Harvey Mace – BD5 Taildragger

Harvey Mace, a pilot with 357th Fighter Group in WWII, acquired a BD-5 kit from a discouraged owner shortly after the company’s notable financial woes of the late 1970s. Not wanting to wait around for the pusher engine issues to be resolved he converted his BD-5 from a conventional gear pusher to a tractor configured taildragger and later showcased it at Oshkosh in 1980. About the performance, he said the following:

“I was soon enjoying the exhilaration of smooth lazy eights and barrel rolls. The flights were amazingly reminiscent of the P-51, especially one day while climbing up through multiple layers of broken clouds over the coast. It brought back the feeling of heading out over the English Channel as I had done so many times nearly 40 years earlier. Even being in my senior years couldn’t keep me from doing a 210 MPH buzz job and victory roll when I returned to the Airport.”

While the appearance may not be for everyone, Harvey’s creative crop duster approach to the BD-5 resolved two issues: 1) engine cooling, 2) and torsional vibration (the long shaft pusher problem).

Harvey and Helen were married for 69 years. She was an aviator in her own right. Harvey passed away in 2013 a year after her death. Does anyone in this group remember Harvey’s BD-5 variant? If so, does anyone know what became it?