Fly Past

78 FLYPAST November 2018

SPOT FACT The MS.500 and MS.502 Criquet

were popular Morane-Saulnier-built variants

After completion of the

Grasshopper the aviation enthusiast

wanted a new goal, and this time his

interest in Luftwaffe warbirds was to

play a decisive part. “Some German

planes, like the Messerschmitt Bf

109 or the Focke-Wulf Fw 190 are

way out of practically everybody’s

league,” he says. “I asked myself:

which [German] plane is it possible

to purchase, while simultaneously

having a Norwegian connection?”

It quickly became apparent that

the Fieseler Fi 156 Storch fit the

bill. The type was used to search for

saboteurs on the Hardanger Plateau

after the Norwegian ‘heavy water

sabotage’ of February 1943. This

was a series of operations aimed

at preventing Germany’s nuclear

weapon project from acquiring the

‘heavy water’ (deuterium oxide)

it needed. To reflect this, Tor

decided to restore his Storch as

the Luftwaffe’s H3+BF, a machine

belonging to Stab Jagdfliegerführer

Norwegen (Jagdgeschwader 5),

based at Forus, Norway in 1943.

After the war, the Royal

Norwegian Air Force overhauled

eight surrendered Fieselers. It

painted them yellow and blue and

dispatched them to various military

airfields around the country. The

hardy machines remained in service

until 1954.

Building new parts

Nørstegård bought the wreck of the

Fieseler in Nevada in 2007. The first

major task was to find an original

engine. Four Argus As 10C units

were located in Norway. Although

three were in very poor shape, one

was relatively complete. The latter

was installed in a static Storch at

the Flyhistorisk Museum at Sola,

near Stavanger.

As part of the deal, Tor obtained

the useable engine in return for

renovating two others from the

museums at Sola and in Bodø, so

they could be put on static display.

Sourcing parts for both the 240hp

(179kW) air-cooled V-8 engine and

the rest of the aircraft was not easy,

and several items had to be built

from scratch.

“We made the parts which were

proving most difficult to obtain,”

says Tor. “Valve guides in beryllium

bronze, an alloy also used in the

engine of the Lockheed Martin

F-16, were cut on a lathe by AIM

Norway, a supplier to the Norwegian

Armed Forces. Up until ten years ago

instruments could still be bought on

[internet auction site] eBay.

“Twice a year the little German

town of Speyer hosts a big jumble

sale for spare aircraft parts. I’ve

been there three times and found

useful things. There are three or

four guys around the world who

are restoring Storchs now. We

Above

The Fieseler Fi 156

Storch during its

fi rst post-restoration

fl ight from Kjeller

airstrip, Norway, on

October 7, 2017. ERIK

T HOELSÆTER

Right

A view from the

gunner’s position,

taken during a June

2018 fl ight in the

vicinity of Kjeller

airstrip. ALL AUTHOR

UNLESS NOTED