Beavers and Beavers #12 ZK-CMW - Update

Fieldair's fourteenth Beaver was ZK-CMW which came to them by a circuitous route.  Dave Paull has posted its history back in 2010 and you can see that HERE   I cannot add to its history which was complete in the 1990s, but I can add some more photos.

De Havilland DHC-2 Beaver , c/n 1084 , was delivered to DH Australia on 20/10/57 and joined the Aerial Agricultural Pty Ltd fleet as VH-AAL3 on 19/12/57. It moved over to Robby's Aerial Services of Parafield, South Australia on 24/1/63 as VH-RAL.  Its Australian registration was cancelled on 10/8/65 on export to NZ

It was registered to Air Contracts Ltd of Masterton on 4/9/65 as ZK-CMW. It arrived at Hawker Siddeley's at Wellington in this Robby's scheme (well at least the cheat line), photo'd here prior to delivery in September 1965.

And here it is with a more pleasing fuller cheat line in the Beaver style, also at Wellington, on a maintenance visit.  It had at least two accidents; both near Pahiatua; first was a wire strike on 14-03-1966. The second was on 19-06-1968.  It was sold in a damaged state to Fieldair Ltd on 03-02-1969.

After repair by Fieldair it was used as a training aircraft as it was fitted with dual controls.  This photo was taken at Palmerston North on 7/4/75 and I guess it never wore the Fieldair blue and white colour scheme. 

It was withdrawn from use on 14-07-1975 having flown 8915 hours. Title moved to Fieldair Holdings (Central) Ltd of Palmerston North on 18-11-1980 until its registration was cancelled on 30-03-1984. It was transferred to the RNZAF Museum at Wigram in January 1986 and was reworked to represent the RNZAF Beaver NZ6001/NZ6010 , c/n 911 , which was lost in an incident on the Beardmore Glacier on 15-01-1960.

It was then transferred to the RNZAF Museum at Wigram in January 1986 and was reworked along with some parts from Beaver ZK-CFU to represent the RNZAF Beaver NZ6001 c/n 911 , which was lost in an accident on the Beardmore Glacier on 15/1/60 (re-serialled as NZ6010).  This photo shows it being prepared for exhibition at Wigram on 27/1/87.

On display at the RNZAF Museum on what remains of the the Wigram Air Base.

To help fill the picture in, here is a photo of the original NZ6001 at Wigram in March 1959, before it was re-serialled NZ6010 (after it was discovered that the RNZAF had previously allocated NZ6001 to a Gloster Meteor).  If you are interested you can see some great historical photos of the original RNZAF Beaver as NZ6001 and NZ6010 HERE  Enjoy!