The Curtiss Pusher I purchased earlier this year is now at Fantasy of Flight!  Shipped down from Idaho, it made the trip in record time in the back of a semi-trailer.  With the help of my guys, we unloaded it and eventually hung the wings on temporarily while we had everyone there.

The precarious part with the help of a forklift!

While in the trailer unloading parts . . . with my three of my guys looking in . . . I couldn’t help but have them pose for a picture!

Grease Monkeys?

As mentioned in a previous blog, I think the airplane will make a great trainer for the Benoist Flying Boat we’re building.

Hangar Flying!

The airplane has since been completely assembled, inspected, and test run.  We now only await paperwork from the FAA.

Kermit

Coming back from my Heli-ski trip I stopped in Lewiston, ID to check out a dual-control Curtiss Pusher that had been built and flown to commemorate the 100th Anniversary of the first airplane flight in Idaho.  It was built by Dean Wilson, whom I had met in the late 1980’s at an Idaho auction where I purchased my original WWI Avro 504.  Dean was the one that rebuilt it!

Hangar Flying . . . in the most open sense of the word!

It currently has a modern engine in it and some additions like primitive brakes and a castering nosewheel.  I felt this would be a good trainer for me for the Benoist project we’re building to commemorate the 100th Anniversary of the 1st commercial airplane flight on 1/1/2014.

The airplane has flown about 7 hours and I can’t wait to get it home.  I just need to find some hangar space at Fantasy of Flight to put it in!

Kermit