The Kokomo Tribune from Kokomo, Indiana • Page 13

Thursday, 5, 1980 Kokomo (Ind.) Tribune 13 Step up for a ride PEKING, China For just 2 yuan ($1.50 American dollars) tourists at the Great Wall of China can climb aboard a camel, don a costume and wave a saber. An enterprising peasant, right, lowered the price from 10 yuan $7.50 American dollars) last season because he had no takers. (AP photo) Midway, is real-life laboratory for energy efforts MIDWAY, Wash. (AP) Midway isn't on any maps; it's too small. Cold in the winter, hot in the summer it's just what Bonneville Power Administration had in mind for a series of energy conservation experiments.

"It's a ready-made laboratory. We can test the effectiveness of weatherization and solar systems in a real-life situation," said Jim Lynch, project manager for BPA. "The National Bureau of Standards has a test house which has been weatherized and equipped with a computer that turns the lights off and on, opens the doors and keeps track of electricity usage. But no one lives there. "That data is valuable, but it's not the same as when people live in a house," said Lynch.

There isn't much here no store, no restaurant, no gas station, and about 70 residents. A sign in the window of one building says "Midway Union Sunday School." That's only true when a preacher can be coaxed to town for services. Eighteen houses, a combination dormitory-grade school, and a main BPA substation that's Midway. The substation employees rent Che houses from the BPA and pay a set amount for utilities every month. Rich Dixon, his wife, and two small children live in a house fitted with a forced-air solar-heat system.

Four other houses have been fitted with solar water heaters and five with heat-pump water heaters. In addition, 13 of the houses have been tightly insulated and seven of those have been equipped with storm windows and storm doors. So far, BPA has invested more than $100,000 in the program, proposed more than two years ago when fears of a Northwest energy shortage were growing and the cost of electricity climbing. Midway was built in the early 1940s, along the Columbia River in south-central Washington. Because it is so isolated, about 30 miles from Richland within sight of the Hanford nuclear reservation, BPA decided to provide housing for its employees the only BPA substation that has housing.

For the past year, the electricity consumption in all the houses at Midway has been monitored. Late last year, the laying of insulation, hanging of storm doors and windows and the installation of the heat pumps and solar systems was completed. "People have said they noticed an immediate difference with the weatherization," said Lynch. BPA contracted with private firms in the Northwest to install the solar systems and heat exchangers. "All of the systems can be bought commercially," said Art Gentemann, a BPA mechanical engineer.

"We contracted with companies that could supply them." All of the solar systems are a little different. "ARCHIE COOKSEY" The working man and woman's friend the new MAPLE CREST SHOPPING CENTER As Low As 128 BUY HERE PAY HERE MON. thru SAT. 10 to 9 SUN. 1 to 7:30 PHONE 455-OO40 Aviation buff sees romance in old planes PORTLAND, Ore.

(AP) Some people collect stamps, some like old guns or swords and others opt for coins. But for Bill Shea, aviation director of the Port of Portland, there's nothing quite like an old airplane. And when it conies to his 1935 Stln.son Reliant and others of that era, he nearly bursts with enthusiasm. "It's where aviation began," he exclaims. He doesn't discount the feats of the brothers but says modern aviation stems from the time when airplanes changed from biplanes to monoplanes and became transportation instead of thrill rides.

"I really believe in that. That's the era that gave some persons their love of aviation," he says. Shea's Stlnson harks back to the days when most airplanes' wings were braced with wood, their bodies covered with linen instead of aluminum, and third wheels were on tails instead of noses. Except among antique enthusiasts like Shea, you don't hear much about Stinson airplanes anymore. The company was a division of the Cord automobile company when Shea's airplane rolled out the door in Wayne, with a price tag of about $6,000.

The first owner was actor Wallace Beery who, so the story goes, used the craft to fly underprivileged children to summer camp. It went through the hands of many owners, including the federal government, which used it for transportation in World War II. Shea got it last year from a former Marine fighter pilot in Chehalis, who coveted a restored Army Bird Dog observation plane that Shea had. Shea had a handful of old airplanes and about 6,000 hours In the air, since he learned to fly in 1945. Before he came to Portland, he headed California's Division of Aeronautics and a transportation system In Blnghampton, N.Y.

Shea's Stlnson is one of but 50 turned out and, as far as he knows, it's the only one still flying. A more common model is like Shea's but has a different wing one that arches where it joins the fuselage and is referred to, reverently, as a gull-wing Stlnson. The welded-steel skeleton of Shea's plane has been re-covered with fiberglass fabric and it has a newer engine and propeller, but the big nine-cylinder radial engine still starts with a belch of smoke, just like in the old days. The wood-braced wings still carry the original Sitka spruce spars. The 300-horsepower Lycoming pulls the craft along at 120-140 miles an hour while drinking as much as 18 gallons of gas an hour.

Old shingles shine TOLEDO, Ohio (AP) Does your roof shine brighter than it used to? If so, it may be time for reroof- ing, says Owens-Corning Fiberglas a shingle manufacturer. When shingles become old and worn out, they lose their protective granules and appear shiny. The shininess indicates they may soon wear out and make it easier for water to seep through. Granules from shingles appearing in gutters and downspouts indicate the same problem. "Look at that! Isn't that something!" Shea chants In his Boston- Irish brogue as the big propeller swings through.

"Just smell that. Isn't that smell something," he beams as the odor of aviation gas wafts through the cockpit. If nothing else, the Stlnson is BIO; bigger than any single-engine civilian craft turned out today although it carries only four, maybe five, persons. Shea has to keep it In a hangar designed for a twin. With the tall on the ground It is impossible to see straight ahead past the mammoth nose.

To taxi, Shea swings the tail back and forth so he can Took out the side. Shea is one of a large group of antique airplane lovers who gather each year at Vancouver, and Merced and Watsonvllle in California to share tales and experiences. "It's a labor of love to keep these old planes running," he says as he walks around the craft. "I'm gonna take off the fabric and sand down the metal tubes, I'm gonna fix that window and I'm gonna refinlsh that woodwork and FAMILY CHIROPRACTIC A new concept in health care now being offered by Family Chiropractic Centers the largest chiropractic provider in the State of Indiana. Dr.

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