OCEAN PARK- Most people have a car or at least a boat in their garage, but Larry Wheat isn’t like most people. He has an airplane in his garage, one he built and plans to fly to the Experimental Aircraft Association annual get together July 11.

“My airplane is a memorial to my honey,” Larry says with compassion. The plane is named “Lil Margie” after his wife and companion of nearly 40 years who passed away the day after Christmas 2005 from the ravages of cancer. “Marge used to have mammograms on a regular basis and one day she found a tumor about the size of a pea. She went to the doctor and got a biopsy and we found out that it was the bad kind,” Larry explains.

“After chemo and other treatment she got a clean bill of health. She was clean for over a year and a half,” he says. The Wheats took a trip to the Grand Canyon during that time and Larry says his wife began experiencing severe back pain. “We got to Los Angeles and went to the doctor and found out that the cancer had returned. It was everywhere. It was in her kidneys, she had 22 tumors on her brain, it was in her bones and her liver.”

He says, “The doctors were able to get it all, except for in the liver and with the harsh medications she had to take her liver just gave out.”

It was about a month after Marge’s passing that Larry began working on his project of building an airplane. “The neighbors were a great support. The airplane has been a group effort.” Larry purchased a kit that included the fuselage and wings and the rest was up to him and his neighborhood crew and support group. The folks around his home on 278th and “O” Street just north of Ocean Park gave him technical advice, lent manpower and did all the little things like “just saying hello when they went by,” Larry says.

Eggie Engleston says with a laugh, “Larry is a real slave driver.” Mike Snider adds, “This is only a make-believe airplane. All the real parts came from around here.” Don Patton relates, “Larry was a good boss,” and Bjarno Guglielmetti jokes, “Yes, you either did it his way or the highway.” Dee Snider remarks, “I helped by putting up with Larry drilling and banging away all night long on his airplane and by loaning my husband, Mike.” They and several other neighbors were all present to help celebrate the “Lil Margie’s” completion.

Larry says, “Eggie gave me lots of mechanical help and helped with the wings.” The project took Larry and the gang 873 hours to complete. The airplane is 22 feet long and has a wingspan of 32 feet. It is powered by an Aero-twin turbo-charged engine with fuel injection and is a two cylinder four-stroke.

“We couldn’t have finished the plane without the help of Jack’s Country Store, Bay Manufacturing and North End Auto,” Larry praises.

The engine packs 60 to 85 horsepower and the aircraft can reach speeds of up to 100 miles per hour. The plane burns 91-octane gasoline, weighs 586 pounds and can carry up to 530 pounds in the two-person cockpit. “It has a 17-to-one glide ratio and with that wingspan it’s a floater,” Larry explains. Mike Snider adds, “It will land like a butterfly, it’s so light.”

Larry did all the wiring and painting. He chose the colors to correspond with the Relay for Life campaign and because “Margie would have loved them.” Larry has a pink ribbon and the U.S. flag carefully painted on the tail. It takes about an hour and a half to assemble the wings and so far all Larry has done is pull his plane around the neighborhood behind his tractor. “I’ve taken it out for six mile per hour road tests,” he quips.

As of June 6 he expects to take the “Lil Margie” to Astoria and have it inspected for flight. The instrument panel has a global positioning system and the flight instrumentation all on two screens. “It has lots of power. I prefer to fly than to be in the hospital, so it better be safe,” he jokes.

Larry’s love of flying is shared by his son Kevin and brothers Bill and Buck Wheat. “That’s what he wants to be called,” Larry states of his brother’s moniker. Wheat was born and raised in Bothel and graduated from high school in 1961. He spent 11 years in the Navy aboard a P-3 patrol bomber, logging 18,000 hours in the air. He attended the University of Washington and Evergreen College for a total of three years and then spent 25 years working for Boeing with a quick hitch in California working as a security specialist.

Marge was a schoolteacher and later also worked at Boeing as a personnel representative. The couple purchased their Ocean Park lot in 1994 and moved permanently in 2000. “We liked the people and getting away from the hubbub of the city,” Larry explains. “Several of the people we were neighbors with in Kent also retired and moved nearby.”

Ironically Marge did not like to fly. “She would say, ‘Lawrence, I think you are crazy’ if she knew what I was up to now,” he says with a grin. Before building the real thing, Larry constructed and flew five radio control giant-scale airplanes, all of which he still has in his garage. “I am going to donate the radio control planes to McMinnville where the ‘Spruce Goose’ is located. They have about 200 kids who are into radio control flying and they will put my planes to good use.” Larry also loves woodworking and is fashioning a Murphy bed that will pull out from his wall.

He needs a few more hours of flying a Tomahawk out of Astoria with flight instructor Phil Hertel before he gets his pilot’s license and has already logged 50 hours of “right seat” time as a passenger. “I also have to fly the “Lil Margie” 40 hours locally before I can take it on any extended trips.” Once Larry is certified and his plane passes inspection he will be ready to head to the confab in Everett in mid-July.

The talented husband has one regret, however. “I was always the one to fix just about anything, a leaky faucet or a lawn mower that didn’t work; but when Marge’s cancer came back all I could do was try to help make her comfortable. The hardest part was not being able to fix what was wrong with her.”

Larry admits, “The maiden flight will be an emotional one. My brothers and our kids will all be here. I will have a vile of Marge’s ashes behind the back seat.” In his typical good humor, Larry says, “I know Marge wouldn’t have wanted to fly with me, but now she has no choice.”

One has the feeling that Marge has been with Larry in spirit throughout his project and will continue to be his co-pilot, no matter what.