by David Flint
Dana Tarr has restored to pristine beauty a number of vintage cars in his cellar and in his garage on Calvin Cole Road in Stephentown. The day he hauled home the parts of an ancient airplane and installed it in the garage, spouse Judy said she thought he was crazy. “And he still is,” she affirms.
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What Tarr has been doing for the past 20 months is tediously and patiently putting back into airworthy shape a Stinson 108-3 built in 1948 or ‘49. The “108” was the sleek post WWII single-engine civilian plane produced by the Stinson Division of Consolidated Vultee Aircraft Corporation. Flight and aircraft aficionados will recall that the Stinson Division, successor to the famous Stinson Aircraft Corporation founded by air entrepreneur Eddie Stinson, was later taken over by the Piper Corporation, producer of the Piper Cub. During the War, the Stinson Division had delivered to the armed services thousands of L-5 observation/liaison planes with short takeoff and landing capabilities, affectionately known as “flying jeeps.”
The model of the post-war Stinson that Tarr owns was dubbed the “Flying Station Wagon.” It has a reinforced floor and with the two rear seats removed it will accommodate 600 pounds of baggage. It also has an external baggage compartment door. The plane is powered by a 165 hp Franklin air-cooled engine. Tarr says its cruising speed is about 120 mph.
The fuselage is a fabric covered steel tube. Much of Tarr’s restoration work went into the time consuming task of carefully applying dope and paint to the fabric – seven coats of dope, and four coats of red paint.
Tarr said most of the parts came with the plane but a few were missing and were hard to find. The wings turned out to have some corrosion so that they would not pass inspection. Tarr finally found replacements at an “airplane junkyard” in California and had them delivered.
Tarr is a qualified pilot with an Airframe & Power Plant license. He was a U.S. Army Flight Engineer on Chinook helicopters during the Vietnam War. While in the service he joined a flying club at Fort Sill and in the 1970s he owned and flew a plane similar to the Stinson, a rebuilt Piper-built Tri-Pacer.
Tarr recently towed the Stinson to the Poestenkill Airport. He has been taking refresher seminars on flying and has had a local inspector inspecting the progress of getting the plane ready and determining final airworthiness. If all goes well, he expects to fly it to the Oshkosh Air Show later this month.
Air Venture Oshkosh, the annual gathering of enthusiasts of all things aviation, sponsored by the Experimental Aircraft Association, is the largest of its kind in the world. Flying with him will be the gentleman from Connecticut from whom Tarr bought the plane. The flying distance is about 750 miles so there will be a couple of stops along the way.
(All photos by David Flint)[/private]