Staggerwings of Central Otago

Over recent years there has been a lot of Beech Staggerwing activity in Central Otago, in Wanaka and more recently in Alexandra:

In this photo taken in the Twenty24 Aviation hangar at Wanaka in August 2022 you can see four Staggerwings in various stages of restoration/completion.  They are Allan Arthur's VH-BBL2 (c/n 6763), VH-AFP2 (c/n 357) which was the Staggerwing used in Antarctica by Admiral Byrd in 1940/41 and is being restored in its Antarctic colours for Australian Cam Hawley, ZK-AMU (c/n 203), the second time around in New Zealand after becoming VH-WEE3 for around 13 years and VH-UXP (c/n 108) which is also Cam Hawley's aircraft that he keeps at Wanaka and which was was restored at Mandeville and test flown from there on 12/5/12.  There is actually a fifth Staggerwing fuselage frame at the end (of which more later).

VH-BBL3 was completed during 2025 as in this photo at Wanaka on 20/3/25.  It was flown to Australia in December 2025.  Thanks for the photos Steve.

ZK-ACU had its restoration completed by Tinshed Aviation of Alexandra and it is photo'd here outside their impressive new hangar.  It was test flown from Alexandra on 15/9/24.

A photo of two Staggerwings outside Tinshed Aviation on 15/10/25.

And to complete the story here is the fifth Staggerwing from the first photo, Don Grant's example arriving at Tinshed Aviation on 30/10/25.  I believe that this will become a New Zealand registered example.