Articles and Photos By Ted Luebbers
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 didn’t have a great fall but had been put out to pasture by its owner due to old age.
It was a 1964 Cessna 150 model D2 that was in serious need of repairs. That included an engine overhaul, re-cabling of the flight controls, new avionics, cleaning up corrosion and many cosmetic improvements.
It was donated to EAA Chapter 534 by a long-time member who knew they 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 hangar monkeys that could.
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 EAA hangar at the Leesburg International Airport in Leesburg Florida to work on these planes. They are called 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. This 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, they were looking for a donated aircraft that could be brought into flying status much faster. About this time an experimental amateur-built Zenith 701 that can be flown light sport was donated to the chapter. It flew into the Leesburg airport.
It had a few issues that needed to be addressed but everyone thought this plane could be brought up to safe condition faster than the Cessna 150. The hangar monkeys concentrated their efforts to fix up the 701 and turn it over to the flying club.
Then the next problem came up. It was 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 would be available to fund a successor aircraft.
At this point, the somewhat dismantled Cessna 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 what they were working on and assigned to work only on the Cessna.
Wayne Broadfield, who is an experienced Airframe and Power Plant aircraft 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 and P mechanic, and Mark Banus, who has a lot of aircraft building experience.
From time-to-time other chapter members will help them out, but they have to be closely supervised by the two official aircraft mechanics.
To date the engine has been overhauled and ready to be reinstalled, 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 be installed. It is hoped that this restoration can be completed sometime this year.
That 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.
