Tuesday 31 December 2019

The Sport Aircraft Year 2019

As has been my wont for the last few years, I will review the sport aircraft year that was 2019:

By my reckoning there were 52 new sport aircraft registered during 2019 (which compares very favourably with the 33 in 2018), plus 2 new sport helicopters.  4 sport aircraft were re-registered with new registrations and 2 more were returned to the register with new registrations, and one aircraft was restored with its original registration.  There were 14 pre-used imported sport aircraft in the total of 52.

Among these were 6 new Savannahs. Tecnam's were back with a new agent and 6 being registered including our first P 92 Taildragger ZK-TBJ.  Another blast from the past saw the registration of 2 new Pitts S 1 Specials ZK-PUG and ZK-RMR.  And the Vans keep coming with 10 being registered during 2019 (3 RV 6s and one RV 6A, 3 RV 7s and one RV 7A, plus one RV 12 and one RV 14).

There were 3 new types registered, being the Class 1 microlight Supermarine Spitfire Mk 25 ZK-RGV, the Chilton DW 1 ZK-CHT2, and the NZ Warbirds latest acquisition being the exotic Siemens-Schuckert DW IV replica ZK-SSW (which was listed on the CAA register as a Fokker D IV).

Gary Marsh in his 75% scale Supermarine Spitfire Mk 25 ZK-RGV at Stratford.

 John Gray's Chilton DW 1 (replica?) ZK-CHT2 at Rangiora. 

The NZ Warbirds Siemens-Schuckert D IV replica ZK-SSW at Ardmore.  The NZ Warbirds also registered a Bristol Fighter replica ZK-PRK to add to their growing WW 1 collection.

13 sport aircraft were cancelled from the register in 2019, sadly including 4 aircraft lost in fatal accidents being Vans RV 4 ZK-JRX (which crashed in 2018), Vans RV 12 ZK-LSV, Tecnam P 2002 ZK-WAK (in a mid air collision), and Tecnam P 2002 RG ZK-SGO.  4 sport aircraft were exported being the well known Thunder Mustang ZK-TMG2, Rans S 7 ZK-ROO, Murphy Rebel ZK-DKZ2 and Glasair III ZK-ELB2, and 3 were withdrawn being the Mosquito XEL helicopter ZK-HNG6, the Aerianne Swift very light motor glider ZK-LAJ and the Avid Flyer STOL ZK-SPY.

I reckon we will see quite a lot of new sport aircraft in 2020 as we already know several that in the registration pipeline.

2 comments: