Sunday 8 May 2011

Evans Volksplanes of New Zealand - VP 1's (2)

The next batch of VP 1's came along in the mid 1970's when registrations were still allocated alphabetically (except in the case of ZK-EEM as detailed below!).

The photos are from the Keith Morris collection unless noted otherwise.

ZK-ECG (c/n AACA 136/1) was built by Keith Omundsen at Wanganui and was first registered on 5/8/75.  It is photo'd here at Wanganui by Don Noble on 4/4/76.


And it is photod here at the 1977 AACA flyin at Masterton.'


On 17/10/79 ownership transferred to R R Ball of Hastings, who repainted it in this brown and gold colour scheme as seen at the 1982 AACA flyin at Taupo. It was then owned by a succession of owners at Waipukurau before being withdrawn and cancelled on 16/6/99.



ZK-EDA (c/n AACA 183/1) was built by Lloyd Cox at Hastings and was first registered on 7/11/74. It is photographed here at Bridge Pa early on in its life.


And it photo'd here in colour by Don Noble at the 1976 AACA flyin at Kaikohe.  It was sold to R A Tomlin and D F Sutton of Auckland on 7/3/77 and then to T F Hall of Te Awamutu on 20/5/99. It was withdrawn and cancelled on 31/8/01.

However as has been the case with several old Volksplanes which have risen from the grave, it was re-registered as a Class 1 microlight by Owen Kriletich of Katikati on 3/5/02 and it is still going strong having had owners at Waiau, Amberley, Hastings and most recently with T E Pinny of Ohaupo. The above photo was taken in a Hangar at Rangiora by Blue Bus, and it can be seen that it didn'tn't change much over the years - until......

 It was converted to Rotax 582 power and sold to LJ Jacobs of Mt Maunganui on 19/12/13.

And most recently ownership transferred to GA Whatmough of Hikurangi on 16/8/13.  he noe bases the aircraft at his farm strip North of Hikurangi.



And the final Volksplane of this bunch is Lou Goodson's ZK-EEM (c/n AACA 135/1) which was built at Palmerston North. In the above mentioned alphabetical sequence of registrations, Lou drew the short straw when his Volksplane was registered as ZK-DUD in 1974. Lou applied for a new registration and it has not proved to be a dud at all, still going at Feilding 37 years later. It is photographed here at Hood aerodrome early on in its life. I think the photo may have been taken by the late Gavin Woodward.



This photo of ZK-EEM was taken outside its hangar at Feilding aerodrome in 1987. It was withdrawn and the registration cancelled on 11/02/92. It was re-registered as a Class 1 microlight on 30/11/99 by John Waugh of Feilding on 30/11/99 where it is still active.




4 comments:

  1. I recall seeing VP1 ZK-EDA for sale on Trademe recently.

    There is also some videos of ZK-EDA in action over at Youtube.

    http://www.youtube.com/user/pomadom#g/search

    Type in VP1 and there will be 4 videos of EDA.

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  2. Heres the list of ZK-EDA for sale

    http://www.trademe.co.nz/Sports/Aviation/auction-371393300.htm

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  3. I visited Keith Omundsen a few years ago in Marton. At that time, he had re-acquired a VP1 (presumably ECG) which he was rebuilding.

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  4. Emailed to me by John Waugh...

    Manawatu Microlight Club members, aircraft contructors and Feilding
    fliers who knew Lew Goodson, the builder of the Volksplane, ZK EEM,
    builder of the hangar next to Red's old hangar, former ACA member,
    engineer and longtime Feilding aerodrome stalwart, will be saddened to
    learn that he passed away on Sunday after a long illness. His funeral is
    to be held 1.30 pm Friday at Robert J Cotton and Sons, TerraceHaven
    Chapel, 697 Main Street, Palmerston North.
    I would be grateful if you could pass this on to anyone who may have
    known Lew.
    best regards John Waugh

    ReplyDelete