Va Vol 47 no 4 Jul Aug 2019

JULY / AUGUST 2019

SNF PHOTO ROUNDUP SPECTACULAR SWIFTS

IMMACULATE T A RAVEL

IR

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The Privilege of Partnership EAA members are eligible for special pricing on Ford Motor Company vehicles through Ford’s Partner Recognition Program. To learn more about this exclusive opportunity for EAA members to save on a new Ford or Lincoln vehicle, please visit www.eaa.org/ford.

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Message from the President

July/August 2019

SUSAN DUSENBURY, VAA PRESIDENT

STAFF Publisher: Jack J. Pelton, EAA CEO and Chairman of the Board

See you in Oshkosh!

AS YOU READ THIS, your officers,

directors, and volunteers are completing the final tasks in preparation for EAA AirVenture Oshkosh 2019.

And, trust me, we are busy at Vintage Village with all of the preparations and are really excited with the fresh new look of our flagship building, the VAA Red Barn, now that renovations are complete. Vintage will again be operating the merchandise sales after contracting it out to EAA for the past four years. Many thanks to Red Barn Chairman Mary Knutson, Vintage Aircraft Association Maintenance Chairman Mike Blombach, EAA Director of Facilities Steve Taylor, and their teams for the hard work and planning that was necessary to get this project completed for AirVenture 2019. Mary and her team have done a fabulous job in the selection of both the high quality and the variety of merchandise. The Red Barn Store is not just a clothing store! Be there on Monday, July 22, at 9 a.m. for the grand opening ribbon-cutting ceremony and to place your name in the hat for door prizes. This, by the way, follows the VAA welcome with coffee and doughnuts as well as the Vintage Open Town Hall. (We start serving coffee and doughnuts in the Vintage Hangar at 7:30 a.m. The Town Hall begins around 8 a.m.) If any of you have a question or something to discuss with your officers IF YOU HAVE FOND MEMORIES and old photos of Jimmy Younkin please share them with me for a future tribute to Jim. Please send to JBUSHA@EAA.ORG

Editor: Jim Busha / jbusha@eaa.org Senior Copy Editor: Colleen Walsh

and directors, this is a great time to get that done! Your officers and directors will be there to hear what you have to say.

For those of you who find your way to the Tall Pines Café for breakfast, you will be pleased to know that Tall Pines Chairman Steve Neese has been working on an expanded breakfast menu. Being a native South Carolinian, I suggested cheese grits.

Let’s see what he comes up with.

Check it out — I plan to!

Several years ago, Vintage opened a bookstore knowing that so many sought-after aviation books are either thrown away in the local landfill or given to charities that are unrelated to aviation. We felt (and feel!) that those books should be in the hands of aviators and aviation enthusiasts and collectors such as yourselves. Basically, VAA accepts donated books and sells them at a reasonable price to our members and guests at the bookstore. The proceeds are used to enhance everyone’s experience at AirVenture during the week. This has proven to be a winwin for all of us. We keep these books in circulation, and the donor gets a tax write-off. (Remember, we are a nonprofit organization under the IRS code.) And, the proceeds support our efforts at Vintage during convention week. If you have any books to donate, please send them to: Vintage Aircraft Association Bookstore, Attn.: Amy Lemke, P.O. Box 3086, 3000 Poberezny Rd., Oshkosh, WI 54903-3086. All book donations are appreciated — no matter how many or how few.

Some may not be aware that Vintage operates a charging station for your phone and other electronic CONTINUED ON PAGE 64

Assistant Copy Editor: Katie Holliday-Greenley Proofreader: Jennifer Knaack Graphic Designer: Cordell Walker

ADVERTISING Vice President of Marketing and Business Development: Dave Chaimson / dchaimson@eaa.org Advertising Manager: Sue Anderson / sanderson@eaa.org

Mailing Address: VAA, PO Box 3086, Oshkosh, WI 54903 Website: www.vintageaircraft.org Email: vintageaircraft@eaa.org

Visit www.vintageaircraft.org for the latest in information and news and for the electronic newsletter: VINTAGE AIRMAIL

Current EAA members may join the Vintage Aircraft Association and receive VINTAGE AIRPLANE magazine for an additional $45/year.

EAA Membership, VINTAGE AIRPLANE magazine and one-year membership in the EAA Vintage Aircraft Association are available for $55 per year (SPORT AVIATION magazine not included).

(Add $7 for International Postage.)

Foreign Memberships Please submit your remittance with a check or draft drawn on a United States bank payable in United States dollars. Add required Foreign Postage amount for each membership.

Membership Service PO Box 3086, Oshkosh, WI 54903-3086 Monday–Friday, 8:00 AM—6:00 PM CST Join/Renew 800-564-6322 membership@eaa.org EAA AirVenture Oshkosh www.eaa.org/airventure 888-322-4636

www.vintageaircraft.org

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Contents F E AT U R E S

16 Vintage 2019 SUN ’n FUN Photo Roundup

28 Big Dreams

Rob “Waldo” Lock and his 1929 Travel Air E-4000

By Jim Busha

40 Where the Fun Is: Creampuff Debbie Cheney’s Cessna 140

By John Glodenbaum

50 Sleek and Spirited The Globe and TEMCO Swifts

By Sparky Barnes Sargent

QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS? Send your thoughts to the Vintage Editor at: jbusha@eaa.org For missing or replacement magazines, or any other membership-related questions, please call EAA Member Services at 800-JOIN-EAA (564-6322).

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July/August 2019

July/August 2019 / Vol. 47, No. 4

C OL U M N S 01

Message From the President

By Susan Dusenbury

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Friends of the Red Barn

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2019 Hall of Fame Inductee John Richard Turgyan

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VAA News

12

How To? Make inspection cover and drain grommet dollies

By Robert G. Lock

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Good Old Days

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The Vintage Mechanic Critical inspection items

By Robert G. Lock

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VAA New Members

C OV E R S Front Rob “Waldo” Lock cruises over a lush Iowa field during one of his barnstorming flights.

Photo by Connor Madison

Back A true friend of Vintage Aviation — Blue Skies, Jim Younkin!

Jim Younkin 4/3/1929 - 5/13/2019

PHOTOGRAPHY BY CHRIS MILLER

www.vintageaircraft.org 3

Friends of the

RED BARN DEAR FRIENDS,

For one week every year a temporary city of about 50,000 people is created in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, on the grounds of Wittman Regional Airport. We call the temporary city EAA AirVenture Oshkosh. During this one week, EAA and our communities, including the Vintage Aircraft Association, host more than 500,000 pilots and aviation enthusiasts along with their families and friends.

With the support of the very capable VAA officers, directors, and more than 600 volunteers, the Vintage Aircraft Association annually welcomes more than 1,100 vintage showplanes throughout the week of AirVenture on our nearly 1.3-mile flightline. We continue to work to bring an array of valuable services and interesting programs to the VAA membership and to all of our Vintage Village visitors during this magical week. Across Wittman Road and in front of our flagship building, the VAA Red Barn, we will feature some really interesting airplanes, including the beautiful past Vintage Grand Champions, an array of Fun and Affordable aircraft, and some exciting rare and seldom seen aircraft. In Vintage Village proper we have a hospitality service, a bookstore, a general store (the Red Barn Store), youth programs, educational forums, and much more.

As you can imagine, creating the infrastructure to support these displays as well as the programs offered during the week is both time consuming and costly, but they are made possible thanks to donations from our wonderful members.

In 2018, thanks to your support, we were able to dedicate the Charles W. Harris Memorial Park complete with a “back porch” and picnic tables for the enjoyment of the guests at Vintage Village. In 2018 we also began a multi-year landscaping project for the entire Vintage Village area, which should be complete by AirVenture 2019. As I write this the final phase of the Red Barn renovation is underway for the grand reopening of our Red Barn Store.

As your president, I am inviting you on behalf of the Vintage Aircraft Association to join our association’s once a year fundraising campaign — Friends of the Red Barn (FORB).

The services and programs that we provide for our members and guests during AirVenture are made possible through our FORB fundraising efforts.

A donation from you — no matter how large or small — supports the dream of aviation for aviators and aviation enthusiasts of all ages and levels of involvement. We invite you to join us in supporting this dream through the Friends of the Red Barn.

I thank you in advance for your continued support of the Vintage Aircraft Association as we move this premier organization forward on behalf of our membership and the vintage aircraft movement.

I am looking forward to seeing you all in July, If you have already made a 2019 FORB contribution, thank you for your dedication and support of the vintage aircraft movement.

I look forward to seeing you all in July !

SUSAN DUSENBURY, PRESIDENT VINTAGE AIRCRAFT ASSOCIATION

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PHOTOGRAPHY BY JACK FLEETWOOD, CONNOR MADISON

C A L L F O R V I N TA G E A I R CR A F T A S S O CI AT I O N

Nominate your favorite vintage aviator for the EAA Vintage Aircraft Association Hall of Fame. A great honor could be bestowed upon that man or woman working next to you on your airplane, sitting next to you in the chapter meeting, or walking next to you at EAA AirVenture Oshkosh. Think about the people in your circle of aviation friends: the mechanic, historian, photographer, or pilot who has shared innumerable tips with you and with many others. They could be the next VAA Hall of Fame inductee — but only if they are nominated.

The person you nominate can be a citizen of any country and may be living or deceased; his or her involvement in vintage aviation must have occurred between 1950 and

the present day. His or her contribution can be in the areas of flying, design, mechanical or aerodynamic developments, administration, writing, some other vital and relevant field, or any combination of fields that support aviation. The person you nominate must be or have been a member of the Vintage Aircraft Association or the Antique/Classic Division of EAA, and preference is given to those whose actions have contributed to the VAA in some way, perhaps as a volunteer, a restorer who shares his expertise with others, a writer, a photographer, or a pilot sharing stories, preserving aviation history, and encouraging new pilots and enthusiasts.

To nominate someone is easy. It just takes a little time and a little reminiscing on your part.

• Think of a person; think of his or her contributions to vintage aviation.

• Write those contributions in the various categories of the nomination form.

• Write a simple letter highlighting these attributes and contributions. Make copies of newspaper or magazine articles that may substantiate your view.

• If at all possible, have another individual (or more) complete a form or write a letter about this person, confirming why the person is a good candidate for induction.

We would like to take this opportunity to mention that if you have nominated someone for the VAA Hall of Fame, nominations for the honor are kept on file for three years, after which the nomination must be resubmitted.

Mail nominating materials to: VAA Hall of Fame, c/o Amy Lemke VAA PO Box 3086 Oshkosh, WI 54903 Email: alemke@eaa.org Find the nomination form at www.VintageAircraft.org, or call the VAA office for a copy (920-426-6110), or on your own sheet of paper, simply include the following information: • Date submitted.

• Name of person nominated.

• Address and phone number of nominee.

• Email address of nominee.

• Date of birth of nominee. If deceased, date of death.

• Name and relationship of nominee’s closest living relative.

• Address and phone of nominee’s closest living relative.

• VAA and EAA number, if known. (Nominee must have been or is a VAA member.)

• Time span (dates) of the nominee’s contributions to vintage aviation.

(Must be between 1950 to present day.)

• Area(s) of contributions to aviation.

• Describe the event(s) or nature of activities the nominee has undertaken in aviation to be worthy of induction into the VAA Hall of Fame.

• Describe achievements the nominee has made in other related fields in aviation.

• Has the nominee already been honored for his or her involvement in aviation and/or the contribution you are stating in this petition? If yes, please explain the nature of the honor and/or award the nominee has received.

• Any additional supporting information.

• Submitter’s address and phone number, plus email address.

• Include any supporting material with your petition.

2019 Hall of Fame Inductee John Richard Turgyan JOHN RICHARD TURGYAN, VAA Lifetime 3, of New Egypt, New Jersey, has been named the Vintage Aircraft Association’s Hall of Fame honoree for 2019.

The VAA began its prestigious annual hall of fame honors program in 1993. Over the past 26 years, 33 outstanding men and women have been inducted into this select group of aviation achievers.

This year, these highly accomplished aviation personalities are joined by John, whose achievements have earned him not only a place in the VAA Hall of Fame but also well-deserved recognition for his lifetime support of the vintage aircraft movement.

John began his fascination with airplanes before reaching the age of 5 when he managed to nail together several sticks to resemble an airplane in his father’s hobby shop. John’s parents realized where John’s interests lay and started purchasing model airplane kits for him to assemble. For John, life was all about airplanes whether it was building models or reading aviation magazines or comics. John’s models became more sophisticated over time, and by the age of 11 he built his first model with movable control surfaces — a Hellcat. With all of the glue and paint that John was using for his model projects he was pressed into getting a job delivering papers to pay for his passion for airplanes. When John was growing up it was a common practice for the entire family to pile into the car and go for a relaxing Sunday afternoon drive. It was on one of these Sunday afternoon excursions,

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PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY OF EAA ARCHIVES

John’s support and high level of involvement in and commitment to the vintage aircraft movement throughout his life has been steadfast. It has been positive. It has had a very definite and recognizable impact on aviation, not only in the aviation community but also on the general public. when John was 12 years old, that the family car passed the Princeton Nassau Airpark in Trenton, New Jersey, and John saw a sign advertising airplane rides for $20. John immediately saw his opportunity and was able to talk his father into taking him back to the airport for a plane ride. Those Sunday rides soon proved to be fruitful for John as, on another ride, he spotted an airplane in the distance climbing out just after takeoff. The next day, John rode his bicycle to the area and was able to locate the airport.

Back in those days there were no fences to keep people out, so John simply walked into a hangar and tried on a few of the planes for size only to be “busted” by the fixed base operator.

Undeterred, John kept riding his bicycle over to the airport where he was finally offered a job washing planes and later a lineboy position swapping his time on the job for flight time.

John’s dreams finally started to come true when he soloed at the age of 16 at the Morrisville, Pennsylvania, airport where he had been working for the past few years. John went on to get his private certificate at the age of 17. John kept working and getting more certificates and was eventually hired as a charter pilot by Princeton Airways flying mostly Piper Aztecs and Apaches. From there he went on to fly for Allegheny Airlines, which later changed its name to USAir. John flew with USAir until retirement.

Alongside his relatively typical airline pilot career path, John’s enchantment with the world of vintage airplanes continued.

At the age of 19, with some help from his grandmother, John was able to purchase a Piper J-3 with an A65 Continental, which he amazingly flew

for a little more than 450 hours in just the two years that he owned it. He then purchased a Ryan PT-22 with a Kinner R-56 engine, and flew this airplane for 100-plus hours. He was 21 years old at the time. John sold the PT-22 to buy a Stinson 108 powered by a 165-hp Franklin engine. It was with this Stinson that John began working on and restoring his own planes. John kept the Stinson for a little over a year and decided to sell it to buy his dream plane — a Howard DGA-15, which he kept for six years and flew for more than 1,000 hours. John then sold the Howard and bought an early model Beech Bonanza. It was not long before he moved on to one of the most sought after and treasured of all of the vintage airplanes — the Spartan Executive.

John’s was a Spartan Executive 7W, serial No. 2 with a 450-hp Pratt & Whitney engine. John flew this beauty for about two years before making a trade with George Mennen for George’s damaged Spartan Executive 7W, serial No. 34, which was the last Spartan Executive built. George delivered the damaged Spartan to John, and John then began the long process of restoring a vintage plane, which included fuselage and gear repairs, a new instrument panel, new interior, and new glass. (At that time, factory-produced parts were still available for his Spartan.)

In the meantime, John needed a plane to fly so he bought a Waco CTO Taperwing with a 350-hp Wright engine. John likes to say that this plane was “a goer!” With the many months and hours of work that John did on the Spartan during the restoration and on the Taperwing after he purchased it, John qualified for his FAA airframe and powerplant

mechanic certificate. He went on to earn these certificates after taking the written, oral, and practical tests. John kept and flew this Spartan for four years. John then sold the Taperwing and Spartan and bought a Beech Baron, which he still owns today. On July 4, 1976, John went back and again bought his dream plane — another Howard DGA. This time he bought the 11 model.

Only four Howard DGA-11s were built by the factory. The other three were destroyed over the years, leaving John with the only original Howard DGA-11 in existence. (There are a few other 11s in existence, but these were either 8s or 9s converted to the 11 model.)

For over four decades John was a close friend of the “Resident Genius of Springdale, Arkansas,” the recently deceased Jim Younkin who is also a VAA Hall of Fame honoree. Jim, of course, was known for his authentic, full-scale copy of Benny Howard’s 1935 Bendix and Thompson trophy-winning Howard DGA-6, Mr. Mulligan, and for his exact replica 1929 Thompson Trophy-winning Travel Air Mystery Ship. John was one of the few pilots chosen by Jim to fly these airplanes to shows around the United States — a testament to both John’s character and skill as a pilot.

John’s support and high level of involvement in and commitment to the vintage aircraft movement throughout his life has been steadfast. It has been positive. It has had a very definite and recognizable impact on aviation, not only in the aviation community but also on the general public.

John Richard Turgyan will be inducted into the EAA Vintage Aircraft Association Hall of Fame on the evening of November 7, 2019, at the EAA Aviation Museum in Oshkosh, Wisconsin.

www.vintageaircraft.org

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VAA News O

Noon-5 p.m. — Type club representatives will be available in the Vintage Hangar Monday through Friday. Vintage hosts representatives of many aircraft type clubs. They can answer questions about specific vintage aircraft, such as Aeroncas, Bellancas, Cubs, Cessnas, Navions, Pipers, Wacos, and many others. A list of our affiliated type clubs is available at www.EAAVintage.org/about-us/type-clubs.

EAA AirVenture 2019 VAA Schedule CHECK WWW.EAAVINTAGE.ORG/ OSHKOSH-2019 or the postings at the

VAA Red Barn, Vintage Hangar, and Tall Pines Café for more details and the latest updates.

New for 2019: Grand reopening of the VAA Red Barn Monday at 9 a.m. immediately following the Vintage Town Hall.

EVENTS REPEATING ALL WEEK O

Vintage Forums: Sponsored by B&C Specialty Products, forums are held in the Vintage Hangar Monday through Friday between 8 a.m. and noon. Reminder: Type club exhibit tables will be open Monday through Friday only from noon to 5 p.m. and will be closed during forums hours.

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Vintage Bookstore: Located just south of the Vintage Hangar on Rose Plaza, the Vintage Bookstore has accumulated a large and varied inventory of used and/or out-of-print aviation books. Susan Dusenbury invites you to come and buy a book, browse, or just take a break. Come and read awhile on our covered front porch. The VAA Bookstore will accept donated books during AirVenture as well. Donated books can be tax deductible since VAA is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit.

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10:30 a.m. — Vintage in Review opens each day by the Ladies for Liberty at the Rose Plaza Interview Circle just east of the Vintage Hangar.

Ray Johnson interviews the owners and restorers of many beautiful and unique vintage airplanes beginning at 11 a.m. Monday through Friday.

PRE-CONVENTION

Volunteers are at work preparing for our members and guests. If you can give some time, please visit Gerry, Debbie, Denise, and Lynn at the Volunteer Center located at the corner of Wittman Road and Vern Avenue outside the Red Barn. We have jobs for all skill and experience levels. Become an active part of Vintage at EAA AirVenture Oshkosh.

Tall Pines Café, our permanent facility on Wittman Road near the ultralight runway, will be open for breakfast on Saturday and Sunday preconvention. Tall Pines is operated 100 percent by Vintage Aircraft Association volunteers to serve our members and guests. Check with Steve Nesse at Tall Pines if you can give some volunteer hours.

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Hand-Propping Demonstrations, “Prop it Right and Save a Life”: Dion Carr, A&P/IA, assisted by Mary Carr, will demonstrate the safe and legal way to hand prop an aircraft engine.

Many vintage aircraft must be started by hand propping since they have no electric starter. We have taught more than a thousand visitors how to safely hand prop engines at Oshkosh over the years since Dale Gustafson suggested and conducted the first demonstrations here at Oshkosh. Gus has gone west, and we miss him! Demonstrations at 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. Monday through Friday.

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Metal Shaping Demonstrations: See metal shaping of aircraft cowlings and other compound surfaces performed by experts Dave and Maxwell Wenglarz. Watch closely and you may be given a chance to try your hand at it. Located on the outside south side of the Vintage Hangar.

Demonstrations every day, Monday-Friday.

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Paul’s Vintage Workshop: In the northeast corner of the Vintage Hangar, A&Ps Jim Hamilton and Don Bartlett will demonstrate a variety of workshop activities each day, Monday-Friday.

See the schedule in the hangar for specific times for each activity.

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Red Barn Hospitality and Information: Amy, Sandy, Barry, and Mary host the hospitality area in our completely refurbished Red Barn. They have information, emergency phone numbers, a schedule of events, popcorn, and lemonade.

They can also arrange some transportation on and off the field. You can pick up your participant plaque if you flew an aircraft into the Vintage area, or purchase tickets for the Vintage Picnic held on Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. at Tall Pines Café. All of this they do with a big smile.

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Vintage Aircraft Tram Tour: Join Jim, Mary, and their crew as they drive you through rows and rows of rare and unique vintage aircraft. Tours are roughly one hour in length and depart from and return to the front of the Red Barn.

PHOTOGRAPHY BY JACK FLEETWOOD

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MONDAY Vintage Town Hall and Red Barn Store Grand Reopening O

6:30-9:30 a.m. — Breakfast at Tall Pines Café.

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7:30 a.m. — Kick-Off Social in the Vintage Hangar with coffee and our famous Tall Pines doughnuts.

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8 a.m. — Forum: Vintage Open Town Hall Presented by Susan Dusenbury. Meet and talk with the VAA officers and directors over free coffee and doughnuts. Vintage leaders will discuss recent activities of the association, current plans, and our goals for the future. This is your opportunity to express your thoughts and our opportunity to hear them.

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9 a.m. — Red Barn Store Grand Reopening.

Remember, members receive a 10 percent discount.

9 a.m. — Forum: History of Early Aeroncas Presented by Craig MacVeigh, National Aeronca Association president. This forum will discuss the origins of the aircraft and how it evolved through the years.

10 a.m. — Forum: Ercoupe Maintenance Forum Presented by Kevin Gassert, A&P. Kevin Gassert of the Ercoupe Owners Club, will be talking all about Ercoupe maintenance. He has a wealth of knowledge about this aircraft and is prepared to answer any questions you may bring to the forum.

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10:30 a.m. — Vintage in Review at Interview Circle.

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11 a.m. — Forum: Twin Bonanza Forum Presented by Bill Schutzler. Come hear all about the Twin Bonanza, which is celebrating its 70th anniversary this year. This forum will discuss maintenance, flight, and everything in between.

TUESDAY Vintage Youth Day O

6:30-9:30 a.m. — Breakfast at Tall Pines Café.

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8 a.m. — Forum: Hatz Biplane Association Forum Presented by Kevin Conner, Hatz Biplane Association president. This forum will discuss the rich history of this beautiful airplane and recent activities of the club.

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9 a.m. — Forum on Drone Collisions: Myths and Reality Presented by Bill English. With thousands of unmanned aircraft (drones) now part of the airspace, the risk of midair collision is a major discussion. This presentation reviews NTSB case studies and how they actually turned out: confirmed as a collision, plausible that a drone could have been involved, or busted as something else altogether. Bill English, who’s been with the NTSB for 20 years, is an investigator-in-charge in the Major Investigations Division of the Office of Aviation Safety and serves as the NTSB’s unmanned aircraft program lead.

July 4 - 7 | Decatur, IL July 5 - 6 | Port Clinton, OH * July 7 - 8 | Put-In-Bay, OH * July 11 - 14 | Aurora, IL July 11 - 14 | Kalamazoo, MI * July 22 - 28 | Oshkosh, WI This tour stop is a part of eaa® airventure® oshkosh™ 2019

Aug. 2 - 3 | Port Clinton, OH * Aug. 4 - 5 | Put-In-Bay, OH * Aug. 8 - 11 | Dayton, OH * Aug. 15 - 18 | Frankfort, IN * *indicates a liberty tri-motor tour stop

Visit FLYTHEFORD.org for a complete schedule!

Ford Tri-Motor 5-AT property of

PHOTOGRAPHY BY ART EICHMANN

Visit flytheford.org or call 1-877-952-5395 to reserve your flight.

www.vintageaircraft.org

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VAA News O

10 a.m. — Forum: Aeroncas Presented by Bill Pancake. Bill Pancake, A&P/IA, will be discussing anything and everything related to Aeroncas. Bill has a strong passion for repairing and restoring small vintage airplanes and was honored as the FAA’s 2018 National Aviation Technician of the Year.

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10:30 a.m. — Vintage in Review at Interview Circle.

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11 a.m. — Forum: Swift Museum Foundation Forum Presented by Jim “Frog” Jones, Swift Museum Foundation president. This forum will discuss the airplane’s history, current topics with the Swift, and recent activities of the club.

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1-2 p.m. — Vintage Children’s Hands-On Workshop presented by Dave Clark and Vintage volunteers for children aged 8 to 12. Parents are encouraged to attend and watch their kids’ progress.

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10:30 a.m. — Vintage in Review at Interview Circle.

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11 a.m. — Forum: Fairchild Club Forum Presented

by Mike Kelly, Fairchild Club president. This forum will discuss current topics with the Fairchild and recent activities of the club.

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5 p.m. — Vintage Annual General Membership Meeting at Tall Pines Café. All VAA members and friends are invited to attend.

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6:30 p.m. — Annual Vintage Picnic at Tall Pines Café. Tickets are available for purchase at the Information Center in the Red Barn. You must purchase your ticket in advance and they often sell out early in the week.

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10 a.m. — Forum: Special viewing of Heather Taylor’s award-winning documentary Breaking Through the Clouds, the story of the first Women’s Air Derby, with introduction and commentary by Susan Dusenbury who participated in the film and the reenactment of the race. This award-winning documentary shares the inspiring true story of 20 women who raced across America in the summer of 1929. The film’s duration is 1 hour, 45 minutes, and thus this forum will last about two hours.

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10:30 a.m. — Vintage in Review at Interview Circle.

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9-10 a.m. — Evening Air Show and Fireworks Display.

11 a.m. — Forum: Continuation of Breaking Through the Clouds presentation.

1-2 p.m. — Vintage Children’s Hands-On Workshop presented by Dave Clark and Vintage volunteers for children ages 8 to 12. Parents are encouraged to attend and watch their kids’ progress.

THURSDAY WEDNESDAY Vintage Day O

6:30-9:30 a.m. — Breakfast at Tall Pines Café

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8 a.m. — Forum: Youth Forum Presented by Charlie Waterhouse. Calling all kids who are interested in aviation! This forum is being put on by our Vintage Youth Ambassadors — all young people with a wide variety of involvement in aviation, from flying to maintenance to engineering. Come hear their stories and learn how you can get involved in the aviation world, too.

This forum is for the young and young at heart — all are welcome. Free doughnuts provided!

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9 a.m. — Forum: American Navion Society Forum Presented by Gary Rankin, American Navion Society president. This forum will discuss current topics with the Navion and recent activities of the club.

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10 a.m. — Forum: Maintenance Related Accidents Presented by Dr. Kristi Dunks. While maintenance keeps aircraft operating, sometimes errors happen. By understanding these errors, you will be better equipped to detect them before an accident occurs. Dr. Kristi Dunks joined the NTSB in 2003 and is currently a transportation safety analyst in the Office of Aviation Safety. She is a commercial pilot for helicopters and airplanes, a flight instructor, and holds an A&P mechanic certificate. Kristi also owns a 1955 Super Cub.

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Ladies Who Fly Taildraggers Day

FRIDAY

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6:30-9:30 a.m. — Breakfast at Tall Pines Café.

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6:30-9:30 a.m. — Breakfast at Tall Pines Café.

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8 a.m. — Forum: American Waco Club Presented

by John Gerth, American Waco Club president.

This forum will discuss current topics with the Waco and recent activities of the club.

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9 a.m. — Forum: International Cessna 195 Club Forum Presented by John Barron and Bill Milton.

This forum will discuss current topics with the Cessna 195 and recent activities of the club.

8 a.m. — Forum: Rigging of the Fabric Pipers Presented by Clyde Smith. Clyde Smith, “The Cub Doctor,” will talk all about rigging of the fabric Pipers. Although many owners’ handbooks include a section on “leveling and rigging” that discuss how to level the aircraft, set the dihedral angle, etc., Clyde is very experienced with this process and will be sharing some of his tips and tricks that he’s learned through the years.

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9 a.m. — Forum on Weather: Lessons Learned and Tools to Mitigate, Presented by Donald Eick. Environmental factors continue to have a significant impact on aviation safety, with about 23 percent of general aviation accidents attributed to weather, accounting for 30 percent of all fatalities.

This presentation discusses several weatherrelated accidents, as well as obtaining weather, receiving updates, getting weather in the cockpit, and making good weather decisions. Donald Eick is the NTSB’s senior meteorologist, with more than 20 years in the Office of Aviation Safety and more than 40 years of experience in aviation weather.

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10 a.m. — Forum: Taylorcraft Owner’s Club Forum Presented by John Hofmann. This forum will discuss current topics with Taylorcraft airplanes and recent activities of the club.

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10:30 a.m. — Vintage in Review at Interview Circle.

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11 a.m. — Forum: Aeronca Aviators Club Forum Presented by Robert Szego. This forum will discuss current topics with the Aeronca and recent activities of the club.

Charge Up Your Piper

SATURDAY Vintage Awards Day O

6:30-9:30 a.m. — Breakfast at Tall Pines Café (subject to remaining food quantities).

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6 p.m. — Vintage Awards Ceremony in the Vintage Hangar. All are welcome. Light refreshments immediately following.

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9-10 a.m. — Evening Air Show and Fireworks Display. Popcorn available at the Red Barn.

SUNDAY O

5 p.m. — Convention closes. If you are not departing immediately, consider giving some Vintage volunteer time today to help take down, clean up, and put away.

There’s always lots to do.

PHOTOGRAPHY BY WILL CAMPBELL, JACK FLEETWOOD

STC/PMA The BC400 Alternator system is now FAA-approved for Piper J-5C, PA-11, PA-12, PA-14, PA-16, PA-18, PA-20, and PA-22 aircraft. Fits Lycoming Wide- or Narrow-deck engines with NO change of oil cooler location required!

316-283-8000 • BandC.com www.vintageaircraft.org

11

How To? ROBERT G. LOCK

Make inspection cover and drain grommet doilies

BY ROBERT G. LOCK

IN THE OLD DAYS of Grade A cotton

fabric, inspection rings and drain grommets were secured to the fabric using butyrate dope. Since the material used in making these pieces was acetate plastic and the dope was made from cellulose acetate butyrate, the two were compatible and the bond was good. However, with the advent of synthetic fabric processes, the bond was not all that good, and the inspection rings would commonly come loose, which made for a messy repair to correct the situation.

Synthetic fabric manufacturers suggest that inspection rings and drain grommets should be covered with a layer of fabric to securely bond them in place. Here is an easy way to make the doilies used to reinforce rings and grommets.

Figure 1

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Make a frame of any size; mine measures 2-by-3 feet. Obtain some lightweight Dacron fabric and then stretch and tack it to the frame. I use nailing strips to hold the fabric in place. Then lightly shrink the fabric to remove all the wrinkles (they won’t come out after bonding to the fabric).

I use the lid from a 1-gallon paint container as the diameter to cut the doilies to size. Mark each doily while the fabric is still stretched in the panel. Mark with a pencil, then brush Poly Brush (or whatever the base coat is) around the pencil marks and allow it to dry. Note that I have drilled a hole in the center of the can lid so the center of the circle can be located.

Cut out the doilies with pinking shears — the base coat will hold fibers in place and prevent raveling of threads and filaments. Drain grommet covers can be made the same way but, of course, use a smaller diameter circle — something around 2 inches.

At the proper time in the process, locate and bond the inspection rings and drain grommets to the fabric and allow them to cure thoroughly.

Figure 2

Figure 3

Wet out the center of the inspection ring with a brush and the base coat material, and place the doily in the center of the ring using the center dot as a guide. Press the doily well into the base coat and use the paintbrush handle to work the doily tightly against the plastic ring.

Allow it to dry before going on to the next step.

Now, wet out the remaining area under the doily using a paintbrush and smooth the doily down, being careful to remove all air bubbles and again pushing the doily against the ring with the handle of the paintbrush.

With a little care and patience the final product will look something like Figure 3. By using a two-step method of bonding the doily to the fabric surface, a good air bubble and wrinkle-free covering of the inspection ring will occur. If you don’t let the center dry before sticking down the outer part, the doily will continue to creep around and you will never get it centered, remove all the air bubbles, and get it stuck securely to the plastic ring.

www.vintageaircraft.org

13

Good Old Days

From the pages of what was ...

Take a quick look through history by enjoying images pulled from publications past.

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www.vintageaircraft.org 15

2019 SUN ’n FUN

PHOTO ROUNDUP

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July/August 2019

PHOTOGRAPHY BY CHRIS MILLER

www.vintageaircraft.org

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2019 SUN ’n FUN

PHOTO ROUNDUP

From DC-3s to making new friends under the shade on the Vintage Hospitality Center porchto a catching pair of Swan wheel chocks — the 2019 SUN ‘n FUN International Fly-In & Expo was full of vintage airplanes.

PHOTOGRAPHY BY CONNOR MADISON

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CHECK OUT THE DIGITAL EDITION of Vintage for a photo gallery of SUN ‘n FUN.

LEFT: Cessnas, Pipers, and Bonanzas share the same line.

RIGHT: A pretty red and white Waco joins the fun.

BOTTOM: Cub sunrise.

PHOTOGRAPHY BY CHRIS MILLER

www.vintageaircraft.org

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RIGHT: A row of Cessna 195s.

LEFT: A Bellanca triple tail receives an not and escort.

BOTTOM: A Cub on the grass.

PHOTOGRAPHY BY JIM BUSHA

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2019 SUN ’n FUN

PHOTO ROUNDUP

TOP: Twin Beech.

LEFT: Howard DGA taxiing out.

RIGHT: A Stearman getting tucked in for the night.

PHOTOGRAPHY BY CONNOR MADISON

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LEFT: A de Havilland Beaver on floats.

RIGHT: Stinson 10A. BOTTOM: A sharp looking red Stinson Reliant.

PHOTOGRAPHY BY CHRIS MILLER

www.vintageaircraft.org

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RIGHT: A yellow Stearman looks for a parking spot.

LEFT: A Swift and a C-195 S-turn their way to the showline.

BOTTOM: A Waco UPF shuts down after arriving.

PHOTOGRAPHY BY JIM BUSHA

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Whether by twin or biplane, high wing or low wing — all were welcome in the Vintage area.

PHOTOGRAPHY BY CONNOR MADISON

www.vintageaircraft.org 25

2019 SUN ’n FUN

PHOTO ROUNDUP

PHOTOGRAPHY BY CHRIS MILLER

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July/August 2019

LEFT: Old Glory stands guard next to a Cub. RIGHT: A polished Coupe enjoys the Florida sun.

BOTTOM: Acres of vintage types fill the SUN ‘n FUN grounds .

PHOTOGRAPHY BY JIM BUSHA

CLICK HERE

TO SEE A FLICKR GALLERY OF SUN ‘N FUN.

www.vintageaircraft.org

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BI ROB “WALDO” LOCK AND HIS 1929 TRAVEL AIR E-4000

BY JIM BUSHA

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July/August 2019

PHOTOGRAPHY BY CONNOR MADISON

IG

DREAMS

www.vintageaircraft.org

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SIMPLE MAN

ob “Waldo” Lock of Lakeland, Florida, has been operating his barnstorming business, affectionately called Waldo Wright’s Flying Service, out of Winter Haven, Florida, since 1995. Rob’s mantra for every passenger he flies is to “take you on the adventure of a lifetime!”

In a way, Rob’s life has also been an adventure of a lifetime. What started in 1995 with the dream of restoring two New Standard biplanes to recapture the golden age of aviation has grown into America’s largest vintage biplane ride company. Rob considers himself a very simple man and wears many hats as owner/pilot/restorer/mechanic of two New Standard D-25s (1929 and 1931) and a Boeing Stearman (1942).

“The New Standard airplane was designed specifically for barnstorming at the request of Ivan Gates, the proprietor of the famous Gates Flying Circus,” Rob said. “Gates, with Clyde ‘Upside-Down’ Pangborn, formed and operated one of the largest groups of barnstorming airplanes from the middle 1920s and into the 1930s. Carrying four passengers in a large front open cockpit, the airplane was instrumental in introducing hundreds of thousands of people to their first airplane ride when aviation was in its infancy. That was an era when most flying was out of a pasture near their hometowns or county fairs.”

For most “sane” individuals, one old airplane in a lifetime is plenty; owning three of them is borderline crazy. But Rob will be the first to admit, as a student of the past and more specifically a pilot and mechanic who appreciates the

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Rob’s inspiration: a Travel Air E-4000 on EDO M-2665 floats in Panama in the 1930s.

flying qualities and craftsmanship from a bygone era, it takes an airplane-crazy person to be the caretaker of these historic treasures. So it was really no surprise to me when I visited Rob a handful of years ago at his hangar that he showed me his newest acquisition, a 1929 Travel Air E-4000. At that time the airplane was a skeletal frame with various parts and pieces, including a nice set of EDO M-2665 floats scattered about his hangar awaiting their turn for Rob to restore them to better than new condition.

“I recall years ago seeing a photo of a Travel Air E-4000 on a set of EDO M-2665 floats in Panama in the early 1930s,” Rob said. “The airplane was used as an advanced floatplane trainer and carried passengers and mail, too. That image stuck with me, and I knew I wanted a Travel Air in my life someday. With my hangar just a stone’s throw away from Jack Brown’s Seaplane Base here

PHOTOGRAPHY BY CONNOR MADISON

TRAVEL AIR in Winter Haven, I thought it would be really cool to offer floatplane flying from the front seat of a Travel Air. I enjoy the storytelling elements with these airplanes as we try to successfully be ambassadors to the vintage side of aviation and have fun with it. With these time machines you touch people and you reach out to people and educate them, and we’re very blessed that we can make a living doing what we do. The idea for a fourth airplane turned into reality in 2009 when I purchased a Travel Air E-4000.”

TAKE THE LONG WAY HOME

“The Travel Air Manufacturing Company was an aircraft manufacturer established in Wichita, Kansas, in January 1925 by Clyde Cessna, Walter Beech, and Lloyd Stearman,” Rob said. “The Travel Air model was primarily designed by Lloyd Stearman and was marketed by Walter Beech and financed by Clyde Cessna.

So, those three famous aviation icons joined forces to make those airplanes. They ended up building around 1,600 of them, maybe a little bit more. They also built Model 6000, a monoplane with a heavy design influence of Clyde Cessna. He thought that the future of aviation was not in biplanes but in monoplanes.”

Ultimately, the three split up and went their separate ways. Cessna went out and started building monoplanes under his own name. Beech went with Travel Air, which was later purchased by CurtisWright, and moved to St. Louis.

“He was up there for six to nine months and he’s like, ‘This is not for me,’” Rob said. “Then he went back to Wichita and started building the Staggerwing.

Lloyd Stearman went out to California and got a job building and designing the Lockheed Electra for Lockheed. You can sense some of Lloyd Stearman’s design in that airplane.”

Rob’s airplane, NC691K, was originally purchased from Travel Air by Texas Air Transport, and it was used to transport passengers from smaller rural towns to the larger airports scattered around Texas.

“The airplane was actually delivered on Black Thursday, which is October 29, 1929,” Rob said. “It was delivered on the day the stock market crashed in 1929 to Texas Air Transport, which was located at Meacham Field in Dallas, Texas. It arrived as an E-4000 and accepted by Mr. Cyrus R. Smith who was secretary/treasurer and signed the original bill of sale.

At the time, Texas Air Transport had three successful things going on during those dark economic days.

They had two contract air mail routes, Nos. 21 and 22, and they had Texas Flying Service, which was the transport side of the business for paid passengers operating Fokker Super Universals and Travel Airs, including ours.”

PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY OF ROB LOCK

Texas Air Transport merged with Gulf Coast Airways (New Orleans), which, together, became Southern Air Transport (SAT). Southern Air Transport was then gobbled up by Aviation Corporation (AVCO), which was a holding company that was buying many small airlines. AVCO became American Airways in 1934.

“Our Travel Air E-4000 was there on day one and flew for American,” Rob said. “After it left American Airlines it ultimately became a crop duster in the south, where it spent the lion’s share of its life down low below the tree line dusting crops well into the 1970s.”

RUNNIN’ DOWN A DREAM

Rob refers to the 1920s era as the “Great Gatsby period with airplanes.”

“Times were pretty good, and a lot of people had a lot of money because the economy was really rolling along in late ’20s,” Rob said. “I remember thinking about this back in 2006 on the air tour I was on, and there was a Travel Air parked next to a Waco straight wing parked next to a Command-Aire. Looking at those three airplanes, they were all competing for the same buyer back then. In my opinion, the Travel Air was hands down the prettiest airplane of the three.

Yes, I’ll take the Travel Air over the Waco or certainly the Command-Aire. Don’t get me wrong, all of them are fine airplanes in their own right, and although I love flying my Stearman, there is just something more idealistic with the Travel Air. The Travel Air was a sportsman’s plane. It wants to play.”

www.vintageaircraft.org 31

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PHOTOGRAPHY BY CONNOR MADISON

www.vintageaircraft.org

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TRAVEL AIR CHECK OUT THE DIGITAL EDITION of Vintage for a video on Rob Lock’s Travel Air and some other barnstormers.

The Southern Air Transport logo was hand painted on one side while the other side showcases the Texas Air Transport lineage.

Rob’s plane didn’t do much playing after the 1930s.

After carrying paying passengers, it was deemed obsolete in favor of more modern airplanes of the time like the Douglas DC-2 and DC-3.

“Our Travel Air spent a majority of its working life in Arkansas from the ’50s, ’60s, ’70s, ’80s, and into the 1990s,” Rob said. “From there it was purchased by a guy out in Oregon where it underwent a disjointed journey of restoration. It bounced around to several different restoration shops and was finally finished in 2000 near Portland, Oregon. Unfortunately, when it finally got back into the air, the owner had aged to the point where he couldn’t really fly the airplane anymore; he had ground-looped it two or three times when he tried and did some damage to it.”

Rob’s Travel Air sat in a state of dormancy for several years before it was put up for sale, and the gentleman who owned it ultimately passed away. It sat for years in Oregon until Rob sent a friend out to look at it in 2009.

“He reported back to me and said, ‘Yeah, it’s okay for what you want to do with it,’” Rob said. “Because we wanted to put it on floats I wanted to make sure it was a viable candidate. He reported back with, ‘With what you want to do with it, you can make it work.’ So, we bought it sight unseen.”

Due to Rob’s schedule, he wasn’t able to look at his new airplane until four months later when he and his girlfriend, Jill Manka, flew out to take ownership and then dismantle it for the trip home to Florida.

“When we first saw it, it was definitely not love at first sight,” Rob said. “It was sitting in a hangar, and I looked at it and I got close to it. I noticed that there was some damage that had been done to the wings that wasn’t in the logbooks. Then, when we were taking it apart, I noticed some other concerning things. I could move the wings forward and aft so there was something going on with the fittings. I knew we would need to take the cover off the lower wings at least. We found a lot of unairworthy items in the wings. I started to question the rest of the restoration and got to a certain point where I knew I was going to have it completely restored.”

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WITH A LITTLE HELP FROM MY FRIENDS

To get the project moving Rob sent the Travel Air fuselage out to Mark Lightsey’s shop where he performed some minor work on it. Rob and Jill also did some limited restoration work on their own in preparation to ship it back to Florida.

“When we brought it back here, we stuck it in the back of the hangar and tried to figure out what we were going to do with it,” Rob said. “At the same time, Jill’s Aeronca Champ project was going on. Honestly, I didn’t have the skills necessary to restore something like a Travel Air and felt a little over my head. I’m a mechanic and I fly airplanes and I maintain them, but I’ve never really built anything. But, if it was ever going to fly, I knew I was going to have to do it. So, we started the restoration of it in 2014.”

Rob’s first order of business was to assess what was needed. First on the list was building a complete new set of wings. Rob had to replace a third of the fittings because they were either cracked or corroded and unairworthy. But getting the wood was an issue because, according to Rob, all the really good Sitka spruce was going to Japan for chopsticks and pianos.

“When I finally got the wood, I needed to learn what to do with it,” Rob said. “I had never built wings before.

So, my friend Dave Groh at Yesteryear Aviation of Mason, Michigan, built a Travel Air wing kit for me. He built the spars and ribs, and then he kind of guided me through how to carefully put them all together. I built the first one, learned from it, and when I built the second one, it wasn’t a big deal. I learned early on, don’t look at the big picture, just focus in on this little task and do something

to it every single day. It took me a year and a half to build the wings. I put them on the plane, and they fit. I measured everything, and the lower wings were within 3/8 of an inch of being square.”

Once the wings and center section were complete, Rob focused his attention on the fuselage. Rob again learned some new skills as he had never really done metal work before.

“My friend Rick at Fantasy of Flight says, ‘Ah, it’s not a big deal. I’ll show you how to do it,’” Rob said.

“So, he showed me a lot of how to do a lot of metal work, and it’s kind of trial and error. I learned a lot, many new skills on this airplane.”

Rob already knew how to do fabric work so that wasn’t an issue. Fabrication actually got to be kind of fun, and trying to figure out how to make everything work became enjoyable.

“What I really enjoyed with it was, when you restore a Stearman, you have a manual and you have exploded views and it tells you what part goes where, this clamp

goes here, so it’s a jigsaw puzzle. The Travel Air is different. There are no Travel Airs that are alike. They all came out of the same factory, but they’re all different because the type certificate data sheet on that is just a paragraph. It allows a lot of restorer’s leeway, and you have to do everything within the AC 43.13. You look at one Travel Air, and all of them were different in some form or fashion. So, you had to figure out things, and I enjoyed doing that.”

Mark Lightsey of AeroCraftsman of Pleasant View, Tennessee, had put the stringers on the fuselage because Rob chose a Continental 220-hp engine with the Stearman exhaust to power the Travel Air so the front of the airplane is round.

“Travel Airs, if you look on a stock Travel Air, it’s flat on the sides,” Rob said. “There’s two stringers on them, and they’re flat. If I restored the airplane like it was supposed to be out of the factory, the fuselage sides were flat, and then in two feet, it would have gone from flat to round. It would kind of look like somebody kind of pinched the fuselage.”

Aaron and his father, Rob “Waldo” Lock.

PHOTOGRAPHY BY CONNOR MADISON

www.vintageaircraft.org

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Rob’s meticulous detail in restoring the Travel Air is evident from both its metal and woodworking. Rob used the hand painting skills of Paul Hetrick to apply the fuselage art.

Rob wanted that look so he ended up barreling the whole fuselage out to match the exhaust. That meant a new firewall, which meant new bulkheads, which meant new metal. It changed everything, which added at least a year to the project. Because everything had to be remade, Rob couldn’t use anything that came with the airplane.

“It had a Wright on it originally,” Rob said. “I needed to put a Continental on it because a Continental weighs 100 pounds less than the Wright, and weight was an issue.”

Rob chose a ground-adjustable Hamilton Standard propeller for his project, and it was a perfect combination with the Continental.

“My friend Dave Groh, who builds all my engines at Yesteryear Aviation, said that he had a special set of pistons held back for me,” Rob said. “They’re oversized pistons, and the engine produces 100 more rpm on the test cell. When you look at the power chart, the engine is producing about 240-245 hp, and it’s got a long 104-inch propeller on it, and it goes. It produces a lot more power than the Stearman engine.”

Rob tried to make the airplane as light as he could by pulling out stuff that he didn’t necessarily need. The airplane doesn’t have an alternator system. It doesn’t have a radio, and it has a very basic starter switch with a battery that doesn’t recharge itself.

“It’s made as light as I could possibly make it,” Rob said. “It came out at 1,800 pounds, which is pretty good.”

Another interesting item in the restoration was the rear seat as it sits on wooden rails and not on any steel structure at all.

“When I got the airplane, one of the oak rails was split,” Rob said. “I’m kind of a bigger guy. One little bump and I might have been sitting on the floor or sitting in the rudder cables and bad things might have happened. So, we had to go back in there and make it the way it was supposed to be and make it safer.”

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PHOTOGRAPHY BY JIM BUSHA, PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY OF ROB LOCK

TRAVEL AIR Rob also knew from his years as a ride operator that people are bigger these days. The wing was going to have to be capable of holding up stresses that maybe weren’t around back in the ’20s.

“The Travel Air is no different,” Rob said. “I beefed up the wing walk and made it 8 inches wider, and I doubled the amount of braces underneath it so that it can carry heavy people and the structure won’t be compromised.”

Rob chose the original 30 by 5 Bendix wheels with hydraulic brakes.

“The thing with the 30 by 5 wheels is you cannot put a side load on them,” he said. “When you land it, the airplane needs to be going straight. It’s a little bit temperamental because the wheels were designed in a time when there were no runways so you would land in a field. That’s why they’re high-pressure, big wheels. If you hit a gopher hole or you hit something, the wheel would probably go right over a hole. Well, in this day and age, we have the pavement. They’re really not meant for pavement. They’re meant for sod, grassy fields, so you have to be really cautious with it. I won’t fly the airplane if it’s got a really heavy crosswind, just because I don’t want to damage a wheel and possibly damage the airplane.”

There’s a total of six instruments in the airplane, and for Rob that’s more than enough.

“I’m not a seaplane person, and I was told by Richard Bach that ‘If you are going to put this on floats, I highly recommend a vertical speed indicator,’” Rob said. “So, it’s got your basic instruments in it, oil pressure, oil temperature, compass, and vertical speed indicator. I use ForeFlight on a long cross-country so I don’t need any navigational aids onboard. It has a handheld radio that I can stick in it when I want to talk to people. Again, it all comes back to, if I didn’t need it for weight, then it didn’t go in the airplane.”

Rob had all the instruments overhauled by Keystone, and all are period correct from the 1920s with the arrowhead pointer. Rob’s dear friends up in Canada, the Tiger Boys, also lent a hand with the project.

“They found an ultra-rare steel ball turn and bank indicator for me,” Rob said. “It’s awesome because it has the old patina. I did not want it overhauled. I put it in the panel as it is. It’s right out of the factory because they only made those with steel balls for two years. It’s beautiful, and it’s kind of cool. This airplane wouldn’t have seen the light of day without the help of some dear friends.”

PHOTOGRAPHY BY CONNOR MADISON

HANDLE WITH CARE

Jill gets all the well-deserved credit for coming up with the silver, cream, and burnt orange color choice.

“To be honest, there’s no picture that I can find of what a Texas Air Transport airplane would have looked like back then,” Rob said. “We have one logo from Texas Air Transport, and on the other side was a Southern Air Transport logo, both hand painted, so we wanted to put the logos back on the airplane that it had originally. It is painted in what is believed to be original TAT colors to honor its heritage. It was kind of a fun thing for Jill to tell me what to do, what clamps to paint black and such.

It turned out really well.”

Photographs dating back to 1925 show Maiden Wichita written on the tail above the N-number of Travel Airs.

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TRAVEL AIR “I think it was a play on words,” Rob said.

“Remember, in 1925 or 1926, there was no N-numbers.

You could put that on the rudder because you didn’t have anything else to put there. So, Jill saw that and said, ‘I love that,’ so we put that on our airplane.”

Rob also chose to add a speed ring, which was an option back then. Speed rings were common in aircraft of that era.

“My dear friend Clay ‘Pork Chop’ Adams has a beautiful Travel Air E-4000, and I’ve always admired his airplane,” Rob said. “His airplane is like a family member. It’s like a son to him. I think the greatest form of flattery is if I could copy. So, I tried to copy a little bit of Clay’s airplane. He had a speed ring, I wanted a speed ring. He barreled his fuselage out, I barreled mine out. I have the B wings on this airplane, which are the Frise ailerons, he has the A wings, which are ‘elephant ear’ ailerons, but airplanes are very similar in performance.”

CLICK HERE

TO SEE A VIDEO OF ROB LOCK’S TRAVEL AIR AND SOME OTHER BARNSTORMERS.

Speaking of performance, Rob’s airplane has an electric inertia starter in it, which he claims burns a lot of juice to use this starter to energize the starter.

“When you energize it, it turns a big flywheel in the engine compartment so you can actually hear the starter energize,” Rob said. “Once you get this thing spinning up as fast as it will go, then you hit the starter button and the inertia flywheel energizes the rear of the crankshaft and turns the propeller and the engine starts. It’s one of the coolest things I’ve ever been around. It sounds so cool. Then you let the engine warm up and it takes off. I’ll be honest. I’ve only used full power with it once. Because, when you use the power forward with a 220, if you throw the power to it, it has a tendency to cough and it won’t accept the power application.”

In preparation for his maiden flight, Rob had flown Kermit Weeks’ B-4000 and had heard stories about Travel Airs not flying very well.

“Jim Younkin had said that, in his opinion, the Travel Air was maybe one of the most beautiful airplanes ever built, but flew the worst,” Rob said. “So I was like, man, I hope this airplane flies good. As the new caretaker I don’t want to mess this up.”

SPIRIT IN THE SKY

With the Travel Air complete, and the mountains of paperwork signed off, Rob picked May 19, 2018, to coax the Travel Air back into the skies.

“As I eased the power in, the airplane took off fast,” Rob said. “Going from 0-50 mph, and I didn’t have full power in it yet. It climbs out at about 65 mph. At 1850 rpm, it goes 110 mph. If you run it at 1900 rpm, it’ll go about 115. I ran it that way on the air tour with the Speed Wings. It kept up with the Speed Wings. It’s a fast airplane.”

When Rob got on the downwind he let go of the stick and the airplane flew straight and level.

“I got goosebumps thinking about it now,” Rob said. “It was a thrill that all that work, and those that helped me, gave me an airplane that flew really nice and flew straight. I took it immediately over to Fantasy of Flight, and I flew it around over there. I shot my first landing over there on grass with it.”

Rob brought it back home, and it really didn’t need much. “The fly wires were a half-turn too loose, so I tightened those a half-turn. Since the test flight, that’s really the only work I’ve done to it.”

For a guy who has more than 3,500 hours of Stearman time, Rob loves the Travel Air. According to Rob, the ailerons are lighter, the airplane’s faster, and it’s 400 pounds lighter than the Stearman.

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PHOTOGRAPHY BY CONNOR MADISON

“The Travel Air wants to play in the sky,” Rob said. “I haven’t rolled it yet, and I haven’t done any aerobatics.

These were built for a guy who had a little bit of dough, some means, and wanted to go out and play around.

Because the airplane is fast and it can do anything you want it to do. The gross weight on it is 2,700 pounds, and it weighs 1,800. So, there’s 900 pounds there that it can carry. You can easily get three people and fuel on board.”

With its 220-hp Continental powering it along and 4 gallons of oil on board along with a 40-gallon fuselage tank, Rob claims a three-hour range on cross-countries.

“That’s plenty long,” Rob said. “You’re covering ground going 110 mph. When I get in the airplane, the engine mount length is perfect, the trim is right in the middle, so for a taller guy like me it’s perfect.

The Travel Air can hold me, full fuel, and 400 pounds of people up in the front seat. And that’s about as much as you can cram in there. It all came out good because the airplane is right where we need it to be when we eventually add the EDO M-2665 floats.”

When Rob showed up in Jefferson City around July 4, 2018, for the all-Travel Air American Barnstorming Tour, the airplane had 20 hours on it and flew perfectly.

Rob put more than 65 hours on it during the air tour with no problems. Rob knows he has not only restored a great plane with lots of history, but a fantastic flying airplane as well.

“You know, I’ve been flying rides now for almost 20 years, and I got a lot of New Standard time and a lot of Stearman time,” Rob said. “But what I learned out of necessity with this Travel Air is I really like to build. If I had to choose either flying or maintaining or building, I’m going to choose building. That’s where I get a kick out of doing that. And I never would have found that out had this airplane not been what I thought it was when I bought it. It’s really cool to look at the airplane and say, man, I did that. I built this plane and it flies great and I’m proud of it. It’s a great accomplishment, and I’ve done some kind of cool things. It’s one of the best, maybe the top thing I’ve ever done.”

Rob’s plan is to keep the Travel Air on wheels for another year. In the meantime he and Jill have started the restoration of a second E-4000, primarily for Jill to fly. Their hope is that it will be flying in another three years, and then she can join the barnstormer ranks in her own Travel Air. That’s the dream, and it’s another big one.

With roomy dual cockpits, vintage art like the “Maiden Wichita” rudder, and original skinny Bendix wheels and brakes, it enables those lucky enough to go for a ride with Rob the ability to step back in time.

PHOTOGRAPHY BY JIM BUSHA, CONNOR MADISON

www.vintageaircraft.org

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Well, you’re finally there. After wanting to fly all your life, and having to delay your dream for your career and family, you finally found yourself with DEBBIE CHENEY’S CESSNA 140

BY JOHN GLODENBAUM

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enough time and money to begin flying lessons.

PHOTOGRAPHY BY JIM BUSHA

earning to fly was a challenge but a huge pleasure, and you are proud of now having your private pilot certificate. It is time to enjoy flying with your spouse on weekend jaunts and getaways.

However, you find that it is really tough to book good, sound rental airplanes that are available when you need them. The boom in flight training has most of the local Cessnas tied up instructing students, especially on your free weekends. You are also not too keen on shopworn trainers; they may be reliable enough, but all are rather tired looking — not much style to travel in.

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After really thinking about it and with your spouses’ permission, you decide to look at buying your own airplane. You think you can swing about $30,000, which is what you have saved for that second car you were considering. You now reason that it would be much better to buy your own airplane than another car. So you start looking for an aircraft in your price range. What you find is that 30 grand will in no way buy a clean, newer Cessna with a reliable low-time engine and reasonable avionics. Most of the used airplanes you look at are double your budget, and you certainly can’t touch one of those cool Cirrus SRs with the glass panels, or other fast cruisers.

You look at experimentals, but find that they, too,

“I never turned down the opportunity to fly, and was always ready to enjoy the socializing aspect of aviation.”— Debbie Cheney

can get expensive, particularly those that perform a bit.

Also, you learn that experimental aircraft may not hold their resale value like certified aircraft. You consider building, but that’s just not your thing. You want to fly, not build, and you also find that by the time you finish a kit you can have more money in it than what you could reasonably buy a good, used Cessna for.

Then a flying buddy tells you about “classic aircraft,” certified aircraft built after World War II when the dream of an airplane in every garage was alive. Turns out that in this period simple and affordable aircraft were designed; many are still around and have been well cared for or stored. Best of all, you can get a really nice one for an amount well within your $30,000 budget. You are also pleased to learn that these simple certified aircraft keep their value, and if well cared for, are most reliable and easy to maintain.

So you get interested in the Aeroncas, Chiefs, Taylorcrafts, Short Wing Pipers, Cessna 120/140s, Luscombes, Stinsons, etc. All are tailwheel, fabric-covered aircraft with reasonable cruising speeds and modest fuel consumption. On investigation you find that modern fabric-covering systems last at least 25 years, and that tailwheel training is available and not too daunting for new, low-time pilots.

PHOTOGRAPHY BY JIM BUSHA

The following story is about just such a buyer; Debbie Cheney of Riverside, California. Debbie now owns and flies Debbie’s Creampuff, a beautiful 1947 Cessna 140 that she bought for $25,000.

Debbie was first exposed to aviation in 1980 by her then-boyfriend, Dave Cheney, who had just earned his private pilot certificate and purchased his first airplane, a cute 65-hp, red Luscombe 8A with white fabric wings. Debbie used to sit in a lawn chair watching Dave shoot touch-andgoes over and over again. Dave had just purchased the airplane and was getting practice in it to make sure he was ready to hop rides.

“I was very impressed with this handsome young man, and I couldn’t believe he actually owned his own airplane,” Debbie said.

Dave and Debbie spent that summer flying to breakfast or lunch at other local Southern California airports with their new Corona Municipal Airport (KAJO) family. They even made a couple camping trips to Columbia, California, for the annual Luscombe Fly-In where they made new lifelong friends and were welcomed like family.

With their common joy of aviation and their love for each other, Dave asked Debbie to be his wife and co-pilot for life, and this is where the great adventure really begins.

Still flying every chance they got, their Luscombe took

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43

them all around California where they found many grass strips with campgrounds, airstrips with pancake breakfasts, and burger joints. With their little family now growing, and their Luscombe only being a two-seater with no possibility to fit a baby seat, Dave started the search for their next family airplane. With a deep desire to keep a vintage aircraft in the family, Dave found a perfect airplane for them. Dave and Debbie drove to Houston, Texas, in July of 1990 to retrieve a 1946 Stinson 108 Voyager that was in need of a full restoration. The plane had a good maintenance history and good bones, but was mostly a basket case and needed a lot of love.

Dave and Debbie spent the next three and a half years meticulously putting this plane back together, a true labor of love and patience. With Dave’s craftsmanship and attention to detail, and Debbie’s eye for colors and fabrics, this plane became a showstopper. Painted in its original Insignia Blue with a Diana Cream stripe, it drew a lot of attention and was every bit the perfect

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family plane they had hoped for. After its first flight in October of 1993, and with two baby seats in the back, Dave and Debbie made the fly-in circuit around California — Watsonville, Merced, Porterville — picking up trophies along the way. They even made a pilgrimage to Oshkosh, Wisconsin, where they were dubbed the Flying Family.

Dave and Debbie flew the Stinson all around the United States for 13 years and watched their two kids, Aaron and Allison, grow up in the back seat.

“It was a lot of fun flying the Stinson all over the southwest,” Debbie said. “The plane was painted in those beautiful, original, vintage colors.

So when we landed and then taxied on the ramp we would get a lot of admiring looks. But once we stopped and opened the doors, and then a couple of little kids piled out of the back seat with their toys and other support materials in tow, that’s when the crowds arrived and the admiring conversations really started! You just didn’t see many families flying together back in those days!”

“I guess I hadn’t soaked in as much of the aptitude for flying as pilot in command as I thought I had,But boy did I enjoy this newfound challenge and the feeling of freedom that learning to fly gave me!”

In 2007, Dave had the opportunity to purchase a 1953 Cessna 180 from a dear family friend. Back in the ’80s Dave hitched a ride with Roger Baumert in this plane and was enamored with the luxury, speed, and classic good looks of Roger’s 180 and told him, “If you ever sell this beauty, please call me first.” Well, in 2007 he got the call and quickly closed the deal. True to Cheney fashion, they rolled up their sleeves and spent the next several

weekends hand-polishing the 1980 paint to a brilliant shine. They installed a custom instrument panel with an eye on retaining the vintage look, but with modern avionics that were lighter, more reliable, and fully functional in today’s ATC environment. And after a search for the perfect leather and tweed to keep with the 1953 vintage theme, they installed a beautiful interior that is both new and classic at the same time.

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PHOTOGRAPHY BY JIM BUSHA

www.vintageaircraft.org 45

This aircraft turned out to be the plane they had always dreamed about. But the biggest surprise to Dave was Debbie’s newfound desire to learn to fly!

“I never turned down the opportunity to fly, and was always ready to enjoy the socializing aspect of aviation, but the flights themselves could turn into a white-knuckling event for me,” Debbie said. “Turbulence and winds were my nemesis. I just didn’t like the way either affected the aircraft in flight. It would make me so nervous! But the 180 seemed to cut through the turbulence like butter, and I really started to enjoy the actual flying part of aviation!” Always content to be the novice navigator and vacation planner, this was all about to change because of the Cessna 180 that she fell in love with!

With Dave’s full support and encouragement, Debbie found the perfect flight instructor and friend on their home field at Flabob Airport. Dave Belford was kind and knowledgeable, and a “big teddy bear” who made her feel safe in this new role of student pilot. Thinking that flying would be “as easy as pie” because of all the time she spent in the right seat flying with her husband, Debbie soon found flying in the left seat was not only very demanding and challenging, but oh so incredibly rewarding at the same time.

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“I guess I hadn’t soaked in as much of the aptitude for flying as pilot in command as I thought I had,” Debbie said with a laugh. “But boy did I enjoy this newfound challenge and the feeling of freedom that learning to fly gave me!”

After a lot of really hard work and constant encouragement from Dave and her Flabob family, Debbie received her pilot certificate four months later. While flying a rented Cessna 150 was fun, she knew becoming a taildragger pilot had its own bragging rights among her family and friends. Debbie was fortunate to earn her tailwheel endorsement at Flabob in a J-3 Cub owned by the Tom Wathen Center. She spent that summer perfecting threepoint landings, wheel landings, and slips and stalls.

The pure joy of flying a true stick and rudder aircraft like the Cub was amazing, but Debbie found the transition from a J-3 to their Cessna 180 was a very big leap. “I didn’t just want to be able to fly the 180, I wanted to fly it well, and the harder I tried, it seemed like I was more and more behind it,” she said. “It just had too much power and complexity for where I was as a pilot.” Unable to find a rental plane that filled this void, her husband encouraged her to look to buy her own plane. Having saved up $25,000 for such a purchase, Debbie and Dave went on the search for a plane she could personalize and call her own.

PHOTOGRAPHY BY JIM BUSHA

Immediately, the little red Luscombe with rag wings came to their minds, and they both thought returning to their roots would be an exciting path to take. After looking for many months for the perfect plane, a friend and CFI at Corona Airport, Dave Stevenson, pointed Debbie to a local Cessna 140 that he knew might be for sale. The current owners, Dennis and Dorothe Voll, had rebuilt the engine, re-covered the wings, and given it a pretty white paint job with a blue stripe. It had all the appearances of a perfect plane for Debbie. Dennis gave Debbie a ride on a very windy day and encouraged her to take the controls. She was impressed with how the 140 handled and thought it would be the perfect aircraft to make the transition to the 180. When she sat in the left seat, everyone said they looked like the perfect pair and that they belonged together.

A deal was made for $25,000, and the pretty little Cessna 140 became hers! After her checkride was completed and signed off by Stevenson, Debbie was cleared to fly her plane back to Flabob!

“The day I flew it home there was a pretty stiff breeze blowing out of the north, and Flabob does not have a

crosswind runway,” she said. “I asked for a wind check from the tower controller at Riverside while I flew through their airspace, and then said a little prayer asking for help in getting my new plane down safely. I really didn’t want to hurt my pretty little 140 on its maiden voyage!”

Fortunately, the prayer was answered and Debbie was able slip the plane in for an uneventful first landing. Her new Creampuff was now home!

In an effort to become really familiar and intimate with the plane, Dave encouraged Debbie to complete its first annual inspection while under their ownership. In true fashion, Debbie and Dave tackled this together.

Stripping off all inspection covers, looking at all pulleys and cables, hinges and bolts, and basically reviewing and inspecting every system of the aircraft. Dave added a new oil filter system to protect this gleaming new engine, and he rebuilt a vintage Scott tail wheel assembly from the ’40s to add to the classic good looks and to make it easier for Debbie to push and taxi the plane around. Together, they washed, waxed, and detailed every inch inside and out and under the cowling. The little 140 really started to look like it belonged in their stable, and it became the Creampuff it is today.

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They really get a kick out of doing routine maintenance on this cutie as a team. Dave even taught Debbie how to change the brake pads and how to clean and repack the wheel bearings. “It’s funny, I’m not necessarily fond of picking the dirty grease out from under my fingernails, but I do thoroughly enjoy the knowledge and skills I have gained by working on my own plane,” she said. “Someone asked me once if I really enjoy meeting up with Dave after work to perform maintenance on the plane, ‘Are you kidding me?’

I replied, ‘I call that date night!’”

For Debbie’s last birthday, Dave surprised her by procuring a set of vintage wheel covers and painting them blue to match the accent stripe that’s painted down the side of the fuselage. “I was over the moon,” Debbie said.

Debbie’s pretty little Cessna 140 has exceeded all of her flying and ownership expectations and much, much more! Originally purchased five years ago as a transitional segue for flying their Cessna 180, the little 140 has become an extension of her personality that she uses as a tool to promote aviation. Debbie and her plane are recognized all around Southern California, and when others hear her voice on UNICOM or tower frequencies, she will hear, “Debbie, is that you? Where are you headed off to today?” Debbie is an EAA Chapter 1 member where she flies and mentors young girls and teens at the chapter’s monthly Young Eagles flying events. Debbie even volunteers to fly Young Eagles at other local chapter events around Southern California. So far, Debbie has flown and mentored a total of 55 young ladies. She shares with them her own flying experiences, tells them about chasing her dreams, and encourages them to recognize and pursue the endless possibilities available to them both in and out of aviation!

Many of these Young Eagles are astonished to learn that Debbie is not a professional airline or corporate pilot, but that she is a registered nurse with a love of flying and a passion to share this love with others. Debbie is also a pilot and mentor for EAA’s Flying Start program and walks alongside other adults looking to expand and explore their experiences with aviation. And for a little fun and nostalgia, Debbie can be seen at local flying events dressed in vintage 1940s clothing as she enjoys the camaraderie and fellowship that owning and flying a classic 1940s aircraft can provide.

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Debbie understands her responsibility as a role model and mentor to young women, and she always makes sure they understand that owning and flying is not only for the guys! She is also involved in the group Ladies Love Taildraggers, which is an online Facebook group of female pilots and enthusiasts. She finds it a great organization to be a part of, and a good way to network and meet interesting and like-minded lady tailwheel pilots.

Debbie will tell you that she loves owning and flying her classic 70-year-old beauty! She sees herself as the temporary caretaker of the pretty little Cessna 140 she calls Creampuff, and realizes the importance and responsibility of keeping aviation history alive.

“Looking back, I originally purchased the 140 to gain the experience necessary so I would feel comfortable transitioning to the 180,” she said. “In that regard, the 140 has fulfilled its mission in spades! I can now climb into the bigger Cessna and fly it with confidence. However, the little 140 has grown to be such a big part of me, and I thoroughly enjoy the opportunity to share it with others whenever possible. Taking a young girl up for her first airplane ride, having her take the controls in flight, and then having the opportunity to discuss all the tremendous opportunities available to her as a young woman is such an exciting experience for me; it really warms my heart!”

She and her husband, Dave, appreciate the opportunity to own their aircraft, keep them safely flying, and be good ambassadors for general aviation. Look for them at air shows and fly-ins throughout the country. They represent the absolute best of classic aircraft enthusiasts.

PHOTOGRAPHY BY JIM BUSHA

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PHOTOGRAPHY BY ED HICKS

Sleek

& &

Spirited THE GLOBE AND TEMCO SWIFTS

BY SPARKY BARNES SARGENT

THE NUANCES AND JOYS OF FLYING

a Swift can energize a pilot’s very soul.

The Swift responds naturally and effortlessly in flight, creating a tangible expression of a pilot’s thoughts.

Control yokes and rudder pedals are no longer mechanical devices; they become living extensions of a pilot’s

hands and feet. It’s almost as if the Swift can intuit where a pilot wants to fly; with barely perceptible movements of the controls, the Swift is banking and wheeling in the freedom of the sky. Try a Swift on for size, and you’re likely to find that it’s a comfortable hand-in-glove fit.

www.vintageaircraft.org 51

S

SWIFT APPEAL

ometimes referred to as “everyman’s personal fighter,” part of the Swift’s appeal is its subtle similarity to a Curtiss P-40 Warhawk.

That similarity is no coincidence; Swift designer Bud Knox designed the P-40 when he worked at Curtiss, and the Swift “inherited” the lovely lines of the P-40’s wings, tail surfaces, and rounded rudder. The Swift design also incorporates wing leading-edge slots and a fighter-style “greenhouse” canopy.

Period advertising proclaimed: “Swift flying is profitable flying! …because only the all-metal [semi-monocoque] Swift gives you the big-plane features that make personal flying profitable as well as enjoyable.” Also touted were the all-metal military type construction, modern low-wing design, electric hydraulic retractable landing gear and flaps, rugged spring-oleo shock absorbers, and a roomy side-by-side deluxe cabin.

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Another company ad featured a letter from the general manager of Mid-States Equipment Company in Chicago. It read, in part, “Our men are one bunch that’s a hundred percent sold on your new Swift, and the boys can hardly wait to get them up here and get out in the territory in them.” Mid-States was the first firm to order six Swifts and provide them for its traveling executives.

In more recent years, the Swift gained a reputation of being easy to ground loop and difficult to fly. “Not infrequently the airplane is looked upon in fear by those who know it not; in fierce proud loyal friendship by those who do,” Richard Bach wrote in his “Who Are You, Little Swift?” article, which appeared in Private Pilot. Ardent and experienced Swift pilots feel that its wide tread landing gear actually make the airplane easy to land, with excellent ground handling and crosswind capability. In flight, the Swift’s responsiveness to even the lightest touch on the controls makes it nimble and easily maneuverable. In short, it’s truly a delight to fly — perhaps it’s no coincidence that the original cowling had a Cheshire-cat smile.

PHOTOGRAPHY BY LYLE JANSMA

Early on, the Swift rapidly became the most modified and converted production aircraft — and the changes have continued, including the installation of larger engines, Fiberglas cowlings, sliding bubble canopy, control sticks, dorsal fins, and auxiliary fuel tanks. Part of the Swift’s popularity is due to these various modifications, especially its increased horsepower. As the saying goes, “Swifts are like snowflakes; no two are alike.”

BORN IN TEXAS

The Swift came to being in Fort Worth, Texas. The first Swift GC-1 was a wood, tube-and-fabric aircraft designed by R.S. “Pop” Johnson in 1940. The “father” of the all-metal Swift design was John Kennedy, owner of Globe Aircraft Company. He gave his engineer, K.H. “Bud” Knox, credit for the successful production design. In 1946, the first production all-metal Swift GC-1A was powered by an 85-hp Continental. Globe built around 408 GC-1As, but the need for more horsepower was evident. Enter the GC-1B, which was powered by a 125-hp Continental.

When Globe had more orders than it could fill, it entered into a contractual agreement with Texas Engineering and Manufacturing Company (TEMCO) in Grand Prairie, Texas, to produce GC-1Bs starting in May 1946. It was TEMCO’s first large contract for commercial airplanes, and it built 329 Swifts while production simultaneously continued at Globe. When Globe became insolvent, TEMCO acquired the type certificate and produced 260 more Swifts from 1947 through August 1951.

All told, 1,521 Swifts were built by Globe and TEMCO. Universal Aircraft Company (later Univair) obtained the type certificate from TEMCO. In 1980, Charlie Nelson, then-president of the Swift Museum Foundation Inc. (SMF), in Athens, Tennessee, spearheaded the acquisition of the Swift type certificate, parts, engineering data, and tooling, and established the Swift Parts Company. There are 548 Swifts currently listed on the FAA registry, and no doubt a great number of them have directly benefited from this parts availability.

Jim Roberts and his beloved 1946 Globe Swift.

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1946 GC-1B

SPECS 1946 Globe 1946 Globe GC-1B GC-1B Swift Swift N78012 N78012 Manufactured under Manufactured under ATC ATC 766 766 Not eligible Not eligible to to be be flown flown by by aa sport sport pilot pilot

WINGSPAN:

29 feet, 4 inches

WING CHORD:

75 inches tapering to 40 inches

WING AREA:

131.6 square feet

LENGTH:

20 feet, 11 inches

HEIGHT:

6 feet, 2 inches

TREAD:

9 feet, 9 inches

EMPTY WEIGHT:

1,340 pounds

USEFUL LOAD:

630 pounds

PAYLOAD:

330 pounds with full fuel

GROSS WEIGHT:

1,970 pounds

ENGINE:

210-hp Continental IO-360

FUEL:

50 gallons usable

OIL:

10 quarts

MAX SPEED:

180 mph

CRUISING SPEED:

155 mph

LANDING SPEED:

60 mph

CLIMB AT SEA LEVEL:

Impressive!

SERVICE CEILING:

18,000 feet

CRUISING RANGE:

560 nm with 1-hour reserve

BAGGAGE CAPACITY:

100 pounds

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Jim and Carolyn Roberts saw a Swift back in 1996 and fell in love with it — each for reasons of their own. Carolyn enjoys flying and therefore wanted to sit beside Jim while helping with navigation, and she liked the low wing. Jim wanted a classic taildragger with good performance and handling. The Swift fit the bill perfectly, and Carolyn encouraged Jim to get a Swift with a big engine. Jim agreed, and eventually found a 1946 GC-1B for sale through the Swift Museum Foundation in Athens, Tennessee. Although it was rough cosmetically, it was airworthy — and it had a 210-hp Continental IO-360 engine as opposed to its original 125-hp Continental. Jim purchased N78012 and has owned it for about 20 years now (with the exception of a three-year period when he admittedly had a lapse in judgment).

Jim got the flying bug at an early age by reading flying and Ernie Gann books. He earned his private certificate at 17 and was a CFI during college. After graduation, he went into the Air Force as a pilot.

“I taught basic students and then instructors in the Northrop T-38 Talon, and then I flew the Lockheed U-2 for about four years,” Jim said. “Then I flew for American Airlines, and joined the Air Force Reserve and flew the KC-10 tanker for 10 years.”

Though he’s an experienced pilot, Jim understood the importance of having a thorough checkout in the Swift. “My first flight in this airplane was with Charlie Nelson, founder of the Swift Association,” Jim said. “I was in the right seat, and he showed me how to fly a Swift. Then I got a CFI at Athens to fly with me to say I was good for insurance. The Swift handles like a little fighter, and I flew the only taildragger in the military inventory at the time — the U-2, which was called the Dragon Lady. I think the Swift is a little Dragon Lady because you have to respect her and know how to fly her — but she’s a sweet airplane.”

Carolyn and Jim based their Swift at Sonoma Skypark in California from 1998 to 2005. Since 2005, N78012 has been based at Downtown Island Airport in Knoxville, Tennessee.

Early on, Carolyn christened the plane Silver Belle, in homage to World War II veterans of the greatest generation.

PHOTOGRAPHY BY ED HICKS

A Cessna nose bowl replaced the original nose cowl when the 210-hp Continental was installed.

RESTORATION AND MODS

About eight months after buying the Swift, Jim flew Silver Belle to Swift specialist Don Bartholomew’s Aeroplane Factory in Gardnerville, Nevada (www.AeroplaneFactory. us). While Jim invested many hours of grunt work on the project, Don fabricated a new instrument panel, installed new lighted instruments, radios, and a transponder. Don also installed new engine baffling and a heated Piper pitot blade, and replaced the old stock two-piece windshield with a one-piece LP Aero Plastics windshield. The original hat shelf just aft of the seats had been removed at some point, so Don reinstalled the shelf since it serves a structural purpose in the fuselage.

The Swift had brown trim when Jim bought it, and when he went to fly-ins, folks teased him about being a UPS delivery man and asked him where the boxes were. It didn’t stay brown for very long — when the Swift was restored in the late 1990s, Jim retained the trim scheme but changed the colors to red, gold, and blue. It was painted by Kracon Aircraft in Lincoln, California, and Jim also added the Swift graphic on the nose. Further cosmetic touches included new leather interior panels and seats, which were also made by a company in Lincoln.

Nose to tail, Silver Belle has more than a dozen modifications, all per FAA Form 337 or STC. N78012 was one of the first Swifts to be modified with a 210-hp Continental IO-360 engine back in the early 1970s. The original STC kept the stock top and bottom cowling but added a Cessna nose bowl to make room for the bigger engine.

“The STC also kept the straight exhaust pipes, so there’s no exhaust collector and no muffler,” Jim said. “I was taxiing by a buddy of mine one day, and he told me, ‘You sound like half a P-51 going by!’”

The IO-360 also has GAMI fuel injectors, and two 13-gallon auxiliary tanks were installed in the wings (outboard of the gear), which doubled the fuel capacity from 26 gallons to 52, with 50 gallons usable. Due to the larger engine and increased fuel capacity, Silver Belle has an STC gross weight increase to 1,970 pounds.

Close up view of the modified instrument panel in N78012.

PHOTOGRAPHY BY LYLE JANSMA

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SPECS 1948 TEMCO 1948 TEMCO GC-1B GC-1B Swift Swift N3860K N3860K Manufactured under Manufactured under ATC ATC 766 766 Not eligible Not eligible to to be be flown flown by by aa sport sport pilot pilot

WINGSPAN:

29 feet, 4 inches

WING CHORD:

75 inches tapering to 40 inches

WING AREA:

131.6 square feet

LENGTH:

20 feet, 11 inches

HEIGHT:

6 feet, 2 inches

TREAD:

9 feet, 9 inches

EMPTY WEIGHT:

1,230 pounds

USEFUL LOAD:

480 pounds

PAYLOAD:

270 pounds with full fuel

GROSS WEIGHT:

1,710 pounds

ENGINE:

145-hp Continental TCM O-300B

FUEL:

35 gallons usable

OIL:

8 quarts

MAX SPEED:

150 mph

CRUISING SPEED:

140 mph

LANDING SPEED:

56 mph

CLIMB AT SEA LEVEL:

1,000 fpm

SERVICE CEILING:

16,000 feet

CRUISING RANGE:

425 nm

BAGGAGE CAPACITY:

100 pounds

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Aerodynamic improvements include the addition of a fuel filler door over the original fuel cap on the wing and shortened stall strips on the inboard leading edge of the wings, which facilitates slower stall, approach, and landing speeds. The modified, tapered landing gear doors resemble those of a P-51 and cover a greater portion of the actuator and strut when the gear is retracted, thereby reducing drag.

A Merlyn Products hydraulic power pack is used for the gear and flaps, and an electric elevator trim system was installed — operated by a handy toggle switch on the panel, just above the throttle. Whelen strobes enhance the Swift’s visibility to other aircraft, and the installation of Cessna 152 seats adds creature comfort for the pilot and passenger.

The Cessna seats are adjustable fore and aft, and the back tilt is also adjustable. At 6 feet tall, Jim fits comfortably in the Swift.

“I think head clearance from the canopy varies with each airplane, depending on the kind of seats installed and whether the canopy is stock or the sliding bubble type,” Jim said. “I find that two ‘normal’ size people fit comfortably side by side, and I’ve had a fellow around 6 foot, 4 inches as a passenger, and he fit okay with his seat slid back.”

A previous owner enclosed Silver Belle’s wing leading edge slots to reduce induced drag and increase airspeed, and Jim flew it that way for many years. “In 2013, I decided to return it to its original configuration, with the help of Jim Thomason in South Carolina,” Jim said. “I never had any issues flying it with the slots closed, but the open slots improve slow speed handling because it keeps airflow over the ailerons. Plus, you can pull carefully on them to ground handle the airplane.”

N78012 made its first flight on July 29, 1946 — serendipitously, it celebrates its birthday at Oshkosh nearly every year. Silver Belle’s awards include: Outstanding Swift at AirVenture 2012, Best Custom Classic over 165 hp at SUN ’n FUN International Fly-In & Expo 2017, and Outstanding Classic at SUN ’n FUN 2018.

PHOTOGRAPHY BY ED HICKS

characteristics. Mark was a student pilot at the time and liked the roomy cockpit and control yokes. “I was only 16, and my father put me in the left seat and checked me out in that Swift. Then one of our instructors got in the Swift with me, and I checked him out — and then he signed off my certificate so I was legal to fly it as a student,” Mark said with a chuckle. “Within a year, I bought an 85-hp Swift. It cruised at 125 mph and burned 5-1/2 gph at the most — so it was hard to beat for a kid who had to buy his own gas! I’ve bought and sold a lot of them over the years — more than 50 — and most all of them were projects in various stages.”

The original panel with its Bakelite plastic — the compass and instruments are original equipment except for the turn coordinator and sensitive altimeter.

1948 TEMCO GC-1B

Mark Holliday of Lake Elmo, Minnesota, bought N3860K in Phoenix about 15 years ago.

“It still had its 125-hp Continental and was a pretty stock airplane. I trailered it back up to Colorado, put it together, and flew it some, but the 125 isn’t great at higher elevations,” Mark said “I had a 145-hp Continental up at my hangar in Minnesota, so I flew it up there and swapped engines.” (Per the STC for the TCM O-300B 145-hp Continental installation, Mark also installed a McCauley propeller and Cessna spinner.)

Then Mark sold the TEMCO GC-1B to a friend who had recently gotten back into flying.

“I previously sold him a Cessna 140 that he got current in, and kind of set the hook for the Swift by giving him a ride in that,” Mark said. “He put a couple hundred hours on the 145 Swift, and then I gave him a ride in the 210 Swift and he really liked that, especially out in Colorado. So he got one of those, too; unfortunately, he died about a year ago. He had N3860K about 14 years, and I bought it from his widow.”

Mark has owned and flown Swifts since he was a teenager.

“I just grew up in aviation; my father flew B-26 Marauders during World War II, and bought a surplus PT-26 right after the war. My dad’s business first started out as renting hangars in the mid-1950s, and then he started a flight school about 1963,” Mark said. “I soloed on my 16th birthday, got my private at 17, commercial at 18, and then on up to ATP. I went to work for Piedmont Airlines in 1984 and retired nine years ago.”

Back in 1968, Mark’s father traded a Bellanca for a 125hp Swift and was immediately enamored with its flying

STOCK SWIFT

N3860K has mostly remained a stock TEMCO GC-1B through the years, in that it has retained a large portion of its originality, including the landing gear doors, Goodyear brakes, canopy, and D-shaped rear windows. Additionally, the panel is original with its Bakelite plastic accents, and the compass and instruments are original equipment except for the turn coordinator and sensitive altimeter.

“A previous owner had installed a one-piece tinted bubble windshield, and I recently replaced that with an original two-piece windshield,” Mark said. “This Swift has the standard wing fuel tanks with 28 gallons total, and there’s a 9-1/2 gallon aux tank, which sits in the baggage compartment — that was a factory option in 1948 and later.”

Close up view of the TEMCO Swift’s data plate.

PHOTOGRAPHY BY LYLE JANSMA

www.vintageaircraft.org 57

A few minor mods through the years include shoulder harnesses and Cessna 150 seats. “This was one of the very first Swifts to have Cessna 150 seats put in it; they did a field approval back in 1968 for that installation,” Mark said. “Those seats got popular in the 1970s and they are a little more comfortable, although with the aux tank you can’t slide the seat back as far as you normally could.”

N3860K first flew on June 2, 1948, and has also received several awards, with the most recent being Outstanding Swift at EAA AirVenture Oshkosh 2018.

SWIFT FAMILY

The spirited little Swift demands the utmost respect from its pilots, and the devotion these pilots so freely give to their airplanes easily transcends to each other.

“I really love the support and camaraderie of the Swift organization,” Jim said. “There are some wonderful people within the group, and they readily help people like me who aren’t A&Ps or IAs. They’re an excellent support source.”

A GREAT LITTLE AIRPLANE

The Swift is fondly referred to as “a great little airplane, from the inside out!” Jim beamed when he described what he likes best about his.

“The Swift was in design before World War II started, and then it went into production after the war,” he said. “People of the greatest generation built this airplane after building warbirds, and I love that heritage. I also love the lines and appearance of it, and I think it’s really nice to have a cool vintage airplane that draws attention — people love shiny objects!”

Whether Globe- or TEMCO-built, the Swift is one airplane that flies as well as it looks. “It’s light on the controls and well-suited to formation flying and gentle aerobatics. I love flying formation because I did a lot of that in the Air Force, and the Swift Museum Foundation has an FAA-approved formation course (FAST). We do formation flyovers for civic events and missing man formations for military funerals,” Jim said. “The Swift is very responsive, so if you’re going to fly it IFR, I’d recommend at least having a wing-leveler autopilot. I climb at 80 mph, glide at 80, approach at 80 with flaps. My cruise is about 155 to 160 mph true, depending on weight, and I usually burn less than 10 gph, which gives me 5 hours’ endurance.”

By comparison, Mark said the 145-hp Continental burns 8-1/2 to 9 gph. “It cruises around 140 mph, comes in about 70 to 80 mph, and quite frankly, I don’t look at the airspeed when I’m taking off,” Mark said. “I glance at it during climb-out, because it has the original gear motor, and they advise getting the gear up before 80 mph. I liked the Swift the first time I flew it; it’s got the nicest-feeling ailerons of just about any general aviation airplane. It’s fairly easy to fly, and it’s pretty stable on the ground.”

58

July/August 2019

PHOTOGRAPHY BY ED HICKS

The Swift Museum Foundation (SMF) is fervently “dedicated to preserving the history and heritage of the Globe/TEMCO Swift and keeping them flying.” It provides technical advice, drawings, sample 337s, and more. The SMF also shares a wealth of information with prospective and new owners, including Swift checkout advice. Swift replacement parts are available for purchase, and a first-class Swift Museum is located at McMinn County Airport (KMMI) in Athens, Tennessee (visit SwiftMuseumFoundation.org).

The Swift group holds an annual convention and fly-in at rotating locations, and Jim and Mark attend on a regular basis. Mark has been an active member of Swift for 50 years now. Yet another longtime Swifter shared a quote that is apropos for the Swift Association (and doubtless many other type clubs): “Friends are the family you choose for yourself.” And the 70-plus-year-old Swift is the sleek conveyance that literally brings this chosen family together.

www.vintageaircraft.org 59

The Vintage Mechanic ROBERT G. LOCK

Critical inspection items I SENT OUT EMAILS to various Travel Air Restorers

Association (TARA) members asking for input into what they felt were critical inspection items. Thus far I have received three responses. I am looking for “common threads” that may run through the lists. My task was to compile a list of 10 critical items, publish that list in TARA’s newsletter, and then add to the list as other concerns appear. These additional concerns can be added at a later date, but I want to get things going. We will only be helping ourselves by getting information like this out to members now. By publishing these critical inspection items and proactively addressing them during maintenance, there should be little or no need for future airworthiness directives (AD) notes on these old airplanes. In other words, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is allowing us to “police” our own airplanes for critical airworthiness issues. I think that is much better than facing possible future AD notes.

While this list is specific to the Travel Air, it can serve as a “brain teaser” for you as you create your own critical inspection item list for your favorite airplane. So let’s get with the program.

The old Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA) airworthiness maintenance bulletins were the first attempt to warn owners of potential hazardous problems with their aircraft. These bulletins apparently began in 1938. Today they are airworthiness directives, or AD notes (FAR Part 39).

I will rely on some fine work forwarded to me by Phil Wyels and will duplicate it here in this column. For further information, contact the Travel Air Restorers Association.

The following is quoted from Phil Wyels.

There are no airworthiness directives listed in FAR Part 39 applicable to the Travel Air or Curtiss Wright Travel Air. There were the equivalent of today’s AD notes issued by the CAA. These were titled airworthiness maintenance bulletins. The three of which the writer has a copy are: Bulletin 8 dated 4-11-39. Subject: Wing to center section spar fitting; early model 2000, 3000, and 4000 with single vertical bolt.

Bulletin 30 dated 7-13-40. Subject: Axle inspection and reinforcement; B series with outrigger landing gear.

Bulletin 51 dated 6-10-41. Subject: Rear safety belt attachment; applies to all Travel Air aircraft.

60 July/August 2019

MODEL

ATC*

SPECIAL NOTES

D-4-D

2-178

11

6-B

352

2

10-D

278

12

12-K

406

10, 19, 21

12-Q

401

10, 12, 19, 21 10, 12, 19, 21

12-W

407

A-14-D

442

12

15-C

426

22

16-E

463

10, 17, 19, 21

16-K

411

10, 19, 21

16-W

429

10, 19, 21

2000

30

11, 20, 23

2000

2-42

11, 20, 23

SC-2000

111

11, 20, 23

2000-T

2-368

9, 11, 20, 23

3000

31

9, 11, 23

4000

32

9, 11, 20, 23

A-4000

148

11, 20, 23

B-4000

146

11, 13, 20, 23

B9-4000

2-381

11, 13, 20, 23

C-4000

149

9, 11, 20, 23

D-4000

2-84

11, 20, 23

E-4000

188

11, 20, 23

K-4000

205

11, 20, 23

W-4000

112

11, 20, 23

W-4000

2-35

11, 20, 23

6000

100

2

A-6000-A

116

2, 12

A-6000-A

2-76

2, 12

A-6000-A SP

2-308

2, 12

SA-6000-A

175

2

S-6000-B

130

2, 12

S-6000-B SP

2-302

2, 12

*ATC numbers with 2-xxx indicate a Group 2 Approval.

The CAA also issued a document titled “Changes in Aircraft Specification,” which in later issues were titled “Aircraft Maintenance Inspection Notes for Curtiss-Wright Aircraft.” The latest copy the writer has is No A-1231 dated July 7, 1941. The introduction states, “Supplements Aircraft Specifications for all models listed below. Inspectors must report compliance in accordance with the current Certification and Inspection Division instructions covering special inspection procedures.” Thirty-three Travel Air and Curtiss-Wright Travel Air models, each certificated under a different ATC or Group 2 Approval, are listed. The writer is of the opinion that these should be treated the same as a recurring AD. Periodic (Annual) Inspection Required for the Following Notes: SPECIAL NOTE 2: November 5, 1930.

Open fabric under fuselage or remove floorboard and check for failure of dual control column socket.

SPECIAL NOTE 9: February 18, 1938. On airplanes equipped with Bendix 30-by-5 inch wheels, determine that the hub cap bolt extends through outboard wheel adapter and axle proper; or in case axle tube is short and hub cap bolt goes through wheel adapter only, make sure that the adapter is welded to the axle proper around the entire circumference instead of by only a few spot welds, as found in the field.

• Inspect the stabilizer connecting tube forward through the bolt attachment for off-center location and/or elongation of the holes in both the stabilizer leading edge tube and the internal cross tube.

Inspect the bolt for wear.

• Inspect rudder and elevator cables in the fuselage aft of pilot’s seat for chafing on each of the bulkhead brace wires. If the tailskid has been replaced by a tail wheel, check the wires for chafing against the tail wheel and support structure.

• The early 30-by-5 wheels used brass bushings instead of bearings between hub and axle. Check these wheels with the weight removed for side play wobble.

• Check the stabilizer adjustment lever for positive seating of the pin in the quadrant slot when plunger is released. This check should be performed under simulated air loads on stabilizer.

SPECIAL NOTE 12: January 7, 1939.

Ascertain that the inspection and safetying of the shock absorbers has been accomplished in accordance with Maintenance Bulletin No. 4. A copy of this bulletin has been forwarded to all owners and inspectors.

SPECIAL NOTE 10: October 20, 1938.

Inspect U-shaped center section diagonal wire fitting at upper front spar for cracks at the base of the flange. Faulty fittings must be replaced and defects reported on the usual form.

SPECIAL NOTE 13: March 23, 1939.

Inspect the aileron hinge bracket on the wing for cracks in the vicinity of hinge pin lugs. The ailerons should be removed to facilitate this inspection.

In case defects are found, brackets must be replaced with stiffer ones, preferably made from 0.065-inch thick X4130 steel.

SPECIAL NOTE 11: October 20, 1938, revised March 6, 1939, and June 15, 1940. Ascertain that inspection has been made and entry has been made in logbook in accordance with Airworthiness Maintenance Bulletin No. 8. (Model D-4-D added September 10, 1940.)

SPECIAL NOTE 17: July 31, 1940.

Ascertain that the shock absorbers, piston head, and packing gland nut of the cylinder are safetied in a positive manner. In this connection, Airworthiness Maintenance Bulletin No. 4 should be considered as also applying to the Model 16-E.

SPECIAL NOTE 18: July 31, 1940.

Ascertain that the logbook carries a record of inspection or rework of the landing gear axle in accordance with Airworthiness Maintenance Bulletin No. 30.

SPECIAL NOTE 19: September 10, 1940. Inspect rear stabilizer support fitting for cracks in the weld where streamline tube joins fuselage longeron.

If defects are found, repair and reinforce by welding finger straps (0.065 inch X4130) on both sides of fitting, with fingers extending along streamline tube and fuselage longerons.

SPECIAL NOTE 20: November 22, 1940. On airplanes with detachable engine mounts, inspect the engine mount members for cracks in the vicinity of the attachment fitting to the fuselage. In case defects are found, the entire end fitting should be replaced.

SPECIAL NOTE 21: February 3, 1941.

Inspect the stabilizer front spar for cracks in the vicinity of the root ribs. If defects are found, repair and reinforce with outside sleeve (1-1/4 by 0.049 inch X4130).

SPECIAL NOTE 22: May 2, 1941.

Ascertain that portions of the exhaust collector rings inside of the cowling are shielded from the engine accessories compartment by means of baffles extending from the engine ring to the inside periphery of the cowling. Such baffles were originally installed by the manufacturer, and their removal is prohibited. The original engine mount ring is provided with drilled holes for the insertion of such baffles, and the engine cowling is provided with exits for the cooling air, which impinges against the required baffles.

SPECIAL NOTE 23: July 7, 1941.

Ascertain that the rear safety belt installation is revised in accordance with Airworthiness Maintenance Bulletin No. 51.

NOTE: If anyone has a copy of Airworthiness Maintenance Bulletin No. 4 or any others not listed, the writer would appreciate a copy to add to TARA files.

www.vintageaircraft.org

61

The Vintage Mechanic ROBERT G. LOCK

From Phil Wyels comes the following list of critical inspection items: Items to Check When Doing an Annual Inspection on Your Travel Air Aircraft: • The steel tubes at the aft end of a tailwheel aircraft can corrode internally. Check the lower portion of the tail post, both longerons in the last bay, and the elevator torque tube. These have been areas where moisture accumulates. Punch test the tube at 1-inch intervals using a Maule fabric tester or an ice pick.

• If your Travel Air has pulleys installed in a control system, inspect the pulleys for wear in the groove and the cable for broken strands where it rides on the pulley. (AN type pulleys presently may not be used in a control system where the bend in control cable is more than 30 degrees. Prior to 1941, a 2-7/8inch pulley could be used.)

• If your Travel Air still has return springs attached to the rudder pedals, they should be inspected for grooving at the attach points and for rust corrosion.

And now a list as prepared by Bob Lock: Critical Inspection Items for Travel Air Airplanes: • Structural Considerations: All major attachment points for security and cracks. Streamline wires for correct tension (looseness could indicate possible internal structural problems). Wood deterioration, particularly lower wings at wing-walk trailing edge. Any suspicious wrinkles in fabric at any location could mean possible internal problems. Landing gear attach points for wear/cracks. Shock cords for condition (replace cords before they stretch and/or break).

• Seats and Restraint Systems: Seats firmly attached to structure. Seat belt/shoulder harness attachment

62 July/August 2019

points secure. Belts/harness for chafing. Locking devices (if any) are positive and work freely.

• Trim System: Excessive wear on trim sector and handle. Cable tension correct. Excessive looseness (slop) in stabilizer (up and down, sideways). Tension on brace wires.

Lube hinge points.

unlock, shock strut condition, servicing, and lubrication points.

• Tires: Check for wear patterns; when wear pattern becomes visible, remove and reverse tires.

Always replace tube when replacing tire. Never allow cord to show.

• Brakes: A most important item that must always work and work well.

• Primary Flight Controls: Excessive looseness (slop) from cockpit control to surface. Push/pull tubes and cables for wear/damage (always set/check cable tensions with surface in neutral position). Lube all hinge points.

• Mechanical: Cables and pulleys (metallic pulleys should always be used), return springs, lubrication of assembly, lining and drum condition.

• Fuel System: Evidence of leaks and chafing of fuel lines. Positive movement of selector/shut-off valve. No fuel flow with valve(s) in OFF position.

• Hydraulic: Leaks, correct fluid type used for servicing, return springs, lubrication of moving parts, condition of lining and drums (check for out-of-round; if they’re out-ofround, the brakes may “grab”).

• Oil System: Leaks and chafing of lines. Tank hold-down straps for security and cracks. Hoses for cracking/deterioration and clamps tight.

• Engine Controls: Full range of travel and “spring back” on cockpit control when stop is reached.

Condition of control ends.

Eliminate any excess movement.

Carb heat for proper operation and condition of air filter.

• Main wheels: Closely inspect Bendix 30-by-5 wheels for cracks or loose rivets. It will be necessary to jack aircraft, deflate tire, and break bead.

Move the tire bead in to inspect rivet heads around rim. It’s a pain to do this but well worth the effort if loose rivets or cracks are found. Also check inner and outer spinnings for dents or other damage.

• Tail Wheel, Steering/Locking: Tire for correct inflation and check wear pattern. Steerable assembly: Check for positive movement with rudder, springs snug, positive locking in “trail” position. Locking assembly: Check for positive lock/

This commences our listing of the most critical inspection items on Travel Air and Curtiss-Wright Travel Air aircraft. The list will expand with time, and we will continue to publish the data as it is received and compiled.

My thanks go to Phil Wyels for his input into this column. Any owner/ operators, mechanics, or inspectors are encouraged to file your list of critical inspection items for Travel Air airplanes. You may send the lists to the association, and the lists will find their way to me. Thanks in advance for all your help in keeping owners, pilots, and our aircraft safe. If you have a task that you feel is a critical inspection item on a different type of aircraft, and you think it’s generic to most other vintage airplanes, send it along.

Also included in this article is an example of an old CAA airworthiness maintenance inspection notes dated November 6, 1942. It concerns Command-Aire Model 3C3 aircraft and is signed by the ship’s original designer, Albert A. Vollmecke. Note that Albert was division chief of the CAA (later the FAA), a position he occupied until his retirement from the FAA in 1968.

NEW MEMBERS James Ainslie (VAA 727912), Richfield Springs, New York Eric Amundson (VAA 727855), Humboldt, Iowa Benjamin Andrews (VAA 727864), Ingram, Texas Joe Antal (VAA 727946), Kitchener, Ontario Thomas Baltz (VAA 727923), Minooka, Illinois Keith Beem (VAA 727859), Clifton Park, New York Ray Beeninga (VAA 727924), McAlester, Oklahoma Edward Bennett (VAA 727919), Church Hill, Maryland Allan Bernette (VAA 727889), Wisconsin Rapids, Wisconsin Jack Blackshear (VAA 727861), Little Rock, Arkansas Ryan Brandt (VAA 727921), Alva, Oklahoma Lee Brooke (VAA 727926), Westfield, Pennsylvania Stephen Buescher (VAA 727880), Virginia Beach, Virginia Bruce Buhr (VAA 727928), Wichita, Kansas Benjamin Busch (VAA 727901), Sumter, South Carolina Steven Campbell (VAA 727922), Newport Beach, California Patrick Carl (VAA 727884), Louisville, Colorado Daniel Cooney (VAA 727944), Wrightwood, California Ryan Coulter (VAA 727860), Portland, Oregon Ira Coward (VAA 425503), Aiken, South Carolina Brian Crull (VAA 727927), Noblesville, Indiana Robert Cuddie (VAA 727898), Marble Falls, Texas Allen Daigle (VAA 727888), Eunice, Louisiana Vernon Darley (VAA 727899), Peachtree City, Georgia Ryan Diehl (VAA 727883), Columbus, Ohio Michael Dobson (VAA 727865), Yuba City, California Jimmy Duke (VAA 727893), Isola, Mississippi Mark Durian (VAA 727856), Phoenix, Arizona Teresa Enking-Novak (VAA 727896), Oshkosh, Wisconsin Richard Fugleberg (VAA 727897), Portland, North Dakota Izabel Geda (VAA 727952), Gainesville, Georgia Lauren Geda (VAA 727951), Gainesville, Georgia Stan Geda (VAA 727950), Gainesville, Georgia Timothy Gilbert (VAA 727915), Gulfport, Mississippi John Goatley (VAA 727913), Springfield, Kentucky J. Munkelt Goncalves (VAA 727891), Almargem do Bispo, Portugal Richard Gooch (VAA 727938), Kansas City, Missouri Michael Good (VAA 727918), Milton, Washington Jerry Gordon (VAA 727852), King, North Carolina Sean Gorman (VAA 727845), Superior, Colorado Thomas Gould (VAA 727857), Bigfoot, Texas Aaron Hall (VAA 727844), Montgomery, Alabama Nelson Harding (VAA 727894), Fort Jones, California Jeff Hargis (VAA 727948), Cleveland, Missouri Robert Harmison (VAA 727851), Margate, Florida Joe Harrelson (VAA 727925), Rincon, Georgia Carl Helquist (VAA 727854), Phoenix, Arizona Bryan Hodkins (VAA 727947), Warrensburg, Missouri Rodney Holt (VAA 727910), Fort Worth, Texas David Hougland (VAA 727902), Rapid City, South Dakota Raymond Huckleberry (VAA 727906), Greenville, Michigan Nathaniel Jachim (VAA 727914), Detroit, Michigan Mark Jensen (VAA 727909), Elgin, Illinois Brandon Keen (VAA 727842), Denver, Colorado Rowdy Kelly (VAA 727917), Mountain Home, Arkansas Michael Koch (VAA 727847), Neosho, Wisconsin Knute Kolman (VAA 727892), Florence, Arizona Peter Larsen (VAA 727887), Alcester, South Dakota

Eduardo Luraghi (VAA 727858), Lynwood, Washington Robert Mackley (VAA 727886), Milford, New Zealand George McCollom (VAA 727872), Mission Viejo, California Bruce McGlochlin (VAA 727939), Tomales, California Julie McNabb (VAA 727916), Gulfport, Mississippi James Meyer (VAA 727920), Guttenberg, Iowa Stanley Meyer (VAA 727862), Virginia Beach, Virginia Mike Meyers (VAA 727876), Goshen, New York William Morrison (VAA 727937), Nashville, Tennessee Lois Murray (VAA 727849), Los Gatos, California Craig Neal (VAA 727871), Melissa, Texas Dan Nicholson (VAA 727877), Spring, Texas Star Novak (VAA 727941), Wellsville, Kansas Ross Palmer (VAA 727863), Las Cruces, New Mexico Steve Pankonin (VAA 727850), White City, Oregon Timothy Paul (VAA 727911), Antioch, Illinois Pierre Perez (VAA 727841), Belfort-du-Quercy, France Ray Peterson (VAA 727931), Rohnert Park, California Alicia Porter (VAA 727935), Acushnet, Massachusetts Chris Porter (VAA 727934), Acushnet, Massachusetts Lincoln Porter (VAA 727936), Acushnet, Massachusetts Crislana Rafael (VAA 727949), Surrey, British Columbia, Canada Mcclellan Ratchford (VAA 727846), Casper, Wyoming Oren Redsun (VAA 727885), Fairfield, California Bruce Rossiter (VAA 727945), New Milford, Connecticut

David Rossland (VAA 727870), Williston, North Dakota Daniel Saile (VAA 727868), Skiatook, Oklahoma Norman Samuelson (VAA 727930), Youngsville, North Carolina Bruce Sands (VAA 727929), Dana Point, California Mark Schmid (VAA 727905), Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Kenneth Sharp (VAA 727903), Holly Springs, North Carolina Stephen Sierens (VAA 727873), Clermont, Florida Jody Smith (VAA 727942), Arlington, Texas Wally Soplata (VAA 727904), Collierville, Tennessee George Stanley (VAA 727843), Richland, Washington Thomas Thiele (VAA 727908), Saint Petersburg, Florida Bryan Thomas (VAA 727895), Gainesville, Florida Gary Tokar (VAA 727867), Howell, Michigan Glenn Truesdell (VAA 727853), Fort Myers, Florida Chris Tumilowicz (VAA 727882), Essex Junction, Vermont John Tumilowicz (VAA 727881), Tehachapi, California Al Van Lengen (VAA 727932), Locust Grove, Georgia Stephen Watkins (VAA 727890), Denton, Texas Don Welch (VAA 727875), Crown Point, Indiana Richard West (VAA 727943), Cape Coral, Florida James Williams (VAA 727869), Vincennes, Indiana Paul Wohllebe (VAA 727848), Cave Creek, Arizona James Womble (VAA 727878), Henrico, Virginia James Yokom (VAA 727900), Wichita, Kansas Richard Zehren (VAA 727907), Hartford, Wisconsin

www.vintageaircraft.org

63

Message From the President SUSAN DUSENBURY, VAA PRESIDENT

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

equipment. Not only do we charge the batteries on your electronic equipment, but we also charge those electric scooters that you see zipping around all over the place. We have a drive-in system for the scooters where the operator just drives up to the rear of the charging station and connects the vehicle to one of the outlets and charges the scooter while enjoying the shade of Charles W. Harris Memorial Park. The charging station is managed by the very competent chair JoAnne Fox. Do you get tired of walking everywhere? Vintage can be of some help with that.

From 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Monday through Friday, Vintage gives tram tours through the Vintage flightline. The tour starts at Vintage Village on the north side of the Red Barn. Don’t forget that refreshing popcorn and lemonade are available in the hospitality side of the Red Barn!

Above, I have mentioned only a small portion of the

happenings at Vintage during AirVenture! If you are planning your annual sabbatical to Oshkosh, please check out our website at www.EAAVintage.org and click on Countdown to Oshkosh. We have a lot of stuff going on at Vintage that week!

I am looking forward to seeing you there!

It is with great sadness that I report that James Ray “Jim” Younkin died on May 13, 2019. Amongst many other things, Jim was a stalwart supporter of VAA whose heart was in vintage airplanes. Vintage magazine will be running a feature article on Jim in the September/October issue. Please send any of your personal experiences with Jim that you would like to share to Jim Busha at jbusha@eaa.org.

COPYRIGHT © 2019 BY T HE E AA VIN TAGE AIRCR AF T A SSOCIAT ION. ALL RIGHT S RESERVED. VINTAGE AIRPLANE (USPS 062-750; ISSN 0091-6943) is published and owned exclusively by the EAA Vintage Aircraft Association of the Experimental Aircraft Association and is published bi-monthly at EAA Aviation Center, 3000 Poberezny Rd., PO Box 3086, Oshkosh, Wisconsin 54903-3086, email: vintageaircraft@eaa.org. Membership to Vintage Aircraft Association, which includes 6 issues of Vintage Airplane magazine, is $45 per year for EAA members and $55 for nonEAA members. Periodicals Postage paid at Oshkosh, Wisconsin 54902 and at additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Vintage Airplane, PO Box 3086, Oshkosh, WI 54903-3086. CPC #40612608. 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: Members are encouraged to submit stories and photographs. Policy opinions expressed in articles are solely those of the authors. Responsibility for accuracy in reporting rests entirely with the contributor. No remuneration is made. Material should be sent to: Editor, VINTAGE AIRPLANE, PO Box 3086, Oshkosh, WI 54903-3086. Phone 920-426-4800.

EAA® and EAA SPORT AVIATION®, the EAA Logo® and Aeronautica™ are registered trademarks, 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 strictly prohibited.

DIRECTORY OFFICERS President Susan Dusenbury 1374 Brook Cove Road Walnut Cove, NC 27052 336-591-3931 sr6sue@aol.com

Secretary Steve Nesse 2009 Highland Ave. Albert Lea, MN 56007 507-373-1674 stnes2009@live.com

Vice President Tim Popp 60568 Springhaven Ct. Lawton, MI 49065 269-760-1544 tlpopp@frontier.com

Treasurer Jerry Brown 4605 Hickory Wood Row Greenwood, IN 46143 317-627-9428 lbrown4906@aol.com

DIRECTORS Dave Clark 635 Vestal Lane Plainfield, IN 46168 317-839-4500 davecpd@att.net

Ray L. Johnson 347 South 500 East Marion, IN 46953 765-669-3544 rayjohnson@indy.rr.com

George Daubner N57W34837 Pondview Ln Oconomowoc, WI 53066 262-560-1949 gdaubner@eaa.org

Dan Knutson 106 Tena Marie Circle Lodi, WI 53555 608-354-6101 lodicub@charter.net

Jon Goldenbaum PO Box 190 Warner Springs, CA 92086 951-203-0190 jon@conaircraft.com

Robert D. “Bob” Lumley 1265 South 124th St. Brookfield, WI 53005 262-782-2633 rlumley1@wi.rr.com

John Hofmann 548 W James St Columbus, WI 53925 608-239-0903 john@cubclub.org

Earl Nicholas 219 Woodland Rd Libertyville, IL 60048 847-367-9667 eman46@gmail.com

Joe Norris 264 Old Oregon Rd. Oshkosh, WI 54902 pilotjoe@ntd.net 920-688-2977

ADVISORS Paul Kyle 1273 Troy Ct. Mason, OH 45040

Kevin McKenzie 40550 La Colima Rd Temecula, CA 92591

Dan Wood fly170@gmail.com

DIRECTORS EMERITUS David Bennett antiquer@inreach.com

Ronald C. Fritz itzfray@gmail.com

Robert C. Brauer photopilot@aol.com

Gene Morris genemorris@charter.net

Phil Coulson rcoulson516@cs.com

S.H. “Wes” Schmid shschmid@gmail.com

John Turgyan jrturgyan4@aol.com

64 July/August 2019

© 2016 Experimental Aircraft Association, Inc.

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