Bauphase 2001 bis 2006 GLASTAR OE-CWG
Documentation in words and pictures
In 2000, I was at Glasair Aviation in Arlington, WA for a few weeks to take part in a 2-week Glastar assembly workshop where you learned all the technical skills you need to master when building a GLASTAR yourself to be able to build this aircraft professionally. Sheet metal work, all riveting techniques, laminating polyester parts, etc. were practiced during these 14 days until you finally mastered them.
Afterwards it was clear to me that I definitely had the confidence to build this Glastar myself and I decided to buy a Glastar kit. Coincidentally, I learned at this time that the company AEROKITS in Trollenhagen, Germany, had recently purchased eight complete Glastar kits from GlasairAviation and had already resold them from Germany. They built a kit themselves, bought the necessary rights from GlasairAviation and then built and sold the series aircraft „SYMPHONY” based on the Glastar.
After returning from the USA, I immediately set off by car to Trollenhagen to see Aerokits. When I got there, I couldn’t believe my eyes, these Glastar kits were in a super-fine maintenance hall, and one Glastar had just been built and was doing its first test flights at this airport.
What I didn’t expect was that all existing Glastar kits were so-called „fast-built options”, which means that several parts were already professionally prefabricated:
- The 2 GFK fuselage shells were already laminated together around the tubular steel cage and bulkheads A and B were already laminate.
- The 2 wings were already prefabricated including the lower sheet metal skin, which was of course a huge relief
- The flaps, ailerons, rudders and elevators were also ready for assembly
Of course, the kit with these prefabricated parts was a lot more expensive than the simple kit. After some consideration, I decided to go with this fast-built option anyway…..and in hindsight, it was a right decision at that time.
Although my large workshop where I built the Glastar was right on my property and I was really constantly building without any long interruptions (in addition to job and family, of course!), it still took almost 5 years and around 2000 hours of work until my Glastar was able to take off on its first flight….. of course with me as a test pilot. I didn’t miss this honor, even though I also had to complete test pilot training in theory and flight practice.
Below is a short photo documentation of the construction phase up to the first flight on 27.12.2006::
