Random pics

I have been pottering around with some old tired colour slides - mostly from the CMM collection - and experimenting with a self made slide copying device.

Here are some of the results.

 Above we have the Hiller UH12E ZK-HGJ (c/n 2174) as seen somewhere on the West Coast.

 I would put the date in the late 1970's whilst it was with Mountain Helicopters Ltd.

Interesting previous life for this one. It was built for the Canadian Armed Forces as a CH-112 Nomad and came on strength in about October 1961. It went off to Germany with the Royal Canadian Armoured Corps Helicopter Troop in 1962. It was duly damaged and returned to Canada and became an instructional airframe. It was returned to the air in September 1970 until it was struck off charge on 30-03-1973.

It briefly entered the Canadian civil register as CF-EHQ before popping up in NZ as ZK-HGJ on 08-11-1973 with Alexander Pacific Ltd and joined Mountain Helicopters of Greymouth on 21-06-1974. It was damaged twice in 1979 and went to Whirlwide Helicopters at Timaru and reappeared as a UH12EJ3 Soloy conversion. It was damaged near Taieri in February 1982 and sold to the US as spares. It appears on the US register as N7173X.

 Piper PA-18 Super Cub ZK-BWG is c/n 18-5591 and actually began its NZ career as ZK-BQW on 13-03-1957 thanks to Airwork (NZ) Ltd at Christchurch. It was leased, after gaining its CofA on 07-05-1957, to the Rotorua Aero Club before being obtained by Bryan N McCook on 10-06-1958.

Bryan (an ex RNZAF Catalina and Sunderland pilot) operated as Air Viti in Fiji.

The Cub went off to Fiji and was registered there as VQ-FAU but was returned to NZ and was re-registered as ZK-BWG on 15-03-1960.

Future owners included the Mercury Bay Aero Club from May 1960, Taumaranui Aero Club from June of 1962, The Sinclair Flying School from June of 1964 and then down South to Merv Halliday at Edendale in November of 1964 and finally (and still current) to John Dorricott of Scotts Gap, Southland from 23-08-1973.

 The De Havilland DH82A Tiger Moth ZK-BLI (c/n DHNZ128) served with the RNZAF as NZ1448 over the period 10-10-1942 to 07-70-1955 07-07-1955.

It was converted for the civil market by Temple Martin and became ZK-BLI on 22-08-1955 to Brian Haybittle who was the CFI of the Hawera Aero Club. The South Otago Aero Club feature from September of 1956, then we see her listed to Andy Padgett from 4-04-1963. From memory it was then stored for a while before re-surfacing with Andy under the Rex Air label  at Momona and was suitably (?) labelled as "Captain BLI".

By August of 1979 it was with the Atkinson's at Hanmer Springs and then to Peter Elworthy at Timaru in August of 1985. It was listed for sale in September 2004 with a TTAF of 2620 hours. Ownership moved to the Tiger BLI Syndicate of Auckland on 14-03-2005.

 Cessna A185F Skywagon ZK-ELQ (c/n 03619) arrived in NZ on 18-07-1978 as N2275V and was listed to Dalhoff and King Aviation Ltd at Ardmore on 17-08-1978 and transferred to Mount Cook Airlines at Christchurch on 23-11-1978. It was given the fleet No 29 and went forth as a ski plane. On 01-07-1998 it went under the Tourism Holdings Ltd name.

It was cancelled from the ZK register on 28-09-2000 and returned to the US where it became N520YH initially with Hartford Holdings of Wilmington, Delaware, followed by a spell in Alaska with Robert Heckman out of Anchorage and then to Tim Turnbull from March of 2003; currently of Bend, Oregon.

This last view was a long range shot of the line up at Bell Block when all of those Cessna Agwagons were awaiting sale - "way back when men where men".