During a bit of a wander around Christchurch International today (05-01-2012) I captured these three flying machine.
Above is the remains of the Fairchild F27 Friendship
N385BA (c/n 24). If memory serves me right it had aspirations of joining our register as ZK-DQU but due to a dose of corrosion it was withdrawn before NZ certification and ended being used by the local crash fire team.
Above : Another Fairchild product is this Fairchild Swearingen SA227-AC Metro 111
ZK-NSS (c/n AC692) as operated by Airwork Flight Operations for Life Flight NZ. Built in 1987 it came to NZ for Air Nelson in August of 1990.
On the Heli Maintenance pad was this Robinson R44 Raven 11
ZK-IFD (c/n 10083). This came to NZ mid 2003 and was initially registered as ZK-HTZ
2 on 24-06-2003. It went to Peter Morrison at Darfield Helicopters on 11-08-2009 and was re-registered to ZK-IFD on 17-02-2011 for onward sale to Andrew Fraser of Mt Cecil Trophy Deer Stud Ltd on 28-02-2011.
the fairchild looks tidy considering the years she has been there
ReplyDeleteFrom my memory the fairchild was bought into ANZ for a repaint. During the prep work it was found to have extensive corrosion and the whole ariframe was scrapped. I believe it came out of the Philipines. There were a lot of dodgy things going on with it.
ReplyDeleteThe airframe was condemmed, perhaps, but obviously not scrapped....
ReplyDeleteYes, the Fairchild F27 was brought to CH for Air NZ to conduct a C check and repaint. Until it was found/deemed to be "beyond being fixed" it was going to return to the Philipines Operator. This was all determined on the day that it was stripped of all paint when literally it was quoted at the time as "only being held together by the paint". Like what happened to ZK-BXI when it was "sold" after a long period of storage, I did see all the serviceable bits being taken off the Fairchild and put into a shipping container. Interesting times.
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