kingaltair

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Everyone;

Lots of things have happened since my last post on this thread. Let me list them briefly to try to bring things up to date.

• Helen, Tom's wife, chief cheerleader, and pit crew, downsized and relocated to live closer to her daughter Sheryl. She was kind enough to allow me to take care of four of Tom's plane. Apogee, (Perigee's sister ship), TBX-1, Cirrus, (designed Jan 1963 after WC with retracts), and his last plane the Nimbus III. I can't thank her enough for allowing me to be custodian of them. When I first visited her back in 2009, I was primarily interested in TBX and Apogee; those were the planes I was familiar with. I took only a passing interest in Nimbus and Cirrus.
• After taking the planes home, I began to fully appreciate the engineering and building skill that went into the building of these models.. What I liked the most was that both of these lesser known models are considerably larger than Perigee and even TBX. Cirrus, (more about it later) has a full 74" wingspan while Nimbus has a 72" span. Tom's friend and flying buddy from back in the mid-60s, Willie McMath, (see photos from the earliest pages), said that "all Tom's planes fly alike--the only difference is the size". I have always preferred larger models and kind-of wished that Perigee was larger. Now I have two planes that look like and fly like Perigee, only they have the large size I've always wanted.
• After talking with Helen, she gave me her blessing to re-outfit Cirrus, and fly it again as a tribute to Tom. I know there is a feeling from some that all vintage planes like this shouldn't be flown, but at the same time, I don't want to just have it sit in my basement. Although (at an age of 56 years) it is truly a vintage plane, (similar to Ed Kazmirski's final Taurus which was restored and flown a few years ago),it isn't as well known as the others (Perigee and TBX), and aren't really suitable as prized museum pieces. Neither of them won contests and they didn't win design awards (like TBX.). Helen and I both feel that it honors Tom to have Cirrus and Nimbus III come back to life and fly again, and I'm currently working on Cirrus to make it flyable for this coming season. By the way, Ed's Taurus has since been retired after a number of photos and videos were taken of it-see above.). I'd like to do the same thing with Nimbus and Cirrus and will take the best care of them possible. I plan to document how they fly like we did with Ed's Taurus. See the recent pictures of Cirrus below as it has received its new landing gear and engine.
• I have worked with Klass Kote to match both of Tom's shades of blue. For those of you who might someday decide to build one of Tom's planes, you can now order Tom Brett Dark Blue and Light Blue in order to get authentic colors. (BTW--Tom only used Hpbbypoxy paint on his TBX and maybe (although I doubt it), Nimbus III. Hobbypoxy specially mixed colors to match Perigee's colors)
• Cirrus This plane was the first designed by Tom after he was named 1962 world champion. Designed in early January 1963, Tom was working with early proportional radio manufacturer Don Brown (Dee Bee Quadruplex). Cirrus is Tom's ONLY plane designed specifically for proportional. You can see certain changes such as much reduced dihedral in the Cirrus. The original Cirrus also sported retractable landing gear, (something very rare in 1963). The gear was designed by Hal De Bolt. When I got the plane, only two of the three landing gear were in the plane, the nose wheel and the left main gear. I ordered new "state of the art" retracts with spring shock absorbers built in. The new gear fits perfectly. It took some time and effort to get the retractable nose wheel to work properly because the original De Bolt nose wheel was mounted totally differently, (see photos) The original Cirrus was powered by a Merco .49 which had long ago been removed. I ordered a much more powerful OS .55AX which fit perfectly in the allotted space. The new engine mounts on Tom's original aluminum engine mount. The fiberglass hatch required only minor reworking for the new engine, and it looks like it was meant for the OS. Thew new retracts and engine turn Tom's Cirrus into what would be regarded by him as his "dream machine", like the futuristic Delorean automobile in the movie "Back to the Future" went into the future to be drastically upgraded, I went 50 years into the future for the modern engine and retracts, not to mention the reliable computer radio that Tom could only dream about. Remember Tom used a "prehistoric" (by modern standards) early proportional in the Cirrus which failed repeatedly and needed to be returned three times, the third time for good, because of repeated radio problems.
• Pictures include a photo of Cirrus compared to Agogee, (Perigee's sister ship) for size comparison
• More to come.as we talk more about the Cirrus restoration project

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More to come.