We took 40 west, wound our way through New Mexico, Colorado, Utah and Nevada before arriving in Reno.
In Reno, we had the opportunity to meet with Mike, the owner of N45265, Bureau # 2685. His aircraft was down for it’s annual, but it was great to meet up and put a face with a name. Here is a “library” photo of his aircraft:
The next day we had got up to Reno Stead and met up with the group from the High Sierra Squadron of the Commemorative Air Force. Their bird was, you guessed it, undergoing an annual. The pictures do show how the N3N was designed for ease of maintenance, the entire port side of the aircraft has panels that come off with the turn of a few dzus fasteners:
From there we went “over the pass” on I-80 and down the hill to Grass Valley California where we met up with Mike Ponte. The aircraft that he was working on when we first talked in 2015 is completed and has a new home in Idaho. Mike has an extensive inventory of components and he would be glad to build a Lycoming powered “N” if someone is interested.
The N3N Blog - it's "Not a Stearman" 