Junkyard Wars season 2 episode 5 (in the USA). First aired on October 17, 2001 on The Learning Channel. This episode features my dad Chuck Slusarczyk as the team expert for the Miami Gearheads. They build a wooden plastic covered biplane glider in this episode. The glider dad told me was based on a hang glider he had made when he first got into hang gliding called the Hang Loose. Dad had a great time filming this episode. Many great scenes in this episode that are so dad or so Chuck if you ever met him. From singing the blues to blessing the plane before takeoff. My personal favorite part is when he gets the glue in his mouth.
Many are not aware, but dad and the team expert for the Hicks family, Barnaby Wainfan, have been friends for many years. They new each other before this episode and well after. Some years later, Barnaby actually built a powered ultralight version of the glider in this episode called the Lightbeam. My dad, Chuck Slusarczyk, is the designer of the CGS Hawk ultralight aircraft. He was an inaugural inductee into the EAA Ultralight Hall of Fame in 1999. He currently has an Easy Riser in the EAA AirVenture Museum, the prototype CGS Hawk is in the Florida Air Museum, and his personal "Army" Hawk is hanging in the MAPS Air Museum in Akron, OH.
It has been 20 years since this episode first aired and deserves to be preserved for people to see. I spliced this video from two VHS tapes to get a complete episode. Each tape had issues with some segments so I combined the original VHS copy from TLC with a copy we had recorded of the first airing. I am glad the VHS tapes were in good enough shape after so many years for me to digitally convert. Finding a functional VCR player in the digital age was quite a task as well. Anyhow, I hope you enjoy this video.
Don Slusarczyk (#4 son)