Warbird Information Exchange

I really hope this ends up with someone who will fly it regularly and publicly. I'd love to see an airworthy Guardian! The price doesn't seem too bad for an aircraft powered by a R-2800 though I am sure other parts would be hard to come by, even with a small cache of spares. The claim in the advertisement that it could fly with 3-4 weeks of work seems bold given the condition of the cockpit and the fact that new fuel cells need to be installed.

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Matt

That is the Burchinal plane.

I seem to remember that Jimmy Leeward had two Guardians.
The one at Chico was donated to the Chico Air Museum after Leewards death, but I thought the other one had been restored/flying??


the Chico Guardian

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remember the Oogahonk!
old school enthusiast of Civiltary Warbirds and Air Racers

Pretty sure this is the ex-Leeward flyer, no?

That expired N# was last registered to Burchinal and as an Experimental.

He had it running in the past, there's a facebook video I think. He also painted it.

It was donated by Aiero Union of Chico, Ca. to the EAA and flown to Oshkosh. It sat outside for a couple of years and they really didn't know what to do with it. JImmy Leeward purchased it for somewhere between $25K and $50k. It sat outside tied down in the grass at the Leeward Air Ranch for a couple of years. It was in NMF and it was painted it's current blue to protect it from the elements. I talked to both Jimmy and son Dirk and they both said it was easy and fun to fly. After Jimmy's death it came up for sale and ended up at Burchinals. Maybe he had plans to put it on the airshow circuit, I don't know.
A couple of problems with the aircraft. 1) It is a mostly unknown aircraft type. 2) I doesn't have any stand out historical history to it. (Like the P-40 has the AVG or the B-25 has the Tokyo Raiders.) It's kind of a blip in history of Naval surface warfare. There were twp types of Guardians and they hunted in pairs. ONe carried the radars and the other carried the ordnance. This surviving aircraft would be far more interesting if a second seat could be added up top, and lots of rockets and ordnance could be fitted. It is pretty much still stripped down from it's water bomber days.
If I were the seller, I would market it to the collectors that have many different types of Grummans in their collection. Second, would be to those that own a flyable Skyraider or TBM as it could be marketed similarly if they want to do the airshow and open house venues. The airplane would go up in value and popularity if it was flown more, presented more, and photographed more. It's a very big airplane but if hangared, smaller aircraft can fit under the wings.