I think it is pretty obvious that we like vintage stuff. Just look at the “Meet the Fleet” page, nothing we have is brand new. That’s not really what we’re about. We like the older models that have their own stories to tell. Of course, you have to do a little digging to learn the whole story, but it is totally worth it!

Every glider log book entry tells a little story. Where the glider has been and what happened to it. Even a glider log book void of any major maintenance issues can tell you a lot - a 50 year old glider with no damage? Really? Did they keep it in a crate?! Well, sometimes that is the answer - it could have spent years in a crate waiting to fly again. Or like most of our gliders, the aircraft has tons of stories to share about who flew it, where it has been, and which achievements were accomplished. Luckily, our glider log books have done the talking and not just the scars of past restorations.

A set of Ka 2 wings in mid-refinishing by a friend of ours in Wichita, Kansas.

Right now we do not have the courage or necessary skills to take on a major project. We have a couple of smaller ones like a fabric patch or a little sheet metal - not a whole restoration necessarily. We have one glider that needs some work to return it to its original configuration, but the spar is good, there doesn’t seem to be much wood work to be done, just mostly fabric and some work on the canopy rail. However, we know a couple of people who have taken on a box of parts and made them back into a beautiful flying machine.

A friend of ours has taken on twin projects that we first saw as just a couple of bare fuselages and wing skeletons - nothing, but spars and ribs. He’s also taken on a Slingsby kit that looks like a pile of sticks, but each one is labeled with a part number [see photo right].

One day we’ll be ready to take on a project of this magnitude… maybe. The plan would be to have our hangar and workshop completed by then, so we would have a dedicated place to work. We would also need to develop the necessary skills and learn where to get all of the necessary tools. However, we already have a few leads on how to make that work without buying a ton of tools of our own. We can’t wait to have a space dedicated to keeping these gliders flyin’. Our hangar is in the works… it has a house too, but right now, we may be more excited about the hangar!

We have many more stories to tell about the gliders, building the house, and our experiences with both as well as the interesting connections we learn along the way.