handyman_alw_

My Feedback: (14)

Jim,

Reading your story made me think back to my first 310. I was at the airport in Ft. Smith Ar. and low and behold this 310 P lands and taxies up to the ramp and I must of looked like a little kid with drool running down my lip for the pilot walked over to me and we started talking and thats all it took I got the pilots name and phone # and he let me take a bunch of pictures of his plane. I ordered the kit and when it arrived i took it to a friend to build. a project that i had planned on taking 18 months to complete was built and ready for paint in 3 weeks. The man who built it was retired and i think spent every waking minute on this plane. When the plane was completed I called the man with the full size 310 who lived in texas and told him it was done and that we where going to test fly ours the next weekend, to my surpirse he asked if he could come up and get some pictures of the two planes together before we flew her. I was so excited that i don't think i slept much that whole week waiting for sat to arrive. Sat did finally arrive and my builder and my wife and I all arrived early at the airport to put our 310 together and wait for the full scale to arrive. Out of the clear blue sky from the west it came it's lines all to easy to see and know what was coming. The pilot by the why was a retired navy pilot so as you would think set it down right on the #s. She taxied up and after a few minutes she was shut down and her little sister was beside her and the cameras where clicking at a furious rate. After the picture taking and the tear down of the smaller 310 the pilot asked if we wanted to go for a short flight and of coruse we said yes. I got to sit in the right seat and watch every move he made. We where gone about 30 minutes before returning to the airport and to real life. We then all headed for the model airplane field to see if ours would fly like his. He video taped the whole flight which went off without a problem . A couple weeks later I got a copy of the video in the mail along with a note from the pilot that he had submitted the pictures to the Twin Cessna Flyer which is a club for twin flyers and they put out a monthly news letter. Much to my surprise a couple months later I got two copies of this letter I call it a leeter it real was a full color magaizne in the mail and low and behold there where both of our twins on the front cover of the magazine. Like yours mine is now almost 20 years old and my love for this airplane is stronger now than ever for now I have 3 nosen 310's and one top flite 310. thanks for your story jim it has brought a lot of old memories back in to view.

Allen