Full size Aeronca Chief exchanged for a 1/8 DC-3 model and an old car

In early 1997 I met up with captain Jon Karl who had photos of a beautiful Aeronca Chief which he had bought in Florida USA and wanted me to own 1/4 of it in change for a R/C model of a DC-3 in the scale of 1/8 which I had build few years earlier. The Aeronca Chief was meant to have four owners. I was meant to find one part owner and Jon Karl would find another. So at this stage I owned half of the plane. Few months later I bought the whole plane and paid in exchange for an old car.

This was a good deal as I got to keep the motor and radio from the DC-3 which was handy as I had already started building a PBY Catalina model in the same scale. The DC-3 now hangs in the ceiling at Air Iceland (Reykjavík's domestic airport) as the DC-3 plane (TF-ISH) is one of the best known airplanes in Icelandic history and is still used for flying today.

The history of my Aeronca Chife TF-LOA:

TF-LOA was produced in 1946 but was first registered in Iceland on the 30th of July 1997. Before that, it had been registered N9642E in the US, the aircraft was rebuild from Roland Bernier in Winterhafen Florida. The aircraft has been owned by me Sturla Snorrason since 1997.

See more picture at my Aeronca on FKM Fly Club in Iceland
and Baldur Sveinsson photographer