Hi, Dave:

I see that Gus Hertz sent you pictures of 125C. It is looking like an airplane now. Avionics (KX 100 handheld GPS com, mode C and KX 76A) are in, as are instruments. Yet to be installed are fairing, cockpit interior and tail cone.

Don Swords of Don's Dream Machines in Griffin, Georgia built up the A-65 to an A-75, so 125C should move right along. I copied the beautiful paint scheme of the Workmans' Mite, and used the Polyfiber system with Polytone to keep it light.

This aircraft was purchased from the factory in 1950 by Harold Gallatin of Milwaukee, WI. He was on the first board of Directors for the EAA at that time. John Gadeikis of Burlington, WI purchased the aircraft from Harold several years ago and began restoration. He replaced almost all the sheet metal, and his wife assembled a new cockpit interior. I purchased 125C from John three years ago, put the pieces on a trailer, and hauled it down to my shop in Atlanta.

All the fabric was gone, so it was easy to evaluate the structure and do what needed to be done. Someone had stepped through top and bottom plywood in two places of the left wing D cell, and as usual, a couple of hundred glue joints needed re-gluing. But the spars and ribs were excellent. Happily, a Sensenich A-65 Mite prop was on the wall of the shop I inherited. With that prop on the wall, I had to find an aircraft on which to install it.

With luck, I'll see the runway through the Mite's windscreen here at PDK when the weather turns a little warmer, and another great flying machine will once again grace the skies. With Jim Frank's and Gus Hertz's Mites at Mallards Landing, and mine a few miles away, some formations of Mites should be frequently seen around the southeast.