RANS S 10 Sakotas of New Zealand

The two seat S 10 Sakota was developed from the single seat S 9 Chaos, and it first appeared two years after the S 9, in 1988.  It is a snug two seater that was designed for single seat aerobatics or to be able to fly two up cross country.  It has the same construction and the same wing as the S 9, and is stressed to +6G and -4G for solo aerobatics.

The S 10's length is 17 feet 10 inches (5.44 metres) and its wingspan is 24 feet (7.32 metres).  The wing is 95 square feet in area.  Empty weight is around 460 pounds (209 Kg) and MAUW is 1,009 pounds (458 Kg).  The original engine was a Rotax 582 engines up to 100 HP can be fitted.  With a 582 engine, cruise is around 110 mph and stall is at 45 mph.

We have had four S 10 Sakotas in New Zealand to date, and all are still current.

ZK-SIO was mostly built by Bruce Drake at Rangiora for Peter A Groundwater of Rakaia and it was first registered on 22/6/93,.  This was just a couple of months after our first RANS S 6, S 9 and S 12 and about the same time as our first S 14, all of which were the result of East Canterbury Aviation hitting the ground running as the RANS agents.  It suffered an accident at Cust on 31/8/97 when it struck a fence on landing, and it was cancelled on 12/12/97.  However, it was rebuilt by Robert M Payne of Hamilton and was re-registered to him on 13/2/01.  It is photo'd at Raglan on 12/3/05.  Finally, it was sold to Thompson Aeronautical Ltd (Brent Thompson) of Christchurch on 29/12/10 and it is currently registered with them, but under rebuild.

ZK-SWJ was built by Wayne Richmond of Stratford (who later went on to build Sonerais), and it was first registered on 11/10/93.  It was then sold to RL Seebeck of Hawera on 21/10/04 so it has been a Taranaki plane all of its life.  It is also photo'd at Raglan on 12/3/05.

ZK-ECA was built by Russell Brodie and was first registered to East Canterbury Aviation on 24/2/94.  It has a 75 HP Rotax 618 engine (which is a big 2 stroke).  Ownership transferred to PW James of Timaru on 15/6/99, to JR Main of Hamilton on 15/5/01, then quickly to PD (Peggy) Perry of Rotokauri on 18/6/01, the to JS Walker of Hamilton on 20/5/04.  Finally it came full circle with ownership transferring back to East Canterbury Aviation on 20/5/06, and it is now on line at Rangitata Island.  The above photo was taken at the 2011 SAANZ Flyin at Ashburton, on 5/2/11.

And ZK-CLT is our most recent S 10, being built by Craig L Thomas (assisted by Phil Richards) of Christchurch and being registered to Craig on 3/2/08.  Craig moved to Auckland and based ZK-CLT at Te Kowhai where the above photo was taken on heading out to the 2011 Black Sands Flyin on 12/11/11.  Ownership changed to the Chen Syndicate of Auckland on 22/6/14, with whom it is still current.

I am not aware of any more S 10s being built in New Zealand so these four may be our lot.