Dargaville Today 31-1-2017

Summer weather without the wind seems to have finally arrived in the North, and there was great flying at Dargaville over the last couple of days.  Here are a few shots:

Early morning fog burned off to provide really smooth flying.

 Approach to Runway 04 beside the Northern Wairoa River, with the SH 12 bridge to Dargaville.

Looking down the river with Dargaville on the left.

And heading to Ruawai for some circuit practice - very narrow!.

The Dargaville Aero Club's Storch ZK-DAQ2 off on a cross country to Whangarei.

And a couple of visitors did touch and goes:

the North Shore Aero Club's Cessna 172S ZK-DMW2.

and Southern Wings Alpha R 2160 ZK-SWY from Ardmore.

Dargaville is a popular destination for visiting trainers, no doubt helped by the lack of landing fees.

Malibu ZK-MPG at Nelson

Seen today at Nelson by Lord Nelson.

Piper PA-46-310P Malibu ZK-MPG (c/n 46-8508063) has been seen briefly on these pages several times. Click MPG Here

This Malibu was built about mid-1985 at Wichita, Kansas as N6908W and whisked off to C.S.E Aviation Ltd (the UK Piper Agents) to became G-BMBE on 27-06-1985. It was listed to Artix Ltd on 12-12-1985 and then to Barfax Distributing Co Ltd on 18-12-1989. 

Sunseeker Sales (UK) Ltd took it on from 20-01-2000 before moving it on to Law 2200 Ltd from 24-10-2000 who re-registered it as G-HITS.

By December 2006 it had moved to Germany as D-ERJN and it was back on the US register from 20-03-2011 as N957JK with Aerospace Trust Management LLC at Wilmington, Delaware. It made its was to NZ via Bali - Darwin - Brisbane and Lord Howe Island - cruising into Tauranga on 25-05-2011.

It became ZK-MPG on 07-60-2011 with Fairway Air Ltd.

ZK-PBY at NZTG on 27th.

Snap.

A view of the Consolidated Vultee PBY-5A Catalina ZK-PBY (c/n CV-357) in new markings as snapped at Tauranga by Grayson Ottaway early evening of the 27th.

ZK-PBY with some new markings at Ardmore 29-1-17

Consolidated-Vultee PBY-5A Catalina msn CV-357 sporting markings promoting Catalina Sounds a Blenheim winery seen at Ardmore on a beaut afternoon for flying.

Healthy Bastards Competition

Omaka February 4th 2017

ie. next weekend.

The ATC will be running a BBQ

There will be a prize giving and meal at the conclusion of the event.

You will need to book.

Masterton was DH Mosquito Country!

A neat photo was posted on Facebook by the Old Wellington Region site.  This was in support of The Vintage Aviator's flying days today and tomorrow.

HOOD AERODROME, Masterton 1950 - De Havilland Mosquito aeroplanes in an air show 

Get down to Hood aerodrome this weekend

- 10am - 4pm Saturday & Sunday - great family day out 

Flying will be scheduled from 10am-12pm and 2pm-4pm with a Saturday only option of 6.00pm- 8.00pm if flying today has been held up with weather. Guided hangar tours will also be offered on these days outside of the flying hours. 

All are welcome to attend ~ Photographers welcomed

Stratford is Sonerai Country

In preparation for the Stratford Aerodrome 85th Birthday celebrations today, three quarters of the local Sonerai fleet was out in the late yesterday afternoon sun.

Monnett Sonerais ZK-SNW, ZK-SNJ and ZK-SNG.  Have a great day Nick and thanks for the photo (from his Stratford Aerodrome blog).

Where do Cessna's go to die ?

Robin Hall sent in a photograph of the Cessna 150A ZK-BZX (c/n 59170) taken today sitting forlornly in the long grass on a section at Tangimoana.

It has not been mentioned before in these pages.

Registered as N7070X on the Cessna production line it was exported to NZ and was registered to Rural Aviation Ltd at New Plymouth on 06-03-1961 and was delivered to the Kawerau Aero Club shortly thereafter. This Club was renamed the Eastern Bay of Plenty Aero Club in about 1963.

In August 1967 the Rotorua Aero Club took charge of it and we see it below at Rotorua on 10-01-1967

 And below a photo from Peter Lewis has it at New Plymouth on 04-03-1967.

 and is seen below at Taupo on  05-12-1970 in a revised paint scheme.

  It moved down to Lakeland Aviation Ltd at Taupo in early March 1972 and then to P J Haszard (who traded as Tauhara Motors) of Taupo on 07-11-1972.

Pic below is from Taupo on 20-06-1973 with another scheme change.

 In May of 1974, CMM captured it in colour- below.

 Below - at Taupo on 19-03-1976.

 Ownership was transferred to G Donovan of Turangi on 19-08-1976 - who gave it a complete new colour scheme - as seen below on 06-09-1979 at Taupo.

In February 1982 a Matamata syndicate of J C Martin, T Huriwaka, J M McAnnalley and J C McFadyen became the listed owners, and on 24-02-1985 (below) I caught it at Matamata in yet another scheme parked alongside the Fletcher FU24 ZK-BPY.

 From 13-10-1986 it was with just J C Martin and T Huriwaka; and then solely to J C Martin of Tauranga from 04-11-1988.

Other owners include A J M Robinson; Movement Technology Ltd of Auckland from 19-02-1992. About this time it was converted to a Texas Taildragger by Arthur Reville before being moved on to the Howie, Nevin and Parks Syndicate of Wellington from 21-01-1993.

By 10-08-1993 it was with Ralph Sanson of Warkworth who had it converted back to its tricycle undercarriage.
Below is a pic of her in tail wheel mode late in 1993.

 And below - back to nose wheel mode in about 1994.

Ralph advertised it for sale in August of 2005 with 10,300 odd flying hours. It also had a 'Buzzard' on its vertical tail.

 Two photos from Ralph Sanson showing the 'Buzzard'.

On 14-01-2007 it was relisted with Manuel Cunha of Auckland and then to Dean Harnett of Shannon on 26-03-2009.

Its registration was revoked on 07-04-2011.

And now its sits at Tangimoana.

Pic below taken today by Robin Hall.

As a point of interest - Dean Harnett also has the Cessna 150H ZK-CTF and the Grumman AA5-A Cheetah ZK-EFX. Both also had their registrations revoked on 07-04-2011.

More from North Shore Last Week

Chris Opperman also captured these images at North Shore on 18/1/17.

The ex demonstrator Cirrus SR 22 ZK-CNZ2 (c/n 4113) has been owned by an Auckland owner since 1/10/16.

Bell 206B Jet Ranger ZK-IMB3 (c/n 2660) is registered to a Silverdale owner, and has only been on the NZ register since 9/11/16.

Another locally based aircraft that is not often seen is the TL 2000 Sting RG ZK-PHW.  I will post on the history of our Stings shortly.

ZK-PAL

Snapped at Nelson this afternoon by Lord Nelson was the Piper PA-22-135/180 ZK-PAL3 (c/n 22-2298) from Ardmore Taildraggers Inc.

It was also noted taxiing at Christchurch at about 1300hrs today.

Bell 47G-3B1 Sioux AH.1 ZK-HJH

The Wanaka based Westland Bell 47G-3B1 ZK-HJH4 (c/n WA508) is now very close to flying in NZ.

This is what the NZ Aviation News Magazine said about it when it was first registered in NZ on 05-08-2016 :-

We have had about one hundred Bell 47’s in NZ (Including the bakers dozen with the RNZAF) but to date just the single Westland Bell 47G-3B1 variant (ZK-HBF₄). This has now been rectified with the importation by Chris Marsden of an ex-Army Air Corps example now listed as ZK-HJH₄. 

Westland in the UK were well known for producing foreign designed helicopters under licence such as the Sikorsky 51, S55 Whirlwind, S58 Wessex, S61 Sea King then the Lynx, Gazelle, Puma and more recently the Agusta types. 
They also produced 253 Westland Bell 47G-3B1’s.

Our new example was built as a Sioux AH.1 and carried the serial XT801 with the Army Air Corps from July of 1975. 

After being demobbed it went over to join the German civil register as D-HHRW followed by a time in Austria as OE-CXA, then returned to Germany to become D-HADG. This registration was cancelled on 26-12-2015 for it to become OO-LYL with Busse Helikopters.

 It is now resident in full UK Army Air Corps markings at Wanaka alongside Chris’s SARO P.531-2 Scout AH.1 ZK-HJG₄ and the Westland Scout AH.1 ZK-HQU₂. 

The previous ZK-HBZ’s include a Hiller UH-12E, a Robinson R22 Beta and a Hughes 369D which became ZK-HDE₃.

The photo above was shot at Wanaka by Steve Bunting on 24-01-2017.

Wanaka snips and snaps.

These first two shots were taken at Wanaka today.

 In the background we have the Aero Commander 500 ZK-CWP1 (c/n 500-842-98) as seen at the Wanaka Transport Museum next to Wanaka Airport.

It has been briefly mentioned several times before, See Here. and drill your way down.

In the foreground is the unregistered 'Rocket Man',

I know which one I would rather fly in.

A reasonably recent arrival for Skydive Wanaka Ltd was the Cessna 208B Supervan 900 ZK-RUL (c/n 208B0847)

See the earlier posts HERE showing it in its previous identities.

******

The above pic I believe came from the Performance Aviation facebook page.

It shows the Cub Crafters CCH-160UL Cub ZK-KUB (c/n CCH-00318) still in its VH-OOA markings.

This was originally N7002S in the States before becoming 24-8542 on 30-09-2014 on the Recreational Australian Aircraft register. It was transferred to the GA register as VH-OAA2 on 05-12-2014 with Stephen Buckle at Kew, Victoria. 

It came onto the NZ register for Ardleigh Farm Ltd of Geraldine on 19-07-2016.

Ardleigh Farm have been operating the Rans S-6ES coyote II ZK-ARD2 since October of 2013.

Golf ZK-TEK at Whangarei

Noted at Whangarei yesterday (25-01-2017) by Jean210 was this Tecnam P96 Golf ZK-TEK (c/n 169) from the Tauranga Tecnam Syndicate.

This was a Colin Alexander (Solo Wings) import in December of 2001 - moving to its current owners from 25-01-2006.

It was up from Tauranga on a student cross country exercise with Solo Wings.

David Wilkinson Smokes Off at North Shore 18-1-2017

Chris Opperman was on hand to capture David Wilkinson in his Vans RV 8 ZK-WLK smoking off into the blue at North Shore last week.  No doubt in preparation for the Classics of the Sky airshow at Tauranga, where he flew in a 5 aircraft Vans display team.

Smoke on...

 Up...

and Away!

Thanks for the photos Chris.

ZK-DRS at NZWR

Cessna 172M ZK-DRS (c/n 17263282) as pictured at Whangarei yesterday 25-01-2017 by Jean210.

It is conducting aerial surveys over parts of Northland and Waikato.

This  Skyhawk II first flew in NZ on 24-10-1974 with Rex Aviation (NZ) Ltd before being delivered to Lakeland Aviation Ltd at Taupo.
By November 2001 it was with Air Charter Manawatu with a change to Flight Training Manawatu at Feilding from September of 2013.

It was listed to Action Aviation Ltd of Rotorua on 27-11-2014 and carries small 'Action Aviation Ltd' titles on the forward fuselage and has a clear view panel on the rear side window .

Fletcher ZK-EML's new scheme.

Two photos taken by Terry Nuttall showing the Fletcher FU24-954 Walter conversion ZK-EML (c/n 264) in its new Ravensdown Aerowork Ltd's colour scheme.

It is parked with the Fletcher FU24 -550GT Crusader ZK-DDX (c/n 160) on Stu Bryant's strip at Tapawera.

 Note the different canopy styles and the distinctive engine cowlings.

Visit to Campbell Copters - Kerikeri

Jean210 was invited into Campbell Copters hangar at Kerikeri today.

 Bell 206B JetRanger ZK-HBB4 (c/n 231) spent its early years between 1965 and 1985 in the Philippines before coming to NZ to become ZK-HVC from 15-07-1985.
 In July of 1996 it was re-registered as ZK-HBB4. Campbell Copters operated it briefly from April through to July of 2006 and reacquired it in late December of 2013.

 Interestingly this Hughes 269C ZK-HRL2 (c/n 100889) began its NZ career as ZK-HBB3 before being re-registered as ZK-HRL on 08-07-1996.

Campbell Copters Ltd picked it up from November 2011.

 The Robinson R44 Astro ZK-HVQ4 (c/n 0235) is a 1996 model which was imported from Japan in 2004. After listing with twelve other operators it joined Campbell Copters in July last year.

Robinson R44 Raven II ZK-IJP is c/n 12412 and went new to Outback Helicopters at Dannevirke from 15-09-2008. SCN Helicopters Ltd of Porirua became the listed operator from 21-09-2013.

It is seen here in SCN Helicopters titles.