Meet the oldest flying Glasair

N89SH was built by Glasair designer Tom Hamiliton. According to the FAA, the manufacturer is Tom Hamilton, not Glasair. The plane’s current owner, Lee Potter, bought it in 2003 and is its third owner.

It’s also the oldest flying Glasair.

“My Glasair was the original factory demo plane for years,” said Lee. “It’s actually the third plane Tom Hamilton built. The first one was a tandem plane and they flew it twice. It was purposely destroyed. The second one is in the museum at Oshkosh. Mine started life as a taildragger, but was converted to a fixed-gear trike a year or so later.”

N89SH has nearly 3,200 hours total time on the airframe. The cockpit is outfitted with steam gauges, a Vision Microsystems engine monitor, an autopilot from TruTrak, and a newly installed Stratus ADS-B unit. 

“It’s pretty basic,” notes Lee.

Up front is a Lycoming O-320 engine with about 2,200 hours. “It is still running fine,” he says.

Lee flies about 100 hours a year from Auburn Municipal Airport (S50) in Washington state. He’s flown to Los Angeles, San Francisco, and east to Montana, but these days “mainly just western Washington.”

As fuel prices have increased over the years, Lee has pulled the power back a bit to conserve fuel. He still scoots along at an economy cruise speed of 150 mph while sipping just 5.5-6 gallons an hour.

“It’s the easiest flying plane I’ve ever flown,” continues Lee. “My transition from a Piper Warrior to the Glasair was about 40 minutes flying with the demo pilot from Glasair. We did three touch and goes and he said, ‘take it home.’ I don’t know if it would work like that nowadays.”

Back in the day, Lee was a partner in a Warrior and “figured I’d rather fly faster.” He started to build the tail section of a Van’s RV-7, but “it would have taken me forever to finish it.” 

Lee had originally found another Glasair for sale. It had a crack under the wing. The seller assured him it was just cosmetic. He confirmed the crack was cosmetic, but in the process found N89SH at the same price, minus a crack in the wing. The rest, as they say, is history.

He paid $44,000 for the plane.

When I asked Lee what is special or unique about his Glasair, aside from it being the oldest Glasair still flying, his response was immediate: “It’s never been painted except for the stripes on it. It’s the original gel coat.”

Lee admitted the plane has had some repairs from various episodes of hangar rash but, overall, “everything’s pretty much original” on the exterior.

Lee hopes to fly back to Oshkosh for AirVenture 2020 to help celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Glasair, but given the current global pandemic, says “we’ll see.”