Ardmore back on 6th August

 Tony McFarlin has provided the following photographs taken at Ardmore on 8th August 2020.

Pacific Aerospace CT4E Airtrainer ZK-PTD c/n 203 was first registered to Aeromotive Ltd at Hamilton on 10-09-1998 and first flew on the 21st,

It was leased to the RNZAF from October 2008 and allocated serial NZ1988.

At end of lease it returned to ZK-PTD on 03-03-2015 back with Aeromotive Ltd. 

It went into storage in Napier with ownership passing to Alleasing New Zealand Ltd of Napier from February 2015 and then to BMH Ltd of Napier from 19-12-2016.

It is seen here, along with two of its mates, ZK-PTI and ZK-PTM, on the for sale row with Dennis Thompson International Ltd at Ardmore.

N9953H Cessna 182R Skylane c/n 18268139 "African Promise" round the world fund raising flight. 

See this earlier post https://nzcivair.blogspot.com/2020/03/ardmore.html

Ardmore based Air Rescue Helicopter Trust (ARHT) had their Leonardo AW169 ZK-IZB c/n 69083 out in the sun.

The Diamond DA42 Twin Star ZK-EAN4  c/n 42.AC072 was initially listed as N422DK before becoming ZK-DAX2 with Eagle Flight Training Ltd on 25-05-2015 with a change to Leadtone Ltd of Ardmore from 24-10-2017.

It was transferred to the Ardmore Flying School Ltd and was re-registered as ZK-EAN4 on 08-12-2017.

Sikorsky S-76C JA6920 c/n 760535 was listed with Aero Asahi in September of 2003 and was cancelled from the Japanese register in June this year.

I believe it is destined to be parted out for components.

Glorious Coromandel

 Rod Vaughan has offered us these four images taken over the Coromandel Peninsula in all its glory yesterday - Thursday 13th.

A great way to escape from the Covid even if only for a couple of hours.

Some Visitors from Taranaki at Ardmore 13-8-20

 

    Bell (Williams) UH-IH Iroquois ZK-HYG msn 64-13861 operated by Beck Helicopters of Eltham in 

    Taranaki made a refuelling stop at Ardmore yesterday morning. It was joined by another of the fleet 

    Bell 206B Jetranger ZK-HDU. After refuelling both headed North.

Christchurch this day- 13th August 2020

Dropping in from Taupo was the Piper PA-46-310P Malibu ZK-ORZ c/n 46-8408084 of Heli Sika Ltd. It departed back to Taupo later in the day.

Arriving a few days back was the Piper PA-32-260 Cherokee Six ZK-EKS c/n 32-7300018 which has been with C E V Ltd of New Plymouth since October 2006.

For more on this airframe check out this link.

https://nzcivair.blogspot.com/2010/08/cherokee-sixs-zk-ddf-and-zk-eks.html

Pauanui

For a Thursday it was a very busy day at Pauanui airfield with visitors from all around the region, apart from Auckland where private flying has ceased under Level 3..

From Matamata came the striking Just Aircraft Highlander ZK-JUS, which was imported from the USA in early 2018.

Also from Matamata the 1966 model Cessna 172H ZK-TOR which was imported from the US in 1996.

And up from Tauranga the 1973 model Cessna U206F ZK-RPM,  which was ZK-TAM in a former life.

 

The Rangiora Pitts.

Out getting the moths blown out at Rangiora on Friday last were the two local Pitts.

Pitts S1S ZK-PUG c/n 1-0029 is Andrew Love's pristine machine.

Pitts S1-S ZK-FRJ c/n 1-0025 is Maurice Tull's version.

Lovely.

A Very Quiet Ardmore Today 12-8-2020

Just in the nick of time I travelled to Papakura this morning in light motorway traffic to pick up the moulded perspex top for my D 9 canopy - I got great service from Bruce Stratton of Composites International to trim it and tap the fixing holes so it is nearly ready to go.

Then, as I was all the way down there, I looked in on a very quiet Ardmore and managed to photo a couple of aircraft that were outside:

I just caught Cessna 551 Citataion SP N551NZ (c/n 0574) being pushed back into its hangar.  It is registered to the Bank of Utah Trustee in Salt Lake City but it obviously has New Zealand connections.

And another overseas registered aircraft was the Coral Sun Airways Beech King Air 200 P2-ALC, a long way from its home in Tarawa in Kiribati.

A Look Back at an Airshow at Nelson in 1992

Following on from Blue Bus's Question Time #? that was nailed by Mit (how was the chocolate fish?), I came across this you tube video of an airshow at Nelson in 1992 that showed the Tiger Beer Mustang.  It is a blast from the past with several other memorable aircraft so I took a few screen shots:

BJ Rhodes flew the Tiger Mustang ZK-TAF

Rob Booth flew the Sea Fury ZK-SFR

and Tom Middleton flew Tim Wallis's birdcage Corsair ZK-FUI

Here is the link to the video of the Nelson Airshow (and other airshows from 1992):  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wkjHHeJEUuY&feature=share&fbclid=IwAR37yxmYDr_uuCPhuoZesSJjs_xhtu1qu2vhWDgtOtOjP7rm4jMIMw0p220

ZK-OKC on the roll

 Wheels turning - but engines not yet burning and churning.

Boeing 777-219 ZK-OKC (c/n 34377) is the first of the four stored Air NZ 777s at Christchurch to enter the hangar for reactivation work to bring it back to airworthy status.
Mid morning today, it was pulled off it's temporary home on Bay 29 and dragged down to the No 1 hangar for commencement of nearly 2 weeks of work.

I am told once it is able to flap it's wings again, it will head
to Auckland and then off to the US for storage/or maybe parting out.

Meanwhile up at North Shore on 8-8-2020

David Wilkinson was making good progress towards the first flight of his Rihn DR 107 One Design ZK-EZG2 finishing off the many final jobs: