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GEORGE DYER, ENGINEER / FLAT KITE WORLD CHAMPION(5X) / HANG GLIDER DEDIGNER / DRAG RACER / MUSICIAN / MAN OF GOD

© John Heiney

When I was in my first year of mountain-flying, my friend Dan Gilfillan and I decided to try the Crestline launch-site in the mountains above San Bernardino CA. It would be my first time there. We arrived around 1:30PM and set up. We met a man who was there to test-fly a glider he had just made. He asked us about our experience level. I'm sure he recognised that we were green. He said "as a USHGA Observer, I suggest you wait a few hours until the thermals calm down. If you launch right away, you'll get knocked around in the prime thermal conditions of mid-day." I waited until 5:30 to fly and had a nice flight in smooth ridge-lift. That man was George Dyer, and he taught me an important lesson that day about the diurnal bell-shaped thermal-turbulence curve.

I would go on to learn a lot more from this intelligent and generous man, because we develped a relationship over the next several years that has persisted. Over the next several months, George noticed as I developed my flying skills and asked me to help him build and test-fly his line of Dyer Hawk hang gliders, which he was building in his garage in Garden Grove Califonia.

It was a great opportunity for me, a beginning pilot to have brand-new gliders to fly and learn about glider-making at the same time. I would drive the 40 miles from San Clemente, help work on a glider all day and, often-as-not drive away with a new glider on my Rabbit to test-fly. George's Hawk double-surface gliders performed at least on par with the gliders from the popular manufacturers of the day. Some felt they handled better. Since he was working a full-time job as an engineer and supporting a family, his production was limited, but he built gliders for several pilots on a contract basis including: Steve Perry, Joe Aldendiefer, Steve Luna, Dean Tanji and others.

George designed his sails, designed and built his airframes and assembled and test-flew the resulting gliders. Initally, he had professional seamstress Susie Wiggens sewing the sails, but later did all the sewing himself in his garage. We set up a test-rig on a 1967 El Camino that I had. I don't remember if George ever submitted a cerification package to the Hang Glider Manufactures' Assn. (HGMA), but we did test the gliders.

George believed in big gliders. I think the first size of his Hawk double-sruface wing was 209 square feet. That's a big glider for a double-surface. When he shortened the chord for his final, high-aspect-ratio version of the Hawk, the normal-sized one that he flew was a 182. He built a 158 for me which he called the "ity-bitty glider". At one point, he built a 309 Hawk. I'm guessing it was the biggest hang glider built after 1980. I guess it was intended to be for tandem flying or obese pilots. I called it the "Elephant Hawk". I wonder if those two that he made are still hanging in someone's garage.

John Heiney flying a Dyer Hawk at South Laguna California

John Heiney flying tandem with Barbra Kennedy at Crestline California on George's own personal 182 Hawk. (circa 1982)

John Heiney heading out cross country from the "E" on the 158 Dyer Hawk over Lake Elsinore California. (circa 1981)