Sunday 17 June 2018

Cobra Arrow Mk 2s of New Zealand

The next type of sport aircraft to be registered in New Zealand was the Cobra Arrow Mk 2 from Cobra Aviation out of Australia.  The Cobra Arrow was a design of Tom Wickers and was based on the Alvarez Polliwagen.  The Polliwagen was one of the first fibreglass homebuilt aircraft from the 1970s and one of the first to have the flowing curves of gliders.

The Cobra Arrow has a length of 19 feet (5.79 metres) and a wingspan of 28 feet (8.53 metres).  Empty weight is around 620 pounds (280Kg) and MAUW is 1200 pounds (544 Kg).  Construction is from a kit of pre-moulded composite parts.  Engines can be from around 100 HP upwards, and with this power the cruise speed is around 100 mph.

We have had two Cobra Aircraft Arrow Mk 2s in New Zealand:

ZK-JQX (c/n LW7062) was built by Peter D Warner of Waipukurau and it was first registered to him on 24/10/06.  It was powered by a Subaru engine (probably an EA 81) and its first flight was on 3/12/06.  On 28/9/08 ownership changed to Trevor Claughton of Hastings.  He moved to Auckland and I think from the photo that the aircraft is based at Mercer.  It is for sale on Trade Me, where I got the photo from.

And our second Cobra Arrow Mk 2 was ZK-RMJ (c/n 06) which was built by J M (Mike) Jones of Hawera and was first registered to him on 5/12/08.  This had a more powerful Mazda Viper rotary engine of around 165 HP with an Atom prop.  It first flew on 4/3/09 and it is photo'd above at Stratford on 29/9/09.  The aircraft moved to Kaitaia with Roger Jones, where the aircraft was withdrawn and its registration revoked on 24/6/15.  It was noted for sale at Whangarei in APRIL 2017 and I understand that it was sold to an owner in the Invercargill area, so we may see it back in the air again.



4 comments:

  1. you should check previous post on rmj .she moved to kaitaia with roger jones.i think was mikes son,mike died of cancer after it was finished but managed to get some flying in it.mike also owned piper cub bti,thorp edf,yak52 liz.was along serving memeber of the hawera aero club

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  2. Thanks for that Anonymous. I have altered the post to reflect your information.

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  3. That looks more like Parakai to me than Mercer.

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  4. JQX is indeed located at Parakai Aerdrome and is powered by a fuel injected Subaru EA81 engine.
    Not for sale.

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