Letters to the Editor
We love it when one of RCSD’s articles triggers a great memory.
Replica Arrow Under Construction
I really enjoyed the article on the Arrow in the March issue of RCSD. I wasn’t sure if you were aware, but the Arrow may fly again, in a smaller 60% scale size. The Avro Museum in Springbank, Calgary, Alberta is making a replica!
I became aware of this as the company that I fly for in Montana had a Learjet 24D that we were trying to sell. The FAA was mandating Stage II noise aircraft be retrofitted with hush kits or grounded. Well after a few years of deals that fell through for one reason or another we were approached by the Avro Museum to purchase the motors. The owners were, like, it’s all or nothing. So the deal was sealed and on a Wednesday the 26th of June, 2019 the plane was delivered with me sitting in the copilots seat. The motors are GE CJ-610 producing 2,950 pounds of thrust each. And boy are they loud!
The Lear had been sitting for quite some time so the locals hadn’t heard it for awhile. My wife used to get calls from friends asking what military plane was out at the airport when we were doing flight training. Nope, just us out flying around in the world’s original business jet. I recall a few days later a neighbor a few doors down who had been a backseater in the USAF in F4 Phantoms asked me if we flew the Lear the other morning? I said, yeah, and told him the story. He said he was standing on his back deck sipping coffee and could hear us for like 10 minutes after we left! 😉 For an old aviator it was music to his ears.
As we pulled into the FBO at Springbank there were a dozen or so folks milling around with cameras. They were very excited to have their airplane — well, motors — arrive. It was sorta sad to hear them joking what to do with the rest of the plane, like making BBQ grills out of the tips tanks. Hearing the old girl was going to be cut up was sad. Time moves on. I recall the financier joking that he hoped to live long enough to see the Arrow off the ground. I believe he said the goal was for three years to have a first flight. Seems that time is approaching.
Anyway, this was probably more about my walk down memory lane but here’s the links to the last flight and to the Avro Museum’s project (see Resources below).
Curtis Suter
Exec Air Montana, LLC
PS. I see that I had 915.6 hours as SIC in this specific Learjet
Curtis — thank you so much for submitting this marvellous story! You have quite the way with words, so we hope you might consider writing further articles for future issues of RCSD? Thanks again, and all the best. — Ed.
©2022 The NEW RC Soaring Digest Staff
Resources
- In The Air — from the March 2022 issue of RCSD, which triggered the letter from Curtis.
- The Avro Museum — where the replica Avro Arrow is being built. A recent visit to the project seems to indicate it may have either moved or gone dormant?
- The Last Flight of N955EA — the flight path of the Lear on its last journey, from FlightAware.
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