Laurie and I are members of the Central Coast Soaring Club at Mangrove Mountain airfield. While I have been around gliders all my life (I started at age 15 in Germany), Laurie has only recently been introduced to our great sport.

I have always been interested in older sailplanes and motor gliders, with syndicate memberships in Cherokee II, Longwing Kookaburra ES 52b, Blanik, Motorfalke SF 25b and Grob 109A. It came to my attention that my club was in the process of disposing of an ASK 13 VH-GTU but offered it to club members as a first choice. As I was in the process of selling my homebuilt seaplane, I realised that my shed would soon look awfully empty, so put my hand up to buy the K13, do it up and then put it back on line at CCSC.

Next step was sounding out other club members to see if there was interest in coming along on this journey. To my great delight, Laurie said YES and we shook hands on a partnership.

It so happened that Peter Rundle, who can safely be described as a wood aircraft and general gliding guru, was conducting a Minor Wood Repair course at Hunter Valley Gliding Club, Warkworth in March/April 2025, which Laurie and I eagerly signed up to and successfully completed.

Armed with this new-found “expertise” in examining old wooden gliders for airworthiness, we ripped a bit of fabric off the K13 wing and poked at the thus exposed ribs, gussets and spar web. As some of these components literally fell apart when we touched them, Laurie and I looked at each other and went “nah!”. It was a truly sad realisation that we now would not be able to tackle this project which we really had looked forward to. Peter Rundle also confirmed that the condition of the glue used to hold the old girl together rendered it unsuitable for restoration.

Our search for another candidate glider eventually got us in touch with Southern Tableland Gliding Club who were selling their Bocian 9bis 1E model. Long story short, we decided to buy this machine after going down to Carrick airfield in company with Peter Rundle (he dubbed the journey “Three Gliding Nutters Road Trip” for an inspection.

The 3 Nutters went on another road trip and returned with KYU in tow at CCSC on 19/07/25 were the wings were stored in the annex which had been vacated by another Bocian in the process of restoration under the auspices of the Vintage Gliding Club.

On the 24/8/25 we took the fuselage to my shed at Bonnells Bay where the majority of restoration work will be carried out, the wings being in overall good condition. We had to keep a careful eye on Pete as he is fairly green with envy about the excellent condition of KYU’s canopies compared to those of the VGC Bocian.

The basic idea of the project remains the same as originally envisaged for the K13: when finished KYU will be hangared at CCSC and made available for club members.

To increase our skill level for this project, Laurie and I planned to attend the Form 2 course at Bathurst July/Aug. 2025 together, but unfortunately the timing clashed with Laurie’s already booked travel plans to Uluru and Gold Coast. I completed the RoC (replacement of components) part of the course under the guidance of Len Diekman in an intensive but fun-filled week working on Bathurst’s DG 505 Elan VH-BSC. I very much enjoyed catching up with old Southern Cross mates like Bill Tugnett and reminiscing about Morning Glory trips in the Grob 109.

The next goal will be to strip the cracking paint off the fuselage and renew with a good quality system. Pete Rundle has kindly consented to be our mentor in this endevour.