NZ Civil Aircraft

Monday, 7 April 2014

Stearman ZK-PJS at Ardmore 6-4-2014

Our latest Stearman ZK-PJS was out flying at Ardmore yesterday.

Taxying back it looked a little different.

The difference was new nose art.

A colourful aircraft in the sun.

Sunday, 6 April 2014

FLY DC 3 at Ardmore Today 6-4-2014

I was at Ardmore this morning with a group of friends who were going for a flight in the Warbirds DC 3 ZK-DAK/NZ 3546. You meet up in the Aero Club cafe for a pre-fight coffee which was very nice. It was yet another lovely day for flying in Auckland.

The group of flyers and support crew before the flight.

Every Sunday the Warbirds operate scenic flights over Auckland. It is a slick operation crewed by volunteer pilots and crew. Here is the pre-flight briefing in the Warbirds rooms which included a potted history of ZK-DAK from its construction to its participation with J Force and then with Phillippine Airlines. The crew for todays flight was Captain Dave Hayman and First Officer Tim Dennis, with Rob Long as the cabin crewmember.

Takeoff was to the South-West, then tracking across Auckland International.

And over Auckland City. Then up and down the Waitemata and over Rangitoto. You can see it was flown at a nice sightseeing height, and also one other major difference from other airliners: access to the cockpit! Thanks to Alison K for the photo.

Touchdown back at Ardmore.

And taxy back to the Warbirds hardstand.

Finally, a shot of the nicely appointed passenger cabin.

I had a great time and I didn't go flying!

You have been warned !

As seen on a hangar door at NZRT.

Random pics

I have been pottering around with some old tired colour slides - mostly from the CMM collection - and experimenting with a self made slide copying device.

Here are some of the results.

Above we have the Hiller UH12E ZK-HGJ (c/n 2174) as seen somewhere on the West Coast.

I would put the date in the late 1970's whilst it was with Mountain Helicopters Ltd.

Interesting previous life for this one. It was built for the Canadian Armed Forces as a CH-112 Nomad and came on strength in about October 1961. It went off to Germany with the Royal Canadian Armoured Corps Helicopter Troop in 1962. It was duly damaged and returned to Canada and became an instructional airframe. It was returned to the air in September 1970 until it was struck off charge on 30-03-1973.

It briefly entered the Canadian civil register as CF-EHQ before popping up in NZ as ZK-HGJ on 08-11-1973 with Alexander Pacific Ltd and joined Mountain Helicopters of Greymouth on 21-06-1974. It was damaged twice in 1979 and went to Whirlwide Helicopters at Timaru and reappeared as a UH12EJ3 Soloy conversion. It was damaged near Taieri in February 1982 and sold to the US as spares. It appears on the US register as N7173X.

Piper PA-18 Super Cub ZK-BWG is c/n 18-5591 and actually began its NZ career as ZK-BQW on 13-03-1957 thanks to Airwork (NZ) Ltd at Christchurch. It was leased, after gaining its CofA on 07-05-1957, to the Rotorua Aero Club before being obtained by Bryan N McCook on 10-06-1958.

Bryan (an ex RNZAF Catalina and Sunderland pilot) operated as Air Viti in Fiji.

The Cub went off to Fiji and was registered there as VQ-FAU but was returned to NZ and was re-registered as ZK-BWG on 15-03-1960.

Future owners included the Mercury Bay Aero Club from May 1960, Taumaranui Aero Club from June of 1962, The Sinclair Flying School from June of 1964 and then down South to Merv Halliday at Edendale in November of 1964 and finally (and still current) to John Dorricott of Scotts Gap, Southland from 23-08-1973.

The De Havilland DH82A Tiger Moth ZK-BLI (c/n DHNZ128) served with the RNZAF as NZ1448 over the period 10-10-1942 to ~~07-70-1955~~ 07-07-1955.

It was converted for the civil market by Temple Martin and became ZK-BLI on 22-08-1955 to Brian Haybittle who was the CFI of the Hawera Aero Club. The South Otago Aero Club feature from September of 1956, then we see her listed to Andy Padgett from 4-04-1963. From memory it was then stored for a while before re-surfacing with Andy under the Rex Air label at Momona and was suitably (?) labelled as "Captain BLI".

By August of 1979 it was with the Atkinson's at Hanmer Springs and then to Peter Elworthy at Timaru in August of 1985. It was listed for sale in September 2004 with a TTAF of 2620 hours. Ownership moved to the Tiger BLI Syndicate of Auckland on 14-03-2005.

Cessna A185F Skywagon ZK-ELQ (c/n 03619) arrived in NZ on 18-07-1978 as N2275V and was listed to Dalhoff and King Aviation Ltd at Ardmore on 17-08-1978 and transferred to Mount Cook Airlines at Christchurch on 23-11-1978. It was given the fleet No 29 and went forth as a ski plane. On 01-07-1998 it went under the Tourism Holdings Ltd name.

It was cancelled from the ZK register on 28-09-2000 and returned to the US where it became N520YH initially with Hartford Holdings of Wilmington, Delaware, followed by a spell in Alaska with Robert Heckman out of Anchorage and then to Tim Turnbull from March of 2003; currently of Bend, Oregon.

This last view was a long range shot of the line up at Bell Block when all of those Cessna Agwagons were awaiting sale - "way back when men where men".

Friday, 4 April 2014

BAC to the skies

BAC 167 Strikemaster MK88 NZ6372 has returned home to New Zealand after many years in Australia after the type was phased out of military service and replaced (at the time) with Macchi's.

After several months static at Ardmore, near Auckland, NZ6372 shed its VH-LLD marks in favour

ZK-BAC and was registered to RNZAF Strikemaster Ltd of Lower Hutt on 17 March 2014.

Today, at 1140, it lifted off for the first time post its import, and is seen here departing off Ardmore's runway 21 in the capable hands of Dave Brown for what to be a brief first flight.

NZ6372 was delivered to the RNZAF in May 1975 ex G27-241 and was trucked from Wellington to Ohakea for assembly. It served with 14 Squadron, Ohakea through until December 1992 when it was sold to Aermacchi as part of the purchase deal for the MB339's. In May 1993 it was sold by tender and moved to Australia where it became VH-LLD with J L Pierce of Watcham, Victoria, in November the following year. It has remained airworthy since and becomes New Zealand's third airworthy Strikemaster after ZK-STR (a MK88 based at Ardmore) and ZK-VPR (a Mk80A located at Christchurch). A fourth Strikemaster has arrived at Ardmore for re-assembly with this aircraft ex NZ6362.

AS332 Super Puma ZK-HHL

Posted across at MRC Aviation last month was the news of Super Puma ZK-HHL conducting its first flight since its import to NZ during mid 2013.
http://www.mrcaviation.blogspot.co.nz/2014/03/super-puma-first-flight-in-nz.html

It was nice to catch up with the "big cat" as it departed Ardmore 03 April and heading off to the south-east.

http://www.heliharvest.co.nz/

Thursday, 3 April 2014

Hughes 369E ZK-INO

First registered to Skysales, Christchurch, in 2008, Hughes 369E ZK-INO moved to Amalgamated Helicopters, Masterton in 2009. From there it went onto fly with Frontier Helicopters of Whakatane and later with Gisborne Helicopters before settling with current owner Ralph Schultz of Maungaturoto from late 2012.

It is seen here, under challenging photographic conditions, departing Ardmore 03 April.

Todays random NZCH selection.

Olde faithful Piper PA-18-150 Super Cub ZK-BNL (c/n 18-5152) was out for an airing today.

It has been with the Canterbury Aero Club since October of 1956.

Stimulating the inner ear was the Cessna 185B ZK-CMV2.

ZK-XRAy?

Ardmore's Xflight obviously have their Extra 300 ZK-XRA out of the air currently as it is in "XRAy" mode with its skeleton clearly visible as it was taxied across the field today! Either that or it was one of a kind aerobatics ride!

BK117 ZK-IIR

Delivered to NZ by air in late January as VH-BKZ, this very smartly painted MBB BK117 B-2 ZK-IIR was placed on the register as such just four days after its arrival at Ardmore.
http://www.mrcaviation.blogspot.co.nz/2014/01/bk117-vh-bkz.html

It is seen here outside the hangar of its registered owner, Airwork, on 30 March.