A Couple of Vintage Taildraggers at Waipukurau

Coming together at the Taildraggers Flyin at Waipukurau yesterday, for possibly the first time since WW 2, were a couple of vintage taildraggers that have dragged their tails for longer than most.  Ron Day has sent these photos:

They were Ron Day's Taylor J2 Cub ZK-AGD originally registered here in January 1938, and John Armstrong's Piper J3C-50 Cub ZK-AHD, originally registered here in April 1939.

We have covered the long histories of these two aircraft previously on the blog.  For ZK-AGD click HERE  and for ZK-AHD click HERE.

Thanks very much for the photos Ron.

Sonex Aircraft Waiex ZK-YEX 5-9-2020

The newly imported Sonex Aircraft LLC Waiex ZK-YEX had its first flight in New Zealand at Tauranga today, and the Hairy Mole Rat was on the spot to chronicle it:

ZK-YEX (c/n 155) is ex VH-YEX and was registered here on 28/8/20 to Kenny Gallacher of New Plymouth, and will be based at Stratford.  That tail takes a bit to get used to its looks. 

And here it is at Stratford later in the day, after its delivery flight piloted by Wayne Richmond.

Thanks for the photos Peter and Nick.

Tail dragger fly in Waipukurau

Hosted by the Central Hawkes Bay Aero Club at Waipukurau the annual tail dragger fly in attracted some 20 odd attendees including the latest addition to the Club fleet,  Super Cub 105 ZK-KSS which was imported from Canada back in 2015.

Down from Tauranga the colourful Thruxton Jackaroo ZK-PHZ

Not often seen the Hastings based Stearman A75N1 ZK-STM which was imported from the US back in 1994

And the unique Tim Bygate Tiger Hawk ZK-THK which first flew in 2001 and was sold to a Marton owner last month.

 

Hastings

A late afternoon visit to Hastings airfield revealed plenty of activity including the remarkable Staaken Flitzer Z-21a ZK-FTZ2 heading out for a local flight.  This was first registered back in 2013.

Our latest R & B Bearhawk is Hastings based ZK-LKA registered in December 2019

And visiting from Feilding the 1982 model Cessna 182R ZK-OFC which has had some revisions to its paint scheme.   This was imported from the US in 2005.

 

Meanwhile Back at Kaipara Flats 4-9-2020

 After we got back from Raglan flying up the West Coast (with a detour at 1400 feet past the Glenbrook Steel Mill and the outer coastline of the Manakau Harbour keeping under the Auckland International Control Zone), it was time to pull ZK-KMM "Honey Bebe" out of the hangar for a local flight down the East Coast out towards Kawau Island.  I reckon it was even more spectacular out there in the still air.

Observant readers of the blog will notice the new canopy that I have been working on over the Lockdown period.  It was great and it sure is nicer to fly under a canopy than with an open cockpit IMHO.

I am very pleased with the new canopy and it blends the windscreen slope over to the turtledeck in a nice curve, again IMHO.

Raglan for Lunch Today 4-9-2020

 A fabulous day for a post Lockdown flight saw me accompanying Brien O'Brien in his Fly Synthesis Texan ZK-TXN2 from Kaipara Flats down the coast to Raglan for lunch.  It was superb flying weather all the way there and back:

Raglan airfield on the nose.

It could have been Dargaville by the selection of aircraft.

There were about 8 visiting aircraft for lunch, here the impressive Piper PA 32R-301T Turbo Saratoga  ZK-VQM from North Shore.  Raglan is nicely set up for lunch with a short walk from the airfield to the main street cafes.

Lakeview Helicopters

A visit to Taupo today offered a couple of helicopters from the Lakeview Helicopters fleet being AS350B3 ZK-IAE which was imported new in 2015 as ZK-IDF6, progressed to ZK-HTW4 in April 2019 and then to ZK-IAE3 in May 2020.

And R44 Raven sprayer ZK-ICP which was imported from Australia in 2012.

 

Mooney M 20C ZK-DBN History

I photo'd the venerable Mooney M 20C Mk 21 ZK-DBN (c/n 20C-3041) at Ardmore recently, having some maintenance done at Aero Technology.  A rather unprepossessing looking aircraft but it has a long and interesting history:

It has been owned since 13/3/91 by Michael J Hayton of New Plymouth and then Auckland.

Prior to 1991 it was owned by Peter Dyer of Christchurch and then Taupo, as photo'd above, from 2/4/76 to 1991.  And prior to that it was owned by Rod McKelvie of Napier from 27/3/75 where it was leased to Napier Air Service.

However it goes back further to when it was registered as ZK-DBN on 22/6/70 to C L North and D K Lilico of Auckland.  They bought the Mooney as a wreck and rebuilt it over the next 4 years using the damaged remains of ZK-CLY and parts from the Tauranga Aero Club's Mooney M20C Mk 21 ZK-CHY that had crashed into the sea on take off on 8/1/67.

ZK-CLY (also c/n 20C-3041) arrived in Hamilton in 1965 as N5685Q and was assembled by Aero Engine Services Ltd.  It was registered to the Rotorua Aero Club on 26/5/65 and it is photo'd above and below at Wellington on 6/8/66

In this shot you can see our old house on the hillside in the background.

It suffered an undercarriage collapse at Franz Joseph shortly after, on 25/9/66, but was repaired and it gained fame as the first aircraft to circumnavigate New Zealand in one day, flown by Tony Isreal on 12/1/69 taking 16 hours and 46 minutes flying time.  It is photo'd above outside the Rotorua Aero Club on 13/12/68 and it looks like it may have been in new colours.  Finally it was again damaged, this time at Rotorua, on 22/3/70 and was cancelled only to rise from the ashes to still be around today.

Thanks to Blue Bus for the info and photos.

Ibis Magic GS 700 ZK-CCL/2

I have previously posted about JP Shulze's Ibis Magic GS 700 ZK-CCL2 as part of my Ibis Magic GS 700s of New Zealand post, see https://nzcivair.blogspot.com/2019/10/ibis-magic-gs-700s-of-new-zealand.html 

Juan-Pierre has now installed main wheel spats and added some tasteful trim.  Live the Adventure is written on the tail.  It looks nice.

The Latest ZK-WOW

In a wow! moment Warwick Hamilton captured the latest version of ZK-WOW at Tauranga recently:

ZK-WOW3 (c/n 18264179) is a Cessna 182P for Skydive The Mount Ltd of Mount Maunganui.  It was registered here on 17/7/20 and is ex VH-FOW.