Johnny Byrd (was: 30 Gone)

On 9/19/2016 9:42 PM, Burt Compton - Marfa Gliders, west Texas wrote:
So many stories.

I remember that he set out to build the "Ultimate Tow Plane". As I
recall (perhaps wrongly) he started with a tri-pacer which he lengthened
and made into a tail dragger, and then powered it with an aluminum V-6
auto engine. It sounded like a race car! At the conception, he talked
about adding glider spoilers to bring it down faster for the next tow,
but I don't know if that ever happened. He made it sound like a
part-time casual project. To me, it was an awesome accomplishment!

Also, one time my daughter was thermaling (probably in a 1-26) somewhere
near Willis gliderport when she was startled by a power plane with the
engine off that cored the thermal and out-climbed her! It turned out to
be John Byrd in a borrowed light homebuilt.