Longtime aviation fan spends decades restoring vintage aircraft
FRANKLIN TWP — John “Jack” Chiprean Jr. is 85 years old. He's spent 31 of them painstakingly restoring a 76-year-old airplane, pursuing rare parts and making others from scratch.
Finally in 2016, the World War II-era Stinson 10A Voyager took to the skies once again piloted by Chiprean.
“I found it at an airfield in Ohio. It was advertised for sale,” said Chiprean, a member of the Experimental Aircraft Association for 34 years and a pilot even longer at 56 years.
“My brother and I went there and checked it out. I was looking for a project, and it became a huge project,” he said.
He began working on rebuilding the vintage aircraft — which was little more than a skeletal fuselage and engine — first in his garage and later on in a hangar on the property of his daughter and son-in-law, Cathy and Jan McDonald.
“It took 31 years to put it together,” Chiprean said. “I work slow, but I work meticulously. Every bit of that restoration I did myself.”
“That slowed the work. The FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) wants work signed off by mechanics, and I had to have mechanics look over my work.”
Chiprean says he takes the Voyager aloft for short flights to Zelienople, Grove City and Pittsburgh.
“While it can climb to 10,000 feet, I stay at about 2,000 feet,” he said. “In aircraft there are instrument flight rules, IFR. For me, IFR means 'I follow roads.'”
Chiprean said he uses ground landmarks to plot his flight path because his plane lacks modern instrumentation or even a radio, unless he brings along a hand-held set.
Read Sunday's Butler Eagle to find out what work Chiprean had to do to get the plane back in the air.
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