Aerial Topdressing and Aircraft Service (NZ) Ltd
The development of aerial topdressing in New Zealand in the late 1940s is a fine example of the innovation and ingenuity of former Royal New Zealand Air Force servicemen who adapted military aeroplanes to civilian use for topdressing.
Before aerial topdressing, workers would haul heavy bags of fertiliser across Hill country by horse and spread it by hand. With Britain taking all the sheep meat and wool that New Zealand farmers could produce after the Second World War, using aeroplanes to spread fertiliser and seed meant that farmers could bring previously marginal land into production. Hill country sheep farmers benefitted in particular from the possibility, and sheep numbers increased from 35 million in 1950 to over 70 million in the early 1980s.
Some experiments with aerial topdressing had been made in Hawke’s Bay and Northland in the 1930s, mostly for sowing seeds. Soon after the Second World War ended in 1945, Royal New Zealand Air Force aircraft were used in more experiments. Then, in 1949, a great supporter of the idea, the Director of Civil Aviation, E.A. (Esmond) ‘Gibby’ Gibson spent time visiting aero clubs around the country promoting aerial topdressing. The increased availability of light aircraft, combined with a government emphasis on bringing marginal hill country into production, meant that aerial topdressing was now a viable possibility.
It also tied in nicely with the wishes of a number of men who had served during the war and who were looking for ways to use their flying skills. Some had established aviation companies or worked for local aero clubs.
Two problems had to be solved before the idea could become worthwhile commercially– first, aircraft had to be adapted to hold the fertiliser, and second, farmers had to be convinced that it was worth the money it cost.
The first commercial aerial topdressing in New Zealand was in May 1949 when John Brazier of Airwork (NZ) Ltd flew ZK-ASO, a de Havilland DH82 Tiger Moth to apply superphosphate on Sir Heaton Rhodes’s property at Tai Tapu in Canterbury.
Aircraft Service (NZ) Ltd
Aircraft Service (NZ) Ltd is a good example of the aviation companies set up by returned servicemen at this time. The company was established at Māngere airfield in September 1945 by Alan Vause (who was in charge of overhauls and repair), Doug Greig (managing director and chief pilot), Jim Ritchie (in charge of aircraft maintenance), Tom Sheehan (chief engineer), John Sheehan (aircraft engineer) and Peggy Bryan, office manager.
They were based at the former Union Airways hangar at Māngere, and, for the first few years, worked on converting former military de Havilland DH82 Tiger Moth biplanes to civilian use for aero clubs and for private owners. Archives from Aircraft Service donated by Alan Vause, along with interviews with Alan and Peggy Vause are part of MOTAT’s Walsh Memorial Library collections.
In her interview, Peggy Vause (née Bryan) mentions the first work done by Aircraft Service:
‘We were mostly bringing Tiger Moths back from Wellington, from War Assets [Realisation Board], and then sending them down to the various aero clubs that were all opening up.’
There they were used for pilot training.
In a handwritten history held at the Walsh Memorial Library, Alan Vause writes that in ‘the early years, the company converted many different types of aircraft to the civil register, carried out many overhauls and repairs and assembled a number of new imported aircraft. It was contracted to the Auckland Aero Club to maintain their fleet and also operated a base at Hamilton for the Waikato Aero Club.’
When Gibby Gibson visited the Auckland Aero Club in 1949, he spoke with Vause and the others from Aircraft Service and explained how aerial top dressing would work. Alan Vause remembered: ‘We sat with them for quite a long time … and digested all the information … tips on how to convert the aircraft. … We decided then that we would get into aerial topdressing and we had the aeroplane to do it …’.
This was ZK-ANN, a de Havilland Tiger Moth. Peggy Vause recalled: ‘Alan was very busy, drawing up hoppers. … They took the seats [out] and it went on for months and months and months. They were fiddling round, experimenting with loading the aircraft. …’
Alan Vause remembered, ‘We dismantled the necessary parts of the Tiger Moth, built a hopper and controls and started in to develop a topdressing aeroplane. We were starting from dead scratch. We knew nothing about it. … We spent many hours experimenting and it was quite some time before we got it working at the right rate with the right spread.’
In a brochure produced by Aircraft Service in the early 1960s, the process is explained: ‘In converting our first Tiger Moth, ZK-ANN, from a drone to a worker, we had to completely strip the front cockpit, remove the seat, floor, instruments and instrument panel, as well as all the controls, fit the hopper and connect everything up again in such a way that the structural strength and balance were unimpaired. Our hopper was made of sheet aluminium and contained over 1000 rivets — the rivetting work alone kept two men fully occupied for several days.’
The cost of doing this was over three times the value of the aircraft.
Beginning the trials
Soon afterwards, on 4 September 1949, Aircraft Service ran their first topdressing trial, with Doug Greig as pilot, at the property of the Montgomeries, local farmers near Māngere. It was a success.
To begin with, the aircraft was loaded by hand, with men tipping the fertiliser from sacks into the hopper. It was dirty and slow work. Then Aircraft Service used a converted hand-operated crane from the company’s engine shop pushed by several men. The final iteration was a truck-mounted loader owned by Ossie James (later of James Aviation) which was much faster and cleaner, and enabled them to work away from the base at Māngere.
In the meantime, the Aircraft Service workshop continued converting aircraft to topdressing purposes for other companies and building loaders. Alan Vause recalled that they had lots of enquiries at Māngere from others interested in getting into the topdressing business.
It was not until early 1950 that they were able to convert an aircraft for Aircraft Service’s own fleet. Alan Vause recalled that farmers ‘were very hesitant to begin with because they knew nothing about it. They thought it would all go on the next-door farm or it wouldn’t be spread right. … From a time point of view, it was a thousand times faster.’ Once farmers saw that it was possible to spread fertiliser quickly and safely from the air, and the effect that it had on marginal pasture, hill farmers, in particular, swiftly adopted the practice. The price of wool was also very high in the early 1950s because of demand created by the war on the Korean peninsula, so the cost of aerial topdressing became less of an issue.
As the topdressing side of their work took off, Aircraft Service established a new company, Auckland Aviation Services to do this work.
There was a change of ownership in 1954 when all the original owners, save Doug Greig, sold their interests. In 1959 work began to convert the Māngere aerodrome into the international airport and Aircraft Service relocated to Ardmore aerodrome near Clevedon, south of Auckland. By that year the company was operating 8 Fletcher FU24 aircraft and 4 de Havilland Tiger Moths in their topdressing business.
James Aviation bought the company in 1963.
There have been changes over the years. Pilot safety has markedly improved since the early days but concerns about the environmental impact of the heavy use of fertilisers has grown. The Resource Management Act 1991 promotes the sustainable management of natural and physical resources without having adverse effects on the environment. As a result, while aerial topdressing is still permitted, there may be conditions imposed on where it can be used.
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Alan Vause recorded the history of ZK-ANN, the de Havilland Tiger Moth adapted by Aircraft Service (NZ) Ltd and used in their first topdressing trials in 1949:
Built in 1939 by Morris Motors of the UK, it was shipped to New Zealand and given the RNZAF registration of NZ677.
Was assembled at de Havillands, Rongotai and flew 1955 hours to the end of the Second World War.
Aircraft Service (NZ) bought it in 1948 from Arthur Orchard (Cook Strait Airways). It was registered as ZK-ANN.
It was converted to a topdressing aircraft and made its first commercial topdressing flight in September 1949 at Māngere.
It crashed on 27 February 1950 at Onewhero, having flown 306 hours and having dropped 66 tons of fertiliser.
It started flying again in December 1951 and flew a further 1620 hours before being transferred to Thames Aerial Top-dressing Co.
It was withdrawn from service in November 1961 having flown a total of 3180 hours on top-dressing.
It was sold to Charlie Liddell of Ardmore who, in 1982, sold it to John Crosbie of Papakura.
John Pleasant, also of Papakura, bought it in 1991 and he had been doing a very complete overhaul until, in September 2004, he sold it to Wayne Edwards.
A de Havilland DH89 Tiger Moth in Aircraft Service (NZ) Ltd livery and with registration ZK-ANN is on display in the Aviation Display Hall at MOTAT 2 in Meola Road. It is a composite reconstruction, made of parts from different Tiger Moths.
Cite this article: Hutching, Megan. Aerial Topdressing and Aircraft Service (NZ) Ltd. First published: 21 July 2020. URL: https://medium.com/motat/aerial-topdressing-and-aircraft-service-nz-ltd-77a2afab9d91
References:
Te Ara, ‘Topdressing’, https://teara.govt.nz/en/topdressing
Janic Geelen, ‘Aircraft Service (NZ) Ltd: Agricultural aviation pioneer and forerunner of NZ Aerospace Industries Ltd’, New Zealand Wings, 1980, vol. 48, issue 7, p. 12
Alan Vause, 3 May 2005. MOTAT oral history interview with Alan Vause, 07–783. Walsh Memorial Library, MOTAT
Peggy Vause, 2 March 2010. MOTAT oral history interview with Peggy Vause, 10–0253. Walsh Memorial Library, MOTAT
