Sunday 1 November 2009

Update on BD 5's in New Zealand

Following my previous posts "More on BD 5's in New Zealand" and "Some Other BD 5's in New Zealand" in July 2009, I contacted David Rose who built ZK-ZIP because I had heard that his BD 5 might have flown much earlier than I had guessed in my post.

David was very helpful and he confirmed that ZK-ZIP had in fact flown in 1982, which made it the first BD 5 to fly in the Southern Hemisphere. He also searched out some old photos that I can now post of an early test flight from Ardmore in 1982. The test pilot was Russel Broadbent. Also in my previous post I wondered if this aircraft first flew as ZK-DYM, but as the photos show, it was always ZK-ZIP.
And here is ZK-ZIP taxing out from in front of the old Auckland Aero Club hangar. David advised that around 4 or 5 flights were made until a piston in the 3 cylinder Hirth engine blew. The BD 5 was able to make it back to Ardmore but the resulting heavy landing caused some undercarriage damage, and the plane was not flown again until 2006. It now has a 2 cylinder Hirth engine.
David also advised that he thought that ZK-ZBD was the next to fly, followed by ZK-XBD. Thanks to David Rose for these photos.

3 comments:

  1. "... a piston in the 3 cylinder Hirth engine blew. ... It now has a 2 cylinder Hirth engine."

    Presumably a different one :D

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  2. You sceptical disbelieving people! The 2 cylinder Hirth was a new engine, but Hey, two out of three ain't bad!

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