Sunday 20 December, 2009 1:24 pm | Maintenance, Museum | admin

One of our side projects requires some engine work, so when it was time to go looking for Continental parts, we decided to do an inventory of C-85 parts on hand. Turns out we have quite a bit more than we thought.

We’re going through everything and deciding what to send out to have cleaned up and fixed and what will just stay here for future parts needs.

It’s always fun to see so much flying machinery gathered together. And it’s fun to get a sneak peak at the museum’s latest project in the background (along with the tail of the Waco QCF-2 on the right). It’s an airplane designed for speed and little else, and we hope to start full time work on the restoration soon.

Wednesday 16 December, 2009 2:56 pm | Museum, Restoration | admin

We have been busy working on the Stinson lately and much of the recent work has focused on the cabin. Even though much of the wood was in bad condition on the airplane, most of it has been in good enough shape to use as templates for the new material.

The doors have been particularly tricky as it is always challenging to make the door match the old door, but also match the door frame. You end up needing to take small steps to ensure everything fits, while constantly comparing new door to old door, new frame to old door, old frame to new door, new door to new frame, old frame to new frame…let’s just say there is a fair amount of going back and forth.

A look from the top of the Stinson into the baggage compartment.

The baggage door and rear passenger window are slowly starting to look like they should. It’s been a challenge making everything fit into the 70+ year old airframe. But the end result will be a magnificent looking airplane.

Excited to let passengers look at the North Cascades out this window…

Much of the work on the right side of the cabin is progressing nicely, while you can still see much of the original wood is still in place on the left side.

We’ve also been distracted lately by a new project that has been pulled down from the rafters and should be going full speed ahead in the coming months. Not ready to unveil it yet, but let’s just say full speed ahead was the motto when the plane was flying back in the 1930s as well. Yale alumni will be proud.

Keep checking in for more restoration pictures on the Stinson and pictures from this newest project soon.

Wednesday 2 December, 2009 4:44 pm | Flying, Museum | admin

Well after a long delay, we’re finally getting around to putting up the Piper Clipper photos we took earlier in the fall. It was another one of those beautiful evenings with great light and a great looking airplane. This is the airplane that won Grand Champion for classic aircraft this year at the Arlington Fly In (the museum’s Ryan ST-A and Mooney Mite also won awards).

We’ve also added a page in the aircraft section for the Clipper. We still have lots of airplanes to add, including the rest of our short wing Piper collection. Once the Vagabond is finished, we’ll have an incredible collection of all the short wing Pipers looking better than they did coming out of the factory.

Our goal is to one day have part of one of our display hangars looking like a Piper showroom with our Colt, Vagabond, Clipper, Pacer and Tri-Pacer all displayed proudly. In the meantime, we’ll have to settle for just flying them in the nice evening light.

Below are just a few more of the photos from the Clipper page.

Friday 20 November, 2009 9:10 pm | Museum | admin

Ever since getting the fabric off of the Stinson SR-9C Reliant we acquired last winter, it’s been no secret that there is a lot of work to be done on this airplane. Most of the wood work will have to be redone and there’s a fair amount of metal work as well.

Recently Jim removed the baggage door from the airframe and in some ways it seems like that little part is indicative of the bigger plane. A lot of the wood on this airplane hasn’t been touched since new. And with this SR-9C spending a fair part of its life on floats, there is plenty of wood needing some attention.

The Stinson receives most of the restoration hours these days. Over the winter, there are several other projects to be worked on, but the Reliant will see a lot of progress. Here’s a look inside the door. The good news is that most of the wood throughout the airplane is still in good enough shape to use as a template for fabricating the new pieces.

A look inside the baggage door on the Stinson SR-9C

A close up look at the latch area on the Stinson Reliant door

Baggage door frame on SR-9C

Thursday 12 November, 2009 12:32 pm | Museum, Restoration | admin

Progress continues on the Vagabond. The control surfaces are now covered. The next big step is to take it over to the paint booth and start to make it look even nicer on the outside.

Ailerons getting covered on the PA-15 Vagabond

Wednesday 4 November, 2009 4:44 pm | Museum, Restoration | admin

Finishing the covering on the museum's Piper PA-15

One of the airplanes that has been sitting patiently in the restoration hangar is the museum’s Piper PA-15 Vagabond. Progress is always being made on the Vagabond, despite some of the more attention grabbing airplanes like the Waco QCF-2 and Stinson SR-9C that probably get longer inspections from visitors. But the little PA-15 sits quietly, not complaining and is getting closer to flying every week.

Andy has done a beautiful job of covering the Vagabond. The workmanship is great and we are all looking forward to seeing this airplane join finish out our collection of showroom condition short wing Pipers.

Next up is covering the control surfaces and slowly building up the airplane. Can’t wait to see it in the air and on the ground in our future Piper showroom.

Andy finishing up some of the stitching on the tail of the Vagabond. For now the Waco QCF-2 waits quietly in the background.

Here’s how the airframe looked a short while ago. The bright yellow paint on the airframe looks great, but I suppose if you want it to fly, you have to cover it up at some point.

Wednesday 14 October, 2009 8:18 pm | Airport, Flying | admin

Paul Cullman in his 1931 Curtiss-Wright Junior CW-1S

Well as promised, Paul Cullman visited again, this time with his beautiful Curtiss-Wright Junior CW-1S. As much as we liked the L-5 visit (more pictures from that visit below), seeing the Junior was a real treat. This airplane was built in 1931 and was Curtiss’ answer to an affordable airplane during the depression. It was sort of the LSA of its time and was designed to cost about the same as a ‘medium class’ automobile. Unfortunately, today’s LSAs don’t quite even come in at the expensive class of cars.

The small, two seat pusher design looks rather unusual and apparently the airplane’s were teased a bit during the 1930s for looking like a bathtub. But it looks like a lot of fun to fly and is so simple. Originally the airplanes came with a tiny Szekely 45 hp three cylinder radial. Paul’s Junior is a CW-1S and has the 40 hp, nine cylinder Salmson radial on it. The engine is great and looks just like a miniature version of a bigger radial.

Nine cylinder 40 hp Salmson Radial Engine

A few more pictures of Paul’s Stinson L-5 that he flew in the other week.

Ambulance Door Open on the Stinson L-5

Stinson L-5 Cockpit

Stinson L-5 from the apartment

Tuesday 6 October, 2009 9:29 pm | Airport, Flying | admin

Paul Cullman is a somewhat regular visitor to Concrete. He stopped by with his Grob motorglider a few times over the summer, but today he flew in with his Stinson L-5B. We’ve heard stories of the airplane, and it was great to see it up close. Paul has been flying for a long time, and was entertaining us with stories from his early days when he says he was much less responsible.

Stories of landing a Champ on one wheel and taxiing to the parking space without letting the other wheel touch sounds like an amazing demonstration of skill more than anything else. He says it was the local flight school who called it irresponsible because the students were trying to emulate the maneuver!

Paul’s L-5 is an ambulance version from 1944. He has promised to fly some of his other interesting airplanes to Concrete in the coming weeks, so stay tuned and who knows what might show up!

Sunday 27 September, 2009 8:47 pm | Airport | admin

Today was a big day here in Concrete. The airport has a new name, Mears Field. The town of Concrete and people on the airport dedicated the new name this morning in honor of long time airport manager and resident, Jack Mears. Jack lives right next door to the front gate and has acted as caretaker, watchman and manager for many years.

A bit overwhelmed by the event, Jack was willing to pose by the new sign for a few moments despite seeming a bit uncomfortable with all the attention.

After a breakfast dedication, there was a three ship fly by to mark the first flight at the newly named Mears Field.

Monday 21 September, 2009 9:15 am | Flying, Museum | admin

We had another good evening photo shoot, this time with the Fairchild F24G. This time we were up a bit later in the evening so we managed to get some sunset shots. And we decided to climb a bit higher out of the valley which gave us a great view of Mt. Baker which provided a stunning backdrop to some of the pictures.

It’s nice to have the Fairchild up and flying again after the engine vibration prevented us from flying to Blakesburg earlier in the month. Turns out it was the engine mounts that were causing the vibration issue. We had used a different kind of rubber on the engine mounts than was on the airplane before (likely tire sidewall). Turns out it was a simple matter of tightening down the bolts a bit with the new rubber and the vibration was gone. She flies like a smooth, luxury plane from the 1930s now.

In addition to the new photos in the gallery, you can see some older pictures we have found of our F24G from previous owners. It’s fun to see the airplane during its previous lives.

Again, just a sample of the photos. For a complete look at the Fairchild’s pictures, look at the F24G page in the aircraft section.