Below, photo of Stinson AT-19 aircraft in British military paint scheme. The AT-19 was the military version of the popular "Reliant" series Stinson manufactured prior to WW II.

Elmer and I both flew out to the East Coast to meet with Mr. Hackenburg, purchase an engine with mount, exhaust, and measure the tail. My brother Marty lives in Maryland so he arranged for time off work, picked us up at the airport and drove us to our meeting with Hackenburg on November 12.

     Date 11 / 12 / 2000
Below, group photo taken at one of Mr. Hackenburg’s storage areas. Left to right, Elmer Nelson, Mr. Hackenburg, Charles Nelson.

When Elmer Nelson constructed the original windsled, Howard Russell, the windsleds owner, purchased a scrapped AT-19 owned by a pilot named Trever Jones from Ashland, Wisconsin. Elmer removed the tail and a portion of the fuselage, modified it, and mounted it onto the back of the sled. Elmer also removed the engine with mount, rudder foot controls, engine quadrant, one seat, and a portion of the wings main frame.

Below, photo shows Hackenburg’s stripped aircraft fuselage.

Below, photo of Engine control quadrant.

Below, photo of rudder foot controls.

Below, photo of AT-19 wing.

Below, photo shows close-up view of wing main frame. Elmer removed two portions of the steel tube frame and mounted one to each side of the sleds hull to serve as a propeller guard. Note the red guard on the first windsled photo and in several engine photos.

While we were at Hackenburg’s we took the time to inspect a WW II M3A1 light tank in his storage area. Harry Nelson’s aluminum windsled, shown in our "Museum Archives" had at one time been powered by a Continental W670 radial which had been removed from that same model of tank.

Below, Elmer looking over M3A1 tank.

Below, radial engine mounted up-right in the rear of tank.

After a great meeting with Mr. Hackenburg and the opportunity to measure all of the portions of the aircraft that we will need to duplicate, we were heading home. We purchased an engine with mount and exhaust, and arranged to have it shipped to Duluth MN. On the way back to the Island we picked up the shipping crate in Duluth and after three years of searching we now had an engine and mount.