Harry Baumgardner first flew a Stinson Flying Station Wagon as a young man after a chance encounter at a California airport. He worked for an airplane mechanic in Taft, Calif., and washed and tended a Stinson. One day, the owner, to Baumgardner’s surprise, offered to let him fly the small passenger plane. “He said, ‘I don’t fly it as often as I ought to,’ and I said, ‘I don’t know how to fly one of those things,’ and he said, ‘Let’s go,’ ” Baumgardner said. Baumgardner, who learned to fly while in the Navy, quickly got the hang of controlling …