Question time #8

What, Why and When is it mainly used ?

OK ; its not a civil aircraft ; but it is in civilian hands.

Question time #7 Answer

You have been looking at a section of the instrument panel of the Travel Air 4000 N688K . c/n 1323 belonging to Des Lines at Swannanoa, North Canterbury.

Its been in country for about five years now and has hopes of becoming ZK-TVL.

There is at least four others in country. Anybody seen them lately ?

I know there is N8192 . c/n 894 , with Hallett Griffin at Kairanga. What about the others ?

The "Flying Vet"

I imagine by now you will all have read the latest copy of Pacific Wings Magazine from cover to cover.
On page 19 there is a five liner about the "Flying Vet" Maurice John Kirk.
Just to refresh you memory.
Maurice Kirk has been on a World trip for some time in his Piper J3C-65 Cub G-KIRK "Liberty Girl"
John was flying around NZ during 2004 and was at the Wanaka Show.
There is a web site : Try a google on G-KIRK and try to navigate your way around.
There are some good pics of the aircraft at various NZ spots. The shots inside the cockpit give some idea of the Maurices attention to detail !
These three shots were taken by Swampy Crompton (the Met man) at Hokitika during the 2004 air race.

Maurice has a small collection of aircraft back home including a MS885, Auster 6A, DH2 replica, Taylorcraft BL-65, Pietenpol Chaffinch, A TEAM Himax and now doesn't have the Cub after its ditching. He has advertised most of the above to raise more funds to purchase another aircraft to complete the World trip.

Learn the rest of the story from the web site.

Shot from behind

Todays action shot at Helipro's pad at Christchurch.

Left to right.

ZK-HYU/2. R22 . c/n 3286.

ZK-IXG. R44. c/n 10751. Still listed to Pikea Helicopter Safaris.

ZK-HLY/2. R44. c/n 1115.

ZK-HFY/2. R22. c/n 0785.

ZK-HVS/3. R22 . c/n 2849.
ZK-HWU/2. R22. c/n 1407.

Out of shot to the right was winch equiped BK117 A-3 ZK-HYE/3 . c/n 1008 which recently replaced BK117 ZK-HYZ/3.

HYE pic taken on 29-05-08.

King Air ZK-PLK enters service

Skyline Aviation's King Air 200 ZK-PLK is ready for air ambulance operations following its refit at Hamilton. As N188TC, it arrived into Hamilton at the end of March and subsequently flew as ZK-PLK to Hastings on 28May. Today, 30May, it flew to Auckland, Hamilton and back to Hastings on a flag waving exercise.

Wayne Grant captured the aircraft during its time in Auckland. Note the small "Skyline Aviation" titles on the rear, lower fuselage.

Something To Be Going On With

Noted at Hamilton on 7 May was Alpha R2160 ZK-SXY/3 c/n 160A-0017.

Shot at Ardmore on 27 May was SA 315B Lama ZK-IRA, formerly operated by Gisborne Helicopters. It is about to be exported again.

At Heliflite, the R44's were again prolific, including this new machine ZK-ISA. Also present were ZK-IWH and IXP.

Up at North Shore was taildragger A152 ZK-MDO c/n A1520974, first registered on 28 January this year to MDR Aviation.
And finally, our sole EC145 ZK-IGT at North Shore c/n 9110. It betrays it's origins by being officially described as a BK117 C-2.

Canterbury's Archer ZK-LJI

On line with the Canterbury Aero Club since 15-05-2008 is the Piper PA-28-181 Archer III , c/n 28-43638 . I finally managed to capture it today.

As N1005J it ferried into NZ from Santa Monica, Hilo, Christmas Island, Pago Pago and into Auckland on 17-04-2008. It arrived at the Club on the 18th and was whisked into the engineering hangar. See previous postings on 20-04-08 and 06-05-08.

ZK-HCZ/3 ZK-ICZ & ZK-HCZ/4

Robinson R22 Beta ZK-HCZ/3 , c/n 3522 , was registered to Heli Concepts on 12-03-2004.

They ceased operations some months ago and this helicopter went back to Skysales Aviation.

It was re-registered as ZK-ICZ on 22-02-2008 still listed with Heli Concepts.
Photo below, taken today, shows Alistair Mclean pushing it back into the hangar.

The recently arrived MD520N NOTAR N9096R , c/n LN106 , became ZK-HCZ/5 on 08-05-2008 with Skysales and is for a local Christchurch owner.

All three photos taken at Skysales Aviation's Christchurch base.

Green monster at Taieri

Well Greybeard has solved the Cessna 150 ZK-CCL mystery at Ardmore.
He has also sorted out the Green Zlin Z-37T at Taieri.
In talking with Bill O'Connor (Flying Ag Co) Greybeard learnt that he was planning on acquiring this aircraft
On 22-04-2008 a Zlin Z-37T with c/n 008 was listed as ZK-BOC to Flying Ag Company of Alexandra.
I was talking with Mark Paterson of Southair yesterday and he confirmed that the green monster is indeed c/n 008 and that Bill had acquired it to add to his collection of Zlins at Alexandra.
There is apparently one minor hitch at this time - no log books to advise the airframe hours. The Z-37 is only certified for 3000 hours.
So we continue to watch and wait.
This aircraft was originally registered as OK-RJB in the Czech Republic; it moved over to Hungary to become HA-MGY before returning to OK-RJB.
Not too sure of its NZ moves, but I know that early in its time at Taieri it had hopes of becoming ZK-KRB for Keith Baillie. This never happened and it has remained at Taieri ever since.

Pic taken in Aug 2005.

I also gleened from Mark at Southair that an English gentleman - who has come to NZ from Australia - has imported a Bell 47 and a Pitts Special. The Bell is currently flying in its foreign marks at Wanaka and the Pitts is coming together at Taieri.

There's Bound to be Trouble (at Mil)

Illustrating the current madness being perpetuated on the civil register, the Blue Bus blog about Nelson 19 May 2008 held an image of AS 350 ZK-HYM of Milford Helicopters. Here it is again on the Cascade Creek airstrip on 14 February 2008. Except it's not! This is the replacement, c/n 3287, first registered 1 Mar 07, the day after the last one was cancelled. You are pretty hard pressed to see the difference between the two.

By the way, the C150C ZK-CCL parked up at Ardmore is c/n 15059742 ex ZK-CCK. Since ZK-CCK had since been reallocated, Arthur took the next one available in sequence. Simple really.