RE: Retiring a Plane
Retiring a plane can take many forms.
1983 – I built and flew a Pica Focke wulf 190 D-9 until 1992 when the front end was getting to loose to be safe. I could not bring my self to sacrifice it to the cloud gods so it languished in my work shop until 2004 when I started to strap engines on it and attempt to fly it again. 12 years prior I could not bring my self to drill the holes and squirt in CA to shore up the week joints, but after that time passing and missing how great it flew I took the plunge and it fly’s once more.
1996 – I built a Flop tite Hollywood zero to dog fight my son flying a P-51D. I did not take long to realize the firewalls and center sections were taking a beating. A few years back I had the opportunity to replace the center section (due to a poor decision on my part). At the time I could not come up with a good way to replace the firewall )which also needed replacing) without breaking the mounting point for the LE of the wing. At some point I will have to replace the firewall or sacrifice to the cloud gods (depends on amount of work required).
1998 - built VQ Macchi 205 ARF . It had a really bad hori. Stab flutter problem right from the start, but by reducing engine size, changing flying practices, and strengthening the area It was serviceable till 2001. This of coarse meant that it, and ARF, was no longer suited for its intended purpose all weather flyer. This coupled with the fact that all the plastic parts were cracking in spite of being foamed meant it did not see a lot of air time. On its last flight it had a E servo fail (which meant the flutter was still there) and while the damage was minor I decided not to rebuild. Retirement for a plane that did not perform is rather cruel, I gave it to the ladies of the house and they finished the job the crash had started and the peaces were put in the garbage.
So in my hanger there are three types of retirement.
-Hold
-Trash
-Sacrifice to the cloud gods – If a plane has served me well and is no longer reliable or serviceable it gets burned at one of the bonfires we have at the house. Now that the kids are teens and early twenties they use this as an excuse to have a bunch of friends over. In the past a bunch of us (fliers) would meet at the field at the end of the flying season pile all our sacrifices (planes) together and torch them. But as we got older the number of planes we had to burn dwindled and this ritual died out.
I hope you guys enjoyed this
Joe