Max Clear 28/7/40 - 12/11/11

Max Clear, one of New Zealand's pioneer homebuilders, died at his home at Te Kowhai on Saturday 12 November 2011, aged 71. A funeral service for Max will be held at Te Kowhai at 2 pm on Wednesday 16 November. For friends of Max who plan to fly in, please plan to arrive before 1 pm, with no flying during the service.

Max was a genuine nice guy and was always helpful to aircraft enthusiasts who called on him at Te Kowhai to talk aeroplanes. He was a very early member of the AACA, being member 28.

Max's first aircraft was Turbulent ZK-CWI which he completed in 1968.

And his second aircraft was Pitts S1 Special ZK-EES which he completed in 1975. He also helped with the building of several other Pitts Specials.

In the 1980's Max travelled to the United States looking for a microlight aircraft to purchase, but he could not find anything that suited. He returned home and formed a group of ten like minded Kiwi's to build a completely new aircraft which turned out to be the single seat Bantam B 10 ZK-FGI, and which first flew in 1983. It turned out to be so successful that more were made and thus Micro Aviation was born. Micro Aviation of Te Kowhai (driven hands-on by Max Clear) has gone on to develop the two seater Bantam B 20 and B 22 models and is now New Zealand's most prolific aircraft manufacturer and the most successful microlight aircraft manufacturer in the Southern Hemisphere. To date more than 350 Bantams have been produced and sold all over the world with more than 100 going to South Africa. The above photo shows B 22J ZK-LYF at a flyin at Te Kowhai in March 2005, where there were more than a dozen Bantams on display.

Farewell Max Clear - genuine nice guy.