CISS Gets Schreder HP-18 Donation
Longtime member, Don "Doc" Boyer, of Lebanon has donated his HP-18 to the club.

The HP-18 was the culmination of a series of gliders designed by Richard Schreder of Bryan, OH. Besides being an aircraft designer and manufacturer, Schreder was a top racing competitor. He passed away last year. His daughter has written a book about his life in aviation titled "10,000 feet and Climbing". The title came from an incident wherein Schreder took a friend's brand new 1-26 up for an altitude attempt in cumulous clouds. Over development followed resulting in his being trapped in a cu-nim, pummeled by large hail, and after landing and finding both the top and bottom surfaces of the plane totally hammered, he remarked that it was a testimonial to what a wonderfully built ship it was! That must have soothed his friend's spirits. The book is currently available through SSA and other outlets of soaring books.

The HP-18 has aluminum spars, foam ribs, fiberglass cockpit, and aluminum skin; a V tail, side stick, steer able tailwheel, and is flapped. It is famous for it's nose-down attitude when landing. This model was way ahead of its time in many ways and is still a competitive flyer. Udo Rumpf of Canada placed 8th in this years Seniors Competition in Florida, flying his beautifully maintained HP-18. Our Ron Clarke came in 7th. Congratulations Ron! 14 National Champions and 2 World Champions also competed.

Our donated HP-18 has not flown in the past 20 years. It has been kept in Don's yard in its homebuilt trailer. Don built the plane from a kit, with the help of a friend who had built a kit plane previously. Its condition is basically unknown as we've only seen it inside the trailer and have no expertise in these matters. Don will be coming over for a visit soon and showing us how to assemble and disassemble it. That would be a good opportunity for CISS members to satisfy their curiosities and we will try to provide some advance information about that.

In agreeing to accept the donation, Don has agreed that we may sell it with the proceeds going to CISS to assist in a future capital expenditure. To do this, we will advertise its availability on the following web pages; Wings & Wheels, SSA, r.a.s. and the Yahoo HP-18 User Group. Bidders will be invited to visit CISS to inspect the plane, review photos by email, and place bids by mail with a deposit check. All bidders will be informed of the receipt of higher bids and allowed to raise theirs or drop out. At the end of the bidding, the plane will go to the highest bidder and deposits will be returned to all others. The successful bidder will be responsible to remove the plane from Terry in a reasonable time, or lose the bid. Time periods and bid documents are yet to be developed.

Help is needed in drafting bid documents, developing an album of still photos to be emailed to interested parties and a video of the assembly/disassembly process for the buyer. I will be conducting the auction in CISS behalf and will be happy to answer any question(s) you may have.

Jeff Melin
Eves. (317) 848-5306
8csoars@prodigy.net