Thursday 12 January 2017

Piper Navajo ZK-CAM at Ardmore 7-1-2016

There were three Navajos at Ardmore last Saturday.  Although they have been around for a long time in various guises, they have not been posted on the blog previously.

Piper PA 31 Navajo ZK-CUF (c/n 31-261) was built as N9194Y in 1968 by Piper Aircraft of Lock Haven PA.  It was the first Navajo registered in New Zealand, on 12/7/68.  It was registered to Tasman Air Services Ltd of Auckland and it first flew here on 10/10/68.  Tasman Air Services did not operate for very long, ceasing business in late 1969.  There is a lot of detail on Tasman Air Services on our sister blog 3rd Level New Zealand at http://3rdlevelnz.blogspot.co.nz/2010/07/tasman-air.html

The aircraft was sold to the Ministry of Transport, Civil Aviation Division on 6/1/70 and was re-registered ZK-DCE on the same day.  It then had a series of owners as follows:

Dalhoff and King Aviation Ltd, Ardmore  10-09-1979
T J Edmonds Ltd, Christchurch                   02-10-1979
Alpine Helicopters Ltd, Queenstown          17-03-1982
Whirl-Wide Helicopters Ltd, Timaru          19-04-1982
Airwork (NZ) Ltd, Christchurch                  30-03-1984
Rural Aviation (1963) Ltd, Auckland          30-04-1984






And finally to DW and MR Brown trading is Christian Aviation Ministries on 31/8/84.  It was again re-registered as ZK-CAM2 on 13/4/87 and is still registered with Christian Aviation, although it has not flown for some time and is minus its propellers and in the above photo.

The first ZK-CAM was a Bristol B 170 Freighter with SAFE Air between 1961 and 1981.

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