Wednesday 13 May 2020

Nicollier Menestrels (Only One) of New Zealand

The next new type to be registered in 2015 was our only Nicollier Menestral:

The Nicollier Menestrels (Minstrel in French) are a family of wooden low wing homebuilt aircraft with nice lines designed by Frenchman Henri Nicollier.  His first design was the single seat Menestrel HN 433 which first flew in 1962 and this was followed up by the side by side two seat Menestrel HN 700 II in 1989.  The Menestrel is of standard fabric covered wooden construction with a one piece single spar wing with partly elliptical outer panels. It is available in plans only.  Specifications for the Menestrel HN 700 II are:  length 5.30 metres (17 feet 5 inches), wingspan 7.80 metres (25 feet 7 inches) and the wing area is 105.5 square feet.  The empty weight is around 282 Kg (622 pounds) and in New Zealand the MAUW is 499 Kg (1,100 pounds).  With a 80 HP engine the cruise is around 115 mph (100 knots) and the stall is around 40 mph (35 knots).

We have had only one Menestrel HN 700 II registered in New Zealand to date:

ZK-TBS (c/n 209) was built by Steven J Chilcott of Auckland and it was registered to him on 7/7/15.  It is powered by a 2300 cc Revmastr engine.  Steve previously built the first Jodel D 18 in New Zealand (ZK-SCJ) and also has a couple of other interesting projects on the go.  It is photo'd above on take off from Ardmore on 14/3/16 where you can see the semi-elliptical outer wing.

And here it is at Raglan on 3/5/19 showing the canopy arrangement.



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