Islander wreck at Dairy Flats

[flyjoe180]

IAS. When did the registration 'I' prefix become reserved for helicopters?

[sqwark2k]

The fuselage wreck that is marked KTR has now been removed from Dairy Flat to a local farmer who wanted it for a chicken coop or something.

LOU is to be refurbed to flying status soon, with 3 engines under o/haul at a Auckland o/haul facility.

REA due to return from Tonga where it's been leased to Air Chats to cover their own BN2's major servicing.

[scrooge]

Regarding ZK-Ixx rego's, from the CAA website- not sure when it came into effect.

Allocation of Aircraft Registration Marks

Marks are allocated in alphabetical sequence according to the class of aircraft as follows:

ZK-A**, ZK-B**, ZK-GA*, and ZK-HA* are historical marks. Since 1987 these marks have been reserved for historical aircraft including helicopters and gliders. This is to enable the original aircraft to regain its original mark upon restoration.

ZK-FA* and ZK-FB* marks are reserved for balloons (they may use a fixed wing marks upon request).

ZK-G** marks are reserved for gliders.

ZK-H** and ZK-I** marks are reserved for helicopters.

ZK-RA*, ZK-RB*, ZK-RC*, and ZK-RD* marks are reserved for gyrocopters.

All ZK-Q** marks are not available for use - prohibited by ICAO.

All other marks are available for fixed wing aircraft.

www.caa.govt.nz/aircraft/Allocation_Registration_Marks.htm

[scrooge]

Allen, yes it was marked as KTR, except that ZK-KTR may not have actually been issued by the NZCAA (or it was and was then withdrawn).

According to the matching of the serial I found and Macfires notes it was originally ZK-IAS.

(I think thats right).

[flyjoe180]

Aug 14, 2012 9:23:06 GMT 12 scrooge said:

Regarding ZK-Ixx rego's, from the CAA website- not sure when it came into effect.

Allocation of Aircraft Registration Marks

Marks are allocated in alphabetical sequence according to the class of aircraft as follows:

ZK-A**, ZK-B**, ZK-GA*, and ZK-HA* are historical marks. Since 1987 these marks have been reserved for historical aircraft including helicopters and gliders. This is to enable the original aircraft to regain its original mark upon restoration.

ZK-FA* and ZK-FB* marks are reserved for balloons (they may use a fixed wing marks upon request).

ZK-G** marks are reserved for gliders.

ZK-H** and ZK-I** marks are reserved for helicopters.

ZK-RA*, ZK-RB*, ZK-RC*, and ZK-RD* marks are reserved for gyrocopters.

All ZK-Q** marks are not available for use - prohibited by ICAO.

All other marks are available for fixed wing aircraft.

www.caa.govt.nz/aircraft/Allocation_Registration_Marks.htm

Thanks Scrooge, I was aware of the reserved letters but was interested in when the 'I' prefix became reserved for helicopters.

[flyjoe180]

www.caa.govt.nz/Advisory_Circulars/AC47-1rev2.pdf

[davew]

Responding to various queries in this thread.

The ZK-I registration block was opened up for helicopters in 1990, when the ZK-H block was becoming full, even with rapid re-allocation. It was heading towards the point where, out of the 26-squared = 676 available registrations, over 600 were in use at any time. The first one was Squirrel ZK-IWI in 3/90, but there were only a few until large-scale use started in 1996 when the ZK-H block reached saturation.

There were only ever a couple of fixed wing allocations in the ZK-I block.

ZK-IAS was an Islander c/n 182 registered 12/76 and cancelled after it crashed at Stewart Island 10/80.

ZK-III was reserved for a Sindlinger Hurricane homebuilt in 7/90, but was changed before completion and became ZK-FVW instead.

After the helicopter allocations were well established, there was one more fixed-wing allocation. ZK-ILI was CT4-E c/n 216 registered 9/99 cancelled as reregistered ZK-JPK in 6/03.

Since then it has been all helicopters, and several hundred ZK-I's have been issued. Some have already been reused several times.

As regards reservations. In addition to the published ZK- register, there is also a hidden list of reserved registrations, about 500 at any time. Until 2009, the CAA used to publish a list of these reservations on the website, but without giving any details. Since then they have reversed the presentation and now publish a list of unassigned registrations available for issue.

Some of these reservations are blocks for airline or club fleets, some are imports on order or in transit in shipping containers, many are homebuilts or long-term vintage restorations. With homebuilts, registrations were customarily reserved at the start of building and may sometimes be seen painted on airframes several years before eventual completion.

Aircraft are not registered and added to the main public register listing until they are ready to fly and achieve NZ certification. With homebuilts, the official registration date is often taken as the first flight date.

It often happens with abandoned homebuilt projects and sometimes with heavyweight imports that certification is never achieved and a reservation is cancelled. If Islander KTR never flies, as now seems likely, its reservation will be cancelled and never added to the full register, but this will be far from a unique event. Also allocating a registration to an unflyable airframe is common practice to give it an identity and establish ownership, as it still represents a very valuable collection of spares.

[Allen Brookes]

Sorry not to have responded sooner but have been away at our house in France.
Thanks to everyone for all the input and research.
Allen