Wait Till You Hear About This One!

by ANN Correspondent Scott Wagner

I started out on an early morning photo mission. The quest: to find purple or pink airplanes to shoot for my five year old daughter, Alyssa. Each year, she tells me what she wants pictures of, and I do my best to make it happen. 

As I strolled through the Vintage camping area at AirVenture, I spied a shiny purple and yellow Stinson 108 a few rows over. As I walked around shooting, the owner emerged from his tent.  I introduced myself, and asked if he might be able to help me. "I'm looking for two things:  An interesting restoration story or an airplane that's been in the same family for a long time. Do you know of anyone I should talk to?"

I couldn't have hoped for a better reply. "As a matter of fact, I do. Can we talk while I clean her up?"

Steve Eldredge of Spanish Fork, UT flew in with the 32 ship Stinson mass arrival, after stopping off in Brodhead, Wisconsin for the Pietenpol Fly In, hosted by EAA Chapter 431. At 39, Steve is a veteran builder, having built a Pietenpol and partially restored a Stinson Model 10A, before selling it so he could buy something a little bigger. He finished ground school for his Private certificate at age 15, soloed on his birthday at 16, and got his ticket when he turned 17. He actually had his student ticket and soloed before he had his driver's license.

The Stinson, which rolled off the assembly line in 1947, made its triumphant return to flight (after 37 years in storage) on June 2 of this year. The real story is how Steve came to own the 108.  One day, while browsing Ebay looking for a project, he found a listing for some Piper Colt parts. In the background, he noticed tons of other parts, and called the seller to set up a visit. Turns out she was 25 miles from where he grew up, and he probably flew over the site hundreds of times without noticing it.

And wait till you hear about the storage facility. The previous owner was a collector of pretty much anything transportation related. Planes, boats, helicopters, and cars. You name it, and there were 10 or 20 of them lying around on the 40 acre farm. As soon as something went wrong, he parked them. According to Widow McDonald (yes, Old McDonald had a farm), her husband thrived on the thrill of the chase. All he wanted to do was bring a new toy home, play with it until it broke, and then move on his next acquisition. When he passed away a few years ago, he left her to dispose of his collection as a means to fund her retirement.

"It was like Oshkosh, but frozen in time and abandoned," said Eldredge. "There was a complete Cub with everything still in place, but without fabric. The engine, interior, instruments…everything! I was looking for a Stinson, because I already had the Pietenpol. I knew I wanted a classic or antique that could haul my family. The Stinson was perfect, and she had four of them! Two were complete airframes, and two were complete basketcases. Mine was complete, except for the left aileron, and Mrs. McDonald knew exactly where that was. She offered me every Stinson part on the farm for $20,000, but I couldn't afford it. I wish I could, because I could have had mine and a second airplane easily out of what she had there. I gave her $7000 for mine, and came back to pick it up a month later."

When he retuned to tear it apart for the drive home, Steve found the 108 infested with mice and birds. The landing light cover on the wing was serving as an incubator, complete with three unhatched bird eggs. After loading the carcass on a trailer for the drive home, he set off. When he stopped for a break, he heard a familiar whine. After years of neglect, the attitude indicator gyro had spun up because of the venturi. Steve felt like it was a sign of life, and that the old 108 was crying out for a new life.

After a 10-day teardown, Steve began what would become a five and a half year rebuild. As he dug through the logbooks, he discovered less than 800 hours total time, and since it was stored in the high plains of Colorado, there was no corrosion that couldn't be removed with a light sanding. He chose to sandblast everything anyway, and also replaced all the hardware. He added an oil filter, and has a vortex generator kit that he has yet to install. The chrome work was redone, and all new wiring, glass, interior, tires, fabric and paint were all part of the rebuild. Sadly, the prop was stolen from his hanger at the airport, so that is new as well.

The paint scheme is based on the original 1946 factory offering, tweaked to fit Steve's personal taste. No color in the catalog was quite what he wanted, so he had one customized. The deep purple color is now known as "Eldredge Blue", and the "E" on the tail has become his signature. He used on his Piet, and plans to use it on future projects. An addicted builder/restorer, Eldredge has ambitions to build a Tailwind, an RV-7, a Skybolt and a WACO replica.

The first flight after the rebuild was flawless, save for two squawks. He didn't have enough down trim available, and he had the airspeed indicator hooked up backwards, so its indicated stall was at 195 knots. Other than those minor problems, she flew like a dream, with classic Stinson smoothness.

Two years into the rebuild, Steve received a letter from one Tom Frink. Included was an old photo of Steve's airplane in 1959. Frink's family had owned the airplane for years, and he had learned to fly in it. He had been looking for the airplane for 20 years, and shared family photos of him growing up with the airplane. Steve and Tom have built a friendship in the years since, and Steve hopes the two can get together soon and go flying. He's also planning to take Tom's mother, now in her 90's, for a couple hops around the pattern.

Mission Accomplished! I got what I was looking for, and more. I made my little girl happy with a purple airplane, AND I got to hear and share a great story from a guy who is helping to keep history alive.

By returning his Stinson to the sky, Steve Eldredge, and guys like him are doing us all a great service. If you've never taken the time to poke around the Vintage area, make a point to get down there. You never know what you'll find!

FMI: http://personalpages.tdstelme.net/~westin/ac-0.htm, www.hangar9aeroworks.com/StinsonGallery/108gallery.html