VINTAGE & CLASSIC
VINTAGE KIWI
THE FIRST 10 YEARS By Ian Dunkley
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 definition 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
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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; flying 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 flying condition, which is more than can be said
February 2013
11/02/13 9:18 PM
