September 28th is fast approaching when the prize drawing for our 1946 Cessna 140 will be held. Full details for this drawing can be found at https://wotn.org. Be sure to sure to get your entries in for the grand prize or any of the other special prizes available in the drawing.
There are several reasons that make our sweepstakes unique and worthy of entry. One, the grand prize winner gets the option of the Cessna or 30K in cash. The second is if your name is picked for any of the other prizes it goes back in the running for the grand prize.
Congratulations to our current winners; Atilio Medina of Provo, Utah who one the PJ2 Handheld COM Radio, Hans Mueller of Eagan, MN who won the Yaesu FTA-850L Transceiver with GPS and Greg Bode from Chanhassen, MN who just won the Clarity Aloft Aviation Headset!
There is still time to enter and win the Garmin Aera 660 GPS and Bose A-30 headset.
Our Next Drawing is August 31 for the Garmin Aera 660 GPS. Get your tickets purchased before August 29th to be eligible.
The Grand Prize, our classic 1946 Cessna 140 (or $30,000) will be going to a new home on September 28th, 2024!
Tickets are now available at https://wotn.org/sweepstakes/. $50 each or 3 for $120.
Wings of the North greatly appreciates your support of our organization. Thank you!
Wings of the North 2025 Show
For only the second time, Wings of the North did not do a show on Flying Cloud Airport in 2024. In 2020 the Covid pandemic did not allow it. This year was due to a space problem. Our AirExpo shows have been bigger and better every year with 2023 being our most successful show. Unfortunately, the space available for the show, especially for parking cars, became smaller each year as more hangars are built. To park offsite and then bus visitors to the show is both cost prohibitive and requires even more volunteers. We must make the show fit the space available. Other costs have also skyrocketed. So we took a year off but we have already started to plan for an entirely new show in 2025!
The Wings Of The North WILL do a show in 2025. We will do a one day show, with a new name in order to alert people to the changes and minimize financial risk to the organization. Our volunteers are meeting now to come up with suggestions for the date of the show, the name of the show, and the general details.
WE NEED YOU! We need your help with the planning stage now and with managing the show next summer. We are looking for some new section leaders and, since it will be a much simpler show, these positions will be much easier to manage with fewer details to juggle. Long-time volunteers will provide guidance but we need a few new volunteers to step up in order to have a show. You can do it! Check the calendar on our website and our Facebook page for dates of our volunteers meetings. If you want to see a WOTN show next summer YOU should attend the meetings and YOU should step forward! The show has been our biggest fundraiser and not doing a show will affect all our other projects!
WOTN Air Museum—A very busy place!
The past three months have been very busy ones at the museum. In fact, July saw the most people attend the museum, also the most income from both admission fees and gift shop sales. We are now seeing more visitors in our “temporary” location on Sierra Lane than we saw at our previous, larger location in the Club Jet building. We need some more volunteers as docents if you are interested in helping.
One of the recent highlights at the museum was on the evening of Monday, July 29, when we hosted a presentation by Francis Gary Power, Jr. His father was a U-2 pilot who was shot down over Russia in 1960, which caused an international incident during the Cold War. After being convicted of spying in a show trial he was eventually traded for a Russian spy being held by the United States. The evening was a great success even though we had to limit attendance to meet the fire code. We hope to do more events like this in the future. They are fairly easy to do, profitable, interesting, and help promote Wings of the North to new people.
The Planes at the Museum Fly! The Bush Stearman was out August 10th. If you were Southeast of the airport around 5PM you could have caught a glimpse of her coming in.
We are also working to get more pilots for the Bird Dog featured in the last newsletter and our latest addition to the museum. Congratulations to Dr. John Bormes for passing the check ride with Mr. Mike Weinefurter. Mr. Weinefurter also worked with Mr. Nate Bruss. Nate is an Instructor Pilot and is already signed off to fly the Bird Dog and is working toward the being able to train other pilots in the Bird Dog from the back seat. Hopefully we will see the Bird Dog in the air more this year.
Our long term goal is still to build or buy a much larger facility on Flying Cloud Airport to house the museum. Whenever a possible location becomes available they are snapped up quickly because of the high demand for space on the airport. We need pledges from individuals and companies that we can call in if an appropriate museum spot becomes available. Please contact the museum director, Bob Jasperson, if you would like more information about our plans and our needs.
Finally, please plan on coming to our pancake breakfast on Saturday, September 28. You can support WOTN, hear about our plans for a show in 2025, also see us draw the winner in the Cessna 140/$30,000 Sweepstakes!
BT Update
As of August 5th we have test fit both ailerons to the aircraft. We were able to temporarily install the mounting hardware and there was no rubbing or binding issues. Both the left and right aileron were well balanced and all the surface defects have been addressed. The left aileron requires a little adjustment to make it fit properly and after installing the last dozen rivets it will be ready for fabric wrapping. The right aileron is at the assembly stage after replacing the spar which was twisted and cracked in several places. We also had to fabricate and match drill 6 steel reinforcement doublers to strengthen the spar where the hinge fittings attach to the aileron. There was a service bulletin issued in August of 1942 requiring the replacement of the original aluminum doublers to steel. Through the many owners this aircraft has had, that service bulletin had never been accomplished.
We have found two NOS inter-connect fittings for the mid-flaps and they will be drilled and installed in the coming week. We will then test fit the mid-flaps to the AC. The inboard flaps are structurally ready but we need the inner-connect fitting to complete the assembly. Those fittings need to be sent to a special vendor in CA. for hard chrome plating. When we receive them back, they will be installed and we will repeat the test fitting of the in board flaps. If all the test fitting goes without problems. All four flaps will also be ready for the fabric wrapping process.
After a great deal of effort and more time than we would like to admit, the canopies are almost complete. The last pieces necessary to hold the side panels in place are almost complete. When you need parts that you can’t find you make them, but when you don’t have either the tools or skills to make them you turn to the rest of the group. In this case it is definitely a team effort with help machining pieces and then welding them together to make the finished parts. Work also continues on things that no one will ever see in the tail section. There are fair leads that help keep cables from twisting or rubbing that are being machined and installed along with work to install the rear jack pad and tie down. All of this work must be completed before the rear control surfaces can be installed. Once all of the cables are connected and tensioned this section of the plane will no longer be accessible from the inside.
The major portion of the electrical components of our BT-15 have been installed to include modern radios, transponder/ADS-B, lights, and pilot-accessible circuit breaker boxes. We are continuing to work the items that are left. We are working on installing the antennas and running the antenna cables for the radios, the transponder/ADS-B, and the ELT. We are also fabricating a mounting bracket to install a HOBBS meter. The final item on our list is to install the white recognition light on the top of the aft fuselage and the red, green, and amber recognition lights in the belly.
Upcoming Dates
Museum Open 8/24-8/25 11AM-3PM
Sweepstakes drawing 8/31 Garmin Aera 660 GPS
Museum Open 8/31-9/1 11AM-3PM
Museum Closed 9/2 Labor Day
Museum Open 9/7-9/8 11AM-3PM
Sweepstakes drawing 9/14 Bose A-30 Headset
Museum Open 9/14-9/15 11AM-3PM
Volunteer Meeting 9/19 6:30PM
Museum Open 9/21-9/22 11AM-3PM
Pancake Breakfast 9/28 8AM-11AM
Sweepstakes drawing 9/28 GRAND PRIZE
Museum Open 9/28-9/29 11AM-3PM