VH-CYV  Fletcher FU-24-950M                           (c/n   64)

                            

                                  A very clean looking cropduster. Actually, it had just been registered in Australia for the second
                                  time, following a rebuild after a crash.  C/n 64 was built in  August 1957 as ZK-BOL.  A year
                                  later it was leased in Australia for a five year period as VH-BOT, remaining as such until return-
                                  ing to New Zealand as ZK-BOL again (in August 1963).    In April 1967 it sustained major
                                  damage in a crash and was rebuilt as ZK-CWQ, going back to Australia shortly after its rebirth.
                                  That was when Geoff Goodall took the above shot of it at Jandakot, Perth, in August 1968.
                                  John Wheatley's color shot (below) was taken at around the same time.  The Fletcher returned
                                  to New Zealand (as ZK-CWQ) in 1984, was leased for a short while in the Solomon Islands as
                                  H4-AAR, then returned as ZK-CWQ once again.  It was finally written off in another crash at
                                  Taupo in December 1987.