Slightly New Colour Scheme for Aerowork Crescos

Late in the day at Stratford, Mark Tocher arrived back in his Cresco 750 which was a new one since I was last down there in August (when the Cresco was ZK-LTW).  He has a garage door opener for his hangar so after carrying out his required engine checks he just taxies straight in and shuts the door.  Nice.

ZK-LTH (c/n 024) now has "aerowork" in a new font and a large green and white "R" on the fuselage and "aerowork" on the fin.  It is ex ZK-EFS and VH-END.

And after many times passing through Te Kuiti, I finally caught ZK-LTN (c/n 031) outside its hangar, also in the slightly new colour scheme.  This one is ex ZK-LTW2.

For comparison, here is ZK-LTW3 (c/n 019) at Stratford back in August.  Thanks to Delticman who pointed out the slightly new colour scheme.

And On to Feilding and Palmerston North 10-12-2018

I had planned to return to Warkworth on the Tuesday, so I took the opportunity to travel down to the Manawatu with Wayne on the Monday.  First stop was Feilding:

Rex Brereton was working in his hangar where his Harvard 3 ZK-ENB (c/n NZ1076) was tucked up.

Ravensdown Aerowork's Cessna A185E ZK-LJG was having some work done on its engine at Aero Support.  I will post on another couple of Ravensdown Aerowork aircraft later.

 And over at Fieldair Engineering at Palmerston North was the nice Sequoia Falco F 8L ZK-FWA2 of Warren "Wal" Thompson who flies RNZAF King Airs out of Ohakea.  Thanks to Quentin Hughes for singing me in to get access to the hangar.  Both Wal and Quentin told me they are regular NZ Civair blog readers - Thanks guys, nice to meet you.

A really nice touch on the fin of the Falco is the Frati family crest in honour of the designer Stelio Frati.

On to Stratford 9-12-2018

After my great time at Norfolk Road, I headed on down to Stratford for my main mission.  It was good news as the Jodel's VW engine had started for the first time since fitting the new heads and re-timing the magnetos.  We did several starts including hot starts and I was delighted to do a bit of taxying around.

However, another neat thing was that the locals were doing a flyover for a Kids Christmas party at nearby Lake Ratapiko and I was able to tag along as a passenger in the Zenith CH 601 ZK-JPX.  Actually in the older model 601 with the thick wing we couldn't keep up with the Sonerais and the Titan Mustang, but Shaun Richmond has now fitted a nice smoke system to his Zenair CH-601XL so we could see them doing the flyover.

My ride awaits - Zenith CH 601 ZK-JPX.

Stunning mountain views on a stunning day....

Followed by a nice landing on Runway 27.

Gary Marsh's Titan Mustang with 2 Sonerais under her starboard wing and 2 CH 601s under her port wing.  ZK-SNW, ZK-SNJ, ZK-TVG, ZK-JQT and ZK-JPX.

Wayne Richmond's well travelled Sonerai IILS ZK-SNW is very active at Stratford, and Wayne is very active with all things aircraft.

Jodel D 9 ZK-KMM doing an engine run with Nick Furmage driving.  Thanks for your help Nick.

And Alan Farr was out in the later afternoon for a flight in his Titan Tornado ZK-RSR.  It sounds very nice and is powered by a Rotax 912 so it really goes.

Skyfox Gazelle ZK-CRB at Flight Fix Norfolk Road

Norfolk Road airstrip is also the base for Flight Fix NZ Ltd and Gareth Semenoff kindly showed me around and told showed me some of their projects.  They specialise in Cessna refurbishments and some of the planes they have recently completed are a C 180 and C 172 ex Japan for Rob Fry, and   most recent project is a C 206 amphibian that is for an Australian owner.  They also have a C 172 ex Arizona and a C 206 ex Australia currently under refurbishment.

However, for me, a more interesting aircraft in their hangar was the Skycraft CA25N Gazelle ZK-CRB2 that has been imported by Randy Beier of Hawera.  This was first registered in Australia as VH-BGP3 on 14/5/97 and later was transferred to the Australian Recreational register as 24-8643.  It was owned by Randy Beier in Australia and was advertised for sale, but Randy has now bought the aircraft to New Zealand.  This is our second Skycraft Gazelle and it has not flown here yet.

SOCATA TB20 Trinidad ZK-SGT

Captured today outside Solo Wings Ltd at Tauranga by Hairy Mole Rat was the SOCATA TB20 ZK-SGT.

This was also first registered in NZ today to Aerius Ltd of Te Puke and should park nicely alongside their Robinson R44 ZK-HXY2, AS 350 B ZK-HZU2, and the Guimbal Cabri G2 ZK-IIF.

A 2001 model that began as N181GT followed by N121TR and then time in Australia as VH-KMY3  from 10-11-2006.

See trans Tasman delivery details on our sister MRC site HERE.

Helicopters at Pauanui

A couple of interesting helicopters called into the Pauanui airfield today being North Shore Helicopters EC130B ZK-HJW

And not noted here before the Hamilton privately owned Bell 206L-1 Longranger ZK-HVF which was imported back in July.

Norfolk Road Airstrip on 9-12-2018

After such an interesting aircraft day on the 8th of December, I continued on to Taranaki on Sunday the 9th.  The weather was great and Mt Egmont was towering.  I really lucked out at Norfolk Road as the North Taranaki Aero Club and the Norfolk Road Aviation Sports Club were having their own Christmas BBQ and flying competitions so all the hangars were open with lots of planes out in the sun.

Grant Wisnewski in his Stinson 108-3 ZK-NCC getting airborne for the spot landing competition.

The Midnight Blowfly aka Cessna 150G ZK-CSW is owned by a Turangi owner.

Piper PA 28-R 200 ZK-DQV is registered to a Hamilton owner.

Piper PA 18 ZK-BKV is owned by the North Taranaki Aero Club.  Are you seeing a theme in these photos? - that mountain is pretty impressive!

Kevin Wisnewski then pulled his Wilga out of its hangar for some local air to air flying.

While Brad Raven fired up his Cessna 170 to act as camera ship.  What a great day for flying!

A few days after Sir Minty's post (below) I was able to capture both of AirNZ's new Airbus A321-271NX on scheduled services into Auckland International.

ZK-NNA arriving today, Monday 17th

ZK-NNB arriving yesterday, Sunday 16th

Air New Zealand Airbus A 321 ZK-NNB at Auckland International 13-12-2018

Another trip to Wellington over the last few days.  On my way down last Thursday I was pleased to see one of Air New Zealand's new Airbus A 321 aircraft outside the Air New Zealand maintenance base.

 At first glance I didn't realise it was one of the new A 321s but a closer look revealed it was ZK-NNB (c/n 8542) which is an A 321-271NX NEO model, which was first registered on the NZ Civil Register on 1/12/18.

And in this shot you can compare an older A 320 with the A 321 NEO (for New Engine Option) and you can see that the new PW 1100G geared engines have a larger diameter with a resultant fatter cowling.  I understand that ZK-NNB entered service later on on the 13/12/18.
  

This weeks pickings

The week just gone has been pretty grotty in the Christchurch region.

However I did manage to finally get an outside shot of the Robinson R44 Raven II ZK-ILY (c/n 10968) of Horizon Helicopters Ltd.

 Early in the week I got this desperation shot of Horizon Helicopter Ltd's Eurocopter EC 120 B ZK-IOC (c/n 1259) without any markings.

 I have been told emphatically that it is NOT BLACK. 

Thanks to Heli Maintenance at Christchurch for access to get these two pics.

At Rangiora today -Sunday the 16th the Motueka based Cessna A185E Skywagon ZK-CYA (c/n 185-1023 of Pospau Ltd of Mapua on roll out and heading for the fuel pumps.

 Below - at the pumps was the Robinson R22 Beta ZK-IBG3 (c/n 2052) of S J and A L Harrison Partnership from Waikari.

This moved south from Opotiki early in the year. It started its NZ career as ZK-HGD2 after arriving from Japan in about mid-2003. 

A week later it was re-listed to ZK-HLJ3 and moved over to ZK-IBG3 on 05-03-2007.