The Cessna 185B
ZK-MHB (c/n 185-0568) is coming together nicely now at Drake Aviations Fernside hangar. It has had an interesting life since first appearing on the US register in 1963, much of it as a float plane. In July of 1966 it turned over whilst landing on Millinocket Lake in Maine; then in January 1969 it crashed due to fuel exhaustion at Jefferson, Ohio - It was snowing at the time. Next one, that I know about, was on the Zambezi River near the Victoria Falls in about April of 1998. The aircraft came to NZ via Australia and was registered as
ZK-FRW2 on 28-09-2007. Somewhere along the way it was put back together with modified Cessna 180 wings. This was discovered after its arrival in NZ. After a lengthy fix thanks to Bruce Drake and Flightline at Momona we now have a real 185. Its registration was changed to
ZK-MHB on 24-08-2011, still with Flying Circus Ltd of Rangiora.
Top photo shows it at Rangiora on 27-12-2008 as ZK-FRW
2 and lower view is of it as ZK-MHB on 09-09-2011.
