Tony McFarlin captured these two jets arriving into Christchurch on Saturday.
Sunday, 6 July 2025
Two Christchurch arrivals on Saturday the 5th.
Saturday, 5 July 2025
Jean Saint-Germain Raz-Muts of New Zealand (Only One)
The unattractive sounding Raz-Mut was designed by Jean Saint-Germain of Drummondville in Quebec in 1976. I reckon it was also unattractive looking! It was designed as an easy to build and easy to fly ultralight but in New Zealand our sole example was registered as an Amateur Built Aircraft under the auspices of the AACA (Amateur Aircraft Constructors Association). The fuselage construction was based on the Bensen B8 gyrocopter and the wings were of all aluminium construction and the empennage was aluminium with fabric covering. An example was flown at Oshkosh in 1977 with a 1700cc VW engine. The Raz-Mut was marketed as a kit.
Empty weight was around 173 Kg (380 pounds) and the MAUW was 363 Kg (800 ponds). The performance was not spectacular with a cruise speed of 60 knots and a stall speed of around 33 knots.
We have had only one Raz-Mut constructed in New Zealand as follows:
ZK-LGW (c/n AACA 574) was built by Laurie Grant of Warkworth (hence the registration I assume) and it was registered to him on 2/3/83. It was powered by a 1834cc VW engine. Laurie was an ex WW II Spitfire pilot and a founding member of the Rodney Aero Club at Kaipara Flats airfield. Laurie assembled his Raz-Mut at Ardmore where Bob Kerr took the above photo in December 1982. I think it test flew at Ardmore but on 23/5/83 Laurie attempted his first flight at Kaipara Flats where the aircraft stalled on climb out and crashed, injuring Laurie Grant. It was not rebuilt and was cancelled from the register on 28/9/90.Wednesday, 2 July 2025
Homebuilt Gliders of NZ - Aviastroitel AC 5M Update
Back in 2012 I posted a series on the blog about homebuilt gliders of New Zealand, at which time I reckoned there had been 19 of them. However I have recently discovered another one, being the Aviastroitel AC 5M MZ35 ZK-GPF2:
ZK-GPF2 (c/n 016) was built from a kit in America by William C Ballard of St Petersburg, Florida and registered to him as N516R on 9/10/01. It flew for around 16 hours in America before it was cancelled on 9/11/05 and shipped to New Zealand. It was registered here as an Amateur Built Glider on 21/12/05 to Neville R Swan of Auckland (Neville Swan has owned several amateur built gliders). It was re-designated as a Class 1 microlight on 5/5/06. It is photo'd above at Whenuapai on 3/3/07. On 22/9/07 its ownership changed to Thomas O'Rourke of Auckland and on 3/1/11 one of its propellor blades hit the air filter and was damaged, resulting in a forced landing near Whenuapai with quite a lot of damage when it hit a fence post. However it was repaired and is still current with Thomas O'Rourke.Monday, 30 June 2025
Sunday, 29 June 2025
Nelson visitors 29-06-2025
Super Rallye on a Pole at Dannevirke!
I had heard about this from press reports, but yesterday Simon Hills and Jordan Elvy were passing through Dannevirke and spied the re-creation of the Morane-Saulnier MS 885 Super Rallye ZK-CGZ displayed on a pole:
A stranger at Rangiora on the 24th.
Parked outside the Canterbury Recreational Aircraft Club at Rangiora on Tuesday the 24th was the Aeroandina MXP-150 'Kimbaya' ZK-RTZ c/n AA-02-14-15-056 as registered to Pan Tam Holdings Ltd on 04-02-2025.
Friday, 27 June 2025
Christchurch diversion for China Eastern A330 B-5943
ZK-LFW/2 - the Latest Life Flight Beech King Air
Tim Gorman photo'd Life Flight's latest Beech B 200C King Air ZK-LFW2 (c/n BL-156) at Palmerston North a few days ago:
ZK-LFW2 is ex VH-VAH and was registered in September 2024 and is Life Flight's fifth King Air, the others being ZK-LFA, LFI and LFL all based at Wellington, and ZK-LFT based at Hamilton.Thursday, 26 June 2025
More MUR
Wednesday, 25 June 2025
Question Time ! Correctly answered. NAVAL N3N.
Tuesday, 24 June 2025
Same Same but Different
Wayne Grant was on site at Ardmore recently to capture David Wilkinson undertaking the first flight of the Taylor Coot ZK-JST in a very long time:
Monday, 23 June 2025
Zlin Trener Master ZK-CJY returns.
A Bit More on Our SF 260
Following on from my post on our SF 260C ZK-MUR yesterday, John Wagtendonk has come up with an interesting photo of it as N72FD:
This photo was taken at Masterton on 9/3/86 which if you have a look at my previous post must mean that it arrived in New Zealand in this plain scheme and had the green and brown camouflage painted on here (possibly in Christchurch as in Bob Kerr's photo taken just 16 days later. Anyone got any better ideas?Saturday, 21 June 2025
We once had a SIAI Marchetti SF 260 in New Zealand
Did you know that we once had a SIAI Marchetti SF 260 registered in New Zealand? I didn't until I recently came across a photo of it while looking at stuff from the PDL International Air Race that was run from London to Christchurch in 1987. The aircraft was a SF 260C registered as ZK-MUR.
The aircraft was designed in the early 1960s by Stelio Frati for Aviamilano and it was his first all metal design. Stelio Frati also designed the classic Falco and the SF 260 shares some of the lines of the Falco as well as the same wing and some structures. It was designed to be an aerobatic sport aircraft but was also pitched at the military It was very successful in its military guise as a trainer or light attack aircraft, and in fact it served in a remarkable 33 Air Forces around the world. Of the around 1,000 aircraft produced the big majority went to military customers. The aircraft was developed a lot during its life and in 1980 a turbo prop version was developed using an Alison 250 engine
The SF 260 had a length of 7.10 metres (23 feet 4 inches), a wingspan of 8.35 metres (27 feet 5 inches) over its tip tanks. Its empty weight was around 755 Kg (1,664 pounds and it had a MAUW of 1.200 Kg (2,646 pounds). With an IO 540 engine its maximum speed was 180 knots (333 km/hr) with a stall speed of 68 knots (126 km/hr).
Thursday, 19 June 2025
JMB is now VLE!
The demonstrator JMB VL3 of JMB Ltd in Amberly, ZK-JMB2 has recently been re-registered as ZK-VLE.
Wednesday, 18 June 2025
Sling 4 TSi ZK-MKV/2 to Oz
Later in the day he took off for Kerikeri where he had booked customs for Monday morning, and on Monday 9 June he flew from Kerikeri to Norfolk Island. Then after what I assume was weather delays, he flew yesterday 17 June from Norfolk to Coolangatta on the Gold Coast.
Andrew will register his Sling in Australia so it will be cancelled from our register in due course. And he asked me not to do this post until he had arrived in Oz. Congratulations Andrew on a pretty impressive accomplishment.
Tuesday, 17 June 2025
A New International Service from Hamilton
We should record that international flights have resumed from Hamilton Airport after a gap of almost 13 years:
Thursday, 12 June 2025
ZK-LFA between the inclemency at Wellington
This was the only worthwhile photo I took during a brief break in the inclement weather.
Originally N44857 with Raytheon Aircraft Co followed by a brief spell listed with HPP Aviation Services Inc of Sun Valley, California. It was modified with a large cargo door, two stretchers and three seats and went to Australia and became VH-MSH3 on 22-10-2002.with the Royal Flying Doctor Service of Australia.
It arrived at Palmerston North on 21-07-2022 for NZ certification, registered as ZK-LFA to Air Freight Ltd on 29-07-2022, for operations with Life Flight out of Wellington.
Emirates NBA rep A6-EOD in town
Tuesday, 10 June 2025
Auster J1B Aiglet ZK-AWY
In the 1950's the New Zealand agents for Auster Aircraft was British Aircraft Ltd of Wellington who imported at least sixteen Auster aircraft.
One of these was the Auster J1B Aiglet c/n 2668 which became ZK-AWY on 01-06-1951 before being issued with a CofA on 19-05-1951 and placed briefly to J P Hunt of Wanaka and then on to Southern Scenic Air Services Ltd of Queenstown from 23-01-1952.
It had a heavy landing at Mount Nicholas Station on 25-02-1955 and was freighted back to Frankton Airfield on the MV Moana for repairs.
A couple of helicopters at Ardmore
And over at HeliSika Agriculture the newly acquired AS350B3 ZK-HIN5 has now acquired the company's titling.
What ever happened to that Vans RV-4. ZK-CRV maybe ?
Back in about 1987 Gary Conroy and Terry Smith of Hastings submitted drawings/plans for a Vans RV-4 to the NZCAA . These were approved and the project was commenced.
Considerable work on this project was completed but for reasons (unknown to me) the project was sold at about the turn of the century to Robbie Orr of Christchurch.
It is interesting to note that in the cockpit photos below - taken in 2009 and 2011 - it has been marked as ZK-ORR.
It was first flown from Tauranga by Phil Hooker on 12-05-2025.
For photos of this event see HERE