Calvin,

PM the Administrator Jeff Carneal and let him know of your trouble he can get it sorted out for you...

Click the member tab in the red bar above then just search his name, then click on the little letter icon to send a message..

Jay

Thanks, Jay.
I just sent Jeff a note. Will see what he says.
Thanks for your help.
Cal

Capt Pitts,

Does the Pengilly Corp in Ellicottville, NY still have N3736F? I see on flight aware that she has not flown in 4 years. She would be a wonderful addition to place at the Beechcraft museum!

Calvin,

Not sure what happened ....it's not the first time. However, it is very infrequent in my case and suspect it has more to do with my distractions as I am about to submit. The Jeff's may know. However, I just re-write the response. No worries.

Calvin....... Until you sort out your problem you might type and save your responses in word. Copy and paste them into your response. This will allow you to easily repost your response in the event it is lost. Many do this to take advantage of the spell check in their word processor. Some of us are not real good spelers anyhow

I did notice there are two submit buttons at the bottom of the reply page. One below the reply box and one further below the attachment box. Can either submit button be used, regardless of whether an attachment is included?

Robert

Chris,

I think they are the ones who still own it.

This reminds me that I wrote a somewhat lengthy response about the "sad story" of the demise of the Spirit. I spent a good bit of time on that story ... except it is nowhere on this thread. This has happened to at 6 or 7 of the stories I posted.

Unfortunately, I didn't realize until today that they were missing. I should have typed them first on my computer, then pasted them on BT. As a result, the majority of the "content" I have posted is nowhere on this thread.

At any rate, that posting about the demise of N3736F would be very appropriate to your question.

I have written Jeff Carneal, asking if that content is recoverable, but haven't heard back from him. If so, nothing is lost. If not, then I'll never be able to re-create all the content.

I believe it was the owner of that company who was the subject of my posting.

Is the plane totaled? If not, would be interesting to find out more or where it might be located.

No, the plane was NOT totaled. It was repaired, and was for sale about 3 years ago.

Chris,

Earlier, I tried posting a story in answer to your question, but when I hit SUBMIT, the posting disappeared. That has happened 6 or 7 times, stories that I can't recall.
Here's my second attempt, in 2 parts. I can't possibly remember what I wrote earlier about N3736F, but here's a summary:

PART I: My house burned down in 1984, and with it a mountain of pictures and artifacts. The pictures I had given to friends were quickly returned to me as copies, which are some of those posted on this thread. (I guess you only keep what you give away.)

But the loss of years of pictures, interviews (with men like Jimmy Doolittle), Gordon Post (Wiley's brother), Mae Post (Wiley's wife) etc…etc…etc, and museum-quality artifacts, including hundreds of things relating to the RTW flight took something out of me.

At about the same time, I left my life with NASA and started flying for the airlines. The cumulative effect, plus the death in a Bonanza of a dear friend who was setting up a company to market the winglets (a separate story), took my heart out of the whole affair.

Leaving it behind, I lost track of the SPIRIT until an unusual event occurred.

I was flying the line at the time, and was parked on the Boston ramp with about an hour to kill. I looked across the ramp and saw an FBO. Coffee sounded good, so I told my co-pilot I'd be back in a few minutes.

As I walked across the ramp in the semi-darkness, somehow N3736F flashed into my mind. Very distinctly, almost audibly, I said … Wonder whatever happened to that beautiful Spirit of Winnie Mae?

Chris, Here's the continuation:

PART II: What I say next sounds like made-up embellishment, because it is so strange. But I swear on my mother's grave that it is the truth. As that strong longing to know about N3736F flashed into my mind -- something new since the fire -- in that very instant I was walking past an A36.

Casually I looked at the fuselage number. I was so stunned I almost chocked. I could not believe what I was seeing. I was reading --N3736F--. I blinked, wondering if this was hallucination? But I knew some tale-tell indicators on the plane.

The Spirit had a Baron leading edge fuel tank (another story about a friend who damaged it 1 month before my departure). The left wing of this plane in the semi-darkness had a LE fuel tank.

Another unique marker would be a special switch on the instrument panel for pumping oil into the engine's oil tank while actually in flight. That switch was there, plus more of the 30 mods I had added.

I had actually stumbled over the SPIRIT. But … there were no tip tanks nor winglets. There was no beautiful paint job. It was an ugly brown. What had someone done to that beautiful plane? I could not believe what I was seeing.

In the FBO, I got a name and phone number. Called him and found out the story.
Someone was flying it into NY in bad weather in December. At about 5000' (my memory of that number after 18 years may be in error) … on a 10 mile final (I think), the engine began to run rough, then quit. Investigation, according to the NTSB, said that the water crystals in the fuel had turned to ice. No, they had not put additives in the fuel to avoid this.

Result: their power-off glide put them in a marsh just short of the runway on their belly. The damage was not serious. Once repaired, they put an ugly BE36-TC on sale for $195,000, with no reference to its history and accomplishments.

There was nothing I could do to retrieve it because I didn't have the money. So I closed the book again after it had been so ingloriously opened one night on a Boston ramp.

I never checked the internet again. I had pictures, and memories, and that was enough. The Spirit of Winnie Mae would have to remain a picture. I could live with that. But inside, I was torn.

Yes.

Calvin,

Wow! Sometimes the best we can attribute the toughest of circumstance is in reference to Life's tribulations. It's cool to hear about those surreal moments in one's life like your walk across the ramp. I think many of us here on this board have had very emotional attachments to previous planes.....and none were as profoundly accomplished as yours. Very tough to here how new owners took the ignoble path of letting our planes become ramp trash or flying them into harms way.

Though first effort might be lost to computer gremlins, I would love to here more about the winglets - their design, function and history. We're they ever approved by the FAA in any way?

Thanks for the uplift, Kevin.
I will honor your request, but I am scheduled for a Sunday dinner a few miles away.
But when I return, tomorrow, I will attempt the task of re-writing something I tried to send earlier.
Thanks more than I can say.

Calvin has been kind enough to add more information to the photographs. I have edited my posts on page one to include the comments up to photograph 12.

[Possibly this is the information that went missing - it was sent via email]

Thanks, Simon.
Greatly appreciate your help. You've done a beautiful job. I'll finish the other pictures tomorrow.
Re: the missing items, they were stories, not these captions.

I think I figured out the problem, but not the solution.
After my last posting, I just happened to notice afterwards a note which said something about not being able to add another Post if there were 2 quotes included.
I'm sure the program simply dumped whatever I had written.
I'll try to re-create as much as I can, but it will be hard to remember it again.