Glasair ZK-MKP at Raglan

Buster Persson was at the Black Sands Flyin at Raglan in his Glasair 3 ZK-MKP. Over the winter he has applied a nice trim scheme and the aircraft looked stunning. Buster told me that he had bought this aircraft as a partly completed kit from the USA and this gave him a great head start for completing the project. This is a powerful aircraft with a 300 HP Continental IO 540 up front. It was first registered on 11/2/08.

With all those horses up front the Glasair powered off the ground and streaked away overhead to Whitianga. The flight time to Whitianga would be around 20 minutes!

Buster is obviously a fan of Glasair aircraft as his Glasiar 3 ZK-MKP is the second Glasair he has built. Here is Buster's first ZK-MKP, a Glasair 2s photographed at the 2004 SAANZ flyin at Tauranga. This aircraft was first registered in 11/01 and was exported to Australia as VH-NEO, being cancelled in 4/05. (New Zealand's other Glasair 2S ZK-REH can be seen in the back of this photo - it also was exported to Australia).

A stray from the Bay.

Arriving from Tauranga on Friday and tied down among the Rangiora flock was Piper PA-28-151 Warrior 11 ZK-ELX , c/n 7715291 , from Bay Flight International.
Interestingly this Warrior was flown to NZ for the NAC Sports & Social Club of Christchurch and registered to them on 15-06-78.

Whats so interesting about that you ask !

Well it was flown out aboard the Air New Zealand DC10 ZK-NZS, arriving here on 30-04-1978.

New RV 7A's at Black Sands Flyin, Raglan

I am just back from the Black Sands Flyin at Raglan today. The weather was a bit breezy but there were a lot of aeroplanes there. I met ZK-CKE there (he was organising the event), and he said there had been around 70 aircraft today at various times. He promised to post some photos from the beach landing event tomorrow.

Being the first fly in of the "summer" there were several new aircraft there. The first was Rex Newman's third Vans RV 7A, the second ZK-REX which had flown from Blenhiem. This aircraft was first registered on 14/7/09.

And there was another new Vans RV 7A there - ZK-RRV owned by R McAinch and A Thompson of Whangarei. Two very nice looking aircraft.

I will post more from the fly in tomorrow.

Question time # 76 Resolved.

Anonymous has scored [and the chocolate fish has been eaten - but not by him] with his answer of NOTAR ZK-HDW's starboard vertical fin. The round object is the air vent located in the middle of the opened front right hand door.

Pilatus Porter Painting.

An old colleague sent me this photo of a painting that he had commissioned from the well known aviation artist Keith Woodcock.
The aircraft depicted is his old mount Pilatus Porter XW-PCI in landing mode whilst being operated by CASi in Laos in the 1970's.

More of Keith's art work can be viewed on :-

http://www.military-art.com/mall/artist.php?ArtistID=54

You may ask : what has this to do with NZ civil aircraft.

Well this aircraft is none other than Andrew Wallace's ZK-PCI - as depicted in this blogs header photo.

ZK-PCI is currently lurking somewhere in the UK.

Alpi Pioneer Jay Hawk ZK-CWJ Has Flown

This is not my usual post as I do not have a photo of Alpi Pioneer Jay Hawk ZK-CWJ to post, however here is a link to a You Tube video of its first flight on 18 October from Bridge Pa

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UuWTla7FKWk

This aircraft has has been built by Cliff Johnston of Hastings over the last year or so, from an Alpi kitset. It is a little different from a normal Pioneer 300 as Cliff has incorporated several changes using his previous experience of building 3 other sport aircraft and rebuilding a Piper Commanche. Thus the Jay Hawk name. The most notable difference is in the main undercarriage which has a wider track than the Pioneer 300 and retracts inwards (as opposed to the Pioneer 300 whose undercarriage retracts outwards). I think it makes the aeroplane look better on the ground. Enjoy!

Question time # 76

What on earth [or in the air] is this then ?

Another Sigma about to hatch

The fourth Sigma Aircraft Sigma 4 is currently being assembled at Rangiora.

It is having a slight identity problem at the moment - wanting to become ZK-JRC or ZK-JRN, with JRN letters already cut and lying on the nearby desk.

However both these registrations are currenty in use by other Sigma's.

Maybe it really wants to be ZK-JQF2 replacing the first Sigma JQF which went to Australia mid 2007.

A Selection of Local Aircraft from Ardmore Today

A quick visit to Ardmore this afternoon netted several aircraft of interest to me. Perhaps the most interesting was this Vans RV 9A ZK-RVY, which was registered to Peter Wylie of Penrose, on 15/9/09. This is New Zealand's first RV 9/9A and was imported from the USA where it was N115BJ. The RV 9 series differs from the similar RV 7 series in having a longer wing (28 feet versus 25 feet), and in also having long span slotted flaps that allow a lower landing speed. A nice looking aircraft.

Cessna 180H ZK-KRM, owned by the KRM Partnership of North shore arrived and was towed uphill to its hangar.

Tiger Moth ZK-BLI owned by the Tiger BLI Syndicate of Manakau was having a compass swing done outside its hangar.

Piper Aerostar owned by David and Margaret Brown of Takanini taxied out and took off for points West.

And finally this Robin 3000 is now owned by the Auckland Aero Club (as from 16/7/09), having been in New Zealand with the agents Izard Pacific for several years.

There were several other interesting aircraft in various hangars that also rate a mention: The 2 seat Spitfire was being actively worked on, and I guess should be flying again this summer. Also in the same hangar, The NZ Warbirds Titan Mustang is nearly ready for painting. And in the adjacent hangar, the American Dragon Rapide has progressed to full covering and the silver dope stage.

Update on BD 5's in New Zealand

Following my previous posts "More on BD 5's in New Zealand" and "Some Other BD 5's in New Zealand" in July 2009, I contacted David Rose who built ZK-ZIP because I had heard that his BD 5 might have flown much earlier than I had guessed in my post.

David was very helpful and he confirmed that ZK-ZIP had in fact flown in 1982, which made it the first BD 5 to fly in the Southern Hemisphere. He also searched out some old photos that I can now post of an early test flight from Ardmore in 1982. The test pilot was Russel Broadbent. Also in my previous post I wondered if this aircraft first flew as ZK-DYM, but as the photos show, it was always ZK-ZIP.

And here is ZK-ZIP taxing out from in front of the old Auckland Aero Club hangar. David advised that around 4 or 5 flights were made until a piston in the 3 cylinder Hirth engine blew. The BD 5 was able to make it back to Ardmore but the resulting heavy landing caused some undercarriage damage, and the plane was not flown again until 2006. It now has a 2 cylinder Hirth engine.

David also advised that he thought that ZK-ZBD was the next to fly, followed by ZK-XBD. Thanks to David Rose for these photos.