News By, For, and About Aircraft Mechanics

November 27, 2007

Fifty-dollar airplane became four-year project

In 1993 Darrin Carlson worked at the Air Museum at Forbes Field in Topeka. He noticed an airplane, a 1964 Piper Cherokee in a scrap area. By inquiring, he found the owner had worked at Goodyear in Topeka, but by then had a job in El Salvador.

Carlson, son of Larry and Sharon Carlson and a 1988 graduate of CCCHS contacted the owner by mail a few months later. He asked about buying the plane and sent $50 to cover any needed paperwork. In three more months Carlson received a sales receipt and found himself unexpectedly the owner of the aircraft. He had thought it would cost more.

Carlson took the plane apart and hauled it back to Clay Center on a trailer borrowed from Barry Girton pulled by a truck on loan from Dick Miller.

Then he spent the next four years restoring the plane. The plane was stored at his parents house in Clay Center where the fuselage was mounted on a two by four frame so it could be towed around. Later the work was moved to a hanger at the Clay Center airport.

"I took every nut, bolt, and washer off and stripped it down to the fuselage---every piece out and started from bare bones. I probably pulled out two hay bales of straw from bird nests and you name it.

"Everything electrical I put in brand new. I replaced all aluminum wiring with copper. I put in new avionics. I just changed everything out," Carlson said.

He also worked on the outside of the plane. He removed all the paint, primed it and finally repainted it. He even replaced all the decals. His father, Larry, assisted as a handyman for the project, but Darrin, a licensed aircraft mechanic, did all the work.

Carlson said the most difficult part of the restoration was finding parts.

"I had to go through aircraft salvage yards for a lot of parts. First, I replaced the engine, which was rusted up. I flew a rebuilt engine for two years and then did a complete overall put the engine in new condition," he said.

The four cylinder, 320 cubic inch engine generates about 160 hp and cruises at about 130 mph. Carlson has taken the restored plane to air shows where his "project" has drawn rave reviews. Carlson said he's hoping to find anotherproject to work on soon, maybe a World War II vintage plane or a Beechcraft Bonanza and a place to work on it.

"When I first got out of high school, I wanted to study computers, but I found I could make more money in aircraft maintenance than computers. I got an airframe and power plant license from K-State Salina and went to work for Beechcraft. I worked the second shift and went back to KSU to study electronics and avionics.

Avionics means aviation electronics and is derived from the words aviation and electronics. It refers to all electronics used on an aircraft, communications, navigation and any other electrical components or instruments.

Carlson eventually became an avionics technician with what is today known as Hawker Beechcraft Corporation headquartered in Wichita. That role literally takes him around the world. When a demonstration aircraft travels the world on a tour lasting more than two weeks, Carlson goes with it.

"If an aircraft has trouble anywhere in the world, I go there and recover it." Carlson said.

Truly a frequent flyer, Carlson recently returned from a trip that took him to Hong Kong, Japan and the Philippines. He will leave soon for Dubai, Turkey, Russia, India and Iceland.

He's not the only member of his family to find a career in the aviation industry. His brother, Darwin, CCCHS class of 82, does maintenance work on helicopters for Airlink, a medical heilcopter service in Scottsbluff, Neb.

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