Update

It's been a few weeks so I figured I'd post an update.  I haven't flown 373Y since the Vintage rally. I did think about flying on Sunday but the weather had other ideas. I got as far as pulling the fuselage out of the trailer, getting the battery and GPS loaded up, along with cushions and parachute, and then watched the high cirrus build thicker and thicker.  Back in the trailer it went. Later in the afternoon it started raining.

The last I heard from Den Barton N10124, the original Cherokee RM, is very close to being ready to fly.  A few weeks ago I talked to him about weight and balance. I can't wait to hear about the first flight and get some pictures of the bird completely assembled.  The pictures that I've received so far and shared here look absolutely gorgeous.

Gary Flandro is working away on N8722E.  The trailing edges had gotten warped thanks to years of shrinking fabric doing their work.  Pretty common issue on an old wood glider so he is putting in new trailing edges that will be a bit stronger. 

Matt Colclasure has been working like mad on N1073, aka "Stinky".  After some inspection it was pretty obvious that all of the glue joints on the fuselage were suspect at best.  While most of us would've had a bonfire at that point Matt carefully deconstructed the fuselage and is now working on regluing all the joints with new gussets.  It appears that originally the bird had Resorcinol glue but after years of languishing either the glue had gone bad or the wood around the joint had gone bad.  Either way Matt is cleaning up all the joints, making new gussets, and re-gluing using West epoxy.  From what I hear so far he has one of the fuselage sides put back together and is making gussets for the other side, then He'll have to tie the two sides together and continue to build back up the stringers and everything.  I'm going to try to get up there to see him sometime and get some pictures of his progress.  It looks like the wings are going to need the same attention.  Matt is currently pondering the idea of rebuilding the old wings or just building a new set from scratch.  He's particularly interested (and so am I) in learning more about the Cherokee RM wing.  If anyone out there has any information on where a set of plans might be for the RM wing please let me know at abcondon@gmail.com