Progress. . .

Behold!  The parts have arrived!  Here are two of the four boxes that were delivered to Brother Baker's doorstep Tuesday afternoon.  The top overhaul of 43 Bravo's Continental 85 (with the O200 STC) should be completed shortly!  In fact, the team is set to assemble Monday morning---crew scheduling willing, and the creek don't rise!

The past few months have been rough.  With three full time pilots---Brother Hogan and the EG are out-of-towners (no offense guys)---having one airplane out of commission has been hard on the Jellystoners.  Overall, our membership is not slight of build.  The recent trend of 2,800' density altitudes pretty much limits the Hatz to single pilot operations---and we are a social group!  It's mid July and we have yet to visit the smoothie machine at the Bush-N-Vine Produce Stand in York, South Carolina.  As if there was a chance of that happening---what with the recent monsoon rains. . .  Soggy runways aside; like Brother Baker, we are all glad the parts have arrived.

Speaking of Brother Baker:  He decided to use the down time---between sissy French airliner flights, of course---to spruce up the engine compartment.  Except for the cowling; all of the airframe parts have been cleaned, inspected, painted, and reinstalled with new hardware.  It really looks nice!  Last week he decided to paint the engine case gold.  That got the attention of Jellystone Air Park neighbor, and vintage aircraft purist, Russ Farris.  You may recall that Russ has a beautiful 1957 Cessna 172 that he co-owns with Forrest Walton.  Both are fellow Francois Flyers of Brother Baker at US Airways.  When Russ saw the gold colored paint job he offered the following comment:  "You know you might lose a couple of points at Oshkosh; Continental didn't start painting their engine cases gold until 1965."  Touché, frère Russ, Touché!  Now if it would just stop raining. . .

A derriere view of the Farris-Walton 172.