The first time I saw the Dragon was at an airshow at the old Fenton Street airfield at Rotorua, 9th March 1963. Owned by the Nelson Aero Club, it was silver with black & red trim. Purchase price paid by the club was £2700.



Shortly after this, in July 1963, the Dragon was laid up at Nelson, awaiting overhaul.
Bradshaw bought ZK-AXI 'as is' and carried out the overhaul work.
Seen here under his ownership at Wanganui 7th February 1967



The aircraft was sold to AFS for sold £1250.
Seen here at Ardmore in April 1967. The signwriting reads 'Mini Liner' and '1932 DH84 Dragon' which is stretching the truth a bit.


In an Ardmore hangar after the April 1967 crash



Overhead Omaka 8th April 2007

Indian plane crash kills scores

Almost 160 people tragically lost their life yesterday when an Air India Express, Boeing B737-800 jet, crashed in the southern Indian city of Mangalore. The aircraft was piloted by Jat Airways captain Zlatko Glušica. Jat’s PR manager confirmed yesterday that Glušica had been working for Air India Express while on temporary leave from Jat. The pilot, who was 55 years old, had 10.000 hours of flying experience and was considered very skilled. He arrived at Air India Express from Jat last year. Since 2007, Jat Airways and Air India have a partnership agreement. Some 20 Jat pilots temporarily work for Air India (and their low cost subsidiary Air India Express). On the other hand, Air India cadets train at the Jat Flight Academy in Serbia. The “B92” network reports that there is a large amount of Serbian pilots working in India’s ever growing aviation industry.

Air India Express said there were 7 survivors among the 160 passengers and 6 crew on board its Boeing B737 jet arriving from Dubai. The plane overshot the hilltop runway as it tried to land and burst into flames in a forested valley beyond, the “BBC” reports. Air India Express began operations about 5 years ago as an offshoot of the state run Air India. The aircraft was less than 3 years old.

Sympathy goes out to all the victims of this horrible accident.

De Havilland DH94 Moth Minor ZK-AKM , c/n 94012 , first flew in the UK as G-AFON on 11-07-1939 and was registered to the London Aeroplane Club on the following day. It managed to avoid being impressed into UK military service and was cancelled as exported to Australia in February of 1940.I next have it as being listed as ZK-AHK with the New Plymouth Aero Club with its first flight in NZ on 12-09-1941.

It was impressed into RNZAF service in 1942 (I have two dates - 13-09-1942 and taken on charge on 07-10-1942). It is know to have served with 22 Squadron at Norwood and the Communications Flight at Rongotai from 19-02-1943.

Post war (I assume) it was overhauled by Aircraft Services and returned to the New Plymouth Aero Club but re-registered ZK-AKM from 20-02-1947.

It then passed through a series of private owners - dates and locations are uncertain - This includes H H Wood; G C Roberts of Tauranga and about here became "The Happy Wanderer"; B E Smith; Otaki and Districts Aero Club (1960?); J E Moon & B J Farrell, Woodbourne; L Gatehouse, Blenheim; D K Lilico, Auckland & was ground looped at Raglan on 02-03-1969; to P E Thwaites, H D Kidd & R Stanley at Auckland on 03-05-1971; Myles Robertson, Dairy Flat in 1977 & about here was painted as NZ597; To H Wallace McNair, R Stanley & G Stan Smith of Auckland from 08-12-1983: Finally to G S & G A Smith (Smith's Tech-Air [NZ] Ltd, North Shore on 11-12-1991.

Again, any additional information would be most welcome.

Both pics taken at Paraparaumu on 21-02-1971.

Ah ! De Havilland.

De Havilland DH84 Dragon 2 ZK-AXI , c/n 2057 , (sometime seen written as DHA2057) was one of 87 built in Australia for the Royal Australian Air Force during World War Two.

I believe they chose the Dragon instead of the Dominie/Rapide because Holden were already building Gipsy Major engines for the Tiger Moth production line already well under way.

This airframe went on strength with the RAAF on 24-03-1943 with the serial A34-68. Post military service it became VH-AEF on 29-04-1945 for Butler Air Transport Ltd followed by Qantas Empire Airways Ltd in June of 1948. Fawcett Aviation Pty Ltd feature from 14-05-1953. It was cancelled from the Australian civil register on 11-07-1953.

Cliff Rolve had purchased it and it was listed in NZ as ZK-AXI on 14-07-1953 to Rolvin Airways of Palmerston North.

It was delivered to Nelson on 17-05-1954 for the Nelson Aero Club until being sold to Arthur J Bradshaw of Nelson on 01-06-1964 (I believe he actually took delivery of it in July of 1963.

I have a note saying that it had a broken crankshaft at Manakau on 23-05-54 and forced landed.

Somewhere about this time it became our first twin engine air ambulance. It also picked up the name "Puff" (Puff the magic Dragon I imagine).

It was refurbished and re-flew on 01-06-1965 and was used by Aerial Surveys Ltd of Nelson & piloted by Arthur Bradshaw.

It was flown from Nelson to Ardmore on 05-04-1967 for Jim Bergman and Earl Cox who traded as the Auckland Flying School, being registered to the School on 10-04-67. It did not last long as it was damaged on take off at Ardmore on 23-04-1967 (port engine failure due to collapsed fuel line) and was cancelled on 04-05-1967.

I believe it was presented to MoTaT and stored at Ardmore. It was trucked out of Ardmore in May of 1983 -I believe to Stan Smith at Dairy Flat. It became a restoration project and used a wing from Australia and was re-engined with DH Gipsy Major 10-2 engines of 145hp.

It was re-registered to GS & G A Smith, Smiths Tech-Air NZ Ltd of North Shore on 03-03-1997.

It now carries the name "Taniwha".

The pic above shows it at Haast on 18-12-2009.

Can somebody please fill in the gaps ?

The answer is to fold their wings!

A really interesting selection of folded aircraft were in one of Stan Smith's hangars at North Shore today. From left: DH 94 Moth Minor ZK-AKM, DH 83C Fox Moth ZK-APT and DH 84 Dragon ZK-AXI.

I am sure all these aircraft have very intersting histories. Blue Bus helped me post the history of ZK-APT in a previous post at http://design-plane.blogspot.com/2009/08/de-havilland-dh83c-fox-moth-zk-apt.html

Can anyone out there help with the other histories?

Arriving at Ardmore in October 2008, Mike Condon photo

Citation 501 N800DT has been resident in NZ since 19 December 2002 when it arrived at Ardmore concluding its delivery flight to Auckland businessman Barry Coleman. Its arrival was really the beginning of what has been a resurgance in the business jet population for NZ and it has now far exceeded that of the heady days of the late 80's prior to the sharemarket collapse.

N800DT has been resident with Dennis Thompson's Corporate Flight Services since delivery and was operated by them on behalf of the owner. However time has marched on and the aircraft has moved to the Air National stable located at Auckland Airport arriving there on 19Mar this year. In keeping with the other business jets operated by Air National, N800DT will soon be placed on the ZK register thereby making it available for charter work adding to the already extensive and somewhat under utlised fleet of aircraft already 'on the books' for such activities.

the addition of N800DT to the ZK register will see the business jets on our local registrations consist of:
Citation Mustang : LCA, MOT, MUS, PGA
Citation Sovereign : JTH
Citation CJ3+ : TBM
Citation 501 : (N800DT)
Gulfstream G200 : RGB
Westwind II : RML
Learjet 35A : XVL
and soon to be registered
Gulfstream 550 : KFB

In addition, Auckland has Falcon 900EXE N146EX and Global Express XRS N57LE as residents.

It was such a lovely day at North Shore Airfield today that lots of aircraft were out flying (and in the case of one, being polished in a hangar). Here are a selection of the sport aircraft:

Pitts S 2S ZK-WIZ is owned by Special Syndicate 8 of Whangaparoa. It was first registered in New Zealand on 28/6/89.

ATEC Zephyr ZK-ZFR is owned by Hyflyte Aviation Ltd. It was first registered on 27/1/05.

PA 18A-150 Super Cub looks pristine in a classic J3 Cub colour scheme. It is owned by the BKH Syndicate of Whangaparoa and was first registered in January 1956.

And finally the colourfully named TRI-Tech KIS TR-4 ZK-TEL was outside its hangar. It is owned by Scientific Management Associates (Pty) Vic Ltd who also own TRI-Tech KIS TR-1 ZK-KIS, which was out flying. ZK-KIS was first registered on 17/2/99.