AACA Historical - Rand KR 1 ZK-EKT

Over the years I have occasionally posted photos of historical AACA aircraft as I have come across them.  Here is another one of a unique homebuilt:

Bob Maisey flying his Rand Robinson KR 1 ZK-EKT over Taupo.  It is only 12 feet and 9 inches long!

I have posted about ZK-EKT back in January 2012 and you can find that post HERE  I can add one bit of information to that post in that ZK-EKT was cancelled from the register as withdrawn on 8/6/16.

Beaver ZK-CKH

After Air Contracts had received their first two Beavers, another one arrived for Air Services (Wairarapa) Ltd also of Masterton who were I think closely linked to Air Contracts at the time.

This "new" Beaver was registered ZK-CKH but it has the longest history of any of the New Zealand Beavers being the 25th aircraft off the DH Canada production line at Downsview, Ontario, in 1948.  It was delivered to South Africa to become ZS-DCG for De Havilland Aircraft of South Africa (Pty) Ltd on 24/11/48 and then to Tank Aircraft (Pty) Ltd of Johannesburg.  It was flown to Libya in 1961 where it became G-ARTR for B L R Pocock of Old Bosham, Sussex, England on 5/10/61 and while in Libya it wore "Libyan Aviation contracted to CAMDRILL" titles.  It was back in England by mid 1964 and then was cancelled from the UK register on 7/8/64 and shipped to New Zealand where it arrived on 7/10/64.

ZK-CKH (c/n 25) was assembled by Hawker Siddeley at Wellington and was registered to Air Services (Wairarapa) Ltd of Masterton on 21/12/64.  It was delivered soon after and was flown by Air Services' chief pilot Neil Middlemiss.  This photo is on a maintenance visit to Wellington in 1965.

It is photo'd here at Masterton on 25/3/67

And again on 3/10/73 with different script for the titles.

It was withdrawn from service in November 1974 for a Certificate of Airworthiness overhaul and did not fly again until 27/6/78.  I am not sure if this photo was after this work, but it is also at Masterton.  Ownership changed in a restructure on 19/8/80 to Air Services (1979) Ltd of Masterton.

On 2/9/82 ownership changed to Des Menary of Kaikohe who traded as Asta Aerial and I guess these were the colours when he operated it.  Later ownership changed briefly to James Aviation Ltd of Hamilton on 8/5/84 and the above photo was taken at Rukuhia on 5/2/84.

On 1/6/84 ownership changed again to Eddie F Doherty, Bruce N Coulter and Ian C Reynolds of Auckland and I think they were the founding members of the Beaver Syndicate of NZ Warbirds.  I am not sure where or when the above photo was taken but it could be in late 1984 or early 1985 as during 1985 ZK-CKH was painted to represent the RNZAF Antarctic Flight Beaver NZ6001, named "City of Auckland".  It has since had another repaint.

On 20/3/02 ownership changed to the Beaver Preservation Trust of Auckland with whom it still flies for NZ Warbirds, 22 years later.  The above photo was taken at the Kaipara Flats Wings and Wheels day on 19/5/24

ZK-CKH is quite a remarkable aircraft whose history goes back almost to when I was born, and there are 59 years between the first and last photos that I took of her above!

Guimbal Cabri G2 ZK-IKO/2

Visiting Pauanui today was Guimbal Cabri G2 ZK-IKO2 which was added to the Ardmore Helicopters' training fleet back in April 2024.   It was originally imported in 2023.

 

Rotorway Exec ZK-HYE/4

A couple of days ago I met up with Phil Finlayson at his workshop near Dairy Flat.  Phil has a couple of  Rotorway Exec helicopters and has recently completed his ZK-HYE4 ready for CAA inspection.  Phil's other Exec is ZK-HWZ2 that he recently acquired from Tim Pike of Waiuku.  Phil also sent me a photo of ZK-HYE4 on its trailer at Whangarei :

ZK-HYE4 has a c/n of AACA/545 which is the same c/n one of our earliest Rotorway Execs ZK-HUB which I posted about (with others) HERE.  ZK-HUB was cancelled as withdrawn on 25/7/11 and ZK-HYE4 was registered on 27/6/23.  I also saw it in a hangar at the 2014 SAANZ flyin at Bridge Pa in Hastings when Cliff Johnston was rebuilding it.  Somewhere along the line Phil acquired it and it has been rebuilt to Exec 162 standards.  Phil intends to fly his Exec at Whangarei.

Cessna 172M ZK-EKP

 Cessna 172M Skyhawk II ZK-EKP c/n 17267279 was a product of 1976 and initially registered in the US as N73130 spending time with Iowa Aviation of Des Moines, Iowa before being shunted down to NZ to be registered here as ZK-EKP on 21-09-1977 to Dennis Thompson International Ltd at Ardmore.

It went on line with the Auckland Aero Club officially from 11-10-1977.

It is seen above at Christchurch on 29-12-1978.

And below at Ardmore on 04-09-1979.

 It was sold to R & S Hines of Tokoroa. from 19-03-1981 and then to Waitomo Air Services Ltd of Te Kuiti from 26-02-1987. 
It soon moved on to Commercial Helicopters Ltd (Keith McKenzie) of Taumaranui, who traded it under the Mountain Air label from 18-11-1987.

Above we have ZK-EKP at Christchurch on 29-08-1989 in its distinctive Mountain Air scheme.

Above is a view of it departing the Chateau strip

Noted above at Tauranga on 18-03-2000 minus the Mountain Air graphics on its tail.

From around 2007 it was transferred to Brent & Cathy Guy who traded as Mountain Air Ltd, Mt Ruapehu from 29-10-2008. 

It is seen below at Tokaanu on 22-03-2008.
What is that mounting bracket for on the wing strut ?

In mid-May of 2021, it moved to New Plymouth for Flighttech Ltd and was snapped below at Pauanui on 06-01-2022. 

It then went to Paul Jury, also of New Plymouth, from 07-03-2022.

A change of colour scheme then took place - replacing the multi colour with black and white.

The new paint job was noted at Ardmore on 23-07-2022.

Susan Kronfeld of Kaikoura listed it from 19-04-2024.

Above we see it at Kaikoura with a red port wing tip and a black Starboard tip. Also on bigger main wheels.

EC130T2 ZK-IGW 2

Noted today at Inflite's Albany base was the new EC130T2 ZK-IGW2.   This was registered in May this year replacing the earlier EC130B4 ZK-IGW which was briefly reregistered ZK-IGX before settling on ZK-ISZ with Advanced Flight Ltd.

 

Beaver ZK-CGS

Alongside the many Fieldair Beavers that were imported in the mid 1960s, Air Contracts of Masterton also imported several Beavers to work alongside their ZK-BFO.  The first of them (and Air Contracts second Beaver) was ZK-CGS (c/n 802).

DHC 2 Beaver c/n 802 was shipped to Sierra Leone in 1955 where it became VR-LAA, registered to the Sierra Leone Selection Trust Ltd of Lungi on 2/12/55.  The Sierra Leone Selection Trust was involved with diamond mining.  Later it became 9L-LAA in April 1961 when Sierra Leone became independent.  Then it was shipped to New Zealand arriving in December 1963.

ZK-CGS (c/n 802) was registered to Air Contracts Ltd of Masterton on 14/1/64.  I photo'd it above outside the Hawker Siddeley hangar at Wellington airport prior to delivery in March 1964.

Here is another photo of it from the Peter Lewis Collection, taken from an almost identical position in March 1964.  Peter doesn't have a record of who took the photo, and he also has another almost identical photo of it taken by Neville Drake.  It must have been a very attractive angle of the Beaver that potentially three of us took almost identical photos.

 

Here it is at its home base at Hood aerodrome at Masterton in 1965.

And here it is earning its keep.  

However it was tragically lost in an accident at Awatea Station, Tinui, East of Masterton on 6/5/65 when it lost power on take-off and hit a fence, then flew on until it hit a hillside and crashed and burned, killing the pilot.  It was cancelled from the New Zealand register on 21/9/65. 

Guimbal Cabri G2 ZK-HXE delivered.

 The Guimbal Cabri G2 ZK-HXE4 c/n 1352 joined our register on 13-05-2024 for Andrew Hay and Belinda Brice of Albany.

It is seen above on 09-07-2024 - not long after coming out of its box at Christchurch.

And below on 23-07-2024.It departed Christchurch this morning and dropped in to Paraparaumu then on to Waiheke Island and finally to its new home out west of Albany.

Bolkow Junior ZK-CJL at Paraparaumu

Bolkow Bo 208C Junior ZK-CJL is now based at Paraparaumu airport where Jordan Elvy took this photo recently:

It was registered to the MT Welcome Family Trust Ltd of Pukerua Bay on 27/6/24.  We haven't had a very good photo of it on the blog previously so thanks for the photo Jordan.

A couple from Taranaki

Noted parked up today at the Beck Helicopters' base near Eltham was Murupara based Helicopter Resources' Bell 206B ZK-HIX3.    This was imported by the company from the US in 2017.

Up the road at Stratford airfield was the rarely seen Zenith CH601 ZK-SPD.   This was built back in 2012 and acquired by a New Plymouth owner in late 2022.

 

NZ7011 arrives at Whenuapai yesterday

 Pete Pattinson was on hand at Whenuapai yesterday afternoon to capture the arrival of the first of the five new Lockheed C130J-30 Hercules aircraft for the RNZAF.
NZ7011 c/n 382-5978 first flew on 05-04-2024 and was accepted by the RNZAF on 08-08-2024.

See here  https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=8322756984407821

Its ferry flight was via Little Rock, Jacksonville, Fairfield, Honolulu and Apia.

See the Honolulu Rare Birds link below.

https://hnlrarebirds.blogspot.com/2024/09/royal-new-zealand-air-forces-nz7011.html

Arriving into Whenuapai yesterday.

A Couple of NSAC aircraft at North Shore Today

On my way back home after a morning coffee with friends at Browns Bay, I called into North Shore airfield where there was some action among the North Shore Aero Club planes:

I had not realised but Cessna 172M ZK-EFA is now with NSAC, as from 24/6/24.

And then the club's Beech 76 ZK-CGW2 arrived overhead and landed, seen here from a different angle.  

I have recently posted about the first ZK-CGW which was a Fieldair Beaver.

Beaver ZK-BFO

Back in 1954 Beavers were operated as topdressers by Rural Aviation (2), Fieldair (3) and James Aviation who had 2 as topdressers and then bought ZK-BFO as a 6 passenger version to operate the "Beaver Trail" between Rotorua, Kawerau and Mangere.

ZK-BFO (c/n 609) was registered to James Aviation Ltd of Hamilton on 1/6/54.  It is seen here in passenger configuration at the old Rotorua airport at Fenton Street probably in 1955 or 1956 as the first "Beaver Trail" service was operated on 23/12/54.

However the passenger service didn't last very long and it was converted to a topdresser by October 1956 as in this photo, also at the old Fenton Street airport at Rotorua.  It had a bad month in April 1957 as on 11/4/57 it slid on wet super on a topdressing strip at Rotoiti and hit a loader.  It can't have been badly damaged as only a couple of weeks later, on 27/4/57, it ground looped on landing, also at Rotoiti, and ended up running backwards off the airstrip and being badly damaged.

The damaged aircraft was sent to Airwork Ltd in Christchurch for rebuild and it remained with them as a topdresser as in the above photo, and also below in colour.

It later acquired large AIRWORK script as in this photo at Christchurch airport.  It was again damaged, this time at Scargill, North Canterbury on 28/2/64 when it hit a fence on takeoff.

This time it was sent to Hawker Siddeley Aviation at Wellington for rebuild, being transported by Bristol Freighter as seen in the photo below.

It reappeared for Air Contracts Ltd of Masterton on 6/11/64, and it is photo'd above outside the Hawker Siddeley hangar at Wellington.

Here it is at Masterton in 1968.  It suffered a couple of other incidents with Air Contracts, being damaged near Masterton on 17/10/66 and again on 28/2/67 when it hit a post on take off at Te Ore Ore and was further damaged when landing back at Masterton.  It was again rebuilt and flew again on 4/6/68

It was again rebuilt and flew again on 4/6/68, I guess in blue and white colours as in this photo taken at Masterton in 1969 after it had been retired from topdressing.  

It was cancelled from the New Zealand register on 26/1/70 and shipped back to Canada where it became CF-AXD for Bannock Aerospace of Toronto on 14/5/70 and then straight to Cross Lake Air Services Ltd of  Wabowden, Manitoba.  They operated the aircraft as a floatplane, and on 10/6/72 it was involved in a fatal accident near the Nelson River in Manitoba.  It was cancelled from the Canadian civil register in December 1972.

AS350B2 ZK-HAN 2

 Grounded by fog at Kihikihi was Rotor Work's AS350B2 ZK-HAN2 which has just been fully refurbished and repainted in the company's new fleet colours.   This was originally imported from the USA in 2013.