Cessna 180s in NZ

[kiwiduster1]

I will miss my nightly fix but i will stay strong. Enjoy the break Peter!! Cheers.

[Peter Lewis]

Ok, back into it after that break:

C180 N4553B was imported to become ZK-BJV with Rural Aviation on 18April1955.
After assembly it went straight to Rangitikei Air Services Ltd. of Taihape, becoming their property in June that year.

In early 1963 topdressing pilot Erik Templeman left Hewett Aviation where he had flown for ten years to work for their competitor,  Farmers Aerial Topdressing Ltd., in Southland. In order to attract as many former Hewett clients to move their trade with him, the Directors of Farmers ATD formed a new company, Western ATD Co.Ltd., also based at Mossburn, for him to operate under that name.

ZK-BJV was bought by that new company in August 1963 and it flew under the Western name until replaced by a Fletcher following the James Aviation take-over of both Farmers Aerial and Western.

John Pheasant, then employed as an aircraft engineer at New Plymouth by Rural Aviation, took ownership of ZK-BJV in July 1966 and this Cessna 180 has since been employed in a number of private and non-agricultural roles. It is current and based in the Kaiapoi area.

ZK-BJV under Rangitikei Air Services ownership at Palmerston North 9Nov1956



Still with Rangitikei Air Services, at their Taihape base 2Jan1961.
Note that the company badge has been moved from the front fuselage to the door.

[Peter Lewis]

Rural Aviation imported C180 N4505B  and registered it as ZK-BJW on 18April1955.

This aircraft then went directly to the Thames Aerial Topdressing Company located at - you guessed it - Thames. The transfer of ownership was lodged on 20th October.

In 1957 TAT was going over to Fletchers, and swapped ZK-BJW for Air Contracts Fu-24 ZK-BIK. ZK-BJW became Air Contacts property on 10Jul1957.

The Cessna remained at Masterton until 1962, when it moved further south to Southern Senic Air Services Ltd. of Queenstown who put it online with their subsidiary West Coast Airways Ltd., and based it at Hokitika.

On 7Feb1964 pilot Geoff Houston encountered fog while flying ZK-BJW from Haast to Hokitika and crashed into the sea near Opuku Cliff, Westland.

ZK-BJW in TATCo livery at Milson 9Nov1956



Air Contracts ZK-BJW at rest. Possibly at Ardmore?

[kiwiduster1]

Hi Peter , Good to have you back  hopefully well rested. Three pics you might add to BJV. The first is one of yours. Not sure where.?





When she arrived at the Palmerston North Flying School



  


 
 
Also seen here with Palmerston North Flying School.  I have fond memories of trips down to Little Wanganui bringing back loads of whitebait in her and an encounter with one Tony Glowaki !!  Fun days.

[Bruce]

May 5, 2017 19:56:58 GMT 12 kiwiduster1 said:

Hi Peter , Good to have you back  hopefully well rested. Three pics you might add to BJV. The first is one of yours. Not sure where.?





]

Thats at Ardmore. I helped repaint it at Gulf Aeronautics, just after we finished ZK-BFT. Tom McCready from Whenuapai had it at the time and he and a team of RNZAF blokes did the paint stripping (A change from me doing it!) We repainted it into a scheme identical to what we used on BFT, but with the dark charcoal changed to burgundy red. the interior was reupholstered at the same time, but it wasnt the major rebuild BFT was.

[Peter Lewis]

Ardmore 1993

[johnnyfalcon]

I have childhood memories of flying with Dad and Mum in BJV, while it was with Palmerston North FS. Vacations to visit family in Auckland are among those memories. Not long before Dad died I flew him into Rangiora to reacquaint him with BJV a few years ago - the memories came flooding back for him...and the stories! BJV languishes at Rangiora still

[Peter Lewis]

C180 ZK-BJX was allotted N4518B at the factory, and arrived in NZ to be registered to Rural Aviation on 18April1955.

After assembly and certification it went directly to Barr Bros. Ltd., at that time based at Mangere.
ZK-BJX became a permanent fixture within Barr's fleet for over 20 years, suffering no more than a couple of minor mishaps. Much of its time was spent based at Dargaville.

Eventually the Dargaville operation was taken over by Barr's Fu-24 ZK-EMR and in October 1976 ZK-BJX was sold to Clevedon-based Rosemary G Innes-Jones, who worked within the Barrow family's Marine Helicopters organization and used it to visit their clients (along with her white poodle).

Some seven owners later, ZK-BJX is still active in the South Auckland area.

ZK-BJX shortly after its arrival at Mangere, November 1955



Early Barr Bros scheme. also looks to be Mangere



ZK-BJX at the old Dargaville airfield, 27Aug1965



At Barr's Ardmore base, November 1969

[Peter Lewis]

ZK-BJY arrived ex-N4522B and was put together at Bell Block to be registered to Rural Aviation on 18April1955.

This Cessna 180 went operational with Rural and worked mainly in the Manawatu area.

In March 1958 ZK-BJY went south, to West Coast Airways Ltd. at Hokitika for use on their charter work. West Coast was part of the Southern Scenic organization, and when they ceased operations after the coast road was completed ZK-BJY passed into the hands of SSAS itself where it saw some service as a floatplane.

It has had many owners since the 1960s, and is currently based in the Ashburton area.

A rather bland ZK-BJY at Fielding in January 1957.

[The Red Baron]

West Coast Airways had a topdressing license for the West Coast from 1957,they were taken over by SSA who inturn sold WCA to Farmers Aerial Topdressing in 1961.

[Peter Lewis]

You are quite right - licence #180 issued to West Coast Airways 24 October 1956.

By the early 1960s, this service (according to the entry in the 1963 White's Air Directory) was being operated by their Piper PA18A Super Cub 150 ZK-BKS, which was registered to them 5Jul1961. They kept this Cub on strength until April 1963 when it went to Aerial Work (Marlborough).

Cub 150 ZK-BKS at Christchurch April 1961



So presumably they did not use C180 ZK-BJW for this purpose (acquired April 1962).
ZK-BJY came on strength in March 1958, so it may have been involved in ag work before the Cub was obtained, though none of the couple of photos I have of this 180 while with West Coast show any evidence of this.

ZK-BJY in West Coast Airways ownership at Hokitika 1959



The only other aircraft registered directly to West Coast Airways were DH89s, so they are out.

I guess the other alternative is that they could have leased/hired/borrowed an agplane from another operator for the first few years until that side of the business built up to the point where running their own Cub became realistic.

[Peter Lewis]

By now the demand for agricultural Cessna 180s was dropping (possibly because Cubs and Fletchers were now also available) and there seemed to have been some relaxion in the import controls, so new C180s could now go directly to non-ag operators.

Thus N1676C  was assembled as ZK-BKG and was put online with the Wellington Aero Club from October 1955.

Just under five years later, in February 1060, ZK-BKG went to Aerial Work (Marlborough) Ltd. at Blenheim.
I do not know if they used it in the topdressing/spraying role, I have never seen a photo of it so equipped.

Fairly quickly, in October 1960, ZK-BKG was moved down to the North Otago AC, Oamaru. After several more private and charter owners it is still current in Canterbury.

ZK-BKG parked outside the Wellington AC at Rongotai mid-1950s.

[madmax]

Peter, I am curious to know who took the photo of BKG. I have a photo (and its negative) taken by my father from a similar position on the same day at around the same time.

[Peter Lewis]

I also have the negative of this.
I think, from memory, it came from Murray Kirkus.
I corresponded with him in the 1960s.

[madmax]

Thanks Peter, that explains the similarity.

[isc]

When I first knew BKG, it was owned by Brian Hore of Nokamai station in the mid 1960s, it used to come into Rex at Dunedin each year for it's annual inspection, back in those days it had either an O-470A, or J engine (225HP), its been up rated to a O-470K (230HP)I think, and it's looking rather nice. isc See it at Charley Draper's strip when there is a fly in.

[madmax]

I was on Rongtai airfield one cold, bleak, sunday afternoon around August/September 1957 when BKG was involved in a scenic flight over Wellington city during which the windshield caved in. Some of the occupants received facial cuts including the pilot who contemplated ditching in the harbour near Petone foreshore as he was experiencing visability problems due to blood from his cuts getting into his eyes. He elected however to return to Rongotai and pulled off a pretty good landing on grass runway 18 in front of the de Hav building, however taxiing back to the club house the aircraft's propellor struck a 44 gallon drum filled with rocks and placed in the middle of the taxiway to signify where earthmoving equipment was crossing. Later a close inspection of the damaged windshield and interior of the aircraft showed no evidence of a bird strike and I never did find out what the cause was.

[planewriting]

Although this may not still be the case, BKG was for a long time our oldest Cessna 180. Its c/n 30376 is way before AZZ 30537. In response to Peter Lewis's comment about whether or not it was a topdressing aircraft at any stage I found the following historic note in

www.edcoatescollection.com/ac2/NZBA/ZK-BKG.html

"This Cessna was not brand new when imported, having flown in the US as N1676C for a period. It was not a topdresser when imported and was purchased as a club machine by the Wellington Aero Club in October of 1955. It went to Aerial Work (Marlborough)Ltd of Blenheim in 1960 although oddly was never used as a topdresser (which is undoubtably (sic) why it is in such good shape today). It then passed to the North Otago Aero Club in 1961. Following a couple of private owners it was purchased by Richard Royds (who is also co owner of Aoraki Mount Cook Ski Planes), and with whom it is still registered, as his personal hack. Richard advises me that the aircraft is, in fact, still on wheels, albeit sans spats. He also indicates it is the oldest Cessna 180 still flying in New Zealand."

[Peter Lewis]

May 10, 2017 8:21:46 GMT 12 planewriting said:

Although this may not still be the case, BKG was for a long time our oldest Cessna 180. Its c/n 30376 is way before AZZ 30537.

Only partially true.
ZK-BDF - which was in NZ before ZK-BKG - was c/n 30179.
However, that one departed NZ in 1957.
So ZK-BKG was then the oldest in NZ until the arrival of ZK-WGT (c/n 30012) in 2007.

[Peter Lewis]

ZK-BLL was a unique Cessna 180 import into New Zealand, as it arrived already kitted out with a set of Edo amphibious floats.

Miles King, the Rural Aviation MD, was convinced that floatplanes and amphibians had a bright future in this country so he travelled to the US and on to Canada to obtain floatplane experience. He wrote quite extensively about this part of his flying life in his book The Sky My Canvas.

When ZK-BLL, which started life as N3230D, had been assembled at New Plymouth King undertook a wide-ranging demonstration of its capabilities throughout the country. Registered to Rural on 8Aug1955, the summer of 1955/56 saw ZK-BLL appear at many beachside holiday hotspots.

Despite all this promotion by King, no further sales of 180s in this configuration resulted at that time, and in June 1957 the aircraft was sold to Northern Aviation Ltd. of Whangarei, possibly still with the floats attached.

This enterprise did not last long, and ZK-BLL was sold on to Air Contracts Ltd. at Masterton in October the same year and took up life as yet another normally-configured agricultural aircraft. During its time at Masterton it carried the pilots name 'Clive Thorne'.

Finance company Commercial Brokers Ltd. took title to ZK-BLL in January 1964 and they leased the aircraft to Northern Air Services Ltd. who operated from Te Kuiti. In November 1965 Northern took full ownership.

In March 1996 the aircraft was sold into private ownership with W J Telford, Balclutha who kept it until June 1974 when Alistair Johnston & Ian Royds of  Ashburton took it over.

ZK-BLL finally met its end on 15May1980 when it hit some  power lines and cartwheeled into a paddock at Willowby, Mid Canterbury. Pilot and one passenger seriously injured, a second passenger died some hours after the accident.

ZK-BLL all pretty and polished at Mangere 1956, durings its floatplane days.



Rather less pristine, ZK-BLL as a dungduster at Te Kuiti 1964