Microlight Aircraft of New Zealand - Early Unregistered Microlights - Ken Asplin's Quicksilver M

Following the public introduction of microlights at the Aviation Showcase 80 at Hamilton Airport in November 1980 as I detailed in my previous post, there were at least 4 microlight aircraft in the Waikato area and a bunch of would be microlight pilots who were keen to fly them.  And there was the private airstrip at Max Clear's family farm at Te Kowhai, so Te Kowhai became the base for microlight activity in the North, even though it was not strictly within the regulations to fly them.

One of the first microlight pilots was Ken Asplin of Hamilton who came from a hang gliding background and flew one of the original Quicksilver M models which was a weight shift machine without any spoilers.  He and others were having discussions with the Civil Aviation Division of the MOT and to help with this Peter Karl video'd Ken flying at Te Kowhai and Ken took the video up to CAD in Auckland as part of discussions on how microlight pilots could be trained (as all the early microlights were single seaters).  Here is that video:  (you can double click on it to enlarge it)

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/xzwz0zxef0uyef6gw3vl7/kenasplin.mp4?rlkey=jyytoq9vrqed1vcl6oxax79tz&st=rmrz4e3g&dl=0

And here are some screenshots from the video (sorry about the quality). This would have been in 1981.

You can see why early microlights had so much drag!  In the hangar appears to be Max Clear's Pitts Special.

Taxying out for a demonstration.

And about to touch down.  You can see that there is no registration letters under the wing as this was before they were required.  

Peter Karl remembers that some of these early microlights flew cross country as far as Papamoa in the Bay of Plenty.  Thanks very much for the video Peter.

Ken Asplin later owned a Mirage and was an agent for the type, but that is another story.