Interesting - Gulfstream N234MM was "retired" - but the registration is current...

[Bruce Bergman]

The Yesterland thread on "The Mouse" (Grumman G-159 Serial 121) parked at Disney Studios mentions that they retired Walt's Gulfstream I in 1992 and parked it on the Tour rout in 1993, and the interior is stripped out.

Can't be all that stripped out, because on a whim I pulled the records online - they renewed the Certificate of Airworthiness on 5/13/1988 and it's valid through 8/31/2014...

FAA Registry - Aircraft - N-Number Inquiry

The Airworthiness date is listed as 12/6/1963, so if they bought it in "early 1964" it was most likely brand new.

And you can fly a plane with the passenger area interior removed, all you really need is the Pilot and Copilot seats, and a floor to get in and out. Taking out the interior would reduce the chance of hidden water leaks and corrosion if they can see where the water is getting in. And simplify those periodic Airworthiness inspections.

It costs $10 to pull the full current records file on the plane on a CD-ROM, I'm almost tempted. Might be less on paper, but at 10c a page could also be a whole lot more.

Am I interpreting this wrong? Looks to me like (to use Automotive terms) they're "paying the Tags and getting it Smogged every year..." even though it's on static display.

--<< Bruce >>--

[DisWedWay]

Bruce in your records you have pulled, can you tell me who was the pilot of the plane in 1991, when the EDL design team flew on it to Paris with Frank Wells just before Desert Storm got going. It was stationed at Walt Disney world then so the pilot was probably living in Orlando or close by. I know it wasn't Chuck Malone or Jim Stevenson who were retired by then. Probably not Kevin Bailey either. I think it was in march of 1991. Probably not to many flights to Paris during the war. Any help appreciated. Frank had his lawyer on the plane in the front section. I guess it retired the next year, so may have been the last pilot of the mouse as well??

[Bruce Bergman]

I didn't get anywhere near the Log-Books, that would be something to call the Disney Archives and ask about. Odds are good that they have all the Log Books stashed away (or at least copies kept if they sold the planes) and they would tell a thousand stories of intrigue and drama, emergency landings, engine failures and annoying little things that go wrong, and details from flights with Walt and Roy, and the "Milk Runs ferrying Mouseketeers and Imagineers cross-country.

And if the Archives doesn't have them, the last Pilot that ferried it to Florida does, and it's on his mantle in a place of glory. Corporations might throw out the old logs, but a Pilot? Never.

It would be cool if one of those retired Pilots popped up here and started sharing. I'd pay a quarter to see that, and so would a lot of other folks here.

I just pulled the FAA Registration database on the N-number, and noticed it's all still Current. And thought that might make for interesting discussion.

--<< Bruce >>--

[DisWedWay]

---------- Post added 12-16-2011 at 09:03 PM ----------

Even if the registration is current on the N234MM, the engines have been removed along with the interior. I hope they stored them safely somewhere. PD