Sunday 19 September 2010

Beavers & Beavers # 3 ZK-BMF

De Havilland Canada DHC-2 Beaver ZK-BMF c/n 948 was imported into NZ by DHNZ of Wellington, I believe in about October of 1956. 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.
It joined the Fieldair Ltd fleet at Gisborne from 24-04-1961.
Two views of ZK-BMF at Wellington on 27-05-1964.
Repaired following damage earlier in the month.

It was damaged on at least three occasions :- In May of 1964 (don't know where). On 04-10-1974 at Palmerston North and near Gisborne on 23-11-1981.
ZK-BMF at Dannevirke on 02-03-1969.

ZK-BMF at Dannevirke in September of 1969.
Like the rest of the fleet it passed through the Company name changes to Fieldair Holdings (Central) Ltd, Palmerston North on 18-11-80 and to Fieldair Holdings Ltd on 30-03-1984.
After being withdrawn it was stored at Gisborne until rebuilt to passenger configuration by Frank Wright of Tauranga; being registered to Frank & Kay Wright on 18-09-1991.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.
Some more NZ pics of it appear on the link below.
http://www.kiwibeavers.com/BMF.html
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
I believe in late1998 it became N998CL but can find no reference as such. It moved to N712TS on 07-12-2000 with Hans Munich of East Sound, Washington.
Some pics of it appear on the following link.
http://www.dhc-2.com/id642.htm
Sadly it disappeared on 20-09-2004 with five persons aboard.
http://www.ntsb.gov/ntsb/brief.asp?ev_id=20041015X01635&key=1

2 comments:

  1. Thanks-Another trip down memory lane...as a young kid used to work in the DH hangar during school holidays...a few Beavers used to come there and mostly my job was to scrap encrusted super off the hopper area.. :-)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Yo Ian.
    Character building stuph I would imagine.

    ReplyDelete