Kiwi Chateau     

Yeah, that's Geoff again!

The Mudry CAP 10 is a two-seat training aerobatic aircraft first built in 1970 and still in production. The plane was developed from the Piel Super Emeraude and was born as the CP100. The name changed to CAP 10, CAP for 'Constructions Aéronautiques Parisiennes'. The CAP 10 was manufactured by Mudry (name of its designer) in Bernay, France, bought by CAP Industries which then became Apex Aircraft. Following the bankruptcy of Apex in 2008, rights to produce spares were awarded to Dyn'Aviation.
The prototype CAP 10 was first flown in August 1968. It was followed by the production variant, the CAP 10B which had revised tail surfaces. The CAP 10 is a low-wing cantilever monoplane of wooden construction on the 'B' version and carbon sandwich wing spar on the recent Cap 10C version. The engine is a 180 hp Lycoming AEIO-360 fuel injection engine, fully lubricated in inverted flight.
300+ aircraft had been built by 2007, at a unit cost of 160,000€ apiece.

The CAP 10 is one of the most successful aerobatic training aircraft in the world, around 200 aircraft are still flying and nearly two generations of aerobatic champions made their classes with it.

It's a funny thing: when Geoff first started doing aerobatics in New Zealand, nobody EVER mentioned parachutes!  DAMN uncomfortable things they are, too!

These photos were taken at Berck sur Mer, France, in October, 2005.

In this very aircraft, Geoff had the honour of receiving aerobatics ("voltige" in French) instruction from World Unlimited Aerobatics Champion (and captain of the French Aerobatics Team) Emmanuel [Manu] Foulon... What a buzz!

Note that the CAP-10 is a tail-dragger... They're SO much harder to taxi than tricycle-geared aircraft, especially when it comes to peering over the raised nose.