Sandringham at Lyttelton November 1957

Another somewhat cropped photograph from Allan Bowman shows the Short S.25 Sandringham  4 VH-BRC anchored out at Lyttelton Harbour in November of 1957.

A brief history of this aircraft follows.

This airframe began life at the Short and Harlands factory at Belfast in Northern Ireland as a Mark III Sunderland with the c/n SB.2018 and was allocated the Royal Air Force serial number of JM715 but was converted to a GR Mk5. It was then converted to a civilian Sandringham 4 by April 1947.

It was acquired for Tasman Empire Airways Ltd and became ZK-AMH from 29-05-1947 and given the name 'RMA Auckland' and departed Poole Harbour on delivery to NZ on 15-10-1947.

It was sold in about may of 1950 and became VH-BRC with Barrier Reef Airways Ltd of Brisbane from 22-09-1950 before transferring to Ansett Flying Boat Services from 19-12-1952 with whom it was named 'Beachcomber' and based at Sydney's Rose Bay.

This aircraft was charted on several occasions to to carry out flights to/from the Chatham Islands and also carried out a camera ship role in 1957 - as in the photo above - note the unusual nose addition.

See this link :-

http://3rdlevelnz.blogspot.co.nz/2014/07/ansetts-service-to-chatham-islands.html

It departed Sydney on 28-11-1974 to become N158C with Antilles Airboats out of St Thomas and they named it 'Southern Cross'. 

After a burst as VP-LVE with the same operator it returned to its N158C marks and after a couple of other ventures eventually made it to Calshot in February of 1981 for the British Science Museum and was stored on the Lee-on-Solent. 

On 02-03-1983 it was barged to Southampton for some refurbishment and went on display at the Southampton Hall of Aviation in its Ansett VH-BRC Beachcomer scheme.

There is a great selection of other 'boat' pics at :-

http://rnzaf.proboards.com/thread/10043

Don't forget to look at pages 2 and 3.

I remember when. Britannia.

Civil registered Bristol Britannia airliners where not a common sight in New Zealand.

however the pic below provided by Allan Bowman shows the Canadian Pacific Britannia 314 CF-CZC c/n 13395 (and ship number 523 - on nose wheel door) at Christchurch International Airport on an unknown date.

I believe one flew the Queen Mother down from Fiji in 1958 - could this be it ?

But I suspect this shot is later - more like March 1964 !

 CF-CZC was built in 1958 and named 'Empress of Tokyo' and was fleet number 523. 

It became G-ATLE with Transglobe Airways Ltd at Gatwick from 30-11-1965 and then moved to I.A.S (London Ltd from 30-12-1969.

I believe it was withdrawn from use in March of 1970 and later broken up.

Homegrown Two Seat Homebuilt Aircraft of New Zealand (5) - Belworthy Figaro

At the same time as Evan Belworthy was working on his MOA, his dad Alan was working on his Figaro ZK-PUR (c/n BEL 7), that he registered on 27/6/00.  It was Alan and Evan's seventh aircraft.

After completing his Sorrell Guppy (ZK-JGK), Alan wanted a two seater to fly in comfort, so he combined a Pietenpol fuselage with a canopy mated to a modified Jodel D 18 wing to produce a very useful aircraft.  Its spring steel undercarriage is also an Alan Belworthy signature which makes for good ground handling and paddock operations.

It is powered by a Toyota Hilux 4Y petrol engine which burns 18 litres per hour and gives a cruise of 80 knots.  Its length is 5.7 metres (19 feet) and wingspan is 8.4 metres (28 feet).  MAUW is 459 Kg (1,012 pounds).

ZK-PUR is photo'd here at the 2001 SAANZ Flyin at Ashburton.

Homegrown Two Seat (and +) Homebuilt Aircraft of New Zealand (4) - Belworthy MOA

Evan Belworthy registered his MOA (according to Evan it stands for "My Own Aircraft") as ZK-MQA (c/n BEL 6) on 11/5/00.  It is his design for a four seat aircraft to take all the family on trips but still being able to operate in and out of local airstrips.  He combined design ideas from Austers, Wag Aeros and the Miranda, and for carrying gear the added a cargo pod underneath.  There is also storage behind the rear seats, which can be folded down if flying two up to give even more storage.

It is powered by a 3.8 litre Ford V 6 engine as used in Mustangs and Broncos.  Its is 7.1 metres long (23 feet) and the wingspan is 11.3 metres (37 feet).  MAUW is 1,088 Kg (2,400 pounds).

 ZK-MQA is photo'd here at the 2013 SAANZ Flyin at Ashburton.

Cessna 172 ZK-MED

Sir Minty took this pic of the Cessna 172R Skyhawk ZK-MED2 (c/n 80093) at North Shore yesterday (14-05-2016). 

This began its NZ career as ZK-OUI followed by some time as ZK-JZM.

Recently purchased by Joanna Lapish of Royal Heights Medical Centre at Massey, Auckland, it was re-registered to ZK-MED2 on 28-04-2016 and now bears Joanna's name , phone number and "Pilot Medicals' script on the door and Royalmed.co.nz on the fuselage fillet.

For a review of ZK-MED's earlier career check out :-

http://nzcivair.blogspot.co.nz/2014/10/noted-for-sale-zk-jzm.html

The first allocation of the ZK-MED registration was worn on a Piper PA-31P Navajo between 1998 and 2002.

The Great Aussie Flying Adventure

David Wilkinson was up at North Shore yesterday, checking over and  test running the engine in his RV 8 ZK-WLK.

I have posted lots of photos of this nice looking aircraft on the blog, but yesterday there was something different about it....

It now has ZK marks because it is about to head over the Tasman for a Great Aussie Flying Adventure.  David will be joined in the back seat by Don Wilkinson for a two week trip around New South Wales and Queensland.

 Also sharing the adventure will be Bill Luther in his RV 7 ZK-WLL (no doubt his aircraft will also be acquiring ZK marks)

And Peter Merwood in his RV 6 ZK-VRV.

The trio will fly the Tasman from Kerikeri to Port Macquarie, overnighting at Norfolk Island and Lord Howe Island.  The leaving date is weather dependant but should be in the week starting the 23rd of May.

There is a Facebook page covering the adventure at:  https://www.facebook.com/crossingtheditch/

Provost ZK-JOT at North Shore Today 14-5-2016

Percival Provost T Mk1 ZK-JOT ( marked as WV666) is being worked on at North Shore to bring it back to airworthiness and engine runs have been carried out.  It was first registered here on 17/4/03 and is owned by the Subritsky and House Partnership of Albany, Auckland.

Steve Subritsky is shown here working on his aircraft today and he is being assisted by Bruce Ricketts.  The aim is to have the aircraft at the RNZAF 80th anniversary air pageant at Ohakea next February, alongside the Strikemasters so that their lineage can be seen.

Misc pics catch up.

Gulfstream GV SP N250DV (c/n 5066) seen here at Queenstown back on 24-03-2016 by Terry Fletcher. 

Listed on the FAA files with RDV Leasing LLC out of Grand Rapids of Michigan USA it began life as N966GA with Grumman Aerospace in early 2005.

It is operated by Amway/Alticor.

Also in country at the same time was their Eurocopter EC 130 B4 N716LY (c/n 7289).

Below we have the Porterfield 35-90 NZ598 as seen in the Ashburton Aviation Museum.

A Terry Fletcher photo. Taken at Ashburton on 19-03-2016.

This aircraft, c/n 316, had an export C of A from the States on 11-11-1937 and came to NZ for General aircraft Sales Ltd and became ZK-AFT on 12-01-1938 for delivery to the Hawkes Bay and East Coast Aero Club from 19-03-1938. 

It was impressed into RNZAF service from 09-10-1939 and allocated the serial NZ581. 

For some reason it was released to the New Plymouth Aero Club and became ZK-AHJ on 21-06-1940, only to be taken back into RNZAF service from 07-10-1942 and given the new Air Force serial number of NZ598.

Post World War Two it was released back to civilian use with Charlie H R Liddell from 26-09-1946 as ZK-APJ. 

Next in the ownership list was Walter (Wattie) R Willmott of Timaru from 01-05-1947 who removed the Warner Scarab V70E engine and fitted a Continental C85 motor. 

It was withdrawn from use on 06-12-1959 with its registration beiing cancelled on 11-09-1974.

It went on loan to the RNZAF Museum and then down to (and later gifted to) the Ashburton Aviation Museum.

Concorde

This  photo was forwarded to me by Allan Bowman and shows the Concorde F-BVFF in NZ.

As far as I know this aircraft visited NZ on five occasions:-

13/16-09-1994 Christchurch.

08/11-10-1994 Christchurch. This flight co-incided with exhaust emission sampling flight by the NASA ER-2.

06-10-1995 Auckland.

05-02-1997 Auckland.

19/22-10-1997 Auckland.

This airframe (c/n 215) first flew as F-WJAN on 26-12-1978 and went to Air France as F-BVFF on 23-10-1980.

It had flown 12,421 hours at the time of its withdrawal and can now be seen at Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris 

Million dollar mouse.

Soon to take place is the Million Dollar Mouse Project which is the eradication of mice from the Antipodes Islands

 Two helicopters will be supplied for the baiting operation. 

One from Amuri Helicopters based in Hanmer and one from Southern Lakes Helicopters based near Te Anau.

Amuri Helicopters will provide their AS 350BA (350FX) ZK-HJM (c/n 1671). 

A practice of the helicopter and ship operations took place in Timaru on the 24th and 25th of March to practice and prove the movements of helicopters aboard.

See https://www.facebook.com/milliondollarmouse/videos/1067886439934893/

   Tony Michelle from Amuri Helicopters/ Island Aerial Solutions will be the Chief Pilot. 

 Darron McCully will pilot the second helicopter (ZK-HMD) which took part in a sample loading and seeding exercise at the Levels Raceway near Timaru Airport recently.

See https://www.facebook.com/milliondollarmouse/videos/1067788739944663/

There is a dedicated blog page for this operation at :-

http://milliondollarmouse.org.nz/