Building an RV - Meet  Ross and Ken Briegleb

One of my earliest memories is being about 3 years old, sitting with my dad on the step of an old building on the El Mirage airport, watching the sun flash off sailplanes spiraling up the thermals. The field was owned and run by the Briegleb family, and now, forty five years later, our paths have crossed again. Both Briegleb Boys, Ross and Ken, have built fine RV-4s, and we enjoy meeting at the fly-ins. -Ken Scott of Van's Aircraft

In 1947, Gus Briegleb bought an Army Air Force auxiliary airfield in El Mirage, CA, not too far from Edwards Air Force Base, and moved his family to the site. He started a soaring school and often flew off a dry lake bed just north of the airport. Sons Ross and Ken grew up in the midst of the activity. "My first recollection of flying is over that lake" says Ken. "We would auto-tow the gliders into the air, racing along the lake in whatever old car we could get going fast enough. My job was ‘tow observer’. I’d watch the gliders out the back as the driver headed across the lake and for my labor, I’d get the last ride of the day in the glider, back to the airport."

Ross remembers some things other than flying. "Ken and I lived upstairs in the old control tower. There was no electricity or running water. There was also no insulation -- and while most people think of the heat when you mention El Mirage, what I remember is the snow drifting through the cracks and around the windows. In the morning we’d hear Mom and Dad downstairs, firing up the wood stove. We’d dance across the freezing floor, dash downstairs and get dressed standing just as close to that stove as we could. We’d ride a school bus 80 miles a day. Sometimes we’d miss it and Dad would fly us to school in a Nelson Dragonfly.

In the summer, rattlesnakes liked to hang out in the outhouse. That took your mind off the splintery seats, anyway."

Gus finally got his power license and acquired a BT-13 for a tow plane. "Dad did some crazy things in that airplane" Ken laughs. "I remember him chasing down our school bus and landing in the brush alongside the road, dodging Joshua trees and waving for us to get off the bus and get in. Roy Rodgers and Trigger were filming out on the dry lake, so he stuffed both of us in the back seat and we took off to see the fun. I’m sure everyone thought the Brieglebs were nuts."

Of course, both boys were in airplanes all the time. Ross got a waiver to become a glider instructor at 17, so his dad could get out of the back seat and concentrate on other things. By 21, he had 3000 hours in sailplanes, 2 junior National championships, a wife, and two kids. Ross and his wife Sherry still live in El Mirage, where they raised their family and Ross continued to fly. He was US National Soaring champion in 1970 and 1975, and a member of the US World team in 1976. He put in a short stint as a co-pilot on a Lockheed PV-2 "killing ants in Georgia" before deciding the light stuff was a lot more fun. Eventually, he established an aircraft restoration business that continues to keep him busy.

Ken soloed in gliders at 14, in 1956. When he was 17, he soloed a T-craft, then, in 1960, he went to work for the Southern Pacific railroad and moved to Northern California. "I didn’t do much flying again until about 1968. I hooked up with Ross again and we built up a clipped wing T-craft with 100 hp -- a great airplane."

In 1969, Ken started flying gliders again, competing in a BG-12, one of his father’s all wood kit designs. In 1970 a sponsor put him in a glass German sailplane for the Nationals. Gus, Ross, and Ken all competed. Ross won, Ken finished 13th. There were other good days, too, as Ken remembers: "One day, Ross and I decided to go for our Diamond altitudes to complete our Diamond C badges. This meant a climb to 24,000’. We took off from El Mirage, Ross in a glass ship and me in the old BG-12, and thermaled up to the wave coming off the San Gabriel mountains. It was a trip, my brother and I, sitting there in a crystal sky, looking across the LA basin all the way to Catalina Island.

As fun as it was, I had to make a living, and I moved to San Diego to go to work for US Elevator. My wife and I were raising 3 children and I had a new job so I almost quit flying from 1975 to 1986."

Then Ross called from El Mirage and said: "why don’t you build this airplane, the RV-4?" Soon the brothers were building two of them, side by side, at Ross’ shop. Ken drove the 300 mile round trip every weekend for a year, and they built two tails, two sets of wings and one fuselage. In 1990 Ken moved to LaCenter, WA, buying a house on a grass strip next door to Van’s long time welder, Lee McDaniels. "Lee took me for my first RV ride. It was pretty impressive, so I pushed on and finished my airplane in 1991. The first time I flew it I knew I had an airplane I would keep for a long time."

Ross, on the other hand, slowed down when his brother/building partner left town, and took on the project of building a Glasair III for a friend. "I spent about three years on that without touching my RV. Finally I summoned up the energy to work on the Glasair all week, and the RV on the weekends. I don’t want to repeat that routine!"

Both Ross’ Glasair and his RV made it to Oshkosh ‘97, and both took home major craftsmanship trophies. This may be the first time in history a builder has won two "Lindy" awards the same year, especially for airplanes built of different materials.

Ken retired from the elevator business, and he and Diane are moving to Oceano, CA. With these fast airplanes, he and Ross won’t be very far apart.

But then, they never were.