11/2/2025

**looks around nervously**

Ok… cool!!! Greg’s not around. He and Leo would throw a fit if they knew I was on their precious Crew Chief’s Page. But what they don’t know won’t hurt them. Haha

In all seriousness, now that the major restoration is essentially complete, this particular “dedicated stick actuator” (translation - has the mechanical skills of a toothpick) wanted to chime in on a thing or two. It goes without saying that we pilots are so thankful for the mechanical geniuses of our gang. You could not ask for a more dedicated, detail-oriented, and hard working group of people that took on the challenge. They sank hundreds of hours of their personal time in sweating out this restoration, poring over every little detail as they worked themselves to the bone. That kind of work simply cannot be appreciated enough… especially when you as the “pilot-only” can only do such things as offer to hand over a asked-for tool… or clean a windshield. LOL

Working so closely with them, an undeniable camaraderie formed between restorers and pilots. Greg understood from the get go that it would ultimately fall to us “sticks” to validate the repair work they were doing, and he and his team made it clear that pilot safety was THE priority. So they kept us non-wrenchers closely in the loop on what was going on. We were able to watch their work first hand (and often invited to help out to better appreciate it), listened as they described what repair had been done and why they had chosen to do it the way they had. In turn, they listened as we gave feedback on how the repairs looked or felt, and they took that feedback seriously. If the pilots felt it wrong, they went back into the fray to make the requested adjustments. Nothing was too trivial, nothing was inconsequential.

So when it came to that first test flight, there was no hesitation on the part of the pilots on that day back in August as we throttled up to take Annie back to the skies. The inevitable exhilaration of feeling her get airborne aside, it was almost anti-climatic; such is the case when you KNOW what a solid maintenance team you have! It was practically a textbook first flight - the engine had nary a hiccup, the controls were smoother than we remembered, and she was practically “riding on rails” in terms of stability! Greg, Keith, Charlie, Chris, and Taurus (and a number of volunteers that had lent a hand over the years) had done outstanding work!!!

I guess where this is going is that I felt the need to express the appreciation us “dedicated stick actuators” have for the wrenchers of the group. That Annie is flying is entirely due to your herculean efforts. That Issac Newton quote, “We stand on the shoulders of giants…” is entirely applicable to how we pilots feel about having the privilege of having 41-21218 flying once again Thank you all for all you have done and what you will do to keep our gal airworthy!

Alex