Thursday 17 July 2014

Homegrown Single Seat Homebuilt Aircraft of New Zealand - Bantam B 20s

The single seat Bantam B 20 followed from the single seat Bantam B 10  (see www.nzcivair.blogspot.co.nz/2012/10/homegrown-single-seat-homebuilt.html.)  However, whereas the B 10 was an individually constructed (or at least individually finished) aircraft, the B 20 was the built as the start of the assembly line at Micro Aviation at Te Kowhai.

The B 20 had the same basic airframe as the B 10 but with a differently shaped pod and without the drooped wingtips.  It had a tapered wing and a different airfoil to the B 10.  It also had pre-sewn covers for the flying surfaces (whereas the B 10 had ceconite fabric glued to the airframe).  Original examples had a Rotax 447 engine.  15 Bantam B 20s were made at Te Kowhai before production geared up with Micro Aviation producing the two seat Bantam B 22 of which there have been more than 300 produced.  But that is another story for another time.

Bantam B 20 ZK-XIK of the Manawatu Microlight Club is photo'd at a microlight flyin at Feilding in 1988.

The list of Bantam B 20's is as follows:

ZK-XIX  c/n 0014 - registered 24/12/84 to  J Smith and MR Clear of Te Kowhai.  This aircraft was kept by John Smith and Max Clear for several years, presumably as a development aircraft.  It was sold to GJ Farrell of Palmerston North on 30/10/89 and then went to the Bantam Syndicate of Palmerston North on 4/4/90, IP Huntley of Dannevirke on EJB Stewart of Wanganui on 3/9/00.  It was withdrawn from use and cancelled on 15/9/11.

ZK-XIT  c/n 0015/MAANZ 308 - registered 31/1/85 to  J Smith and MR Clear of Te Kowhai and then sold to WE Newland of Queenstown on 21/4/86.  It was sold to SJ Jones of Mossburn on 30/10/86 and it crashed at Winton on 11/9/90.  It was cancelled on 23/2/94.

ZK-XIV  c/n 0016/MAANZ 309 - registered 31/1/85 to  J Smith and MR Clear of Te Kowhai and then sold to RL Illingworth of Owaka South on 10/4/86.  It was withdrawn from use and cancelled on 23/2/94.

ZK-XIL  c/n 0017/MAANZ 318 - registered 25/1/85 to  J Smith and MR Clear of Te Kowhai and then sold to GM Clements and RR Thorn of Greymouth on 9/7/87 and then it spent the rest of its life on the West Coast.  It was sold to GH Growcott of Hokitika on 29/8/94, M Pfahlert of Hokitika on 16/1/03, AC Weir of Runanga on 27/1/04, WA Weir of Runanaga on 31/10/04, LB Molloy of Harihari on 3/3/06 and finally to PJ Olson of Hokitika on 8/7/06, before being withdrawn from use and cancelled on 27/7/06.

ZK-XIF  c/n 0018/MAANZ 316 - registered 25/1/85 to  J Smith and MR Clear of Te Kowhai and then sold to WR and JE Cloutman of Waiuku on 18/9/85, then it went to RA Dekker of Levin on 20/1/89 and to MJC Harding of Feilding on 14/2/91.  It crashed at Taonui on 10/12/00 and was cancelled on 7/8/03.  It was re-registered to the Penman and Nolan Syndicate of Palmerston North on 9/6/05 but it has since been cancelled again, on 7/8/03.

ZK-XIE  c/n 0019/MAANZ 315 - registered 25/1/85 to  J Smith and MR Clear of Te Kowhai and then sold to AE Dover of Auckland on 22/11/85.  It was sold to RA and SL Smith of Waihi on 8/7/93, EF and J McNeil of Coromandel on 31/8/96, GP Nash of Auckland on 1/4/98, A Flynn of Masterton on 14/12/98, LR Cameron of Dargaville on 25/6/00 and finally to RM Syron of Auckland on 27/4/02.  It crashed at Whangarei Heads on 1/6/03 and was cancelled on 17/9/03.   However it was re-registered to RM Syron of Auckland on 4/10/06, and it is still current.

ZK-XIK  c/n 0020/MAANZ 317 - registered 25/1/85 to  J Smith and MR Clear of Te Kowhai and then sold to GR Long of Taihape on 3/4/86.  It then went to RJ Lskey of Levin on 3/11/88, D Winfield of Palmerston North on 7/12/92 and then to the manawatu Microlight Club of Feilding on 4/11/97.  It crashed at Colyton near Feilding on 8/7/00 and was cancelled on 12/10/00.  However It was re-registered to PA Svendsen of Feilding on 14/7/05 but was withdrawn from use and cancelled again on 11/11/11.

c/n 0021 - Not Used.
c/n 0022 - Not Used.

ZK-FLL  c/n 0023/MAANZ 332 - registered 11/6/85 to  J Smith and MR Clear of Te Kowhai and then sold to CD Todd of Auckland on 10/4/86.  A succession of Auckland owners followed - AR Mankelow from 10/12/93, AR McNab from 20/2/95.  It was cancelled on 28/9/95 and re-registered to AR McNab of Auckland on 21/10/95. It was sold to PL O'Gara on 17/9/01 and it was cancelled again on 15/4/05.  It was re-registered again to PL O'Gara of Auckland on 29/4/05, then sold to MHJ Maria of Waitakere on 9/11/05.  It is still current.

ZK-FLM  c/n 0024/MAANZ 333 - ZK-FLM - registered 11/6/85 to  J Smith and MR Clear of Te Kowhai and then sold to DD Dods of Patutahi, Gisborne on 24/4/86.  It wads withdrawn from use and cancelled on 12/3/92.

ZK-FLN  c/n 0025/MAANZ 334 - registered 11/6/85 to J Smith and MR Clear of Te Kowhai and then sold to R Malskaitis of Auckland on 7/4/86.  It was withdrawn from use and cancelled on 24/8/95.  However it was re-registered as ZK-EYO to MHJ Maria of Waitakere on 7/12/00, but was cancelled again on 27/1/06.
                                   
ZK-FLX  c/n 0026/MAANZ 335 - registered 11/6/85 to J Smith and MR Clear of Te Kowhai and then sold to LC Taylor, J Luff and BA Hogg of Wanganui on 9/4/86.  It was sold to KJ Lennox of Wanganui on 7/10/92 and then to VA Walker of Taneatua on 30/9/98.  it was withdrawn from use on cancelled on 20/7/04.

ZK-FLY  c/n 0027/MAANZ 336 - registered 11/6/85 to J Smith and MR Clear of Te Kowhai and then sold to C Saunders of Rotorua on 1/9/92, followed by TG Rogers of Opotiki from 24/1/98, TE Pinney of Te Awamutu from 22/12/99, JN Sanderson of Katikati from 29/1/02 and finally to CE Solon of Foxton from 1/7/03.  It was withdrawn from use and cancelled on 27/11/09.

ZK-FLZ  c/n 0028/MAANZ 337 - registered 11/6/85 to J Smith and MR Clear of Te Kowhai and then sold to AN Thompson of Waiuku on 24/4/86.   It was sold to V Brown of Whitianga on 5/11/90, MJ Higgins of Te Puke on 23/10/91, IW Glover of Mt Maunganui on 23/9/93, the JW Black and Green syndicate of Katikati on 8/9/96 and finally to MG Sykes of Masterton on 14/5/97.  it was exported and cancelled on 6/8/97.

ZK-FLW  c/n 0029/MAANZ 338 - registered 27/11/85 to J Smith and MR Clear of Te Kowhai and then sold to JE Dover of Auckland on 15/4/86.  It was sold to RJ Osborne of Kaukapakapa on 10/10/90, JC Hanson of Te Awamutu on 30/8/95, the Hose and Hill syndicate of Kihikihi on 26/11/96,  and to JA Clements of Stratford on 10/6/97.  It was cancelled on 8/4/03, but it was re-registered to SI Reynolds of Westport on 23/5/06 and then was sold to RR Leach of Hokatika on 10/8/07.  It is still current.

ZK-FMF  c/n 0030/MAANZ 339 - registered 27/11/85 to J Smith and MR Clear of Te Kowhai and then sold to B Rudge, D Wadley and M Smith of Hamilton on 19/8/86.  It was sold to CS Lundy of Hamilton on 30/8/99 and then to FR Price of Papakura on 3/9/11, with whom it is still current as in the photo taken recently at Te Kowhai.  Thanks to Frank Price for the photo.




Thanks very much to Ray Deerness who has put a lot of effort into the above histories of Bantam B 20s.

Can anyone supply or post photos of other Bantam B 20s?



2 comments:

  1. Do any members of the NZCA brains trust have photos of ZK-XIX?

    ReplyDelete
  2. FMF now on display at MOTAT

    ReplyDelete