The day our LS-3 arrived at the docks in the U.S. in its Komet trailer
in early 1978, I got a call from the owner of its sister glider, which
had arrived in the same container, that the dockworkers had stolen most
of the wheels. At that time, the factory placed the axel and wheels
inside the trailer before loading it into the container for ocean
transport.

Said owner grabbed the two available wheels (probably the spare bolted
inside each trailer, although he assured me he was taking only what was
actually inside his trailer g) and wished us well. My father was due
to arrive at the dock the next day from Ohio to pick up our glider.

I contacted several people for help. Rudy Mozer drove out to his shop
that night and measured the wheels on his trailer to get me the
dimensions. Someone pointed me at the Opel Kadett, an Adam Opel AG
model imported by GM and sold in this country by Buick. With these two
pieces of information, my father was able to procure two wheels & tires
from the local Buick dealer the next morning and, after clearing
customs and negotiating with the dockworkers--who, in a threatening
manner, insisted they hadn't stolen anything--was finally on his way
about 3 minutes before the port closed for the weekend...just in time
to drive up from Philadelphia to where I lived in New Jersey in the
middle of a blizzard.

The NJ Turnpike was closed to trailers so he crawled up through New
Jersey on the local roads. I finally met him at Teterboro airport past
midnight and we got permission to stash the brand new trailer there
before grabbing some sleep at my apartment.

The next morning we drove back out to Teterboro, dragged the trailer
around to where the snow plows had cleared a swath through a parking
lot, and pulled the fuselage out to sit in our beautiful new glider,
shivering but grinning at each other, under a brilliant,
post-winter-storm blue sky. The temperature was far below freezing, my
dad was 12 hours from home, and he didn't have a spare for the trailer.
But it was a great moment.

Some years later I blew a tire and rolled the rim up at 3:00 AM in
Wyoming on the way to the 15M nationals at Minden. A junk yard in Salt
Lake City provided a spare wheel/tire for $10 with no other information
than "it fits a 1970s Opel Kadett."

Some moments in soaring are highs. Some are lows. Many prove memorable
over time.

Chip Bearden
ASW 24 "JB"