Was built by Jack A. VanPaepeghem, a licensed Airframes and Powerplant mechanic. It was completed in 1974, flown by Jack until 1985 when purchased by Allan Campbell. Wayne Paul became the owner in 1995 and sold it to Brian Case on June 2, 1998. The total flight time when purchased by Brian was 825 hours. As of March 9, 2013 the glider had logged 1,549 hours.
The airframe of N16VP is constructed of aluminum with Rigicell foam wing, flap and aileron ribs. Wings, flaps and aileron skins are bonded to the foam with 3M-2216 epoxy. Fuselage and tail are riveted. Bryan Aircraft, Inc supplied wing and tail kits, fuselage bulkheads and forward fuselage skin. Landing gear and all steel fittings are fabricated from 4130 steel. AN6227-15 "O" rings are used landing gear struts. The bottom struts are filled with 5606 hydraulic oil. The original tail was built from Schreder HP-11 drawing and wings and fuselage from Schreder HP-16 drawings.
In the fall of 1977 a one-piece canopy and frame were install. This canopy was a created by modifying a canopy built for a two place Pitts Special.
Two major modifications were completed during the winter of 1979-80. They include installation of water ballast tubes in the wing. This was accomplished by removing and rebonding the inboard section of lower wing skins. Total water capacity is 21 gallons (168 pounds.) The HP-11 v-tail was replaced by t-tail surfaces fabricated using Richard Schreder drawings as a guide. After these modification the sailplane was test flown and found controllable to red line speed of 150 mph.
The center section of the wing spar was removed from the fuselage and repaired due to electrolysis corrosion of the front and rear magnesium shear web plates. Richard Schreder authorized the substitution of 2024-T3 aluminum for the original magnesium.
The original canopy was lost in flight (May 1996.) Ray Poquette produced the replacement canopy. Required canopy rail and frame fabrication is the handy work of Roger Frank of Fibre Tech. While in Roger's shop the stearable tail wheel was removed and replace with LS-1 tail wheel assembly.
In the summer of 2002 Brian Case installed a set of David Colling winglets.
The current equipment list includes: Winter airspeed indicator, Winter mechanical veriometer, altimeter, Cambridge Mark IV electronic variometer, Cambridge C-50 flight computer, compass, Terra TX760D transceiver, boom microphone, clock, two battery electrical system with volt meter, gear warning system, tail mounted TE probe, and a 22 cubic foot oxygen system.
Brian at the 1998 Region 8 15 meter competition.
