The Trove

The best way to begin is, I suppose, at the beginning.

My best old friend, David, once took the vow of poverty and taught school for a living (or almost a living) where he ran into a fellow who could draw pretty well and they hit it off. As things happen the other fellow caught the eye of a fairly good sized company who liked the way he drew space shuttles and hired him away from teaching to do just that. Years went by and they ran into each other again after David managed to convince Uncle Sam’s Army that he was a valuable resource or, at least, wouldn’t be in the way. It came to pass that this other guy, whose name is Rick, met up with David and me at an air show/fly in and I came away with a poster/print of one of his paintings. Let a few more years pass and word comes that Rick has been restoring a 1934 Fairchild so David and I went to visit.  Now you’re up to date … for more on the Fairchild, take a look at my post from June 2010 entitled “Alex in Wonderland”.  I’ll update that post eventually.

OK. So last week I took another trip over to see Rick and the Fairchild and lo and behold the lads from Canada were there … they occupy a fair chunk of the warehouse where Rick soldiers away on his project. It’s time to let the cat out of the bag.

Just like your friendly Home Depot or Lowe’s … only for antique airplane nuts like me.

The first thing that struck me was “how in the world did all this stuff get here?” Turns out it took 6 tractor-trailer loads to clean out an old hanger that was full of airframes, engines, parts, bits, pieces and some reasonably complete projects. In addition, there were frequent trips when the lads’ van was piled high with smaller parts. All of it made its way to this one place where it is still in the process of being separated, cataloged and evaluated. A lot of the airframe parts are probably good for patterns, but a fair amount is restorable and reusable.

    

I managed to find some parts for my Piper Cub that are good for restoration and will go a long way toward making my 1941 airplane more original. There is probably a Gormley-Bulsch in there, too.

Unusual hardware like the silver cadmium plated pieces that were used on military airplanes before and during World War II – a favorite with the warbird crowd and hard to find today.

The lists go on and on and can only be appreciated by those who love and restore old airplanes.

To learn more about the lads, go to www.tigerboys.com – there’s a link to their email address on the website.

I think I might have picked up a bonus gift from my trip in the form of a really nasty bug – obviously Canadian – so my initial work on the parts has been delayed until my lungs are up to another dose of rusty dust and toxic chemicals.