When you're walking down the rows of aircraft at any
airport, but especially Wittman Field in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, during "that" week, your eyes become accustomed to at least one form of "sameness." From one
airplane to the next, one factor is almost always the
same—most of the registration numbers start with an
"N." Only the occasional "C" from north of the border
breaks the pattern. So, when "ZK" was brazenly painted
against a yellow fuselage, it really stood out and virtually everyone said, "Huh? What does ZK stand for?"
It was the rare individual at EAA AirVenture Oshkosh
2013 who didn't have to read the prop card to find
Photography by Darryn Morgan
out that ZK indicates a New Zealand registration.
A Falco from New Zealand, to be exact. When that
realization soaked in and we each visualized a globe
and New Zealand's position on it, we knew we
were looking at an airplane that was rooted deeply
in determination.
The very fact that it's a scratchbuilt Falco means the
builder, George Richards, EAA 474298, from Auckland,
New Zealand, is incredibly determined, or he wouldn't
have finished the airplane in the first place. And then
the simple fact that it was sitting just north of Homebuilders Headquarters in the grass with flightline
EAA Experimenter
11