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From: wanttaja@ssc-vax.UUCP (Ronald J Wanttaja)
Newsgroups: net.aviation
Subject: Have I Got a Deal For YOU!
Message-ID: <512@ssc-vax.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 24-Jan-86 18:22:19 EST
Article-I.D.: ssc-vax.512
Posted: Fri Jan 24 18:22:19 1986
Date-Received: Tue, 28-Jan-86 05:04:44 EST
Distribution: net
Organization: Boeing Aerospace Co., Seattle, WA
Lines: 42

For Sale at Boeing Surpus Store:  1 Each 747 spiral staircase, carpeted,
$250!  (20% off for Boeing employees...)

I realize that this may not be of specific interest to net.aviation in
general (except for you folks from New Jersey...:-) ), but I'm using it to
bring up the subject of aviation junk sources.  Anybody have good sources
for neat (and cheap) esoteric aviation hardware?

The Boeing Surplus store here in Kent has, occasionally, some very neat
stuff.  Last year they had a complete, full scale cockpit mockup for a 757
for $400.  This had stickers instead of actual instruments, and no seats or
yokes, but it was about eight feet high, ten feet wide, and twenty feet high.  
You could walk forward, squat down and be looking out the windows of your
own 757.  I racked my brain for a week, trying to think of a valid reason
to buy the thing (Look, honey, a cover for the Hot Tub!).  A guy eventually
picked it up as a playhouse for his kids, a lot better use than I could
have given.

But I haven't always been skunked... two of my prize possessions came from
there:
    1.  A 727 Copilot seat, for $20.  After an hour's or so work, I got all
    the bells and whistles working; it goes up and down, reclines, etc.  I
    put a swivel base on it, my wife made burgundy slipcovers, and it's 
    now my computing chair.
    2.  A B-29 autopilot control joystick, for $15.  A massive analog
    joystick, with a beau-ti-full grip, with all the buttons.  I rigged it
    to mount in the yoke cutout on the 727 seat, and built an A-D converter
    for using it with my C-64.  Lends a whole new dimension to flight
    simulators, and is unbelievable with "F-15 Strike Eagle"!

I picked up a full-color 8-ball type attitude indicator at a surplus store
in Aurora, Co ($15) and a 25-lb practice bomb in Denver for $7.98.  I saw a
250 lb practice bomb (250 when water-filled) at another place in Aurora
last summer, but couldn't figure out a way to carry it on the airlines on
my way back.

Anyway, I travel a bit, and am interested in places that stock neat stuff
like this.  Anyone know any good places, or even those who have catalogs I
could write for?

                                              Ron Wanttaja
					      (ssc-vax!wanttaja)