The Brass Globe | The Story

Maxwell Stanley, at your service.

G'day. Maxwell Stanley is the name.

I got lucky recently (actually, I get lucky quite often, but that's another tale) & found a pile of parts at a little dumpy airport in Brazil that, once re-assembled, would give me one of the most beautiful airplanes on the planet - a 1976 Beechcraft Duchess.

This particular aircraft had never been flown. According to the guys at the cement plant down the road, it was purchased during the Fifth Brazilian Republic by two brothers, Rodrigo & Sebastian. Apparently my new queen was a pile inside a shipping container that was abandoned in São Luís. The brothers managed to truck her to an abandoned little airfield, where she languished until I kicked open her contain's doors about six weeks ago. But I'm getting ahead of myself...

No one heard of the brothers after the start of the 1980s. My guess is that they were on the wrong side of the new guard. The presence of the Duchess is a great clue that they were trying to get out. For the next 30 years, that little shipping container sat there baking in the humid Brazilian air.

I had just dropped off a Cessna 206 Stationair to a new owner there in Salvaterra. After a long ferry from Nantucket, I was dying of thirst & ready to chill. Seeing there wasn't a taxi within 50 miles of the airport, I decided to find a little shade while I waited for a ride. And there she was...waiting for me. My Duchess.

There she was hiding, waiting for me like a Siren in the Jungle.

See that little shack there?

It's almost poetic that the new Queen of my life was to be found in one of the most forgotten tiny buildings on the planet. But ah, it was love at first sight. Those two Lycoming O-360-A1G6D's were stunning...even sitting in the dirt & unattached to their respective wing. And that T-tail? Whew, it took my breath away. I knew I had to have her.

Let's make a long story short (which my attorney has advised me to do)...

There apparently is no present-day owner of my wonderful "Wanda". With no one to make a claim in decades, I decided she was to become mine. I would give her the loving attention she craved since the 1970s. I would see to it that her magnificent shapes were made whole again. That her tanks were filled with delicious fuel & oil. And that she would rise out of that oppressive hidden jungle to see the world.

Now I may be a crackshot airplane driver, but an overhaul mechanic I am not. Fortunately, I had a pocket full of cash from my recent C206 trip, spare time & a village of local cement men ready for an evening & weekend project. All we had to do was get her in one piece, then I would fly Wanda back to São Luís to get all the love & attention she deserved.

Wanda surely is dirty, but she's in one piece, ready to test her wings.

But will she fly?

My rag-tag crew & I were able to fit (most) of the pieces together so that after six weeks, it appeared we had an airplane. Even though she needed a complete workup, new paint job & a proper mechanic's care, Wanda was beautiful. Look at her sitting there, ready to see the world. We spray painted her ferry registration number on the side & half-filled the tanks with old AVGAS.

So the million Brazilian Real question is this: will she fly?

Did Wanda & I make it back to São Luís in one piece? And what would become of us? Would we find adventure? Would we see the world? Place your bets. Looking at the photos below, you can see she was held together with duct tape & a prayer...

G'day. Maxwell Stanley is the name.

See that little shack there?

But will she fly?

Follow Maxwell Stanley's epic X-Plane 12 FSEconomy adventure, featuring complete ZL18 ortho scenery