New Zealand's ninth Minicab was GY 20 ZK-EDX (c/n AACA/224/1), which was built by B Turner at Dargaville. It was first registered on 13/2/75. Dargaville was a bit of a hotbed for Minicabs, as this was the third one from the area (after ZK-BUB and ZK-DDH). It is photo'd here at the 1986 AACA flyin at Matamata.
It was sold to KW Sample of Hikurangi on 28/6/99 then to a permutation of owners in the Wellington area - LA Bennett and MCL Andrews of Upper Hutt on 20/5/06, Gingernut Ltd (LA Bennett and MC Bennett) on 1/3/08, then to Tail Down Ltd (CC Cervino) of Wellington on 25/6/09 then to CC Cervino on 10/2/11.
Most recently it was sold to TJ Williams of Hokitika, where it now wears this new colour scheme. Thanks to Allan Bowman for this photo which comes via Blue Bus.
The next Minicab to be registered was ZK-CZQ (GY 201 c/n AACA/80/1) which was built over many years by Charlie Parsons and Ivan Wrathall of Mangeteparo, Thames Valley. It was first registered on 12/1/78. It was sold to CK Parsons and EA Parsons of Morrinsville on 16/6/80, then to GW and KW Davey of Te Aroha on 17/5/89. Sadly it crashed on take off from a bush strip on Ngamatea Station near Taupo on 2/3/90 with the loss of 2 lives. The aircraft was burnt out and the crash started a forest fire as I remember. It was cancelled on 21/12/94. The above photo was taken at the 1982 AACA flyin at Taupo.
ZK-RJK (c/n AACA/187/1) was a GY 20 model that was built by RJ King at Waipawa, and was first registered on 8/6/78. It was sold to Jan Douglas-White (now Jan Chisum) of Hastings on 6/3/95, with whom it is still current. The above photo was taken at a Wairarapa Chapter AACA flyin at a racecourse North of Masterton in 1987. It has not changed at all over the years.
And the final Minicab of this batch is ZK-DSS (GY 20 c/n AACA/157) which was built by Lance Violich of Rotorua and first registered to him on 30/11/84. It was sold to T Woodroffe of Papakura on 27/8/85 then to Merv Meredith of Waipukurau on 21/7/87. I think this was when Merv Meredith was acting as an aircraft broker because it was sold to CA and PTE Liefting of Pukekohe on 10/11/87. it suffered an accident on 1/12/87 when it struck power lines at Waiuku. It was cancelled on 4/11/98. I do not have a record of who took the above photo.
Gardan seems a noble plane.
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