Tuesday 2 November 2010

Jodel D 9's of New Zealand (2)

The early 1970's D 9's.

There was a mini explosion in Jodel D 9 numbers in the early 1970's, culminating in an expected 3 D 9's attending the 1973 AACA fly-in at Blenheim. In fact only 2 made it as ZK-DHZ suffered a minor accident on the way to the fly-in.

The photographs are from the Keith Morris collection unless otherwise noted..



ZK-DBM (c/n AACA 232/1 and also F 3134/5) was built by Ben Berg of Auckland and was first registered on 10/12/71. It is photo'd here at the 1973 AACA fly-in at Omaka. Ben Berg went on to build Jodel D 11 ZK-EER.

This photo was taken at the 1982 AACA fly-in at Taupo. It was owned by a succession of owners in the Auckland area: George Jones, P A Flynn, B T Farrell and finally by a syndicate of B T Farrell, G Barthel, A N Rae, L W A Woodgate, W Reinaur and G Jones. Tragically, it crashed in a Takapuna street on 8/12/85, killing the pilot and was destroyed.

The second D 9 to make it to the 1973 AACA fly-in at Omaka was ZK-DBS (c/n AACA 99), which was built by Alex Turner of Dunedin and was first registered on 16/4/73. It was named "Miss Tairei". Alex Turner went on to complete the Currie Wot ZK-CYB.




ZK-DBS is photo'd in the top photo above at the 1981 AACA fly-in at Mt Hutt and Don Noble took the second photo with Alex Turner about to avaite, at Tairei.  ZK-DBS spent all of its life in the South Island being sold to T M Harnett of Kaikoura in 6/83, then back to Dunedin with Pauline Hogue in 4/88. It was damaged in a precautionary landing at Tairei on 25/10/87 and was cancelled on 20/9/89.

The third early 1970's D 9 was ZK-DHZ (c/n F 3134/6 - I think the c/n indicates that it was built from Canadian Falconer plans so maybe it should be a F 9?). ZK-DHZ was built by Alex Brannigan of Monowai, Southland, and was first registered on 10/9/72. It was flying to the 1973 AACA fly-in at Omaka but didn't get far as it overturned near Invercargill and damaged the rudder. The above photo shows ZK-DHZ with the original rudder.

And here is ZK-DHZ photo'd at Te Anau with the new rudder. It was sold to G B Harre of Stratford in 6/74 and since then it has had a large number of owners: C S and C J Wheeler of New Plymouth, M J Hastie of Te Anau, J P Clark of Morrinsville, S E Clark of Patetonga, J L Browning of Matamata, and then to Lindsay Dunlop of Opotiki in 10/88.

Lindsay Dunlop moved to Tauranga, where this photo was taken in the early 1990's. It was redesignated as a Class 1 Microlight on 29/9/98. Since then it has been owned by B H Girdler of Christchurch, A G Holland of Christchurch, B H Girdler again, D L Small of Rangiora and finally to Rex S Woods of Christchurch, with whom it is still current.

1 comment:

  1. I will ask about some better colour photos of ZK-DBS for you as she was built by my Grandfather, Alex Turner.

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