Tiny Airplane Only Flown 1 Time… 27 Years Ago Will It Run Today?

this is a baby Great Lakes and it's tiny like this paperwork weighs about as much as that airplane does let's check it out this little airplane was donated in 1999 24 years ago first time it's been outside since let me just read you some stats on this bad boy stepping into the airplane you can't see its tiny stature it's shorty gear an oversized vertical tail oversized scale it's a scaled down version of a Great Lakes 2T -1 designed in the mid-50s it's so small that it only takes one step from the tarmac into the cockpit One Step yep built specifically for aerobatics not kidding it has an unexpected high performance speeder can be airborne in five seconds from a dead stop and a climb rate of 2,000 ft per minute that's more than my Lance air the airframe is stressed for nine G's FYI more than an F-14 Tomcat and an fa18 Hornet that's insane it's home built meaning you buy the plans or buy the kit stuff and then you build it in your garage uh yeah and it's takes about 1,600 hours to build is what they say well I happen to know the gentleman who donated this took him 27 years to build it what that's sink in for a minute uh his name was uh I'll just call him Earl out of uh Washington just north of us he's been flying since 1947 man amazing and he started building it in 1970 n years before I was born it neared completion in 1996 when Earl was injured in a in a car crash actually and he was unable to fly it this actually kind of sad asked his friend his name was Buck uh to fly it and on the morning of August 12th 1997 this plane made its first and only flight at 5:35 a.m. and here's a note from that log book entry it says good but a little Quick One Flight I mean it does look like it hasn't been flown that is amazing and then only a year and a half later he donated it to the ever green Air and Space Museum here in McMinville Oregon he finished it in 97 donated it in 99 and we're pulling it out for the first time since then 24 years later so this might only be what the second time that this airplane maybe not ever started but that is amazing but it looks like a lot of engine for a small plane and it's got an in number which tells me it's not an ultral light so this you have to have a license to fight and it's built for aerobatics let's check it out and see what we got first thing you'll notice wooden propeller with metal guard here yeah 2600 RPM Superior that's pretty neat I'm seeing inside some pretty big cylinders that that start here I'm assuming there's only two cuz it goes back quite a bit there that would make sense for a small airplane like this definitely not Volkswagen okay whatever two-cylinder thing that is sprung suspension nice some rods Tor I mean the way it's built it is built really really really well it's definitely better than say that little Jenny over there um I mean that's the Lance air oh that's so pretty and I'll be flying that one very soon we're going to haul it back to Florida we're going to we got to pull the Wings off haul it back to Florida go through it really really good replace quite a few usable Parts on it cuz it's been 20 years since it's been outside or been started and we're going to be flying that one again that weird thing the museum it's a Bert routon apparently lives around here somewhere so they were keeping that because that was kind of one of his uh his babies right there so I don't know what the museum is doing with that they're selling the Jenny getting rid of that thing and I bought the glass air over there so that's pretty neat my understanding is they're selling this one too because they have to make room in there for an f117 stealth fighter how cool is that okay back here I mean it's this thing is this this is built really Stout and it's all normal stuff man look at the size of the aerons on that too look at that is much bigger these ailerons These ailerons are bigger than the ones on the Lance air by a lot whoa okay here's comparison my hand down there and you got quite a bit bit now if we go over to the Lance a okay so here is the Aeron on this one that shows you just how big the aerons are on this little tiny airplane compared to even the Lance air which is already a small airplane it's got normal controls on it yep normal all the stuff is just normal I I'm digging it let's see what we got here all right altitude that's good oil pressure Compass air speed temp oil temp RPMs uh 6 hours is what I'm guessing is on that engine it's amazing oh that could be a problem we do not have keys for it and I couldn't find any keys in the file H that that might be a problem might have to hot wire this thing an aluminum gas tank good good sign throttle in the normal Place mixture cut off okay I'm digging it I don't know what that is oh oh that's the primer I know what that is okay so that's the primer carb heat like all of this is normal stuff I really like it this airplane could be one that I would consider flying behind this seat there nothing wood it's metal it's got a a metal frame on it as you can see here it goes around and that's metal bar there and it's got some wooden little substructures to it for the rib things there and then it's Fabric and the fabric granted we know that it's 1997 96 it's been inside the museum looks really really cool dud I I'm honest with you I really like this thing yes I like it it's just spunky that's what it is got some spunkiness to it as I'm digging through the file this little mini blueprint here is awesome but take a look at this right here empty weight 480 lb and it's powered on this one is powered by a continental 80 hor power engine so just just do some math real quick 480 lb divided by 80 horsepower is a lot that's a lot of horsepower for such a small light airplane found this very cool article in the Columbia Basin Herald 1999 that's the man there well done Earl you have built a fantastic little airplane and here's all the logs for it as well that is super neat 1971 oh my goodness 1972 Wings recovered with grade a cotton four coats nitrate okay oh 1994 founded safe for flight find this required for certification has begun in 1994 and First Flight here we go 5:35 a.m. Runway 32 right by buckwheat flight uh characteristics I think that's what that says good but a little quick a little tail heavy needs adjustment of elevator trim 1970 Continental a75 overhaul I think it just sat overhauled for 10 no that's 1970 again that was the hours and then 1997 examine mags points and 97 for the first flight wow yeah there's only 6 hours on that engine but the overhaul granted was done in 1970 very cool here if you've ever wondered construction manual for the baby Lakes airplane and uh it's not that thick if I'm honest with you page one page 70 and it says this is an awesome airplane good luck and don't die and then you got the blueprints here oh come on these are the actual blueprints hold on this is a blueprints just for the exhaust how cool is that right there oh oh there's lots more blueprints oh these are really big blueprints whoa come on this would be the coolest stinking poster wall mount thing ever okay that was a man's dream that's a man's reality let's let's go Jimmy they told me I have to return the file ASAP as it's part of the records and they said Jimmy when you're messing with the airplane don't keep the paperwork next to it and around it but I've got a another bip plane that we should go look at while I take this over there you get you got to see this here is a pits S1 now this is a a true real aerobatic airplane power by a normal 4cylinder pumping out right around 180 to 200 horse on this thing it does weigh twice as much about 800 lb which is still very light and this is the one you see in all the air shows that you go to is an airplane like this and I'll be honest with you it's built very very similar to what you we see out there with the baby Great Lakes this was uh Danny's airplane great job great job yeah see simple simple they have another one of these hanging up on the other side upside down over there but here you got to you got to see this bip plane here probably my favorite bip plane of all of them that are in this Museum that's cool that's not a bip plane but that's pretty neat it is this steerman right here highly modified different propeller on it probably a different engine in it much bigger some slick wheel pants streamline this is one of the most beautiful steer and airplanes I've ever seen I mean it is loaded out let's see what kind of engine it's got in it uh 985 that's a yeah that's good size engine fantastic let's take a look up in the cockpit oh yeah I was told that this was owned by an astronaut and was flying only one year ago so I think we need to talk them into uh getting this thing back out there making sure it stays in the air so it doesn't get permanently grounded fly from the back seat it's a very wellb built airplane oh yeah radios it's even got some instrument navigation stuff wow this is full on and smoke system front passenger seat up here there just so like add is happening all over the place in here you got twin kerosen right here nice space heaters those work ejection seat a bell oh that's from the ship oh the USS Bunker Hill whoa that's cool and uh looks like it may have [Music] been huh I have to read up put in the comments what do you know about the USS Bunker Hill and the ship's Bell here something I haven't taken time to read that yet but that is pretty [Music] neat now it's time for the reveal oh it's a four cylinder whoa that's crazy I thought it was a two cylinder from looking at the front cuz the Bulge there are four cylinders in this thing wow compression ratio 6.3 oo look at them tractor mags un unhooked okay we'll have to figure that out uh there's some oil cobwebb okay there's your gascolator right there that thing it's kind of like a separator all right let's pull these plugs and see what we got well we got to do the uh you know the arm compression check to see if this thing's got any compression hasn't had fuel in it in a very long time key offo okay let's see here comes one okay all right not too bad another one I can hear it okay remember 75 horse not expecting a lot but there is some resistance that's a good sign I am waiting to hear a click though so unless that little thing that not sure if that's going to work I mean it's got I'm digging it check the oil see there's oil in it oh that's been on there a minute oh that is sticky honey oh that is turned back into a dinosaur look at that wow yeah that's really old oil I'm almost afraid do we add oil to it or do we just kind of send it 6 hours I think I'm going to add a quart or two just to give it a little life oh oh I wish you could smell this it smells smells like Gun oil almost at this point and it's got the tackiness of very hot honey I can't imagine a more beautiful thing actually smells really good okay Jimmy in honor of it being in a museum we got some oil from the museum I see a date here 1991 ironically the oil that's in it is newer than the oil I'm getting ready to put in it what do you think you think we'll hear some life out of this thing I mean it's got good compression been inside for a number of years it's only got 6 hours on everything I honestly think this should be good I have noticed one downside there's no battery or starter on this one so we get to man up and you know do that with it uh and there's just me here today so we're gonna have to go go get some help from somebody I was getting ready to point you at that down there but then I noticed there's like duh wait is that the wind or is that like alive still that's just the wind gross gross okay we got to see if that thing moves right there that goes to the carburetor let me know if it moves okay I see okay all right fine me that way woo these are uh they've been there a while yeah 1970 I could absolutely see that all right got some Champion spark plugs all right little dirty but okay it looks moist in there like they may have sprayed some oil in it and I and I will say that this airplane has gotten so much attention parked out back here where the cars can drive back and forth and uh I started about 3 hours ago and I think probably 10 people are so cars and everything have come come by and stopped wanted to check it out and see a picture so whoever gets this airplane is going to get a little attention grabber of an airplane uh that's for sure you know what we're just going to put this bad boy right back in there [Music] and like that and like that that's my confidence level what's see odds that there's any brake fluid in this oh that's all kind of gummy oh I mean it's past the little thing in there H it's got red in it though never could find the keys and there's no starter on it so all we have to do is this if you ever want to steal an airplane all you got to do is pull that off that's it this one and now oh look they're both tied together are you serious and they're grounded right there permanently what on Earth okay I'm going to see if I can do this I uh discovered that in between there in those little round things there's the numbers on those little holes and they put numbers on little pieces of tape here so that was really helpful so you just pop off that little thing pop off that wire and then if you listen really really closely you should be able to hear a little pop and that's sparking so if I did this all correctly we should be able to hear some spark pop pop pop yes we're hearing some sparkage sweet magnetos are working that stuff's working it's got compression now I'm going to go put some gas in it and we're going to see just how much fuel is going to leak out of this thing so yes we got a real gas can finally a normal one and not the the other kind we got a normal good gas can Ching now going in looking for the fuel cut off bottom of the gas tank down here I noticed that little lever right there and then I followed that little thing up the little cable and it comes up to this right here which I thought was the mixture cut off but it's not it is the fuel cut off going to the Bowl outside so that tells me so see watch when I move it that cuts the fuel off going to that whole system out here so unfortunately that fills up with gas and goes into the carburetor the carburetor fills up with gas so that means when I pull that cut off it has to burn and run through all of this gas before the engine can turn off because I disconnected these and normally this is how you would turn the uh engine off you with your key just off so um okay so then what I'm going to have to do maybe is just do that I guess but I have to do it to both of them H I'm going to have to think about this one for a minute cuz if this thing runs away like decides to just go crazy I don't have a way to turn it off once it turns on H something I haven't done is look and just dig through Maybe hopefully by some miracle somebody pulled the key out and it just dropped down in there or something so fingers crossed I'm going to dig through this airplane just to see if okay let's see if we can't find keys they gave us three unnamed keys so we're going to see if these can do anything for us whatsoever do you have I mean I doubt it I don't even know if these are going to fit in there oh they actually fit in there though that's kind of amazing nope well so that one that one fits in there huh okay so we know what kind of key fits in it see if we can't find any more as a special treat I had a viewer Jim he heard that somehow I at MREs or something or something about an M I'm not sure of but he stopped by said hi he's a You2 pilot and uh you were part of the stealth 117 program well we can't talk about that uh because it never officially existed safety wise safety wise uh YouTube pilot talking about flying at 7 3,000 ft yeah and his indicated air speed was what 63 knots 65 I think in the old the a model the a model and his ground speed was 400 and something knots 410 little yeah it's just the guys as a Legend and his name is Jim so you know he's got to be a good guy oh man so hey thank you uh for the M I think we're going to cook this bad boy up for lunch today okay we're going to see we got Southwest style beef and black beans yeah well good I hope you enjoy it and certainly been entertaining being around you for a while thank you so much yeah he even came out to the movie we had here the other day so that was great was great all right Grizzly this is for you right here let's dig in dry hand there we go boom you got that and you take bam see what we got oh yeah here we go we got your beef and black beans boom there's that mixed fruit score come on be jalapeno cheese just regular cheese spread that's right tortillas yes Chipotle tortillas some turkey nuggets that sounds suspicious okay didn't know turkeys had nuggets is that like chicken nuggets h and what we got marble pound cake dude military is living large man we got pound cake then we got the instant [Music] cappuccino all right our heater pack we'll get our beans cooking and then we'll spoil our dinner with the rest of this while we're waiting on this to cook we're going to put some gas in there and see just how much of it leaks out on the ground great so the trick is you put water in the bottom right there do not overfill they're not kidding about that and then you shake it a bunch and you get whatever is in there touches water and it gets really super duper hot you lean it up against a rock like that and about 10 minutes later you have a warm toasty meal we got our loming water jug okay just a little bit hold that and then you put your sleeve on like so a band then I shake mine around a bunch to get the water on all those little packets whatever that is and a minute here it'll start steaming and and reacting and we'll give that a minute set it up against a rock or something there you go cheese likee substance spread it's basically easy cheese in a can what was your favorite MRE if you're in the military some of you guys are old enough to have rations where you had to get a little P38 and oh look at that do not eat little uh oh wait got to say grace thank you Lord Jesus for letting us do this crazy fun stuff and get to do this for a living that's pretty awesome and for providing this food like substance amen oh pretty good not going to lie tortilla tastes like a tortilla probably not going to poop for a week now that's fine ingredients not in regular cheese beans and whatever is in that package to cook let's see how much of a fuel leak we're going to be dealing with here let me know as soon as fuel starts dumping out from behind here that way I can stop pouring hey look and a normal fuel can open and a vent breather done take off oh yeah check that out that's the fuel so as the fuel goes up it goes and that tells you how much fuel you have in there H just a simple little float all right let had just a little tiny bit any leaking yet no okay I'm going to go turn the fuel on let me know all right here it goes any leaking oh yeah I see it right there shoot let me show you what I'm looking at that is dripping from there and from that thing the gascolator it looks like it's on the back wall back there so I don't know if it's the fitting or if it's the the gasket on top I can't rightly tell you notice that hose that it's got right there that blue one will take this cing off and we'll use our fancy dcy adapter that we had to use on the glass air for this one and we'll bypass all of that stuff let's get this thing off and let's get our fuel external fuel tank funky Jimmy's World special system set up let's go check on our beans is it bubbling yet oh yeah it's getting toasty warm nice few warm minutes Dad the spark plugs unhooked in here too okay come on lots of spider webs had those disconnected as well so it wouldn't have started very well lot spider webs though so here's what we're going to do we've got our connection we'll unhook it from here and we'll hook our other one to it and it'll goop to a gas can sitting over here with a little pump to get fuel into it and I'm just going to pump enough to fill this bowl up cuz again I have no way to turn it off once it gets started because on this airplane which is different than a lot of other airplanes there's only one lever for the gas to go vroom vroom vroom vroom but not another one to adjust the mixture cuz normally on a normal airplane you have two knobs one for the throttle which is as this one to make it go faster or slower and another one for the mixture that you can then pull all the way back to cut the fuel off all together but this is a uh much much older style carburetor that does not have that option so because of hot wiring the magnetos once these start sparking you can't turn it off with the switch these are always going to be sparking until there's no more fuel to Bur burn so that's kind of the risk we're running here is hot wirring it once it starts it'll just burn whatever fuel you've got in there so you better be ready for that now Jimmy what are you doing trying to start that airplane up with this wall right behind you and all the museum stuff in that glass there well it's okay because we're going to move it one hand is move it over here instead I'm going to park it here next to all the other player planes so that way if this one does Catch Fire we're just going to take them all out with me yeah you know what's what could possibly go wrong definitely going to need to put some weight on the back of this cuz I have no idea about the weight and balance if we Spin and this thing is going to go bam or something like that I don't know throws some weight in the back chalk the tires put our gas can rig thing up there go find some other poor soul to man The throttles and then I'll man up and throw this thing you know just thinking about all that I've worked up an appetite let's see what turkey nuggets are still waiting for this thing to finish cooking oh yeah you can hear bubbling and it's not actually all that hot I don't know what I did wrong turkey nuggets oh that's got a glaze on it that's it's very shiny smells like beef jerkey should smell a little dry I don't like that it's like that mental game placebo effect it's it's got the smell of jerky even the a a slight Taste of jerky but that ain't jerky that is definitely a turkey nugget let's eat some mixed fruit hey that looks like old fruit cocktail check that out honestly it probably looks the same coming in as it does going out it's kind of kind of your your basic philosophy when it comes to M fi rations beverage base cranberry grape nice it's like Gatorade slightly more Brown than I would anticipate again just don't read the uh ingredients that's not bad bam fruit mixed fruit and heavy syrup winter turkey nuggets freaking gross yeah we're all right beans are you done yet no all right we got battle to fight here we can't wait any longer tear Mark got to pull it off that is still cold the smell is exactly what you think it smells like look at that bone surprisingly good that does not taste like what it looks like I can taste the chili powder in it I wish I had the Chipotle tortillas that would have made it really good looks disgusting don't look at it that was like the odala super food juices it looks like Pon scum but it's actually quite delicious marble pound cake now I've got pretty high expectations cuz if I'm honest they have one of these that's cornbread that's ridiculously good like I would go buy that cornbread at the store here's your pound cake not quite a pound 100% a little dry okay it's a lot dry it's like eating flour but flavor is on point that like cinnamon or something right there now in the Air Force we don't rock or anything like that so we never got super hungry and worked up a real appetite like the army guys you guys part of your basic training is rucking and stuff like that and we're like no thanks okay well how many throws do you think it's going to be to get that thing started 1997 I that'll start we've seen crazier stuff start all right let me walk you through what we got going on here we uh took off that fuel line we put in our homemade adapter fuel line kind of made in China bubble thing here we're just going to fill this part of the carburetor it's the bowl that way it has to run out of gas once it get started so I don't want to put a lot of gas in there so we're just going to do that and then that's as much gas as that'll be in there so then once it runs out of gas it'll run out of gas that's that's my thought process Tire trucks we got weight in here battery down there my toolbox right here to try to keep the tail down a little bit since I can't find anything to tie it to and I don't want to set anything on this back here it's fabric I was thinking about setting my toolbox up there but ah I was afraid it would tear the fabric so that's where that's at now for the fuel here's what I'm thinking we're going to try using some math and physics hooked it there the line goes up so the fuel will only be this deep when I disconnect this from the fuel tank we're going to prime it with that into the fuel there and then fill it and then disconnect it and tie this off somewhere ah this is yeah such a bad idea so in theory we should be able to pump gas from here over to there oh there it goes all right here we go oh yeah pouring out all over the place perfect good okay let's try that again this time we use a fuel clamp oh and then it leaks just as well good oh oh we got a massive weak out of the carburetor that is that's a lot of fuel okay that's coming right out of the carburetor no spark plugs in the top no I'm kind of wondering if I just overfilled it and it pushed the fuel through the needle and seat thankfully it's not into the engine it overflowed into the airbox down here and is just coming out of the bottom so that's that's that but my concern if we had a backfire that's right on top of that fuel with it leaking on the ground right there so I think I'll you don't know if they have any floor dry in there do you oil absorbent we've got a small puddle of fuel coming out of the carburator airbox right there I think what happened was I just try to squeeze a little too much juice into the into the box there I'm going to find something to throw on that and because the exhaust is right over top of that so if we get a backfire it's going to hit that and then bof and go up it would make for an epic video but since I don't actually own this airplane and I have no intention on buying it I don't want to buy the airplane so we're going to where yeah we're going to yes yep mhm fuel leak has stopped we kind of got that wrapped up where it needs to be you know Safety First put the sparkk plugs back in and remember the the prop it's live right now so it can spark at any moment and there is definitely fuel here so I'm going to yeah just kind of stay clear of that as we do this and really even with these top spark plug wires disconnected theoretically it could start because now I've plugged the hole for the compression so if there was a spark inside there and if the stars were aligned then it could could go watch me being all nervous and this is the one plane that doesn't start after all this that that would make more sense I also noticed that they clocked the uh the propeller so that it clicked or you know went past the top dead center near the bottom which is not good so you want to have the propeller so that whenever it goes past the top dead center the point of spark it's right about here yeah right about here not way down here where I think it is okay so spark plugs are in that's tied off we've got oil in it we got fuel in the thing all right now that's wide open and off fuel cut off is here there's no mags uh enlist the help of a uh gentleman oh he ran away so if this thing does start up and for some reason catches fire we're just going to film it cuz we have no way to shut it down once it does start if I have mentioned that about a thousand times already why do I do this stuff yeah just keep fingers and toes away and I'm going to be in front of it because there's wires and if this thing does do something I'm going back that way yeah I mean we put it just off of idol on throttle so if it does start it shouldn't run away it should idle you know be close to idle but if I'm honest with you we have no earthly idea what's going to happen and that's that's what could possibly go wrong and the Spruce Goose is right over there so we can if it has enough fuel in it to get through the door into there we can that I don't want to think about that video all right you ready and uh can I get a clear prop see it's way down there okay can I get a clear prop nothing gosh I'm so nervous clear the props clear prop nothing good morning good morning good [Music] morning squirt squirt squirt there it goes yes okay smell the smell The Ether nice ah clear prop nice work woo yeah it actually sounds okay wow we have to wait for it to run out of gas yeah uh so we're here until it runs out of gas um yeah well put in the comments what's your guess on how long this thing is going to run before it runs out of gas oh oh up oh there it goes W good job nice job Jim you too Jimmy we we may have to blur his face out because he was involved in some very uh top secret stuff you know so you you've never seen him he doesn't right there there he goes oh that's fantastic good job that's great hey now we just need to find a key I honestly think this airplane could fly again I agree I think so it's built really well it's actually in remark ably good condition the motor sounded pretty good uh definitely needs you know some refreshing and touching cuz it's been 20 something years 1997 so whatever that math adds up to but I think this airplane could fly again unfortunately I've got my hands full with this glass air I bought that this one can't fly again because of legal reasons you can see that video over there and I bought a lance air on that side over there that we are going to be flying did not buy that that's somebody's project that they can deal with but this I think this thing could fly [Applause] again I almost forgot celebration Mocha Cappuccino instant powder M doesn't don't look at it cheers thank you for your service [Music]

Channel: Jimmys World

Views: 372,624

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Id: X6m1dSD1urU

Length: 50min 34sec (3034 seconds)

Published: Fri Oct 20 2023