John Pike of Big Sky Stearman in Oregon City sent some photos of the latest modifications to his Ghost Ship Project. The cowling looks great but slowed the ship down by 20 mph!

Brian Meuser, of Schellville, CA, sent some photos of a recent project he's finished up:

Here are a few photos of Jimmy Rollison’s Aeronica C3 Cowling. This Aeronica sports a 50 hp up exhaust Continental and has wing tanks instead of the single fuselage tank. New cowl is installed with pins and draw latches to keep a vintage look. Jimmy and his son will be finishing up the project. Should be a real nice flyer when finished (note: The engine skull cap and exhaust was done by the folks at Bud Fields Aviation Restoration).

Chris Galloway and Jimmy Rollison of Davis, CA organized a fly-in cookout for antique airplane enthusiasts on April 16th. About 40 airplanes attended including a selection of warbirds (Mustangs, T-6, T-28) and beautiful classics and antiques.

This was the second annual fly-in and the event was dedicated to the memory of Don Carter, long-time Schellville, CA resident and antique airplane enthusiast. After the event, Jimmy called Brent Taylor at AAA HQ and let him know that a $1200 donation in memory of Don is on the way from the donation jar at the fly-in! The donation will be directed towards the APM Restoration Center project.

Photos by Sue Leonard, Chris Galloway, and Russell Williams.

Thursday April 7th dawned cool and somewhat cloudy. Upon rising from my evening slumber and looking out my window at home I noted a semi tractor trailer parked adjacent to the APM. It was the day the steel for the APM Restoration Center arrived!

Preparing to unload some long heavy pieces of steel.

By 8am, a crew of APM volunteers began to arrive to help Jim Miller & Barry Vun Cannon (semi owner/operator) with the unloading of what will be the main beam and roof supports for the APM Restoration Center.

That crew included Erik Edgren, Rex Yoakam, Ben Taylor, Cliff Hatz and from the APM Board of Directors, Steve Black and Mike Gretz. Oh, RLT and yours truly were on hand as well.

The 43' main I-beam begins to appear from the back of the semi trailer. Jim Miller and Barry Vun Cannon watch from the trailer while Ben Taylor and Erik Edgren direct the fork lift. Cliff Hatz supervising.

Jim Miller directed the delicate and rather nerve wracking job of unloading the trailer (making certain it was done safely and correctly so as not to damage the cargo nor any of the help) while the heavy fork lift was operated by Rex Yoakam with assistance from a smaller skid loader operated by Ben Taylor. That skid loader was supplied courtesy of local AAA member and volunteer Luke Pieper.

With all the steel unloaded and placed so it will be accessible when ready/needed, a well deserved lunch break was taken at a local public house.

Our fork lift operator and well known aviation personality Rex Yoakam, did an excellent job in unloading the long, heavy and flexible pieces of steel from the semi trailer.

We'd like to offer our "Thanks" once again to those who helped with this small step forward in the APM Restoration Center project.

While progress on the APM Restoration Center has certainly been not as fast as we would like to see, it looks as if that pace is about to pick up and very soon. As to when we will actually start construction ? Well to quote a line from Ace Eli & Roger of the Skies ; "Soon....real soon".

Brent Taylor

Richard Hawley has written up his trip to the coast and back from his home base in Colorado.

Here's the April edition of the Florida Antique Biplane Association newsletter. Click for see all of the Chapter Newsletters.