Grob G-109B   N1098T                           (c/n  unknown)

                                  

                                        Is it an aeroplane or is it a sailplane?  Well, a bit of both, actually.  In that period when the
                                        U.S. manufacturers refused to build single engine lightplanes (roughly the mid 1980s to the
                                        late 1990s) due to the ridiculous awards being handed down to widows of private pilots who
                                        had pranged and gotten themselves killed, all sorts of alternatives were imported into the US
                                        by the flying clubs to fill the gap.  (The European manufacturers were not so easily conned into
                                        recognizing fault - in fact they laughed at the idea).  One such machine in this category was this
                                        German built Grob powered glider.  Retaining the ultra high aspect wings of the sailplane, the
                                        machine was self sufficient in the take off department insofar as it had a motor (built by the manu-
                                        facturer - a Grob 4 stroke G2500).   The above was one of several based at Camarillo, California
                                        in the late 1990s.