It will be a chance to go back in time when flights on an historic southern New Zealand plane are offered to the public this weekend.
The de Havilland Dominie aircraft, which operated regularly between Dunedin and Invercargill in the 1940s and 1950s, will be providing free rides at Taieri Airfield today and possibly tomorrow.
The aircraft, built in 1943, is owned by the Croydon Aviation Heritage Trust, which is based in Mandeville, near Gore.
Trust quality assurance manager and training pilot Phil Kean said the aircraft was "very much a part of Otago and Southland history''.
Built in 1943 and originally owned by the National Airways Corporation, the aircraft made daily return flights between Dunedin and Invercargill from the late 1940s until the early 1950s.
It was bought by Ritchie Air Services in Gore in 1961, then by Mt Cook Airlines in the late 1960s, Mr Kean said.
It made scenic flights between Queenstown and Milford Sound for many years after that, he said.
The aircraft offered rides at the Wings and Wheels open day at Taieri Airfield in January and proved very popular, Mr Kean said.
"A lot of people were saying ‘the last time I was on this, it was 1956, or 1957'.''
The aircraft was based at the Croydon Aviation Heritage Centre in Mandeville but had been used in many movies and documentaries, he said.
The Dominie carried a pilot and eight passengers and would take people on a 30-minute ride, Mr Kean said.
If demand was strong enough, the aircraft would be back out tomorrow.
There were only five Dominie aircraft remaining in the world, he said.
