Vintage Airplane - May 2005

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N E VOL 33 , No No.. 4

1 2 4

7

2005

OVERS

ONTENTS Straight and Level

FRONT COVER: The Howard DGA 9 was a childhood favorite

VAA News

of master restorer Jim Younkin, and when the opportunity

ith Pioneer Bi g Ni RemHassell i n isci iscin nAviat g wt ion N ic k Fish Avia

came to finally own one, he lovingly restored the airplane to



its original streamlined shape. See Jack Cox's story beginning on page _ .

EM

photo by Jim Koepnick, using Canon

by Nick Rezich 

professional digital photographic equipment. EAA photo

Th e Vi n t a ge In st ru ct or

plane flown my Bruce Moore.

Patterns, Part III by Doug Stewart  9

Al Menasco Aviation Pioneer.

BACK COVER: Aviation pioneer AI Menasco strikes a jaunty

pose early in his career. Chet Wellman's biographical article continues from last month, starting on page 9.

Part II by Chet Wellman  13

The Ultimate Howard

A childh ood fascination becomes reality for Jim Younki Younk in by Jack Cox

18

Liv iviingston Clipwing  Monocoupe Flies Again   Famous race plane back in theAgain  sKies

25

Production Manager

Selected sections from October of 1989  by Buck Hilbert 

Classified Ad Manager Copy Editor

Isabelle Wiske Colleen Walsh

Mystt ery Pl Mys Pla n e

Director of Advertising

Katrina Bradshaw

Mystt ery Pl Mys Pla n e Ex t ra

Northeast: Allen Murray Phone 609-265-1666, FAX 609-265-1661 e-mail: [email protected] Southeast: Chester Baumgartner Phone 727-573-0586, FAX 727-556-0177 e-mail; cballmlll@mindspring com  com 

by H.G. Frautschy 26

by Hal Swanson

29

31

 

Tom Poberezny

Pass it it t o Buc Buck k

How t o Fly

A Vintage member earns his tailwheel wings  wings   by Dean Kronwall  23

Publisher

FF

Scott Spangler H.G. Frautschy Theresa Books Kathleen Witman Ric Reynolds Jim Koepnick Bonnie Bartel Julie Russo

by Jack Cox 

20

ST

Editor-in-Chief Executive Director/Editor Administrative Assistant Managing Editor News Editor Photography

Display Advertising Representatives :

Central: Todd Reese

Class assiified Ads Calle n d ar Ca

F X

mag.com   Phone 800-444-9932, 816-741-6458 e-mail: todd @;pc mag.com Mountain & Pacific: Keith Knowlton & Associates Phone 770-516-2743, FAX 770-516-9743 e-mail: [email protected]

GEOFF RO

ISON

PRESIDENT VIN VINT TAGE AI R  RA FT ASSOC I ATION

Eager Spring Flying Did someone say spring? I think I

Oshkosh. I clearly recall watching

Be sure to join us for what is

mentioned that word a few columns ago, and that was in anticipation of ago, it arriving sometime soon. soon . With my luck we'll go from spring t o sum mer in six days . I just spent a week in Oshkosh Oshkosh,, and they were experi enCing their first real taste of spring

the hundreds if not thousands of people crowding crowding around the aircraft shortly after its arrival. The excite ment of that event is truly memo rable, but the significance of it really pales a bit when you consider how popular that even eventt was to the mem

shaping up to be an incredibly ste stel l lar line-up for the S3rd annual avia ering g set for July 25-31. tion gath erin While o n the topic of EAA Air Venture, I should remark here that the Vintage area also has been busy

weather. I t truly was a long winter win ter for us all, and we are very thankful to finally experience some milder tem peratures and better flying weather. With the annual on the Cessna 120 now completed and the C-170 com com  ing due, I am close closerr to getti ng fully preepared for the spring ritual of prac pr ticing up on my taildragger skills so I can chase around to all the local events and those Saturday morning breakfast trips. I cannot remember the last time I was so eager to see spring flying time arrive. arrive . I just peeked

bership, and that was before they actually fle flew w it unrefueled around world.. Now consider the accom accom the world plishments of Burt Rutan and his team at Scaled Composites with re gards to the SpaceShipOne event. Again, this is a uniquely phenom enal and histo historica ricall accomplishmen t received ved worldwide media cov cov that recei erage. When the actual event was taking place, Mike Melvill had us all on the edge of our seats, practi

pers. This year's event promises to attract an unprecedented number of Tri-Motors and early Tri-Motor

cally gushing with excitement. Mis sion accomplished, and now now,, in July

working o n our own show-stop

type passeng passenger er transports. I f you have a weak spot in your

heart for these early transports like I do, get your camera loaded because this could prove to be a unique once-in-a-lifetime photo opportunity. Will GlobalFlyer or White Knight fit under the wing of an AT-S Tri-Motor? Talk about a photo op. Hmmmmmm. You better also plan to set aside

in my logbook and was shocked to

White Knight with SpaceShipOne

come to the realization that it has been nearly three mo month nth s since since I last flew one of my aircraft. So it's prob ably best to load up my instructor and chase the cobwebs away so the insur ance lady is kept happy and I can con tinue to enjoy the th e affordable rates that

tucked up to her underbelly unre fueled will arrive in the pattern at EAA AirVenture 2005 for a weeklong visit at Oshkosh on its way to its pro per place in history at the Smithsonian. Now then, let let's 's doub le our view ing pleasure with a similarly sig

our VAA insurance plan provides. Are you planning your trip to AirVenture nture Oshkosh Osh kosh 200S 200S?? You EAA AirVe better get started i f you haven t. I honestly think that this year's year's event is shaping up to be the most excit ing we have ever experienced. What a phenomenal line-up. line-up . The excitement of this year's event has even l e d EAA to reinforce to the membership that there absolutely will be sufficient space available at Camp Scholler. I distinctl y rec recall all the excitement of th e year th a t Dick Rutan and

nificant arrival of the GlobalFlyer, flown in by Steve Fossett, to AirVen ture. With its 67-hour 67-ho ur flight flight mission

Jeanna Yeager flew t h e Voyager to

of a n around-the-world, 19,880 nautical-mile solo, nonrefueled

flightt also compl eted, it will surely fligh round out our week at AirVenture as unprecedented . With Oshkosh widely known as aviation's Mecca, this year's event is truly shaping up to be nothing short of miraculous. Tom Poberezny said it best when It'' s difficult he recently remarked, It t o describe the magnitude and ex citement of the event, except to say

some time time to roam arou nd the type club parking area this year as well. This area is now being managed by VAA s own Tim Fox. Tim made the mistake of doin g a really fine fine job of bring ing a large number of Stinsons to this area at last year's event. This of course earned him the new r e  sponsibility of bringing even more success to the type club parking area again this year. Keep i n min d t h a t we ar e al  ways seeking out new volunteers for area . Drop us a line at the Vintage area. vintageaircra{t@ vintageaircra{t @eaa org  org  if you re in in terested in enhancing your EAA Air Venture experience. W e pledge our best effort to show you a good time tim e . Let's all pull in the same direc tion for the good of aviation . Re member, we are all all bette r together.

Join us and have

i

t

~

you've got to be there this year./I VINT

GE

IRPL

NE

 

Notice of Annual EAA Business Meeting

Biplane Fly-In Special Guest

o

Many Forums

o

Little Time

In accordance with the Fifth Re Re stated Bylaws of Experimental Aircraft

VAA Treasurer Charlie Harris also

serves as the chairman of the Na tional Biplane Association (NBA),

and he has just announced that famed test pilot Scott Crossfield has accepted their invitation to be the honored guest at the 9 th Annual Biplane Expo at Bartlesville, Okla homa, June 2-4, 2005. Crossfield will be recognized during a Thurs day, June 2, evening reception at the Hillcrest Country Club in Tulsa

and will be further h o n o r e d a t a tribute o n his behalf o n Friday, June 3, at Frank Phillips Airfield in

Bartlesville. For more information, contact Charles W. Harris at 918 [email protected].. 622-8400, e-mail [email protected] or visit the NBA website a t www. biplaneexpo.com.. biplaneexpo.com

No Reservation Required

Like a bottomless cup of cof fee, there's always room at Camp Scholler for EAA members, their family and friends before and dur ing EAA AirVenture Oshkosh. Lo cated o n convention grounds, RV and tent campers have access to shower facilities, portable toilets, an RV pumping station, and por table pumping services. Early birds can set up camp o n June 24. Visit

Where else else can you learn about abo ut air craft design, gas-welding aluminum, 1/2 VW engine conversi conversions, ons, and im proving your VFR skills, and all in one place, all on the same day? At the hundreds of forums presented during EAA AirVenture. To plan this year's adventure in learning, tap into the www.airventure.. forums database at www.airventure org and search by date, presenter, or interest area area.. You can also print the Forums Map to see where your fo rum meets, so there will be no delays when you arriv arrivee in Oshkosh.

AirVenture Air Show More of the world's top perform ers have confirmed their volunteer appearances at EAA AirVenture's daily 3 p.m. air shows. (Times and performance dates are not yet fi E

nalized.) Check the website a t www airvent airventure ure org  org  for information. One new act in particular caught our attention, and I'm sure you'll

want to see it: • Kent Pietsch will fly a 1942 In terstate Cadet. In three different acts, he'll land on a recreational recr eational vehicle, fly a comedy routine, and perform a dead-stick dead-st ick aerobatic routine.

EAA Ohio Members Help Revise

Association Inc., notice is hereby given that the annual business meeting of the members will be held at the The

ater in the Woods on Saturday, July 30 2005 at 1 0 a.m. at the 53rd annual convention of Experimental Aircraft Association Inc., Wittman Regional Air port, Oshkosh, Wisconsin. Wisconsin. Notice is further given that the elec tion will be held as the first item on the agenda at the business meeting. Fif teen Class I directors thre three-ye e-year ar terms) will be elected. In accordance with the Fifth Restated Bylaws of Experimental Aircraft Association Inc., the Nominat ing Committee has submitted the fol lowing candidates: Class I Richard W. W. Beebe, II John A Beetham incumbent) James W Brown William F Chana Michael H Dale Rich Davidson Norm DeWitt Curt Drumm James C Dukeman Malvern J Gross incumbent) Richard W Hansen William E Harrison Jr. David C Lau Daniel A Majka John L Parish Sr David R Pasahow Paul Poberezny incumbent) Kevin Rebman

www airventure org org   and click o n the

Where to Stay link below the Plan for It link for a map of Camp Schol ler and guidelines. Also, don' t forget t hat we al al ways have room for showplanes a t EAA AirVenture. W hile t h e a i r p o r t m ay have to close to transient campers and modern airplanes t hat must park in the

North 40, i f your airplane fits in one of the V N s judging catego ries (see the categories a t www. vintageaircraft.org   , we'll find a vintageaircraft.org place to park you dur i ng EAA AirVenture 2005. T h e r e is n o advance registration for show  plane parking; i t is first come,

first served. 2

MAY

2

Aircraft Tax Legislation

EAA worked with several members

in Ohio to re-introduce legislation in February that would roll back aircraft taxes from a flat 100 per aircraft to 15 per seat. Now before the Finance and Appropriations Committee, House Bill 66 would repeal the large increase that was established in 2003

and became effective last year. EAAers leading the fight included Board Member Emeritus Jim Gor man, Donald Peters, Brian Matz (of the Fearless Aeronca Aviators), Frank Castronovo, and many Chap ter presidents and VAA members. Matz informed EAA that the floor vote would likely occur sometime in continued on p ge

8

Alan J. Ritchie incumbent) Dan Schwinn Frederick W Telling Edward T Waldorf Jim Weir Joe B Wyatt Such candidates include proposed successors to those current Class I di rectors whose terms expire during 2005, along with an additional number of Class I directors as necessary to cause the Class I directors to collectively compose at least 51 percent of the board. Among

the newly elected Class I directors, terms will be assigned so as to effectuate the staggering of term expiration dates. The current Class I directors whose terms do not expire in 2005 will continue to serve until their stated term expiration date. Alan Shackleton Secretary, EAA Board of Directors

5

 

The 200S Friends of the Red Barn Campaign Many services are provided to vintage aircr aircraft aft en thusiasts at EAA AirVenture Oshkosh. From parking airplanes to feeding people at t h e Tall Pines Cafe and Red Barn, more than 400 volunteers do it all. Some may ma y ask, I f volunteers are providing the services, where is the expense?

Your contributi contribution on n ow really does m ake a dif differ fer ence. Th ere are six levels levels of gifts and gift recognition. Thank you for whatever you can do. Here are so me of the many activities the Friends of the Red Barn fund underwrites:

Glad you asked. The scooters for th e flightline crew need repair and batteries, and the Red Barn needs paint, new windowsills, updated wiring, and other sundry repairs, plus we love to care for our volunteers with special recognition caps and a pizza party. The

• Red Barn

list really could go on and on but no matter how many expenses we can pOint out, the need remains constant . The Friends of the Red Barn fund help s pay for the VAA expenses at EAA AirVenture, and is a cru

• Pizza Party for VAA Volunteers

Desk Supplies

• Participan t Plaques and Supplies • Toni  Toni  s Red Carpet Express Repairs

and

Radios

• Caps for VAA Volunteers • Flightline Parking Scooters and Supplies • Breakfast fo r Past Grand Grand Champions

cial part of the Vintage Aircraft Aircraft Association Associa tion budget. Please help the VAA and our 400-pl 400-plus us dedicate d volunteers make this an unforgettable experience for

• Volunteer Volunteer Boot h Administrat ive Supplies • Membership Membership Booth Administrative Supp Supplies lies

our many EAA AirVenture guests. We've made it even more fun to give this year, with more giving leve evells to fit each person's budget, and more interestin interesting g activi

• Signs Signs Throughout the Vintage Are Area a • Red Barn and Other Buildings Maintenance

ties for donors to be a part of. Thank-You by Level

Information

.AndMore

Name Listed: Vintage, Web & Sign at Red Barn

Donor Appreciation Certificate

Diamond, $1 ,0 0 0

X

X

X

X

X

X

2 People/Full Wk

2 Tickets

X

Full Week

Platinum, $750

X

X

X

X

X

X

2 People/Full Wk

2 Tickets

X

2 Days

Gold, $500

X

X

X

X

X

X

1 Person/Full Wk

1 Ticket

Silver, $250

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

Bronze

Items

100

Loyal Supporter, $99 & Under

Access to Volunteer Center

V

Special FORB Badge

Two Passes

Special

Breakfast

Tri -Motor

Two Tickets

to VAA

FORB

at

Cap

Ride Certificate

to V

Volunteer Party

Tall Pines Cafe

Frie nd s of the

Red Barn

Close Auto Parking

Picnic

Name_______________________________________________________ EAA _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ VAA ______ _ _ Address City/

 

________________________ ________________________ _________________________ _________________________ ________________________ _________________ ______ State/Zip____________ Phone________________________________________ E-Mail____________________________________

Please choose your level of participation: Silver Level Gift - $250.00 ___ Diamond Level Gift - $1,00 $1,000.00 0.00 Bronze Level Gift - $100.00 ___ Platinum Level Gift - $750.00 Loyal Supporter Gift - ($99 .00 or under) Your Support $ _ Gold Level Gif Giftt - $500.0 $500.00 0 o Payment Enclosed (Make checks payable to Vintage Aircraft Assoc.) Mail your contribution to: o Please Charge my credit card (below) EAA VIN TAGEAIR CRA FT ASSOC. Credit Card Number Expiration Expirat ion Date __ PO Box 3086 Signature _ OSHKOSH   WI 54903·3086

 

*00 you or your spouse work for a matching gif giftt company? I f so, this gift may qualify for a matching d onatio n. Pl Plea ease se ask your Human Resources department for the appropriate form.

N a m e o f

o m p a n y ~ ~ ~

~ ~

~ ~

~ ~

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The Vintage Aircraft Association is a non-profit edu ducational cational organization ll der IRS SOIc3 rules. Under Federal Law, the deduction from Federal Income tax for charitable contributions con tributions is limited to the amount by which any money and the value value o f any proper property ty other than money) contributed exceeds the value o f the goods or services provided in exchange for the contribution. n appropriate receipt acknowledging your gift will be sent to you for IRS gift reporting reasons. VINTAGE A I RPL  

NE

3

REMINISCING WITH

IG NICK

FISH HASSELL AVIATION P I O N E E R Reprinted from

intage irplane October 974 Nick Rezich

All Photos Courtesy the Nick Rezich Collection

his past September 16 a Il group o f Rockford, Il linois, OX-Sers and QBs flew over the gravesite of Bert R. J. Fish Hassell and dipped their wings i n a final salute to one of America's aviation pioneers and a friend of EAA.

boat from Chicago to Lake For est amid choppy Lake Michigan

Earlier Earli er in t he year, year, July t o be exact, another group of EAAers OX-Sers,

wass a lo ng-dista nce explorer. John wa n y and Fish both were mechani cally inclined, which contributed greatly to their success in aviation. Johnny went from motorcycles to airplanes, and Fish from the Cole Automobile Automo bile Company to the Glenn H. Curtiss School of Aviation. Fish was sent to Hammondsport, New York, to repair the Cole car

and QBs flew the same mission over Cedar Falls, Iowa, in recognition of

belonging to Glenn Curtiss. When Fish finished the repairs o n the

herring than the local fishermen at Waukegan ever knew there was in

T

waves when he decided to show his friends at the hangar some preci sion flyi flying. ng. In Fish's own words: As I passed them, a huge wave broke under me, kissed m y tail section, and forced my nose into the lake. The next thing I saw was more Lake Michigan

another great aviation pioneer and friend of EAA John H. Livingston. My most prized possessions are the memories I have of knowing these two great aviators. Johnny

auto, he and Curtiss went for a test spin, whereupon Curtiss persuaded Fish to turn his talents to airplanes. At age 20, Fish began his fly ing lessons and on June IS, 1914,

lake ke " That inciden t and numer the la ous others that ended up with both him and his flying boats in the drink gave him the nickname "Fish." Fish was best known, however,

and embryonic of lightBe in Fish were beacons age of flight. the cause of their pioneering efforts, we today enjoy the speed, comfort, safety y of our fly flying ing machines. machines . and safet Johnny was a man of speed; Fish

he withhepilot soloed. 20 Later in hand, number wentlicense o n to become a fancier of seaplanes-and to acquiring his nickname. He was a man of spirit and challenge. In 1915 he was flying a Curtiss Curtis s flying

for his pioneering of the Great Cir cle Route. He had visions of today's air routes long before they became the standard lanes for commercial aircraft. In 1926 he wrote, "Flying the Atlantic is still a stunt. Fish

M

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5

 

urged the U.S. to look at both the

it short, short, it took us 14 days to walk to

commercial and military advan

Dr. Hobbs Dr. Hobbs'' camp, all tired from this healt hy walk over the ice cap. We realized then that we two barnstorm erss should have remained at home." er The flight never reached Stock holm, but Fish proved his point. Today, commercial jet airliners are

tages of using the Circle Route over tages the north to Europe .

The small network of airlines that existed at that time and the military were not ready to exploit Fish's ideas and route . . . so the pio to Fish himself. neering was leftev The scheme ev entually decided upon was a flight from Rockford, Illi nois, to Stockholm, Sweden. Fish mus tered a group of Rockford businessmen to co-sponsor the flight. He then went to his friend Eddie Stinson in Detroit and asked him to build a ship that would carry a crew of two and 700 gal-

that very same route ... using ... thank s to pioneer Bert R. J. "Fish" Hassell. You would have had to have known Fish to fully appreciate that short story story.. He was a man of will, determination , and faith in his fellow man. I'll never forget the

story h e told m e about the pig and chicken farm he had in Goose

lons of fuel (4,200 pounds ).

shortly before their takeoff for tockhol tockholm m

The airplane Stinson built was a J-5 SM-l Detroiter, which was named the " Greater Rockford." For co-pilot and navigator, Fish chose Parker " Shorty" Cramer. The date

for the fjo fjord rd wh ich wo uld lead us to our refueling base." But high winds slowed them so " it see se e med like we were standing s till. " Th e fuel

Bay Labrador-during his service in World War II I t goes something like this: "You see, see , we had about 1,500 GIs and officers stationed o n the base, and most of them were farm boy boy s from the Midwest. Then, Then ,

for takeoff was was set for July 26, 1928. Fred Machesney Machesney,, the owner and op erator of the airport north of Rock ford, which was the jump-off point, pulled up the fence posts at the ends of his runway so it would be long enough for the fuel-laden Stinson.

supply was running dang e rously low. "A careful ch e ck by Cramer and myself showed we had fu e l for less than an hour." Hassell reasoned that he did not have enough power t o go looking for a small small lan din g strip o n the side

we had all those crews coming in daily o n their ways overseas-or coming back from a tour of duty. Having powdered eggs and Spam for breakfast was not much of a morale builder,, so I requested a couple dozen builder do zen hens and roost roosters ers and an d some pigs." pigs."

The following is Burt Hassell's own story of the successful take-off in 1928 to prove the trans-Atlantic air route using the Great Circle Route. With my co-pilot, Shorty Cra mer,, we took off from Rockford and mer Cochrane, Ontario. The flying over Quebec was in the daylight hours, but at night our attention was only o r instruments , which made the night seem much longer. As day light came we found ourselves over a very ver y fam famili iliar ar area-Burrw ell, near Chidley. Chid ley. With d aylight and a defi

of a mountain, and so we stuck our nose due east, away from those hid eous ice crevasses to wher wheree it would be only a matter of minut e s before it would give u p its long struggle to get two pilots to our Gre Greeenland base. With power o n and off, we were ready to land. "To our great surprise, we landed safely o n centuries-old ice with about 2 inches of hoarfrost o n i t . We had reeled up the lead radio an tenna and sat there like two tired old barnstormers and rested. We had been in the air 24 hours and 12

When the brass i n D . C. heard about the request, they figured 01 ' Fish had flipped The first request was ignored, but when they received the second one-which was worded in the typical Fish Hassell vernacu lar-wheels started to turn . A team of brass flew to Goose Bay to find out firsthand what was behind this odd request. They were met b y Col. Hassell, and the first thing he greeted them with was, was , "Where are my pigs and how much booze is on

nite check of our location, we started across the Davis Strait. We rode for hour after hour-between cloud lay ers-looking fo forr the Greenland shore to appear. The old J-5 J-5 purred purre d along,

minutes . and that's a long time sitting, even in a chair at home. "We tied our lead antenna to a n aileron tip and pounded out like mad: 'Landed safe o n ice c a p '-Bu t

composure, Fish explained his rea son for the pigs and chickens. To make a long story longer, he got his pigs and chickens and a guar anteed ration of booze for his men.

stuck our nose due north to find

board?"

When the brass regained their

which was music to our ears. ears . " Suddenly Suddenly,, the weather started

I guess n o one was near enough to read this message. I shut off this

His farm boys buiit a hen house and a pig p e n - n o t o n l y did this

to break and we could see a faint shoreline and the sun shining o n the Greenland ice cap. W e were both stiff and tired (in the air for 20 hours) when we began to look

piece of equipment, and we got ready to go. W e put o n our heavy boots, parka, took a rifle and some pemmican. and started to walk to our base o n th thee Strornfjord Strornfjord . To make

ham makeshift farm provide fresh eggs for breakfast, but it turned and out to be the main attraction at the base for inco min g crews crews and solved the garbage problem. I t also gained VINT

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worldwide fame and public

money to restore the " Greater

ity for Fish . Like he said, "I was the only Air Force com

Rockford" but none of them panned out. Fish had hoped to have the aircraft made a memorial to his son Peter who lost his life flying an F 100 while i n the Air Force. Eventually , the aircraft was

mander t hat gained popu larity through chicken- " Besides that , th thee pigs pigs gave gave th e

base a homey smell. There are many more in in

and humorous teresting ries about Fish that y ou sto can read firsthand by picking up a copy of his book, Th e Hiking in g Vikin Viking g  o v e r 400 pages of aviation history and hun

dreds of never before pub

lished photos photos.. The famous Stinson "Greater Rockford," NX-5408, NX-5408 , was recovered from the ice cap 40 years later by Fish Fish''s two sons,, Vic and John, and Rob sons

gust of 1928 1928..

sold to the new SST Museum located near Kissimmee,

Florida, where it was put on display displa y, awaiting restoration. O n May 5 , 1971, Be rt " Fish " Hassell and Jo h n H . liVingston were enshrined into the OX-5 Aviation Pio neers Hall of Fame at Ham mondsport, New York . I had the honor and privilege of giving Fish his last airplane ride. John Tasso, chief pilot

With the tail section of the Greater Rockford   are , ert Carlin, Carlin, district manager manag er of from left, Vic Hassell Hassell;; Robert Cari in, fonneriy of Rock· National Airlines in Houston Houston,, ford and now o Houston Houston,, Texas ; Burt R . (Fish) Has Has·· Hassell.. Texas, and an antique aviation sell; and John Hassell buff and a native of Rockford. A Sikorsky helicopter oper ated by, I believe, Greenland Air picked the Stinson off the ice and a Hemisphere Aircraft

for Hartzog Aviation , a n d myself flew Fi Fi sh and his fam ily to the Hall of Fame cer emonies at Hammondsport. A fond farewell t o Fish Hassell, a great av i a t i o n pioneer. Addendum from Big

Leasing Corporation C-46

Nick

flew it back to Rockford where For you eagle-eyed read thousands of people lined the ers, refer to the caption for fence to cheer the return of the middle photo o n page the "Greater Rockford. " I was 11 of the February 2005 is  one of the privileged persons sue of Vinta g Airplan Airplanee  The who helped unload the Stin third ma n from the left is The Greater Rockford   arrives back in Rockford via son from the C-46. BELIEVE not Gordon Israel as stated. cap.. C-46 after 40 years on the Greenland ice cap YOU-ME , it was an honor and Also, change "Walter French" French " a thrill to grab that Hamilton Frech,, who is now to Walter Frech Standard prop and guid guidee tha t hatt famous famous in equally good shape. The yellow with the FAA in Los Angeles. I only onl y bird out of the doorway of the CC-46 46.. life raft was inflated , and it held had the negative available when thee Stinson was air with no leaks. The "Rockford to I listed the men in the photo and I t is also ironic that th flown home in a Curtiss product. product . Stockholm"" sign o n the cowl was had to put i t up to the light and Stockholm After all the ceremonies were like ne w. The only fabric left after guess at the figures. Also, Also , change over, Pop as the family called him) 40 years of winds and snow was "earl Sting" Sting " to Earl Stine. ...",..

asked me to remove a spark plug from the J-5 just to see if i t would come out. Much to our surprise,

located o n the r u d d e r - w i t h the

pressed the Alemite fitting, and be

"NX-5408" still very bright. "NX-5408" bright . The airplane was later trucked to Machesney Aircraft and placed in the hangar from from whi ch it left 40 years before. That was in 1968, and since then the steel parts have rusted

lieve it or aluminum not, yellowtanks greaselooked oozed out The

badly and some additional damage has resulted from all the moving

the number one cylinder plug came out with no strain , using a regular plug wrench. I then de 

2 005 Addendum : After this was written in 1974 there was a suc cessful fund-raising drive, and the Greater Rockfo Rockford rd was restored and placed on d i splay at the Mi Mi d way Village & Museum Center, Center, 6799 Guilford Road , Rockford , L 61107 ,

like new with no traces of corro sion at all and the wicker seats were 6

MAY 2

around from display to display. Attempts were made t o raise

phone: 81 5 / 39 7 -9112 website: www midw yvill ge  com  

5

 

DOUG ST  WART

Patterns, Part III Loop-de-loop Radio, N12345 is 10 out. Which runway ya usin' . . . unhhh and do you have left-hand or right- hand tra traffi ffic? c? Hearing that a n n o u n c e m e n t over the CTAF (Common Traffic Advisory Frequency) while flying the downwind leg in the traffic pat

know what kind of aircraft I might be looking for. I only knew its tail number, and as my vintage eyes mi ght not be able to read a tail number before I am closer to the aircraft in question than I might wish to be, knowing just the num ber did nothing to help me . If o n

ready knows the direction from which you will be approaching . I know, I know, the FAA doesn ' t like us to use the term uncontrolled-it prefers nontowered-but radio an nouncements like the one we are

tern, I t hought it was the perfect

the other hand, I knew what kind

discussing certainly diminish any

  Unhh

asks you to give a position report at a certain distance, the tower al

time for my client and me to take a lunch break after our landing. I wasn't so sure I wanted to be shar

of aircraft I was looking look ing for, for, I wou would ld be much better equipped to see it.

ing the sky with any pilot who had just made an announcement like the one I had just heard.

We have t o remember remem ber that the primary purpose o f p o si tion reports

I hope you don't think I'm being overly critical, but we all know that most m idair collisions collisions occur either in the traffic pattern or within 10 miles of an airport. I've experienced quite a few things in airplanes, but a midair collisi collision on is not one of them, and I am going to do my best to make sure it never is W e have many tools to aid our awareness of where other aircraft are i n relationship to us. Good cockpit resource m a n a g e m e n t (CRM) will draw o n as many o f

i n the nontowered environment is t o aid i n the visual iden tification o f aircra aircrafft.

control there might have been.) But when you make a position report in an uncontrolled environment, you should absolutely include the di  rection from which you will be ap proaching. To not d o so means that every pilot who's looking for you will have to scan all four corners of

the compass to spot y o u - a n d that they might be unsuccessful in that

endeavor.

The fact that the pilot was re questing from radio whether there was leftleft - or right-hand traffic indicated several things . To begin with it meant th a t t he pilot was unfamiliar with the airport. That is not a danger in and of itself. As long as we follow good procedures in entering the pattern (discussed last month), there is no increase in

those tools as possible. Our eyes are our primary too tools, ls, but certainly the proper use of the radio is key How ever, the improper use of commu nication radios can easily lead to pandemonium in the pattern. While my client and I enjoyed a leisurely lunch, we discussed what

1 0 o u t. But t h e q u e s tio n re  mained, 10 out where? Out to lunch would be my guess. (In fact,

the ri risk sk exposure exposu re for anyone in the pattern. I t also showed that the pi lot didn't understand that we use the term radio when contacting an FSS (Flight Service Service Station). The proper term is UNICOM. More importantly it indicated that the

it was about what we had heard that made me want t o get o n the ground. To begin with I d i d n ' t

that ' s what made me think about a lunch break in the first place.) Remember th a t when a tower

pilot had obviously not done his homework. Nor did he know how to use the tools he should have had

Next, I knew that the pilot was

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7

with him in his cockpit. Even if the approaching aircraft did not have an AFD or similar

often do I have to hear someone request the runway in use when it has just been self-announced

feet, but th a t doesn't mean you shouldn't use the same sterile cock pit conc ept wheneve r you ar aree flying flying

source of information (and let's remember that the regulations say that we will have obtained all avail able information prior to flight) or i f that source was out of reach somewhere in the back of the cock pit (I've sure seen th a t more of

by not on ly the departing aircraft on the runway, but the aircraft o n downwind and the one o n base as well? Communication means the exchange of information between individualls . . . .   Tha t entails listen individua ing as well as speaking.

with others in the cockpit. Instead of using a 10,000-foot reference

ten than I care to recount), did he not have a current sectional chart handy? Sectional charts have been indicating nonstandard (Le., right hand) traffic patterns for quite some time now. In fact, i f you are flying with a chart that does not have that information, you could probably sell it on eBay as a vi n

. use the t he same sterile cockpit concept whenever you

that matter) with any conversation other than safety-related concerns.

tage chart. About the only thing the pilot of the approaching aircraft did that was correct was to make a position report at 10 miles out, as recom mended in the AIM But nothing else in the c o mmu n ic a tio n did anything to facilitate the see and

avoid conce pt of collision preven tion. We have to remember that the

flying with others .

re

. .

When you self-announce, keep it short, sharp, and succinct. Loop de-loop traffic, Aeronca Champ, 10 west, 3,000, inbound for land ing, requ esti ng advisories say sayss not only the type of aircraft making the announcement, but also states where it is three-dimensionally in

point, use the terminal area instead. Instruct your passengers not to distract you anytime you are fly ing within 10 miles of a n airport (or any other congested area for

Without the th e distraction of idle idle chatter you will be much better prepared to spot that potential midair collision. I know two pilots who, while flyairplane,, ing together in the same airplane survived a midair collision th a t occurred on final approach. They descended into an airplane below them. (Miraculously, the pilot of the other airplane survived as well.) They admitted to me that they had both been distracted from the job at h a n d - t h a t being scanning for tra ffic -b e c a u s e o f unnecessary

conversation. They also confided that they were on the wrong fre quency-again because they were

chatting instead of concentrating. To sum up, we have to be aware that the closer we're flying to an air

primary purpose of position reports in the no n towered environment is to aid in the visual identification of

relationship to the airport and the intentions of the pilot. I t says it

aircraft. But often, based o n much of what I hear on the UNICOM frequencies, it would appear that any thing but that is the purpose. W e also have to remember that the frequencies available to UNI

port, the greater the risk involved. Anytime we're flying within 10 miles of an airport we have to be vigilant and use all the tools available to us to avoid a midair collision. I t means we have to fly proper and

COM are limited. The primary

age of the frequency. Furthermore, before you transmit be sure that no one else is transmitting. I f some one else is transmitting at the same time, it's quite likely that neither transmission will be heard. There's one last thing I would

ones use are 122.8, 122.7, and 123.0.inWith so few frequencies to be shared by airports that are some times in rather close proximity to each other, it doesn't take long at all, especially o n a good weather weekend, for the frequencies to be come congested to the point of be be

to pattern aboutthe in the like discuss or traffic terminal in flying area for that matter. Earlier in this article I alluded to CRM. Proper available . CRM will use all the tools available. Our passengers can certainly be among those to o ls but only i f they have been properly briefed. briefed.

radiotopro we have Ito use proper we have ab t means cedures. solutely minimize any possible distractions. And it means we have to keep our eyes open and outside of the cockpit, always scanning for other traffic. lf we all share in this task, we

ing virtually worthless. Quite often all that can be heard are the squeal screech ech of numerou s transmis and scre sions blocking each other ou t . With this in mind I would like to offer a few suggestions for pilots to consider prior to using the push-to

The airlines are mandated to maintain a sterile cockpit un  til reaching 10,000 feet MSL. This means that all crew communica tion is to be flight-related only. No ta l king about the ball game, the wife and kids, or the scenery. I real

should all be able to keep flying on years.. Won Won'' t you into our vintag e years join me?

talk switch switch.. Spend a little time lis tening prior to transmitting. How

ize that the majority of you you reading this rarely, if ever, get up to 10,000

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concisely, thus minimizing the us

approved procedures.

It

means

Doug Stewart is the 2004 National CFI o f the Year a Master CFI and a DPE . He operates DSFI Inc. (www.

dsflight.com)) based a t the Columbia dsflight.com County Airport lBI).

5

 

In Part I we left

.......

Menasco as he and Art Smith were preparing to AI

tour the Orient with three automobiles and a trio of airplanes built by AI. Before he returns to Ai s narrative, Chet Wellman fills us in about more of Menasco s remarkable career.

  IMenasco

iation i neer .

••

Part Reprinted from Vintage irplane May 1985

CHET WELLM

N

PHOTOS C OURTES Y OF L MENAS CO EXCEPT AS NOTED

Al said he had been

A

tinkering with re-pair l di ng ing r ebui and

building engines all his ife because he was fascinated by them at an early age. After the disastrous experience with the French Salmson engines as mentioned in his speech Al determined that he would build his own engines stronger and better than any others. Future events proved that Al would succeed in this desire. AI said he did not invent inver inverted ted engines. He painted out the Euro peans had inverted several engines and the Army Air Corps under the VINT

 

command of Col. Dargue, was plan ning a South American good will tour in Loening amphibians and had ordered the Allison Machine

Shop in Indianapolis, Indianapolis, Indiana, to in

GE

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vert some Liberty engines. This was done so the pilot could see out over the engine and also to get proper clearance for the props. Thus started the Allison Engine Co., now known as Allison Gas Turbine Engine Man ufacturers, a fine company still 10 cated in Indianapolis. In 1929, AI s frien friend d Jack Northrop, Northrop , who was experimenting with with the fly ing wing concept, convinced Al of the advantages of an in-line, in-line, inverted engine. Al readily agreed and com menced work on the design. The air

six-cylinder B6 model. The A-4 engines were named Pi rate, and the first such engine is now o n display in the Dallas office of Menasco Inc. The horsepower

their ruggedness, reliability, power, and inverted configuration, race pilots found them perfect for race planes. The fact that Al used ball bearings instead of o f bronze bearings wherever

to and the then was increased first of display this model is on95, in the Smithsonian's National Air and

possible alsoHe gave his engines an edge for racing. learned this friction saving trick trick from from the German engine designer Maybach. Al said he had always been a free soul, under no restraints and able to do what he wanted-like a pirate. So he named his engin es Pirate, Swashbuckler, Freebooter, Cor sair, sai r, and the C6S-4 Buccaneer (su percharged), which Al said was his finest fine st engine engin e . Bill Boeing was on the Menasco Board, and Al said he carried the

and Jack craft wrotewas the almost Cirrus finished, and de Havilland companies in England, asking if they had considered an inverted design of their engines. The replies were both negative, and the de Havilland reply was quite emphatic. To expedite the aircraft tests, Al decided to invert one of the Cir rus engines until he could produce one of his own models in the 90 to 95-hp range required. The Cir Cir  rus inversion served its purpose to expedite various ground tests with the Northrop Flying Wing until the

Space Museum. The success of this engine necessitated moving from AI s garage to a small factory on McKin ley Avenue in Los Angeles. His work force increased to 30 people. From the outset, Menasco Motors tested its engines at 125 percent of rated power for 100 hours. Al also pi oneer ed t h e h i g h  pressure supercharging of aircraft engines, using manifold pressures double those of other engines. This

first Menasco A-4 was finished and installed for flight tests. These were to be held at Muroc Dry Lake, Cali fornia, now Edwards Air Force Base.

with the inverted designs, small fron tal area, and large propellers are usu ally cited as the reasons behind AI s ability to get higher performance perfo rmance from

company during the Depression.

However, in 1937, as with most other companies, things were not good with Menasco. The company was still making a few-very few-aircraf t en en

After the ground tests the plane was returned to the new Northrop han gar in Burbank.

an engine with a small small displacement. Al purchased all new manufactur ing tools and machines and in a short

gines and had taken to making small countertop counterto p washing machines, jacks, security valves, etc.

turned its this timetoNorthrop fullAtattention the production of the Alpha. This plane was an im proved air mail design that became the leader in its field, both as a mail carrier carr ier and as a passenger design. The flying-wing development was put in a corner corner of the hangar to be contin ued when time permitted. Al produced five of the Menasco A-4 engines that were installed in various aircraft before tooling up for production of the 95-hp engine with improvements that were also incor porated in later engines such as the

while assembled finest and complete machinethe shop west of most Chi cago. This equipment later played an important part in the transition of the company from an engine man ufacturer to the world s foremost maker of landing gears. The Me nasco engine became an immediate success, and AI s shop was soon self contained,, making all parts in-house, contained including includin g th e gears. gears. His only comp compe e tition in later years was Fairchild, and Sherman Fairchild became a lifelong friend. Menasco engines were never intended for racing, but because of

Al had In the 1938, a disagreement with as to the direction board the company would take. He left the company, but remained it's larg

1

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est shareholder. Shortly thereafter, the Air Force asked the Menasco Co. to build landing gears, largely be cause of its complete machine shop and skilled workers. That contract brought with i t unlimited financ ing. Because of the war, business exploded, and Menasco became larges gestt manufactu rer of landin g the lar gears-including gears for the space shuttle-and remains so today. Next

5

 

time you fly commercially, chances are you will take off and land on Me Me-nasco-built landin la nding g gears. gears. Menasco engines enjoy an envi able record as racing engines. In 1933 and 1934, these engines won three times as many races in the United States as al alll other o ther engines combined. The greatest number of victories won

Clark Gable visited AI s ranch on several occasions. In the middle 195 1950s, 0s, Al decided to get out of the auto business and into the wine business. So he sold his dealership on contract and pur chased a ranch and vineyard in the beautiful Napa Valley, north of San Francisco. This engaged him for

His friendship with aircraft piOneers such as Donald Douglas, Bill Boeing, Lindbergh, Doolittle, Hai zlip, Claude Ryan, and almost every early aviation great is clearly re membered. One feels that the even events ts he describes so vividly could have happened happ ened yest yesterd erday. ay. I t has been more than 70 years,

by a single single airplane was powered by a Menasco C6S engine. This model, the Buccaneer, was the result of six years of development work. I t was sold as

many years. He recently sold the vineyard, retaining more than an acre on which his residence is lo

cated. He lives there today with his

and Al has moved from bicycles and models to motorcycles; from home made race cars to stick and wire, open pusher Wright flyers; and from

a commercial engine, but the racers soon took it to heart. In 1937, M enasco engines took both the Greve Trophy Race (550 cubic inches) and the Thompson Thomps on Trophy Race, the 20 200 0 mile unlimited against l,800-cubic inch racers.

lovely wife, Julie, who is a talented and devoted golfer and has headed

biplanes to the moon and space shutt l es . And, Albert Sidney Me

several seve ral women's women 's golf associations.

Men n a sc o  While Me powered planes were a single-engine design, there were a few twin  engine designs

While Menasco-powered were a single-engine design,planes there were a few twin-engine designs, in cluding the American Gyro Crusader and at least one tri-motor, the 1930 Ogden. Incidentally, the American Gyro Crusader was the November 1984 Mystery Plane in Vintage Airplane The plane was designed by Tom Shelton, who authored a de tailed report of it in the July 1964 issue of port Aviation Aviation   Two C4S M enascos giving excellent performance powered the ship. Tom still lives in Burbank, California.

Julie took an active part in Ron ald Reagan Reagan's 's campaig n and election as governor of California and to two terms as president of the United States. She has received special com com  mendation for her effor efforts. ts. Julie and Al make a good team, team, and she tends

After leaving the company, Al could not remain idle for long, so he opened a Ford auto dealership in Culver City, California, with great success until World War II, when he received a commission as a major in the U.S. Government

to keep Al on an even track. Al is al  ways thinki ng of new projects ways projects to do because, at heart, he is still the kid who skipped school to see the air meets in Los Angeles. AI, at 88, is as energetic as a man of SO . He has a keen mind and is in 

. . .

nasco, the pioneer who was there to experience it and ac t ually be a force in the birth of it all, is still here to tell it like it was. Following is the conclusi conclusion on of AI s

in his own words in a as story speech hetold made on January 29, 1969, to the t he Menasco Manufacturing Com pany's California Division Manage Manage ment Club.-C.W. I t took me from Monday morn ing until Wednesday to arrive in San Francisco, closing out my shop and everything in Los Angeles, ar riving in San Francisco o n the USS Yale o r Harvard, I forget which, that cost 10 bucks from San Pedro to San Francisco. That started an association that lasted a long time. We went to Japan

first-but I am getting ahead of my story-we started to build the cars

and planes in a shop in San Francisco. We never finished them because the boat schedule schedule caught up with us, and I spent the last hectic days and nights witho wi tho ut sleep, making a catalog of al alll

Material Command. Al was stationed in Detroit for much of World War II, assigned to the production of large military air craft manufactured and assembled by the nation's major autom automakers akers as part of the war effort. He returned to Los Angeles in 1945 and opened a new Ford dealership. Al remembers that among his best customers were actors, directors, and producers from the motion picture industry and that some of the great movie stars were among his close personal friends.

terested in terested i n everything. He is engaged in creating a small museum in a remodeled barn behin d his a nd Julie' Julie'ss cozy residence in St. Helena, Cali fornia. Al has boxes of photos and memorabilia of the old days. Many photos are already on the walls, and Al has an interesting story for each of them. Al is extremely proud of his part in the evolution of the aircraft indus indus  conversing with try. One notes whe n conversing him that his recall of each event is immediate and a nd accur accurate. ate.

the parts and materials and checking them aboar aboard d ship. ship . We took off for Japan March 4, 1916, as scheduled o n the Chiyo M a r u - a big liner for the Pacific of 22,000 tons. Down in the engine room they had a machine shop, including a lathe, drill press, and shaper. I did not see much of the

Pacific, because for 17 days I was

down there machining the unfin

ished parts. parts . We had differentials on the jack shafts with chain drive to the rear VINT  GE

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wheels, somewhat of a reverse from the new front-wheel drives o n the cars today. The steering gear, hubs, and axles for the cars and parts for the airplanes were were all semi-finished incidentally we had rack-and-pinion steering that is so highly touted to day for sports cars. I did most of the finish machine work in the engine room of the Chiyo Maru. Maru. I wish wish you could have seen seen the equipment. equipment . I can still remember it all today. When we arrived in Japan, eve every ry

tachometer alongside the seat. That was the instrumentation. A ground ground wire wi re from the magneto ma gneto to t o a switch on the wheel and a foot throttle on the aileron bar were the engine controls. The ground wire was disconnected from the magneto in disassembly. At the show in Sapporo, the ground groun d wire was installed badly, caus ing it to short on takeoff. Attempting to avoid a landing among a mong spect spectators, ators, Art crashed and was sever severely ely injured, and we had to ship home, washing II

deemed sufficient. I had previously had acrobatic lessons, being one of the very few who learned to loop before the art of taking off and landing. We had our last show in Shanghai, where we had a good field enabling me to solo, and I was considered a full-fledge aviator. We arrived back in San Francisco in November, both volunteering fo forr the aviation branch of the Signal Corps. They turned me down be cause of my bad ears-maybe they

thing was semi-finished. W e had a

out t he tour. Fina Financial ncially ly we came out

were right, beca u se my hearing is

big team of six racing car drivers, in cluding myself, and an organization of 23 members assembl assembled ed in Japan, including advance men, photogra phers, etc. I t took six weeks in To kyo before we had three cars and one airplane ready for the first show at

about even-steven by the time we re turned to San Francisco. Art's injuries, including his left leg broken in three places, required his being sent to a hospital in Chi cago, while I stayed in San Francisco and rebuilt the equipment. We re

still b a d - a n d sent Art back to the new Langley Field, Virginia, as a test pilot. I joined the Canadian Royal Fly ing Corps in Vancouver after being turned down by the Navy. At Toronto the RFC was adopting United States

Aoyama Parade Grounds at Tokyo.

turned to Japan six months later a

little bit smarter. We did not take a big crew, just Art and myself, his mother, and one Japanese assistant. Japanese promot ers had contacted us meanwhile, and money was deposited in the banks at Yokohama before dates were assigned by our Japanese Japanese manager in Tokyo. W e were booked ahead in Korea, Manchuria, China, Formosa, and the Philippines besides returning to all the cities of Japan. There was not an end in sight-Singapore and be yond. Our lowest fee for the smaller towns was 5,000 yen-$2,500 for two flights-the larger cities were ne gotiated upon gate receipts, and the money was rolling in. We had two sets of equipment which we could grasshopper over each other-our Tokyo office lined them

procedures, again I up atgrounded, and I finallysowound Langley Field also, where I was put in charge

up so that we averaged as many as five different cities a week. When the United States declared war, we decided

surplus Jenny for $350. Pilots were a dime a dozen, giving passenger rides for $5 from cow pastures all

Two hundred twenty-five thousand

people paid admission to the parade grounds, and I am sure that most of the 5 or 6 million other residents of Tokyo at least saw Art Smith in the sky. And from then on, he was taken into the hearts of the Japane Japanese. se. He was a little guy, 5 feet 6 i n c h e s ~ b o u t the stature of most Japanese-and was always pleasant and even tempered. He just clicked with t h e m- t h a t was all. We made a tour over most of Japan. I stayed in Tokyo most of the time after we were well organized and built up the second airplane and finished the eight car cars. s. With our new Curtiss 90-hp eight-cylinder engines and other improvements, the aircraft perfor mance enabled Art to fly from fields

that were impossible before. W e

would arrive at a field with Chinese laborers pulling five crates, which

II

was

of engine testing and instruction for the Signal Corps as an aeronautical engineer with a civil service salary of $1,800 a year-that was a great thing-I was an engineer. liMy work embraced some correc tions to the Hispano-Suiza engines then being built as the choice for a fighter program, which led me to joining the builders-the Wright Martin C o . - w h o was the licensee in the United States. Wright-Martin later became the present Curtiss Wright Co. who built the Wright J-5 engine that Lindbergh flew the At lantic with. I decided to come home after the war-we had trained 18,000 pi lots in Jennys, and you could buy a

contained the airplane. W e assem bled it ready to fly in an hour and a

half. From the time he landed, it was back in the crates in 45 minutes. Our controls were the same as today, except we used the wheel to control the rudder, with ailerons controlled with the feet. We used an altimeter the size of a pocket watch strapped around the pilot's leg and a 2

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5

to come home and joi join n the Army. Art took time out to give me some very expensive flying lessons, can celing about five dates to do so. W e laid over at Niigata on the wes westt coast of Japan. W e used the home stretch of a mile racetrack there the re for takeoffs takeoffs and landings and simulated landings on a beach nearby until I had 180 minutes of instruction, which Art II

over the country. I took a job as a machinist in a shop o n West Pico St. for 60 cents an hour. Art stayed on, and the in fant air mail was born. He flew the mail. From the shop in Los Angeles, I graduated to selling machine tools, then started my own shop building air compressors. To be continued. . .

 

By one of those coincidences in

life that ultimately seems to have been destiny, the latest manifes tation of Jim's obsession with aes thetics is believe it or not, an early

Howard

. that was built in 1938 and is painted oran orange ge That Howard, a 285-hp Jacobs L-5 powered DGA-9, NC18207, serial number 206, emerged from Benny Howard s small factory in Chicago on February 28, 1938, but someone mistakenly stamped the data plate 9-28-38 instead i nstead of 2-28-38. William D. Owens of Atlanta,

NC18207. The bill of sale and, pre sumably, his check for $ 10,487.50 10,487.50   were signed on March I, 1938. The base price for a DGA-9 was $9,800, but Owens had ordered a number of edge of the right wing all the way options that bumped up the price an additional $687.50, including a 37 gallon aux tank to go with the stan dard 60-gallon main tank, flares, a steerable tail wheel, Pioneer com pass, a Lear transmitter and receiver, and a trailing antenna. Surprisingly, wheelpants wheel pants were not inclu included. ded. 18207 was involved in an acci dent o n September 29, 1939, that

back to the main spar and bent the Curtiss Re Reed ed propeller beyond re pairable limits. S o u th e r n Airways i n Atlanta made the wing repairs, replaced the prop, and signed the Howard back in service o n November 24, 1929. On Decem December ber 14,1 940, NC182 NC18207 07 was sold to R.J. White of Atlanta Atlanta... ... who sold it eight months later, o n

Georgia, became the first owner of 4

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smashed a good part of the leading

August 16, 1941, to James R. Har

5

 

rington, doing busi

E.C. Patterson Jr. o f C h a t t a  nooga, Tennessee , bought 18207

tube repaired and all the fabric on the underside of the airplane re

Service o f M ansfield, Ohio. O n Januar y 28, 1942, the plane's Cur tiss Reed prop was re  placed b y a Ham i l t on Standard 2B20-209 con trollable propeller, propeller, which allowed a n increase in gross weight from 3,600

o n April 28, 1945, and sold it the following August 3 to Ed Milam of Milam Charter Service in Lake land, Florida. On February I, 1946, the Howard was sold to a n o th e r Lakeland company, Florida Fresh

placed. In February of 1948 he had the steerable tail wheel modified

ness as Harrington Air

to 3,800 pounds. On May I, 1942, James Harrin g to n pu t th e Howard in his company's name, possibly to reduce his personal liability, be

cause the airplane was heavily mortgaged for a time. That was probably a good move, because it was involved in another

Somehow, though,

im

Air Express Inc.

Apparently, Florida Fresh flew the airplane straight to Decatur, Georgia (Atlanta), where Aircraft Major Overhaul Inc. converted it from a DGA-9 to a DGA-ll by re m oving t he Jacobs L-5 and re  placing it with a firewall forward installation o f a 450-hp Pratt &

automatic full swivel with an additional lock-controllable from the cockpit. Dr Locke was the commanding officer of the Pinellas Squadron of the Civil Air Patrol in St. Pete, and he either donated or sold the How ard to the squadron on October 10, to

1951. Then, a couple of years later, he bought it back and sold it the same day, June 3, 1953, to St. Pe Pe tersburg tersbur g Aviation Services. Services. T B and H.R. Holman of Vera

Whitney R-985-AN-l-everything: engine mount, engine, all accesso ries, and cowl. Many of the parts were new DGA-15P (NH-l/GH-l) spares sold as surplus by the Navy in October of 1945. Aircraft Ma jor Overhaul had bought it all as

Beach, Florida, bought 18207 on October 6, 1 9 5 4 - w i t h the total time at 2,887.11 2,887.11  hours. They had the rudder and fin recovered with Grade A cotton in February of 1957, 1957 , then sold the airplane the following

tons aluminum and five eight tonsofofscrap scrap steel.

of Ft. Pierce, Florida, for $2,250. Brown, in turn, sold the Howard to

November 30 to Maurice

E

Brown

says,

I

figured

that eventually 1 would

be

able

to get my hands on

the airplane

and correct that front end. acciden t o n January 5, 1943, re quiring a rebuild of the left wing

that included a splice in the main spar. In November of 1943 the air plane was signed back in service, following follow ing a repair to t o the right wing, including another spar splice, and in April o f 1945, the propeller, which was bent within limits for cold repairs, was refurbi refurbished shed by the Ford Motor Company at the Ford

Airport in Dearborn, Michigan.

In addition to the P&W R-985, the Howard had its entire electri electrical cal

system rewired to DGA-15P specs;

Robert D Bleifield of Coal City, Illi nois, on October 13, 1963. William H. Wright Jr. of Tulsa, Oklahoma, bought 18207 o n June 29, 1970 .. only to have it severely damaged when a tornado collapsed the hangar in which it was stored.

had the later-type rudder pedals, the 15P's heavy-duty brakes and larger wheelpants installed; and the propeller blades we were re shortened 2.5 inches and re-indexed for more pitch travel. The new empty weight was 2,731 pounds, and gross in  creased to 4,100 pounds . Max level speed increased from 172 mph true to 200, but the redline was reduced

T he fuselage was crushed just ahead o f the tail down to about eight to 10 inches in height, and the left wing was rotated back and down, breaking the main spar and twisting the big strut attach fitting

from 288 to 270 mph true. A third belly fuel tank holding 30 gallons was added, which brought the total capacity to 127 gallons. All of this was a testament to the structural integrity of the DGA-8 through-12 airframes-the fact that they could

o n the fuselage. Amazingly, Amazingly, how wing ever, the struts themselves were not damaged. Robert L Younkin of Fayette ville, Arkansas , Jim Younkin ' s brother, Bob- bought the wreck age from Bill Wright o n August 30,

handle this much additional power and weight without modification. Florida Fresh Air Express sold 18207 to U.S. Airlines Inc. of St. Petersburg, Florida, o n Septem

1971. Bob operated several aviation businesses and thus had the facil ities and resources to rebuild the Howard. After the airframe repairs were made and a freshly majored R-985 was installed, the airplane was recovered in Grade A cotton and finished as you might imag ine in orange dope. Bob made one trip in the How-

ber 26, 26 , 1946, for $11,000. The fol lowing summer, on July 5, 1947, the Howard was sold to Dr Joseph J. Locke of St. Petersburg-he im mediately had the elevator torque

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ard, to Blakesburg i n 1979, and ended up placing it in the Arkansas Air M u 

ing on our story.

seum in Fa y e t t e  ville, which he and brot her Jim helped f o u n d i n t h e late 1980s. Between the two o f them, they

DGA-12. T h e s e were DGA-8 air frames powered with less expensive 285- and 300-hp Jacobs e n g i n e s    e c o n o my m od els the company hoped woul d in 

had enough antique

airplanes to virtually fill the museum's re stored World War II

I n 1937 How ard Aircraft certi fied the DGA-9 and

hangar from day one. O n De cember 28, 1997, Bob formally signed over ownership of the Howard to the museum. Jim Younkin had his Mr. Mulli

crease sales. I t was not a successful venture, how ever. All the Howards were very expensive airplanes-the DGA 8s had a base price of $14,850 a t a time when the average

gan and Travel Air Mystery Ship in the museum, so he was frequently in and out of the facility. And on every occasion, his aesthetic sensi bilities were offended by the big, blunt DGA-15P cowling and large wheelpants on what he considered

American physician made just over $4,000 per y e a r - s o the reduction in price of the DGA 9s and -12s meant little to the very few who could afford such aircraft. They preferred higher performance, which was why

to be the otherwise sleek, narrow fuselage, high-firewall NC18207 . Jim was well versed in the his tory of the early production Ho How w ards and, in particular, how the prototype DGA-11 came about ...

Howard quickly got back to re ality and plugged a P&W R-985 into the nose of its airframes to create the DGA-11 series. The prototype DGA-11 was actually a retrofit of the first

and how it looked. That airplane, NC14871, serial number 72, was in his opinion the most beautiful of all Howards . . . of all airplanes .. and that's how he thought 18207 should be made to look. When Benny Howard conceived of Mr. Mulligan and had Gordon Is rael engineer it it,, he was already look ing ahead to a production version ...

and, indeed, it soon appeared in the form of the DGA-7 Mr. Flani gan. Unfort Unfor t unately, however, that airplane could not be certified in its

original configuration. The problem original pr oblem was its relatively small vertical tail,

which was very similar t o that of Mr. Mulligan. The feds had come up with a new rule that required an air plane to recover, power and hands

off, from a six-turn spin in one-and off, a-half additional turns, and to re cover from a six-turn spin entered with crossed controls within an ad ditional six turns, again with power 6

M

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and hands off. Flanigan would read ily recover with normal anti-spin control input, but not hands off un til a much taller, high-aspect-ratio

vertical tail was installed. This was a problem encountered by a number of new mid-1930s aircraft designs, designs ,

including the Rearwin Speedster, Spartan Executive, and Harlow, and all ended up wi th significantly larg larger er vertical tails. The reconfigured DGA-7 Mr. Fla nigan was certified on July 15, 1936 (ATC #612). Redesignated as a DGA 8, it was the fir first st of a batch bat ch of about

a dozen airplane airplaness produced pro duced by How ard Aircraft  s work force of some 25 30 employees. After Mr. Flanigan, the first production DGA-8 was the Wright 320 powered NC14871, serial number 72 which would have a further role to play in Howard Air craft history, and a significant bear

DGA-8 (after Mr. Flanigan), the aforementioned NC14871, se rial number 72, which was owned

by the Morton Morto n Salt Salt Company. Its 320 Wright was replaced by a P&W R 985, but, uniquely, its tapered cowl ing and an d sma small ll 7:50-by-1O wheelpants were retained-at least long enough for the photo on page 251 in Jupt ner's U. U.S. Civil Aircraft, Vol. 7, to be taken. Later DGA-lls had blunter cowls and 8:50-by-1O wheelpants. wheelpants . It was that aircraft, the prototype DGA-ll, that Jim Younkin consid ered to be the most beautiful of all the production Howards, and what he thought brother Bob was Bob's 's NC18207 should be changed to re semble.. He tried for years to buy the semble airplane or trade Bob something for it, but to no avail. Initially, Bob said Jim simply didn't need it, what with all his other airplanes, then later said he was concerned with

the integrity of the carry-through

5

 

tube fo forr the wing struts. Somehow, though, Jim says, I figured that eventu

airplane worked initially initially,, but one of the old gyros did give up after a few hours, says

ally I would be able to get my

Jim. A unique thing about the

hands on t he airplane and

correct front end. And that Bob died sev he did. eral years ago, and on Decem ber 18, 2003, Jim traded his 1930 Stinson Junior S to the museum for the Howard. Jim had a template for a DGA-8 cowling and had the original cowling off the Wallace Beery DGA-ll, which is owned by John Turgyan, in his shop, but work on a new tapered cowling did not start im mediately because Jim was heavily involved in the development of the TruTrak digital autopilots at the time. But I had access to a very tal ented individual, Darre Darrell ll Williams, Williams, who had just done an engine change for me on my Mullicoupe, so I pro

ceeded to introduce him to the power hammer and have him build the new cowl. He is a very quick

learner and did a beautiful job. The cowl was built in i n four piec pieces, es, each stretched and shrunk until it fitted a buck in the shape of the DGA 8 cowl. The Howard cowl was split vertically, so two of the quar ter panels were welded together t o form each of the cowl halves. Rather than trying to roll the lead

airplane is that it has never

been fully restored. I t has un dergone extensive repairs on several occasions, has been recovered, and has had an engine change, but some of it

Jim and da Younkin I hadn't shown Darrell the ways of doing that yet./I

That left the small wheelpants, and there Jim got lucky. Years ago Ron Rippon and Ron Cook bought a cache of Howard parts from a jump club in Illinois Illinois,, and Ron Rip pon seemed to recall that a pair of small Howard wheel pants was in

cluded. A call to Ron Cook, who had the remaining parts stored in his barn in Iowa, revealed that, yes,

the pants were still there, so Jim bought them. They were in terrible condi tion,/I tion ,/I Jim says, but they were orig inal DGA-8 Cincinnati Streamliner pants, name tags and all, so they were worth every effort to make them like new again./I After all the new parts were made-and painted orange-a thor

remains today as it was when it left the factory 67 years a g o - t h e instrument panel instance.. and upholstery, for instance It's the appear ance of the 01' Howard, with its new/old shape that matters most to Jim, however. He; his wife, Ada; and John Turg

yan flew it to Oshkosh last summer, and the interview for this article was conducted in a car sitting be side the Howard, whic h wa wass on dis play in front of the VAA Red Barn. Throughout the time, I noticed that Jim couldn't keep his eyes off the airplane, and at the end of the

interview he remarked, The inter

esting thing about this H o w a r d  and I'm not the only one who feels this way-iS that every time I look at it, I just can't get over it. I just can't look enough. I can't imagine a grown man looking at something like that and not appreCiating how beautiful it is. In my eyes, it is one

ing edges, Jim has come up with the practice of shapi ng and welding on one-inch heavy wall aluminum tubing to produce the same effec effect. t. The one other difference from the original hand-hammered cowlings

ough inspection o f the airplane was performed to make it ready for flight. Jim estimates that it only had about 20 hours since the rebuild by his brother, but it had been idle in the Arkansas Air Museum for

of the prettiest airplanes that ever was. In my opinion, it's the ulti mate Howard. t EAA AirVenture Oshkosh 2004 Jim Younki Younkin n received the th e Bronze Age (1937-1941) Outstanding Closed

was the means of attachme nt. They didn't know much about m o u n t i n g c o wlin g s i n t h o s e days, Jim says, so we incorpo rated mounting hardware from a Twin Beech to be sure our cowling wouldn't come off./I

many yearS. The fabric was good, and the dope , which Jim says was military surplus, was still as pli able as new. The forward belly tank was removed to allow inspection of the carry-through tube Bob had expressed concern a b o u t - a n d it

Cockpit Monoplane award for his

boot cowl between the fire The wall and the engine cowling was completely different than that of the later DGA-1SPs, so it had to be custom fitted for 18207. Some how, Jim did find time to make the carb air scoop and gear leg/wheel pant intersection fairings because

was found to been reinforced by sections of have the heavier DGA-1SP carry-through. Once I got t he wobble pump primed and could get fuel pressure, the engine started as though it had been run the day b e fo re -n o mag drop, nothing. Everything o n the

Howard DGA-ll, NC18207.

Jack Cox is the retired editor in-chief of EAA Sport Aviation magazine. He a n d his wife, Golda, retired managi ng edi tor of EAA Publications, write, produce, and publish the quar terly magazine Sportsman Pilot. For more in fo rma tio n , con tact them at: Sportsman Pilot

Magazine, P.O. Box 400, Ashe boro, NC 27204-0400, E-mail: [email protected].. [email protected] VINT

 

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m White s resurrection o f the legendary Monocoupe NCS01 W made its flying debut at the annual Cactus Fly-In at Casa Grande Arizona i n early March. This is the 1930 110 Monocoupe J ohnny livingston put

sold to Ruth Barron of Roches te r   New York who would die in the crash of the airplane at Omaha on July 3 1936. In 1964  1964   Jim Heim of Granada Hills California, es tablished ownership of the Clipwing, wh ic h was Monocoupe se -

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