Vintage Airplane - May 2004

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MAY 2004

VOL. 32, No. 5

2 VAA NEWS/H.G . Frautschy

5 COMEBACK DAD

Susan Edsall

8 THE LOUGHEAD F- l

Cedric Galloway

10 THE VINTAGE INSTRUCTOR
HAZARDOUS ATTITUDES
Doug Stewart
12 THE "CLAW"
ANOTHER TIEDOWN SOLUTION
Tim Fox
13 THE MOTH
THE WORLD'S TRAINER
Budd Davisson

12

18 WHAT OUR MEMBERS ARE
BUILDING AND RESTORING
20 JOHN MILLER RECALLS
I NEVER MET MY FLIGHT INSTRUCTOR
John Miller
24 MYSTERY PLANE/H.G. Frautschy
26 PASS IT TO BUCK
SPRING HAS " SPROINGED"/Buck Hilbert
27 WHO RECEIVED PILOT CERTIFICATE NO.1?
IT'S NOT WHO YOU THINK!
Ev Cassagn eres
28 NEW MEMBERS
29 CALENDAR
30 CLASSIFIED ADS

Publisher
Editor-in-Chief
Executive Editor
News Editor
Photography Staff
Production Manager
Advertising Sales
Advertising/Editorial Assistant
Copy Editing

TOM POBEREZNY
scon SPANGLER
MIKE DIFRISCO
RIC REYNOLDS
JIM KOEPNICK
JULIE RUSSO
LOY HICKMAN
913-268-6646
ISABELLE WISKE
COLLEEN WALSH
KATHLEEN WITMAN

VINTAGE AIRPLANE

Executive Director, Editor
VAA Administrative Assistant
Contributing Editors

HENRY G. FRAUTSCHY
THERESA BOOKS
BUDD DAVISSON
DOUG STEWART
JOHN MILLER

Front Cover: "Quick Henry, the Flit! " No, you wouldn 't want to extermi­
nate this trio of Moths, which make up the bulk of the DeHaviliand
Moths which were on display at EAA AirVenture Oshkosh 2003. Bud
Davisson 's article on the Moths here in the United States starts on
page . EAA photo by Lee Ann Abrams, shot with a Canon EOS-ln. EAA
photo plane flown by Bruce Moore.
Back Cover: EAA Master Artist John Sarsfield, 6541 St Vrain Rd,
Longmont, CO 80503 created this acrylic panting of a moment in time
during t he 1914 Sch neider Cup trials, held in Monaco. The British
fielded their diminutive but f ast entry in the race after first landing and
dunking the biplane while it was equipped with a large single float.
Cutting the float in half and building a set of more stable twin floats
from the single float allowed the Sopwith Tabloid to go on to with the
last Schneider Cup race held before the outbreak of WW-I. You can
contact John at [email protected] or by phone at 303-702-0707.

STRAIGHT

Be LEVEL
ESPIE "B UTCH" JOYCE
PRESIDENT. VINTAGE ASSOCIATION

Spring cleaning checklist

One of the stated objectives of the
Vintage Aircraft Association is to pro­
vide continuing educational content
to the membership. Through how-to
articles in the magazine and on our
website, we share the collective
knowledge of the many experienced
members who send us material to
publish. If you think there's a topic
we haven't covered lately, let us know.
And if you have something you'd like
to contribute, feel free to contact
your editor, H.G. Frautschy. The
fastest way to get material to him is
via e-mail at [email protected].
To be sure we have the best in­
formation possible, we often
partner with the other EAA divi­
sions and affiliate. In cooperation
with NAFI, the National Associa­
tion of Flight Instructors, we are in
the process of creating a pair of
checklists for vintage pilots that
will remind you of the tasks that
should be done before you head
out to fly, especially if you've not
flown for a few months. Many of us
take a portion of the winter months
off. As I've mentioned in the past,
we can always tell when the first
good flying weekend weather of the
season has broken out in a section
of the country; the accident reports
increase substantially.
Undoubtedly, none of those pilots
who bent their precious airplanes set
out to have an accident, but we often
can see the steppingstones of the
path that led them to the crunch at
the end.
Starting down the path to make a
flight, even when that little voice in
the back of your head is says, "Think
about it again!" can be very tempting.
H.G. would like to relate a quick story
on how assessing your competency at

any given moment can make one
pause and think.
Early spring can give us some of
the most wonderful flying weather
imaginable here in central Wiscon­
sin, but like much of the country, it
can change literally overnight. I had
the opportunity to fly the Aeronca 60
miles away to an overnight destina­
tion. I'd be leaving in the afternoon,
and easy transportation to my final
destination was on the other end of
my flight. The weather both days
was forecast to be sunny with rea­
sonable temperatures both days.
Since I was leaving about midday, I
doubLe-checked the forecast for the
next morning. It was more of the
same, with one addition-a forecast
for gusty winds of about 18 mph,
and the forecast direction didn't
match either of the runways I had
available at my home or destination.
Now later in the year, with a bit
of dual instruction to brush up on
my Landings and a good dozen or so
hours in this year's logbook, I would
have considered flying the trip, since
the airplane's crosswind capability
could handle it, and my skill set
would be up to speed. But not at this
time of year. I got in the car and
drove to the destination, instead of
pointing the spinner at it and worry­
ing about the wind forecast all night.
As it turned out, even later in the
year I would have had trouble, since
the actuaL wind speeds the next
morning were a good 5-10 mph
higher than forecast!
Rusty Sachs, the new executive di­
rector of NAFI, shared these checklist
items with us. H.G. was using the last
item to help him make his go/no-go
decision. Think of it as your aviation
spring cleaning checklist.

• Legal
Medical certificate current?

Flight review current?

Sufficient landings/takeoffs

in last 90 days?
Pilot certificate, medical

certificate, and

photo ID handy?

• Physical
Illness?

Medication?

Stress?

Alcohol?

Fatigue?

Emotion?

• Knowledge
V-speeds?
Weight and balance?
Hours of sunset, sunrise?
Local frequencies?
Traffic patterns and landmarks
And finally, the big question:
Does my confidence match
my skills?
We'll be sharing this checklist with
each member who renews or signs up
with our VAA approved insurance
program, administered by AUA Inc.
We hope each of you will take it to
heart, and help keep both the air­
planes and their crews safe and sound.
We're always looking for new
members. Ask a friend to join us, so
they too can enjoy the benefits of
VAA membership and have it all!

YAA NEWS

EAA

CALLS

ON FAA TO RE-DO AIR TOUR NPRM


In its official comments, EAA reiterated its strong
opposition to proposed new regulations for air tour
operators. EAA concluded that the proposed rules
were not justified by any safety data, nor was there an
indication that the proposal would enhance safety. In
addition, the rules as currently proposed would be
devastating to many small businesses and the general­
aviation industry in general.
"EAA has maintained that the best thing the FAA
could do would be to pull this proposal and start
over," said Earl Lawrence, EAA vice president of indus­
try and regulatory affairs. "As written, FAA has gone
much farther than the original congressional mandate
requested. It would destroy many areas of general avi­
ation created strictly for historic or demonstration
purposes. EAA and other aviation organizations have
offered many simple, common-sense recommenda­
tions that would meet the congressional mandate,
enhance safety, and preserve the viability of many
small businesses."
BUILD YOUR AIRVENTURE:
SPORT PILOT/LIGHT-SPORT
AIRCRAFT

Want to learn everything known
about the proposed new sport pi­
lot/light-sport aircraft (SP/LSA)
rules? Better get to EAA AirVenture
Oshkosh 2004, where an unprece­
dented volume and variety of
resources will be available.
Begin at EAA's Sport Pilot Center,
located on the southeast corner of
Knapp Street and the main entryway,
just west of AeroShell Square. EM ex­
perts and FAA sport pilot national
office staff will be on hand full time to
answer your questions regarding pilot
certification, maintenance issues, eli­
gible aircraft, and most anything else
regarding the new rules.
2

MAY 2004

Congress mandated that FAA improve safety in air
tour operations over national parks and monuments.
The proposed regulations did not distinguish between
operations or aircraft, treating large commercial air
tour operators the same as private, one-aircraft opera­
tions, such as a person who operates a two-place,
open-cockpit aircraft for local sightseeing flights. They
would also place all historic aircraft flights under the
same regulations, potentially stifling unique flight op­
portunities as those found in EAA's B-17 bomber, Ford
Tri-Motor, and Spirit of st. Louis replica. Many EAA
members also operate private historical and sightseeing
activities with, for example, unique vintage aircraft.
"The way these rules would improve safety is by
forcing many small operators out of bUSiness, as they
would be unable to afford the massive adjustments
necessary to meet the new requirements," Lawrence
said. "That's similar to stating that the nation could
improve traffic safety by forcing sightseeing buses and
vehicles out of business. While that may be techni­
cally true in a minimal way, it is a callous and
uneducated way to shape policy./I
Aviation organizations are working together to urge
FAA to recall the current NPRM, while making practi­
cal suggestions for new rules. Joining EAA in the effort
are the Aircraft Owners and Pilots ASSOCiation, Gen­
eral Aviation Manufacturers Association, National Air
Transportation Association, Helicopter Association In­
ternational, and the United States Air Tour
Association. Also participating are a large number of
independent air tour operators.

"This is where you'll find the peo­
ple you need to talk to, the
information you need, the literature
you want," said Ron Wagner, man­
ager of EAA field relations and sport
pilot center director. "We'll also have
plenty of different light-sport aircraft
examples parked alongside the tent.
We're all eager to bring everyone up
to speed regarding what we feel will
be the most significant development
ever in personal aviation."
Those planning an LSA purchase
who aren't quite sure what qualifies
can inquire at the Sport Pilot Center.
We're there to help you.
And speaking of aircraft, look
throughout the grounds for the
special sport pilot prop cards desig­
nating sport pilot-eligible aircraft.

Look in the ultralight and vintage
aircraft areas, or simply along the
flightline.
Also planned are plenty of
SP/LSA-related forums , so be sure
to check the daily schedule, or go
online at the EAA AirVenture
website forums search page,
www.airventure.org/search.htmi.
INTERNATIONAL
YOUNG EAGLES DAY

Help EAA Young Eagles launch
the second century of flight by
participating in the International
Young Eagles Day (IYED) on June
12, 2004. Established in 1994,
IYED focuses international atten­
tion on Young Eagles. Last year,
more than 10,000 Young Eagles

were flown on IYED alone. As al­
ways, EAA Young Eagles needs your
participation year -round, but if
you have a rally planned, please let
us know at YoungEagles @eaa .org
and place your material order as
soon as possible, so we make sure
you have everything you need for
a successful Young Eagles event.
VAA CHAPT ER 3
OPEN HOUSE

Flabob's fifth annual gathering of vin­
tage aircraft is expected to attract
nearly 200 outstanding examples of
antique and classic planes on May 15.
EAA Vintage Aircraft Chapter 33
will host its fifth annual open house
at Flabob Airport on May 15. The
event, which is free and open to
everyone, expects to attract nearly
200 antique and classic aircraft, a
few dozen vintage cars and hot
rods, and 500 to 1,000 people.
"It's a real laid back affair, a gather­
ing of beautiful airplanes and old
friends," said Chapter President Leo
V. Williams. "We don't really plan
much other than ways to provide
food and how to park all the planes
that are flown in. Some resident ex­
perts have arranged to give fabric
covering and welding demonstra­
tions, and a radio-control model
airplane club will be flying its air­
planes. But, clearly, the emphasis is
on socializing, looking at aircraft, and
watching them fly around in the pat­
tern. There will be a flea market, and
we'll be staging flights for EAA's
Young Eagles program. You never
know, some lucky kids may get to fly
in open-cockpit biplanes. Otherwise,
it's all relaxation and fun."
Early arrivals can expect to be
met by parking marshals around
8:00 a.m., and typically, things
wrap up for the day by 4:00 p.m.

POP GEARS UP FOR FLIGHTLINE SAFETY
People from around the world come to EM AirVenture Oshkosh for primarily
one purpose: to look at thousands of aircraft th at converge on Wittman Re­
gional Airport. To protect these airplanes-and spectators-the POP (Protect
Our Planes) Team monitors flightl ine activities to make su re visitors abide by
the time-tested Oshkosh rules: no smoking except in designated areas, and no
food or drink on the flightl ine.
POP now seeks vol unteers to j oin its tea m from Monday, July 26 (the
day before the convention) through Sunday, August 1. POP pat rollers must
be at least 14 (ages 14-17 need a parent/ guardia n with them) and enthu­
siastic. No experience is necessary- all you need is a smi le-and there's
a place for people of all fitness levels. It's a great way for families and/or
groups to enjoy EAA AirVenture "from the inside." If you 're interested in volun­
teer ing,
e-mail
ProtectOurPlanes @ya h oo. com
or
visit
http://groups.yahoo.com/ group/ ProtectOurPlanes.

Many participants come from the
Southern California area, and
most have been there for all of
the fly-ins. For further informa­
tion or to make reservations for
Young Eag les flights, please con­
tact Kathy Rohm at 909-683-2309,
ext. 104, or [email protected].
GOLDEN WEST BOASTS
VARI E TY OF AIRCRAFT ,
ACTIV I TIES

The sixth annual Golden West
EAA Regional Fly-In is a three-day
aviation celebration for all ages.
Military flybys, homebuilts, classic
vintage, warbirds, ultralights, pow­
ered parachutes, hot-air balloons,
and even a blimp wil l be at the
Marysville, California, (MYV) air­
port on J u ne 18-20. Friday is
dedicated to youth and Young Ea­
gles, while Saturday features an air
show and military flybys, and
Sunday the Eagles of Liberty War­
bird Air Show. All three days start
with a pancake breakfast and fea­
ture educational forums and
workshops. For more information,
visit www.goldenwestf/yin.org, or
call 530-741-6463.
NOT I CE OF ANNUAL
BUSINESS MEETING

In accordance with the fourth re­
stated bylaws of the Experimental
Aircraft Association Inc., notice is
hereby given that the annual busi­
ness meeting of the members will

NAFI

NAMES
EXECUTIVE
DIRECTOR

Longtime flight instructor
Rusty Sach s
is the new
executive
director of
the National
Association
of Flight In­
structors, an
EAA affiliate.
A NAFI
Rusty Sachs
Master In­
structor, he
comes to NAFI from Signal Avi­
ation Services, Lebanon, New
Hampshire, where he was chief
pilot and director of training.
A former Maine helicopter avi­
ator, he teaches single- and
multiengine, rotorcraft-helicop­
ter, and instrument airplane.
A longtime EAA and NAFI
member, Sachs relishes the
chance to do something spe­
cial on a national scale in
aviation. "We're about to be
hit by enormous growth with
sport pilot/light-sport aircraft.
There will be lots of transition­
ing ultralight instructors who
will need a fraternity of in­
structors from whom they can
draw expertise. We're working
to make NAFI that fraternity."

continued on page 28
VINTAGE AIRPLANE

3

VAA's "Friends of The Red Barn"
VAA Convention Fund Raising Program
The Vintage Aircraft Associa­
tion is a major participant in the
World's Largest Annual Sport Avi­
ation Event - EAA AirVenture
Oshkosh! The Vintage Division
hosts and parks over 2,000 vin­
tage airplanes each year from the
Red Barn area of Wittman Field south to the perimeter
of the airport.
The financial support for the various activities in
connection with the weeklong event in the VAA Red
Barn area is principally derived from the Vintage Air­
craft Association's "Friends of the Red Barn" program.
This fundraising program is an annual affair, begin­
ning each year on July 1 and ending June 30 of the
following year. This year's campaign is well underway,
with contributions already arriving here at VAA HQ.
Our thanks to those of you who have already sent in
your 2004 contributions.
You can join in as well. There will be three levels of
gifts and gift recognition:
Vintage Gold Level - $600.00 and above gift
Vintage Silver Level - $300.00 gift
Vintage Bronze Level - $100.00 gift
Each contribution at one of these levels entitles
you to a Certificate of Appreciation from the Divi­
sion. Your name will be listed as a contributor in
Vintage Airplane magazine, on the VAA website,
and on a special display at the VAA Red Barn
during AirVenture. You will also be presented with a

special name badge recognizing
your level of participation. During
AirVenture, you'll have access to
the Red Barn Volunteer Cen­
ter, a nice place to cool off.
Gold Level contributors
will also receive a pair of cer­
tificates each good for a flight on EAA's Ford
Trimotor redeemable during AirVen ture or during
the summer flying season at Pioneer Airport. Silver
Level contributors will receive one certificate
for a flighat on EAA's Ford Trimotor.
This is a grand opportunity for all Vintage members
to join together as key financial supporters of the Vin­
tage Division. It will be a truly rewarding experience
for each of us as individuals to be part of supporting
the finest gatherin g of Antique, Classic, and Contem­
porary airplanes in the world .
Won't you please join those of us who recognize the
tremendously valuable key role the Vintage Aircraft Asso­
ciation has played in preserving the great grass roots and
genera l aviation airplanes of the last 100 years? Your
participation in EAA's Vintage Aircraft Associa­
tion Friends of the Red Barn will help insure the
very finest in AirVenture Oshkosh Vintage Red
Barn programs.
For those of yo u who wish to contribute, we 've
included a copy of the contributi on form. Feel free
to copy it and mail it to VAA headquarters with
your donation. Thank you.

----~------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

VAA Friends of the Red Barn
Nam e______________________________________________ EAA#_______________VAA# ______________
Address____________________________________________________________________________________
City /Sta te/Zi p _______________________________________________________________________________
Pho n e _____________________________________ E-Mail___________________________________________
Please ch oose your level of participation:
_
Vintage Gold Level Gift - $600.00
_
Vintage Silver Level Gift - $300.00
_

Vintage Bronze Level Gift - $100.00

o Paym ent Enclosed

o Please C harge my credit card (below)

C redit Ca rd Number ______________________ Expiration Date ___________
Signature_____________________________

Mail your contribution to:

EM
VINTAGE AIRCRAFT ASSOC.
PO Box 3086
OSHKOSH, WI 54903-3086

*00 you or your spouse work for a matching gift company? If so, this gift may qualify for a matching donation. Please ask your Human Re·

sources department for the appropriate form .

Na m eof Company __________________________


The Vi ntage Aircraft Association is a non- profit educa tional orga nization under IRS sOl c3 rules. Under Federal Law, the deduction fro m Federal In­

come tax for charitabl e contributions is limited to the amount by which any money (and the value of any property other than money) contributed

exceeds the value of the goods or se rvices provided in exchange for the contributi on. An appropriate receipt acknowledging your gift will be sent to

you for IRS gift reporting reaso ns.


4

MAY 2004

Comeback Dad

From

Into the Blue

published by St. Martin's Press
SUSAN EDSALL

Dad, my sister, and I were sitting in
a hallway in the hospital-Dad in a
pink plastic chair with metal arms and
Sharon and me on the floor, feet out­
stretched, backs against the wall,
waiting.
My father, Wayne Edsall, had just
turned 72 years old several days ago.
In the last 30 years he had rebuilt
nearly a dozen antique airplanes. His
current project, a 1945 Airmaster, was
his most difficult project yet, with one
34-foot long cantilevered wing and no
instructions. Not that he'd had any in­
structions with any of the planes he'd
built, including a Howard, a Curtiss,
two Tiger Moths, a Waco, a Stinson, a
BT-13, and his dream plane, a 1932
Fleet biplane. The Fleet Series 9 was
one of only 11 ever built, and as far as
Dad knew his was the only one of the
that series still flying. It was when he
was flying her over the vast expanse of
the Gallatin Valley in Montana that
Dad felt closest to God.
Dad spent every evening out in what
our family called his "sandbox"-a
hangar-turned-shop where there was al­
ways an antique airplane being rebuilt.
Always. Big band music playing on the
radio and he and his pal, Bud Hall ,
working away with felt, tape, irons,
paint, wires, hoses, and who knows
what all. We referred to all that went on
out there as "Wayne's World."
This is how I knew my father : a re­
builder and pilot of antique airplanes.
That's how everyone knew him.
So it was particularly shocking
when, sitting next to him in that anti­
septic hospital hallway, an unnervingly
cheerful speech therapist bounded up
to Dad, clapped him on the back,
grabbed his hand as if shaking it in ad­
vance of giving him a coveted award,
and blurted out with unflinching con­
fidence, "Hello, Mr. Edsall! I hear

you used to be a pi­
lot! Well, you won't
be able to do that
again, but we'll get
you up and around
doing something!
You bet we will! "
Used to be a pilot? I
don't know what else
the therapist said. Her
sparkling ideas about
what else she might get
Dad to do besides fly
became background
noise as I watched any
remaining hope drain
from my father's face.
He turned one flat
shade of battleship gray.
Susan and her dad, Wayne with his BT-13.
A week earlier my fa­
ther had suffered a
now. I knew that if Dad couldn't fly,
debilitating stroke as a complication
from heart surgery. This was his first he would just as soon not breathe.
day in the rehab center, and this And most particularly I knew that it
was the first he had heard that the wasn't that Dad couldn 't fly, it was
staff's assessment was that he would that Dad couldn't fly yet.
not recover enough to be able to fly.
What I didn't know was how we
I knew the situation as well as the were going to get him from not know­
therapist did: Dad couldn't talk, could­ ing his ABCs and his 1-2-3s to talking
n't count, couldn't track a sentence,
to the tower on the radio and getting
couldn't tell time, couldn't conjure his flaps down and his trim set for
the names of his family, couldn't re­ landing. Then there was teaching him
member that the letter "b" made the all the math he would need to know
sound "buh" as in boy, couldn't walk to get back to rebuilding the Airmas­
in a straight line, couldn't hold a fork,
ter, including dividing fractions.
a cup, a glass, couldn't spread jam on
The notion of teaching Dad how to
do, well, everything, was overwhelm­
his toast. Certainly couldn't fly.
But I knew some things the thera­ ing. When we weren't crying from
pists didn't know. I knew that my seeing him so debilitated , we were
father was the most bullheaded man pleading with the therapists for a dif­
ever born. I knew that the flying com­ ferent prognosis or hunched in the
munity in Montana was the most hospital cafeteria booth staring into a
spirited group of men and women you cup of bad tasting coffee without one
could pOSSibly want rooting for you. I single idea for how to proceed. We
knew that the family we were all a weren't helped by what we saw around
part of had never taken no for an an­ us-dozens of stroke patients disabled,
swer before and wasn't about to start depressed, and dependent who, along
VINTAGE AIRPLANE

5

with their families, were trying to
come to terms with a life altered. One
of the chief functions of the hospital
staff, it seemed, was to speed that
coming-to-terms process along, help­
ing us get used to the indisputable fact
that things would never be the same.
Only we would not come to terms.
Dad would fly again. On this our fam­
ily chose to agree. It wasn't like we sat
down as a family and thought through
this whole thing and then decided
that maybe we could find a way to
make this happen. To even think that
Dad wouldn't fly again would have
been, in our family, a bald act of be­
trayal. Dad flew. That's how my sister
and brother and I knew him as a fa­
ther, and it's how my mother knew
him as a husband. On this there was
no dithering. It was a fact as true as
the sun rising each morning and Dad
wanting lunch at noon.
Our job was to figure out how to
bushwack our way back.
So we pursued it like we'd pursue a
flight plan. The first thing we did was
decide the destination: Dad would fly
again in one year. I sat in the hospital
hallway, Dad in the familiar pink plas­
tic chair and myself cross-legged on
the floor in front of him, and I held
his hands. I looked him in the eye,
and I promised him that he would fly
again in a year. I asked my father to
promise me that he would stick it out
for one year and that he would put his
shoulder to the wheel of making this
happen. What I got from him was
dead, hopeless silence. I held on.
"Promise me, Dad. You will fly in one
year. Give me a year, Dad . Give me
one year. You will fly again ." I would
not let go of my father's hands. If he
was the most stubborn person ever
born, then he had raised me as the
second most stubborn. Finally I felt
the squeeze of his hands in mine and
he forced out, as best he could with
his limited capabilities with thought
and speech, "Oh-k-k-k-k-ay."
I sat with my sister in the hospital
cafeteria. She lived in North Carolina,
I lived in Vermont, and Dad lived in
Montana. We were grateful he didn't
live in Japan , but we could hardly
have lived further from one another
6

MAY 2004

and still be in the continental United
States. We hatched our plan. She
would go out to Montana for two
weeks and work with Dad in some ver­
sion of "school" every morning. I
would go out and relieve her for two
weeks doing the same thing. We
would do this for three months and
then reassess.

So Dad grabbed

the stick. Bud leaned

to the side so Dad

could see the

instruments, and

Dad flew the plane

like he'd never

been gone.

The travel arrangements agreed
to, we still had a big problem : no
curriculum. We had no clue how to
teach Dad how to read, talk, count,
do math. And our attempts to get
materials from the therapists were
met with stony resistance. The
speech therapist put her foot down,
telling Mother in no uncertain terms
that we needed to leave speech ther­
apy to the professionals, that Mother
needed to get back to being Dad's
wife, and we needed to get back to
being Dad's daughters.
But the plan of the professionals
was three one-hour speech therapy
sessions a week. There was absolutely
no way that Dad, with that meager
help, was going to get back to mum­
bling coherently to himself, let alone
talking to the tower. Rather than per­
suade them otherwise, I bypassed
the beleaguering prognosis of the
professionals and hightailed it to
Border's bookstore, spending a good
six hours scouring the bookshelves
in the teacher resource section. I
concentrated on books geared to
kindergartners learning to read, write,
and tell time. Once we made some
progress I'd up the level of difficulty
to second grade and start in on

math-first simple counting and then
addition of single digit numbers.
l'll admit that I put my head in my
hands and cried more than once that
afternoon in the bookstore. It was
breathtaking to be faced with having
to teach my father to read "See Jane
run" when just two weeks ago he had
taken me on a flight over the Gallatin
Valley in his spit-shined BT-13, which
he had painstakingly restored.
Sharon and I had a plan, and we
stuck to it. For the next three months
at 8:00 every single morning we were
at the dining room table, newly con­
verted to a classroom, and started in .
We began with flashcards of the al­
phabet. He had to relearn the sounds.
His big hang-up was the letter " W ,"
which he always said had the sound
"duh". Of course he thought that.
Every other letter had its own sound
in the name of the letter. "B" is "buh";
"w" is "duh". It only made sense.
That's how far back we started.
Then we moved from letters to sim­
ple words like ball, cat, dog, egg,
farmer. Then we tried writing the
words. We had our morning blocked
out into 30-minute segments with a
five-minute break between each one,
and we ran those mornings like drill
sergeants. There was no feeling sorry
for Dad, no giving in to how tired he
was-or we were. There was no time
off for a nice day.
The only dispensation was when
planes flew over the house. Pilot
friends usually left us alone in th e
mornings, but by afternoon, they of­
ten came by in threes, buzzing the
house and then landing on the grass
airstrip out back, taxiing up to the
porch. Dad could hear them from
miles away-the distinct thumpety­
thump of round, antique engines.
He would jump up from the table no
matter what we were working on
and go outside, shielding his eyes
from the sun and spot the planes in
the distance. As they dipped low to­
ward the house, the growl of their
engines swirling in the yard, he
would pump his fist in the air in
salute. It was all I could do not to lay
my head down on the dining room
table and cry a rain barrel full. My

father did not belong on the ground.
When the pilots came in to land, it
was clear that school was over for the
day. They would gather on the porch,
I would ferry out coffee and cookies,
and they would talk to Dad. He would
pitch in while they waited-some­
times interminably-for him to finish
his sentence. Their friendship , their
impromptu visits, and their support
were his lifeline.
There were the obvious hurdles of
getting him to speak, read, write, do
mathematical calculations and reason.
We tackled those with a very carefully
laid out plan, gleaned from the books
for teachers, which we plodded
through unfailingly each day. Every
single morning Dad would start with a
memory warm-up, read out loud from
Henry Kisor's book Flight of the Gin
Fizz, write words and phrases from the
stack of flashcards, and do reasoning
problems like /lin this list of items
which one doesn't belong: fork,
spoon, plate, bicycle." We kept scrupu­
lous track of our progress, just like
plotting a cross-country trip from
checkpoint to checkpoint, enabling us
to see, for example, that the speed of
Dad's reading had moved from 19
words a minute to 80 and knowing
that we were aiming for 110.
But the psychological hurdles were
less easy to tackle methodically. Dad
battled constant fear that he would
never be able to think straight again,
let alone speak, write, and calculate.
At one point three weeks into /lschool"
he was discouraged about his lack of
progress. Sharon and I had kept care­
ful records of all his work in a
three-ring binder. I put the binder in
his lap and showed him where he
started and where he was at right then.
It made him even more terrified. He
hadn't remembered being so bad. All
he could say was, /lyou don't know
what it's like way out here."
He also battled the gnawing fear
that he would never again be pilot in
command. This expressed itself in
many ways from the simple and pro­
found feeling of being utterly
overwhelmed, to feeling apprehensive
about even going up for a ride in
someone else's plane. We had to not

only get his brain working again, we
had to get him back into an airplane
as a passenger, back into his hangar,
back behind the control wheel of his
own Cessna 185, then finally behind
the stick of his beloved Fleet. The psy­
chological hurdles for Dad became
hurdles for us, too. Fear of failure was
our constant companion. But there
was nothing to do but plod on.
We did not, however, plod on
alone. His flying buddies were waiting
in the wings, willing to do anything to
get Dad back in the air.
Bud, his best buddy, owns a Bird­
dog. He kept bugging Dad to go for a
ride in it. Dad kept turning him down.
But Bud hadn't become best friends
with Dad by relenting every time Dad
said no, so Bud kept at it. Every night
he would call or come by. Of course he
had Dad at a disadvantage because
Dad couldn't talk very well. But still
Dad refused. We weren't exactly sure
why. Maybe the idea that he would
never be pilot in command again was
gaining on him. Maybe he was wor­
ried that if he got that feeling of
freedom you get when you fly and
then were denied ever being a pilot it
would be too much for him. Whatever
the reason, he kept turning Bud down.
Finally by mid-May, Bud wore him
out, and Dad agreed to go flying in
the Bird Dog.
When they got into the air, Bud in
the front and Dad in back, Dad's blood
ran like it hadn't in months. Two
months in the /lclassroom" had taken
the starch out of him. Being 7,000 feet
in the air and over the Rocky Moun­
tains, flying over the headwaters of
the Missouri, checking out the herd of
elk in the Spanish Peaks rekindled the
pilot's life in him . Bud called back on
the intercom. /lWhy don't you take
the controls, Edsall?"
So Dad grabbed the stick. Bud
leaned to the side so Dad could see the
instruments, and Dad flew the plane
like he'd never been gone.
Bud got on the radio and called out
the news to the other pilots that were
in the air. /lEdsall's flying the Bird Dog!
Even got a little finesse for a change!"
The radio crackled back with other
pilots who let out the breath they had

Susan Edsall's
terrific 288-page
hardbound book de­
tailing VAA member
Wayne Edsall's jour­
ney back to the
skies will be pub­
lished in May. Into
the Blue: A Father's
Flight and a Daughter's Return, is be­
ing published by St. Martin's Press
and will be available in bookstores and
on the web in time for Father's Day.

been holding for too long.
/lYou're in the air Edsall! I knew you
could do it!"
/lWhat a great day when Wilbur
and Orville closed the bicycle shop,
eh, Edsall?"
At least we had Dad in the airplane.
Now we had to get him back in his
own planes, behind his own controls
as pilot in command. And back into
the hangar.
It was that flight, up in the blue
Montana sky with his flying buddies
conveying their good wishes on the
radio that gave Dad his second wind.
He tackled the books every morning
with renewed hope. Not getting back
into the air was not an option. Al­
though he wasn't out of the woods
just yet, he could see that we were not
just going in circles. We had made
tremendous progress. And no matter
how frustrating, tiring, discouraging,
or just plain damned difficult it was to
stick with the grinding-it-out work of
reconnecting the pathways in his
brain, he was gaining on his dream to
be back in the air.
So Dad appeared unfailingly in the
schoolroom every morning at 8:00,
and so did we. All of us propelled by
his dream to fly.
June 6, just two and a half months
since Dad's stroke, Dad went lip in his
own plane. Although he wasn't pilot
in command, he was behind the con­
trols with a check pilot in the
passenger 's seat. It all came back to
him . All of it. Flying was as much a
part of him as breathing. He handled
the radio, the takeoff, the flight over
the Spanish Peaks and the Madison
continued on page 28
VINTAGE AIRPLANE

7

THE LOUGHEAD

f!eap~ :

'F-l

Originally publish ed in the November 19ft9 issue of Vintage Airplane

I

n 1916 Allen and Malcolm Loug­
head began writing the second
chapter in their saga as pioneer
airplane builders. They established
the Loughead Aircraft Manufactur­
ing Co. in the rear of a garage near
the Santa Barbara waterfront. Their
finances were meager, but they
were ambitious.
Berton R. Rodman, Santa Barbara
financier and machine shop owner,
was elected president, Allen first
vice president, Malcolm secretary
and treasurer, Norman S. Hall ad­
vertising and sales promotion
manager, and Anthony Stadlman
factory superintendent. A Czecho­
slovakian mechanic and engineer,
Stadlman first worked with Allen in
maintenance of the Curtiss Pusher
that Loughead flew during his barn­
storming in Illinois.
In mid-summer of 1916, a 21­
year-old garage mechanic and
architectural draftsman , son of a
prominent Santa Barbara contrac­
tor, became a frequent visitor at the
factory on State Street. He knew the
Lougheads by reputation. He had
seen their Model G at the Panama­
Pacific International Exposition the
year before. And he wanted a job­
anything at all, as long as it was
connected with aircraft. The young
man was the farsighted John K.
Northrop, who would become one
of the most talented designers in
8

MAY 2004

aviation history,
whose contributions
to the progress of fly­
ing would include
the celebrated Lock­
heed Vega and the
famous Northrop
Flying Wing bomber.
The Lougheads
hired Northrop and
put him to work
helping to shape the
hull of their new fly­
ing boat, called the The F-l powered by two Hall Scott engines. The
F-l. A self-taught en- wingspan is 74 feet; length is 35 feet.
gineer, Northrop

understood stress analysis. He de­
workmanship. For example, wing
signed and stressed the wings of the
struts were of steel, bolted top and
flying boat, the world's largest sea­
bottom, and encased in streamlined
plane at that time.

wooden fairings . The Lougheads
It was built to carry 10 persons,
also developed a rustproofing
including pilot and copilot, and process for metal parts that greatly
increased their durability.
was of wood and fabric construc­
tion, with engine cowlings and
The F-1 was notable, addition­
fittings of metal. The upper wing ally, because it inaugurated a design
spanned a monstrous 74 feet, and configuration that became famous
the 47-foot lower wing carried pon­
years later on the Constellation-a
toons beneath each tip. Two 160-hp triple-finned tail, mounted on
Hall Scott engines hung between metal booms attached to the hull
the wings on either side of the hull. and wings.
It was a tractor-type craft 3S feet
By this time the United States
long with a gross weight of 3,700 was on the verge of entering World
pounds, a useful load of 3,100 War I. The Lougheads offered to
pounds, a top speed of 84 mph, and place their factory and "personal
a cruising speed of 70 mph.
services as trained pilots" at th e
government's disposal "in event of
Throughout it showed every evi­
dence of practical design and careful trouble with any other foreign

power." The Santa Barbara News­
Press reported the company also
planned to offer its F-1, then under
construction, to the military. Work
was rushed in hope of completing
it by April 1917.
"With a little added equipment
we could turn out each month two
machines," the story quoted Allen.
"We are patterning our new ma­
chine in line with government
specifications, and it would be
available for immediate use for ob­
servation and reconnaissance work,
to which it is especially adapted."
After the United States declared
war on Germany and the Central
Powers, the Navy-anxious to
build up its air arm-displayed in­

terest in the Loughead F-1 and
arranged for it to be flown to North
Island naval base near San Diego
for testing. Allen first flew it at
Santa Barbara on March 28, 1918.
The formal launching followed
what the News-Press described as
an "impressive christening and
dedicatory ceremony." First pas­
sengers were Mary Miles Minter,
noted silent screen actress who
made a number of movies in Santa
Barbara, and her sister.
On its trial hop the F-1 made a
circular flight that demonstrated in­
herent stability although there was
too much area in the counterbal­
anced ailerons. The problem was
quickly solved, and a short time

Allen and Malcolm Loughead atthe controls of the F-l.

The F-l inaugurated a design configuration that became famous years later on the
Constellation-a triple-finned tail.

later the plane winged to North Is­
land, setting a nonstop over-water
mark-180 miles in 181 minutes.
Navy officials began a series of
rigid flight and structural tests that
spanned three months. These con­
vinced them the Lougheads knew
how to build an airplane, but the
craft was ruled out because of a de­
sign standardization policy. The
government was concentrating pro­
duction on specified aircraft types,
and the seaplane design it chose
was a Curtiss HS21. Accordingly,
the Lougheads' first military con­
tract was to construct two seaplanes
patterned after the Curtiss. The trial
order was on a cost-plus-12-percent
basis, plus spare parts.
"We took a beating on the deal,"
Allen recalled later. "We invested
between $4,000 and $5,000 in nec­
essary alterations to the basic HS21
design and weren't reimbursed for
our expenditures."
At the peak of production, em­
ployment at the small Santa Barbara
plant rose to 85 men. Northrop,
then in military service at Camp
Lewis, was furloughed and returned
to Santa Barbara to help turn out
the two planes.
Meantime, the Model G contin­
ued its successful career. Soon after
the Lougheads arrived in Santa Bar­
bara, Allen used the place to make
the first crossing of the Santa Bar­
bara Channel by air, carrying
two passengers and completing
the 60-mile trip in just one hour.
Even though the Navy had
turned down the F-1, the Loug­
heads remained convinced of its
potentialities. After its return to
Santa Barbara from the North Is­
land tests in August 1918, the
factory promptly rebuilt it at a
cost of $10,000 into a landplane
configuration with a landing
gear arrangement that consisted
of two main gears and a nose
wheel. This modification was
called the F-1A.
References: Of Men and Stars:
A History of Lockheed Aircraft
Corp., by Philip L. Juergens . .......
VINTAGE AIRPLANE

9

THE VI N TAG E INSTRU


Hazardous

attitudes

DOUG STEWART

The night before I was to ferry an
Aeronca Champ from Massachusetts
to Florida the following day's surface
winds were forecast to be from the
northwest at 30 knots, gusting to 40,
with the moderate turbulence that
always accompanies those high
winds. Snow was also in the forecast
for later in the day, and would re­
main in the forecast for the next
several days. It was clear that if I did­
n't get going early the next morning
I would be grounded for the rest of
the week.
Why is it that whenever you want
the briefer to be wrong, he or she is­
n't ... but when you are counting
on the forecast to hold true, it does­
n 't? Has anyone else ever noticed
that? Well, the following morning
showed that the former was to be
the case.
The wind was howling as I back­
taxied to the departure end of the
runway. It was blowing hard
enough that the rudder wasn't suf­
ficient to keep the air-knocker going
straight down the runway. I needed
to help out my directional control
with a bit of brake as well. In doing
so I noticed that the right brake
seemed to have even less effective­
ness than the meager amount I
expected from the original ex­
pander-type brake on the Champ.
The thought ran through my head
that perhaps I should abort the
flight. Two-and-a-half hours after
takeoff I would be in New Jersey and
in need of fuel. (With only 13 gal­
lons of total fuel, the fuel range
matched my bladder range per­
10

MAY 2004

fectly!) Every possible runway that I
could use would have a 70- to 90-de­
gree crosswind. "Would I be able to
control the old Champ with a weak
brake?" I deliberated with myself.
However, I was determined to make
the flight, and that was affecting my
thought process.

The thought

ran through

my head

that perhaps I

should abort

the flight.

It made me think of one time
when I had ferried this same airplane
in the opposite direction. In similar
winds I had landed at Stewart Inter­
national Airport (SWF), diagonally
across the runway. Because of the
high, gusty winds I had opted to do
a wheel landing. As I slowed down,
once on the runway, I slowly came
forward with the stick to keep the
tail up in the air. I still had some
stick left, when, with the tail still up
in the air, the airplane came to a
stop. "Yikes! What am I going to do
now? If I bring the tail down, I'm go­
ing flying again." I said to myself. It
then took close to 15 minutes to taxi
the short distance from the runway
to the FBO.
I considered all this information
as I performed the simple run-up

and before-takeoff checks. "Yeah, I
can handle it! " was my answer to
my self-questioning mind. "I've
flown in this stuff before .. .in fact, in
this very same plane. No problem .. .1
can handle it!" r responded with de­
termination , as I came in with the
power and departed on the flight.
Here I was, exhibiting the classic
hazardous attitude, "macho," along
with some typical operational errors. r
sometimes wonder why my middle
name isn't Votan. (The ancient
Mayan god of warfare and death.)
How often have I started forging that
accident chain, before I ever leave
the ground? I know I am not alone
in this. The accident reports bear
witness to the fact that the chain of
events leading to an accident quite
typically begins prior to takeoff.
Well, two-and-a-haJf hours later
found me at Tom's River, New Jersey.
The winds were reported to be from
350, variable 330 at 31 knots, with
gusts to 38 knots. I would be landing
on Runway 6. If luck were with me,
my arrival would coincide with the
winds from their most northerly vec­
tor, and least velocity. You'd think by
now that I would know that Murphy
never rests. Sure enough, he wasn't.
As I had done in this airplane be­
fore, I opted to land diagonally

across the runway to gain as much
of a head wind component as I
could . Only this runway was
nowhere near as wide as the one at
SWF. I landed on the left main, and
as I slowed down I finally ran out of
stick. As the tail wheel touched the
runway I immediately brought the
stick all the way to the left, and back
into my gut. And that's when the
proverbial yogurt hit the fan.
The rudder and tail wheel were
not going to provide enough force to
counter the strong crosswinds. I was
going to need the right brake to keep
things going straight. As the nose of
the Champ started to yaw to the left,
I pushed on the right heel brake
with all my strength. But that weak
brake wasn't going to be any match
for the strong wind. Here I was at the
start of a ground loop, and there was
nothing left for me to do.
No, I was not exhibiting another
hazardous attitude, that of resigna­
tion, I was doing all that I could ... all
that I knew ... to keep from ground
looping, but the winds were too
strong. The right wing started to
drop as we spun around, and was
soon dragging on the pavement at
the edge of the runway. As the tail
came facing into the wind, the left
main gear dropped back down to the
runway, and we came to a stop. I sat
there, stunned, for several moments
before starting the arduous task of
taxiing in to the FBO.
Luckily, the damage to the old
Aeronca was minimal. I had scraped
some fabric off of the metal bow at
the wingtip. A bit of 100 mph tape
would patch things up enough to
continue the flight to Florida, with­
out the need for a ferry permit. But I
learned an important lesson that
morning. Hazardous attitudes are go­
ing to get you!
Had I applied the antidote to the
macho hazardous attitude, that be­
ing "taking chances is foolish," had I
not been so determined to deliver
the airplane on a predetermined
schedule, I would not be having to
explain to the owner of the Champ
why his airplane had duct tape on its
wingtip. It could have been much

worse. It might have ended with me
standing on the carpet, trying to ex­
plain why I had wrecked a wonderful
old airplane.
It was this incident that finally
smacked me upside the head. I have
some hazardous attitudes, and it is
time to start dealing with them.
First, I have to recognize them. But
recognizing them is not enough.
Then I not only have to come up
with the antidote for the attitude,
but apply that antidote as well!
There are five hazardous attitudes
that have been recognized by those
who study human factors. They are
macho, anti-authority, resignation,
invulnerability, and impulsivity. For
each of these attitudes there is an ap­
propriate antidote. I personally think
that there is not one pilot out there
who does not have at least one, if
not several, of these attitudes . The
first step is learning to recognize that
we harbor these attitudes within our­
selves. The second step is to learn
the proper antidotes for these haz­
ardous attitudes. The third, and I feel
hardest, step is to apply the antidote.
In the situation I described, on
this ferry flight I allowed a variety of
operational errors to lead me into
thinking that I could handle the sit­
uation. I knew it was risky. Isn't all
flying risky? In this situation I was
definitely taking a chance. Had I ap­
plied the antidote that "taking
chances is foolish," I would not have
attempted the flight. I would have
probably delivered the airplane to its
owner a week later than promised,
but it would have been delivered in
its pristine condition, not with one
wing scarred.
In the next several articles I
would like to take a look at all five
of the hazardous attitudes and their
appropriate antidotes. Learning to
recognize and correct these atti­
tudes will go a long way in taking
us from being good pilots ... to being
great pilots. It's an ongoing process
for all of us.
Doug flies a 1947 PA-12. He is the
2004 National Certificated Flight In­
structor of the Year. Visit his web
site: www.dsflight.com.
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VINTAGE AIRPLANE

11

The hammer provided is small
and may not be the most efficient
for driving the II-inch stakes into
hard ground, but the claw part of
the hammer is definitely helpful in
pulling the stakes out.
The "Claw" can be obtained
through several sources, but I
bought mine from its manufac­
turer, Hunting Solutions. The
company can be reached at 601­
932-5832, or on the web at
www.theclaw.com. The "Claw" re­
tails for $119.95.

TIM

There are times I believe I'm a
weather magnet. As we all know,
when we fly out somewhere for an
overnight or fly-in, tying down
our aircraft becomes an issue when
the seemingly inevitable wind­
storm arrives . I have some
experience at this as an Oshkosh
volunteer each year.
I check tiedowns on thousands
of planes on the flightline. It al­
ways surprises me how many
people fly in and never consider
how they are going to tie down
their vintage investment. During
the week I also get the chance to
observe various methods of tying
down airplanes and how well they
work. There have been several arti­
cles in Vintage Airplane on how
best to do this, but I think one
method outshines the rest.
In my experience, the best
tiedowns are the ones that have
multiple-point anchors in the
ground. This method assures a
firm grip with the ground in al­
most all soil conditions and makes
an incredibly strong anchor point
12

MAY 2004

Fox
that is removable when you get
ready to leave. Many of the an­
chors I've seen are homemade, but
there are a few out there you can
purchase.
My choice was a setup called the
"Claw." This is an aviation tiedown
sold as a set consisting of three an­
chor assemblies, nine stakes,
tiedown ropes, and a small claw
hammer in a nylon carry/storage
bag. Each anchor assembly con­
sists of a centerpiece with a
ringbolt where you tie your ropes.
There are three legs that fold out
when placing the assembly on the
ground. The stakes go into the
ground through the holes at the
end of the legs at an angle, in to­
ward the center point of the
assembly. Like the claw of a bird of
prey, the grip on the ground is sub­
stantial. Even in soft ground, this
set has not come loose in heavy
winds. At an Illinois fly-in last year
there were winds strong enough to
break two tent poles on my tent,
but the "Claw" held fast and the
plane did not move.

..\ .

."


~ \ ...::::~."'~r' ~~
· I
·
,

'.

.
,

j
',.

.

'.,
"

The U.S. had its Stearmans and
Fairchilds. Germany had its Jung­
mann. The entire rest of the world,
it would seem, had the deHavilland
Tiger Moth.
The U.S., understandably, has a
geo-centric view of training during
World War II-it's hard for us to re­
member that although thousands of
pilots, both U.S. and foreign, went
through the Stearman/Fairchild/Vul­
tee/Texan training pipeline, we
weren't the only country teaching
people to fly. In fact, the number of
pilots trained by the Stearman is
probably closely matched by those
trained in the ubiquitous Tiger Moth
because so many countries used it.
And so many countries built it.
In countries like Australia, where
1,000 'Moths were built and nearly
a third of the production is still fly­

ing, it is the Stearman that is the
oddity, not the Moth. And it was
nearly that way at EAA AirVenture
Oshkosh '03 because there were no
less than five examples of Geoffery
deHavilland's fragile-looking bi­
plane parked on the line.
One of the spark plugs of the
American Moth movement is
Mike Williams of Columbus, Indi­
ana. Mike and his shop (Mike's
Hangar, 3811 River Rd., Colum­
bus, IN 47203,812-375-1954,
www.mikeshangar.com) have a
strong reputation for restoring a
wide range of biplanes, Pitts to
Wacos, but Tiger Moths represent
a healthy proportion of his total
business and he says business is
good. And he says there's a reason
for that.
"In the last few years more and

more people have begun to discover
the Tiger Moth," he explains. "As
the price of Waco and Stearman
projects have sky rocketed and the
supply has begun to get tight, peo­
ple have looked elsewhere. There are
about 65 Tiger Moths here in the
U.S., about a third of which are fly­
ing. There are about 300 in Australia
with another 300 scattered through
Canada, Europe and other places.
So, U. S. pilots are discovering what
the rest of the world already knew:
the Tiger Moth is a terrific little air­
plane. They're fun and easy to fly
and not that difficult to restore. As
long as you pay attention to a few
basic rules, that is.
"Oddly enough, there was even a
little known variant of the Cana­
dian Tiger Moth that was built for
the USAAF, the PT-24. They were
VINTAGE AIRPLANE

13

built, but never delivered and sat
around a Canadian airfield and rot­
ted until they were just pushed
down into a low spot in the terrain
and covered over. A few years back,
Tom Dietrich exhumed some of the
remains and came back with parts
and some data plates. I have one of
the data plates so, who knows,
maybe a PT-24 will fly again."
So, it seems the U.S. barely
missed being listed amongst the
countries that used Tiger Moths for
training.
The DH 82 Tiger Moth was a nat­
ural evolution from a long series of
DH Moths going clear back into the
1920s. Little of significance
changed through the years other
than the fuselage was changed from
wood to steel tube structure and the
engine was standardized on the
Gypsy Major 1C, a 373-cubic inch,
142-hp, inverted four-cylinder en­
gine that, although appearing
thoroughly antique, is actually eas­
ier to maintain than most of its
peer group.
"For one thing, the 'Moth engine
is the same that was used in the
Moth's replacement, the DHC-1
Chipmunk. Because of that, al­
though they were supporting the
Chipmunk with stores of WWII sur­
plus engines, they were still
manufacturing spare parts well into
the 1950s.
"Still, you have to remember that
you're looking at a 60-year-old en­
gine that's a 75-year-old design. Its
reliability is really good, almost up
to modern standards, but supplies
of a few items, like magneto parts,
are getting a little short, although
there is an STC'd Slick conversion
available. Plus the engine does have
its peculiarities so you have to se­
lect your overhaul shop carefully
because there's quite a learning
curve. We've overhauled them for
years, but we're still learning and,
because there are so many small
parts in the engines, they can really
suck up the labor hours.
"Also, you have to know where
to go to get certain things done.
There are speCialists who deal with
14

MAY 2004

the cylinder heads and the carbs.
This is not a mainstream engine so
you can't depend on mainstream
shops. Still, there's a little subcul­
ture of shops that really do know
what they're doing when it comes
to certain components.
"As far as operating them, they
have a couple little things you have
to pay attention to. Like adjusting
the valves every fifteen hours. You
also have to remove the rocker arm
covers and fill them with oil be­
cause, unless you've put in a
lubrication system, the rockers are
splash lubed. It's easy to do the
valves and the oil at the same time."
One of the Moths at Oshkosh
was owned by Dave Harris, of
Kenosha, Wisconsin, and he had a
lot to say about the differences be­
tween the different Moths.
"My airplane is an Australian­
built airplane and was originally
produced without brakes and with a
tailskid. Only the Canadian airplanes
had brakes although most of us have
added them. Mike did my airplane
and he uses Cub brakes, which are a
bladder, or expander tube, type of
brake, but even those are getting
hard to find and are expensive.
"Although I didn't need them,
Mike also had original wheels cast

for Tiger Moths which are 7 .5-inch
rims using an odd tire that has to
be imported from England. Right
now they are running about $550 a
pair delivered."
Dave says, "My airplane was pro­
duced in October 1941 and has an
English landing gear. The Canadian
gear locates the wheels eight inches
further forward so the airplanes
have much heavier tails probably
needed because their brakes were so
effective and the forward position
was needed to prevent nose overs.
The English-style gear ground han­
dles better and the airplane
three-points better."
Some of the other differences be­
tween the various species of Tiger
Moths involve the slats and wing
leading edges.
Williams says, "The English,
Aussie and some New Zealand
'Moths had slats. The down unders
had plywood leading edges and
Canadians had hard leading edges
on the lowers only and no slats or
spin strakes."
When it comes to FAA certifica­
tion, Tiger Moths can be confusing.
Mike says, "The fact that there
are any Moths at all certified in
Standard Category can be attrib­
uted to Cliff Robertson. He had an

Dave Harris peers up at the EAA camera ship as they head into the late after­
noon sun. The fabric bunched up on a frame behind the cockpit is a hood that
can be pulled over the aft cockpit during instrument instruction.
English Moth and he jumped
through all of the FAA's hoops to
get his airplane put in Standard
Category. Prior to that , all Tiger
Moths were certified in Experimen­
tal-Airshow/Exhibition category. An
Air Force general later did the same
thing to an Australian airplane.
"To get an Australian or English
Moth put into Standard Category,
you have to do a 'conformity check'
in which you match the airplane in
question to the airplane the type
certificate was issued on. If you can
prove you have the identical air­
plane, as defined by th e Type
Certificate, then your airplane can
go into Standard Categor y and
won 't have any of the operation re­
strictions Airshow/Exhibition
category carries.
"Right now a little over half of
the Australian and English Tiger
Moths are in Standard Category,
while none of the Canadian birds
are because no one has gone
through the process yet and estab­
lished a precedent. When they do,
all the rest of the Canadian air­
planes can be certified to that TC."
Because th e basic design of the
Tiger Moth goes back to th e mid­
1920s, the airframe is mu ch more
antique than th e Stearman, which

was designed nearly fifteen years
later, and the difference shows. Plus
the Tiger Moth is English and that
shows too.
Dave Harris says, "When I started
looking at Moths it was partly be­
cause it was obviously such an
antique but built at a later time. Its
fuselage is the usual welded tubing,
although built in three sections
and bolted together. The wings are
fairly complex wooden structures,
so you have to look very, very care­
fully when picking a project. In my
case, [ found an airplane that was
fairly complete and had some inter­
esting history.
"When it wa s surplused by the
Australian Air Force, it was bought
by a New Zealand crop duster and
that 's what it did for years. Then a
local pilot decided he wanted to fly
the London Daily Mail Trans
Oceanic race in it. He had it fitted
with a 7S-Imperial gallon fuel tank
and an eight-gallon oil tank with a
pump to transfer it to the main tank.
"The airplane wound up stuck in
th e mud in Bellingham, Washing­
ton , and the pilot abandoned the
race and sold the airplane. Clay
Henl ey of Athol, Idaho, bought it
and got it put into standard cate­
gory so he could use it in his flight

school where he was renting it out
for solo flight.
"The airplane was disassembled for
restoration and when Clay died in
1977 it went into long-term storage./I
After Dave bought the airplane
he went through a period of self-ed­
ucation . At the same time he was
looking for someone to help him
with the restoration.
"I was at Oshkosh and Jack
Hooker mentioned Mike because
he'd made some original style Sut­
ton harnesses for some of Mike 's
Tiger Moths. Mike had his English
Moth there and we started talking."
Mike Williams says, "Dave really
wanted to get his airplane done and
he sort of followed me home."
Both of them agreed on a basic
checklist of items to go over when
looking at a project for possible
restoration.
Dave started, "First of all, do a
very complete inventory and make
sure it is all there. Because there are
so many small parts, it's really easy
to be missing something that's hard
to find. Items like mag switches are
practically non-existent. And you'll
need the right kind of altimeter be­
cause some of them had the
Kollsman windows calibrated in
millibars and that's not FAA-legal to
fly with."
Mike says, "Yeah, things like the
windshield are hard to replace, if
they are missing or badly broken.
The windshield [frame] is a cast
bronze unit that nothing else used.
The nose bowl is the same way. You
can repair almost anything, as long
as you have something to start with .
Unfortunately, however, the nose
bowl is one of the first things to dis­
appear or be damaged when an
airplane is wrecked or disassembled.
"The gas tank is something you
have to look at carefully," Dave
says. "It's big enough you can gen­
erally tell whether there is one with
the project, but open it up and
check it with a flashlight. It's made
of 'tin plate,' which is a kind of gal­
vanized steel and they can rust
along the seams or where water has
been pooling. To replace them is
VINTAGE AIRPLANE

15

expensive and they have to come
from England or New Zealand."
Mike jumps in and says, "And
don't forget to count the flying/land­
ing wires and inspect them. They are
carbon steel, not stainless, so they'll
rust and even a little rust pit makes a
flying wire unusable."
"Wood is a big concern," Mike
says. "There's lots of it, which
means there are also a lot of glue
joints and it's not uncommon to
find most of the glue joints have let
go. I think it's casein glue so mois­
ture and age can ruin it."
Mike continues, "The airplane is
typical of 1920's design in which
16

MAY 2004

they used a lot of small pieces,
rather a smaller number of big ones,
in an effort at making the airplane
light. In some places, like the tail
for instance, there are lots of places
for moisture to do its thing and lots
of wood to warp. Plus, there are
some AD's on the tie rods on the
bottom of the fuselage so they will
probably have to be replaced.
"The wings are like any other all­
wood wings and you have to
inspect them carefully. You can ex­
pect to find some bad glue joints or
bad wood, but as long as the spars
are sound and in good shape, you
can repair the rest. You can replace

the spars too, but replacing the
spars on a wing as complex as a
Tiger Moth's isn't a lot of fun.
"In general, when it comes to
restoring a 'Moth airframe, if you
like working on wooden boats,
you're going to love a Tiger Moth,"
he says.
Dave had something else to say
about another facet of the airplane.
"One thing that drives you nuts,
if you'll pardon the expression," he
grins, "is the hardware. When the
airplanes were brand new, they
used four different types of bolts
and fittings: Whitworth and British
Fine, British Standard Pipe and Met­

ric and, if the airplane has been fly­
ing in recent years, you can count
on finding some AN hardware in
there. Your toolbox quickly gets
very heavy because you're carrying
around so many extra wrenches.
liThe factories also had an aggra­
vating, if effective, way of making
sure bolts didn't loosen up. In criti­
cal areas, they just took a hammer
and peened the end of the bolt
over," he laughs. lilt was effective
though. You never find any of those
bolts loose and getting the nuts off
can be a bear.
"You can still get the hardware
new from England, but where it

doesn't show, most folks are switch­
ing over to AN hardware."
Tiger Moth owners love to talk
about how the airplane flies and,
in this case, one of th e OSH air­
planes was being flown by CFI
Rich Davidson, of Hanover, Indi­
ana, who prefers to be referred to
as "retired barnstormer." He spe­
cializes in teaching people to fly
old airplanes (first hint he likes
those kinds of airplanes: his e-mail
is [email protected]).
"O ne of the biggest problems is
teaching people who have flown
only modern airplanes or late gen­
eration tailwheel aircraft how to fly
one with this much drag and wing
area. The tailwheel aspect of it isn't
difficult because the airplane lands
at a fast walk and is super docile,
but the pilot has to get it ready to
land and to some pilots that's not
as easy as it sounds.
"In the first place, the pilot has
to be able to "feel" the airplane be­
cause it is very much an antique,
with light wing loading and little
direct forward visibility. Therefore,
inexperienced pilots tend to lean
outside to see, inevitably moving
the controls and violating the
number one rule of tailwheel fly­
ing-touch down straight. If he
thinks he has to see forward or he's
going to fly without moving his
feet and feeling the aircraft, he'll
never get it lined up at the last mo­
ment because the nose will always
be moving right or left.
Also, the airplane sits on the
ground in a very steep attitude.
That means the pilot has to really
rotate the airplane as he's flaring in
ground effect. This all happens
much more quickly than in mod­
ern airplanes because, as soon as
the nose starts up in the flare, the
airspeed immediately begins to
drop off, so it's easy to flare high
and run out of airspeed while many
feet off the ground . That's no big
deal because the airplane won't do
anything stupid, but it's not the
way it's supposed to be done. And it
doesn't look good.
"In reality, it's really hard to drop
II

the airplane in hard because even if
you stall it, the bottom wing is still
flying and won't let you fall. Geof­
frey deHavilland once did a
demonstration where he flew the
entire final approach with the stick
clear back against the stop using
power to arrest his descent. He hit
hard, but not enough to hurt him.
In a normal approach, it'll fly with
any amount of power on it.
"Because it has so much wing
and lands at about forty-five miles
an hour, in a crosswind it behaves
a lot like a kite. On roll-out it's not
uncommon to find you're running
out of aileron to keep the wing
down. The solution to that is to
angle into the wind. If there's any
wind at all, the landing roll is
ridiculously short and landing at
an angle to the runway works re­
ally well."
Mike adds, "In the air, they are
really fun. When you do a loop it is
so tiny you expect to see your own
tail on the way down.
"O ne of the things I really like
about Tiger Moths, in general,"
Mike Williams says, " is the social
side of them. If you go anywhere
wearing a Tiger Moth hat, you can
be guaranteed of people walking up
to tell you they learned to fly in
one, or to find out if you have one
and compare notes. The airplane at­
tracts a very outgoing type of
person. When I take a 'Moth to a
fly-in, I'm always guaranteed of
having a dozen people hanging out
around it."
The Tiger Moth is one of those
airplanes that has always just been
"there." It appears, however, that
the times, they are a changing and
the slow-moving bird from across
the pond may be catching up with
American icon trainers.
"Besides," says Mike Williams,
"You gotta love an airplane that
only needs a Crescent wrench and a
ball peen hammer to do field main­
....
tenance."
For further information, contact:
The de Havilland Moth Club
http://www.dhmothclub.co.uk/
VINTAGE AIRPLANE

17

WHAT OUR MEMBERS ARE

BUILDING AND RESTORING


Duane Larson's midlife project was a great airplane with the performance to
get in and out of small strips in the United States where he could pursue h is
other passion, fishing. Starting with a perfectly good 1963 Cessn a 205, h e added
a Horton short takeoff and landing (STOL) kit, oversize tires, a n ew Continental
10-550 from Texas Skyways (holder of the 300-hp conversion supplemental type certificate for the 205), and a
new in terior from AirMod . Cincinnati Avionics did a n ew instrument panel, which includes a full Garm in
panel, a Stormscope, and a SkyWatch TAS (traffic advisory system).
He topped it off with an interesting color scheme that includes a charging buffalo on the tail. The fish near
those small strips better be ready as this fire-breathing buffalo charges out of Golden, Colorado!

FIRST PROJECT

18

MAY 2004

Dick Coltey of Poultney,
Vermont, is thrilled with the
results of his first attempt at
aircraft restoration, which he
did with the patience and
support of his wife, Dianne.
Dick also was lucky enough
to have the help of Neal
Hewlett, the owner/operator
and A&P mechanic with an
IA who runs the Granville,
New York, airport (B01). He
also thanks Dick Bovey, the
airport operator at Argyle,
New York, and Kathy Bailey
for their help in getting him
started with the fabric work
on his 1946 Cessna 140.

'46

TAYLORCRAFT

This 1946 Taylorcraft BC120 has plenty of
cross-country time, but for the last 25 years, it
was in a truck! Disassembled for re-covering
in 1979, it moved three times with the Austin
family around the United States. With the
help of his kids, Laurel and Garrett, Gary
Austin of Woodstock, Georgia, rebuilt and re­
covered the Taylorcraft. He also had great
help from Glen Archibald and Glen Linc­
sheid, with special help from Bill Johnson.
Looks like Laurel's ready to go flying!

GREAT PUMPKIN
After 13 years of on-and-off restoration
work, Bob Winters of Springfield, Ohio, and
EAA Chapter 610 have com pleted and flown
his beautiful Piper ]-5A Cub Cru iser. Writes
Chapter 610 Technical Counselor Scotty Mark­
land, "Bob spent his working time between his
duties flying for Evergreen Airlines and flying
his Stinson 108 on 70 Knotter excursions.
"Bob retired from Evergreen and com­
pleted this airplane on 14 November 2002.
The Cub has a Continental C-85 engine for
power, and fl ies very nicely. EAA Chapter 610
members assisted Bob during his restoration./I

OSTEEN ' S CESSNA 170
Nearly destroyed in a windstorm in 1998, Keith
Osteen's Cessna 170 would have been scrapped if
it were not for the fact that Keith's an airframe
and powerplant (A&P) mechanic with an inspec­
tion authorization CIA) who just couldn't bear to
see another 170 parted out. He took four years
and nine months to rebuild the airplane, includ­
ing the difficult-to-find landing gear box and tail
cone. In addition to the new interior and beautiful
paint job, a top overhaul was done on the engine.
Keith, who hails from Brevard, North Carolina,
would like to thank Gary Hendrickson and Jim
Young for their invaluable help on the project.

CUSTOM STEARMAN
Gerry and George Taylor of Coopersburg, Penn­
sylvania, bought this Stearman in 1991, knowing
it needed a complete re-covering job. Work was
begun at Sport Aviation on the Van Sant airport in
Erwinna, Pennsylvania. For the past five years, the
two have met each Saturday to work on the Stear­
man, which was re-covered using the Superflite II
covering process. They added the wheel pants and
a turtledeck to the airframe to help complete the
custom look of their 220 Lycoming powered bi­
plane. It's now based at Van Sant along with seven
other Stearmans.
VINTAGE AIRPLANE

19

Reprinted with permission from the American Bolrlaritta"sac!E
For more information visit www.bonanzamg.

W

hen I learned to fly 80
years ago I never met my
flight instructor. That's
right! My flight instruc­
tor wrote a book, away over in
England during World War I, where
he was in charge of flight instruction.
He was Capt. Horatio Barber, RFC,
DSO-a pioneer pilot before that war.
The book came to my hands from an
uncle who was in training when WWI
ended. He gave me several books on
aviation, including one titled Aerobat­
ics, a word coined by Capt. Barber.
The book was used in training pi­
lots to fly the Avro S04-K, the English
training plane. It is still in mint con­
dition and I treasure it. My uncle
knew I had been enthralled by air­
planes and flying ever since I was
4-1/2 years old, in 1910, when I saw
Glenn Curtiss land in a field across
the road from my father's farm. He
landed there to refuel on his famous
IS2-mile flight down the Hudson
River from Albany to New York in a
primitive bamboo, cloth and wire fly­
ing machine.
When I saw that little kite-like fly­
ing machine take off and fly down
the river 'til out of sight, I lost interest
in becoming a steam locomotive en­
gineer. Later, and older, I studied
those books instead of such boring
subjects as Latin all through high
school, knowing that I would defi­
nitel y fly. Unlike my school pals, I
had a definite goal.
In the summer of 1922 I had a 10­
minute ride in a WWI "Jenny" at
Asbury Park, New Jersey. Then, in the
spring of 1923, a barnstorming pilot
20

MAY 2004

came to Poughkeepsie, New York, my
hometown, in an unbelievably de­
crepit Jenny. I was working at my
usual summer job in a machine shop,
but each day after work I would ride
my 1920 Harley out to the meadow
where the pilot "Swanee" Taylor was
flying in the afternoons and evenings,
hopping passengers on their first air­
plane rides.
The airplane had the five-year-old
original wartime fabric covering that
had been given coats of house paint to
try to preserve it for another year or so.
lt had been standing out in the
weather for the five years since the end
of the war. The engine, however, was a
brand new war surplus Curtiss OX-S of
90 horsepower, with a wood propeller,
which had been made in a former pi­
ano factory right in Poughkeepsie.
The plane, a IN-4 Jenny, com­
monly called a "Canuck" because it
was made in Canada, had belonged
to the well-known early-bird pioneer
pilot Ruth Law. (I met her once in
1914 when she had let me sit in the
seat of her original Wright biplane.)
The "Canuck-Jenny" was actually a
hybrid, with long upper wings in­
stalled in place of the normal shorter
lower wings; thus, it had three bays
of wing struts and long lower ailerons.
With all of that extra wing area, it
had low-speed landings and takeoffs.
Swanee was a native of Texas and
had learned to fly in the war but too
late for combat. He was a rather wild­
ish guy, mainly interested in the local
speakeasies, friendly when sober, bel­
ligerent when drunk. But I admired
him for his flying and he was quite

impressed by my knowledge of the
mechanics of the plane and its engine
and of aerodynamics, gained from the
intense studying of my books.
I helped him all that summer, serv­
icing the plane and engine, subjects
in which he had little interest or
knowledge. We had many discussions
about the art of flying. Then, in the
middle of October, he decided to dis­
continue barnstorming until spring
and spend the winter in New York
City. He decided to hop the plane
over to another field to leave it for
the winter and gave me my second
air ride, in that hop. It was dusk, and
the hop was only about five or six
minutes. He let me take the controls,
but I violently over-controlled, so he
took control again and landed.
After tying the plane down with
stakes and ropes, he told me that he
could obtain another war surplus
plane in the spring for far less than
the cost of reconditioning this old
one. He then said he was abandoning
the Canuck and I could have it for
my own! "No Bill of Sale," he said.
"It's yours ." (At 17, I didn't even
know anything about Bills of Sale.) In
addition, he said that if I would re­
condition the plane, he would teach
me to fly it! What a surprise for a boy
of not quite 18!
With my wildest dream fulfilled, I
could hardly contain my excitement
at being the owner of a real airplane. I
went home on my Harley with sense
enough to keep quiet about it. That
evening while eating a late dinner
saved for me by my wonderful mother,
the family assumed that I had merely

gine after school, all alone,
chocking the wheels and tying the
stick back with the seat belt. I had be­
come skilled at cranking the propeller
by hand while working for Swanee.
I would taxi around the field at
gradually increasing speeds. By doing
that, I could learn how to prevent the
airplane from making uncontrolled
sharp turns, called ground loops, by
use of the control stick in the same
direction and opposite rudder. There
were no brakes and only a tailskid.
After much practicing, I was able
to make 90- and 180-degree turns by
controlled partial groundloops. By
the end of October, I was taxiing at
higher speeds across the field without
groundlooping and actually lifting
the tail off the ground while taxiing
fast, all with full control and without
groundlooping. This ingrained the
habit of using the stick to control di­
rection with ailerons by moving the
stick in the direction of a starting
groundloop, and opposite rudder­
very important.
By the middle of November, I dared
to lift the wheels slightly and briefly
off the ground, keeping the wings level
while doing so. The normal steel or
bamboo wing skids under the lower
wingtips were missing, so when I
dragged a wing into the grass, the
aileron would be lifted by contact, and
that would lower the opposite aileron.
That would then keep that wing lifted
uncontrollably and the dragging wing
could not be lifted . In that case, the
throttl e had to be quickly closed to
stop the forward motion and airspeed
to let the wings come back to level.

brlef daylight before dusk, or on
weekends-a time when the family
still assumed I was riding my Harley.
On some rainy or windy days when I
was not "flying," there were chores to
be done around the house. So some
days were devoted to that work, which
I did quicker than usual so I could get
out to the field before it was too late.
By December I was making more
prolonged grass-cutting hops, back
and forth across the field. Fortunately
there was no snow. I was getting ex­
cited about the possibility of really
projecting my grass-cutting hop out
over that stone wall into the great
blue sky. But I knew all too well that I
would be in deep trouble without any
practice with banking and turning.
In the book Aerobatics, Barber ex­
plained the art of making turns by
banking, not by the rudder as in a
boat. He explained that if not properly
kept in a proper bank controlled by
the ailerons and straight into the air by
the rudder, skidding outward or sliding
inward would occur. In the open cock­
pit, skids and slides could be detected
by wind on one cheek or the other. Of
course, in those grass-cutting hops I
could not practice such banking.
One day, when I went out to "fly" I
found that some vandal had stolen the
entire rear cockpit instrument panel,
along with its altimeter, tachometer,
oil pressure gauge and compass. There
had been no airspeed indicator, just as
in most Jennys. I was able to obtain
another oil pressure gauge and there
was already an automotive water tem­
perature gauge, called a Motometer, in
the radiator cap.

"'1'1; UJ.l.I'E: to make-and
install a replacement instrument
panel to prevent that cold propeller
blast of air into my face, I just had to
accept it with my motorcycle helmet
and goggles. The wind was strong on
my neck and penetrated down into
my shirt to chill me. I finally made a
plywood panel, with only an oil pres­
sure gauge.
On Saturday, December IS, 1923,
my 18th birthday, the weather was
fair and very mild for December. I
was making those hops across the
field and while doing so was mentally
arguing with myself about the advisa­
bility of throwing all caution to the
wind by hopping over that stone wall
and" going for broke." It was very
tempting to do it on my 18th birth­
day, which was also only two days
before the 20th anniversary of the
Wright brothers' first flights in 1903.
On one of the grass-cutting passes,
my mind was on those thoughts
when I realized that I had gone too
far and was certain to crash against
that stone wall. I was forced to make
up my mind instantly to open the
throttle wide and hop over it.
As the landing gear wheels brushed
through the bushes, I had a terrific
feeling of both despair and commit­
ment, hard to describe. My feet were
rapidly trembling on the rudder bar
in excitement. I was both excited and
lonesome, off the earth with no one
to help me! I did not dare to look
anywhere but over the engine ahead,
with its valve rocker arms working fu­
riously and the tops of the trees
passing under me in my peripheral
vision. I just don't have words to deVINTAGE AIRPLANE

21

scribe my feelings, almost dreamlike,
unbelievably slowly floating.
I just kept the wings level and con­
tinued, slowly gaining altitude, the
tops of the trees getting farther and
farther below me. What a lonesome
sensation! My feet were still rapidly
vibrating on the rudder bar in the ex­
citement, a sensation that I have
never since experienced. I had a sen­
sation of slowly drifting away from
home and safety.
I had never been in that area and
therefore had no idea of my location.
I was getting higher, perhaps 500 or
more feet, but without an altimeter I
had no idea. Finally, I decided that I
had to practice turns and started to
do so. Of course, I slipped and skid­
ded but remembered what I had read
in the book about feeling the wind
on one cheek or the other, so finally
got control of it by the rudder.
I was too busy flying to look at my
wristwatch, but must have practiced
the turns for a quarter- or half-hour
before feeling some confidence in the
turns. By that time, I was totally lost
and at a much higher altitude. I had
finally slowed down the hard-work­
ing engine by ear-no tachometer.
I knew the sun was in the south
and if I were to fly with it to my left, I
would be heading west, toward the
big Hudson River. It finally appeared.
I turned and followed it southward
and saw the big black iron railroad
bridge ahead of me. Just to the south
of it, I could see the big factory of the
De Laval Separator Co., along the east
side of the river at Poughkeepsie,
where my father was probably in his
office on a Saturday morning. But
wait, I thought, maybe it is after­
noon! I looked at my watch for the
first time. Yes, it was long after noon.
As I looked down at the city, Main
st. looked very crooked. I had always
thought it was straight when driving
on it. I turned and followed it. Ac­
cording to my present memory of the
view, I must have been at about 1,000
or 1,500 feet altitude. I followed the
street and then the road, leading to
the meadow, but was much too high
to make any attempt to land. Besides,
that fi eld looked like a mere postage
22

MAY 2004

stamp, with big trees on the approach
end and the stone wall on the other.
In a few seconds I was past it and
started a gradual turn to the left to
get back to it with the aid of the road
again. I did that about three times be­
fore I finally got down fairly close to
the tops of the trees.

... HE WAS
ABANDONING THE
CANUCK AND I COULD
HAVE IT FOR MY OWN!
"No BILL OF SALE"
,
HE SAID. "IT'S YOURS."
When I tried to come in over
the treetops to land, I was much
too fast, with too much power on.
I do not know how many attempts
I made, but finally got down low
enough to bounce the wheels and
go around again.
I finally decided to fly over to the
other field where Swanee had been
hopping the passengers. He had
glided over some wires, closed the
throttle and landed. I went over there
and did the same and made a fairly
good landing, with one little bounce,
for I had really had a lot of practice in
those grass-cutting hops. Solo No. I!
What a thrilling feeling! I had not
crashed my precious airplane. I was
trembling with excitement, but then
remembered that Swanee was far be­
hind on his payments to the farmer
who owned that field, and he might
come and demand the airplane. So,
full of confidence, I took off and went
back to the original meadow, only a
short distance.
After several attempts over those
trees, I got the plane down with one
graceful bounce. Solo No.2! After all,
the plane had those extra long wings
and landed very slowly, but it also
had a tendency to float too far. I had
carefully observed Swanee's warnings
that the nose must always be kept
pointing down a little when gliding
for a landing, never up to or above
horizontal. The Jenny had a sharp
stall and no airspeed indicator.

I taxied back to the tree area and
there was a man in a little Ford
pickup car who had been watching
me make those attempts at landing.
I still had the engine running and
was about to take off for a third solo.
The man in the car got out and came
over near the plane and shouted,
"That shore was purty, the way you
come down. D'you take people up?"
Evidently he liked that graceful
bounce. I hesitated a moment, then
on the spur of the moment, realizing
that he thought I was a real aviator,
yelled above the noise of the engine,
"Sure!" I then realized I had commit­
ted myself.
He yelled, "How much does it
cost?" I pOinted out over the side of
the cockpit to a big white sign on the
side of the fuselage that read FLY $5.
He said, "How much is that?" I real­
ized that he could not read, so yelled
back, "Five dollars." He said, "I ain't
got that much." I asked him how
much he did have and he dug a pock­
etful of change out of his pocket, and
I said, "Get in."
The engine was still running so I
stood up in the cockpit to direct him
to step on the proper area of the lower
wing and climb aboard as he handed
me the change. I needed that cash to
buy a few gallons of gasoline, at about
10 or 12 cents per gallon. I climbed
down and put the seat belt on him
and got back in and took off.
The gauge on the tank indicated
almost half-full. I gave him about a
six- or eight-minute ride while I cir­
cled around to make the landing.
When I taxied back, there were two
people in another Ford and they paid
me $5 apiece for their rides, longer
ones, one at a time. Oh, boy! I was in
the money!
I was so excited that I just sat down
to rest while I absorbed what I had
done. It was dusk; the sun had set. I
tied the plane down and went home
with two empty five-gallon cans on
the carrier of the Harley after empty­
ing the partially full one into the
airplane tank.
During those two last flights, I had
circled widely and noticed that there
were long streams of cars going in

both directions on a newly con­
structed concrete road that had just
been opened for traffic. I had been
told that it was the first concrete road
ever, or anywhere. It had been a dusty
dirt road and was now the only paved
road leading in and out of Pough­
keepsie, other than the macadam
north-south road known then as Al­
bany Post Road.
People had never seen such a
smooth road and everyone wanted to
ride on it. They were driving about
12-15 miles to its end and then back.
The road passed a large farm with a
hayfield that was level and plenty
large enough for flying, right next to
the new road.
I had a wild plan in mind by the
time I got home. It was dark and no
one noticed the two empty cans on
the motorcycle. After dinner I went
for one of my rides. It was Christmas
vacation time. I went to the motor­
cycle club and called a motorcycle
friend of mine and told him to meet
me at the club. I had the cans filled
and he said he would take them to
that big field the next morning while
I went to get the airplane and fly
over to it. He had known of my in­
terest in flying but could hardly
believe that I was actually flying al­
ready. Neither could I!
The next day was fine weather and
Sunday. I got up early and rode first
to the farm and paid the owner, Mr.
Tchennis, $5 for the use of the field
that day, and got a receipt for it, then
rode over to the other field to get the
plane and fly it over to the big field,
leaving my Harley. It was easy to land
in that big field.
It was not long before the parade
of cars started along that new con­
crete road. When the drivers saw the
plane sitting there, they stopped,
climbed over the old stone wall and
came over to look at it. Very few peo­
ple, at that time, had been closer to
an airplane than one flying over
them. They started buying rides. The
worn appearance of the plane did not
seem to bother them . They paid $5
apiece, quite a lot of money for 1923.
[n fact, many whole families lived on
that per week.

My motorcycle friend, Ted
Weeks, helped the people in and
out of the plane and away from
the propeller and I collected the
money. Swanee Taylor had never
had it as good. I was getting paid
for my practice landings! No other
student pilot ever had it as good.

THE FIELD LOOKED

LIKE A MERE POSTAGE

STAMP, WITH BIG

TREES ON THE

APPROACH END AND

THE STONE WALL ON

THE OTHER.

It went on all day, especially brisk
after noon when people came out of
the church right across the road.
One of the passengers I recognized.
He was Mr. Goebler, the second in
command under my father at the De
Laval Separator plant. He had known
me from the day I was born, but did
not recognize me with my helmet
and goggles on when he climbed
aboard. When he got out and turned
to hand me the $5 he asked, "Say,
aren't you Theodore Miller's son?" I
had to admit it.
"I didn't know you were already an
aviator. Your father never mentioned
it to me." I said, "Oh, I've been flying
quite a while." I had to admit that
my dad did not know about my fly­
ing. He went away, shaking his head,
and I knew my goose was cooked for
he would go into Dad's office in the
morning (Monday) and tell, or maybe
even telephone him sooner.
Finally, near dusk, the activity
slowed and I hopped the plane back
to the meadow where I could tie it
down . What a day! My pocket was
full of money. Ted rode over and I
shared some of it with him. I went
home in the dusk from my "motorcy­
cle tour. "
Dad was home but didn't say any­
thing, so [ was confident that Mr.
Goebler had not called him. The
next day at school, I was so elated
that [ was stimulated to work at
school harder.

When I got home earlier than Dad
I did the chores, like stoking the fur­
nace and carrying out the ashes and
the garbage, for I was antidpating al­
most anything could happen. But
Dad didn't say a thing; he just read
the paper quietly. At dinner, he didn't
say anything either, in fact, I felt that
maybe Mr. Goebler had not told him.
After dinner, he sat down to read
the paper again and finally said to
me, "John, Mr. Goebler said you gave
him a ride in Swanee Taylor's air­
plane." I admitted it and told him the
entire story.
We had a very nice conversation
about the whole procedure. He had
known that I had driven a car with­
out permission or any instruction
and that I had taught myself how to
type by the touch system. He didn't
really think it was such a difficult
task to teach myself to fly. He men­
tioned that he could do it. I didn't
argue that point.
He finally said, "John, I know that
airplane is in terrible condition. You
had better not fly it any more until
you fix it up properly, and now you
have the money to do it after school
is out for the summer."
I took the plane apart on Christ­
mas Day and with a team of horses
and a hay wagon borrowed from the
farm, moved it to Mr. Barne's barn
with permission to store and work
on it, without charge. I ordered all
the necessary war surplus materials
from Dayton Airplane & Supply Co.
After graduation the next spring, Ted
Weeks and another friend helped me
entirely re-cover the plane and re­
pair some weather damage to the
wing ribs, etc.
By mid-summer I was flying again,
giving rides to Ted and other friends.
I then sold the plane and went to en­
gineering school, with no more flying
until after graduation, four years later.
Then I had a proper checkout under
the new regulations in another plane
that I rebuilt from a wreck. [ was is­
sued Certificates A&E #2906 and
Transport Pilot # 5945 . Today, that
field where [ did the Sunday passen­
ger-hopping is part of the Dutchess
County Airport.
.......
VINTAGE AIRPLANE

23

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BY

H.G.

WITHOUT
ALTERATION

FRAUTSCHY

F EBRUARY'S MYSTERY ANSWER

Robert Brown, Marietta, Georgia, sent us this scan of a
brochure produced to sell the Regent Rocket 260.

Our February Mystery Plane came to us from the col­
lection of Louis P. King of Houston, Texas. In a happy
coincidence, the Swift Club ran a photo of the same
airplan e in its newsletter dated the same month­
Charlie Nelson and I had a good laugh over it!
Here's our first letter:
A surprise to see the February issue Mystery Plane­
the Johnson Regent. My father, C.H. "Bud" Chapman,
and Dean Porter of Brownsville, Texas, had the airplane
for a period during 1958-1960. I spoke with my dad re­
cently, and here is what we can recall, hopefully with
some accuracy.
The Regent and Johnson Rocket were both designed
by Pop Johnson. I recall most people referring to the
Regent as a "Rocket" and that the aircraft was either as­
sembled or maintained at the Pan American facility in
Brownsville. Dad based and flew the Regent at Addison
Airport in Dallas for a period before it was sold to Dick
Carrol, an airport and ag-plane operator in Aledo, IlliTHIS MONTH' S MYSTERY PLANE

nois. The aircraft was in Experimental category with
seats for four or five . The Regent was powered by a
geared Lycoming engine in the 260-hp range and had
slightly less than Bonanza performance. It had a yellow
and black over white paint scheme at the time. I recall
a snapshot later sent by Dick Carrol showing the plane
with another paint scheme. Dick eventually made a
forced landing in New Mexico, and although no one
was hurt, the Regent was destroyed by fire.
I went to fly in the Regent with my dad only once,
and we were unable to take off due to a rough mag or
some other problem on the engine run-up. Dad learned
to fly in 1938, and after the Regent he bought a Beech
Travel Air twin . Dean Porter died a number of years
ago. Dad lives now in Overland Park, Kansas, and we
still enjoy flying together in our Bonanza and Buzz
Penny's Pasped Skylark. Hopefully, you'll hear from
more people who have more accurate and detailed in­
formation about the Regent.
Jack Chapman
Gravois Mills, Missouri
SEND YOUR ANSWER TO: EAA , VINTAGE A IRPLANE , P.O.

3086, OSHKOSH, WI 54 903-308 6 . YOUR ANSWER
10, 2004 , FOR IN­
CLUSION IN THE A UGUST 2004 ISSUE OF Vintage
Airplane.

COMES TO US FROM THE COLLECT I ON

Box

OF THE EAA LIBRARY.

NEEDS TO BE IN NO lATER THAN J UNE

You CAN ALSO SEND YOUR RESPONSE VIA E­
MAIL. DON'T FORGET , WE'VE GOT A NEW E-MAil
ADDRESS FOR YOU TO USE WHEN SENDING IN
YOUR RESPONSE. S END YOUR ANSWER TO mys­

teryplane@eaa. org. B E SURE TO INCLUDE BOTH
YOUR NAM E AND ADDRESS (ESPECIAllY YOUR
CITY AND STATE!) IN THE BODY OF YOUR NOTE
AND PUT "(MONTH) MYSTERY PLANE" IN THE
SUBJECT LINE .
24

MAY 2004

Charlie Nelson of the Swift Club sent us this different view
ofthe Regent Rocket.
And our second letter with a bit more information:
This is easy! It's the Regent Rocket 260 designed by Ru­
fus Summerfield "Pop" Johnson and built in Henderson,
Texas, by Regent Aircraft Corp. Walter R. Smith was presi­
dent and]. Mitrovich was chief engineer. First flight was
made by Johnson in April 1951 at the Rusk County Air­
port in Henderson.
The Regent Rocket 260 was powered by a 260-hp Ly­
coming GSO-435. Gross weight 3,150 pounds, five seats,
wingspan 30 feet 6 inches, wing area 154 square feet, and
cruising speed quoted at different times as between 177
and 200 mph.
Regent Aircraft was reported to have moved first to
Pearland, then in 1953 to Edinburg, Texas. It was reported
that there were plans for a 400-hp version. Harlingen has
also been mentioned as a location. There may have been a
later move to McAllen, Texas, and the FBO there, Mr. Fer­
guson, acquired an unfinished fuselage. Johnson later
built a factory in Lafayette, Louisiana, where he intended
to build this airplane as the Johnson 260 with a 260-hp
Continental 10-470. There was also a proposed twin-en­
gine Johnson 450. These were advertised using the
corporate names of Crescent Aircraft and Aerosonic. John­
son went to prison for financial dealings in Lafayette.
I am told that there was an unfinished airframe with
the engine mount fittings on the wings for the twin-en­
gine version.
The flying Regent was destroyed in the 1960s when it
landed on a road in New Mexico after an engine failure,
then caught fire and burned. Mike Nalick, a Navion afi­
cionado in Minnesota, eventually purchased the
unfinished Regent. I am not aware of its present location.
Pop Johnson was a machinist who had worked as an
Army aircraft mechanic. In 1923, Johnson, like many
others in that era, built what he felt was an improve­
ment over the Curtiss Jenny. He was later associated
with Alexander Aircraft and Culver, possibly as a dealer
or distributor.
About 1940/1941, Johnson built the first prototype
Swift, which bore a strong resemblance to the Culver
Cadet. Construction was steel tubing fuselage and wood
wing. Johnson made a deal with Globe Aircraft to develop
and build the aircraft. They soon parted ways, and Globe
reengineered the Swift as an all-metal aircraft.
Johnson built the prototype Johnson Rocket 125 about
1942 with a Lycoming 0-290 engine. At the end of World

War II, the Rocket was developed into the tricycle-gear
Rocket 185 (powered by a Lycoming 0-435), which was
certificated in 1946. The dealers, organized as Rocket Air­
craft, eventually took away control of the program from
Johnson. Approximately 20 aircraft were built at a plant
near Meacham Field in Ft. Worth.
In December 1947, Johnson Aircraft Corp. of Grand
Prairie, Texas, began work on the Johnson Bullet. It was
initially to have been a two-place design but soon devel­
oped into a four-place. Irwin Weise, who had worked on
the Rocket, was chief engineer. Unlike Johnson's earlier air­
craft, the Bullet was all metal. In September 1948, it was
announced that Johnson Aircraft would move to Stewart
Airport in Tyler, Texas. Pop Johnson made the first flight of
the Bullet on January 23,1949. In March 1949, Aircraft
Mfg. Co. was formed with local oilmen S.J. Taylor and W.E.
Stewart (owner of Stewart Aircraft and Stewart Airport) as
the primary stockholders. It was announced that Aircraft
Mfg. Co. would build the Bullet while Johnson Aircraft
would handle distribution and sales. Sam Gibbons, who
ran Tyler Flying Service at Stewart Airport, became secre­
tary-treasurer. Mike Blatnick was the inspector.
The IRS seized the assets of Johnson Aircraft, and Air­
craft Mfg. Co. purchased them at auction in February
1950. Johnson went to Henderson, Texas, where he began
work on the Regent Rocket in May 1950 for Regent Air­
craft Corp. Taylor was one of the investors in Regent.
Aircraft Mfg. Co. completed certification of the Texas
Bullet on November 30, 1950. The most notable changes
from the prototype were elimination of the "jet assist"
exhaust thrust augmenter and relocation of the horizon­
tal stabilizer to a higher location, out of the wing wake,
with a jackscrew to trim the front of the stabilizer rather
than the elevator trim tab used on the prototype. The
prototype was never brought to the approved type de­
sign configuration. Five aircraft were built and registered
with standard airworthiness certificates, the last in No­
vember 1951.
I own a Texas Bullet and would be interested in hearing
from anyone with more information on Johnson and his
aircraft.
Robert A. Brown
Marietta, Georgia
Other correct answers were received from Thomas Lym­
burn, Princeton, Minnesota; Wayne Van Valkenburgh,
Jasper, Georgia; Dick Aaron, Sussex, New Jersey; Roy Ca­
gle, Prescott, Arkansas; Wayne Muxlow, Minneapolis,
Minnesota; Geoffrey Woodard, Glen Mills, Pennsylvania;
Don and Ann Pellegreno, Rhome, Texas; Steve Eastburn,
Urbana, Illinois; Orval Fairbairn, Daytona Beach, Florida;
Jim Montague, Lake Elmo, Minnesota; J.e. Black, Lake­
land, Florida; Pete King, Woodstock, Georgia; Joe Sills,
Leander, Texas; George A. Rodda, Columbus, Indiana; Jack
Erickson, State College, Pennsylvania; Roger Baker,
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Stan Price, Grapevine, Texas;
and Thomas Hesselgrave, Houma, Louisiana.
.......
VINTAGE AIRPLANE

25

PASS

IT TO B UCK

BY E.E. "BuCK" HILBERT, EAA #2 1 VAA #5

P.O. Box 424, UNION, IL 60180

Spring has "sproinged"

After last month's EAA Skiplane Fly-In
report, this one is a warm pleasure to
write. Spring, with all its vagaries, is well
on the way here in Northern Illinois, and
the sap (read "Buck") is starting to run.
At the time of this writing we are pack­
ing to attend the Sun 'n Fun EAA Fly-In at
Lakeland, Florida. I hope I'll see many of
the friends we missed because we weren't
there last year. Both wife Dorothy and I
were down with medical problems. Not
certificate threatening, but slightly inca­
pacitating at the time. We are both back at
it and will be at the Vintage headquarters
or around the EAA headquarters building.
This month marks the 17th anniversary
of this column. The intent was for it to be
a sort of "Dear Abby" of the Vintage Air­
craft Association, and that we did. Over
the years we have seen and heard from
many of our Vintage members with prob­
lems, suggestions, and questions. Some
were about airplanes, some had to do with
regulations; some were orchids, while oth­
ers were onions.
When the column was first started, it
was interesting to note that once in a
while someone would catch one of the de­
liberate errors Jack Cox and I would insert.
We used to chuckle about that, but it did
give us a clue that at least we did have
readers. I don't do that too often anymore,
but I still catch it from some of the real
purists out there in the ranks.
The "Mystery Plane" column always
seems to create calls and mail. Often­
times, although I can't give them an
answer, it makes for great conversations.
Our editor, H.G., unearths some of the
rarest and weirdest of airplanes. I enjoy
reading about them, and sometimes I feel
a little pang of regret that I didn 't know
what it was. It's always an education, and
I look forward to seeing it.
Once again, as I did back in May 1987,
I'm going to ask for member participation.
26

MAY 2004

We can always use hints and ideas that
would be of value to our fellow enthusi­
asts. Personal experiences, procedures
that enhance safety or make flying easier,
maintenance items that educate any and
all of us, and fly-ins and VAA Chapter ac­
tivities; all are welcome. Don't worry about
preparing a manuscript or your writing abil­
ity. If you have something, maybe a picture,
write on a slip of paper and stick it to the
back of it, telling "what and where." Our
editor will clean it up and see that it
makes the grade. Your name might even
be in print, and that's a "hoot" as one of
our members would say.
As an example, and this dates back to
that first column, if you have a two-tank
fuel system-right and left, or fore and
aft-managing the fuel burn can some­
times present a problem. How do you do
it? Well, back in '87, I was flying a
Fairchild C-8, an early F-24. I stopped to
see a friend (now old), Don Genzmer,
and asked how he managed the fuel burn
on his F-24.
He looked at me and then said, "Got
a watch?" "If you're taking off, use the
fullest tank; then when you get to
cruise, look at your watch or the clock
on the dash. If the minute hand is on
the right side of the twelve, use the
right tank, and when it gets to the left
side of the six, use the left tank. Reach­
ing your destination, back on the fullest
tank for landing."
Now you lucky guys with a fuel selector
that has BOTH can ignore this "tip," but
those of us that have separate selections,
this tip makes for one less mental hazard.
I wish I had thought of this when flying my
L-5. That Stinson had the most unreliable
gauges I have ever encountered, other
than the Varga Kachina. Both of these air­
craft are flown by time rather than what's
reading on the gauges . The L-5, with its
low compression 0-435, would burn just

about anything you fed it, short of Jet A,
but at a prodigious rate. I'd fly on one tank
for an hour, switch to the other for another
hour, and be assured I had 15 minutes
left in each tank. No more! When those 15
minutes were gone, or the engine burped,
then it was back to the other side and
scoot for the nearest gas pump.
This tip was just the kind of information
we wanted to see and share with our fel­
low members. We haven't seen too many
of these tips as of late, so maybe it's
time to solicit some input. Come on, guys
and gals, if you have a pet theory, out with
it. Let the world know. You may be giving
out information that you think everybody
knows, or should know, but remember,
every day there are new members coming
in, and this item you take for granted may
be a breath of fresh air for someone who
has never had your kind of experience.
Speaking of experience, number three
son, Lee, the one with the ambition and
verve to fly to a frozen lake in sub-zero
weather so he could change over to skis
and make the EAA Skiplane Fly-In, recently
brought a SeaBee along with the owner
back to Illinois from Mississippi. His re­
mark, when I asked him how it went, was,
"You can't buy experience like that!"
This will probably generate some acid
comments from SeaBee owners, but he
said flying this machine was sort of like
driving a Mack truck with both front tires
flat and no power steering.
Bucking a 15-knot head wind and indi­
cating about 90-92 mph, it was a
nine-and-a-half-hour trip, with four stops (to
refuel and regain strength to carryon). It
sure enhanced his appreciation for our
Champ.
And with the happy thoughts of spring,
and the many fine flying days to come, it's
"over to you"!

WHO RECEIVED PILOT

CERTIFICATE No.1?

It's not who you think!
Ev CASSAGNERES
It may come as quite a surprise
as to who received the very first pi­
lot certificate in this country.
I first heard the story from the
daughter of that very pilot. Here is
the story.
For many years Nel MacCraken
lived on Connecticut Avenue in
Washington, D.C. Nel and I had
become good friends during the
time I was researching the history
of Charles A. Lindbergh's Spirit of
St. Louis airplane at our National
Air and Space Museum.
She was quite a socialite in the
D.C. area due to her father's high
position in the government. When
she learned I would be coming to
D.C. to work on the NYP, she
would arrange a party at her apart­
ment, hiring a caterer and inviting
some of aviation's elite so I could
"network" for my research efforts.
I shall never forget those parties,
and the wonderful old-time avia­
tion people I met there.
Nel MacCraken had a large col­
lection of memorabilia on her
father-William P. MacCraken ]r.­
who at the time of Lindbergh's
flight to Paris was Assistant Secre­
tary of Commerce for Aeronautics.
He had been an attorney, in addi­
tion to having been a wartime Air
Service flying instructor. He was
the first head of the new agency.
This was at about the time when
new federal regulations were being
written that required certain
equipment on airplanes, and for
pilots to have a certificate.
Also at this time there was a 37­
year-Old attorney and former
combat pilot by the name of
Clarence M. Young, who was chief
of the Air Regulations Division of
the government's new Aeronautics

The first 10 Pilot
Certificates under the
Department of Commerce
regulations were issued to:
William P. MacCraken Jr. , Assistant
Secretary for Aeronautics
Clarence M. Young, Director of
Aeronautics, issued CAL. No. 69
Ralph G. Lockwood , Aeronautics
Branch, Department of
Commerce
Parker D. Cramer, Aeronautics
Branch, Department of
Commerce
Frank H. Jerone, Aeronautics
Branch, Department of
Commerce
W.R. Jones, Cliffside Park,
New Jersey
Robert Gast, Aeronautics Branch,
Department of Commerce
W.N. Breigan, Aeronautics Branch,
Department of Commerce
Richard H. Lees Jr. , Aeronautics
Branch, Department of
Commerce
D. DeR. M. Scarritt, Aeronautics
Branch, Department of
Commerce
Two other early
certificates of note:

64 Philip R. Love , Anglum, Missouri
69 Charles A. Lindbergh , Robertson
Aircraft, Anglum, Missouri
Reference: American Aircraft
Directory, Supplement to First
Edition, 1927, published by
Aviation Publishing Corp.,
New York City, Page 18-29

Branch of the Department of Com­
merce, under MacCraken.
When the powers-that-be de­
cided to issue certificates to pilots,
they met in a conference room
somewhere in our nation's capital.
The attendees at that meeting, ac­
cording to Nel MacCraken, were
the president of the United States,
Calvin Coolidge; Orville Wright;
William P. MacCraken ]r.; Clarence
M. Young; and pOSSibly others.
This would have had to be around
late 1926 or early 1927.
When the question arose as to
who would be issued Pilot Certifi­
cate No. I, it appears that everyone
in the room strongly felt that
Orville Wright should be No. 1.
When this was suggested, Orville
flatly stated, Hell, everyone
knows I am the first pilot to fly, I
don't need it, give it to Bill Mac­
Craken," which they did. Clarence
Young got NO.2.
Nel MacCraken had that origi­
nal certificate at her home,
encased in plastic, to proudly
show to anyone who visited her. I
believe it is now with all of her
memorabilia at the General Dou­
glas MacArthur Memorial museum
in Norfolk, Virginia.
Interestingly, the original Air
Commerce Regulations were dis­
tinguished by their brevity,
simplicity, and directness.
They laid down a set of com­
monsense air traffic rules, and
provided for the registration, cer­
tification, and inspection of
aircraft, and the certificating of
pilots and aviation mechanics.
Categorically, and rather sim­
ple, the pilot certificates were
transport, industrial, and private.
It was a start.
.......
II

VINTAGE AIRPLANE

27

VAA NeWS

continued from page 3

Comeback Dad continued from page 7

be held at the Theater in the Woods
on Sunday, August I, 2004, at 1
p.m . at the 52nd annual conven­
tion of the Experimental Aircraft
Association Inc., Wittman Regional
Airport, Oshkosh, Wisconsin.
Notice is further given that the
election will be held as the first
item on the agenda at the business
meeting. Five Class III directors
(three-year terms) and one Class IV
director (three-year term; who re­
sides within 50 miles of Oshkosh)
shall be elected. In accordance
with the fourth restated bylaws
of the Experimental Aircraft As­
sociation Inc., the Nominating
Committee has submitted the fol­
lowing candidates:

Range, and the landing of that tail­
wheel airplane back on solid ground.
He handled it all flawlessly.
He was out of the woods regarding
his own abilities. He was even out of
the woods regarding his psychological
barriers. The remaining woods to get
out of was with the FAA. He needed his
medical certificate back. It wouldn't be
good enough for Dad to always have to
have a check pilot with him. To com­
plete his dream, Dad had to fly alone.
Dad called the VAA and EAA and
got sympathetic and expert help on
precisely how to put in his applica­
tion. He had his heart monitored, his
stress test complete, and on Septem­
ber 22, six months to the day after he
had his stroke, he put his application
Class III
for
his medical into the gaping maw
Curt Drumm
Bob Gyllenswan
of
the
outgoing mailbox at the post
Susan Dusenbury Vern Raburn
office.
Now
all he could do was wait.
Bill Eickhoff
Barry Valentine
He couldn't fly his Fleet without his
Class IV
certificate because nobody but him
Louie Andrew
Curt Drumm
knew how to fly it. He tried to put the
gnawing worry in the back of his mind
Alan Shackleton

Secretary, EAA Board ofDirectors""'"
while he spent the fall flying with Bud

to the fly-in breakfasts they arranged
on almost every Sunday morning, the
winter snatching every sunny day to
patrol the Rockies, and every spring af­
ternoon walking with dread to and
from the mailbox awaiting word, each
trip down the driveway newly imagin­
ing how he would react if the news
wasn't good.
All that time the Fleet stood sen­
tinel in the hangar waiting, too. If
Dad didn't get his medical back, he
would have to sell her.
Strange as it seemed to me at the
time, when I looked at the Fleet's hulk­
ing, commanding frame sitting almost
defiantly in the hangar, I had the weird
feeling that she would not be sold.
Our daily, methodical work was
over, work that had a rhythm and
progress that could be tracked. The
work of waiting had none of that, and
it was the hardest yet. There was no
activity. There was no routine. There
was nothing-nothing-we could do.
Except wait. And do a daily tall y.
....".
Which we did for 162 days.

NEW MEMBERS
Mark Hyderman
Edmonton, AB, Canada
Robert]. Little
Lloydminster, AB, Canada
Gary Clayton
Newmarket, ON, Canada
James D. Springer
Echo Bay, ON, Canada
Mascouche, QC, Canada
Mario Poulin '
Pete Croagh
Lantau, Hong Kong
Sverrir Olafsson
Hafnarfjordur, Iceland
Andrew Rombach Hauptwil TG, Switzerland
F. Leland Jones
Anchorage, AK
Donald R. Lane
Homer, AK
Pell City, AL
Dean Courtney
Clark McGlothin
North Little Rock, AR
Olga Graziano
Benson, AZ ·
John Matthew McMahan
Mesa, AZ
Phoenix, AZ
George L. Mothershed
Edward Whitehead
Yuma, AZ
Clyde Davis
Laytonville, CA
Ralph H. Finch
Davis, CA
David Gaines
Lodi, CA
Elverta, CA
Rob Roy Gerolamy
Grass Valley, CA
Jeff Jungemann
Wheeler O. North
Carlsbad, CA
Timothy Roberts
Oakland, CA
Ronald Thompson
Paso Robles, CA
Solvang, CA
Carl R. Walston
28

MAY 2004

John D. Carlson
Ocala, FL
Tom Dunn
Lake Placid, FL
Albert Harrington
Spring Hill, FL
Newberry, FL
Jorge Lorie
Lawrence L. Straub
Casselberry, FL
Greg Blosser
BarneSville, GA
E. Bruce Cumming
Powder Springs, GA
Donald C. Jabat
Locust Grove, GA
Richard Kemp
Canton, GA
Muscatine, IA
Ryan Stacy
Virg Carothers
Rock Island, IL
William Frank Drasler
Waukegan, IL
Paul S. Wallem
Rockford, IL
Dracut, MA
Michael Tgibides
Mark Donigan
Mechanicsville, MD
Watervliet, MI
Robert Koshar
Mike Moening
Ann Arbor, MI
Harry Peckham
Oakland, Ml
Tore Ro
Sparta, MI
Charles K. Sandager
Albert Lea, MN
Tom Westbrook
Indinola, MS
Creston E. Stewart
Bozeman, MT
Joe Craig
High Point, NC
Nags Head, NC
John Ratzenberger
Omaha, NE
Clague Hodgson

GaryLuft
Donald G. Ducharme
Mark Kennedy
Mark Abrams
Robert Avner
William Bancroft, Jr.
Gordon Murray
Roger Parnow
E. A. Felmlee
Captain Paul Redhead
Samuel Andrews
Kenneth T. Mcqueen
Chris Etrnanczyk
William M. Gray
Larry Crawford
Darrell Grigsby
Louis F. Hock
John T. Molumphy
AI Nash
Theodore Purvis
Scott Chambers
Richard N. Merz
Robert B. Mitchell
Frederick Breisch, Jr.

Lincoln, NE
Keene, NH
Derry, NH
Reno, NY
Flushing, NY
Hubbard,OH
Hudson, OH
Crestline, OH
Cleavland, OK
Eugene, OR
Muncy, PA
Bryn Athyn, PA
Bestpage, TN
Fort Worth, TX
Aldie, VA
Big Stone Gap, VA
Waynesboro, VA
Roanoak, VA
Falls Church, VA
Poquoson, VA
Monroe, WA
Plymouth, WI
Hazelhurst, WI
Cody, WY

FLY-IN CALENDAR


r

J:,......~~~~__....._. "'......-;,.

The (ollowing list o( coming events is furnished to
our readers as a matter o( in(ormation only and
does not constitute approval, sponsorship, involve­
ment, control or direction o(any event (fly-in, sem­
inars, fly market, etc.) listed. To submit an event,
send the in(ornzation via mail to: Vintage Airplane,
P.O. Box 3086, Oshkosh, WI 54903-3086. Or e­
mail the in(ormation to: vintage@eaa .org.
In(ormation should be received (our months prior to
the event date.
MAY 7-S-Burlington, NC-Alamance County Airport
(BUY) VM Ch. 3 Annual Spring Fly-In. All Classes
welcome. Info: Jim 843-753-7138, or 276-638­
8783, eiwilsoll@/lOmeexpressway.net.
MAY S-Kennewick, WA-Vista Field, EAA Ch. 391 Fly­
In Breakfast. Info: 509-735-1 664.
MAY 14-1S-Kewanee, IL-Muni (Ell) 2nd Annual
Midwest Aeronca Festival. Camping on field,
breakfast, flying events. Info: 309-853-8141,
www.allgelfire.colll/stars4/aeronca(est.
MAY 14-1S-Porterville, CA-(P1V) WAMM Western
Assoc. of Mooney Mites Semi-Annual Fly-ln. Info:
135f/[email protected] or [email protected].
All owners and enthusiasts welcome.
MAY IS-Riverside, CA-Flabob Airport, EAA Vintage
Ch. 33, 5th Annual Open House. 200+ vintage air­
craft and dozens of vintage cars and hot rods are
expected. Fabric covering demonstrations, radio
controlled aircraft flying, welding demonstrations,
and a flea market. Young Eagles flights. For more
information or to make reservations for Young
Eagles flights, contact Ka thy Rohm, 909-683-2309,
ext. 104 or [email protected].
MAY IS-Middletown, OH-Middletown Municipal
Airport (MWO). "Chris Cakes" Pancake Breakfast
Fly-In, 8am-Ipm. Sponsored by the Middletown
Aviation Club. Info: Bob 513-422-9362.
MAY IS-Romeoville, Ilr-Lewis University Airport
(LOn 33rd Annual EAA Ch. IS Fly-In Breakfast,
7am-Noon,. Adults S5, under twelve n. Info: 630­
243-8213
MAY IS-Warwick, NY-Warwick Aerodrome (N72),
EAA Ch. SOl Annual Fly-In, Info: 973-492-9025,
or [email protected].
MAY 21-22-Columbia, CA-28th Annual Continental
Luscombe Assoc. "Gathering of Luscombes." Info:
Jim lie Patti, 559-888-2745 or www.luscol1lbe-cla.org.
Advance registration strongly encouraged at
gn [email protected].
MAY U -Troy, OH-WACO Field (IWF). VM Ch. 36
Old Fashioned Barbeque Fly-In, Ilam to 4pm.
Lunch at noon. Young Eagle Flights will be given,
weather permitting. Info: Dick and Patti 937-335­
1444, dickm/([email protected]; or Roland and Diane
at 937-294-1107, naviolJ@>gemair.col1l.
MAY 29-Zanesville, OH-Riverside Airport. EAA Ch.
425 Fly-In, Drive-In Breakfast. 8 am-2 pm.
Pancake, sausage, and egg breakfast served all day.
Lunch items served from II am-2pm. Info: 740­
454-0003.
JUNE 4-S-Bartlesville, OK-18th Annual Biplane Expo.
All aircraft and airplane enthusiasts are welcome.
Static displays, forums, seminars, lie exhibits. Info:
Charlie Harris 918-622-8400.
JUNE 4-6-Columbia, CA-Bellanca-Champion Club
West Coast Fly-In, (022). Camping, hotel/motel
facilities, Friday BBQ, Saturday steak dinner/mtg.
Advance registration strongly encouraged. Info:
518-73 1-6800, [email protected]
or WWlv.bellanca-champiollclub.col1l.
JUNE 5-6-Washington, lA-Fly Iowa 2004 lie
Diamond Anniversary of D-Day, usa Show­
Dance Evening of 5th. All aircraft welcome.
Info:www.f/yiowa2004.com
JUNE S-Tunkhannock, PA-Skyhaven Airport (76N).
Skyhaven Pilots Association Pancake Breakfast.
7:30 am-I pm. Camping available. Info: 570-836­
4800 or [email protected].

JUNE U-13--Gainesville, TX-Gainesville Municipal
Ai rport (GLE). Texas Ch. Antique Airplane Assoc.
41st Annual Fly-ln. Info: Jim 817-468-1571.
JUNE 12-Ghent, NY-KJineki li Ai rport (NY I), EAA
Ch. 146 Summer Fly-In Pancake Breakfast, 8:30­
noon, S5 . Fly-in or drive-in , all welcome. (Gas
available at Columbia County Airport, IBI.) Rain
date 6/13. Info: 518-758-6355 or W1vw.eaaI46.org.
JUNE 13-Nottingham, UK-Nottingham Tollerton
Airport. Today's Pilot 2004 Fly-In. Sat evening party
for early arrivals. Camping available. Info: 44 0 1780
755131 or [email protected].
JUNE IS-IS-Lock Haven, PA-19th Annual
Sentimental Journey to Cub Haven 2004 . Fly in,
drive in, camp. Info: 570-893-4200 or ;[email protected].
June 17-20-Knoxville, lA-Bellamy Field, (OXV).
Ercoupe Owners Club 2004 National Convention.
Info: Mike, 515-287-3840, [email protected].
Full info at "~vw.ercollpe.org under 2004
Convention button.
JUNE 17-20-Middletown, OH- (MWO) 12th Nat'l
Aeronca Assoc. Convention. Air Force Museum
and Aeronca plant tours. Aeronca aircraft judging
and awards, Aeronca forums, banquet with speak­
ers. All welcome. Info: 216-337-5643, or
[email protected].
JUNE 26-Gardner, KS-Gardner Municipal Airport
(K34). Greater Kansas City Vintage Aircraft Fly-ln.
Enjoy vintage aircraft at the "Greatest Little
Airport in Kansas!" Info: Jeff, 816-363-6351,
;sllllens@kc. rr.col1l.
JUNE 26-Prosser, WA-EAA Ch. 391 Fly-In Breakfast.
Info: 509-735-1664.
JUNE 26-27-Bowling Green, OH-Wood County
Airport (lGO) Ch. 582 Plane Fun 2004. Young
Eagles, pancake breakfasts, aircraft displays, pilot
forum s, antiques, warbirds, homebuilts, and auto
displays. 9am-5pm both days. Info: John, 419­
666-0503, ;[email protected], or
WIVW.eaa582.org.
JULY l O-Gainesville, GA-{GVL) EAA Ch. 611 36th
Annual Cracker Fly-ln. 7:30 am Pancake Breakfast
lie Fly-ln. Judging in several categories, trophies,
awa rds, rides, food lie drinks. All day fun for the
entire family. Info: 770-531-0291 or
WIVW. eaa611.org.
JULY 17-Zanesville, OH-Parr Airport. EAA Ch. 425
Fly-In, Drive-I n. 8 am pancake, sausage and egg
breakfast. Lunch served II am-2 pm. Info: 740­
454-0003
AUGUST 13-1S-Alliance, OH- Alliance-Barber Airport
(201). 6th Annual Ohio Aeronca Aviators Fly-ln.
Breakfast Sat lie Sun. 7- l1am by EAA Ch. 82.
Primitive camping on field, local lodging avail­
able. All welcome. Info : 216-337-5643,
[email protected], or www.oaaf/y-il1.colII.
AUGUST 14-Cadillac, MI-Wexford County Airport
(CAD), F1y-ln/Drive-In Breakfast, EM Ch. 678.
Info: 231-779-8113, ;[email protected].
AUGUST 21-Newark, OH-Newark-Heath Airport
(VTA). EAA Ch. 402 Fly-In Breakfast. Info: Tom,
740-587-2312, [email protected].
AUGUST 21-Broomfield, CO-Jefferson County
Airport. 8th Annual JeffCo Aviation Assoc. Fly-In,
7am-noon. Trophies awarded in 9 classes.
Drawing for a free flight in Dick Jones T-6. Info:
Daril 303-423-9846.
AUGUST 27-29-Mattoon, IL-Coles County Airport
(MTO). 2004 Luscombe Fly-In. Forums,
Luscombe judging, shower, camping, electrical
hook-ups. $50 distance award. Info: Jerry 217­
234-8720.
AUGUST 28-Niles, MI-Jerry Tyler Memorial Airport
(3TR). VAA Ch . 35 will host its annual Corn and
Sausage Roast, I l am-3pm. Coffee and donuts for
early arrivals. Rain Date: 8/29. Info: Len, 269-684­
6566 or [email protected].
SEPTEMBER 4-Marion, IN-14th Annual Fly-In Cntise­
In, Marion Municipal Airport. Event features
antique, classic, contemporary, h omebuilt, ultra­
light, lie warbi rd aircraft and vintage cars, trucks,
motorcycles, and tractors. Panca ke Breakfast.
Info: ray;oill1sol1@FlyII1Cruiselll .col1l o r
www.FlylnCruiseln.com
SEPTEMBER 4-Prosser, WA-EAA Ch. 391's 21st
Annual Labor Day Weekend Posser Fly-In. Info :
509-735-1664.
SEPTEMBER 4-Zanesville, OH-Parr Airport. EAA Ch.
425 Fly-In, Drive-ln. 8 am pancake, sausage, egg
breakfast. Lunch served II am-2 pm. Info: 740­
454-0003.

JUNE 18-20

Golden WeSt EM Regional Fly-In
Marysville. CA (MYV)
www.goldenwestf/yin.org

JUNE 26-27
Rocky Mountain EAA Regional Ay-In
Front Range Airport (FTG)
Watkins. CO
www_rmrfi_org

JULY 7·11
Northwest EAA Ay-In
Arlington, WA (AWO)
www.nweaa_org

JULY 27·AUGUST 2
EAA AirVenture Oshkosh
Oshkosh, WI (OSH)
www. airventure_org

SEPTEMBER 18-19
Virginia State EM Ay-In
Petersbu rg, VA (PTB)
www.vaeaa.org

OCTOBER 1·3

Southeast EM Regional Fly-In

Evergreen, AL (GZH)

www.serfi.org

OCTOBER 7·10

Copperstate EM Regional Ay-In

Phoenix, AZ (A39)

www.copperstate.org
SEPTEMBER 4-6-Cleveland, OH- Burke Lakefront
Airport. 2004 Cleveland Nat'l Air Show. Exciting
air shows and displays. Finish line for U.S. Air
Race Inc's Nat') Air Race and Air Cntise (CA to
Cleveland) celebrating the 75th Anniversary of
Cleveland's Nat'l Air Races of 1929. Info: 216-781­
0747 or www.clevelal1dairsllow.coll1 .
SEPTEMBER S-12-Galesburg, lL-Galesburg Municipal
Airport (GBG) 33rd Nat'l Stearman Fly-ln.
Everything Stearman! Fun and camaraderie.
Aerobatic, form ation, short-field takeoff and
spot-landing contests. Aircraft judging and
awards. Technical seminars. Aircraft parts lie sou­
venirs for sa le. Dawn patrol and breakfast.
Lunch-time flyouts . Pizza party. U.S.O. show.
Anual banquet. Info : Betty 309-343-6409,
stearlllall@Stearlllal1f/yin.col1l, or
Mvw.stearrnanf/yin.colII.
SEPTEMBER IS-Bartlesville, OK-48th Annual
Tulsa Regional Fly-In . Info: Charlie Harris 918­
622-8400.
SEPTEMBER 18-Ghent, NY- Klinekill Airport (NYI),
EAA Ch. 146 Fall Fly-In Pancake Breakfast, 8:30­
noon, S5. Fly-in or drive-in, all welcome. (Gas
available at Columbia County Airport, IBI.) Rain
date 9/19. Info: 518-758-6355 or WIVW.eaa146.org.
SEPTEMBER 2S-26-Nashua, NH- Boire Field, adjacent
to the College. Daniel Webster College 2004
Aviation Heritage Festival. Aircraft, speakers, activi­
ties. Adult admission is SIS, children 6-12 are S7,
and children under 5 get free admission. Special
discounts for families, seniors, veterans, and
groups. Info: 603-577-6625 or W1vw.dwc.edll.
OCTOBER 1-3-Pottstown, PA-Pottstown Municipal
Airport (N47), Bellanca-Champion Club East
Coast Fly-In. Info: 5 18-73 1-6800,
Robert@bellal1ca-clwlllpiollcillb. col1l, or
lVww.bellanca-clwmpioncillb.com.
OCTOBER 2-3-Midland, TX-Midland Int'l Airport,
AIRSHO 2004, Commemorative Air Force HQ.
Info: 432-563-1000, est. 2231 or
p"blicrelations@Ca(1lq.org.

VINTAGE AIRPLANE

29

VINTAGE


TRADER

Something to buy, sell or trade?

TAKE SOME OF THE EXPERIMENTING

OUT OF HOMEBUILDING


May 14-16

Griffin, GA

• llG Welding

May15-16

Griffin, GA

• Finishing and Spray Painting

May 22 - 23

Frederick, MD

• Sheet Metal Basics • Fabric Covering
• Composite Construction • Gas Welding
• Electrical Systems and Avionics

june 4 - 6

• RV Assembly

june 11-13

Denver,CO

• RV Assembly

june 25-27

Griffin, GA

• TIG Welding

Lakeland, R.

• RV Assembly

june 25-27

Sun 'n Fun Campus






Introduction to Aircraft Building
Sheet Metal Basics
Composite Construction
Electrical
s and Avionics

Classified Word Ads: $5 .50 per 10 words,
180 words maximum, with boldface lead-in on
first line.
Classified Display Ads : One column wide
(2.167 inches) by 1, 2, or 3 inches high at $20
per inch. Black and white only, and no fre­
quency discounts.
Advertising Closing Dates: 10th of second
month prior to desired issue date (Le., January 10
is the closing date for the March issue). VAA re­
serves the right to reject any advertising in conflict
with its policies. Rates cover one insertion per is­
sue. Classified ads are not accepted via phone.
Payment must accompany order. Word ads may
be sent via fax (920-426-4828) or e-mail (c/as­
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date. Make checks payable to EAA. Address ad­
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Classified Ad Manager, P.O. Box 3086, Oshkosh,
WI 54903-3086
BABBln BEARING SERVICE - rod bearings, main
bearings, bushings, master rods, valves, piston
rings. Call us Toll Free 1/800/233-6934, e-mail
[email protected] Website www.ramengine.com
VINTAGE ENGINE MACHINE WORKS, N. 604
FREYA ST., SPOKANE, WA 99202.
Airplane T-Shirts

150 Different Airplanes Available

WE PROBABLY HAVE YOUR AIRPLANE!

www.airplanetshirts.com
1-800-645-7739
THERE'S JUST NOTHING LIKE IT

ON THE WEB!!

www.aviation-giftshop.com
A Website With The Pilot In Mind
(and those who love airplanes)
Warner engines. Two 165s, one fresh O.H., one
low time on Fairchild 24 mount with all acces­
sories. Also a fresh D.H. 145, 1938 Fleet 10F,
Helton Lark, and Aeronca C-3. Find my name
and address in the Officers and Directors list­
ing and call evenings. E. E. "Buck" Hilbert.
Flying wires available. 1994 pricing. Visit
www.f/yingwires.com or call 800-517-9278.

~EAA

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~JilltJlI fAllil

WORKSHOPS 1-800-WORKSHOP


---~--1-800-967-5746

YOU CAN BUILD IT! LET EAA TEACH YOU HOW.

30

MAY 2004

For Sale - 1939 Spartan Executive, 3500TT,
10 SMOH. 214-354-6418.
Lycoming engine, 0-145, J3 mount, wood prop,
manual, accessories, MD 410-529-0868.
R-975's Radials, for restoration projects or static
display. Cutout R985 for museum display,
showing internal moving parts. Moran
Aviation: [email protected]

Membership Services Directo!y-


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AIRCRAFT
ENJOY THE MANY BENEFITS OF EAA AND
THE EAA VINTAGE AIRCRAFT ASSOCIATION
ASS0CIATION

"

OFFICERS
President
Espie "Butch" Joyce
704 N. Regional Rd.
Greensboro, NC 27409
336-668-3650

[email protected]
Secretary

Steve Nesse
2009 Highland Ave.
Albert Lea, MN 56007
507-373-1674

[email protected]

Vice·President
George Daubner
2448 Lough Lane
Hartford, WI 53027
262·673-5885
[email protected]

85 Brush Hill Road
Sherborn, MA 01770
508-653-7557

sstl()@\comcast.net

Phone (920) 426-4800 Fax (920) 426-4873
Web Site: http://www.eaa.org and http://www.alrventure.org
E-Mail: vintage @ eaa.org

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800-843-3612 _.... _. _. __ . FAX 920-426-6761
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(NAFl)
• Address changes
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Treasurer
Charles W. Harris
7215 East 46th st.
Tulsa, OK 74147
918-622-8400

[email protected]

DIRECTORS
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EAA Aviation Center, PO Box 3086, Oshkosh WI 54903-3086

Programs and Activities

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EAA AirVenture Fax-On-Demand Directory
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[email protected]

John Berendt

7645 Echo Point Rd.

Cannon Falls, MN 55009

507-263-24 14

mj [email protected]

Steve Krog

1002 Heather Ln.

Hartford, WI 53027

262-966-7627

[email protected]


Robert C. "Bob" Brauer
9345 S. Hoyne

Chicago, lL 60620

773-779-2105

[email protected]


Robert D. " Bob" Lumley

1265 South 124th St.

Brookfield, WI 53005

262-782-2633


Dave Clark

635 Vestal Lane

Plainfield, IN 46168

317-839-4500

davecpd@iquest,net


Gene Morris

5936 Steve Court

Roanoke, TX 76262

817-491-9 110

[email protected]


John S. Copeland
lA Deacon Street
Northborough, MA 01532
508·393-4775
copelandl @juno.com

Dean Richardson

Membership in the Experimental Aircraft Associ­
ation, Inc. is $40 for one year, including 12 issues of
SPORT AVIATION. Family membership is available
for an additional $10 annually. Junior Membership
(under 19 years of age) is available at $23 annually.
All maj or credit cards accepted for membership.
(Add $16 for Foreign Postage_)

1429 Kings Lynn Rd
Stoughton, WI 53589
608-877-8485

VINTAGE AIRCRAFT ASSOCIATION

Phil Coulson

28415 Springbrook Dr.

Lawton, MI 49065

269-624-6490

[email protected]

Geoff Robison

1521 E. MacGregor Dr.

New Haven, IN 46774

260-493-4724

[email protected]


Roger Gomoll

8891 Airport Rd, Box C2

Blaine, MN 55449

763-786-3342


S.H. " Wes' Schmid
2359 Leleber Avenue
Wauwatosa, WI 53213
414-771-1545
[email protected]

David Bennett
P.O. Box 1188
Roseville, CA 95678
916-645-8370

pJedgedrive@msncom

[email protected]

[email protected]

EAA

Current EAA members may join the Vintage
Aircraft Associato n and receive VINTA GE A IR­
PLANE magazine for an additional $36 per year.
EAA Me mbersh ip, VINTAGE AIRPLANE
magazine and one year membership in the EAA
Vintage Aircraft Association is available for $46
per year (SPORT AVIATION magazine not in­
cluded). (Add $7 for Foreign Postage.)

Gene Chase
2159 Carlton Rd.
Oshkosh, WI 54904
920-231-5002
[email protected]

E.E. ' Buck " Hilbert
P.O. Box 424
Union, IL 60180
815-923-4591

-',

EAA Aviation Foundation
Artifact Donations ______ .... _920-426-4877
Financial Support ... . ... _____ 800-236-1025

MEMBERSHIP INFORMATION


lAC

DIRECTORS
EMERITUS

Flight Advisors information .... 920-426-6864
Flight Instructor information_ .. 920-426-6801
Flying Start Program ... . ...... 920-426- 6847
Library Services/Research ...... 920-426-4848
Medical Questions ... . . . .. .. .. 920-426-6112
Technical Counselors .... . . _. . 920-426-6864
Young Eagles .. _. .. ____ ...... 877-806-8902
Benefits
AUA Vintage Insurance Plan .... 800-727-3823
EAA Aircraft Insurance Plan ___ 866-647-4322
Term Life and Accidental ..... _800-241 -6103
Death Insurance (Harvey Watt & Company)
Editorial ______ ... ...... ..... 920-426-4825
.. . ____ . . .... .... . __. _. . FAX 920-426-4828
• Submitting article/photo
• Advertising information

Current EAA members may join the Interna­
tional Aerobatic Club, Inc. Division and receive
SPOR T AEROBATICS magazine for an addi­
tional $45 per year.
EAA Membership, S POR T AEROBATICS
magaZine and one year membership in the lAC
Divisio n is available for $5 5 per year (SPOR T

AVIATION magazine not included). (Add $15

for Foreign Postage.)

WARBIRDS
Current EAA members may join the EAA War­
birds of America Division and receive WARBlRDS
magazine for an additional $40 per year.
EAA Membership, WA RBIRDS ma gaZin e
and one year membership in the Warbirds Divi­
sion ~s availabl e fo r $50 pe r yea r (SPOR T
AVIATION magazine not included). (Add $7 for

Foreign Postage.)

EAA SPORT PILOT
Current EAA members may add EAA SPOR T
PILOT magaZine for an additional $20 per year.
EAA Membership and EAA SPOR T PILOT
magazine is available for $40 per year (SPOR T
AVIATION magaZine not included) . (Add $16

fo r Foreign Postage_)

FOREIGN MEMBERSHIPS
Please submit yo ur remittance with a check or
draft drawn on a United States bank payable in
Unit ed States doll a rs. Add required Foreign
Postage amount for each membership.

[email protected]

Membership dues to EAA and its divisions are not tax deductible as charitable contributions.

Copyright ©2004 by the EAA Vintage Aircraft Association

All rights reserved.

VINTAGE AIRPlANE OSSN 0091-6943) IPM 40032445 is published and owned exclusively by the EAA Vintage Aircraft Associalion of the Experimental Aircraft Association and is published monthly at EM Aviation
Center, 3000 Poberezny Rd., P.O. Box 3086. Oshkosh. WISCOnsin 54903-3086. Periodicals Postage paid at Oshkosh, Wisconsin 54901 and at additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to EAA
Vintage Aircraft Association. P.O. Box 3086, Oshkosh, WI 54903-3086. Return Canadian issues to Station A, PO Box 54, WindSOf, ON N9A 6J5. FOREIGN AND APO ADDRESSES - Please allow at least two months
for delivery of VINTAGE AIRPlANE to foreign and APO addresses via surface mail. ADVERTISING - Vintage Aircraft Association does not guarantee or endorse any product offered through the advertising. We invite
constructive criticism and welcome any report of inferior merchandise obtained through our advertising so that corrective measures can be taken.
EDITORIAL POLICY: Readers are encouraged to submit stories and photographs. Policy opinions expressed in articles are solely those of the authors. Responsibility for accuracy in reporting rests enlirely with the
contributor. No renumeration is made. Material should be sent to: Editor, VINTAGEAIRPlANE. P.O. Box 3086. Oshkosh. WI 54903-3088. Phone 9201426-4800.
EM'" and SPORT AVIATION"', the EAA Logo'" and Aeronautica~ are registered trademar1<s. trademarks, and service marks of the Experimental Aircraft Association. Inc. The use of these trademarks and service
marks without the permission of the Experimental Aircraft Association, Inc. is smctly prohibited.
The EM AVIATION FOUNDATION Logo is a trademark of the EAA Aviation Foundation. Inc, The use of this trademark wilhout the permission of the EAA Aviation Foundation, Inc. is strictly prohibited.

VINTAGE AIRPLANE

3 1

David Howie
Redmond, WA

• Participant in the Seattle
Museum of Flight's
Centennial Parade flight fo
commemorate the Wright
brothers first flight
(holding the commemorative
patch in snapshot)
• Owner of 1929 Fleet
Bi-plane ­ NC432K and
1948 Stinson - NC976C

"I am very happy with AUA. I am just a phone call
away from them and when I do call, I feel real
southern hospitality on the other end of the phone. I
wouldn't think of changing to another company."

- David Howie

~\~int(j;ae' 41~'UlJff

Association Insurance Program

Lower liability and hull premiums
for multiple aircraft carrying all risk coverages • No hand-propping exclusion
parts endorsements • Discounts for claim-free renewals carryipg all risk coverages

The best is affordable. Give AUA a call - it's FREE!

800-727-9823
Fly with the pros ... fly with AUA Inc.

To run, or to rest. With a 390-hp supercharged V8 coupled to a 6-speed ZF automatic transmission and Jaguar's

Enhanced Computer Active Technology Suspension IECATS!. it's one less decision you have to worry about.

~2004

Jaguar Cars

learn more about the 2005 5-TYPE at jagua rusa.com/S-TYPE

a;a~C&~
Vehicle Discount

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