Fly Past

November 2018 FLYPAST 77

SPOT FACT Czech company Mraz built

the aircraft as the K-65 Cap after the war

Spotlight on a

Storch restoration

11

MG 15 machine gun was  tted in the rear cabin of some aircraft

s

almost ideally suited for undertaking

such an ambitious project.

“I’m very interested in history and

mechanical engineering,” he says.

“As an aviation technician in the

Royal Norwegian Air Force I was

stationed at Gardermoen Air Force

Base, where I helped restore historic

aircraft. We gathered them in a

hangar which later became home

to the Norwegian Armed Forces

Aircraft Collection. An aviation

enthusiast called Anders Sæther

had a private collection, which I

helped him maintain in exchange for

flying hours. I’ve also been involved

in Warbirds of Norway, a society

dedicated to the preservation and

operation of ex-military aircraft.”

Tor has been passionate about

aviation for as long as he can

remember. “You know that Heinkel

He 111 that’s exhibited at the

Aircraft Collection? My family had

a small mountain cottage near to

where it crashed in April 1940,

south of Lesjaskog. I went up on the

mountain when I was 11 to look at

the wreck. What an experience! Spent

cartridges, magazines and parts of the

plane lay scattered on the ground. I

bought a scale model of a Heinkel

and came to think that German

“‘I asked myself: which German

plane is it possible to purchase,

while simultaneously having a

Norwegian connection?’”

Left

Master restorer Tor

Nørstegård.

Bottom right

The Storch in France

sometime between 1961

and 1970, registered

F-BJQB. COURTESY TOR

NØRSTEGÅRD

planes had an almost mesmerising

allure. Later, aged 16, I lent a hand

when the Heinkel was heli-lifted

down [for museum display].”

Tor bought the wreck of an

L-4 Grasshopper, a US

reconnaissance aircraft dating to

World War Two, and finished

restoring it in 1992. This project

took around five years to complete –

he described the experience as being

“fun and feasible”.