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.