With so many aircraft around the grounds, it can be easy to miss a single airplane. However, one you won’t want miss is Howard and Linda Plevyak’s Stoddard Hamilton GlaStar, N19HL. This GlaStar has a classic blue-striped paint job, with a few feathery additions from artist John Stahr.
This homebuilt, bought in 1998 but finished in 2015, has been on John’s list for a while.
“Right when I got the kit, I called him and told him I wanted to take advantage of [John’s] artwork, so I got on his list,” said Howard, EAA 507778. “Because of my build time, we kept pushing it out, but roughly two years out, we started getting serious with him.”
It took a while for the Plevyaks to decide on a theme.
“We had decided on an animal theme,” explained Linda, 1218527. “We wrestled with, do we want animals, do we want giraffes, a zoo of them …. Finally we went with the idea of birds, which made sense to us.”
The Plevyak’s GlaStar has birds aplenty, with four different types of birds on the doors and tail. Each type of bird, hummingbird, kingfisher, Canadian goose, and barn owl, has a reason behind it.
“We’re from Ohio, so hummingbirds have always been around our home,” Harold said. “We’ve been out to Alaska, and out in the wild you see kingfishers on some of our trips out there. The Canadian geese on our trips up north.”
However, there doesn’t have to be a huge reason behind all art.
“The barn owl is just beautiful,” Howard said. “It’s just a cool-looking owl.”
The beauty of this aircraft has been noticed by EAA before. In 2016, N19HL won a Kit Champion – Bronze Lindy. Since then, the Plevyak’s have brought their aircraft back to AirVenture every year.
EAA and AirVenture have become a big part of Linda and Howard’s life since then.
“[This airplane] is the first time for both of us,” Howard explained. “We learned along the entire way. I just wanted to thank EAA for the incredible opportunity that they have provided to builders, witnessing and protecting our freedom to build in this great nation that we have. What EAA provides is absolutely incredible.”