Beavers and Beavers #3 ZK-BMF - Update

ZK-BMF was one of the Beavers that Dave Paull posted about back in 2010 and you can find his post HERE   However I have been able to do a bit more digging and so here is an update:

DHC-2 Beaver ZK-BMF c/n 948 was built by De Havilland Canada in August 1956 and imported into NZ by the De Havilland Aircraft Company of New Zealand Ltd of Wellington in October of 1956 and was registered to them. It was not assembled immediately but stored until February 1958. It first flew at Wellington on 04-03-1958 and was used by DH as a demonstrator as in the above photo.  The colour of the fuselage stripe was blue with a maroon lower fuselage.  I do not have a record of who took the photo or where it is.

Murray Kirkus has sent in a colour photo of it taken at Rongotai in October or November 1959:

It was registered to Fieldair Ltd of Gisborne on 24/4/61 and was painted in their standard blue and white scheme as in this photo taken by Dave Paull at Wellington on 27/5/64 after repairs following an incident where it swung on landing on an ag strip at Te Whero and hit a concrete roller and overturned.  As with nearly all ag aircraft in New Zealand it suffered further accidents - on 4/10/74 near Palmerston North and on 23/11/81 near Gisborne.

At Gisborne on 28/8/68,

At Dannevirke on 25/7/74,

Following the various Fieldar reorganisations its ownership transferred to Fieldair Holdings (Central Ltd) of Palmerston North on 18/11/80 and then to Fieldair Holdings Ltd of Palmerston North on 30/3/84, wearing various versions of the Fieldair yellow scheme, as here at Waipukurau on 1/8/76,

And here at Napier on 5/4/80.  Both of these photos are by Bob Kerr via the AustAirData website.

After being withdrawn it was stored at Gisborne until rebuilt to passenger configuration by Frank Wright of Tauranga; being registered to Frank & Kay Wright on 18-09-1991.  It was sold abroad and cancelled from the NZ register on 13-08-1992.  I can't find a photo of it as ZK-BMF after its rebuild by Frank Wright, but as usual he made a lovely job of it.  I include the photo of it below as C-FGAL as it shows the colour scheme that Frank painted it in.  Does anyone have a photo of ZK-BMF in this scheme?

On 14-08-1992 it appeared on the Canadian register as C-FGAL with Glacier Air Ltd of Fort James, British Columbia until being canceled on 22-12-1998.  It moved to N712TS on 07-12-2000 with Hans Munich of East Sound, Washington State.  Then it went to Seair Adventures LLC of Washington State and then to Harris Aircraft Services Inc of Sitka in Alaska.  Tragically it disappeared on 20-09-2004 near or on Sitka Island with five persons aboard and it has never been found.