I lucked out by going to the airport this morning. I went to visit Glenn and see how he was coming along on the Air Sedan. I pulled up and noticed that John's crew had the 1929 St Louis Cardinal pulled out, sitting shiny and pretty in the sun. I asked if they were going to run the engine or if they had run it already. They told me yes and said they were getting ready to take it back to the hangar.
I asked Jimmy Johnson if I could have the honor of sitting in it when they started it up. He said, "yea, as long as you taxi it over to the hangar."
I crawled into the tiny, cramped cockpit and waited for directions. The airplane is undergoing an annual and it took a while for us to get it started. Turned out the mixture control was not hooked up. Once that was fixed, a quick flick of the blade and the Kinner hummed along in its characteristic sewing-machine way. They wanted to check the tach, which wasn't working. Another thing for the list. They handed me an electronic tach and I measured the rpms for them. Good enough, off to the hangar.
What an honor and privilege to sit in this rare aircraft and to be able to taxi it.
Thanks Jimmy.
