Friday 17 February 2012

Ah! De Havillands Unfolding at North Shore Flyin

At the vintage aircraft area of the North Shore Aero Club/Northern Microlight Club flyin at North Shore last Saturday, Brian Millet had arranged for flights in Stan and Gilly Smiths vintage aircraft. This necessitated unfolding DH 84 Dragon ZK-AXI and DH 83C Fox Moth ZK-APT.

First begin by pulling the folded aircraft out of the hangar, watched by the hangar dog.

ZK-AXI out in the light.

Then manually unfold the wings and connect all the bits up together. It seemed quite low-tech.

ZK-AXI half unfolded.

Specifications and background notes on ZK-AXI

Then it was the turn of ZK-APT to undergo the same procedure

Manually unfolding the wings

And like its sibling, half unfolded

Specifications and background notes on ZK-APT

And finally they are both good to go!

Brian Millet's brother Mike Millet took a video of the procedure that is probably better than my series of photos. have a look at http://youtu.be/4U94R5m-gOkn

2 comments:

  1. My father flew APT for Ted Buchannan between 1957 and 1960, so it's always a treat to see this aircraft in the air. Some photos from that era at http://bit.ly/yPqWO1

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