AOPA Turbine Pilot Magazine - March 2025 - 27

the military versions that operate in the
experimental-exhibition or restricted
categories. Although they had not flown in
many years and were marked with Xs to be
scrapped, Mike bought the airframes. The
fuselages were too large and the wings too
difficult to remove to make trailering the
aircraft financially feasible, so he developed
a plan to fly them to Barron Aviation
Airport (MO11), his 2,600-foot-long grass
runway airport in Perry, Missouri.
He purchased a Ford F-550 truck and
a few trailers and loaded them with all the
tools he thought he'd need and drove to
Arizona. His " crew " initially consisted of
himself and his then-girlfriend-and later
his son, Dillon.
Mike's first step was to trailer the badly
deteriorated fabric-covered flight control
surfaces from all seven Albatrosses back
to Missouri to re-cover them in his wellequipped
shop. Doing this all at once in an
assembly line style process would take the
least amount of time. He drove the flight
controls back to Arizona and returned with
the brakes and overhauled them all at the
same time. This process continued with
the wheel and tires, nose struts, and other
components. " We did a lot of trips back and
forth, " said Mike. " Went through 30 tires
on the F-550. "
Mike told his friends
that he wanted an
Albatross, and it didn't
take long to get a lead
from a friend.
It took a year and a half of work before
the first Albatross was ready to fly to
Missouri. Dillon was the pilot, with one
exception-landing on Barron Aviation's
short grass runway, where Mike did
the flying. " He had more experience, "
said Dillon, " and Dad also did the flight
engineering, like rigging the pumps and
breakers, throttle settings and props, and
running the hydraulics. "
Despite a normal ground runup, the
first Albatross they attempted to fly out
of the desert started losing oil from the
propeller hub not long after takeoff,
forcing Dillon to turn around and land.
Both propellers were trailered to Missouri
and overhauled.
After successfully flying the first
Albatross to Missouri, Mike and Dillon
removed the engines and propellers and
drove them back to Arizona to use on
each subsequent Albatross-which they
flew back every few weeks or months,
depending on the weather. One of the
View the video
aopa.org/pilot/
march25
airplanes earned the nickname Cactus Jack.
" We lost both engines and had to deadstick
it into the desert, " said Mike. Dillon, Mike,
and the airplane were unharmed, but " the
cactus didn't fare that well, " he said.
The entire operation took two and
a half years, during which time Mike
constructed a second, 4,000-foot-long
grass runway to more easily accommodate
Albatrosses landing and, some day, taking
off at his airport.
Mike has since retired, and Dillon
now owns Barron Aviation (see " Brilliant
Businessliner, " October 2024 AOPA Pilot).
Mike's plan is to restore the first Albatross
he flew to Missouri and sell the rest. While
that may sound like a lot of work to end
up with one airplane, it's allowing Mike to
pursue his retirement dream of search and
recovery from a spacious, historic flying
boat-and save six Albatrosses that might
otherwise have been lost forever in the
Arizona desert. kollin.stagnito@aopa.org
AOPA PILOT / March 2025
27
http://www.aopa.org/pilot/march25 http://www.aopa.org/pilot/march25
AOPA Turbine Pilot Magazine - March 2025

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