NZ Civil Aircraft

Tuesday, 29 December 2015

Aerobatic Monoplanes of New Zealand (10) - Sam Fry Lazer 230

The Sam Fry Lazer 230 owes its origin to the Stephens Akro which was designed and built in America in the 1960s by Clayton Stephens. This design led to a new type of aerobatic aircraft that could perform tighter routines than the Yaks and Zlins of the time, and its high point was American Leo Loudenslager's World Aerobatic Championships win in 1980 with his Akro Laser 200, and later Henry Haigh's win in 1988 in his Super Star - both heavily modified Akros.

This brings us to the Lazer which was built by Sam T Fry of Prairieville, Louisiana, and is also a modified Stephens Akro. It was registered as N31LZ to Sam Fry on 16/3/95. The engine is a Lycoming HIO-360-C1A of 230hp driving a whirlwind propeller. On 07-11-1997 ownership was transferred to Fernando Zayas of Loveland, Colorado. Its US registration was cancelled on the 3/3/11 for it to become ZK-LZR on the 9/3/11, still with Fred Zayas but now of Rangiora.

That would have been about all we knew of this aircraft until the builder, Sam Fry, posted a comment on the NZ Civair blog, as follows:

"Hi, I'm the Sam Fry who built the Lazer. The wing was built from the original Stephens Akro plan set #31, but was modified per Leo Loudenslager's advice to strengthen the spar center section and add an extra two bays to the ailerons (much larger). The fuselage was highly modified based on all the weak points that had been identified by 1990. Pitts plans were referenced for details including the cowl, fuselage shape, turtledeck; the cockpit canopy was streamlined per Leo and Henry Haigh's advice to keep it "very clean". The tailfeathers were the largest built at that time, again advice mostly from Henry Haigh. The entire airplane was scratch built from raw materials, no kit or kit components were used. I also rebuilt the engine after Monty Barrett had balanced and blueprinted the components, including the 10:1 pistons. It's a great flying airplane.

ZK-LZR (c/n 31) is photo'd here at Rangiora on 9/3/15.

On the 5th day of Christmas quiz

What aircraft type do we have here then ?

Monday, 28 December 2015

Ivan Campbell's Supermarine Mk 26B Spitfire ZK-CGV

Jogged by Blue Bus's Fourth Day of Christmas quiz question, I thought I would post about the aircraft as a preview to what we can look forward to seeing in 2016.

Ivan Campbell has done a magnificent job of his 90% scale Supermarine Spitfire Mk 26B ZK-CGV2 that he registered on 11/12/15. The aircraft is photo'd above with Ivan outside his Campbell Aero Classics Loburn Abbey hangar on 8/2/15.

I have previously posted on this aircraft at http://nzcivair.blogspot.co.nz/2015/05/supermarine-spitfire-mk-26b-and-other.html .

Aerobatic Monoplanes of New Zealand (9) - Extra EA 300

The Extra EA 300 was designed in the 1980s by German Walter Extra, and was based on the earlier all wood Extra EA 230 which was in turn developed from the Stephens Akro. It is manufactured in Germany by Extra Flugzeugbau, the firm founded by Walter Extra in 1980. It has a welded steel fuselage and a symmetrical carbon fibre wing and it is powered by a AEIO 540 Lycoming engine of 300 HP. The prototype first flew in 1988 with German certification following in May 1990. It has been produced in two seat and single seat versions and it is stressed to +/- 10G for single seat aerobatics. It was originally produced as a shoulder wing aircraft, but the most common version is the low wing Extra EA 300L. The upgraded single seat Extra EA 330SC was flown to victory in the World Championships in 2009, 2013, 2014 and 2015.

Specifications for the Extra EA 300L are: length 6.95 metres (22 feet 9 inches), wingspan 7.39 metres (24 feet 3 inches) and the wing area is 112 square feet. Empty weight is 682 Kg (1,500 pounds) and MAUW is 952 Kg (2,095 pounds), although this is reduced for aerobatics.

We have had one Extra EA 300L in New Zealand, being X Flight's ZK-XRA (c/n 085) which was first registered in America in 1999 as N848TS. It was exported to New Zealand in 2008 and was cancelled from the US register on 1/12 08 .

ZK-XRA was first registered in New Zealand on 2/12/08 to X Flight Ltd of Auckland and it still registered to them.

It has been a flying billboard during its New Zealand career. Above at Ardmore on 7/11/09.

At North Shore on 15/1/11.

On takeoff from Ardmore, on 23/7/11.

In temporary Woodstock Bourbon colours at Ardmore on 22/9/12.

And in what I think is its latest advertising scheme for The Rock FM, from the X Flight website.

De Havilland memories.

G’day to you all.

I just happened across your ‘blog’ on nzcivair from way back in May 2010, in which you were requesting ‘fill in the gaps material’– I am not sure if the following constitutes expectations as you proposed, but here goes!

Re the Dragon; a DH84 was my first steed in a long aviation career which began in the mid 1950s. That stint was to fly the ‘Adelaide Advertiser’ from Pt. Pirie to Whyalla on weekday mornings!

An interesting aerodyne sans any dual control facility and or brakes, starter motor as I recall; although we tend to regard them in our dotage as having a ‘romantic’ side, they would surely tax the ability of those brought up on a strict diet of FBW and the glass cockpit.

I used to joke about it as being one of the few aircraft that took off, climbed, cruised and arrived all at the same speed – mind you I recall a story told of a US airline jock who on sighting one asked the ATC person what it was – the retort “a collection of De Hav. spare parts flying by in close formation”.

As an aside my father actually worked at the GMH (General Motors Holden) Woodville plant during World War Two, I’m pretty certain that he would not have even dreamed that his eldest son would one day be driving an aircraft that he may have had a part in its conception?

Other De Hav types on licence:- DH82, DHC1, DHA3, DH114L; I guess the only one that I absolutely ‘loved’ was the Chippie; t’others pretty much conformed to that very shrewd observation by the ATC character!

I was fortunate enough to strap a Tiger to my arse some 20yrs ago, despite not having then flown a Tiger for nigh on 40 years it was like I’d never been apart from it – so I guess that says more than a little bit about the qualities, from the driver’s aspect any way, of the DeHav. basic design functions?

Hoping this may be of some value…David Rerecich Orewa.

PS just had a ‘memory moment’ – I recall one of my less sensible innovations was towing my mates on water skis at Whyalla during the summer weekends!

Pic above comes from the Ed Coates collection and shows the De Havilland DH84 Dragon VH-AEF at Mascot in 1945. This became ZK-AXI on 14-07-1953 - one of three Dragons that featured on the NZ civil register.

Check out previous posts on ZK-AXI at :-

http://nzcivair.blogspot.co.nz/search?q=dragon

On the 4th day of Christmas quiz

What engine lurks within this cowling ?

What Mk number is the aircraft ?

And to sort the wheat from the chaff - What is its NZ civil registration ?

Sunday, 27 December 2015

Auckland International Today - Something Else.

Airwork Flight Operations Ltd of Auckland now has seven Boeing 737's in their fleet.

Their latest addition is this 737-476 model (c/n 24444) which was rolled out at Boeing’s Renton Field on 09-03-1993 to be registered as VH-TJS to Australian Airline on 12-03-1993. Its first flight was on the 23^rd.

It ferried out of Boeing Field to San Francisco, Honolulu, Apia, Nadi to arrive in Melbourne on 16-04-1993. It was given the name ‘Jabiru’ and it commenced passenger service on 20-04-1993. Australian Airlines were merged with QANTAS on 31-10-1993.

This was the last of the Classic Boeing 737-400’s to see service with QANTAS being withdrawn from service on 23-02-2014 after a run from Canberra to Melbourne. A couple of weeks later it was ferried from Sydney to Apia, to Honolulu on 06-03-2014 and then on to Victorville in California the next day for open storage.

It was registered in the States as N944NZ on 02-02-2015 and hidden in the records of the Bank of Utah Trustees and was ferried over to Dothan in Alabama for freighter conversion to first fly as such on 04-12-2015. It was then ferried from Dothan to Oakland, Honolulu, Pago Pago and into Auckland on 07-12-2015.

Registered in NZ as ZK-PAK on the 9^th it did its first freight run from Auckland to Christchurch on the 15^th in its all-white colour scheme.

Above is the Boeing 737-3B7 ZK-TLA (c/n 23383). This airframe first flew as N377A on 28-07-1987 and then went to US Airways as N508AU. In October of 2004 it was transferred to Wells Fargo Bank Northwest NA Trustees and appears to have gone into storage.

On 21-04-2007 it gained its NZ CofA and became ZK-TLA on the 23rd to Airwork Holdings Ltd and then ferried from Opa Locka in Florida to Long Beach then out to Honolulu, Pago Pago and to Brisbane on the 24th. It carried out its first freight run on 01-05-2007 from Brisbane to Sydney. It is now Auckland based with Airwork Flight Operations Ltd.

Auckland International Today - Something Old, Something New, Something Black and Something White

A pick up trip to Auckland International almost always results in a return trip a few days later. And so it was the case late this afternoon. I was only able to spend a short time there but I caught the following Air New Zealand comings and goings:

Old scheme Q 300 ZK-NEH arrived ...

... while new scheme ZK-NEW5 taxied for takeoff.

Then a couple of impressive heavies arrived:

Boeing B 777-319ER ZK-OKQ...

... and Boeing B 777-319ER ZK-OKR. They sure are big!

More from yesterdays NZRT pie run

The Cessna A185F AgCarryall ZK-DKJ (c/n 18502276) passed through again.

I caught on December the 6th : See:-

http://nzcivair.blogspot.co.nz/2015/12/yesterdays-take-at-russell-flat.html

Below is a short clip of it taking off.

Returning to land was John Ainsworth's Rand KR2 ZK-KRZ (c/n 001).

Now two aircraft that have been inactive for about four years were out having their engines run.

The Suzuki G13B powered Fisher R80 Tiger Moth ZK-NOX (c/n 17) was built by, and registered to Russell Warnock on 31-03-2006.

Below is the Ragwing Aero Special ZK-POP (c/n RWS086) of Bevin Chamberlain.

Check out :-

http://nzcivair.blogspot.co.nz/2009/01/rangiora-today.html

Both are for sale.

A visit to Masterton, 27/12

A trip over the hill to Hood Aerodrome for the last of Vintage Aviator's 2015 flying weekends resulted in the following flying machines. I believe all have featured in this blog and only one seems to be sporting a new scheme.