After the first test flight the weather over in Denver was not all that great, so I told the folks I would be back in the next week or so to fly the old girl back to the Denver area.  When I got back the son-in-law met me at the airport with the deceased owners' grand kids, wondering if I could take them up in Grandpa's plane one last time.  As you all know, there is no way I could say no.  So after a couple of laps around the family farm with each of the grand kids, I was ready to head west.  Need I say about an hour or so later than I had originally planned, but what can you do?  My first leg was from Cozad to North Platte, the Arrow ran perfectly the weather was great, and just a small head wind.  What more could you ask for?? 
 
Still not sure what my fuel consumption and oil burn might be exactly, I made my next stop in Sterling, where there was a note on the door to call for fuel, odd for 3pm... an hour or so later I was on my way.  Now with sunset coming right up, there was no time to dally.  My goal was to land at Jack Greiner's grass strip just north of Boulder, CO.  He had given me a rough idea where he was located in relationship to the roads, highways and other airports.  As I was approaching the general area the sun was just slipping over the horizon, so after a couple of laps around the neighborhood with out seeing anything that did not look like a horse pasture, I landed just north at Longmont Airport.  The Arrow spent the night there, while I drove by Jacks place so I could locate it from the air. 
 
The next morning I arrived at Jack Greiner's.  Jack is a very interesting fellow.  He began flying in the early 30's, and was one of the youngest Captains flying for American Airlines in DC-3's, later  he spent time barnstorming around the mid-west in the taper wing Waco he restored , and at the time I landed with the Arrow, was in the middle of restoring a Rose Parakeet.  When I shut the airplane down Jack walked up, and said, yep, that's the Arrow I flew back in the 70's.  He said, "I remember you don't want to chop the power on her during the landing".  While at Jack's place, I was able to spend time adjusting the brakes, tinkering with a few items, and having a crack in the exhaust collector welded up.  After making a few more test flights, climbing up to altitudes that I would need to fly over the Rocky Mountains, I had convinced my self that this wing was not the one I wanted to fly over the Rockies. Discretion being better part of valor, I decided that since my Dad was helping us move from Georgia in a U-Haul, and would need to end up in Oregon anyway, that we would disassemble the Arrow and send her to Hood River in a truck. 
 
As you know from before the Arrows' wings are one piece, so they stuck out of the biggest truck that U-Haul has about 3 feet.  Loading a bi-plane is not a simple task. Luckily we had plenty of help loading her up.  Unfortunately it is hard to gain a consensus with a Corporate Pilot, a Barnstormer, an Engineer, a Sheet Metal man, a Building Contractor, and a Wife.  All of that a side, a few hours later we had the Arrow loaded and headed down the road, headed for Hood River. 
 
After arriving in Hood River, Tom and Terry stuck the wings back on the old girl, and as luck would have it I was able to stop by for a quick visit and fly her again.  At the same time we fired up the Davis DK-1 and got some nice photos of Kinner powered airplanes, with odd wings, flying in formation.  WAAAM has another Arrow in line for restoration.  It is a model F, low wing mono-plane with a Ford flat head V-8 engine.  I'm sure the old car guys will love seeing that airplane together.
 
So that's the story, nothing exciting, just the way the Arrow Sport Pursuit arrived in Hood River.  Did I mention that Budd Davisson did a cool article on this plane back several years ago???  http://www.airbum.com/pireps/PirepArrowSport.html
 
Ben Davidson
Arrow Pilot