I didn’t get to fly yesterday but I did get out to see how my airplane was holding up to all of the rain. A little bit of water had leaked but not much at all and the tape job was holding up fine. I went out this morning to fly but first I wanted to pull all of the cowlings off and see how everything looked. Make sure nothing was leaking or rubbing or just didn’t look right. It took about 10 minutes to get her to this point, with all of the cowlings and the turtle deck behind the cockpit removed. I removed the turtle deck to mop up a leak and to take a close look at the control system. Everything looked fine.

This is what the engine compartment looks like with all of the cowlings off. I looked at everything very carefully. As I was starting to put everything back on I saw Mr. Bennett heading over in his golf cart and since I was sure he would be interested in seeing my Rotax engine I took the cowling I had back on off again. The Rotax 912 is a rather new aircraft engine and is very different the Continentals and Lycomings that are in most small general aviation airplanes. For one thing, the heads are water cooled which is a departure from tradition. It is also a high rpm engine that is geared down to drive the prop instead of a low rpm engine that directly drives the prop.

After I got everything put back together and the aircraft preflighted I went flying. I was relly looking forward to doing some takeoffs and landings on the grass runway. The wind was calm and I took of on runway 35 since it involved less taxiing. Then after landing I just rolled to the end and took off in the other direction on runway 17. No wind, no traffic, no problem. The I saw some rain showers approaching from the southwest. So I landed, taxied to my tie down and shut down thinking it would pass quickly. It didn’t and before long it was pouring down rain. I stayed in the airplane because I did not want to get wet getting to the car. In about 45 minutes it let up a little and I tied her down, taped her up and went to Mr. Bennett’s hangar.

This is what lives in his hangar, a T-6 Texan. Actually two of them. This one is fully restored and in flying condition. He has owned it for 43 years. He is restoring another one. The Texan is a military trainer that first flew in the late 1930’s and was used extensively during World War II. The airplane is metal but the control surfaces are fabric. The same fabric that covers almost all of my airplane.

Here is the Texan that he is restoring. Some covering fabric is draped over the horizontal stabilizer of the flying Texan. It is visible in the foreground of this picture. Mr. Bennett bought this airplane as a wreck and most of what you see here is new. The wing pass through is brand new old stock and all of the sheet metal is new. The wings have had all of their sheet metal replaced and are stored in another hangar. He has the cowlings off the flying Texan to allow him to use its hoses, cables and fittings as patterns for the one he is restoring. I often wished I had a flying version of my airplane available when I was building it so I could have done the same. I often scoured the web for pictures posted by other builders when I could not figure out how to install some part.

Today he was working on the Pratt & Whitney 1340 Wasp Radial Engine. This engine weighs about half a ton (way more than my entire airplane!) and will be mounted on the aircraft under restoration. It puts out 600 horsepower. I find it inspiring that people like Mr. Bennett not only restore these aircraft to pristine condition but also fly them.  Especially considering the risk associated with taking them into the air. These airplanes are over 70 years old and are antiques by any measure but also fully functional and, of course, beautiful. Living history.

The rain had not let up so I headed back to my mom’s house hoping the weather will improve tomorrow. I’m really looking forward to visiting some of the airports I flew in an out of in the 80’s.