Cessna 180s in NZ

[Peter Lewis]

Looks like I missed one C180 on the way through - ZK-BGH.

This had been allotted N3626C  at the factory, and arrived at New Plymouth to be put together by Rural by August 1954.
Its first posting was online with Aircraft Service (NZ) Ltd. based at Mangere, and it was registered in their name in January 1955, arriving at Mangere on the 11th.

Possibly this was just a trial run to see how it compared with the then-new Fletcher Fu-24, because by March that same year ZK-BGH had moved south to Te Kuiti and was operating with Northern Air Services.

It stayed with that firm until it was destroyed when it hit a ridge after the tailplane collided with the ground 1.5 miles from Matiere, near Taumarunui, 26Jan1959. The pilot Ernest Gardner was killed in the accident.

ZK-BGH under assembly at New Plymouth late 1954. The hopper gear is just being fitted.



At Mangere early 1955 while with Aircraft Service



ZK-BGH at the ag event Milson, 9Nov1956

[Peter Lewis]

Cessna 180 N3672C  arrived in the country in 1954 to become ZK-BGN at New Plymouth in September of that year.

After assembly and fitout by Rural Aviation it moved to Hastings in November 1954 to become the property of Vanair Ltd. being registered as such on 20Jan1955.

Vanair was operated by Mortimer T Vanderpump. Van had served with the RNZAF from 1940, including time as the CO of 19, 24  and then 15 Squadron.  On leaving the air force in 1946 he was appointed CFI at the Hawkes Bay & East Coast Aero Club at Bridge Pa.

In 1950 Van bought Auster Autocrat ZK-AUO and formed Napier City Air Service, working as a charter operator. Finding this financially unsuccessful  he then entered the aerial topdressing industry with Tiger Moth ZK-AZP which was obtained from Air Contracts Ltd. in mid-1952.

ZK-BGN replaced the Tiger, and was fairly quickly repainted in Vanair advertising and named 'Susie' after his wife.

Unfortunatly, just five months later, ZK-BGN crashed at Putorino, northern Hawkes Bay, on 1Apr1955 while working and Mort Vanderpump was killed. It is believed that the crash was caused by engine or prop failure. Either the crankshaft broke or propeller shed a blade in flight and the crash occurred when Van was trying to carry out the subsequent forced landing.

Substantial parts of ZK-BGN were incorporated into a 'bitsa' rebuild by Rural at New Plymouth which became ZK-BWK in 1960.

ZK-BGN newly arrived at Hastings in late 1954



A short while late, ZK-BGN as 'Susie'

[Peter Lewis]

C180 ZK-BGO had the paper reg N3684C at the factory before arriving new in NZ.
Assembled at New Plymouth by Rural, it was registered in their name in September 1954.

It was then dispatched to Rongotai in April 1955 where it went online with Airlift (NZ) Ltd., Kilbirnie, which was run by the infamous H L MacGregor. There is a report that ZK-BGO was involved in an accident at Martinborough in April 1957 when it ran into a ditch.

In April 1960, after Airlift had folded, ZK-BGO was passed on to Amphibian Airways based at Invercargill. However, the aircraft was never fitted with floats, and by March 1961 was in the hands of Southern Senic Air Services at Queenstown.

SSAS used their Cessna 180s interchangeably between passenger carrying ops and aerial work, depending on the season. It was during a topdressing sorte that ZK-BGO crashed at Bell Hill, North Canterbury 11Nov1965 while being flown by Dave Cowan.

The damaged aircraft was then passed on to Peter Lacey at Nelson. Rebuilt by mid-1967, it then went on to a long life with a number of other private operators and is still current based near Auckland.

ZK-BGO newly arrived at Rongotai 18Apr1955



Still Rongotai based, January 1957



ZK-BGO hard at work at Queenstown airfield with Southern Scenic

[Peter Lewis]

After skipping over the large batch of Fu24 allocations, Cessna 180 N9108C became ZK-BJA. This aircraft was registered to Rural in November 1954, and then went to Wanganui Aero Work in March 1955.
By October 1958 it was in the hands of James Aviation, and in August the following year it moved to Taihape where it was employed by Rangitikei Air Services.

The end came at Siberia Station, 25 miles west of Taihape, on 26Mar1962 when ZK-BJA, being flown by Doug Forlong, failed to out-climb a ridge on the farm and crashed with fatal results.

ZK-BJA tied down at Taihape 21Jan1961





Now fitted with a Swathemaster, at Taihape in 1961

[Peter Lewis]

The next C180 to hit the scene was N9142C which became ZK-BJB with Rural Aviation on 18Nov1954.
A few months later, in June 1955 it moved to Hastings to work with Aircraft Fertilisers (HB) Ltd.

This company was taken over by Rural Aviation in 1957 and ZK-BJB reverted to their ownership in November of that year.

The next move was to Northern Air Services Ltd., Te Kuiti, in May 1960 and ZK-BJB worked with them until it was sold to Ray Verrity of Te Awamutu in April 1963. It has had some private ownership changes since then and is still current, based in the Richmond area.

ZK-BJB in the employ of Aircraft Fertilisers, taken at Hastings in March 1956





The label says Mangere, but judging by the '41' parking spot visible in the lower right of the photo I'd say Milson 9Nov1956



ZK-BJB in the late 1950s while with Rural Aviation.
Did we ever work out what exactly these large underwing appendages are for?

With



Without

[johnm]

top work P Lewis ............... great to read this

1. what is Milson - what aerodrome / area is this ?
2. assuming the 180's had a better go at it than the 185's ......... in that other makes replaced the high wing cessna's as time moved on ?

[isc]

Milson, Palmerstone North.
By the time I started with Rex, all our machines were C-185/185B/C with IO-470. By 1967 the last of Rural's high wing Cessnas left Otago, there was CHK, CFI, and Bill Hewitt's BDD. isc

[The Red Baron]

Did we ever work out what exactly these large underwing appendages are for?

I would say they are spray tanks,there is a fan and pump or is it an early atomiser down by the undercarriage leg,and plumbing running down from the tank to it.The high up installation of the tanks would allow some gravity feeding.
There is nothing connected to the bottom of the hopper,so I'm guessing the plane could be used for spraying or fertiliser without having to change everything.
Also early sprays were applied very heavily,especially when spraying gorse,which would explain why the booms aren't full span.
They also used to spray a lot of diesel before burn offs in the day,that was also dumped on quite heavily.

[thomarse]

I recall seeing photos of them dropping trout fingerlings out of those things

[Peter Lewis]

ZK-BJC (ex N9145C) was the next Cessna 180 to be registered to Rural Aviation, in November 1954.

This aircraft then went south into the ownership of W K Wakeman, Riccarton, Christchurch in July 1955. Keith Wakeman, an ex-RNZAF Corsair pilot, had worked for both Airwork and Aerial Sowing in the Canterbury region before branching out on his own behalf. Wakeman's specialty was in the application of sheep-nuts on to farmland from the air (Sheep Nuts are formulated from a selection of the following ingredients: Barley, wheat, triticale, oats, rice, peas, lupins, lentils, beans, soyabean, canola, sunflower and products derived from these ingredients - thanks Wikipedia.) As part of the promotion of this product he carried a cargo of these nuts in ZK-BJC when he made the fastest time for light aircraft in the January 1956 Blenheim to Invercargill air race.

Although Wakeman's business operated as Wakeman Aviation Ltd., ZK-BJC appears to have been registered to him personally rather than that company.

On the 1st March 1960, pilot Allan Johansen in ZK-BJC was working on a spreading job at Mendip Hill Station, near Cheviot, north Canterbury, and departed from the farm at the completion of the job. He flew over the ground party, rocking the wings in a signal that he was moving to the next location.
The aircraft then entered a climb.
At a height of about 150 feet the port wing was seen to drop and the aircraft immediately pitched down into a steep dive. The aircraft struck the ground in a near-vertical attitude and burst into flames. ZK-BJC was destroyed and the pilot lost his life.

An examination of the wreckage showed that cracks of long standing existed in the rear spar attachment of the right wing. The failure of the rear spar was the primary cause of the accident. The accident report noted, and condemned, the use of this non-aerobatic aircraft for aerobatics earlier in its history.

This appears to be a sequence of publicity shots showing Cessna 180 ZK-BJC at work







ZK-BJC at Omaka 19Jan1956, displaying the sheep-nut advertising at the time of the Blenheim-Invercargill air race



ZK-BJC at Paraparaumu July 1959

[thomarse]

Well that would appear to solve the old mystery over the second photo. It's on Page 1 of this thread - a member mentioned that he had bought (the) original on TradeMe and it had a hand-written note about it being the first 180 used for topdressing which clearly it's not. That photo also had a Marton photographer's name stamped on it, so that remains a mystery. I first saw the photo in the Programme for the Agricultural Aviation Exhibition at Milson, but sadly I lost that years ago. Anyone got one?

[The Red Baron]

BJC does the topdressing demo in this old film.

[Peter Lewis]

Apr 7, 2017 17:15:17 GMT 12 thomarse said:

Well that would appear to solve the old mystery over the second photo. It's on Page 1 of this thread

Ah, yes. I'd forgotten about that. So that's one mystery cleared away.

[thomarse]

Apr 7, 2017 17:36:03 GMT 12 The Red Baron said:

BJC does the topdressing demo in this old film.

A fair bit of BBZery in here Baz - including upside down!

[johnnyfalcon]

I was thinking the same thing...good grief BBZ really DID fly once upon a time! Some brave manoeuvres there too.

[Peter Lewis]

The next Cessna 180 was N9146C which became ZK-BJD registered to Rural Aviation in November 1954.

After assembly and fitout it went to the Manawatu ATD Co.Ltd. at Feilding in February 1955 and at times carried their the fleet number 4.

During the 1960s the company became involved with Cookson Superspread Ltd., Wairoa, culminating in a full takeover of the Cookson operation in mid-1967. ZK-BJD operated as part of the Cookson fleet but the registered ownership remained with the Manawatu company.

On the morning of 24Mar1969 ZK-BJD departed Feilding airfield to carry out topdressing operations from an airstrip at Scotts Road, Linton, in the Manawatu area. The aircraft was seen to make a fast approach on the downwind leg of the landing pattern over the strip, pulling up into a climbing turn to the left with the starboard wing tip merging with the cloud layer.
The plane then descended in a dive on an almost reciprocal heading to the downwind leg. While recovering from the dive, and in a level attitude laterally, the plane struck rising ground, lofted into the air, and broke up over a considerable distance.
Both pilot Tony Court and loader driver Ted Barber were killed in the crash.

ZK-BJD (without any company titles) working at Paraparaumu 7Mar1955







Looks to be at Feilding, date unknown



ZK-BJD resting at Feilding in February 1964



Now in Cookson colours, Gisborne 16Feb1966



A slightly fuzzy photograph, but it does show the Cookson colours

[kiwiduster1]

As i remember BJD. Flying free!!  RIP Ted and Tony.

[Peter Lewis]

Having been issued with the paper registration N9158C, the next Cessna 180 became ZK-BJE with Rural Aviation on 18Nov1954.

After assembly and fitout this aircraft went north to the Thames Aerial Topdressing Company in February 1955.

Five years later, in October 1960, ZK-BJE moved to Taihape to become the property of Rangitikei Air Services.

On the 7th December 1961 this aircraft stalled after takeoff with a full load of superphosphate and crashed into a farm pond at Pungataua, near Taihape, killing the pilot Don Wallis (who had been with the company for less than two months).

ZK-BJE looking brand spanking new, at Mangere



Still bearing most of its TAT branding, ZK-BJE at Taihape 2Jan1961

[Peter Lewis]

Cessna 180 N9159C  arrived new in NZ to become ZK-BJF with Rural Aviation on 18Nov1954. It joined the active Rural fleet and suffered the usual minor mishaps while working there.

In July 1960 it moved south to go online with Southern Aviation Ltd. at Gore. At some time during the early 60s it was leased by Southern to Hewett Aviation who worked out of Mossburn.

On 4Jan1966, back again with Southern Aviation, it departed from a farm strip at Tokanui (near Charlton), Southland, at the completion of work in the area and encountered the remains of an old fence. The wire from the fence became entangled in the undercarriage and the aircraft crashed. At the controls was a loader driver, Errol Colvin, who held a Private Pilot Licence. Accompanying him was the agricultural flying-rated company pilot Bill Dowden who had been flying the Cessna during the day's operations.
Both occupants survived the crash with injuries, but those of Errol Colvin were severe and he died the following day.

The registration of ZK-BJF was cancelled on 16Sept1966.

ZK-BJF in its original colours at Paraparaumu 26Feb1955



After a repaint, and with the Rural Aviation logo, Feilding May 1959



Now in the South Island, ZK-BJF at Gore with the hopper removed

[Peter Lewis]

Cessna 180 ZK-BJU was never an agplane.
After assembly it went straight to Midland Air Services Ltd., Whitianga - so I wont detail it here.

ZK-BJU outside the terminal at Whenuapai February 1963



Tonight I address 350 people on property, then tomorrow morning off to Classic Fighters (and other parts of the upper South).
So you'll have to wait a couple of weeks for anything more from me.