Eighty four Cessna 180/185 aircraft attended the Weekend fly-in at Omaka to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the first flight of the prototype Cessna 180 N41697 c/n 604 on 26th May 1952.
The photograph below was taken by Agairnz on Sunday afternoon which shows ZK-CBS at the bottom of the shot taxiyng out for its demonstration.
There are only 83 180/185's in this line up as ZK-CBF attended on the Saturday only.
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Off the top of my head I cannot tell you which Cessna 180 first flew in NZ but ZK-BDB, ZK-BDC, ZK-BDD, ZK-BDE, ZK-BDF and ZK-BDU were all registered here on the 11-08-1953.
Of this batch ZK-BDB c/n 30462, ZK-BDD c/n 30463 and ZK-BDE c/n 30459 are still current.
The earliest production Cessna 180 in NZ is ZK-WGT with c/n 30012 which was registered here on 05-01-2007; with ZK-BKG c/n 30376 the next numerically; which joined our register on 05-10-1955.
ZK-AZZ was also registered on that day. ZK-BDB is back on the register too.
ReplyDeleteMorning Peter.
ReplyDeleteYes you are correct. I have a note that ZK-AZZ was also apparently inspected by the then CAA on 11-08-1953. But I have a clash of dates with its US export CofA dated 21-08-1953, its NZ CofA issued on 06-01-1954 and delivery date of 08-01-1954.
Also correct re ZK-BDB being still current (I photographed it during the weekend). I have added it to my original blog above. I still think of it as ZK-CWL.
Thanks for that.
I seen to recall that Phil Lightband told me BDF was the first to fly?
ReplyDeleteRegarding BDF and substantiating Thomarse's comment I see Allan on 31 March 2015 at 17:11 reports "Thanks Blue Bus our first operational C180. Great photo.s"
ReplyDelete