A Visit to Jake’s Garage

(Click a picture for a slideshow)

How'd You Do That?	Taking Pictures	On the Car	Airplane History
Somethin' Extra	Facing Forward	Modified Sportster	From the Side
Checkered Biplane	WACO & Mosquito	Mosquito Up Close	Stick on Floats
Birthday Plane	Small but Loud	Exra ARF	Power Scale Soaring
Head Turning	Upright or Inverted	Family Mementos	Gentle Lady
Sealed Against Sand	School Yard Flyer	Portable Sloper	Scale Winner

An Airplane Collection

One recent evening, we invited ourselves to a tour of Jake Chichilitti’s garage, where we knew we’d see a wonderful assortment of planes.

PCC members Pete Johnson and Bruce Crawford were joined by Baylands flying buddy Gary Morgan for the event.

At the side door to the garage, Jake greeted us.

Jake keeps a tidy workspace, but we were all amazed by the compact space and minimal set of power tools.

Planes hung everywhere: warplanes, float planes, gliders and more. Many were scratch built and all looked ready to fly.

At that moment, Jake was working on a wheeled carriage for his CG-4A troop transport glider.

We walked around a black Chevy Corvair parked in the middle of everything, craning our necks to take in all the airplanes.

Did we drool? Maybe so. Did we wonder how Jake was able to do this kind of magic? Yessir.

After a while, Jake told us there were more planes in the house.

He led us indoors and introduced us to his wife, Maryanne, and his cats, who were busy with toys in the living room.

Down a hall, into a room hung with more planes, aircraft reference books, magazines and scrapbooks. Jake has documented his flying adventures well with photos and memorabilia.

More neck-craning. More drooling. But we weren’t done yet.

Another room, more planes suspended from the ceiling, more stories from a life filled with flying and building.

After an hour or so, we said goodnight and thanked Jake for a wonderful experience.

Off into the night we went, thinking about X-acto knives, Dremel tools, glues, balsa, paint and the other raw materials of airplanes, inspired by how Jake brings his planes to life.

— Pete Johnson