Mystery of crashed glider in Arizona

On Dec 11, 8:55*am, ContestID67 wrote:
I called the FAA registry. *Looks like the Jordon Reid connection is
the key to this mystery. *Tom "5Z" you are the winner.

A very nice lady at the FAA said that the tail number had been used
three times. *A Cessna 421C (current), Moni before that (distroyed)
and then a "glider" which was registered to Jordon E Reid of Tucson,
AZ! * Bingo.

She didn't have a model number but "Reid" as a manufacturer does show
up in the FAA database as a "RGS-1" glider as mentioned earlier, 1
seat. *Serial number is 0001 so it is obviously a one-off homebuilt.
The detailed information on the craft is being sent to me but it is in
"Federal Storage" and will take weeks to be dug up.

RGS-1 = Reid Gordon Special #1???

Now the next question - how did it come to be lying next to a fence in
such disrepair. *Wind storm as someone thought? *It seems to be in
relatively good repair for something that might have tumbled end over
end.

- John DeRosa

Well done guys! But it's not over yet. The design looks heavily
influenced by Schreder, maybe HP-17ish. Maybe Bob can turn up
something in his records. Some correspondence?

Darryl

" and will take weeks to be dug up.

RGS-1 = Reid Gordon Special #1???

Reid Glider Series 1?

http://glider.aircraftdata.net/37202/ReidRgs-1.aspx


glider aircraft : REID RGS-1
Code 0564744
Manufacturer name REID
Model name RGS-1
Type of aircraft Glider
Engine type (none)
Land/sea/amph. land
Number of engines 0
Crusing speed 60

The ends of the wings were quite damaged. I think that supports the
cartwheeling idea.

On Dec 11, 10:35*am, tstock wrote:
" and will take weeks to be dug up.



RGS-1 = Reid Gordon Special #1???

Reid Glider Series 1?

Maybe...

RGS-1 is Reid Glider Sailplane-1

as in

Schweizer SGS (Schweizer Glider Sailplane) 1-35
or
Schweizer SGU (Schweizer Glider Utility) 2-22

On Dec 11, 9:10*am, Darryl Ramm wrote:

Well done guys! But it's not over yet. The design looks heavily
influenced by Schreder, maybe HP-17ish. Maybe Bob can turn up
something in his records. Some correspondence?

I just finished another eight hour day at ADF X, and then an hour
cleaning up what's going amok at where I work most days. So I'll spend
a half-hour digging through the files, but no more.

I think that 1971 is a bit early for HP-17, and I already looked
through all the HP-17 files I found. My bet is that the aft fuselage
is HP-16, so that's where I'll concentrate. I'll let you know if I
find anything or not.

Thanks, Bob K.

On Dec 10, 10:25*pm, 5Z wrote:
When I was in the Tucson Soaring Club in 1973-1980 one of the members,
Jordan Reid was building a glider from scratch. *I recall seeing it a
couple times in his back yard and the only thing I remember about it
was the giant nose vent hole. *IIRC, he worked at the University of
Arizona in the aero department. *He claimed the large hole with pitot
inside was clean according to some tests he had done.

Am pretty sure it was composite and a V tail. *It's quite likely he
started working on it in 1971, so 71JR makes sense.

Perhaps a TuSC old timer or UofA faculty member could do some
digging? *I did a quick Google search for Jordan, but nothing obvious
showed up. *I believe he passed away in the early 1980's due to
illness.

-Tom

Tom emailed me this morning, and here is what I remember.

Jordan Reid was an instructor at TuSC in the late 70's or early 80's
when I was a student. We had a rope-break (for real) at about 100'
AGL when TuSC was flying out of Ryan field. That is another story.
My recollection is that he was an excellent instructor.

I don't remember the V-tail, but the wings in the photo look like what
I remember.

I understood Jordan to be an aeronautics instructor at University of
Arizona. He designed and built his own ship that was characterized by
very thin high-performance aluminum wings. One day he showed up at
Ryan with this really radical glider that I understood had not flown
for a while. While on tow perhaps a couple of hundred feet off the
ground it developed flutter so severe that I was sure a wing or the
tail was going to come off. Viewed from the length of the runway, the
tips of the wing were going through extreme oscillations while at the
same time the tail torqued left and right. Jordan released and turned
back toward the runway, and the flutter seemed to stop. Then it
started again, but he was able to land safely.
The ship's skin was buckled in several places. Jordan said that it
wasn't that bad, but most of us figured that the ship would never fly
again.
Did he fly it again and crash, leaving it where it has been found. Or
was it abandoned in the desert after he died? I am pretty sure that
he died of natural causes unrelated to soaring.

Regards,
Mike Parker, IC

Now that I think about it, maybe I was told that the spar was
aluminum.
Or....I was only a student then, so perhaps I misinterpreted something
that Jordan told me.
Mike Parker, IC

On Dec 11, 7:48*pm, Bob Kuykendall wrote:

I just finished another eight hour day at ADF X, and then an hour
cleaning up what's going amok where I work most days. So I'll spend
a half-hour digging through the files, but no more.

Sorry, no Reids anywhere in the files for HP-11, -12A, 14, 15, 16, 17,
18, RS-15, or in any of the several "Misc." folders. I did discover
that Paul Bikle had fine penmanship, though.

That's not to say that the aft fuselage and tail aren't Schreder
parts, just that I found no record of it. Which is a pity, because I
do love a mystery like this!

Thanks, Bob K.

On Dec 8, 11:22*pm, Junior Team 2007
wrote:
Come on guys, it's got to be an Edelweiss!

http://www.probertencyclopaedia.com/...0Edelweiss.jpg

Mike Westbrook

The nose area ahead of the canopy is too short on the Edelweiss