The following may be of interest.
Strongly interested in the work carried out by missionaries in many developing countries, mainly in Africa it seems, Ron Mason of Belleville, Ontario, came to believe that a high-performance, solid, inexpensive and easy to make or repair aircraft could be of great help to them.
The interest of this Canadian of British origin who had served as a fighter pilot in the Royal Air Force during the Second World War for the role of aviation in mission work went back to 1975, when he had talked to pilots who were taking the same course with the American organization Missionary Aviation Fellowship.
The prototype of the two-seater that Mason developed, the CA-05 Christavia Mk I, or Christavia 2, flew in 1982. This aircraft bore some resemblance to light/private aircraft of the 1930s and 1940s such as the Piper Cub or the Aeronca Champ.
Transport Canada having relaxed the regulations concerning homebuilt aircraft, in 1984, to allow the manufacture of heavier four-seat aircraft, Mason began the design of the CH-08 Christavia Mk IV, or Christavia 4. A prototype of this aircraft inspired by the Cessna Model 172 Skyhawk flew in December 1985.
Elmwood Aviation, a small company founded around 1980-82 and based in Belleville, then Frankford, Ontario, sold sets of plans for both aircraft. Even before the end of 1986, 200 or so homebuilders from various countries, including Brazil, Canada, the United States, New Zealand and Sweden, were gradually putting together Christavia Mk Is. Mason sold the rights of his aircraft to an American distributor of plans for homebuilt aircraft, Aircraft Spruce & Specialty, at an uncertain date.