Passengers to mark flights

In the next ten days, all passengers flying on one of Jat’s 35 destinations will be asked to fill out a questionnaire and rate their onboard experience with the Serbian national carrier. The move comes as Jat looks to improve its onboard service. Jat says that the questionnaires will show passenger satisfaction with its product and will allow Jat to “continue to improve its service in line with passengers’ requirements, needs and desires”. The national carrier told local media that it is “constantly improving its product and, as a result, a string of new services have been introduced in the past few months".

Source : EXYU aviation news : http://exyuaviation.blogspot.com can now exclusively reveal that the airline has recently allocated significant funds towards improving its in-flight service with new tableware, blankets and pillows ordered. Furthermore, the airline plans to upgrade toilet facilities on all of its aircraft. The airline justifies the spending, claiming it will better compete with low cost airlines. Jat has also announced that it will not be continuing its seasonal service to Portorož, Slovenia despite an offer from the Piran – Portorož tourist board for subsidised flights to carry on throughout the winter.

Finally, the CEO of Jat Airways, Srdjan Radovanović has been on a business trip to the United States for the past ten days. It is unclear who Radovanović will be meeting in the US although the Serbian Government has said that Radovanović will be seeking a category one rating from the Federal Aviation Administration which would allow a Serbian airline to operate flights to the United States. At a recent gala dinner in New York, dedicated to foreign investment in Serbia and attended by the Serbian president Boris Tadić, a delegation from Boeing was present.

The cockpit view used in question time # 114 is that of the Zlin Z-37T ZK-DOZ2. This is c/n 010. It arrived in country as OK-RJD and was assembled at Rangiora. 
It was registered as ZK-DOZ2 with Aerial Sowing Group Ltd of Nelson on 31-10-2002 and was noted doing taxying tests on 07-11-2002. It first flew at Rangiora either on the 14th or 15th November 2002.

At some date prior to January of 2003 it had an incident as it was noted in a damaged state.

A damaged ZK-DOZ at Rangiora on 04-01-2003.

Parts still lying around at Rangiora on 04-04-2008.

On 23-02-2005 it was relisted to the McCombie Family Trust of Christchurch and appeared with large "Mainland Minerals" script on fuselage and under the wings.

ZK-DOZ at Rangiora 20-11-2006.

Flying Ag Co Ltd of Alexandra become the registered owners from 28-08-2007.
It was noted engineless at Taieri in October 2008.
It was cancelled as withdrawn on 04-02-2009 - Its airframe having reached the magic 3000.
 It has now about to become another fine exhibit at the Ashburton Aviation Museum.

Fuselage of ZK-DOZ at the Ashburton Aviation Museum 22-09-2010

The "clue"

There will be no chocolate fishes handed out for this one. We got the type ok first shot, but the registration was never nailed down to my satisfaction, nor was the location sorted.

That title is a bit tongue-in-cheek, since the first day of the Midwest LSA Expo here in Mount Vernon, IL was what you'd pretty much call a blowout...as in winnnnnndy!
The big storm front grounded our flight of two Evektor SportStar MAXs two hours east of here Wednesday.  That was after our long, headwind-bashing flight from Art Tarola's Allentown, PA AB Flight center that added two extra hours to the journey (glad it was a MAX - super comfortable airplane to fly and spend time in).

The heat and humidity (95 degrees) at least had 25 knot winds to help keep it bearable all day, but there was no flying to speak of until the last hour of the day when the wind died down.
I took the opportunity to jump up and shoot a few landings with Bill Canino in his iCub, which was a hoot.  Super tight, fun ship which I'll be writing up for an issue of P&P soon.
Some cogent highlights from the day's events:
David Kruger reprised his worthy Aircraft Partnership Assoc. crusade with a thorough overview of all the ins and outs of buying an aircraft with other people.  I did a column on his exhaustive work last year, and his website, which includes free membership, deserves a look if you're thinking of buying an LSA but can't pony up the full cash Monty on your own.
Several other seminars going on too, including edifying talks by industry gurus like Roy Beisswenger, Jim Sweeney and Dan Johnson.
On the flight line, dozens of top notch LSA are here, including the Falcon LS, two Evektors (full IFR package on the one I flew out on), Darin Hart and his Legend Cub, Rob Rollison's Aerotrek A220 and A240, at least two beautiful Rans S-19 Venterras, Jon Hansen's stable of lovely airplanes including an FK9 Mk IV and Mike Zidziunias with two Breezers flown up from Plant City, FL.

The photos show Mike with his two pretty blue and white Breezers and Jon with his FK models.  Jon also brought an Italian Sky Arrow, which he's reacquired for distribution in the States, and he's also talking about the FK-12 Comet aerobatic biplane LSA which he'll import from Europe to join his Hansen Air Group operation by mid-next year.
Jon filled me in on some tantalizing details:

"The Comet will be a 'Limited Edition', with larger tailfeathers than the Euro version, a longer nose, and it will handle more like a Decathlon or J3 Cub...but it's a fully acrobatic airplane."
Powerplant will be a new fuel injected Lycoming 233 with electronic ignition or a non-acrobatic-rated Rotax powered version.  Jon thinks it'll price out between $110,000 and $120,000 depending on which engine.
Both Jon and Mike Z talked about their current LSA training and rental operations.
"Rentals are helping us get through the economic crunch big time," says Mike.  "We're renting the Breezers out for about five hours per week.
Jon Hansen cites similar numbers.
Whatever it takes, right?
Here's hoping the expected good weather for the Midwest shows on the last day, Saturday, and brings out the crowds.

De Havilland DHC-2 Beaver c/n 25  is the earliest built Beaver to have served in NZ. It was delivered to De Havilland Africa on 17-11-1948 and became ZS-DCG to Tank Aircraft Pty Ltd of Johanasburg the same month. It was sold to one Brian Lovel Reginald Pocock of Sussex on 05-11-1961 and was registered as G-ARTR gaining its CofA on the 14th. I believe it operated in Libya for some time. It was sold on 07-08-1964 and shipped to NZ, arriving here on 07-10-1964. It reportedly first flew here on 16-11-1964 for delivery to Air Services (Wairarapa) Ltd of Masterton the following day. Its registration date as ZK-CKH being 21-12-1964 (which seems a bit odd).

ZK-CKH at Masterton on 02-03-1969.

ZK-CKH at Masterton on 23-09-1969

ZK-CKH with different script at Masterton on 27-02-1972

The other side of ZK-CKH at Masterton on 27-02-1972.
Note insignia on cowl.

ZK-CKD on 03-10-1973 at Masterton.

ZK-CKH Masterton on 31-08-1979

It served with Air Contracts of Masterton during 1965 and was listed to Air Services (1979) Ltd on 19-08-1980.

On 02-09-1982 it went to Des Menary of Kaikohe (ASTA Co-Op) and then briefly to James Aviation from 08-05-1984 until 01-06-1984 when it was listed to E F Doherty, B N Coulter and I C Reynolds of Auckland. With this syndicate it was painted to represent the RNZAF Beaver NZ6001 (c/n 911, which crashed on the Beardmore Glacier in Antarctica on 15-01-1960) and named "City of Auckland".





ZK-CKH at Christchurch on 05-03-1990.

At Ardmore on 18-03-2000

It was relisted to the Beaver Preservation Trust of Auckland on 20-03-02. It underwent a major refurbishment during 2008-2009.

Two views of ZK-CKH after repaint at Ardmore on 27-02-2009

Some more really good photographs of ZK-CKH can been seen at http://www.kiwibeavers.com/CKH.html

and

http://www.dhc-2.com/id201.htm

Low cost airline increase passenger numbers at Belgrade Airport

Belgrade Nikola Tesla Airport has reported a significant increase in passenger numbers handled last month. The biggest airport in the former Yugoslavia handled 358.750 passengers in August 2010, compared to 300.750 in August 2009, an increase of 19.3%. This makes August 2010 the most successful since 1991. So far, from January to August, the airport welcomed 1.823.330 passengers, an increase of 9.9%.

The arrival of low cost airlines is said to have had a direct impact on passenger numbers. The director of Belgrade Airport, Velimir Radosavljević, said that instead of taking passengers away from other airlines, low cost airlines have bought new customers to Belgrade. Since the low cost Wizz Air inaugurated flights from London Luton to Belgrade, the number of passengers travelling between the two cities rose by 27.1%. Wizz Air has a share of 27.8% of all passengers travelling to London. Other routes experiencing a boom from Belgrade include flights to Vienna, which have seen a 24.9% passenger surge and flights to Rome, Milan, Stockholm and Oslo. In 2009 the share of low cost airlines operating out of Belgrade stood at 4.5%. By September 2010 the number increased to 7%, while Radosavljević believes that by the end of the year the number will increase to 9%.

I caught the Boeing Stearman E75 ZK-RDK , c/n 75-5164 , at start up on Wednesday morning. (22-09-2010) at Ashburton. Off to get some air time before the Nor'westerly picked up.

An earlier blog and Question time has pretty much sorted out its history.
See :-

http://design-plane.blogspot.com/2009/03/zk-appended.html

and

http://design-plane.blogspot.com/2010/01/question-time-86-resolved.html

My last couple of visits to Ardmore have netted a few recent additions to our register.

AS350B ZK-HFH/3 was registered to a Porirua owner in late July and was today (24Sep) outside the Oceania hanger.


AS350BA ZK-HGF/4 (recently upgraded from a B to the BA designation) was at Ardmore 14Sep and registered to the same owner has ZK-HFH in late July.

Robinson R44 ZK-IVS has been around for just over a year and recently changed ownership to Helicom of Whangamata. It is seen here at Ardmore on 14Sep.

Mike Condon photos