Richard Pulley Comments on N9836AI purchased 36A in Feb. 2003 from Russ Luigs of Bandera, Texas. It was destroyed in a take-off accident in 1993. After Russ decided to save it and a 6 year complete rebuild by John Collett of Butterfly Aviation, Bob Henderson of Air Core in Houston, and several other fine craftsmen it looks better than new. Russ took it to Oshkosh in 2000 and won the Lindy award for Classic Aircraft, Best Class IV (236HP and up). I don't intend to to enter it into any more competitions as Russ did all the work and I can't take credit for any of it.36A flies as good as it looks and after 30 years of flying Cessna taildraggers I finally felt ready for a 195. Ina and I looked at 195s for two years all across the U.S., Canada, and Alaska before finding 36A. It was worth the wait! Since I'm 50-something and the C-195 is 50-something we decided we needed a 50-something car to go with the program. "Poncho" was found west of Tulsa for sale by a 73 year old hot rodder who built it up as a classic cruiser. It's a 1950 Pontiac Chieftan Silver Streak 8 with a 1974 drive train,455 engine, 350 transmission, .373 Posi-trac rear end, and dual glas packs. A classic with real performance like the 195. We've already had lots of fun with both the plane and car, but had no idea of the crowd appeal both have. That will take a lot of getting used to.
Richard Pulley and Ina Vleeshouwer
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