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Georgia Yankee

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ironnerd

Well-Known Member
Joined
Oct 25, 2016
Messages
276
Location
Cartersville, GA, USA (KVPC)
Hi. My name is John, and I like planes. I’m an A&P mech and Private Pilot from Grand Rapids, Michigan, but now live in Smyrna, Ga (just a hair outside Atlanta) – there were a few stops in between…

About a year ago I became the owner of a CGS Hawk (Single-Seat Classic). It’s a plane with a bit of a history. The original owner had it on floats. Apparently he had a good time with it up until he flew it into a tree. Unfortunately he did not survive the accident, and his wife sold the plane. The next owner (a friend of my Dad’s) did a lot of work and put the plane back together. New wings, new prop, new instruments, rebuilt the engine, and new dope-and-fabric skin. He flew it once (unintentionally) and sheared all of the rivets in the landing gear when he returned to Earth. He took the plane back home, and put it in a garage to fix it up. To make it fit better, he took the wings and tail off and stored them with his T-bucket Hot-Rod. Then the garage burned down taking the new wings with it (and the T-bucket). After a while he got tired of looking at the fuselage, and wanted to sell it. I told him I would buy it, and he accepted my offer (he actually talked me down a little on the price).

Now I have a de-skinned CGS Hawk in my carport. I broke the ivo-prop taking the plane off the trailer (it was vertical, and one blade hit the top of the carport… Worst thing is I can’t even yell at anyone about it. The prop is going on the wall in the spare room.

I have been going through the plane looking it over – it needs TLC. I have structural tubes to replace, a new skin to put on, a couple of bulkheads to be replaced, and I need to have a long look at that big tube going back to the tail. I plan to take it up to Cartersville Airport in North GA, to put it in a hangar (a friend keeps his AA-1A up there with a pair of Barons as hangar-mates). I would actually like to convert it into a part 103 ultralight if I can manage that. The thing has never actually been flown legally… It was always a really fat UL. I’m sure certifying it as an LSA would, at this point, be kind of a pain. Besides, my friend’s dad lost his certification due to some health reasons. He’s still a REALLY good pilot, and I figure he can take my Hawk out whenever he likes if I can make it 103-legal (I’ll add a bracket for his portable O2 device behind the seat for him).
For now I have a pretty good airframe (nothing I can’t fix), pretty good instruments, a Hirth 2702 with about a half hour since overhaul, and a few other bits and pieces. I figure if I can’t turn it back into a Hawk, I can use the pricey bits for another plane… or buy a new Hawk Kit. It’ll be hard to make it 103 legal with the mighty Hirth, so I may sell/trade that engine and grab something a bit lighter. Since I have to pull the gear anyway, I may convert to a conventional gear to save a little weight) and add cool factor).

Everything I have read about these planes says they are darn nice. Every video I have scrounged up sure makes them look like a hoot to fly. I plan to take some dual instruction in some of the two-seaters at the field (there are a lot of planes there that used to be 103 trainers, but are now LSA). Since the UL guys are pretty enthusiastic, I figure getting them to help me out won’t be too hard. Especially if I take my spare grill up to the airport.
five.jpgLucky Plane.jpgLucky Car Port.jpg

From left to right: Original configuration with original owner, Leaving Michigan, Arriving in Georgia.
 
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