It is with great sadness that I am informing you of the death of John
Shuttleworth at Matamata air field today, 10/18/2016.

John was as far as I know the first to use a rotary engine in an aircraft in
NZ .

He built and flew a 2/3 scale P51 Mustang.

At this stage we have no information as to what may have happened .

The CAA will investigate and hopefully we may know more in due course.

Andrew Campbell.

I am very sorry to hear that.

Any info at all on what happened Andrew.

Paul Lamar

Hi Paul,
    Apparently John's T51 Mustang had a power failure on takeoff and hit
his head on the instrument panel during the ensuing forced landing. John had
a lot of problems with this aircraft in the past (too many to itemise)
unfortunately, being unskilled in these matters he had a couple of "aircraft
engineers" do the work for him. These guys were ripping John off in a big
way and very obviously had no idea how to install a rotary. I have seen this
aircraft in the past, it was not a good installation, very heavy too.

I remember him complaining to me once when his flywheel came apart on takeoff.
They were telling him that a new flywheel was several thousand dollars for a
new one ! we told him no it was only several  hundred dollars ! I don't know
these guys but I WILL meet them and find out more. My big worry here is that
these guys, in order to save face (and their crappy reputations)will slag
the rotary and its suitability for aircraft use. I knew John, he was a good
guy, such a shame.

    Chris Hoskins.

Was it a Tracy Crook gear box?
The "flywheel" has the sounds of the same thing that happened to
Dave Leonards flex plate. This would happen if a person did
a lot of high G turns or aerobatics.

The manual transmission flywheel wheel weighs about 30 or 40
pounds.  I can't imagine anybody would try to fly with that.

Too bad John was not on here.

Paul Lamar


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