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TerryM76

Well-Known Member
Supporting Member
Joined
Sep 8, 2012
Messages
788
Location
Tempe, AZ
Our annual spring auction by Starmann Bros was this weekend. I always attend and was there on Friday and Saturday procuring items for our school as well as picking a few items for myself.

For some insane reason I bid on a Ranger L440 engine and won the bid. Now I have that engine and a bunch of things for our school waiting in the back of my pick-up for delivery to the school on Monday. I will keep the engine at school for a while until I get it cleaned up and fabricate a suitable stand for it. I'll take it home someday and display it proudly on the back patio or wherever I can get away with. There are no accessories so I will slowly try to procure these items and maybe figure out a way to at least have mock-ups through 3D printing. That will give me more reasons to acquire a printer. There were people asking me what I was going to do with the Ranger and I even had offers to buy it if I decide to sell. Anyone know where I can get some old Ranger parts?

I discovered that my kind of insanity is not limited to just myself. I talked to a retired lady from the El Mirage area after she won bids on two 1820 radial engines that were more scrap than engines. She is having those hauled back to CA and dumped in a 15 acre field were she is filling it with similar artifacts. She said it can be seen on Google Earth. Another like-minded fellow acquired 3 Taylorcraft bare fuselages and since I had already sinned in getting my Ranger I declined from bidding on those. I helped him load the fuselages on his minuscule trailer that he as pulling behind his sport utility vehicle/car. There wasn't room on his trailer for the 3rd and we placed that on the rack on top of his car. He and his wife were heading back to Minnesota today or tomorrow with their rolling jungle gym. The wife looked pretty unhappy as she was helping her husband load their treasures into the limited space that was available. I had my 16 foot, tandem axle trailer ready but I didn't take it to the auction so I could avoid any marital awkwardness.

My wife thinks the Ranger is for our school......so don't tell her the real story.

Terry
 
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