The history of CW, DX and DO.
With
thanks to Owen Olls, Aircraft Registrar of the Civil Aviation Authority of
New Zealand, Eric Van Notten,
former agent for NV Vliegtuigbouw and importer of the 3 Sagitta's, Peter
Layne, historian of the New Zealand Gliding Association (profile on NZ Airline Research),
and
Don Grigg of the Rotorua Gliding Club. Also thanks to Roger Brown who
contributed articles and advertisements from old "Gliding Kiwi"
magazines.
3 Sagitta's have been imported to New
Zealand, s/n 004, 010 and 015. They were all
taken in as kit sets, with no fabric or paint. Eric Van Notten started
importing them after reading about Bauling and his Sagitta's in various
Dutch aviation magazines. Eric has been flying gliders at the Dutch DSA
(Deltsche Studenten Aeroclub) and Terlet (Dutch national soaring centre)
and became a qualified technician before he moved to New Zealand in 1957.
He joined the Wellington Gliding Club and Canterbury Gliding Club later on
when he moved to Christchurch. The Sagitta's were all completed in
Christchurch in the workshop of Fred Dunn. Fred died years later in an
accident with a Skylark-4, when the towing rope got tangled around the
wing. One of the guys working in the workshop was the late Ted Ashwell,
who rebuilt ZK-GDO completely after it was completely destroyed.
 Eric did own
ZK-GCW (s/n 004) and he took it to the first New Zealand nationals in
Masterton. In 1962 he flew a height record with it over Palmerston North,
and after realising he still owned his Dutch passport, he claimed - and
gained- the Dutch national records for absolute height and height gain as
well. The records stood for 16 years, until they were broken by J.A.W.
Smit with a Blanik in the USA in 1984. Perpetual rumours from Holland tell
about Eric crashing his Sagitta in the sixties. These are not true and
Eric is alive and well, contributing to this site with lots of information
and pictures.
When Eric joined the staff of jetboating
people C.W. Hamilton & Co he had to give up Vliegtuigbouw and Sagitta,
because the owner of the company he was going to work for was also the
importer of Slingsby... (Note: Bill
Hamilton, later Sir William Hamilton, invented the jet boat in the
1950's). At that time CW was sold to
Adel Kleyn in Australia, coincidentally another ex-DSA member (see info
further below). He had a fatal accident with it shortly after.
Both GDO (s/n 010) and GDX (s/n 015)
have been real club gliders and have therefore been flown by many pilots
in New Zealand.
Registration history of s/n 015 ZK-GDX (source Civil Aviation Authority and Don Grigg) 27.04.65 R G & J Palmer of Temuka 22.09.75 Leslie Ross Marfell, RNZAF Base Hobsonville, Auckland 06.03.80 David Iron McIsaac & Francis Iron McIsaac, RNZAF Base, Wigram 27.06.84 Ohakea Aviation Sports Club Inc., RNZAF base Otahea 21.01.87 Rotorua Gliding Club Inc., Rotorua Written off Rotorua 7 June 1987. Details of the crash follow below. Pilot OK.
Registration cancelled 14 Oct 1987.  Original archive card of the "New Zealand Register of Civil Aircraft" courtesy CAA. Click for larger picture.
Don
Grigg:
"While GDX was in
airforce ownership it was completely overhauled, including all linkages,
control rods,
arms and connections. It came in
excellent condition to Rotorua Gliding Club.
We had
it up until June 1987 when our CFI at the time was attempting to practice
a competition finish in it and ended up with a stall/spin. He spun it into
a house roof where he put the wing tip into the roof and rotated about
this proceeding backwards through a shed and a fence. This I believe
saved him as he was protected by the wingroots and the very solid main
spar and fittings. In fact when we reached him he had two short stubs for
wings, no fuselage behind the main frame and nothing in front of his
knees. The only injury he sustained was a broken ankle. Very
lucky... We bought GDO after that because we liked GDX and also that it
was capable of carrying heavier pilots than some similar gliders like the
KA6, Oly-463, K-8 etc. However it never flew quite as well
as GDX and we put up with it for about two years when we found that
there was a mod out for the rudder. I carried this out with a full recover
with Seconite and Mylar seals on the ailerons. This made it a
totally different and improved glider and all club members enjoyed it very
much. The only reason we sold it was to pay for an expensive engine
replacement in our Pawnee otherwise we would still have had
it..."
Registration history of s/n 010R ZK-GDO (source Civil Aviation Authority) 06.05.64 Mr A E Ashwell P O Box 537 Masterton 5900 06.10.87 Rotorua Gliding Club (Inc) P O Box 2031 Rotorua 3215 29.08.02 Mr C L Carter Pakawau Collingwood 7171 03.05.04 R G J Smits, 16 Prospect Terrace, Milford, Auckland 1309 ZK-GDO is s/n 010
and was registered to G K Van Asch & L H Williams, Havelock North, on
6 May 1964.
Written off when overturned in high
winds at Matamau, Hawkes Bay 13 April 1969.
Registration cancelled 22 Feb 1972.
Restored by the
late Ted Ashwell and returned to the register on 5 December 1977.
These facts don't correspond with the CAA
information, possibly because the registration has been cancelled twice. A
hardly readable (fax) note in the flight log states "new wings from a
crashed Sagitta in Holland" after an unsuccesful outlanding. Serial number
was changed to 010R, indicating 'rebuild'.
Registrated to Rotorua Gliding Club 6 Oct
1987.
GDO was bought by Rotorua Gliding Club as a
replacement for GDX. Don Grigg rebagged her with Seconite and put Mylars
on the ailerons to enhance handling characteristics. He also did the
rudder pedal and rudder mods.
Some of the bits of DX, like part fuselage, control
rods and wing fittings apparently remain. As far as we know these are in
Nelson. Contact is Landon Carter.
First owner Gerry van Asch
remembers this about ZK-GDO (March 2005):
"I imported DO away
back in 1964. You may not know of its full history. I have been out of
flying now since 1980, but last year I met Miles Hursthouse, and he was
interested in the history of this glider. When I had it new and until my
partner crashed it, about four years later, we could rig it in seven
minutes in competitions. (My partner was killed in the DC10 on Mt Eribus.)
The crash was caused because he landed too close to a plantation. The
starboard wing hit a tree close to the fuselage and was demolished. It was
hard to pull the pins out of the wing mountings to derig it at the crash
site. I felt that the port wing must have had severe stress at the wing
mount, and we decided not to rebuild it. I would not have trusted it. But
eventually it was rebuilt by Ted Ashwell, engineer at Masterton. He
imported a starboard wing from Holland from another damaged glider. From
what Miles told me it is hard to rig. Presumably the holes for the pins on
the separate wings do not quite line up. It has been flying for a few
years since and I don't know who owned it or anything about it. I
suggested that the top pin hole could be reamed out to a slightly larger
size, when it was rigged with only the lower pin in, and the wings mounted
on the fuselage. And a larger pin made. (Note from the editor: This is
finally been done, in 2005, click here).
The imported wing probably doesn't quite match the original wing. The
clamps around the wing roots were put on the original wings by Temple
Martin, with approval from Wellington, because the wood between the spars
had dried out and cracked. That was referred back to the makers in
Holland, who approved of it. Ted must have put one on the new wing to
match it. It was a lovely machine to fly, I didn't get the full benefit
from it because I flew it too slowly, I should have cruised at about 55 to
60 MPH instead of 50. After 45 years one wonders with wood, is it safe. A
lot of K6's are still flying even a little older than that. I am now
retired aged 86 at Mary Doyle Complex Havelock Nth."
More interesting documentation regarding the spar
modification is to be found here (findings of the Civil Aviation Department,
1965).
.JPG)
New paintjob 2007. Sagitta logo taken from original
brochures of 1961.
This logo was featured on the
nose cone when the first 3 Sagittas arrived in the country.
Registration history of s/n 004 ZK-GCW (source Peter Layne from NZGA) No records exist any longer at CAA.
ZK-GCW was s/n 004 and was registered to Eric Van Notten of Christchurch on 5 December 1962.
He sold it in Australia where it was registered as VH-GQR. The NZ registration was cancelled on 31 May
1965. On 24 July 1965 it was written off at Wentworth near Singleton NSW. It released at 1200 feet and
dived abruptly to 800 feet when the wings separated and the pieces fell to the ground killing the pilot
A. Kleyn of the Newcastle Gliding Club.
This was sourced from the Aviation Historical Society of NZ journal Volume 14/3. Note from the editor: the site was apparently Warkworth, not Wentworth, still the site of the Newcastle Gliding Club. Note from the editor: according to Eric Van Notten, Adel was inexperienced, hadn't flown for a long time,
but wanted to see what the Sagitta could do. He flew it inverted, stalled it and dove into the ground. Eric about ZK-GCX: "My Sagitta ZK-GCW presumably never had any modifications. I certainly never needed them, as it was a superb glider to fly. There were however a few things I remember, and to be wary of:
When diving at Vmax, you need a steady hand, as it is possible to get the wings into a pilot induced oscillation. I had it once, but managed to stop it quickly, thank heavens*. Also, the airbrakes tended to suck out with some force, but a steady strong hand on the lever is all that is needed. Another thing was landing in very small paddocks. On one occasion that paddock did have a downward slope, which I hadn’t spotted from the air. The landing run-out took longer than I thought, and I had to drag a wing to induce a ground loop, (to avoid hitting a shelter belt of pine trees at the end of the paddock). It groundlooped very quickly and very easily, but I forgot to keep the tail up. so I wiped off the tail skid. But like any aeroplane, you soon get used to any tricks.
Hope you will enjoy flying DO. I certainly did with CW."
*More about the flutter and aileron mods on the technical pages. With the two Australian Sagitta's being destroyed, this means only ZK-GDO is left over in the South Pacific.
It's airworthy and in good condition. Based at Drury airfield at the Auckland Gliding Club and anyone is
welcome to come and have a look, or maybe even fly it.
An unique photograph of a rather rare occasion (two Sagitta's): Gary van Asch came to Wigram airfield,
Christchurch, to take delivery of ZK-GDO. He is in the cockpit, checked out by instructor Dennis McKillop.
A few years later Dennis got killed flying a Fokker Friendship in New Guinea, taking of into cloud, hitting a hill.
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