Efforts to establish a classroom inside a DC3 aircraft to honour the beginnings of the New Zealand aerial top dressing industry are off to a great start.

Lynette James, the daughter of top dressing pioneer, Ossie James, is Chair of the Ossie James DC3 Conservation Trust, set up to remember his contribution to early agricultural aviation.

Miss James says work is well underway on repairing and repainting a DC3 aircraft, which will be enclosed in glass and become a new feature at the agricultural history museum at Mystery Creek in Hamilton.

“Well we’ve got the roof all started, in fact, hopefully it’s not too far off completed.  Once these guys get these laminated beams up the roof goes on very quickly.

“We’ve got big cranes out there and it’s all go actually, so it will certainly be finished well before Fieldays.

“We are looking forward to at least showing people that we have made a good start on this.”

Once the exterior is completed, the next step is to kit out the plane as an educational resource.  

Miss James says the Trust is being assisted in this work by MOTAT.

She says this phase of the the project will be completed by November next year.