Question time number ?

I found this in the olde shoe box the other day.

Does anybody know if it has a New Zealand connection ?

If so - then what

Or is it an 'erratic' in my collection ?

Could be worth a chocolate fish.

Today at Christchurch International 21-07-2020

First shot at about lunch time shows the Otematata Station's Cessna 185 ZK-CKP (c/n 185 0796) on the tie down wire.

A little later we have the Boeing 787-9 ZK-NZK (c/n 24494) in motion.

 And then below is the Boeing 787 767-381F VH-EFT  VH-EFR (c/n 33510) QANTAS freighter folding its gear.

 Guimbal Cabri G2 ZK-HYI4 (c/n 1178) was listed to Christchurch Helicopters on 08-04-2020 and was previously ZK-IMZ2 with another operator.

And to show there is no ill feeling we have another view of Cessna 185 ZK-CKP on the move with the QANTAS freighter lurking with intent in the background.

Arion Lightning ZK-JMZ at Te Kowhai

Back in March 2019 I posted about our only Arion Lightning aircraft ZK-TDT as part of my ongoing series on sport aircraft of New Zealand, at:  https://nzcivair.blogspot.com/2019/03/arion-aircraft-lightnings-of-new-zealand.html  In that post I noted that the aircraft had been reregistered as ZK-JMZ2 but that it had not flown with that registration at that time.  I have been looking out for it during my trips through Te Kowhai but I have not managed to see it to date.

However Jordan Elvy managed to photograph it in his and Simon Hills' recent road trip through the Waikato so here it is:

ZK-JMZ2 (c/n 46) was registered to Jim Walker of Hamilton on 27/10/17 as a change of registration.  It is photo'd above in its hangar at Te Kowhai on 19/7/20.

Thanks for the photo Jordan.

David Wilkinson's New Rihn One Design

I was pleased to be able to get to North Shore airfield yesterday to catch up with David Wilkinson who has his new Rihn DR 107 One Design coming together in his hangar.  There were also quite a few other interested homebuilt aircraft guys helping out.

This is a wider shot of the teaser I posted last night, showing the nice touch of the aircraft name embroidered into the seat back.  As usual David had done an amazing job of his aircraft.

The Wilkinson yellow fleet in and outside their hangar.

I was on hand for one of the early engine start ups.  The engine is a high compression Lycoming IO-375 (a stroked O-360)  that produces around 230 HP.  It sounded great.

The 80 inch Whirlwind propeller spans one third of the wingspan!

Then David took his aircraft for its first taxi.

The missing panels are carbon fibre fairings that are fixed onto the chromoly steel tube frame. 

A Teaser

Here is a teaser from my photographic efforts today:

I will post more about it tomorrow.

Golden Light at Christchurch 19-07-2020

 Three pics from Christchurch today 19-07-2020 in the afternoon golden light.

On the wire tie downs we see the SOCATA TB20 ZK-SGT (c/n 2084) as listed with Aerius Ltd.

An earlier post on ZK-SGT can be seen  Here

 Airbus A321-272NX ZK-NND (c/n 8629) on its way.

And Bombardier DHC-8-311 ZK-NED ZK-NEK (c/n 629) was registered under the Air Nelson name on 10-10-2006 and transferred to Air New Zealand title on 19-11-2019.

Sikorsky S-76B ZK-IBI

 Seen at Queenstown on Sunday 19th July was the Sikorsky S-76B ZK-IBI2 (c/n 760447) as listed with C G Aviation Ltd of Papakura from December 2019.

It is ex Japan where it had been JA6766 from March 1996 with the Kagawa Prefecture Police until arriving in NZ to become ZK-IBI2 with Oceania Aviation Ltd from 18-02-2019.
Photos from Martymonsta.

A look back in time to 1974

With thanks to Graeme Stratton we get a look at a couple of helicopters from 1974.

Above is Hughes 369HS ZK-HFK c/n 110271S at Pinegrove in the Autumn of 1974 with Guy Wilson flying. 

Sadly both were lost on Mount Hawkins in June 1975.

Built as N9063F and listed to the Hughes Tool Company at Culver City in California in January 1971.

It arrived in NZ for Southwest Helicopters Ltd of Taupo and became ZK-HFK on 11-05-1973.

Was this the second 369 in NZ ?

Southwest also operated in the South Island and had a base on the West Coast at Pinegrove between Fox Glacier and Paringa on highway 6.

Above we have ZK-HFK again but with Ron Connell and Warner Adamson.

Parked at the Jackson's Pub on Highway 73 in April 1974 is Eddie McGregor with Hughes 269C ZK-HFZ c/n 23-0188. 

As N8977F it spent a few months in Oregon before being imported into NZ by Dalhoff and King (NZ) Ltd to be registered here on 20-09-1973.

It served with Southwest until January 1979 and soldiered on with several more operators until written off in September 1984.

The Hiller UH-12E ZK-HGJ c/n 2174 of Mountain Helicopters is seen at the Hokitika Gorge in April 1974.

An interesting previous life for this one. It was built for the Canadian Armed Forces as a CH-112 Nomad and came on strength in about October 1961. It went off to Germany with the Royal Canadian Armoured Corps Helicopter Troop in 1962. 

It was duly damaged and returned to Canada and became an instructional airframe. It was returned to the air in September 1970 until it was struck off charge on 30-03-1973.

It briefly entered the Canadian civil register as CF-EHQ before popping up in NZ as ZK-HGJ on 08-11-1973 with Alexander Pacific Ltd and (officially) joined Mountain Helicopters of Greymouth on 21-06-1974. 

It was damaged twice in 1979 and went to Whirlwide Helicopters at Timaru and reappeared as a UH12EJ3 Soloy conversion. 

It was damaged near Taieri in February 1982 and sold to the US as spares. It appears on the US register as N7173X from 11-06-1990 with Arrow Falcon Enterprises Inc at Porterville California (the home of Hiller). It was cancelled from the US register on 27-11-2011.

Metro ZK-CIC

An interesting variation showing the monowheel Air Chathams Metro ZK-CIC departing Christchurch today with a load of 'bad boys'

Beech A36 Bonanza ZK-TRC at Tauranga

Warwick Hamilton recently caught the newly registered Beech A36 Bonanza ZK-TRC4 at Tauranga:

ZK-TRC4 (c/n E-515) is owned by Michael and Amy Law of Warkworth and has been registered as such since 22/7/19.  However it is a re-registration of the previous ZK-UTE2.  The history of the aircraft can be found at:  https://nzcivair.blogspot.com/2018/09/zk-ute.html

This is the fourth use of the registration ZK-TRC and all the previous aircraft ZK-TRC (Cessna TR 182), ZK-TRC2 (Cessna T210R) and ZK-TRC3 (Cessna 421C) have been owned by Bruce Brownlee of TRC Toyota in Feilding.  None of these three have been blogged here - can anyone help?