Question Time ------ Skywise Ultraflight Vampire ZK-VMP

The first correct answer to the Question Time on Monday came from Ross Brodie.

We have had just the one Skywise Ultraflight SV-2 Vampire on the New Zealand register.

ZK-VMP was c/n SU026 and first flew on 08-01-1998 pushed along by a Rotax 447 engine and was registered to Kevin Jane out of Stratford on 29-01-1998.

Tony Moss took it over from 21-02-2001 and finally Paul Howarth of Opunake from 01-11-2016.

It was withdrawn and cancelled on 30-06-2017.

Below we have eight photographs from various sources.

Designed by Bill Sadler in the USA in the early 1980's it won the Grand Champion Design at the EAA Oshkosh flyin in August 1982.

The rights were sold to Australia with a small production run off the 22 foot span SV-2 version being built under licence by Skywise Ultraflight.

Garland Aerospace took over the project followed by Wedgetail Aircraft but little more seemed to have eventuated.

Beech B 200 ZK-WPN at Wellington

Tim Gorman was at Wellington International yesterday to catch the recently re-registered Beech B 200 Kingair ZK-WPN:

ZK-WPN (c/n BB-1466) was re-registered from ZK-MYM on 25/2/20 for Skyline Aviation Ltd of Napier.

Thanks for the photo Tim.

Question time

 Feast your optics on this picture.

Now tell me what aircraft type do we have ?

And what registration would you expect it to carry ?

Come in Mit.

Vans RV 10 ZK-RMA at Omaka

Our latest (and third) Vans RV 10 was built in the UK as G-CKYK and was quite quickly exported to New Zealand.  It is photo'd below at Blackpool Airport in September 2019. 

It arrived at JEM Aviation at Omaka early in 2020 and it has been worked on before and after the Covid lockdowns.

It was registered as ZK-RMA2 (c/n 41404) was registered here on 12/6/20 to R A Arrowsmith of Wellington and it was recently out for engine runs at Omaka.

Fridays Rangiora run.

The Zenair Mono-Z CH-100 UL ZK-RTI (c/n AACA/609) was caught outside on Friday having engine power checks..

This airframe has been around since 1989 as ZK-FSH1 - see the two links below.

https://nzcivair.blogspot.com/2015/11/zk-fish-zk-dme.html

https://nzcivair.blogspot.com/search?q=zk-rti

The marks 'DME' were applied but never officially registered.

It was re-registered as ZK-RTI on 16-01-2019 to Peter Collins who has been toiling away converting it to purpose built glider tug.

It has been re-engined with a Honda VTEC (Jaz) engine driving through an Autoflight 3G gearbox.

The cowl is still a work in progress

 A first sighting for me was the ICP Savannah S ZK-LAK (c/n 18-02-54-0592) as built by Tony Den Haan at Cust. 

This is the second Savannah built by Tony and has already found a new owner.

Pauanui

Sunday brought another flow of visitors to Pauanui airfield including the vintage 1956 Auster J/5Q ZK-BLW from Matamata, which is still looking very smart

And registered to a Te Awamutu owner 1973 model Cessna 182P ZK-DNZ, which has been in NZ since new.

 

Back in the late 70's

Skyjeep has sent in some more of his pics from the late 1970's.

At Christchurch International Airport during November of 1978 was a Lockheed C141 Starlifter.

I don't have a serial number but I do know that there were at least sixty C141's involved in the 1978 'Deepfreeze' season - of which I believe only six did 'the ice' runs.

At a Wanganui air show in 1979 we have what looks like the Cessna 207 ZK-NPA on the left with an unknown Cessna on the right.

Helicopters (NZ) Ltd operated flights out to the Maui A platform and the Blue Whale crane ship tied up alongside.

These three shots were taken in 1977 - which to me narrows the Alouette down to being ZK-HNY.

Landing back at New Plymouth.

Thank you Skyjeep.

A Couple of Vans

Amongst the visitors to Pauanui airfield on Saturday were a couple of Vans aircraft being RV6A ZK-RVC from Matamata

And from Rotorua the new completed RV12 ZK-VGT which was registered back in January this year.

 

Cessna 172RG Cutlass at Tauranga

 You could be forgiven for thinking that a ZK-TA registered Cessna at Tauranga would be from the Tauranga Aero Club.

But no!  Warwick Hamilton photo'd this C 172RG Cutlass RG II ZK-TAH (c/n 172RG0840) at Tauranga on 10/8/20.  It has been registered to The Retractable Flying Machine Company of Tolaga Bay since 1/2/19 but it has been in New Zealand since June 1992.  It has not featured on the blog previously.

Hughes 369D ZK-HNT

 Hughes 369D c/n 590514D came onto our register as ZK-HNT thanks to Dalhoff and King Aviation Ltd of Ardmore on 02-07-1979 and was listed to Helicopters (NZ) Ltd of Nelson by the 24th of that month.

Just over a year later (17-11-1980) it was with Keith McKenzie of Taumarunui and was transferred to the Company name of Commercial Helicopters Ltd on 23-03-2001.

After nearly thirty seven years with Keith McKenzie it was listed to Bill Hales, of Hanmer Springs from 08-02-2017 and went immediately into the Heli Maintenance Ltd facility at Christchurch for a major overhaul.

I caught up with it again today at Heli Maintenance - Christchurch.

By the time you read this post ZK-HNT should be available for purchase.