Stop in for a cup of coffee

The handmade Grumman Goose model dates to about 1959, it has a very cool story also;

Hi Barry-

I think I posted some of this on FB at one time, but anyway............ My Uncle, John Ramstead hit the bottom of Lake Washington in a swimming accident when he was 16 years old. That left him as a paraplegic. He always loved building model planes, in about 1957 he decided to try and build a Goose. I was able to borrow the copy of the manual on file in the PSG Alaska Coastal office and sent it to him so he could scale some of the info there in. My mom hand carried it home in a box after he finished it. Think I mentioned that the center section lifted off, with a wooden peg inserted to hold the thing together.

During my college break, the summer of 1960, I was working in the Alaska Coastal office in the Ingersoll Hotel lobby. The office wasn't much bigger than a 2X wide phone booth, and didn't have a door enclosure, just a flip up counter.. We had the model hanging from the ceiling that summer, and I left it there when I went back to school.. A few months later, I got a call saying that it had been stolen... It was recovered when a couple of KTN cops found some kinds playing with it in KTN Creek. I never did see how much damage it incurred. Shell Simmons, the President of ACA told Ken Thynes who was the station mgr. at the time to have it sent to JNU and he would find a modeler to repair it.. Turns out, Jim Sweeney, a pilot of Coastal did the work. Shell had it sitting on his desk in the old JNU Seadrome office for a couple of years.

It was probably about the time that I left Webber Air for Alaska Coastal Ellis in March 1965 that I got it back.. Brought it to Seattle with my move in 1973. Uncle John passed away about a year ago, but had a number of opportunities to see it again, and always said he wanted to try and build another one. Obviously it never happened, but his intentions were good. He went on to be a successful refrigeration engineer here in Seattle and designed a number of systems for new Nordstroms stores around the country.

The only thing that I noticed while looking it over the other day is that the Hamilton Standard props that he carved might be a little short. I will be anxious to hear what you think of it when it arrives, HOPEFULLY in one piece! UPS better deliver on their promise!

Dennis

Dennis sent it to me as a gift.