Alabama Vintage Airplane Restorer Enjoys Taking It To New Heights

P 8375 Conrad Reed and his 1951 Model 305 L-19 Cessna “Bird Dog” at Weiss Lake for Shorelines. . Photos by Bernard Troncale.

By Alec Harvey

Like many children growing up, Conrad Reed liked to tinker with model cars and airplanes.

But while most have given up the childhood hobby, at age 68, Reed has yet to quit. He just works on the real things now.

“I don’t fish, and I don’t play golf,” says Reed, Alabama Power’s senior real estate specialist at Weiss Lake in northeast Alabama. “This is my hobby.”

“This,” right now, means a red 2000 Corvette and a 1975 Gentleman Jack GMC pickup. But those are just the vehicles with four wheels. The real centerpieces in Reed’s backyard hangars are three airplanes, just the latest in a line of planes that Reed has bought, refurbished and flown.

It all started in earnest a little more than 40 years ago, when a 26-year-old Reed was working for a crop-dusting business at the Centre Municipal Airport.

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