Gliders

As long as I live I've been interested in anything with wings: butterflies, birds, aircraft.
I love watching and photographing butterflies and birds and have been building plastic model aircraft and wooden radio-controlled aircraft.
Later I also took flying lessons and became a licensed pilot for single engined aircraft and glider aircraft.
Due to the high cost I've stopped flying single engined aircraft and concentrate on flying gliders.
Allthough I love old historic gliders I also fly modern fiberglass gliders.
An extra dimension to this hobby is restoring historic gliders, I am also a licensed glider maintenance engineer and the proud owner of two classic gliders.

Goevier

The Wolf-Hirth Gö-4 (often spelled as 'Goevier') is a side-by-side twoseater glider designed in 1937.
Only a handfull still exist today of which 1954 built Goevier III PH-206 is one.
You can find out more about this aircraft by clicking here.

We also discovered and recovered 1948 built Goevier II PH-178 in an unheated and damp storage.
Initially it was intended to restore this again to flying status but soon found out that the wings were in such
a bad shape that it would be a wonder if it could even be restored to static display condition.
You can see more about the discovery and recovery of this aircraft here.

Schleicher K-8B

This plane was built in 1964 and flown by the gliding club located in Wiener Neustadt, Austria.
In 2000 the glider was sold and came to Holland to be hung in a big toyshop in Amsterdam where it could stay until 2009 when it was offered for free.
So the choice was easy and I took the offer. Since then the glider has been restored and is now flying almost weekly. And what a joy it is to fly her!
You can find out more about this aircraft by clicking here.
 

Fokker Grunau Baby IIb

For a number of years I have been assisting two fellow technicians with the restoration to airworthy condition of a Grunau Baby built by the Fokker factory in 1946/1947.
The Grunau Baby is a famous type that originated in the early 1930's.
Since the two fellow technicians died in 2020 I have taken over this project and work is progressing slowly.
You can find out more about this aircraft by clicking here.