Dick,

If you are still monitoring this thread, I thought you might like to know a little history about the Fleet you modeled. It was owned by Richard Bach (Johnathan Livingston Seagull) and sold to my friend Stan Swichart in the early to mid '80's. Stan flew it to all the EAA Antique Classic Chapter 3 flyins. You may have seen it at the Burlington Flyin during that period. Stan used to dress up in jodhpurs and a leather trench coat and give rides. Then, on the way to Oskosh (in 1988 or 89), he experienced carb icing and had to put it down. It seems the carb heat only came off the lower cylinder of the radial. That cylinder stoped firing while the others were still producing power. Then, as they say, the rest is history.

Stan put it down between two trees, saving not only himself, but the fuselage mostly. The wings were totaled, and had to be rebuilt from scratch. The ribs were of formed aluminum on wood spars. Since the ribs aren't listed at "ribs-are-us.com" he had to come up with a method to replace them. He actually found the original form used by Fleet and formed the ribs from annealed aluminum. Then, he used a chemical hardening process.

I used to see Stan at least twice a year and my first question was always: "How in the Fleet comming along?" I've lost trach of him for the most part. I did see him last year, but forgot to ask him sbout the Fleet. Stan still flys to all the Chapter 3 flyins in his Cessna 195. If you can attend the Burlington flyin this May (always the same week as the Kentucky Derby) you should take some pictures of your model. He would get a kick out of seeing them.

Bill Francis