The resident Super Air turbine Fletcher at Dargaville last Saturday was a new one to me -
ZK-EME (c/n 256).
It seemed to have a mix and match port outer wing panel.
ZK-EME was manufactured by New Zealand Aerospace Industries and was first registered to them on 7/7/78. It was sold to Fieldair Ltd of Palmerston North on 9/10/78. It went through the series of Fieldair restructuring changes, to Fieldair Holdings (Central) Ltd, PN on 6/11/81 and to Fieldair Holdings Ltd, PN on 30/3/84, in whose colours it is photo'd at Masterton on 9/3/85. It was withdrawn at Palmerston North in 1991.
On 22/8/97 ownership transferred to Agtech Air Services Ltd of Dargaville (Peter Butcher) and I think they operated it in the above scheme. I assume this as the above photo was taken at Hamilton in 2003, and ownership transferred to Super Air Ltd on 10/2/03.
Super Air rebuilt ZK-EME in 2005 with a PT6A-34AG engine and fuselage stretch, and it first flew in this colourful guise on 20/11/06 as a Fletcher 2000 Ex. The above photo was taken at Hamilton on 6/6/13. However it is currently registered as a NZ Aerospace FU 24-950.
I came across a spectacular video of ZK-EME topdressing
HERE . I guess it must have been taken from a following helicopter, it is well worth a look.
That's a top video. Thanks for drawing my attention to it.
ReplyDelete