Some time back I wrote that an airplane restoration is like a love affair: Any fool can start one but to end it requires some considerable skill, not to mention a measure of regret.
Our introduction. At first, I had no idea what this airplane was.
Then you do a little dancing, a slow dance to be sure, and you're hooked.
You spruce her up over 3 1/2 years and you take her home to Mama ...
... and Mama and her whole family come out to see her, and approve.
Then comes the day. You're getting older and find it harder to get in and out of the airplane. Your strength is beginning to wane a bit and makes hand-propping more and more difficult. It's time to find a new machine more suitable, and you do. But there is that tinge of regret at letting go of a one of a kind, one that was once a glamor girl on the cover of a magazine and a trophy winner among others of her generation.
She appeared in at least three magazines in her fresh, new-old look
One day, the CallAir Cadet is gone; Sold, but with silver linings around those clouds of uncertainty. The man who bought it for his family earned his private pilot certificate in an Interstate Cadet, the parent of the CallAir, in the 1950s; and not only his private, his commercial certificate as well. We had talked, off and on, for over two years. You get to know someone you've never met over that long a time. He is the right person, with the right family and the appreciation for a fine machine, to take her from me.
My telephone friend I never met sent his Grandson to fly the CallAir to her new home
Tail tied down, one last flip of the prop ...
... Those last minute words ...
... and she's on her way.
Grandpa said "You know what sold me on your airplane? The tailwheel."
He liked the original tailwheel Interstate used for their airplanes.
I think there was more to it than that. He bought it sight unseen. Once the Cadet was home he wrote, "It's nice." That said a lot from a man who has lived airplanes all his life and passed his love down to his children and grandchildren,
So yes, she's gone, but not forgotten and never will be. I don't think I've been as attached to a machine as I have been to this one. Perhaps it's because this airplane was a forgotten verse in the old song of classic aviation that I decided to bring back to original and then some. There are no regrets at having done that, no regrets about the time and money spent and certainly no regrets knowing that the right family will be taking care of her.
The first time I saw and heard her in the air was the last time:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IIqOvO4Zx3k
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