Currently Owned by: Keith Crawford

STATUS:  Flying

LOCATION:  York Soaring Club, Ontario, Canada

Imported by Hartmut Schmidt in to the US. Later sold to York Soaring in Ontario, thence to Keith Crawford. An official ownership trace in the U.S. records as of June, 1998 with the Federal Aviation Administration provided no useful information on the ship's early years.

Upon acquiring GJIR, Keith  set about the quest of trying to attain the Diamond distance (500 km). and made many attempts to complete this  in southern Ontario, which efforts have  provided the associated good fortune of meeting  farmers' daughters.  It has also flown in Pennsylvania and participated  at the Cowley Camp in southern Alberta.

GJIR although sound structurally needed some tender loving care after Keith acquired it from the club. The spoilers were at some point  extended beyond their design limit.  In doing so the spoiler pivot behind the seat was pushed through the fiber glass wall that is the travel stop.  This caused the push rods to be bend slightly.  Consequently the spoilers would open slightly different amounts,  requiring a minor yaw correction during landing.  When Chris Eaves of London Ontario did the airworthiness directive for the spoilers, he corrected this by straightening the spoiler push rods.  Furthermore he installed a metal plate, positioned  back of the pivot plate on the wall  that ensures that the spoilers cannot go past the correct distance again.

When Keith acquired GJIR, the surface would come off milky when wet and wiped. When  Paul Weeden replaced the tow release, front and back tires etc,  he checked out an area of the elevator that was particularly prone to this and found that under the loose material was the original gel coat and that was in excellent condition.  Obviously the milky stuff  was oxidizing paint.

The ship was taken out west to Claresholm, Alberta  to Jerry Vessely, reputedly Canada's best aircraft mechanic for working on fiberglass.  Jerry completed work on the fuselage in the summer of 1997.  While in Claresholm, Jerry Vessely graciously accepted my offer for him to use the aircraft.  I am pleased to mention that the log book records that Jerry Vessely enjoyed many excellent flights in GJIR while it was there.

Soon after Jerry  completed the fuselage he was diagnosed with cancer. For obvious reasons  he was not comfortable taking on the job of doing the wings, so we agreed to wait and see.  Unfortunately we lost Jerry last Christmas.