Forest Field gathering # 1

The 25th anniversary fly in at NZFF Forest Field was a beaut.

Great weather.

Great airfield.

Great hosts.

Great spread of food.

Great gathering of aviators and aircraft.

 Three De Havilland DHC-1 Chipmunk's called.

Above is Canadian built ZK-ARL (c/n 61). It came to NZ in 1949 for the Wellington Aero Club.

It has been in the Christchurch area with Jim Chapman since about 1989.

The other two were built in the UK for the RAF. ZK-XUK is c/n C1-0087 and is still in its Army Air Corps colour scheme. Lou McAllister imported it into NZ in 1987 and has been with Lou since.

 

Below is the US registered Chipmunk N831WP De Havilland DHC-1 Chipmunk N861WP (c/n C1-0748) of Eugene Demarco. Originally built for the RAF with the serial WP861 (from whence its current registration comes) before heading to the USA to become N65273 followed by N861WP from April 1984. It came to NZ in about 2004 and is normally based at Masterton.

 Below is the Piper PA-18 ZK-BKX , c/n 18-4684 . Originally with the Nelson Aero Club from Mid 1956. Since 1963 it has been in private hands. In 1981 it went to Fred Bull and John Ogilvie out Sheffield way. Ownership has moved back and forward between the two a couple of times. It has been listed to Fred Bull since October of 2005.

 On the "Dark Side" was the P and M Pegasus Quantum 15-912 ZK-CDT2 (c/n 8135) of Richard Mason from NZRT. -Just heading back.