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regularly. He bought a crashed ‘73 model in Phoenix and trucked it home, where the airframe is currently being restored while the engine is out for overhaul. A Cherokee 180, abandoned for 20 years, is also an ongoing project.
Less common types include a Cessna 175, which was abandoned for 30 years. Its unusual geared engine started right up on the decades-old avgas still in the tanks! It was eventually ferried to Wisconsin and is a work in progress today. The 1940 Porterfield was purchased as a disas- sembled basketcase with many missing parts. Today, it’s a flying beauty queen that recently went to a new caretaker. A 1946 Ercoupe has recently been completed and awaits only paperwork to
return to flight.
Then there are the truly rare types. A 1945 CallAir that re- turned to flight after a decade of abandonment and has since been sold. A Scheibe SF25B motor-glider was shipped to Pep in a container from Swe- den. Today, it is restored and flies in the summers from Nicolet Airport (88WI), the private grass strip Anderas and several friends own on the outskirts of Green Bay.
Twin Temptresses
One of Anderas’ favorite twins was the Cessna 401 he flew for over 1,000 hours. However, the first twin Pep rescued was a 1965 Piper Aztec, which he bought in 2017 while driving down I-65 on his way to pick up a crashed Twin Beech (more on that later). The PA-23-250 sat abandoned in Pennsylvania for 5+ years. After an extensive annual, he flew it home to GRB. There, all its issues were corrected, an engine was top overhauled, and he flew it right up until selling it earlier this year.
Another ultra-rare type is his 1960 Dornier Do.28A (one of only two airworthy A-models remaining in the U.S.). Twin & Turbine previously detailed these aircraft and how they were saved (see A Flight Review with History; Dornier Do.28 in the April 2023 issue).
Anderas recently bought a RAM-converted Cessna 414 for “a song.” He says he and Jim will thoroughly inspect it soon to determine if it can be made airworthy before beginning to spend money on it. Unsurprisingly, he suspects it can be and that they’ll work on it through the coming winter months.
The aforementioned Beechcraft Model 18 is a future project he trucked from Atlanta. It is currently on the back burner, with too many other projects consuming his time and resources. However, he hopes once those projects are done and sold, the Twin Beech can be moved to the front of the shop and completed, as it’s the plane that started him into twins and the type that first kindled his passion for airplanes.
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C-337’s feature a dedicated cargo door at the right rear of the cabin pod.
Anderas chooses to operate his Skymaster with the 3rd row of seats removed in favor of additional baggage space.
Full Circle Skymaster
Cessna Skymasters became An- deras’ accidental favorite. The 10th production C-336 Skymaster had been bought and disassembled by a friend’s father. Thereafter, it sat for 15 years before another friend acquired it. Then, it sat for a few more years. One day, it appeared in Pep’s hangar, and his friend said simply, “It’s yours now!” It was still completely disassembled and gut- ted. Pep looked at it day after day, dreaming, but he saw it as a project that was more than he wanted to take on. So, he offered it to the mis- sion organization JAARS, which needed a test-bed aircraft for an experimental engine. Their very capable maintenance staff reas- sembled the aircraft, but their deal for the test engine fell through. So, they returned the aircraft to Pep, assembled and nearly ready to fly.
Being the original Skymaster, it was not a stellar performer. Regardless, Pep appreciated its economy and simplicity. With fixed