Tailwheel time!
 

Seems like my plane purchases are going better than the car purchases right now, so to continue on that, I just wrote the check for this 1947 Stinson 108-2. :headbang:

I zipped up to Baltimore in the 310 to check this out and fell in love. Now, I could have flown on AA for free and done that trip in a day, but I decided to spend $2k and take 3 days:wink:. Nobody said these things were cheap!:thumbsdown:

I’m very happy with this one. Last one to add to the fleet will be an open cockpit biplane!:headbang:

Cheers
Dave

Congrats, that's a cool looking plane.

Very cool Dave!!

WOW Dave very cool :drool:....but that thing is as old as me :haha: does look very clean, but we need more pictures, I panel, and engine .


But you need this, and you can fly around with the canopy open and that counts as open cockpit :naughty:


Have fun with her


Mike

Thanks, men! Yes, Mike, I NEED one of those but unfortunately, I’m about 2.something Million short!:thumbsdown:

The panel is basic VFR but it comes with a Garmin 660 so I can follow my “pink line” that I’m used to seeing. :wink:

SuperDave’s Aviation Lesson 101:

For those that don’t know anything about aviation,:scholar: the old skool way of flying was done by “pilotage” which is looking at a map and finding landmarks such as lakes, roads, and large structures. Then you fly to those points with your finger on the map and away you go! The next step up from that was using VOR and NDB ground based navigation units which sent out a radio signal you tuned your instruments in the cockpit to. A needle on the gauge would point to the ground based navigational aid and keeping the needle straight, you’d fly to the navigation station and away you go! Next up from that was GPS which displays latitude and longitude navigation fixes known as “waypoints” in a digital version of what’s called a “flight plan”. The flight plan is a list of points between A and B that you intend to fly to so you can reach your destination. Between these points a magenta line is displayed on your instrument screen. Basically, a purple line that you keep the plane following. We do that at the airlines and the accuracy, as you know, is spectacular. This has come to General Aviation (the small plane guys) and makes getting from A to B extremely simple. The GPS also displays other things that we need to know like frequencies, areas we can’t fly into due to FAA restrictions, and terrain/traffic information. Very handy.

The engine is a Franklin 150hp, and if you research those, you’ll see that they were originally designed for cars! :grin: So basically, I bought a flying car.:ooo:

350hrs since major overhaul Mike, and 25 since top with new cylinders. Should last me a but before I drop the 392 Hemi in there!:haha:

Cheers
Dave

Very nice. That should give you both years of enjoyment flying around. I wish I had gotten my pilots license at an earlier age and purchased a small plane. Working on the license but too old to buy one......

You did good, very clean.



Mike

Beautiful Dave...I have a friend locally restoring a '46 108 with a 150. Never had the opportunity, but I understand they're wonderful to fly. From the pics, it looks like Martin State (MTN)?

She's a sweetie.

I get a little bit nauseous just looking at those photos.

K

Dave is right on with Old School flying. I used to sit in the cockpit of an AA DC10 and "punch in" the VOR designations into the LORAN.(I think?) for my Old Man before heading to Europe, while he went over the "mechanicals list" (problems with the aircraft).Seems those planes always had issues. That technology is loooong gone

I remember going cross country VOR to VOR. Today's technology is cheatin". LOL

Yep, Martin State it is. We were approaching the DC airspace and I picked up a pop-up IFR to get around all the airspace up there. I flew corporate before going to the airlines, but never snuck into MTN. Man, they nestle that ‘port right in all those buildings and lights REAL good like!goggles

One of the older INS units was the Delco Carousel and with those you could only program in eight waypoints at a time. Which wasn’t a big deal in the US flying over the Atlantic, but once you hit European Airspace it was a virtual finger orgy with the keyboard getting poked and prodded in every direction!:tongue: Sometimes those airways would have 20 intersections in a 30 mile span, and when doing .80 Mach, they go by fast!:shocked:

More pics pics n the journey home next month.

Happy Thanksgiving you’s guys!!!

Cheers
Dave

Thought it looked familiar :). Lot's of history there, but urban sprawl has surrounded MTN making it really tight. Anytime you're hopping around, you're always welcome to stop in at CGE (50nm SE of MTN)....nice little GA airport with one of the best restaurants in the area and the management (me) is very friendly to fabric TW aircraft :). Enjoy the Stinson!

I’ll plan on that on the way home! We flew directly over you last Saturday around 1pm on the way back to Texas in the 310.

Cheers
Dave

Have you used the cement arrows to navigate?

http://www.dreamsmithphotos.com/arrow/

Awesome!...gimme a heads up on a timeframe to make sure i'm there....Katie's at the Airport has awesome crabcakes...my treat :) 443-521-3158

Dave
I was going through some vintage Goodyear Flight Operation photos and found out they had a Stinson Voyager model 108 I think. The photo is dated 1955. This one could be late 40's, maybe you know. I worked out of this hangar from 78 to 83 located Akron Fulton airport where the Zeppelin hangar is.
Mike

Hi Mike,

Yeah, that’s a 1946 108-2 with a serial number about 1000 numbers before mine. 108-2200 or something like that. The N-Number has been decommissioned and is now used on a Piper Cherokee, so not sure what happened to it if it’s still flying.

And L16, we didn’t have time to stop in to grab a bite when I got the plane home. We were scud-runnin’ and dodging snow showers when it was supposed to be nice up there!!!:dunno:

Cheers
Dave

No worries Dave...I completely understand weather dictates the travel schedule when flying little airplanes :)

Back in the day
,late ‘77-‘80 the company I was working for bought a used Piper
We were a small Arospace machine shop.
Long story short we took the Piper to the Machine Tool Show in Chicago
and landed at Meg’s Field which was a landing strip out in the lake downtown Chicago.
Gone now but, I now know where the name “Windy City” came from.
After that we purchased a “V Tail” King -Air
That was like going from a well used Vega to a new Cadillac.

Anyway on a second note I live in Beloit Wi. And just north of me is Janesville Wi.
Home of the the now gone GM plant all in Rock County.
In between is Rock County Airport which would host a fly-in for the warbirds or anybody
passing by as a pit stop place for AAEA in Oshkosh in Wi.
There is a Restaurant there called “Bessie”.
I try to go every couple of weeks for Breakfast and in the better weather you will see a few
different planes come in just for breakfast or lunch.
Joe