if you don't see it here it does not exist!

http://1000aircraftphotos.com/Contributions/Shumaker/2427L.jpg

Tom Wilk

The wife says I spend too  much time on the computor now and you do this to me.  Have fun,  DOC Holliday

Tom,
Nice Staggerwing shot. here is a picture of it at the Staggerwing Museum in Tullahoma, TN.
Chris...

Wow! Chris...Beautiful plane huh?  In the early 70's during a control line demo day at Renton Field during a local airshow, we were invited to fly on one area of the Tarmac.

 ANY OF YOU FELLOW MODELERS REMEMBER THIS EVENT?
 Right next to us was this beautiful Stagger Wing who was performing his engine warm up...
and after a really quick pre-flight check...the pilot entered the main runway...shoved the throttle foward....made its take off run and just as it was beginning to tuck the main wheels up and almost at the sound end of the runway-------HIS ENGINE QUIT! DEAD COLD.

 He was flying at considerable speed at the time but due to a large crowd of spectators....he kept the plane quite low, just "above tree top level.

What happened next was so quick but I can still see that beautiful plane as the pilot quickly snapped that airplane into a quick full top view, flippin-turn back toward the same runway that he had just taken off from.  He just barely cleared that crash-fence at the south end of the runway as he actually managed to put that big beauty onto the main landing gear for a very hard landing near the center of the end of the runway.
However....the aft end wouldn't come down. That beautifully painted engine cowling became part of a highly improvised 3 point landing... The NOSE COWLING- AND THE MAIN LANDING GEAR. After leaving a trail of showing sparks and smoke...He opened the door, hoppedout and waved to a crowd of "EYE POPPIN SPECTATORS" who gave a cheer.

Although the plane suffered some considerable pavement rash to the cowling, bent prop, and damage to the landing gear of that beautiful Staggerwing................

CHRIS...I KEEP THINKING? I was surprised that with such low altitude...and a dead stick engine...WHY HE DECIDED ON A QUICK 180o TURN BACK TO THE RUNWAY?

However...when you see how many buildings, homes, obstructions past the south end of the Renton field, I am sure HE DIDN'T HAVE MANY OPTIONS? My conclusion is that he was one very very lucky human being that day?