超有趣手語廣角鏡--莉娜手語工作坊

How Bernie Gross's Deaf Hawk 'flew' once again
published in the Summer 2001 Newsletter

By Mark L. Stern, 2000 Fly-in Organizer

There is only one word to describe a series of events that led to the preservation of a unique piece of deaf aviation history: serendipity. It was only after several fortunate and unexpected discoveries that Bernard Gross's beloved Deaf Hawk now "flies" again inside the Wings of History Air Museum in San Martin, California. Here is the story.

Bernie Gross, a long-time IDPA and EAA member, had been looking for a place to display his unusual sailplane, which he built from scratch over a long period of nine years. The sailplane, which Bernie named the Deaf Hawk, was based on the Marske Pioneer II tailless flying wing design and first flown in 1985. The extremely stable Deaf Hawk climbed thermals so efficiently that Bernie once remained aloft at 11,200 feet for 2 1/2 hours. It was equipped with a ballistic parachute and an oxygen breathing mask for flights above 12,000 feet. After logging 46 hours of nonpowered flight in the Deaf Hawk up to 1997, Bernie stored the sailplane in a custom-built trailer in his backyard.

The Deaf Hawk, with Bernie at the controls.

When IDPA several years ago discussed the idea of establishing a deaf aviation museum in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, in collaboration with the Experimental Aviation Association (EAA), IDPA President Clyde Smith encouraged Bernie to consider donating the Deaf Hawk and his other homebuilt aircraft--an amphibian called the "Deaf Duck"--to that that museum. However, because of the need to raise significant funds, the deaf aviation museum still remains to be designed and built, so Bernie started looking elsewhere.

Bernie contacted two different air museums near San Diego, California, but neither expressed great interest in deaf aviation history nor the unique design of the Deaf Hawk and the story of its builder and pilot. He decided not to donate the aircraft to these museums and kept looking.

At a picnic at the Wings of History Air Museum during the IDPA 2000 fly-in at San Martin, California, Bernie came to admire the museum's unusual collection of aircraft, which ranged from a 1903 Wright Flyer replica to a 1934 de Havilland D.H. 88 Comet replica and a 1982 Rutan Quickie.

Alas, Bernie said, he was too caught up in socializing with his fellow IDPA members that it was not until after he returned home from the fly-in that he suddenly realized that the Wings of History Air Museum might just be the place for the Deaf Hawk.

Bernie dashed off an e-mail message to this writer, who was the IDPA 2000 fly-in organizer, asking, "Quick, can you send me the name of the fellow I met at the museum during the picnic? I want to see if I can donate my tailless flying wing to that museum." I put Bernie in touch with Frank Nichols, a member of the museum's board.

A flurry of e-mail messages followed. At first, Frank Nichols wasn't sure if the museum would accept another sailplane; it already had one of the best glider collections on the West Coast of the United States. However, he promised that Bernie's proposal would be carefully considered by the Air Museum's steering committee, which he chaired. As the Deaf Hawk was sitting in Bernie's backyard over 300 miles from the museum, Bernie sent a couple of color photographs to the museum as part of his proposal.

In another moment of serendipity, an active glider pilot and eagle-eyed volunteer at the Air Museum with a remarkable memory of glider literature recognized the sailplane in those pictures and pulled out from the museum's library the February 1986 issue of Soaring magazine that featured the Deaf Hawk. The coverage in that magazine article gave the Air Museum's steering committee a greater appreciation for the uniqueness of the Deaf Hawk.

Frank Nichols explained, "Each donation proposal is considered relative to the Wings of History Mission Statement: 'Wings of History is a non-profit organization dedicated to aviation history through education, preservation, restoration, and flight.' Each donation proposal is evaluated on many criteria including: the significance of the donation to the museum, the rarity or uniqueness of the donation, the educational value of the donation, the fit with current exhibits, and the condition of the donation. We also strongly consider the story that the donation can tell our visitors."

Happily, the Deaf Hawk met all of the criteria. The consensus of the museum's steering committee was: "The Marske Pioneer II is a unique aircraft that fit an empty technological niche in our collection of gliders. It was different and would pique the interest of our visitors. It was in excellent condition and could be immediately displayed. In addition, it told a very compelling story about one man's triumph in flying a machine he built himself in spite of what many consider a handicap."

After that good news, the e-mail discussions then turned to transporting the Deaf Hawk 300 miles from Bernie's home in Palmdale, California, to San Martin. In yet another serendipitous twist, another one of the museum's members, Sam Burton, who is now president of Wings of History, was building a new hangar at the Tehachapi Gliderport in Tehachapi, California, only 50 miles from Bernie's home in Palmdale. Sam volunteered to pick up the Deaf Hawk and its custom-built trailer at Bernie's house and tow the aircraft behind his SUV to San Martin. A week later, Bernie and his wife, Helga, made a trip to the museum to show the staff how to re-assemble it for display.

The Deaf Hawk first served as a prominent exhibit at the Wings of History's "grass-roots" fly-in in October, 2000. Shortly afterwards, the aircraft was hoisted and permanently hung from the ceiling of the main display hangar at the Air Museum, where it now appears to be "flying."