After a total of eight months within the School paint bay, the nose section of the Grumman HU-16 Albatross finally sees the light of day as its rolled out in its new, dazzling and amazing United States Coast Guard, 1960 era color scheme of Coast Guard operational aircraft's
The HU-16 nose section looks factory new and museum quality all do to the results and efforts of the George T. Baker Aviation Schools students who were led and supervised by the School corp of dedicated and professional instructors like Mr. Alan Munoz and Mr. Rick Flores
Saved from the scrappers torch at Opa Locka Airport by Captain. Roberto Gomez from the Miami Sea Plan Base (X-44) and the vision that Benny Benitez, the Founder and CEO of the 94th AeroClaims-Aviation Consultant Group had along with the dedication of the School, as well as with the technical and material support from the Coast Guard Air Station at Opa Locka, the combined effort resulted in this amazing piece
The last part of the external / exterior cosmetic restoration, the installation of the "Snoopy" type nose radome being installed by the Students. The nose tip radome unit was removed for restoration and to accommodate the tight quarters within the School paint bay during the restoration period
The full effect of an amazing restoration effort as the final attachment screws to the radome unit are installed and checked for their secured placement. In the light of the day sunshine one could see the gleam of the double coat of clear top which was applied to protect against the harsh and relentless South Florida sun
From this vantage point one could notice the nose gear landing gear doors missing and still require to be fitted onto the aircraft. The illusion of a complete HU-16 is almost self evident as it appears
An archived photo researched by Benny Benitez of aircraft # 1267 shows as she looked like back in the late 1960's when stationed in Oregon. It should be noted that the nose section restored by the School is NOT that of the actual 1267 aircraft, but a side number selected by the Students and thus applied
Miami, Florida 6th September, 2013: Yet another fine example of the local Miami aviation industry working in joint effort with the school concerning the preservation of naval aviation history, which years ago was prevalent in Miami. The vision that Benny Benitez, Founder & CEO of the 94th AeroClaims-Aviation Consultant Group (94th ACG) had back in December 2012 and with the combined effort and dedication by all concern as mentioned above withing the picture captions has culminated into a wonder and motivating experience for the students of the George T Baker Aviation School.
Currently, Benny is directly working with his contacts within the United States Coast Guard (USCG) 7th District Chief of Staff here in Miami to organize an official USCG dedication ceremony to give the students and their instructors their well deserved "That A Boy" for a tremendous, museum quality restoration and preservation. Plans are being made to temporary display the HU-16 nose section out in front of the George T. Baker School on Le June avenue along side the Douglas A-4 aircraft, another Naval Aviation aircraft at the school.
The final display place for the HU-16 would be down at the Miami Sea Plane base, X-44 located next to the Miami Children Museum.
1 comment:
I assume this HU-16 nose section was from N265ES, ex Bu 141265 which was scrapped at Opa Locka in about 2011.
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