On a typical Christchurch autumnal day sits the C17A Globemaster III 08-8202. Over at the Canterbury Aero Club was the Piper PA-28-181 Archer II ZK-EIP c/n 28-7990065. This joined the Club in February of 1979 and remained there until sold to EIP Ltd of Christchurch in November 2014.  If I recall correctly, it received this new colour scheme late in 2020. The Piper PA-38-112 Tomahawk ZK-JHO c/n 38-82A0121 is - as you can see from its c/n - is a 1982 build which went new to the Republic of Singapore F ..read more

Over the weekend prior to Warbirds Over Wanaka the re-scheduled 2024 RAANZ flyin took place at Hokitika.  It was a low key affair and I have not been able to find anyone who took photos, but Wally Pendray flew down from Whitianga and he took some video of the flyin from which I took the following screenshots: In this view you can see Wally Pendray's Pelican ZK-MAL2 from Whitianga, Craig Buist's SeaRey ZK-WET3 from Dunedin, Willy Morton's A 32 Vixxen ZK-VLW from Kawakawa and Neil and Sarah Colliver's Vans RV 10 ZK-RVT from Feilding.  Then in the front are Lyall Hopgood's new Bri ..read more

 Roving reporter CMM called in to the Springfield Estate on Sunday the 14th and captured the following aircraft. ZK-SAT, c/n 402B-0990, is an Air Tractor AT-402B built at Olny, Texas, and test flown as N1010Y before shipping to New Zealand for assembly at Kairanga. It was registered on 05-12-1995 to Don Hart who trades as Skyfarmers Ltd out of the Springfield Estate near Methven. The original Pratt & Whitney PT6A-15AG engine was replaced with a -34 engine and ownership transferred to Skyfarmers Aviation Ltd on 01-07-2013. The Cessna 180K Skywagon ZK-DBA2 c/n 18053022 as listed with ..read more

              Locally based JMB Aircraft VL-3E-1 UL ZK-JMB2 c/n 252 returns from a local flight. Hugo dropped in with the P J Fitzsimmons Ltd's Alpi Aviation Pioneer 300 RS Hawk ZK-MEK c/n 209. A recent acquisition to replace their on sold SOCATA Ralleye 235E ZK-FIT2.            Out for a Sunday flight was the LightFlight Ltd's Tomark Aero Viper SD-4 ZK-SWV c/n 035. All have been previously mentioned ..read more

The Dargaville Aero Club held an open day at the airfield today.  I had hoped to fly up but unfortunately the remains of the recent storm resulted in pretty high winds.  However several of us Rodney Aero Club members drove up to say Hi and partake of some nice food and coffee.  They put on a good event. There were several aircraft tied down that were of interest to me: Alan Nelson had his Rotax 912 powered Titan Mustang ZK-LSD there having flown in the previous day.  Alan has made some changes to the colour scheme to suit his taste. Another scale Mustang replica (althoug ..read more

Although the emphasis at Warbirds Over Wanaka is rightly on the warbirds, there is also various trade displays of aircraft and aviation products.  One such display was by JMB Aircraft New Zealand.  They had their Rotax 912 demonstrator ZK-JMB2 on display as well as their latest Rotax 915 engined example: The JMB VL-3TE-915 UL ZK-AJW2 (c/n 549) was registered to York Holdings Ltd of New Plymouth on 12/3/24.  It is the fourth VL3-915 model to be registered here with the others being ZK-VLT. ZK-ECO3 and ZK-TVL2 ..read more

 CMM has been in the Wanaka area for some time and snapped the following photos. This fine photograph of a 44-gallon drum is nicely enhanced by the Pilatus PC-6/B2-H4 c/n 768 ZK-SLC2 which was added to the Southern Lakes Aviation Ltd.'s fleet on 31-08-2023. Initially built as an H2 model as HB-FGP with Pilatus Flugzeugwerke at Stans in Switzerland in October 1976. It was delivered to Kasat-Royal Thai Agricultural Division the following month to become 1314 for use in the spraying role. Converted to a B2-H4 earlier this century it was relisted to the Ministry of Agriculture and Co-operat ..read more

 Dassault Falcon 50 EX N37WX c/n 309 arrived at Nelson early afternoon today 09-04-2024. Captured here by Bill Mannix. It has been noted in NZ since at least 2020. It started life as N903SB with Dassault Falcon Jet Corporation o\from 26-01-2001 and was taken over by SBC Communications Inc of San Antonia, Texas from 07-06-2001. Absorbed by Falcon Leasing of South Florida it appears to have become N37WX from 11-02-2009 with Fair Wind Air Charter. (WX being an abbreviation for 'weather'. From 01-06-2020 it was relisted to Delaware Trust Co Trustee of Wilmington, Delaware - and it was abou ..read more

A visit to Ardmore this morning was rewarded with a lot of helicopter activity starting with the Christchurch Helicopters' EC120B ZK-HPM5.   This was originally imported from South Africa in 2007 as ZK-IFR2 and from 2017 operated as part of the South Pacific Helicopters' fleet at Kaikoura.  It underwent a refurbishment and was reregistered as ZK-HPM in August 2023. The AS350BB ZK-IHY was originally imported by Airwork from Papua New Guinea in late 2018 and after refurbishment added to the Helilink fleet.  In 2023 it spent 8 months in Western Australia based at Jandakot ..read more

The re-scheduled Black Sands at Te Kowhai flyin was held over the weekend in thankfully nicer weather than when it was first scheduled.  There was a good turnout of sport aircraft including the following: Wayne Richmond flew up from Stratford in his latest aircraft - the LM Harris CASH Aviation Model 3 ZK-LHC which he has painted in Richmond Racing colours. Wayne told me that ZK-LHC wears the number 6 because it is the sixth aircraft he has owned. Bruce Cooke's new mount is the Jodel D 18 ZK-JAC. The very early model Tecnam Echo ZK-KFP is now owned by the Waikato Microlight Club of ..read more