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Post by Dave Homewood on May 4, 2008 21:28:47 GMT 12
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Post by Peter Lewis on May 4, 2008 22:43:51 GMT 12
'challenge' - that's one word for it.
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Post by hardyakka on May 7, 2008 0:46:38 GMT 12
Hmmmmm.....
I'm betting that the TradeMe ID "Thor" is actually Alan Thoresen.
He is the Hamilton guy who took his Kawasaki drag bike to Bonneville last year (World's Fastest Indian style) but crashed out.
Alan was involved with Pacific Aerospace back when they were going to be importing and selling BD-5 kits. I guess the bike is taking precedence over the planes these days.
There was never a decent recip engine for the BD-5 and the jet version was too expensive (and high performance) for most potential builders. I've seen the BD-5J displayed at a couple of airshows (Mangere 1992 and Oshkosh in '95 and '99) and it looked pretty darn cool.
I also liked the look of the BD-10 until it started killing people...
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Post by FlyingKiwi on May 10, 2008 19:49:52 GMT 12
The profile name is "Alan" so I guess you are correct there.
Leo P.
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Post by shorty on Jun 14, 2008 20:34:54 GMT 12
When I was at Wigram there was a NATS navigator there by the name of Tony Kenworthy (not the engineering guy from Mt Cook/Safe) who had two or three BD-5s which he stored in the area between NATS and the Museum area of 7 hangar. He had a list of where every BD-5 that came to NZ was. He got into strife with the CO for cruising around base in a all black (no chrome at all) Monaro (I think) with tinted windows all round. This would have been about 83 or 84.
What became of his BD-5s?
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Post by Peter Lewis on Jun 15, 2008 17:32:58 GMT 12
A C Kenworthy, Christchurch was listed as the owner of BD-5D ZK-DVE from 1984 (he bought it off J V Hodge of Auckland) until the registration was canceled as 'Not completed' in 1992.
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Post by shorty on Jun 15, 2008 17:42:45 GMT 12
That must be him.
Pete Sheehan in Auckland was doing one with a Turbocharged Honda Civic lined up for it.
Dr Rose apparently got his into the air briefly
There was a bunch of them on top of the offices in the PAC hangar when I used to go there in the late 70s and there is another at Ashburton Museum
I don't know where the rest ended up.
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Post by Dave Homewood on Jun 15, 2008 18:04:40 GMT 12
There's an airworthy one at Tauranga Shorty. Bruce has seen it flying recently. I have seen it doing engine runs but not in the air.
Pat Monk (former chief designer at NZAI) had one in his garage for a while. I wonder where that one ended up. He didn't want it and tried to give it to Dad (as Dad was an r/c modeller at the time) ;D
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Post by hairy on Jun 15, 2008 21:10:23 GMT 12
Pete Sheehan in Auckland was doing one with a Turbocharged Honda Civic lined up for it. Pete got married ('nuf said), his one was alot further along than the one for sale. This one is airworthy at Ardmore (awaiting a new canopy in this shot) with David Rose of Howick.   |
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Post by Peter Lewis on Jun 16, 2008 9:53:03 GMT 12
ZK-ZIP first flew with a Hirth 800cc 3-cyl 2-stroke, re-engined with Rotax 618.
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Post by shorty on Jun 16, 2008 9:58:32 GMT 12
I guess with Rotax these days the power plant options are better than when the BD-5s first came out.
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Post by Peter Lewis on Jun 16, 2008 22:23:28 GMT 12
There's an airworthy one at Tauranga That's ZK-XBD, G S Nicholls. It attempted to fly at the SAA airshow earlier this year (see pic below) but never actually made it into the air.  As an aside, I wonder what happened to NZ's only BD4. Heralded as the aircraft that started the kit plane industry, and remarkably popular worldwide, only one of these aircraft has made it into the air here - ZK-RDH owned by Russell D Harris, Opua, Bay of Islands. The project was started by Trevor Snell in 1975 who built fuselage, and then bought by Harris 1992. First flight was in December 1996 and the aircraft is seen here at Kerikeri in 1998. CAA have it logged as cancelled 2June2004, anyone know why?  |
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Post by hairy on May 6, 2010 20:59:59 GMT 12
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