Mark Lightsey sent this news from Flabob: Don "Pops" Newman, President of the recently re-chartered Flabob chapter, recently made the first post restoration flight of his Fairchild PT-19. This airplane had not flown since 1965 and had been stored at Flabob since the early '70's. About 5 years ago, the owners had given up on it and donated it to the Wathen Foundation at Flabob airport. Shortly thereafter, the airplane was awarded to Don under the airport's aircraft "Homestead" program.
Don started digging into the airplane which was covered with literally inches of dirt and dust. It looked like the surface of the moon when the hangar doors were first pried open! 4 1/2 years later he'd gone through every inch of the airplane including overhauling the engine. A pretty good pace under any circumstances but even more impressive when you consider that it was an after hours and weekends effort after helping out full time at the AeroCraftsman shop.
On Wednesday, October 26th, all work around the airport came to a halt while Don took her up for the first time. Half an hour later he made a beautiful landing and had only a couple minor squawks to report. He made it look really easy, like he'd done it before. Oh Yeah, he had done it before. This was Don's second PT-19 restoration. Nice job Pops!
