Echo Mike and G-AWAW need your help!!!

[EchoMike]

Echo Mike and G-AWAW need your help.

Anyone who went to a certain well-known and much discussed north-east Florida JAA school will remember that I did the ground school lectures.

G-AWAW is a 1966 Cessna 150, it is currently at the London Science Museum's hangar in Wroughton, south of Swindon.

The reason this 150 is special is that in 1980 Janette Schonburg flew it solo from London to Darwin Australia . . . not too shabby for a slow airplane with short legs.

The museum wants it GONE, and the Cessna 150/152 Club will be restoring it in my hangar in Florida.

Removal date is 8/31, target time is 1 PM to 4 PM.

We need three or four people to help load this disassembled airplane into a container - nothing is very heavy and we will have several of our own people there - I just want to have backup in case we need it.

Here is a chance to gain access for a couple of hours to the "large artifact storage hangar" at Wroughton which is NOT open to the public in exchange for a little bit of lift and grunt. I'm not sure if you can take a camera with you to take pictures of the other aircraft in the facility, but I haven't seen anything prohibiting it - certainly worth a try ;-) and you can certainly look.

PM me for further details - this is going to happen ONE TIME and when it is over, it is over.

Best Regards,

Echo Mike

[Rod1]

“Cessna 150/152 Club”

Is that affiliated to the Morris Marina club?:E

Good luck with the lift!

Rod1

[EchoMike]

To date we have four volunteers - I'd like to have a few more in reserve, just in case. (Do you mean to tell me that there are only FOUR aviators in the UK interested in poking around the London Science Museum's off-limits large artifact storage facility which is probably your equivalent to Area 51????)

There's a small site at g-awaw dot org with more information on this.

Did you know that Burt Rutan owns and flies a Cessna 150 as his "fun and knock around" airplane?

Chuck Yeager also had some kind words about 150s: "Its a good little airplane, it can just barely kill you."

If the humble Cessna 150 is OK by them, then it is sure OK by me ;-)

Besides, it won't eat me out of house and home.

Best Regards,

Echo Mike

[Saab Dastard]

If I were in the country on that date I'd join you like a shot!

Unfortunately, I will be abroad.

Good luck with the move.

BTW, I think that Wroughton opens its doors to the public occasionally, there's information on their website. I keep meaning to arrange a visit!

SD

[md 600 driver]

I would love to help but in vence that week shame gawaw is the first aircraft I bought it still had the Darwin stickers on it I did see it as a exhibit at the science museum in London

Steve

[EchoMike]

md 600 driver,

Any photos, papers, documents, history available on G-AWAW? We'd love to have some more background on this aircraft - what a life it has had!

Incidentally, the museum says cameras on site are no problem at all, and the curator has promised our loading crew a free, private, personal guided tour of the main aircraft storage hangar. There's a list of what's there (on a wiki of some sort), they have somethng like 15,000 artifacts.

PM me with your e-mail if you would - I'm sure Janette will like to know about this!

Best Regards,

Echo Mike

[avonflyer]

Great honor to meet with Janette and assist AW on her way today. All seemed to go well and AW is packed and travelling.

AW is a few (lot of) rivets short of a full set where the museum took her apart to get her in a lift. Instrumentation, a wing strut and a flap have gone and the seats were misplaced recently. I think restoration will be quite a task but the basic structure looks to be there.

Good luck to all of the team and I look forward to, watching the process on the web site..

[24seven]

any pictures from the museum visit?

and whats the website address to watch the restoration?

[KembleKid]

and whats the website address to watch the restoration?


www.g-awaw.org (http://www.g-awaw.org)

[The Nr Fairy]

Here's a set of piccies on Flickr, uploaded by the Curator (sorry if I got the title wrong, PT)

Cessna G-AWAW Loading - a set on Flickr (http://www.flickr.com/photos/timothyhackworth/sets/72157624850646464/with/4945577345/)

More to follow when they get uploaded, if they're not on G-AWAW RESTORATION (http://g-awaw.org)

[tingle]

Hi avonflyer,

I read in your post that you met Janette Schonburg and assisted with the shipping of G-AWAW.

I read a book review in Mike Arman's book "Owning, Buying or Flying the Cessna 150/152". The book in question was "She Who Dares Succeeds" by Janette Schonburg. Unfortunately it is out of print. Do you by any chance have Janette's e-mail, her address or phone number. I would like to get in touch with her. Or might you even know where I can get a copy of her book?

Tom
(tingle)

[888Flyer]

Abcdefghij

[Pull what]

G-AWAW belonged to HAC and was at Shobdon in the 70s and I seem to remember it had long range tanks. Wondered why it wasnt at the science museum when we visited a few months ago?

Did Jan do her instructor course with Frank Morgan at Humberside?

[StrimmerDriver1]

Really interested to hear about the restoration of AWAW. Flew her on many occasions at Frank Morgan SOF in the mid 80's while doing an RAF Flying Scholarship and PPL. Funnily enough I then bumped in to her again at the Science Museum...made me feel very old!!!

[GK430]

I first flew AW on 12th August '73 and the last time in '74.
I too recall the long range tanks. The last flight and it was a couple of hours off engine overhaul - it was tired and the tanks were full.
I barely made it around the Shobdon circuit above tree top level and on landing ran in to see 'Woody' in a bit of a state:-)

[Racing Snake]

I managed to get AW in my log book just before she went off to the museum . She was based at Sandtoft in 1985

[KembleKid]

Does anyone know whatever happened with the restoration? I helped with the loading of AWAW into the shipping container at Wroughton in 2010. After it arrived in the US a few pictures of it being unloaded were posted on the project web site but it went ominously quiet after that. The web site has been unavailable for some time.

I'm guessing that when the full extent of the cost & effort needed was realised on arrival in the US, the project got canned.

[GK430]

Perhaps Aviat in Wyoming could do something with it!

[avonflyer]

i also helped at wroughton so was also interested. I emailed the person that organised the lift and got a reply along the lines of "we have been very busy but have sourced (scrounged/ recycled) some of the parts needed and hope to get going over the next few months". Seems that it's more of a one man project and as such could be the work of a lifetime.

[Keithg89]

I'm trying to find Janettes book she who dares succeeds. Does anyone have an email address for her or can anyone locate the book?

[Typhoon Tripacer]

There's a few pricey used copies on Amazon UK from 43 GBP

[CloudHound]

Good News!

The restoration website has been updated with a date this year to see 'AW

G-AWAW - Home (http://www.g-awaw.org)

[Travhest]

Hello from a mermber of the rescue team...about ten years delayed!

I am a member of the Cessna 150-152 Club in America who was present in Wiltshire when we loaded G-AWAW onto the container to America. I was supposed to keep the volunteers informed with progress reports. I am so sorry I fell off the perch completely after I got completely sidelined due to family problems. But, better late than never as they say! The 'rescue' could not have been accomplishsed without the superb assistance we received from the Science Museum staff at Wroughton and volunteers from the Pprune community. So again, a much belated thank you!

I have written a similar post in the aviation history section of Pprune to try to update, thinking that was the natural place to post. Upon doing a search within Pprune, I found the original thread here, so posting the update here as well..Henceforth I refer all who are interested to the g-awaw.org site hosted by her current caretaker, Mike Rice of Aerolearn in Texas. He is a certified AP (I) mechanic and works on restoration projects in his spare time and is G-AWAW's present custodian and guardian. He is the most qualified to comment henceforth.

Not much has happened since AW arrived in America. It was indeed an enormous challenge, as so much needed to be done. I am not sure if it has been settled whether to restore her to full airworthiness or simply as a static display, for example at the annual Cessna 150-152 Club fly-in at Clinton, Iowa to preserve the history. Mike says that it is technically possible to restore the aircraft to airworthiness but much needs to be done and many parts need to be obtained, including such big ticket items as a new engine and a new prop, Several hundred hours of metal work must also be done to repair the hull as well. Then avionics etc...timed out parts could of course be used if she is only to be a static display ...I guess things are on hold until they decide which way they want to go.

I am trying to tie up the loose ends that I dropped, picking up where I left off and trying to gather info about the plane, reaching out to former pilots on Pprune in an attempt to gather storied and reconstruct something of the logbooks and history out of whatever comes back. I shall then put my gleanings into a computer document and forward that to Texas.

The pieces of the aircraft have been cleaned and examined, ready for work, when Mike has time in his busy schedule. There is no danger of the airplane ever being scrapped. In 2018, Mike had hoped to trailer G-AWAW to the annual Club fly-in at Clinton, Iowa, but sadly at the last minute was unable to do so. It is safely preserved in his hangar and I urge all to check in with the website for progress updates which he posts when something has happened. ,

And that is about where it stands! I myself still cherish a dream of seeing her fly again, but all I can do is chip in to the restoration effort kitty as and when I am financially able. In the meantime, I remember Jan's motto on the flight -- "Never Say Die"...and that was a difficult flight. full of setbacks, obstacles and discouragement. The restoration/resurrection is proving to be a similar challenge. But with similar determination and dogged persistence on the part of her preservers, here too the finish line will one day be crossed. Onward!.

Once again, thank you so much for helping out!

Jennifer in Norway

[The Nr Fairy]

Thanks for posting this - I was one of the folks who rocked up to help, living as I was only a 25 minute drive away. And I'm in one of the pictures too. Such a long time ago!