Piper PA-28 Cherokee 50th Fly in Ashburton.

Over the period of January 14, 15 and 16th a fly in was held by the Ashburton Aviation Museum at the Ashburton Airfield to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the first flight of the Piper PA-28 Cherokee on January the 14th 1960.
Below is a small selection of the thirty three PA-28's that were noted over the weekend.

ZK-BZB c/n 28-627 is a Cherokee 160 which joined our register on 25-07-1962 via Airwork for the Canterbury Aero Club. Ownership changed to J G Rutherford on 25-07-1967 with it being hired back to the Canterbury Club. After damage on 21-08-1972 it went to the NAC Sports & Social Club at Christchurch followed by several private owners. Its current owner Rex Brereton of Halcombe features from 18-11-2007. Above it is wearing a gold upper engine cowling to celebrate this Golden occasion.

ZK-CIJ c/n 28-20230 is a PA-28-140 Cherokee. Another Canterbury Club machine imported via Airwork. First registered on 18-11-1964. It was returned to Airwork in October of 1971 followed by a hire to the Wellington Aero Club.Between mid 1973 and late 1995 it lived in the Seddon/Blenheim area until being acquired by its current owner Raewyn Irvine of Timaru

ZK-CUA c/n 28-23318 is a PA-28-140 Cherokee now preserved in the Ashburton Aviation Museum. First registered with Airwork on 04-07-1967 for delivery to the Canterbury Aero Club.

An earlier blog featured this aircraft.

ZK-CUD c/n 28-23557 is another PA-28-140 Cherokee initially registered by Airwork on 17-10-1967 for the Northland Districts Aero Club. After a number of other owners it is now with Bruce Reeves of Te Awamutu and carries the name "Cuddles".

ZK-DUN c/n 28-7415503 is a PA-28-151 Cherokee Warrior. Airwork listed this on 03-10-1974 for the Whakatane District Flying Club. Again it has had a batch of owners until obtained by the Dun-Air Partnership (Ross St George) of Palmerston North in October of 1987.

ZK-ENV c/n 28-7790284 is a PA-28-181 Cherokee Archer II . First listed on 06-10-1978 to the Eagle Flying Academy at Hamilton. Its current owner, the D E Mitchell Family Trust of Invercargill listed it from 11-06-1999.

ZK-JSS c/n 28R-7837203 is a PA-28R-201 Arrow III. As the c/n implies this is a product of 1978 and was initially used in the USA before ferrying out to NZ in October of 1990 for J S Spry of Wellington (hence the ZK-JSS registration) from 28-09-1990. After a period with Juliet Sierra Sierra Ltd of Johnsonville from mid 1994 until May of 1996 it went to Brian Swan of Dunedin.

ZK-KLA c/n 28-7790155 is an Archer with a more complex history. Built in 1977 it went to Australia as VH-BRY until being damaged. It was moved to NZ to the Aircraft Rebuild Syndicate for repair and assembly by Avtek at Timaru for listing as ZK-PIR on 21-02-1997. Its first NZ operator being the North Otago Aero Club. On 07-04-2008 it was listed to K J & L P Anderson of Mosgiel who re-registered it the same day, using their initials, as ZK-KLA.