Airventure prep can take all year, or even years...

This year the 100th anniversary of Fairchild Aircraft and the 100th Anniversary of Travel Air is also going to be recognized during Airventure and I've committed to bring an example of each. The Fairchild 24W is about ready to go with its interior now finished.

Friday a couple of friends and I flew up to Poplar Grove, Illinois to take a look at what we will need to do to prep the Curtiss Wright Travel Air Speedwing. Its restoration has taken place over a couple of decades, and despite only having about 40 flying hours on it, just sitting in a hangar can take a toll.

Luckily, we found that just a paint polish and wax will be 90% of what we need to do. A couple of warm July days should take care of that.

While we were there we fitted a trial cockpit cover from Bruce's Custom Covers. Bruce and his team are meticulous and when they haven't done a cover before they want lots of photos, videos and measurements and then they sew a trial cover for test fitting! It's the second time I've been through this process and their attention to detail is really impressive.

I'm having this cover made with the front cockpit cover installed - so no windscreen installed either. That system is actually pretty neat. You remove the metal cover, install a collar which has a leather combing on it and then install the windscreen. I've attached a couple photos of that.

We got the test cover on, took a bunch of additional photos and measurements and its now up to Bruce and his skilled team to finish up!