Adaptation and Creative Solutions

Sometimes you just don't know what you're getting into. Parts and pieces of a 1949 Piper Clipper have been shipped from Colorado and if guessing by the overflow of packages, you might conclude that everything you need is there for "easy" restoration. But some necessary bits are either well hidden at the bottom of full boxes, or in some cases you decide to alter the original design somewhat - now what?

Case in point: Nick and Tom decided that they didn't want a back seat and they adapted the area around the back windows for the redesign.  It wasn't easy to apply the Poly-Fiber around the new back windows but they managed. The rotating support that Nick built allows them to position the fuselage for best access. It only looks easy.

Here they have finished adding the interior's side fabric after much turning and repositioning the fuselage.  The reach is inevitably a couple of inches shorter than required, so Nick turns the whole thing on its side and works through the door openings. Another adaptation is the back interior wall. Now dressed in yet-to-be poly-brushed Poly-Fiber, it was originally planned as a metal barrier.  That didn't seem necessary after all - so Nick crawled under the frame to add the fabric.

When the Clipper was recently rotated for access to the interior cabin roof, I got to thinking about the uncommon views of the fuselage top and bottom. I pay more attention to these vantage points when planes pass overhead now.

One more uncommon view: Nick happily using a cell phone (mostly he mutters about the unnecessary clutter of the "instrument panel"). Once an analog instrument guy, always an analog instrument guy.

Photos and text by Kathleen Jacques.