I know you should never say never but I will go out on a limb and say that I don’t think we will ever see 3 serviceable Strikemasters on the same bit of tarmac in New Zealand again. Let alone 3 ex RNZAF ones. On return from the Tauranga airshow this morning the 70 and 62 which are about to head to the US were parked next to 72 which is staying here,...
Read MoreAs most of you probably know by now this weekends Airshow at Tauranga will be the last chance you will get to see Strikemasters 62 and 70 flying together in New Zealand. Once they have returned to Ardmore dis-assembly will start and they will be containerised for shipment to the US. One consolation for all you Strikemaster fans out there should be they are...
Read MoreYear that is. Hangar is full and ready for the Staff to arrive next week. On the servicing front, we finished off last year working on Jets with the 3 Strikemasters all servicable and ready for the up coming airshows. We Start this year finishing off the P40 and Mustang annuals. On the restorations side all of the new wing fittings for the P39 have been...
Read MoreAfter undergoing some repairs and a full strip and repaint Strikemaster 72 (ZK-BAC) is almost ready to return to the air. The aircraft has been repainted back to the genuine RNZAF colour scheme which hopefully will please the purist’s out there, some additional decals are still to be added but she is looking smart.
Read MoreA bit late on this one but for those of you that don’t know Brian Halls T28 had a successful first flight yesterday with Dave Brown at the helm. This is 16 years since this aircraft last flew and 67 years to the day that the T28 prototype took to the sky.
Read MoreThe day has come, yesterday Gary Leach from NZCAA issued the C of A so the mighty R2000 powered T28 can begin test flying. Congratulations to Brian Hall and Kevin Langford. Pioneer Aero was pleased to be associated with this return to flight and provide assistance as and when required. Now the combination of intrepid aviator and weather gods need to align...
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