Jean Saint-Germain Raz-Muts of New Zealand (Only One)

The unattractive sounding Raz-Mut was designed by Jean Saint-Germain of Drummondville in Quebec in 1976.  I reckon it was also unattractive looking!  It was designed as an easy to build and easy to fly ultralight but in New Zealand our sole example was registered as an Amateur Built Aircraft under the auspices of the AACA (Amateur Aircraft Constructors Association).  The fuselage construction was based on the Bensen B8 gyrocopter and the wings were of all aluminium construction and the empennage was aluminium with fabric covering.  An example was flown at Oshkosh in 1977 with a 1700cc VW engine.  The Raz-Mut was marketed as a kit.

Empty weight was around 173 Kg (380 pounds) and the MAUW was 363 Kg (800 ponds).  The performance was not spectacular with a cruise speed of 60 knots and a stall speed of around 33 knots.

We have had only one Raz-Mut constructed in New Zealand as follows:

ZK-LGW (c/n AACA 574) was built by Laurie Grant of Warkworth (hence the registration I assume) and it was registered to him on 2/3/83.  It was powered by a 1834cc VW engine.  Laurie was an ex WW II Spitfire pilot and a founding member of the Rodney Aero Club at Kaipara Flats airfield.  Laurie assembled his Raz-Mut at Ardmore where Bob Kerr took the above photo in December 1982.  I think it test flew at Ardmore but on 23/5/83 Laurie attempted his first flight at Kaipara Flats where the aircraft stalled on climb out and crashed, injuring Laurie Grant.  It was not rebuilt and was cancelled from the register on 28/9/90.

Homebuilt Gliders of NZ - Aviastroitel AC 5M Update

Back in 2012 I posted a series on the blog about homebuilt gliders of New Zealand, at which time I reckoned there had been 19 of them.  However I have recently discovered another one, being the Aviastroitel AC 5M MZ35 ZK-GPF2:

ZK-GPF2 (c/n 016) was built from a kit in America by William C Ballard of St Petersburg, Florida and registered to him as N516R on 9/10/01. It flew for around 16 hours in America before it was cancelled on 9/11/05 and shipped to New Zealand.  It was registered here as an Amateur Built Glider on 21/12/05 to Neville R Swan of Auckland (Neville Swan has owned several amateur built gliders).  It was re-designated as a Class 1 microlight on 5/5/06.  It is photo'd above at Whenuapai on 3/3/07.  On 22/9/07 its ownership changed to Thomas O'Rourke of Auckland and on 3/1/11 one of its propellor blades hit the air filter and was damaged, resulting in a forced landing near Whenuapai with quite a lot of damage when it hit a fence post.  However it was repaired and is still current with Thomas O'Rourke.

And to more completely update my original post on Aviastroitel AC 5M MZ35 gliders (see HERE), below is a much better photo of our other example ZK-GPO:

Since my 2012 post it has been sold, on 10/12/14, to Lee Middleton of Wellsford.  I understand it is for sale.

Thanks to Peter Lewis for the photos.