Restored to glory

by Brad Burns
(Cedar Springs, MI)

In the early 90s' my dad flew RC Airplanes. He always flew with his friend Bill Bell in the field behind Bills' House. His first was a Bellanca Super Decathlon, that had about 60 hours into assembly. He was doing snap-rolls towards the ground, and pulling out less than 2 feet above the ground. He made a pass and did one roll too many. The Decathlon basically plowed straight into the ground at 50 MPH. It was damaged beyond repair, and was scrapped for parts. He also had a Carl Goldberg Piper Cub that he crashed into a tree in 1994. I don't remember it (I was 2) but he brought it home with only the tail section and wings remaining. He had to re-build everything from the tail forward. Before long, he finished the fuselage, but the electronics, windshield, windows, cowl, landing gear, and engine still had to be re-done. He lost the interest and time to finish it, so the Cub has sat in our basement for about 16 years unfinished. About a year ago, we finally had the time and work space available to finish our restoration project. It's almost done! just some paint and fabric and we'll be finished. We decided to make its first flight (Since it crashed in 1994), at the field behind Bill Bells' house where it crashed almost 16 years ago. Bill hasn't seen the Cub since it crashed, and probably didn't know we still had it.