Cierva C.19 Mk.III G-ABCK/ZK-ACL

Despite the damage that’s a great photo, thank you for sharing! Unfortunately my knowledge of ‘BCK’s time in the UK is limited to Peter Lewis’ comments earlier:

“G-ABCK reg 08/07/1930 to Cierva Autogiro Co Ltd, Hamble, England 16/12/1930

“Arrived Wellington, New Zealand

“Shipped/railed to Wigram airfield, near Christchurch for assembly 31/12/1930”

Afternoon,

Stumbled across your post over the weekend whilst surfing the net looking for information.  Have a part of a picture that may interest you.  We found it last weekend whilst sorting through my late (died 1993) Grandfathers pictures.  We have no idea where the rest of the photo is or why this bit was kept.  He had nothing to do with aircraft.  We have identified it as a Cierva Autogiro C19.  Unfortunately, you can only see the first three letters of the registration but if you zoom in you can just make out part of the letters either side of the wing at the top right and bottom left.  These are in the right place to be a K as if they were letter with a rounded top corner, you wouldn’t see anything.  So on the basis that the fourth letter is a K this would give you G-ABCK.  Looks like an early Hanger in the distance.  In 1930/32 he would have been living around Stamford, Lincolnshire and the nearest RAF stations were Wittering and Collyweston.

Interested to know your thoughts.

I can’t believe I didn’t check the AFMNZ site, I’ve even seen that one before! Thank you Duggy!

From here — https://fotoweb.airforcemuseum.co.nz/fotoweb/

Cierva Autogiro, believed to be at Wigram Aerodrome.

Is there a chance at all someone has happened upon a new photo or two of ZK-ACL?

Thank you Peter, it’s amazing to come upon this very old thread while doing some new research! This material is very much appreciated.

To bring this long-dead thread back to life – I have recently received more information about this particular Cierva C.19 Mk.III Autogiro. G-ABCK reg 08/07/1930 to Cierva Autogiro Co Ltd, Hamble, England 16/12/1930 Arrived Wellington, New Zealand Shipped/railed to Wigram airfield, near Christchurch for assembly 31/12/1930 Test flown Wigram following assembly 14/01/1931 Completed Christchurch to Invercargill flight with a stop at Gore, Southland to refuel 15/01/1931 Broke a rotor blade at Gore during takeoff (presumably on the return flight 12/1930 UK registration cancelled 14/02/1931 registered as ZK-ACL to Safety Flying (North Island) Ltd, Wanganui 17/04/1931 Damaged Wanganui, when blown over by a gust of wind presumably not repaired 10/10/1931 Registration cancelled & shipped back to England. Not a very successful career.

Zac , not sure about your “sole NZ autogyro” , another one crashed at Tauranga the other day .

I doubt very much it was an Autogiro – an Autogiro is one built by Cierva or a licensee. The aircraft that rolled over at Tauranga is more accurately described as a gyroplane, or as you say autogyro. I’ve not seen anything to suggest any other Cierva Autogiros were ever in NZ, nor Avro or Pitcairn-built machines 🙂

Zac , not sure about your “sole NZ autogyro” , another one crashed at Tauranga the other day .

Haha suits me just fine! PM inbound 🙂

In the meantime I’ve found a card on eBay (see http://cgi.ebay.com/1932-Aircraft-Card-of-the-Cierva-AUTOGIRO-C-19-III_W0QQitemZ350076251250QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item51822bac72 ) depicting a Mk.III, and the upper decking colour is blue. Any other suggestions?

Thanks Baz, that’s very kind!

Pleasure 😀
Anyway its way easier than scanning in quite a few pages LOL

rgds baz

Thanks Baz, that’s very kind!

Hi all!

bazv I’m always interested to read about flying the Autogiro, any chance I could get a scan of the relevant pages from you? Sounds like I should track down a copy.

Hi Zac
I may be able to get hold of a reasonable copy,a friend of mine has a spare,but we have postal problems here at the mo.
If you pm me your address next friday,I will get a copy off to you.
rgds Baz

Hi all!

Thanks for the shot AEROFOIL. Jusging by the rego, however, your machine isn’t the one I’m after. Roughly the same colour scheme though!

The Alexander Turnbull Library (the National Library of NZ) has a superb shot of ZK-ACL taken at Rongotai, Wellington, surrounded by a throng of admirers ;). Have just printed out a copy, will help immensely in my future model build. Still totally fazed as the the upper decking colour, though. Beautiful angle, and shows registration on the wing!

You may view the image here: http://timeframes.natlib.govt.nz/logicrouter/servlet/LogicRouter?OUTPUTXSL=object.xslt&num_result=0&sr_api=ADD_SAVED_RECORD&DIRECTIVE=getFullRec&UPDOBJ=N&Object_Layout=about_object Due to copyright I don’t think I can re-post it here.

James DK, please check your PMs!!! 😛

bazv I’m always interested to read about flying the Autogiro, any chance I could get a scan of the relevant pages from you? Sounds like I should track down a copy.

Regards the accidents (intentional plural there!) which befell NZ’s sole Autogiro, an internet auction a while back has provided extra info: Crashed Invercargill 15-01-31, rebuilt and then crashed again Wanganui 17-04-31. Shipped back to the UK in a damaged state.

I have a picture of the same aircraft presumably, with british registration taken at Heston Airport during the early 1930’s. Cierva of course did much pioneering work on the autogiro at Heston which is doubtlessly documented on the web.

Frank T Courtney was test pilot for Cierva for a while.in his book ‘Flight Path’ he tells of some of his ‘interesting’ experiences with autogyro’s and an insight into the flawed character of Cierva.
An interesting book and easy read,FTC started as an Air Mechanic 2 Pilot in the RFC in WW1 and became a freelance test pilot post war – highly recommended 😀

Cierva C.19 Mk 111 G-ABCK/ZK-ACL

I have a picture of the same aircraft presumably, with british registration taken at Heston Airport during the early 1930’s. Cierva of course did much pioneering work on the autogiro at Heston which is doubtlessly documented on the web.