At 04:42 20 November 2005, Frank Whiteley wrote:
A few American Spirits and Falcons were completed and
flying. None
have failed in flight, though one or two failed under
static load. A
couple of solutions to this have been cooked. Two
kits have been
donated to the Collegiate Soaring Association to date.
One found its
way to Penn State for the glider design program. A
second went to
Mississippi State Raspet Flight Research Laboratory
for similar study
and design experience. IIRC, a PW-5 and a PW-6 were
gifted to
MSUGC by
alumnus Dick Johnson.


A Genesis 2 was donated to the SW Soaring Museum by
Jerry Mercer.
Another hangs in the National Soaring Museum. I presume
the
remainder
continue to fly and with the fillet change, fly very
well. There's one
for sale in Canada at the moment. It's listed under
'old projects' on
the LAK web site.

Frank Whiteley


No sense in beating a dead horse. Once again I have
the dubious
distinction of being one of the first to own a American
Sprit kit. I lived
less than 10 miles from the factory and knew the owner
of the factory
well enough to never want to fly the one that I bought.
I did fly the
factory built Sprit, it flew well except for the loud
cracking noise when I
pulled up in a thermal. Maybe it was me but I could
never get the
factory owner to admit that there was a problem. I
have been over to
the factory since and they are building hatch covers
for submarines. I
sold the kit for a dollar and hope the gentleman that
bought it found the
chain saw to cut it up before it fell on some one.
Chuck