Australia

Updated July 2010

The history of s/n 004 & 014 down under...

With great thanks to John Viney from the Gliding Federation of Australia.

s/n 004 VH-GQR

This Sagitta was originally imported from New Zealand (ex ZK-GCW), sold by Eric Van Notten. Eric was agent for N.V. Vliegtuigbouw and did own ZK-GCW himself. Little is known of it's short life in Australia, other than a fatal crash on 24 July 1965, 14 days after it arrived in the country. After release at 1200 feet the glider dived abruptly and desintegrated in the air, killing the pilot. There are two versions of this accident; read more on the New Zealand history pages.

Dave Goldsmith reports the following from Australia:

"I got into your website - it is great! I will get a copy of the photo for you, and hope to scan the Aust Gliding article - but I am away all next week (Vintage Gliding, of course!) so will be in touch later. I was an active visitor to Newcastle Gliding Club at that time - I flew at Armidale, 200 miles away). I believe that Adel tried a barrel roll from a winch launch, upside down the nose dropped, he recovered but pulled the wings off pulling out from a steep dive a few hundred feet above the ground. Well, that is what we were told by first hand witnesses (eg Eric Oates) at the time. My wife, who was a Newcastle member, remembers seeing the wreckage in a trailer and believes it was green in colour. To my knowledge, no-one suggested that the accident was the fault of the aircraft. I had flown as a trainee with Adel, he was not a young man, I believe he had considerable experience (at least, he WAS an instructor), was very friendly and inspired confidence. He had a slight Dutch accent. By the way, the accident happened at WARKWORTH, which is still the site of the Newcastle Gliding Club.(I think the Aviation Historical Society said Wentworth). Your website clarifies that it was the second Sagitta into Australia, and NGC later bought the one I flew, the first one imported by Johnny Blackwell (Bathurst Soaring Group.) Thus it seems that there were only two Sagittas in Aust. What a shame it was to learn that the one I flew was lost in a fire! Some things just should not happen!"

There are no pictures with its Australian registration or any other details available - yet....

s/n 014 VH-GQS

Deregistered by GFA 09 April 2002. The Sagitta was destroyed in a bush fire while undergoing airworthiness inspection for 2002. Last owner was Owen Lyall Waywood of Serpentine.

John Viney, Senior Technical Officer (Airworthiness) from the Gliding Federation of Australia was so kind to supply us with the following information:

"Unfortunately the original logbooks were lost in the fire along with the aircraft, but I have found a duplicate copy of the logbook from 1965 up to 1986, when I believe the aircraft was grounded forseveral years while a protracted 20 year survey was carried out. Ollie purchased the aircraft during thisperiod so can probably give you a pretty fair picture of the period from its return to service on20 April 1994 till its loss two years ago. During it's life it changed hands eight times. Built in Holland in 1964 it first flew in Australia at Camden NSW in April 1965. It's first Certificate of Airworthiness (No. G-167), was issued on 5th July 1965. The Bathurst Soaring Group (Initial owners) had flown it for 91.45 hrs ttis when they sold to the Newcastle Gliding Club in September1967. Editor: read about the first owners here, in an article in Australian Gliding 1965

VH-GQS Easter Camp @ Forbes NSW - Photo Graham Watts By the time Newcastle sold it to it's first private owner, Mr. Ron Hewitt of South Australia on 6 Dec 1969,it had amassed 144.16 hrs ttis. Mr Hewitt sold it at 223.07 hrs ttis to the Kimba Soaring Club in SouthAustralia on 3 October 1971. There is no information as to where Mr. Hewitt based the aircraft. During its time at Kimba the aircraft appears to have had a happy time and must have been well liked,as it did quite a lot of cross country flying, including several flights of over 300 Km and a couple of 400+ km. When Kimba sold it the ttis had reached 630.25 hrs.
The aircraft was now back in private hands, being purchased from Kimba on 27 July 1979 by Mr.Reginald Heath and Esme Biggs, who moved the aircraft to Lochiel in South Australia.On 01 October 1981 it moved to Gawler S.A after being purchased by Mr. (Graham) G R Parker at 714.39 hrs ttis.
When he sold it on to Ross Nolan on 4 September 1985 the ttis had reached 889.51hrs. Mr Nolan moved it to Euroa in Victoria where it did a further 4.30 hrs before commencing a 20 year survey. It flew again on 17 October 1986 but details of flights during the period of Mr. Nolan's ownership are not available. Perhaps it is just as well as the aircraft's Certificate of Airworthinesshad expired in 1984. (It was not renewed until 1994, when Mr. Waywood completed the 20 year survey). However it is known that it suffered damage to the tailplane and fin when the canopy was lost in flight believed to be in April 1987. Flight details between this time and 18 November 1989 are also unknown,but it is likely that it did not fly again while in Mr Nolan's ownership. This was perhaps the saddest period of VH-GQS's life: she was even threatened with being fitted with a motor!! Fortunately this failed to materialise. *)more about this underneath!
Salvation arrived on the 18 November 1989 when the final change of ownership to Mr. Ollie Waywoodtook place, who with the help of some friends and a lot of TLC, completed the survey and brought the aircraft back to an airworthy condition, and it took to the sky again on 20 April 1994 at TumbarumbaN.S.W."

Additional information from Eric Munch, Holland:
GQS flew in many competitions, like Sunraysia Gliding Competitions in Mildura, Sport Class Competitions in Waikerie SA, Gawler Easter Regatta's, Gawler SA and SA State Sports Class Gliding Comps, Gawler SA. The Sagitta often scored high results.

*)Email from Ross Nolan, previous owner of QS:

.... "When I sold it I asked to be given first right of refusal should he resell it in future -- I quite liked it especially flying open cockpit with the 'hood' off . I was planning to motorize it by fitting a small two stroke in the nose and adding a small canard to restore the pitch trim (and using my design of one piece "pseudo feathering " propeller.) The GFA has strange ideas about it's powers and had effectively grounded the aircraft before I bought it by claiming to be able to cancel all Certificates of Airworthiness at 20 years old (actually reclining type approval since it applied to all aircraft of a given design) unless the aircraft was proof loaded and given a whole series of other expensive procedures -- this made the aircraft effectively worthless given it's low utilization and despite the low flying hours on the airframe . I ran a repair and maintenance workshop (mainly glass repairs/Cof A s ) and refurbished it over a period of time as a 'back burner' project to eventually resell (GFA also grounded all fiberglass gliders in Australia at 3000 hours or more on the false basis of "fatigue problems" and I actually carried out the repairs to a Janus wing that was the only 'recognizable' bit left from a double fatal accident (possibly spiral dive in to ground) that was used for an 11 year long fatigue test at RMIT -- this proved that there was no real fatigue problem at all -- if this had not been done presumably all glass gliders with 3000 hours (lots with more even then - 1981 ) would have been exported or retired forever . I flew a Sagitta in the States (Bryan,Ohio) when I was living there in 1974, working on the HP 18 for Dick Schreder -- the owner had rigged it and flown it (!) with the ailerons both sticking up about 30 degrees -- the drivers outside of the control sockets - he asked me to fly it for him (like that) and tell him why it seemed to have such poor performance ! That one did not have the spar mod (steel straps between upper and lower root fittings) which I think I may have done for them ( I knew about the mod because my father had mentioned it once because I think the one in Newcastle that fell apart doing a botched slow roll I think had the spar split apart - whether the cause of failure or post accident damage I don't know ) I presume you know the story."