Beavers and Beavers #0 ZK-AZB

Back in September 2010, before the Lawson Field Reunion that was to be held at Gisborne over Labour Weekend 2010, Dave Paull was asked by a blog follower to post on some more Beavers and he started with ZK-BBX as Beavers and Beavers #1 (see HERE ).  Dave went on to post up to Beavers and Beavers #17 ZK-CZL but he stopped there.  That meant he missed on the first of Fieldair's Beavers, the venerable ZK-AZB.

I recently came across a photo of ZK-AZB in Ohakea Museum colours which was new to me, so I did a bit of digging:

DHC 2 Beaver ZK-AZB was the 156th Beaver constructed at the De Havilland Canada factory at Downsview, Ontario and it was shipped to New Zealand in late 1951.  It was assembled by Rural Aviation at Mangere and first registered on 19/12/51.  Its first flight in New Zealand was on 21/12/51 and it was delivered to Fieldair Ltd at Gisborne on 23/12/51.

An early photo of ZK-AZB as it would have been delivered, with the Fieldair logo on the door.  The photo is from the Aerial Visuals website.  

It continued to operate in the East Coast area and for a time flew in East Coast Air Services markings.  I do not know where this photo was taken or who took it.  As was common with ag aircraft it suffered a few mishaps, crash landing near Wairoa on 20/3/67.

Janic Geelen took this photo of it at Gisborne in August 1969, now in the standard blue and white Fieldair colours.  It crashed again at Holden, near Gisborne on 30/1/80 but was again rebuilt.  It soldiered on to a have very long life as a topdressing aircraft and was repainted into the Fieldair yellow colour schemes that they never got standardised:

Bob Kerr was very industrious in capturing ZK-AZB on his visits to the North Island - here in October 1972 at Dannevirke

and here at Waipukurau in July 1980.  

It was involved in the various Fieldair reorganisations with ownership transferring to Fieldair Holdings (Central ) Ltd at Palmerston North on 18/11/80 and to Fieldair Holdings Ltd on 30/3/84.

On 11/2/88 ownership transferred to Motiti Island Air of Tauranga who traded as Island Air Safaris and who operated it as a passenger aircraft.  The Motiti Island Air service was particularly aimed at fishermen and divers and supporting a lodge on Motiti Island. It also served the needs of the locals. During the summer of 1986/1987, with the service growing, Island Air Safaris leased De Havilland Canada DHC-2 Beaver ZK-CZL from Fieldair after its rebuild. The lease convinced Island Air Safaris of the need for its own Beaver and after its rebuild Island Air Safaris acquired, initially on a lease, ZK-AZB. It operated its first flight on the Tauranga-Motiti Island-Tauranga run on the 31st of July 1987 and was registered to Motiti Island Air on the 11th of February 1988.

ZK-AZB at Tauranga in passenger configuration on 19 May 1988 with Island Air Safaris titles.

It then it went to Kairanga Air Charter Ltd (Hallett Griffin) at Palmerston North on 22/5/90 and reverted back to ag configuration as in the photo taken at Palmerston North on July 1990.

At Masterton as a sprayer with Griffin Ag Air Ltd titles in March 1991.

Then the photo that piqued my interest, parked at Ardmore in October 1995.  Thanks to a blog reader we now know that it was operated in a passenger configuration for sightseeing flights out of Ohakea Air Base around the mid 1990s when still owned by Hallett Griffin.

It was cancelled from the New Zealand register on 16/1/98 and exported to Australia where it was registered VH-WOZ2 to Walair Pty Ltd trading as Walcha Aerial Services at Walcha, NSW on 16/3/98:

VH-WOZ2 photo'd in October 1998

and at Toowoomba in April 1999.  I understand it was the last topdressing Beaver to operate in Australia.  It was cancelled from the Australian register on 8/2/10 after it was purchased by Kairanga Aviation Ltd of Palmerston North - read Hallett Griffin on 19/1/09, and he re-imported it back to New Zealand for his collection of historic topdressing aircraft.

The old Beaver was re-registered as ZK-AZB on 13/9/10 to Griffin Ag Air Ltd of Palmerston North.  It is photo'd above and below at the Wings Over Wairarapa airshow at Masterton on 18/1/13 where it can be seen that it wears Fieldair Ltd titles on its port side and East Coast Services Ltd titles on its starboard side.  It has also now reverted back to the standard circular rear window.

This year, 2024, will bring up 73 years since ZK-AZB first flew in New Zealand which, considering the type of work it flew on, is a most remarkable achievement.