G-21 Goose stretching its wings captured by Z 9 / Z24-70f2.8
Winter is a time when many warbirds are hangered. Winter months are just not conducive in many locales for flying so to preserve aircraft, flight time, and costs, they are “stored” or hangered until it’s time to fly again. All the fluids, and there are gallons and gallons of just oil, not to mention hydraulic fluid and fuel that need to be dealt with. Some components need to be dry and others kept moist. Each aircraft is kinda unique and a checklist is required to cover all the bases. This is all done to maintain an aircraft effectively in the winter so it’s ready when it’s time to fly again.
Then the process is reversed for summer flying. That’s what was happening this past weekend for this G-21 Goose. It starts by being pulled out of the hangar and cleaned. Then the checklist comes out and one of the first things is pulling out all the spark plugs which you see being done here. They come out in a specific order, are placed in a holder in that order, inspected, replaced, or cleaned if needed, then reinstalled in order. Notes from the winter hangering are checked against what was then and what was found and compared. The checklist is really extensive from major to minor things. The one repair that was noted was the replacement of a beacon light that wouldn’t come on, the bulb was dead. You just never know that’s why there is a checklist. The last thing on the list is for the pilots to be current in flying the aircraft. After the checklist was completed, the Goose was preflighted and then the two pilots went out for a two hour flight to get current. It’s quite a process and fun to be a part of, lots to learn and more to photograph!
DeWinterizing work begins on the G-21 Goose captured by Z 9 / Z24-70f2.8