And registered to a Huntly owner since 2008 the Remos G3NZ ZK-PRH
I had cause to travel down to North Shore airfield recently to get a couple of washer head screws for my canopy from David Wilkinson. He was setting up to do a dynamic prop balance reading for his new One Design ZK-EZG2, so I gave him a hand (while socially distancing). The electronic prop balancing equipment was pretty impressive and it gave a weight to add at to the flywheel the appropriate position in degrees.
Receiving attention in the hangar was the 1980 Jodel D.11 ZK-JON which has been registered to its current Thames owner since November 2019.
The Pipistrel Alpha Eletro ZK-EAL2 (c/n 942 AE 60) was first registered in NZ on 09-03-2020 to Electric Airline Ltd but Covid 19 and the 'first of type' paperwork delayed its first flight until yesterday 26-08-2020 -
- as captured here by Hairy Mole Rat.
I had the very good fortune to do an abbreviated pie run today (27-08-2020) with Hairy Mole Rat and we caught up with ZK-EAL refueling.
Following up from Flyernzl's post on marking the centenary of the first aerial crossing of Cook Strait, here is a screenshot of Paul Hally in Fox Moth ZK-APT touching down at Trentham Racecourse, 100 years later and almost to the minute as Captain Euan Dickson did at Trentham 100 years earlier.
On 25th August 1920 Capt Euan Dickson flew Avro 504K D6243 from Christchurch to Wellington, with stops at Kaikoura and Blenheim on the way.
The trip took just over 7 hours, with a flying time of 4hrs 40 mins
He thus became the first to fly across Cook Strait, landing at Hutt Park, Trentham.
Dickson was flying for Henry Wigram’s Canterbury Aviation Company and was accompanied by the company’s deputy chairman, C.H. Hewlett, and chief mechanic, J.E. Moore.
He made the return trip back to Blenheim on the 28th.
D6243 was later used for joyriding in the Marlborough area but was destroyed in a fatal crash after experiencing engine failure at Motunau/Greta Valley, North Canterbury, on 30Dec21.
Today, the flight was commemorated with reenactment by Paul Hally and Aaron Patchett with Fox Moth ZK-APT
Avro D6243
After Covid 19 wreaked havoc with international air travel, back in May 2020 Air New Zealand announced that it had grounded its Boeing 777-200ER (and 777-300ER) fleets and that they would be grounded until at least the end of 2020. However as the pandemic has ground on it is looking more likely that we will never see the 777-200 fleet flying commercially with Air New Zealand again. The fleet has been parked up in various locations but recently several of the 777-300 fleet have been flown to Southern California Logistics Airport in the desert at Victorville, CA for deep storage.
So as we haven't had some of the 777-200 fleet posted on the blog (and/or in their new colours), here is a wrap up post on them:
and ZK-OKH (c/n 34379)
You can click on the photos to enlarge them to see the registrations. Thanks to Westland 831 and MRC for the photos.
I got as far as thinking the answer to Blue Bus's recent Question Time was a pusher aircraft but that was as far as I got. When it was revealed that it was the Skywise Ultraflight Vampire ZK-VMP I remembered that I had seen it a couple of times back in the day.
and at the 2007 Black Sands flyin at Raglan.
As Blue Bus noted, it was cancelled from the register on 30/6/17. But that is not the end of the story as it has recently changed ownership and has been moved up to the Hamilton area. So we may see it in the air again which would be great.
Tim Gorman was at Wellington International yesterday to catch the recently re-registered Beech B 200 Kingair ZK-WPN:
ZK-WPN (c/n BB-1466) was re-registered from ZK-MYM on 25/2/20 for Skyline Aviation Ltd of Napier.
Thanks for the photo Tim.
Feast your optics on this picture.
Now tell me what aircraft type do we have ?
And what registration would you expect it to carry ?
Come in Mit.
Our latest (and third) Vans RV 10 was built in the UK as G-CKYK and was quite quickly exported to New Zealand. It is photo'd below at Blackpool Airport in September 2019.
And registered to a Te Awamutu owner 1973 model Cessna 182P ZK-DNZ, which has been in NZ since new.
You could be forgiven for thinking that a ZK-TA registered Cessna at Tauranga would be from the Tauranga Aero Club.
But no! Warwick Hamilton photo'd this C 172RG Cutlass RG II ZK-TAH (c/n 172RG0840) at Tauranga on 10/8/20. It has been registered to The Retractable Flying Machine Company of Tolaga Bay since 1/2/19 but it has been in New Zealand since June 1992. It has not featured on the blog previously.
Hughes 369D c/n 590514D came onto our register as ZK-HNT thanks to Dalhoff and King Aviation Ltd of Ardmore on 02-07-1979 and was listed to Helicopters (NZ) Ltd of Nelson by the 24th of that month.
Just over a year later (17-11-1980) it was with Keith McKenzie of Taumarunui and was transferred to the Company name of Commercial Helicopters Ltd on 23-03-2001.
After nearly thirty seven years with Keith McKenzie it was listed to Bill Hales, of Hanmer Springs from 08-02-2017 and went immediately into the Heli Maintenance Ltd facility at Christchurch for a major overhaul.
