VICTA airtourer 100 - need help

[neuman5022]

Hello to all

We at the Nelson aeroclub, are building a simulator for our members. One of our members, have a fuselage of a Victa Airtourer 100 - ZK-CDO, which has still the marks of Taranaki Flying School.

We have only the fuselage, but this will fit for what we need perfectly. Apart from transforming it into a simulator, we would like to "restore" whatever we can.

We are currently looking for a picture, plan, or drawing of the cockpit layout. All we have is one picture that does not tell the whole story

We hope one of you guys, has any information that can help us.

Many thanks

Isaac

[xr6turbo1]

I have a few cockpit shots of a 150 hp airtourer if they are any good to you?

[Peter Lewis]

Might be a bit of a challenge there, as the 100 was not very popular (relied on the curvature of the earth to get off the ground) and most were re-engined early on.
I attach a pic of the cockpit layout for the 160hp T6/24, which might get you started. Another thought - there are two Victa 100s still currently registered, ZK-CHF and ZK-CMD, both owned in Wanganui for some strange reason. Might be an idea to contact those owners and see if they can help.
Any chance of showing us a picture of CDO as it is now, before the work starts?

[corsair67]

Slightly off topic here, but does it feel weird flying an Airtourer with that central control column?

[Peter Lewis]

That was rather strange intially, but became quite intuitive remarkably rapidly
On my first flight, I thought 'I'll never get to grips with this thing' not helped by a rather grumpy old instructor who was prone to say things like 'if you get this bit wrong it'll kill you'
On the second flight, it came together quite well.
On the third flight I was in there solo.

Rather more difficult to manage was the hand-operated braking system - for max performance takeoff you needed one hand holding the brake on, one hand on the throttle, and one hand holding the stick back. Not easy.
Also note that the radio is right in front of the pax. Do up the four-point harness too snugly for aeros, and you couldn't reach the radio to change frequency. Also, on this aircraft, the radio was triggered by the small switch painted red just above the throttle. Close to that, on the panel, is exactly the same type of switch which operated the electric flap. Try broadcasting your intentions, wondering why you get no response, closely followed by wondering why the aircraft is slowing down (as you now have 10 degrees of flap down). We all did it, occasionly.

[Bruce]

What are all those round things on the panel? and those funny levers on the cockpit sidewalls?
When I was in the trade I was involved with the rebuild / tidy up of two Air Tourer 115s - CLD and DDP. Certainly the early tourers were are lot more sparsely fitted out. As they had fixed pitch props they disnt have the military throttle quadrants, just a massive round knob on a "pull out" control. The knob looked just like it had been flogged off some ancient shed door somewhere! The flap control on the early tourers was manual - If I recall correctly only the Pilot could use it as it was a "handbrake" type lever on the pilots Left side, about seat level. The trim lever (yes - mechanical) was just beind the centre control column and looked and worked exactly like a lawnmower height adjustment (Go Victa!) I have no idea how you would use it without reaching cross handed, but thats how it worked. apart from those little ideosyncracies (and the brakes already mentioned) they seemed a great little aeroplane (I never flew one) they were solidly and simply built, had a decent sized cockpit and generally were really good to work on. Unfortunately I have no photos of the panel layout on the '115s and no longer have acess to the manuals (Aeromotive have manuals for the Victa series) but the Simulator project sounds great and I hope it goes together O.K.

[neuman5022]

Hello Folks

Thank you for your replies. I learned a lot from them.

Will keep you informed

Cheers


Isaac

[xr6turbo1]

I flew the T6/24s for a 15 hours when the RNZAF had them and I really enjoyed the spade grip set up.
When I first saw the spade I automatically hated it but once I started flying, I really enjoyed it, especially during aerobatics.

[flyjoe180]

Was that for an Air Training Corps RNZAF scholarship Gavin?

[fletcherfu24]

I learned to fly on a 100 hp Victa too,flew like the brick,the hand brake braking,the terrible radio,the yelling instructor,you had to dip the tank with a tool like rosary beads because there was a bend in the filler tube.Ah... those were the days.

[Dave Homewood]

So was the designer of the original Airtourers, Henry Millicer, actually a lawnmower designer? Or was he brought in by Victa when they branched into aviation?

[fletcherfu24]

Henry Millicer was an aircraft desinger,he came up with the Airtourer concept in the mid '50s,Victa was an industrial company that got into aviation to produce the Airtourer,until the rights were later sold off to NZ.
Where its still basically in production(Airtrainer) with PAC about to churn out another batch.

[Dave Homewood]

The Airtrainer and Airtourer are of course two very different designs, by different designers in different countries, but yes the lineage is there.

Is this new batch of CT/4's to be E or F models?

I had always wondered if Millicer had anything to do with the lawnmower side of it. Cheers for that.

[Peter Lewis]

First of the many:

To vary the topic slightly, VH-MVT was the first Airtourer in NZ, seen here at Ardmore 7th July 1963 on demo to Auckland Aero Club. It was #17 off the Victa production line in Australia.
It went to the North Otago aero club at Oamaru in August 1963 as ZK-CFB, but had quite a short life there as it crashed on Mt Ida in February 1964.

[Bruce]

Cool photo - it shows the centre field hangars at Ardmore - one of which is now at Motats Meola Rd site. (The Warbirds Dak parks on the pad of the nearest one I think). What a cute little aeroplane - its got Augmenter exhausts like the early Fetchers! (must be all the power)

[Peter Lewis]

admin said:

So was the designer of the original Airtourers, Henry Millicer, actually a lawnmower designer? Or was he brought in by Victa when they branched into aviation?

From Wikipedia:
"Henry K. Millicer was a Polish-Australian aircraft designer and pilot.

He was born in Poland Henryk Kazimierz Militzer on June 11, 1915, the son of a university professor, Henry developed an early interest in aviation. In 1924 he won an aeromodelling competition with the prize being a flight over Warsaw, his home city. At age 14 he built a full-size glider and at 17 qualified as a glider pilot. After receiving a degree in aeronautical engineering he worked as a junior designer in the National Aircraft Establishment, (Panstwowe Zaklady Lotnicze) on the PZL.37 Łoś bomber project headed by Jerzy Dąbrowski and later for the RWD company on the RWD-25 low-wing, fixed-wheels fighter project. He was also a member of the Polish Airforce reserve and flew against the Germans at the outbreak of World War II; winning the Polish Air Force Cross. At the defeat of Poland he ferried the presidential airplane to Romania, then escaped to France and then to England where he flew in a Polish bomber squadron in the RAF completing seventeen missions before being seriously wounded in a training exercise. He was awarded the Military Medal for his service.

Post-war he obtained a Masters degree in aeronautical engineering at the Cranfield Institute of Technology and joined Airspeed and then Percival aircraft. The Percival Provost design is attributed to Millicer. In 1950 he migrated to Australia and became chief aerodynamicist at the Government Aircraft Factory (GAF), working on the Jindivik and the Malkara missile. With two colleagues he entered a design competition sponsored by the Royal Aero Club of London for a replacement aircraft for the DeHavilland Chipmunk. The Millicer team beat 103 contestants and won the competition with a design that ultimately became the Victa Airtourer. His other inventions include a patent for the vortex flap and a suction grass mower (honored in the Sydney 2000 Olympics opening). He also published Aerodynamics for Soaring Pilots for the Gliding Club of Victoria.

Millicer became the principal lecturer in Aeronautics at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) with a view to establishing his faculty as the leading school in Australia. He retired in 1980 but remained associated with his faculty at RMIT and in 1984 his work was recognised with the award of a Doctorate in aeronautical engineering. In 1992 he was made a Member of the Order of Australia. He continued to be involved in the design of aircraft and formed Millicer Aircraft Industries which bought the rights to the Aircruiser that Millicer had designed for Victa. He continued to act as an advisor for aeronautical graduate projects on a part-time basis. Millicer died on August 28, 1996 aged 81 and his ashes were scattered from the air over the coast near his home at Anglesea, of the Great Ocean Road."

Victa's interest in the design only arose after the success of the prototype.

From www.pilotfriend.com/aircraft%20performance/airtourer.htm

"The Airtourer was designed by Dr. Henry Millicer, of the Australian Government Aircraft Factory (GAF), and was the winning entrant in a (British) Royal Aero Club sponsored Light Aircraft Design competition.

The Airtourer Group then formed in Australia to build a 65 hp Continental powered wooden prototype, which first flew in March 1959. This attracted the interest of Victa (the lawnmower manufacturer) who undertook production of an all-metal version with a 100 hp Continental engine."

[Dave Homewood]

Thanks for that Peter, what an amazing bloke. So did he have a hand in the Winjeel too? It looks a lot like his Provost in design. I wonder...

[corsair67]

The Airtourer is a wonderful little aircraft that could have sold many more airframes if only the Commonwealth Government hadn't let companies like Cessna and Piper swamp the market with their products at reduced prices so as to kill off any competition from companies like Victa.

[flyjoe180]

This attracted the interest of Victa (the lawnmower manufacturer) who undertook production of an all-metal version with a 100 hp Continental engine

That is one very powerful lawnmower ;D

[FlyNavy]

It would be fun to mow the lawn with it. Was it this forum somewhere that had a link to a 'flying lawnmower' video?