Ryan Keough wrote:
Are you sure this was 1997? The Collings TBM was in New England by then - as it spent the last years of restoration at Nate Mayo's shop in Harvard, MA. I would think it was 1987-88-or 89.
That photo does fill a niche in the history of the plane. I've seen the shots of it in Mesa and in MA, but nothing right after it's "attempted" ferry flight which ended with it bellying into a beanfield after an engine failure. This shot was shortly after it was trucked back I figure.
I helped out a lot on the restoration of the Collings TBM. I got involved about 1991 after getting a ride in the B-17, 909. The airplane was at Mayo's in MA then. Very little if any restoration was done in Kissimmee. I helped with the move from Mayo's shop to Fitchburg, MA (about 15 or 20 miles by road!) and that was about 1996. I always thought that it never seemed to get the attention it deserved as a restoration. Everything in it works including the turret. I helped them find some rubber boots for control rod feedthroughs at the firewall. Found them in Hemmings, they were still the original GM part number.
John Dupre'