When Plane(t)s Align

As I was sitting in my home office thinking about all of the advice I had been given regarding finishing the Wheeler Express I bought back in 2015 and hauled back from Colorado, one phrase was king amongst them all, “do something on it every day”. Having the airplane in Port Angeles living in Sequim, that would have meant at the least, spending an hour and a half driving to and from the airport, let alone the time spent actually working on it. For some families, that works and some retired folks, not so much for our dynamically, growing family. I came to the decision it was time to part with the Wheeler, nicknamed, “Hoffa”.

The Wheeler had been moved so many times, Colorado to Toledo, Wa to Everett,Wa, to Arlington Wa, two different hangars then to Sequim then to Port Angeles where we had purchased a hangar. I had parts of it strewn throughout the state of Washington, the airframe in Arlington, now in Port Angeles, the engine and prop were in storage in Everett, instrument panel and miscellaneous parts in my office (man cave I) and garage (man cave II), Elisa started calling it “Hoffa”. I collected pictures and wrote descriptions for the panel and airframe separately, I would hang on to the engine that is not quite assembled completely, more on that later. My plan was to sell the Wheeler, instrument panel and prop and start building the Cozy Mark IV plans I received from James Russell in a swap for a garage heater I had no need for.

Within a few days, the panel was sold to a guy over in Deer Park that built Glasair’s and raced them. This panel would drop right in, probably too heavy for a racer. I figured, “Deer Park? That would make for a nice cross country.” I asked James if he wanted to go for a flight over to eastern Washington, and he said, “sure!” You see, James is building a Cozy and I’ve been bending his ear a bit and he provides some inspiration to get started. Actually, the chapter inspires, amazing group of folks. James meets me at my place, we start flying to Deer Park and James tells me about this fella, Robert Woodward (not the one from the Washington Post). James continues to tell me he visited Robert a couple years ago to look at it and that he had started Phase 1 and put it away, that he was considering selling. “Interesting”, I said to myself, not in the budget for this year, six hours later, James and I get back to Port Angeles.

The following Monday, I’m going through email and I get an email from David Orr, no, not EAA Chapter 430 David Orr that finished his plane in what is now the hangar for the Wheeler, the David Orr that tracks canards for sale and membership in the “Canard Squadron”. I start telling him about Robert’s Cozy and he asks to be connected. I email and call Robert from the membership roster. Robert calls me back and I’m telling him about David Orr, he thinks it’s the David Orr that is in our chapter, I clarify. and asked Robert if it was okay to come out, sit in the plane to make sure I could fit and take more pictures to assist Robert in selling the Cozy. James asks if he could tag along, no problems there, then ask my lovely wife, Elisa and step-son, Cameron if they want to come along to see a cool airplane (well, they’re all cool). Family outing it is!

[Pictured: Robert Woodward, James Russell, David Miller] Saturday morning, James meets at our place so we can carpool, we started talking about Cozy’s, we get down to the airport, of course, David Miller is down there, I invite him along for the lookie-loo session, or I thought. We get to Robert’s hangar, he is three hangars down from me where the Wheeler sits waiting for completion. Robert has the hangar wide open and a beautiful Cozy Mark IV sitting inside. Ooing and awing commence. Pictures are taken, butts are sat in the plane, more pictures. It’s a snug fit, it has thick cushion seats, I do fit. I get out, James gets in, I see Elisa shoulder to shoulder with Robert chit chatting numbers… I guess I had this look on my face, confusion on the face of everyone except Elisa…. She had just put us under verbal contract for Cozy Mark IV N767CZ! I don’t really remember much else from that day, others will need to fill the gaps.

I recalled one of our newer members, technical counselor and A&P, Mike Niewiarowicz built a Cozy, a current A&P. I contacted Mike to ask if he would be interested in doing the condition inspection on N767CZ, he agreed, we set a date.

While eagerly awaiting Mike to return from business elsewhere, I posted and sold the prop in a day, I then received a phone call from a guy over at Arlington, very interested in the Wheeler. Mike returned from business, found a few things, nothing deal breaking nor being required for airworthiness. The following day, Mike and I each took the Cozy for taxi runs around CLM, runway is a little short for a canard with big guys up front. Done deal! We wrapped up with Robert went back to my hangar wait for the freight company to pick up the prop headed for Hilton Head Island, SC. A half an hour after the prop left, in came a Glasair III RG down the hangar row, its our friend from Arlington come to look at the plane. I walked him through all the parts and where things stood, SOLD! That was one busy day at William R. Fairchild International.

End of story? Nope! The friend from Arlington asked about an engine, I told him that the IO-540 I have is not built and wasn’t sure about selling it. He said he didn’t care if all the parts were in a serviceable state. Well, right after the Young Eagles rally at KPIE…errr 0S9, I receive a call from my friend in Arlington, he wanted to come inspect the engine. I arranged to pick him up at Sequim Valley. After about 15 minutes of looking at the engine, confirming there’s no corrosion (still not sure how that was avoided after all the moving and storage unit stays), he makes me a fair offer and BOOM! Engine is sold.

Prop is gone, Wheeler and engine are sold and will be cleared out end of month and a new shining Cozy to sit in our hangar. Yes, we are keeping our share in 172BE. The only planet out of alignment is the one where Port Angeles is cut down to 2500 feet until October.

I sold the instrument panel to a man in Deer Park, who turned out to have sold the Glasair III RG to my new friend in Arlington who bought the Wheeler and engine, that is friends with the only other person that worked on my Wheeler other than me since in my possession in a hangar that Robert Woodward had worked on the Cozy before purchasing his hangar and when moving out of the hangar we now own, that matches our house number, David Orr finished his Zenith 701, not the David Orr that tracks canard aircraft up for sale. Amazing how this aviation world is connected Thanks James, Mike, Robert, David Miller, and Elisa.

-ejp