Supermarine Spitfire Mk 25 ZK-VRG at Feilding Open Day 27-4-2024

There was an open day at Feilding aerodrome on Saturday 27 May with a good attendance of aircraft.  One that caught my eye was Gary Marsh's 75% scale replica Supermarine Spitfire Mk 25 ZK-RGV:

I thought it looked a little different and on comparison with older photos I discovered that there has been some major rework done on the engine cowling.  If you compare it with the earlier photo below that was taken at Stratford in June 2019 you can see that it does not now have the lower scoop and this has been replaced by openings in the front either side of the spinner.  Here Gary Marsh taxies in.

And it has also lost the sharks teeth and the Grey Nurse name as well as the "kills" markings.  Thanks to Dave Homewood for these photos.

A Few Photos on My Way to Dargaville on Saturday

I thought I would put up a few photos from Saturday, where the weather was - changeable!  An earlier forecast was for fine but it changed the day before to showers:

Looking nice up the Kaipara Harbour 

Looking back towards North Head still looking nice

But just past Ruawai the forecast showers were up ahead so I had to divert out towards the coast.

At Dargaville for a standard overhead rejoin.  The wind was fairly well down Runway 22.

Air Tractor AT 502A ZK-SXC in Action

Warwick Hamilton was out in the field near Tauranga today to capture these shots of Super Air's Air Tractor AT 502A at work:

Configured for landing.

And a mud and super view of a working aircraft.

Thanks for the photos Warwick.

Autogyro Europe Calidus ZK-MZM at Dargaville Today 27-4-2024

Finally a sort of OK for flying Saturday today let me fly up to Dargaville for their every Saturday lunch:

A "new" one at Dargaville was the rebuilt Autogyro Europe Calidus Fern gyrocopter ZK-MZM, fresh off re-assembly by Brian Taylor.  It was recently registered to Cloud 7 Aviation Ltd of Ruakaka.  This gyro suffered an accident at Te Haroto on the Napier-Taupo Road on 31/12/21 and has been under extensive rebuild since.

I photo'd it at Whangarei back in 2018 when it wore the standard Calidus Fern livery with a fern painted on the fuselage.  Was the fern a New Zealand thing?  And if it was then maybe ZK-MZM might just be a Calidus now.

ANZAC Day Flyover across Manawatu and Wanganui

 

The Air Force Historical Flight provided the ANZAC Day flyover around the Manawatu and Wanganui areas with an eclectic mix of aircraft being Biggin Hills Spitfire Mk IX ZK-SPI/PV270 and P 51D Mustang ZK-BHT2/NZ2423 and RNZAF Texan NZ1402

ANZAC Day Flyover at Tauranga

 

There was also an impressive line up for the ANZAC Day flyover at Tauranga, which also involved RNZAF Beechcraft Texans.

Whangarei Flying Club Flyover to Waipu for ANZAC Day

It has become a tradition for the Whangarei Flying Club to stage a flyover for the ANZAC Day service at Waipu.  Here are some photos from today:

Ready to set off...

ANZAC Day commemorations at Waipu.

Returning to land at Whangarei.  Nice job guys.

RNZN Sea Sprite Helicopter Flyover for ANZAC Day

A Royal New Zealand Navy SH-2G helicopter performed flyovers around Northland this morning.  It passed quite low over Warkworth near the end of its circuit of the North:

The light conditions were not the best and due to its low viz scheme I cannot even see which one it was!

There was also and ANZAC Day flypast by Jim Schmidt in his Tiger Moth, and later a Titan Mustang flew by.

Poseidon NZ4801 fly over for ANZAC Day

 The Royal New Zealand Boeing P-8A (737-8FV) Poseidon NZ4801 c/n 67107 did a low level flight over many of the South Island East Coast towns this morning.

Here we have two long shots of it over the Papanui RSA, Christchurch, on schedule at 1121am.

This first flew on the Boeing test registration of N786DS on 07-08-2022 and ferried into Ohakea on 12-12-2022.

Below a shot of it as N786DS taken by hau-Wu at Boeing Field on 16-08-2022.

Skyfox Gazelle ZK-PNB at Whangarei

Recently posted by the Whangarei Flying Club, the Ruawai based Skyfox Gazelle ZK-PNB now sports bigger tyres:

Piper Pawnee ZK-CIQ

 The Piper PA-25-235 Pawnee B ZK-CIQ c/n 25-3128 was imported by Airwork (NZ) Ltd of Christchurch in April of 1965 and signed over to Aerial Farming of NZ Ltd of Palmerston North from 13-07-1965.Photo above shows it at Feilding on 12-02-1966.

Then James Aviation Ltd of Hamilton listed it on 09-12-1968.

The photo above is tagged as taken in 1973 but it is still in its James Aviation scheme and it had been re-listed to the Nelson Gliding Club from 20-05-1970.

A Bob Kerr photo at Omaka on 18-02-1978.

It still retains the upper part of the James Aviation insignia below the cockpit.

It is seen above at Nelson on 27-05-1989 with glider tow hook fitted.

Ray Patchett of Blenheim took it on from 23-08-1991 followed by Rowley Aviation Ltd at Amberley from 01-12-1992.

It went back to Patchett and Williams at Blenheim from 30-07-1993.

 Ray Patchett became sole listed owner from 15-05-1994, then to B F & K A McMillan of Nelson from 20-09-1994.

Peter Anderson - the flying vet - of Blenheim took it on from 30-10-1995 and it picked up the name 'The Fighter'.

Getting a wash down outside the Marlborough Aero Club hangar at Omaka on 23-02-1997.

It then appears to have been out of the air for a while as seen by the image below - taken at Omaka on 24-02-1999.

I then have a note that it struck sheep and was damage on a farm strip at Ward 21-01-2001 and rebuilt using parts from ZK-CED.

I next noted it at Timaru on 12-12-2001 in the above state.

It has taken part in several Healthy Bastards competitions at Omaka. Above as seen on 31-01-2015 by

Andy Heap.

Above - outside its hangar at Omaka on 26-02-2015.

Another Healthy Bastards contest at Omaka on 03-02-2018.

And as seen yesterday, 19-04-2024, at Takaka by Lord Nelson.

Allister Jenks has seen this Eurocopter EC 130 B4 ZK-IWS multiple times over several weeks on the Wellington Waterfront. 

It seems to have taken over duties from the aptly-lettered ZK-IWN that has been plying trade there for a long time. So either IWN is out for maintenance, or this machine is now assigned to Wellington ?

 ZK-IWS is  c/n 4041 and was test flown in France as F-WWXI prior to going to Canada to become  C-GSDA with Eurocopter Canada Ltd at Fort Erie, Quebec.

It went on to serve with Great Slave Helicopters Ltd and its subsidiaries until cancelled on 19-02-2016 for export to NZ.

It became ZK-IWS on 22-02-2016 briefly listed with City Link PT Chopper Operations Ltd of Cambridge and going on line with Helitranz Ltd from 10-05-2016. It was returned to City Link from 16-06-2017 then on to Independent Helicopters Ltd of Christchurch from 17-08-2017.

Current operator GCH Aviation listed it from 20-05-2020.

Todays Rangiora pie run. With a Christchurch first stop over.

                        On a typical Christchurch autumnal day sits the C17A Globemaster III 08-8202.

Over at the Canterbury Aero Club was the Piper PA-28-181 Archer II ZK-EIP c/n 28-7990065.
This joined the Club in February of 1979 and remained there until sold to EIP Ltd of Christchurch in November 2014.
 If I recall correctly, it received this new colour scheme late in 2020.

The Piper PA-38-112 Tomahawk ZK-JHO c/n 38-82A0121 is - as you can see from its c/n - is a 1982 build which went new to the Republic of Singapore Flying Club as 9V-BNR.

It came to NZ to become ZK-JHO from 06-06-1997 and was with the South Canterbury Aero Club from late 1998 to November 2020 when it went up to Christchurch to the Canterbury Aero Club - with two Alpha 2160's ZK-VCA and ZK-VCF going from the Canterbury Club down to the South Canterbury Club.

Eurocopter C 120 B ZK-HPM3 c/n 1312 came to NZ as ZS-RRJ2 and was listed here on 17-12-2007 to John Shivas as Wairaki Holdings Ltd of Kaiapoi as ZK-IFR2.

It went to South Pacific Helicopters (2016) Ltd at Kaikoura in February 2017 until moving to Christchurch Helicopters Ltd in October 2022.

I has since had a major refurbishment and was re-registered as ZK-HPM5 on 01-08-2023.

Finally to Rangiora for lunch and a photo of the 'Orange Roughy'.

The sweet running Titan Tornado II ZK-LOT was out and about today.

It has been with Rodger Ward since first registered on 03-04-2007.

Look Back at the 2024 RAANZ Flyin at Hokitika

Over the weekend prior to Warbirds Over Wanaka the re-scheduled 2024 RAANZ flyin took place at Hokitika.  It was a low key affair and I have not been able to find anyone who took photos, but Wally Pendray flew down from Whitianga and he took some video of the flyin from which I took the following screenshots:

In this view you can see Wally Pendray's Pelican ZK-MAL2 from Whitianga, Craig Buist's SeaRey ZK-WET3 from Dunedin, Willy Morton's A 32 Vixxen ZK-VLW from Kawakawa and Neil and Sarah Colliver's Vans RV 10 ZK-RVT from Feilding.  Then in the front are Lyall Hopgood's new Bristell ZK-WLH3 with what I reckon is Nigel Forrester's Bristell taildragger ZK-TDN behind, both from Central Otago, and further along is Paul Godfrey's Kitfox IV ZK-JFA over from Rangiora.  Can anyone who was there supply a photo of ZK-TDN?

The Wesport owned B22 Bantam ZK-PUB has not been posted on the blog previously so was nice to see.

Some of the locals assembled a first generation Scout mirolight, here about to slide the wing cover onto the spar.  It had a registration of ZK-EYR but it is not currently registered, having been withdrawn and cancelled in August 1995.

Rodger Ward flew his Cri Cri ZK-LBW after no doubt trailering it across to Hokitika,  and in the background you can see the Zenith CH601 XL ZK-MAM down from Whakatane, then Greg Van der Hulst's Jabiru J200 ZK-CPA2 from Rangiora and a couple of the Canterbury Recreational Aircraft Club's Tecnam Echos ZK-RGA2 and ZK-RGE, and the Zenith CH601 XL taildragger ZK-ONO which was over from Kirwee.

Parked near the hangars were Dave Kenny's locally based Jodel D9 ZK-FRK, Bristell ZK-EAC3 from Waihi Beach, the now Hokitika based Corby Starlet ZK-TNT and the Greymouth owned Rans S 6ES Coyote II ZK-TNA.  In the hangar is the venerable Ercoupe ZK-AQX.

Thanks for your video Wally.

A visit to Springfield Estate by CMM

 Roving reporter CMM called in to the Springfield Estate on Sunday the 14th and captured the following aircraft.

ZK-SAT, c/n 402B-0990, is an Air Tractor AT-402B built at Olny, Texas, and test flown as N1010Y before shipping to New Zealand for assembly at Kairanga. It was registered on 05-12-1995 to Don Hart who trades as Skyfarmers Ltd out of the Springfield Estate near Methven.

The original Pratt & Whitney PT6A-15AG engine was replaced with a -34 engine and ownership transferred to Skyfarmers Aviation Ltd on 01-07-2013.

The Cessna 180K Skywagon ZK-DBA2 c/n 18053022 as listed with Skyfarmers Ltd of Methven.

More on ZK-DBS can be seen here  HERE

Fletcher FU24-950M ZK-BII c/n 36 was first registered back on 28-10-1955 and joined Don Hart - trading as Skyfarmers from 04-06-1991.

It spent its early years at the top of the North Island with Northern Aviation and Advanced Aviation before coming under the James Aviation name from February 1968. Between late 1968 and late 1969 it was in West Australia as VH-EOR until returning to NZ with Farmers Aerial Top Dressing of Invercargill (a subsidiary of James). From mid 1971 to mid 1974 it was listed as VP-PAV and operated in Honiara. 

Williams Aerial Work of Mt Maunganui listed it from July 1984 followed by Super Air of Hamilton from October 1988.

It still carries the small letter ' i ' between the 'B' and the first 'L' on its registration markings.

The other side of ZK-SAT following a wash down.

A special thanks to Duncan Hart for the chat and conducted tour.

A brief Rangiora stop over on Sunday.

              Locally based JMB Aircraft VL-3E-1 UL ZK-JMB2 c/n 252 returns from a local flight.

Hugo dropped in with the P J Fitzsimmons Ltd's Alpi Aviation Pioneer 300 RS Hawk ZK-MEK c/n 209. A recent acquisition to replace their on sold SOCATA Ralleye 235E ZK-FIT2.

           Out for a Sunday flight was the LightFlight Ltd's Tomark Aero Viper SD-4 ZK-SWV c/n 035.

All have been previously mentioned.