This answers a few questions

Today I felt like I won the lotto. Al, owner #11 who I mentioned in a previous post, sent several pictures of 98K from when he owned her in the 1960's. Two of them showed the result of being flipped over in the windstorm at Hornell, NY. While it is great to see these pictures, I can't help but be a little sad to see just how bad the damage was. Why do bad things sometimes happen to good airplanes? At least we know 98K rose from the ashes like a phoenix and flew again. Now it is my challenge to again get 98K back to flying status. My effort should not be as difficult as the last restoration........at least that is what I say today.

Thanks Al for all your efforts to track down these pictures and send them to me.

98K in Prime Condition

A picture of 98K in the 1960's at Harrisburg, PA. Thanks again, Al, for sending these photos.

Log Book of Memories

Last week I flew the new Bonanza (2004 G36 model) our flying club recently received and shot a number of approaches to get instrument current again. Entering the time in my log book finished another page. I was curious how many different airplanes I have flown, what airplanes I have the most time in, and other facts. Being the engineer I am, I pulled out all 3 log books and started adding things up.

One thing I noticed are a lot of years of inactivity.....a direct correlation to raising a family and the typical cash flow issues you experience. I had a 10 year span with only 12 hours flown. However, it was a good trade. The picture is of me and my flight instructor, Ernie Boucher, in front of the Aeronca Chief after first solo at age 16 in March 1973. I got my private license in March of 1974, instrument rating in February 1985, commercial in June of 1985, and CFI in July of 1985. Total flying time is just short of 1100 hours. I have flown 25 different airplane models.

The model I have the most time in is the Stinson, just over 400 hours. Next is the Piper Cherokee family with 275 hours. I have about 125 hours in Cessnas, 120 hours in Bonanza's, 70 hours in American Yankees, and 50 hours in Aeroncas. Total tail dragger time is about 465 hours. I have 185 hours as flight instructor. Of my total time of 1100 hours, only about 430 is cross country.....lots of hours were spent flying around airports doing touch and goes and taking folks for sight seeing rides in the local area.

The airplane with the best handling qualities? Hands down it's the Bonanza, but a close runner up is the Stinson. Funnest airplane I've flown - a two place Pitts biplane - WOW!....best $100 I ever spent (1985). Most interesting experience - flying a Cessna 172 on floats in the Seattle area (a Father's Day gift from the girls in 2001). Flight when I was most nervous - April 1975 when I took my future wife for her first ride....I noticed my knees where really shaking when I applied the brakes to do the engine run-up before takeoff. Airplane I don't want to fly again - haven't found it yet!

The Great Stearman Men of the West

Several years ago I received a book on tape for Father's Day titled "Flight of Passage" by Rinker Buck. It is a true story of Rinker (age 15) and his older brother Kern (age 17) spending the winter recovering a Piper J-3 Cub and then flying it the following summer from their home in New Jersey to their uncle's in California. This event took place in the mid 1960's. It is a really enjoyable story for any airplane nut, especially on tape where you can here the author's voice imitating the other characters. One "eventful" place they landed on their cross country flight was Brinkley, Arkansas.

This time last week I was driving to Atlanta. Along the way we passed Brinkley, conveniently located on Interstate 40. In the book, Brinkley is a hub of crop dusting activity, mostly being performed by the "great Stearman men of the west" as Rinker's father called them. As I drove past I was thinking about the book and the particular part of the story about Brinkley, when out of nowhere came a crop duster. Coincidence or imagination? Debbie saw it too, so I'm not totally nuts (not yet at least). So, if I couldn't be working on 98K, at least I could be thinking about airplanes and watching for airports along the highway.

Make mine blue

I took a look at Wade's wings Monday afternoon. He is nearly ready to cover them and they looked great. Then we went and looked at mine. My left wing has the covering removed. We looked it over and found just a few obvious things to fix....a coat of primer had done a good job of protecting things. There were several small differences compared to Wade's wings. His are for a 1946 108 and mine are a 1947 108-2, in theory.

Then we took a knife and sliced open the fabric on my right wing. We noted the wing tips are different between left and right and there is a lack of primer. So, it is apparent one of the wing panels has been replaced, probably when it was blown over in the wind storm in the 60's. But, which one? The right wing has some minor corrosion and other small things to fix....all in all not bad.

Wade and I could see a few different colors of paint as we looked at the wings. The real question was what was the original color? Wade did some research the next day and mailed a web site which has information on what colors each Stinson was when it came off the line. This is based on "Service Parts and Accessories letter number 1-D," dated April 2, 1948. Stinsons were painted in blocks and mine (2598) is in the serial number block from 2510 to 2639. They were all painted blue (dope #13958 and lacquer #13959) with a strip of Diana Cream white (dope #50006 and lacquer #50012).

Wade also had a picture of a blue Stinson his father had taken at the Marion Fly-in Cruise-in. Kala and I have always enjoyed the beauty of the Corsair, which is typically painted blue with white trim. We may have to argue with Mom about color choices......at least we have a some time to discuss. Thanks Wade!

Stories from 98K's past

My dad and brother Steve have an interest in genealogy and have often talked excitedly about another family "find." I think I have a better appreciation for some of that excitement now. I have been trying to track down some of the former owners of 98K to piece it's family story together. I have used the FAA registry information and know all the owners since day one. I am number 16 by the way.

Today I made contact with Al who owned 98K from 1963 to 1972 (owner number 11). Two things of interest came from Al. One is that his son Jim flies 777's for Continental Airlines and Jim's first airplane ride was in 98K at 2 weeks of age. Neat!

The second item is that 98K flipped over in a wind storm at Hornell, NY. The FBO (those who run the airport) had moved it from it's secure tie down and had tied it to a few building blocks that didn't do anything to keep it from going over on it's back. After the insurance settled, the insurance company got it and sold it to the next owner. That explains why there is a gap in the logs from 1965 to 1979. The entry in 1979 simply states "entire aircraft recovered." It also explains some of the welds we had been looking at and wondering why the factory would have done it like that....all the while suspecting there had been a ground loop or some other damage in 98K's past.

Al is going to look for some pictures, so hopefully there will be more to come. Thanks Al!

The second story comes from Paul, owner number 14. He related that after purchasing 98K, he ran into some weather on the flight home. The following is a very exciting story he e-mailed me:

"My very first cross country in 98K was my introduction to the ruggedness of her design. My wife and I flew to NY on a one-way commercial ticket, to "look at the airplane". It didn't take long to know that I was bringing 98K home with me. After a day of waiting for appropriate weather, we "blasted off" out of NY on our trip back to St. Genevieve, MO. I remember it was a November day, and as the day matured, the undercast became more and more solid, to the point of 98K being VFR on top. The forecast weather was "severe clear" at destination so we bore on. At about 260 miles into the flight, the radio and VOR blinked off . Later diagnosed as a cold solder joint at the battery terminal wire, the flight up to that point had used all the battery and now here I was on top, in Cleveland Center with no radios or radio nav. Assessing the situation, I found a hole in the undercast, and made my descent, knowing that Mansfield Ohio airport was coming up. I found HWY 71 and clung to it under a 500 ft overcast. The trees, powerlines and landscape were awash with ice, the kind that makes powerlines and trees droop with white, reflecting ice . I also had now a layer of ice on the struts and upper windshield and knowing the cowling was a perfect ice scoop, I was considering my options. Trees, trees, trees, everywhere, either side of the highway and here and there an occasional corn stubble field. Where the heck is Mansfield? The DR ETA was now the same as my watch. Low scud here and there and then the inevitable, .....total white out. "OK folks, fasten your seat belts and return your tray tables to the stowed and upright position, were going back a few miles to a corn field." A slow timed turn, IFR in a VFR airplane, back to the relative safety of HWY 71 and visibility. There it was.......the last frozen corn field, surrounded by white trees, a dirt country road, and a couple of deer on one end.......my Ohio haven of opportunity. Doing the mental checklist, I found the carb heat already on (I'd had it on in the descent), airspeed 10 over, flaps full, trim, trim, trim, ...what was stall?? It feels good here at 50. Crack the doors open, slow final turn to the corn row orientation, over the fence, flair, flair, flair, engine ignition off, brace.........tailwheel touchdown, base drum rumble and then................ gentle touchdown of the mains in the frozen grooves of Ohio cornfield stubble. Little if any ground roll and then........ Quite..........except for the whine of gyros in their wintry spindown. "Houston, .....98K has landed". Well.........nothing left but to packup and walk across this field to the house across the road, but noooooo..........what's this, a car with blinking lights on top........................what?........a Ohio Highway patrolman? As we walked across the field, here he came,..... half running and stumbling though the field. As he approached, we were mostly met with gleeful, out of breath Barney Fife.... with a hardy..........."Howdy.....nice to have you allllll drop in. Ive got to give you a ticket............I clocked you coming down HWY 71 doing 110!

Needless to say, the next day, we made the Mansfield paper, the Sheriff waved the ticket, and gave us keys to a car and the city. We were escorted the next day back out to the airplane and practically the entire town was witness to a standard soft field takeoff, as 98K blasted off, taken over to Mansfield airport, and tied down until we could return to get her a few weeks later. Our commercial flight home was payed for by the city of Mansfield."

Thanks Paul for sharing! That's a fantastic story! So, now we have proof a Stinson is a good off field airplane and can actually go 110 mph! Rumor has it the Stinson was given the 108 model designation since it's top speed was 108 mph. The other thing is Mansfield sounds like a nice place to wait out the weather!

Winging their way home

I picked up the wings for 98K tonight. They had been in storage with the folks who were keeping them for Todd when he owned 98K. They had a really large building and were nice enough to continue to keep them (at no charge!) until I had room. They were only about a mile away, too. Johnny (pictured here) helped me transport them this evening. Nice to have everything together. I will probably keep working on the fuselage before starting on the wings, but they are there if I need a diversion.

Give me a brake

I finally received my shipment from Univar today. As I had posted several weeks ago, I ordered new wheels and brakes, control cables, bushings, and other miscellaneous hardware for 98K's main landing gear and tail wheel. Univar had called a few weeks ago and said they were out of a few of the cables and would need some time to make up new ones. I could either get two shipments (and 2 shipping charges) or wait and have just one shipment. Since I was in no big rush, I opted for the slightly cheaper approach and had one shipment.

Everything looks so nice, especially the new wheels and brakes. I opted for the Cleveland wheels and brakes, which are superior to the Goodyear brakes originally on the airplane. The Type Cert Data Sheet calls out the Clevelands, so no STC is needed.

Something about new parts gets you excited about continuing the effort.

A change of identity?

I was e-mailing with Wade a few weeks ago and he mentioned he had reserved a few N-numbers. I got curious about the process and before the night was over, had reserved one myself. With the Internet it is very easy to do and only costs $10, which the government will even take on-line. For those not familiar, the N-number is the identification you see on the side of an airplane (and sometimes on the wings). In the U.S. they begin with "N." Other countries begin with other letters. You can have up to 5 numbers or letters after the N, with the last 1 or 2 being letters and the remaining as numbers. For example, my Stinson is N9598K. It turns out the 598 signifies it was the 598th 108-2 model built. The data plate confirms this.

So, you are asking, what number did I reserve? Answer: N678RD. I'll leave the significance of this as a test to those who think they know me. Leave a comment with your best guess.

Will I switch N9598K to N678RD? Hard to say, but I have it reserved for the next year while I think about it.

A pair of pants for 98K

I saw an add in the International Stinson Club newsletter last month for a pair of wheel pants for sale. I contacted the owner in New York and after trading some money, they were on their way to Kansas. They showed up this afternoon on the UPS truck. They will need a little TLC, but not bad for the price. A Stinson doesn't look right without it's pants on, at least that's my opinion.

Corrosion - enemy number 1

Corrosion is to metal what cancer is to us humans. It can really be devastating as it grows and takes over. For the treatment on 98K, we'll have to cut out the bad sections and weld in new pieces, following the FAA repair guidelines on proper splicing techniques. Here are just two of the many areas needing fixed. The bottom of the airplane is where you will find corrosion if its going to be present. That is because that is the low point on an airplane and gravity will send any moisture downhill. The tail can be especially vulnerable on a taildragger like 98K since that is the lowest point when it is sitting still. The left shot is the tail area, the right one is one of the diagonal cross braces between longerons.

Things don't always go as planned

I borrowed the trailer from Jerry again today and hauled the bare boned fuselage of 98K over to Hector's. Hector is pictured here sand blasting one of the questionable areas. He showed me the finer points of blasting and turned me loose. I went over every rusted area trying to get an idea what we needed to do as far as replacing any tubing.

I knew we had an issue in the tail area already. Last night as I removed the tailwheel leaf spring, I had a bolt that was being difficult. Every time I hit it with the hammer, I noticed a small pile of brownish dust appeared on the floor. Upon closer inspection, I found a hole in the left longeron at the tail. The dust was rust. Today confirmed just how bad it is.

Things were looking pretty good on the remainder of 98K until we rotated the fuselage onto its side so I could blast the bottom. Then we found corrosion had eaten holes in many of the lower tubes. It was very disappointing to say the least. So, now I have to determine what the next move is. It will take a lot of man hours to make all the repairs.