Repainting the C-45 Black Paint before FEDEX Day

Patrick, Larry, Chris, and Warren all worked on the C-45 during this past week in order to get all the "fading" black paint redone before flying the plane to LAX. The inner / outer leading edges "de-ice" boot paint was redone, as were each inboard nacelle, and the nose anti glare paint. Shown here is Patrick going to town hanging masking paper after Jim put on the masking tape along the paint lines. The paint came out looking really good for a cost of about $16 in paint (4 Rustoleum Satin Black spray paint cans). Good job! Thanks guys!

C-45 Up at Flabob (KRIR) for 2 Week Annual

Patrick and I flew the C-45 up today (Sunday 6-13) to Flabob Airport to have Justin do the annual inspection. Since the 50ft wingspan wouldn't fit between the hangars, Janet graciously drove up the CUCV PU and the tow bar, so we could tow the C-45 across the infield grass and over to Justin's hangar. The weather was perfect, the plane was light on gas so we wouldn't burn up lots of runway, and there was a CALM wind, making it an uneventful landing! Any volunteers welcome to help out Justin in the next two weeks. Then the T-28 Annual is next up. We should swap planes at Flabob in two weeks.

WWAM Attends FEDEX Family Day at LAX

Thanks to Cindy Macha (Director for the Western Museum of Flight) for arranging for WWAM to provide static aircraft for the annual FEDEX Family Day at their LAX Maintenance Facility. Larry Bierma flew up in his T-34 with our C-45, and Jon Goldenbaum (Poly Fiber) brought over Miss Flabob (DC-3) to the event. Over 1300 family members were in attendance. A Fedex Miniature Golf Course was set up in the hangar, as well as a dunk booth, swing dance classes, and the FEDEX NASCAR, in addition to a ramp full of FEDEX planes, delivery cars etc. The hospitality was tremendous, with dozens of FEDEX maintenace workers, supervisiors, engineers, and managers all asking what they could do for us. Larry got his phenolic canopy rub rail re-installed, and I couldn't think of anything to have repaired, painted, or fabricated! A great experience landing at LAX. Each controller kept asking -- "You want to LAND at LAX?" Even the ground controller asked "Why are you guys here?" I should have said we wanted to taxi to the airport cafe for a burger! -- Great event!

100+ Museum Quality Plastic Models Donated

Tracy Fish donated over 100 extremely detailed models to WWAM last week. Tracy has been looking for a home for these fine models since her husband (who built them all) passed away a few years ago. Our old hangar wasn't big enough to display them to visitors, so I asked her to wait until we moved into the "new" hangars on the 70 acres. Since we aren't sure when construction will start, and we now have a much larger hangar at High Performance, I asked if she was still interested in displaying them. She was and she and her friend Sherry brought them all out last week. We unpacked the first box, which contained a highly detailed B-17, B-29, F-14, and an assortment of scale British and German AF planes. We need to spend an additional day getting all the models out of their boxes and on display.