Convair CV580 ZK-CIB Last Chatham Trip

[pjw4118]

We joined Merv Halliday's charter of CIB to tick off the list, last commercial flight of a CV580 and a first visit to the Chathams.

Flight 3C-0592 left Auckland at 9.30 on Friday 13th and headed to Wellington to refuel and pick up more passengers led by Ray Deerness (Harrysone?)
Most were enthusiasts and half were pilots!

CIB showed how quick it was with a 50 minute to Rongatai then a little over two hours to the Chathams.

With no taxi or bus service, Merv had arranged local tours around the island over two days including a visit to the Sunderland at Kaiwhata and a passing glimpse of Rocket Labs new monitoring domes.

Without cell phone or internet coverage, eating, drinking and conversation made up for it and boy there was some good talkers. Against all forecasts, the weather was excellent with only very heavy rain at night (as it should be)

The Sunderland (NZ4111) is tucked up in a newly built barn (More in another post) while there appears to be a complete Friendship lying outside. The owner operates what seems the best farm on the Chathams and successive generations have stored all expired vehicles and machinery in neat lines down one shelterbelt. As there is no scrap recycling possible every Islander seems to maintain their own collection but the Kaiwhata collection is much superior.

While our visit didn't cause much interest, next weeks Army/RNZAF exercise based at the racecourse will certainly not go unnoticed.

The return on Sunday and the last departure for CV580s from the Chathams saw no speeches or flag waving just a few beers put on at the terminal.

Flight 3C-0529 started with a maximum power take off getting CIB buzzing and shaking with again rapid transit to Wellington and Auckland. The final flight landed in Auckland at 5.35pm. The crew were unsure as what happens next to them on the aircraft but at shut down ZK-CIB had flown 58769.7 hours and completed 56284 cycles. Quite a life.

PS Video of some of the flight and the last Chathams take off will be posted on you tube and a link posted here.

[Dave Homewood]

Excellent stuff Peter! A historic trip, for sure.

[harrysone]

I heard that the trip went well, was at Air Chathams hangar yesterday...

Evidently, talking to Craig seems pretty certain that CIB is headed to Wanaka to retire. They are potentially looking at a buyer for CIE (as a goin concern), CIE only has 27,000hrs and 24,000 cycles (Less than MCO!)

[Peter Lewis]

The F-27 is/was ZK-BXI

[harrysone]

Yep, BXI looks a bit worse than when I last saw it there in 2016!

[planecrazy]

Great post, be an interesting place to visit, off topic a little are the anti ice patches
on the side of the fuselage standard or a repair or refit, they look fairly substantial!

[scrooge]

Standard.

As an amusing note, for a while there was a 'before and after' aircraft painting ad featuring a convair that compared the ice protection patch (before) to a clean bit of fuselage (after) that ran for some years in NZ aviation magazines/newspapers.

[camtech]

Aug 18, 2021 13:42:48 GMT 12 planecrazy said:

Great post, be an interesting place to visit, off topic a little are the anti ice patches
on the side of the fuselage standard or a repair or refit, they look fairly substantial!

I remember the panels on the Andover and hearing the thumps of ice flying off the prop.

[harrysone]

Of course CIB had a massive repair in the vicinity of the ice shield on the starboard side in 1983. She shed a prop blade the went through the fuselage killing (dismembering legs) of a passenger following a runway excursion and encountering a snow bank. The aircraft was written off by Republic AL

[harrysone]

www.google.co.nz/amp/s/www.upi.com/amp/Archives/1983/11/18/The-National-Transportation-Safety-Board-blamed-a-Republic-Airlines/9470437979600/

[Dave Homewood]

If it was written off, how did it become CIB?

[delticman]

Aug 18, 2021 22:31:11 GMT 12 Dave Homewood said:

If it was written off, how did it become CIB?

Try this chaps.

www.aussieairliners.org/convair/zk-cib/zkcib.html

You will note that this aircraft was badly damaged by fire wand was rebuilt by Convair, a great part of it brand new and hence the "A" on msn.

On the accident, the airline would have written off as the high cost for repairing the aircraft and it was probably due for replacement.

The rebuilder operating a lower costs only had to repair the prop damaged parts, the rest of the aircraft would have been ok. The attachment says that It was repaired and sold. I would think that Jay-Dee took around nine months to do the repairs.

[harrysone]

If you search its records, there is a great deal of confusion on the Net as a result of some poorly transcribed details with regards the earlier ID's history. There is a mix up with MSN 096 & MSN 097 and registrations allocated to the aircraft for Philippine Airlines service. Of course MS096 was never taken into service with PAL, instead being sold to the Union Producing Company. However there are photos online supposedly of MSN096 that were taken in 1959 and again in 1961 (despite the aircraft having been destroyed in 1955!). Some research proves that the aircraft in the photos is actually MSN097.


Also interesting that MSN 096 career ended with Union Producing Co. and the other MSN 327A began with Union Producing Co. Quite clearly the company retained the remaining components of '096 and gave them to Convair to rebuild


To conclude the story, talking to various pilots & Chathams management, it seems that CIB had the mainspar replaced in the center-section during her major maintenance in 2017, apparently it was a kit manufactured by Kelowna Flightcraft in BC Canada

[delticman]

Aug 19, 2021 9:44:49 GMT 12 harrysone said:

If you search its records, there is a great deal of confusion on the Net as a result of some poorly transcribed details with regards the earlier ID's history. There is a mix up with MSN 096 & MSN 097 and registrations allocated to the aircraft for Philippine Airlines service. Of course MS096 was never taken into service with PAL, instead being sold to the Union Producing Company. However there are photos online supposedly of MSN096 that were taken in 1959 and again in 1961 (despite the aircraft having been destroyed in 1955!). Some research proves that the aircraft in the photos is actually MSN097.


Also interesting that MSN 096 career ended with Union Producing Co. and the other MSN 327A began with Union Producing Co. Quite clearly the company retained the remaining components of '096 and gave them to Convair to rebuild


To conclude the story, talking to various pilots & Chathams management, it seems that CIB had the mainspar replaced in the center-section during her major maintenance in 2017, apparently it was a kit manufactured by Kelowna Flightcraft in BC Canada

So 2017 when it got those nice seats.

[delticman]

ZK-CIB was replaced by ATR-72, ZK-MCO in October last year after it was fitted out HF Radios allowing it to fly Chatham and Norfolk routes.

ZK-MCO does not have the obvious external HF aerial wire from fin.

Just wondering?

[pjw4118]

The final take off from the Chathams, a full power effort can be seen on YouTube

The green paddock in the pictures above shows the earlier landing strip where Bristol Freighters landed.

[delticman]

Aug 20, 2021 15:37:05 GMT 12 pjw4118 said:

The final take off from the Chathams, a full power effort can be seen on YouTube

The green paddock in the pictures above shows the earlier landing strip where Bristol Freighters landed.

You must have been wedged in Peter. Down the back, the rest of us were pushed back into our seats like we on a shipboard catapult. I had a good view of the cargo door but heaps of leg room.

Next time it will be the ATR-72. I have been on an overseas flight in one from Manchester to Isle of Mann and back.

[Dave Homewood]

Seems like they are very noisy inside.

[delticman]

Aug 20, 2021 22:14:24 GMT 12 Dave Homewood said:

Seems like they are very noisy inside.

That was every one having a good time!

[Dave Homewood]

I meant the engines