Vans Aircraft at Kaipara Flats for the Tiger Moth Flyin

The lovely weather over the weekend and the attraction of a lot of Tiger Moths brought several Vans aircraft to Kaipara Flats:

A surprise was RV 8 ZK-VAF from Omaka which arrived on Friday and accompanied the Tiger Moths.

On Saturday another RV 8 ZK-SST flew in from North Shore.

As did RV 7 ZK-JPH4 which now has a new Auckland owner.

RV 6 ZK-VNZ  flew up from Ardmore.

And RV 3 ZK-WHO flew down from Whangarei.

All of these RVs have been covered on the blog previously

ZK-JOY in Nelson.

 The Cessna 182Q ZK-JOY2 c/n 18265177 flew into Nelson ex Christchurch, and via Lake Station on Saturday. Today (Sunday the 8th) it departed for Masterton and home base at Tauranga.

This 182 flew into Auckland from the USA as N7386S on 12-11-1976 and became ZK-EJC from 18-01-1977 for delivery to K.V.C Holdings. 

By October of 1994 it was with Joy Leslie of Dunedin.

Joy re-registered it as ZK-JOY2 in September of 1995.

It has been listed with current owner Skytrack Aviation of Mount Maunganui since May of 2012.

Diesel powered Cherokee warrior ZK-LYD.

The latest addition to the Tie-Upp Aviation fleet at Rangiora is the Piper PA-28-162 Warrier II ZK-LYD c/n 28-8316038.

A 1983 production aircraft initially listed in the States as N4292D. 

It came to New Zealand to become ZK-MBF for the Massey University school of Aviation at Palmerston North from 29-06-1990.

In December of 2010 it passed to Eagle Flight Training until being acquired by Oceania Aviation in May of 2016.

It has been re-engined with a Continental 155hp CD-155 diesel engine ( see here ) and fitted with a three bladed prop - re-registered as ZK-LYD on 15-12-2025 - and now purrs quietly in the skies around Rangiora.

Airways Corporation Cheyenne at Nelson.

 Nelson Airport on Friday the 6th.

Bill Mannix photographed the Airways Corporation's Piper PA-42-1000 Cheyenne 400LS ZK-FIS c/n 42-5527019 as it powered up to Generation Global, having arrived in from Christchurch.

It departed for Paraparaumu and Auckland on the 7th.See here for a short previous post on this aircraft.

More Tiger Moths at Kaipara Flats Today 7-3-2026

After yesterdays influx of Tiger Moths, two more flew in this morning to make a total of 15 Tiger on the airfield - the biggest gathering of Tiger Moths for many years according to John King (and he should know)

Rob McNair flew in from Ardmore in his spectacular black and gold ZK-AUD.

Then Dave Phillips arrived in his East Coast Air Services marked ZK-BEN, flown from his farm airstrip near Clevedon.

And here is an aerial view of Kaipara Flats showing the 14 Tiger Moths and one Thruxton Jackaroo (which started its life as a Tiger Moth in 1939).  A couple of other DH aircraft on the airfield were Bevan Dewes' DHC1 Chipmunk (top right) and the NZ Warbirds DHC2 Beaver (at the bottom).

Tiger Moths (and a Jackaroo) at Kaipara Flats Today 6-3-2026

The weather was excellent across the North Island today as eleven Tiger Moths and a Jackaroo arrived at Kaipara Flats airfield from North and South.  I tried to get photos of them arriving:

Jim Schmidt's ZK-CCQ is a local Kaipara Flats resident.

ZK-BFF is based at Whitianga and was flown by Peter McVinnie.

Alan Coubray flew in in his and Martin Farrand's ZK-ATM2.

ZK-ASV is based at Drury and was flown by Wayne Thomas..

John Pheasant flew in from Tauranga in his Jackaroo ZK-PHZ.

Woodsy flew the NZ Warbirds ZK-ATN from Ardmore.

Jerry Chisum flew the Darton Field Flying Syndicate's ZK-BAL.

Amanda Rutledge flew in in Ace Edwards' ZK-BEC which is based in the Pukekohe area.

Wayne Tantrum flew his newly restored ZK-AJH from Omaka via North Cape.

ZK-BEF is based at Wanganui and was flown by Darren Luff.

Carl Jackson flew the Omaka Real Flying Club's ZK-BER from Omaka.

And John Bayne flew his recently acquired ZK-BMY from Gore via North Cape.

With Bruce Lynch's ZK-ASM hangared on the airfield that made 12 Tiger Moths and the Jackaroo, and more Tigers are expected tomorrow

Tiger Moths at Whananaki on 4-3-2026

The Tiger Moth Club is currently running a Northern Safari with 9 Tigers landing at Whananaki airstrip on Wednesday.  Tomorrow they start arriving at Kaipara Flats for their competitions and open day on Saturday, and AGM on Sunday.  David Signal flew up for the BBQ at Martin Farrand's place and he photo'd the 9 Tigers on the airstrip from his Foxbat:

Thanks for the photo David.

"New" PA-18-150 Super Cub ZK-KYU

Kynan Yu of Cromwell has owned a series of aircraft including the Savage Cub ZK-LAP which he sold some time ago.  Now he has gone one better by imported a Super Cub which he has registered ZK-KYU (it works well with a 2 letter Chinese surname!).  Now he has introduced it to social media by posting one of his nice Facebook videos, from which I took this screenshot:

ZK-KYU (c/n 18-8275) is a 1965 model Super Cub which was first registered in Australia on 24/9/65 where it had 12 owners over the years.  It was registered here on 3/2/26.

Corporate arrivals into Christchurch today 03-03-2026

 Once again Tony McFarlin was on site to capture these two corporate jets that arrived at Christchurch Airport today.

The Dassault Falcon 7X N997X c/n 144 began its career in France with the factory test registration of F-WWVY before moving to F-GYBJ with Dassault Aviation from march of 2012. 

Then it went to China in November that year as B-8206 followed by a move to the USA as N656FN in February 2018 for Fosun Investments, then to Dassault Aviation SA in April of 2022. 

It was re-registered as N997X to Toorak Investments Ltd from 08-08-2023 but is now hidden within the TVPX empire.

Then we have the Gulfstream GVI (G650ER) VH-SGA3 c/n 6446 which joined the Australian register on 20-05-2021 with SG Aviation Pty Ltd and is operated by Business Aviation Solutions Pty Ltd.

This is not its first visit to NZ.

It was originally flown as N646GA at Gulfstream Aerospace.

Isaacs Fury 19-2246 in Australia

Last week a nice Isaacs Fury popped up in my Facebook feed.  It looked familiar so a quick check revealed that it was an ex New Zealand aircraft:

The Isaacs Fury is now registered as 19-2246 in Australia.

But prior to that it had been registered VH-UCO from 31/3/99.

However, prior to that it had been registered as ZK-RFC (AACA/310/2) for Russell Woods.  It was first registered in New Zealand on 8/11/79 and it first flew at Christchurch on 24/11/79.  It is photo'd above at the 1981 AACA flyin at Mt Hutt.  On 21/4/86 it was sold to DG and LC Simpson of Auckland and it was flown as part of a 3 aircraft Isaacs Fury team at various airshows around the country (the others were ZK-DMN and ZK-JHR).  On 16/11/98 it was cancelled and sold to Australia as VH-UCO.