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Riverside, Calif. – July 18, 2006 – It took five and a half years and it would have been a lot cheaper and quicker to send it to the world’s finest aircraft restorers to do the job.
But the results wouldn’t have been nearly as impressive.
About 20 teens at any one time -- 35 total -- spent about 250 Saturday mornings restoring an Aeronca Super Chief that had been abandoned after its owner died. They will show off the finished project, NC3371, during EAA AirVenture Oshkosh 2006. It will be located near the Red Barn in the Vintage Aircraft area.
John D. Lyon, secretary of the Thomas Wathen Foundation headquartered at Flabob Airport in southern California, said from the beginning, the point of the project was to have an airplane built by teens that they could take flying lessons in.
To find people willing to work on the project, the Wathen Foundation didn’t have to look far. Their main sources were Young Eagles cadets, those who had a Young Eagles flight and who became so intrigued that they came back as volunteers for future rallies, and the Wathen Foundation’s Air Academy.
But when it became apparent that the project was larger than anticipated and that it would take longer to complete, Foundation officials set up a system allowing the volunteers to earn flying lessons — after working 60 hours, each student was entitled to 10 hours of flying time. They earned another hour for every six hours volunteered after that. But the lessons weren’t entirely free — they still paid $10.
“Our view was if we made it totally free it wouldn’t be worth anything,” Lyon said. Of the 35 volunteers who helped, 27 took flying lessons. Of that number, 10 have already earned their private pilot’s license and another nine have soloed and continue to work toward that goal, Lyon said.
“We’re just so impressed by the results,” he said. “Parents have written to us and told us that their children improved so much in so many areas — they earned better grades, helped out more around the house without being asked and started addressing adults as ‘sir’ or ‘madam.’ But they also learned teamwork, responsibility, and a lot of new skills.”
That’s because the plane was a mess.
The teens replaced the rotted fabric and wood and rusted steel tubing with new components. They overhauled the engine, and installed new wiring, plumbing and instruments. Adult supervisors from Flabob’s EAA Chapter 1 offered guidance and showed them how to do each step.
“Our adult volunteers would do their best to keep their hands in their pockets and let the teens actually do the work,” Lyon said. “They built three times as many ribs as there are in the plane to do it right.”
The plane was finished about a month ago, Lyon said, and on Wednesday two of the students who helped rebuild it will start on their journey to AirVenture, along with other experienced pilots and a contingent of ground and air support. They hope to arrive within six days, depending on the weather, to share their accomplishment with other chapters. To view their progress, click here.
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Two students work to restore this Aeronca Super Chief early on a Saturday morning.
The Aeronca after five years of hard work.
The newly finished plane is ready to take to the skies for AirVenture 2006.
For More Information
EAA AirVenture
Thomas Wathen Foundation
EAA Chapter 1
Track the Aeronca!
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