1947 Stinson 108-2 ready for
take-off on May 25 from the
Charlie and Matt Pottenger
proudly stand by the plane they restored and enjoyed.
Red 1947 Stinson
As I stood alone on Morgan
Utah’s high mountain runway and watched a beautiful red 1947 Stinson Voyager
airplane rise into the sunny sky my heart flowed with two emotions, sadness and
elation. I watched as the red slowly faded to a spot and the little plane I had
just sold faded into the eastern sky carrying the happy new owner to its soon to
be home in Kenly, North Carolina.
My sadness was due to the six
years I had toiled restoring that plane to better than new status from a
skeleton and boxes and boxes of strange parts. The happiness was due to the
check in my pocket that will help me restore another project that I have been
doing for several years.
The Stinson I watched fly
away came to me as a project in 2004 when I answered an ad in a national
aviation paper for a project Stinson 108-2 with a freshly overhauled 165 HP
engine. It needed lots of work and would be a challenge, but I have always loved
fabric covered airplanes and flying, so off to
I arranged with a regional
horse trailer dealer to pick up a new 26 foot stock trailer in
Much to my surprise my
optimistic projections of finishing the restoration in about a year were soon
impaled on the reality of my shortcomings. First, I found that buying a project
in loose parts and boxes leaves a great void when there are no drawings or
instructions available to help in the assembly.
Second, since I am not a
rated aircraft mechanic, a hurdle to obtain guidance and inspection services of
properly rated mechanics continuously slowed progress. Also, finding parts for
sixty-plus year-old airplanes requires lots of search and negotiating time.
After five years, much of
which was spent reinstalling electrical wires to serve all aircraft and
instrument requirements, I learned that with no knowledge of where the original
wires were run that I did many circuits multiple times until I finally had
learned enough from others to recreate the proper wiring.
In the spring of 2008 the
entire plane was assembled, all radios and instruments were installed and
functional, the brakes were replaced with modern equipment and all that was
needed was a final coat of the special red paint and then a full final
inspection from an FAA rated inspector. This is when the plane began to be
called “Lucifer” because we did a devilish amount of work to correct my mistake.
On that final coat for the
cabin I made a mistake mixing the paint and failed to use the right catalyst.
Two days after spraying that final, beautiful coat of red I was astonished to
find it was still wet. I called the
factory and they gave me their condolences and several things to try. I did them
all and the paint seemed OK.
At that time, about June of
2008, I was unable to schedule a convenient FAA inspector and found through my
son Matt, who lives in
In December I got the call
that they weren’t satisfied that the cabin paint was properly cured and decided
to cut off all the fabric on the cabin and start again.
Lots of cost, but quickly done and they had it all finished and flying in
March.
I first flew it in March.
Matt also owns a Stinson and I was really happy to find this newly reconstructed
ship was smoother and faster than his and all-in-all a great airplane. So, we
renamed her “Lucy!"
Then last week I drove down
and met the happy buyer who left me standing on that Morgan,