Valley airplane restorers fly high at international event

Anthony Kuipers, Moscow-Pullman Daily News, Moscow, Idaho
·2 min read

Aug. 8—A team of airplane builders based in the Lewiston-Clarkston Valley recently earned international recognition for their work in breathing new life into a 70-year-old military aircraft.

Hangar 180, which includes Gary Peters, Bill Strange, Richard Witt, Kenneth Clark, Tyler Peters, Scott Wohl and many volunteers, took home two awards in late July at the Experimental Aircraft Association AirVenture Oshkosh in Wisconsin.

"I wanted to take the airplane back to the show so the local mechanics could get the recognition they deserve on the craftsmanship that they were able to put together," Gary Peters said.

More than 10,000 aircraft and 650,000 people arrived at the event, which aims to celebrating that kind of craftsmanship in aviation.

Hangar 180 earned the "Keep 'em Flying Award" in the warbirds category for its work in restoring a 1952 de Havilland Beaver that used to serve at a U.S. Air Force base in Europe during the Cold War.

Bill Strange earned the "Golden Wrench" that recognizes the mechanics or fabricators involved in these kinds of projects.

"Bill, with his team of retired cropdusters, and my daughter, Tyler, were able to compete against world class shops," Gary Peters said. "So, that's what made it so neat."

Hangar 180, a local flying museum collection, bought the warbird in 2016 not only to display in the museum but to serve as a family project for Peters, his wife and their five daughters.

The restoration work took place at an old truck shop in Clarkston and at the Lewiston-Nez Perce County Regional Airport.

In the process of restoring it, they decided to use the EAA AirVenture Oshkosh show as their deadline to finish the project. Peters said Hangar 180 has never participated in the show before this year.

Peters said they did not expect to win an award because the airplane was not restored to its original military configuration. Yet, Peters said the judges felt the craftsmanship still garnered recognition.

Peters said none of the members of his team had worked on a de Havilland Beaver before, and he had never flown one. But their unfamiliarity with the aircraft did not stop them.

"They just tore into it, rolled their sleeves up and went after it like they would do any other airplane project," Peters said.

Kuipers can be reached at akuipers@dnews.com.