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Post by Gary. on Jul 3, 2013 17:36:09 GMT 12
Hi there,
Just wondering if anyone had done a thread on the history of the Banderante in NewZealand?
I had a bit of a search through the site, but may have missed something.
I have a friend who had family who were freinds with people back in Brazil back at the time when the first Banderante Aircraft were brought to NZ, she is trying to trace what happend to those early bandits in NZ.
I think ZK-ERU may have been one of the first, and it may still reside near Cambridge in a paddock,
Any info or photos would be greatfully appreciated
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Post by Dave Homewood on Jul 3, 2013 18:23:04 GMT 12
Andy Moreland's Bandeirante is definitely still at his Tauwhare Military Museum, north of Cambridge, I saw it on the weekend.
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Post by raymond on Jul 3, 2013 18:50:27 GMT 12
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Post by Gary. on Jul 3, 2013 19:56:43 GMT 12
Thanks Dave, i did wonder if it was still there, i had heard it was for sale at one stage. Thanks Raymond, ZK-JCM in the trade me photo, i wonder what the history is with that?.........would make a great lawn ornament.
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Post by Dave Homewood on Jul 3, 2013 20:03:16 GMT 12
It was for sale but now isn't.
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Post by Bruce on Jul 3, 2013 21:43:43 GMT 12
Bandits have a special place in my aviation life so I really look forward to seeing lots of pictures posted. Despite being somewhat under-recognised, they did play a very important part in developing third level and provincial routes back in the 1980s. Personally, my very first flight was in ERU a few months after it arrived in NZ, a Scenic flight at an Airshow at Hamilton when I was 7 (so it would be 1980). A year or so later I flew up to Auckland on my own to stay with my Grandparents over the hilidays in one of Eagles Bandits. I think this photo was taken by my dad on one of those two occasions:  later on of course I was working at Aeromotive when they were maintaining ZK-KML for Tranzglobal, and was there when a shiny, recently overhauled ZK-TZL was delivered. I ended up working for Cityjet trying to organise maintenance for their fleet of 4 (often with no available time, funding or spare parts, buts thats another story!) I ended up tidying up the mess of their flight records when the receiver sold them to Eagle. TZL and KML never flew again... I have lots of photos from the CityJet time which I will post later (including some taken Air to Air by John King for publicity purposes, but never published....) |
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Post by kiwithrottlejockey on Jul 3, 2013 21:49:41 GMT 12
My first flight in a Bandit was from Gisborne to Napier in an Eagle example during the mid-1980s.
I presume it was after they absorbed Air Central, although I'm not 100% sure.
I also did a few trips between Gisborne and Napier in Air Central's Mitsubishis around the same era.
And also around that time, I flew from the Chatham Islands to Napier in a Metroliner operated by East Air.
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Post by Bruce on Jul 3, 2013 22:05:29 GMT 12
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Post by Bruce on Jul 3, 2013 22:08:26 GMT 12
I also have 0.8 hrs Dual flying TZN during its delivery flight from Rex Aviation in Wellington. From LH seat with Fleet training captain. raises a few eyebrows when people see 0.8hrs twin turbine night IFR in my log book amongst my VFR Cessna time...
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Post by woody99 on Jul 4, 2013 14:53:40 GMT 12
Jeepers I managed nearly 5000 hours in Eagle's Bandits and can still hear! I flew JCM and LBC when they arrived in Simmons Airlines colours from the US - I'll see if I can dig out some pics of them prior to repaint. ERU was everyones favourite. It just seemed to fly the nicest and be the most reliable. We all wondered if it was because it was the only one that Eagle purchased new. Just yesterday I caught up with Paul Wright who was Eagle's Chief Pilot at the time and ferried ERU out from Brazil.
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Post by Gary. on Jul 4, 2013 21:25:56 GMT 12
Thank you for the photos, believe it or not, the remains of ZK-TZL spent some time in my front paddock.
I have some photos of it but i'm having some trouble posting photos from my tablet.......will keep trying.
Sent from my GT-P5110 using proboards
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Post by Gary. on Jul 4, 2013 21:35:21 GMT 12
I really liked the cityjet bandits, with the smiley face on the tail.....kinda happy looking Aeroplanes they were.....shame that airline didn't take off, pun not intended............still trying to add photos from the tablet  |
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Post by Gary. on Jul 5, 2013 21:25:50 GMT 12
Okay....gave up with the tablet, now trying with wifes laptop  ZK-TZL a bit rough, but still on planet earth......just. |
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Post by Gary. on Jul 5, 2013 21:34:56 GMT 12
 Poor old TZL ended her days at Hamilton airport as a fire rescue hull, after being vanderlised by kids, the fire guys felt a bit sorry for her and let me take her away, i parked her in a field at my farm and cleaned her up a fair bit. TZL has sinse moved back to Hamilton and is surposed to go on the roof of a new car museaum, near norton road...as a sort of display, don't know if this has happend yet, will check next time i,m up that way. |
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Post by Gary. on Jul 5, 2013 21:37:16 GMT 12
 Oh dear.....a sorry sight. |
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Post by Gary. on Jul 5, 2013 21:42:16 GMT 12
 Andy Morelands Bandit ZK-ERU is still in amazingly good condition. |
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Post by Dave Homewood on Jul 5, 2013 21:58:33 GMT 12
Sadly Andy isn't. He's in hospital at the moment.
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Post by Bruce on Jul 5, 2013 22:43:15 GMT 12
Sad to see TZL like that, when TranzGlobal took delivery of her from Australia she was absolutely mint, but years of having courier packs chucked inside, and rough seat changes took their toll - it was pretty rough by 1999, and was the most troublesome of the fleet. It was quite a bit newer than KML and the two ex Rex Bandits TZM and TZN, and therefore was not standardised with them. It had Collins Avionics, whereas all the others had Kings, so there were never any spares. Its engine installations were a different internal layout too, and the cowls were stainless steel rather than aluminium, so had completely different fasteners etc. It was also the "Quick change" aircraft since we couldn't use the much nicer TZN for pax work due to a restraint of trade agreement with Rex. Every afternoon the probationary co-pilots (the ones who had to pay to work for us!) had to pull the seats out and put them back in again at 2am the next morning once the courier flights had finished. Despite having the nice seats out of TZN, this was never an easy job and the airframe suffered as a result.
I know the car museum you refer to - I drive past it on my way to Te Kowhai to go flying, so I'll look out for poor old "Lima" up there...
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Post by Bruce on Jul 5, 2013 22:45:44 GMT 12
I really liked the cityjet bandits, with the smiley face on the tail.....kinda happy looking Aeroplanes they were Interesting useless fact about the CJ Colour scheme (which I helped design...) the "smiley" logo on the tail is actually reflective vinyl, so that it would glow in the floodlights around the apron on night ops... |
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Post by Gary. on Jul 6, 2013 20:25:52 GMT 12
Thank you Bruce,
I love the air to air photos of the bandits, very cool shots and a piece of NZ aviation history for sure.
Am i right there are no bandits left flying in NZ now? I think the cityjet smiley logo on the tail was kinda forward thinking for the 1980s.....in a time when most airlines still had ya standard conservative style paint job.......a cartoon style smiley face was a bit outside the box.
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