Microlight Aircraft of New Zealand - Quicksilvers (1) - The First One Registered ZK-MRW

Quicksilver ultralight aircraft had their genesis in the early 1970s when Dick Eipper founded Eipper Performance in Southern California as a hang glider manufacturer.  One model they made was a rigid wing design with a conventional tail that had been developed by Bob Lovejoy that became the Quicksilver C powered hang glider.  I was told by Pete James that there was a Quicksilver hang glider (not powered) in the first New Zealand Hang Gliding competition in 1975 at Bayleys Beach, out on the coast from Dargaville.

The Quicksilver C was developed into the Quicksilver E which had a tricycle undercarriage with a fixed nosewheel and was a weight shift ultralight.  We have had one Quicksilver E registered in New Zealand as well as several others, also weight shift, that were registered as Quicksilver M models (and I don't know the difference).

As ultralights were rapidly developing in the US, demand grew for more conventional machines that were not weight shift, and the single seat Quicksilver MX was born.  The first MX's had 2 axis controls with a side stick that you pushed left and right to control the rudder and that you moved forwards and back to control the elevator, and turning the rudder tipped the aircraft due to its relatively large dihedral.  Later spoilerons were added to the top of the wings to give better and more balanced turns.  The original MXs had single surface wings and were named MX Sprints and later a double surface wing model was named the MX Sport and this gave better performance and a sportier feel.  Then somewhere along the way the controls were changed to 3 axis with rudder pedals and a conventional control stick.  All of the MXs were cable braced.  Later on various 2 seat versions of the Quicksilver appeared and remarkably Quicksilvers are still being manufactured in the US today, some even with strut braced wings. 

The specifications for the Quicksilver MX Sport are:  length 18 feet 1 inch (5.51 metres), wingspan 28 feet (8.53 metres), wing area 156 square feet, empty weight 250 pounds (113 kg), MAUW 525 pounds (238 Kg).  With a 40 HP Rotax 440 the cruise speed was 50 mph (43 knots) and the stall speed was 24 mph (21 knots).

We have had 112 Quicksilvers of various models registered in New Zealand.

The first Quicksilver to be registered here was Marty Waller's MX model ZK-MRW which was registered to Pacific Kites (1981) Ltd of Auckland on 22/1/82.  Pacific Kites was formed by Marty Waller and fellow American Tommy Namais and ownership of ZK-MRW passed to Tommy Namais of Muriwai Beach on 11/5/83.  Tommy Namais later went to India where I understand he died in suspicious circumstances.  ZK-MRW then went to Dennis J Smith of Whangarei on 2/7/90 then to Andrew G Carter of Murupara on 5/7/93 and finally to Russell K Brodie of Rangitata Island on 10/8/08.  It was cancelled as withdrawn on 15/11/10 and is stored at Rangitata Island as part of Russell Brodie's early microlight collection.

Marty Waller was one of a trio of microlighters who flew their aircraft from North Cape to Bluff in February 1982.  He is photo'd above landing in ZK-MRW at Bridge Pa on 12/2/82.

And here is a later photo of it back in typical Quicksilver colours, at Pikes Point airstrip.

Although ZK-MRW was the first Quicksilver to be registered here, there was at least one other earlier model that pre-dated it and which I will post about next.

   

Microlight Aircraft of New Zealand - Fledgeling ZK-PJH at Waitohi in 1985

I have previously posted about Pterodactyl microlights of New Zealand including the couple of Fledgelings that have been registered here and you can find that post HERE  In that post both of the registered Fledelings had canards and in the post I said I was at a loss to explain this.

Now Marcus Bridle of Marcus's Old Aircraft Photos on Facebook has come up with an early photo of ZK-PJH taken at Waitohi in 1985 that shows it without the canard:

So that explains why is was registered as a Fledgeling (as well as having the direct drive propeller).

Thanks very much for the photo Marcus.

More recent Rangiora photos.

 Rangiora on Friday the 29th produced two more strays from close by.

The Bush Caddy R-80 ZK-LIL c/n CA 001-117 arrived in from the Maddisons Road strip, did some local flying and returned home mid afternoon.
Built by Graham Johnson of Leeston, registered on 09-12-2010, and based at Ashburton for a while
It was moved on to Dylan Wear of Rolleston in April last year.

Nigel Forrester flew his BRM Aero Bristell LSA (TD) ZK-TDN c/n 174/2016 into Rangiora from his new abode of Cheviot for a couple of hours.

Initially registered late in 2015 as 24-8698 to Anderson Aviation in Australia. It joined the 'real' aeroplane register briefly as VH-ZYT3 in October of 2023.

Nigel purchased it, had it re-registered as ZK-TDN on 18-10-2023, and it was ferried from Latrobe Valley to Coolangatta on 30-10-2023. It carried on to Lord Howe and Norfolk Islands on the 31st. The new month had it flying to Kerikeri and Motueka, with a final flight to Timaru and Alexandra (Nigel's hometown at that time) on 02-11-2023.

Recent Rangiora pics.

A visit to Rangiora on Friday revealed the Zenith CH701 STOL SP ZK-DBC3 c/n 7-5464 making use of its Rotax 914 Turbo on take off.

This was built in the USA as N510DM with a date of manufacture of October 2005 at Fort Collins in Colorado.

It was certified at Rangiora by Stol Performance NZ Ltd and joined our register on 05-07-2016 for James Herlihy of Patearoa. It underwent a major rework at Custom Aviation at Taieri in 2018 and later sold to its current owner Jeremy Hurst, down Waimate way, in September of 2021.

After a period of storage, the Sigma Aircraft Sigma - 4 ZK-JRC2 c/n 09 is coming back together and should be back in the air shortly for its owner, since 2009, Harry Devonish of Christchurch. 
This is just one of four imported by Maxim Vassiliev - ZK-JQF, ZK-JRN, ZK-JRC and ZK-SRN, with just the last two still on our register.

Meet the TEAMs at Rangiora.

 A couple of seldom seem microlights at Rangiora were exposed to the daylight recently.

Above (and literally above) is the Tennessee Engineering And Manufacturing Inc (T.E.A.M) Z-MAX ZK-JGM c/n 666/MAANZ/556.

This first raised its head in February of 1996 with J A Gray of Christchurch, then to Richard ONeill-Dean of Dunedin.in early 2001 - it was next listed with Waarren Bezzant and L Anderton of Timaru in early 2001 followed by Richard Jones of Christchurch from mid 2002. Other Christchurch owners included Paul Woodward in mid 2004, Rod Webb from October 2005, Russell Byfield from August 2007 and Chris O'Brien in February of 2011. Up to this time I had never seen its registration on its fuselage side. However, Wayne Lindebaum and Brian Fitzgerald took it over from 05-02-2019 and now its sports its 'JGM' fuselage marks and carries 'JGM' under its Starboard wing.

Above we see a very very close relation - the Mini Max USA 1550V V-Max ZK-VMB c/n BF04.

This is a recent addition to the register for Brian Fitzgerald of Christchurch from 03-10-2025.

It registration letters of VMB appear in black on the darkish blue fuselage side and difficult to read.

Brian also owns the Facet Sapphire ZK-SAP which is parked in the left background.

More History of the Amphibious Savannah ZK-CEE/2

Following my previous post on the newly registered amphibious Savannah ZK-CEE2 (see HERE), we have been contacted by the new owner Fergus Watts who has sent some more information on its history:

Fergus advises that the Savannah is a 2016 factory built example that was flown out of Nusatupe Island in the Western Solomon Islands, which is South of Bourganville in the Solomon Sea, and also about 400 km East of Port Moresby in New Guinea.  Nusatupe Island is pretty much all airstrip and was constructed by the Americans during WW2 by flattening two islands and joining them together using the excavated material.  It was redeveloped in 2013 under a New Zealand aid programme and is now Nusatupe Airport, and this is where Bishop Capelli based I-C664 in the hangar photo'd above.

Don Luciano Capelli was the Bishop of Gizo Diocese in the remote Western Solomons.  The Savannah features his own personal coat of arms, designed when he was appointed Bishop in accordance with Catholic and Vatican heraldry tradition, and that has been kept for ZK-CEE2.  The above photo shows him pointing out details of the crest.  He retired in August 2023 and left the Solomons in 2025 after which Fergus Watts acquired the Savannah and recovered it to New Zealand.

Fergus told me that although the Savannah was registered to a Napier address in the medium term it will be flown out of Whangarei by him and David Cull.

N8336C "Spirit of Douglas" at Christchurch.

 The Douglas DC-3A (C-53) N8336C c/n 7313 "Spirit of Douglas" flew into Christchurch International Airport on 17-03-2026 and has been based at the GCH Aviation facility.

Since arrival it has required an engine change and is now back in the air.

As you can imagine this aircraft has an extensive story to tell since its construction in mid 1942.

Far too much for me to include here.

A search of GOOGLE will produce screeds of information.

HERE is a good place to start.

It has also been briefly mentioned previously on this site see HERE

Below is a partial history of the airframe.

Tony McFarlin captured her returning to Christchurch following a local flight.

Well done Tony.

Our Flight to Te Kowhai in Sling 4 TSi ZK-DBV/2

I have done a couple of posts from the Chipmunk 80th anniversary flyin at Te Kowhai last Saturday, but I thought it might be interesting for some blog readers to hear about our flight down there from Kaipara Flats.

First off, Arjen Visser's Sling 4 TSi ZK-DBV2 is a very capable aircraft that is equipped with pretty much all the bells and whistles with an all Garmin screen set up as well as an autopilot.  For example when we were flying the display tells you what airfields you are in gliding range of in case of an engine failure (but it doesn't go all the way and automatically land the aircraft which is a feature that can be had in the US).

As part of the safety briefing (and because I am in the right hand front seat) Arjen tells me that in the extremely unlikely event of him becoming incapacitated I should push the Level button to bring the wings level, then turn off both ignition lanes, and then pull the big red ballistic parachute handle!  Of course if we are over the water then first glide to land if you can before initiating the procedure

Arjen programmed the autopilot to fly over Parakai and then in a direct line to Te Kowhai.  We took off from Kaipara Flats airfield with 3 POB and the weather was less than ideal with very grey skies and areas of low cloud.  We got across the hills to the Kaipara Harbour and the visibility was OK but there were lots of low clouds down past Parakai.  We could see the coastline but Arjen made a decision that we would go over the top of the clouds.  He could do this because he has a transponder and ADSB so he can fly in controlled airspace.  So Arjen set the autopilot to climb at 95 knots and to level out at 8,000 feet.  Then just before we climb into the Auckland Approach controlled airspace he calls them up on 124.3 and they quickly approve the request to enter controlled airspace.  Then we are up in controlled airspace with all the Air New Zealand and other airlines' planes (We don't worry about the poor pilots scrabbling around in the murk on 119.1!)

We are now flying serenely above the clouds at 8,000 feet on autopilot and I am reminded of flying on the airlines! (except I can see ahead where we are going - more clouds).  Seemingly all around us are Air New Zealand flights on the screen and at one point Auckland Approach asks us to change heading to 090 as there is a (probably ATR 72) coming our way.  After a while we are told to re-head for Te Kowhai which the autopilot calculates for us.  After a brief handover to Bay Approach our read out shows that we are about 12 nautical miles from Te Kowhai.  Ahead there is still cloud but off to our right is a gap so we head for that and descend in the clear to find we are just North of Raglan.

If you click to enlarge this photo twice you can see lots of cars parked on Raglan Airfield which was closed by NOTAM as they are running a shuttle bus from the airfield to the World Surf League surfing contest that is being held at Manu Bay, South of Raglan (at the top right).

Then we head back to Te Kowhai under the clouds in VFR passing the Te Uku wind turbine farm and find the airfield straight ahead so we descend and join on the non-traffic side and proceed to land on Runway 05 just after the "Chipmunk Blue" 4 ship Chipmunk flight has landed.

As we were descending to Te Kowhai we got a good view of earthworks progress on the new Airpark, Stage 1 of which will consist of 35 to 40 larger sections.  And that is a Chipmunk on roll out, bottom left (click to enlarge).

Thank you Arjen for the eye opening flight!  We arrived much fresher than I have in the past when I have flown my D9 down there at around 1,500 feet.  However on the flight back the weather had improved so we flew back up the coast at 2,000 feet (and as required below 1,500 feet across the Manukau heads when an Air NZ A320 flew right above us).  This was all flown manually.  Such an easy plane to fly and all the while in armchair comfort!

I am tempted to say "It is flying Jim, but not as we know it!"

Wellington sightings today 24-05-2026

 Allister Jenks was on site at Wellington Airport today and offers these photographs of some of the activity from the Western side.

The Taranaki Community Rescue Helicopter ZK-HES4 arrived in from New Plymouth with a patient transfer - then departed back to its home base

This MBB MBB-BK117 B2 / 850D2 with the c/n 7205 was initially registered in Germany as D-HIMV in 1992 and operated in the EMS role. It moved up to Norway and became LN-OSY2 before returning to Germany in 2008 as D-HBAY4 with ADAC. It was converted to an 850D2 model and joined the New Zealand register as ZK-HES4 with Airwork (NZ) Ltd on 18-09-2017. 

It has served in the EMS role at several locations since then under the Search And Rescue Services title since October of 2019 - and is currently the Taranaki Community Rescue Helicopter based at New Plymouth.

Its HES registration letters are cunningly hidden behind the winching gear.

The classic Cessna 172 ZK-BVP c/n 36582 harks back to March of 1958 when it was listed by Rural Aviation Ltd at New Plymouth. After a multitude of owners it was taken up by Avskills in 2011 and passed to Nicola Marchant of Amberley in April of 2014. It dropped into Wellington from the family property in the northern Marlborough Sounds.

Grumman American AA-1B Trainer ZK-DKX c/n AA1B-0198 was one of a batch of GA aircraft imported by NZ Aerospace Industries at Hamiton in the '70's. It has lived in the Takaka - Nelson region since 1980 - currently listed to Gallett Properties Ltd of Nelson. 

It popped into Wellington on its way to Paraparaumu today.

A recent addition to the EMS fleet in NZ is this MBB BK117D-2 ZK-IGB2 c/n 20247. 

Built as D-HADY9 for delivery to REGA in Switzerland as HB-ZQM in February of 2019.

It was listed to GCH Aviation Ltd at Christchurch as ZK-IGB2 on 14-11-2025 and first flew at Christchurch as such on 10-03-2026.

On a quick flight from Christchurch to Wellington and back to Christchurch today.

A Couple of other Aircraft from Te Kowhai Yesterday

As well as the Chipmunks there were quite a few other sport aircraft visiting Te Kowhai yesterday.  Two that were new to me and the blog were as follows:

Vans RV 7 ZK-JDS2 (c/n 73662) is one of our newest Vans aircraft.  It was registered to the JDS Syndicate of Hamilton on 23/5/25.  I don't think it is based at Te Kowhai as it departed soon after us.

And arriving back at Te Kowhai just before we left was the B 22J Bantam ZK-JSW2 (c/n 07-0316) which has very recently been re-registered from ZK-ZAF for John S Wilson of Hamilton.