Aircraft Maintenance Technology - 50

SHOP TALK

An Aviator's Legacy
is Saved
By Ron Donner,
Aviation Consultant

A straightwing
Stinson Reliant.

Recently I was asked when I was going to start working on real airplanes again.

A 1979 model of a
Pitts Special after
repair hangs in
Ron's Playhouse.
Several other models
are waiting there turn
for restoration.

Like many people of my generation, my first involvement with airplanes was at an early age with models.
I recall gluing together pieces of cardboard into the
shape of an airplane, flying lightweight rubber-band
powered airplanes and I think my first plastic model
was a Piper Tri Pacer. Eventually, I talked my father
(or maybe Santa Claus) into a control line Piper Super
Cub powered by a Cox .049 engine. After several engine
runs, clearing a runway on the gravel driveway and
practicing my hand movements for the elevator control, I was ready to fly the little red plastic airplane.
Anyone who has flown models understands they do
not necessarily last long, especially with an exited
young boy at the end of string-controls. Each landing was really a crash and eventually one was hard
enough to end the flying that day. I did repair it well
enough to get it back in the air again and that little
.049 engine went on to power a couple other models.
Model airplanes have remained a part of my life. I can
probably count 50 from where I sit.
This spring, I was contacted by an acquaintance
whose elderly father had died or flown west over winter.

He knew I had an interest in model airplanes and
invited me to the old farm to look at what was left of
his dad's collection. His father, who I had met once in
passing, had been a pilot, ultralight aircraft builder
and a life-long builder and flyer of model airplanes.
In one corner of a rundown hangar was a large pile of
model airplane parts and pieces. Early radio control
and control-line units, crashed, broken, unfinished,
missing parts, all covered in dirt and dust in various
stages of disrepair. I was in heaven and immediately
smiled thinking how cool those old balsa wood models would look restored hanging from my ceiling or
on display on my shelves. The next day, my son and I
returned, and one truck load went to his house and
one to mine. Yes, most were big.
So far, four have been cleaned, repaired or restored
hanging from my ceilings and a few sets of wings displayed on the shop wall. Like the wing sets, two of
the unfinished models I left uncovered to admire the
beautiful wood construction. The rest (and there are
a lot more) will have to wait as I really do have some
big airplane projects to attend to.
Acquiring these models was not only for my hobby
and enjoyment. I saved them from certain destruction
and loss. Just by chance I had been chosen to be the
keeper of one old aviator's legacy.
I've asked readers before to introduce a youngster
to aviation. Well, introduce them to model airplanes,
too. You will also have fun! Oh yeah, and in my book,
models are real...just smaller than the ones a person
can fly in.
Keep 'em flying safely, Ron

AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2020

AIRCRAFT MAINTENANCE TECHNOLOGY

Aircraft Maintenance Technology

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Aircraft Maintenance Technology