Robinson R22 Beta ZK-HOU

Snapped outside the Heliflite Pacific facility at Ardmore yesterday (27-05-2015) by Magnaman was the Robinson R22 Beta ZK-HOU6 (c/n 3184).

This ordinary looking Robbie has a varied history.

After a rumoured listing on the South African register as ZS-RMT it instead came to NZ and was listed as ZK-ISC with Cochran Ag Helicopters Ltd of Balclutha on 18-04-2001 and had its first flight here on the 27th. It did not last long as it was damaged at Owaka on 22-08-2001.

On 30-09-02 it was listed to Christchurch Helicopters Ltd and underwent a registration change to ZK-HFU3 a month later.

It then transferred back down south to Queenstown for Heli-Ag Services Ltd from 21-08-2003 followed with a move to Mount Maunganui for N. Z.Helicopter Centre (2006) Ltd with whom it was damaged following a power loss at Tauranga on 18-05-2008.

Heliflite Pacific Ltd of Papakura took it on from 09-10-2008 and re-registered it as ZK-HJH3 on 15-10-2008 followed by an other registration change on 21-11-2014 to ZK-HOU6 and a ownership change to Sandra Thomas of Hikuai the following day.

As you can see this is the sixth allocation of the ZK-HOU letters.

The first HOU was a Hughes 369HS with Mountain Helicopters from April 1979 until its incident on 01-02-1984 in the Waioeka Gorge. 

Issue two was the Aerospatiale AS350BA worked on by Heliquip International out of Nelson before being re-exported in August of 1996.

Next up was the Elisport Helicopters CH-7 Angel which was a rebuild of ZK-HOC2 with Simon Clark of Auckland. This was damaged at Ardmore on 25-07-2003.

Issue four was a Canadian Home Rotor Safari for Paul Slade of Blenheim between February 2007 and July of 2010 when it was exported to Australia to become VH-TQT.

The fifth allocation went to the Kawasaki BK117 B-2 which Helilink Ltd had in their care from 25-08-2011 until its move in October 2012 up to PNG as P2-HNA. This had originally been briefly listed in NZ as ZK-HRI2 with Airwork from May of 1999 until June the same year when it took up the VH-JRB2 marks until its return to NZ in 2011.