A "Fun" build...yeah, right.

[Stuart]

Tri-pacer!!!! Woohoo! Great little aircraft. I love the rag-wing Pipers, I used to work on loads of them.

That's looking superb Lyle - Those marking look great. I used to look after one bit like that, although I think it was a Vagabond...

So is this a type you used to fly?

[Stuart]

Great little beast!

[LyleW]

Tri-pacer!!!! Woohoo! Great little aircraft. I love the rag-wing Pipers, I used to work on loads of them.

That's looking superb Lyle - Those marking look great. I used to look after one bit like that, although I think it was a Vagabond...

So is this a type you used to fly?

Almost all of my time is in Cessnas...150s, 152s, 172s and 182s. Have time in a Cheroke, and have flown (with owner or pilot) Aztec, Navaho, Great Lakes, Stearman and Champ.

[Stuart]

Cool! I do like the single engine Cessnas. I always thought the 182 was nice but I do have a soft-spot for 172RG - such a pointless thing to do, but it looks cool!

[LyleW]

Never flew a retract Cessna. That one and the 177 Cardinal were it, I think. The 177 was "strange" looking with no wing struts. In the Civil Air Patrol, we had a 172XP - 195, fuel injected and variable pitch. That was fun. Here is a pic...



This is the Great Lakes. A dearly (and now departed) friend re-drew the plans, built this one. I think he sold a few sets. It was fun to fly with him in the back seat. I think he said the control sticks were from P-51s...So in a small, very small way I can claim to have flown a P-51

[LyleW]

did you ever have one of those days. Days when you are glad you don't diffuse explosives, do brain surgery or work on watches? Today is that day. Trying to finish up the Tri-Pacer. So far...

a wheel popped off and was gobbled up by the floor monster.
pilot side window popped out - have it but no way to reattach.
found part of the missing control wheel...to late to install
tried to add some color to the wing struts - picked up FLAT Red rather than the gloss.
AND, I've managed to mar the white on the underwing.

I don't think this is the day to try and fix the leading edge - making it a hard line, not soft and fuzzy like me.

[Stuart]

Yep... I've had days like that!

That XP looks fun - kind of like the French 'Rocket' version. AS does that Great Lake - looks like a skybolt I used to have rides in!

The 177RG (Cardinal) and the 172RG (Cutlass) were great little beasts - I used to maintain both of them.

I seem to recall the Cutlass had a 200hp engine. I would imagine it was great fun with a light load, but I think it would actually take x4 people and full fuel.



The Cutlass was supposed to replace the 172, but for some reason it was never a popular. The RG version was lovely.

[LyleW]

Both of those would have been fun. Beauties! There was a 177 at Bowman Field way back whe I was an active airport bum. One evening, one of the county air board trucks “patrolling” hit it in the spinner/prop. In addition to that damage, it pulled the chain tie downs out ou the port wing. Don’t know what ever happened to it.

[Duke Maddog]

Just got caught up with this one Lyle. What amazing work you did at first; you're certainly more brave than I doing red scallops and stripes on a white plane. And yes, I've had the type of day you just described; almost every day is like that for me. I just take it all in stride.

[LyleW]

Thanks, Mark. This puppy is done and put away. Over the last two days, every time I picked it up, something fell off. Almost like my body. I’ll tackle things at some point. It was done enough to call it finished.