Bearhawk ZK-MGO3

An interesting visitor today to Pauanui was the newly completed Bearhawk ZK-MGO3 up from Rotorua.  This was built by Simon Nicholson and first flew in late 2021.

 

A couple from Pauanui

A couple of interesting visitors to Pauanui airfield today were the Avid Heavy Hauler UL ZK-OST which was originally registered back in 2003, and despite still being shown as registered to a Christchurch owner it is now believed to be Tauranga based.

And across from Te Awamutu the R44 II ZK-IVY which was imported new back in 2004, and has been with its current owner since 2018.

 

Yak 52 ZK-YRA at Paraparaumu on 15-2-2022

A Yak 52 that hasn't been covered much on the blog was photo'd by Jordan Elvy passing through Paraparaumu on 15/2/22: 

ZK-YRA (c/n 833002) is registered to an owner in Qatar and has been Rangiora based since 2009, but I understand it was being delivered to New Plymouth, where several other Yaks are based.

Thanks for the photo Jordan.

Finally - a fine day at Rangiora.

A lovely fine day at Rangiora today - even if the northeasterly wind picked up later.

In from just a little way up country was Dave Mitchell with his Rans S6-ES Tail Dragger Coyote II  ZK-DYM c/n 04051657.

A recent arrival now based here is the Bell 47G-3B1 Sioux AH.1 ZK-HJH4 c/n WA508 which was registered to Flaxfern Ltd of Rangiora on 17-12-2021.

Note - Still in its XT801 Army Air Corp scheme.

An earlier post on this beast can be seen here :-

http://nzcivair.blogspot.com/2017/01/bell-47g-3b1-zk-hjh.html

Piper PA-38-112 Tomahawk ZK-JFE c/n 38-78A0568 is a resident at Plane Worx Maintenance hangar at  Rangiora.  It is still listed with New Zealand Aviation Academy Ltd of Stoke.

The Piper PA-31-310C Navajo ZK-JGA c/n 31-7612102 has been listed with Landpro Ltd of Cromwell (based Wanaka I believe).

More on this 1976 classic can be found here :- 

https://nzcivair.blogspot.com/2017/01/nelson-twins-25-01-2017.html

I finally managed to catch the Savannah S ZK-SGC c/n 20-12-54-0750 which was registered to the Mainpen Syndicate of Rolleston on 02-11-2021.

Cessna 180 ZK-DXA passing through.

Noted passing through Christchurch about lunch time today was the Gunson Enterprises Cessna 180J Skywagon ZK-DXA c/n 18052516.

This was shipped into New Zealand on June 4th 1975 and listed to Gunson Enterprises of Onga Onga on 26-05-1975. 

It has been with them ever since.

It has been mentioned several times before.

Helicopters around Auckland

A visit to the CG Aviation facility at Ardmore today revealed that their newly imported Sikorsky S-76C++ ZK-ICG2 is now in service.  This was imported from Canada in late 2021.    Their earlier S-76B ZK-IBI2 is likely to be replaced by another S-76C.

In for maintenance was the Coromandel based White Star Honey's Schweizer 269C-1 ZK-HVO2.  This was imported from the US in 2002 and has been owned by the company since 2017.

Up at North Shore airfield the Airlift NZ Bell 206L-4 LongRanger ZK-IBN2 had returned from a flight.  This was imported from the USA in early 2021.

Receiving attention was Orbit Helicopter's AS355F-1 ZK-IDU which has not been blogged here before. Being one of 3 AS355F in the company's fleet it was imported from Italy in 2018.

And making a quick stop for supplies was Talley's tuna boat Hughes 369HS ZK-HTL4.    This was originally imported from the US back in 2003.

 

Jodel D 9 ZK-CTW at Omaka 9-2-2022

Neville Sutherland has sent in a photo of his Jodel D 9 Bebe ZK-CTW at Omaka with a new cowling that he has fabricated:  (the bulge at the front covers a low rise distributor cap)

He has named his Bebe "Little Trimmer".  It looks good Neville!

And another Kiwi helicopter offshore

Robinson R22 Beta ZK-IAH which was imported used from Japan back in 2002 has actually been operating in Vanuatu for some years now owned by former Auckland Doctor,  Derek Allen.  Going under the name 'TroppoDoc' he uses the R22 to fly out to remote clinics in the Vanuatu island group,  while otherwise being a hospital based surgeon, obstetrician and pediatrician.

If anyone has a better photo of IAH available for publication on this Blog please let us know.

 

Air New Zealand Boeing 777-300 ZK-OKQ Returns to the Skies

It has been reported in the National press that Air New Zealand will return their Boeing 777-300ER ZK-OKQ to flying duties with a probable test flight today, 8/2/22.  The big Boeing will initially be used for freight runs between Auckland and Sydney, and Auckland and Los Angeles.  Here are a few photos of it to remind ourselves what we have been missing:

Arriving at Auckland on 27/12/15 in its original black and white scheme.

Lifting off from Christchurch on 6/4/20, just a couple of months before it was put into long term storage at Auckland.

In storage at Air New Zealand's Auckland Maintenance Base on 27/5/21.

And lift off today from Auckland International (Photo via Grayson Ottaway)

Couple of other Kiwi helicopters offshore for the summer

As well as the Sikorsky mentioned in the blog below a couple of other NZ helicopters are working offshore this summer being 2 of Wanaka based Heli Support NZ's AS350B2.   They are operating with sister company Heli Support International supporting the German and Italian Scientific Research Programmes in Antarctica.

They are ZK-HWG2 which was originally imported back in 2006 from Australia as ZK-IBO, then ZK-IHW in 2007 and HWG in 2010.  It was acquired by Heli Support in 2018.

And ZK-HNF4 which was imported from Australia in 1992 as ZK-IWJ, then ZK-HMM3 in 2001 and ZK-HNF in 2020 when acquired by Heli Support.