Final flight of the Convair

Video from the channel Air Chathams Marketing & Comms about Convair, linked on its Above Ten Thousand entry. Duration: 3:20. Language: English. Video type: News.

Air Chathams bids farewell to the last Convair CV-580 in its fleet, which makes its final flight to Wanaka to go on display in a museum as a piece of New Zealand aviation history.

One of the pilots recalls flying it from Kelowna to the Chatham Islands in 1996, when the aircraft was 40 years old. It was born with piston engines, received turboprops in the 1960s and flew for US airlines. In the mid-1950s it suffered a fire and was rebuilt at the factory with a new fuselage. Air Chathams adapted it to carry cargo and passengers at the same time.

It was the company's first Convair and the last one it kept in service; its retirement closes that chapter of the fleet.