ZK-DXI “Dixie”

A Piper Warrior, based at North Shore Aerodrome, Auckland.

ZK-DXI in flight over Gulf Harbour — Over Gulf Harbour

Dixie is a Piper PA-28 Warrior, built in 1980 and upgraded to 180 hp. She lives at North Shore Aerodrome (NZNE) at Dairy Flat and is privately owned.

She’s an amazing aircraft, well known around the field, and plenty of pilots have her in their logbooks. She’s very loved. Dixie isn’t just an aeroplane; she’s a very special aeroplane.

Her story

Dixie spent many years at North Shore Aero Club as their IFR training aeroplane. The current owner started flying lessons at the club in 2015 and, at six foot three, soon outgrew the club’s little Robins, so he moved into the PA-28. Back then she was a bit beaten up, a well-worn training aircraft: tired seats, a battered panel and brakes with a mind of their own. A lot of pilots had learned in her, and everybody loved her.

When the club decided to stop running their last PA-28, he bought her, fully IFR certified, and has kept her to that standard ever since. Along the way she’s had a completely new leather interior and a major avionics upgrade in 2022, including a brand-new autopilot and glass instruments.

The aircraft

Registration: ZK-DXI
Type: Piper PA-28-161 Warrior II
Built: 1980
Engine: Lycoming O-360, 180 hp
Cruise: 115–120 knots
Seats: 4
Home base: North Shore Aerodrome, Dairy Flat (NZNE)

The letters DXI

Dixie isn’t the first aircraft at North Shore to carry these letters. In the early 1980s, ZK-DXI was a Cessna 172M flown by the North Shore Aero Club from the same airfield.

On 12 September 1981, the day of the third and deciding test of the Springbok tour, two protesters hired a Cessna from the North Shore Aero Club and flew it over Eden Park dozens of times, dropping flour bombs, flares and leaflets on the crowd and players below. The match became known as the “flour bomb test”. Club members remember that aircraft as the original DXI, and the club has long kept a newspaper clipping of it over Eden Park.^1–3

The registration later passed to the Piper you see today, which keeps the letters, and the name, flying out of Dairy Flat.

Photos

Painting of ZK-DXI flying over snow-covered mountains — Painting by Leon Fenemor, a young Nelson pilot who painted aircraft to get him through his flight training. Leon flew in DXI at Classic Fighters, Omaka.

Ruby the dog in the back seat of Dixie — Ruby the dog: “Hey Dad, hey Dad, where are we going? What are we doing?” For her it’s just a car trip with a vertical axis.