The Revolution Mini 500 design was developed by Revolution Helicopters of Excelsior Springs, Missouri as a Rotax 582 powered helicopter kit which appeared in about 1994. As can be seen, it is based on the shape of the Hughes 500D. At least seven Mini 500's have been on the NZ civil aircraft register.

ZK-HOB3 c/n 0060 was registered to Bruce Dawson of Whakatane on 22-03-1996. An ownership change to Grumbles Development Ltd at Reefton occurred on 04-07-2005 followed by another change on 26-01-2007 to Paul Clark and Howard Jamison of Ashburton.

Up to this point HOB had flown 69 hours as a single seater on its Rotax engine.

HOB was then re-engined with a Solar T62-2A turbine engine. This engine is well known in the US military as an auxiliary power unit in the Boeing CH-46 Sea Knight and the CH-47 Chinook helicopters, as well as the Sikorsky CH-54 Tarhe. It is also used in the Eagle Helicycle, the Mosquito XET, the Rotorway 162F upgrade and has even powered the Bede BD5. These units, in a different format, have been used widely as the EMU-30 electric power generators

Second pic shows this installation in HOB.

After flying an additional 120 hours with this turbine engine - the airframe was modified to make it into a two seater. This produced a much nicer looking helicopter with a wider more stable skid arrangement.
The top photo shows it in its original single seat (narrow body) mode, whilst the bottom pic is of it as seen yesterday at Ashburton in its two seat (wide body) mode. Note the extra widening strip on the middle of the canopy. This is only temporary as a new canopy is under construction. A five bladed main rotor and a four bladed tail rotor are available from Revolution but at some considerable extra cost.

This is a very exciting project which has developed a strong following from many individual people and groups. We may well see much more of this project.

All these modification have lead to a re-designation to that of Alpine Aviation Ltd T500 and a new c/n of 001, effective from 15-03-2010. The helicopters has also been relisted to Alpine aviation Ltd as from 23-03-2010

I had the good fortune today to visit the new control tower at Christchurch International Airport. Below we have a shot of the old tower in the foreground taken from the observation deck. All this will soon be demolished to make way for the new terminal building. There will be no observation deck on the new structure.

The new Tower is a stand alone structure. Once through the double security doors at ground level you bump into this large view of an ATR.

Take the lift to the eleventh level and climb the last floor under your own steam. View from the twelth floor is really amazing. A very big improvement over the old Towers outlook.

Here we have the sun screens down and looking towards the Canterbury Aero Club and western grass.

One of the objects of interest, clearly visible, was the NA Mustang ZK-TAF starting up outside the Flying Doctors hangar.

Aviogenex returns

Aviogenex, once Yugoslavia’s largest charter airline, has restarted operations after almost 10 years of limbo. The charter carrier, which in 1990 had 5 Boeing B727s and 5 B737-200s, has restarted operations with a single B737-200 from Belgrade on Monday. The director of Belgrade Nikola Tesla confirmed that the airline has restarted charter services from Belgrade. He added that the airline will operate 200 flights this summer. In cooperation with tour operators, Aviogenex will carry out flights to Greek and Turkish holiday resorts.

Aviogenex was formed in 1968 by one of Yugoslavia’s largest companies called “Genex”. The airline operated both domestic and international charter flights. As Yugoslavia disintegrated in the 1990s so did Genex and its airline subsidiary. The airline was forced to either sell or retire all of its aircraft except 1 Boeing B737-200, in use today. In 2001 the airline started leasing the aircraft to various airlines such as Sudan Airways. The aircraft was eventually returned to Belgrade and given to Jat Airways, due to outstanding debt that Aviogenex had to the national carrier dating back from the 1990s era. Until March 2010 the aircraft served with Jat. Aviogenex is now, for the first time in many years, operating services independently under its own name. The Boeing B737-200 Advance, serving with Aviogenex, is one of the last produced by Boeing in 1987.

Croatia Airlines ponders over ticket price increase

The dust over Europe is yet to settle after a week of unprecedented events in the world aviation industry. As one by one countries in Europe started closing their airspace, due to a volcanic ash cloud from Iceland, airlines could not do more than sit and wait. Now, as some services are normalised, airlines are beginning to count the cost. EX-YU airlines have a lot to be worried about.

Croatia Airlines said that its losses have amounted to at least 2.5 million Euros. The airline could not handle some 24.000 passengers, which were supposed to fly with Croatia Airlines since April 16 until today, the airline’s spokesperson Davor Janušić said. The CEO of Croatia Airlines, Ivan Mišetić, confirmed that the airline is considering increasing ticket prices to cope with the massive losses. “I’m afraid to say that increasing tickets will come as a relief to the airline”, he added.

The Slovenian flag carrier Adria Airways said it had lost up to 1.4 million Euros due to cancelled flights and would ask the Government for a refund, the Slovenian news agency “STA” reports. Transport Minister Patrick Vlačič said he was inclined to the idea of providing state aid to the airline.

Serbia’s Jat Airways said that the volcanic ash has created a loss of 900.000 Euros. However, the airline said it was still too early to predict the final loss as some services are still being cancelled.

Montenegro Airlines is asking the Montenegrin Government for a refund of up to 1 million Euros. The airline’s CEO told the national broadcaster RTCG that the airline had lost up to 4.500 passengers by Sunday afternoon. Montenegro Airlines has said it will not be offering refunds to passengers as the natural disaster was an act of God. The newspaper “Dan” states that this could have a negative affect on the airline’s image as other regional carriers such as Jat Airways and Croatia Airlines are fully refunding tickets. Airports of Montenegro, which runs Podgorica and Tivat airports, said that it lost some 80.000 Euros in 2 days due to the ash cloud.

B&H Airlines is yet to announce its losses. The airline was forced to virtually cancel all of its services in the past few days with the exclusion of Istanbul.

Kids, don't try this at home...or in the air.  Well, unless you leave yourself no other choice.

Whilst flying a new LSA on the day after the Sun 'n Fun airshow, my demo host and I were enjoying the puffy cloud kingdom somewhere not too far from Lakeland Linder Field in central Florida when the Garmin G3 center display went black.
No amount of coaxing, button pushing, or breaker recycling would bring it back.  We chalked it up to a new installation and the fact we'd sat on the ground for 45 minutes in the heat, in a ridiculously long line of departing airplanes - and a methodically sloooooow tower controller determined to go by the book while 30 airplanes sat watching their engine temps rise...and rise.  This guy could learn a thing or two from the boys at Oshkosh about expediting departures.
Anyway, here we were a few minutes later, tooling around the countryside, not overly concerned about losing the one display, when bip!, the other G3 display coughs, hiccups, and goes down too.
Sympathy pains maybe but Holy Hannah, whatta we do now?
"Fortunately," said my right seat companion with a confident smile, he being an ex-Air Force jet jockey, "I've got a GPS along as a backup."
I breathed a sigh of relief as he rummaged around in the baggage compartment behind the seats.

"Hmmm," he said, (and did I detect a twinge of embarrassment?), "I don't seem to have the GPS.  I must have left it on the ground."
"Well, no problem," he continued with strained joviality.  "I've got a sectional...now where is that sectional?"
Several minutes later, after the sectional proved to be irretrievably buried somewhere in all the gear, we both scanned the green farmland, swamps and sand mines or whatever those big square water-filled dirt lakes are and realized we were completely and utterly lost.
I opined we were west of Lakeland.  He thought we were south.
One thing I'd never noticed: It's amazing how much one area of central Florida looks remarkably like many other parts of Central Florida.
All ended well: I whipped out my Swiss Army Knife of electronic devices -- the ubiquitous iPhone that never leaves my side unless I forget it -- tapped the GPS ap icon, and lo and behold, we had enough of a signal from below to show us right where we were...which turned out to be a little west and 20 miles south of Lakeland. 
Ah yes...love my little iPhone.

Hands down my favorite of the entire Sun 'n Fun show was the iFly 700 GPS which has nothing to do with the iPhone but is, for pilots, just as cool for its innovative features...and really affordable price: $499!

Super easy to do a flight plan: Tap an airport with your finger on the screen and menus pop up to select a waypoint or as your final destination.
Never buy another sectional...they're continually updated as part of the $69/year subscription service, which also includes IFR enroute charts and lots of other features.
The company owner/designers told me there will be some eye-popping software upgrades coming down the pike.  These guys have the programming mojo - one designed the Orbitz travel site for example.
It comes with a suction mount, power cords, remote, carrying case and tons of features.  
Watch this company, it could be the beginning of a major product for in flight navigation.
The screen is 7", sharp and clear.  I spent half an hour there with Dan Johnson and we left very impressed.
I almost bought one...and I don't even have an airplane!  Well, not yet anyway.

The “Jat” brand in its various forms

Last Friday, via a telephone conference, the Serbian Government decided to create a new national carrier which will succeed the debt-ridden Jat Airways. Within the next 70 days the Serbian Government will create a new carrier, setting it up with 400.000 American Dollars. The airline will immediately be privatised. Jat’s successor will take over its aircraft, half of its employees, assets, slots, destinations, memberships to international aviation bodies and code share agreements, the “Tanjug” news agency reports. The restructuring model is similar to that of Greece’s Olympic Air. Although the airline will be formed in 70 days, it will take time before it takes to the sky, analysts predict. After its formation, a privatisation advisor has to be found through a tender and the airline then has to be successfully privatised.

The Serbian Government announced that together with a new strategic partner it would name the new carrier. It is believed that the Government’s rash decision to form a new airline is a result of Turkish Airlines’ demands which will most likely take on the new Jat. Since Turkey is not part of the European Union Turkish Airlines would most probably take over 49% of the new airline while the Serbian Government would own the other 51%, in order to avoid membership problems in the future.

The CEO of Jat Airways said that none of the airline’s passengers will be affected by the change and that Jat will do everything for the transitional process to pass by as smoothly as possible. However, the airline’s workers union “Nezavisnost” was shocked by the news. The union leader told the country’s public broadcaster RTS, “This is very bad news. Many will loose their jobs. We have learned that the Government made such a monumental decision via a telephone conference. They might as well have sent SMS messages to each other”. The pilots union welcomed the news.

Nevertheless, it is expected that Jat Airways will celebrate 83 years of existence under this name in June.

Ash cloud update

Today all airports across the EX-YU are open. Flights are operating to unaffected areas of Europe. A small number of flights have taken off in northern Europe after five days of inactivity caused by the spread of volcanic ash from Iceland.