Shipping a Stinson and our Gullwing Fling

This week NC16164, a Stinson SR-8E, was containerized at RARE Aircraft for shipping to France. RARE Aircraft performed an Annual inspection on the Stinson as well and provided brokerage services. The team really pulled together and made another solid containerization. By preparing high quality welded fixtures and framework in advance it was possible to load and completely secure this beast in a little over two hours.

Over the years RARE Aircraft has performed one or more of the following to several Stinson Reliants;  brokered, maintained, performed major repairs to and restored. Below are photos of most of them. RARE Aircraft currently has three Stinson Reliants undergoing our remanufacture process to soon add to the list. Its been enjoyable to have the airplane around that initially got the Redman family enthused about antique aircraft in the beginning. 

F-7 Video

We're going to try and produce a short video series of RARE Aircraft restorations this summer. Here is one of the Kocourek Waco. The slideshow of the trip this ship made west last month is in production and should be up next week. Thanks for checking in.

Waco Cross Country

What a way to kick off summer. As mentioned in the last post a two ship Waco Cross Country adventure went down over a 17 day period. Ship #1 N29904 departed Wausau Wisconsin the evening of May 13th. Over the next 2.5 days N29904 worked its way to Las Vegas Nevada where ship #2 N29352 was roosted up. We met for lunch in Kingman Arizona and flew into Vegas as a two ship for a couple days of R&R. After Vegas is was to Los Angeles where time was spent flying the city taking in the sites. With several stops and a few detours for sightseeing along the way we worked our way north to Portland Oregon and then east homeward bound.

Ship #1, N29904 piloted by Keith Kocourek recorded 4,739 Miles, 40 Airports, 47.9 hrs flight time in 17 days with zero mechanical discrepancies. Ship #2  piloted by Ben Redman recorded 36 hours flight time experiencing one mechanical discrepancy, a leaky brake line on the right side. Both aircraft were remanufactured by RARE Aircraft Ltd.

A a couple photos of the adventure posted here. Stay tuned for a slide show of the entire trip. Thanks for checking in and for the support of all who made this adventure possible and memorable.