Larry Linrud Brings Another Plane Back To Life…
This isn’t the first time I have featured my brother-in-law, Larry Linrud in publications that I write for, but according to Larry, it may be the last. His project right now is a 1929 WACO Taperwing, not built for any specific task, but used for a “little bit of everything” according to Larry. “They flew people, they flew mail, some of the bush pilots used them, some of them the jury-rigged floats for and they even put them on skis.”
This particular plane was owned by Kent Pietsch of Minot, “and he’s had it for 20 years” says Linrud.
The WACO will be the next in a line of airplanes that have been either built, repaired or refurbished in the Linrud shop located just north of Velva. The last plane was a Travel Air, and that plane is now holding a spot in a hangar at the Dakota Territory Air Museum.
The WACO rebuilding project started about a year and a half ago, and if everything goes according to plan, the WACO will take flight sometime this summer. “I will keep it around and play with it for a while, and then I’ll probably sell it.” I was certainly lucky in that recent additions were the tail section and the engine. “The engine has 7 cylinders. That’s standard for rotary engines” according to Linrud. When I arrived, Larry was working on the oil tank. “It needed to be modified a bit so it would fit the plane” which is standard procedure when rebuilding something from 1929 “stuff doesn’t always fit right so you just have to make it work.”
Linrud is President of the Dakota Territory Air Museum and we had quite a long conversation about the museum and the challenges of drawing people into what is a kind of diamond in the rough. “Yeah, we have the warbirds, but we also have planes from every era of flight. We have a replica of the Wright brothers’ plane that flew at Kitty Hawk.”
When I asked about how Larry Linrud got started rebuilding planes? “Well basically it’s something to do.” And then he explained that there is a difference between fixing up an old car vs. fixing up an old plane. “If you fix up an old car, you can never come out on top” says Linrud “when you have to purchase the parts to make it look good, you will have way more into it that what you can ever sell it for.” That isn’t the case with an airplane. “When a project like this (the WACO) is finished, I more than likely will at least break even, or make a few bucks when I sell it. You know you’ll never get anything for your labor, but truth be told, I need a reason to get up in the morning, you just do.”
The WACO was in the middle of the shop short of the wings and of course a lot of “little things that are really time consuming” according to Linrud.
For sure there will be a day this summer when folks in Velva can look up and there will be Larry Linruds’ blue and white 1929 WACO in flight. And for now, we’ll buy into the statement that this will be the last big project…well until the next one.
