One Four Lima, the workhorse of 2003, is back on line ready for tows as of 27April thanks to Rick Hanson's & Bob Messner's timely retrieval all the way from Montpelier, which included a little shower dodging and waiting it out till the weather settled.

Eight Four Papa, the fuselage parts we got from John Mahoney in the fall of 2002 and rebuilt firewall forward with a factory remanufactured engine, was used for over 100 tows last year and suffered a landing gear failure which we fixed. 84P was to be annualed November 2003 in Montpelier, but Steve, who was seeing it for the first time, discovered just a little too much corrosion in the wing spars and fuselage. It is currently being totally restored, firewall backward by Howard's Aircraft Services, Clara City, MN. Howard comes highly recommended, having rebuilt at least 40 Pawnees and many classics and warbirds.

Around the first week in June we should have delivery of one totally rebuilt ship, repainted and refabriced, pristine inside and out. We might be a little enthusiastic applying these words to a Pawnee tow plane, but we now are going to have two Pawnees in excellent shape, on line, ready to go. Bob Messner, meanwhile, has scheduled a tow pilot meeting for 8 May and the group is coming together nicely.

It's 70ºF plus here today and Rick Hanson. or Bob Messner are available; let's go flying!

Rick Gehlert & Bob Messner, Tow Ops