Beaver ZK-CKH

After Air Contracts had received their first two Beavers, another one arrived for Air Services (Wairarapa) Ltd also of Masterton who were I think closely linked to Air Contracts at the time.

This "new" Beaver was registered ZK-CKH but it has the longest history of any of the New Zealand Beavers being the 25th aircraft off the DH Canada production line at Downsview, Ontario, in 1948.  It was delivered to South Africa to become ZS-DCG for De Havilland Aircraft of South Africa (Pty) Ltd on 24/11/48 and then to Tank Aircraft (Pty) Ltd of Johannesburg.  It was flown to Libya in 1961 where it became G-ARTR for B L R Pocock of Old Bosham, Sussex, England on 5/10/61 and while in Libya it wore "Libyan Aviation contracted to CAMDRILL" titles.  It was back in England by mid 1964 and then was cancelled from the UK register on 7/8/64 and shipped to New Zealand where it arrived on 7/10/64.

ZK-CKH (c/n 25) was assembled by Hawker Siddeley at Wellington and was registered to Air Services (Wairarapa) Ltd of Masterton on 21/12/64.  It was delivered soon after and was flown by Air Services' chief pilot Neil Middlemiss.  This photo is on a maintenance visit to Wellington in 1965.

It is photo'd here at Masterton on 25/3/67

And again on 3/10/73 with different script for the titles.

It was withdrawn from service in November 1974 for a Certificate of Airworthiness overhaul and did not fly again until 27/6/78.  I am not sure if this photo was after this work, but it is also at Masterton.  Ownership changed in a restructure on 19/8/80 to Air Services (1979) Ltd of Masterton.

On 2/9/82 ownership changed to Des Menary of Kaikohe who traded as Asta Aerial and I guess these were the colours when he operated it.  Later ownership changed briefly to James Aviation Ltd of Hamilton on 8/5/84 and the above photo was taken at Rukuhia on 5/2/84.

On 1/6/84 ownership changed again to Eddie F Doherty, Bruce N Coulter and Ian C Reynolds of Auckland and I think they were the founding members of the Beaver Syndicate of NZ Warbirds.  I am not sure where or when the above photo was taken but it could be in late 1984 or early 1985 as during 1985 ZK-CKH was painted to represent the RNZAF Antarctic Flight Beaver NZ6001, named "City of Auckland".  It has since had another repaint.

On 20/3/02 ownership changed to the Beaver Preservation Trust of Auckland with whom it still flies for NZ Warbirds, 22 years later.  The above photo was taken at the Kaipara Flats Wings and Wheels day on 19/5/24

ZK-CKH is quite a remarkable aircraft whose history goes back almost to when I was born, and there are 59 years between the first and last photos that I took of her above!