On 4/7/2015 11:38 AM, Steve Leonard wrote:
I first got to meet George in December of 1981 when I convinced my Dad that
we needed to "take a tour of the Zuni Factory" when we were on a family
trip.
Snip...

Will miss George immensely, but feel I am a better person for having gotten
to know him.

Steve Leonard Zuni 6, N6ZF Zuni II 28, N1353Z


I first saw George Applebay the year he had his still-canard-equipped Zia
design at Oshkosh...but lacked the nerve to introduce myself as a then
several-year-owner of Zuni S/N 3, something George did not then know. I'd seen
the Zia the day before (no George in sight) and went back the next day in
possible hopes of speaking with him. Amazingly, I arrived moments before -
from one direction - George arrived, and - from another direction - Burt Rutan
arrived, their meeting quite by chance as became obvious listening to the
conversation. Burt was checking out the latest canard design and evidently was
in aircraft designer brain-picking/-sharing mode. As Burt left, someone else
buttonholed George...and my nerve oozed away as it became clear (or at least I
thought it did!) George's time was in greater demand than somewhat diffident
me warranted.

Several years later, I had occasion to phone George at the Moriarty shop,
discussed details of him doing what he called an IRAN (inspect and repair as
necessary) annual, was immensely relieved to hear him say with a quiet chuckle
when I was probing about the seriousness of an internal modification I hoped
to have done on the ship that involved cutting a hole in the tailboom in the
vicinity of the base of the vertical stabilizer, "Oh no, Bob. We don't
consider that a major repair. We consider splicing together a spar within a
few feet of the root of something like a Ventus, a major repair."

I had the mod done, the (total/hourly shop rate) cost was entirely reasonable,
and the drop-off and pick-up visits were thoroughly enjoyable experiences
transpiring along the lines of initial conversations with George described by
previous posters.

Both times I felt it incumbent on me to terminate the conversations, mostly
from concern I was burning the man's valuable time. In hindsight, I came to
realize George would have happily extended both conversations. Over succeeding
years, mostly at week-long informal soaring camps, I felt fortunate to get to
know both George and Fidel better...both gentlemen were/are good people in
addition to their other myriad technical skills.

I feel precisely as Steve Leonard states above: "Will miss George immensely,
but feel I am a better person for having gotten to know him."

Sorrowfully...
Bob W.

Zuni I, S/N 3