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The Mockingbird in her new home

Jerry Fischer

Well Known Member
Joe C. has her in Bayport L.I. and had done some very nice upgrades.
4 new cylinders, sump, carburetor, composite sensenich ground adjustable prop/spinner, and stainless exhaust. she's beautiful.:)
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Proud foster father

Beautiful child Jer. It is a great thing that you took custody when you did and then looked after her and moulded her, allowing her to blossom in her new home.
 
What happened to N1583? (aka Mockingbird)
Looks like it has been deregistered.

I rebuilt it in the '90's and wondering what happened.
Thanks.
 
The Mockingbird

Hey Bruce, I sold her in 2015 to Joe Cannizaro, the chief of air Ops for Donald Trump. He did some nice upgrades to her and I posted pictures here. Unfortunately, Joe perished in a Globe Swift he had purchased in Pineville, La. I really don't know weather his wife de-registered it or exactly what happened.:(
 
Thanks Jerry for the update.
Would be a shame if the family deregistered N1583 with the plan to sell as parts to avoid a perceived 'homebuilt liability' for the estate.
 
I agree that it would be a shame if this airplane is "lost". For many years, once in a while I contemplate trying to buy it. Now that I work at Van's, the idea is even more appealing. I might put a little bit of effort into tracking down N1583.

I sold her in 2015 to Joe Cannizaro...

Jerry; Any leads would be appreciated, e.g. if you know anyone who knew Joe, if you have his address, anything like that.

Wish me luck...

Edit: I was able to find addresses associated with Joe's wife and a handful of other relatives in the town where he lived. Now, I will write an extremely carefully worded letter...
 
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I did write an extremely carefully-worded letter, and I mailed a handful of copies, to Joe's wife and a couple of other local-area relatives. I did not hear back from any of them. The only person I heard back from was someone telling me that she bought her house from his family, i.e. I had the wrong address...

I could try to contact them by phone, but "unfortunately", I am now remembering that I have a lot of projects and not a lot of free time, so this might not be the best use of my money (or time)...

On the other hand, I just hate the thought of the only airworthy RV-1 abandoned in a back corner of a hangar, or worse, in storage...

We'll see what I do. Given that they did not reply to my letter, I'm thinking I should let this one go.
 
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THanks everyone for trying.

I would ask for continued 'low level' effort to make contact.
You never know.
And Im sure there is a group of us that can join up and make a rescue.
 
Just ran across this discussion. The Mockingbird lives at my home airport, and still flies semi-regularly. Which is, uhh, interesting given that the FAA says it's deregistered. For that reason I'm going to refrain from giving more details, but just be aware that it's not rotting away in a barn somewhere.
 
The Mockingbird

That's great news to hear Phillip.
I wasn't the builder & only owned her for a few years but I named her to sort of dig at Dick VanGrunsven. He never liked the plane for various reasons and he even flew her back when she was first built in Portland. The really sad part for me is that Malcolm Steck who I purchased her from, has Gone West as well as the fellow I sold her to (Joe Cannizzaro) back in 2015. I will try to post a picture of my last sight of her when I delivered her to Joe back in 2015.
 
The Mockingbird lives at my home airport, and still flies semi-regularly. (...) it's not rotting away in a barn somewhere.

That is great news indeed! Thank you for sharing this.

...I'm going to refrain from giving more details...

I appreciate your discretion, and I'm sure the current owner/pilot does too. In any case (and without the need to post any further details on the internet), feel free to let them know that, if they ever think about selling the "Mockingbird", there is an interested potential buyer who'd probably be willing to bring it back home to Portland.
 
Link

Hi Peter, do you have the Quicktime player app? That was how I uploaded to website. I will try some more ways to upload photos
Thanks for you patience
Jerry
 
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