Dennis Moore commenced building his Barnett J4B gyrocopter in the early 1980s I think. At the time Dennis and I were both members of the Manawatu Chapter of the AACA and I saw it under construction.
When it was finished he took it down to Foxpine airfield where I took this photo of Dennis about to fire it up in the mid 1980s.
ZK-RBM (c/n NZRA/06/2) was registered in July 1983 and was the first Barnett J4B to be registered here (there has been one more being ZK-RBF that I know nothing of). The Barnett J4B was an American design and it was more powerful than other gyrocopters of the time, having a 100 HP Continental O-200 engine. It was withdrawn from use and de-registered in January 1994.
Dennis currently has Jodel D 11 ZK-FHB almost ready to fly again at Feilding aerodrome.
I heard a rumour many years ago that Dennis Moore owned the remains of Champion 7-FC Tri-Traveller ZK-BUL, later fitted with a tail wheel conversion, can anyone confirm this?
ReplyDeleteWhen ZK-BUL was with R Dell of Waihi it struck a fence at Athenrae on 13-08-1980. It was sold as a rebuild project and listed to Dennis Moore of Palmerston North on 16-09-1987. I have a note to say that this was not completed and its registration was cancelled on 23-06-1992.
ReplyDeleteYes it was built as a 7FC Tri Traveller but converted to tailwheel 7EC in the late 1950's or early 60/s.
I believe he has/had the remains of another former MDAC Champion as well and was perhaps planning to build one aircraft from the remains
ReplyDeleteLooking at the other MDAC Champs I see that ZK-BSX was bent on 30-08-1962 with the wreck going to Dennis Moore. It ultimately was acquired by Mark Miller who rebuilt it with some mods to become the Miller M1-Millichamp ZK-MMJ in October 2020. It is now based at Omaka.
ReplyDeleteZK-BVF had an accident on 24-12-1970. It was sold to Russell Giles in 1973 and I recall the fuselage being stored with Hallett Griffin at Kairanga. It was registered to Jeff Thompson 30-10-2019 and is still listed.
The later Citabria's 7ECA ZK-CMP and 7GCBC ZK-CRH are still current with private owners and the 7GCBC ZK-COF crashed on 02-09-1976.
I have a note that the cancellation of RBM in '94 was an outcome of a crash at Wigram 10Jan1988
ReplyDeleteShortly after the Wigram accident on 10-01-1988 it was re-listed to R J Thacker on 25-02-1988. It became 'spares' and was cancelled on 21-01-1994.
ReplyDelete