Join us in saving a piece of General Aviation History!
All his life, Emet has wanted to be a pilot. He followed the commercial track but left his heart in general aviation - his dream was to own a small airplane, something simple, reasonably priced to operate - and something he could take his family up in. Aviation has become a family passion as well and you will often find Emet and myself along with our 2 kids doing something aviation related whenever the opportunity arises!
As the decline of general aviation continues, so does our sadness for the fading pastime. We want to encourage kids and adults alike into a career and/or hobby in aviation. We also thought of all the wonderful things we can do by partnering with different organizations who need pilots to transport medical items or people, flying supplies or aid to devastated areas around the country, or joining the Sheriff's deputies in search and rescue in the Arizona desert - the possibilities are limitless, and who wouldn't want to make a difference doing something they love?!
This is our 1948 Ryan Navion. Aircraft of this type were used as liaison aircraft during the Korean War. The opportunity of a lifetime fell into our laps to purchase this beautifully kept aircraft that needed an engine overhaul, and after 2 months of chasing financing (we learned the hard way that most financial agencies will NOT touch an airplane over 50 years old!) we purchased this with a loan in September 2012 at Lake in the Hills Airport, Illinois:
When we purchased this beautiful bird, we saw the potential for her to becoming something even greater! First of all, she needed to be moveable. This included an engine overhaul from Poplar Grove Airmotive.
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| It's my airplane, I can sit on it if I want to! |
Next, she needed an annual inspection before we could have a ferry permit pulled to have her moved to the Navion experts, Sierra Hotel, in South St. Paul, Minnesota. While there, she had a Texas patch installed, some rib repairs, a new windscreen, a thorough checkup and she was finally airworthy again! This whole repair process took about 6 months but it was worth every penny and we were in love!
With the kids in tow, we picked her up from South St. Paul in March 2013. We flew from there to Sioux City, IA for a fuel stop...
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| Our boys on the ramp in Sioux City |
...and into Rocky Mountain Metropolitan Airport in Denver on our first day. The next day, we were planning to head from KBJC to ABQ and then home to Phoenix. We never made it out of Denver.
This was our airplane after we hit an unavoidable wind shear on take off:
We were approximately 100ft off the deck and had retracted the gear when we suddenly lost 20kts of airspeed. The wind direction had shifted approximately 160 degrees which caused the airplane to weathervane. Emet lowered the nose to regain airspeed and immediately threw down the gear. The time until impact was so short that the nose gear didn't fully lock out. We impacted the runway and careened into the grass between taxiways where we came to a stop.
We were heartbroken that this happened. Fortunately, we all walked away without a scratch. The emergency crews were shocked that we weren’t injured in the least. They told Emet that had he not gotten the gear back down to absorb the majority of the impact, we would have all had broken backs for sure. They also said that we chose a good airplane because it is built like a tank, had it been another small aircraft, the outcome wouldn’t have been so good, especially if the gear wasn’t down.
The FAA and NTSB agreed that it was unavoidable. They were so impressed with Emet's skills that the asked if he could teach wind shear to GA pilots as part of the FAA Safety team.
Long story short, the insurance company ended up totaling it. We ended up buying her back for a reasonable price at auction and now are trying desperately to get her fixed and flying again. When something like this happens, people tend to give up on the airplane and send it to the scrap heap, but there are so few of these flying around that we didn't want to give up on her - not to mention...she saved our lives. We didn't want yet another antique aircraft and piece of American history lost forever.
We have spent every penny we have saved towards the Navion's repairs and were bringing her home on a borrowed dime (or many, many dimes!) We hadn't planned to have to fix her twice and with the help of the bank could only afford it once. The insurance payout leaves us approximately $25,000 short of where we need to be to have her brought up to our standards of safety. These improvements include:
- A 3 bladed prop - to help with climb performance
- Better brakes on the wheels
- Toe brakes (currently has only a hand brake)
- Baggage door modification that would double as an emergency exit
- Reconfiguration of the panel to move the radios from just above the pilots left knee to be centrally located
- Upgrading/replacing some of the outdated/broken avionics
- Strengthening of the wings
- Other repairs that have surfaced since the accident that would have never been discovered otherwise (she is 65 years old, after all!)
Those who know aviation know how important these items are...so you can understand why we would want them updated and changed.
We are reaching out to the general aviation community looking for financial support to help us to fix our beautiful bird. To read the long and detailed version of our story or if you are interested in donating to our cause, please visit our page: http://www.gofundme.com/navion
To check out the amazing job that Sierra Hotel Aero is doing with the restoration, please visit: http://navion.com/4276K.html
THANK YOU for your support! Blue skies and tailwinds to all!
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| The last photo before the crash, taken during pre-flight checks. |
