January 15, 2006
Good friends roll out planes
Museum boasts 3 more warbirds during ceremony
BY BRITT KENNERLY
FLORIDA TODAY
Patriotic music set a mood, and emotions soared as members of the Valiant Air Command rolled out the latest jewels in their military aircraft lineup.
During the past 11 years, volunteers at the Command's Warbird Museum donated 38,000 hours to the restoration of three planes celebrated Saturday. A Grumman F9F-5 Panther jet and a World War II era-Messerschmitt ME-208 recently were completed.
Also up for viewing was a World War II Navy F4-F Wildcat, finished between 1994 and 2001. A gunsight for the plane was found in Minnesota in October 2005.
"Once you get into restoration, tenacity had better be your strong suit," said Hal Larkin, VAC executive officer and retired Grumman and Lockheed employee.
The Panther cost $23,494.05 to restore, and the Messerschmitt about $9,000, officials said. Fixing the Wildcat, which spent 48 years on the bottom of Lake Michigan, ran about $20,000, Larkin said.
Fundraising goes year-round, he said, with events ranging from an annual air show to the sale of memorabilia cards made from the skin of a C-47. And parts are sought worldwide.
"We run strictly on donations, and everybody's a volunteer," Larkin said.
"I give these as bonuses," he added, holding up fake currency with his face plastered in the center.
Volunteering to learn restoration has been "a labor of love" resulting in friendships for Gaylord Thoman of Port Orange. He travels every Thursday to Titusville to work.
"I spent eight years in the Army National Guard, but there's no tank museum," said Thoman, whose work on the Messerschmitt included helping to install new panels.
Stories behind the planes made the day bittersweet for many in attendance, some of whom traveled from across the state to mark the restoration party.
Alice Trescott met Karl Hines Schiller when the two served as board members of the Volusia Manufacturing Association in Daytona Beach. Trescott, a VAC volunteer since the 1980s and a pilot, introduced Schiller to the command and "encouraged him to get his pilot's license," she said.
He threw himself into aviation, she said, and in 1989, the two traveled to France, where Schiller purchased two Messerschmitts. The same trip also took him back for the first time in 35 years to East Germany, where he had crossed the border illegally in the 1950s. Schiller died, Trescott said, while in the process of restoring the planes to German colors. Saturday, two of Schiller's sisters and other family members looked on as one of the planes was honored.
"The planes were donated to VAC in memory of Karl and to help preserve aviation history," said Trescott, a Daytona resident.
Schiller's niece, Liese Gravier of Cherokee, N.C., told the crowd of more than 100 people her uncle's "dream has come true."
"This is the very best Christmas gift you could have given our family," she said.
Guests also recalled a tragedy from May 2005 involving two VAC volunteers.
Michael B. McDonough was a retired Navy flight crew chief and Titusville resident. He died when the fuselage of a World War II-era plane collapsed on him and a 15-year-old boy with an interest in planes and American history. The teen still is in recovery, officials said.
McDonough "was a very nice man, just a fine man. He really helped us," said Alice Iacuzzo, VAC personnel officer.
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Will these aircraft be flown? I have never seen a Panther fly. That would be way too cool.
Robbie
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