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


That is sad indeed.

I do not know John, but was lucky to fly in and out of that airport once.

Gordon Gao

Better pictures.

  From news reports for what that is worth ????

Apparently he was not wearing a shoulder harness and he hit his
head on the instrument panel.


The dumb newspaper reporters also said he "dived" and "crashed" . Hardly the result of
a dive. That was a good off runway dead stick landing. The airplane looks flyable.

Paul Lamar


Wearing no shoulder harness, that,s a bad habit that some older fellows can't shake, my buddy is one, says it's more
hassle to get off in accident, I don't buy it, seems lazy to me. Condolences to his family.

Steve Carlisle


Safety equipment is how you see so many fantastic race car crashes and the driver walks away. Got to the point the crash g-forces was severing the spinal column and that was the cause of death. Greg Moore and Dale Earnhardt for examples. Hans device invented for that reason. Even there are limits we can not exceed. Sad day though.
Dale Davies



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