My Mitchell Wing history

The purpose of this blog is to document my progress getting my Mitchell Wing B-10 ready to fly for the first time. My “Wing” started out as a kit I purchased in August of 1982. The kit was Serial Number B1365 Economy Kit that cost $1405 and a Zenoah Engine Package for $1595 for a total cost of $3000. At the time I purchased the kit I had just finished A&P school at Texas State Technical Institute in Amarillo and had been hired by the school as an Instructor. This kit was most likely put together by Steve Patmont and his wife in their garage. For those of you who are familiar with Go-Ped Scooters, yes, THAT Steve Patmont. You can see a Comment on this Blog posted by Steve. The Mikuni Pumper carb for the Wing was supplied recently by Steve. Steve also supplied the Go-Ped Big Foot nosewheel and brake assembly for my Wing. Steve is an awesome guy and I am grateful to him for many things. When I worked at the Mitchell Wing factory in 1982-1983, Steve is the one who checked me out in the two-seat Mitchell Wing T-10 and allowed me to test-fly twenty first-time test flights in Mitchell Wing A-10’s (aluminum and foam version of the B-10). At that time, Steve was the General Manager of Mitchell Aircraft Corporation in Porterville, CA. In about 1984, after a series of moves from Amarillo to Porterville to Santa Barbara, I sold the Wing to Hans Engriser in Santa Barbara. Hans did most of the finish work on the Wing and kept it in his garage for 15 years. In 1999, I got the Wing back from Hans and set about getting it ready to fly. Moves to Texas and back to California and then to Arizona disrupted the work on the Wing several times. In March of 2005, with the Wing almost ready to test-fly, I took it, on a trailer, to the Cactus Fly-in in Casa Grande, AZ (about 20 miles south of my home in Chandler). I had the Wing on display during two days of the airshow. As I was leaving the airshow, a violent thunderstorm struck and tore the left outboard wing panel off the airplane, destroying the wing panel and flight control surface. Heartsick, I didn’t touch the airplane for the next year. I couldn’t decide whether to repair the wing, build a new one, or just try to get rid of the whole thing. Then one day, I decided to build a new wing section and a new flight control (called a Stabilator by designer Don Mitchell). Work progressed slowly for the next 3 years in our crowded garage. Recent efforts to get the Wing into the air began in earnest on Memorial Day, May 26, 2008 when I moved everything Mitchell Wing-related to a shop in GarageTown, across the street from Stellar Airpark, Chandler. Since Memorial Day, I have covered both outboard wing panels and the new left Stabilator with Ceconite. The entire wing has been repainted. I have added strobe lights and a 12-volt battery. The floor-mounted control stick is from an A-10 and is unique since B-10’s had an overhead control stick. The control stick – whether floor-mounted or overhead – works through a mixer system to move the Stabilators together as elevators or opposite each other as ailerons. I have also modified the B-10 so I can deploy both wingtip rudders simultaneously to steepen approaches, the same way factory-built A-10’s did. I have added toe pedals to the rudder pedals to steer the nosewheel. The prop is a 60-inch Ivo-prop that came off of a VW-powered Teenie Two. I think the prop will need to be shortened, maybe by as much as 4-inches. I did one test run with the prop at its full length and came up about 200 RPM shy of advertised 6500 RPM maximum.