After the arrivals of the Dragon and Moth Minor the next aircraft to arrive in the lovely sunshine was Russell Jenkins' immaculate A 75 Stearman ZK-RJS2:
Tuesday 21 May 2024
Kaipara Flats Wings and Wheels (3) - Stearman ZK-RJS
Monday 20 May 2024
Kaipara Flats Wings and Wheels (2) - DH Moth Minor ZK-AKM
Another super rare aircraft that flew up to Kaipara Flats on Sunday with the DH 84 Dragon ZK-AXI was Stan and Gilly Smith's DH 94 Moth Minor ZK-AKM which was flown by Michael Bach. I don't know how many Moth Minors might be flying worldwide but it would be very small. And I reckon the chances of seeing a DH Dragon and a DH Moth Minor flying together would be unique in the world.
Sunday 19 May 2024
Kaipara Flats Wings and Wheels (1) - DH Dragon ZK-AXI
The Rodney Aero Club and the Waitemata Vintage Car Club held a very successful Wings and Wheels event at Kaipara Flats airfield today. It was a fantastic Autumn day and the turnout of both aircraft and cars exceeded everyone's expectations.
There were some wonderful aircraft there that deserve a separate post so I will start off with Stan and Gilly Smith's amazing DH 84 Dragon ZK-AXI which is one of only a very few flying worldwide (maybe only three?):
Saturday 18 May 2024
Warming up for Wings and Wheels at Kaipara Flats
There is a Wings and Wheels event happening at Kaipara Flats airfield tomorrow, hosted by the Rodney Aero Club and the Waitemata Vintage Car Club, and the weather forecast is great! There were a few interesting vintage arrivals today ahead of the event tomorrow:
Rangiora on Friday the 17th.
Four of our five examples are now based is this area.
Thursday 16 May 2024
Newly Refurbished Robertson B1-RD ZK-RSN
I was interested to see that Robert McNair recently registered his refurbished Robertson B1-RD microlight ZK-RSN recently, and now David Wilkinson has supplied a photo of it. David has recently been flying the B1-RD and loving it - no doubt quite a change from his One Design and Pitts!
ZK-RSN (c/n 1S036) was registered to Rob McNair on 23/11/23 and Rob told me that restoring the microlight was a big job as all of the 6061 aluminium had to be replaced due to corrosion and Rob sourced all original tubing from the US. It is powered by a Rotax 503 engine.Wednesday 15 May 2024
Curtis P40E ZK-RMH gone - Update
Back on 11 March Dave Paull posted that the very historically significant Curtis P40E Kittyyhawk ZK-RMH had been cancelled from the register on 1 March 2024. You can refer to that post HERE
The Kittyhawk is now owned by Kennedy Air Service Pty Ltd of Gunnedah in NSW as VH-AK4:
Tuesday 14 May 2024
Rans Outback ZK-YAW at Rangiora update
Newly Minted Vans RV 7 ZK-MNT at Waipukurau 12-5-2024
The Central Hawkes Bay Aero Club hosted their annual Dawn Raid at Waipukurau on Sunday 12 May and there was a great turnout of around 60 aircraft. Most have already been covered here but one was wearing a new registration:
ZK-MNT (c/n 70334) was up from Masterton where it is based. It was damaged in a take off incident in Northland a couple of years ago and was repaired by Northland Aviation at Whangarei. During its time there it was re-registered as ZK-MNT on 11/9/23. Thanks for the photo Jordan.But if it looks familiar it is. It it the "old" ZK-DES3 which was imported into New Zealand by Des Barry back in November 2010. It is photo'd above taking off from North Shore on 24/2/13.Monday 13 May 2024
Hughes 369D ZK-IMT at North Shore Today 13-5-2024
I had reason to be down at North Shore airfield this afternoon when the racy sound of an approaching Hughes 500 got louder until he alighted at the fuel pumps.
It was the Hughes 369D ZK-IMT which has been registered to ZK Leasing Ltd of Auckland since 31/3/23. While we were both at different fuel pumps, I was getting Avgas and he was in for Jet A1.A brace of Caravans at Paraparaumu.
Mentioned previously Here.
As such it ferried via Honolulu and Apia on 26-05-2023 and into Auckland on the 28th.
Sunday 12 May 2024
Helicopters at Mechanics Bay Yesterday 11-5-2024
Yesterday I was instructed to be on taxi duty down to Auckland (and return) for the NZ Ballet matinee so I had a couple of hours to kill. What to do? Drive down to Mechanics Bay to see what I could see:
HeliMe's Airbus EC 130 T2 ZK-HIJ5 was parked out. It is branded as an ACH 130 which is the Aston Martin bespoke model with the leather interior and jazzy colour scheme.Beech Super King Air ZK-RSQ
Allister Jenks.
Saturday 11 May 2024
A Deep South Visitation to the North
A group of very slick high performance microlights have recently been touring around the North Island and on Thursday night 9 May they overnighted at Kaipara Flats airfield. I caught up with them on the Friday morning, two BRM Aero Bristells and three Aerospool Dynamic WT 9s. They were:
Nigel Forrester's latest aircraft, the lovely red taildragger Bristell ZK-TDN (c/n 174/2016) has not appeared on the blog previously. Nigel imported it from Australia where it was VH-ZYT and before that 24-8698. It is based at Alexandra.Friday 10 May 2024
A Short Flight up the Waitemata Harbour
Another reason for my flight down the North Shore Transit Lane yesterday was to turn right at North Head and fly up Auckland Harbour. It seems remarkable that you can do this but you can - just call Harbour Traffic on the Hauraki Gulf frequency 120.4. Again I flew at 800 feet which gave spectacular views: (You can click the photos once or twice to enlarge them)
I tracked just outside the Devonport Naval Base and the Devonport Wharf and on to North Head for my flight back up the transit lane. I bet you couldn't fly this close to a main Naval Base in many other countries!