Ag Aircraft at Dargaville 25-11-2017

Later in the afternoon last Saturday at Dargaville a turbine Fletcher appeared downwind.  I thought it would be ZK-JLU which had been the resident Fletcher when I was last there.

Actually it turned out to be ZK-CBA.

Thanks to Delticman, its history is as follows:

ZK-CBA  (c/n 81) was built up by TEAL at Mechanics Bay in during 1962 and was first flown from Hobsonville . It was later delivered to Hamilton for Robertson Air Service Ltd as fleet number 10 and was fitted with a Continental 0-470N of 260 HP. Major airframe mods came when Robertson Air Service converted it to a FU-24-950M which also included a large cargo door in July 1979. It joined the Super Air fleet and it's next major modification was the fitting of a Walter M601D in 1999. Yet another conversion and stretch for the PT6A-34AG in October 2011.

And down at the Super Air tie down area was another PT6A equipped FU-24-950M, ZK-JQB (c/n 156).  Delticman advises that it was one of the dismantled FU-24-950's that Super Air purchased from Fieldair Engineering. It was rebuilt as a stretched PT-6A-34AG version and first flown in April 2010.

Black Clouds for Sunair

As well chronicled on our sister blog 3rd Level New Zealand, Sunair Aviation Ltd of Tauranga have been grounded since 8 September.  You can read about it HERE

 A sad result of this can be seen at the Sunair Terminal at Whangarei Airport with one of their Aztecs sitting forlornly outside.

And their Cessna 172H ZK-DHN with the grass growing under its wheels.

A Bit of a Repaint for Mooney ZK-CKF

I last photo'd Don McMillan's Mooney M 20C Mk21 ZK-CKF at Dargaville on 16/4/16 and Blue Bus did a very thorough post on it on 23/4/16.  You can find his post HERE

As seen at Whangarei last Sunday 26/11/17.  It still looks the same but the registration has been repainted, (which it needed).

Northland

Continuing our travels around Northland a visit to Kaitaia Airport revealed the Kaitaia Aero Club's Cessna A150L ZK-BAD back from an early morning training flight,  this hasnt appeared on this Blog before.   The Club also operates Tecnam P92JS-UL ZK-TJS,  and privately owned aircraft based on the airfield include PA28-180 ZK-RJD and Jabiru ZK-CHW.

Down at Kerikeri the Northland Coastguard Air Patrol operate a Cessna 182P, appropriately registered ZK-CGD.

A new Tecnam P2008 is ZK-RJN which joined our register in July,  replacing the owner's previous P2008 ZK-MBN.

Skydive Bay of Islands operate PAC 750XL ZK-TTL from the Airport still with Taupo Tandem Skydiving titling.

Whangarei 26-11-2017

After a long lunch at Dargaville we drove over to Whangarei.  The Whangarei Flying Club was very welcoming with coffee and biscuits and laid back discussion about aircraft and flying.  It is a great place to visit.  Thanks Rusty and Penny.

The next morning (Sunday) there was a committee meeting and most of the aircraft in the hangar were pushed out which was great for photography.  There are quite a few sport aircraft at Whangarei and that I had not seen before, several of which have not been posted on this blog previously:

 Mel Jones's Sisler Gygnet ZK-CYG is for sale - have a look at Trade Me aircraft listings for details.

Andrew McNeal's Avid Flyer Mk IV ZK-DDB2 is now flying again.

ELA Aviacion ELA-07R ZK-VBA w(c/n 04040403712) was having some maintenance work done.  It has been registered to a Maungaturoto owner since 8/9/17   It is ex G-CEEA and has been registered in New Zealand since 29/11/10.

Murray Parkinson's nice Corby Starlet ZK-LDI is undergoing its test flying schedule.

Locally based Dreamcraft Aviation Ltd's Tecnam P2002 Sierra ZK-TST (c/n 008) was busy flying.  It has been around since 28/11/03.

Another Tecnam was P 92 Echo ZK-THA (c.n 785) which now wears a slightly different but very plain colour scheme.  It is registered to a Kaikohe owner and has also been around since 2003 - it was first registered on 19/9/03.

Vans RV 6A ZK-TRV was up from North Shore and stayed only briefly.  It was coming home in a way as it was originally constructed in Whangarei.

Giant Scale Models at Dargaville 25-11-2017

Some of our sport aircraft are quite small (think Spacek Minisport with a wingspan of under 20 feet), and then coming up the other way are giant scale radio controlled models with wingspans of over 10 feet.  I guess the cross-over point is the Bally Bomber?

I was interested to see a couple of these big models at Dargaville last Saturday.  They were pretty impressive and came with their own purpose built trailers.

Republic P 47D Thunderbolt "Tarheel Hal" is a model of the aircraft that is owned by the Lone Star Flight Museum of Houston, TX.

And Westland Lysander Mk 3A "529" is in the pre-war colours of the RCAF.  (a similar aircraft coded "416" flies with Vintage Wings of Canada).  It has a wingspan of 10 feet 6 inches and is powered by a 3 cylinder radial engine of 61cc displacement.

Once all the full size aircraft activity had closed down for the day it took off and flew very well.

Gyrocopter Flight in ZK-MGI at Dargaville 25-11-2017

As I have previously posted, there were two new Magni M24 Orion gyrocopters at Dargaville last Saturday for lunch.  John  Wiessing mentioned he was going to fly a few circuits in his and would I like to come? - Sure I would!

So after taxying to the end of the strip we lined up into the light wind, did our checks and pre-rotated the rotor up to around 250 rpm using the pre-rotator cable, then opened the throttle of the Rotax 914.  As we accelerated the rotor speed increased to around 350 rpm whereupon we popped off the ground and John held it level until the airspeed increased to 55 knots (best climb speed) and then we climbed out more steeply than I was used to in the Aero Club Storch with 2 up.  During the rest of the flight the rotor takes care of itself.

John told me that one of the benefits of gyrocopters was that you don't get bumped around by turbulence like you do in a fixed wing aircraft.  This is due to the much higher wing loading on the "wing" (rotor) and as you can appreciate the rotor has much less chord than a fixed wing, and it cuts through the air at a much higher speed.  It was a smooth ride.

 The circuit can be flown quite a bit tighter than in a fixed wing aircraft.

But the big difference for the fixed wing pilot is the approach, where John demonstrated a steep approach where you seem to be dropping like a stone!  In fact the two photos on approach were taken 11 seconds apart, the first from around 800 feet and the second from around 150 feet!  However, you can fly a more normal approach at 55 knots which felt more familiar.

The actual touch down is very slow, but I am sure that John made it look easier than it was.  In fact John said that the most difficult part of the flight is the take off.

Thanks very much for the flight John.  I think I was spoiled by my first gyrocopter flight being in a very comfortable side by side enclosed cockpit model which gives great visibility.

Dargaville Aero Club for Lunch Yesterday 25-11-2017

I was fortunate to catch a ride up North with The Hairy Mole Rat so of course we headed to Dargaville for lunch.  It was a light wind day under "anticyclonic gloom" but the visibility was OK so we expected to see a few visiting aircraft.

Ultravia Pelican PL ZK-PPL just about got away from us.  It has been registered to a Whangaparaoa address since 9/6/15.

Dyn Aero ULC ZK-ORR has been registered to a Hamilton address since 4/11/16.

The two new Magni M 24 Orion gyrocopters were on the field - ZK-RGO of Peter Randall

 and ZK-MGI of John Wiessing.

A few of the visitors (a few had left by this time).

Just Aircraft Super STOL ZK-ZOE was over from Whangarei.

And in the last of this quartet of new local aircraft, Alan Cameron was out flying in his new TechPro Merlin 100 UL ZK-MEF.

Sunday at Ardmore

Magnaman got off a few shots today (Sunday 26-11-2017) at Ardmore.

And below a view of her as seen yesterday at Dargaville by Keith Morris.

 Cessna 172E ZK-FNT (c/n 51399) was a product of 1964 and passed quickly through the Malaysian register for delivery to Hong Kong in January of 1965.

It went to Australia in mid 1977 for overhaul before becoming VH-AFW on 10-11-1978 with Pays Air Service at Scone, NSW.

 In mid 1979 it migrated over to Miss M Bailey at Norfolk Island until being withdrawn and cancelled on 14-09-1983.

Next we see it pop up in NZ as ZK-FNT from 16-04-1987 with Ross Jowitt of Auckland.

The Mile high Club of Auckland listed it from 01-05-2002 followed by Murray Hargreaves of Maungaturoto from 31-10-2003.

It hasn't changed much over the years - below we see it at Wanaka on 14-04-2006.

Current owner Nick Gibb of Papakura took it on from 16-06-2016.

Above we have the Ryan ST-3KR ZK-RYN (c/n 2062) of the New Zealand Warbirds Association Incorporated.

 Seen Here just a few weeks ago.

 This was imported by Les Marshall in early 1995. 

It was built for the USAAC and given the military identity of 41-20854. 

By late 1964 it was on the US civil register as NC579S.

Mooney M20C Mark 21 ZK-CPF (c/n M20C-3240) has been mentioned previously HERE

Northland Rotorcraft

Based at Whangarei Airport was one of the Rotor Work helicopter fleet,  Bell 206B ZK-HPD which was imported from Japan in 2013 and hasnt appeared on this Blog before.

Further north on the Paihia beachfront Salt Air has a tourist helicopter operation and today they were using R44 ZK-HGM and Bell 206L-1 LongRanger ZK-ILM.    The latter is  new to this blog, being

imported from the USA in 2014.

Yesterdays haul

I had a late start yesterday due to fog lurking over the Christchurch area.

In the Rangiora mists I found the Guimbal Cabri G2 ZK-HVG3 (c/n 1077).

This had an ownership change on 01-10-2017 to Murchison Heli Tours Ltd of Murchison.

It has been mentioned several time previously :- Here.

 The only other Flying machine I spotted all day was the Aerospool Dynamic WT9 ZK-EWW (c/n DY057/2004) as listed with the EWW Partnership of Picton.

This was sitting in the noon day sun on the Hanmer strip.

This has also received previous mention HERE.

AutoGyro Calidus ZK-RDC Registered at Tauranga Today

 I photo'd the AutoGyro Calidus gyrocopter ZK-RDC2 at Tauranga on 3 October, however it was not registered until today, 24/11/17.

ZK-RDC2 (c/n 00461) has been registered to the local AutoGyro agents, Aerosport Aviation Ltd of Cambridge.

Northland

The first day of a trip around Northland provided a lot of activity on the local aviation scene,  including at Kaipara Flats the Aviat A1B Husky ZK-RBC doing circuits.

Further north at Whangarei there were a couple of rotary types which havent appeared on this Blog before,  comprising another of the growing Skyworks AS350B fleet, ZK-HSS, returning from a spray job,  and locally based Magni Gyro M16 ZK-RCA.

Also out and about was the recently completed Just SuperSTOL ZK-ZOE.

A Couple of other Sport Aircraft at Ardmore - 23-11-2017

As well as the Mynah returning home there were a couple of other sport aircraft at Ardmore yesterday.  Both have been posted before but one is in a slightly revised scheme:

Our original Searey aphibian ZK-REY3 was out in the sun.  It has been owned by Clevedon Aviation Ltd of Papakua (Dave Phillips) since 23/2/11.  I haven't seen it for many years but it is still as it originally appeared in 2001.  This is one of six Seareys that we have had on the New Zealand civil register, as detailed HERE (except for our latest example ZK-SWM).

And in the big hangar was Thorp S 18T ZK-MBY, which is now presumably Ardmore based following its change of ownership to the Thorp Syndicate of Auckland on 7/9/17.  It now has a white trim line and revised registration lettering.  It is one of the eight Thorp T18s/S18s that we have had on the register, as detailed HERE

McNair Mynah ZK-LOI Home from Taumarunui

Another Auckland International run this morning to pick up No 2 Grandson (don't ask about the traffic!), meant another obligatory visit to Ardmore with coffee and muffin at BP on the way.

I had said that I didn't expect to see much, but when we were there Louis McNair arrived overhead in his Mynah ZK-LOI:

This was the last leg back from the Tiger Club flyin at Taumarunui and today he came from Te Kowhai in 1 hour 10 minutes - that's about the same speed as the D 9.

Taxying in.

And feet back on terra firma.