Sunday 25 September 2016

Question time # 168 revisited. HELP please.

We have had a plea from RESTORER 

"ZK AQK has had the wings repaired ready to do a trial fitting, the fuse has been repaired almost ready to repaint".

 Does anyone know what the original colour was ?




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Below is the original QT # 168

Question time # 168. Proctor ZK-AQK


The first note I have on this Percival P.44 Proctor 5 ZK-AQK (c/n Ae.79) is that it was listed to Percival Aircraft Ltd and also to Paulo Periera Ignacio from 04-10-1946 through until 24-09-1947.
The NZ agent L E Clark took it on from 11-12-1947 followed by J R C Killian of Gisborne from 13-05-1948.
Pic below is an early from the Ed Coates collection.
About mid October of 1952 it went to Queenstown for Southern Scenic Air Services Ltd, and eight years later (28-10-1960) to B R R Cragg at Omaka.
Next in line appears to be Central Aviation Ltd of Roxburgh; and then I have a B Wells of Mosgiel.
I believe it was withdrawn from use at Roxburgh in 1965 and its registration was cancelled on 04-06-1966.
Further guardians appear to include Scotts Engineering Ltd in Christchurch, who operated Proctor ZK-AQZ at about this time. It (AQK) was noted as derelict at Woolston in 1972.
Philip Burns of Dunsandel seem to have re-registered on 10-11-1977.
At some point it moved to the Ashburton Aviation Museum and its registration was cancelled on 24-01-1991.
It was at Russell Brodie's Rangitata Island property from 2003 and is photographed below on 20-04-2014 as it was about to be transported back to the Ashburton Aviation Museum.
 ZK-AQK pushed out from its storage space at Rangitata Island with strops already attached for lifting purposes. Its space already partially filled by a Tiger Moth rebuild project.

If you can add to the historical details of this aircraft - feel free to add a comment.

2 comments:

  1. See
    http://forum.keypublishing.com/showthread.php?131582-New-Zealand-Percival-aircraft/page2

    about 2/3rd of the way down the page.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I can provide a bit of history on this aircraft. I purchased it on March 19th 1964 when it had about 12 weeks left to run on the C of A, for the price of a magneto overhaul (somewhere around £195). I knew it wouldn't fly again after that because of the casin glue scare. I did 42 hours flying around N Z until late June of '64 after screwing 2 C of A extensions out of the Department. (I was a L.A.M.E). When I left for Australia in early September, I signed the Change of Ownership and pinned it on the noticeboard in the hanger at Mosgiel Airport. I might ad that it was a beautiful aircraft to fly, and have always maintained that if it had been re-engineered in metal, it would have left the 'new Cessna's' that were just rearing their heads for dead - faster, quieter, smoother. Forgive the ramblings of an old man.

    ReplyDelete