The Dak's Final Flight

[ardypilot]

This Labour Weekend, ZK-DAK heads down to New Plymouth from Ardmore for a final flight before being completely repainted over at NZPM by Field Air.

I decided to take that flight today, using VFR and following the extremely accurate RBE topo addon's NZ Roads, to fly along the route I drove earlier this year down to a cousins wedding in Urenui.

I set the payload to nearly empty, only 1 or 2 pax in real life today, and about 30% of the usual full load of fuel needed for the journy.

I then took off and followed the Southern Motorway down past Huntly, then followed the Waikato river to Ngaruawahia. Once I reached the old Maori capital, I turned to State Highway 3, and headed south past Mount Pirongia, and Otorohanga until I reached Te Kuiti, then headed towards the West coast to Mokau and Mount Messenger before being close enough to tune into New Plymouth ATC who cleared me for landing on runway 32, after 1 hour and 20 minutes, cruising at 140kias at 3000 feet using real world weather.

While the screenshots I took were not that brilliant, I was hugely impressed by the RBE road system which represented exactly what I remembered in real life. Take Mount Messenger for example:

All these twists are there as you ascend up the hill in real life! If you have the RBE topo, then why not try this flight, or a simular flight for yourself? B)

[Charl]

Nice post Andrew. It's great to be able to have usable VFR features, I've gotten lost once or twice in a non-IFR aircraft out in iffy weather (you think this doesn't happen? Read the Civil Accident Register) and then been saved at 500ft by a road going my way. Powerlines too, in the RBE scheme of things, although I've never manged to pin those down to take me home.

[Blackmagic]

Ah I see the great editing tool has been used again!

And that is why Forums suck!

[Jenks]

Since the Dak is going in for a repaint I wondered if anyone else remembered what it looked like last time it was up for repaint. Time to dig around in my old files...

Found this one of ZK-DAK at Hood aerodrome Masterton.



While I was digging around in my DC3 files I thought I'd share some more 'days gone by' images of various DC3s that operated in and around Wellington.

In the mid to late 1980s it was quite common to see these three operating out of Wellington International. Fieldair Freight/Speedlink operated ZK-AWP, ZK-AMR and ZK-BBJ for a few years on a regular run.

ZK-BBJ in July 1987



ZK-AWP on the same day



ZK-AMR in November 1987 (Note the crushed wingtip - she wasn't going to be flying that day!)



Sometimes you'd come across all three parked up like this.



A decade later and ZK-AWP was still around in the guise of Classic Air, note the big windows, and she had a luxury interior fitout. Pictured here at an airshow at Paraparaumu in 1995,



Sadly the days of DC3s being commonplace are long gone. Long may ZK-DAK continue to fly



Steve

[Alex]

Nice pics all.

Alex

[Ian Warren]

Great pics Steve ,had a very sore head back in 86/7 , ride from ch to welly and back , not sure if it was the pilots trying to hold me down or the brilliant? !! southerly yeah loved the rough , cleared up on return to CH , oh well can't have it both ways

[gokanru]

ZK-AWP has certainly been around but she is still in my flight sim and always will be.Sadly she is no longer in New Zealand but she is still flying.Last I heard I think she was in the Islands,I may be wrong but I think it's Tonga.she went to Pionair for a while and I think they may have leased her to the Tongans I beleive under a four year contract.I think the Tongans have now purchased her.God help her.She is a great aircraft.

[AlisterC]

Very cool old birds, and great to see those old photos. They look almost new back in the 80s

[ardypilot]

Great snaps Jenks! Thanks for sharing mate.