My first plane was a '63 172D. Bought it and took all but 2 hours of my dual instruction in it. Soloed with 5.4 hours and never looked back. It needed some TLC, and I had it painted, did a top overhaul on the O-300, replaced all the upholstery, painted the interior and did a complete panel upgrade. I sold it in 2000 after I found a '60 Beech Debonair that was very reasonably priced. The 172 showed up back a an airport only 25 miles from when I'm based, and was used in a TV promo for an airport appreciation day. Looked identical to when I sold it.
Where does your tractor sleep?
- Thread starter SmallChange
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Small world. N2506Y is in my logbooks back in 1971, and your Deb looks remarkably like my deceased-friend's who recently willed it to Angel Flight...very similar paint job. I personally installed landing-gear landing-lights on it for him using Duke brackets and obtaining a field approval (total cost <$350) as opposed to buying the STC for $1400. Made a huge difference landing out here on my dark-hole ranch strip.
Nice photos.
Nice photos.
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That is a nice looking Deb, same year as mine. The FAA site says it is serial # CD-154, mine, N35F is CD-72. My father once owned N421T which lived in Texas for a while, but is now in Colorado.
I see it has a three blade prop, was it repowered? I bought the DeShannon STC and put an IO-520BB and McCaulley C-406 in mine in 2003. Wow, what a difference over the tired old 470.
Don't I wish!
I'm imagining a cold winter morning, with some snow removal ahead, but for the moment just puttering around in the predawn making things right and sipping coffee. Hot, bitter, thick, steaming, potent, utterly black coffee. Maybe an oil-stained rag in hand....
That is damn close to what actually occurs!
That shop/garage was a dream....worked long and hard for it...
Look closer...that's a two-blade McCauley prop. My buddy got distracted helping a hangar-mate move a C210 and walked back to his Deb from the tail,,, forgetting to remove the tow-bar. He had replaced an ammeter and wanted to taxi out to the runup area to test it. As soon as the engine started the nosegear oleo compressed and he experienced a prop-strike.
Insurance paid for an engine tear-down and prop (and he was lucky because since he wasn't starting it to go fly but only to do a test run... it was considered a "not in motion/ground-event" and his zero-deductible applied.
Basically, he got a lower-end overhaul on engine and the original prop and governor and spinner were no longer available so he got all new/more modern units. A year later, he landed down in Progresso at Pedersen's mod facility (looks more like an 18-wheeler wrecking yard from the air) and landed on a close-by parallel street instead of the street-like actual runway 50' east. On roll-out the nosegear collapsed when it hit a 6" curb.
Once-again, insurance picked up the tab and this time it cost him his $1K deductible to get a modern, New A-36 nosegear (replacing the original out-of-availability which had mandatory service bulletins against it) and another engine bottom overhaul and new prop.
He later replaced all six cylinders with new. (In effect, making it a complete Major Overhaul, but because of the sequence of events, looks like 3 major repairs instead.)
Before he died, he was very worried that he'd not get good value from that airplane when he quit flying and sold it because the records didn't indicate Major Overhauls but instead Major Repairs, when in-fact the engine was very low-time.,,, however the repairs lead one to believe an engine with high time between Ovhls because of the continued "time in service" math.
He died unexpectedly in unsuccessful recovery from surgery-gone-badly and poorly advised by close family member (my opinion) to enter hospice rather than change doctors. The airplane went to Angel Flight and I believe it's now under change-of registration, probably sold to someone in OR. If that person ever contacted me I could tell them a lot about that airplane which isn't obvious.
But, they are really nice little airplanes. His also had an interior trim that other Debs do not have because Pedersen used it to develop new products. He had also won the AvWeb lottery and it has a new Avidyne ID540 in it, recently installed.
Moderators: we didn't mean to hijack this thread. Feel free to split it off and retitle it. Apologies to others.
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RCW
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BX2360, FEL, MMM, BX2750D snowblower. 1953 Minneapolis Moline ZAU
Geo -
I was going to suggest you guys take your airplane stuff to another new Off Topic thread. Make it yourself.
Trust me, not being critical at all....I really enjoy the photos.
I started a "What's Cookin Boys" thread long ago.. has little to do with Kubota's...
. Since you like old cars, I also periodically make mention of my volunteer fun activity "Off Topic." I've been on the Board of Trustees for almost 20 years:
https://www.classiccarmuseum.org/
I have very little experience, but small aircraft are interesting to me, and I encourage you guys to continue here at OTT.
Seems there's at least a couple/few more pilots here as well. Might be kinda cool!
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Tropical Jack
Active member
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Kubota L3301 w/ FEL & BH, tilt and trim, chipper, box blade, grading blade
Right now, my tractor sleeps under the stars. She is wanting of a home to call her own, but the 20x30 shed she could be sleeping in collapsed with our 17” snowfall in December. She is stoic about shedding water and sunlight so far, but I would like to build or buy her a home. All in good time .......
bcbull378
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GL3830,fel,brush hog,pallet forks,disc,gannon,auger,springtooth,plow,drag,ripper
I live in Ventura county Ca and on 12/4/17 we lost our barn to the Thomas fire ***128293; that my great grandfather built in 1910 so we put up a new barn my L3830 and other equipment and 5th wheel stay inside out of the sun.
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I don't know how you California people do it. I spent a couple weeks out there in 1976 looking for work and after a month of it I decided I'd rather be unemployed/under-employed anywhere rather than be in southern Ca. Between the fires, mud-slides, earthquakes, traffic, slums, wierdos, and scams, I simply couldn't stay there.
Now, NORTHERN California was another matter for me. I really love the area around Mammoth/Bishop and along the Nevada line and up toward OR. But you guys down south are real fighters/survivors to stay there, IMO.
KeithG
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Equipment
2000 Kubota B2710, Woods BH75 backhoe, LandPride York Rake, B2783 Snow Blower
I never posted where my tractor sleeps... Originally it was in one of those "canvas/tarp" type of structures. When it was getting old where it looked like it was not going to last much longer, I upgraded to the steel framed structure. I put the sides on, and created the vinyl roll up fronts myself.
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Magicman
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M4900 Utility Special 4WD e/w FEL & 1530 John Deere "Traveling Man"
Sadly neither my old John Deere nor the "new" Kubota are house broken so both of them sleep outside. One would think that a person with a sawmill and timbered property could/would have lumber to build a shed, but I am always sawing for others who have nice tractor sheds, etc. Da sawmill has no shed either.
Lil Foot
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1979 B7100DT Gear, Nissan Hanix N150-2 Excavator
Magicman
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M4900 Utility Special 4WD e/w FEL & 1530 John Deere "Traveling Man"
Lil Foot
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1979 B7100DT Gear, Nissan Hanix N150-2 Excavator
Actually Len, that is the factory paint. I have since painted it sort of an olive drab to match the greenery. My neighbor (that can see the closed end) asked me if I had moved it after I painted it, because it blended in so well.
Here's a current pic:
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Lil Foot
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1979 B7100DT Gear, Nissan Hanix N150-2 Excavator
