[Milsurplus] Msg in a radio

[CL in NC]

My friend Brian, KN4R finds old tube type private aircraft aviation radios and sends me links to them, and many times I end up buying them,  I think he is trying to drain my bank account.  I bought  a Bendix Flightweight transmitter he put me on the trail of, and I bought it, and  restored it to operation as I do all my finds.  Inside of it was written in pencil an aircraft ID,  N1181V, and a signature of a radio tech who had checked the crystal freq in it.  Well, thanks to the ability of search engines to find just about anything, I located the plane, and the owner.  On a long shot, since the information was quite old, put the owners name in the search engine and got an address, and wrote a letter in the blind and sent it to Washington state.  I put my email in the letter, and low and behold I got an email answer back and pictures of the aircraft.  The aircraft, a Beech D17S staggerwing, was in the RAF inventory during the war, and was one of 15 brought back from England after the war.  It was wrecked at Bradley Field, Idaho,  by Led R. Edmister of Portland OR., in or about 1958, and Victor, the current owner, he and his father bought it in 1972 and took it home on a flatbed trailer.  The father passed away, not ever getting around to restoration, but the son started it and is still at it,  and almost has it flyable again.  It is half metal, half fabric, so a full complement of aircraft airframe skills needed there. He has kept me up to date on his work every since.  An old tube transmitter, an N number and a search, and a new friend made.

Charlie, W4MEC in NC