Saturday 15 October 2016

Alpi Aviation Pioneer 300s of New Zealand (6) - Pioneer Jay Hawk

Experienced homebuilt aircraft builder Cliff Johnston of Hastings purchased an Alpi 300 kit but he thought the standard undercarriage had too narrow a track.  The standard Alpi 300 has main undercarriage legs that retract outwards (like a Spitfire) but Cliff modified his aircraft to locate the undercarriage legs further outboard and to retract inwards (like a Mustang).  This required substantial redesign and stress calculations.  Because of this major re-design Alpi Aviation in Italy were not happy to have it called an Alpi 300 so Cliff named his aircraft as a Jay Hawk.

ZK-CWJ3 (c/n 221) was registered to Cliff Johnston at Hastings on 24/8/09.  It is photo'd above at the 2014 SAANZ flyin at Hastings, on 7/3/14.  You can  se the inward facing main undercarriage wheels in the photo.

Cliff has previously built Piel Emeraude ZK-CBH, TEAM Mini Max ZK-JRC, Johnston Sky Bird ZK-JFT and he also rebuilt the Piper Commanche ZK-CWJ2.

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