I know Roy Halliday pretty well, and if you are at Rocky Mountain Metro, you owe it to yourself to go hanger snooping...his T-bird is absolutely incredible. A couple of quick points:
1) Roy is as conscious of a pilot as I've met, after all, he does this stuff for a living, as he is the Chief Pilot for the world's largest mozzarella cheese company (they sell to Pizza Hut, Domino's, etc). He's not looking to get in trouble or cause any problems. I'm sure he's as alarmed by people being upset as anyone else.
2) Thought I would pass along how that T-bird came to be, it's really quite a story, and another reason you should take a look in their hanger:
It's just about the coolest "men's toy box" in existence. It has a C & C machine, a powder coating booth, and about every other trick gadget related to machine restoration you can think of.
Quite a few years ago, Roy found a derelict example of an old car like his boss used to own, which he acquired. Unbeknownst to his boss, Roy and the guys in the flight dept. worked on, and restored the car for him, and presented it to him on his birthday. His boss, who is really quite a guy, was pretty blown away that these guys would do this for him. A little later, Roy's boss mentioned to him that they should find a plane and restore it. Later, "plane" was changed to "jet". Roy found a completely decrepit T-33 shell sitting on a trailer, wings stacked next to it. He worked out a deal with the owner to trade it for an old house boat his boss owned. The deal was struck, and work began. A LOT of work. Ten years of work. The plane was completely rebuilt from the ground up. So many parts had to be fabricated, the FAA considers the plane a homebuilt (hence the Type listed on the data plate: Halliday T-33). When the T-bird was finally completed, Kay Eckardt, from SLC went up there and did the test hops to get the certification done. When it was completed (this is where the story gets good), his boss turned to him saying, "Congratulations...it's yours". (I'm paraphrasing, but you get the gist.) That year, Roy took the T-bird to Oshkosh and took Best Jet.
Another little tidbit of trivia: You might recognize the name, Roy Halliday, as in Roy Halliday Jr...as in the Cy Young award winning MLB pitcher. He's his son.
_________________ Know why FAA inspectors always wear neckties? To keep the foreskin from slipping over their heads...
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