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Hi Carl
It is always nice to share stories with other people with the same interests. I live in Pretoria but work in Johannesburg. About half an hours drive between the the two cities.
I'm glad you enjoyed the visit to SA. I haven’t been to the US, but I'm sure I'll visit some day.
It is absolutely amazing that your aircraft has been in the family for basically its entire life. I did my private pilots license about 5 years ago on a Cessna 150 and Piper Cherokee after dreaming of flying since I was a little boy.
And now at 29 finally I got my own plane. If all goes well I should have her ready to fly by mid next year. She is a 1946 BC-12D which has last flown in 1984. Got her with a Continentel O-200 engine. Still a lot of work to be done but I enjoy every minute of it.
Out of interest, a little bit of info on the Taylorcrafts of South Africa. I can't say exactly how accurate it is though.
Taylorcraft BC12D c/no 7752 (my aircraft) was the last of a batch of six aircraft imported into South Africa in 1946. The batch consisted of c/no. 7747 to 7752. All were assembled during the 1946 -'47 period and found their owners except 7752 which remained in its crate until 1955. It was registered ZS-CCW in April 1956. In 1982 it was re-registered to the vintage, veteran and home build category as ZS-VHL. In 1984 she was stripped to be rebuilt but the owner never got around to finishing the project. I'm now the 3rd owner since then and will make sure she returns to her rightful plays among the clouds.
Of the other Aircraft in that batch 7747(ZS-VXX) and 7750(ZS-BLD) are still flying. 7751(ZS-BLH) is also being restored. Unfortunately 7748(ZS-BLJ) crashed 23 August 1953 and 7749(ZS-BLL) crashed 13 nov 1960. Both were destroyed.
Hopefully we will have 4 Taylorcrafts in the SA sky soon.
Kind regards
Zak Kotze
It is always nice to share stories with other people with the same interests. I live in Pretoria but work in Johannesburg. About half an hours drive between the the two cities.
I'm glad you enjoyed the visit to SA. I haven’t been to the US, but I'm sure I'll visit some day.
It is absolutely amazing that your aircraft has been in the family for basically its entire life. I did my private pilots license about 5 years ago on a Cessna 150 and Piper Cherokee after dreaming of flying since I was a little boy.
And now at 29 finally I got my own plane. If all goes well I should have her ready to fly by mid next year. She is a 1946 BC-12D which has last flown in 1984. Got her with a Continentel O-200 engine. Still a lot of work to be done but I enjoy every minute of it.
Out of interest, a little bit of info on the Taylorcrafts of South Africa. I can't say exactly how accurate it is though.
Taylorcraft BC12D c/no 7752 (my aircraft) was the last of a batch of six aircraft imported into South Africa in 1946. The batch consisted of c/no. 7747 to 7752. All were assembled during the 1946 -'47 period and found their owners except 7752 which remained in its crate until 1955. It was registered ZS-CCW in April 1956. In 1982 it was re-registered to the vintage, veteran and home build category as ZS-VHL. In 1984 she was stripped to be rebuilt but the owner never got around to finishing the project. I'm now the 3rd owner since then and will make sure she returns to her rightful plays among the clouds.
Of the other Aircraft in that batch 7747(ZS-VXX) and 7750(ZS-BLD) are still flying. 7751(ZS-BLH) is also being restored. Unfortunately 7748(ZS-BLJ) crashed 23 August 1953 and 7749(ZS-BLL) crashed 13 nov 1960. Both were destroyed.
Hopefully we will have 4 Taylorcrafts in the SA sky soon.
Kind regards
Zak Kotze