VH-ZBA

Background

IZX is one of 6 Jantars that came into the country together. They were given sequential registrations of IZT through IZY. Of the original 6, 5 are still airworthy, of which 3 (IZU (Southern Cross Gliding Club), IZX (private) and IZY (private)) are located at Camden.

This glider had an illustrious history of owners. Eventually it ended up at Gulgong where it flew infrequently. As the club there slowly fell apart, so did the flying of this aircraft. In the last 3 years of it's flying life, it managed a sum total of 45 minutes of flight time. It was then packed in a trailer and left to sit for 8 years. Naturally, during this time, a lot of things rotted or fell apart, so it will be a bit of an effort to get it back in the air. Thankfully the core airframe is in very good condition.

Restoration

Work Assesment

Structurally the aircraft is in very good condition. No skin condition issues from sitting a trailer for so long. Other than that well... let's just say that the rats had a very, very nice home for a while.

When stored, a seat cushion was left in the cockpit, along with a parachute. The rats got in an pulled the cushion apart and spread it throughout the aircraft. The little yellow styrofoam peanuts were liberally scattered everywhere, as well as copious amounts of rat shit. There was an abundant urine smell too, for obvious reasons.

Lifting the seat pan showed the rest of the problems - all the instrument plumbing had been eaten away, along with a lot of the electrical cabling. The mechanical vario was broken beyond repair. An old CNav50 electrical vario would no longer fire up, and everything else was just very tired looking. Rudder cables are also beyond useful life, with some corrosion evident. Being an old glider, it also does not have a FLARM fitted, which is essential for today's gliding world.

Cockpit Cleanup

After stripping the plumbing and replacing it with fresh items, the next to be worked on was the electrical wiring. All this was removed and a new items fitted. A second battery configuration was also added to the aircraft.

Since a completely new set of instruments were to be fitted, the instrument panel was stripped, a new mould created from it, and new panel constructed.