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).

The soon to be ZK-MUR arrived in Wellington from Brisbane on 28/1/86 as N72FD and it flew here as such for 5 months.  It is photo'd above as such at Christchurch on 25/3/86.

It was registered as ZK-MUR (c/n 729) on 5/6/86 to Murray Richmond of Featherston.  It is photo'd above, also at Christchurch on 27/3/87 at the air show in association with the finish of the PDL International Air Race.  It wasn't in New Zealand for very long as on 29/9/88 it was flown from Auckland to Brisbane (and I guess on to England) as on 15/10/88 it flew from Prestwick in Scotland to Reykjavick at the start of an Atlantic crossing on delivery to the USA.  On 17/10/88 it was flying across Greenland when it suffered an engine failure 3 miles from Narsarsuak and force landed (was it written off?).  Its New Zealand registration was cancelled on 20/2/89.

JMB is now VLE!

The demonstrator JMB VL3 of JMB Ltd in Amberly, ZK-JMB2 has recently been re-registered as ZK-VLE.

ZK-JMB2 has recently had VL3 titles added as in the above photo taken at the recent CRAC open day at Rangiora, which could almost pass for its new rego (well they do it for number plates!).

Sling 4 TSi ZK-MKV/2 to Oz

 

I took this photo of Andrew Dix's Sling 4 TSi ZK-MKV2 at Kaipara Flats airfield on Saturday 7 June 2025.  A short time later Andrew arrived with lots of stuff which he proceeded to load into the Sling in preparation for flying it to Australia.  Andrew's Sling is fitted with long range ferry tanks that he told me gave him a range of 11 hours! 

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.  

Question Time !

 Question time.

About three years ago I snapped this in 'someone's back yard'.

Any thoughts on what aircraft type we are looking at ?

A New International Service from Hamilton

We should record that international flights have resumed from Hamilton Airport after a gap of almost 13 years:

The inaugural Jetstar service to Sydney on Monday 16 June was operated by Jetstar's Airbus A 320 VH-XSJ

ZK-LFA between the inclemency at Wellington

The Beechcraft B200C King Air ZK-LFA c/n BB-1787 as operated by Life Flight at wet Wellington yesterday.

I had the dubious honour of passing through Wellington Yesterday, 11-06-2025.
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

 Tony McFarlin was on site at Christchurch International Airport on Tuesday the 10th to capture the Emirates Airbus A380-861 A6-EOD.

With the c/n of 168 it was test flown as F-WWSY on 16-07-2014 and was delivered to Emirates as 

A6-EDO on 10-12-2014.

As you can see it is in a special colour scheme advising us that Emirates are the "Official Airline Partner of the NBA". This was applied in October last year.

Previously A6-EOD has been marked up as "Real Madrid C.F" between March and June 2017; then as "Expo 2020" between November 2018 and August 2021; followed by "Journey of the Future" from November of 2022 until July of 2023.

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.

Above is a photo of ZK-AWY at Glenorchy in May of 1953, taken by Jacke Browne.

Obviously, no hopper at this stage.

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.

ZK-AWY aboard the MV Moana standing off near Frankton late February 1955.

It had another incident at Bell Hill Station, Canterbury, on 05-12-1958.

From early July of 1959 Southern Aviation Ltd of Gore had the use of it until it was returned to Southern Scenic Air Service Ltd from 07-03-1960.

The next lucky owner was J F Sutherland of Greenstone, up the western side of Lake Wakatipu from November of 1960.

Ray Goulden of Christchurch had it for a while in about the mid 1960's followed by B W J Squire of Timaru from early May of 1967.

And the unlucky final owner was John Young of Wanaka from mid September of 1967.

On 10-11-1967 it was parked near the Southland Aero Club buildings at Invercargill when it was dramatically overturned by the wind.

Three views of the Auster in the upright position.

Nothing that a good cut and polish wouldn't fix.

John went on to operate at least another eleven aircraft up until 2004.

A couple of helicopters at Ardmore

A brief visit to Ardmore today found the new Guimbal G2 Cabri ZK-HPT4 outside.  This was imported by the agent, Pacific Aircraft Services, in January 2025 and sold to its Auckland owner in April 2025. 

 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.

I came across it at Ashburton in 2009, 2011 and 2013 with Robbie having done some work on it. 
It is interesting to note that in the cockpit photos below - taken in 2009 and 2011 - it has been marked as ZK-ORR.

Robbie Orr at work on his project at Ashburton on 24-08-2009.

The cockpit showing the registration ZK-ORR on 24-08-2009.

Above and below - very kindly pushed out into the sunshine for a couple of photos on 24-08-2009.

In about late 2010 Robbie imported the Dyn'Aero MCR01 ULC and registered it as ZK-ORR

 

Above. On 05-02-2011 it has wings attached and canopy off.

A few months later on 20-07-2011 and still showing the registration ZK-ORR on the panel -

 - and in the background, you can see part of Robbie's Dyn'Aero (the real) ZK-ORR.

On 09-02-2013 at an open day at Ashburton I spotted this notice on the aircraft.

The unfinished project was on sold to Cranleigh Lee in about March of 2013. 

I believe it was stored for some time and that Cranleigh and his team had to do some fairly major work inside one, if not both, wings.

The aircraft was registered as ZK-CRV2 on 27-10-2021 to Cranleigh Lee of Katikati.

Above. ZK-CRV2  at Tauranga in November 2023. A Mark Pattenden photo.

It was first flown from Tauranga by Phil Hooker on 12-05-2025.

For photos of this event see HERE

Cessna 172B ZK-BZS Has Been Reborn at Whangarei!

Peter Garlick has sent in this very recent photo of the venerable but now reborn Cessna 172B ZK-BZS:

It has had a complete strip down and repaint by Northland Aero Maintenance that has transformed it, and it has been registered to them since March 2025.  Peter says it flies really well and is a genuinely good honest aircraft.

As the ZK-B registration indicates, the aircraft is quite old and in fact it was first registered in New Zealand on 16/2/61 which makes it more than 64 years old!  Dave Paull has nicely detailed its history in New Zealand in a blog post in 2015 with lots of photos including a couple by the late Jean210.  You can find that history HERE

N2WG pops into Christchurch on the 6th.

 The New Zealand based Cessna 510 Mustang N2WG msn 510-0459, as operated by Brookby Quarries Ltd, on long finals into Christchurch on Friday the 6th.

After a brief stopover it returned to Ardmore.

Brookby Quarries Ltd also operate the Robinson R66 Turbine ZK-HNG9..

Phenom N227SL on the prowl

 The Embraer Phenom N227SL c/n 50500305 was captured at Nelson on Wednesday the 4th of June by Bill Mannix.
It had flown Sydney to Christchurch on the 3rd.
The up to Nelson on the 4th.

Then it dashed down to Christchurch where I captured its approach (below) into the southerly that day.

From Christchurch it then proceeded to Masterton, Wellington, Sydney and then to Brisbane.

For history and a previous visit to NZ about a year ago SEE HERE

The Latest Air NZ Airbus

A photo taken from the internet shows Air New Zealand's latest Airbus, A 321 NEO ZK-NNH (c/n 12513) in a hangar at Hamburg.  It was registered as such on 30/5/25 and was test flown as D-AYAJ:

Look out for it at a main trunk airport near you, as I understand that it is going to be used on short and medium haul international services.

A Shark in its Element

Bruce Stevenson has sent a couple of air to air photos of him flying his Shark ZK-SAS2 near Thames yesterday (you sure wouldn't be flying up North today!):

You can really appreciate its lines in the air.

But the silver colour scheme is sometimes hard to see.

Thanks for sending the photos Bruce.

 Tony McFarlin was on the spot yesterday, June 2nd, to capture this image of the Alpine Group Ltd.'s Hughes 369D ZK-HOT8 c/n 1280415D parked outside the hangars on the Western Grass at Christchurch International Airport. This has been active in NZ since 1985 initially as ZK-HUW.

Over at the Christchurch Helicopters facility was their latest Airbus AS 350 B3 ZK-HWD4 c/n 8857 which was listed with them on 19-02-2025.

ZK-HWD now has a slightly amended paint scheme, compared with the 14-03-2025 photo.

SEE HERE for more on this airframe.

More Slings at Kaipara Flats on 2-6-2025

Following the early morning arrival of Alex Kaandorp in his demonstrator Sling 4 TSi and the successful test flight of Arjen Visser's Sling 4 TSi yesterday, in the afternoon Andrew Dix arrived in his Sling 4 TSi, so a photoshoot was in order!

All of New Zealand's flying Sling 4 TSi's:  ZK-DBV2, ZK-SLN and ZK-MKV2 lined up.  And our other sling, Darran Price's Sling 2 ZK-SLG was tucked up in a nearby hangar.  All of the Sling 4 TSi's have ZK markings I guess to reflect their potential international range.

The Test Flight for Sling 4 TSi ZK-DBV/2 Today 2-6-2025

After flying through Arjen Visser's test flight schedule in ZK-SLN, there was nothing holding Arjen back from test flying his brand new Sling 4 TSi ZK-DBV2:

Repeat the pull out procedure...

Engine warming up before heading down the ramp.

There was a light breeze right down Runway 25 so after all checks it was line up and lift off.

And after a flawless test flight it was back into the circuit looking really stable,

To touch down for a greaser of a landing!

After 4 years of work on his Sling, Arjen has good cause to look pretty happy!

Congratulations Arjen!

The Pre-Test Flight for Sling 4TSi ZK-DBV/2

After getting sign off from CAA for his Sling 4 TSi last week, Arjen Visser had to wait a few days for suitable weather.  Today 2 June was the day!  Alex Kaandorp flew his demonstrator Sling 4 TSi ZK-SLN up from Feilding in 1 hour 40 minutes, leaving at 7 15 am to cast a final second set of eyes over ZK-DBV2 before they both went for a flight in ZK-SLN to fly through Arjen's test flight regime.

The weather was near perfect with nice early lighting for lots of photos! 

Alex's Sling 4 TSi demonstrator ZK-SLN looking glorious in the sun.

Then electrically raise the hangar door for introductions!

Two equally shiny Slings.

After a thorough duplicate pre-flight inspection pull ZK-SLN out for the pre-test flight flight.

Down the ramp onto the airfield for a flight of 20 minutes or so over the airfield at around 3,000 feet.

ZK-IGH at Rangiora

 A really nice catch at Rangiora on Saturday was the Rotorway Exec 162F ZK-IGH2 c/n 6632.

Below is a long distance shot of it hovering during a test flight on the far side of the airfield.

                                                 Above and below. Approaching the fuel pumps.

It has been mentioned several times previously HERE

This is the first time I have seen it committing aviation.