Cool, very big old airplane - Gullwing Stinson

Our buddy that went on our Bahamas trip has a beautiful old 1942 vintage Gullwing Stinson. It's been in maintenance for a while - but he pulled it out to go flying on this beautiful spring-like January day! I forgot to snap an "overall" photo - so here is an old one I found....very similar to his airplane.

He recently bought it - and it's been in maintenance ever since.  So, we haven't ever fueled it.  Yesterday, I experimented with the ladder - it's a big airplane!!!  Our normal ladder for fueling high-wing airplanes is just 6' tall.  It was clear after I tried it on the 6' ladder, we needed a bigger ladder!  So, I drove the pickup this morning and stopped by Lowe's for an 8' ladder.  Here Ben is on the top usable rung of the new 8' ladder.

Isn't it beautiful??  The wood panel is absolutely stunning.

Polished brass door hardware and look at that shiny stainless step.  Makes me think there is some "swing" music playing the the background!