Vans in the Vanguard of Amateur Built Aircraft in New Zealand

I have noticed a shift in the balance of amateur built aircraft in New Zealand. By amateur built aircraft I am referring to the kind of aircraft that you build in your garage over a period of several years (not to belittle the types that come as a kit with pre-sewn covers or as pre-moulded parts you understand!).

In November 3 new Van's RV types were registered, one of which was this RV 7 registered to S J Jones of Auckland and pictured here at North Shore last weekend. I reckon that these 3 latest RV's bring the total of RV models registered in New Zealand to 54. This includes 4 RV3's, 11 RV 4's, 10 RV 6's, 6 RV 6A's, 3 RV 7's, 8 RV 7A's, 3 RV 8's, 1 RV9A, and 1 RV 10 - nearly a full suite of RV types (There is a Light Sport Aircraft RV 12 now flying in America). I also include our 2 Harmon Rocket 11's as these are (essentially) extensively beefed up RV 4's. 5 RV models have been cancelled from the register being RV 4 ZK-RVS which crashed (but is being rebuilt), RV 3 ZK-DRV, RV 6 ZK-VGS and RV 6A ZK-NRV all of which have migrated to Australia, and RV 6A ZK-VBC which crashed in Australia killing owner/builder Bryan Knights who was preparing the plane for a flight to the UK.

And I reckon that there have been 53 amateur built Jodel's in New Zealand. The most recent Jodel D 11 is ZK-KSD built by Gary Williams of Otorohanga which was first registered on 12/10/04. I count the 53 amateur built Jodels as 7 D 9's, 29 Jodel D 11's and 4 D 18's ( I did not count D112 ZK-CGL and DR 1051 ZK-JOD as these are factory built examples - you can do anything with figures!). I also counted Falconer F 11 ZK-KEA and Falconer F 12 ZK-DBI as these are essentially Jodels built from Canadian plans. 11 Jodel models have been cancelled from the register (mostly having crashed), being D 9's ZK-CTW, ZK-DBM, ZK-DBS, ZK-DEV and ZK-EKC and D 11's ZK-DGA, ZK-ECX, ZK-EEH, ZK-EFK and ZK-FHB.

Our first D 11 ZK-CKG was registered in July 1966 and Jodel's provided the backbone of the homebuilt aircraft fleet for more than 40 years. I think that the fact that 29 D 11's are still flying is a tribute to the aircraft (well at least 29 registered, some have come back to flying status such as ZK-DGV at Stratford and ZK-MAU at North Shore).

Their reign has now come to an end and I am sure we will see many more RV types coming onto the register in the near future and in the process becoming New Zealand's most popular amateur built aircraft.