Pauanui

Amongst all the visitors to Pauanui airfield this weekend was the Ardmore Helicopters' Guimbal Cabri G2 ZK-IRR2 on a training flight.  This was imported new in 2017.

And the recently flown Auckland based Vans RV7 ZK-LDM of Lloyd Morris did a couple of circuit touch and goes.

 

Black Sands at Te Kowhai - Some Local Aircraft

There was a big selection of aircraft at Te Kowhai yesterday, so I thought I would do several posts on different categories, and for the first here are some of the local aircraft that were out of their hangars and on display: 

Chief Black Sands organiser Bruce Cooke's Avian Adventurer ZK-CKE2 now has a 2 bladed Gary Williams propellor and Bruce is working to get his aircraft flying again.  Thanks must go to Bruce and his team for organising the flyin - if you do it for long enough you must eventually get a great weather weekend!

Neil McHigh's DHC 1 Chipmunk ZK-UAS was displayed prominently alongside Harvard NZ1065 that had flown down from Ardmore.

Jim Walker's Arion Lightning ZK-JMZ2 (for Jim's) was on display, the first time I have seen this nice aircraft outside.

Jabiru B22J Bantam ZK-SBD with Fly Te Kowhai markings.

And this was also the first time I had seen Gary Bodley's Innovator Mosquito XE single seat very light helicopter ZK-IXI.  It looked very narrow.

And there was a newly constructed Flying Flea in one of the hangars - It has all the modern upgrades to overcome the problems that Flying Fleas had back in the 1930s.  I will look forward with interest to seeing it flying

A Flight Down to Black Sands at Te Kowhai Today 14-11-2020

With my Jodel D 9 ZK-KMM all up to date with maintenance and topped up with oil and Avgas, it was a perfect day to fly down to Te Kowhai today for the Black Sands flyin, with a forecast of light variable 5 knot winds everywhere. 

Getting ready for departure from Kaipara Flats just before 9 am.  Look at the weather!

Reflections over the Kaipara Harbour.

Passing the Manakau Heads

Arrival Overhead Te Kowhai after a flight time of 1 hour 45 minutes.  There were about 30 aircraft there at the time but eventually over 75 aircraft flew in.

ZK-KMM parked up with lots of other aircraft.

Start up in front of mother hen DC 3 - thanks for the photo Jordan

Homeward bound past Piha and Lion Rock.

And back home at Kaipara Flats after 1 hour 30 flight time.

What a great day! and it was great to catch up with so many aviation friends.

Hamilton

A quick visit to Hamilton Airport today offered the latest 750XL off the PAC production line,  ZK-EPK c/n 224

And over at Aero Maintenance the Reims Cessna F406 ZK-XLF which was all white a few weeks ago has now regained its Kiwi Air titling and logo
 

Cessna A185F VH-AIA arrive at Christchurch

 The Cessna A185F Skywagon VH-AIA3 c/n 18502289 arrived into Christchurch International mid afternoon yesterday from Lord Howe Island.

A 1973 model originally built as N3395S which was listed in Australia on 16-01-1989.

I believe it is destined for Glenbrook Station not far from Omarama.

Glenbrook previously operated the Cessna 185C ZK SMW.

Aviat Husky ZK-USK

The Kapiti Districts Aero Club (Inc's) Aviat A-1C-180 Husky ZK-USK flew from Paraparaumu for the first time in NZ today 13-11-2020.

Photo above taken today by Paul Harrison at Paraparaumu just after its first flight.

 

Aviat A-1C-180 Husky (c/n 3115) was certified on the US civil aircraft register as N45WY on 08-02-2011 and following two owners in Montana, one in New Mexico and one in Oklahoma it arrived at Paraparaumu on 16-10-2020 for Blue Skies Aviation Ltd to be placed on line with the Kapiti Districts Aero Club.

Photo above is of N45WY thanks to Hangar 7

Avid Heavy Hauler ZK-SMH at Paraparaumu 12-11-2020

Tim Gorman was on hand at Paraparaumu yesterday when the Avid Heavy Hauler ZK-SMH passed through on it way to its new home at Hawera:

Ownership of ZK-SMH transferred to P D Jennings of Hawera on 18/10/20.  This Avid has not been seen out and about much except in the deep South.  It has had 2 previous mentions on the blog.  See:https://nzcivair.blogspot.com/2019/10/zk-smh-update.html

Thanks for the photo Tim.

Pauanui

Fine settled weather today over the Coromandel resulted in an increase in visitors to Pauanui including the new Thames based Vans RV12iS ZK-FGB which spent the day visiting a number of airfields on the Peninsula.

From the Ardmore based Southern Wings fleet came Piper PA28-181 Archer II ZK-MILwhich was imported from the USA in 1995 and has been with its current owner since 2002.

Also from Ardmore the Ardmore Flying School Cessna 172S ZK-EWZ which arrived from Australia in late 2019.   The School has recently added 4 more 172S to its fleet,  ZK-XYZ, ZAC, ZAN & ZAQ,  three being from the shortly to close Hamilton based L3 and one from the Canterbury Aero Club.

 

Hiller UH-12 ZK-HBS

 This really nice photograph of the Hiller UH12E ZK-HBS (c/n 2301) was recently sent to me by Damian Byrne and shows it at work near Makarora.

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Below is a copy of a blog post I did on ZK-HBS back in 2016.

 The original ZK-HBS was a Hiller UH-12E with the c/n 2301. 

Built as N9795C and listed in March 1964 to the Puerto Rico Resources Authority. 

Ownership went briefly to G E Mattern sometime in 1966 before it came to NZ and became ZK-HBS with Whirlwide Helicopters Ltd of Hastings on 10-03-1967. 

It first flew in NZ during May and was then posted down South.

At about this time is was named "Blossom".

It had a bit of an incident at Haast on 16-03-1968 and another at Teretonga on 23-01-1969.

It was relisted to Whirl-Wide Aviation Ltd at Timaru on 01-11-1969.

On 12-06-1970 it had a tail rotor strike in the Selbourne Range (not far inland from Jacksons Bay) and was destroyed by fire.

Its registration was cancelled on 24-06-1970.

Both photographs were taken at Invercargill. Top one on in December of 1968 and the shot below on 24-01-1969.

A Local Jaunt Today 12-10-2020

 After a bit of maintenance it was time to check Honey Bebe out this afternoon:

Out to Port is Matakana, Sandspit and Omaha in the background.

Over Snell's Beach and looking straight down Bon Accord Harbour on Kawau Island.

Out to Starboard looking South to the Mahurangi River Mouth and Scott's Landing.

Then back to Kaipara Flats for a top up of Avgas and back into the hangar, ready for another day's flying.  What a lovely area to go aviating!