Sunday 1 August 2010

Cherokee Six's ZK-DDF and ZK-EKS.

As Rayner 123 comment, on in the  Christchurch  Pickings 30-07-2010  blog post, the Piper PA-32-260 ZK-EKS is actually a combination of two aircraft.
 
Piper PA-32-260 Cherokee Six ZK-EKS , c/n 32-7300018 , (airframe number eighteen from the 1973 production run) came to NZ courtesy of Rob Leach and Associates arriving at Hamilton on 01-11-1977. On the 9th it was registered to R R Edwards of Hamilton and under the banner of Hamilton Aircraft Rentals was damaged after an over run at Great Barrier Island on 11-08-1983. It was damaged again on 10-03-1985 near Dairy Flat. It then passed through a bunch of owner/operators including J & P McFarland Enterprises Ltd of Auckland (1986); ZK-EKS Partnership (1989); CNZ Skyways Partnership  of Penrose (1990); Alpine Aviation of Ashburton (1995) to Westair Flying Ltd at Hokitika from September of 1997. It was back at Ashburton on 20-01-1998 when fire destroyed the forward section of the aircraft. It was cancelled on 24-11-1998.
The above shot of ZK-EKS is at Christchurch on 05-06-1989 outside the Canterbury Aero Clubs old hangar with the Mount Cook Fokker Friendship ZK-DCB in the background. Below shows it on 02-12-1993 at Ardmore - no great change.
By 23-09-1995 it was in the scheme below, as noted at Christchurch
**************************

Piper PA-32-260-260 Cherokee Six ZK-DDF , c/n 32-480 , was an earlier production aircraft which was registered to the Hawera Aero Club on 27-10-1970 and first flew in NZ on 30-10-70 for delivery to Hawera on 04-11-1970.
Pic below in its Hawera Aero Club script at Wellington on 25-05-1971.
It was sold to Airwork (NZ) Ltd in January of 1976 then to R R Edwards (as in EKS above) on 20-07-1976.
Below as seen at Hamilton on 03-09-1979.
It went to the Waikato Flying School from 16-09-1982 and is seen below at Hamilton on 25-02-1985.
It joined N A Mathieson in March of 1985 and then to David and Margaret Brown of Christian Aviation Ministries Inc in July of 1985. Seen below at Ardmore on 28-08-1985.
By July of 1989 it was with Dennis Thompson International before moving to Patz Syndicate of Tauranga by August of 1990. The Richardson-Lewis Syndicate of Waiheke Island are listed from 01-07-1993. It was damaged on Waiheke Island on 22-12-1994 but survived to carry the name "Waiheke Wings" on its engine cowling until being sold to C E V Ltd of New Plymouth on 19-07-2004.
Below - as seen at Thames on 18-03-2000 "Waiheke Wings".
During maintenance corrosion was discovered in the tail section and to repair this the remains of the fire damaged ZK-EKS were obtained and as Rayner123 mentions - because the tail section of the Cherokees carries the manufacturers plate (just forward of the port horizontal tailplanes leading edge) the finished rebuilt aircraft became the new ZK-EKS on 24-10-2006, with ZK-DDF being cancelled on 20-10-2006.


Below we see ZK-EKS as seen recently (04-06-2010) at Christchurch.

3 comments:

  1. thanks for that i did photograph ddf at np bk in 05 she was painted the blue and white same as dsq unfortunity my daughter exposed the film altough sothern aircraft sales had a pic of her when she was for sale bk in 04

    ReplyDelete
  2. Morning Rayner123.

    Can you confirm that EKS has some sort of STOL kit fitted ?

    I just recall seeing a row of "turbulators" along the upper surface of each wing, reasonably close to the leading edge !

    ReplyDelete
  3. yes she has i think a robertson stol kit was added to ddf roundbout the time she was at waiheke island

    ReplyDelete