You may remember the nursery rhyme, “Humpty Dumpty sat on the wall. Humpty Dumpty had a great fall. All the king’s horses and all the king’s men couldn’t put Humpty together again.”
The Humpty Dumpty at the Experimental Aircraft Association Chapter 534 in Leesburg, Florida, didn’t have a great fall, but it had been put out to pasture by its owner due to old age.
The 1964 Cessna 150 model D2 was in serious need of repairs, including an engine overhaul, re-cabling of the flight controls, new avionics, cleaning up corrosion, and many cosmetic improvements.
The plane was donated to the chapter by a long-time member who knew he didn’t have any king’s horses or king’s men to put it together again. But he also knew the chapter had a bunch of dedicated members who could.
EAA Chapter 534 has a loyal group of members, both young and old, who enjoy working on restoring, building, and refurbishing donated aircraft. They show up every Thursday and Saturday at the chapter’s hangar at Leesburg International Airport (KLEE) in Florida to work on the planes. They affectionately call themselves the hangar monkeys.
When the repaired planes are ready to fly, they are sold, hopefully at a profit, to sustain the chapter’s aviation youth program.
This particular bird has been in and out of the chapter’s hangar a couple of times over the last several years while work slowly progressed. Humpty Dumpty was going to be a large project and it would require sufficient funding to complete.
However, when the chapter decided to spin off a flying club, members were looking for a donated aircraft that could be brought into flying status much faster. About this time an experimental Zenith 701 that can be flown light sport was donated to the chapter.
It had a few issues that needed to be addressed, but it was able to be flown into the airport and everyone thought it could be brought up to safe condition faster than the Cessna 150. The hangar monkeys concentrated their efforts on fixing up the 701 to turn it over to the flying club.
Then the next problem came up. It was discovered it would be impossible to insure this plane in a flying club because it was an experimental amateur-built aircraft.
After an exhausting search of aviation insurance companies, it was decided to give up the effort and look for a certified aircraft. The Zenith 701 was sold and the proceeds made available to fund a successor aircraft.
At this point, the somewhat dismantled Humpty Dumpty was rolled back into the EAA hangar and a full court press began to get this plane back in the air. It will become the mainstay of the new flying club when it is finished. Because it is a certified aircraft, it is anticipated that it will be easier to insure.
People who were working on other projects were pulled off those projects and assigned to work only on the Cessna.
Wayne Broadfield, who is an experienced Airframe and Powerplant (A&P) mechanic with Inspection privileges, was put in charge of finishing the project.
Because this is a certified aircraft, the work done on it has to be by the book so that it meets FAA standards. Working closely with Wayne is Steve Tilford, who is also an A&P, and Mark Banus, who has a lot of aircraft building experience.
From time to time other chapter members help them out, but they have to be closely supervised by the two official aircraft mechanics.
So far, the engine has been overhauled and is ready to be reinstalled, the landing gear repaired, and a few dings here and there taken out. Recently new control cables to the control surfaces have been run and the elevators and rudder are about to be put in place.
The old instrument panel has been stripped and new avionics will soon be installed.
The hope is that this restoration can be completed sometime in 2023 to get the flying club off the ground.
If they are successful, it will prove that the hangar monkeys of EAA Chapter 534 are more skilled than all the king’s horses and all the king’s men.
A great story of dedication and foresight. I personally will be retiring this August and then on to a 12 month A&P program in Ionia, MI called S.M.A.T. I look forward to working on my airplanes as well as others. Perhaps in retirement, I might do some missionary work and work on a similar project for a chapter.
Keep up the great work and continue to sponsor young people with the desire to be involved in aviation.
Mark Mox, EAA chapter 1060, Grand Ledge, MI
If this C-150 is N6182T, it was my first airplane when I was a student pilot back in 2001 taking instruction at Davis Airport (W50) in Maryland outside of D.C. I had to transition from an Aeronca L-17 that had no electrical system when the FAA established the D.C. ADIZ after 9/11 requiring a radio and transponder.
In any event, good luck with the rebuild!
It’s good to see these young individuals take notice of Cessna perfection. They will enjoy flying this friendly puppy sort of aircraft, as I value my 1963 Cessna 150C. Maybe it’s because these “kids” are still young and trim. The sad fact is most people are just too big to fit into C-150 anymore.