From: "Bill" bblake@telus.net
Date: Tue, 23 Aug 2005 10:54:59 -0700
Subject: Hatz CB-1 #681
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As a brand new member of the Hatz Bi-plane Association I am excited to show you what I have hiding out in my hangar.
Recently a good friend of mine Darren Adams came across a Hatz CB-1 that was partially under construction. I had been looking for a bi-plane for a few years but never made very much progress until now. Until now I have been flying Cessna's for 31 years with the odd few hours in other types including T-craft, Lancair, The Goose, The Beaver, Fleet 80, and probably a couple of others I have since forgotten. But none of these seemed to satisfy the need for an open cockpit vintage style airplane. Speed was never my focus but low and slow flight always has been.
So a few weeks ago Darren and I flew his nicely restored Taylor Craft to Vancouver Island to Raven Field, a little private grass strip, and there lurking in an old barn was Hatz CB-1 Number-681. A look at the web-site images will show you just how much work the original owner was able to complete before his tragic death in an industrial accident. I became both distracted and excited when I saw the airplane and immediately wrestled with sorting out the next few steps.
As the images show, a lot of care and caution was exercised in relocating the Hatz to my hangar at the Pitt Meadows Airport (CYPK) in the British Columbia Fraser Valley. My long time friend Don came along and made the loading of the pieces an easy task.
The Hatz had a couple of other owners along the way too and most recently it was in the care of John Howroyd and then on to me. And now, I am using the next few weeks and months to familiarize myself with what has already been done, what needs to be done, and what the next steps will be. The Hatz Bi-plane Association's home page is already my technical reference resource and all of you who have gone before me will be my mentors.
So as I continue to learn and build I will post more images to my web page and welcome any and all advice and suggestions and can hardly wait for that milestone first flight.
Cheers, Bill Blake