“FLEA” REGISTERED

Dominion, Volume 29, Issue 202, 23 May 1936, Page 14

“FLEA” REGISTERED

May Be Flown Within Three Miles of Aerodrome

EXPERIMENTAL AIRCRAFT

A certificate of registration but no certificate of airworthiness has been granted the first “Flying Flea” to flyin New Zealand by the civil aviation branch of the Defence Department, and the position is that it may now be flown within three miles of a licensed aerodrome, as an ex fieri men tai aircraft and by a licensed pilot only. The' department has no intention of granting certificates of airworthiness to these craft at present and is awaiting further information from Great Britain, Wing Commander T. M. Wilkes, Controller of Civil Aviation, said yesterday. In any case it would probably be difficult in New Zealand to arrange for the £5OOO compulsory third-party insurance policy required in England. The “flea” at Auckland has been built by two licensed ground engineers, Messrs. A. McGruer and R. D. Downey, and was inspected by the Defence Department personnel when completed. To fly a machine without a certificate of registration is an offence against the Air Navigation Regulations, and unless the construction is satisfactory this certificate, for which a fee of £1 1/- is charged, would not be granted. Particular interest attaches to the registration lettering of the Flea. Under the International Air Convention the nationality markings allotted to New Zealand were ZK. ZL and ZM. Hitherto, all the aeroplanes in the Dominion have been given registration letters from the ZK group, but with the advent of the “Flea” a start has been made with the ZM group, and the Auckland -machine bears the lettering ZM-AAB.