Earlier this month I posted about the “grandfathers axe” Tiger Moth ZK-ATN that has been restored by NZ Warbirds. This aircraft was partly built in the UK by the de Havilland Aircraft Company and was first bought on charge with the RNZAF in November 1940, and had a long and now restored life. Then I came across another Tiger Moth with a similarly long history with New Zealand connections that goes back to January 1941.
DH Tiger Moth c/n MCO/DH/2284 was built in the UK by Morris Motors at Cowley and was bought on charge with the RAF as T-7842 on 25 January 1941. It spent its wartime service operated by 21 EFTS at Booker with time out for repairs and storage. After the war it continued with training RAF pilots with 11 EFTS at Perth in Scotland and then further storage until being sold on 25 March 1951 to Michael J Spence trading as Aerocontacts Ltd of Gatwick, who registered it G-AMTF on 11 June 1952.
It was cancelled from the UK civil register on 25 October 1952 and exported to New Zealand where it became ZK-AVE for Robertson Air Service Ltd of Hamilton on 29 June 1953, and was converted to a topdresser. Robertson Air Services had at that time registered Tiger Moths ZK-AVA, AVB, AVC AVD and AVE. ZK-AVE was leased to Barwell Aero Culture Ltd of Hastings from December 1956 (where it was named Bessie II), but it was repossessed by Robertsons in 1957. Then on 25 January 1959 it was registered to the Southland and Otago Aerial Topdressing Co Ltd of Dunedin.
On 24 August 1961 ownership changed to J Black of Waipahi South (between Gore and Clinton) then on 9 April 1962 to Gore Aero Engineering followed closely on 11 August 1962 to L A M Thompson of Clinton. Under his ownership it was cancelled from the register as Withdrawn from Use on 8 October 1963 and it was then stored for a long time. The above photo must be of ZK-AVE in its post topdressing days in the early 1960s.
The Tiger Moth surfaced again in 1994 when it was registered to the Croydon Aircraft Co Ltd of Mandeville on 12 July 1994, where it had no doubt been restored over the intervening years. However this iteration of ZK-AVE was very short as it crashed at Queenstown on 19 July 1994 and went back to Mandeville for repairs. I assume the above photo, from the Croydon Aircraft Co facebook page was taken during its short flying life. After the Queenstown accident it was repaired and cancelled from the New Zealand Civil Register as Exported, on 5 July 1995.
After 43 years it returned to the UK to be registered with its old registration G-AMTF on 5 July 1995, painted up in its original RAF training scheme as T-7842 that had been applied in New Zealand. After several English owners and a period in Belgium as OO-TMW it returned to the UK to be registered G-AMTF again with Hamish AD Munro at Headcorn in Kent on 17 November 2006. It suffered a forced landing near Hollingbourne in Kent on 30 November 2012 but was repaired and it is still current as can be seen in the above photo which was taken on 2 April 2023.
At 83 years old and after a very interesting life, another Tiger Moth survivor!
