Saturday April 12th : Seventh and last working session for the volunteers
Once again, and for the last time, about 30 volunteers gathered inside the hangar at Carpiquet airfield to work on good old C-47 whose main part is already on the way to Merville battery. The day's objective was to finish off the center wing scrub, mostly underneath, and to finish the painstaking task of screwing plates to the wings. That done, the center wing is ready to be painted during the week. Yves Tariel, a well known guy within the DC3 community, and a Snafu fanatic on his own, spent most of the day with us, giving advices and taking good notice of which parts he might be able to provide ; he' s already given us lights and great mufflers flame traps.
On this day the whole yard was also opened to the public, with permission from the Direction Générale de l’aviation civile, the préfecture du Calvados and the Carpiquet airfield whose constant help throughout this adventure must be acknowledged. Over 400 people of all ages, some coming from remote places, hurried to watch the old plane. Enthusiasm, great donations, lot's of questions and the certainty that quite a crowd will show up on June 7th at Merville. And as a great end to a beautiful day, a phone call came from the United States and Colonel Harle Merle announcing he had finally found the only missing item, a left oil radiator protective plate. The final assembly of the plane starts may 2nd at the Mervile battery site.
More than ever, the show goes on..

April 12th is the end of our volunteers working sessions. Since january, seven sessions have been held on saturdays for volunteers coming from remote places and willing to share Snafu Special great adventure. The've put down over 1,500 hours work, to be added to another 1,500 hours put down by a bunch of crazy die hard fanatics full of competence and efficiency. Not to be forgotten the great help provided by the youth at the CFAI. Let all and everyone be thanked for all this obscure, ungrateful work that greatly participated in bringing old C-47 43-15973 part of his youth and his dignity. No one but those who took part can ever imagine how much scrubbing, greasing and riveting it took to achieve this. We shall omit nobody in our volunteers lists along with our donators. In the last days of april, piece by piece, the C-47 will move to Merville. The assembly at the battery's site will take up the first weeks of may thanks to our specialists.
We shall meet on june 7th around the plane, around our plane since you also have entered the Snafu legend.