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The Biplane Adventures of Michael McCafferty
 "A
group of high school students and I built this Fisher Classic back in the early 90s. This aircraft project was featured in
KITPLANES magazine in an eight-part series starting in the fall of 89.
Back in the 60s, I was a Flight Operations
Instructor for United Airlines (Boeing 720) at the Flight Training Center her...e in Denver. When the economy
went south and I was furloughed, I found a job teaching an aviation/aerospace pre-career program for Littleton High School.
For medical reasons, I never returned to United when I received a recall in 1974. The aero program grew and over
the years, I put 1830 kids through the two-semester course. In the final two years of my career at LHS, a group of 8 advanced
aero students, and myself, built this airplane and my first test flight was on 2 March, 1992.
Besides the publicity
from KITPLANES, a few noted aviation "celebrities" became part of this project. Billy Mitchell, the 2008 EAA's Spirit
of Flight recipient, and A. Scott Crossfield, aerospace pioneer, were both involved.
The airplane was built in
a "hangar" that used to be Littleton High's industrial arts shop. It was made almost entirely of high grade spruce
and bonded with T-88 Epoxy. Before it was completed, we loaded the aircraft in an enclosed trailer and took it to Oshkosh
in the summer of 1990. During the following two semesters, the kids all selected the Great Lakes trainer paint scheme and
after an FAA sign-off, I flew on 2 March 1992 out of Greeley Airport here in Colorado. For more than 100 hours TFT, the Rotax
582 performed flawlessly.
If any young aviation enthusiast, or aerospace club of teens, want a fantastic project,
I would highly recommend the Fisher Classic. There is no welding involved and it is more like big RC aircraft than a traditional
tube & fabric, "decade-to-build-project."
In a ceremony before our flight test, Scott Crossfield
christened it, "The Class Act." This was one of the high points of my aviation career and I've never regretted the
decision to not go back with United" - Ben Millspaugh, Littleton Colorado
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