Evan Belworthy’s modified Clutton FRED ZK-FRD is no stranger to this site, previously featured in A New Zealand FRED turns 30! and The Beating Heart of ZK-FRD, not to mention several photos in the FRED Worldwide Photo Gallery.  Despite some shaking from Mother Nature, here is a brand new video of ZK-FRD shot just yesterday.  I’ll let Evan tell the story.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, pulled FRED out last night and took some video on the camera and then have posted it on YouTube.  Hopefully you can use, just had a look at the FRED website, do like the NZ FREDs.

Christchurch where we are based has had another round of “after shocks,“ we seem to be settling down again.

Enjoyed the FRED flying last night, had the son on the camera and I just did some circuits to get the clip.  FRED was keen to go and with the summer temps very pleasant.  The flying is off the home strip.

Thanks very much, Evan, and Happy New Year to you and all the FRED fans everywhere!

I stumbled across a treasure trove of Kiwi FRED facts and photos on the New Zealand Civil Aircraft blog by Keith Morris.  Keith and his friend Dave Paull have graciously contributed six new photos of three Kiwi FREDS to the FRED Worldwide Photo Gallery:  ZK-FRD, ZK-RSJ (ex-G-BSSJ) and—a new addition!—ZK-ELJ, later repainted and reregistered as ZK-LXA.  Read Clutton-Tabenor FREDs of New Zealand on Keith’s blog for a little history on all three planes.  Thanks very much, gents!

Photos:  A Kiwi FRED bonanza!  Courtesy of Keith Morris and Dave Paull.

This past weekend I was delighted to receive a detailed message and some nice photos of ZK-FRD (note the registration) from Evan Belworthy of Cust, North Canterbury, New Zealand.  I’ll let Evan tell the story:

“Our Fred was started in 1977 as a father and son project, Dad (Alan Belworthy) had built a Woody Pusher and the teenager helped on the project, the next step was learning to fly and having something to fly, the Fred appealed as it was something different and designed as a stepping stone from glider pilots to powered flight so ideal for the student pilot.

“With Eric’s assistance Fred was modified during construction and has a one piece wing, spring steel undercarriage, stringers on the turtle deck and down the side of the fuse plus the trailing edge of the wing is scalloped.

“Fred flew on the 19 October 1979, weight 547 lbs, the first four flights were with the local topdressing pilot before he departed New Zealand for good. Dad took over the test flying and on the 16 December 1979 Fred climbed to 10,500 ft in one hour ten minutes, and on the 22 December 1979 I was set solo in my own aeroplane.

“Fred was then seen in all of New Zealand and in 1992 had clocked up 400 hours, the engine was a 1600 cc VW and this was enlarged to 1830 cc in the early stages to improve the rate of climb. Fred has now done 600 hours and this has slowed because of other aeroplanes being built and flown, it is fun to fly and has nil vices.”

If you note those dates, that means that the Belworthy FRED has been flying for over 30 years!  In a further message Evan had this to say about his FRED’s landing gear and other modifications:

“We do have drawings for all the changes we did, with some searching could locate them or take photos to assist builders.  The U/C was an adaptation from the Woody Pusher drawings scaled down, it is heavier than the built up U/C but nil moving parts, nil wear, nil maintenance and such a smooth ride.”

You can see more pics of ZK-FRD in the FRED worldwide photo gallery on Flickr.

Thanks Evan and family for sharing your FRED story!

Photo:  ZK-FRD beats up the Belworthy family airstrip (boy, am I jealous!) on February 19, 2010 in a photo by Penny Belworthy.  Courtesy of Evan Belworthy.