Tuesday 20 May 2014

Vans RV 7s of New Zealand

Our first example of the tailwheel RV 7 followed nearly two years after our first tri-gear RV 7As.

For specs of the RV 7/7A refer to my previous post at www.nzcivair.blogspot.co.nz/2014/05/vans-rv-7as-of-new-zealand.html  Again, there is little difference in performance between RV 7s and RV 7As with the same engines.

We have had 8 RV 7s registered in New Zealand to date, with 3 of them being US imports.  All are still current.  I undertsand that there are a lot of RV 6/As and RV 7/7As for sale in the US, and our current high New Zealand dollar makes them attractive to import.

ZK-RWJ (c/n 71999) was our first RV 7.  It was built by RW (Bob) Jelley and was registered to the Enginair Partnership of Christchurch on 14/6/06, and it first flew at Christchurch on 1/4/07 (no joke!).  It is photo'd above at the 2008 SAANZ flyin at Tauranga.  On 6/3/14 it was sold to CA (Tony) Joseph of Wanaka.

ZK-NRV (c/n 71414) was built by Alistair Kay of Dunedin and was first registered to him on 21/5/07.  Remarkably, it also first flew on 1/4/07 (again, no joke!).  It is photo'd above at the 2009 SAANZ flyin at Ashburton.

ZK-NVS (c/n 72596) was built by Stephen Jones of Auckland and was first registered on 12/11/09.  Its first flight was on 27/11/09 at North Shore Aifield where it is based.  The above photo shows Stephen on approach at North Shore on 24/12/09.

ZK-LVA (c/n 70907) was built as N724TD was imported from the US by the Galllagher Family Trust of Auckland.  It was first registered in New Zealand on 31/8/10.  It is photo'd above at the 2013 Black Sands flyin at Raglan in November 2013.  The wording on the rudder that is partly obscured is "Lucky 7".

Another US import is ZK-DES (c/n 70334) which was built as N174RL.  It was imported into New Zealand by Spectrum Trade Ltd of Silverdale (Des Barry) and first registered here on 3/11/10.  It is photo'd above on take off from its base at North Shore Airfield on 24/2/13.  Des is very active in ZK-DES and he also uses its sportsman aerobatics capability.

Our last three RV 7s (for now) are all pretty new (although one is only pretty new to New Zealand):

ZK-RVU (c/n 72949) was built by Michael Gorton of Riverton in Southland, and was first registered on 10/10/12.  It has only recently flown and its first airshow was the recent Warbirds Over Wananka, where Blue Bus took the above photo on 19/5/14.

ZK-SHN (c/n 73115) was built by Chris Schoen of Kaponga in Taranaki, and the aircraft was judged Grand Champion at the recent 2014 SAANZ flyin at Hastings. It was first registered on 24/4/13.  It is photo'd above departing Black Sands at Raglan for its home base at Hawera on 2/11/13, flown by Chris and Les Worsley.  Chris has written a very detailed article on the construction of ZK-SHN in the Autumn 2014 edition of the SAANZ magazine Sport Flying.  Chris designed the colour scheme inspired by the HondaJet, and did all the painting himself.

And ZK-WLL (c/n 71005) was built in the US as N715K and was imported into New Zealand by WL (Bill) Luther, being first registered here on 28/11/13.  It is photo'd above at Pauanui on 18/3/14.

That completes our RV 6/6As and RV 7/7As.  I will go on to RV 9As as they look so similar, but I will leave RV 8s, our RV 10 and RV 12s until their first of type order of appearance.


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