Wanganui Aero Work

On Sunday 14 December 2008, the aircraft departed from Stratford Aerodrome at 0630 hours for a transit flight to a farm airstrip near Tarata. Shortly after becoming airborne the pilot noticed the engine chip detector warning light on the instrument panel was illuminated. He diverted to the company maintenance base at Wanganui aerodrome for the defect to be rectified. The aircraft engineer found a light metallic fuzz on the engine magnetic (mag) plug. The fuzz was cleaned off and the mag plug refitted. The aircraft was released to service with a condition that a further inspection of the mag plug was to be performed after 10 hours flight time. The topdressing job, which involved the spreading of 450 tonnes of lime, had commenced on Thursday 11 December 2008 and continued on Friday 12 December 2008. No flying took place on Saturday 13 December 2008 due to a local horse-riding event being held on the farm property. The aircraft arrived at the farm airstrip at 0940 hours on the Sunday morning, and shortly thereafter commenced operations to complete the spreading of the lime. At the time of the accident, 423 tonnes of lime had been spread. The pilot flew a series of topdressing flights before needing to stop for the first refuel. When interviewed, the loader driver stated that the pilot informed him that he was having some difficulty with the lime product not flowing consistently from the aircraft hopper during the sowing runs. At approximately 1145 hours the pilot stopped again to refuel. On completion of the refuel, this gave the aircraft an estimated fuel load of 300 litres. The pilot completed a further two flights. On the third flight, the aircraft became airborne at the end of the airstrip and then descended 55 feet below the level of the airstrip where the aft fuselage struck a fence line. A concentration of lime along the aircraft’s take-off path indicated that the pilot had initiated an attempt to jettison his load at the end of the airstrip. Following the collision with the fence, the aircraft remained airborne for a further 450 metres before it impacted the side of a small hill in a slight nose down attitude. The aircraft then came to rest 12 metres to the left of the initial impact point. The accident occurred in daylight, at approximately 1155 hours NZDT, at Tarata, at an elevation of 410 feet amsl. Latitude: S39° 08.169', longitude: E174° 21.710'.

The pilot was conducting a topdressing operation in hilly terrain in fine weather. He had stopped sowing and commenced a right hand turn. Considerable height was lost in the turn for reasons undetermined. The aircraft impacted with terrain under power in a 60° banked, 30° nose down attitude. The aircraft was totally destroyed in the impact and post crash fire, the pilot receiving fatal injuries. No technical deficiencies were revealed.

The pilot and loader driver arrived in the morning in ZK-CLI, flying over from Stratford. They had been working at the same farm the previous day. At about 08:35 a break in the operation was taken for refueling. The Fletcher was airborne again at about 08:45 carrying 16 hundredweight ( 815 kgs ) of fertilizer, and the pilot flew towards an area of river flat enclosed in a horseshoe bend in the Patea River, surrounded by higher ground. The loader driver reversed his vehicle to the superphosphate bin and began filling the bucket in preparation for the next sortie. As he did so he heard the sound of an impact and, hurrying back to the airstrip, saw the Fletcher crashed nose down on a hillside above the opposite bank of the Patea River, and about 1,200 metres to the northeast of the strip. The driver estimated that about a minute and a half had elapsed between the take off and the sound of the crash. The aircraft was wrecked. There was no fire. The pilot was found dead. The weather was fine with a light breeze. Flying conditions were not considered to be a factor in the accident. The condition of the propeller showed that the engine was producing power at the time of impact. The gross weight and C of G were within the permitted limits. There was evidence of about 250 kg of fertilizer at the crash site. It is believed that the pilot had carried out two sowing runs on the river flat area and was climbing away steeply to clear an adjacent ridge when control was lost during a turn and the plane dived into the ground.

Crashed in unknown circumstances near Kakatahi. The pilot, sole on board, was killed.

Crashed in unknown circumstances in Raetihi while performing a crop spraying mission. The pilot, sole on board was injured.

The pilot was the holder of a Commercial Pilot Licence and had recently completed an agricultural flying training course at Wanganui. On the 6th of July, 1964 he was doing further practice flying to increase his experience in the FU24 before commencing agricultural flying work. He was briefed by the chief pilot to load the hopper of ZK-BOA with about 8 hundredweight (896 pounds /407 kg) of sand and to proceed to an approved low-flying practice area and familiarise himself with the feel of the aircraft at the threshold of a stall, but not to incur a full stall. This exercise was to be carried at a height of between 1,000 and 1,500 feet. The plane was seen by a number of eyewitnesses in the Mosstown area, about five miles from the airport, to be flying both low and slow. One witness, a 150-hour pilot, said he was perturbed by the height, speed, and type of flying being undertaken. He estimated the height to be between 150 and 200 feet while making low speed runs and turns, and at times the nose of the Fletcher would pitch down followed by an increase in engine noise. Impact with the ground was not observed by anyone, but one person who had seen the plane flying at between 100 and 200 feet heard the thud of the crash two or three minutes later.

ZK-BHT had been fitted with a 6.6 hp Kohler 4-stroke, fan cooled, Auxiliary Power Unit. The purpose of this unit was to drive the aircraft's spray system. This arrangement was used with only moderate success in the application of non-inflammable liquids from the air. After trials final approval for the use of the system was granted by the Airworthiness Division of the CAA. At some point of time after the 15th of January 1957 the aircraft operator began to use the aircraft for the application, for burning-off purposes, of diesel fuel. At no point, it seems, did they inform or seek the approval of the Airworthiness Division of their intention to use the aircraft to spray an inflammable liquid. At 1345 on the day of the accident diesel oil was loaded into the plane in order to disperse the oil on a scrub-covered ravine on a farm in the Omahina Valley near Waverley. After the fifth sortie the pilot told his loader driver that during the flight he had operated the hopper jettison control briefly in order to put a heaver deposit of diesel on an area of thick scrub. The cockpit, he said, had immediately filled with dense, black smoke making him think the aircraft had caught fire. An inspection of the interior of the fuselage aft of the hopper showed that it was coated in a film of diesel oil extending back to the tail cone. There was an oil film also on the underside of the fuselage.The two mopped up the oil as best they could, tightened up a leaking connection in the supply pipe to one of the spray booms, and the operation was continued. Two further sorties were carried out uneventfully but on the eighth sortie as the Fletcher was climbing out of the ravine in order to land on the strip, which was located some 300 to 400 feet above the level of the ravine, two witnesses who had been observing the operation for some time saw a plume of flame being emitted from the underside of the fuselage about midway between the nose and the tail. At this point the aircraft was only seconds away from landing. The plane leveled out and turning 90 degrees to the right disappeared behind a ridge. After turning away from the approach to the airstrip the aircraft plowed through trees on steep tree-covered slope, then dived almost vertically to the ground before subsiding to a more level position. The right wing was detached and a small fire broke out in the engine bay. This ignited fuel flowing out of the broken fuel line from the right wing tank which in turn was augmented by diesel released from the hopper when the jettison system was sheared off. Also adding to the blaze was a quantity of petrol from the tank of the Kohler APU when the vent pipe from the small tank was broken off.