6 minute read
WHEN THE GOING WAS GOOD
Just as New Zealanders are being urged to do something new this summer, the Air Chathams DC-3 is here to help. Step aboard this grand old dame of the skies for a trip back in time to the fabulous fifties and swinging sixties when everyone wore hats, it was pounds, shillings and pence, and Kiwis were learning to fly.
In the late 1940s, as New Zealand and pretty much everywhere emerged from years of austerity and loss, it was too soon for most to realise that the Second World War had also brought something of a sea change in transportation. Air travel, once the preserve of prime minsters (rock stars hadn’t been invented yet) had become commonplace to our men and women in uniform – and it was about to become available to the rest of us.
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National Airways Corporation (NAC) air hostess uniforms 1965. NAC went on to be merged with Air New Zealand. AEPK 20231 W2774 (R14847710)
New airfields had been built to serve the war effort (see page 11), young Kiwis had learnt to fly and fix state of the art aircraft, and wartime mass production meant those aircraft were suddenly available in huge numbers. A revolution in affordable air travel had arrived on our doorstep.
And leading that revolution was the Douglas DC-3. It had first appeared prior to World War II and it was instrumental in opening up international and long-haul flights. Its range and passenger and cargo carrying capability were largely unrivalled, and for many in the 1930s the DC-3 was their introduction to air travel. With the outbreak of war in 1939 however, the DC-3 found a new military role – and it was one it excelled at: in C-47 guise the aircraft was an essential part of the Allied return to Europe, dropping paratroops behind enemy lines on D-Day, and in 1948-49 it helped feed an entire city, carrying food and fuel during the Berlin Airlift. Though production ceased in the late 40s, the DC-3 just kept on keeping on, in military applications as well as in civil aviation and as a workhorse for industry.
Douglas DC-3 Dakota airplane, taking off from Royal New Zealand Air Force Station, Whenuapai, Waitakere City, 1948. WA-13607-F Whites Aviation Collection, Alexander Turnbull Library
Image by Jonathan Sieuw
In New Zealand, the DC-3 did everything from carrying cargo to mapping the nation and dusting crops, but more importantly for many Kiwis it was their introduction to flight. Visit any regional airport worth its salt and they’ll be black and white photographs of yesteryear, invariably with sleek silver DCs parked with their noses pointing into the sky and the future; they got Kiwis everywhere up, up and away and that’s probably why the DC-3 still has a place in our collective hearts.
Air Chathams’ venerable DC-3 – rescued by founder Craig Emeny and known to her friends as ZK-AWP – was built in 1945 and joined the Royal New Zealand Air Force fleet at the end of World War II.
She spent her early days bringing servicemen back from the Pacific warzone and then flew military supply drops in New Zealand, but she was soon back in action during the Malayan Campaign. In 1952 she hung up her uniform and joined the New Zealand National Airways Corporation or NAC, the fore-runner of Air New Zealand domestic, and it was at this time that she picked up her civilian moniker of ZK-AWP. In 1963 she underwent refurbishment to DC-3 Skyliner status with larger windows, a better public address system, sound proofing, new carpets, curtains, and name – Kaitaia – and a shiny NAC paint job. And that is the livery she now proudly wears again.
Getting her back to this condition has been a long road however. After leaving NAC, Kaitaia ended up in Western Samoa, worked as a topdressing aircraft, and then narrowly avoided being broken up in 1986 when her then owners tossed a coin to decide which of their two DCs was headed for ‘permanent retirement’.
For many years she flew freight – always a DC-3 standby – and her name and ownership changed several times. Fitted with longrange fuel tanks she crossed the Tasman and flew outback tours around Australia before relocating to Tonga, which is where Craig Emeny, the founder of Air Chathams, found her in a somewhat neglected state in 2009.
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Emeny purchased the aircraft and after an extensive overhaul she returned to service in 2010, with 48,862 hours logged, and in 2012 flew back to New Zealand, where once more she became ZK-AWP and was registered to Air Chathams.
But hauling freight and dusting crops is no longer Kaitaia’s calling. Instead she is to be found up where she belongs, out and about in regional New Zealand showing Kiwis what it was like to take to the skies when the going was good. She’ll be in the Bay of Plenty at Tauranga’s Classic flyers event in November and December (with return appearances in late January and then February and March), at the Kāpiti Coast Airport and the Bayleys Whanganui Vintage Weekend in January, and proudly supporting Eastern Bay of Plenty Hospice in Whakatāne in February.
So to try something new, to take the kids back in time – or, if you’re of a certain age, a walk down memory lane – check airchathams.co.nz for all the details and we’ll see you up there!
