dcstrng
Well-Known Member
Gary, a long-time contributor here who sometimes commented under the moniker of topsaddle, flew west earlier this week after an illness. Until the past couple of weeks, he had continued to work on his Wag-Piper creation which he called Wagzilla – Gary was a big man and was building his bird to fit himself (pics are of a WagZilla/Corvair test run, 2-3 years ago -- the prop is one Gary recarved from a airboat blank). One of the very early of the Corvair adherents, Gary was an old-school mechanic (don’t buy, build it yourself, it’s bound to be better that way) and after his experience with an earlier Pietenpol, had started his own Corvair conversion years ago and then adopted various commercial bits and pieces as they entered the homebuilder’s market. Gary gave advice, assistance and his time freely, and loved hanger flying almost as much as he loved his family and his beloved horses. RIP Gary, you were a friend to many.