Tuesday 2 June 2015

Zenith/Zenair CH 701s of New Zealand (4) - 2011 to the Present Aircraft

Six of the eight CH 701s in this group have been imported.

ZK-ZMX (c/n 7-9741) was built by Jock Struthers of Blenhiem and was first registered on 2/2/11.  ZMX comes from a marine radio callsign.  It is photo'd above at the 2014 SAANZ flyin at Hastings.

ZK-STK2 (c/n 7-9507) was built in Germany as D-MEMO.  It was imported into New Zealand by Thomas M Hoefner of Dunedin and was first registered her on 20/11/02.  The above photo was taken in a hangar at Taieri on 27/11/13, and if you look closely it bears the name "Silver Shadow" on the rudder and the nose.

ZK-ZST (c/n 7-6491) was built by Grant Ellery of Taupo and was first registered to him on 11/12/12.It is powered by a Rotax 912.  You can't see it from the photo, but Grant built the wing without slats for a greater cruising speed (around 80 knots compared with the slatted aircraft's 72 knots), and Grant says that it still has very good STOL performance.  Thanks to Grant Ellery for the photos.

And here is ZK-ZST on 15/11/15 with a tasteful orange trim.

ZK-JUG was built in the US as N923S and was first registered to Stan Mars of Seabeck, Washington State on 8/2/08.  It was imported into New Zealand by Deane Philip of Kaiapoi and was registered here on 12/12/12.  It is photo'd above early on in its New Zealand life at Rangiora, on 16/3/13.

It has since been fitted with balloon tyres as in this photo taken at the 2015 SAANZ flyin at Ashburton.  Flying ZK-JUG, Deane won the Healthy Bastards STOL competition at Omaka in February 2014 with a combined distance of 43.4 metres (best take-off 16.3 metres and best landing 27.1 metres).

I think one of the reasons that Chris Anderson to imported a CH 701 was to win the 2015 Healthy Bastards STOl competition for 2015.

ZK-TIA (c/n 7-4514) was built in the US as N701US and was first registered to Jonathon Croke of Brussels, Wisconsin on 22/8/03.. Its US registration was cancelled on 4/8/14 and it was imported to New Zealand by Chris Anderson of Ward and it was registered here on 5/11/14.  It is powered by a modified Rotax 912 engine.

In the event, Chris Anderson flying ZK-TIA did win the 2015 Healthy Bastards competition with a combined distance of 72.0 metres (best take off 22.8 metres and best landing 49.2 metres) which was well short of Deane Philip's effort in 2014 (Deane also could not match his 2014 effort).  The above photo shows Chris taking off in the competition with extreme up elevator!

ZK-NVY (c/n 5770) was built in the US as N98844 and was first registered to John Murphy of Vero Beach, Florida on 2/5/07.. Its US registration was cancelled on 7/11/14 and it was imported to New Zealand by Frank Barker of Christchurch and it was registered here on 13/1/15.  It features a warthog on its rudder in recognition of Frank being a retired USAF A-10 pilot.  It is photo'd above at Rangiora on 8/2/15.

It is photo'd above at Rangiora on 24/4/15, now with balloon tyres.

ZK-ZUB (c/n 7-6634) was built in the US as N701GC and was first registered to David Hurst of Gurley, Alabama on 11/5/11.. Its US registration was cancelled on 21/10/14 with 6 hours on the tacho and it was imported to New Zealand by John (Buzz) Harvey of Christchurch and it was also registered here on 13/1/15.  You can see from the photo that it is another CH 701 without wing slats - I reckon we have had three CH 701s without wing slats - ZK-SCC, ZK-ZST and ZK-ZUB.  The above photo was taken at Rangiora on 13/3/15.

And the third of the trio of CH 701s that have been recently imported to Rangiora is ZK-AMC2.

ZK-AMC2 (c/n 7-4094) was built in the US as N821CD and was first registered to Christopher Desmond of Sebastapol, California on 3/2/10.. Its US registration was cancelled on 15/10/14 and it was imported to New Zealand byAlex Mason of Rangiora and it was registered here on 14/1/15.  It is photo'd above at Rangiora on 13/3/15.

There is another CH 701 registered in New Zealand - ZK-JVB (c/n 7-3775) which was registered to the Bennett Partnership of Wanganui on 15/1/15.  I have spoken to Bill Bennett about his latest aircraft and he advises that it is nearing completion.

That's it for New Zealand's CH 701 fleet to date - 25 aircraft.  I reckon we will see more of them as they are well suited to New Zealand conditions and seem to be an attractive proposition for importing.




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