SAANZ Grand Champion from Masterton

Arjen Visser took out the Best Kitbuilt Aircraft and Grand Champion trophies with his lovely Sling 4TSi ZK-DBV2 at the SAANZ flyin that was held over the weekend at Masterton (Jordan Elvy photo below):

And no doubt the judges would have been impressed by Arjen's panel (photo taken on late finals into Kaipara Flats airfield on 31 January):

Congratulations Arjen.  It has been a pleasure seeing your Sling hatch and fly so well.

Another Sunday stroll around Nelson Airport.

 Bill Mannix did one of his regular walks around the Nelson Airport perimeter track today (08-02-2026) and offers us photos of four visitors.

Down from Bridge Pa was the Piper PA-28-151 Cherokee Warrior ZK-DSK c/n 28-7415479.

This arrived in NZ on 18-09-1974 fresh from the Piper factory registered as N9625N. It was registered to the NZ agents Airwork (NZ) Ltd on 03-10-1974 to be taken up by the Waitemata Aero Club at Ardmore from 28-05-1975.

The Wellington District Aero Club (Inc) took it over from 10-01-1986 with a transfer to the Wellington Aero Club (Inc).

In late 2000 it moved to Palmerston North with the Massey University School of Aviation being the fourth operator in the area from September of 2007.

Ferret Software of Te Awamutu listed it from 19-03-2010, with a change to PK Investments in May of 2017.

Current listed operator is Airborne Aviation Ltd of Hastings.

Piper PA-31-310 Navajo ZK-LWN c/n 31-8112056.

This was listed with Heli Sika Ltd of Taupo from 01-08-2024.

It carries the 'Escape Aviation' Title on its fin.

It has been mentioned previously HERE

The Cessna T182T Turbo Skylane ZK-MRH c/n T182T-08197 arrived factory new in NZ as N5346E and became ZK-MRH on 04-07-2003.

It eventually joined Matt Todd Holdings Ltd of Gisborne in May of 2013 - followed by a name change to Plus Business Ltd In February of 2022.

It flew into Nelson on the 5th from Gisborne and Napier - and returned to Gisborne later today.

ZK-TOP is the Thorp T18 Tiger c/n AACA/751 as built by Ian Clemens and Arthur Ainsworth of Christchurch and was first flown on 23-12-1990.

Ian eventually sold it in May of 2022 to current owner Rodney Lake of Tauranga.

It arrived at Nelson on the 5th, then followed some local flying, with a return to Tauranga via Turangi today.

A Couple More Photos of Pterodactyl Ascenders

Thanks to Peter Lewis who has sent in some photos of Pterodactyl Ascenders that Neville Drake took at Pikes Point:

ZK-FKF 

and ZK-JFB

Peter also sent a photo of ZK-FRY that I will include in the next instalment of Ascenders.  And I will go back to my previous post and insert the photo of ZK-JFB.  Thanks for the photos Peter.

If anyone else has photos of microlights out there, please send them in so they can be used as we journey through the rest of New Zealand's microlight aircraft (and there have been lots of them!)

Microlight Aircraft of New Zealand - Pterodactyls (5) - Ascenders of 1984

There were 13 Pterodactyl Ascender microlight aircraft registered here in 1984:

Fling wing Wednesday # 1

 Wednesday over at Rangiora I found two surprises.

The McDonnell Douglas MD520N NOTAR ZK-HWH2 c/n LN098 in Opotiki Helicopters NZ markings and with full spray gear fitted parked at Aerofix Ltd at Rangiora.

It departed the North Island via Taupo, Whanganui, and Paraparaumu on December the 20th 2025 to take up its new role listed with Mountain Helicopters Fox Glacier Ltd from January.

Outside one of the NZ Helicopter Heritage Museums storage facilities was the Westland Scout AH/1 ZK-HVD2  c/n F.9704 and ex UK Army Air Corps XV129.

See Here for an earlier post on this helicopter.

It is about to be transported down to the Geraldine Military Museum on loan.

Fling wing Wednesday # 2

Wednesday was a helicopter only day - purely by chance.

At Christchurch International I captured ZK-IGA at GCH Helicopters and on the other side of the airfield I found ZK-HPE at Christchurch Helicopters.

Airbus BK117D-2 (H145) ZK-IGA3 c/n 20243 joined the GCH Aviation Ltd at Christchurch in August of 2025 having previously served with Rega Swiss Air rescue from December of 2018.

Over at Christchurch Helicopters their Eurocopter AS 350 B2 ZK-HPE4 c/n 4052 which joined then in October last year.

Another NZICPA Aircraft at Wanganui

A couple of weeks ago I posted about six New Zealand International Commercial Pilot Academy aircraft that have not appeared on the blog previously with the NZICPA fern logo on their tails, and I noted that this was for posterity as the NZICPA is winding down. Now I have found another one:

Cessna 172S ZK-JMG has been with NZICPA since December 2023. Thanks for the photo Jordan.

Motor Gliders at Kaikohe on 31-1-2026

I have mentioned previously how big Kaikohe aerodrome is with the main runway being 1540 metres X 140 metres. However the AIP plate advises that gliding takes place on Wednesdays and Sundays and mostly this would be by winch launch, with powered aircraft using a 60 metre wide strip on the Eastern side of the aerodrome. However this did not mean that there was no gliding activity when we were there last Saturday, as a couple of motor gliders were towed down to the end of the field and proceeded to launch themselves:

First to launch was DG Flugzeugbau GmbH DG-800B ZK-GZT (c/n 8-280B188) registered to a Kerikeri owner.

Followed by DG Flugzeugbau GmbH DG-500MB ZK-GLJ2 (c/n 5E214B13) registered to a Kaitaia owner.

Also on the aerodrome was the Glaser-Dirks DG-400 ZK-GNZ (c/n 4-63) which is also a motor glider and is registered to a Hikurangi owner

Another Gulfstream passes though Christchurch.

 Tony McFarlin was on site again today and captured the arrival of this Grumman Gulfstream PR-RDD.

Built on 2010 as N508GA with the c/n of 5280 and became PR-FGA in April 2011.
In October 2017 it was listed briefly as N580JT and quickly became PR-RDD. It joined its current operator in November of 2019.

A couple of recent photos from Nelson

Bill Mannix captured these two flying machines at Nelson recently.

Above we have the TAG Aviation Titanium Explorer ZK-RBZ c/n 0033-0716.

This first appeared on our register on 13-09-2016 for Steven Pegg of Gyrate Auckland Ltd and was signed over to Boele Van Dammen of Auckland from 15-06-2017.

It was taken up by a Nelson local, Mark Stace in September of last year - and was photographed today.

See more on this gyro HERE 

And noted on the 30th of January was the Electric powered Beta Tech Alia CX300 N401NZ c/n BT31C-0004 as leased to Air New Zealand.

It began route trials between Wellington, Blenheim and Nelson on 17-10-2025.

An earlier post on the Alia can be seen HERE