a configuration that is responsible for a lot of my aviation photo portfolio). The replacement gear (so far… I have no illusions of it stopping here) is as follows: Canon R5 Mk II Canon RF 24-105mm F4 L IS USM Canon RF 200-800mm F6.3-9 IS USM For the moment, I intend that the KP and 55-300mm PLM will still serve aviation duties — the reason for the change is, in fact, my bird photography. But having just today bought the 200-800mm, I thought I might try it out at the airport. I picked an… interesting… day to try it. After a day of weather disruptions, there were still diversions going on today (27-06-2026). I had heard five flights attempt approaches before I actually saw one try to land. But some got in and several got out. It was clear the pilots were working very hard and had plenty of decisions to make on whether to proceed. Even a Sounds Air Cessna Caravan was quite circumspect with a takeoff. It turns out, as I expected, that 200mm is a bit much for standing close to the runway. From the spot at Wexford Road, I could comfortably fill the frame with a Caravan awaiting entry to the runway! The bigger challenge today was holding the camera still in the wind. Both the camera and the lens have stabilisation, but even they cannot cope if I can’t even keep the aircraft in the frame! And so to the handful of photos I did well enough with to publish. Case in point… this was cropped from a shot at 242mm. I only zoomed in because it looked daft with just the wingtips out of frame. I then cropped further for better composition. The subject is Beechcraft Super King Air B200, ZK-RSQ(2) of the New Zealand Air Ambulance Service. This next shot, of Air New Zealand Airbus A320, ZK-OXC, was taken at 800mm and is about a 60% crop of the original. However, the aircraft was approximately 1km away! Hence the amount of moisture between me and it. And an 87% crop at 200mm as it got much closer. Right… I’ll spare you all the technical details for the rest. I just thought it was interesting to consider the new geometry I’m dealing with. It turns out this was the first time I had seen ZK-LFW, one of Life Flight Trusts, Beechcraft Super King Air B200s. Finally, Air New Zealand Bombardier Q300, ZK-NEO, shows a bit of the ‘lumpy’ final approach. The Q300s were not having a good time of it getting in today. Of those 5 missed approaches I mentioned at the beginning, 4 were Q300s.

Wellington from Alister of zkarj.co.nz #1

 Here we have the first of two posts from Allister working Wellington Airport from a different perspective.

Into Winter from Allister of zkarj.co.nz

 

Allister on 27th June, 2026

I thought it had been a while since I posted, but I see it was only in May. Go me! This post does a little bit of a catch-up, but not quite up to today. (See the following post for the reason). Below Carefully concealing its registration behind a winch, BK117B-2 ZK-HES4 does a short hover-taxi before departing. From memory, it had come down from Taranaki to Wellington Hospital before positioning to the airport, presumably for fuel. See HERE for a previous posting on ZK-HES4. I hadn’t seen the Cessna 525B CitationJet CJ3 ZK-RJZ for a while. The registration refers to the owners — Robert Jones Holdings Ltd. The founder, Bob Jones, passed away about a year ago. It is currently operated by Wellington Jet Charter Trust. This cute little Grumman American AA-1B Trainer, ZK-DKX, was a rarity. I’ve seen the closely related Traveller before, but not this model. It has been registered to Gallett Properties Ltd of Nelson since August of 2005. I got probably my best study yet of Wellington’s new Life Flight Trust rescue helicopter, Airbus Helicopters H145 D3 (basically the descendant of the BK117 line), ZK-IXS3. See HERE for a previous mention of ZK-IXS3. I’ve seen Wellington Aero Club’s Piper PA-38 Tomahawk, ZK-WAC3, often enough but this was a perfectly timed shot. And finally for this post, I got another chance to see QantasLink’s green-liveried Airbus A220-371 c/n 55253, VH-X4A. I was close to the runway with a long lens, so went for this tight shot.

The second post will cover Allister's photographic efforts at Wellington Airport.