I hate seeing a plane in bits

Cessna 421 Golden Eagle ZK-WLG was withdrawn from the register in June 2017 but I was none the wiser of what happened to it. Thank to Alex who sent in these recent pics of it at the Parakai/West Auckland Airport...

ZK-WLG was a 1978 model Cessna 421 Golden Eagle, initially registered N8438N. It went to Australia where it was registered VH-BRN on the 22nd of June 1978. It was placed on the New Zealand register as ZK-WLG on the 29th of April 1983 and its New Zealand ownership changes follow;

29/04/1983 Avdev Air Ltd, Wellington

31/05/1993 Airwork (NZ) Ltd, Auckland

15/04/1996 B.A. & S.J. Painter, Hillsborough, Auckland

15/07/1998 Albert Smith Industries Ltd, Mount Maunganui

01/04/1999 Sunair Aviation Ltd, Mount Maunganui

18/06/2008 Flight Care Ltd, Napier, Hawkes Bay

22/06/2017 Registration cancelled - withdrawn

Originally operated by Capital Aviation it only saw brief service airline service, being chartered by Air Nelson when they were waiting for their Metroliners to arrive and when owned by Sunair who used it also on Origin Pacific services connecting Tauranga with Origin's flights at Hamilton.

Cessna 421 Golden Eagle ZK-WLG at Hokitika on 16 July 1983

Getting a repaint... ZK-WLG at Christchurch on 19 October 1986

On the campaign trail... Cessna 421 carried National party leadership to Timaru on 4 August 1987

Back in Timaru in November 1988 operating an Air Nelson service prior to the introduction of the Metroliners

The Cessna 421 Golden Eagle, ZK-WLG taken at Tauranga on the 23rd of January 2002.