Friday 8 July 2016

Auster ZK-ASL

The new Auster on the block is the J1 Autocrat ZK-ASL c/n 2150.
Post world War Two the Auster Aircraft Ltd's Britannia Works at Thurston, Leicester, UK were poking out Auster V Series J1 aircraft in fine English fashion. 
They poked out just over 400 of them.
One such was registered to Auster Aircraft as G-AIBP on 02-09-1946 before being listed to Peter Bennie of Northants and then to W S Shackleton Ltd of London from 08-01-1952. 
Shackleton were export agents and this aircraft was cancelled on 06-05-1952 as sold abroad. 
It was shipped down to Australia where it became VH-ASI on 18-01-1953. 
Australian owners include W Maynard of Dalby; W MacClean of Dingo; L Alison of Creb Nagoorin and T Ford of Mulgildie – all in Queensland. By 1971 it was with J Owens at Lavington in NSW and then inland to the Alice Springs Gliding Club. By 1975 it was in Victoria with A Cole of Warrandyte then to M Hurley of Noble River before being withdrawn and cancelled in April of 1977. 
VH-ASI at Point Cook in December 1975. Greg Banfield photo.

It returned to the register with L Hatfield of Orchard Victoria on 18-05-1992 and in May of 94 was with Mills, Rowe and Rode Aviation/Romills Aviation at Cheltenham. 
Its last Australian owner was Ron Wright of Box Hill North from 26-04-1999. It VH marks were cancelled on 20-07-2015 and it became ZK-ASL2 with Tolaga Bay Trust from 10-06-2016. 
This Trust also has the Auster J5 ZK-AXJ.
Photo above taken at Gisborne. From TradeMe and Rogerzz.
It is nice to see that it still has the Gipsy Major engine and the small rudder - and has about 2200 flying hours. 
It has been listed for sale on Trade Me as a Auster J1B.  

5 comments:

  1. If it is a J1 with a Gipsy Major engine and retaining the small rudder - does that not make it the same as a J5 ?

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    Replies
    1. Graeme Atchinson, former AXJ syndicate ow14 January 2023 at 13:33

      No, the J5 had a shortened nose forward of firewall, lengthened u/c legs, a beefier airframe around cabin area and if the shoulder harness mod was embodied it was certified to do limited aerobatics such as loops, wingovers but not rolls. It was also cleared for spinning with 2 occupants only. With the small rudder, a 6 turn spin recovery was conventional taking 1 &3/4 turns after recovery inputs applied. It does spin flatter than most aeroplane types.

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    2. The way I see it the Auster Mk4 and 5 where short nosed Lycoming O-290 powered.
      One was modified by attaching a Cirrus Minor engine (plus other mods) to become the Auster J1.
      If you notice the angles between the door frame and the rear of the engine cowling you will note the angle between the two increases with a fuel tank located between the engine and the cockpit.
      Now if you add a heavier Gipsy Major to a J1 and tilt the firewall back at the top to allow the engine to be moved rearward to retain the c of g you will note the angle of the door frame and the cowling are now about the same.
      This reduced the size of the fuselage mounted fuel tank so a 62.5 litre belly tank was added.
      All retained the small rudder.

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  2. Similar to the J5. The J5 has the fuselage at the firewall changed the undercarriage legs were lengthened. The J1 is closer to the wartime MK V firewall rearwards.

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  3. Similar to the J5. The J5 has the fuselage at the firewall changed the undercarriage legs were lengthened. The J1 is closer to the wartime MK V firewall rearwards.

    ReplyDelete