It was an exciting day yesterday for Pacific Aerospace with the first flight of ZK-EPO - SuperPac XL501. There’s been a lot of hard work by many people to get to this point - the team at NZSkydive, the Flight Structures staff , and the CAANZ Certification and Airworthiness Group.
First Flight
ZK-EPO First landing
Flight Structures is approaching the conclusion of a project with the Ministry of Defence and NZ Defence Force to design and certify a transponder system with ADS-B Out (Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast) capability for the A109LUH(NZ) Aircraft. ADS-B Out allows aircraft to broadcast their identification, position, altitude and velocity to other aircraft and Air Traffic Control.
Flight Structures were successful in their bid for the project in 2021, and the installation programme is taking place throughout 2022. The project included our engineers designing and providing all certification documents to the New Zealand Defence Authority for approval. It was the first time a CAANZ Approved, Part 146 organisation, has been used for a project of this nature.
Thank you to the following key Flight Structures staff: Duncan Wollen, Adrian Dalton, Hemi Jones, Clyde James, Ted McCullough and Brett Purchase.
Photo is sourced from: https://www.nzdf.mil.nz/nzdf/our-equipment/aircraft/a109-light-utility-helicopter
Yesterday Flight Structures were delighted to receive the Pacific Aerospace Part 146, Design Organisation Certificate from the Civil Aviation Authority of New Zealand. Pacific Aerospace, Flight Structures and the CAANZ have been working on this through the last few months, including through lockdowns in the Waikato region.
Jon Kerr is the Chief Designer for Pacific Aerospace, Kyle Knight is the Programme Manager , and they are supported by a team from Flight Structures including Murray McGregor, Dave Roberts, Daniel Mossman, Basil Eldo, Hemi Jones and Adam Jones.
Regaining the Certificate is a major milestone in the progress by the new owners towards completing the Super PAC aircraft which the team are working on.
There has been an exciting announcement from Merlin Labs today, with a key step towards certification achieved with CAANZ (the Civil Aviation Authority of New Zealand). Flight Structures has been partnering with Merlin Labs as their Part 146 Organisation, with Daniel Mossman and Jon Kerr taking the lead for the Flight Structures part. Flight Structures has enjoyed working at the leading edge of certification on an autonomous flight project and we look forward to future stages.
Please read the linked article below for more information.
