New Electric Glider Plane Comes to Centralia-Chehalis Airport

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It was a cold but sunny Sunday afternoon in December at the Chehalis-Centralia Airport. Although the airport was almost entirely empty that day, there were three people who weren’t going to miss assembling their new LAK-17 MINI FES for the first time — a completely electric glider plane.

“It’s the best-performing, self-launching glider there is,” said Lynn Wyman, one of three owners of the new aircraft.

Wyman is a retired engineer who designed cranes and hoists. He currently lives in Chehalis. These days, he flies planes and is one of three people who purchased the glider. Wyman said this glider is one of the first of its kind in the U.S.

Sunday was the first time the three assembled the aircraft, but it will realistically be several more months before they can fly it. 

“We still have to get it inspected by a designated aviation representative from the FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) — they call it DAR,” Wyman said. “He has to come out and he has to make sure that everything in here is in accordance with the manufacturer’s requirements.” 

The trio formed the LLC eSoaring and then purchased the glider under it in November 2016. They have been awaiting its arrival since. 

Typically it will take roughly 15 minutes to assemble the glider — with only a handful of major pieces — but Sunday was a special occasion and no one was in a hurry. The group spent a bit more than an hour learning how to put together the LAK-17 MINI — it will take some practice to wiggle down assemble time.

Rita Edris, one of the three owners — and the only one currently licensed to fly the new aircraft — sat inside the cockpit, testing how easily she could get in and out of the glider.

“Even though it feels tight, it’s helpful to have that feeling of ‘I’m part of the glider and flying just like a bird,’” Edris said. “And we do fly with birds. Sometimes we go where they are, sometimes they come where we are. It’s like ‘Oh, I’m honored — an eagle just joined me.’”

Phil Rose, the final owner of the aircraft, said assembling the glider was “like receiving a Christmas present.” Rose has been a pilot for a major airline for the last 20 years, but said he was not permitted to name the airline.

“They’re not supposed to have a lot of public press,” Rose said. “Just say ‘a major airline.’ That’s the best way to do it. … I think it’s our company policy in our flight operations manual. It’s not that you don’t reveal it, it’s just that if you’re not careful your statements are — people attribute them to a branded company, when you’re really just doing something that has nothing to do with the brand.”



Wyman and Rose, obviously enthusiastic about the glider’s mechanics, explained some of the more technical aspects of the aircraft, as Edris continued testing the cockpit.

“If the engine doesn’t work on this, it’s not a huge penalty — it’s a large increase in safety,” Rose said. “This glider is a transformative method of propelling aviation. With the advance of the lithium polymer batteries — which power your phone or your Tesla car, or whatever — and then having an engine on this glider, the level of safety and reliability with this electric motor is very, very, very high.”

Rose noted that developers in Slovenia won numerous European awards in aviation for the design.

“This is a novel design,” Rose said. “Really not been done before.”

Wyman’s explanations of the aircraft were more technical and are obviously from someone who has spent a great deal of time researching the mechanics of the plane.

“It’s much higher performance,” said Wyman, noting the superior glide ratio on the aircraft. “It’s world class. I mean it’s really, really high performance. … The motor allows you to self launch.”

The glider has a couple batteries in the back that are about the size of a car battery and then an electric motor up front, Wyman said.

“Then the propellor is on the outside and it folds back,” Wyman said. “When you go to start it up, you just have a switch. You turn the switch on and you have like a rotating knob … that controls the RPM of the propellor. The propellor automatically comes out and when you’re done it folds back again.”

Wyman said that his plane dealer told him this is the first aircraft of its kind in the Northwest, and that it’s only one of three in the U.S. The other two are in Houston and “in the Midwest someplace.”