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Post by markrogers on Feb 26, 2020 19:28:12 GMT 12
YEs, I think I can see there could be a fuel tank in the front of the Pitt's cockpit. I see the top of it. Awesome to see these biplanes.. that AN-2 was on it's way to NZ was it?
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Post by planecrazy on Feb 26, 2020 20:24:48 GMT 12
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Post by JW on Feb 28, 2020 20:27:09 GMT 12
Just a quick question planecrazy, how many aircraft are based on Lord Howe Island?
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Post by planecrazy on Feb 28, 2020 21:09:17 GMT 12
A Cessna 310 and 182, went for a scenic flight with my mate who owns the 182 and Peter Lewis today, Peter was pretty pleased got to drive past Balls Pyramid, awesome! When Francis Chichester crossed the Tasman from New Zealand his navigation from Norfolk to Lord Howe Island was a little off, he saw a strange looking vertical cloud ahead realised it was Ball's Pyramid looked north and made it to Lord Howe. Ball's Pyramid is around 7 million years old a volcanic remnant, which apparently is the tallest sea stack in the world, 1,850 feet!
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Post by planecrazy on Feb 29, 2020 6:39:55 GMT 12
Still buzzing after yesterday's flight, in the late afternoon there was an evacuation, normally New South Wales Air Ambulance performs this role but if no machines available we get a Royal Flying Doctors Kingair.
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Post by planecrazy on Mar 13, 2020 16:39:43 GMT 12
Bit of an update, these two came through a while back, had Aerologistics Survey written on their tails. And this one today, landed not long ago, Lord Howe Island to Keri Keri direct, near enough to eight hours in the air, 1459 klms flown!
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Post by planecrazy on Jul 19, 2020 15:09:26 GMT 12
Surprised too hear a twin turbine so popped down to airstrip and was surprised to see this Cessna 406, on it’s way home from Guam of all places?! Flight tracking not available for this one so can’t tell if she is via Norfolk or direct to NZ, took a lot of runway to get off so maybe direct?
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Post by planecrazy on Aug 23, 2020 11:45:32 GMT 12
Having a bit of a cleanup and found some old photos, sorry a bit poor in quality as they are copies. I’m going to do my best to remember a bit about each pic, can’t for the life of me remember the dates? This AN2 was flown from Lithuania to New Zealand to a new home on the Coromandel, I believe she is now in the Wanaka transport museum. I do remember the owner saying she nearly cost as much to ferry as she did to buy! From memory on her was to OZ I think to do an outback tour, sadly my photo doesn’t catch the full rego! I remember talking to the crew and it was around the time when Pioneer were doing flights in the south island from Christchurch to the west coast and you would train back via the trans alpine way, would have a been great trip. Another ZK registered DC3. Never chatted with the crew of this one and can only remember seeing her on one occasion, her serial NZ 1808, be interested to hear where she is these days? More soon, going for a walk between squalls, windy and wet out in the Tasman today!
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Post by Brett on Aug 23, 2020 12:47:07 GMT 12
The Devon is ZK-KTT, currently based out of Tauranga I think.
If the photo dates from 2005 it probably relates to it's sojourn to Australia while with NZ Warbirds.
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Post by Brett on Aug 23, 2020 12:51:52 GMT 12
The Antonov AN-2 was LY-AKH and was photographed in 1995 on it's delivery for Neville Cameron.
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Post by planecrazy on Aug 23, 2020 14:01:58 GMT 12
Thanks for filling in those gaps Brett, 25 years ago, wow! Some more from my stash. Ex Alpine Fighter Collection Zero replica, was ferried to OZ by Kelvin Stark, I hope that's correct? She end up with Randall McFarlane in Australia, I am pretty sure, along with the ex AFC Avenger which is now back in NZ with Brendon Deere. NZ 1099 ferried by Stephen Death to a new home in South Australia. Note the lack of rear canopy? I remember Steve pointing out she had a fold away rear canopy system and the rear seat could be reversed, I’m guessing for training gunners position? Graeme Frew’s Nanchang on her ferry flight to New Zealand, I remember the weather was terrible. Also Graham asked me to flick a switch inside the rear of the cowl, after she was started, something to do with the pneumatic 's that power the starter motor? This twin Beech participated at Warbirds over Wanaka in 2000. My long suffering daughters Abbey and Bronte in the foreground with Dad’s Harvard and Wirraway. Sea Fury 14 piloted by Grant Biel on one of her five visits to Lord Howe Island.
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Post by vultee43 on Aug 23, 2020 17:22:48 GMT 12
NZ 1099 currently based in Hobart. Also for sale.
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Post by Peter Lewis on Aug 23, 2020 19:53:04 GMT 12
Good to see you are back 'on air' Peter. Have you received my recent emails?
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Post by planewriting on Aug 23, 2020 23:39:27 GMT 12
Referring to Planecrazy's postings today: Yes,the AN-2 is at Wanaka. The Pionair (not Pioneer) DC-3 was at that time registered ZK-AMS. Devon NZ1808 is these days registered ZK-KTT. It has also been previously registered ZK-CBK. It resides in the NZ Historic Aircraft Trust hangar adjacent to the Classic Flyers complex on Tauranga Airport. DC-3 ZK-AWP was also being operated by Pionair at the time the photo was taken. Their three New Zealand owned DC-3 aircraft travelled extensively throughout Australia in the early years of this century on tours. I've have just noticed that when AWP was wearing the Skyliner lookalike livery in those days the reference to DC-3 above the word Skyliner was omitted. NAC purposely included DC-3 in their livery to avoid any mis-understanding as to what type of aircraft they were marketing. DC-3 has been included in the Air Chathams version. On the original NAC livery there were no rounded letters such as C, D and O etc. They were all presented in right angle line format. For the record, ZK-AWP is also based at Tauranga Airport.
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Post by Dave Homewood on Aug 24, 2020 0:36:42 GMT 12
Pretty funny when the NAC fleet were all actually C-47's, not DC-3's.
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Post by planecrazy on Aug 24, 2020 12:48:23 GMT 12
Thank for the information planewriting great stuff.
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Post by planewriting on Aug 24, 2020 16:13:03 GMT 12
Pretty funny when the NAC fleet were all actually C-47's, not DC-3's. At what stage then did C-47s become DC-3s Dave? The reason NAC put DC-3 on the tail rather than C-47 was because by that stage that is what these aircraft were known as by the travelling public. If NAC had painted C-47B Skyliner on their airliners I suspect not many people would have been any the wiser. So NAC decided to simply "go with the flow".
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Post by Dave Homewood on Aug 24, 2020 16:21:02 GMT 12
Considering New Zealand never ever had any DC-3's in airline service before the war, had the airline referred to their ex-No. 40 Squadron aircraft by their real designation, C-47, from 1946 the public would have called them that. So someone in the airline clearly decided they were to receive a civilianised designation, for whatever reason. They will always be Dakotas to me.
I am not sure if any actual DC-3's have served in New Zealand?
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Post by Bruce on Aug 24, 2020 16:54:41 GMT 12
I think one of the SPANZ Viewmasters (CAW I think...) was a prewar DC-3 with Wright engines, but re-engined with Pratts for commonality. C47s would have become DC-3s at the time of civilianisation. They would have been modified to bring them up to standard with a Civilian type certificate, otherwise they could not have been used for airline passenger service. The "Department" was pretty picky about that at the time.
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Post by ErrolC on Aug 24, 2020 17:21:15 GMT 12
For instance, ZK-DAK is registered as a DC3C-S1C3G
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