Welcome to Welcome to Since my childhood days I always dreamed of flying airplanes. I'd spend hours tuning and flying balsa wood airplanes. As I grew older I graduated to gas engine model airplanes on control wire. I got my first real airplane ride in 1977 when I met former bush pilot Bob Raymond. We rented a Cessna 172 at Brainard Field and I was hooked. Bob and I came to be business partners in a metal finishing company as well as a couple of airplanes. I learned to fly in 1978 when Bob and I purchased a 1956 Piper Tri-Pacer. The Tri-Pacer was 4 place, all fabric airplane, powered by a 150 horse power Lycoming. I learned to fly and received my private pilots certificate in that aircraft.
Bob stands with our 1956 Tripacer.
Bob had a couple of sporting camps on Parlin pond (just south of Jackman Maine.) We flew that Tri-Pacer regularly to Jackman, Maine, often stopping over at Hampton, New Hampshire, where Jim Allen was rebuilding a 1946, PA-12 Super Cruiser, from the ground up.
1946 Piper PA-12 Super Cruiser on Edo 2000 Pontoons
It would be difficult to correctly identify this airplane as a 1946 Super Cruiser after extensive modification and restoration. Mod's include addition of wing booster tips, flaps, counter balanced elevators, extended baggage compartment for guns, fishing rods, etc..., aileron extensions, skylight roof, and many more performance enhancements not readily apparent in this picture. This is the second airplane Bob and I owned together. This was a real fun bird!! We would operate the aircraft on wheels in the winter and floats in the summer. This allowed us to access to many places. We fish some great fishing holes in the Maine backwoods that were inaccessable even by 4x4's .
Although we were never completely happy with the Lycoming 150 hp, this was still a great performing bush plane that would carry 3 persons and anything you could strap to it. On floats we used the Borer prop conversion which really helped STOL performance with that engine. The airplane was sold to a fellow on Nantucket Island who used the airplane for bush work in Alaska during the summer and ferried it home for the off season.
1948 Stinson Voyager 108-3
Above is a great shot of Dan Bouchard's Stinson. Danny traded an old bulldozer for this airplane which was in pretty sad shape at the time. Danny has done two restorations of this airplane since with the major restoration in 1982-1983. At this time, the aircraft was complete dissasembled to it's most basic components. All parts were inspected, remanufactured, refinished, or replaced as necessary. Not a screw was left unturned. The metalized wings were returned to fabric and any other modifications were made correct.
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