Saved from the Scrap Heap

It would be nice to think that the basic trainers we learned to fly on have the hopes and dreams of thousands of pilots grafted into their metallic DNA.

- GUY LEITCH

IF THEY COULD TALK - the many Cessna C150s and C172s, and the Cherokee 140s, must have countless stories to tell of enthusiastic but struggling novice pilots hammering out circuits and bumps and then, with wide eyes and clammy hands, fumbling through their first solos.

One such plane must be a humble Cessna C152, ZS-PKP. It was believed to have to have plenty of hours left on its airframe when it was put out to grass in 2013. Yet it turns out to be something of a premature retirement. A quick scan of the interweb reveals stories of C172s that have around 30,000 hours – many having done hard labour flying pipe and powerline patrols.

Unfortunately, when she was retired, ZS-PKP was relieved of her identity - her data plate – and we cannot find her log books. So I don’t know exactly how much time she has or where she was flown. But the last sighting of her as an airworthy plane was at Sheltam Aviation in Port Elizabeth (or whatever it’s called now), where she was apparently operated by Aptrac flying school.

The fate of ZS-PKP spurred me to think about planes that get ‘put out to pasture’.

One of the intriguing questions is how old a plane must be before it is due for retirement. One of the most controversial answers to this question comes from Richard Collins, the esteemed former editor of the American Flying magazine. He purchased a Cessna P210 new and when it reached 9,000 hours of well-cared-for flying, he retired it and had it scrapped.