I signed up to fly my T-Bird II in the NATS Classic event, removed the aluminum fuselage-mounted landing gear to make the plane easier to transport, packed the car, left Colorado and headed to Muncie. First, we made a detour to Northern Ohio to visit grandkids. While there I found out, the Thursday before the NATS, that there was no landing gear in the bag where I thought I had packed it. I quickly texted my son-in-law, Andy, back in Colorado. He found it lying on my basement floor where I had unbolted it from the T-Bird. He was two minutes late getting to UPS before they closed that Thursday and both UPS and Fedex were closed on Friday the 4th. I told him to take it to Fedex Saturday morning and ask if they could ship overnight to Muncie for Sunday delivery. Classic was to be flown Monday morning so I was getting anxious. Saturday morning I left Ohio with the gear-less T-Bird and headed for Muncie. En route Andy called and said Fedex wanted $180 to ship it for Monday arrival. I told him that wouldn't work and to hold on to the landing gear. Joe Gilbert and I had a phone discussion speculating how many points I could get for a hand-launch and belly landing. Desperate, by then I was near Ft. Wayne. Out of the blue I thought to call Dennis Adamisin. Fortunately, he was home and said to come on over. Dennis started rummaging through old parts in his stash, and within an hour crafted me a new aluminum landing gear -- axles, wheels and all. We bolted it on (I had remembered the bolts) and, after thanking Dennis profusely, I was back on the road to Muncie. I had the very first flight in Classic Monday morning and the landing gear worked just fine. Nobody noticed that it lacked engine turning and Veco wheels. Dennis was a wonderful lifesaver! I had a final moment of panic when they announced the pachyderm award at the NATS award ceremony, but (whew!) Chris Cox was the winner this year. Original and Dennis-made gear on T-Bird.
Topic: A fine example of the good people in this hobby! (Read 544 times)