Warbird Information Exchange

If anyone is going please let me know.

Thank you,
Patrick

AVIATION AUCTION
Saturday - September 25th, 2004 9:30 A.M.
WARREN V. WALKINSHAW ESTATE
Argusville, North Dakota



Auction to include: Four or five Stearman Aircraft. These aircraft are now in Duster configuration but can easily be converted back to stock. Owner took great care to not do a lot of cutting on the tubing.

LARGE SELECTION OF STEARMAN INV. - wings, control surfaces, rudder pedals, seats, control sticks, instrument panels, wheels, brakes, landing gear fuselages, bird gages, etc.

ENGINES: Approx 16 engine cores to include Continental 220, Lycoming, P & W R-985 & 1340 etc. Good selection of engine accys. & inv. Shop equip, tools, vehicles, and farm equipment.

http://www.starmanauctions.com/upcomingauctions.htm

Patrick,

I will be going.

Steve

So do we have a new Stearman owner in the group?
Any goodies auctioned that were not listed in the program?

Well Bryan, I can't speak for other WIXer's, but I know that I didn't add any aircraft to our stable of wrecks and relics. (I did buy some parts for some of those same "wrecks" though). Now some of the buyers may be WIX lurkers.....(Scott M., are you out there????? ), but I wouldn't know for sure.

As I have told Dan K. and Patrick off board, this auction was AWESOME! To me, it was just what the Ernie Simmons auction must have been like. Warbird parts that were collected for 50 years lined up in rows over a couple of acres. And of course the Stearmans! WOW! Prices were unbelievably low.

I think it would be a good article for one or more of the Warbird mags to do, as it was probably one of the last big Warbird auctions until the Soplata collection is eventually auctioned off as per Mr. Soplata's wishes.

I took lots of photos of the Stearmans Scott, if you want to add these to your registry eventually, as they weren't "on the airshow circuit", and probably haven't been some of the ones to hit your inbox yet.

If you have any interest in Stearmans, Valiants, or Texans, you should have been there!

Have a GREAT day everybody!

Steve

"Sound like you just got your first assignment"

Thanks for the vote of confidence Rob, but I don't think I'm the best man for the job. I don't think too many people would want to suffer through a "story" done by me. You see, the magazine editors want to GAIN subscribers, not LOSE them.

Steve

Speaking of this event, I have just added an album onto my webshots. Take a look and see what you think. This is JUST the aircraft. You cannot imagine the amout of stored spare parts that this gentleman had around. The engines alone blew my mind. I think I took a quick count of SIXTY or more spare jugs. It is kind of sad in a way though to think that this is an end of an era and all of these birds will now be split up and all go their separate ways. The good side of that is maybe soon we will see some of them returned back to their original stages and flying again.

Dave D.
P.S. As Steve had mentioned if you have been looking for a deal on aircraft and parts, you really missed some great buys.

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http://community.webshots.com/user/warbirdman_79

Maannnnn,,,,The only question I guess I have is, did everything get sold? The other question would be, did a lot of it go to one or two places?

You're right, something like that is not going to be seen again for awhile. I wish I coulda been there.

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DEEP THOUGHTS BY KIDS:
"If we could just get everyone to close their eyes and visualize world peace for an hour, imagine how serene and quiet it would be until the looting started. Age 15 "


Deep Thoughts,
Jack Handy

"You're right, something like that is not going to be seen again for awhile. I wish I coulda been there."

Just to break your heart a little more O.P., of the complete aircraft (less engine and prop), the lowest priced one rolled away for $8,500.00, and the highest priced aircraft went for the princely sum of $13,000.00. You aren't going to be able to buy a field "full of Warbirds" for under $100,000.00 too often these days......

Granted, these aircraft were modified dusters, but they were in VERY good condition, with complete paperwork, etc. As I was going through the log books on one of the projects, I was suprised to see that the logs went all the way back to it's release from military service back in 1946, with all military times forwarded. Those log books alone were a piece of history.

And yes, it is was an "absolute" auction. It all had to go, and although we didn't stay 'til the bitter end, I think it's pretty safe to say that it was all sold. There were a few guys that bought up LOTS of stuff, and I think one fellow bought three of the aircraft, but there were a lot of guys there like us that just bought select bits and pieces too.

Have a GREAT day everybody!

Steve