Wednesday 10 June 2009

Question time 53



























Hopefully this will be a little harder than Q52! If not can you humour me by having some bad guesses and leaving it a few days before giving the correct answer!


1) What type of aircraft


2) Rego and c/n


3) what it the reason for the small circular non factory mod at the foot of the Z



8 comments:

  1. Type: Red Aircraft

    Rego: ZK-RED, c/n #F00 [think about it...]

    Reason: Patched up bullet holes from the time this aircraft was used for dope spotting around the hills of Wainuiomata [Lower Hutt].

    You said humour... I tried... :-(

    ReplyDelete
  2. I seem to recall that this is the Squirrel helicopter ZK-HZK when being used by the Italian Antarctic expedition in 1985-86. The hole was caused when an Italian scientist slipped whilst boarding the machine during a field pick up. Evidently he acted instinctively and swung his ice axe and it stuck the fuselage as shown. I believe it arrested his fall in a satisfactory manner.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Well, that's more convincing than my explanation... :-)

    ReplyDelete
  4. Convincing Limelight's response may have been (and interesting too), but certainly not any more accurate!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Pilatus PC6/B1-H2 c/n 523 ZK-PCI. I think its flying in the UK on meat bombing taskings but in a previous life had a job with some other covert operators which may have seen it attract unwanted attention by enemy fire!

    I stand to be corrected.

    PS - nice photos you got of this machine Andy back in Feb05!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Not over Wainuiomata by any chance????

    I thought not...

    ReplyDelete
  7. Oh well - that question lasted a few hours

    Well done Mike! Of course you are totally correct. Very impressive!

    More detail of PCI can be found on http://www.pc-6.com/history/523.htm

    Yes the patch is from a bullet hole - the aircraft has lots of them - joining the dots is a fun exercise!

    ReplyDelete