New Zealand's Nine Fokker Triplane Replicas

When I posted about Peter Walton's new Fokker Triplane replica, I thought it remarkable that we now have nine of these aircraft in New Zealand!  And here they all are in flight:

Here are The Vintage Aviator's seven Triplanes (from left):  ZK-FOK, ZK-JOC, ZK-JOG, ZK-FOT, ZK-FOC, ZK-JOB, and ZK-JOK.

 The NZ Warbirds Triplane ZK-FKD2,

And the newly flown ZK-CCO2 at Whitianga.

Around Auckland

A visit to Ardmore today revealed a lot of helicopter activity including at Heliflite the former Kaikoura based R44 ZK-HCY3 which as of today was officially sold to Auckland based WSV Racing Ltd.  This was originally imported back in 2005 as ZK-IGS, later becoming ZK-HLD3 before HCY.

At Airbus Helicopters was the North Shore based AS350B3 ZK-HTS2 which has been in NZ since 2006 when it was imported new

And at Oceania was MD520N ZK-IET2 which was imported from Canada back in 2011 as ZK-HEN3 being reregistered IET in 2018.

Just arrived at Auckland International this afternoon for some local buyers was 2011 Cirrus SR22 G3 VH-FER.    It had flown direct from Norfolk Island with a flightime of 4 hours.

Fokker Triplane Replica ZK-CCO Flies at Whitianga 24-1-2020

Peter Walton's full size Airdrome Aeroplanes Fokker Triplane replica ZK-CCO2 (c/n F1 02) made its first flight from Whitanga aerodrome one week ago, on Friday 24/1/20.

Gavin Magill was there and has kindly sent the following photos:

Pete Walton lines up on Runway 22 for the Triplane's first flight

Lift off! 

And thumbs up after the first flight.  

Pete's aircraft is serialled Fok F1 102/17 which represents a prototype aircraft, which led on directly to the Dr1 production Fokker Triplane.  Google states that the aircraft 102/17 was flown by Manfred von Richthofen and he scored his 60th victory in it on 7/9/17 (but I am not sure if the original aircraft was painted red).  Never the less ZK-CCO2 is a great achievement by Pete and it looks great.  I understand that the aircraft is powered by a Continental radial engine.

Canterbury Aero Club latest arrivals.

The two latest additions to the Canterbury Aero Club fleet arrived via flat deck yesterday morning (29-01-2020)

N9423C is a Piper PA-28-161 Warrior with the c/n of 28-7816476 and was registered to the Club on 22-01-2020 as ZK-EBM2.

It is seen above when listed for sale at Medford, Oregon last year.

It was first registered in the States on 02-03-1978 and cancelled on 10-12-2019.

From memory it has only had three owners, the last being Robert Willie of Medford, Oregon and comes with less than 7500 airframe hours.

It was ferried from Medford to Arlington, Texas for shipping to NZ.

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 Above we see both the Archer N80170 and Warrior N9423C awaiting unloading outside the Canterbury Aero Club maintenance hangar.

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 The Piper PA-28-181 Archer TX N80170 (c/n 2881232) is a new 2019 machine and was listed with the Piper Aircraft Inc of Vero Beach, Florida until being cancelled as exported to Australia on 25-11-2019 (according to the US register).

It is to become ZK-LJO.

Below a few other useful bits being unloaded.

At Christchurch this day 29-01-2020

From a very warm afternoon in Christchurch I offer these three aircraft.

 I seem to have the infinite capacity of seeing the back end of the Mil 34 ZK-HUN5 (c/n 9783034102005)

Caught this afternoon heading out for a test/training flight - hopefully before being delivered to its new home later today.

 A stray was the Airbus A319-115 (CJ) LX-MCO (c/n 2592) of Global Jet Luxembourg.

This is a 19 seat VVIP set up aircraft. 

Test flown as D-AVXK on 10th November 2005 and then fitted out as a luxury aircraft. It became HB-IPO with Comlux Aviation in June 2006 then in January 2007 it became UN-A-1901 for the Government of Kazakhstan and operated by Berkut Air.

It was back with Comlux as HB-IPO from June 2008, becoming 9H-AFK with  Comlux Malta that September. It changed to 9H-MCE in July of 2012 and then to LX-MCE in December of 2014 with Global Jet Luxembourg. It was re-registered in May 2017 to LX-MCO

Looking all bright and shiny was the Aerospatiale-Alenia ATR72-212A ZK-MCB2 (c/n 598) sitting on the Antarctic apron.

It has been in this scheme for some time now.

Air New Zealand ATR 72 ZK-MZC

Warwick Hamilton recently captured Air New Zealand's second to latest ATR 72 ZK-MZC at Tauranga recently:

ZK-MZC (c/n 1581) was first registered to Air New Zealand on 15/12/19.  This aircraft was actually the first ATR 72 to be registered directly to Air New Zealand, as all previous ATR 72s were registered to Mt Cook Airline Ltd.  However on 9/12/19 the ownership of all the ATR 72 fleet (31 aircraft) transferred across to Air New Zealand, (as also recently happened to the Air New Zealand Q 300 fleet).  For true aircraft spotters it can be seen that only the Star Alliance logo now appears behind the cockpit windows (click to enlarge).

Whereas the fleet used to have small lettering below the Star Alliance logo that stated: Operated by Mt Cook Airlines Ltd, as seen more easily on the all black ZK-MVA back on 17/9/17 (again click to enlarge).

Minicab ZK-EEF Flying Again at Stratford

Nick Furmage and Sue Leeves purchased their Minicab ZK-EEF back on 31/7/16 and Nick has been refurbishing it since.  It has recently been relocated back to Stratford Aerodrome and it now has flown again, with its first post restoration flight being carried out by Wayne Richmond on 23/12/19.

Here it is being flown by Gary Marsh on New Year's Day 2020

Nice work Nick!

Fisher Dakota Hawk ZK-LAF Flies at Nelson 25-1-2020

Richard Rayne's Fisher Dakota Hawk ZK-LAF made its initial test flight at Nelson yesterday, Saturday 25 January 2020, flown by Evan Belworthy.  It is powered by a Rotax 912.

This is the third Fisher Dakota Hawk to fly in New Zealand, after ZK-SUB and ZK-SOL, and details can be found at https://nzcivair.blogspot.com/2016/06/fisher-dakota-hawks-of-new-zealand.html

Thanks to Greybeard who was on hand to capture this photo.

Pauanui

 Auckland Anniversary Weekend has brought an increase in the number of visitors to Pauanui and amongst these today was the Wanganui Aero Club's Cessna 172S ZK-JIP3.   This was formerly ZK-RQA being reregistered back in April 2019.

Not often seen is the 1976 Grumman American AA5A ZK-TMR which was imported from Australia in 2006, and has been Tauranga based since 2011.

More from Thames Wings & Wheels 2020

Mark Pattenden was also at Wings and Wheels at Thames today, and has sent these photos of a couple of new aircraft at their first Wings and Wheels event:

Ian Chapman's new Vans RV 6 ZK-VNZ from Ardmore

And Stu Reid's very new Bristell NG 5 ZK-SAM4 from Ohaupo.

Thanks for the photos Mark, and for also partly capturing HMR recording the action!

Thames Wings & Wheels 2020

The annual Thames Wings & Wheels was held today at Thames airfield and attracted some 70 + aircraft before the start of the newly introduced airshow.  Amongst these was the Titan T-51 ZK-DGM2 down from its new Whangarei home.

From Whangamata came our sole Rans S-19 ZK-JAD4

Newly registered in December 2019 to P C Hunt, Auckland is the RV6A ZK-PCH which has been flying here since 2018 as N43TX,  after earlier import from the US

Part of a formation of 3 Sonerai up from Stratford was ZK-SND looking good in its new "stars and stripes"

And owned by the NZ distributor is Rainbow Skyreach Bushcat ZK-ZOL,  first registered in early 2019.

Belated photos from Ardmore

Errol Cavit has kindly sent in these two photographs taken at Ardmore on January 12th 2020

The Found Aircraft Canada Inc E-350 Expedition (FBA-2C3) N883MX (c/n 307) as seen on take off and now on its wheeled undercarriage.

It arrive in NZ back in 2018 on amphibious floats as a pattern aircraft for Pacific Aerospace at Hamilton for their now up and running production line.

The first aircraft from this line became ZK-EXP2 on 11th November last year.

Some earlier shots of N883MX can be seen HERE

Also of interest was the Cessna 441 Conquest II VH-VEW (c/n 4410264) as operated by VEE Aviation of ACT, Australia.

This moved around a bit in its earlier days - initially as N88795, then an attempt to become F-ODJP, followed by time as G-EVNS, F-ODUJ, N264WS, C-GKCH and C-FWCP before becoming VH-VEW on 23rd January 2006.

Mk 25 Spitfire Flying Again at Stratford

After a few teething problems, Gary Marsh's Supermarine Spitfire Mk 25 ZK-RGV has been flying again from Stratford Aerodrome recently.  Nick Furmage was on hand to take these photos on 18 January:

Gary Marsh taxys his Spitfire to the fuel pump at Stratford.  I reckon that with the 75% scale, Gary's head looks more in keeping than it does with the larger bone dome that he wears for flying the aircraft.  In the above photo you can just make out that the Spitfire has been renamed Grey Nurse, which is as per the original RAAF A58-497.

Gary has also added a few more personalised touches...

And showing the lovely Spitfire lines in the air.  

Very nice indeed!

Pauanui

Interesting visitors continue to arrive at Pauanui and amongst these was the privately owned Bell 505 ZK-IJX which is based on a farm near Colville in the northern Coromandel

Former Nelson resident Evektor Sportstar Plus ZK-MAC2 was recently acquired by a Pukekohe owner

And becoming a regular visitor the PA31 ZK-WHW has now lost its "Air2There.Com" scripting

Zenair Zodiac ZK-ZOT at Stratford

Nick Furmage photo'd the Zenair Zodiac CH 601UL ZK-ZOT at Stratford today, 23/1/20.  Stratford is CH 601 country!

It was up from Foxpine where it is now based, and it can be seen that it hasn't changed much over the years since it first flew in 1997.  Ownership transferred to Dave Stuart of Foxton on 7/12/19.

More 'Classics of the Sky' photos from Tauranga

 At the behest of Sir Minty, a selection of my photos from this airshow.

The event was rather more low-key than previous years, with no SportAv participants apart from two gyros.

The Museum's Vampire was on display, but unfortunately its engine problems meant that it remained static. Better luck next time.