Well, At Least You Get Close...

By ANN Correspondent Kevin O'Brien

Allen Maki gets more hands-on time with a P-51 than Lee Lauderback. Well, then, why isn't he world famous? Probably because he's not a P-51 pilot. He's a professional aircraft detailer. Allen was polishing a P-51 Mustang, Dakota Kid II, when Aero-News caught up with him during AirVenture 2004 in Oshkosh (WI).
 
Allen regularly details six Mustangs for various customers, so he knows very well all the ins and outs of shining up the powerful fighters. For instance, I thought that the discoloration of the stainless steel skin around the Packard Merlin's exhaust stacks would be a problem.
 
Allen chuckled. "That's probably the easiest part of the whole plane to clean!" With a swipe of some polishing compound, he showed me how the blue discoloration wiped away with ease.
 
"It's much harder to deal with exhaust's effects on the aluminum side of the fuselage," he said. Easy or hard, Allen's job is to make Dakota Kid shine and he isn't going to stop until it does.
 
Allen's company, Maki Flight Support, has been in business since 1997, operating the Ironwood (MI) airport (IWD) near the Wisconsin border. Maki Flight Support will come to the customer for detailing, cleaning, and -- oh yes, polishing -- an aircraft.

 
"In the trade we call that 'brightwork,'" he told me, "and most detailers will charge $75 an hour, for as many hours as it will take." Allen prefers to negotiate a turnkey price, personally outlining the scope of work with each customer.
 
"The warbird guys are great -- they only ask, 'What do I need, and how much will it cost me?' But I do lots of GA work too," he said. He mentioned the Cessna 180 as a type that is frequently maintained in a high polish, and of course he works on painted machines too.
 
What about asking airport kids to do it for free, you know, just for the love of airplanes? Don't they have airport kids any more? Allen replied with a laugh. "That lasts until they discover how hard it is."

 
Sitting near the Mustang was a World War II flight bag. A glance at it revealed that it had once belonged to another Maki -- Lawrence, Allen's father, an armorer in the Army Air Corps. Allen found the bag recently in his attic, cleaned it up and brings it along to WWII warbird jobs to add to the flavor of the occasion.

FMI: Maki Flight Support (906) 932-4972