Nine Days in Christchurch

[komata]

Shorty

Re: 'Two tail surfaces instead of three equals less drag'. True, and for the late Jack Northrop, even that number was two too many...

[Peter Lewis]

Day 5, Friday - The Local Guide

I had arranged to meet Dave Paull, well known Christchurch aviation commentator and photographer, today for an insiders guide to the local scene.

We started at the Harewood Aviation Park, and I set out to capture the aero club's fleet of glass-cockpit PA28s.

Archer III ZK-LJC has been online there since 2006



Warrior III ZK-LJD has a previous history in the US, and arrived here in 2008



ZK-LJF is also a Warrior III and came online in early 2009



Finally, Warrier III ZK LJJ arrived at CAC around the same time



Piper PA18A Super Cub 95 ZK-BNL has been with CAC since 1956. That's 59 years - must be getting close to setting the NZ record for one owner.



Around at the helicopter maintenance hangar, ex-Nigeran Mil Mi-34C NAF557 is getting closer to becoming active as ZK-HUN/5



After joining in the Friday pie run to Rangiora (very tasty!), at the airfield we found the Ibis Majic GS-700 ZK-PLC/2 refuelling before taxiing back to its hangar



Calling on Pat Scotter to confirm our arrangements for Ashburton tomorrow, we were able to see just how you establish your weight and balance on a Piper Pacer. This aircraft has now become ZK-ZTH



Rangiora seems to be a consistently active place.

Jodel D.18 ZK-EDR/2 was starting up prior to a few circuits



While Cub 150 ZK-BVJ, fresh off a recent rebuild, was grinding round and round. This has had a long carear as an agplane, starting with Airwork and then moving to Aerial Farming at Palmerston North.



Leaving Rangiora, we then checked out the nearby Drake strip (nothing doing) and Swannanoa where Cub ZK-AND was sheltering in front of Auster J-4 ZK-AXC.
Local knowledge was usefull in finding these places - thanks Dave.




After dropping Dave back to his place I then spent the evening stressing about tomorrows weather reports.

Reasonable weather was fairly important for what I had arranged to do on Saturday, and it did not look promising.

[Dave Homewood]

Cool shots. That ex-Nigerian Mil helicopter is interesting. Does the owner intend to fly it commercially? Or as a warbird?

[Peter Lewis]

Day 6, Saturday - Ashburton and Rangitata Island

Back in the 1970s I was able to meet with Syd Lister, at that time the long-time owner of C180 ZK-BUS which he flew from his farm strip in Temuka.

Syd had an early involvement with aviation, doing his PPL back in the 30s with New Zealand Airways at Saltwater Creek airfield and had owned two of their Spartans when that company folded.

Since that time ZK-ABZ has been a resident at the Geraldine Motor Museum, and Bob McGarry acquired the remains of ZK-ABK which he rebuilt to airworthy during the 1990s - 2000s.

Since ZK-ABK flew again in 2008 it has been sold to Pat Scotter, who has it on display at the Ashburton Aviation Museum.

Unfortunatly, its normal resting place at the museum is in the far back corner, so I contacted John Hill at the museum to see if it could be moved out to a better spot so that I could photograph it. John then put me in touch with Pat the owner who let me know that he wanted to move the aircraft outside one day to carry out some engine runs.

After some negotiations, I was able to arrange for this task to be done at the time of my visit on the Saturday. Of course, this would entail moving several of the museums other aircraft outside or out of the way so that the Spartan could be shifted. This made the job weather depandant, and all the met reports leading up to the time of my visit were pretty marginal.

Fortunatly the weather did hold off for the Saturday morning, so it was all hands on deck for the big move around. I took the opportunity to get some uncluttered shots of a few of the other aircraft while all this moving was going on.

Radford Lincoln Sports ZK-BMV was built back in the 1930s, but remained unregistered until 1959.
I understand that moves are afoot to get this little gem back into the air once more.



At the other end of the performance spectrum is Vampire FB.5 NZ5769



 . . . and A-4K Skyhawk NZ6204, which has been at Ashburton since September 2011



This Porterfield 35W started life at ZK-AFT, went to the RNZAF in 1939 as NZ581 but they didn't like it and sent it back in 1940 when it flew as ZK-AHJ. Two years later it went back into military service, this time as NZ598 and finally became ZK-APJ in 1946.
The RNZAF borrowed it in later years and painted it back into the military colours you see here.



Gloster Meteor F.8 A77-867 served with the RAAF from 1952 to 1958 and then moved around various military bases and civilian owners in Australia before coming to NZ in 2010



This is the back corner where the Spartan ZK-ABK normally lives.



So we worked at getting it outside into the (rather hazy) sunshine.

Nice









What you might call an "all glass' panel.

Well, the dials all have glass in them.



Pat the owner swinging the prop.

Unfortunaly, she didn't fire up. Even the age-old solution of going away for a cup of tea and then coming back to try again didn't work.

So rather sadly we had to put her away without the runup.



Great thanks to John Hill, Pat Scotter, and the many volunteers at the museum that spent their morning shifting aircraft around for me.
Very much appreciated.

Despite the not-so-clement weather, jumpship C180 ZK-BUQ and the Pioneer 200 ZK-PAA were active throughout the morning



In the afternoon I then travelled down to Rangitata Island, where Russell Brodie always gives a warm welcome.

However, as the weather by now was distinctly threatening very little aviation was actually happening and only the Rans S-6ES Coyote II ZK-JOA was outside



Russell's son Ross was able to give me a guided tour of the hangars and workshops. Good keen young man.

In the 'overhaul bay' I found the Coyote ZK-LVE which had come down from the north for a bit of work. Les Eade, the owner, gave me a bit of usefull gen about his home  strip at Cheviot.

[Peter Lewis]

Day 7, Sunday - Sightseeing

As Meredith had the day off, I took leave from the aviation agenda and we became tourists for the day.

Travelling through the tunnel to Lyttleton we were pleased to find that most of the earthquake wrecked buildings have now been cleared away and there are some signs of normal life resuming.

Mind you, the weather was now pretty foul and it was winter clothing time



We then took the back roads across to Banks Peninsula and passed through Little River and Duvauchelle to arrive at Akaroa for a late lunch at Bully Hayes.

Not a bad spread for a chilly day



After a wander along the waterfront and time to allow Meredith some shopping, we sped back to Christchurch for some central heating.

[Peter Lewis]

Day 8, Monday - Far Afield

Today was a bit of Irish summers day - cold and windy, so time to travel to the distant outposts of North Canterbury.

Les Eade had told me a bit about the Cheviot airstrip, so hunting we will go. Finally found the place up in the backblocks. No a lot to go on, just three little sheds.



The first shed contained Murphy Rebel ZK-VAL.
This started life in Australia where it was to become VH-KIW. However, construction was not completed by the time it was sold to Neville Somerville of Cheviot who finished the job on mid-2008



Second up was Fletcher Fu-24-954 ZK-EMY of Cheviot Ag-Air, Somerville's company.
This started life with Rowley Aviation back in 1980



The third shed held well-wrapped-up Evans VP-1 ZK-VPI, Eade's other aircraft.

Now time to head well inland to Culverden, where the map showed yet another never-visited airfield.
Some hours later (quite a long trip) I tracked it down. A substantial airfield that appeared to contain absolutley nothing but a windsock.
The book says that Super Rallye ZK-CDF lives hereabouts, but no sign of it.
Ah, well.



Time to churn back to Christchurch, a little disatisfied with the day.
However, on approach to Harewood I spotted two of the RNZAF's latest inbound to land there.

Agusta-Westland A109LUH NZ3402 on finals . .



and its stablemate NZ3404 had already touched down.

[Peter Lewis]

Day 9, Tuesday - Ferrymead and Harewood

Another dull and overcast day.
A quick flyby of Christchurch International gave me NH90 NZ3305 which had apparently joined the two A109s overnight.
I am sure that NHI throw in a free helicopter if you buy a gross of their 'remove before flight' tags



While at the Garden City Helicopters pad colourful Eurocopter EC120B ZK-IQT had made an appearance.



As I arrived at Ferrymead soon after their morning opening, BK117 B-2 ZK-HGU flew by. It looked to be conducting some sort of HT powerline inspection as it spent some time in the area



Ferrymead itself was a bit of a disappointment aviation-wise.
Instead, I had a very interesting conducted tour of the tram restoration workshop by a very enthusiastic and knowledgable fellow from there.

The main aviation display hall is still closed for post-earthquake repairs. All you can do is admire the front section of Bristol Freighter ZK-AYG/ZK-CWF from the distance.



The aviation workshop area and the Mosquito restoration work are viewable through the windows from outside the buildings.

The ony accessable aircraft at the time was the hull of Westland Wessex G-AZBY/5N-ALR/G-AZBY/G-17-5 at the back of one of the buildings. This was marked up as 'ZK-IDL' when it was an advertising item for the Imperial Discount Liquor Store in Christchurch from 2002 to 2007



After lunch in town, I went back to Harewood to catch up on a few of the latest additions to the Air New Zealand and Mt Cook airline fleets.

ATR 72-212A ZK-MVF arrived in January this year



A320-232 ZK-OXG arrived here a month later, in February



while ZK-OXK came online in September



Bit of a surprise was the visit of Gippsland GA8 Airvan ZK-SAZ in from Lake Tekapo



Finally, as I was about to head away, NH90 NZ3308 called in.



All in all, a productive afternoon.

[Peter Lewis]

We flew home on the Wednesday morning.

So there you have it folks.

How to spend time (waste time, some would say) in another city

Apparently the motel owner had been worried about how Meredith's husband was going to spend his time while she was away each day working.

As she checked out on the Wednesday morning he said to her "Your man left here every day soon after you went, and never got back until quite late. What on earth was he doing for so long each and every day?"

She had real fun explaining.

My next challenge is eight days in Oamaru and Timaru at the end of this month.
Now that's going to be really difficult, even for me!

[craig]

Fantastic tour. What is the story with the nose section visible at Russell Brodie's beside LVE

[Dave Homewood]

Great stuff Peter!! Thanks for sharing your adventures.

[oj]

Regarding the V tail Bonanza:
My recollection is that the tail feathers are of magnesium alloy rather than alclad.
This can be more difficult to get paint adhesion, so a tatty Bonanza is likely to have less paint on the tail feathers than the rest of the aircraft.
Can any "Frameys" confirm the magnesium alloy?

[pjw4118]

Thanks Peter , almost as good as being there.I think a quick diversion to Te Pirita and Weedons could be added next time , and maybe Hororata although theres no aircraft there.

[johnnyfalcon]

Peter, next time let us know you're coming and we can wet whistles at the Harvard bar, go for a blat around the circuit, and swap stories amongst the Chch forumites. Not necessarily in that order...! Sorry we missed catching up with a WONZ legend ✈✈✈

[Peter Lewis]

Thanks for the offer.
Anyone here live at Oamaru?

Oct 7, 2015 6:30:40 GMT 12 craig said:

What is the story with the nose section visible at Russell Brodie's beside LVE

The nose section is off Devon NZ1809.
It was bought via TradeMe some years ago.

[11SQNLDR]

Great seeing the old stomping ground - a most enjoyable thread thanks Peter

[Peter Lewis]

Oct 10, 2015 12:17:41 GMT 12 johnnyfalcon said:

Peter, next time let us know you're coming and we can wet whistles at the Harvard bar, go for a blat around the circuit, and swap stories amongst the Chch forumites. Not necessarily in that order...! Sorry we missed catching up with a WONZ legend ✈✈✈

Departing south tomorrow for another week in Christchurch.

Anyone up for a bit of socializing?

[johnnyfalcon]

Saturday or Sunday afternoon Harvard Bar drinkies after a visit across the road at the RNZAF museum? Don, can we get a behind-the-scenes look? My medical's expired so no scenics in the 172RG sorry Peter.

[Peter Lewis]

Weekend is going to be either Akaroa or Hammer Springs, depending on weather and she-who-must-be-obeyed.
How about Monday evening?

[johnnyfalcon]

Monday, Harvard bar open from 12:00 pm to 4:00 pm.

Of course, "she-..." is welcome to sample the delights of Wigram too!

[Dave Homewood]

Isn't there a bar on the Wigram runway shopping area now?