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That's is a beauty. I don't think the maple leaf detracts from it at all; maybe that was the original paint scheme.
You didn't say if you have a hangar. If if stays outside, subject to ultraviolet rays and the chemicals in the air around Houston, may I offer the suggestion of both a canopy cover and also a cover for that nice wood prop.
When you fly a fixed gear plane, I think it is a good habit to include a gear down check in your landing procedure, so that when you are flying a retractable plane you aren't likely to forget it.
Seeing Terrell, Texas on the side reminds me of a landing I had there. I had owned my T-34A for about ten years, with no real trouble other than oil consumption. I sold the plane to a man in Colorado Springs, with the agreement that he would keep final payment until I flew the plane once more to Sun N Fun and then delivered it safely back to him. On the way back from Florida, I was near Dallas Redbird where I would stay overnight. I had a headwind and so decided to make a quick stop for fuel. As I turned to land at Terrell, I put down the gear switch just as I had done hundreds of times before, but this time it did not go down. I try to be very careful about remembering and checking the gear down on landing. Really, having the gear down is the only vital thing for landing, other things like fuel pump, flaps, or prop are nice to have, but you can land just fine without them. Fortunatly, even though I was tired after flying all day; my training and good habits served me well this time, and I caught that there were no green lights. I was surprised, but went around, climbed up and cranked the gear down and landed ok. There was no shop open there on the weekend, so I got some gas and flew over to Redbird with the gear down. I found a shop there, perhaps the dirtiest and messiest one I have ever seen. There were two guys there working, pretty rough looking, lot's of chewing tobacco and not many teeth, but they were nice and set to work. We walked over to the fancy FBO next door to use a clean restroom. Within an hour they had found the problem. The gear switch in the Mentor has about 6 positions for wires on the back of it. One wire in the switch in the back seat had come partly loose and shorted out against an adjacent one, and that was enough to prevent the gear from coming down. Pretty good detective work even if they didn't look that spiffy.
I spent the night in Dallas and the next day we flew back to Colorado Springs, where I went up solo for a final session of acro, keeping the gs down to no more than 3 and I delivered the plane safely to the new owner.
In about 30 years of flying I have 3 times found that the gear was not down in the landing checklist. In my Mooney and my T-34 I had to crank it down. In the Spitfire, the gear was actually down, it was an indicator problem due again to a loose wire.
Incindently, if anyone is buying are starting flying a T-34, phone me if you have any questions. It's a fun little plane, and super easy to fly.
_________________
Bill Greenwood
Spitfire N308WK
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