The British Effort

For many years now, a DC3 that flew in the Normandy invasion on D-Day in WWII, has languished on the edge of the Covington airport moulderin and wasting, the victim of a financial dispute. Lo and behold in mid June we heard that a Brit had purchased it, planned to restore it and fly it to Air Adventure in Oshkosh, WI. All the aviation folks just call is Oshkosh and it is the granddaddy of all fly-ins. This year is the 75th anniversary of the DC3 and they will be the featured airplane there. Gene has said that the Flagship Detroit, the oldest one flying and the one he flies, is featured in a place of honor near the entrance.

Sure enough a team of about three Brits from Edward Brothers Aviation in London, headed by Clive Edwards showed up and started work. The local EAA chapter (Experimental Aircraft Association which sponsors Oshkosh) gave them some assistance. They had a window of about 6 weeks and worked at least 12 hours a day in the hot sun. Clive and all the "lads" were quite personable and we stopped in about once a week to monitor the progress. This was Clive's 35th restoration. They do a lot of movie work. He is meticulous and methodical.

As the magic day neared, a Scottish pilot, a woman and perhaps one or two others joined the team. The photo above was taken last Saturday as they prepared for their first test flight. Sadly, an engine purported to have only 200 hours on it began to fail and they were only able to make one circle of the field and land. Back on the ground, they immediately began to work on a solution. When Gene went back Saturday night to check on them, a pick-up truck carrying an engine pulled up. But changing an engine is not simple. The latest from Monday is they were planning another test flight and hopefully on their way to Oshkosh this morning, just one day late. Will let you know. The lower photo is just before lift off on the test flight, note tail wheel is off the ground, but rear not level yet.

I was surprised to find about 60 people there for the test flight but listening to conversations realized they were all members of the local aviation community who had followed the adventure as we had. You can barely see a logo below the pilot's window. It says, "No sleep until Oshkosh."