Hoffrage rebuilding vintage PT-17 Stearman airplane

For The Madera Tribune

Piper Hoffrage sits in the deconstructed body of a PT-17 Stearman that her father is working on rebuilding. Mike Hoffrage is working to rebuild the plane to fulfill a promise made to family friend Ray Pool.

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Mike Hoffrage grew up just a mile from the Madera Municipal Airport where his love for aviation began at the age of 2, watching airplanes and crop dusters take off and land.

As he got older, Hoffrage would ride his bike to the airport to talk with crop duster, Ray Pool. Over time, Pool became a family friend after moving in next door to the Hoffrage family, where Mike’s father, Bill Hoffrage, got to know him well.

Eventually, Pool gifted Bill the airframe of a Boeing-Stearman Model 75, commonly known as a PT-17 Stearman, after selling his business. The aircraft, built in Nov. 1941, was originally stationed at the Rankin Aeronautical Academy in Tulare before being transferred to El Reno, Oklahoma, after about three and a half years of service.