NZ Bantam aircraft ?

[Phil Perry]

Hi Guys 'N' Gals,. . .

 

Does anyone know if the BANTAM aircraft is still available, ?? we had a few of these in the UK about five years ago, and the one I flew was a nice, fun aeroplane. If you have not seen one, it was 2 seat side by side design with an open cockpit, the one I flew had a Rotax 582 engine on it, but later models used a Jabiru engine. The only design bit I wasn't really rapt about was the single bowden cables connecting the ailerons to the stick,. . . . ( to the uninitiated, a "Bowden" cable pushes as well as pulls. . . ) the particular reason, for mentioning this was that the paraticular airframe kept at our site had a failure of the left aileron due to a failed bowden cable, Just not good engineering to my mind. I guess that this could well happen in any cable connected control system, but it still gave me pause for thought before flying that one again. Anyway, my old friend Sam Moore removed the problem, when he flew his girlfriend ( gotta hand it to a man of 74 years old pulling a forty six year old slip of a girl. . . . it was possibly his dashing RAF style flying suit that did it. . .) in a wind which was reported as in excess of forty five knots from the South West,. . . . and Sam had ONLY JUST got his PPL,. . . . he stalled and spun it into the ground turning base after "Slowing down" on the downwind leg ( due to the very high wind giving the mistaken impression that he was going too fast ) Another victim of the "Downwind Trap". . . . His words from the hospital bed ( ! ) his injuries were quite severe, as were those of his Lady passenger, mainly lower leg injuries as the cockpit collapsed on almost vertical arrival on the ground. I don't mean to sound flippant about a serious accident like this, but since he survived, and is now living on the Spanish Coast with yet ANOTHER younger lady. . . . .

 

I was wondering if the Bantam designer is still selling these aircraft, . . .since NZ is a bit closer to you lot than I am, I wonder if they are still producing , or has anyone taken over the design, they were rather like a "Turbo Thruster" and extremely manouvreable ! !

 

Phil

 

 

[dazza 38]

Max Clear, the designer and manufacturer of the Bantam passed away a while ago. I'm not if they are still in production or not at this time.

 

 

[ave8rr]

There is a new owner of the company. Now in the Gore area which is in the southern part of the South Island.

 

http://www.microaviation.co.nz/products.php

 

Also in South Africa as the Bat Hawk.

 

http://www.microaviationsa.co.za/pages/BatHawk.htm

 

 

[gooneybird]

My wife and I went over to new zeland last year to meet some of the people with bantams and servicing them over there.Dave Redman is an instructor using Bantams in his school and took me for a fly,great guy with thousands of hours in the bantam.His folks make the wing covers etc for many fabric aircraft and sun shade covers for g.a aircraft.Absolutely the best people , introduced us to many other bantam owners and aviation enthusiasts.We got our wing covers home as luggage and had a great few days overthere.