Pereira Osprey 2 ZK-OSP at North Shore

When I was up at North Shore airfield last week with the Hairy Mole Rat. we poked around a few of the hangars that were open and I found a surprise.

Pereira Osprey 2 ZK-OSP has eluded me for many years so it was great to finally catch up with it.  When I did my post on Pereira Osprey 2s of New Zealand in July 2013 (at http://nzcivair.blogspot.co.nz/2013/07/pereira-gp-3-osprey-2s-of-new-zealand.html), it was apparently stored in a shed in West Auckland but I could find out no more about it, or even if it had ever had the marks ZK-OSP applied.  The aircraft is still registered to VP Morris of Auckland and as can be seen it has been marked up as OSP following its exit from the ZK-KGB registration marks.  I guess that it may fly again in the future as the wings are also stored in the hangar (although it does not have an engine installed).

ZK-CXM at NZTG 20-06-2016

A Cessna 177B Cardinal that hasn't had a lot of exposure on these pages is ZK-CXM (c/n 17701462) of PSC Aviation Ltd of Auckland.

It was spied yesterday by Grayson Ottaway at Tauranga.

It has had a brief mention at :-

http://nzcivair.blogspot.co.nz/2015/01/ardmore-snaps-from-magnaman.html

Feilding today in the rain # 2.

 Cessna T181T ZK-LDW (c/n T18208702) uses the owners L J and D R Wiseman for its registration letters. A 2007 model - It was first registered in NZ on 16-09-2013.

 This Cessna 152 ZK-NEI  (c/n 15280010) is another of the NZICPA fleet.

Wing and Rotor Aviation Ltd imported it from Canada and rebuilt it for delivery to the Airline Flying Club in 1991. It joined its current owner as recently as 31-03-2016.

 This Rans S-7S Courier ZK-PTP5 (c/n 1112583) was built up by Custom Aircraft Ltd at Taieri fro Peter Kernohan  of Levin and was first registered on 20-11-2013.

Airventure New Zealand Ltd of Feilding have this Glasair Sportman 2+2 ZK-SPO (c/n 7071).

It initially has a Subaru engine but I believe now has a IO-360 with a tuned exhaust - poking out around 200hp.

All photographs by Allan Wooller.

Feilding today in the rain # 1

Allan Wooller popped into Feilding today and captured these shots today (20-06-2016).

 Piper PA-28-180 ZK-DGL (c/n 28-7305206) normally lives in the open hangar at Dannevirke with R Larsen and A Dahya.

 The Cessna 172M Skyhawk II ZK-DRP is c/n 17263519 and is listed with M F and D M Robbie near Eketahuna. 

It was delivered from Rex Aviation (NZ) Ltd to Geyserland Airways (1974) Ltd at Rotorua in late 1974 and transferred to Pacific Aviation Ltd.

 The Grumman American AA5A Cheetah ZK-EFX (c/n AA5A-0679) hit the register on 08-02-1979 with New Zealand Aerospace Industries Ltd at Hamilton before passing to Air Gisborne later in 1979. Peter Mant of Wakatane was listed from 04-07-1999 followed by Dean Harnett of Shannon from 10-04-2009. Its registration was revoked on 07-04-2011.

 Partenavia P68B ZK-MYF is c/n 123 and began its NZ life as ZK-ERA in December of 1978.

Air2there.com re-registered it as ZK-MYF on 11-02-2005. 

Current owner is listed as NZICPA Ltd.

This is a short was of saying 'New Zealand International Commercial Pilots Academy Ltd'.

 This Piper PA-31-350 Chieftain also had a previous life - as ZK-MCM from mid 1982 with The Mount Cook Group. 

It was acquired by Air2there.com Ltd on 15-04-2011 and re-registered as ZK-MYS on 07-12-2004.

At the CAC today

There was a different mix of aircraft at the Canterbury Aero Club today.

The RNZAF Beechcraft T-6C Texan II NZ1408 (c/n PM-50) sits on the hard outside the Club.

Further along was the RNZAF Beechcraft King Air NZ7121 (c/n BB-1847). This has previously worn the ZK-KHP markings.

Also part of the 'display' in the foreground was the Piper PA-28-181 Archer III ZK-LJC (c/n 28-43624). It is hard to believe but this has been with 'the Club' for ten years already.

The Guimbal Cabri G-2 ZK-HLU4 (c/n 1101) was over from Christchurch Helicopters 2001 Ltd.

The Clubs two Partenavia P68C's ZK-TZZ (c/n 376) and ZK-MIR (c/n 227) were nearby.

New RV 7 at Whangarei

Dean Voelkerling registered his new Vans RV 7 ZK-DVS on 14/9/15, and now it has flown.

ZK-DVS is photo'd above at Whangarei, from where it first flew on 14/6/16.  Dean advises that he performance is way more than he expected, and that fairings and colour scheme will be added at the end of the test flying period.  Thanks very much for the photo Dean.

ZK-CVK

 Alastair Millar sent me a 'bit of trivia' earlier today.

Alastair flies the South Eyre Trust's ICP Savannah XL ZK-CVK2 (c/n 10-7-51-916) from its home strip near Kaiapoi.

 This aircraft was built by the owner/pilot of Perth West Australia and allocated the Australian Ultralight Federation registration numbers 19-7675 (often referred to a phone numbers) and  was hangared at Northam about two hours drive to the east of the City. 

It is powered by a Rotax 912 with a Bolly three bladed propeller.

It was shipped in a container from Freemantle to NZ and assembled at Rangiora.

It became ZK-CVK2 on 09-02-2015 with the South Eyre Trust.

Pic below shows the original five Australian stars on the rudder and its 'Phone Number' registration on the fin. It also carried these numbers in large numerals under its port wing.

Below is a pic taken at Hokitika by Alastair on Wednesday (15th).

You will note that it still carries its Australian Ultralight Federation markings but the smaller fifth star on the rudder has cunningly been covered with a NZ sticker.

Alastair has rightly pointed out that the first allocation of the ZK-CVK letters were applied to a Bristol 170 Freighter Mk31 which also came from Australia.

This was c/n 13179 and was allocated the Bristol Aircraft Co Ltd's manufacturers class B registration of G-18-171 on 29-07-1954 before trundling down to join the Royal Pakistan Air Force to become S4416. 

It was transferred to the Pakistani Government in a civilian capacity and was allocated the registration of AP-AMN for its ferry flight down to Australia.

In Oz it became VH-BFA on 10-10-1961 with Ansett ANA of Melbourne before transferring to Ansett MAL at Lae in PNG from 22-05-1964.

It was withdrawn from use in February 1967 at Goroka PNG with its registration being cancelled in October of 1967.

It was purchased by SAFE Air Ltd of Blenheim and became ZK-CVK on 03-11-1967 and was ferried down to Woodburne (Blenheim) arriving there on 21-11-1967.

The pic below from David Thollar shows it marked as ZK-CVK sitting at Brisbane on 16-11-1967 whilst on delivery to NZ.

 

It along with ZK-CVL, which also came from Ansett MAL about the same time, was never used operationally by Safe Air - being a source of spares only. 

It was cancelled from the NZ register on 05-04-1972 and it was seen below parked up at Woodbourne in November of 1975 by Nigel Daw.

Helicopters and the Hairy Mole Rat at North Shore Yesterday 17-6-2016

It was great to meet up with the Hairy Mole Rat at North Shore yesterday afternoon, and show him around a bit.  It was pretty quiet but as usual there were helicopters in the circuit, and he was pretty pleased to catch up with locally based Beech Baron N298WA which blasted off with quite spectacular performance.

MBB BO 105 CBS-4 ZK-HAX2 (c/n S888) of North Shore Helicopters Ltd.  This was first registered to Oceania Helicopters on 5/8/11 and was previously P 793 in Saudi Arabia.

Robinson R 22 Beta ZK-IAT (c/n 0642) of North Shore Helicopter Training Ltd, and has been in New Zealand since 9/7/02.  This is the sister ship to R 22 ZK-IPT3 that I posted on recently.  Neither have been posted in this blog previously in spite of being right in front of me a lot of the time.

Another helicopter that has not previously appeared on this blog is MBB 105 S ZK-HCV4 (c/n S841) which is owned by Far North Helicopters Ltd of Whangarei, having been re-registered as such on 18/2/16.  It was first registered in New Zealand to Brian Comerford as ZK-IAI4 on 18/9/12 and then went to Rick Lucas Helicopters, hence the colour.  It is ex N6607K.

Question time # 188 with update.

I have received a request from a blog follower seeking more information about this photograph of the Douglas DC3 ZK-BQK.

"Sir...maybe you can help with a bit of a mystery. 

Daks with a fluro tail at Christchurch in 1959 .

My kid  memory [I was14] says NAC had 5 of these Daks running under the title of Freightair. 

However I noticed recently the pic  [my dad took and I was there ] had a passenger exiting" .

There is a photograph of this same aircraft taken from the other side in the "NAC - Illustrated History of New Zealand National Airways Corporation 1947-1978" book by Richard Waugh, Peter Layne and Graeme McConnell.

Anybody care to comment ?

I note there is an unusual graphic below the cockpit.

************************************ 

Peter Layne - co-author of the above mentioned book has responded

There are two topics in his request. 

There were actually six, not five “long term” Freightairs being ZK-AOI, ZK-AQP, ZK-AQS, ZK-AWO, ZK-AZM & ZK-BKE. Of these, ZK-AQP and ZK-BKE were the only ones to spend their entire NAC careers as Freightairs – the other four were converted from passenger aircraft as required. ZK-AOI 1948, ZK-AWO 1958, ZK-AQS and ZK-AZM both 1961. ZK-AWO was after the first Viscount arrived and ZK-AQS and ZK-AZM after the first Friendships arrived.

Additionally, ZK-AQS was an occasional “light freighter” in the mid 1950s. Basically it flew on occasion with seats removed to accommodate light weight freight. Going back to the early NAC days, ZK-AOD, ZK-AOE and ZK-AOF were contracted to do the Cook Strait freight service. ZK-AOE crashed in 1948 but ZK-AOD and ZK-AOF carried on as Freightairs until 1950.  

There were originally going to be four early Freightairs with the inclusion of ZK-AOG but that aircraft was deemed as surplus and retained its RNZAF serial NZ3538. A reassessment saw NZ3538 called upon once more but with strict rules at the time so NZ3538 could not have its civil registration reinstated so it became ZK-AQP.

There were actually two day glo DC-3s. The other was none other than that fine old workhorse ZK-AWP, which was the first to obtain its own scheme, in 1960. Only the top of the tail (above the cheet line bearing the registration letters and each complete wing tip. ZK-BQK followed, also in 1960, with the entire tail done but not the wingtips. 

The art work on the nose is simply the standard Douglas logo normally carried on the tail but with the tail adorned in day glo it had to be moved. Strangely though, when the DC-3's were repainted in a “Viscount scheme” the Douglas logo no longer featured.

The idea was an experiment to see if the DC-3's could be seen better by crews of faster flying Viscounts and Friendships but it soon proved totally ineffective and was abandoned soon after. In keeping with idea of visibility “collision avoidance” the DC-3's all acquired a rotating tail mounted red beacon. The first one I saw was I think in 1961 atop ZK-AZA.

A REQUEST from Peter

Is there someone out there with a photo of ZK-AWP in its day glo scheme. 

I would dearly like to see it in print.

Peter Layne

Bristol Freighter Memories

Recently I found a great video on our sister blog MRC Aviation, about SAFE Air Bristol Freighters.  Titled "Bristol Freighter: 20,000 Rivets Flying in Close Formation" the link to MRC Aviation is at: (then hit play)

http://mrcaviation.blogspot.co.nz/2016/06/bristol-freighter-20000-rivets-flying.html

The video reminded me of my younger days when Bristol Freighters were a constant presence at Rongotai where at times assemblies at Rongotai College had to pause while a Freighter droned past!

I thought I would scratch the surface of the Bristol Freighter in New Zealand by posting the first two aircraft to be registered here, from the Neville Drake Collection.

Bristol B 170 Mk 31 Freighter ZK-AYG (c/n 12826) was registered on 8/3/51 to Straights Air Freight Express Ltd, who had won the contract for cross-Cook Straight freight from New Zealand Railways.

 It suffered several mishaps over the years.  I think this one was an overshoot at Paraparaumu on 14/11/51.

 In a later scheme for Straights Air Freight Express and with the NZR Rail-Air logo.

Finally a colour shot of it for SAFE with a tail registration.  The SAFE Air fleet underwent several minor colour scheme changes over the years including the colour being dayglo orange and then with the registration on the rear fuselage.  ZK-AYG finally retired on 9/9/67 having flown 16,768 hours.

Bristol B 170 Mk 31 Freighter ZK-AYH (c/n 12828) was also registered on 8/3/51 to Straights Air Freight Express Ltd,

Tragically, ZK-AYH crashed onto the Russley Golf Course at Christchurch on 21/11/57 when metal fatigue caused wing failure at 7,802 hours.  The four  people on board were killed and the crash is remembered by a memorial plaque on Memorial Drive near Christchurch Airport.  They were Captain RB Hamilton, First Officer HH Torgerson, J McClaggan and TM (Tom) O'Connell who was the founder and General Manager of Straits Air Freight Express, and who first conceived the Cargon system (the system of pallets that were loaded into the Freighter on rails from a special loader).

There is an excellent and very comprehensive history covering of all of the 21 Bristol Freighters we have had in New Zealand (plus the 12 RNZAF machines) posted by Flyernzl at:

http://rnzaf.proboards.com/thread/11951