I am posting this series on topdressing DC 3s in alphabetical registration order, but ZK-AZL really deserves more prominence as it was the original Ag Dak from way back in 1954!
Douglas C-47B-35-DK (c/n 16568/33316) was built by The Douglas Aircraft Co, Oklahoma City, OK with 2x 1200HP 14-cyl R-1830-92 Twin Wasp radial engines as 44-76984
18 May 1945 USAAF diverted through “Lend-Lease” and exported to New Zealand, flown to NZ
NZ3545 17 Jun 1945 RNZAF 1 ASU, Hamilton.
22 Jun 1945 RNZAF 1 ARU.
RNZAF 40 Sqn, Whenuapai
Withdrawn from use 24 May 1946 and put in storage . Struck Off Charge 31 May 1947.
ZK-AZL registered on 7 Apr 1953 to NZ National Airways Corp, Wellington. Named “Kuaka”
Was to be spare aircraft for the Royal Tour 1953 so she returned to NZ3545 RNZAF 42 Sqn but she was used as luggage aircraft for the tour.
ZK-AZL very early in its topdressing life at Rongotai on 13/7/54 and below at Ardmore in 1956.
ZK-AZL registered on 10 Apr 1954 to James Aviation Ltd, Hamilton. Converted to topdresser by de Havilland Aircraft (NZ) Ltd at Rongotai. Test flown 4 Jul 1954
First topdressing job 1 Dec 1955. Named “Hi Land Duster”
We now jump forward to 28/8/86 when Don Noble took this nice photo of her at Ardmore.
Several of the James Aviation DC 3s were based at different aerodromes so James developed a way to transport small cars in the back of their D C 3s so the pilots could drive into town at the end of the day - these were Fiat 500s and later Minis. They were driven up ramps through the large rear doors and stowed as shown in the above photo. Ray Deerness has recounted an funny story about one of these cars:
"Years ago, I was told by a Fieldair engineer that he had gone to Blenheim to work on a DC-3. The next morning, the plan was to fly him to Paraparumu to arrive in time for the Auckland train and he would travel on that to Palmy. So all went well at first but the pilot forgot something, so he raced back to Blenheim and then back to Woodbourne but he got a speeding ticket. They got aboard the Dak and over to PPQ but it was getting tight. At PPQ, they got the Mini out of the back and the raced to station BUT got another speeding ticket however they made the train.
So now with two speeding tickets, the pilot had to attend court. The pilot said to the magistrate. "There must be a mistake, I've got another speeding for the same morning. The time was 30+ minutes apart. Surely I could not have been in the South and North Island at the same time." The magistrate looked at the tickets and threw the case out. Over the years, the story got a bit better and different engineers and pilot names were suggested but I never did get the real story."
ZK-AZL was converted to single pilot operation by Airland (NZ) Ltd, Palmerston North, as were all the topdressing D C 3s.
Her last flight was on 4 Sep 1974 @ 14,043 hours flight time, and she was cancelled on 6 Jun 1984.
Later she was displayed at Mystery Creek, near Hamilton Airport, then moved to Te Kowhai, then removed from Te Kowhai to allow for airpark development.
This photo was taken at Te Kowhai at sunrise on 3/6/19. Does anyone know where she is now?
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