Welcome back to the Piper PA-18A Super Cub ZK-AZJ

 The first Piper PA-18 Super Cub registered in New Zealand was the PA-18A-135 ZK-AZJ, c/n 18-1279, on 05-05-1952. 

It was imported by the New Zealand Piper Aircraft agents - Airwork (NZ) Ltd of Christchurch.

Its first flight in NZ was on 20-08-1952 (with a previous test flight in the USA on 14-03-1952) and was a dedicated agricultural aircraft - as the 'A' in the designation infers.
 Airwork used it in this role until withdrawing it on 08-03-1958. During its time with Airwork it was referred to as 'The Lazy Jay'.

After the end of its agricultural duties it was rebuilt as a two seater and first flew as such on 23-08-1958 and went on hire to the Canterbury Aero Club.

Above we have a photo by Neville Worsley of it at Wellington Airport on 25-10-1959 in two seat configuration. 

Note it has flaps and a door on the upper fuselage between the flaps.

In July of 1962 it was sold to J B Douglas-Clifford of Stoneyhurst near Motunau in North Canterbury.

It was known to have had dual main wheels fitted in 1963.

It was withdrawn and stored for many years until it was transferred to Timothy Douglas-Clifford from 24-11-2010.

It was moved to Nelson with some restoration works caried out, but went into storage again until delivered to Taieri in about 2021 for the 'full works' which was recently completed by Tyler Bauman of Supercraft Aircraft Support Ltd.

I was fortunate to get a good peek at it at Taieri back on 12-11-2024 (above and below) but was asked to hold off blogging any photos until AZJ was 'officially' completed.

First post rebuild flight was I believe on the 23rd.

Above is a recent photograph of ZK-AZJ taken at Taieri.

Check out their site at   https://www.supercraft.nz/