Furio LN27 RG: By Falcomposite Out Of Falco

In my last post on Falcos at the SAANZ Flyin, I made the comment that the Furio was inspired by the Falco.

The Northern Microlight Flyin at Parakai yesterday offered a good opportunity to compare the old and new "thoroughbreds".

In this view you can see the close resemblance between ZK-LLG and ZK-TBD. Both aircraft are dimensionally very similar with the Furio being about 170mm longer while the wingspans are almost identical. Both have top speeds of around 220 mph with 180 HP motors and rates of climb in excess of 1000 fpm. The Furio is around 60 Kg heavier and has 400 Kg of useful load against the Falco's 300Kg. However the big difference is that the Furio is made from a small number of pre moulded carbon fibre components whereas the Falco is made from wood which needs a lot of work to achieve the compound curves.

15 Furio kits have been sold to date, in counties including Australia, South Africa and the USA. At least 3 other kits have been sold in New Zealand, with the second aircraft, Neil Sutherland's ZK- NJS close to being finished at the Falcomposites hangar at Ardmore. This aircraft is painted Ferrarai red. Another example is being built in Queenstown and is also well advanced.

The Furio's lines are every bit as stunning as the Falco's but modern moulding techniques have made attaining the curves much easier. ZK-LLG even has the name "Furio" moulded into the top of the wing without effecting the smooth surface!

And finally another view of the Furio landing after a its demonstration at Parakai.

The Furio has a website if you are interested: http://www.falcomposite.com/

A couple of Cessna 185's

On my recent doddle around the top of the South I came across these two Cessna 185's

ZK-VKE Cessna 185A c/n 185A-0297 was registered to Hugh Bethell ; now of Waikari, North Canterbury; on 04-07-2005. It was spotted on the Pirikawa strip alongside SHI north of the Clarence River on February the 8th. Its colour scheme has changed slightly since its arrival here. The dark blue fuselage strip was originally a dull yellow. It served in PNG from new in 1962 until moving to Australia in the 80's. It ferried into Auckland on 22-04-2005.

Below is the Cessna 185D ZK-CKO c/n 185D-0790. Imported new into NZ by Rex Aviation and registered on 16-02-1965 for delivery to Wanganui Aero Work. After another half a dozen owners it was listed to F J Larsen of Upper Waitotara on 09-08-1973. By 1978 it was relisted to F J & J W Larsen and traded under the name of Ngamatapouri Air Service. A name change under Jim Larsen to Remote Adventures Ltd of Wanganui was listed on 08-01-2004.

It is based at Takaka and caters for walkers of the Heaphy Track and the odd charter. It is also still seen at Jim's farm inland from Wanganui.

An earlier blog on this aircraft can be seen at :-
http://nzcivair.blogspot.com/2008/01/zk-cko.html

Auster c/n 2341 is in good hands.

The link below should take you to the original blog seeking the whereabouts of the Auster J1 c/n 2341.
http://nzcivair.blogspot.com/2010/01/whereabouts-unknown-auster-j1-cn-2341.html

Well I had the pleasure of checking out its bits and pieces the other day.
It is in very good hands with Steve, not too far from Nelson.

Omaka 22nd of February

Joining overhead at Omaka late on Monday morning.
By my count there are eighteen aircraft (or representations) in this view above.
Care to name them ?
64 kts and 470 feet and turning finals for 30.
Woodbourne is in the distant left.

Question time # 88 resolved

Told you it was easy !
cessna185 wins the prize with J31.

It is indeed the arachnid nesting area under the port wing of a BAe Jetstream J31.

In this case it is ZK-JSI which is parked up along with ZK-JSA at Nelson airport.

Both are still currently registered to Inglis Aircraft Ltd.

ZK-AAS at Rockville 1930.

The above shot is a copy of a photograph on display in the Collingwood museum.
It is listed as "McGregors' Gypsy Moth at Rockville 1930".
Rockville is about 5 or 6 clicks southwest of Collingwood; heading towards Bainham.

DH.60G Gipsy Moth ZK-AAS c/n 1111 appeared on the NZ register in August of 1929 with Hamilton Airways Ltd after import by the agents Air Survey & Transport. In the above photo it carries the fleet number 2 and has some other script on the engine cowling. By November 17th of 1930 W L Oldham appears to have been the operator; It was damaged at Mangere on (next day) 18-11 1930. It was obviously rebuilt following extensive damage. It went to the Wellington Aero Club on 04-01-1933. It suffered some damage at Rongotai on 02-09-1933 but was finally cancelled following extensive damage inflicted during a forced landing near Cape Campbell on 25-12-1936.

P.S. Lying in bed last night and reading the latest copy of NZ Aviation News (as you do) I came across a brief mention of this aircraft in the "Air Mail" section.

Question time # 88

A nice easy one to finish the month with.
What aircraft type do we have here ?

Falcos at SAANZ Tauranga Fly In

The Falco (Italian for Falcon) was designed by Stelio Frati in Italy in 1955, and it certainly has stood the test of time as an aircraft with wonderful lines - try putting some other 1955 aircraft up against it! It has been called "The Ferrari of the Skies" and it surely has Italian flair. In the 1970's the design was purchased by Sequoia Aircraft Corporation of Richmond, Virginia, USA. They have produced kits for the Falco up until today.

The Falco provided the inspiration for the New Zealand designed and built all composite Furio.

Two of New Zealand's Falco's were at the recent SAANZ flyin at Tauranga, looking stunning.

New Zealand's first Falco was ZK-TBD which was built by Syd Jensen at Kerikeri. Commenced in 1980 progress was rapid and outstripped the supply of kits from Sequoia Aircraft. It was completed by 1984 but was not registered until 15/4/86. The aircraft moved with Syd to Taupo where I saw it in Peter Dyer's hangar in the 1990's painted white. It was sold to Graham Hodge of Christchurch on 1/2/95 and it was based at West Melton. Enter Giovanni Nustrini of Technam Aircraft whose father Luciano bought his Falco I-ERNA to New Zealand and registered it as ZK-RNA in 1986, and who was tragically killed in the aircraft in 1999. Giovanni Nustrini really wanted a Falco of his own and he bought ZK-TBD on 18/5/02. He then tidied it up and painted the aircraft yellow.

There are interesting stories to be told about Syd Jensen and Luciano Nustrini in other posts.

And the other North Island Falco at Tauranga was George Richard's ZK-SMR, also in yellow and for sale. ZK-SMR was first registered on 9/12/03 and is based at Parakai. George has a very good website detailing the building and flying of his Falco - go to http://falco.co.nz/ .

There are 2 other Falco's currently registered in New Zealand - Arthur Dovey's ZK-JPG at Wanaka, and Bruce Fraser and Russel Woods ZK-FWA at Christchurch (I am not sure if this aircraft has been completed).

Can anyone provide more information on Falcos in New Zealand?

Ubiquitous Pazmany PL 2 at SAANZ Tauranga Fly In

Trevor Parker's Pazmany PL 2 ZK-TLP was at the SAANZ flyin at Tauranga, looking immaculate as usual. This aircraft must have been at every AACA/SAANZ flyin that I remember and is a past Grand Champion. Trevor built ZK-TLP at Te Aroha during the late 1970's and 1980's. I was also living at Te Aroha during the late 1970's and I saw first hand the excellent standard of the build. The PL 2 is a much more complicated aircraft to build than the recent Vans models and was built from scratch using a set of plans.

ZK-TLP was first registered on 18/12/87 and it is powered by a Lycoming 0-320 engine of 150 horsepower which gives a 135 knot cruise. Trevor told me that the aircraft has now flown more than 1600 hours and has flown the entire New Zealand coastline apart from about 50 kilometres in the Catlins area.

There have been 2 other Pazmany aircraft built in New Zealand: PL 1 ZK-PAZ which was exported to Australia as VH-TEZ, and PL 4A ZK-PLF which is still current.

Trislander ZK-LGF

The Trislander at North Shore 2Feb10. It did not look at all ready for commercial passenger operations at that time
I assume 'revoked' has a different connotation from 'withdrawn' or 'exported'?



Trislander ZK-LOU was the one that had the propellor depart in-flight in July 2009. Possibly it is still under repair?

GBA Trislanders

Registered 16Feb was another Trislander for the Great Barrier Airlines fleet, ZK-LGF. This machine was imported via Vanuatu at YJ-LGF, this registered applied for its delivery flight only. The aircraft arrived at Auckland on 26Nov last year in a distinctive red scheme. It still wears the red and was sporting just LGF and Great Barrier titles at their North Shore maintenance base in late January. Interestingly, 18Feb saw the aircraft's registration cancelled as 'revoked'.

Does anyone know what has happened to LGR and LOU?

"New" Schweizer

Colin Hunter photo

Sporting its newly acquired ZK marking, Schweizer 269C-1 HNC is captured here outside the Oceania hanger at Ardmore 19Feb, the day the helicopter was first registered. This is the latest machine for recently formed Helicopter Flight Training of Ardmore, operating out of the Tecnam hanger. HNC has been imported from Australia where it wore the marks VH-XLM.
Helicopter Flight Training also registed Schewizer 269C-1 HQO today, 19Feb.

Soon to become ZK................

At North Las Vegas January 2010, Rob Leach photo

1984 Beech C90 N814CP (LJ-1127) is making its way down the Pacific on delivery to a flying school based at Palmerston North.

The King Air has been at North Las Vegas since December 2009 where it was fitted with ferry tanks and its been cooling its heels waiting for the winds between the mainland USA and Hawaii to die away from their peak of 160kts at 20000ft!

It departed North Las Vegas for Santa Maria 10Feb, then headed off for Hilo on Hawaii's Big Island the following day. Wind conditions were more favourable than expected so it diverted to Honolulu where it remained until 16Feb waiting for Tropical Cyclone "Rene" to move well away from Samoa. N814CP initially departed for Pago Pago direct however diverted to Christmas Island for a fuel stop and is now on its way to Pago Pago again. Looks like it will make Auckland either late 17Feb or sometime 18Feb.

Is it a 'AWK?

The Cessna 560 Citation N596VP c/n 560-0396 arrived in NZ from Australia and was registered ZK-AWK/2 on 20Nov2009. This did not last long, as the aircraft was cancelled on the 8th January as being sold abroad. It became N3937E while avionics work was carried out. The aircraft is seen here at Auckland International today, clearly marked as ZK-AWK, but this registration is not current on the CAA website.
No doubt all will become clear with time.
Presumably the ZK-AWK allocation has some significance. I cannot visualize any connection with the Tiger Moth topdresser ZK-AWK operated by Airspread Ltd., Mt Maunganui back in the 1950s!




(Acknowledgments to the MRC Aviation website for some of the details)

De Havilland Twins at Avspecs

On my way down to the SAANZ flyin at Tauranga, a call into Avspecs at Ardmore found some very interesting projects in progress. While they are not ZK registered, they have strong links to New Zealand and I think we can be proud that they have been restored to such an excellent standard here. The first restoration was G-ADDD which is a DH 89A Rapide for Jerry Yagen of Virginia Beach. This is spectacularly painted up in the Guards colours of the Prince of Wales flight.

This is the second Avspecs restoration for Jerry Yagen, the first being Curtis P 40E 41-35927 which first flew in April 2003 and went on to win Grand Champion warbird at Sun'N'Fun 2004 and the Silver Wrench Award for the best fighter at Oshkosh, also in 2004.

And hidden deeper in the hangar you can make out the shape of a Mosquito! This restoration is a product of the woodworking skills of Glyn Powell who over many years has made up male fuselage plugs for Mosquito fuselages - a monumental project in itself, and Avspecs. This aircraft is also being completed for Jerry Yagen and is expected to fly in late 2010/early 2011. When completed this will be the only airworthy Mosquito in the world. There is a much better photo of the Mosquito in the February 2010 edition of New Zealand Aviation News.

The Latest Members of the Van's Air Force at SAANZ Tauranga Fly In

In an earlier post I noted that the numbers of Van's aircraft in New Zealand had (just) exceeded the numbers of Jodel's. Now the gap widens.

Our second RV 8 is ZK-PJH built by P J Higgins of Rotorua and first registered on 12/5/08. Although this aircraft was registered more than a year ago, it was only recently completed and the flight to Tauranga was its first cross-country flight.

Phillip Higgins also built New Zealand's second RV 3 ZK-PMH which was first registered on 27/1/86.

The newest sport aircraft at the SAANZ flyin was RV 7A ZK-JLT which was only registered on 3/2/10. It was built by J L Talbot of Tauranga.

Also very new was RV 7A ZK-ORV which was built by G S Mulcahy of Whitianga. It was first registered on 26/11/09.

There were 16 Van's aircraft of various models at the flyin.

Czech Aero Work Sportcruiser is Now the PiperSport

On the Aerosport Aviation stand at the SAANZ Flyin at Tauranga was this CZAW Sportcruiser ZK-SXY. There are 11 of these aircraft in New Zealand but this one is different, as it is now badged up as a PiperSport. This is because on January 21 2010, the Piper Aircraft Company bought the rights to the aircraft and will add it to its product line as a Light Sport Aircraft competing with the likes of the Cessna 162 Skycatcher.

The PiperSport will only be offered as a complete aircraft with a Rotax 912S motor and a ballistic recovery parachute. It will still be built in the Czech Sport Aircraft factory in the Czech Republic.

Watch this space!

Horn TH 1 at SAANZ Fly In Tauranga

I include this post loosely with my Mustang theme. While it does not claim to be a replica Mustang it was inspired by the Mustang lines.

I was delighted to see the Horn TH 1 ZK-TLH at the SAANZ flyin at Tauranga, because I have been aware of it stealthily lurking around for more than 20 years and this was the first time I had seen it. Tom Horn built this aircraft at Levin in the 1980's and it was one of the first indigenous design microlights in New Zealand. As noted above its lines were inspired by the Mustang and you can see this in the canopy and the tail. It is surprisingly big for a Class 1 microlight. It was first registered by Tom Horn in April 1989, and later sold to his brother Graham Horn at Taupo. More recently it has been bought by Brian Taylor of Whangarei who seems to get about more widely in the aircraft.

Does anyone else have any more information on this aircraft?

Thunder Mustang at SAANZ Fly In Tauranga

Another Mustang replica at the SAANZ flyin at Tauranga was the Papa 51 Thunder Mustang. The Thunder Mustang is a really interesting aircraft that is a three-quarter scale fuselage mated to five-eigth scale wings. It can climb at twice the rate of a P 51 Mustang and has the same Vne as a the full size version at 439 knots! The performance is due to a magnificent V 12 Falconer engine that produces 640 HP from its 601 cubic inches! The original kit was produced by Papa 51 Ltd who are no longer in business. Only 37 kits were produced and 27 were delivered. The aircraft is constructed mainly from carbon fibre.

ZK-TMG was built in South Africa as ZU-TMG and was shipped to New Zealand in 2005. It was first registered on 23/2/05 and is owned by the Kiwi Thunder Group Ltd of Manurewa.

The aircraft has its own website http://www.kiwithunder.com where you can hear the V 12 engine in full song! Amazing!

More Titan Mustangs

The Titan T 51 Mustang is a three quarters scale model of a full sized Mustang manufactured in kit form by Titan Aircraft of Austinberg, Ohio. The local agents are Campbell Aero Classics of Loburn Abbey near Rangiora, and Ivan Campbell told me that they have sold 34 kits for the aircraft.

On my way down to Tauranga for the SAANZ fly-in I came across several examples as follows:


The first example was the Warbirds ZK-AKL at Ardmore, which is nearly completed and is a Rotax 912 powered Class 2 microlight example. This one features flush riveting which would add considerably to the building time.
The next example was Peter Walton's ZK-WSV at Mike Crene's Kiwi Mustangs hangar at Matamata. This aircraft features a Suzuki V 6 motor and was registered on 19/2/09.

And finally, Mike Crene's own ZK-DBG hangared at Tauranga. ZK-DBG also features a Suzuki V 6 motor and was first registered on 12/7/07, so it has been flying for some time but it still looks great!

Titan Mustangs at SAANZ Tauranga Fly In

This is my first post from the SAANZ Flyin at Tauranga held over the Waitangi Day weekend, 5 - 7 February. The weekend felt different to me this time as the emphasis has changed from the SAANZ aircraft being at the centre of things, to a big airshow with the SAANZ aircraft off to one side. Sport aircraft numbers were down from previous flyins with around 80 sport aircraft present on the Saturday. However on the plus side the weather was great.

This seems to be the year when many of the Titan Mustangs that have been being built have been completed, and here are 3 new ones from Tauranga. ZK-MJD (not yet registered), is named "Frenesi" and is powered by a 2.7 litre Suzuki motor. It is painted up to represent the aircraft 0f Thomas L Hayes of the USAF.

More details of this aircraft can be found on this poster that was displayed in front of the aircraft.

The second new Titan Mustang is ZK-MPC (also not yet registered), is powered by a 3.5 litre Honda V6 motor and is named "Hurry Home Honey". It is painted up to represent the aircraft of Captain Richard A Peterson of the USAF.

Again, more details about this aircraft can be found on this poster displayed in front of the aircraft.

And the third Titan Mustang is ZK-TVG which was built by Vaughan Peters and Geoff Pascoe and was first registered on 18/7/08. It is owned by the TVG syndicate. This one is a Class 2 microlight version with a Rotax 912S motor. It is displayed here in the SAANZ display hangar.

I will post more on Titan Mustangs and other Mustang replicas in future posts.

Pitts ZK-FRJ restoration complete.

The restoration of Pitts S1S, ZK-FRJ, was completed and she was flown on January 30. Once the overhauled engine is fully bedded in, I look forward to getting around NZ and the Aerobatic weekends more now that I have extra fuel in the wing tank and a great new GPS to find my way to new destinations. Thanks to all that helped in this restoration.

Morris.

Do you want to know the weather?

Tecnam Sierra ZK-NPS is the latest addition to Giovanni's Ardmore hanger.



It comes with a built-in weather forecast for all those pessimists out there

Mellow Yellow!

Yellow was the theme at Ardmore this week with these three machines sighted on the 4th.

Eurocopter EC130 ZK-HPV/3 is a regular visitor to Ardmore and the horse sales yard located at Karaka. It, along with another Eurocopter EC130 ZK-IPV, are operated on behalf of Waikato based Peter Vela.


Avid Flyer Speedwing ZK-RWT was cruising the circuit.

Falcomposite's Furio LN27RG ZK-LLG was also in the circuit making for a pleasant change to the normal flotilla of Cessna 172's.

State Highway 1 Sightings

Steve Lowe is cruising southbound via State Highway 1 at present and he supplies the following:

Cessna 180 ZK-FDP at Taupo 04Feb.

Bell 206 ZK-HJI at Omaka 05Feb

Corby Starlet CM2 ZK-SJM at Kaikoura 05Feb, no doubt heading for Tauranga's fly-in

Oldie but a goodie, Cessna 180 ZK-BUS also at Kaikoura 05Feb. Could almost be "Blue Bus"....

750XL heads off shore

The first Pacific Aerospace 750XL export for 2010 flew out of Hamilton for Lord Howe Island and all stops to Nepal 05Feb flown by ferry pilot Steve Death. ZK-KAO is serial number 162 and was first registered on 04Dec last year.

At Coolangatta, Terry Magee photo

Question time #87 resolved.

Anonymous has resolved Question Time #87. Well done.

It is indeed the Aero L-29 Delphin. This particular very tidy one is ZK-JRF c/n 892851 and was registered here on 30-10-2007 to Wairakei Holdings. It has yet to be assembled and flown.

If Anonymous would care to contact me off blog (address in blog header photo) then I will forward a chocolate fish your way. Bluebus is on the road for the next three weeks so there will be some delay in delivery.