N145UH at NZHK 10-07-2017

Ben Patterson reports from Hokitika

We have had few aircraft through Hokitika in last 12 or so months...

mainly I think because of no AVGAS being available.

But now we have had RD Petroleum come to the rescue placing one 20 thousand ltr tank here.

Above we have the Eurocopter Deutschland GmbH MBB BK 117-C2 (aka EC145) N145UH c/n 9053 as spotted yesterday at Hokitika by Ben.

This one was initially flown in Germany on the MBB test registration of D-HMBB before heading to the States to become N191AE.

It was re-registered as N145UH and I believe has been test flown by the US military.

It is in NZ for the filming of the Mission Impossible 6 move - just completed in the Central Otago region.

See previous mention of this airframe on the MRC site

HERE and HERE

Penguins Can't Fly - Some More Details

Friend of this blog David Eyre has sent some more details of the non-flying Penguin aircraft from Question Time #197.  David writes from Sydney:

The Parnall Penguin, also known as the Marshall Penguin, was designed and built by well known Australian aviation identity, the late Sidney Marshall, in the late 1950s.  Marshall, who was well known at Bankstown, NSW for his charter/joy riding operations around New South Wales with his company Marshall Airways, operated, amongst other aircraft, a Douglas DC-2, DH-84 Dragon, Short Scion, Lockheed 10, an Avro Cadet, and a number of Avro Ansons.  In his hangar and on a property near the airport he had two ex-RAAF Supermarine Spitfires, a Nakajima ‘Oscar’, Messerschmitt Bf-109 which had once been in the collection of the AWM, and was later again obtained by them, three other DC-2s etc, and it is because of his efforts these aircraft have survived.

The Penguin was built as a project, it is said, to teach people to learn to taxi an aircraft.  At one stage it was painted with a cream fuselage with a silver wing and red trim with Marshall Airways appearing on top of the port wing; Joy Flights on the top of the starboard wing, and Joy Flights in red on the tail.  The aircraft received little use and remained in his museum/hangar at Bankstown for many years, sometimes being placed outside the hangar for advertising purposes.  After the death of Mr Marshall, the machine was transferred to the Airworld Museum at Wangaratta, Vic where it remained on display until the museum closed.  It was later sold and exported to New Zealand.

Thanks for the information David.  And thanks too for the above photo of the "aircraft" which was taken at Bankstown on 8/3/63.

Question Time 197 Nailed!

Brett has provided a very thorough and correct answer to Question Time 197, as follows:

It is a Morris Penguin powered by a Henderson motorcycle engine. These are ground trainers used to allow would-be pilots to experience the thrills of taxiing into ditches and runway lights without needing to experience the joy of flight. It is owned by Graham Orphan.

I understand that it was built by ATC cadets and used by the ATC for the aforesaid ground training and that it was then part of the Sid Marshall Collection at Bankstown.

As you can see in the above photo, it is quite complete with working controls and some aircraft instruments (click on the photo once or twice to enlarge).

I cannot understand why you would put so much effort into an aircraft that was only taxyable.

Classic Fighters 2017 - Question Time 197

Seen at Classic Fighters 2017, but not in the flying display:

The question is:  what is it?

Lear 60XR

A chance sighting today of the Lear 60XR, ZK-JAK (MSN 60-382) of JAK Air Rotorua. I missed the landing but loitered long enough to catch it departing an hour later.

Pauanui

A fine winter's day brought a few visitors to what has been a quiet Pauanui,  including from Hamilton one of CTC's DA20C fleet,  ZK-CSF,  on a training flight and in for coffee,  Ardmore based Cessna A185F ZK-CBF.

Classic Fighters 2017 - The Yak Pack

In between posting the history of sport aircraft in New Zealand I thought I would post a few shots from Classic Fighters 2017, now that all the magazine coverage has appeared in print.

 I thought that the Yak 52 display team put on an excellent display with an 8 aircraft formation aerobatics team.  The Yaks in the team were:  ZK-KGB2, ZK-YKA, ZK-XXS, ZK-YAQ3, ZK-YAK2, ZK-PTE2, ZK-KEV2, and ZK-ZAH. 

Taxying out for their display on the Saturday.

And lining up for take off in front of one of the air race pylons.

A nice tight formation with smoke from all the 8 aircraft.

Into a loop...

And out the bottom.

Nice!!

Another Friday outing to NZRT

Today at Rangiora it was hangar reshuffle day.

 One item of interest was the Airborne XTS-912-S ZK-DGR (c/n XT-912-0140).

It has featured previously  HERE

 Tucked at the back of Graeme Main's hangar was his latest project. 

Kolb Twinstar Mark II ZK-FTN (c/n 3000) first entered our register for E A Austin of Auckland on 07-06-1989. 

R M Cohen of Taradale was next from 01-02-1993 followed  by Bob Climpson of Upper Moutere from 08-08-1994.

It has been stored in a dismantled state in a hangar at Takaka for some time.

Graeme Main trailered it down to Rangiora recently and has began the process of returning it to the air.

 A recent addition to the Rangiora 701 STOL family at Rangiora is ZK-JRT (c/n 7-3838) now with the 701 Syndicate.

Thanks to Roy and ZK-PAB we managed to catch it today Northwest of Rangiora 'strutting around'.

On final back into Rangiora '07' with the Pulp/Board/Chip Mill (call it what you will) reporting point in the top left of the photo.

Ramphos Amphibian Aircraft of New Zealand

The Ramphos amphibian consists of a flying boat hull mated to a double surface microlight trike wing.  It is produced by Ramphos Aircraft of Fontanfredda in Italy and the first version of the aircraft flew in 1998 and the amphibious version followed in 1999.  It can be powered by various engines in the 60 to 80 HP range including the Rotax 582 and 912. Empty weight is around 208 Kg (460 pounds) and MAUW is 450 Kg (992 pounds).

We have had one of these machines registered in New Zealand.

Guntram Gross of Whangarei imported Ramphos ZK-SEE (c/n NZR1) and registered it to his company Skywalk Ltd on 24/2/04, and he has sent these photos of it flying near Whangarei.

Thanks very much for the nice photos Guntram.

ZK-PAK on its new pad.

I managed these shots whilst cruising along at Christchurch the other day.

The Boeing 737-476 ZK-PAK (c/n 24444) of Airwork Flight Operations Ltd parked up for the day on  the recently completed New Zealand Post complex at Christchurch International Airport.

The earlier history of this airframe can be found on our 'sister' mrcaviation blog HERE.

I can add that it was built as line number 2454 and rolled out at Renton on 09-03-1993, registered as VH-TJS to Australian Airlines on 12-03-1993 and first flew on 23-03-1993 and handed over to Australian Airlines on 05-04-1993.

It was ferried from Boeing Field to San Francisco, Honolulu, Apia, Nadi and into Melbourne on 16-04-1993.

It entered service on 20-04-1993 and was given the name 'Jabiru'.

Australian Airlines merged with QANTAS Airways on 31-10-1993 and it was transferred to Qantas Airways Ltd on 08-12-1993.