Warbird Information Exchange

L-17 Navion:















MISC: What are they?

Is that a Navion Rangemaster conversion? I couldn't read what was on the yokes. If so, I saw one restored a few years ago... it was quite nice.

The red and white plane is a Varga Kachina(sp?). Not a warbird, but flies like one.

The silver plane is a Mooney M20C I think... not a warbird either, but Al Mooney designed it, so it is more "warbirdy" than many GA planes.

Too bad to see planes rotting like this... there is a land of forgotten planes at our airport and I wish I could rescue the sad Stinson 108 that is decomposing there.

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Ryan Keough
Stow, MA

Now that's a crime!!!
It's either a Varga or a Shinn. I soled in a Shinn 2150A N5131V. What a fun airplane! Low wing, 150 hp lyc.,stick in your right hand, throttle in your left, smooth on the controls, easy and forgiving to fly.

Not a Rangemaster just a standard Navion.[/quote]

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Don't touch my junk!!

Ryan,

Rangemaster was a completely different looking beast; wingtip tanks, different tail, changed cockpit, to mention a few of the obvious visuals.

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Roger Cain
www.sfahistory.org
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Stearman/


We must limit politicians to two terms:
one in office and one in jail.

Good call Roger... I plainly see the difference now.

Did you ever see the twin-engine Navion conversion that was out there... from what I saw of it, it was a pretty slick looking plane, but I am sure it was a little heavy on the pocketbook in the end.

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Ryan Keough
Stow, MA

There's a L-17 rotting away @ 30F here in the DFW area. The people are still paying a tie down fee for it??

Lynn

The Twin Navion was built in Galveston at Scholes Field. Home of Lone Star.

If I remember right they were built by a division of Cameron Iron Works. At the time Cameron Iron Works was run by Jim Robinson's grandfather, man by the name of Abercrombie. Big, old money name in Houston. Why do we care ? Jim Robinson is the guy who started Combat Jets Air Museum. He housed it on Hobby Airport in the old Cameron Iron Works Hangar which was right next to Howard Hughes hangar. They are all gone now, the jets went to EAA and the hangars were torn down first part of this year.

BTW: The Twin Navion was not a warbird...despite the paint scheme.

That Mooney would be worth a bit in decent shape...Average flyers start at $60-70,000.

The Shinn/Varga goes for pretty good money too...Pity.

In the mid 90s I used to hang out at a small field where a guy had a 1520year old pressurized Cessna 337 Super Skymaster...leather interior and nice avionics as you yould expect for a P337. Anyway, he hit TBO and parked it in the open hangar. The engines still had good comprersssion, they just hit the TBO (which is not a mandatory number).

It must have had 3-5 years of bird poop on it when I saw it. Later, it was evicted from the hangar...so he left it in a field. With with engines at overhaul it was still worth very good money. When I saw it it was probably only good for parts.

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Remember the vets, the wonderful planes they flew and their sacrifices for a future many of them did not live to see.

Besides the Cameron Iron Works (35 built) conversions, I've got pictures of twin Navions that were also converted by Ryan/Riley (19 built) and Temco (91 built).

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Roger Cain
www.sfahistory.org
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Stearman/


We must limit politicians to two terms:
one in office and one in jail.

I worked with a couple of the guys that were with Camair in GLS. The test pilot was Hank Henry, and he's still the Houston area. The planes were hand built, one at a time. No tools or dies.

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If God had wanted man to fly behind a flat motor, Pratt Whitney would've built one.

Didn't Cameron move to Sequin and then start work on the Geronimo conversons after a few of the Navions?

Is that still there? It was sad with a hole in the canopy in 1990 when I moved to D/FW.

M20E I think. Doesn't have the air filter chin for the carb'd C.
At my airport there's a Stinson Reliant sitting, going downhill fast. Countless people have tried to buy it and rescue it, but the owner refuses. It's garbage now.

The same probably at every airport.
We've had a Aircoupe and a Piper Colt rotting away for years.
They looked pretty nice when I was in high school. 25 years later
they're just piles of cr*p. But, with their tie down fees paid. In one
of the old hangers here is a stock Globe Swift that hasen't seen daylight in 25 years at least!

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Don't touch my junk!!

Well, a lot of planes fall out of favor and become disused, and then all of a sudden become popular and worth something. Maybe now that the LSA thing has become real, those Colts and 'coupes will get fixed up. There was a time you couldn't give a Staggerwing away. Not sure that'll ever help a Colt though. Look at Mooney's in Trade-a-Plane. There are so many C's for sale in the mid-fifties. By the time you OH'd it and put in new radios, glass, P&I, forget it. Plus fixing all the corrosion, rust on the tubes, reseal the tanks . . .