Skywork Helicopters AS 355N Twin Squirrel ZK-HZZ/7 at NZKF Today

Finally at last a really nice day for flying in the Mahurangi area!  So I drove out to the airfield and pulled Honey Bebe out for a flight.  As I was pre-flighting I heard the growl of an approaching helicopter as is not uncommon for NZKF.  But this one did an overhead rejoin and flew the circuit to a touchdown:

It was the Warkworth based Skywork Helicopters' Eurocopter AS 355N ZK-HZZ7 (c/n 5691).

It flew several circuits and auto-rotations and carried out some hovering and a bit of flying backwards.

 

I hand propped Honey Bebe and as I prepared to strap in I was a bit concerned about possible wake turbulence, however as I was ready to taxi he flew off.  I heard him later at Omaha Flats airfield.

Skywork have always presented their helicopters immaculately in their very distinctive and bright colour scheme (as far as I know).  But there is something different about this Skywork helicopter that Mike Condon photo's at Ardmore back on 29/9/12 - this one is in fact their AS 350 B3 Squirrel ZK-HZZ the Sixth ! 

But wait!  There is more!  This Skywork SA 355N Twin Squirrel was also photo'd by Mike Condon at Ardmore back on 19/3/08 and is ZK-HZZ the Fifth!! (c/n 5740).

This could be very confusing to helicopter spotters!