Auster Agricola

[dakman]

Could John Bargh be the last active ag pilot
with Agricola time ?
Any thoughts ?

[thomarse]

Thinking, thinking..............

Probably so, unless Dick Paku still does a bit? Did Hamilton Ruback ever drive the Agricola?

What about Max Lacey and Alan Price - where are they now?

[The Red Baron]

Would be pretty small club,it must be 30 years since the last Agricola topdressed,and probably 40years since they were around in any number.

[furyfb11]

Here's a photo of BXO I took at the ag reunion at Fielding on 28/5/1994. This aircraft was built from parts mainly ex ZK-BMN and was cancelled from the civil register 4/2004. Would this have been the last flying Agricola in New Zealand?.Who flew it at Fielding?.

[studentpilot]

Did the Checks have the plans for them when they built the Z37? Love the exposed cables, very British.

[Deane B]

Rangitikei Air Services operated one of these, so I'd assume John Harding (in his mid 70's and still flying a Cresco) would have flown it at some stage perhaps?

BXO, was not just the last in NZ, it was the only one flying in the world. John Stephenson was the owner and it would have been him or his brother Claude that flew it at Fielding. June 1996 NZ Wings has a good article about John, BXO and the Agricola story.

For the record (from NZ wings article) only seven were ever built and only five imported into NZ. But rebuilds and re-numbering saw a total of nine fly in NZ!!

[The Red Baron]

Rangitikei Air Services Agricola BML crashed at Taihape in 1959,long before WAW bought them out.

[Deane B]

Thanks - I was trying to find out how long RAS had an Agricola for

[Peter Lewis]

There is a thread on the Auster Agricola

rnzaf.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=agricultural&action=display&thread=12319

[dakman]

The guy who mainly flew the rebuilt BXO
was Allan Keats and I noted it at Waipukarau
once ,where by chance he managed a Hotel
Not sureif he still flies commercially now

[airtruk]

Thomarse,

Sadly Max Lacey passed away on the 29th of December 2009 in the Wairarapa...

[dakman]

Sads to read that Max Lacy has passed on .
Of others who flew them I recall Fred Myers
Mike Daniel possibly the Thorns too ? during
their time at Aircontracts , and or course
Barry Cook wonder if he still drives a taxi in MS /

[thomarse]

I too was sad to hear of Max's passing - I didn't know he was back in NZ, much less in Masterton.

The Wairarapa has lost a few of its older ag-men in recent years - Fred Myers, Naylor Smith, Barry Weaver and now Max...

Did Alan Price ever return to NZ?

Another Agricola name I thought of was Tony Millen - where's he now?

[johnm]

I assume - an Agricola swimming in the Waingawa river ............... all documented in this thread


26. agricola and waingawa river by john middlemiss, on Flickr

[Dave Homewood]

Aquacola?

[johnnyfalcon]

Ha!

[madmax]

That's ZK-BMK in the Waingawa river, delivered there by Mike Daniell. Not sure if Mike is still with us, I last spoke with him at the WRAC 75th jubilee which must have been in 2004

[Dave Homewood]

He died a few years ago Max, on the 19th of February 2012, at Masterton.

[madmax]

I got to know Mike quite well during the years I lived in Masterton. Rumour has it that after BMK ended up in the river he got the loader driver, whose name I forget, and who was seated in the crew compartment at the time of the accident, to piggy-back him to the river bank to avoid getting wet.

[thomarse]

The loader driver was one Joe Connolly and I can confirm the piggy-back tale.

What does surprise me is that BMK does not look like a write-off to me but I'm not aware of it re-emerging as another aircraft.