Pazmany PL 1's/PL 2's of New Zealand

The next type of 2 seater homebuilt aircraft in New Zealand was the all metal Pazmany PL 1.  The Pazmany PL 1 was designed by Ladislao Pazmany of San Diego, California in the early 1960's and the prototype first flew on 23/3/62 with a 90 HP Continental C 90 motor.  Pazmany was an aeronautical engineer and the PL 1 was designed for homebuilding.  The PL stands for Pazmany Laminar, and both the PL1 and PL 2 feature laminar flow wings.  Soon after, the PL 2 appeared as an improved version with a wider cockpit, more rounded fuselage and increased wing dihedral.  Both the PL 1 and PL 2 have wingtip fuel tanks.

Because they proved to be excellent training aircraft, the PL 1 was license built in Taiwan for the Taiwanese Air Force. and the PL 2 was license built in Indonesia for the Indonesion Air Force as the Lipnur LT 200 with a Lycoming O-320 motor.  The Vietnamese and Sri Lankan Air Force also used the aircraft as trainers.  The aircraft are stressed for aerobatics with design limits of +6G and -3G.

The length of the PL1/PL 2 is 5.88 metres (19 feet 3 inches) and the wingspan is 8.53 metres (28 feet).  The wing area is 116 square feet.  The empty weight is 410 Kg (910 pounds) and MAUW is 655 Kg (1441 pounds).  With a 150 HP Lycoming O -320 motor the top speed is 152 mph.

Our first and only PL 1 was ZK-PAZ (c/n AACA/175) which was built by Bruce Fraser of Christchurch, and was first registered on 8/12/77.  It had a 115 HP O-235 motor.  It is photo'd above at the 1981 AACA flyin at Mt Hutt.  It was sold to JH McCoy of Auckland on 1/2/82, then to CA Wilkie of Blenhiem on 11/11/83, then to MN Brenstrum of Dargaville on 21/2/85, and finally to TJ and DC Hill of Arrowtown on 11/7/94.  The Hills moved to Australia in 1998 and took the Pazmany with them.  It was cancelled on 20/10/98 and re-registered as VH-TEZ on 25/11/98 to TJ and DC Hill of Marcoola, Queensland.  It has since had a succession of Australian owners and is still current.

And our only PL 2 (to date) was ZK-TLP (c/n AACA247) which was built over a 10 year period by Trevor Parker of Te Aroha, and was first registered on 18/12/87.  It has a 150 HP O-320 motor.  I was also living at Te Aroha at that time, and I can vouch that the quality of Trevor's work was exceptional.  The above photo was taken at Matamata early on in its life, in 1988.

ZK-TLP has been judged Grand Champion aircraft at AACA flyins, and is still in immaculate condition. Trevor told me that he has flown to literally every corner of New Zealand, and ZK-TLP has been to almost every AACA/SAANZ flyin since it first flew.  The above photo was taken in the very early morning light at the 2010 SAANZ flyin at Tauranga, where ZK-TLP is now based.