Davis D-1 Restoration

After making a morning flight in the 170 and polishing a little for an upcoming fly-in I made a quick swing through a friends hangar last Saturday.  Terry Wallace keeps his Davis D-1, NC12476 at my home airport and just rolled out the completed restoration of another Davis D-1, NC15785.  This bright orange beauty sure shines!

IL-2 Shturmovik First Flight in the US

The Flying Heritage Collection has made the first flight of their IL-2 Shturmovik at its home in Everett, Washington.  The IL-2 was first flown after its restoration in Russia and the flight made last week was its first U.S. based flight.  Steve Hinton piloted the IL-2.

Thanks to Al Sauer for the photo and congratulations to FHC for another rare type restored to flying for all to see!

Links - Flying Heritage Collection

Out in the Heat - Local Projects, Cessna 170 and T-6

This past weekend was a typical summer weekend in Texas.  Triple digit heat and a south breeze that felt like a hot hair dryer blowing all the time!

My schedule was wide open for the day on Saturday so I planned to visit a couple of different airports to see some friends.  First stop was my home airport, Northwest Regional.  I did some planning ahead for my annual next month and did a little cleaning on my 170. The 170 would stay parked in the hangar and I resorted to air condition transportation for the day!

170 Project

Next stop was Hicks Airfield on the other side of Alliance Airport, North of Ft. Worth.  My buddy Keith gave me the overview of his newly acquired 170 project.  A B model 170 that will need some extensive sheet metal replacement but with some hard work and a couple years of labor will fly again.  We took a few minutes to drive down to the other end of the airport to check out a really nice 170.  We walked in the hangar to see a 1955 Cessna 170B that is polished with teal trim.  A real time capsule airplane.  It had sat for many years and just recently was made flyable again.  The new owner polished it up, repainted some of the trim and then overhauled the engine.  It still has the original interior!  The photos only give a glimpse of just how nice it is.

Original panel

Original lettering

Perfect polished metal

Engine compartment

Third stop for the day was Propwash Airport near Justin, Texas.  My friends at Cowtown Aerocrafters are making great progress on their T-6 project.  The engine has been run, major components are on and the final list of details are being addressed.  As is said at this stage of most any project... it won't be long now!

On almost every visit to Cowtown we review the latest happenings in the world of Warbirds and it wasn't any different this time.  We review the Oshkosh award winners, the up and coming restorations and on this visit I learned of a new aircraft type in bound to the hangar.  Stay tuned here to see pictures of the incoming arrival!