Ready to Rivet Aft Fuselage

I've finished all the match drilling, deburring, dimpling and priming and have assembled the aft fuselage for riveting. I'll put the upper skins on to ensure it's straight but shouldn't be long before I'm finished and on to the the center fuselage. I had to look ahead to see how the empennage attaches in a few places to understand how things go together but other than that, it wasn't too difficult.

A busy afternoon at NZRT

A stranger in town was this Piper PA18 Super Cub ZK-BTU (c/n 18-6233) which joined the Airline Flying Club (Inc) on 18-05-2011. It spent most of its previous life with the HB & EC Aero Club.
see

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sfmowbrqtjc&feature=related

It was parked in the unfinished hangar with the Cessna 180 ZK-JMH from Haast.

The CRAC Rans S-6ES Coyote 11 ZK-JOL2 (c/n 08031519-1203ES) was out bashing the circuit.

Resting in the sun briefly to allow the Thruster ZK-FHK out of the hangar, was the Sigma-4 ZK-JRC2 (c/n 09) belonging to Harry Devonish.

Alpi Pioneer 200 ZK-LPN (c/n  NZ2010) resting outside "The Landing Spot". This is the one from Middle Rock Station in the Rakaia Gorge.

Also pushed out to allow others to escape was the Sam Fry Laser 230 ZK-LZR (c/n 3).

Vans RV-4 ZK-SIM2 (c/n 2816) was also thrashing the circuit.
And can't you just hear it ?  North American NA78 Harvard 3* ZK-XSA (c/n 78-6647) did a couple of circuits before blatting off to some less crowded airspace.

Hiller ZK-HAP

The Hiller UH-12E ZK-HAP (c/n 2075 2076) played a significant part in the early history of the NZ rotary wing scene. It appeared on the US register in August of 1960 as N5378V to the Hiller Aircraft Corporation at Palo Alto in Californnia. It entered the NZ listings on 04-10-1963 as ZK-HAP to Whirl Wide Aviation Ltd of Hastings, first flying there on 20-11-1963. I believe it was given the name "Aotearoa 1". A name change to Whirl Wide Helicopters Ltd  of Timaru was applied on 01-11-1969.

Above : ZK-HAP as seen at Timaru on 03-08-1971. It appears to have the Company name written under the cockpit.
Below: as seen at Wanganui on 25-09-1972 with "Douglas" on the tail boom.

An ownership change on 05-05-1972 had it listed to Douglas R Bushby of Christchurch, and then to Thames Aerial Top Dressing Co Ltd of Thames on 06-10-1975.
Pic below was taken at Thames with TAT script on 05-09-1979.

It was rolled on a hill at Paparata on 30-05-1980 and was cancelled on 01-12-1980.

Airwork (NZ) Ltd picked it up and rebuilt it, re-registering it again on 18-02-1981; First flight after rebuild being on 24-01-1981. It was then sold abroad and cancelled on 06-08-1981 to become VH-FFU followed by a spell as P2-JMF at Ihu in PNG between 1982 and 1985, before returning to VH-FFU in February of 1985. It was cancelled on 27-01-1991.

Took Paula Flying

Took Paula flying today. That's definitely a look of shear joy on her face! Actually, she was being silly and took several photos and seemed to enjoy the flight.

Here's a good one of Canyon High School. The original is large and high resolution so you can zoom in quite a bit. I sent a copy to one of the teachers that I know and hopefully she has some good use for it. Maybe my picture will become as widespread as Paula's cougar picture that she had made when she was the basketball mom. It's everywhere now including the football scoreboard and websites and t-shirts.

Ah yes - that tree and ZK-EIA

 Oops !  How can we get this home and park it before the boss finds out ?
Pawnee Brave ZK-EIA following its altercation with a tree whilst spraying down Rakaia way.

 Below we have the retrieval crew beginning the dismantling process and returning all the bits back to Airwork at Christchurch.
That's the late John Pierre walking across in front of the wing.

Once again - thanks to CMM for the pics.
This follows on from the remarks to the earlier blog on EIA at :-

http://nzcivair.blogspot.com/2011/08/more-on-brave-zk-eia.html

North Shore Airfield Today

It felt like spring had arrived at North Shore Airfield today, and several sport aircraft were out and about.

ZK-SPN is a Robin R2160 (an earlier version of the Alpha 2169's that were manufactured in Hamilton by Alpha Aviation). It is listed as being owned by Jagair of Wellington but has a history around North Shore - being imported by Wingnut Aviation of North Shore and first registered on 10/5/06. It was then owned by North Shore Aero Club before a stint with CTC Aviation Training in Hamilton, then back to Wingnut Aviation and then to Jagair. I am not sure why it was at North Shore today - maybe a homing instinct?

This aircraft has an interesting international history, Being imported to New Zealand from Spain, hence the registration. It started out as F-ODJC in France, then went to the Ivory Coast as TU-TJC, then to Tunisia as TS-AJC, then to Greece as SX-ACJ and then to Spain as EC-HLF. You could say it is well travelled!

And it was nice to see Vans RV 6A ZK-TRV back flying again following its whoopsie at Raglan on 3/10/09. www.nzcivair.blogspot.com/2009/10/ouch.html I thought it was worth a photo even though it was covered. It is still owned by the TW and CE Watson Family Trust of Whangarei, and has now acquired a USAAF roundel and a New Zealand flag.

I remember 1964

 I recall that in the 1960's Wellington Airport had an internal staff newsletter. It featured real photographs glued to the pages. From 1964 is a copy of one such pic. It shows the Bee Gyroplane ZK-HAS (c/n 0001) taking off on Rnwy 34.
Below is a clipping from a printed news item at that time.

The Bee was registered to Bee Aircraft Sales (NZ) Ltd of Auckland on 24-02-1964 and first flew here on 26-02-1964 and as above it was demonstrated around the country.
It was on the Auckland Flying School lineup for a spell before being listed to Ken Olsen of Orewa on 17-04-1973.
On 15-08-1974 it was re-registered in the new Gyro registration block as ZK-RAA.
It was cancelled briefly between April and December of 1995 and is still currently listed with Ken.

More on "The Brave" ZK-EIA

Following on from an earlier blog on this Piper PA36-300 Pawnee Brave ZK-EIA as seeen at :-
http://nzcivair.blogspot.com/2010/07/brave.html
I have the following photographs to add.
The first four come from the CMM collection and show EIA dumping and also spraying at, I assume Rangiora - Perhaps testing the system out !

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The lower three shots taken in 1983 in the Coromandel area show EIA in an awkward situation and being retrieved.

Our Fly Baby is mobile

Colin Hay has sent in this pic of his Bowers Fly Baby ZK-OFB (Our Fly Baby) now wearing its ZK markings and still with the numerical portion of its US registration beneath its horizontal tailplane. It now wears a new decal forward of the cockpit. The engine is now running and it has carried out taxi trials.

Robinson ZK-HXT departing

Continuing the previous blog trend. Christchurch helicopters - We have Robinson R44 Raven 11 ZK-HXT4 (c/n 10967) departing toward Fairlie. It  has been listed with Graham Pender of Maungawera (between Wanaka and Hawea) since 04-09-2008.

Helicopters at Christchurch

Bargeld01 has snapped a number of helicopters at Christchurch in the last couple of days:

Ahaura Helicopters Robinson R22 ZK-HPY

Helipro's Robinson R44 II ZK-HFP

Jasra Helicopters Robinson R44 ZK-IJA

Helipro Robinson R22 ZK-HDF

Vertical Aviation Hughes 500HS ZK-HOM

Robinson R22 ZK-HEF

Robinson R22 Beta ZK-HEF2 (c/n 1554) of Heli Max Ltd in spray mode and trailer mounted, as seen on Sunday at the Rangiora fuel pump by CMM.

Barely civil

A nice shot sent in by Bargeld01 from Monday the 22nd, was taken at Christchurch as half a dozen  RNZAF CT/4E aircraft arrived to park on the "Deepfreeze" ramp.
I thought it was too good a shot to not use.

I was going to make it a competition for a suitable title :- Like
"The long, the short and the tall"
or
"The good, the bad and the ugly"
or maybe
"It aint the size that attracts the flies"
Anyway-
From the NZ Civil point of view:-
The Pacific Aerospace CT/4E is NZ1996. This makes it ex ZK-PTL with Aeromotive Ltd from February 1999 until being cancelled on 07-05-199 for enrollment in the RNZAF.
The US military C17 is serial number 08-8195, and the registration of the Emirates aircraft is A6-ECI.

A Departure, and Arrival.......

Departing from Napier 22 August around sunrise was Super Air's Air Tractor 502B ZK-PTK on a direct flight to Lord Howe Island then later the same day onto Newcastle. 

At Napier 24 January 2011, W Grant photo

 Arriving at Auckland from Pago Pago on the afternoon of 22 August was Beech C90 King Air N699TT.  The colour scheme clearly indicates it is destined to join the Garden City / NZ Flying Doctor's fleet with King Air 200 ZK-FDR wearing an identical livery.

Landing at Auckland 22 August 2011, N Jones photo

A couple of helicopters at Christchurch 22-08-2011

The Button Logging Robinson R44 Astro ZK-HAR (c/n 0735) is being rubbed down and masked ready for a repaint.

Operating with Garden City Helicopters at the moment is the Aerospatiale AS350 BA ZK-HWF3 (c/n 1646), a fill in from Anatoki Helicopters for one of Garden Cities Squirrels out on maintenance. This Squirrel was originally registered as ZK-HZR in September of 1986, then it became ZK-HST2 in May of 1992 with Heli Tranz Ltd. Ownership moved to Anatoki Helicopters Ltd of Nelson on 13-05 2009 followed by a re-registration to its current ZK-HWF3 on 18-06-2009.

Rangiora on Saturday 20th

 First flown at the end of May was this Just Aircraft Highlander ZK-MLT (c/n JA212) of Thompson & Hood of Ealing, South Canterbury. It was in at "The Landing Spot" getting a bit of fine tuning done to its Rotax 914 Turbo. Very difficult to get a good pic of an all black aircraft in very bright wintery sunshine.

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Another unexpected find was the P & M Aviation Quik GT450 ZK-MAZ2  (c/n 8583) of Gary Boulton of Fairlie. It is Rotax 912S powered. It obtained its permit on 11-08-2011 and is awaiting final inspection from CAA before being released into the lower atmosphere.

Pilatus Porter ZK-XIT on the job.

From the recent "Good Vibes 2011" Motueka Skydiving Competition Henry McIntyre has sent in the following photos, taken from ZK-TTL, of the Pilatus Turbo Porter ZK-XIT.

 On climb with Nelson in the distance beyond the tip of the 750XL.

Thanks Henry.

Dargaville on 19-08-2011

Jean210 was at Dargaville on Friday the 19th of August and has sent in these photographs

One of only two Cessna 310's in Country is ZK-DEM2  (c /n 310Q-0765) of Photo Survey Ltd of North Shore. (The other is Cessna 310P ZK-DTM2 - there is also the close cousin Cessna 320E ZK-EGN2).

Below : Super Air Fletcher FU24-950 ZK-EGS (c/n 241), which has been Dargaville based since at least mid 2010, heads off to do what it does best.

 Robinson R44 ZK-IAY2 (c/n 1318) of Whiting Helicopter Ltd of Coromandel passing through.