Before and After. The photo on the right shows the restored service ladder in place. The picture doesn't do it justice - The fresh green paint looks really nice against the new white roof paint. You've got to stop out and see it.
This is Ollie (Dave Oliver) holding his latest creation. Since originals weren't available, he designed and built two new steel clam shell door support rods.
Each end of the rods is custom made to fit our aircraft.
When in place, they look like this.
The rods keep each clam shell door securely in place, and are more than strong enough to deal with the winds we encounter.
Meanwhile, back in the 1941 hanger, George Norsen and Kevin House continue work on trim tab recovering.
The trim tabs are just about finished and ready for painting. We are also working on the ailerons and rudders.
We've started working on the flight deck, removing all the old rusted hardware so we can finish painting and install new plexiglass windows. There are approximately 600 screws to replace so if you have a few minutes, stop over and give us a hand. Training is available! It was a gorgeous day last Wednesday.
Yeah, that's me, actually doing some work! ...... Rare photo.
Long arms come in handy, but are not necessary to help out.
You can work on the inside too, or work in tandem with another person - one in, one out......
......or do both yourself!
Other Notes;
We want to thank Mike Slane for supplying us with some special self-drilling screws we needed. Mike has been quietly working in the background supporting our hardware needs. It takes many people like him doing small, seemingly insignificant yet important jobs, that make a project like ours come together successfully.
Tom Kwiatkowski, our message board moderator, is working on a 1/72 scale model of our aircraft. It will be painted to match the Canandain paint scheme we are using.
In the works. George has designed a plan for providing a buried electrical service line from Swanson Hall to the aircraft. This will eliminate the need for us to string some 250 feet of extension cord between the two. Then we will have a handy source of power for our tools and future lighting projects. More on that later. Check back.
Have a Great Summer!- Dave K.
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