Continued, page two. VA State EAA Fly-In:
 Now who could resist a face like that?
 It's a 1934 Stinson Reliant, SR 5. It's not a gull wing..as you can see clearly from this photo, it's a Straightwing. Its owner, Mike Strieter, of Laurel, MD, says Stinson only built the straightwing for three years before turning to the more famous gull design..and he's got one.
 Strieter has owned the plane for 13 years. He told me he found it just outside of Cleveland. It was covered, no interior, no cowlings, no wheel pants..painted just up through silver.
I asked him if there was enough there to fly it back to Laurel, and he said "yes, barely. They made it ferryable. It has 18 sparkplugs and 13 of them were different," so getting it home took an effort.
What's it like to fly? "It's a big baby carriage. Very docile, very stable yet responsive. Easy to fly. Very easy."
Range and power? "It's got a 300 hp Lycoming, which is larger than the original engine, horsepower-wise." He says he's got about a 3 hour range but, like most of us, his bladder keeps it down to around 2 hours at a time.  Is that sumpin', or what?
Somebody's pride and joy. A Cessna 120 with all the trimmings.
Here's a familiar face (left). Remember standing right there and cranking it? The Champ's a good old airplane..still a joy to fly.
A lot of us got started in that front seat.
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