"Scott McQueen" wrote in message
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[...]

I have a scanner. If he sends me the pictures I will scan
them, put them on the web, post the URL, and mail his photos
back to him. I will do it all within 24 hours of receiving
the photos.

And by the way, if you're ever in the WNC Air Museum, Hendersonville, NC,
take a look at the Heath Parasol Project there. I did some fabric work on
the airframe and rebuilt the Continental A-65-8 engine from the crankshaft
on up to silk thread and closing it, torquing the thing together, and
installing the jugs. I bled all over the white tablecloth from stabbing my
fingers with safety wire. The engine rests on my personal engine stand
adapted from a Black and Decker work table and tooling plywood. That engine
was the 5th aircraft engine rebuild for me, and now I'm on my 6th with a
Teledyne Continental IO-360G for the White Lightning.

In the nineties while in Greenville, SC I attended Greenville Tech Aviation
Maintenance School and helped build 4 White Lightnings, all of which are now
flying. Most of the work I did on those aircraft was grunt work like
drilling, doing wet layups, and sanding; the two actual builders were Eddie
Clark and Bill Fields of C&F Composites. Both of them are master builders
with superb reputations. I did a lot of sanding and watching.

And several of us in that shop built most of the parts for about 4 Murphy
Renegade Spirit biplanes. I have built an almost complete tubular
airframe, mostly from the plans, except the fuselage is not completely
riveted together. We all made parts from .063 and .125 alclad 2024-T3
aluminum sheet, and worked on them sometimes into the wee hours of the night
in the shop on White Horse Road. All the empennage, the wings, the 4
ailerons for my ship are complete and are hanging above my head as I type.
Where we could we used solid rivets; otherwise, the riveted structure goes
together with Cherry and the little miracle Avex rivets. And of course that
marvelous aluminum extrusion the Renegade is admired for. The aileron
control surfaces all have kp-5 ball bearings which I bought at Oshkosh. I
have decided to power mine with an O-200 which I am scrounging parts for at
the time. I also have a C-85 and another A-65 as spares, both ready to go
back together.

During the nineties I rebuilt the wings on my 1946 Taylorcraft BC12-D,
re-covered, and painted them, using the Stits process, and did a major on
the A-65-8F engine. I didn't like the way the engine leaked oil although
it ran beautifully, so I took it down, split the case, and majored it a
second time, including having the rear case rebuilt and the crankcase
line-bored and the parting surfaces machined and deck heights trued. After
the second major it did not leak oil and I have over 150 trouble-free hours
flying behind it, flying it for pleasure, attending fly-ins, and taking
Young Eagles and friends for pleasure rides. I have used it, and loaned it,
several times to help other pilots get their taildragger ratings. Many of
the parts on the Taylorcraft, like the trim system and brakes, I have
rebuilt so they work just like new. It has new shoulder belts installed
just as the advisory circular recommends. Every time it comes up for
annual, I do the work and a knowledgeable IA (knowledgeable also because he
or she knows I know what I'm doing) signs it off. And, yes, we go by the
book. I do not fly a dog airplane and especially don't fly a Young Eagle
unless everything checks out airworthy, I's dotted and T's crossed. I
maintain hull and liability on the little ship and see to it that every
Young Eagle gets his or her money's worth and gets to handle the controls
during flight.

The museum has two air fairs a year in which they charge for rides under the
auspices of AOPA, and I participate in those events and fly passengers. The
last time I flew in that event I had a woman with a child in her lap who
kept grabbing the yoke. When I was about to land she complained that the
flight had not been long enough so I took her off on a magical mystery tour.
A man from St. Louis who said he had been a VW engine racecar mechanic
bought rides both in my Taylorcraft and in an Aeronca Champ. He was a great
pleasure to fly with and acted as though he had the biggest thrill of his
life. I took him around the tops and valleys of the Blue Ridge mountains
which were especially beautiful and serene that day, and when we landed I
opened the cowl. I told him how I had rebuilt the engine, that I had also
rebuilt a VW engine, and we talked engines for a while. He was quite an
interesting fellow and when he departed thanked me profusely. "I'm going to
do this again next year," he said with a big smile.

This summer I flew my little bird almost due north, dodging thunderstorms
and camping on sod fields, to the Taylorcraft reunion in Alliance, Ohio. I
was tickled to find avgas in Millwood, West Virginny for $2 a gallon; but
most of the time the good folks I met along the way would help me gas up
with mogas. Near Greenville, Tennessee at Decker Farms Airfield, where I
camped for the night by the bank of the Nolichucky River, a lady at the
local greasy spoon gave me 2 five-gallon cooking oil bags which I filled
with 87-octane BP to feed my girl for the trip across the mountains and
home.