What's next for James Barron's backyard Castlecliff's plane?

Castlecliff's James Barron is planning on turning the fuselage of the Ex-Air Chathams plane in his backyard into his man cave. Photo / Bevan Conley

The Convair 580 James Barron moved onto his Castlecliff property will now become a personal "man cave".

Barron purchased the plane from Air Chathams, which decommissioned it in 2019, with the intention to turn it into accommodation for tourists.

While he got consent for the project, the cost of the bespoke building work required made him rethink.

"Even if you're getting the most bespoke house in the world, and you're getting it designed by your architect and you're putting a toilet in it, they're still gonna grab the CAD drawings a toilet manufacturer has.

"Strangely enough, there are none of those for an aircraft."

The plane is also in the process of having its Air Chathams livery removed and Barron wanted to return it to the paint scheme it had when it flew for Air Congo in the late 1960s.

He's also looking to sell the plane's wings which he hoped someone else would use in their own project.

"Everyone's got an idea... I'm willing to give you the wings if you've got a really cool idea," he said.

Barron said people who live in New Zealand and have a serious idea for what they would do with the wings can message the ZK-CIF "Miss Convair" Facebook page.

The Convair 580, ZK-CIF flew out of Whanganui airport as part of Air Chathams Whanganui - Auckland route from 2016 to 2019.

Barron said she and the sister plane saved the air route and Whanganui Airport, which Air Chathams still operate out of to this day.

He ended up buying the plane and having it transported down to Whanganui from Auckland Airport.

"The connection of it I really like, she would have been flying overhead and now she's here."

He described it as a "muscle car for the skies" and said when it flew it was the fastest passenger plane in New Zealand thanks to its Turbo-prop engines, which were fitted in the 1970s.