Kazoo120 » Tue May 13, 2014 2:09 pm
As I come upon 18 months of working on this C120 project, I was taking a moment the other day to reflect back on why I started it, how it came about, and where the heck am I now? I think the first realizations leading to this new chapter of an aviation avocation, were at Grattan raceway near Grand Rapids, Michigan 2 years ago after a reasonably hard fought drive to a 4th place finish in an SCCA amateur sports car racing event. I was driving, as I have for many years, my Datsun 240Z and it was a beautifully hot Memorial day weekend. The realization was that now in my 50’s, and after 26 years of competition, I wanted to do something else. I had reached the end of this fabulous road I had travelled, and I was OK with that. Not sure why I felt that way that particular day, but I did.
I was sitting at my work desk one day after that, and somehow the thought hit me to look into the EAA and see if there was some local chapter to visit. How about building an airplane and learning to fly it… Thoughts of becoming a pilot fostered in my youthful high school years, spawned from a class called “Aviation Science”, along with the general propensity to look upward at the sound of a plane flying over. But I never saw a path to go that route, no familial of other taxi-ways to flying airplanes sprouted before me in those years. Expensive folly my dad thought, he wanted me to be an Engineer, and so I did become one.
I e-mailed a co-worker who I was sure would know about a group called the “Experimental Aircraft Association”, and low and behold he steered me to Chapter 221 in Kalamazoo. And I attended the next meeting. I remembered the first time that I showed up years ago, to my first SCCA (Sports Car Club of America) meeting wanting to be a race car driver, and how much had transpired since. And this first meeting sitting in the back of the room as the new kid looking into flying, took me back to that memory. What was I going to do, what will my interest become, are these people friendly, am I worthy…
I’ve always been interested in planes and flight and I even work in Aerospace as an Engineering Manager in charge of a team that designs, develops and certifies hydraulic pumps and equipment for aircraft. I decided that now was the time to Learn, Build, Fly my own machine.
So I was checking my e-mail one day and another friend who I had discussed this new “Learn, Build, Fly” thing with, sent me a link to an on-line auction for a 1946 Cessna 120. Part of an estate sale, sitting in a barn for over 40 years, about 70 miles north of me.
We then took a field trip up to see the plane and what I knew about working on planes at that time, wouldn’t fill one 337, however it looked like a worthy project. It was the Barn’est barn find I had ever come across. The idea that this plane sat in that building for over 40 years, original owner wouldn’t sell it, many had tried to talk him out of it, but it stayed there until he passed on. Wonder why,,,, More on the plane’s story later.
To the point of my recent reflections, against all the advice that I’d read about buying some airplane before you learn to fly, and not knowing what you will want, blah, blah, blah. I am thrilled with the endeavor for what it has given me. In the 18 odd months since I trailered her home and began the process of the restoration, I have immeasurably increased my knowledge of general aviation aircraft construction, and history, and parts manuals, and STC’s and AD’s and 337’s and logbooks and riveting and…
What seemed daunting at first has become a journey of learning and more importantly, of new friendships now being developed as I seek to learn more about the flying community. I feel more “Legitimate” for having plunged in. This is no time to stop now!
Andy Cotyk.
- 40+ years in this pose. Imagine
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- Project day 1
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- +18 Months
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- Your humble scribe, in my office.
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