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But first, a shot of a ....
Ok, here you are and ask yourself what this old but beautifully restored biplane has to do with Herbert Jöschs' Jodel DR.1050 D-EABT ? So read on, I'll let you know in a little bit ...
Jodel DR.1050 s/n 209 was built as F-BJUI in 1961 by CEA. Sometime later the aircraft was exported to Germany and re-registered as D-EABT. Unfortunately little is known of the period before 1970 as all logs of the aircraft prior to that time are lost. In the following years D-EABT had a few mishaps, among them a collision with a parked car in 1975/76 (see pictures below). Perhaps after repairing the damage caused by this accident, but possibly also considerably later(between 1975 and 1994), D-EABT was repainted in the color scheme seen in picture (2). Sometime after the accident, about 1977, the aircraft was sold again to a new owner. He kept the aircraft for the next 17 years and flew it quite a bit - one could say that there are only very few airports in Germany which D-EABT didn't see during this time. Naturally, all this flying took its toll on the condition of the aircraft, which gradually worsened over the years.
Bring in Herbert Jösch, owner of a Bölkow Junior in 1994 which shared the same hangar with D-EABT. Herbert was offered to buy the aircraft because the previous owners wanted to step up to something bigger (IFR-capable). Because of the rather sad condition of the aircraft, he didn't want to buy her at first. But upon closer inspection sometime later, he became fascinated with her (perhaps due to the bent wings ?!). Supporting the idea to acquire D-EABT was the fact that a new family member had arrived recently on the scene, so they could no longer all three fly together in the (two-seat) Junior. He was contemplating the idea for a while and thought about how to buy and restore the aircraft. Due to the several smaller incidents in the preceding years already mentioned, and this combined with the interior looks of the cockpit convinced him that the aircraft was ready for a full restoration. At the time, a mechanic willing to support the project was still working at the airport. So finally, Herbert made an offer for the BT and found himself soon to be the new owner. Before starting with the restoration, he first flew BT a couple of times to become accustomed to the tailwheel landing gear.
This way, a few weeks passed before the mechanic told him that he wouldn't be able to help with oversight of the project contrary to his earlier statement. After searching for a while for help and knowledge for the restoration, he found both (on advice of the other mechanic) in the person of Horst Bless in late 1994. D-EABT was then disassembled and transported to Horsts' shop, where the restoration started with complete exterior and interior stripping. Apart from some water damage to the wing trailing edge and some other minor stuff, the airframe was basically in sound condition. Work progressed pretty fast despite the fact that the interior including the instrument panel had to be redone completely. The restoration was finished around mid-year 1995. The next day, Herbert packed his tent and set off for few days touring France ... Dijon, Gap, Bordeaux, Vannes, Chartres, Reims - with a bunch of small grass fields in between. Since then, Herbert has flown the aircraft over 500 hours, with lots of long trips especially to France.
Below, one can find various pictures of D-EABT, mainly taken during the restoration 1994/95. The difference between the 'looks' of the aircraft before and after the work mainly done by Horst Bless is pretty obvious! I had the opportunity to inspect the aircraft personally during the Nordenbeck Jodel Fly-In on July 1/2 and can confirm that D-EABT still looks like the restoration was done a couple of weeks and not a couple of years ago.
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(1 - left) Around 1975/1976 at Koblenz, Germany: After fueling, D-EABT was hand-propped in front of the fuel station due to a dead battery. Being alone, the pilot set the parking brake before propping the engine. While entering the cockpit, he inadvertently pushed the throttle forward, the engine revved up and the aircraft started moving. The pilot, not yet sitting in the cockpit, fell backwards from the wing, and the aircraft rolled down a hill into a parked car (could be a VW Variant). The (probably embarrassed) pilot jumped to his feet again and ran after the unoccupied D-EABT. Meanwhile, the aircraft was sitting in the parking lot stopped by a car but with the engine still running. After a couple of minutes someone finally shut off the engine, and luckily no one was hurt by the incident .... Apart from the sad mishap, one can also see an earlier paint scheme of D-EABT in this picture: standard red or brown pinstriping with a thin non-standard stripe between the two wider ones alongside the fuselage. |
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| (2) Paint scheme and appearance of D-EABT before the restoration (Summer 1994) | (3) Paint scheme and appearance of D-EABT after the restoration (Ploërmel, Bretagne, France, 11 Aug 1995). The paint scheme was patternd after the one of the English biplane Parnall Elf built in 1929 and now part of the Shuttleworth Collection (in flying condition!) by Horst Bless, the rebuilder/restorer of D-EABT (by the way, his own Jodel is painted in the same color scheme!). |
(4) D-EABT in March 1999. Still looking like new! Compare the paint scheme to the one of the Parnall biplane picture at the top of this page! |
(5) D-EABT disassembled and with engine removed in a hangar in October 1994. |
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(6 - left) The engine of D-EABT in Nov. 1994. At that time, the engine had about 1200 hrs (1800 hr TBO). The old exhaust without additional silencer can be seen, which has since then been replaced with a SAB S.A.9 silencer from Nitzsche and an EVRA propeller. This combination is eligible for noise emission certification according to newest regulations in Germany ("Erhöhter Schallschutz"). |
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| (7) Water damage along the trailing edge can be seen on the old covering which is being peeled from the wing bottom surface near the fuselage. | (8) Old wing trailing edge structure. There were some broken or bent parts, especially many of the thin plywood gussets which connect the ribs to the trailing edge were damaged. | (9) The wing structure in the shop during the restoration with covering and ailerons removed. |
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| (10) Instrument panel before the restoration. Especially interesting are the Mercedes-Benz truck-type warning lights ... | (11) 'Nice' VOR installation by means of a bicycle inner tube ... | (12) Part of the cockpit side wall area with seats removed. Original red color of the cockpit interior is visible in this photo. | (13) Cockpit area after removal of the seats. |
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(14) New instrument panel layout. Not pattern after the original factory layout, but still good looking and functional. | (15) Radio installation in a center console below the actual instrument panel (to clear the front tank behind the panel). | (16) Another shot of the area below the tank with radio installation and tank selector switch. |
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(17 & 18 - left) Finishing touches to the interior: Installation of the left and right seat and upholstery as well as the already completed instrument panel can be seen in these two photos. A big difference between the earlier and the later models of the DR.100 series Jodels can be seen in this picture: With the earlier models, the throttle is located on the left side and in the middle of the instrument panel (just like on todays DR.400s), whereas on later models it is located only in the middle of the panel. |
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| (19) This is how the firewall installation looked before the rework and ... | (20) Close-up of the firewall after removal of the engine (February 1995). |
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| (21) after the restoration. What a difference! | (22) Close-up of the firewall installations after the restoration (May 1995). |
All pictures on this page copyright 1994-2000 by Herbert Jösch!