Thursday 21 March 2013

Anderson EA-1 Kingfisher Amphibians of New Zealand

Although slightly out of order in the list of 2 seater homebuilts of New Zealand, I include the Anderson Kingfisher here because it is quite similar to the Volmer Sportsman.

The Anderson EA-1 Kingfisher was designed by American airline captain Earl Anderson in the 1960's and the prototype first flew on 24/4/69.  It differs from the Volmer in that it has a tractor motor (usually a 100 HP O-200), and the wings can be scratch-built or come from a Piper Cub.  Length is 7.2 metres (23 feet 6 inches) and wingspan is 11.13 metres (36 feet 6 inches).  Empty weight is 468 Kg (1,032 pounds) and MAUW is 680 Kg (1,500 pounds).

Our only Kingfisher is ZK-DJH (c/n AACA/165) which was built by Mac Bettjeman of Te Kuiti, and was first registered on 15/6/79.  It used the wings off Piper Cub ZK-BKU (which was dmaged in a storm at Te Kaio Bay on 8/1/79, but was rebuilt and is still current - shades of Grand-Father's axe!).

The above photo was taken at the 1982 AACA flyin at Taupo.  It was sold to VJ McKay of Riverton on 26/8/85.  It was damaged when it landed on Lake Te Anau with the wheels down on 13/1/96, and it was cancelled on 18/9/97.

It was advertised for sale in August 2004, and ownership transferred to DR Baker of Greymouth, who rebuilt it and re-registered it on 26/4/10.  The above photo shows it being test flown at Greymouth on 14/10/10 by Evan Belworthy.  Thanks to Penny Belworthy for the photo.

 

1 comment:

  1. I have an Anderson Kingfisher that I am restoring. Would love to talk to anyone that has flown one.

    Steve
    strutschel@live.com

    ReplyDelete