Just after noon tomorrow age and elegance will command right of way at Tauranga Airport.

Pilot Keith Mitchell will nose the ZK-AWP out onto the runway, turn her into the wind and wind up her up to about 2700rpm.

'You get a bit of noise when she goes through to maximum power for take-off,” says Air Chathams manager Duane Emeny.

At about 145km/hr, Powhaitere, the DC-3 that carries the name of the red-crowned parakeet, will lift off, will soar. And after 70 years and many incarnations, life for the grand old lady begins anew, begins again.

'Usually through about 500ft after take-off the pilot reduces power and it's lovely; really quiet,” says Duane.

But out in the cabin, 28 noses will be pressed against windows to experience the Bay of Plenty from a 1000ft – from White Island and Ohope to Tauranga, over Mauao and other features of the Western Bay of Plenty

'She's very nice to fly in, stable, and once you got her all trimmed out, she just sits there; she is lovely.” Industry speak for a pleasurable ride in an aeroplane.

Last season the company did scenic flights out of Whakatane. But when a big group arrived from Tauranga, Duane got thinking. 'Why not take the plane over to Tauranga and do it all from there.”

So tomorrow morning, the DC-3 will roll up to Classic Flyers. 'It's our first crack at it really,” says Duane. 'At this stage three flights Saturday and three flights Sunday.”

To really appreciate the ride it helps to know and understand Powhaitere. She is a lady with history, and luck.

'She was built in 1945 for the war effort but the war ended,” says Duane. First stroke of luck.

The surplus troop and freight transporter was then gifted to the Royal New Zealand Air Force before being sold to the New Zealand National Airways Corporation, now named Air New Zealand, in the 1950s. The orange flashings in her new NAC livery probably brought about her name.

The DC-3 was leased out to Polynesian Airlines then sold to James Aviation, which converted the workhorse to a top dressing aircraft. It's that ruggedness, that versatility that led to the DC-3 being described as 'a collection of parts flying in loose formation”.

'We were operating in the Kingdom of Tonga and we were looking for a hangar, somewhere to do maintenance,” says Duane. The DC-3 was sitting in the hangar.

'My father Craig Emeny, owner and CEO of Air Chathams, couldn't bring himself to let her become a museum piece so he hired a couple of aircraft engineers from NZ.” It took six months, pots of cash and equal amounts of wisdom and expertise to get her flying again.

'Unbolting a wing is a job in itself – there are 300 bolts to negotiate.”

When the Emenys moved back to NZ, the ZK-AWP came too.

And when maintenance on the more modern turbo-prop fleet created a service gap in the company's Auckland to Whakatane service, Powhaitere was forced into commercial service, as she has done for more than seven decades. 'We thought: ‘Why not a novelty schedule? So we did that, dressed it up, had everyone in retro uniforms and retro music playing over the PA.”

The flights left Auckland earlier on Saturday morning and arrived back later on Sunday. 'So you pretty much got a whole weekend in the Eastern Bay of Plenty.”

Tomorrow the warhorse, who was spared active duty in 1945, will have a much more gentile outing. You will see her, you will hear her. Those big 1200hp radial piston Pratt and Whitneys are distinctive.

It costs $99 for a 30-minute flight. Bookings can be made through Classic Flyers on 07 572 4000.