Tuesday, 12 May 2026

Microlight Aircraft of New Zealand - Mark Elworthy's Easy Riser

In researching for information on my series of Microlight Aircraft of New Zealand I have been provided with a scanned copy of The History of the South Canterbury Microlight Club (thanks Grant) which was published by John Nicolson in August 1996.  His first couple of paragraphs interested me greatly and I quote them as follows:

1.1  Pete James was one of a small gathering of North islander's who were to to become the original microlight founders in New Zealand.  During 1978-80, Pete - an accomplished hang glider pilot - was one of several hang glider pilots who decided to experiment with powered hang gliding.  They had been watching the events of powered flight by the Americans who had been flying "ultralights" since about 1976.  After trial-and-error flights the "microlight" soon became a reality for the assembly of thrill seekers.  And so the NZ microlight came into being.  (this is as I have posted in my first post on early Microlight Aircraft of New Zealand that you can see  HERE )

1.2  Meantime, here in Sth Canty in 1980, a local PPL was into powered hang glider flight too.  Mark Elworthy had purchased an American Easy Riser bi-plane hang glider, the first aircraft to resemble a microlight, and had been flying it frequently in free flight from atop Mt Horrible.  Mark had been corresponding with Pete in the NI and was keen to move into powered flight.  Mark attached a McCulloch 101 (125cc) go-cart engine to his Easy Riser.  Although initially plagued with growing pains, Mark eventually got things right and made numerous powered flights in his Easy Riser, later registered (?) as Maanz 060.  George Adams was to purchase Mz060 a few years later. (I do not think this Easy Riser was ever officially registered on the civil register).

This information was new to me and it shows that there was another flying microlight in New Zealand in 1980, before microlights had to be registered (joining Pete James' Easy Riser and Richard Brett's machine in the Waikato, Murray Hagen's Pfedgeling in Southland and Terry Delore's trike around Christchurch).  There may well be others that we don't know about.  Of course, if anyone has information on very early microlights in New Zealand please contact the editor and we will add to the story.  

Also, if anyone has a photo of Mark Elworthy's Easy Riser we would love to see it.  

In case readers do not have an idea of what an Easy Riser powered ultralight is, here is a good video which shows its history:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFwU9O1wjgQ

This is a screen shot from the video, not, unfortunately Mark Elworthy's machine (although it would have looked just like this!).

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