Warbird Information Exchange

It looks like I may finally be on the road to aircraft ownership.
After talking with a friend who's a long time pilot and restorer of antiques
(Starmans, Staggerwings, etc) we decided an L-5 might be a good plane...
as it's fairly affordable, and is a decent size and has adequate power for our region.

Anyone out there with experience in flying, restoring, maintaining or operating a L-5?

What do you think?...and if not an L-5 what would you recommend for a first time plane buyer that's looking for something a bit different than a 172 or low wing Piper? (And it should be <60K).

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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.

I don't know if you saw this or not, but it looks like these guys have a lot of info.


http://web.mawebcenters.com/sopa/

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DEEP THOUGHTS BY KIDS:
"If we could just get everyone to close their eyes and visualize world peace for an hour, imagine how serene and quiet it would be until the looting started. Age 15 "


Deep Thoughts,
Jack Handy

Send me an email and I'll give you the phone numbers for some friends of mine here in Texas who are restoring several L-5s and have been flying them for years. Great guys and always willing to talk L5s!!

danlinn "at" sbcglobal.net

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Blue Skies,
Dan
http://www.flytoanothertime.com

Maybe this helps a bit too...

http://www.geocities.com/akdhc2pilot/

Paul

L-4, L-5, L-17 and L-21 are all excellent for reasonable cost warbirds. One thing to avoid though, are L-5's that are Cleavenger modded or ones that have been metalized. The metalization process severely weakens the airframe due to poking hundreds of screw holes in the tubing. The Cleavenger mod along with one other put Cont. 220's on them for power. The 220 really kills the useful load on them.

Give Lanny Parcell a call if you are serious about an L-5 and see if you can come down to the DFW area for the L-5 fly in May 21(?). C170BDan has his number or I can give to you. Between the bunch of us at Lanny's, we've redone probably a dozen L-5's over the years.

The L-17 is a great warbird fast roomy can haul four butts and is metal so don't have to mess with the fabric being outside etc.
Spookyboss

The O-435 engine is not terribly durable and parts are somewhat difficult to come by. The wings are made from wood, so you need to have someone that REALLY knows what they are looking for do a pre-buy inspection. When you pull the fabric off of an old unrestored the L-5 the wood often comes with it!

If you have a decent set of wings and treat the engine gingerly, they are pretty good airplanes.

Haven't had or know of any durability problems in the O-435 in the 20+ years that I've been messing with them. Yes, some parts are getting hard to find and expensive, but the basic motor has been pretty bulletproof, otherwise they would have made radical design changes prior to standing it on it's accessory case and stuffing it in helicopters.

There are three places to pay carefull attention to when inspecting an L-5.
First is the main gear carrythru area. If it's ever had the gear knocked out of it and improperly or poorly repaired, it will show in this area. Lots of tubing joints and critical alignments.

Second area is the last two bays of the lower fuselage tubes. Any water in the aircraft will tend to collect in this area and casuse heavy rusting. While it's not hard to have it all replaced, a fuselage with damage here should be moved down your list as a prospect.

Third area is within the wings, both spars behind the fuel tanks and in the area of the strut attach fittings. Damage in either area requires a complete wing rebuild as there are no allowable repairs in those areas of the spars. Generally when you look at the wings, they are either a pile of junk and simply pattern material and metal parts donors or they require minor repairs prior to covering.

One thing to start looking at, no matter what aircraft it is, are wood wings that are assembled with the old hide type glues. We've been finding some of the wood assemblies that are approaching 60 years old are now starting to have problems with the hide glues starting to let go and joints open up.

Hope this helps...

Consider this as a counterweight.

Our L-5E has been in storage for the better part of her life and last summer we pulled her out to fire the engine up.

It had been 8 years since the last time and after we pulled a few blades through, primed one shot per cylinder (6) while pulling the blades, it promptly fired up.

Less than 100rpm mag drop, etc.

Tough little bird!

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Olivier Lacombe -- Harvard Mk.4 C-GBQB

Hi Ollie--

What colour is your Sentinel? About 20 years ago I saw a maroon and white one in Hgr#4 (CWH) at Mt.Hope. It disappeared almost immediately. Have always wondered where it went. It wasn't yours, was it?

S. (BTW--still coming to Ottawa the weekend after next?)

Ours is two tones of green over Neutral Gray with D-Day markings.



C-FEEF.

Of course I'm still coming, you'll never guess what I test flew today!



P.S. (I'm sure you will though!)

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Olivier Lacombe -- Harvard Mk.4 C-GBQB

Plenty of power, plenty of gotcha's in restoring or operating one. Wouldn't want anything else now that we have one. Check your PM and get in touch.

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REMEMBER THE SERGEANT PILOTS!

Ollie:

I think you must've flown a P-51.

Nope, Focke-Wulf FwP.149D.

I don't have enough money to put fuel in a Mustang.

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Olivier Lacombe -- Harvard Mk.4 C-GBQB

Yeah, and I should've read a book rather than guess that, eh?