Gallery Update: Some Interesting Sights at Scappoose

We've been enjoying a few nice days at the start of this month and I've been able to take advantage of them by getting some flights in as I continue building up flight time. I've been flying up to Scappoose often to log cross-country hours and I've taken notice of some eye-catching aircraft, so I decided to extend my stop today to get some quick ramp spotting. I'll let the photos speak for themselves.

Scappoose (SPB) 

Preview:

Piper PA-22-150 Tri-Pacer (N5789D) arriving on 15 working the traffic pattern.

Piper PA-60-601P Aerostar (N601NG) parked on the ramp. My first time seeing an Aerostar and unfortunately, the first I see sadly was involved in a landing incident when this airframe apparently experienced a gear-up landing last summer...

The Aerostar was not originally designed by Piper, but by Ted R. Smith of the the Ted Smith Aircraft Company in 1967. Afterwards, Piper took on the design in 1978 and was given the PA-60 designation. Smith himself flew the prototype Aerostar in 1967 was the design was fitted with luxury accommodations for six.

Viper Aircraft ViperJet Mk II (N583BB) parked on the ramp. My second time photographing a ViperJet and my first time photographing one that's actually registered!

Note the bent propeller blades as a result of the gear-up landing this Aerostar suffered. During the years of production, the Aerostar held some respectable speed records for twin piston general aviation aircraft.

Two ViperJets together! The all-white one in the background is the same one I saw here at Scappoose back in 2021 and clearly still not registered. The new one in the foreground is number 18 of the lot out of the approximately 21 or so kits manufactured.

The Aerostar design changed hands several times during its production years. Originally built by Ted Smith Aircraft Company in Van Nuys, the company was bought by the American Cement Company, which eventually fell through and the original company was sold again to Butler Aviation, a division of Mooney; the new company was named Aerostar Aircraft Corporation and it was intended to move production to a Mooney plant at Kerrville, Texas. In 1971, Ted R. Smith attempted to purchase the rights to the Aerostar design but wasn't successful until 1972. From then on, Aerostars continued to be produced in Santa Maria, California. In 1976, the company name was changed to the Ted Smith Aerostar Corporation. Following Smith's death in 1976, Piper acquired the Aerostar design in 1978 and continued building certain variants until 1984.

The type certificate for the Aerostar was eventually sold in 1991 to Jim Christy and Steve Speer, who had been part of the Ted Smith Aerostar operation, and now operate Aerostar Aircraft Corporation in Hayden Lake, Idaho, providing maintenance and support of the aircraft and new R&D of its family of aircraft.