Better than a tree house?

[jbeech]

The other day I mentioned to a friend my interest in buying a fuselage from Cessna or Piper to put in the yard for my grandsons to play in. I'm thinking it would easily be as good as a fort or tree house, and maybe better but more importantly might help fire off their imagination and interest in things that fly. Anyway, not a week later my pal sends me a link to an auction site with this. It's a Jet Ranger 206 fuselage being offered by the Charlotte County Sheriff Department. Charlotte County, FL is about 250 miles away. It was being auctioned off as surplus to their needs and had been largely stripped of useful parts. Anyway, to me it looked perfect for my purpose, which is to infect my grandsons with the aviation but and since they're still a little too young for a model, this would be a good start. Thus, I registered to bid and won the auction.



Yesterday, Lynn and I drove to Sarasota where Keith, one of my partners in crime, lives. Keith by the way, is the fellow who accompanied me to retrieve Tootsie when I purchased her at Amelia Island, GA. Anyway, we immediately realized the landing gear's track was too wide for the trailer so using their forklift, following disassembly, we inverted it within the trailer's bed. Next we lowered and secured the fuselage for transport. That done, we posed for pictures and departed.



Anyway, by then it's a little late so after overnighting at Keith's home we ate breakfast and left arriving in the early afternoon none the worse for wear. Towing this things was fun, too, because people would zoom up and pause to take pictures. Some tried to flag us down (presumably to talk). And at the one fuel stop we thought we'd never get away from the many questions! Anyway, as you can see, a Jet Ranger fuselage is small but not all that small as you can see it in profile as compared to a Suburban.



Unloading was surprisingly easy. It was just a matter of tilting the trailer, tying off the load, putting the truck in drive, and easing the trailer forward and out from beneath it. Just like that the fuselage and landing gear was on the apron and I had my prize home. The whole thing went off without a hitch!



Anyway, the initial plan is to pick it up with the forklift, invert the landing gear, set it back in place and reassemble things. Next, I need to scrounge around for unserviceable instruments with which to populate the panel (as an aid to the youngster's imagination). Then I'll drag it beneath one of the large old oak trees (for the shade, of course) and turn them loose. Now for the hard part; waiting to see the look on their faces when they arrive in two weeks and see this thing! Anyway, I'm loving the whole grandpa experience :>)

[Dogdipstick]

Probally cost taxpayers 100K$..... Happy grandpa, priceless lol.

[Slyster]

Try $1,000,000 dollars. Fun playhouse for sure!

[Shogun71]

Dude, that is awesome!!!!

I would put that in my back yard to play in myself!!!!

Are you planning to put some mechanics in it and get it flying??

I hear the pantera platform is pretty good....

[crashnrox]

Pretty cool...I'd put a flight SIM in the windscreen to be played in the pilots seat .

[nightflyr]

Very nice
I'm sure your grandsons are going to have many hours of fun in it.

[BuildFlyCrashRepeat]

How much did you pay for it?

[Samsdad]

You, sir, are a cool Grandpa!

[getsuyoubi]

Are you sure this is not for yourself?

[macdad]

Very cool idea. I would have had a blast in that when I was a kid!

[Ace Dude]

Nice!

[lbv61]

You're an awesome Grandpa! Please keep up with the build pics.

[Yooper42]

Very Cool, John!

[Rotorexploder]

You're a nut! Don't get me wrong, I appreciate that quality in a man and I truly have mad respect for you John but it needs to be said... You are a nut.

[Raptorapture]

Awesome idea. Cool Grandpa. We want to see it in service

[Desmond]

Now all you need is to get the rest of the parts and get it flying again.

[jbeech]

Funny you should mention this but I've just been offered an ADF panel (not the head itself), which will give the boys a knob to twist to watch numbers change. And another pilot friend over on the Beech list (yet another place I hang out on) believes he has some unserviceable instruments, which he'll send me as well. Thus, I may begin to populate the panel sooner than I thought!

[goof2]

you should hang it and make it into a swing

[jbeech]

My pal Keith advocates hoisting it into one of the oaks to make it like an aircraft crashed-in-the-jungle scenario (basically a treehouse). Then maybe next summer we run some zip lines across to some of the other large oak trees. But that's all blue sky because right now I just want them to have it for the equivalent of a playhouse at ground level and thus, this thing will - hopefully - begin the infection for all things aviation ;>)

[quinn]

That's pretty cool. Hopefully they find it interesting. You never know with kids these days. Many would walk up to it, "that's cool... can I get back to staring at my phone now?" Lol. It's a shame.