Jim Ladwig Acquires Whistler and It moves to Chapter Hangar
Jim Ladwig and his family are taking up flying — again. As Jim told us,
“I have known the Sisler SF-2 Whistler since it was first built back in 1973. And I knew that Gene Stinar, whom I had known at Southport airport in the 60s, had bought the Whistler project from Bert Sisler.
Recently I had been planning to buy a plane so my kids could learn to fly. My thought was to buy back the black-and-gold Pietenpol I had sold to Vi Kapler in 1988. (Vi had worked with Bernard Pietenpol in Cherry Grove in the 60s and 70s.) However, it occurred to me that a side-by-side airplane was much more suitable for training purposes than an open-cockpit tandem arrangement.
Considering possibilities, I remembered flying the Sisler SF-2A Cygnet for a 3.5 hour dual cross-country on the afternoon of May 19,1979, the day it finished its test period and received its airworthiness certificate. (That morning, after a 10-year break from flying, I had received my first BFR in the J-3 Cub belonging to Paul Wilcox.) A Cygnet seemed the ideal choice for us.
It was at Paul’s funeral last November 1 that an attendee mentioned that Gene Stinar was selling the Whistler to someone. Right there I asked Lee Hurry if he would give me Gene’s phone number, which resulted in my visiting Gene on November 14 and subsequently purchasing the plane.
At the January 16 meeting of Chapter 25, Jon Cumpton offered the use of his trailer to retrieve the plane, which we did on January 26 (see photo) with the help of Jon, Bert Sisler, Bert’s son Eric and my son, Forrest.
Gene had hired a person to plow a long, wide path to the front of the hangar on his country home, and helped in removing the wings and loading the plane on the trailer. His wife, Billie, served hot chocolate and cookies as we were finishing the task.
It was a wonderful experience to have all the advice and assistance from everyone present. I will never be able to repay their kindnesses, but they have my everlasting gratitude.
I am also grateful to many, many other members of Chapter 25 who offered
to help, but were unable for one reason or another.”