Paul Drake has sent in this photograph of the Fokker F27 Friendship
ZK-BXI (c/n 10286) taken yesterday (05-05-2012) sitting outside hangar number 4 at Christchurch in the drizzle.
Note that the wings are missing as is the rear fuselage - which is parked in the background. It is parked next to ZK-BXH.
This hangar had been emptied out of all its fixed wing aircraft a couple of weeks back presumably to allow for a clean up and to re-organise parking spots. The two larger aircraft parked outside to allow room for the the assembly of the BAe Jetstream ZK-JSI which has arrived, the fuselage of which is currently sitting on a cradle inside the hangar.
Pic above from Paul Drake showing ZK-BXI outside the Engineering Training hangar 05-05-2012.
Below of view of ZK-BXI as it was, tucked away in the back corner of hangar 4.
Also on site is the Fokker Friendship
ZK-BXH (c/n 10190) as seen outside its hangar on 17-04-2012.
Below is a view inside its cockpit - looking like its about ready to go.
Below - on its nose door is a reminder of where some of the trainees have come from that have spent time working on this airframe.
Below: A third ex Air New Zealand Fokker Friendship resides in Christchurch.
ZK-BXG (c/n 10189) now sits at the Ferrymead Museum awaiting the angle grinder, plus I guess time and money, before being sectioned and placed on display beside the Vickers V807 Viscount ZK-BRF.
Below: Friendship number four is a Fairchild built example which is used by the airport crash fire team. This was N385BA.
The interior of N385BA is not quiet as pristine as that of ZK-BXH.
.JPG)
.JPG)
.JPG)
+-+Copy.JPG)
.JPG)
.JPG)
Of interest is that ZK-BXH is the "most complete" and genuine F27 of the lot. There have been occasions when the trainee engineers have started the engines and even taxiied the aircraft from one taxiway to another. But not of recent times. When ZK-BXI was originally withdrawn from Air NZ service it spent some time parked up but was ultimately restored to an airworthy state, painted white and yellow and even completed a test flight. However nothing more eventuated and when sold, it was scrapped for airworthy parts. Literally this meant everything was pulled off it - engines, undercarriage, ailerons, elevators etc; You will also recall that ZK-BXG was donated to the Air Force Museum at Wigram and was very complete - however when the Museum chose not to convert ZK-BXG to look like an RNZAF version, Air NZ then re-claimed the tail, wings, undercarriage, engines etc and initially re-joined them all onto ZK-BXI. So, for a while there were two practically complete Friendships for the trainee engineers to tinker with. Ultimately, what was left of ZK-BXG went to Ashburton and one thing led to another - some of the "original bits" were re-joined to the fuselage for display purposes - but not the undercarriage. Nonetheless it is nice to see what is left of them. Cheers Paul Drake
ReplyDeleteThanks Paul for that most informative comment.
ReplyDeleteSo I guess that helps to explain the ownership change for BXI (which had been stored at NZCH from 09-1990) to American Aircraft Co of Christchurch on 06-11-1992.
I then have it as cancelled on 12-07-1995 and parted out.