Would you believe me if I told you that there is an airplane that can comfortably fly a long IFR cross-country one day, land at a short, challenging backcountry strip the next and splash into a serene mountain lake later the same week? Would the story become more believable if I said you can build this airplane yourself in two weeks and park it in your garage?
You may not believe me, but what I found at the Glasair factory in Arlington, Washington, was just that airplane. A beautifully designed, high-wing, utility aircraft with convertible gear and foldable wings, the Sportsman is a larger, stronger, more advanced version of the Glastar, a popular kit co-designed in the early 1990s by Ted Setzer, current R&D manager at Glasair, and his brother Tom. The Glastar was a real departure from the low-wing speedsters generally coming out of Glasair — a company Tom founded with a couple of friends in 1979 as an alternative to dental school.
