Fly Baby Photos Page 11

	Kurt Gubert's biplane absolutely stunned the Fly Baby world when it came out in 2015.  Fly Baby biplanes are rare enough, but Kurt has used an ingenious combination of cosmetic changes and paint to make the bipe look like an actual WWI fighter.  He calls his plane a 'RNAS Experimental Scout FB1B' (RNAS refers to the Royal Navy Air Service, the British Navy's air arm during the great war).  He flew it in May 2015, and it's been working great since. In addition to the motorcycle wheels, he's added bungee-cord shock absorption to the landing gear...something you can do, with a Fly Baby biplane.  The rudder shape has been altered to more closely resemble the styles of 1917.  Note that the vertical stabilizer itself is stock; just the rudder has been changed. EAA did a FANTASIC Video of Kurt's airplane at AirVenture 2018.
	Fly Baby N4629T is probably the oldest Fly Baby still flying. It was built from the 19th set of plans that Pete sold.  It's owned by Forrest Lovley of Jordan, Minnesota.  It's got a Continental A80, and the landing-gear cross braces are cut-down struts from a Curtiss Robin (instead of wires).  Forrest's son, Vaughn flew the plane to Oshkosh 2015, where Ryan Wubbin took this picture.
	Aivars Graholskis built the first Fly Baby in Latvia, and it's a biplane to boot!  The pictures came from Janis Maslovskis, in Riga, Latvia.  Construction of this gorgeous Fly Baby was started in 2001, and it first flew with Subaru engine in 2007. It was damaged in hard landing in the first four hours, and in 2014 Aivars decided to resurrect it and get it flying again.  He installed a new firewall forward, using an O-200. First flight of the reconditioned Fly Baby was in May 2015, and he's been actively flying since then.
	John Tiner's NX4268 was built in 1975, and he bought in 2009.  It has an interesting feature, the fuselage has stringers to give it more of a circular cross-section like a lot of antique airplanes.  It also has an "NX" registration...the FAA allows designs older than 25 years to use the designators of the early age, and "X" is what they added to denote an Experimental aircraft.  He's had the plane on a couple of long trips, including one from St. Louis to Canada in 2016.
	Another great warbird paint scheme!  Bill Hills bought N222DH in June, 2017.  He lives in Virginia.
	Another British version of the classic Fly Baby.  Rick Phillips flew G-EFRP for the first time in April 2017.
	Shane Edwards' C-FTZN is another military paint job...solid red, Richtofen-style!
	OK...you KNOW I'm a pushover for military paint jobs on Fly Babies.  But Mike Madrid used one of my favorite eras, US Navy paint schemes from the 1930s.  Mike's paint job has it based on the USS Northampton...a heavy cruiser sunk during one of the battles off Savo Island (Near Guadalcanal) in November 1942. Another cool bit about Mike's plane is the stringer system applied to the fuselage, producing a very nice visual effect.
	Lorenzo Huffmann bought N228JT from Reginald McKenna of Florida in 2018 and imported it to his native Argentina. It's got a C85 engine with starter.  Lorenzo is keeping the plane at a crop duster airport in 25 de Mayo city, which is in the Buenos Aires province, Argentina. "It is a fantastic plane, and flies perfectly all right," Lorenzo says.
	N53779 was built by Wayne Christensen back in 2003, and purchased by Chris Reynolds a few years back.  Chris recovered the airplane using the Oratex system.  The "fabric" is modified polyester with the color manufactured into it; the fabric glues on with no painting at all required.  Chris's airplane was the demo aircraft at the Oratex display at Oshkosh 2018.
	N966 is currently owned by Rocky Phoenix in Winnemuca, Nevada.  The airplane was built in the 1970s by a man named Stewart.  The photo was taken by Roy Zilko at the Hood River Fly-In in 2018.  This is Rocky's second Fly Baby!