Lakeland Aero Club Trip to Oshkosh…Part Deux

Oil dripping out of the cowling onto the grass was proof positive that our problem with the engine on our PA-11, “Miss Bonnie” was not fixed. Repeated attempts to find and solve the leak had not been successful. It was Saturday morning in Oshkosh and the club was trying to leave for Florida ahead of approaching bad weather. A half a dozen teen members of the Lakeland Aero Club pushed the 1946 Cub to the emergency repair area in vintage aircraft parking and began removing the cowling while I signed in with the volunteers of EAA chapter 75 who staff the tool crib. Closer inspection with the cowling removed, revealed that one of the cylinder base studs on the number 4 cylinder had broken and others were beginning to work loose.

Earlier in the week I had the opportunity to meet Don Wade of C&D Aviation. Don’s company built the EAA sweepstakes Cub and had recently bought Don’s Dream Machines engine shop. We had spoken about the possibility of working together with our members to build an engine for one of our projects. I called Don to see if he was still on campus, fortunately he was and came straight over to us. Don told me what I already knew… the engine needed overhaul. Don had his truck at Airventure and said if we could get the engine off the plane, he would take it to his shop in Alabama for overhaul and upgrade.

Six teenagers set about disconnecting and removing the engine while I fetched tools and supervised. The work would occasionally be interrupted by a favorite airshow act or performer as the Saturday airshow roared overhead. EAA sent a film crew over to videotape the engine coming off the Cub. After about 3 hours the engine was loaded carefully into Don’s truck and the Cub secured. Our friends at EAA assured us that the Cub would be towed to a hangar for safekeeping until we could return with the new engine. Lakeland Aero Club had missed the weather window for an easy trip home.

At first glance, having your airplane needing major repair, at Oshkosh, 1100 nautical miles from home, with no money for the repair, would be the worst thing in the world. Lakeland Aero Club immediately reached out to the aviation community through social media and Go Fund Me to start raising money to bring “Miss Bonnie” home. It took our little fleet a week to get back home to Lakeland due to very challenging weather conditions. We all felt greatly honored to see the outpouring of support from the community. So many people stepped up to help us that we were so overwhelmed that we decided to put the names of all the people who helped us on the side of the plane as a token of our gratitude.

By early October all the parts and pieces came together to get the engine. I drove with Cole Harris, (21) the first A&P to come out of our program and