Below we have a selection of some of the aircraft I came across.
Tuesday, 21 March 2023
My week of it
Below we have a selection of some of the aircraft I came across.
Eagle 150B ZK-XAB
Monday, 20 March 2023
Vans RV 3 ZK-XRD at Turangi 19-3-2023
Simon Hills, Jordan Elvy and Mark Pattenden were all at the Bill Bennett Memorial Flyin hosted by the Turangi Aero Club on Sunday 19 March. Around 20 aircraft flew in for the BBQ and there was an interesting occupant of the hangar:
Vans RV 3 ZK-XRD was registered to A R Turner of Auckland on 27/4/21 but I think it has spent most of its life at Turangi. It has been repainted in stages but it now seems complete with stars and the inscription Achtung Baby - Even Better Than The Real Thing on the cowling.I have seen it in the hangar at Turangi when I have passed through, and it has been in this all metal finish with the registration vertically on the tail. (There are lots of nail holes in the corrugated iron of the hangar that you can see through). I do not have a record of who took this photo but it is at Turangi.
And this is how it looked when it first arrived in New Zealand, taken by Mike Condon at Ardmore on 17/7/11. It was built as N33RV by John Harmon of Harmon Rocket fame and was built with many mods (although Dick Van Grunsven discourages his designs from being modified). It was cancelled from the US register on 20/10/09 and registered in New Zealand to North South Outdoors Ltd of Turangi on 21/10/09. It was sold to the Alan Turner Family Trust of Auckland on 1/9/10.
At the Methven A & P Show
Sunday, 19 March 2023
TL Ultralight TL-2000 Sting ZK-PLR
Saturday, 18 March 2023
A Maungaturoto Flight Today 18-3-2023
I went out to the airfield this morning for a coffee and to talk flying and found that we must have had a lot of rain overnight because the stream was pretty high and very muddy. The water was flowing back up the drains onto the field but the runway was useable.
The Allegro flies very well and you can see its glider like wingspan in this photo. It is pretty slippery and Neil told me it uses 10 litres per hour in the cruise with its 100 HP Rotax. That's pretty impressive.
Then we popped over to the Brynderwins to see the slips that have caused so much havoc to SH 1 traffic over the last few weeks. This is the major slip that has reduced the road to one way North (you can click to enlarge once or twice).
Friday, 17 March 2023
Thatcher CX 5 ZK-CXV/2
Back in August 2021 a new type of sport aircraft was registered in New Zealand, being the Thatcher CX 5. We have had three examples of the Thatcher CX 4 registered here, and the CX 5 is a two seat tandem development of the single seat CX 4 (and in the US there is now a 2 seat side by side CX 7). All of these aircraft were designed by Dave Thatcher of Pensacola in Florida and they are scratch built from plans which results in low costs. In fact the promotional material claims a CX 5 can be built for under US$30,000 including the engine, instruments and paint. Dave Thatcher is a retired A & P Engineer in America and he designed the CX 4 in his early 70s for his own use. However there was an instant demand for the plane after he flew it to Oshkosh in 2004 and he developed his design into plans that he then sold. The CX 4 was a very successful design and as often happens with things American Dave was receiving requests for a larger version with two seats. This resulted in design of the CX 5 commencing in 2010 and the prototype first flew in December 2013.
The CX 5 is an all aluminium design that is built only from plans, and the various fairings are fibreglass. It is 20 feet 6 inches (6.25 metres) long and its wingspan is 28 feet (8.5 metres). The wing has a slight outboard dihedral and is tapered (a bit like a Jodel but with less dihedral). Empty weight is quoted as 721 pounds (327 Kg) and the MAUW is 1,320 pounds (598 Kg). The aircraft was designed as a tri-gear for the American market but can be built as a taildragger. The prototype was fitted with a Revmaster 2300 engine of 85HP which gives a cruise speed of around 120 mph (104 knots) while the stall speed is quoted as 42 mph (37 knots).
Thanks very much to Kevin and his wife Shelley for the above photos.
Thursday, 16 March 2023
Couple more from the South Is
Down the road at Oamaru was Tecnam P2008JC ZK-TCT which was added to the NZ Airline Academy fleet in 2022.
Wednesday, 15 March 2023
A few more South Is helicopters
Over at Wanaka the Fox Franz Heliservices AS350BA ZK-HIY6 was receiving attention. This was originally imported from the US in 2010 as ZK-HGF5, becoming ZK-HQN2 in the same year and then HIY in 2014. It has been with Fox Franz since 2017.
And privately owned in Wanaka is the EC120B ZK-HAM3 which was imported from Australia in 2017 and initially operated by Alpine Helicopters.
Tuesday, 14 March 2023
Te Anau March 14
Nearby was HeliOps Southland R44 II ZK-HLL3 which was imported new in 2012 but hasnt been blogged here before.
Down at the Lake Te Anau lakeshore helipad the Southern Lakes Helicopters' EC120B ZK-IWC was busy with tourist flights. This was imported new in 2009.
ZK-IGS enters service with GCH Aviation.
Kawasaki BK117 B2 ZK-IGS2 c/n 1091 entered service as AIR2 with GCH Aviation from Christchurch on Friday the 11th.
Photograph below from Matt Hayes.
This had been JA6781 since 22-03-1996 with the Aichi Prefecture Police until being withdrawn from use on 12-07-2017.
It came onto our register on 18-10-2018 with Skyline Aviation Ltd of Napier and was listed to GCH Aviation Ltd of Christchurch on 22-03-2019.
Monday, 13 March 2023
Two Squirrels and a Cub
Over at Queenstown Airport was Over the Top's AS350BA ZK-IGO2. This was originally imported from Japan in 2002 as ZK-ICU but reregistered to IGO in December 2021 to allow Helicopters Otago to use ZK-ICU on their latest EC145 medevac helicopter.
Based at Queenstown is the Cub Crafters CCX2000 ZK-SFX which was imported from the US in August 2022 for Mountain Aire
Sunday, 12 March 2023
Otago Aero Club's Tecnam ZK-OAC at Taieri today
Saturday, 11 March 2023
Also a Good Day in the North
Today the Northern Aviators Club held their one-month-delayed BBQ flyin at Leo Johns' airstrip at Mata. Mata is about the same distance from North Cape as Wanaka is from Bluff. I was going to drive up through the the heavily damaged road over the Brynderwins and have to detour back through Paparoa but while walking the dog about 10 minutes before I was going to leave, I got a call from Paul Hopper and suddenly I was going to be flying there. So out to Kaipara Flats with the BBQ supplies to await Paul's arrival: