I am George Lessard. I am a PhD Biochemist and taught from High School to Graduate School. When I was teaching in Mountain View, CA, the father of one of my students was a CFIG and worked at Sky Sailing, across the bay. I got a flight in a 2-22 and shifted my interest from power to sailplanes. In about 1970 I bought a share in 1-26 #194 (now in the Albequerque museum. In 1975 I bought #222 and have flown it off and on, buying it and selling it some 5 or 6 times. I formed Archaeoptryx Aeroworks (Old, Almost Prehistoric) to work on fabric aircraft. I have around 20,000 qualiflying airframe repair hours (38 aircraft repair and rebuild-no A&P). I think I have had 6 1-26, from #019 through #460. Unfortunately I didn’t do as well as my friend, Jim Neff who did all his diamonds in a 1-26 in a year. I cheated (2-33 and Libelle). The FAA cheated, and did not hold a broken Grob tailcone against me so gave me the Wright Master Pilot Award.

When I sold my motorglider in 2023, at 85, I had to find some way to avoid discouragement and dyspepsia, and was given a crapped out 2-22C airframe. By the time I got i home I knew it could not be rebuilt. Talking to Schweizers, who I had worked with for years, they offered to trade some 1-35 parts for a perfect 2-22 airframe, just needing a little TLC. I drove the 8000 miles (trailer stories abound) and brought home SN 030. When I opened the boxes with the parts for the fuselage, everything was missing. Fortunately; the C and the straight (and all 1-19s, 2-33s) are built on the same jig. So parts from the C allowed me to build the straight 2-22.

So guess what! I bought 1-26 SN 222 back from Jim Neff and I will be the only guy who owns a fleet of 222’s! Both have the logo “Redlands, CA world’s finest navels”. 1-26 #222 and 2-22 #030 with the registration 1222S….hey why not!