Light Tester Gets Test Flight

06/02/2008 05:48:35


URBANA, Ohio -- Dozens of bright, flashing lights passed over Urbana Friday evening, casting an eerie glow over the landscape.

For those who may have called in a UFO sighting, there's no reason to feel bad. It wouldn't be the first time someone mistook the Grimes Flying Lab for an alien spacecraft.

The lab, a twin-propeller N8640 plane decked out with more than 50 lights, took to the air Friday, May 30, for its first night flight since restoration efforts began in Urbana almost 10 years ago.

Jim White, a board member for the Grimes Flying Lab Foundation, said although the flight was not open to the public, it was a chance to repay donors who have helped cover the costs of the restoration.

"It's costing them to come, but it's a payback, too, to see it at night," he said.

The plane, which was used to test aviation lights under flight conditions, is equipped with everything from helicopter strobe lights to airliner lights and search lights. They can be flipped on in sections, or all at once.

"It's a blinding thing to see them all at night," said Frank Drain, another board member who's committed much of his free time to helping restore the plane.

The lights are so bright, White said, fighter jets were once scrambled during a flight over Oregon, although they were called off when officials learned it was just the Flying Lab.

Although it was used for testing often in the 1970s and 1980s, the plane collided with a utility pole over Tremont City in 1986 and was grounded and shipped to Waynesville. But in 1999, Honeywell purchased the lab and sent it to Grimes Field where the restoration process began. The foundation purchased it in 2003, and in January this year, the plane made its first day flight since the restoration began.

Friday night's flight was the end result of years of work, White said. Volunteers pitched in thousands of hours of work, and the plane now is freshly painted, using no decals. It also has a new interior, seating three people.

Cub Stewart, who owns Red Stewart Airport in Waynesville, was scheduled to pilot the plane Friday along with his son-in-law, Chris Palmer. Dave Youtz, an engineer at Honeywell, was scheduled to operate the lights.

"This is kind of the culmination of everything," White said.

(Article courtesy of www.springfieldnewssun.com)

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