Monday 30 June 2014

Bruce's Exec's


 Rotorway Exec 162F ZK-HYQ2 (c/n 6167) at Christchurch.
Pic from Matt Hayes.

Bruce Burdekin, already owner/builder of ZK-HUR3, has picked up another Rotorway Exec 162F helicopter from the US and listed it here as ZK-HYQ2.
This Rotorway was built by John R Stephens of Ailey Georgia and reserved the N16696 registration back in February of 2001. It gained its airworthiness certificate on 24-05-2006.
Ownership moved to Hickory Creek Aviation Inc of Wilmington Delaware on 13-04-2011 and its cancellation for export to NZ took effect on 17-09-2013.
It became ZK-HYQ2 on 28-11-2013
********************
Bruce's earlier Rotorway is Rotorway Exec 162 ZK-HUR3 (c/n 3216).
Seen below at Rangiora on 15-06-2014. Still work in progress.
Earlier posts on ZK-HUR can be seen at :-
 

Falcon 20 D-CMET arrives at Christchurch

The Dassault Falcon 20E-5 D-CMET c/n 329 has arrived at Christchurch International to assist the NASA Gulfstream V N677F in the Deep Wave upper atmospheric research project.
A very apt registration (MET) considering its main occupation. It is well known for its volcanic dust hunting and cloud piercing activities.
It is operated by the DLR (Deutsvhes Zentrum fuerLufund Raumfahrt)n[German Aerospace Centre].
It ferried in from Europe via Brunei, Darwin, Cairns, and Sydney.
See links below for more info on this aircraft and on its research flight.
 These two neat photographs have been provided by Matt Hayes.
 
 It has wasted no time and has already completed at least one short mission.

Question time # 171 resolved

Question time # 171 has been answered fully.
Ethan gave us the Manufacturer, Type and name; whilst flyrnzl provided the old and future registrations.
The clue came from the photo below which shows the central and port tailplane.
Pic was taken at North Shore very recently.
It is the Miles M.38 Messenger c/n 6707. Ex G-AKEZ and the future ZK-AKE2.
There is another pic of her at :-

Raytheon 1900D ZK-EAL cancelled

The Eagle Air Raytheon 1900D ZK-EAL2 (c/n UE-435) was cancelled from the NZ civil register on 27-06-2014.
Pic from Dave Paull shows ZK-EAL on short finals for 34 Wellington on 29-07-2013.
 
It has been spied at Hamilton marked as ZS-EAA. 

Sunday 29 June 2014

RANS S 6s of New Zealand (4) - 2006 - 2008 Aircraft

Another three years and another ten S 6s, as detailed below.

Next up was Dr Graham Ritchie's S 6S ZK-DRR, which was built by him at Ashburton and was first registered on 23/5/06.  I reckon the S 6 looks a little different with wheel spats, but obviously the aircraft needs a better surface to operate from. The above photo was taken at Rangiora on 1/6/07.  ZK-DRR had a take off acccident at Waimate on 26/2/08 whch resulted in a rebuild and a new colour scheme as below.

So here it is photo'd at Ashburton on 7/10/09.  Russell Brodie told me that it was rebuilt with the 138 square foot sport wing.

ZK-JOR is the Canterbury Recreational Aircraft Club's second S 6ES, but this time a taildragger, mainly by Paul Woodley and Mike Small..  It is photo'd above at its grand unveiling at Rangiora on 14/10/06 where it can be seen that it is named "Pegasus".

However, one year later, 25/10/07 was not a great day for ZK-JOR.

So it was rebuilt as a tri-gear aircraft.  It is still owned by CRAC.

ZK-SIX, a S 6ES model, was built by Grant Caldicott and was registered to him and M Howell of Pleasant Point on 6/10/06, and it is still in the same ownership.  Its first flight was on 23/11/06.  The above photo was taken at the 2009 SAANZ flyin at Ashburton.

S 6S ZK-CER was built by Christopher E Read of Blenhiem, and was first registered on 26/3/07.  The above photto was also taken at the 2009 SAANZ flyin at Ashburton.

Another S 6S, ZK-MOL was built by Mick O'Keefe of Geraldine, and was first registered on 26/3/07 (the same day as ZK-CER above).  On 12/8/08 it was sold to WB and ES Scott of Ashburton, where the above photo was taken at the 2009 SAANZ flyin.  It was a very good flyin for catching up with RANS S 6s!

S 6ES tri-gear ZK-TWL was built by Martin Froggo of Rotorua and was first registered to him on 2/8/07.  The above photo was taken in a hangar at Tauranga on 16/3/09.  Although it is one of the few North Island S 6s I have never seen it at any flyins or seen any other photos of it, so it is just as well that Blue Bus stumbled across it.

S 6S taildragger ZK-JDP was built by John Lindner of Woodbury in Canterbury (Canterbury and South Canterbury are hotbeds of RANS S 6 activity).  It was first registered on 24/1/08 and the above photo was taken at Timaru on 8/2/09.

On 30/10/10 it was sold to Wendy Milne of Waipawa who bases it on her farm airstrip at Kowai, inland from Waipukurau and where the recent SAANZ flyin held a flyout to, to partake of scones with jam and cream!  Although I saw it there, I did not think to take a photo of it.  However Geoff Lloyd recently captured this photo of it at Masterton on 1/6/14, now with a doggy cartoon decal on the fin.

S 6S ZK-OFF was built as N8422C by JF Leclerq of Milwauke, Wisconsin in 2001.  It was imported to New Zealand by David McMillan of Greymouth and was first registered in New Zealand on 22/4/08.  As can be seen in the above photo, it still wears its US registration on the fin.

S 6ES taildragger ZK-JOA was registered to the Ireland Partnership of Waimate on 5/6/08.  It is currently being refurbished for sale by Russell Brodie of East Canterbury Aviation.  Russell kindly pushed the aircraft outside to take this photo on 19/6/14.

And finally for this bunch, S 6ES ZK-DYM (referred to as Kermit for obvious reasons), was built by Dave Mitchell of Amberly, and was first registered on 16/9/08.  It first flew on 12/10/08.  It is powered by a Rotax 912 engine.  The above photo shows it arriving at the 2013 SAANZ flyin at Ashburton.  Dave has recently built a new set of wings for ZK-DYM - the sport wing from RANS of 138 square feet and of lesser span than the standard ES wing.

This illustrates how virtually no S 6 will be the same as there are three types of wings that can be fitted, as well as a big variety of engines and also the different covering systems.



ZK-JFZ

Cessna 152 ZK-JFZ (c/n 85093) was badly damaged in a FLWOP accident soon after take off from Ardmore today. See:-
 Built in the earlier days of 1981 by Cessna at Wichita, Kansas and listed as N5251Q.
After owners in Texas and Mississippi it was shipped to NZ and registered as ZK-JFZ to Wing and Rotor Aviation at Ardmore on 18-08-1995.
Ownership changed to the JFZ Syndicate on 28-07-2006.
The above pic was shot at Feilding on 11-02-2007; and the one below on 16-03-2010.
Both from Dave Paull.
 Below is a shot  of it taken at Ardmore in pseudo military marks by Mike Condon on 23-05-2012.
Final view is from Bargeldo1; as seen at Ardmore on 09-03-2014.
JFZ at Ardmore 09-03-2014 from Bargeldo1
 
We wish both the young ladies a speedy recovery.

Question time # 171

 For this Question Time I will require:-
 
Manufacturers name.
Model number.
General name (eg Super Cub).
The civil registration for this particular example.
 

=





Saturday 28 June 2014

Rotary Trio From Hawkes Bay

Three relatively recent additions to the working helicopters in the Hawkes Bay were rounded up at the end of last week.
 

Bay Heliwork operate two Robinson R44's, ZK- HLZ and ZK-ICL, the latter delivered to Hastings in October last year. It is a 2002 model, c/n 1249, and flew from new in Australia as VH-VIC with multiple operators before importation by Rotor & Wing Maitenance. The other Raven is based at Waipukurau.
 
 
Meanwhile, Joe Faram has imported another MD500N in the shape of ZK-IZO c/n LN076. This machine was built in 1995 as N52319 and exported to Germany as D-HVST the same year. After one careful owner, and less than a 1000 hours, it arrived here in March and is now hard at work out of Bridge Pa. The short skids are noteworthy.
 
 
The third machine, AS 350BA ZK-IJG, c/n 1558, has quite a long on and off history here. It first appeared as ZK-HBU in October 1988 with Helicopters (NZ) Ltd in Nelson. In May 2001, it was exported to Australia, where it became VH-WCJ, operated by Helicopters (NZ)'s West Australian branch. It reappeared in New Zealand in November 2009, this time as ZK-HUQ, again with Helicopters (NZ) Ltd, but only stayed some 18 months before again being exported to Australia, this time to become VH-INW. Imported yet again in March this year, it has now become ZK-IJG, and is operated by Helicopters Hawkes Bay 2006 Ltd from their Onga Onga base.
 
 
And finally, a pack of dogs - or to be more precise, the remains of the Nigerian Air Force's Scottish Aviation Bulldog trainer fleet! Noted just after the passing of a storm front at Palmerston North on Friday were these fuselages and wings - five of the former and at least 22 sets of wings. It seems likely that more fuselages will appear, as '239' was noted on a trailer shortly afterwards heading towards the compound.

Friday 27 June 2014

Another Friday whizz round.

My regular Friday trip around the patch did not find anything really new.
However Brett Emeny's Piper PA-24 ZK-CYT (c/n 24-2289) down from Inglewood, was outside the Canterbury Aero Clubs HQ.
 She is thinking " Step across this yellow and black line Mate, and see what I will do".
 A distant Cb with some virga and some crepuscular rays make for a good monochrome background.
 Finally a better shot of the new CRAC Tecnam P92 Echo Classic ZK-RGA (c/n1485) at NZRT.
Brian Atkinson's Cessna 180K ZK-SCB (c/n 18053170), showing its under wing colour scheme, was down from Hanmer for some maintenance.

RANS S 6s of New Zealand (3) - 2000 to 2005 Aircraft

Six RANS S 6s were registered between 2000 and 2005.

ZK-MLD, an S 6ES tailwheel model, was Peter Dyer's fifth homebuilt aircraft.  It was registered on 21/11/00.  It is photo'd above at the 2001 SAANZ flyin at Ashburton.

And to show it hasn't changed much over the years, here it is at Forest Field on 6/10/13, still owned by Peter Dyer.

Tri-gear S 6ES ZK-CMC was the Canterbury Microlight Club's first S 6.  It was named "Rangiora" and it was first registered on 3/12/02.  Tragically it crashed at Lowburn on 17/6/03, killing both the pilot and his passenger.  It had only flown 107 hours.  The conclusions of the accident report did not point to any problem with the aircraft as causing the crash.

Tri-gear S 6ES ZK-JOL was ZK-CMC's replacemnt, being registered to the Canterbury Recreational Club of Rangiora on 2/7/04.  It was mostly built by Paul Woodley and it is named "Crusader".  On 10/6/13 it was sold to BR Greenwood of Kaiapoi and it is still current.

S 6S taildragger model ZK-DIG was built by Sam and Gavin Coulter of Geraldine, and it was first registered to them on 26/1/05.  It is photo'd above at the 2009 SAANZ flyin at Ashburton.

ZK-WMR, a S 6ES tri-gear model, was built by Wilhelmus Laan of Auckland, and it was first registered to him on 11/7/05.  It is photo'd above at Pikes Point on 29/10/05.

On 4/11/08 it was sold to WB Norrie of Amberley, in whose ownership it is photo'd above at the 2011 SAANZ flyin at Ashburton.

And the final aircraft of this bunch is ZK-OUR, an S ÊS tailwheel model. that was built by DJ King and Pauline Hogue of Dunedin and was first registerd to them on 26/8/05.  It is photo'd above at the 2007 SAANZ flyin at Ashburton.  On 5/2/10 it was sold to Wanaka Marine (2003) Ltd of Wanaka and it is still current.


The Squirrel is forty.

The prototype Aerospatiale AS 350 Ecureuil helicopter, F-WVKH (c/n 001), powered by an Avco Lycoming LTS-101 turboshaft, first flew June 27 1974.
Still in production today.
If my memory serves me - ZK-HMY (c/n 1052) was the first Squirrel on the ZK register.
It arrived at Lyttelton in April 1979 and was registered to Airwork (NZ) Ltd of Christchurch on the 26th.
"Bill Black's machine".
Its history was previously shown at :-
 
After export from NZ it popped up with Island Hoppers in Fiji as DQ-HMY.
 
There have been approximately 325 ZK registrations allocated to Squirrels !

Thursday 26 June 2014

Question time # 170 resolved.

Quickly - by Wild Wings.
With more detail from Sir Minty.
 
It is indeed the Titan 11 ZK-KAA.

The Vintage Aviator Sends Aircraft to WW 1 Commemorations in the UK

Afficionados of things TVAL will have noted with excitement the addition of two new BE 2e aircraft to the New Zealand Civil Register in March 2014.

There is a very intersting story here, as told in the May edition of NZ Aviation News.  In summary, The Vintage Aviator is building more of its magnificent late-production WW 1 aircraft (essentially accurate in every detail), for display in the UK as part of the centenerary celebrations of WW 1.  The plan is to feature the types of aircraft that were used in the war, year by year for the period 2014 to 2018 (1914 aircraft being featured in 2014, then 1915 aircraft in 2015 and so on).  And the BE 2, being one of the earliest British aircraft to be used in the war, is just the beginning of what I am sure will be exciting times to come!

This is the first photo I saw of the first of the BE 2s, taken by Planefil at Masterton on 13/3/14, during early test running of the engine.  You can get a good idea of the flimsiness of these early aircraft from this photo.

The two BE 2e aircraft were registered ZK-KOZ and ZK-TFZ on 12/3/14.  They were both assembled at Masterton and test flew without serials as in this lovely photo.  Thanks to TVAL and Alex Mitchell for the photo.  Then they were dismantled and packed into a container in April for shipping to the UK.

Now cut to the UK and due to the wonders of the internet we can see their arrival in the UK in early June, followed by their assembly, painting of serials and now flying!  These UK photos are from the Flickr album of David Whitworth.  His albums are amazing and well worth a look at for all sorts of interesting aircraft in the UK and beyond.  Have a look at www.flickr.com/photos/dwhitworth/sets

Above is ZK-KOZ/A2767 during test flying.

ZK-TFZ/A 2943 with period background.

And finally both of them airborne.  Interestingly, the two aircraft are still registered on the New Zealand Civil Register.  They are both scheduled to be dispalyed this coming weekend (28/29 June) at the WW 1 Aviation Heritage Trust's restored WW 1 airfield at Stow Maries in Essex.