His and Hers Stinsons

The Stinson 108 is one of the more iconic designs to come out of the post-World War II aviation boom. The Stinson 108 Voyager, as it is also known, was built by Consolidated Vultee from 1945 to 1950. The aircraft has a distinctive curved yoke and tear-drop shaped wheel pants, harkening back to a time when aircraft often looked more like pieces of sculpture than modes of transportation. Some might go so far as to call the Stinson 108 a romantic design.

Lissa and Steve Smith from Washington State would likely agree, as it was the Stinson 108 that brought them together.

Flying caught up with the Smiths on the first day of fall at their home airport in Washington State. Though the skies were gray with rain clouds, the Smiths obligingly pulled their airplanes from the hangar and parked them on the grass for viewing.

His airplane, named Li’l Red, is a 1947 Stinson 108-1. It features a 150-horsepower Franklin engine. Her airplane, named Ruby, is a burgundy 1947 Stinson 108-2. Ruby sports a 165-horsepower Franklin engine.

“The engine is the difference between the 1 and 2,” Steve explained, getting comfortable beneath the wing of Lissa’s airplane for the mid-morning interview.

Their story begins in the late ‘90s. Both were single parents. Lissa was a fairly new private pilot, having learned to fly in 1991. Steve, who learned to fly as a teen, was a captain at United Airlines. Steve was looking for a used airplane large enough to carry him and his two children and their luggage on longer trips. At first, he was leaning towards a Cessna 180, then a book changed his life.

“I bought a copy of ‘The Used Airplane Buyer’s Guide,’” Steve said. “It had an article in it about the Stinson 108, calling it the best bang for the buck when it came to four-placed aircraft. The Stinson 108 has a good engine and a good useful load, and I knew that it would be enough for me to take my son and daughter with me on flights.”

Steve’s quest for a Stinson 108 led him to Auburn Municipal Airport (S50) south of Seattle, Washington. There he saw an open hangar with a Stinson 108 parked inside. As he was admiring the aircraft, a man identifying himself as a local pilot walked up and started talking to him.

“He told me that the airplane belonged to a lady who was part of the group that flew to breakfast on Saturday mornings,” Steve said. “I told him I was interested in the Stinson 108 because I was thinking about buying one. Then he asked me if I wanted her phone number so I could call her and ask questions about the airplane. I said yes and he gave it to me.”

Lissa picked up the story up from there.

“He called me and I was all, ‘Who are you? How did you get my number?” she laughed, noting that their first conversation was all business. Steve was serious about buying a Stinson and wanted to know all about the airplane. Lissa was happy to answer his questions. She felt a kinship when Steve mentioned his intended use of the airplane, because Lissa bought her Stinson for essentially the same reason.

“Before I bought Ruby, I was renting airplanes,” she explained. “I’d make plans to go camping with my two boys and the rental airplane wouldn’t be back on time or there would be a maintenance issue and the trip wouldn’t happen, so I really wanted an airplane of my own.”

Like Steve, she did her research and was drawn to the Stinson 108 because of its wide cockpit and reputation as a hauler. In the 1940s, the Stinson 108 was marketed as a flying station wagon. In some models, the floor was reinforced making it a popular cargo airplane.

Lissa purchased her airplane in 1997 from a man in Denver. As she flew it home, she realized she’d made a good move. “That’s when the name Ruby came to me. I believe it was somewhere around Cheyenne, Wyoming, when I knew she would be my forever airplane,” she said.

Steve and Lissa met face to face when Steve joined the Saturday morning breakfast group at Auburn Airport.

“I showed up at the airport at 9 a.m. one Saturday morning and it was all these old guys and her,” Steve said. “She walks up to me and sticks her hand out and says, ‘Hi! I’m Lissa!”

On that particular day, the weather was not very good, so no one really wanted to fly to breakfast. However, it was good enough for a lap in the pattern, so Lissa took Steve up.

Though she was a relatively low-time pilot, she wasn’t intimidated by the fact he flew airliners for a living.

“He was very well-behaved,” Lissa joked “He just sat there, smiling. Didn’t try to teach me, didn’t try to take over. He let me fly.”

“I thought, ‘This is kind of a great airplane and she’s really cute,’” Steve laughed. ”And she’s a really good pilot.”

One day in 1998, Steve learned a man in Denver had a Stinson 108-1 for sale.

“He was asking $25,000 for it. He’d restored it completely, so it was practically brand new,” Steve said.

Steve purchased the airplane, which at the time was painted yellow. He couldn’t wait to share the news with Lissa.

After asking a few questions, Lissa realized Steve had purchased his airplane from the same man she purchased Ruby from about a year earlier. “As far as we know, he just had the two of them,” she said.

Soon Steve set to making his airplane into the machine he dreamed of. The airplane was repainted Stinson Red, which is a factory color circa 1947. Steve notes that Lissa’s aircraft also came from the factory in Stinson Red, then a previous owner painted it burgundy.

“Li’l Red’s name came about because, in the group of guys we were flying with, one of the guys had a Stinson dash-3 with a bigger tail and his plane was Big Red, so mine being a dash-1 with a smaller tail everyone started calling him Li’l Red.”

“As for the panel, I tried to copy as best I could the advanced blind flight panel in the Stinson advertisements of the time,” Steve said. “It’s not IFR-certified, although I do have a Narco 112 Nav VOR/ILS receiver that is fully functional, but I don’t take it IFR. The interior is not stock, but being gray it goes well with the red.”

A big part of the fun of having a vintage airplane is showing it off, and in 2004, Steve and Lissa took Li’l Red to EAA AirVenture in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. The airplane came home with the award for Best Stinson.

Ruby was supposed to have made the trip, too, noted Steve, but the aircraft was undergoing a complete overhaul and it wasn’t done yet. Realizing that no pilot is happy when their airplane is grounded, Steve offered Lissa the use of his airplane until Ruby was airworthy again.

“I was off flying airplane trips, so I told her, ‘Go ahead and fly it if you want to.’ She put 100 hours on it!” he laughed.

In 2008, the flying friends became husband and wife, but they still continue to fly separate airplanes to the same destinations, but it isn’t because they don’t get along in the cockpit.

“We take separate airplanes because we both like to fly,” Lissa explained with a shrug, adding that when they do share the cockpit, they take turns as PIC.

“We get along because we respect each other,” Steve said. “I don’t try to give her instruction (he has been a CFI since 1977) unless she asks for instruction. I have a lot of respect for her ability. She has about 3,000 hours now.”

“Steve even taught me to fly instruments and I still like him,” Lissa joked. “We have respect for each other and consideration. We love flying to different places and meeting new people. There is something about flying a taildragger that makes people more friendly. We go places and see people we met years ago. The airplanes are a good icebreaker.”

Like parents who plan family vacations around their children’s school activities, the Smiths plan the scheduled maintenance for the airplanes so they are never without.

“My annual inspection is in the fall, hers is in the spring,” Steve said.

Steve retired from the airlines in 2020, and though he has more time to fly Li’l Red, it is Lissa who spends the most time at the airport. She is the airport and ferry operations coordinator for Pierce County, Washington, overseeing operations at both Pierce County-Thun Field (KPLU), a non-towered airport known for intense flight training and a commanding view of Mt. Rainier, and Tacoma Narrows Airport (KTIW), a towered reliever field southwest of Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (KSEA).

They both agree they were destined to be in aviation. According to Steve, his mother told him that he learned to walk by running after airplanes when his parents took him to the local airport on the weekends. Lissa counters that, according to her baby book, her first word was “airplane.”

Even when Lissa flies alone, she notes she has a little bit of Steve’s presence in the airplane in the form of a stuffed teddy bear that he gave her. Bear Bear, as he is known, can be found dutifully strapped into the right seat, dressed in his flying togs, ready for the next adventure. “He’s very popular with kids,” Lissa said.

They still have many more trips to fly, they say. Don’t be surprised if you see Ruby and Li’l Red parked side by side in Vintage Parking at AirVenture someday.