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One evening, a friend called Jerry and said, "I've got something that I know you want - and it's free!" Jerry replied, " I don't care what it is, if it's free , I'll come and get it." He journeyed to his friend's house and discovered the man had just acquired a factory brochure on the " New 1959 Piper Comanche" - the exact model that Jerry owned! He now had an origi nal paint scheme to follow plus a detailed original interior. The Comanche was taken to Red and Vera Brend of Ada Aircraft Painting in Ada, Oklahoma, who have been painting airplanes for many, many years. After much preparation, the final finish was done in Pratt & Lambert " Acryglo" and the results speak for themselves. Again , the factory brochure was a big help in get ting the paint scheme accurate. To finish off the interior, Jerry flew the Comanche over to Oklahoma City where Rick Harris has his interior shop in the Gulfstream complex. With the interior photo from the brochure, Rick went to work and duplicated it exactly. The Oshkosh judges were in for a real treat when they went over the airplane from nose to tail. Needless to say, Jerry scored well on the original interior so accurately done by Rick Harris - with the precious brochure to guide him. All glass was replaced in the airplane including the 114" thick, one-piece wind shield - a rather ticklish operation in that the chunk of plexiglass is rather massive and extreme care must be taken to get everything to fit without forcing any part
of it - or you hear a loud CRACK! Jerry's good friend, Craig Easter (EAA 361559) gave him a most welcome helping hand on the installation. The side windows were replaced by routing the edges of the 1/4" plexiglass with a router to where the finished .100" size would just slip into the window groove with the outside surface exactly flush with metal window trim . A close examination of the finished job re veals a near perfect fit. (Jerry calls it pa tience.) Craig Easter was also the genius be hind the wing repair which is absolutely undetectable. As Jerry says, "He is the kind of dog that can catch anything! When you roll something into Craig's shop , he grabs the tools and he 's on it. H e spends very little time wiping his hands on a shop rag. We rolled th e Co manche into his shop at 3 p.m. and it was rolled out the door the next forenoon at 11 o'clock! " There was a host of small details to re pair a nd redo on the airplane , but these were taken care of one at a time. Hoses and clamps, seals of all kinds, gaskets that leaked, etc, etc. were all replaced one at a time until the oil quit dripping. About the time that Jerry thought he had them all , something else would start leaking! That's the nature of the beast. However, if you can put up with all the small details, you get a dandy flying airplane. Jerry always liked the conventional geared airplanes, however, as he has " ma tured in years," he notices the tricycle gear is much nicer to land with and the
Comanche is a delightful machine to land. The low-wing configuration gives a nice ground cushion before touchdown and when you add in flaps for descent control, it is hard to make a bad landing . At cruise , Jerry can consistently make 158 mph at nine to eleven thousand feet with fuel consumption at 9-10 gph. The best he has done is 8-1/2 gph and the worst at low altitude is about 11 to 12 gph. With the 180 engine, the Comanche has consid erable range with 60 gallon fuel tanks, in fact , somewhat beyond most pilot's kid ney capacity. With the autopilot working, Jerry says his airplane is ideal for cross-country and he and Sandra have flown over 200 hours this past year making jaunts in all direc tions. Jerry uses the airplane mostly for pleasure, however, once in a while a busi ness trip is worked into the schedule . With Sandra's son a student at Northern Arizona State and her daughter at MIT in Boston , a certain amount of travel is in evitable! The Comanche does its job per fectly, especially with Jerry as pilot and Sandra as co-pilot. The admiring glances the Comanche gets at every fuel stop aren' t too hard to take either. Congratulations again to Jerry and Sandra Ross for taking home the very first ever Contemporary Grand Cham pion " Lindy" at EAA Oshkosh '93. We look forward to seeing the pretty red and white champion in the Antique/Classic Division ' s enclosure marked PAST GRAND CHAMPIONS at EAA Oshkosh '94. ... VINTAGE AIRPLANE 25