Fred Egli

Dan Cullman

Dan Cullman

New member
I'm not big into obituaries; however, the Bellanca community lost a good friend and active participant, yesterday. Fred Egli of Walnut Creek, CA. passed away yesterday at 6:30 AM. Most west coasters knew Fred as he had restored both a Cruisair and a 14-19 Cruisemaster. These were not simple recover jobs, but, a down to the last nut and bolt, bare frame restorations. I met Fred in the early '70s and test flew his 14-13-2 in 1974. Both of his airplanes made trips to OSH over the years. He completed a Lancair 4 and put over 500 hours on it before health forced him to quit flying. As a sidelight, Fred was the only person that I know of that suffered one of those Cruisemaster trimtab failures, physically lost the tab in flight, recovered the tab in the field, repaired it and it's on the airplane today. Dan
 
It 's not unusual for me to think how some of our projects, once completed, will outlive us. I've found signatures inside various parts of airframes,including one dated 5-27-28 with three names. How did this get inside the vertical fin when the airplane was completed in February of that year? I continue the tradition. Dan
 
I met Fred on one of my business trips out west.

I was just getting started on my Cruisemaster project, and had a printout of Cruisemaster owners in the area. I gave him a call and talked with him for a few minutes on the phone. I found out that his 'Master was currently down and opened up for annual inspection. This was perfect for me, as I had numerous questions about how some of the pieces that I had purchased connected to the remainder.

Fred graciously invited me out to the hangar to look at his plane, let me take lots of photos, and answered all my questions.

I am truly sorry to hear about his passing.

Dave York
 
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