2012 - A Vintage Year, North Shore

On looking back at 2012, I am struck by the feast of vintage aircraft that we are blessed to have in New Zealand. So to celebrate a special year, I will start with posting the unique vintage trio of De Havillands operated by Stan and Gilly Smith at North Shore Airfield. They have been out and about during the year, starting with the vintage aircraft section of the North Shore flyin on 11 February 2012.

The trio are: firstly, DH 84 Dragon ZK-AXI named "Taniwha".

The second member of the trio is DH 83C Fox Moth ZK-APT. I did a comprehensive post on ZK-AXI and ZK_APT at the North Shore flyin at www.nzcivair.blogspot.co.nz/2012/02/ah-de-havillands-unfolding-at-north.html

And the third member of the trio is DH 94 Moth Minor ZK-AKM.  I have not seen it flying for a long time, so I was delighted to see it out and to post about a recent session of circuits at North Shore on 16 December 2012, at  www.nzcivair.blogspot.co.nz/2012/12/de-havilland-dh-94-moth-minor-at-north_16.html

These two events neatly book-ended the vintage aircraft year for me, but there were some pretty spectacular events in between!