SkyReach Bushcats of New Zealand

I have previously posted about our only Rainbow Cheetah aircraft, and the SkyReach BushCat was developed from the Cheetah

SkyReach Aircraft was formed out of Rainbow Aircraft Pty and uses the same manufacturing facilities at Gauteng, just East of Johannesburg in South Africa.  The BushCat was developed by Vladimir Chechin (who also developed the Cheetah) and it was introduced in 2014 as a Light Sport Aircraft.  It is very similar to the Cheetah with the main noticeable difference being the spring steel undercarriage.  It can be purchased as a kit or as a completely built up aircraft and it is also available in tri-gear or tailwheel versions.  It has also been strengthened compared with the Cheetah and the most commonly used engine is the 100 HP Rotax 912ULS.

Specifications for the BushCat are:  length 5.7 metres (18 feet 8 inches), wingspan 9.6 metres (31 feet 6 inches) and the wing area is 142.6 square feet.  Empty weight is higher than the Cheetah at around 320 Kg (705 pounds) and the MAUW as a LSA in New Zealand is 561 Kg (1,237 pounds).  With the Rotax 912 ULS engine the cruise is around 105 mph (91 knots) and the stall speed is around 35 mph (30 knots).

We have had six SkyReach BushCats registered in New Zealand to date, all imported by the New Zealand agent, Kevin Mattson of BushCat Aviation NZ Ltd based at Taupiri, near Ngaruawahia.

Our first Bushcat was ZK-ZBR (c/n CH 149B) which was registered to BushCat Aviation NZ Ltd on 11/8/14.  On 12/2/16 ownership transferred to Kevin D Mattson of Taupiri and the on 15/1/19 to Douglas K Goodhall of Blenheim.  It is photo'd above at the 2019 Thames Wings N Wheels flyin on 26/1/19.

ZK-PAW2 (c/n CH 151B) was registered to Graeme P Henderson of Mangatarata on 3/3/15.  It is also photo'd at the 2019 Thames Wings N Wheels flyin, on 26/1/19.

ZK-ZOZ (c/n CH148B) was registered to Bushcat Aviation NZ Ltd on 4/11/15.  Ownership transferred to Kevin D Mattson of Taupiri on 12/2/16 and it is photo's above on his airstrip.  It suffered an undercarriage problem on 10/3/16 which necessitated a forced landing at Hamilton, but damage was minimal and it was soon repaired.  It was sold to Tascha R Lawry of Loburn on 10/9/18 with whom it is still current (but is for sale on Trade Me Aircraft).

Our first tri-gear BushCat ZK-ZOL (c/n CH 205C) was registered to BushCat Aviation NZ Ltd on 23/1/19.  It is photo'd here at the 2020 Thames Wings N Wheels flyin, on 25/1/20.  It is also for sale on Trade Me Aircraft.

And most recently BushCat Aviation NZ has imported 2 more BushCats and registered them both on 17/2/20.  The first is ZK-ZIP2 (c/n CH 238C) which is photo'd in Kevin Mattson's hangar at Taupiri.  It is registered to M L Robertson of Blenheim.  (The first ZK-ZIP was David Rose's Bede BD 5 which is a blast from the past!)

And the other one is ZK-ZKM (c/n 234C) which is Kevin Mattson's own aircraft.  Both planes are awaiting the delivery of registration letters.  Thanks very much for the photos Kevin.

Rainbow Aircraft Cheetahs (Only One) of New Zealand

The next type of sport aircraft to be registered in New Zealand, in 2012, was the Rainbow Aircraft Cheetah.

The Rainbow Aircraft Cheetah was developed in South Africa from the Best Off Skyranger by Vladimir Chechin.  Rainbow Aircraft Pty was based at Springs Airfield in Gauteng, East of Johannesburg.  It was founded by Mike Blyth and in 2002 Vladimir Chechin took over ownership. 

The Cheetah was introduced in 2011 and it is constructed from bolted aluminium tubing and is covered by Dacron sailcloth.  It can be constructed from a kit or purchased as a complete aircraft, and it can be configured as a tri-gear or taildragger.  The standard engine is the 80 HP Rotax 912.  Specifications for the Cheetah are:  length 5.67 metres (18 feet 7 inches), wingspan 9.6 metres (31 feet 6 inches) and the wing area is 142.6 square feet.  The empty weight is around 248 Kg (547 pounds) and the MAUW in New Zealand is 544 Kg (1200 pounds).  With the Rotax 912UL engine the aircraft cruises at around 84 mph (73 knots) and the stall speed is around 35 mph (30 knots).

We have had only one Rainbow Aircraft Cheetah in New Zealand:

ZK-KDM (c/n CH129) was registered in South Africa as ZU-FRC in 2011.  It was cancelled from the South African register on 16/2/12 and it was registered as ZK-KDM on 21/2/12 to Kevin D Mattson of Ngaruawahia.  It is photo'd above at the 2013 Black Sands flyin at Raglan, on 2/11/13.  (When the weather was nice for a Black Sands flyin!).  It was sold to Christopher R Holmes of Pukeatua near Tirau on 19/5/15.

On 20/4/19 ownership transferred to Steven G S Wood of Dargaville and Steve is photo'd it flying at Dargaville on 21/9/19.

It seemed to have pretty spritely performance.

Alpi Pioneer 300 ZK-YAN/LPT2

Back on 19 March 2020 when aircraft were still being bought and sold....

Further back on 16/1/17 Pioneer 300 ZK-YAN was registered to Erol N Yanar of Christchurch, and it has not appeared on this blog before.  Erol had previously owned the Pioneer 200 ZK-CET2.

ZK-YAN (c/n 255) was imported from Australia by the New Zealand Alpi Aviation agent Logan McLean, where it had been registered 24-5563.  It is photo'd above at Logan's base at Fernside Field near Rangiora.

On 19/3/20 the aircraft was re-registered as ZK-LPT2 and sold to Gary P Montagu of Dunedin, and it is photo's on 21/3/20, also at Fernside Field.  In a nice touch it now has Taieri decals instead of the previous Fernside Fields.

The first ZK-LPT2 was also an Alpi Pioneer 300 that was re-registered as ZK-MIH back in November 2008.

Thanks very much to Logan McLean for the photos.

CubCrafters Carbon Cubs of New Zealand

The next type of sport aircraft to appear on the New Zealand register was the Carbon Cub:

The Carbon Cub was developed in the mid 2000s by Cub Crafters Inc of Yakima, Washington State, and it was first introduced in 2007.  It is inspired by the Piper PA 18 Cub via the 100 HP Carbon Crafters Sport Cub S2.  The Carbon Cub is much lighter than the PA 18 due to the use of carbon-fibre parts including the cowling, spinner, airbox, cockpit interior panels and pilots seat and the wingtips.  The fuselage is welded chrome moly steel tube and is fabric covered.  The wingspan is one foot shorter than the PA 18.  It also is powered by a much more powerful 180 HP engine which gives much better performance and makes the aircraft a popular choice for back country flying.  It has been incrementally developed over the years and is available as a complete light sport aircraft (the CC model), a very complete kitset (the EX model) and a builder assist model (the FX model) which takes 7 working days at the factory.

The specifications for the original CC11-160 Carbon Cub are:  length 22 feet 9 inches (6.93 metres), wingspan 34 feet 3 inches (10.44 metres) with a wing area of 171.9 square feet.  The empty weight is 896 pounds (399 Kg) and the MAUW is 1,320 pounds (599 Kg).  With the specially built 180 HP Cub Crafters CC340 engine (based on the O-320), the cruise speed is 88 knots (101 mph) and the stall speed is 27 knots (35 mph).

We have had five Carbon Cubs of various models registered in New Zealand to date:

Our first Carbon Cub was CC11-160 model ZK-BPC3 (c/n CC11-00194) which was registered to Bruce and Peter Clulow of Wanaka on 10/2/12.  It was assembled at hamilton by Central Aero Ltd, and it is photo'd above at Wanaka on 5/4/12.

On 5/12/12 it was re-registered as ZK-PBC2, and it is photo'd above, also at Wanaka on 11/9/19.  There is a nice video of it in action at a very windy Healthy Bastards competition at Omaka at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0cePAc1uxU

Also registered on 10/2/12 was CC11-160 model ZK-CSS2 (c/n CC11-00193), which was registered to Robert J Gray of Bombay.  It is photo'd above at the Pukekohe East airstrip on 2/5/15.  It was sold to an un-named Private owner on 7/12/16 and then on 17/7/18 to W J N Steel of Turangi and most recently on 14/1/19 to Christian A Burtcher of Lake Tekapo.

Carbon Cub CCK-1865 model ZK-CUB3 (c/n CCK-1865-055) was registered to The Lucky Skunks Club of Balfour on 25/11/14.  This was built from a kitset and I think that the 1865 figure refers to the possible MAUW in pounds but it is only certified to 599 Kg (1,320 pounds) here.  It is photo'd above at Mandeville on 11/3/17.

CC11-160 model ZK-KUB (c/n CC11-0318) was imported from Australia where it was 24-8542 and VH-OAA2.  It was cancelled from the Australian register on 20/6/16 and was registered in New Zealand on 19/7/16, to Ardleigh Farms of Geraldine (George and Kathy Hudson).  It was assembled at Wanaka and it is also photo'd there, during the 2018 Warbirds Over Wanaka airshow on 30/3/18.

And the most recent Carbon Cub to be registered here is CCX-2000 model ZK-FXC2 (c/n CCX-2000-0038) which was built from a kitset in the US by Robert Gray (under the FX factory builder assist programme?) and was registered as N442FX on 6/12/18.  It was registered here on 28/3/19 to a Private Owner, and is based at Ardmore.  It is photo'd above at Kaipara Flats airfield on 1/3/20.  I think the FX-2000 coding refers to its MAUW of 2000 pounds and ZK-FXC2 is certified here for 907 Kg MAUW (which is 2000 pounds).

I am sure that we will see more Carbon Cubs in New Zealand in the future.

A Look Back at 2019 NZ Civair Cover Photos

With the current strange times I thought it would be encouraging to look back at our 2019 heading photos of flying activities as things were:

I really hope that we can return to flying scenes like this in the future.

Question time answer ZK-NEN

Ewan Nichol and P McLeish built the Jodel D.11 ZK-DFM and listed it in mid-1973.

It was sold in mid-1980 with Evan registering his second project - the first Zenair Zenith CH-200 in New Zealand - as ZK-NEN c/n AACA/100/2 on 19-09-1980, with its first flight occuring on 14-12-1980.

Below is a photo of ZK-NEN at Pudding Hill on 25-01-1981 with the second example ZK-ESV in the background (propless).

Ewan sold ZK-NEN to J and C Dickinson of Wellington from 05-08-1991 and we see it at Rangiora below on 19-02-1993.

In March 1994 it moved to Ian W Fletcher of Auckland (replacing his sold PA-28-140 ZK-DOQ) and it had a engine failure on 19-06-1994 and went through a fence near North Shore. (Ian re-purchased ZK-DOQ again in August 2013).

Ownership transferred to Robin Murray out of Hamilton from 26-02-1999.

The next lucky owner was Cliff Bellingham of Pukekohe from April of 2005. Cliff has owned a multitude of aircraft over the years.
It was then listed to Don Howard of'Casa do Planes' north of Rakaia from 30-12-2005

Two views of it at Omarama on 31-12-2007 with covered gun ports in the bare metal starboard leading edge, the large symbolic eagle with its sergeants chevrons on the cowl and small 'A155' on the rudder below the 'Zenith CH-200' name, with a NZ Made label beneath both.

On the port side view below we also have a bare metal leading edge and five gliders, each under a cloud, on the fuselage below the cockpit just below the CPL DON HOWARD USMC name.
There are also at least six fake bullet holes along the fuselage.

Below - It was noted at Rangiora back to bare metal on 21-01-09.

Then we see it below in an all white scheme at Ashburton on 16-01-2010 with 'Watch This Space' on the forward fuselage.

And again at Ashburton below - this time on  05-02-2011 with some colour added and the symbolic eagle back on the engine cowling and 'CPL DON HOWARD   USMC ' now on the lower canopy frame, and a US flag with 'DON' beneath on the top of the rudder.

Same again at Omarama on  08-04-2012 but with what looks like more bullet holes. 

Don owned the Slingsby T.67A glider ZK-GSV from 2004 through to 2017 which is a good enough reason for being parked up at Omarama.

Then I caught it at Rangiora on 27-04-2014.

When I next noted it at Omarama on 09-02-17 it now has a NZ flag on its rudder.

It underwent an ownership change to David Lucas of Kaiapoi on 03-03-2019 and has undergone a serious refurbishment.

Just the other day - 22-03-2020 - it was at Rangiona in a new pseudo military scheme and with 'Razor Back' on the wing tips and with a Campbell Aero Classics label each side forward of the leading edge.

Slingsby Prefect ZK-GAB Amended

Following on from the previous post about Glide Omarama Soaring again I thought a post on one of the early gliders based in the area would fill in a few minutes.

This post is based on the limited data I have available due to the present situation.

So corrections and additions are most welcome.

Additions and corrections have kindly been provided by the glider guru Peter Layne and have been added in blue.

The Slingsby Type 30B Kirby Prefect ZK-GAB c/n 642 imported by S H (Dick) Georgeson of Irishmans Creek Station not far out of Tekapo and registered I believe on 27-02-1950.

Other early owners include Peter Renshaw of Dunedin from 10-10-1952. (Peter went on to own four more gliders with Jack Hanlon - GBG, GBI, GBY and GDW).

Peter Renshaw syndicated it with H W F Jones and L G Brock of Dunedin from 25-01-1957.

Then to Harry Kindon and Partners of Dunedin on 12-08-1957. followed by the Slingsby Prefect Syndicate of Mosgiel from 22-10-1958.

From 11-03-1965 it joined the Canterbury Gliding Club and then on 14th March of 1968 it became the second glider for the Taupo Gliding Club.

Alas it didn't last long as it was damaged in a ground loop on landing at the Taupo Gliding Clubs strip on 04-08-1968 and its registration was cancelled on 14-11-1968.

It returned to the register as ZK-GGP on 8th September of 1969 with Carl Perham of Whakatane. 

Carl was the Taupo Club's first instructor and was flown each weekend from Whakatane to Taupo by Bob Maisey.

On 03-02-1971 it passed to D J Towgood of Pahiatua. 

It was then known to have gone to the Kaikohe Gliding Club but appears never to have been registered to them.

The ZK-GGP registration was cancelled and it was restored back to its ZK-GAB letters on 02-07-1979 with D V King of Clydevale near Balclutha. 

Bill Walker acquired it at an unknown date with it being withdrawn and its registration cancelled on 22-07-1991.

It came back on the register again on 23-12-1992 with Bill and Jan Walker only to be withdrawn again on 14-10-1999.

Next I know it was with Southair Ltd at Taieri being restored in September of 2005

 Since then it has been displayed suspended from the rafters at the Country Time Club at Omarama - above.

 Then we have four views of it at the Queenstown Airport terminal building

 And finally in the briefing room of the Omarama Soaring Centre.

Glide Omarama to Soar Again

Earlier in March I posted that Glide Omarama had ceased operations - see https://nzcivair.blogspot.com/2020/03/glideomarama-ceases-operations.html

However there has been a good outcome with the following update posted by Glide Omarama on Facebook:

Glide Omarama is now shuttered down and isolated and the unfortunate glitch with CAA is behind us. The plan is that towing and training services at Omarama will reopen in September, subject of course to lockdowns and a degree of economic recovery.

Luckily Glide Om has no debt so the business can survive a long period of inactivity provided we still have some instructors and tow pilots available.

In the meantime, all the best to our friends and gliding community in these difficult times. We hope to see many of you again at Omarama next season! Thank you for your support. Please follow us on Facebook for updates.

Now all they need is the tourists....

Wanaka

CMM has been on the prowl at Wanaka

Three Ravens rounded up.

Three Robinson R44's.

ZK-HQA4 (c/n 1369) as listed with Prosser Heli Ag Ltd of Fairlie is on the left.

ZK-HCR2 (c/n 0323) is in the middle.

ZK-ICA (c/n 1229) of Western Pacific Helicopters Ltd on the right.

 Also noted was the Robinson R44 Raven II ZK-IMV2 (c/n 11972) of Cattle Flat Station.

CMM also noted the following:-

Click on image to enlarge.

And under construction

Over next door at the National Transport Museum the Salis is still perched on its rock.

Remember 'Wal' and Murray Ball ?

 This was mentioned in an earlier post Here