My father, Jan Cato Scott, passed away September 1. He would have been 87 September 5. His lifetime love of aviation started at age 7 in 1938 when his parents brought him to the opening of Fornebu Airport outside Oslo Norway.
After the war, when he was 15, he built a model glider that set a free flight record that stood for 15 years.
When he was 17 he flew for the first time in an SG-38, in December on a frozen lake. The SG-38 has a seat on the fuselage frame, there is no protection for the pilot. Two months later, February in Norway, different frozen lake, he made the first night glider flight in Norway, he wasn't supposed to and thought nobody saw him but apparently someone did and some years later when he wouldn't get in trouble gave him credit for it.
He joined the Royal Norwegian Air Force to become a pilot but didn't pass the physical and became an instructor at the RNAF Mechanic School. At that time the RNAF was flyng Spitfires and Mosquitos. He continued to fly gliders and for a time was assigned to maintain a Tiger Moth used as a tow plane. He started a glider group in a local flying club and was given Norwegian glider license #2.
When he moved to America he was able to pass the flight physical and get his pilot's license. It's still a mystery why he couldn't pass in Norway. He got a job as a flight engineer for American Airlines and eventually retired as a Captain flying the MD-11.
He bought a place in Virginia which became Scott Airpark where he restored and flew a Wolf glider that was the oldest glider flying in the United States if not the world. The Wolf and his Minimoa are now both in museums in Germany.
He organized the first antique glider regatta at Harris Hill and started the Vintage Sailplane Association. One of the members is Rudy Opitz, the well known test pilot who was still flying sailplanes in Connecticut. He also met Walter Horten at a glider meet in Switzerland and got an invitation to visit Reimar Horten in Argentina. There he got a master class in flying wing design and helped Reimar publish Nurflugel, Reimar's book about designing the Horten flying wings. He also researched the Horten collection for the Air and Space Museum.
For most of his life he taught people how to fly. When he was 80 years old he stopped flying and a few years ago moved back to Norway.
Landing his Minimoa at Harris Hill.
One of his classes in front of a Mosquito. He's in front in the dark shirt.
A Vampire he fixed, he's on the left.
Taking off at Harris Hill in his Tiger Moth after the Flying Wing Conference where he was a speaker.
