Experimenter is a magazine created by EAA for people who build airplanes. We will report on amateur-built aircraft as well as ultralights and other light aircraft.
Issue link: http://experimenter.epubxp.com/i/126719
A L o s t a n d F o un d H o m e b uil t insistent that I should come see it at his local airport in Canton, Illinois. Later that week I walked into his hangar and saw a terribly forlorn-looking little airplane barely visible under a mountain of stuff. All I could see initially was a cruddy white-overorange hulk of an airframe that had been sitting in that corner for about three years. The owner had passed away in 2011. According to his widow, he bought the aircraft on eBay in 2008 but never had a chance to start working on it. Te original 40-hp VW conversion engine with a multi-sheave V-belt redrive wasn't salvageable. Pilots who few the PL-4A with this engine felt it was underpowered. Apparently, from 2002 to mid-2008, this aircraft had been stored in a storage unit in Huntsville, Alabama. After the rental fee had not been paid for some time, the storage business owner placed the eBay ad in an effort to recover some of the rental fees. After winning the auction, the proud new owner trucked his airplane home and tucked it away in a hangar, where it still resided when I came on the scene. I've been unable to uncover any of the airplane's history from 1978 to its arrival in the rental facility in 2002. Perhaps someone reading this can help me fill in the gaps. As I studied the all-aluminum, single-seat, taildragger, it appeared to be fairly complete. I told the widow that I would do some research to determine what the airplane was and what the FAA paperwork had to say about it. Ron didn't recognize the name on the tail surfaces when he frst saw the aircraf. Te original dataplate remains on the restored PL-4A. 12 Vol.2 No.5 / May 2013 The FAA folks in Oklahoma City said that the paperwork on that particular aircraft was, to use their term, "clouded," so I ordered the CD history and went to work. It didn't take much reading to agree with the Feds that the paperwork was, indeed, "clouded." Actually, it was terribly incomplete. That aircraft had lost its airworthiness certificate in 1978, and there was no registration or ownership indicated; so basically there was no paperwork for that aircraft after 1978. As far as the government was concerned, the airplane didn't exist. I had my work cut out for me. But I didn't let it slow me down. I decided to buy the aircraft and then try to straighten out the multitude of problems with the paperwork. In essence I had committed to buying and restoring an airplane that I couldn't even identify. I had no idea what it was regardless of the cryptic "PL-4A" on the tail. However, even the most casual examination showed that it was a high-quality airframe, so I was more than willing to take a chance on it. The widow accepted my first offer but stipulated that I remove the airplane from the storage facility within seven days. Three days later we had the airplane safely tucked away in my hangar.