The
Alpine Group Ltd of Wanaka shipped into Ports of Auckland two Hughes 369E’s
which once off ship were flown to Mechanics bay on 30-09-2018 before being ferried down to Heli Maintenance at Christchurch for their NZ
certification.
ZK-HMW3 started its career
in Japan as JA6042 with Ace Helicopters at Kawagoe from 26-11-1990 with a move
to Nakanihon Air Services on Okinawa from late December of 2002.
Above is JA6042 with side mounted containers with dispensing chutes beneath.
It was damaged
on 18-05-2003 and following a rebuild became VH-SUV2 in Australia with
Aeropower Holdings Pty Ltd of Redcliffe Queensland from 20-12-2004.
It was entered
onto the ZK register on 03-10-2018 with the ZK-HMW letters – with the ‘MW’ letters in honour and memory of
Matthew Wallis, (the eldest son of Sir Tim Wallis) who was tragically killed
on 21-07-2018.
Below we see ZK-HMW3 at Heli Maintenance Ltd in Christchurch on 18-10-2018 undergoing its NZ certification.
In the background is its companion marked as ZK-HOT which was re-registered as ZK-HNW on 24-10-2018.
Above - ZK-HMW3 Captured yesterday afternoon departing from the Heli Maintenance facility.
Might be wise to change the spelling of NZ’s greatest helicopter family’s name in the short story above!!
ReplyDeleteWoops !
ReplyDeleteMy humble apologies.
Change made thanks.
How come HMW is now a C model
ReplyDeleteSimple.
ReplyDeleteThe Hughes 369E ZK-HMW/3 (the third allocation of this registration) was registered to the Alpine Group on 03-10-2018. I suffered significant damage on a date unknown to me. It was re-registered as ZK-IAX/2 on 16-12-2020 and sold on to Aviation Contracting Ltd from 08-07-2023
On the same 16-12-2020 date the Minaret Station's (closely connected to The Alpine Group) Kawasaki Hughes 369HS was re-registered as ZK-HMW/4 (the 4th allocation of these letters) with title changing over to The Alpine Group from 01-07-2023.