Mosquito Takes to the Skies!

The much anticipated first post-restoration flight of De Havilland DH98 TIII ZK-FHC has taken place from Ardmore, home of Warbirds restoration firm Avspecs. Restored on behalf of the Flying Heritage Collection of Everett, Washington State, the mighty wooden wonder will conduct the prerequisite test flight programme which may be as little as 10 hours before export to the United States. 

Skilfully flown by highly experienced Mosquito pilots David Phillips and Keith Skillings, ZK-FHC alighted from Ardmore's runway 03 at 1615 26 September 2016 and flew for thirty minutes in company with chase/camera ship Spitfire ZK-WDQ before returning to land on runway 03.  

The date for this first flight is just shy of 4 years since we witnessed the first flight of ZK-MOS from Ardmore, back on 27 September 2012. 

http://mrcaviation.blogspot.co.nz/2012/09/mosquitofirst-flight.html

We will savour the opportunity to have the third airworthy Mosquito in our skies and await the fourth example to be rolled out in the next year or so for another North American customer.

Corporate Corner - 07 September through 24 September 2016

Avwest Global Express N599CH departed Queenstown for Rarotonga and Los Angeles 08 September.

ANZA/Tyremax/Jetcity Challenger 604 N604AU departed Auckland 13 September for Sydney and made its way back to Auckland from Sydney 21 September.

Rank's Gulfstream G650ER N946JB departed Auckland 18 September direct to Eagle County, CO and returned to Auckland from Long Beach 24 September.

Business Jets Falcon 900EX N146EX arrived at Essendon 19 September (pictured below) from Auckland. It then flew to Brisbane 21 September and home to Auckland 23 September.

Zetta Jet Global Express N588LQ arrived at Auckland 17 September from Tokyo/Haneda and departed for Scottsdale, AZ 18 September. It crossed the Pacific Ocean 23 September arriving at Cairns from San Diego, CA via Honolulu.

Star Jet Gulfstream G550 B-8270 made its first visit to New Zealand arriving at Auckland 20 September from Manila. It departed for Clark 22 September however diverted to Cairns.

Southern Flight Holdings Challenger 300 N300NZ flew from Queenstown to Nadi 27 August then from Nadi to Auckland, Dunedin, Queenstown and presumably Wanaka 10 September. From Queenstown to Essendon 16 September (where it was photographed the following day) and back to Queenstown 18 September.

Wellington-based Citation III N163JM has had a busy month visiting the Gold Coast a couple of times and dropping into Christchurch, Timaru, Queenstown, Woodbourne, Oamaru, Nelson (seen below arriving 20 September) and Fielding.

Execujet New Zealand Gulfstream G650 ZK-KFB broke its drought of activity departing Wellington direct to Van Nuys, CA 21 September. On 24 September (NZ date) it flew from Van Nuys to Columbus, OH and Savannah, GA. Given its final destination this may well be its final flight under ZK- markings :-(

shortly before departure from Wellington 21 September. 

On finals for the famous runway 16 right at Van Nuys. 

Sunshine Air Services Challenger 604 VH-VLZ arrived at Taupo 23 September from Melbourne/Essendon via a brief visit to Auckland.

Global 5000 VP-CGM arrived at Queenstown 23 September from Hong Kong via a tech stop at Darwin.

Learjet 35 N615HB arrived at Apia 22 September from Merced, CA via Honolulu and flew onto Noumea and Nowra, NSW presumably on delivery to Air Affairs for target towing duties. 

Global 5000 N2QE arrived at Noumea 23 September from Hong Kong. 

The South Pacific was bombarded by visiting jets 24 September with Nadi receiving no less than six aircraft and Papeete two.

Gulfstream 550's N401HB, N816MG and N5092 arrived Nadi from Oakland, CA

Gulfstream 550 N443M arrived Nadi from Van Nuys, CA

Gulfstream 550 N53M arrived Nadi from Los Angeles, CA

Citationjet CJ4 ZK-OCB arrived Nadi from Auckland.
The Gulfstream collection departed Nadi 25 September heading to Perth.
http://fijisun.com.fj/2016/09/25/five-private-jets-land-at-nadi-airport-in-one-hour/

Papeete received Gulfstream G550 N813QS and Boeing 767-200 N2767 direct from the operator's Moffat Field home south of San Francisco. 

AUCKLAND by justplanes.com

Beech 1900D's

Looks like there has been some spring cleaning activity with the retired from Eagle Airways service Beech 1900D fleet in recent days with at least five aircraft conducting flights from/to Hamilton climbing to altitude and heading out east towards Tokoroa and back.

ZK-EAG and ZK-EAH flew 20 September while ZK-EAB and ZK-EAP flew 21 September and ZK-EAN 22 September. 

ZK-EAG at Hamilton 07 September 2016, Aircraft Services photo

In addition to the ZK machines, VH-BFI (ex ZK-EAM), departed from Cairns 21 September for Darwin and onto Surabaya 22 September.  It crossed the Tasman under its ZK registration back in June this year.

Columbia 400 N4446 here and there

The arrival of Columbia 400 N4446 at Christchurch 14 September was a surprise with the sports aircraft arriving in the southern city direct from Pago Pago. But its next two legs were equally interesting with it flying from Christchurch to the Chatham Islands 16 September before heading from the Chathams direct to Queenstown 18 September. It then flew back to Christchurch 20 September from where it departed the next morning direct to Hobart.

Capital Express

The highly anticipated inaugural Asian-based airline to the  Wellington aviation scene has finally come of age with the arrival of Singapore Airlines first scheduled service from Singapore via Canberra as SQ291. The four times weekly service will be operated by Boeing 777-200's, configured with 38 business and 228 economy seats, with the first flight arriving on the afternoon of 21 September with 9V-SRP.

https://www.singaporeair.com/jsp/cms/en_UK/promotions/flights-from-canberra-wellington.jsp

http://australianaviation.com.au/2016/09/canberra-counting-down-to-sia-inaugural/

http://australianaviation.com.au/2016/09/canberra-airport-welcomes-inaugural-singapore-airlines-service/

First EX inbound!

The first EX version of the popular Cessna 208 Grand Caravan is soon destined from New Zealand skies with Lake Tekapo-based Air Safaris.

Construction number 208B-5285 is a 2016 model EX presently registered N9493 and is set to become ZK-SRX with NZCAA certification to be carried out by Flightline of Dunedin in early October.

The full press release by Air Safaris can be found HERE

ZK-SRX will become New Zealand's 16th Caravan and the second to be operated by Air Safaris with ZK-SRI being a member of the scenic flight operator fleet since December 2002. They also operate two GAF N24 Nomads and four GA8 Nirvanas.

A 17th Cessna Caravan is also destined for a South Island operator in the coming weeks.

Air New Zealand ZK-NZK rollout

de Havilland Mosquito Full Power Test New Zealand 2016

In the absence of a test flight thanks to firstly engine issues, then inclement weather followed by pilot non-availability, we will settle for this great video of ZK-FHC undergoing her high powered engine runs Friday afternoon which was when the engine issue was identified.

Hopefully a first flight will be successful later this week now. 

Name the movie?

Over the last several days at Ardmore there has seen some interesting construction work carried out on the disused runway and 15 September saw a massive contingent of vehicles descend on the airport to setup camp to film segments for a movie which includes the use of Heletranz A109S ZK-HBH with it noted hovering in the foreground of the stack of containers being used as a "green screen" and then landing on the makeshift elevated helipad. 

In addition, an unidentified AS355 Twin Squirrel wearing the titles "Zhang Oceania" is also associated with the film. Online records show Heletranz AS355 ZK-HFS as undergoing a "change of paint scheme" just a few days ago so perhaps this is the helicopter in question.

The large green screen clearly evident in this shot. 

De Havilland Mosquito ZK-FHC - UPDATED 17 SEPTEMBER

A large crowd of enthusiasts gathered at Ardmore 16 September in eager anticipation of a first flight from Mosquito ZK-FHC, however issues with the port engine conspired against it and despite favourable weather conditions she was unable to take to the sky. That said, it was fantastic to see her wearing markings from RNZAF 75 Squadron as NZ2337, see the Wings over New Zealand forum for more : HERE

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With high hopes of a first flight post restoration for Mosquito ZK-FHC today the weather decided to not play ball with light rain for most of the day and an ever lowering cloudbase as the afternoon rolled on. This didn't stop the aircraft being rolled out of the hangar for it to have both engines run.

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As the saying goes, good things take time - and that is indeed the case for Mosquito ZK-FHC which continues to tempt the gathering masses ahead of her much anticipated first flight.

Late morning 10 September the Mosquito was towed around to the fuel pumps - hopefully a sign of a pending first flight in the coming day/s!

Apt sign on the hangar!

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The Mosquito has been rolled outside for what I believe to be the first time and it was chance timing to get it "on the move"

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A delightful addition to the ZK registered popped up on August 5th with the soon to fly De Havilland DH.98 Mosquito T.III TV959 becoming ZK-FHC. While registered to the globally recognised Avspecs Ltd/Warbirds Restoration of Ardmore, the Mosquito is destined for a life in Seattle, Washington State with Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen's Flying Heritage Collection located at Paine Field. 

http://www.flyingheritage.com/

For a rundown on the life of TV959 go to http://www.mossie.org/TV959.htm and The Warbird Watcher

We are not aware of the pending FAA registration but note N959TV is available - so it will be interesting to see if this is used.

Meanwhile, we wait with anticipation for the aircraft's first flight from Ardmore hopefully by the end of the month!

File photo - ZK-MOS @ Ardmore September 2012.