Tuesday 17 January 2012

That Taieri Auster.

Mit has asked about the Auster that was in the background to one of the photos in the Pulsar #2 blog below.Almost certainly Auster J-1 ZK-AUO (c/n 1955). This was built as G-AHAX and registered to Taylorcraft Aeroplanes - England Ltd on 02-04-1946 and had two private English owners before being imported into NZ to become ZK-AUO on 11-07-1950 with Mort Vanderpump of Napier City Air Services. After a period with the Napier Aero Club from June 1952, and a private owner at Raetihi from July 1954 it moved south to Southern Scenic Air Services Ltd at Queenstown from 30-07-1955. From 1957 onwards it has had a whole bunch of private owners.
The photo above was taken at Luggate on 27-12-1971 whilst in the ownership of A J L McDonald and Dudley Waters of Dunedin.
 Above was at Queenstown on 13-04-1974
 On 25-01-1981 it was at the Pudding Hill fly in - ownership being with Shields, Mason and Harris.
By 06-09-1984 it was listed with K J Mason and J C Sinclair. Pic above was shot at Taieri on 01-04-1985. It was cancelled from the register on 08-05-1991 as pending rebuild.
The Auster J-1 ZK-APO (c/n 2212) was also operating around the Queenstown, Taieri area over the same time period. also in a red and white scheme and they were easily mistaken for each other, until AUO adopted the yellow with thin brown trim scheme.

8 comments:

  1. It doesn't look like much has happened between the 1985 and 2003 shots - 18 years!

    Is she still in the same hangar?
    Is the project still proceeding?

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  2. ZK-AUO is currently in storage in a Garage in Waikanae, in much the same condition as shown in the photo in the blog. Whilst I would like to get it back in the air the cost appears to be prohibitive.

    Kevin Mason

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  3. Thanks for the update Kevin.

    Good to hear that it is still extant.

    Regards

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  4. I've been asked for any update on this aircraft. Can someone comment accordingly? Thanks in advance.

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  5. Passed it heading North up the Bombay Hill today all loaded on a large trailer.

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    Replies
    1. That was me, uncle and I have purchased. Let the rebuild commence. Cheers, Ryan.

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  6. That was us, we have bought it as a family project, hopefully should be flying around Mercer again in the near future.

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