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Post by mstokes on Oct 29, 2008 13:41:08 GMT 12
Hi all, My father flew for Cooksons around the time I was born, and I was wondering if anyone had any images of what their fleet was like? Apparently when the industry was booming in the East Coast they had quite a substantial fleet and most of this fleet was Cessna manufactured. Cheers!  |
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Post by Peter Lewis on Oct 29, 2008 14:27:45 GMT 12
Voila -  |
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Post by kiwithrottlejockey on Oct 29, 2008 22:02:15 GMT 12
I don't have any photographs of Cookson's aeroplanes, but I flew on their paper plane quite a few times. I used to drive trains between Gisborne and Napier for about 20 years (before transfering to Masterton in 1998) and quite often if we ran a night freight train down to Napier and the opposing service had been cancelled for any reason (as sometimes occured) we would get sent home to Gisborne on Cookson's paper plane conveying the Dominon newspapers north from Napier. It's many years now since that occured, but I seem to recall most of the times we flew with Cookson's it was a Piper PA-23 Aztec if my memory serves me correctly.
I never had much to do with the topdressing side of Cooksons, but I do recall one occasion when I was driving a passenger train through to Napier and just after departing Wairoa, a Fieldair DC-3 was taking off from Wairoa Airport and had an engine failure half-way along the runway while we were heading down the straight past the aerodrome. The pilot dumped the entire load of super onto the runway and the DC-3 leapt into the air like a rocket. The superphosphate went for miles — way past the boundary fence at the end of the runway. It was pretty spectacular to see.
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Post by Bruce on Oct 29, 2008 22:17:20 GMT 12
I believe that Aztec you refer to is the hulk now decaying at the Mercer airstrip (theres a photo around here of it somewhere)
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Post by Bruce on Oct 29, 2008 22:19:37 GMT 12
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Post by Peter Lewis on Oct 29, 2008 22:35:30 GMT 12
I don't think thats right - Jim Lyver has two Aztecs, ZK-MCZ and ZK-JEI (which is ex-ZK-DJG). I think the one shown is ZK-MCZ.
The Cookson Aztecs were ZK-CUS from 1978 to 1981, currently active and owned by Computer Automation Products Ltd., Auckland and ZK-EVP from 1981 to 1999 currently active with Sunair at Tauranga.
The Cookson paper run started well before then to the 1950s and the use of a Cessna 180.
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Post by Peter Lewis on Oct 30, 2008 19:56:15 GMT 12
ZK-EVP at Ardmore 26N0v80, after import and prior to delivery to Wairoa  |
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Post by Kereru on Oct 30, 2008 20:20:39 GMT 12
ZK-CUS at Ardmore this year.  ZK-EVP at Gisborne this year. Is this one a different one Peter? Or is it visiting Gisborne?  Colin |
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Post by Peter Lewis on Oct 30, 2008 20:30:08 GMT 12
Sunair is Mt Maunganui based, so I guess it was visiting.
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Post by flyjoe180 on Oct 31, 2008 8:49:51 GMT 12
Amazing that those aircraft are still trundling along really.
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