An interesting arrival into Queenstown late morning 17 October was the NZ born and bred FU24-954 Fletcher VH-HVP MSN 282. This late model example made the direct, 10 hour 15min flight from Melbourne/Essendon from where it had departed at 2320 local time 16 October.
The aircraft first flew on 16 March 1982 as ZK-EUA and delivered to Central Aviation which was then part of the Mout Cook Group. It went to Mossburn in 1983 and it finished its topdressing days at Weston near Oamaru. At the end of 1985, it was parked up for sale under the trees (as pictured) at Queenstown along with ZK-EMX, ZK-EUC and ZK-EUD. ZK-EUA remained parked at Queenstown for nearly three years until it was ferried north in early August 1988 and on the 22nd of the month it was flown from Auckland to Lord Howe Island and onto Australia where it was to later become VH-HVP. It was operated by Middlebrooks, then Super Air, before heading to Air Pasture who converted it to survey configuration in June 1997. It was used in this role in Western Australia before migrating east to operate with Thompson Aviation out of Griffiths/NSW when their Pacific Aerospace 750XL headed off shore.
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| ZK-EUA at Queenstown, circa mid 80's. |
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| VH-HVP soon after arrival Queenstown 17 October 2017. |
MSN 282 has been listed for sale via Airflite South
