ZDL is home at last

Mike Blyth congratulates Dave on arrival at Virginia

My perfect landing

Mike Blyth, partner of The Airplane Factory, maker of the Sling airplane, and around-the-world celebrity, congratulates Dave Mc Naught taking delivery of the remodelled ZDL this week.

 

ZDL has been fully dismantled, treated with anti-corrosion protection, rebuilt and resprayed, and now sports rainbow stripes. It's been a 3-month process and co-owner Llewellyn and I are delighted to be able to get back into the air again. We also made a few improvements in line with the new-spec Slings now coming off the production line. This includes a 4-position flap selector, new interior panneling and pockets and fine-tuning of the efis on-board computer instruments. Thanks guys for the great job!

 

Home at last at Virginia airport

Back in the captain's seat!

Llewellyn wears matching colours in our first flight together in the cockpit of the new ZDL

Rich new colour scheme

My second flight over Durban harbour in the new ZDL

 

Celebrating the arrival home of ZDL as well as the maiden flight of Marc and Lee's Sling SAA are Dave, our instructor Brad, Marc, Lee and Llewellyn

 You can see more of the before and after photos in full on our Facebook group here.

 

Make-over

 

While our plane gets it's anti-corrosion treatment and respray we have been trying to decide on the new colours and design. The dragon theme looks like how it's going to be with a new name Dragon Warrior or Rainbow Dragon. The Airplane Factory are working with a company that does car "wrapping" - wrap around decals that can transform a plain car, aircraft, boat etc, into a splash of colour, and if you get tired of it, you can simly peel it off and change theme again. So the tail will carry stripes with a rainbow colour-scheme and we are working on a dragon head and body for the front of the plane which we will have to get drawn - possibly by a tattoo or graphic artist - and then reproduced in sticker form or maybe sprayed on. So the Red Rocket is no more. Enter the Dragon!