Manitowoc’s local EAA chapter will celebrate a project they’ve been working on for many months.
As we previously reported, EAA Chapter 383, also known as “The Grumpy Ducks,” has been working on repairing and painting the RC-3 Seabee plane that was sitting in front of the Manitowoc County Airport before it was blown down during a windstorm.
Joshua Honey with the Chapter says the plane is ready to be seen and remounted where it once stood.
Honey says it was recreated to look like what it would have been when it was built, which includes the original paint color scheme.
“So we went with the original 1947 paint colors,” he described. “The red is kind of a merlot red. It’s kind of a got a, we almost call a traffic cone yellow, but it is a very two-toned yellow. And it came looking great.”
The RC-3 Seabee is far from being ready to fly.
Honey and the group affectionately call it an extremely expensive and beautiful lawn ornament.
“We’ve removed the original engine, all the avionics, and the wiring,” he explained. “We did add the lighting back to the aircraft for the wingtips, the dome wash, the elevator, and the rudder. Because we wanted to give it that appeal to the public, to allow them to see that this once was a real aircraft.”
Regarding the safety of the plane to keep it from falling off in the future, Honey says they are “making some modifications to the structure that it was mounted on, on the pedestal, to ensure this (the accident) never happens again.”
The Seabee’s redesign also includes putting the names of the founding members of the EAA chapter on the doors.
The members are Don Gruett, James Parkin, and Bruce Morton.
The public will get a chance to see the redone plane tomorrow afternoon (May 3rd) at 12:30 at their hangar at the airport.
The chapter will do an unveiling that includes food, drinks, corn hole matches, and even door prizes.
The event will also showcase the Manitowoc County Youth Aviation Program and a new flight simulator.
Honey will also make a huge announcement about the EAA Chapter’s next big project.
