The third single example of a Beaver in the fleet was ZK-CPE for Wanganui Aero Work:
ZK-CPE (c/n 1603) was registered to Aircraft Holdings Ltd of Wanganui on 25/1/66 but was operated by Wanganui Aero Work as can be seen in these 2 photos taken outside the Hawker Siddeley hangar ,in December 1965 prior to its delivery
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It carried the name Moawhango for WAW who named their aircraft after rivers in the lower North Island.
On 15/5/74 ownership transferred to Airwork NZ Ltd of Christchurch, although ti was delivered in April as can be seen in the above photo taken at Timaru on 10/4/74.
It was then repainted in a similar scheme to Beaver ZK-COV which was also operated by Airwork. Here is ZK-CPE at Timaru on 23/3/76.
It suffered an accident at Molesworth Station on 1/9/78 when it overturned after a forced landing and here it is at Kaikoura on 13/4/79 with the registration on the fuselage.
Somewhere along the line it was repainted again into the blue and white scheme, but still as a topdresser with Airwork, as in this photo taken at Rangiora on 5/1/81.
Ownership transferred to Virgo Fisheries of Kaikoura on 9/7/82 and it is photo'd above in freight configuration at Kaikoura on 20/11/83, and below back at Wanganui on 15/7/84.
Then on 16/10/85 ownership transferred to Ross B Jowitt of Auckland and it was then rebuilt over a several year period at Ardmore, with a suggestion that it reappeared painted as a USAF L-20A/U-6A. Did this happen? If so has anyone got a photo of it? It was cancelled from the New Zealand Civil Register on 23/10/98 and shipped back to Canada.
This pretty well ends my series on topdressing Beavers of New Zealand from the heyday of aerial topdressing, but there are a couple of developments still to come, which I will chronicle next.
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