Cessna 205A ZK-COY

The Cessna 205 was introduced in late 1962 - being basically a fixed gear version of the Cessna 210 and using the same 260hp Continental IO-470 engine. It also had the extra port side door.

Only 577 were produced before the model 206 came on stream with its 285hp IO-540 engine.

You will find these days that they are registered as Cessna 210-5's (Cessna 210 minus 5 = 205) but have c/ns in the Cessna 205 range.

By my count we have had five of these 205's in country starting with ZK-CEZ and ZK-CFF with the Wellington Aero Club in 1963 and 1964. 

Then came ZK-DJB in 1972 and ZK-KMF in 1994.

ZK-COY2 is the latest to have arrived.

This is a Cessna 210-5A with the c/n of 205-0570 making it one of the last built.

Laid down as N4870U it was forwarded on to Australia where it almost became VH-DFT but ended up as VH-COY from 06-11-1964 for John Cox (who already had VH-COX) and who operated as Wyndham Air Charters in the Kimberley region of West Australia.

Photo below from Geoff Goodall shows it at Jandakot on 01-01-1969

By February of 1998 it was with Air Fraser Island.

It ferried from Lord Howe island into Auckland and then down to Haupiri on 06-11-2003 and became ZK-COY2 on 21-11-2003 with Air West Coast Ltd until being re-listed to The Christian Church Community on 23-08-2018.

These two photos of ZK-COY were shot at Karamea on Tuesday the 27th by Mit Brereton.

Kerikeri on 20-11-2018

As well as Allan Fillery's Dedalius which I have already posted about, I was also able to meet with a couple of the other local sport aviators when I visited Kerikeri last week.

 Chris Lyle showed me his nice new Bristell NG 5 ZK-CLA2.

 and Steve Wynne showed me his Fisher R 80 Tiger Moth ZK-DSW2.

Thanks guys.

Ag aircraft at Hamilton

A visit to an otherwise quiet Hamilton Airport today revealed a number of ag aircraft including Hughes 369E ZK-IMD owned by HeliA1 of Otorohanga

And Super Air's Air Tractor AT502B ZK-MAA

Warrior ZK-RJD.

Back in 1979 the US registration of N2815G was applied to the 439th PA-28-161 Warrior II on that years production line.

This was c/n 7916439 - with '79' being the fiscal year of production and the '16' being the Piper model.

They ended up producing 598 Warrior II's that fiscal year.

Anyway it made its way to the Aero Club de Port Villa to become F-OCXX from June of 1979 and became YJ-RVB from 01-05-1981 with the Aero Club at Port Vila.

It was damaged on landing some time in 1984 at Tanna with the registration being cancelled on 15-01-1985.

It was shipped to NZ and following rebuild by Airwork (NZ) Ltd was registered as ZK-RJD on 18-02-1986 to R J Discombe of Christchurch.

J S Spry of Wellington was listed from 09-08-1988.

Above as noted at Paraparaumu on 04-10-1989.

And below at Christchurch on 13-08-1990.

The Manawatu Districts Aero Club at Palmerston North became the proud owners from 26-08-1996.

As seen above at Wanaka on 10-04-1998.

Note 'CLUB' written on the under wing and the patch of stripped paint around the manufacturers plate just forward of the horizontal tail plane, and 'Club' titles on the engine cowl.

Simon Moore of Auckland became the listed owner from 25-08-1999.

Above at Tauranga on 18-03-2000.

followed by the Tauranga Aero Club (Inc) from 01-07-2002.

In March of 2003 it moved to Invercargill to join Southern Wings Ltd and then way back  up north to the Kaitaia Aero Club from 12-12-2006.

Peter Upton of Taipa listed it from 17-08-2009 .

It was noted 'for sale' at Ardmore on 05-07-2015 by Magnaman.

Current owner Gayan Perera of Auckland took it over from 04-09-2018.

ZK-RJD as seen by Keith Morris at Ardmore on Sunday  the 18th of November this year.

Catalina ZK-PBY Over Stratford 10-11-2018

Nick Furmage captured some nice shots of The Catalina Company NZ Ltd's Catalina NZ 4017/ZK-PBY2 flown by Brett Emeny overflying Stratford on 10 November on its way from Ohakea to its base in New Plymouth.

Thanks for the use of the photos Nick.

Flyin to Alexandra

Here's a few photos of aircraft not on the blog, or needing updates from a flyin to Alexandra (NZLX) a couple of months ago.

 Star Bee Gyros Gyrobee (c/n 003) ZK-DAP getting some cracking repaired in its Alexandra hangar, and not featured on here before. 

ZK-JET  (Aero L-29 c/n 294892) being towed to the fuel pumps before opening the blossom festival with a short display. This aircraft is now Alexandra based.

A new aircraft for the blog is Stoddard-Hamilton SH-2 Glasair RG ZK-LHX (c/n 802) outside a hangar in Alexandra. This aircraft is Wanaka based.

South Rakaia based Alpi Pioneer 200 ZK-MSG (c/n 2018) with a livery update since last time it was featured on here

A Couple from the Light Side at Ardmore 18-11-2018

Among all the warbird activity at the NZ Warbirds Armistice Centenary open day at Ardmore last Sunday were a couple of light sport aircraft that I had not seen completed before:

The latest Falcomposite Furio ZK-PPK 

 with a bit of fun with the placarding.

And our latest Tecnam P 2008 ZK-TLT.

Dedalius Model 1 ZK-SVR

Last Tuesday I was able to visit Kerikeri airport to meet up with Steve Wynne, and I was delighted to find that Allan Fillery was up from Wellsford working on his Dedalius Model 1 ZK-SVR (c/n 109-731-788).

Allan kindly taxied out in ZK-SVR for a photo.  The engine sounded great and quite throaty.  Allan told me that the Dedalius is essentially a Zenith CH-701 with rounded corners on the fuselage and automated slats on the leading edge of the wings.

The really unique feature of Allan's Dedalius is the radial engine, that Allan designed and built himself including producing all the castings.  It is a 7 cylinder side valve engine of 4 litre capacity with Subaru pistons and Allan told me that it produces 130 HP.  I reckon it could be the first own design and built engine to fly on a sport aircraft in New Zealand - can anyone think of another?  It is certainly the only one in recent times.

Allan is working his way through the test flying schedule.

ZK-PIY

From previous blog posts and my photos, I'm pretty sure ZK-PIY of FlyMySky has a setup where they can quickly change from a Skydiving door to a normal door. Does anyone know any more about this?

A couple of updates for Otago Airspread

 ZK-CZA, a Fletcher FU-24-950 (c/n 151) in Otago Airspread's main Dunedin hangar. This aircraft seems to spend a lot of time in Dunedin compared to others.

Another FU-24-950 ZK-EMQ (c/n 269) is in a private hangar at Taieri airfield, but has a broken engine and new ones are too expensive to be economical currently. It's still on the register, so it may be restored in the future when new aircraft are harder to get. 

I also know there's yet another new Cresco for them, ZK-OAN coming soon, ex VH-WKD

Fairlie interesting.

I called in on the Fairlie Heritage Museum (as you do) on Friday - paid my $6.00, forced myself through the cafe without partaking and found this Bensen B8M Gyro in a suspended state chained to the roof beam.

 Interesting I thought !

A Few More from Ardmore 18-11-2018

While a lot of focus has rightly been on the Mosquito, Airacobra and the Bristol Scout, there were also most of the usual warbirds on display at the NZ Warbirds Centenary of the Armistice open day at Ardmore yesterday.  However a few caught my eye as follows:

 Titan Mustang ZK-WZY is still at Ardmore.

Brian Hall's Super Trojan ZK-TGN is working towards re-test flying.

And Strikemaster NZ6372/ ZK-BAC2 was up from Wellington and flew in the display.

Hawkes Bay Agplanes and others

A journey through the airfields of Hawkes Bay in the weekend revealed lots of interest including a number of agplanes, starting with Fu24-950 ZK-CRY parked up at Hastings now without its SuperAir titles

Two of the Aerospread Cresco fleet were seen with ZK-LTE at Hastings

And at Dannevirke ZK-LTX

At Waipukurau was PAC750XL ZK-XLR which shares its time between here and Gore

Also at Waipukurau was Napier owned Cessna A185F ZK-DWW which in a former life was a Mt Cook skiplane ZK-MCU

Out and about at Hastings was Alpi Pioneer 200 ZK-PCB owned by Peter Steers.   Peter is involved with a Trust that is facilitating some local College students building a Vans RV12 in his hangar at Hastings airfield.

Ardmore today 18-11-2018 by Magnaman

Magnaman was at Ardmore today for the NZ Warbirds Centenary of Armistice Day open day.

 The Bell Aircobra P39Q 42-20341 has reached an advanced stage of its rebuild.

In the 'office' below.

Check out the MRC Blog for more on this one Here

 There was more to be seen on the field than just warbirds -

 Over at Oceania was the Bell 429 Global Ranger ZK-HUU3  (c/n 57246) as listed with Bell 429 Operator Ltd with a Cottesloe, Western Australia address.

See earlier mentions Here  and  HERE.

 Visiting was the Fly Synthesis Storch S ZK-JES (c/n 374A-430) which has been with The Storch Syndicate of Whitianga since September last year.

 Unidentified by Magnaman was this fuselage.

Can I suggest a Polikarpov PO-2 ?

 The Progressive Aerodyne Sea Rey ZK-SRY (c/n 1Mk-230) of Roger Coleclough of Whangaparoa was on field.

Also several earlier mentions Here

Another star attraction for the day was the Avspecs Ltd's De Havilland DH98 Mosquito FB.VI  ZK-BCV.  

NZ Warbirds at Ardmore Centenary of the Armistice Open Day 18-11-2018

The NZ Warbirds at Ardmore held an excellent commemoration of the Centenary of the signing of the Armistice today (actually it is one week after the centenary but that was just as well because the weather would have cancelled the event one week ago).  The weather held out and there was very little wind which allowed their fleet of WW 1 aircraft to fly their displays - the first time I had seen any of them flying.

 TVAL built Royal Aircraft Factory (RAF) BE 2e-1 ZK-VCM.

Classic Wings/JEM Aviation finished Fokker Dr 1 Triplane replica ZK-FKD2.

And Frank Parker's "new" American built Bristol Scout Model D replica ZK-BTL2 with an 80 HP Le Rhone rotary engine.  It looked and sounded great and I love the smell of castor oil!.