Well, not a Jenny but... Several years ago, I got a call one evening from a friend of mine who asked me the following question: "Corey, how do I get an airplane down from the ceiling?" "What", I said. "Jack, you're not making sense. What are you asking me?" "Well, I bought a Piper J-3 Cub and it's hanging from the ceiling of a western wear store in Golden, [Colorado]." "Congratulations, Jack. I haven't a clue. But I'll be glad to help you. When can we take a look at it?" The story goes like this. This J-3 Cub was owned by the previous owner of the western wear store and thought it would make a nice decoration, so he had it hung from the ceiling of his store which was converted from an old movie house. And there it stayed. For 14 years. The present owner of the store, who was not interested in aviation, just let it stay there because he had no idea how to get it down. My friend Jack was in the store and was asking about the airplane when the owner told him "Make me an offer." Jack bought the plane, then and there, for 8 or 11 thousand dollars, I don't remember which. But it was a great deal. He had a mechanic get up on a ladder and check the fabric which was in perfect condition with the exception of a small hole in the tail, the result of someone sling-shotting a plastic clothing clip at the aircraft. I went out with Jack to the store and we got up into the rafters to see how it was secured. We sat down with the store owner and settled on an evening when he would have his staff move all the clothing racks out of the way so we could get it down, disassemble it, and haul it out. We had a battle plan that would have made Schwartzkoph proud. We came back with about 8 folks, come-alongs, ladders, ropes, wrenches etc. and went at it. Jack and I went to the rafters and attached a come-along around the steel beam to which it was chained both fore and aft while folks on ladders attached some guide ropes. After tightening the come-alongs we loosened and removed the chains and began lowering the J-3 Cub to the floor. So far, so good. We removed the engine, landing gear, wings and tail in short order. There was still oil in the cranckcase and air in the tires! When you think that this plane was stored in a perfect climate controlled environment, it was no wonder that there wasn't any deterioration. We needed to take down a banister so we could maneuver the large wings and fuselage down a flight of stairs and out the front door to an awaiting flatbead trailer. All went very well with no damage done to either the J-3 or the store. We reassembled everything a week or so later at the airport and although Jack was going to overhaul the engine, we put a teaspoon of oil in each cylinder and pulled the prop through a dozen blades. Put some fuel in the header tank and primed the engine. With the wheels chocked, the tail tied down, 1 Case magneto and 1 Eisemann magneto, the engine fired on the second pull of the prop. Amazing! Only ran it for a few seconds and then shut down and removed it for overhaul. I've lost touch with Jack over the years as he had moved from Colorado. I know he sold the Cub and I never knew what happened to it. I'll bet that there are still more Jennies in barns out there. Planeflyr
It's De Ja Vu all over again ! The Cub story is almost identical to the one that Pete Bowers experienced when he found the 1930 Pietenpol Air Camper that we flew. It was hanging in the rafters of a machine shop in Everett , Wa. and had been there since it was hung in 1930 when the two partners got into a tiff and hung it up...literally. Somebody told Pete about an old airplane in the..... Pete never took anything like that as an odd story, he always checked them out and found several treasures that way. Many years back a long lost friend heard about an old biplane in a barn in Florida and after several months he thought that he would check it out since he was traveling through the area. Sitting in a well protected area of the barn was a COMPLETE Fokker D-7. Switches
