George Applebay

[Steve Hill[_2_]]

Soaring legend and Hall of Fame member George Applebay passed away this morning April 6th. George wouild have turned 90 years old on June 12th. A memorial service will be held at the US SW Soaring Museum 918 Historic Route 66 Moriarty, NM 87035 at 11:00 am on Saturday, April 11th.

[Jonathan St. Cloud]

Thanks for the notice. I was fortunate to have met George and coresponded with him for a period of time. Many of the greats have passed on :( thank you George for being you.

[Dan Marotta]

Sitting here crying... What a wonderful man he was.

On 4/6/2015 5:32 PM, Jonathan St. Cloud wrote:
> Thanks for the notice. I was fortunate to have met George and coresponded with him for a period of time. Many of the greats have passed on :( thank you George for being you.

--
Dan Marotta

[Bob T]

On Monday, April 6, 2015 at 12:50:26 PM UTC-7, Steve Hill wrote:
> Soaring legend and Hall of Fame member George Applebay passed away this morning April 6th. George wouild have turned 90 years old on June 12th. A memorial service will be held at the US SW Soaring Museum 918 Historic Route 66 Moriarty, NM 87035 at 11:00 am on Saturday, April 11th.

A true loss to his family, the town of Moriarity, and the soaring community.. George was such an icon, and a great guy.

[BobW]

On 4/6/2015 1:50 PM, Steve Hill wrote:
> Soaring legend and Hall of Fame member George Applebay passed away this
> morning April 6th. George wouild have turned 90 years old on June 12th. A
> memorial service will be held at the US SW Soaring Museum 918 Historic
> Route 66 Moriarty, NM 87035 at 11:00 am on Saturday, April 11th.
>

Sincere "Thank you!" for posting this deeply saddening information. I was
favorably impressed upon first having occasion (thanks to owning one of his
creations) to interact with, and subsequently meet, George, and over the next
2+ decades as I got to know him better, I continued to gain ever-deepening
appreciation, respect and (yes) love for a thoroughly decent, talented,
creative and quietly inspirational human being. I consider my life distinctly
richer for having had the opportunity to get to know and interact with the
man. I considered him a friend, despite seeing him probably less than 15 times
over that period. RIP, George.

My thoughts and prayers for his family and friends.

Bob W.

[[email protected]]

On Monday, April 6, 2015 at 1:50:26 PM UTC-6, Steve Hill wrote:
> Soaring legend and Hall of Fame member George Applebay passed away this morning April 6th. George wouild have turned 90 years old on June 12th. A memorial service will be held at the US SW Soaring Museum 918 Historic Route 66 Moriarty, NM 87035 at 11:00 am on Saturday, April 11th.

Thanks Steve.

George was a truly remarkable person, who retained the wonder of discovery that is normally possessed in childhood and then lost by many, if not most.

And a solid drive and commitment necessary to achieve lofty goals... without the negative traits that normally are part and parcel.

All said, he was a very, very fine human being who thought and wished well of everyone. He did so much to promote soaring in its many manifestations.

I'll see you Saturday,

Gary Osoba

[Tim[_11_]]

On Monday, April 6, 2015 at 2:50:26 PM UTC-5, Steve Hill wrote:
> Soaring legend and Hall of Fame member George Applebay passed away this morning April 6th. George wouild have turned 90 years old on June 12th. A memorial service will be held at the US SW Soaring Museum 918 Historic Route 66 Moriarty, NM 87035 at 11:00 am on Saturday, April 11th.

Thank you for alerting us Steve. Very sad here in Dallas, Tx, but feeling truly blessed to have had George in my life for a great many wonderful experiences with him in the shop and elsewhere around the airport. From our first encounter with him due to a broken Libelle canopy, through many, many hours spent learning to maintain a S10-VT, to seeing his museum rise from the desert based on his will and the love of others for him, George was a treasure.

Always true gentleman and friend, the soaring world has lost a true great!

Tim McAllister EY

[Brad[_2_]]

My condolences to the family.

George was an early motivator in my quest for designing and building sailplanes. I'll always remember his helpfulness and enthusiasm towards me when I called him out of the blue one day and talked his ear off about designing sailplanes.

Blue Skies George!

Brad

[[email protected]]

Wow, what a tremendous loss to his family, Fidel, and the soaring community! Please convey our condolences. He will be sorely missed.

Cliff & Rose
CH & crew

[glidergreg]

I met George for the first time while flying at Moriarity last summer. I made a special effort to seek him out as I very much wanted to meet this legend of the Soaring community. After some hunting around the various hangers I found him completely focused cutting out a newly formed canopy he had just made. When he had finished, he took the time to explain the entire process to me from raw plexi to finished product. I learned so very much in just a short time. He then asked me to sit with him for a while and to my astonishment he wanted to know about me, where I was from and about my soaring. All I really wanted to do was learn more about him but that was just not his way. I was so honored by this kind and humble man taking the time for me, an uninvited guest to his shop, it is one of the most treasured events of all my soaring experiences. Although I only briefly knew him I feel a great loss both personally and to the soaring community.

[Steve Leonard[_2_]]

I first got to meet George in December of 1981 when I convinced my Dad that we needed to "take a tour of the Zuni Factory" when we were on a family trip. George came out, and gave us the factory tour. Little did I know that the Zuni we saw in final assembly would be mine 5 years later. After George, once again, gave self-lessly of his time talking with me about the Zunis that were out there and possibly available for sale. I ended up buying serial 28. The last one that George and Applebay Sailplanes completed.

Years later, George told me he always loved it when I brought one of my sailplanes down to him for an inspection. He really liked going through the log book and reading the entries from each day's flight telling where I had gone, and a bit about how the day had gone. Let that be a lesson to the rest of us. Document each flight in the log. Someone down the road will appreciate it!

George had a way with people. You could go down there to learn from or about him, and next thing you know, he was asking questions about you and learning about you. Not that he was trying to hide or keep anything from you, but he was genuinely interested in all people involved in aviation in general and soaring in particular. I guess he had heard his own stories enough, and wanted to hear someone else's stories!

Will miss George immensely, but feel I am a better person for having gotten to know him.

Steve Leonard
Zuni 6, N6ZF
Zuni II 28, N1353Z

[BobW]

On 4/7/2015 11:38 AM, Steve Leonard wrote:
> I first got to meet George in December of 1981 when I convinced my Dad that
> we needed to "take a tour of the Zuni Factory" when we were on a family
> trip.
<Snip...>
>
> Will miss George immensely, but feel I am a better person for having gotten
> to know him.
>
> Steve Leonard Zuni 6, N6ZF Zuni II 28, N1353Z
>

I first saw George Applebay the year he had his still-canard-equipped Zia
design at Oshkosh...but lacked the nerve to introduce myself as a then
several-year-owner of Zuni S/N 3, something George did not then know. I'd seen
the Zia the day before (no George in sight) and went back the next day in
possible hopes of speaking with him. Amazingly, I arrived moments before -
from one direction - George arrived, and - from another direction - Burt Rutan
arrived, their meeting quite by chance as became obvious listening to the
conversation. Burt was checking out the latest canard design and evidently was
in aircraft designer brain-picking/-sharing mode. As Burt left, someone else
buttonholed George...and my nerve oozed away as it became clear (or at least I
thought it did!) George's time was in greater demand than somewhat diffident
me warranted.

Several years later, I had occasion to phone George at the Moriarty shop,
discussed details of him doing what he called an IRAN (inspect and repair as
necessary) annual, was immensely relieved to hear him say with a quiet chuckle
when I was probing about the seriousness of an internal modification I hoped
to have done on the ship that involved cutting a hole in the tailboom in the
vicinity of the base of the vertical stabilizer, "Oh no, Bob. We don't
consider that a major repair. We consider splicing together a spar within a
few feet of the root of something like a Ventus, a major repair."

I had the mod done, the (total/hourly shop rate) cost was entirely reasonable,
and the drop-off and pick-up visits were thoroughly enjoyable experiences
transpiring along the lines of initial conversations with George described by
previous posters.

Both times I felt it incumbent on me to terminate the conversations, mostly
from concern I was burning the man's valuable time. In hindsight, I came to
realize George would have happily extended both conversations. Over succeeding
years, mostly at week-long informal soaring camps, I felt fortunate to get to
know both George and Fidel better...both gentlemen were/are good people in
addition to their other myriad technical skills.

I feel precisely as Steve Leonard states above: "Will miss George immensely,
but feel I am a better person for having gotten to know him."

Sorrowfully...
Bob W.

Zuni I, S/N 3

[Ernst]

Remember George:
http://www.eaavideo.org/video.aspx?v=28100692001

[[email protected]]

On Tuesday, April 7, 2015 at 5:50:26 AM UTC+10, Steve Hill wrote:
> Soaring legend and Hall of Fame member George Applebay passed away this morning April 6th. George would have turned 90 years old on June 12th. A memorial service will be held at the US SW Soaring Museum 918 Historic Route 66 Moriarty, NM 87035 at 11:00 am on Saturday, April 11th.

So sad,
George was a great friend and always made me feel at home when I was visiting from Australia. If the rest of us have half the drive that George had, gliding will do very well.
John Ashford