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Hi Guys,
Well I've held off on making any posts about the A-25 for sometime now and although my anger level is still rather high I would like to stick to the facts, rather than make a statement based on my feelings. I contracted with the Museum to build a static A-25, for a set price, 7 years ago. Acquiring the missing items and fabricating parts from scratch (little things like new longerons), exhausted all of the funds in 3 years. Being a man of my word, I chose to complete the project personally, rather than renegotiate a contract that I had agreed to and felt that I should live up to. I have not received a dime towards the restoration for over four years from the museum, the full brunt of running my shop, keeping the lights on, materials, labor ect., has come from my own pocket, not from the museum. I was very determined to complete the project and deliver it to the museum no matter what the costs were but when the last restoration supervisor retired and the new kid on the block took over, it was a whole new ball game. Nothing was quite up to his standards; he was not around when a very damaged, corroded, burnt and crushed airframe entered my shop, but jumped in the arena when much of the work was all ready complete.
Seven years of my life were donated to returning what many thought as an impossible task of rebuilding the A-25 to displayable standards. 6 to 8 weeks were required to complete the final restoration, when the decision was made by their restoration supervisor to finish the project at Dayton. This meant no final payment to me, four years of hard work chasing that elusive carrot, searching and paying for all the missing parts then the final kick in the pants was that I would not get any credit for all of the work done. That was the final straw. The financial burden of completing the restoration, with no visible means of support was beyond my abilities, I risked losing everything that I owned to continue down a dead end street. I had even worked out a deal with another local restoration shop to finish the A/C for the final amount due to me at the end of the project (6-8 additional weeks on a 7 year project), but that was voted down by that same restoration supervisor.
My decision to come to work for Eric meant that the A-25 would have to go on hold until I could put away enough of my own hard earned money to complete the job this was not good enough for my friend at the museum. They made the choice to come and get it ASAP with no further extension of time or consideration of completing it. I sent the museum copies from the erection manual on how to correctly disassemble and ship the a/c without cutting, drilling or damaging it, but to no avail. A row of new bolts on each side of the fuselage and four very large bolts in the center section were all that was needed to correctly remove it in one piece.
A total disregard for the disassembly and shipping of the only surviving A-25 in the world brings us to where we are today. I went up to MN the week prior to their arrival and prepped everything for the move and removed the aircraft from my hangar. As I was not able to take another week off work to go back to MN and help them with what I thought was a very straight forward and correct way to ship it to Dayton, I put my faith in their ability to ship it safely which now I see was a major mistake. I've made a lot of personal sacrifices to complete what was once a childhood dream to see it displayed at Dayton only to have that dream dashed by a inexperienced person whose ego has gone along way in killing the project and God knows what damage was done in the rush job to get it back to Dayton. It was disassembled in a little over 24 hours from the time they arrived to impress who? Standing it on the firewall was not a smart move the weight of the center section alone would give second thoughts to anyone with the experience of moving something that large and fragile cross country. The high center of gravity it's self would cause one to think of the safety of transporting it that way but it's theirs and they can do as they please with it. I can only hope it gets the care it deserves, gets finished in a professional manner and can be enjoyed by many for years to come. As far as ever doing another Helldiver or any project that complicated, not a chance this experience has taught me a very good lesson leave it for the experts as there seems to be an endless supply of them out there just waiting to get their chance to dazzle the rest of the world. Thanks for everyone’s help and support through out the project what a long and strange trip it's been.
Thanks Mike
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IF YOU CAN FIND IT WE CAN FIX IT
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