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.

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.

The Stinson has been stripped bare. With the exception of the tailwheel, every part, wire, piece of wood and bolt has been removed from the SR-9C’s frame. There are a few repairs that need to be made (see picture below of a broken piece of tubing where the step attaches to the frame), and once they are made, the frame will head down to Everett to get media blasted where they have a long enough room for the big Stinson.

Many of the parts are in great shape and will only need some cleaning and refinishing. Some of the wood work will have to be rebuilt as there was a fair amount of less than perfect wood on the plane. While we’re ending up doing a complete rebuild on the Stinson rather than the originally planned sand, paint and fly, in the end this plane is going to look really great and we will have a fully restored aircraft that we know will give us many years of great flying.

Now the debate is which should be finished first? Both the Waco and the Stinson have a lot of work ahead of them, and we want to see them both fly as soon as possible. Decisions, decisions….

Initially we hoped we could just sand and repaint the fabric on the Stinson, but after closer inspection it was apparent more work was needed. So this week the fabric was removed from the fuselage. It was carefully removed so it can be used as reference when it’s time to recover the airplane. The bad news is that it’s a bit more work than originally planned, the good news is the airplane will look even better now with all new fabric and paint. It’s getting exciting thinking about how great this classic will look when it’s all done!!

A little over a month ago, we managed to get back down to Kenmore and get the Stinson off of the floats and loaded on to the trailer. After a some careful driving, it made the trip north. So far we’ve manged to pull much of the cockpit apart, including the doors. Much of the wood was a bit worse than we first thought and will have to be replaced. It’s also looking like it will be wiser to replace the fabric as well. It’s decent, but with so much work now going into the plane, it’s probably a better idea to do it right.

We’ll be providing more updates in the coming weeks on the progress of the disassembly as well as the assembly of the Waco and getting the engine back together on the Fairchild.

Don’t forget our Biplane Fly-In is June 27-28, the Vintage Fly-In is July 24-25, and be sure to stop by and see some of our planes (including the Ryan ST-A Special) at the golden age of aviation display at Arlington.

Fabrication of some of the cockpit has been done. The panel for the front and rear cockpit are in place. The front glove box is a nice touch, classic interior styling on an airplane from the 1930s. You can also see the oil tank in front of and below the glove box. We put the engine on the front, and it helps to make it at least look more like an airplane for now.

Much of the woodwork has been done as well. Earlier posts show the temporary forms, now the final wood is there and looking very good. The top wing’s center section is also in place now.

Well after a bit of a break, we returned down to Kenmore and managed to get the rest of the tail and the wings off of the airplane. And like the parts from last time, everything was heavy. We needed to recruit several friends to get the wings off and carefully placed on to the trailer. After unhooking all of the control cables, fuel lines and electrical wires, it was just a few hits with the big hammer to get the main bolts out and the wings were on their way to Concrete. Now the airplane sits looking a bit sad and unable to get airborne. We hope to return soon to get it off of the floats and on to the trailer.

Well we’ve made our first trip down to Kenmore to start taking apart the new Stinson. It’s spent the latest chapter of its life on floats, so we need to get it off the floats, on a trailer and up to Concrete. On the first trip we only managed to get the control surfaces off, though it’s no small task. The elevator must weigh 40 pounds!

Much of the fabric looks pretty good at this point, but we won’t know until we can get a closer look at it up in the shop. There is some rust where water had collected at the low point in the fuselage, and some rotten wood as well. Hopefully it won’t be more than that and the restoration can get started soon.

Well the Waco 1931 QCF-2 is on the stands and we’re making progress on the wood work. Here are some pictures of the temporary turtle deck coming together. These are used to make sure all the pieces fit and are the right size. Eventually the actual parts (which look a lot nicer) will be fabricated and then on to covering. Hopefully before too long we’ll start fabricating the interior parts including some of the distinctive panel shapes. There are several other projects that are also getting in line at the shop, so the progress on the Waco may be a bit slow in the coming months. We have a Fairchild we want to have a look at and some other airplanes to get clean.