One of the world’s smallest and rarest planes has been flying under the radar in South Canterbury skies as it is put through its paces.
Rolleston man Andrew Vincent and his Bede BD-5J microjet have found a home at Timaru’s Richard Pearse Airport as he completes his required 40 hours of flight testing, after converting the original piston-powered engine to a jet configuration. His is one of only eight jet versions left in the world.
Mr Vincent, who has been involved in aviation as a commercial pilot and aircraft engineer for more than 40 years, said he had dreamed of having one since he was a child.
‘‘I saw a picture in a magazine, it’s quite a nice looking little aeroplane, so I was captivated by that as a kid and always wanted one.
‘‘A few years back I was in a position where I could either build one or buy one, and there was one that happened to be flying in Tauranga at the time with a piston engine in it.
‘‘I bought that, flew it for a couple of years but decided I might change it to a jet, and did that over a period of two or three years, and here we are.’’
He said despite the jet engine making the plane a bit more fun and faster to fly, there were also practical reasons for the switch.
‘‘The aircraft was designed in the ’70s and the aircraft designer thought it would be a good idea to put a little twostroke, two-cylinder engine in it, and that’s what this one had when I bought it. ‘‘It was a Yamaha snowmobile motor, and there are a few challenges with that.
‘‘The engine normally sits in behind the pilot. It’s quite hard to get cooling air in and quite hard to set the engine up to run properly, whereas the jet engine is nice and smooth. It’s simple.’’
Despite the rarity and nature of the project, Mr Vincent said he was happy just quietly getting the work done, but admitted it was great to see a lot of like-minded people taking interest.
‘‘I haven’t made a big fuss of it. I’ve just pottered away in the garage in Rolleston, so I don’t think a lot of people have known it’s really out and about. I’m starting to get a bit more interest around the place now that it has been in a magazine and on Facebook.
‘‘A lot of pilots especially know the aeroplane and I think it has captivated a few other people as well, interest is building and that makes me think maybe I was on the right line and maybe it wasn’t too left-field after all.’’
He said Timaru was the ideal location to do the test flights.
‘‘After all the work that I did, it was a bit of an unknown about how it would perform and such. Christchurch was the obvious place to do the first four flights and after it flew exactly how I thought it would, it was time to get out of their hair, I didn’t want to be in the way.
‘‘The aircraft itself needs a tarsealed strip. It can’t fly from the grass, the poor wee wheels are tiny.
‘‘Timaru is close, I needed a pretty long runway and the great thing about Timaru is all the flat paddocks around the area — it just couldn’t be a better place to do the test flights, to be honest.’’
Confined to flying in a 40-mile (64km) radius around Timaru, he said everyone on the airfield had been very welcoming and helpful.
‘‘There wouldn’t be a better place in the country, I think.
‘‘I am really appreciative of getting to fly it out of here, it’s just the perfect spot.’’
The Bede BD-5J was one of the first kit planes available for purchase.
Mr Vincent said his plane in particular weighed only 185kg empty, and when fully fuelled its maximum takeoff weight was 450kg.
It has a wingspan of just over five metres and can reach a top speed of 460kmh, and has a stall speed of 110kmh.
He said he would carry 140 litres on fuel with him on test days, which gave him about an hour and 15 minutes of flight time.
Notably, the Bede BD-5J featured in the opening scene of the 1983 James Bond film Octopussy.
Mr Vincent planned to finish his remaining test flying hours out of Timaru, and would potentially look at flying his plane in airshows, but for now just wanted to focus on enjoying flying around in the smallest jet plane in the world.
