Fisher Dakota Hawks of New Zealand

Continuing our series of sport aircraft where the first of type was registered in 2000, the next type to come along was the Fisher Dakota Hawk.

The Fisher Dakota Hawk is one of a surprising number of aircraft that have come from Fisher Flying Products over the years (and we have 12 Fisher aircraft of 6 different models currently on the New Zealand register).  FPP was originally formed in South Webster, Ohio in the early 1980s and started out with the very early microlights.  The company relocated to Woodbridge in Ontario, Canada under new ownership in 2007.

The Dakota Hawk was designed in 1993 as a conventional high wing strut braced taildragger with side by side seating.  It is an all wood airframe with the fuselage of geodesic construction, and it is fabric covered.  Its length is 19 feet 9 inches (6.02 metres), its wingspan is 28 feet 6 inches (8.69 metres) and the wing area is 128 square feet.  Empty weight is 600 pounds (272 Kg) and MAUW is 1,150 pounds (522 Kg).  Engines can range from 80 HP to 120 HP which give cruise speeds of around 90mph.

We Have had two Fisher Dakota Hawks in New Zealand.

ZK-SUB2 (c/n DH 19) was built by Kenneth G Coulter of Dargaville and it was first registered to him on 1/8/00.  It is photo'd above in a hangar at Dargaville early on in its life.

It is photo'd above at the 2004 SAANZ flyin at Tauranga.  It was cancelled on 27/7/04 and exported to Australia where it became 19-4232 on 15/12/04.  Finally it was cancelled from the Australian microlight register on 15/12/06.

ZK-SOL (c/n DH 20) was built by Garry R Mitchell of Auckland and registered to him on 4/12/02 with its first flight being on 31/12/02.  It was based at North Shore airfield where the above photo was taken on 6/12/08. On 30/10/15 it was sold to MG Farrand of Warkworth (and Garry Mitchell is now restoring the Sirocco ZK-PTR).