Now that is Quick!

“can’t beat the sound of the IO-720 in the Fletcher” Amen! The sound of my childhood in Wanganui, and even had one fly over this afternoon. Lovely. s/n87 CBG sits in my parents’ driveway waiting for me to get workshop space.

I think LTW was TMW with Taumarunui Co-op before it was bought by Ravensdown.

We call it Topdressing in NZ, not crop dusting, as there aren’t any crops. They’re spreading fert on the grass in the hills to help it grow and support the animal population.

How old is LTW?? I remember Bernie Haskell in LTP way way back. Is LTW one of the original Cresco’s converted to PT6 power from the old LTS-101?

If you search Youtube for Topdresser New Zealand, you should find lots of entertaining video’s 🙂

Also have a look at The Last Great Adventure. That will make you cringe for sure when you see the Hughes 500 trimming the trees with the Main Rotor. Ahhhh. Deer recovery.

Cresco is nice, but you can’t beat the sound of the IO-720 in the Fletcher. Mate of mine (now retired) did 23000 hours in the same Fletcher. 23000!!!!! All below 500 ft, most below 100ft. ZK-BII was the rego on that particular beastie.

It’s a design from Pacific Aerospace, a Cresco, developed from the older Fletcher FU-24
http://www.aerospace.co.nz/aircraft/heritage-aircraft/fletcher-fu-24

There is a FU-24 in MOTAT, as well as various other ‘top-dressers’ used in NZ.
MOTAT12_8353fl by Errol Cavit, on Flickr

What aircraft is it ?. It looks as if it’s based on a Turbo Porter ?

I was once an apprentice aircraft engineer with the company which owned the aircraft in the first video (and my father worked there when I was born), and I can say proudly I’ve worked on that particular aircraft several times! It’s pretty rare I can skite about a personal connection with an aircraft posted on this forum!