About a year ago a long term Tiger Moth restoration project was completed at Tauranga by Tim Galpin. But this was not any old Tiger Moth restoration, although others might have been amazing. This was a restoration of the first Tiger Moth to have flown in New Zealand. ZK-AFO along with ZK-AFN were the first two Tiger Moths to arrive in New Zealand way back in December 1937 on board the MV Port Campbell. They were transported to RNZAF Hobsonville and assembled, and ZK-AFO (c/n 3630) was registered to the Auckland Aero Club on 7 January 1938. That was more than 86 years ago and you would have thought it would be written off somewhere along the way as most aircraft from that era were.
ZK-AFO was operated by the Auckland Aero Club for around 20 months before the clouds of war saw it impressed into the RNZAF on 1 October 1939 as NZ720. Not much is known of its RNZAF service but it would no doubt have been used as a primary trainer along with hundreds of other Tiger Moths in Elementary Flying Training Schools around the country. It survived the war and was struck off charge on 10 June 1948. It was re-registered onto the New Zealand Civil Register as a Government gift aircraft to the Hawera Aero Club, being re-registered as ZK-ASA on the same day. However the Hawera Aero Club did not use their gift Tiger Moth and it was stored until 1950.
The early 1950s saw the beginning of the fledgling aerial topdressing industry in New Zealand and Tiger Moths were cheap and available. So on 4 March 1950 ZK-ASA’s ownership transferred to Tom Withy who was an engineer for Air Contracts, and then on 20 April 1950 it was registered to the newly formed Air Contracts Ltd of Masterton, and it became their Fleet No 1.
It is very interesting and informative to chronicle ZK-ASA’s six year history as an aerial topdresser, and it gives an insight into those days: On 3 May 1950 it struck a fence at Awatoitoi. It was repaired and then on 31 October it was damaged when it taxied into a fuel pump at Masterton. On 3 October 1951 it suffered a wire strike near Martinborough and then on 23 March 1953 it had a forced landing near Masterton. On 10 February 1955 it had another forced landing, this time a Whangaehu and on 24 April 1955 it crashed nat Te Awanga. It was rebuilt again as on 7 September 1955 it crashed again, this time at Matahiwi. Then on 7 April 1956 it hit a loader at Rangitahuna and finally it overturned at Eketahuna on 25 June 1956. I reckon it was quite fortunate to survive its topdressing career!
It was leased to the Wairarapa and Ruahine Aero Club later in 1956 and was converted back to a 2 seater. It was then sold to D B Fraser of Masterton in April 1957 and finally in March 1958 ownership changed to Aerial Advertising Ltd of Nelson, with whom its last flight took place on 13 April 1958. However this was also not the end of the line for the indomitable Tiger Moth as it then made its way to the late John Smith’s collection at Mapua from August 1959. John Smith sold it twenty years later, in January 1979 to P J Burns of Christchurch and then on 27 August 1981 it was acquired by aircraft restorer John Galpin of Te Puke and it has been in the Galpin family ever since.
John Galpin re-registered the Tiger Moth as ZK-AFO in November 1981 but that lapsed until it was restored to the register by John’s son Tim Galpin at Tauranga on 12 July 2019. Tim has now completed the restoration to an excellent standard including restoring it to its original colours, and it is now flying at Tauranga as shown in these great photos by Warwick Hamilton taken on 15 February.
Thanks to Peter Lewis and Warwick Hamilton for providing photos and to Dave Paull for the history.
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