How big is big ?
Cessna 182D ZK-MJP c/n 182D-53552 , belonging to Malcolm and Morgan Price, cunningly disguised as a Cessna 185, has now got a larger pair of boots. It was converted to a tail dragger back in May of 1998 in Australia at the same time that it was re-registered from VH-MEC to VH-PBH for Peter B Hazelton. It carries a "Cessna 185" label on the fuselage.

Also some changes are happening to the Avid Mark IV ZK-JHW c/n 1434D belonging to Grant Porter. Starting from the back end it is slowly being tidied up and repainted. This is the Avid that was flown out to the Chatham Islands in April 2004 from Feilding by its then owner Paul Havill, accompanied by the Sky Arrow ZK-EBR. Note the under wing paint scheme.

Today was a beautiful, beautiful day. I kept saying, "This can't be Oshkosh."
Low humidity, balmy 70s temps, lovely breeze...oh yeah.

Here are some noteworthy pix from the day's events.

First up: The Icon A5 flew a very impressive series of demo takeoffs, landings and fast taxis at the Sea Plane Base. An impressive debut performance, with a lot of attendance from folks who motored over from the main event 10 miles away.

The Airbus A380 wowed the crowds with amazingly quiet, nimble performance turns over the runway. It still amazes me that anything so huge can fly.

Diamond's DA-20 has a new panel with Garmin's G-500 EFIS display. Look for a pirep in a P&P issue soon.

16% passenger decline

In the first 6 months of 2009 Slovenia’s Adria Airways carried a total of 503.438 passengers, a decline of 16% compared to the same period last year. The biggest drop in airline traffic was recorded on services to Germany and Brussels, which is chiefly a consequence of Slovenia’s Presidency of the EU, with an overall decline at these destinations of almost 20%. However, to some Ex-Yu markets Adria has recorded growth, especially on services to Skopje, Priština and Sarajevo.

Adria reports that the structure of its passengers has changed drastically compared to last year with 50% more passengers travelling on Economy rather than Business Class. This has caused ticket prices to decline by 6% compared to the first 6 months of 2008. Furthermore, 911 tons of cargo were carried which is 20% less than in 2008. The financial performance has followed the drop in physical turnover, with the first preliminary operating results from January to May showing a full 19% decline in generated revenue compared to the same period last year. In line with this, the company management believes that the airline will end the year with a loss of 3.2 million Euros.

After enduring a goodly downpour most of the day, stalwarts were rewarded with a sunny late afternoon and fresh, cool winds. This is not typical Oshkosh Airventure weather: usually we're melting into puddles of goo from the heat and humidity.
Strolling through the vast Airventure "campus" I ran into Dave Graham, hardworking Gobosh principal who shared the new Garmin G3X panel he's installed into the Gobosh 700. Such a nice panel, and with dual Garmin vertical EFIS screens right in front of the pilot, and backup steam gauges and other avionics goodies, it's an impressive panel.
Also noteworthy is Dave's automobile iconic symbols on the console stack that add colorful, easy-read labeling to control switches such as carb heat, fuel cutoff and choke.
A Zaon PCAS XRX collision avoidance system is another welcome feature on this lovely tricked out G700.

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Knocking around the grounds after dark was a kick. I shot the Virgin Galactic White Knight spacecraft launcher, one weird bird indeed, and the Airbus A380, the monstrous double-decker transport airplane that carries 525 passengers in current configurations and will be modified in future to carry 900 people! Holy sardine can, Batman!

=======================================
Caught up with Dan Johnson and spousal unit Randee at their LSA Mall in its newly installed location. Very impressive, good support from LSA manufacturers and lots of foot traffic. It's a great way for folks to see many of their favorite LSA aircraft all in one place...and at a huge show like Oshkosh, anything that saves you walking time and grows enthusiasm is welcome indeed. Well done!

Your thoughts on this creation would be most welcome.
Type and registration required.

And as usual: If you are apprehended during the course of your ponderings I will deny any knowledge of your existence.

This photo, supplied by Sir Minty, shows the Jurca Sirocco ZK-PTR with its Rover 215cu inch Rover V8 ticking over. Have a good look at the optical effect of the propeller as caught by the camera.
Any suggestions as to how this happens ?

MAT - you ain't seen nothing yet

The management of MAT Macedonian Airlines demands that the Macedonian government and the Anti Corruption Commission set up an inquiry into why the Macedonian Civil Aviation Agency (ACV) granted flight permits to Turkish Star Airlines last year and ignored the recommendations by the European Civil Aviation Agency which advised the ACV not to grant the licenses. The Turkish Star Airlines registered itself in Macedonia with 2 Boeing B747-200 freighter aircraft although it rarely operates out of Skopje. Furthermore, the airline was granted a license despite the fact that at the time it did not own an aircraft which is against Macedonian aviation regulations.

The grounded MAT says it can provide additional examples of ACV’s disrespect of European standards and civil aviation. The ongoing feud between MAT and the ACV, which began when the aviation agency grounded MAT’s aircraft has escalated since Mat Airways was not granted a license for operations. Mat Airways was to be a new airline set up by previous MAT Macedonian Airlines owners, however without the millions of Euros of debt the Macedonian national carrier has to its name.

As an aside, I wonder what happened to NZ's only BD4. Heralded as the aircraft that started the kit plane industry, and remarkably popular worldwide, only one of these aircraft has made it into the air here - ZK-RDH owned by Russell D Harris, Opua, Bay of Islands. The project was started by Trevor Snell in 1975 who built the fuselage, and then bought by Harris 1992. First flight was in December 1996 and the aircraft is seen here at Kerikeri in 1998.
CAA have it logged as cancelled 2June2004, anyone know why?

I have seen the future and it is electric. Lots more to say about this than I have time, space or energy here, after my first day at Oshkosh, but this much is clear: electric flight is a reality, just as the Wright Brother's Flyer made heavier-than-air flight a reality.
I spent an hour talking with the Yuneec E-430 people.
FACTOIDS:
* Made in China
* The company just built a new 250,000 sq. ft. factory. That's right: 1/4 MILLION square feet!
* Company has initial plans to produce 6 different electric flying craft: ultralights, trikes, powered parachutes, hang gliders...and the sleek, beautiful, 45-foot wingspan E-430 (above) that went from light bulb idea to flying prototype in 4 months!
* Getting FAA to amend LSA reg to admit electric power will take some doing. But you can't stop a flood tide.
Also saw Flight Design's Tom Peghiny wow the crowds in the waning light at the Ultralight flying area with his E-Spyder, also powered by a Yuneec prototype electric propulsion system.
It was so quiet, you could barely hear him...honestly! My electric RC models make more noise than this electric ultralight.
I looked at these aircraft and realized I was looking at future history. These are no one-off, "maybe-it'll-work" oddities. These aircraft will be produced for sale sometime in the next year or so.
Aviation will never be the same: believe it!

After a bit of sloppy research in my last post, I now post a correction that the BD5 was introduced in the early 1970's and Bede Aircraft Ltd was bankrupt by 1979. However during the remarkable sales frenzy around 5,100 kits were shipped to customers worldwide. Also the BD 5B featured a longer wing than the original BD 5. Thanks to those who have posted comments, which have shed some light on a couple of other BD 5 photos that I have.

The photo above was taken at the 1998 SAANZ flyin at Matamata and I guess it was ZK-DVE

I am not sure who took the other photo above, but I think it might have been at Ardmore in the early 1980's. Maybe this was ZK-DYM which later became ZK-ZIP. Does anyone have any other ideas?

Wikipedia reports that in 2009 there were 150 airworthy BD 5's worldwide.

Soon in Banja Luka and Sarajevo?

Moskovia Airlines, an airline based at Moscow’s Zhukovsky Airport, is planning to introduce scheduled services between the Russian capital and the two largest cities in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Sarajevo and Banja Luka. The Bosnian ambassador in Russia confirmed the news. “After Bosnia and Herzegovina signed an air transportation agreement with Russia in April, we immediately noticed great interest on behalf of Russian airlines to begin services to our country”, the Bosnian ambassador said. A meeting between the ambassador and the CEO of Moskovia Airlines is planned for late August and early September when details about the future flights should be finalised.

Moskovia Airlines had previously sent a delegation to Banja Luka Airport when it concluded that it would be able to operate with a Boeing B737-700 on this service if an agreement between the two sides is finalised. The airline is planning to operate 2 weekly flights between Moscow and Banja Luka.

Moskovia Airlines has a fleet of 16 aircraft, all Russian made except for the 1 Boeing B737-700 planned on the services to Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Following Blue Bus's excruciating Question Time 61 (I identified a pusher propellor at the rear but could I match it to a BD 5?), I thought I would post the BD 5's that have flown in New Zealand. All of these have been BD 5B's which feature an extended fuselage.

The BD 5, designed by Jim Bede (who had previously designed the AA1 Trainer and the BD 4 of which one has flown in New Zealand), burst onto the homebuilding scene in early 1980's and thousands of kits were sold worldwide because it looked so sexy. However the sales sped far ahead of the development of the aircraft which suffered huge problems with the original Hirth engine and with the shaft drive to the propellor. New Zealand was also swept up with the hype and Pacific Aerospace became the New Zealand agents and imported quite a few kits, some of which were sold to keen homebuilders. However the whole project collapsed for the above technical reasons and today there are thousands of partly built BD 5's around the world! Eventually different engines were tried but the most successful was the BD 5J which used a small jet engine and so overcame the technical problems. I think one BD 5J came to New Zealand and was flown at the opening of Auckland International Airport.

I think that ZK-XBD (c/n 3904, built by C A McMillan of Mosgiel, first registered on 30/6/04) was the first to fly, at Taieri, but it came to grief early on when it hit a navigation board on the airfield - can anyone confirm the first flight date and that it was the first to fly? It was then sold to G S Nicholls of Tauranga on 30/6/07 and I saw it flying at the 2008 SAANZ flyin at Tauranga where this photo was taken. (GS NIcholls also owns Rutan Long EZ ZK-LET which is another aircraft with an interesting story).

The next BD 5 to fly was (I think) Dr Ian Griffin's ZK-ZBD (c/n 3898 first registered on 21/8/01), photographed here at New Plymouth in 2006. This has flown several times at New Plymouth and Ian says it flies very well. This aircraft has a Honda Civic motor. It is currently owned by the ISJ Griffin Family Trust.

And the final BD 5 to fly (I think) was D F C Rose's ZK-ZIP (c/n AACA 235 first registered on 19/7/82!), which test flew at Ardmore in 2006 I think, and achieved some publicity in the newspapers when the undercarriage collapsed on landing. However it has been repaired and this photo was taken at Ardmore in 2007. The point on the nose is a lead weight for Cof G balance. It is currently owned by the ESOR Trust of Manakau City.

Several other BD 5's were completed in New Zealand in the 1980's and 1990's but I do not think any of them flew. I have a couple of photos of some of these BD 5's that I might post if anyone is interested. I think it would be interesting to document the full (but brief!) story of BD 5's in New Zealand - what information do others have out there?

Success

On Friday, July 24, Croatia Airlines transported its 20 millionth passenger during its almost 20 year history. The passenger, Boris Jakopović, was travelling on a scheduled service from Amsterdam to Zagreb. At Zagreb Airport, Ivan Mišetić, the airline’s CEO handed the passenger 2 return tickets to any destination within the Croatia Airlines network as well as a 4 day hotel accommodation voucher at that destinations.

On Friday, the airline also marked 5 years since becoming a regional Star Alliance member. The airline should become a full member by the end of the year as the alliance plans to shut down its regional network of airlines. Croatia Airlines first operated 20 years ago as Zagal-Zagreb Airlines. While it mostly performed charters it was Croatia’s first airline. Two years later, in 1991, Croatia Airlines was formed and it began operations from Zagreb to Split. A year later, in 1992, the airline began its first scheduled international services, with its first destination being Frankfurt. The airline has flown 11.14 million passengers on international services, 6.71 million on domestic and 2.14 passengers on charter services.

Croatia Airlines transported its millionth passenger in 1994, while from 2000 the airline has had over 1 million passengers annually. The trend will continue this year as well. Croatia Airlines has so far transported 900.000 passengers this year and is expected to break the million mark soon. The airline is experiencing a decline in passenger numbers of 4.7% in the first 6 months of this year, which is still much less then other airlines operating within the Ex-Yu republics.

This little French built Reims Cessna F152 11 , c/n F152-1863 , moved across the Channel to become G-BIUI on 02-04-1981 followed by a change to G-TEES on 05-09-1985. It came to NZ and was registered as ZK-JCP on 23-08-1992 with Flightline Aviation. It was operated by Roy Treadrea Aircraft Syndicate from March 1994 (Carrying "Roy Aviation" script on its tail). Then to Wingspan NZ from November 1994. It was returned to Flightline on 11-04-1997 and was re-registered as ZK-NPI2 and joined the New Plymouth Aero Club on 29-04-1997.

On 21-07-2009 it failed to reach its destination at New Plymouth; the wreckage being reached the following day in tiger country west of Te Kuiti.

To add to the previous blog from FLYERNZL are some more pics of ZK-BMP
Looking over the fence at Taieri on 31-01-1969.

Above. At Wellington on 05-07-1971. Not particularly clear is the stags head on the fin.

As seen at Luggate on 04-04-1972.

Above at Haast on 18-04-1973.

&

Below at Taieri again on 25-12-1974

Hope that you have been doing great with your RC helicopter flying course. Today we will fly our RC helicopter controlled slow circuit around a fixed position. Today’s exercise is for getting you more comfortable with tail rotor controls and getting you accustomed to handling your RC helicopter from left and right.

Remote control training gear is essential even today and same pre flight checks are required to be done which were conducted in earlier exercises. Platform should be grass and calm day is still a preference for today’s flight.

Place you RC heli into the wind, start it and place your position 12-15 feet away from it. Bring the RC helicopter at a hover of 4 feet from ground and turn its nose to the right slowly and start flying it in a clockwise direction around your position, while maintaining the distance of 12-15 feet between your heli and you. For the ease of handling you should keep facing the helicopter, turning with it as you would do while flying a line control plane. Keep flying your RC helicopter slowly as it should take 25-30 seconds in completing one circle around your position. Keeping it slow is also required to keep you from dizziness because of turning in circles.

If you feel that turning with RC helicopter is getting you disoriented, you can come sideways to the remote control heli and turn your face left so as to keep the RC helicopter within your eyesight. This way you will be able to regain your confidence and feel like almost flying the heli from behind. Fly your RC helicopter this way in clockwise direction and then give yourself and your RC helicopter a break.

Okay, enough break; do the same exercise in the counter clock direction, circuiting it to the left around you. You will have to hold in left tail rotor control to keep RC helicopter nose always pointing in the direction of flight i.e. circle. Doing the circuit to your right may feel more difficult to you as compared to left because doing it to the right requires more tail rotor to the right as compared to left circuit which requires very little left tail rotor for keeping the RC helicopter nose pointing into the direction of circular flight.

This phenomenon is experienced because the main rotor of the RC helicopter is most usually rotate in clockwise direction. This is why the torque generated from main rotor blades force the helicopter body to turn to left all the time and if the tail rotor is there to counter that torque. If you have counter clock main rotor, you would want to start this exercise from right hand side otherwise from the left hand side.

Now, you should keep practicing the clockwise and counter clockwise circuits around your fixed position. You will soon find that one of the directions becomes easier, only then you would want to switch to the other direction to practice it more. This the way you will make yourself more into the habit of getting over the fear of not trying the harder things in RC helicopter flying.

It is not experienced with all the people learning to fly RC helicopter that one circuit seems harder than the other one but if it happens to you like it with me, try to get the harder part done more so it doesn’t become your habit, like it is with me. For me rights are more comfortable than lefts and this habit of mine has grown firm so much with time that I am unable to get over it.

It will be a good idea if you practice your earlier circuit of RC Helicopter Training Figure of Eight Circuit exercise after getting enough of this one. But get cent percent comfortable before calling it a day for this one. These exercises are very important because the next lesson we are going to practice will be fast flights and large circuits and this will be the part where adrenaline will start to surge, which will in turn increases the risk of making some big damage to your RC Helicopter if you skip on necessary steps to take and make a mistake. This is why you must take as long as you want to get comfortable with earlier two lessons.

Happy Flying!

Tonja

For those of you who saw the TV One program 'The Missing' tonight, the Cessma 180 under discussion was ZK-BMP
This aircraft started life as ZK-BEK (c/n 30603) in agricultural use with Air Contracts and Rural Aviation in the late 1950s until badly damaged in a crash at Eketahuna 12Mar59.
Rural Aviation rebuilt it at New Plymouth with the new c/n RA/1/59 (presumably incorporating a lot of other components) registered it as ZK-BMP and passed it on to Mt Cook Air Services Ltd., Timaru.
Later owners were in the aerial work and venison recovery industries and the last transfer was to T E Neave, Lillburn Valley, Southland, 23rd March 1978.
After the Cessna's disappearance as outlined in the program, the registration was finally cancelled 30/11/1978.

at Timaru 11Mar1966

Sky Srpska logo

The airline Sky Srpska which is planned to become the national carrier of the Bosnian entity of Republika Srpska, operating out Banja Luka, could be taking off by the end of the year. The government of Republika Srpska is considering purchasing two aircraft and setting up scheduled services out of Banja Luka. The government says that one of its priorities is setting up the airline. “Since aircraft manufacturers are offering the lowest prices, due to the global financial crisis, the ministry of transpiration is considering, through long term credit arrangements, to loan Sky Srpska the means to purchase two aircraft”, a government statement said. The government says that by expanding Sky Srpska new job vacancies would be produced and the establishment of the airline would lead to greater traffic at Banja Luka Airport.

Sky Srpska’s management, last year, said that 2 Embraer aircraft would be of most use to the airline. The airline has already signed agreements with Airports of Montenegro and Jat Airways. Sky Srpska would be the second airline within the entity. In 1999 JAT Yugoslav Airlines set up Air Srpska with 2 ATR72s. The airline operated for a few years but the 2 ATRs were returned to Jat Airways in 2003 when the Serbian carrier began expanding its destination network and needed the aircraft.

Type & registration required for this easy one please.
Plus off course the designers name (spelt correctly).

Not all that often seen by me is this Bushby Mustang 11 ZK-CAR c/n 1713 . This six & a half year project is Lycoming O-320 powered and first flew in February of 2005. Not sure were it is based these days, but folding wings and a trailer means that it may well live at the resident of its owner/builder John & Trish Crawford in Christchurch. "CAR" I believe comes from coke & rum.

A real stranger passing through was the Jabiru powered Micro Aviation Bantam B22J ZK-WBB c/n 00-0184.

WBB standing for Waihi Beach Bantam was registered to the WBB Syndicate of Katikati on 02-11-2000 with its first flight being the same day. Current listed owner is Trevor Brown of Hamilton.

Caution is the parent of safety

Another emergency involving Croatia Airlines’ Dash8 Q400 aircraft has occurred, although this time the incident was much more serious. The incident took place on a scheduled flight from Split to Zagreb carrying among others the Hajduk football team. Immediately upon take off at 100 metres the baggage hold door of the Dash 8 swung open causing a sudden loss of altitude with the aircraft plunging towards the ground. The pilots, however, managed to stabilise the aircraft and immediately turned around and made a safe emergency landing. In a state of shock, the football players and other passengers stood on the runway afterwards as a technical check was carried out on the plane. The aircraft was serviced and able to depart at 14.00, safely landing in Zagreb.

Split Airport management has denied that the incident occurred saying that the light indicating that the baggage hold door was open turned on in the cockpit which led the pilot to request an emergency landing. According to Split Airport the door never opened and the indication light, not the door, was faulty. However, passengers on the flight said that the aircraft plunged with great speed causing panic in the cabin. The pilot then sharply rotated the aircraft and stabilised both the speed and heading.

This is the latest in a series of incidents that have taken place on the new Dash 8 Croatia Airlines fleet. The national airline of Croatia refused to comment on the incident.

This is the third in a series of archival news items which are being published each Saturday. The news items date back from the late 1970s until 1989. This collection of news articles have been published in various newspapers and official historic publications.

The following article talks about the DC10 arrivals at Yugoslav Airlines. The first arrival took place on December 12, 1978 but there was some drama involved when the aircraft was chosen.

First DC10-30 arrives

By thorough and comprehensive monitoring of the market and competition, Yugoslav Airlines concluded that the European and Mediterranean sky was already divided and exploited to its maximum and thus new breakthroughs were no longer possible. JAT believed that it could count on 3 -5 million passengers annually on the existing market, a level which it already had achieved by the mid 1970s. Intercontinental operations appeared as the sole possibility for further expansion. Considering the positive experience gained from establishing, primarily charter services to Australia, the United States and Canada, JAT concluded that these routes were worth pursuing. With a view of modernising intercontinental operations, broadening capacities and reducing costs, a decision was made to purchase wide body aircraft.

Comparative studies were carried out in 1976 and 1977 and consultations and negotiations were held with aircraft manufacturers. JAT was considering two models of aircraft: the three engine Douglas DS10-30 and the four engine Boieng B747SP. The shorter body Boeing had a greater range than the classic B747 and when fully loaded was capable of flying from Belgrade to Singapore. Therefore, the obvious choice for the airline was the B747SP and the decision was made to purchase the aircraft. However, just before signing the contract a situation occurred redolent of the late 1960s when instead of the selected aircraft another was bought. Thus, instead JAT opted for the Douglas DC10-30 instead of the Boeing B747SP. Despite a decision by the JAT Workers Council to buy the Boeing, the contract for the first DC10 was signed on June 15, 1977, and for a second on February 2, 1978. JAT had many headaches after choosing the aircraft. Immediately after singing the second contract a strike broke out within the aircraft manufacturer and JAT’s delivery dates were pushed back by nearly 10 months. This meant that JAT would have to make major changes to its 1978 summer season.

After a lengthy wait, the first JAT DC10-30 registered YU-AMA and christened Nikola Tesla, landed at Belgrade Airport on December 12, 1978. With the arrival of a 280 seat aircraft capable of carrying more than 4 tonnes (the quantity annually transported by JAT at the time), along with great comfort and speed, JAT could begin intensely focusing on its long haul operations. Three days later JAT operated the first flight with the DC10 on the service Belgrade-Zagreb-Ljubljana-New York. The DC10 represented great progress, not only in terms of expanding capacities. The aircraft had put forth quite new demands and elevated standards with regard to passenger service. This meant that there would be 13 cabin crew members on board, while the 12 seat first class cabin had revolving seats, tables and allowed 4 passengers to have their meal with each other as if they were in a restaurant. JAT’s DC10s were also equipped with earphones for each passenger, 10 music channels and films were screened in Serbo-Croatian and English.

The second JAT DC10 named Edvard Rusjan and marked YU-AMB arrived on May 16, 1979. Jat would operate with 4 DC10’s by the end of the 1980s. YU-AMB would later operate for Jat Airways until 2005 when it was finally decided to end its carrier in Nimes, France.

Next week: Surviving the oil crisis

A surprise this morning was seeing the Ercoupe ZK-AQX at Stan Smiths workshop, obviously well along in a comprehensive rebuild.



This Ercoupe has a long and interesting history.
Allotted the registration NC94669 for the manufacturers, Engineering Research Corporation, it was immediately transported to the Belgian ERCO agents Intercontine Aeronautics at Airport d'Anvers and registered to them on the 8th August 1947 as OO-EXC.
A New Zealander, Harry Newton, who had been flying in Europe, then bought the aircraft as transport for his homeward trip. He flew the Ercoupe, suitably equipped with overload fuel tanks from Antwerp to Auckland, arriving here on the 9th October 1947. For many years this held the record for the world's longest low-powered (75hp) flight.
Rumour has it that Mr Newton had acquired funds during his travels that could raise a few embarrassing questions if he remitted them back to New Zealand through regular banking channels. Buying the Ercoupe, flying it back to NZ and then selling the asset here was the easiest way to transfer the money.
The Ercoupe was registered as ZK-AQX to Harold B Newton, Urenui, Taranaki 4/11/1947 and then passed on to the Auckland Aero Club at Mangere who assumed ownership 8/3/1949.
Unfortunatly ZK-AQX crashed at Mangere 15Apr51. The wreck was sold to Geoffery Wells, an aircraft engineer, who rebuilt the Ercoupe and registered in his name 12/2/1955. Ownership then moved to W J Jamieson, Frankton Junction 24/9/1960, J Rennie Car Sales Ltd., Newmarket, Auckland 10/3 1961 and to M H Jensen, Auckland in 1968. At this time the engine was removed from the airframe and fitted to a D.11 ZK-CKG.
A further ownership transfer was made to P W Beck, Auckland on 11/2/1972 but presumably the aircraft was out of the air by that time. The registration was finally canceled 2/5/1991.
The only other Ercoupe to operate here is Erco 425-D Ercoupe ZK-EXC/2 which after a lengthy career in the USA as N94700 arrived in NZ in 1994 and is currently based at Mt Maunganui.

At Ardmore 28Jan1967

The new sheriff, Jat’s Srdjan Radovanović is not winning any fans

Jat Airways’ new CEO, which has been at the job for less than 2 weeks and has avoided media exposure, unlike his predecessor, has made some radical moves in the shadows and has also managed to land himself in a large scale scandal.

It has been revealed that Jat’s new CEO Srdjan Radovanović was the one that ordered the end to all operations on services between Belgrade and Dubrovnik after an agreement was struck between the aviation agencies of the two countries. Furthermore, Radovanović has cancelled the process of leasing 2 next generation B737-700 aircraft. The lease of the two aircraft was supposed to mark the beginning of phase four of the airline’s restructuring programme which was to last until 2013 and outlined the purchase of new aircraft. In his defence, Radovanović states that he asked the previous Jat management a series of questions. He asked if it is rational to lease the two aircraft for 650.000 Euros per month, is it necessary to pay a 1 million Euro deposit for the aircraft and were 2 new aircraft, which would have entered service in September, necessary as the winter season, when airlines reduce capacity and services, starts in October. Radovanović states that he never received an answer from the former Jat CEO Saša Vlaisavljević who is now on the airline’s board of directors. Therefore, Radovanović cancelled the acquisition process. Furthermore, he says he has delayed the entire Dubrovnik service plan for next year. It is obvious that there is bad blood between the previous and current CEO of Jat Airways. Radovanović has never worked in Jat nor does he have any experience in the field of aviation. He was appointed as the CEO of the airline by the Serbian government.

The CEO has also managed to tangle himself in a scandal. Serbian print media discovered that he managed to get his brother, Radovan Radovanović, a news editor at the “24 Hours” newspaper, onto a special government sponsored Jat flight carrying the grieving family members of Serbian tourists who tragically lost their lives in a bus crash on July 16, 2009 en route from Hurghada to Luxor in Egypt. The flight took off from Belgrade to Hurghada on July 20, 2009 in order for the families to claim the bodies of their deceased loved ones. Apparently, despite explicit orders from the Serbian government that no one except for the grieving families should be on the flight, Radovanović got his brother a free ticket thereby bypassing the added security checks. According to the news story the Serbian president was extremely angry at this development while Radovanović refused to comment on the issue. Will this scandal claim any victims only time will tell?

Roger Ward built this microlight and called it the TLAR [That Looks About Right] and suitably registered it as ZK-TLR on 04-06-1997. It first flew on 22-05-1997 pushed along by a Rotax 377. It was cancelled as withdrawn on 22-07-2009.
Pic above at Rangiora on 10-03-2002.

Pic above & below also at Rangiora, back on 11-12-1999.

You will also see Roger's name attached to the Skybaby ZK-FVO; Trike ZK-FWK and the Titan Tornado ZK-LOT.

Imported and registered to Aerosport Aviation Ltd on 15-09-2005 was this Zenith Zenith CH601-XL ZK-ZXL c/n 6-9726. It was on display at Wanaka over Easter of 2006 and is shown above in the very late afternoon sun on 13-04-2006. It was sold to and listed with the Pegasus Flying Ltd of Wairoa on 20-10-2006.
In the dark hours and inclement weather of 25-05-2008 it crashed with the loss of two lives.
It was cancelled from the register on 22-07-2009.

And then there were none ! Polikarpov I-16 Type 24 "Rata" ZK-JIO c/n 2421234 was registered to the Alpine Fighter Collection at Wanaka on 09-10-1997. Probably better known to most as "Red 34" it was the last remaining of the six such aircraft in this collection. It was cancelled as exported on 23-07-2009.
Top pic shows it at Wanaka on 14-10-2000.
Below as seen at Wanaka on 16-08-2006 with a couple of interesting aircraft behind.
It was damaged at Wanaka on 01-03-2006 when a brake failure caused a ground loop with the left gear folding causing u/c, wing and prop damage.

These two lower shots taken at Wanaka on 11-10-2007

Anybody recognise the Hughes 369 in the background please ??