The required walkaround before the flight was not a simple one. First of all, you have to look carefully for rips in her fuselage and wings fabric. No rivets at all, of course, but a lot of fabric everywhere...

And a lot of nuts around her too to check. No flaps, but hinges everywhere... And a lot of wires and rods, with nuts and bolts... Without checking the engine (only the oil level), you spent more than 40 minutes checking all that stuff...

In the end you climbed the rear seat (the one from which light biplanes are normally flown - just a matter of CoG -) and made the initial checks before start-up.

They were extremely simple: the plane didn't had an electrical system in its own (just the engine ignition system, that was autonomous), so just to set some levers in their right places, set the altimeter, check the fuel quantity, prime the engine (this is, pump manually some gas into its cylinders), both magnetos on, throttle half opened and shout: "Clear Prop"!... Someone on the outside 'gave you a prop', this is, swinged the propeller in a way the engine started at the first attempt... Dear Manolo, how many times you swinged props for me at that time...! We'll meet again, sure...

I love you all...

TWRman