Spirit SE 1 to New Zealand!

Some readers of the blog may be aware of the all metal single seat Spirit SE 1 which was sensationally revealed at Oshkosh 2025 when four of them were flown in from their factory in Grand Junction Colorado.  As well, the SE 1 was powered by a brand new 42 HP 4 stroke inverted vee 2 cylinder engine that was also designed and built by Spirit in-house.  And not only all that, but Spirit Engineering Inc showed photos of dozens more of them back in the factory.  And before Oshkosh 2025 virtually no-one knew anything about the aircraft!

The specifications for the Spirit SE 1 are:  length 18 feet, wingspan 24 feet 7 inches, height 5 feet, width 7 feet 5 inches with wings folded.  Empty weight 420 pounds, MAUW 740 pounds.  Cruise speed at 75% power 100 mph with a maximum cruise speed of 112 mph.  And the price was US$69,500.

One year later at Oshkosh 2026, Flyer TV interviewed Steve Wood, CEO of Spirit Engineering Inc and the designer of the SE 1 about progress in their first year which has resulted in 42 aircraft delivered.  Here is the link to the Flyer TV interview:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SiDmdvCQnZM&t=3s 

Around 7 minutes and 50 seconds into the interview Steve Wood reveals that a Spirit SE 1 is on the water to New Zealand and due to arrive in Blenheim in late August!  When it gets here it will only be a matter of wheeling it out of the container and unfolding the wings, and it should be ready to go!

N9099Z finally going onto the ZK register - soon ! maybe !

 The Piper PA-46-310P Malibu N9099Z c/n 46-08007 arrived in Rangiora in about July of 2007 and for almost twenty years has remained on the US register and flying around New Zealand - apart from a period of time parked up due to "technical difficulties".

My first decent photograph of it is above - taken at Rangiora on 04-11-2007.

And on 28-12-2009 it was parked out in the elements.

Noted on the move at Nelson on 13-02-2015.

The only obvious external change in all its time here is the addition of a three bladed propeller as seen here at Nelson, thanks to Bill Mannix, on 21-07-2024.

I heard a rumour earlier this month that it was soon to join the New Zealand civil aircraft register.And behold. 

Above.  Bill Mannix snapped this shot of it marked up as ZK-MLB at Nelson on 21-07-2026 outside the RepairCraft facility.

Below. Also captured the same day at Nelson.

More technical difficulties have delayed its official listing on the NZ Civil Aircraft Register.

This was a 1986 production from Piper which gained its Airworthiness certificate as N9099Z on 26-08-1986 and went to Kansas City Aviation Center Inc at Olathe, Kansas until on sold to Riteway Oil and Gas co Inc of Fairmont, Nebraska in January 1987. By August 1995 it was with Hangar Nine Inc of Omaha, Nebraska. on 16-12-1997 it was certified to Kennon Shea of Quincy, California.
It then appears to have been sold through Dan Jay Aircraft Sales Inc of Chico, California to Six Six Hotel Corporation of Bangor, Pennsylvania in 2007 (about the time it came to NZ) and then on 23-11-2009 it was certified to Throwaway LLC of Pen Argyl, Pennsylvania.

In NZ it was operated by Ian Andrews, initially out of Rangiora and then from Nelson. 

Rangiora Friday pie run 14-08-2026

 A nice catch at Rangiora today was the stopover of the Titan Tornado II ZK-JKD along with the ICP Savannah S ZK-JUN from Takaka.The Titan has been mentioned previously HERE

Following all the drama getting the engine problem resolved John Osmers named his aircraft "PERSEVERANCE"

Back in March John purchased the ICP Savannah S ZK-JUN from the Whangarei Flying Club and decided to sell the Tornado.

So, today's flight was the delivery of the Tornado from Takaka to Alexandra with its new owner Steve Bunting at the controls. 

Steve is well known from his SAB Avionics business - now Alexandra based.

ZK-JKD departing Rangiora for its new home at Alexandra.

Accompanying Steve down to Rangiora was John Osmers in his latest acquisition 

Savannah S ZK-JUN.

This Savannah, c/n 20-12-54-0751, was registered on 08-12-2022 as ZK-JUN to honour June Billings the Whangarei Flying Club patron and it first flew on 30-03-2023.

Above we see ZK-JUN departing Rangiora and heading back to its Takaka base.

ZK-JSS on a brief visit to Christchurch.

 The Piper Arrow III ZK-JSS flew into Christchurch from Omaka yesterday morning (14-08-2026) and returned to Omaka later in the day. Tony McFarlane was there to capture this image.

ZK-JSS c/n 28R-7837203 is a PA-28R-201 Arrow III. 

As the c/n implies this is a product of 1978 and was initially used in the USA as N9504C before ferrying out to NZ in October of 1990 for J S Spry of Wellington (hence the ZK-JSS registration) from 28-09-1990. After a period with Juliet Sierra Sierra Ltd of Johnsonville from mid 1994 until May of 1996 it went to Brian Swan of Dunedin. Chris Fleming of Mosgiel was next in line from September of 2017. then in May of 2022 Serge Luke took it on, still of Dunedin. From May of last year it has been listed with the JSS Syndicate of Blenheim.

Rangiora on Tuesday.

 Nothing new but a couple of interesting aircraft presented themselves today.

An out of towner in the form of Vans RV-7 ZK-SHN c/n 73115, as built by Christopher Schoen of Kaponga, is seen here in a very long shot of it trying to avoid the camera.

The Titan O-360 engine has a sound of its own.

This was first flown on 21-07-2013 by Les Worsley. 

It flew a pretty much direct from, and back to, Hawera today.

It as been mentioned several times on the pages previously.

Also previously covered was the locally based Just Aircraft SuperStol ZK-KAB2 c/n JA314-08-13 as owned by the KAB Syndicate.

The slats and slots show nicely.

Bristells Among the Sunflowers

A few months ago Martin Henton of the local Bristell agents took the opportunity to gather six Bristells together for a spectacular photoshoot among a field of sunflowers just before they were harvested:

The Bristells were ZK-NGZ, ZK-NGO2, ZK-NGT, ZK-EAC3 in the rear with ZK-SAM4 and ZK-DVB2 in front.

Thanks for the photo Martin.

Lancair ES ZK-EDZ has departed our shores.

 As I type this the Lancair ES ZK-EDZ2 c/n LES-254 is on is delivery flight to Slovenia.

It came to NZ as a ten year old having flown in the States as N764ES and listed here on 16-01-2014.

 I received the following from a regular blog reader :-

***************

Thought you’d be interested in the travels of Lancair, ZK-EDZ. 

I have been ‘looking after’ it for the last three or so years. 

Taking it for a warm up flight every month or so. 

It was owned by Kevin Foster at Motueka, who sadly passed away suddenly around 4 years ago. 

The aircraft took a while to sell and was eventually sold to a Slovenian three years ago.

This person is right now in the process of flying it to Slovenia. 

As I write this ZK-EDZ is heading towards Darwin.  

You can follow along HERE

Click on that link again

Then click on "logbook" at the top

Or scroll down to the bottom and click on "Check the route"

Then if you look at FlightRadar24 check its actual route.

(I hope these links all work).

Bird Dog ZK-LAO

Errol Cavit captured the Cessna 305A (O-1A) Bird Dog ZK-LAO c/n 21692 at Ardmore on Saturday the 8th of August.

It was restored at Ardmore and registered to the Lao Syndicate on 28-05-2024.

Since then it has gained underwing tanks and a modified undercarriage.

See HERE for an earlier post on ZK-LAO.

Topdressing DC 3s (7) - ZK-AZL

I am posting this series on topdressing DC 3s in alphabetical registration order, but ZK-AZL really deserves more prominence as it was the original Ag Dak from way back in 1954!

Douglas C-47B-35-DK (c/n 16568/33316) was built by The Douglas Aircraft Co, Oklahoma City, OK with 2x 1200HP 14-cyl R-1830-92 Twin Wasp radial engines as 44-76984 

18 May 1945 USAAF diverted through “Lend-Lease” and exported to New Zealand, flown to NZ 

NZ3545 17 Jun 1945 RNZAF 1 ASU, Hamilton. 

 22 Jun 1945 RNZAF 1 ARU. RNZAF 40 Sqn, Whenuapai 

Withdrawn from use 24 May 1946 and put in storage . Struck Off Charge 31 May 1947. 

ZK-AZL registered on 7 Apr 1953 to NZ National Airways Corp, Wellington.  Named “Kuaka” 

Was to be spare aircraft for the Royal Tour 1953 so she returned to NZ3545 RNZAF 42 Sqn but she was used as luggage aircraft for the tour.

ZK-AZL very early in its topdressing life at Rongotai on 13/7/54 and below at Ardmore in 1956.

ZK-AZL registered on 10 Apr 1954 to James Aviation Ltd, Hamilton.  Converted to topdresser by de Havilland Aircraft (NZ) Ltd at Rongotai. Test flown 4 Jul 1954 First topdressing job  1 Dec 1955.  Named “Hi Land Duster” 

We now jump forward to 28/8/86 when Don Noble took this nice photo of her at Ardmore.

Several of the James Aviation DC 3s were based at different aerodromes so James developed a way to transport small cars in the back of their D C 3s so the pilots could drive into town at the end of the day - these were Fiat 500s and later Minis.  They were driven up ramps through the large rear doors and stowed as shown in the above photo.  Ray Deerness has recounted an funny story about one of these cars: 

"Years ago, I was told by a Fieldair engineer that he had gone to Blenheim to work on a DC-3. The next morning, the plan was to fly him to Paraparumu to arrive in time for the Auckland train and he would travel on that to Palmy.  So all went well at first but the pilot forgot something, so he raced back to Blenheim and then back to Woodbourne but he got a speeding ticket. They got aboard the Dak and over to PPQ but it was getting tight.  At PPQ, they got the Mini out of the back and the raced to station BUT got another speeding ticket however they made the train.

 

So now with two speeding tickets, the pilot had to attend court. The pilot said to the magistrate. "There must be a mistake, I've got another speeding for the same morning. The time was 30+ minutes apart. Surely I could not have been in the South and North Island at the same time." The magistrate looked at the tickets and threw the case out. Over the years, the story got a bit better and different engineers and pilot names were suggested but I never did get the real story."

ZK-AZL was converted to single pilot operation by Airland (NZ) Ltd, Palmerston North, as were all the topdressing D C 3s.

Her last flight was on 4 Sep 1974 @ 14,043 hours flight time, and she was cancelled on 6 Jun 1984. 

Later she was displayed at Mystery Creek, near Hamilton Airport, then moved to Te Kowhai, then removed from Te Kowhai to allow for airpark development. 

This photo was taken at Te Kowhai at sunrise on 3/6/19.  Does anyone know where she is now?

Beech F33A Bonanza ZK-XPJ

An interesting visitor to Pauanui airfield today was the Beech F33A Bonanza ZK-XPJ.  Originally built in 1989 it was exported to Australia in mid 1990 becoming VH-XPJ.    Exported to New Zealand in 2017 it made an easy transition to ZK-XPJ and has been with its current Kerikeri owner since 2018.

 

Microlight Aircraft of New Zealand - Unregistered Ultra Flight Systems Trike 215 - a Better Outcome

In addressing microlight trikes in New Zealand, we open up a can of worms as they are so amorphous.  They can have different and sometimes interchangeable wings and when a new wing is fitted from another trike it could have the registration of the other trike, if it is even registered at all!  I reckon we have had around 140 trikes registered here and more have flown without being registered, as with the tragic case of Gregory Rogerson at Treble Cone that I posted recently.  Here is another example with a happier ending.

An early trike flying at one of the early Waitohi flyins.  How would you know what it was?

One of the many early types of trikes were the Ultraflight models.  These originated with Ultraflight Systems out of Modesto in California but I understand that they were produced locally by Steve Eldridge trading as Ultra Flight Systems at Hamilton.  I can find records that three of them were registered here but this story refers to an unregistered one that also didn't have a MAANZ number.  

It was partly owned by John Blauer of Tauranga, who was one of four pilots who flew the trike.  On 17 April 1983 a bracing wire snapped while it was flying near Papamoa and John Blauer who was wearing a parachute, parachuted to safety!  This must be one of the very few if not the only example of a pilot parachuting to safety from a stricken microlight.  Can anyone confirm this story or offer any more details?

Thanks to Janic Geelen for the information.

Microlight Aircraft of New Zealand - Unregistered Ultra Sports Trike Fatal Accident at Treble Cone

According to records an Australian, Gregory Rogerson, arrived in New Zealand on a working holiday in December 1981 and somewhere along the line he bought his Ultra Sports Tri Pacer Trike with a Vampyre 164 wing with him.  This was when the first microlights were being registered here but he never registered his trike although it definitely flew as he was involved in a fatal accident at the Treble Cone ski-field on 15 August 1983.  The trike also never had a MAANZ number.

While flying over the Treble Cone ski-field on 15 August 1983, the trike encountered turbulence which flipped it upside down several times and Gregory Rogerson was thrown out and fell to his death.

Unregistered But Not a Microlight - Chris Henry's and Warwick Vaile's 1912 Curtiss Pusher Replica

Over the years there must have been many hundreds of guys who sat in their sheds and dreamed of building their own aircraft.  And a lot of them did just that by joining the Amateur Aircraft Constructors Association (AACA - the fore-runner of SAANZ) and starting on building their aircraft.  Back in those days (the 1960s and 70s) in New Zealand building an aircraft was very regulated. 

There were only certain types of aircraft that were approved for homebuilding and once you had your set of plans you had to get them stamped and registered with the Civil Aviation Division of the Ministry of Transport and then you were appointed a Stage Inspector by the AACA, who had practical experience with aircraft building.  Actually when you got past the bureaucracy this was a really great system and your stage inspector, who was a volunteer, became a mentor and encouraged you along.  You had a building log that needed to be signed off by your stage inspector at certain points, for example before you glued the back face on a box spar after which it could not be seen inside again (all the homebuilt aircraft were wooden in the beginning, until welded steel tube fuselages came along).  Also you had to always use release-noted aircraft grade materials which even included the spruce timber that you used.

I can imagine that some guys would prefer to just do their own thing and build their aircraft however they wanted it, and that is what a small but unknown number of aircraft builders in New Zealand did.

This was the case with a couple of young motorcycle racers from Cambridge, Chris Henry and Warwick Vaile.  Chris Henry part owned a motorcycle shop in Cambridge with his brother in the 1970s and they were the North Island agents for Ducati motorcycles. 

 I have not been able to find out why, but sometime in the 1970s Chris Henry and Warwick Vaile started building a replica of a 1912 Curtiss Flyer aircraft.  Obviously this didn’t fit in with the strictures of the homebuilt aircraft system but they went ahead and started building anyway.

I have heard reports from around that time that they built their aircraft in a workshop near to the motorcycle shop from outlines drawn in chalk on their workshop floor (shades of how the Jodel D9 was hatched), and also that there were lots of aircraft parts around the motorcycle shop over various times.  I don’t know if they ever approached CAD at the time but I suspect not as their aircraft was never registered, (and anyway I know what the answer would have been!)

 The aircraft must have been finished by late 1976/early 1977 as there is a photo on the internet of Warwick Vaile flying it which is dated March 1977.  I understand that both Chris and Warwick flew it from at least 2 farm airstrips near Cambridge.  This was after both having no prior experience of flying!  I guess that shows that Glenn Curtiss’s machine was pretty well behaved.

Warwick Vaile (above) and Chris Henry (below) flying their magnificent creation.

Now we shift our attention to Tom Krippner’s airstrip at Ngahinapouri where Chris and Warwick assembled their Curtiss Flyer, probably in 1977.  We can date this because there are home movies of it taxying there with a young Ivan Krippner in the movie aged around 5 years old.  The movies show the aircraft being taxied with verve up and down the airstrip.  Ivan’s brother Paul recalls that this spirited taxying went on over many months of weekends and led to hops (flights?) down the runway with various Waikato homebuilt aircraft pilots such as Max Clear dropping in to observe progress.  Obviously quite a few locals knew about it. 

At Krippner's Strip at Ngahinapouri, obviously on a colder day!

Sometime, probably later on in 1977, Chris and Warwick were operating the Curtis Flyer off the Ngahinapouri airstrip and a local TV crew was there.  They captured the aircraft flying but on its final flight there was a fuel pressure problem which caused a loss of power and the aircraft came to rest in the top of some tall trees beside the airstrip (shades of Richard Pearse!).  Ivan Krippner’s home movie compilation shows it in the trees and didn’t appear to be damaged much.  A crane was called from Hamilton and Paul Krippner relates that the crane operator didn’t want to come but was enticed with “you will be on TV” so the crane eventually turned up but by that time the TV crew had gone home! 

The Flyer perched at the top of the trees

And being craned down, largely undamaged.

Another contact remembers seeing this adventure on local TV and I understand that the Civil Aviation Division called round to see the boys and issued a cease and desist notice (shades of Geoff Williams who built 4 unregistered aircraft at Dunedin between the 1960s and 1990s).  However in this case notice was taken of CAD and the Flyer ended up at MOTAT.

 It was hung up at MOTAT for quite a few years where Peter Lewis saw it and he said everyone referred to it as “the MOTAT biplane” without knowing anything more about it.  The last information I have about it was when it was on display at a motor racing meeting at Pukekohe raceway in the mid 1990s, and then MOTAT seems to have lost it.  Does anyone out there know where it might be today?

Thanks to Warwick Vaile who supplied the above photos to Dave Homewood in 2024. 

Two Canterbury Sunday shots.

Douglas DC3A N8336C c/n 7313 is seen below returning to Christchurch International following a Sunday jolly out West around the Mount Hutt area.

Its history has been previously mentioned HERE

Meanwhile at Rangiora the Alpi Pioneer 300S ZK-RMV c/n 36 is having a wash down.ZK-RMV is actually our oldest Alpi 300. It was first registered in Florida as N121AA on 4-04-2001.

Its US registration was cancelled on 23-01-2004 and it was registered to Rudi K Wenk of Petone on   04-03-2004, using his initials, to become ZK-RWK.  

Pioneer Aviators acquired it from 11-05-2005 and re-registered it as ZK-RMV on 16-05-2005.

It then went to the RMV Syndicate of Rotorua, on 21-02-2013 with whom it is still current, but with a move to Rangiora from 13-03-2021.

Merlin Labs Cessna Grand Caravan ZK-MLQ

 The latest Cessna 208B Grand Caravan for Merlin Labs NZ Ltd's fleet ZK-MLQ is c/n 208B1035.

I first noted it listed as N421YC with the Cessna Aircraft Company of Wichita, Kansas and then certified to Station Management Inc of Dallas, Texas on 21-10-2005. Its US registration was cancelled on 21-10-2005 and was delivered to Storth Pty Ltd of Milton, Queensland for registration in Australia as VH-ZGS2 on 28-10-2005.

 It was operated by Austrek Aviation of Moree, NSW before being moved on to Lip-Air Ltd at Cairns from 12-09-2006. They re-registered it as VH-WZY2 on 14-09-2006. A couple more owner/operators included West Wing Aviation at Townsville from April 2009, Skytrans Pty Ltd of Stratford, Queensland from November of 2016 and Peter Collings Holdings Pty Ltd of Townsville from mid 2025. 

It was noted departing Gold Coat for Lord Howe and Norfolk Islands on 09-01-2026 and then on to Auckland the following day.

It became ZK-MLQ for Merlin Labs NZ Ltd of Kerikeri in mid-February this year.

It flew from Kerikeri to Ardmore, where Errol Cavit captured it before it moved on to Paraparaumu on Saturday the 1st of August.

On the tie downs at Christchurch International today - Saturday August 1st 2026

 On this mean chilly Saturday lunchtime, I found these three aircraft on the tie down wire near the Canterbury Aero Club.Cessna 185D Skywagon ZK-CKP is c/n 1850796 and has been with the Cameron family at Otematata Station sine late 1987 after its seventeen years previously as a ski plane with Mount Cook.

The Cirrus Design SR22 GTS ZK-PGU is c/n 1639 came into NZ from Australia, where it had been VH-PHU2, in May of 2021 for the NZ Agents B B Aviation of Feilding.

It moved to WHG Management Ltd of Cromwell in September last.

Cessna A185F Skywagon ZK-TWZ is c/n 18502289 has been with Glenbrook Station (2010) Ltd out of Omarama since arriving here in 2021.

Some of its previous history can be seen HERE

Both Cessnas arrived via the Mackenzie Basin, Hokitika, Karamea, Takaka and Motueka, whilst the Cirrus flew direct from Wanaka.

In the helicopter park was the oft noted Hughes 369D with the c/n 1280415D.

It used to visit reasonably frequently when it was ZK-HUW with Coastwide Helicopters and other operators. 

It joined the Alpine Group Ltd 09-12-2020 and had a re-registration to ZK-HOT8 on 18-12-2020.

As seen above it carries the 'alpine helicopters ltd' titles.

Microlight Aircraft of New Zealand - Unregistered Birdman Flying!

Yesterday I posted about Wyn Eggleston's unregistered Birdman TL-1A Birdman with a story about its unhopeful first flight and I asked the question "Can any blog reader add anything to this story?  Did Wyn's Birdman ever fly again?"

Well, we hit the jackpot when Kim Twentyman emailed that he had successfully flown the Birdman several times and he even had a photo of it flying! (from a newspaper article).

Kim wrote:  "I flew the Birdman of Wyn's 4 or 5 times over a short period and the trick was to get it on the step otherwise it would drag its back end and not climb out of ground effect.  Once you had mastered this it zipped along quite well and would climb at a fairly slow rate.  Finally, the discovery that the lack of propeller thrust over the tailplane resulted in no elevator control (and white knuckles).  This finished the flying of the Birdman.  It sat for years in the Yaldhurst Museum at Harewood and may still be there.  Wyn became the local agent for TEAM Aircraft and completed a Hi Max for himself powered by a 1/2 VW engine which I test flew and it was a lovely aircraft."

Thanks very much for the information Kim.

New Tecnam P 2012 Traveller Arrives

 We should mark the arrival of the first example of the Tecnam P 2012 Traveller in New Zealand:

Traveller T7-NZL arriving at Ardmore on 29 July after flying from Italy the long way around and clearing Customs.at NZAA.  I understand it will become ZK-JTK2.  For more photos and information head across to our sister blog 3rd Level New Zealand HERE 

Live wire work With ZK-IEJ

  Yesterday the Airbus Helicopters AS 355 NP ZK-IEJ2 c/n 5801 of Heliventures NZ Ltd of Oamaru   was carrying out live wire work at the Islington Substation, Christchurch.

Facinating occupation ?

Originally listed as F-WWPO to Airbus Helicopters in 2017 it went to the UK to become G-PERX on 02-05-2017 with Airbus Helicopters UK Ltd at Kidlington and to Heligroup Operations Ltd for an Aston Martin luxury fit out and then to Wycombe Helicopter Services Ltd of Reading from 14-09-2017.

On 25-02-2019 it was re-registered as G-TIJL to Wycombe Management Services LLP of Reading until cancellation on 30-07-2024 for export to New Zealand.

It was listed to Heliventures NZ Ltd on 02-08-2024.

Microlight Aircraft of New Zealand - Wyn Eggleston's Unregistered Birdman TL-1A

The Birdman TL-1 was a VERY light microlight aircraft that weighed only 130 pounds empty! (59 Kg).  It was marketed by its designer Emmett M Talley III in 1976, but its gloss faded somewhat with Talley's death during a demonstration flight in the prototype at Anaheim, California in May 1976.  Like many of the early microlights it was underpowered with a 10 HP Chrysler engine but it was an elegant design.  It had a length of 20 feet 3 inches (6.15 metres), a wingspan of 34 feet (10.36 metres) and a wing area of 144 square feet.  The photo below is of a Birdman, probably in Australia.

Christchurch man Wyn T Eggleston built a Birdman TL-1A and it was completed in 1982.  The Birdman was never registered but had a constructors number of MAANZ/41.  It made at least one flight and here is a description of that flight written in 1983 as provided by Janic Geelen:

"About a year ago an attempt was made to fly this very light machine which is powered by a 10 HP Chrysler motor.  Bruce Bonner, well known test pilots for homebuilt (aircraft) was to have the honour of first flight.  Extensive ground tests proved all was OK, especially in the power department.  Fears had been expressed as to the minimal amount of power available but according to the flight manual 55 pounds thrust was sufficient for flight.  Static tests on Wyn's plane was 72 pounds, plenty said Wyn.  

With Bruce on board, on an absolutely still morning at Claxby, the "Birdman" was wound to full throttle, the Chrysler motor buzzing out all its mighty 10 HP.  The plane trundled sedately across the airfield, eventually lifting off at what seemed a ridiculously low speed.  After gaining an altitude of  4 feet climbing ceased  and the boundary fence was cleared by inches.  After an amazing flat turn (what else at that height?) it disappeared behind some trees still travelling at little more than running pace.  A few seconds more and the buzzing abruptly stopped.  The expression on Wyn's face would have to be seen!  I hastily leapt aboard my Scout and flew across to find the Birdman sitting unharmed about 2 paddocks away from the airfield with Bruce standing alongside.  "It just wouldn't climb" he said.  "I obviously wasn't going to get back to the airfield so I landed".

The Birdman was dismantled and put back in the special trailer that Wyn had constructed to house it, and has remained thus ever since.  However a recent discussion with Wyn reveals that he still has plenty of enthusiasm and firmly believes the Birdman will fly properly.  There seems no reason that it should not, if the figures quoted in the flight manual are accurate.  Another attempt to fly the Birdman will be made in the near future".

Can any blog reader add anything to this story?  Did Wyn's Birdman ever fly again?