It is incorrect and improper to identify this aircraft as a "Grumman/McKinnon" or as a "Grumman with McKinnon power...." Certification as either a “Grumman” or as a “McKinnon” are mutually exclusive – under two separate type certificates. Also, "Grumman with McKinnon power...” implies certification as a Grumman under TC 654 in conjunction with modification or alteration by means of one or more McKinnon-owned supplemental type certificates (STC) and that is not the case with this aircraft.
N5558 –as it was registered at the time - was a Grumman G-21A (i.e. ex-USN JRF-5), serial no. B-62, certified under TC 654 only until 1969 when it was converted, re-certified, and effectively "rebuilt" by McKinnon Enterprises under TC 4A24 as a "new" McKinnon model G-21G Turbo Goose, serial no. 1205. At that point, it was no longer a "Grumman" at all. It was literally “zero-timed” - meaning that all of its “time in service”, from the when it was originally manufactured by Grumman in May 1944 until June 1969 when the conversion by McKinnon was completed, was wiped out and deleted from its records.
From 1980 until 1984, it was operated by Sea Bee Air of New Zealand as ZK-ERX, actually in and around the island of Tuvalu in the South Pacific. In 1984, it was overhauled and sold to Aero Quest Inc. in Ohio and was later taken over by its parent company, Kalt Manufacturing. It is now owned by Aero Planes LLC in Hillsboro, OR.
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