The discovery came two days after Thierry Thys, 78, set off above Antelope Valley. Two friends also on the recreational expedition in separate gliders lost radio connection with him Wednesday afternoon.

An experienced glider pilot who once held world soaring records for distance and altitude, Thys apparently crashed into a mountain about 30 miles north of the Craters of the Moon National Monument.

A National Guard helicopter and four planes of the Idaho Civil Air Patrol looked for Thys. The wreckage was seen Thursday afternoon, but darkening skies prevented a positive identification. Thys was found Friday morning in the White Knob Mountain Range at an elevation of about 9,250 feet.

The confirmation ended family hopes that Thys - a former engineer with four daughters and an ever-growing list of passions - might have survived.

"We're used to him being in scrapes," his niece, Anne Thys of Oakland, said Friday.

Thys, a lifelong flier, purchased a decommissioned military helicopter in Kazakhstan in 2000 and flew it across Siberia on a 57-day journey punctuated by fuel shortages.

A few years later he and a friend flew Thys' motorized glider - the nose contained a propeller that could snap into place and assist with takeoffs and gaining height - from Alaska to Nevada and then, five months later, from Nevada to the tip of South America.

But flying wasn't the only interest of Thys, who retired in 1988 after selling the precision castings business he founded with his brother.

His niece described how Thys became interested in wine to the point where he planted a vineyard around his hillside home - and then raised bees to help with pollination.

The workshop in his garage grew to such an extent that he tunneled beneath his house to have more room to work.

"Every time I hear of Thomas Jefferson, I think of my uncle," said Anne Thys. "He was interested in so many things, and so active."

E-mail John King at jking@sfchronicle.com.

This article appeared on page C - 3 of the San Francisco Chronicle