Lining Up for the Tiger Club Great South Island Lighthouse Tour

There were a few interesting sport and vintage aircraft overnighting at Omaka on Thursday 27 February and Zac Yates was there to get a few photos:

Tiger Moths ZK-BMY, ZK-BEF and ZK-BFF along with Auster J1 Autocar ZK-ASL2.  They were joined by Glastar Sportsman taildragger ZK-CDP2 and Cessna 180 ZK-AMK2 as the support aircraft.  They left on Friday morning along with the Omaka based Tiger Moth ZK-APP. 

If you are near a lighthouse in the South Island, look out for them!

And another Tiger Moth on the airfield was ZK-AJH which has been a long term restoration project in the Blenheim area since it was damaged at Omaka on 7 February 1955 when being flown by a trainee topdressing pilot.  According to legend, the owner of Aerial Work (Marlborough) Ltd, Snow Gatehouse, asked the young pilot:  "Got much gear?" to which the answer was "No", then it was "Good, then it won't take you long to pack!".  It was re-registered to Wayne Tantrum of Blenheim on 13 January 2025 - that is 70 years later!

I will leave the full history of ZK-AJH for another post, possibly by others more qualified than me!

Thanks very much for the photos Zac