Microlight Aircraft of New Zealand - Delore Trikes - ZK-Exx Registered and Unregistered Machines

Hot on the heels of the first Ultrasports trike (that I recently posted about), came the locally designed and built Delore trikes from Terry Delore.  Terry Delore had been building trikes from very early on as I have posted HERE.  The first Delore trike was registered on 6 April 1982 and I believe it is shown in the poor quality photo below:

ZK-EWT (c/n MAANZ/037) Delore Skytrike fitted with a Vampyre 164 hang glider wing.  Registered 6 Apr 1982 to A. F. Boyd, Christchurch, on 10 April 1982 it hit a barn at Burnham but was repaired, then 29 Jan 1988 Pete. J. Robinson, Christchurch, then 7 Nov 1990 D. C. Buckley, Brightwater, then 27 Jun 1994 John W. Leslie, Woodend.   Cancelled 17 Aug 2004 as withdrawn from use.

ZK-EXM (c/n MAANZ/166)  Delore Skytrike fitted with a Lancer 4L hang glider wing.  Registered 26 Oct 1982 to G. J. Adam, Mount Maunganui.  Damaged in unreported accident.  Pilot (not the owner) attempted a take-off in gusty conditions with some trouble, clipped the top of a tree, went into a steep wing over and dived steeply into the ground at Waihi 3 Jan 1988.  Cancelled 15 Feb 1989.

ZK-EYM (c/n MAANZ/056)  Delore Skytrike fitted with a Vampyre 185 hang glider wing.  Registered 9 Jun 1982 to D. J. Singer, Christchurch, then 25 Feb 1987 Y. K. Chau, Nelson, then 22 Dec 1987 C. A. Walls, Motueka, then 24 Jul 1989 D. Hutton, Nelson.  Cancelled 27 Nov 1995 withdrawn from use.

ZK-EZY (c/n MAANZ/094)  Delore Skytrike fitted with a Vampyre hang glider wing.  Registered 4 Aug 1982 to P. J. Karl, Ohaupo.  Cancelled 7 Oct 1999 as destroyed no accident recorded.  I spoke to Peter Karl about his trike and he told me he was a hang glider pilot and he ordered the trike unit from Terry Delore to hang below his existing hang glider wing.  He said the trike unit came with basic instructions and he had to calculate where to attach the wing to the trike unit. 

And the MAANZ list we have shows there have been 5 unregistered Delore Skytrikes as follows:

MAANZ/133.  Skytrike Wedgetail, Trevor Pentecost, Kaihoura.

MAANZ/135.  John Dickson, Christchurch.

MAANZ/136.  Rob Fisher, Governors Bay, Christchurch.

MAANZ/137.  Keith Woodham, Christchurch.

MAANZ/138.  Peter Coleman, Rukuhia, Hamilton.

I am not sure why these five were not registered.

Five bladed prop on the Dynamic ZK-ALL

 Noted at Rangiora on Friday was the Aerospool WT9 600 NG ZK-ALL2 c/n DY-860D of Aero Leasing Ltd.

 In its original form it had a three bladed propellor but now carries a five bladed Helix H42A of 1.75m on the front of its Rotax 916 engine.

Tests indicated an increase of static thrust of 40% with a corresponding increase in overall performance.

A closer look at the new prop.

For a look at the three bladed version HERE

N9099Z finally enters the ZK register as ZK-MLB

 The Piper PA-46-310P Malibu N9099Z c/n 46-08007 arrived in Rangiora in about July of 2007 and for almost twenty years has remained on the US register and flying around New Zealand - apart from a period of time parked up due to "technical difficulties".

My first decent photograph of it is above - taken at Rangiora on 04-11-2007.

And on 28-12-2009 it was parked out in the elements.

Noted on the move at Nelson on 13-02-2015.

The only obvious external change in all its time here is the addition of a three bladed propeller as seen here at Nelson, thanks to Bill Mannix, on 21-07-2024.

I heard a rumour earlier this month that it was soon to join the New Zealand civil aircraft register.And behold. 

Above.  Bill Mannix snapped this shot of it marked up as ZK-MLB at Nelson on 21-07-2026 outside the RepairCraft facility.

Below. Also captured the same day at Nelson.

More technical difficulties have delayed its official listing on the NZ Civil Aircraft Register until the  19-08-2026 for Mark Carnegie of Karamea.

This was a 1986 production from Piper which gained its Airworthiness certificate as N9099Z on 26-08-1986 and went to Kansas City Aviation Center Inc at Olathe, Kansas until on sold to Riteway Oil and Gas co Inc of Fairmont, Nebraska in January 1987. By August 1995 it was with Hangar Nine Inc of Omaha, Nebraska. on 16-12-1997 it was certified to Kennon Shea of Quincy, California.
It then appears to have been sold through Dan Jay Aircraft Sales Inc of Chico, California to Six Six Hotel Corporation of Bangor, Pennsylvania in 2007 (about the time it came to NZ) and then on 23-11-2009 it was certified to Throwaway LLC of Pen Argyl, Pennsylvania.

In NZ it was operated by Ian Andrews, initially out of Rangiora and then from Nelson. 

Whananaki for Lunch Today 20-8-2026

With the forecast of another stunning blue sky day in the North, Brien O'Brien called me and suggested we fly somewhere for lunch - what a great idea!  I have never flown into Whananaki so I suggested we go there.  There is a pretty good store there so something nice for lunch beckoned.  I had not flown on the coast North of Whangarei Heads so I was keen to have a look, and it was stunning!  We took off from Kaipara Flats airfield around 10 am in Brien's Fly Synthesis Texan ZK-TXN2 and as we climbed out there were several much faster RNZAF Texans in the area but they climbed higher than us.  We also heard the Dargaville Aero Club's Texan doing circuits and Harley was out flying on the West Coast in his Texan so there were Texans galore!

Flying North over Mangawhai with Whangarei Heads on the nose and the Hen and Chicken Islands to the right.

A closer look at the Hen and Chickens.

Ngunguru where Stuart Mitchell's  Avid Amphibian ZK-NGU used to fly.

The coast between Ngunguru and Tutukaka is spectacular (actually the whole coast is spectacular!).

Whananaki with the airfield at the wingtip and the Southern Hemisphere's longest footbridge on the left.

A lovely place to park up.  The tree behind with red flowers and no leaves is a flame tree.  We walked into the village and then across the longest foot bridge in the Southern Hemisphere before enjoying a nice lunch at the local beach store (delicious fish and chips).

After lunch we flew further North.  That is Whangaruru down there with Cape Brett in the distance.

Approaching Cape Brett.  The island is Motukokako with the famous Hole in the Rock.

Looking back at Cape Brett as we rounded it.  Click to enlarge to see the lighthouse (right of centre). 

Then we skirted around the edge of the Bay of Islands, that is Urupukapuka Island down there.

And we flew back down the coast.  A long shot of the Poor Knights Islands in the distance.

Back past Whananaki.

Past Tutukaka off to the right with Ngunguru in the medium distance.

Coming up to the Whangarei Heads from the North with the Hen and Chickens (right) and the Mokohinau Islands (left) with Little Barrier in the distance.

Quite a contrast to the beautiful seascapes we had been flying over - Marsden Point.

Then it was straight back to Kaipara Flats for coffee and cake!  A great day - thanks very much Brien.

Microlight Aircraft of New Zealand - Ultrasports Trikes

Well here goes with our early trikes.  In the date order of new types of microlight types the next type to appear, and our first registered trike was the Ultrasports Tripacer trike, the first of which was registered on 19 March 1982.  This trike was manufactured by Ultrasports of Edburton near Henfield in West Sussex in England.

For trikes I will give their weights and general performance, and for the Ultrasport Tripacer these are:  empty weight 180 pounds, MAUW 380 pounds, engine Robin EC25PS of 18 HP, maximum cruising speed 45 mph and stall speed 20 mph.

This is a photo of an Ultrasports Tripacer trike in the UK.  I have not been able to find any photos of New Zealand registered Ultrasports trikes, but we have had six of them registered (and one re-registered with a new registration), as follows:

ZK-EWN (c/n MAANZ/033) Fitted with a Shark 180 hang glider wing.  Registered on 19 Mar 1982 to Flight Sails Ltd, Takapuna, then 19 Apr 1982 G. B. Christophers, Wellington, then 7 Mar 1983 P. A. Devane, Wellington, then 15 Oct 1986 S. L. Southey, Bulls.  Cancelled 9 Mar 1992 as withdrawn from use.

ZK-EXX (c/n MAANZ/022) Fitted with a Lightning 190 hang glider wing.  Registered on 23 Apr 1982 to Shaun Q. Gilbertson, Otama, later Wanaka.  Cancelled 24 Jun 1992 as withdrawn from use.

ZK-EXZ (c/n MAANZ/036) Fitted with a Shark 180 hang glider wing.  Registered on 23 Apr 1982 to G. R. Henderson, Wendon Valley, near Gore Cancelled 31 Jul 1989.

ZK-FCJ (c/n MAANZ/057) Fitted with a Moyes Meteor hang glider wing.  Registered on 13 Aug 1982 to C. F. M. Dekkers, Nelson, later Christchurch.  Cancelled 10 Oct 1994 as withdrawn from use.

ZK-FCV (c/n MAANZ/086)  Fitted with a Shark 180 hang glider wing.  Registered on 31 Aug 1982 to S. J. Askew, Waiotemarama, near Rawene, then  13 May 1987 K. R. Hoffman, Auckland.   Cancelled Dec 1999 as withdrawn from use.

ZK-FSV (c/n MAANZ/419)  Fitted with a MIG 172 hang glider wing.  Registered on 10 Mar 1989 to P. J. A. Brown, Kaiapoi, then 1 Aug 1990 A. G. Hamilton, Oamaru.  Cancelled 12 Mar 1992 as withdrawn from use.  Restored on 21 Oct 1997 to P. J. A. Brown, Kaiapoi.  Cancelled 1 Aug 2000 as withdrawn from use. 

Re-registered as ZK-TXS on 19 Nov 2002 to P. J. A. Brown, Kaiapoi.  Hit tree attempting a forced landing at Loburn 12 Apr 2003 Cancelled 24 Jul 2003 as withdrawn from use.  Restored on 7 Jan 2004 to C. B. Davis, Queenstown.  Cancelled (finally!) Dec 2006 as withdrawn from use.

Tecnam P2012 Traveller ZK-JTK

The Queenstown Air Charters Tecnam P2012 Traveller ZK-JTK c/n 091 has been carrying out training flights in the Queenstown, Wanaka and Alexandra area.

It is seen here doing circuits at Alexandra through the lens of Steve Bunting.

It now carries small Queenstown Air Charter titles below the cockpit and also the Kea emblem which was on its tail during the ferry flight from Italy. 

It ferried out using the San Marino registration of T7-NZL reaching Auckland on 29-07-2026.

Glenorchy Air Service & Tourist Co Ltd/Queenstown Air Charter is the NZ launch customer for this aircraft type.

It will join the Companies two Daher Kodiak 100s ZK-KDK and ZK-KDI and the Two Cessna Caravan EXs ZK-MMZ and ZK-PPR

For more details 

       

  SEE HERE for its arrival at Ardmore from the 3rd Level New Zealand blog.

See HERE for more on the Queenstown Air Charter operations.

Spirit SE 1 to New Zealand!

Some readers of the blog may be aware of the all metal single seat Spirit SE 1 which was sensationally revealed at Oshkosh 2025 when four of them were flown in from their factory in Grand Junction Colorado.  As well, the SE 1 was powered by a brand new 42 HP 4 stroke inverted vee 2 cylinder engine that was also designed and built by Spirit in-house.  And not only all that, but Spirit Engineering Inc showed photos of dozens more of them back in the factory.  And before Oshkosh 2025 virtually no-one knew anything about the aircraft!

The specifications for the Spirit SE 1 are:  length 18 feet, wingspan 24 feet 7 inches, height 5 feet, width 7 feet 5 inches with wings folded.  Empty weight 420 pounds, MAUW 740 pounds.  Cruise speed at 75% power 100 mph with a maximum cruise speed of 112 mph.  And the price was US$69,500.

One year later at Oshkosh 2026, Flyer TV interviewed Steve Wood, CEO of Spirit Engineering Inc and the designer of the SE 1 about progress in their first year which has resulted in 42 aircraft delivered.  Here is the link to the Flyer TV interview:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SiDmdvCQnZM&t=3s 

Around 7 minutes and 50 seconds into the interview Steve Wood reveals that a Spirit SE 1 is on the water to New Zealand and due to arrive in Blenheim in late August!  When it gets here it will only be a matter of wheeling it out of the container and unfolding the wings, and it should be ready to go!

Rangiora Friday pie run 14-08-2026

 A nice catch at Rangiora today was the stopover of the Titan Tornado II ZK-JKD along with the ICP Savannah S ZK-JUN from Takaka.The Titan has been mentioned previously HERE

Following all the drama getting the engine problem resolved John Osmers named his aircraft "PERSEVERANCE"

Back in March John purchased the ICP Savannah S ZK-JUN from the Whangarei Flying Club and decided to sell the Tornado.

So, today's flight was the delivery of the Tornado from Takaka to Alexandra with its new owner Steve Bunting at the controls. 

Steve is well known from his SAB Avionics business - now Alexandra based.

ZK-JKD departing Rangiora for its new home at Alexandra.

Accompanying Steve down to Rangiora was John Osmers in his latest acquisition 

Savannah S ZK-JUN.

This Savannah, c/n 20-12-54-0751, was registered on 08-12-2022 as ZK-JUN to honour June Billings the Whangarei Flying Club patron and it first flew on 30-03-2023.

Above we see ZK-JUN departing Rangiora and heading back to its Takaka base.

ZK-JSS on a brief visit to Christchurch.

 The Piper Arrow III ZK-JSS flew into Christchurch from Omaka yesterday morning (14-08-2026) and returned to Omaka later in the day. Tony McFarlane was there to capture this image.

ZK-JSS c/n 28R-7837203 is a PA-28R-201 Arrow III. 

As the c/n implies this is a product of 1978 and was initially used in the USA as N9504C before ferrying out to NZ in October of 1990 for J S Spry of Wellington (hence the ZK-JSS registration) from 28-09-1990. After a period with Juliet Sierra Sierra Ltd of Johnsonville from mid 1994 until May of 1996 it went to Brian Swan of Dunedin. Chris Fleming of Mosgiel was next in line from September of 2017. then in May of 2022 Serge Luke took it on, still of Dunedin. From May of last year it has been listed with the JSS Syndicate of Blenheim.

Rangiora on Tuesday.

 Nothing new but a couple of interesting aircraft presented themselves today.

An out of towner in the form of Vans RV-7 ZK-SHN c/n 73115, as built by Christopher Schoen of Kaponga, is seen here in a very long shot of it trying to avoid the camera.

The Titan O-360 engine has a sound of its own.

This was first flown on 21-07-2013 by Les Worsley. 

It flew a pretty much direct from, and back to, Hawera today.

It as been mentioned several times on the pages previously.

Also previously covered was the locally based Just Aircraft SuperStol ZK-KAB2 c/n JA314-08-13 as owned by the KAB Syndicate.

The slats and slots show nicely.

Bristells Among the Sunflowers

A few months ago Martin Henton of the local Bristell agents took the opportunity to gather six Bristells together for a spectacular photoshoot among a field of sunflowers just before they were harvested:

The Bristells were ZK-NGZ, ZK-NGO2, ZK-NGT, ZK-EAC3 in the rear with ZK-SAM4 and ZK-DVB2 in front.

Thanks for the photo Martin.

Lancair ES ZK-EDZ has departed our shores.

 As I type this the Lancair ES ZK-EDZ2 c/n LES-254 is on is delivery flight to Slovenia.

It came to NZ as a ten year old having flown in the States as N764ES and listed here on 16-01-2014.

 I received the following from a regular blog reader :-

***************

Thought you’d be interested in the travels of Lancair, ZK-EDZ. 

I have been ‘looking after’ it for the last three or so years. 

Taking it for a warm up flight every month or so. 

It was owned by Kevin Foster at Motueka, who sadly passed away suddenly around 4 years ago. 

The aircraft took a while to sell and was eventually sold to a Slovenian three years ago.

This person is right now in the process of flying it to Slovenia. 

As I write this ZK-EDZ is heading towards Darwin.  

You can follow along HERE

Click on that link again

Then click on "logbook" at the top

Or scroll down to the bottom and click on "Check the route"

Then if you look at FlightRadar24 check its actual route.

(I hope these links all work).

Bird Dog ZK-LAO

Errol Cavit captured the Cessna 305A (O-1A) Bird Dog ZK-LAO c/n 21692 at Ardmore on Saturday the 8th of August.

It was restored at Ardmore and registered to the Lao Syndicate on 28-05-2024.

Since then it has gained underwing tanks and a modified undercarriage.

See HERE for an earlier post on ZK-LAO.

Topdressing DC 3s (7) - ZK-AZL

I am posting this series on topdressing DC 3s in alphabetical registration order, but ZK-AZL really deserves more prominence as it was the original Ag Dak from way back in 1954!

Douglas C-47B-35-DK (c/n 16568/33316) was built by The Douglas Aircraft Co, Oklahoma City, OK with 2x 1200HP 14-cyl R-1830-92 Twin Wasp radial engines as 44-76984 

18 May 1945 USAAF diverted through “Lend-Lease” and exported to New Zealand, flown to NZ 

NZ3545 17 Jun 1945 RNZAF 1 ASU, Hamilton. 

 22 Jun 1945 RNZAF 1 ARU. RNZAF 40 Sqn, Whenuapai 

Withdrawn from use 24 May 1946 and put in storage . Struck Off Charge 31 May 1947. 

ZK-AZL registered on 7 Apr 1953 to NZ National Airways Corp, Wellington.  Named “Kuaka” 

Was to be spare aircraft for the Royal Tour 1953 so she returned to NZ3545 RNZAF 42 Sqn but she was used as luggage aircraft for the tour.

ZK-AZL very early in its topdressing life at Rongotai on 13/7/54 and below at Ardmore in 1956.

ZK-AZL registered on 10 Apr 1954 to James Aviation Ltd, Hamilton.  Converted to topdresser by de Havilland Aircraft (NZ) Ltd at Rongotai. Test flown 4 Jul 1954 First topdressing job  1 Dec 1955.  Named “Hi Land Duster” 

We now jump forward to 28/8/86 when Don Noble took this nice photo of her at Ardmore.

Several of the James Aviation DC 3s were based at different aerodromes so James developed a way to transport small cars in the back of their D C 3s so the pilots could drive into town at the end of the day - these were Fiat 500s and later Minis.  They were driven up ramps through the large rear doors and stowed as shown in the above photo.  Ray Deerness has recounted an funny story about one of these cars: 

"Years ago, I was told by a Fieldair engineer that he had gone to Blenheim to work on a DC-3. The next morning, the plan was to fly him to Paraparumu to arrive in time for the Auckland train and he would travel on that to Palmy.  So all went well at first but the pilot forgot something, so he raced back to Blenheim and then back to Woodbourne but he got a speeding ticket. They got aboard the Dak and over to PPQ but it was getting tight.  At PPQ, they got the Mini out of the back and the raced to station BUT got another speeding ticket however they made the train.

 

So now with two speeding tickets, the pilot had to attend court. The pilot said to the magistrate. "There must be a mistake, I've got another speeding for the same morning. The time was 30+ minutes apart. Surely I could not have been in the South and North Island at the same time." The magistrate looked at the tickets and threw the case out. Over the years, the story got a bit better and different engineers and pilot names were suggested but I never did get the real story."

ZK-AZL was converted to single pilot operation by Airland (NZ) Ltd, Palmerston North, as were all the topdressing D C 3s.

Her last flight was on 4 Sep 1974 @ 14,043 hours flight time, and she was cancelled on 6 Jun 1984. 

Later she was displayed at Mystery Creek, near Hamilton Airport, then moved to Te Kowhai, then removed from Te Kowhai to allow for airpark development. 

This photo was taken at Te Kowhai at sunrise on 3/6/19.  Does anyone know where she is now?

Beech F33A Bonanza ZK-XPJ

An interesting visitor to Pauanui airfield today was the Beech F33A Bonanza ZK-XPJ.  Originally built in 1989 it was exported to Australia in mid 1990 becoming VH-XPJ.    Exported to New Zealand in 2017 it made an easy transition to ZK-XPJ and has been with its current Kerikeri owner since 2018.

 

Microlight Aircraft of New Zealand - Unregistered Ultra Flight Systems Trike 215 - a Better Outcome

In addressing microlight trikes in New Zealand, we open up a can of worms as they are so amorphous.  They can have different and sometimes interchangeable wings and when a new wing is fitted from another trike it could have the registration of the other trike, if it is even registered at all!  I reckon we have had around 140 trikes registered here and more have flown without being registered, as with the tragic case of Gregory Rogerson at Treble Cone that I posted recently.  Here is another example with a happier ending.

An early trike flying at one of the early Waitohi flyins.  How would you know what it was?

One of the many early types of trikes were the Ultraflight models.  These originated with Ultraflight Systems out of Modesto in California but I understand that they were produced locally by Steve Eldridge trading as Ultra Flight Systems at Hamilton.  I can find records that three of them were registered here but this story refers to an unregistered one that also didn't have a MAANZ number.  

It was partly owned by John Blauer of Tauranga, who was one of four pilots who flew the trike.  On 17 April 1983 a bracing wire snapped while it was flying near Papamoa and John Blauer who was wearing a parachute, parachuted to safety!  This must be one of the very few if not the only example of a pilot parachuting to safety from a stricken microlight.  Can anyone confirm this story or offer any more details?

Thanks to Janic Geelen for the information.

Microlight Aircraft of New Zealand - Unregistered Ultra Sports Trike Fatal Accident at Treble Cone

According to records an Australian, Gregory Rogerson, arrived in New Zealand on a working holiday in December 1981 and somewhere along the line he bought his Ultra Sports Tri Pacer Trike with a Vampyre 164 wing with him.  This was when the first microlights were being registered here but he never registered his trike although it definitely flew as he was involved in a fatal accident at the Treble Cone ski-field on 15 August 1983.  The trike also never had a MAANZ number.

While flying over the Treble Cone ski-field on 15 August 1983, the trike encountered turbulence which flipped it upside down several times and Gregory Rogerson was thrown out and fell to his death.