NZ Civil Aircraft: Cessna 180 ZK-BGO

The first Cessna 180 was a modified Cessna 170B with a Squared vertical tail and powered with a Continental -470-A engine. It first flew as N41697 on 26-05-1952.

A steady stream of 180's came on to our register with the first listing being the batch ZK-BDB, ZK-BDC, ZK-BDD, ZK-BDE, ZK-BDF and ZK-BDU on 11-08-1953.

ZK-BGL, ZK-BGM, ZK-BGN and ZK-BGO were all listed on 20-09-1954 to become the 22nd, 23rd, 24tth and 25th Cessna 180 airframes to arrive in NZ.

(To date - by my guess - we have had a total of 120 Cessna 180 airframes listed in NZ).

Construction number 31183 was rolled out at Wichita, Kansas with the Cessna/FAA paper registration reportedly being N3685C.

On arrival at New Plymouth it was assembled and registered as ZK-BGO to Rural Aviation Ltd on 20-09-1954 and delivered to Airlift (NZ) Ltd of Wellington on 05-04-1955.

We have a Nevil Drake photograph of it (below) at Rongotai on 18-04-1955, hopper equipped.

Above we have a photo it at Rongotai in early 1957, minus spinner and with underwing air drop attachments.

It was damaged in a ditch near Martinborough on 17-04-1957

In April 1960 Airlift folded and the aircraft went to Amphibian Airways Ltd from 21-04-1960 in an 'as is' condition. To the best of my knowledge it was never on floats.

Hewitt Aviation of Invercargill had it briefly in early 1961 before it was taken up by Southern Scenic Air Services Ltd of Queenstown by March of 1961.

Above at Queenstown in top dressing or carrot dropping mode.

Ag work being seasonal the hopper could reasonably easily be removed to permit other duties.

Above minus ag gear but still with underwing racks at Invercargill from Des Kelly.

On 11-11-1965 it was damaged in an incident at Bell Hill, North Canterbury, and went to Peter Lacy at Nelson for repairs and was registered to Peter on 01-09-1967 and passed on to the Nelson Aero Club from 03-06-1969, with the Club selling the Piper PA-18-150 ZK-BPG.

Below we see her at Nelson on 02-03-1971 with Nelson Aero Club script on the door.

Then we see it below at Christchurch at about the same time thanks to Des White.

On 21-01-1972 it overturned on landing in the upper Mokihinui River strip and was retrieved by Peter Tait in the Helicopters (NZ) Ltd's Aerospatiale SA.315B Lama helicopter ZK-HDX and underslung, inverted, to Nelson and deposited outside Peter Lacy's hangar.

The Nelson Aero Club Cessna 180 was carried to Nelson on 25-01-1972 after overturning in the headwaters of the Mokihinui.

The above photos shows the Lama ZK-HDX during the recovery with the Tasman Range in the background. Photo by John Reid.

In the photo below it has been lowered to the ground outside Peter Lacy's hangar.

Note the lengths of timber attached to the wing surface to stop the aircraft 'flying' whilst on the strop below the helicopter.

Following repairs it went to Glenny Johnson of Karamea from 09-11-1972, with the Nelson Aero Club acquiring the Cessna U206A ZK-DIB as a replacement in March of 1973.

Glenny sold ZK-BGO to Videosonic Productions of Newmarket from 10-11-1975 and ferried it up to Taupo and collected the Cessna 185 ZK-CAN which he operated under the Karamea Heaphy Air Charter Ltd name.

Photo above from Allan Wooller shows BGO as at September 1977.

From 09-07-1979 ZK-BGO was listed with J W Pyke, A F B Stevenson and T G Gaddum of Gisborne with a change to J W Pyke and T G Gaddum of Wherenga-O-Kuri from 22-04-1980.

Les Sutherland of Pukekohe had it from 10-07-1981 and it is seen below at Wanaka on 08-01-1983.

By 27-09-1983 it was with N B Cooper (aka Hopeful Christian) of Rangiora who operated it alongside the Cessna U206 ZK-DNG.

It was noted at Waimate on 24-06-1987 in bare metal.

I next noted it as being with D B A & S L Hart of Springfield Estate, near Methven from 06-12-1989 until being passed on to Frank Wright of Tauranga from 13-11-1990 for a rebuild to emerge in his signature colour scheme.

The new lucky owner was Graeme Dugdale of North Shore from 11-11-1992 with whom it is still current.