Red Arrows display in Abu Dhabi

Yesterday ,Thursday 24th November the Corniche in Abu Dhabi ,I witnessed a great display from the Royal Air Forces Red Arrow Hawk display team on the far east display tour which included  Oman ,Bahrain and Abu Dhabi here in the Middle East.A large crowd surrounded the water front for the 25 minute display and was duly enjoyed by all.Even the locals liked it,as it coincides with the final Grand Prix of the season at Yas Marina circuit in Abu Dhabi over the coming weekend,

OCTOBER 2016 TAURANGA MOVEMENTS

All pics by  THE HAIRY MOLE RAT

Roll out of Grumman Avenger after restoration.

Seen here rolling out of the Classic Flyers hangar last weekend in November , was this recent restored to static condition of this former WW 2 RNZAF Grumman Avenger by great volunteers at Classic flyers at Tauranga Airport. My hat goes off to them with this great project which has been covered in a previous blog some  roughly 2 years ago.I did volunteer to assist in the paintwork but came side tracked to the middle East.

A big thank you to my partner in crime Peter Mole for the pictures

SEPTEMBER MOVEMENTS 2016

Landing into Auckland Int

On leaving Tauranga to Auckland Int ,i filmed departing Tauranga NZTG and seen landing into Auckland Int NZAA.

Tauranga

Auckland Int

Te Kowhai Airfield

Coming to the end of my time back in New Zealand before heading back to the Middle East i dropped into Te Kowhai airfield just NW of Hamilton to see what was around .Only recently the airfield was put up for sale but thanks to a  group of welcomed aviators and local business persons help secure the site and keep it as an airfield.

I big thank you to Regan Brown who I met at the flying club and he quite happily showed me around and i was able to take some pictures and was told there are around 50 aircraft hidden away in all the hangars and some more are planned to be built.There are facilities there for some food and drink and at weekends various light aircraft drop in as the airfield has fuel available .Check out their website
www.facebook.com/TeKowhaiAerodrome/

I recent addition to the NZ register was this Poorboy Aviation PB-1 ZK-BEE parked up in the only opened hangar on the airfield.

Parked in side the hangar adjacent to the Clubs office was this Foxcon Aviation Terrier 200 ZK-SOD with an amusing caption no-less.For UK spotters this is an occurring gesture in British airfields!!!!

1 of a couple of Piper PA18 reside here at Te Kowhai was ZK-BTU.

Vintage Cessna 172  still in a good condition was ZK-BUZ and just to the front of the cowling is Vans RV-6A  ZK-VIA.

Long time resident here is Tobago TB-9 ZK-TRW which seldom flys apparently !!!Shame,as it is a nice machine.

Jabiru UL-T ZK-CJP 

Arion Aircraft Lightning ZK-TDT looking slick in a colour paint scheme design.Behind are ZK-JRL,ZK-OBH ,ZK-CZR and ZK-WAX.

ZK-OBH Zenith CH-60 XL

Visits to Hawkes Bay region

Continuing on my weekend away was a visit to Napier and Hastings -Bridge Pa airfields and due to the rain virtually all hangars were closed which can of ruined the trip but here are a few pixs that i managed to takeover the 25th September

First Hastings-Bridge Pa Airfield

ZK-RDG Quad City  Challenger II which at present is advertised for sale

Noted in Hawkes Bay & East Coast Aero Club,s Hangar were the following .Piper Pa28 ZK-FQQ

ZK-KIX  Rans S-6ES Coyote II

Cessna 206 ZK-DVI

Cessna172 N Skyhawk ZK-EKG

Escaping from Nelson is Auster J1B ZK-BAQ

Hawkes Bay & East Coast Aero Club,s facilities at Hastings Bridge Pa Airfield

Parked up next to the Cessna510,s hangar was Cessna 206E ZK-FJH

Cessna172RG ZK-EWB formally resident at Ardmore

Finally Hawkes Bay and East Aero clubs latest purchase is Former Wellington resident PA34 Seneca ZK-ROC going through minor maintenance .
I would like to thank the Female chief flying instructor for Hawkes Bay club to allow me to take  pictures and be able to wander around this nice airfield.Shame that all most all hangars were locked up !!!!

Followed up by Napier

Jetstar,s DHC-8 Dash 8 VH-TQM departing a wet Napier bound for its daily flights to and from Auckland .

Skyline Aviation Beech 200 Super King Air ZK-PLK taxiing back to the  hangar

Air Napier operate various aircraft.seen here is PA34 Seneca ZK-MSL

Piper PA31 Navajo ZK-NPR.(appropriate reg)

Staring into the Flight Care hangar window was all the ex-RNZAF C/T4 Air Trainers stored here when they were replaced by the Texan II as the new RNZAF trainers.Seen here is ZK-PTL with PTB in front.

Finnally Mount Cooks ATR72-212A  ZK-MVH departing possibly to either Wellington or Auckland.