During 1980 a couple of American guys, Tommy Namais and Marty Waller, arrived in New Zealand with agencies for Mirage, Quicksilver and Pterodactyl microlights. They also bought demonstrator aircraft with them and I think they had examples of the all of the three types. This is because of photos taken at Hamilton airport in October 1980 by Janic Geelen:
A crowd is interested in what I think is a Quicksilver M (the Quicksilver M was an early weight shift Quicksilver with a control bar like a trike, and with no spoilers and just a rudder and no fin). This machine could have been registered ZK-ESU in March 1982. The occasion was ahead of the Aviation Showcase 80 which was held in early November 1980.
And there were also a couple of unregistered Mirages on the airfield on the same day in October 1980. It is difficult to know what these machines were eventually registered, possibly one of them could have become ZK-ESQ for Trevor Barrett of Hamilton and the other could have become ZK-KJA for Ken Asplin of Hamilton. (But it is difficult to tell as the sailcloth covers could be changed!).
This photo of the second Mirage is interesting because in the foreground appears to be a Pterodactyl Ascender.
Thanks for the photos Janic, they have turned out to be very historic.
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