Scenic flight on historic DC3

Have you ever flown on a DC3? Here in Christchurch you can take a scenic flight on one – or even charter it for a special occasion.

View from cockpit

The DC3 is a legend around the world and from its first flight in 1935 it has impressed all with its reliability, safety and style, and I recently went on a scenic flight in ZK-AMY over the city , along the shoreline and up Lyttelton Harbour. We had fantastic views of my city, the plains and in the distance the Southern Alps – I can well recommend it.

ZK-AMY  began life flying for the US Air Force in 1944 and after delivery  was immediately assigned to the Pacific theatre of operations.  She later flew Australia from top to bottom between 1947–1994 before arriving in New Zealand.

View of Taylors Mistake - great surfing beach

It is the only DC3 still flying in the South Island and one of only two flying in New Zealand.

As one of the four pilots on the Trust Board, Dave Horsburgh, said, “The Old Girl is not ready to retire – we’ll make her earn her keep for a long time yet”. And this should be quite a while, as with just 18,000 hours logged against her airframe, she is literally the youngest airworthy DC3 in the Southern Hemisphere.

One of the ‘extras’ of my trip was that I flew with Richie McCaw. He is the captain of the All Blacks, (NZs national rugby team) playing as open-side flanker (#7) Internationally he is considered the number one in the #7 position.

One of my (& NZs) heroes - Richie McCaw

McCaw plays for Canterbury (the name for our region) in the Air New Zealand Cup and the Crusaders in Super Rugby. (these are our Christchurch teams and on the days you see us all wearing red and black means we are supporting our home team.)

Richie is a keen aviator and currently holds a private pilots license – he is also the patron of the Southern DC3 Trust. (and incidentally, New Zealands most eligible bachelor!)

Across the plains to the Southern Alps