A brief Rangiora drop in.

 A brief stopover at Rangiora this afternoon (Sunday 26th) found the following of interest.

Cessna 172M Skyhawk ZK-DST2 c/n 65499 spent most of its first 20 odd years in the States as N6587H and in storage in El Pase, Texas, following damaged in mid-1975.
Performance Aircraft of Dallas Texas restored it on 05-01-1995 as a Penn Yann conversion and sold it to New Zealand.
It was crated into New Plymouth and became ZK-DST2 on 25-03-1996 with Peter Vause of Oil Field Equipment Rental Ltd (DST being Drill Stem Testing). 

Replaced by the Cessna 182S ZK-STC it went to Able Tasman Aviation Nelson Ltd in November of 1998. And from September of 2001 it transferred to DFB Holdings Ltd of Christchurch. 

It then spent nine months with Flight 2000 Ltd of Ardmore from December 2001 until returning to DFB Holdings with whom it is still listed.

An unexpected arrival was the Hughes 369 HS ZK-HJB3 c/n 110291S from Wanaka and Fairlie.

After a refuel it moved off to another local airstrip.

Built in 1971 as N9078F it went off to Norway as LN-OQV and then to Sweden as SE-HEY until returning to the States as N3223S in 1995.

Imported into NZ by International Heliparts NZ Ltd to become ZK-HJB3 on 06-06-1995 for delivery to W J Bird of Auckland. Current owner Paul Sumner of Rotorua took it on from October 1998.

In the circuit was the Australian Aviation Works Karatoo J6C ZK-KTW c/n 004MS of the Flying Road Cone Syndicate of Rangiora.

Nicely planted on the strip was the Rans S-6S Coyote II ZK-MLD c/n 09991341 from the Rangiora based S & B Syndicate.

Pipistrel Alpha Trainer LSA ZK-TGS c/n 926 AT 912 LSA of Tie Upp Aviation was also busy in the circuit.