I was fortunate enough to be able to flight train for a type rating in a beautiful DC-3 that belongs to one of my customers. Thanks Hugo for the opportunity to fly your beautiful bird. Here she is:
The fine folks at Basler Turbo Conversions did the rebuild and renovation. Basler is an impressive company to say the least. A first rate group of folks who are good at what they do.
Here is a shot of the new cowling they rebuilt for N431HM:
This is my instructor, Claire, who is the Chief Pilot for Basler. Claire is a good guy who was a lot of fun to work with
The main hangar at Basler:
Here is Bob, the Designated Examiner, who did my check ride. We are all smiling which means I passed the ride. Thanks Bob and Claire. It's been a while since I have flown the DC-3, back during the Otis Spunkmeyer days, so it was a blast to get in to the left seat. The DC-3 is a graceful and gentle old lady
After the check ride Claire and I flew the DC-3 to Toronto for the owner. It was a nice to take her up to altitude and cruise for a while as opposed to shooting single engine approaches and pattern work. Look Ma no co-pilot!
A beautiful day to go flying in a DC-3...
From Toronto it was off to Switzerland to do a crack inspection on one of the Beech's. Linseed oil was found leaking out of the left wing. Linseed oil is put inside the steel tubing at the factory as a preservative. The outer wing panels will on occasion leak oil and it can be from several sources like a crack but more likely it comes from a lead solder joint at the wing attach. The problem is sometimes you don't have good access to see where the linseed oil is coming from. 98% of the time it is coming from the solder fillet which is not structural but that 2% is enough to justify the wing pull. It only takes two days to remove and replace the wing so off we went:
Sure enough it was from the solder fillet so back on with the wing and off for a test flight
This presented a good opportunity to get the Chief Mechanic into the left seat so he could fly the Beech. He doesn't get a chance to do this at all so it was a treat for him. He did real well too. Well done Fritz
Its always nice to come home. Now I have to go to Santa Rosa to fetch the Harpoon...
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To donate to the PV-2D project via PayPal click here
http://www.twinbeech.com/84062restoration.htmWe brought her from:
to this in 3 months:
Help us get her all the way back
All donations are tax deductible as the Stockton Field Aviation Museum is a 501c3 nonprofit organization. Tell a friend as the Harpoon needs all the help she can get.
Thank you!
Taigh Ramey
Vintage Aircraft, Stockton, California
http://www.twinbeech.com'KEEP ‘EM FLYING…FOR HISTORY!'
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