Saturday 3 February 2018

Cessnas ZK-CTB

The Cessna 172H with the construction number 17256488 was allocated the US civil registration of N8288L whilst on the production line at Wichita Kansas in 1967.
This airframe arrived at Ardmore and was assembled by Rex Aviation with the ZK-CTB registration letters being penciled in to B A Morice of Napier. 
These marks where not taken up an it first flew at Ardmore on 14-12-1967 evidently with its Australian VH-DQW marks, which were not allocated until the 16th. 
It departed NZ on 18-12-1967 destined for Norfolk Island for its owner B A Morice who traded as 'Air Norfolk'. Whilst at Norfolk it changed hands to C A Haerman  and then back again to B A Morice from 30-07-1975. 
Photo above shows VH-DQW in Air Norfolk marks from Greg Banfield and the Ed Coates collection.

It arrived back in NZ in June of 1977 and took up the ZK-EKD registration on 15-07-1977.
Below we have a photo of ZK-EKD as seen at Rukuhia on 05-11-1977 by Peter Lewis.
The Mercury Bay Aero Club at Whitianga took it over from 18-12-1986. 
It had an engine failure on 27-12-1988 and was ditched at Hot Water Beach on the Coromandel Peninsula. Its registration was cancelled on 18-04-1989.

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Now for the real ZK-CTB that we know. 

This Cessna 150H (c/n 15068315) was allocated the US civil registration of N22490 whilst on the production line. In the event it was sold to NZ and these US marks were not taken up. 
Instead it became ZK-CTB and went to Rex Aviation (NZ) Ltd at Ardmore as the NZ agents.
Rex operated the Auckland, Paraparaumu and Christchurch Flying Schools.
It was assembled for the Auckland Flying School with whom it was registered on 10-04-1968, although it did spend some time at the Paraparaumu branch.
These first two photos are thanks to Allan Wooller and show ZK-CTB at Paraparaumu
 Below at Paraparaumu on 03-09-1969.
On 26-06-1970 ownership passed to Thomas J Krippner - so was presumably based on his strip.
It then moved on to the Waikato Aero Club at Hamilton from 26-04-1973 .
Above at Hamilton on 17-11-1973 with 'Waikato Aero Club' on cowling.
It was sold to D P Sosich at Hamilton from 11-05-1981.
The Waitomo Aero Club at Te Kuiti took it on from 10-03-1982 followed by G A Lovegrove of Te Kauwhata from 28-04-1989 with a transfer to the Taumaranui Aero Club from 25-06-1990.
It survived a couple of incidents whilst with them - on 20-09-1997 and 24-11-2001.
It then moved to Thames for the Ta Nui Trust from 16-08-2002, then moved down to Nelson for Brent G and J L Ferguson from 20-10-2003.
It then appears to have been leased to the Kaikoura Aero Club from 15-03-2005 through to 19-04-2005 when it returned to Brent Ferguson.
Above on line with the Kaikoura Aero Club on 06-04-2005.
Current owners Colin J and D R Hickman of Te Kuiti have been listed since 01-02-2014.
Seen above at Te Kuiti by Keith Morris on 25-01-2018.

6 comments:

  1. AFAIK CTB came to PP new and remained there all her Flying School days. My memory tells me that Harry Jenkins was keen to sell her to some "locals" so she could remain on line on lease and I thought she went to a guy called Carl Jepson. The price was around $7500! My last flight in her was 25/4/70 after which CXI arrived

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  3. There's the duplicated comment again Dave!

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  5. Hi Thomarse I had the same problem of my comments being duplicated and I found that if I added the comment and then closed out of the blog it only appeared once.

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