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.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

Summer shows no sign of ending, so with some beautiful evening light the other day we decided to take the Champ up to get some new photos for its page in the airplane section. Jim is flying the Champ and Herb is piloting his Tri Pacer as the photo plane.

Here’s just a sample of some of the photos, check out Champ’s page to see all of them. We plan to get some of the other planes up for photo shoots in the near future, so keep coming back for more vintage airplane pictures!

Departure day is just around the corner for Blakesburg, and the Fairchild is getting very close to flying. The leather baffles that fit between the engine and cowling are on. Tomorrow we expect to put everything back together and do an engine run up, then the test flight. If everything goes well we should fly the next few days to break in the engine and depart for Iowa on Sunday.

Jim getting his hands on some of the more difficult bolts in an attempt to install the collector ring.

Leather baffles in place, putting the finishing touches on the collector ring which can be a difficult exercise in things fitting at one end of the circle and not at the other. You can feel like a cat chasing its tail.

Collector ring in place, ready for the cowling and engine start!

Harold Hanson the founder of the museum paid us a visit this weekend. Here is Harold standing by the Fairchild 24G that is almost complete for our trip to Blakesburg. The engine top over haul is just about done.

New inter-cylinder baffles being fit to the new cylinders.