Saturday 22 August 2009

De Havilland DH83C Fox Moth ZK-APT.

Some eleven ZK registrations have been allocated to the De Havilland DH82 Fox Moth.
Four of these were Canadian built - their c/n's being in the FM** range.
The most obvious external differences between the UK built and the Canadian built aircraft being the sliding canopy and a tail wheel on the Canadian produced DH83C versions.
ZK-APT , c/n FM48 , first flew here on 12-11-1947 and was officially registered to the Marlborough Aero Club on the 19th and gained its C of A on the 24th. The Club used it for freight and charter work. It was not long before it was damaged at Bluff Station on 07-03-1948 when it was blown over a cliff. The damaged aircraft was rafted down the Clarence River and freighted to Wellington. It was Jannuary 1949 before it was again airworthy. It was damaged again on 29-03-1951 at Waiau, rebuilt at Christchurch to fly again on 26-07-1951.
In November 1956 ownership passed to Henry Buchanan who traded as West Coast Flying Service and then to Coast Aviation Ltd and a Phoenix Airways followed by Tom Furse of Sounds Scenic Flights Ltd.
It had a mishap at Arawhata on 10-11-1958 when it struck a stump. It was ultimately grounded by CAA in 1962 with the remains going to Stan Smith some time later.
In the mid 1970's a group in the Auckland area built five new fuselages; one of these went to Stan Smith for the ZK-APT rebuild with the original fuselage ending up at MoTaT where it remains today on display.
Now after many years of storage and more recent years of restoration it flew again fron North Shore on 23-06-2009.
The upper shot shows it minus cowls, exposing its Gipsy Major engine (I assume its a 1C model) and its metal prop.
Lower shot shows a portion of the three seat interior. A single seat directly behind the engine facing rearward and a side by side seat ahead of the cockpit facing forward.
These two photo's have been kindly provided by Sir Minty and where captured today at North Shore airfield.

4 comments:

  1. Ever since that days of David Lillico (he used to date the girl next door when I was a kid) and Fox Moth ZK-ASP I've always had the ambition to fly in a Fox Moth. I've had a couple of attempts since but weather/unserviceability/acts of god have always prevented fulfilment.
    I still hope - one day!

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  2. I have a photograph of ZK ASP on the Beach at Great Mercury Island after it had some sort of a mishap. I was about to sling it using a RNZAF Iroquois NZ 3811. It was a rush job because the tide was coming in.

    my blog is http://topbirdsandeveryfing.typepad.com/top-birds-everyfing/

    You can contact me there if you wish

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  3. Chris - I'd like to see that photo. Myles described that event to me (many years ago) and the only photo I've seen is a b&w newspaper clipping photo he had.

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  4. Just looked up my fathers old flight log book - he tested this aircraft and issued it’s Certificate of Airworthiness on 12/11/1947. A 25 minute flight ��

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