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

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

“Cessna 150/152 Club”

Is that affiliated to the Morris Marina club?:E

Good luck with the lift!

Rod1

Progress so far
 

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

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

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

Any photos, papers, etc. available?
 

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

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..

any pictures from the museum visit?

and whats the website address to watch the restoration?

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

More to follow when they get uploaded, if they're not on G-AWAW RESTORATION

Janette Schomburg's Book "She Who Dares Succeeds"
 

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)

Abcdefghij

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?

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!!!

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:-)

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

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.

Perhaps Aviat in Wyoming could do something with it!

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.

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?