Sky Arrows in New Zealand

Following the sad news of the loss of the Meteor S.p.A Sky Arrow 450T ZK-SKA as posted by Blue Bus, I thought I would dig out my old photos of the other Sky Arrows in New Zealand. The 3 Sky Arrows in New Zealand were all imported by agent Felice de Napoli of Wellington. The Sky Arrow series of aircraft was manufactured by Iniziative Industriale Italiane S.p.A and was developed from an Italian Government sponsored contest for a remotely piloted vehicle in 1989.

The second example in New Zealand was ZK-EBR, a Sky Arrow 480T (with a Rotax 912 motor)which was registered on 1/4/97 to John Bolton-Riley of Feilding. It is photographed above at the 1998 SAANZ fly-in at Matamata. This aircraft has a claim to fame as the first microlight to fly across the Tasman Sea to Australia, and return, during July and August 1997. It has also flown to the Chatham Islands and return.

The third example in New Zealand was ZK-CJW, also a 480T model which was registered on 12/2/98 to Colin Wade of Hamilton. I think this was the second ZK-CJW registered to Colin Wade, who has since moved onto and sold Alpi Pioneer 300 ZK-CJW (3) and who has most recently purchased Cirrus Design SR 20 ZK-CJW (4). The above photo was taken at the SAANZ fly-in at Matamata in 2000.

ZK-CJW was purchased by the Manawatu Microlight Club at Feilding on 20/5/04, who registered it as ZK-SKO on 24/5/04. The above photo was taken at the Black Sands fly-in in November 2005.