One Collegiate made it to Oshkosh! First one since the pandemic...

[Andy Gelston]

Member Aaron Smokovitz and his bride, Eleanor, flew over the top Lake Michigan to attend Oshkosh '24. They parked along the fence, giving their old gal some great exposure to passersby as they camped under the wing. Members Dave and Rex stopped by to see what they could learn from ol' #847 to apply to their restorations. Many passing by had no idea what a Porterfield is, and Aaron and Eleanor proved to be good ambassadors for our type. Thank you both for sharing your lovely example of a Collegiate with the world.

NC32417 started life with an O-145 Lycoming up front, and was re-engined with an A-65. Aaron and his brother are taking good care of her. She never had the aileron counterweight AD complied with. Member Bill Skinner's Dad, who was chief engineer at Porterfield for many years, stated the counterweights weren't necessary, and were installed only to placate skittish CAA men with little lightplane engineering savvy, just like the auxiliary fin on the seaplane version (she flew better without it).

I hope this is the start of a trend and next year we'll have several Collegiates and Flyabouts in attendance at Oshkosh '25, if not a plethora of Porterfields.

[Brett Lovett]

Very nice!  Thanks for sharing!

The Porterfield that introduced me to tailwheels (#791, NC32333) was also an LP-65 re-engined with a Continental.  I've wondered about the counterweights.  According to AD 44-4-3, they are only required if the owner wishes to remove an "Intentional Acrobatics Prohibited" placard which apparently was a requirement of a previous CAA action, possibly in response to an accident.  The other item I've wondered about is the brace strut between the bottoms of the front and rear jury struts, blocking access to the door.  I've never seen those in period photos of the Porterfields, so I assume they were added in response to a factory service memo or bulletin, or a CAA Airworthiness Directive.  I saw a CP-65 at the Hood River Fly-in last year that had the brace strut between the top of the front jury struts and bottom of the rears.  Only one I've seen like that.  Anyone know the story behind these added brace struts?

[Andy Gelston]

The drawing for the jury struts has no horizontal brace tube. I don't recall a service bulletin about it, but there may be one. It's likely they were just added on over the years as a good idea...and they make great towel bars when camping. I've never seen a diagonally oriented one. That's weird!

I always enter from the rear, over the rear strut, so I never thought of the horizontal brace as an obstacle to boarding.

The only AD on the Collegiate is 44-4-3 (aileron counterweights). Nose ribs need to be installed also, in order to perform mild aerobatic maneuvers (good luck with that on 65HP).

[Steve Ahrens]

Fantastic!

Great photos!

Thank you sharing!