Cheetah No. 1

[John Boucher]

Well, after having to have to sell my Cheetah due to circumstance, some loving souls have come to the rescue and have empowered me to embark on a Cheetah restoration project. My wife, brother in law and a very good friend of mine are the force behind this and thus circumstance cannot take it away again!

Jonny Prinsloo bought ZU-CXO and he is enjoying flying her immensely. Well they had a bonding trip from Mossel Bay to Middelburg As he has experienced, she is an honest aeroplane without quirks or gripes!

Back to Cheetah No.1

Cheetah No. 1 or otherwise ZU-CMT was bought by Ludie du Plessis after this unique aircraft had an oopsy when taking on the Dragons and suffered some nasty damage in the ensuing greeting with mother Earth. Ludie has been so kind to part with the bird as he may have some other projects in mind right now.

So the journey begins of this wonderful aircraft that I have grown to love dearly (and criticise very little). I share the initial test flight of this aircraft when she still had "wing tanks" and other minimalistic items and not realising that she would be the pioneer of the Cheetah, Cheetah XLS and now the Bushcat.

And this is where it all started.... http://www.aerotrike.co.za/cheetah/Pict ... tions.html

Various persons are already involved in the project namely : Sideslip (Mike Gill), Duck Rogers (Gerrie Espach) and Jab2 (Cobus Brink)

The idea of the project is to get all the bits and pieces together, add some Rainbow improvements (not too many though ), assemble and then take her back to SkyReach for some specifics, get a clean bill of health, recover and then fly her back to Mossel Bay in a special journey (similar to the one I had with ZU-CXO)

[Bundy]

Cant keep a man with such passion for flying on the ground long....

Is CMT at Springs? I'll pop in with DBP and have a look at your project sometime.

JB....I told you so tjom...

Great news....and good luck mate.

[Jean Crous]

Congrats John Tell me , are you going to need another "Photo-window" installed ??????
Jean.

[John Boucher]

I'm sure Jab2 will have his requirements for this... Must say though, he took some stunning photos when we flew with the door off

[safari]

Glad to see this plane has not been dumped. I used to own her for four years. This picture was taken in my hanger in Nelspruit after I sold her, one week later.
I had only good memories. Good luck with the repairs.

[Dualstar]

Have to add my 2 cents as well & say I am just as glad to see that you are going to restore her John. She was stunning before the "oopsy"

[John Boucher]

Safari... thank you for sharing. I would like to compile a little (his)story for next year's addition of the Microflight Africa magazine, so I'm going to push on all the owners for a little piece to write....

Component collection is progressing well and apart from that what Ludie put together, I think the project can now basically begin.

I only have to get the mother adapter & engine mount, rotax 582 revcounter, water temp gauge and EGT gauge and then that's the panel sorted!

Main fairing and new instrument panel sorted (going back to "steam gauges")
Engine will be sorted (Duck Rogers )
Nice new Powerfin Prop sorted (thank you Ludie)
Engine mount & mother adaptor for fork assembly (mitech)

And then we'll be fitting a Bushcat undercarriage (Grove) and disc brakes with some nice wheels.... decided to leave the spats off for now!

The colour of the recover.... well she has to remain original not so? "Boring" White she shall remain. My dad always said, my son, you can drive any vehicle, just as long as your car is silver and your bakkie white! I have tried to comply pops

Will be fetching her in August ... and then the repair starts...

[Jean Crous]

Ek se John you must change the saying under your avatar to_-----------Cheetah land

[John Boucher]

Eish Jean... dan sal ek mos nou in Vrystaat moes wees

I did the next best thing ... check it out!

[Jean Crous]

Eish Jean... dan sal ek mos nou in Vrystaat moes wees

I did the next best thing ... check it out!

There you go , now at least I know where you are
Ek sal een van die dae weer n draai kom maak daar by jou
J

[Jean Crous]

Hi John the wife and I are in your neck of the woods tomorrow (dentist), so maybe we will drop around to see you ?
J

[John Boucher]

You are most welcome as always Jean....

[Jean Crous]

Hey John, how about an update here , ek se........
J

[John Boucher]

Hey Jean...

Been collecting spares and items for the rebuild... will most probably go up in the next 3 weeks to collect!

Actually looking forward to it all - in the meantime, to keep sane, I'm going to do a convex on a Rockwell Commander 112TC and do some cross country travelling. Really blunted not speaking to ATC ... couple of extra systems to get used to... retract, mixture, VP, Turbo, Cowl flaps.... whole bangshoot!

[JvTonder]

Hi John take a look at the link, maybe something you need or want.

http://www.junkmail.co.za/search/u57087 ... th-africa/