December 1975
EVEN the presence of some 25 journalists, photographers and invited guests, complete with whirring and clicking appendages, could not defeat the nostalgia of it all as Mount Cook Airlines' AusterJlB Aiglet ZK-BDX touched down at Darwin Corner on the Tasman Glacier on November 11 to re-enact the first ski-plane landing on a snowfield, just over 20 years ago.
IS IT fighter or bomber? Officially, the commanding officer of the RAAF's No 6 Squadron, Wing Commander Gil Moore, who led the detachment of four F-111C's from Amberley to Ohakea to take part in last month's five-nation Tasmanex maritime exercise, describes the lethal-looking machine as a "strike" aircraft.
IN AN era in which Great Britain has not won great renown for the aircraft it has produced in the general aviation field the Britten Norman lslander is the one big exception.
Black boxes, wireless wizardry — call it what you like but electronic equipment in light aircraft is without a doubt becoming more accessible to the private flier. Many aero club aircraft are now fitted with ADF's (Automatic Direction Finders), VOR's (VHF Omni Ranges) and DME (Distance Measuring Equipment), plus the more common VHF transceivers.
A MOST interesting restoration to the New Zealand register this month is the de Havilland DH 114 Heron IB ZK-BBM returning almost exactly 15 years after it originally departed for Fiji. BBM was originally bought new by NAC being
registered to them on December 19,1952. It was one of four operated by NAC during the period from 1951 to 1960 and carried the fleet name "Matapouri".
THE NORTH American Mustang has a unique place in RNZAF history as being the only aircraft type in the inventory to be used almost exclusively by the non-regular elements of the service.
Although they were brought to this country in 1945, it was to be another six years before the Mustangs went into service as the mounts of the then recently-reconstituted Territorial Air Force, and they saw only limited service with regular units.
 January 1976 |
 November 1975 |
 December 2018 |