Vintage T he First 10 Years

Every now and again it is useful for any organisation to look back, to see if the initial objectives have been achieved, to review options, and plan for the future. The best and only honest place to start, is with the initial objectives, which was all about Saving our Gliding Heritage. Our means of achieving this was to encourage the restoration and fl ying of vintage gliders. Have we achieved this?

If we followed the international defi nition of ‘Vintage’ - designed before 1956, we would be dead before we started. NZ had been more than a bit careless with its old aircraft and we were at least 10 years too late. We were left to cheat, and for NZ, vintage means anything made out of wood, even if the fuselage is metal. We were much luckier with ‘Classic’, which internationally means anything designed over 25 years ago. Thus we can now include ASH25’s, for as each year passes, more non-wood aircraft become a target for a new battle strategy. A few years back, I saw three old SZD gliders hanging at Warsaw airport and today SZD are restoring gliders of all makes from the 1930s and later.

Vintage Kiwi’s small print also allows any brand new gliders built to pre-1956 designs. 1956, to be classed as vintage, in case NZ ever follows international practice and builds replicas of the old and famous. This includes massive gliders, like Kronfeld’s ‘Austria’ and wartime military gliders; fl ying and non-fl ying replicas of the latter are already being constructed overseas. An opportunity for Peter Jackson and Weta Workshop to restage Arnhem perhaps?

Finally, eligibility for ‘Vintage Kiwi’ membership did not require ownership of any glider, only interest and the ability to pay our modest annual membership fee. Thus scale modellers, historians, those fl ying inordinately expensive gliders with money left over, and foreigners who forget to check exchange rates are amongst our members.

Back in 2003, we listed 34 two-seater gliders and 52 single, as being on the NZ register, plus 22 off-register - some potentially restorable. Since then, several of these gliders have been restored to either fl ying or museum standard and three vintage gliders have been imported in fl ying condition, which is more than can be said

for the owner. Inevitably, or as a result of VK failure, the number of off-register gliders has increased in the last 10 years, so it could be said we are fi ghting a losing battle. Internationally, the number of glider pilots has also fallen. This is of course not good news, although with a bit of statistical shenanigans, I could probably claim that international vintage gliding is growing faster than mainstream gliding is declining. Unfortunately, this would not be good news for us, for as a gliding parasite, we are reliant on a healthy host to feed us.

We decided early on that Vintage Rallies would be a major recruiting feature, as these would bring together like minded pilots/owners to encourage each other and also demonstrate our predilections to main stream pilots present. The fact that in many countries ownership of vintage gliders includes owners of modern gliders is encouraging but this is yet to develop here.

Our fi rst rallies took place in 2004 in Taupo and Lake Station and were successful; Vintage Kiwi was off the ground. However, one unfortunate fact of life is that the centre of gravity of NZ Vintage Gliding is somewhat north of Wellington and an expensive chunk of water has meant that rally activity has been mainly in the North Island, as is our membership. Special discounts from Interislander brought gliders south a few years back, but even with the discount it needed a re-mortgage, so this has not yet been repeated.

Above: US Austria

Right: Charlie Stanton with his Sunbird at a Nelson Lakes Rally.

Below: Ruth Harte (nee Kidson) says goodbye to her Swallow.

Taupo rally on a bad day.

Flying is, of course, only part of the story. Restoration is perhaps more important and this effort is also affected by population, although, more signifi cantly, by CAA regulations. In general, Europe and the USA have less onerous requirements for cutting and gluing bits of wood and fabric together. Informal discussions with the CAA on relaxation for vintage gliders indicated that hell would freeze over fi rst, so we will have to live with this diffi culty. The cost of professionally restoring an old glider becomes unrealistically excessive in NZ, even assuming professionals will take on the work. In Europe, there are professional restorers who are now quite busy and the recent US Cherokee restoration articles in SoaringNZ show what is possible there.

What else have we done in the last 10 years? The VK Collection has been established at Classic Flyers in Tauranga, and now comprises a Cherokee, Ka6, Swallow (all renovated by VK) and a home constructed, foot launched microlight. Space will also be made for display cabinets in the near future, with plans for future

Semi restored Eagle was at Wigram. Where is it now?

Sonia Walker Photo Dick Georgeson's Prefect "flies" again at Queenstown airport.

Kookaburra at Norfolk Aviation.

Greg Douglas Photo

Ka6 contest.

expansion when more fl oor and roof space becomes available.

Outside of Vintage Kiwi, MOTAT has a Grunau Baby, currently off-display for renovation, while the RNZAF Museum in Christchurch has an ex-ATC Rhönlerche in store, with plans to exhibit when their new extension is completed. Down the road at Ashburton, the remains of Dick Georgeson’s Weihe, an Olympia, can be seen, plus Charlie Stanton’s ‘Sunbird’ motor glider (donated to the museum at our suggestion) and a T31 under display restoration.

On the fl ying side, VK have their restored Kookaburra at Norfolk Aviation Sports Club, where the club have also restored a Slingsby T31 and Ka4 amongst others, and are working on others to restore to fl ying condition. Norfolk is undoubtedly the most active vintage minded of NZ gliding clubs, having also restored Blaniks, now unfortunately grounded internationally.

The youth wings at Omarama and Canterbury GC are operating Dick Georgeson’s Slingsby Skylark 3f, that he donated to VK. Private restorations include a Skylark 3f, an Eon Baby, plus gliders maintained on the current CAA register. Recent imports include a Weihe - the subject of current restoration, a Skylark 3f and a Fauvel fl ying wing. There are others, such as the Ka4 and Ka6 at (Nelson Lakes – check) plus others that I cannot bring to mind. In fact, if anyone would like to take on the job of listing all gliders restored over the past 20 years - a period chosen to acknowledge vintage pioneers - and to see if they are still fl ying, I would like to hear from them.

That completes the quick review of what we have done so far, so I can now go on to what we could do. This item is highlighted to emphasise that we cannot do all of these things without both more members and those who are prepared to get stuck in.

Last year, after receiving the invoice for our GNZ affi liation fee, I sent an email to GNZ outlining what we could do with more members, more workers, and a strong tailwind. We have many enthusiastic members who support our cause with their subscriptions, whilst leaving all the administration to a small number of people. We have many ideas for improving our marketing to ‘mainstream’ gliding, vintage aircraft enthusiasts and the general public, whose perception of the cost of gliding tends towards the gleaming white things. What they don’t know is that an airworthy glider can be obtained for less than an ‘old banger’ and many mountain bikes.

I would very much like us to extend our ‘Young Vintage Kiwi’ operation, co-operate in the development of vintage wood competitions for Ka6s, Fokas, Cobras etc, and NZ versions of the UK’s Two-seater Competition, younger/new pilots often fl ying P2; and the long running ‘Competition Enterprise’, an idea developed by Phillip Wills. These opportunities will only be realised if there are people to take on the development roles.

Further ideas include type rallies for Ka6s and other gliders, and expeditions to the old gliding sites such as Simons Hill, or fi nding new sites to explore.

An opportunity to include a vintage element to the Canterbury G.C. Open Day was lost due to trailer problems and, even more frustrating, was the inability to take up the offer of a vintage space at Warbirds over Wanaka following our appearance last year at Omaka. An opportunity lost due to a lack of man hours. It would also be valuable to be able to take VK’s gliders on visits to gliding clubs, in addition to the more formal rallies which have tended to be site specifi c.

In short, our problems can be summed up as saying our ambitions exceed the number of members that have the time, or inclination, to do more to help VK move forward. Our initial aim was to ‘stop the rot,’ and I think while we may have reversed the trend, there are still gliders at risk. What we now have to do is to ensure that there is a gliding environment that actively encourages the utilisation of older gliders; the rest will follow.

If all we can do in future is to fi nd museum homes for old gliders, then we will soon, if not already, run out of display spaces. We would have failed to have truly joined those countries that have an active and growing vintage movement. Within two years of the start of VK we were ahead of many of the main gliding countries in terms of vintage members as a proportion of total glider pilots. We have now fallen back, and will continue to do so, unless we succeed, not just in increasing our membership, but more importantly, converting new and existing members to workers.