Robinson R22 Beta ZK-IMO , c/n 1010, was built in 1989 as N429DB and was listed to Sunrise Helicopters Inc of Stockton, California. It came to NZ and was assembled by Wing & Rotor at Ardmore to become ZK-HCR on 19-09-1990 for Hauraki Helicopters of Drury.
Ownership moved to B Dillon & C Thompson at Pahiatua on 02-09-2002.
It was damaged at Turangi on landing on 07-03-07 and cancelled on 05-07-07.
About mid August 2008 I came across an all white unmarked airframe at Heli-Maintenance at Christchurch. On the 26th the letters IMO were being attached - as in the above pic.
Three days later the tail boom had been added (pic below) and it came onto the register on 16-09-2008 with M S Hall of Wellington.
Less than a month later (13-10-08) it was listed to Astral Helicopters of Rotorua, however on December the 18th it suffered a dynamic rollover at Rotorua in the hands of a first solo pupil during a hovering exercise.
Its registration was cancelled (again) on June 12th 2009.

Jat's ATR72

Jat Airways’ fleet renewal which is scheduled to begin in early 2010 is gaining momentum as the company’s management decides on some firm dates for making the decision of which aircraft manufacturers will be chosen. It has been so far decided that the company will choose three different types of aircraft for its fleet. There will be aircraft with 75 seats, with 90 seats and aircraft with over 125 seats that will be chosen. At the recent Paris Air Show Jat’s team has held talks with 8 different aircraft manufacturers. It has been decided that on July 9, 2009 the company should decide which type of aircraft it will peruse to lease or buy. On that day it will also be decided what will happen with Jat’s current fleet of 1 Boeing B737-200, 10 Boeing B737-300s, 1 Boeing B737-400 and 5 ATR72s.

The airline already has 3 scenarios of what should happen with their existing fleet. By July 9, the Serbian national carrier should have a clearer picture if it will go ahead with the takeover of MAT Macedonian Airlines. If the takeover is finalised, some of Jats B737s will be deployed to Macedonia in 2010. The other plan is to lease the B737s to Air Ivoire, the national carrier of the Ivory Coast while the third scenario is to sell 7 B737s. For example, by selling 7 aircraft of this type, whose age amounts to 23 years, the airline could receive enough money to lease aircraft for the next 2 to 3 years. Jat will also pursue to upgrade its ATR72s however whether it will do so depends on upcoming talks with Airbus regarding the purchase of 8 Airbus A319s.

The company’s management has announced that with the aircraft which have a capacity of 70 seats the airline will carry out regional services. The airline would use aircraft with a capacity of 90 seats to destinations in Italy, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Greece and Turkey while larger aircraft with over 125 seats would be used to London, Paris, Zurich, Frankfurt, Moscow and Abu Dhabi. This way the airline would significantly improve its cabin occupancy index. An airline spokesperson said that the carrier finds it difficult to fill aircraft on services which should be served with aircraft with a capacity of 90 seats.

Today Jat’s new CEO should be named.

Whilst passing through Wellington Airport recently I took this photograph.

Yes it is a photograph of a photograph which hangs on the wall opposite the small cafe near the start of the finger that leads out to the main ANZ gates.

Now - we all know that the aircraft in the right foreground (G-ABCF) is the Southern Cross Junior, what I would like to ask is:-

What flight is this aircraft probably better known for in NZ circles ?

In case of a deluge of correct answers:-

What was the name of the dog ?

To the right of the hangar is what I believe to be an anemometer mast. What is its claim to fame ? !

[Rodney - Do you recognise your club rooms in the background ?]

Split Airport

After some relief in April, airports in Croatia have recorded a big decline in passengers in May. Except for Zadar and Osijek, no other airport in Croatia reported growth in passenger figures when compared to May 2008. The most affected airport was Pula, which has until now had mostly positive results.
Croatia’s largest airport, Zagreb, reported a 6.7% decline in passengers, from 195.817 in May 2008 to 182.342 in May 2009. The airport saw a sharp decline in transit passenger which fell by a hefty 78%. Split Airport reported even worse numbers. Passengers declined by 11.6% and transit passengers waned by 23%. In May 2009, a total of 108.351 passengers passed through the airport, compared to 122.567 last year. Dubrovnik Airport continued its negative run of results with passengers declining by 5.3%. However, the airport did report an increase in transit passengers by 11.45%. Pula Airport recorded the largest decline in passengers. Its results worsened by a total of 17.9%. This is despite the fact that the number of aircraft operations increased by nearly 6% when compared to May 2008. A similar trend can be seen in Rijeka where passengers decreased by 11.65% while aircraft operations increased by nearly 7%. A total of 10.885 passengers used Rijeka Airport in May 2009, compared to 12.320 during the same period last year.
As reported earlier, Zadar continued its impressive results with a passenger increase of nearly 17%. Even more impressive is the fact that transit passengers at Zadar increased by 136.8%. The only other Croatian airport that managed to report growth in May 2009 is Osijek, with an increase of 1%. Most of the results have been affected by the global financial crisis. There is fear that the tourism industry in Croatia may be heavily impacted by the crisis. Interestingly, Croatia Airlines seems not to be affected as much as its hub and secondary airports.
Passenger figures at Croatian airports:
· January
· February
· March
· April

Bad news from Adria

With a delay of over a month, Adria Airways has finally published its traffic statistics for the month of April. The Slovenian national carrier reported the largest drop in passengers since the beginning of this year. Its passenger numbers declined by 21.3% compared to the same month last year. With this statistics, Adria also performed the worst out of the other two largest Ex-Yu carriers – Croatia Airlines and Jat Airways. Adria’s traffic was down 17% while capacity was cut by 13% compared to April 2008. In April, many European carriers saw a sharp decline in their cabin occupancy index. Adria had an average 58.9% load factor (a decrease of 1% compared to last year). Overall, in the first 4 months of the year Adria has seen a passenger decrease of 17.1%.

The European airline performing worst in the first four months was Icelandiar which saw passengers decrease by more than 22%. TAROM Romanian Airlines reports the worst cabin occupancy index of only 48% followed closely by Ukraine International Airlines and Croatia Airlines. The airline performing the best so far this year, in Europe in terms of passengers, is Turkish Airlines. Spain’s Iberia is reporting the best load factor in Europe of over 78%.

Current data shows that May will be even worse for European carriers while in June airlines should expect to see the worst figures so far this year.

Still grounded

MAT Macedonian Airlines is still grounded by the Macedonian Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) and is unable to use its only aircraft due to safety concerns that the CAA has expressed. One of MAT’s owners, Živko Grueski, recently told the Macedonian press that the CAA has set out to destroy the national carrier of Macedonia and that this grand scheme has been in the making for the past few years. Gruevski said that the head of the Civil Aviation Agency, Zoran Krstevski “pursues a mega project to destroy MAT”. During a press conference in Skopje, Gruevski said this project kicked off long before the CAA ordered an overhaul of MAT's Boeing B737-500 aircraft. He further says that the CAA has made moves to discredit the company's reputation. Gruevski told reporters that the authorities are pressing ahead with the theory that Macedonia doesn't need a national carrier and that other companies should be given priority to carry out flights. Such a theory, according to Gruevski, aims to push the country back into the early 1990s when Macedonia’s aviation sector was in chaos.

Meanwhile, Jat Airways, Serbia’s national carrier has proposed for MAT Macedonian Airlines to change its name and reregister as a new airline called Mat Airways. The name change would also finally settle a dispute between Greece and Macedonia in terms of air service. Greek authorities have banned MAT from flying to Greek airports due to the fact that the airline holds in its name the words “Macedonian Airlines”, which, according to Greece, displays territorial advances. The Greek government has been pushing Eurocontrol to pressure MAT into changing its name. Gruevski did not directly comment about the name change and a future with Jat, saying only that the management’s top priority is to rescue the existing company.

The Macedonian CAA has grounded MAT’s Boeing B737-500 for safety reasons until further notice although the aircraft seems to have been safe enough to transport Antonio Milošoski, Macedonia’s minister for foreign affairs to Corfu yesterday. Despite airlines from Macedonia being banned from Greece, the flight received special permission to land in Corfu as Milošoski was attending a special meeting by the OSCE.

At the Pudding Hill fly in on 25-01-1981 there were two of a kind.
Pitts Special S-1's ZK-EES , c/n AACA/28/1 , of Max Clear and ZK-EEU , c/n AACA/24/1 of Keith Trillo.
As a matter of interest:- to my knowledge there has been no ZK-EET.
I caught up with EEU again at New Plymouth on New Years Day 1986.
I assume the shoes are part of the ritual.

Keith has just kindly advised me that ZK-EEU has been sold to Ryan Southam and Andrew Love and the aircraft has been transported to Mandeville for restoration after being dormant for a number of years.

Ryan is chief pilot at Croydon and Andrew has operated Pitts in Queenstown.