A visit to Ardmore this morning was rewarded with a lot of helicopter activity starting with the Christchurch Helicopters’ EC120B ZK-HPM5. This was originally imported from South Africa in 2007 as ZK-IFR2 and from 2017 operated as part of the South Pacific Helicopters’ fleet at Kaikoura. It underwent a refurbishment and was reregistered as ZK-HPM in August 2023.
The AS350BB ZK-IHY was originally imported by Airwork from Papua New Guinea in late 2018 and after refurbishment added to the Helilink fleet. In 2023 it spent 8 months in Western Australia based at Jandakot as VH-8HW with Rotorwest, returning to NZ later that year. It now carries both the parent company, Salus Aviation, and Helilink scripting.
Outside Oceania Aviation was another AS350BB, ZK-HOM3, which was originally imported from the US in 2018 for Alpine Helicopters. It passed onto an Alexandra owner in late 2021.
And outside Heliflite was an as yet unidentified Leonardo AW119 Koala, which if registered here will add to our otherwise sole current 119 registrant, Queenstown based ZK-ISR.
