HB & EC AC southern invasion

 The Hawkes Bay and East Coast Aero Club/ Air Hawkes Bay squadron arrived into Christchurch yesterday afternoon. After spending the night they headed for Timaru and the Mackenzie Basin today.

Tony McFarlin has provided the following photographs taken at the tie downs near the Canterbury Aero Club facility this morning.In the above photo the Cirrus ZK-FMN from Auckland and Fielding yesterday, and the local Cessna P210N ZK-SCH are strays.

And below the Cessna 172 ZK-NAC  on the left of shot is also a stray having arrived in from Rangiora on the 29th to carrying out some night flying on the 30th.

Above is the Air Hawkes Bay Ltd's Cessna 152 ZK-TOC c/n 15281623. 

Been with the Club since May last year.

ZK-TOE - also a Cessna 152 is c/n 15283097.

ZK-NPK is another of their Cessna 152's. C/n 15284361.

The Cessna 172S Skyhawk SP ZK-JSD2 c/n 172S10260 joined the Club in January 2013.

ZK-JMR c/n 17210639 is also a Cessna 172S. Been with the Club since 2009.

Three Piper PA-38-112 Tomahawk's tagged along.

ZK-JVC is c/n 38-79A0320 has been Hastings based since November of 2012.

ZK-EIR is c/n 38-790219 and has been based at Hastings since about August 2015.

This was operated as ZK-KVA between 1989 and 1998 as ZK-KVA.

ZK-FTQ the older of the three with a c/n of 38-78A0764 which joined the HB & EC AC in mid 1989 and being re-listed to Air Hawkes Bay Ltd in mid-2002.

Parked out at Christchurch

 Noted parked  out on the western grass at Christchurch yesterday (30-07-2021) was the Cessna P210N Centurion ZK-SCH (c/n P21000718) which has been listed with the Scenic Circle Hotels Ltd/Scenic Hotel Group Ltd since it was registered in NZ on 13-04-2004.This 210 has been hangared for many years in a private hangar on the other side of the airport along with its hangar mate the Cessna 182P ZK-EKK (c/n 18263492). 

Earl Hagaman listed this back in June of 1989 after purchasing it from Peter Bowmar of Waikaia. 
It was registered to the Scenic Hotel Group Ltd of Christchurch on 31-07-2018 and has been tied down on the western grass since about April. It wears the 'Hagaman Enterprises' script on the door.

Both were mentioned in a previous post here - 

https://nzcivair.blogspot.com/2013/08/scenic-circle-cessnas.html

I remember when - ZK-HUZ

The Hughes 369D ZK-HUZ c/n 1280429D was built as N58349 before being shuffled of to Canada to become C-GKHT in June 1979.

It was imported into NZ and registered to Peter Bradley of Murupara on 01-05-1985.

It is known to have been used by the New Zealand America Cup Syndicate at Freemantle in 1986-1987.

It was transferred to the company name of Lakeland Helicopters (1989) Ltd of Rotorua on 28-01-2000 and then to Lakeland Aviation (2006) Ltd of Taupo on 10-03-2009.

In the above photograph from Graeme Stratton we see it delivering shingle to the Ketetahi Track on the northern slopes of Mount Tongariro.

ZK-HUZ was sold to Eastland Heli Services Ltd of Gisborne from 05-02-2015. 

Eastland also operated the Robinson R44 Raven ZK-IAY2.

Hastings Dawn Flyin This Morning 25-07-2021

The Hawkes Bay and East Coast Aero Club hosted the latest central region dawn flyin at Bridge Pa aerodrome this morning.  The weather was great and around 60 aircraft attended as did photographers Jordan Elvy and Mark Pattenden.  Among the aircraft of interest to me included the following: 

A new one that hasn't appeared on the blog before was ICP Savannah S ZK-MRD (c/n 119-07-54-0685) which was registered to R P Drew of Hastings on 12/4/21.

And an old one (it was first registered in New Zealand in February 1977), that hasn't appeared on the blog before was the Grumman AA 5A Cheetah ZK-DLI (c/n AA5A-0206) that was registered to ITL Aviation of Palmerston North on 25/3/21.  This is not the first Grumman aircraft to be owned by them!

Up from Masterton was the Wairarapa Aero Club's Tecnam P2002 Sierra ZK-DOY2.

Returning to its birthplace was the unique Cliff Johnstone built Alpi Aviation Jay Hawk ZK-CWJ2 which is now owned by W A M Liepnik of Palmerston North.

And over from Taupo was the Venture Aviation Ltd owned DHC 2 Beaver ZK-FPZ.  Nice!

Thanks for the photos Jordan and Mark.

Final Air Chathams Scheduled Passenger Convair 580 Flights Today 23-7-2021

Air Chathams flew the final scheduled passenger flights of the Convair 580 today, from Wellington to the Chatham Islands and return, operated by ZK-CIB

ZK-CIB3 leaving Wellington today

And arriving at Wellington back on 29/5/19.

The interesting history of this aircraft can be found at:  https://nzcivair.blogspot.com/2013/10/update-on-convair-zk-cib.html

Vans RV 7 ZK-JPT3 at Ardmore

A newly imported Vans RV 7 has been sitting in the Taildraggers hangar at Ardmore for several weeks, and it appeared on the New Zealand register yesterday 21/7/21:

ZK-JPT3 (c/n 71810) was registered to J P Theron of Auckland and it has been imported from South Africa.  It was first registered in South Africa in 2007 as ZU-EOF to Theron and Co Administration of Plettenberg Bay, West of Capetown.

This makes a total of 17 RV 7s registered in New Zealand (plus 13 RV 7As).

Thanks for the photo Richard.

Christchurch today 21-07-2021

 A quick whiz along the eastern side of Christchurch International Airport this afternoon found these four aircraft .

Bombardier DHC-8-211 ZK-NEG c/n 621 arrived in Nelson from Canada on 02-05-2006, becoming ZK-NEG with Air Nelson Ltd on the 8th and was transferred over to ANZ on 19-09-2019. 

It carried out its first revenue flight from Nelson to Wellington on the 14th.
It is now parked forlornly in the corner

ATR-GIE ATR72-212A (600) ZK-MVQ c/n 1451 arrived in Christchurch on 12-09-2017 for Mount Cook Airlines Ltd and carried out its first revenue flight on the 24th from Christchurch to Napier.

It transferred over to ANZ Ltd on 10-12-2019.

Over on the 'Antarctic ramp' was the Lockheed LC-130H-LM 83-0493 c/n 382-5016.

And the MD/B C-17A Globemaster III 08-8194 c/n P-194 which arrived last Saturday.

More from Ardmore

Another visit to Ardmore revealed further changes including the Hughes 269C ZK-HIS2 which has been registered to Air Chathams since 2016.   Originally imported from New Caledonia in 1995 the details of how it was used by Air Chathams are not known.

Down from Parakai is the newly refurbished and repainted Champion 7GCBC Citabria ZK-CRT.  Built back in 1967 it was acquired by its current owner in March 2021.

And at Airwork was AS350BA ZK-HBR2 which has now exchanged its "Inflite" scripting for "Heletranz".   Imported from the US in 1997 it has been part of the Inflite group since 2019.

 

AKL International

Operating a medevac flight into AKL was Life Flight's BAe Jetstream 3202 ZK-LFT2,  which has now been repainted in their new red colour scheme, to match their other Jetstream ZK-LFW.  LFT was imported from Sweden in 2016.

Air New Zealand's ATR72-212A ZK-MCP2 has now had the airline's titling and logos removed so is presumably shortly to head offshore.

 

Turn up your volume and go full screen

 This video clip arrived in my in box the other day from 'Anonymous'

Nice.

Ardmore September 2012 I would say.

CT4Es for Export

Currently being prepared by Ardmore Aircraft Services for their ferry flights across the Tasman to their new Australian owners are 3 former RNZAF CT4E Airtrainers ZK-PTJ, PTK & PTV.      Once the ferry pilots are sorted they will be delivered via Lord Howe Island,  and will later be followed by a 4th CT4.

 

Around Auckland's Heliports

A visit to the Heletranz base in Albany yesterday found EC120B ZK-HHT6 being readied for a local charter.   This was registered back in March 2021, being previously ZK-HBC5.

And across the harbour at the Helicopter Me base the EC130T2 ZK-HSH2 has now acquired the company's logo.   This was imported new in 2018.

 

Bell 206L-3 ZK-IGD3

 Noted at Heliflite Ardmore today was Bell 206L-3 ZK-IGD3 which was imported from Japan in late 2020.  Initially this aspired to become ZK-IMC2 before changing to ZK-ICH2 in June 2021,  and thence ZK-IGD3 in the same month..

Innovator Mosquito XE ZK-IBO/3

I just missed Joe Veza's new Innovator Mosquito XE helicopter having some more ground runs at Kaipara Flats yesterday, and it was all secured in its trailer when I got to the airfield.  However Joe had taken a photo of it on his drive at Red Beach and he kindly sent me a copy:

Joe's Mosquito is now registered ZK-IBO3 (c/n MXE1326A18B) and it was registered on 9/6/21.  The next step is to get it inspected by CAA.  I have previously posted about this helicopter at https://nzcivair.blogspot.com/2021/04/mosquitos-multiplying-at-kaipara-flats.html

Thanks for the photo Joe.

AOPA flyin at Haast last weekend

 Aaron Murphy took part in the AOPA fly in at Haast last weekend.

Here are a selection of some of his photographs.

The locally based Cessna 180A ZK-JMH c/n 32811 belonging to Eamond and Heleen Johnston of Johnston Motors Haast. 

This was originally registered in NZ in October 1995 as ZK-OWZ

From the Queenstown area came the Champion 7GCBC Citabria ZK-CRH c/n 7GCBC-32 of the CRH Syndicate.

ZK-CGJ c/n 50018 is the John Evans Cessna 180A from the Pareora Gorge area.

Piper PA-18A-150 Super Cub ZK-BTC c/n 18-5805 of Bill and Neroli Henwood of Te Kowhai.  

Not long after a rebuild following fifty three years of storage.

ZK-BTC with the pregnant PA-18-150 Super Cub ZK-BNJ c/n 18-5063 of Mike Oakley from Hororata.

A great line up at Haast.

Autogyro MTO Sport ZK-RBE/2 at Tauranga

After a couple of years of few autogyro registrations there have been 3 registered this year, and I think at least another one is coming.  The Hairy Mole Rat photo'd this very recently registered Autogyro MTOSport at Tauranga today 15/7/21:

ZK-RBE2 (c/n MO1913) was registered on 12/7/21 to G K L Mcintosh of Gisborne.  I think it is a new aircraft and is a MTOSport Classic model but there is also an upgraded MTOSport 2017 model available.  The AutoGyro website claims more than 3,000 of their aircraft flying worldwide and in New Zealand we have 10 AutoGyro MTO Sport models plus 9 of the similar MT-03 Eagle models currently registered (as well as 8 Calidus and 9 Cavalon models).

Thanks for the photo HMR.

TEAM Tandem Airbike First Flight at Matamata Today 11-7-2021

Clint Kraidy's TEAM Tandem Airbike ZK-CKD2 made its first flight at Matamata aerodrome this morning in the hands of test pilot David Wilkinson (who was well suited up because it must have been pretty cold).  The details of this aircraft have previously been posted at: https://nzcivair.blogspot.com/2021/02/team-tandem-airbike-zk-ckd2-at-matamata.html

The Hairy Mole Rat was there this morning and said it looked good in the air and flew well.

Thanks for the photos HMR.

New Queenstown Heliport

A visit to Queenstown Airport today revealed that a new heliport is under construction on the western side of the main runway for Heliworks/Heli Glenorchy and Alpine Helicopters.    Both companies have helicopters in residence operating from temporary premises.    Three other commercial helicopter operators and the Rescue helicopter base remain on the main eastern side.

New to the Heliworks fleet is the former Russian AS355NP ZK-ICE3 which was registered to their operating company, Action Helicopters, in January 2021.

Scripted as Heli Glenorchy is AS350B2 ZK-HGQ5 which has been part of the fleet since late 2019, being imported from the US in 2017.

And busy on tourist flights was Heliworks AS355F1 ZK-HML which has been in NZ since 1995 and joined Heliworks in late 2019.