The annual Arlington Fly-In is underway at the Arlington airport just a short flight south of Concrete. This is the biggest fly-in of the year for our area and the museum once again has a strong presence at the vintage barn display.

Our perennially popular Ryan STA-Special is parked out front of the barn again and is joined this year by our Fairchild PT-19 and the somewhat rare Call Air A-2. Everybody at the museum has been very busy the past few weeks getting things ready for fly-in season and the Call Air in particular received plenty of work.

The airplane was restored nearly 20 years ago, but for the past several years it has been collecting a bit of dust in one of our hangars. When the decision was made to bring it down to Arlington, a lot of work was done to polish the paint and aluminum to get it looking bright and colorful again. The result is one of the best looking Call Airs anybody has seen in quite a while. Though there aren’t too many of the airplanes out there, so we admit the competition isn’t as tough as it is in some other airplane categories.

Other vintage and antique airplanes around the barn include the beautiful Stinson Model O and the Boeing Model 40 should be arriving soon.

Visitors to the barn at the Arlington Fly-In checking out the Stinson SR-9 wing.

In addition to the airplanes, we have several things on display inside of the vintage barn as well. Jim pulled off the fabric from the top of the Stinson SR-9‘s right wing to give visitors a look at the inner workings of the old gullwing. The stout construction, including a fair amount of steel, had many visitors commenting about the bridge-like construction used for the wings.

We also brought down the painted fuselage of our little Culver Dart, a selection of vintage propellers and a partly disassembled Continental A-40.

Visitors last year really enjoyed being able to see a little of what goes into a restoration and we’re looking forward to getting a steady stream of interested people again this year.

If you’re in the Puget Sound area, or even in the greater pacific northwest, be sure to visit Arlington this year and stop by the barn and say hello.

With the days getting a bit longer, and a bit warmer, we are starting to see more visitors to 3W5. Earlier this month a group of pilots from the EAA chapter in Bellingham flew in (and drove in) for a visit. Chapter 404 member Kerry Sim sent in some photos from the visit, which he says was thoroughly enjoyed by all those who attended, especially the ones who got to go for a ride in the Fairchild 24.

Below are the pictures and some notes from Kerry about the visit.

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Last year as we started pulling apart the SR-9, there were several layers of surprise as there often is in restoring an airplane. Overall the Stinson was in good shape, it had flown recently, but there were definite signs of old age and weather. The main cabin doors were a perfect example of something that was functional when we got the airplane, but as soon as you peel back the covers, there was plenty of work to be done, like all new doors.

More after the jump.

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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.

Many more photos after the jump.

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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.

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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.

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.