Jay: He flies through the air with the greatest of ease, it's Chuck Slusarczyk to help the Miamis...er...Gearheads that is. Let's get into it with your design. Why a bi-plane?

Chuck: It boiled down to wing loading, that is the gross weight of the plane divided by the wing area. Since the contest is for duration I chose a design that would have a good sink rate rather then a good L/D (lift/Drag) rate. Since Barnaby and I had each planned to fly our own planes I knew I weighed more then Barnaby by about 70 - 80 pounds, so I would need a bigger wing. A standard flexible wing hang glider can be tricky to fly if both wings aren't exactly the same. I built many of those types and you saw in some of those early flights of mine how the gliders would veer off and be difficult to control. My first company, Chuck's Glider Supplies, which I started in 1972 built hanggliders until 1981 with about 1000 being built and sold worldwide. With this experience I felt that getting a good sail constructed under JYW conditions would at best be difficult. The biplane was a derivative of a biplane that we built about 4 of back in the early 70's called a Hang Loose designed by Jack Lambie. So I knew it would work if built straight, and balanced properly.

J: From theory to practice...was Milton the only guy who was going to fly your glider?

C: The decision to use Milton was made within the first 5 minutes of the show. I was to be the primary pilot but I explained to the team that we would stand a better chance ,everything being equal with a lighter pilot. So I asked if any of them flew planes and lo and behold not only was Milton a pilot but he was an ultralight pilot. So Milton was officially the pilot at that point. I changed some of the design parameters to match the plane he was used to flying and we balanced out the plane to fit him.

J: I just thought of something, so back to the plane for a moment. What did you make the wings out of?

C: If you mean covering it was 2 mil visqueen or drop cloth with some fiber woven in. Actually it's very strong. The wood was Douglas fir.

J: I LOVE visqueen. They make those Blizzard things...anyway, back to the junkyard. The Miami Gearheads have a penchant to be...well...excitable. How did you like working with them?

C: Excellent they were a great bunch of hard working, intelligent guys and I felt that we all worked well as a team. I bet some of the banter that never got on the air was hilarious.

J: I'd love to see some unedited footage one of these days. Seems like we're missing out on some stuff! Speaking of which, did you feel that the show captured your time in the Junkyard accurately?

C: Other then the timing error and the changing of pilots at the flying site as opposed to that decision being made at the onset I'd say pretty accurate. There was so much filming done I bet there could be 3 or 4 different versions of the show done with the same ending. Barnaby and I both had a bout of heat exhaustion where we were taken off the set and cooled down that was filmed but never showed. It was 95-100 degrees that day. Safety was a priority issue on the show whether regarding our health or equipment and if I mumbled to myself that my back hurt, suddenly a guy appeared off set with Doans and water. Like Magic!! Gloves, Safety glasses and any thing we required in terms of safety equipment was provided. This attitude of safety first extended to the making of our gliders safe as well.

J: Safety first! Did you guys get to make any other runs that day?

C: I think we had a total of about 4 or 5 flights plus about 3 taxi runs one of which was shown. Actually the Judge gypped us on our time for our 2nd official flight it was more like 8 seconds. We started to protest but we were told that the Hicks Family had conceded, so it was a moot point. But just for the record our 2nd official flight was 8 secs or more.

J: Aha! I knew it seemed like your flight was much longer than 3 seconds. Had you seen the first gliders episode? It was from the second UK series...

C: Yes I did, and felt the Hang glider guy had the best chance and probably got the thing to fly if he got up a bit higher and pulled in the bar a bit to get some speed. The other design was just scary. A canard with an all flying canard could have been disaster.

J: I've actually had nightmares about being strapped into that wing. But enough about me. How did you get into gliders?

C: I have been an airplane nut all my life and started flying when I was 16 (J-3 Cubs). My Dad was a pilot and both of us built and flew model airplanes, something I and my #4 son still do. I worked for NASA for about 7 years as an Aerospace Tech and later for a Helicopter company (Scheutzow Helicopter) during their certification program. I have been self employed since 1972 first building Hank Gliders then I obtained a Patent entitled Powered Hang Glider with Reduction drive in 1979. I started building powered Hang gliders in 1975 and later I designed an ultralight airplane Called the CGS Hawk. My company is called CGS Aviation and we manufacture single and 2 seat versions of the Hawk. You can see them on my web page. Two years ago I was one of the first 3 inductees to the EAA (Experimental Aircraft Association) Hall of Fame in Wisconsin for my Hang glider/ultralight pioneering.

J: It's really too bad that those sorts of things don't make it to air. Quite a history of accomplishments. Would you go back to the scrapheap to compete?

C: Oh yeah!! I'd love to. On another note I'd like to say how impressed I was by the production crew right down to the guys that drove the trucks. Cathy and Tyler were real people and the caterer did a bang up job. I've never had such good food served outside of a restaurant before. I probably gained 5lbs :-) I always thought the Hollywood types were snobs and hard to work with, but these guys and gals were a treat and made my trip out there a very enjoyable experience.

J: Which also describes my talking with you...an enjoyable experience. Thanks Chuck.