VA-Vol-34-No-3-March-2006 by EAA Vintage Aircraft Association

E VOL. 34, NO.3

ARC H

2006

C ONTENTS

Straight and Level by Geoff Robison

VAA News

Aeromail

A Silver Eagle Part II - Hightlights of 1930 A biography of E.M. "Matty" Laird

by Robert G. Ell iott a nd Ed Esca llon 12

Type Clubs to Oshkosh Row after row after row ... by Tim Fox

Dinndorf, Doolittle, & Their Stinson Nearly lost to the ages, a h istoric airplan e m akes a comeback by Budd Davisson

54 Days With the Blue Phoenix [s it an end, or a beginni ng? by Glen Scott

Pass It to Buck Here's the drill by Buck Hilbert

100 Years at Huffman Prairie The Wrights' home fie ld adva ntage is celebrated by Scotty Markland

Books and Movie Review by H.G. Frautschy

The Vin tage Instructor CRM by Doug Stewart

Mystery Plane by H.G. Frautschy

Calendar

Classified Ads

COVERS

FRONT COVER: Tom Dinndorf and his wife. Mary, are thrilled with their big piece of history, a 1938

Stinson SR·l0J that was purchased by the Shell Oil Company, and flown by its aviation manager,

Jimmy Doolittle. Restored by Rod Roy, the thundering Stinson was photographed by EAA photogra·

pher Mike Steineke. EAA photo plane flown by Walt Dorlac.

BACK COVER: Major Mathew Taylor, an FA·18 test pilot for the USMC at NAS Patuxent River, Maryland,

flies a Howard DGA·15P that he owns with his wife, Candice. The Howard's restoration was begun by

the late Bryce Hunt of Santa Paula , California, and finished by the Taylors. The Stearman is owned and

piloted by Mathew's father, Larry Taylor, of Madison, Georgia. The photo ship was a Stinson V·77 Gull·

wing owned and piloted by Ricardo Traven of Lexington Park, Maryland, and the photographer was Randy

Hepp of Leonardtown, Maryland. The photo was taken this past spring during Pax River Expo '05.

STAFF EAA Publisher EAA Editor·in·Chief Executive Director/Editor Administrative Assistant Managing Editor News Editor Photography

Tom Poberezny Scott Spangler H.C. Frautschy Jennifer Lehl Kathleen Witman Ric Reynolds Jim Koepnick Bonnie Bartel Advertising Coordinator Sue Anderson Louise Scoenike Classified Ad Coordintor Colleen Walsh Copy Editor Director of Advertising Katrina Bradshaw Display Advertising Representatives: North east: Allen Murray Phone 609·26S· I666, F.~X 609·265·1 661 e·mail: allelllnllrmy@!lllillrlsprillg.colll Southeast: Chester Baumgartner Phone 727·573·0586, FAX 727·556·0177 e·ma il; cbauIll111@'lIillrlsprillg.colII Central: Todd Reese Phone 800·444·9932, fAX 816·741·6458 e·mail: todrl@Spc·lIIag.colll Mountain & Pacific: Keith Knowlton &: Associates Phone 770·516·2741, e·mail: kklloIVItoll@eaa.org

GEOFF ROBISON PRESIDENT, VINTAGE AIRCRAFT AS SOCIATION

VAA aging aircraft proposal By now a large segment of our membership has had an opportu nity to review the proposed aging aircraft initiatives developed by EAA and the Vintage Aircraft Association (VAA). Most would certainly agree the time is upon us to recognize the need for some resolution to these long-term issues. The intent here is to create a new, optional, aircraft certification category that will give owners and their mechanics the ability to maintain vintage aircraft using safety-based forms, with fit and function criteria, as opposed to unavailable or outdated type certificate data. Contrary to some misinformed opinions I've heard, it is not an owner maintenance pro gram like the one in Canada. Within 24 hours of the announce ment of this initiative we began to hear from the membership and rep resentatives of the various type clubs. Some of the immediate concerns we heard: "What is the potential impact on the value of my aircraft?" "What impact can I anticipate from my in surance provider if I move my air craft to this new category?" The real answer at this juncture is that only time will tell for certain! Please read the article starting on page 12. What is most important at this critical juncture is for us to con tinue to hear the thoughts, ideas, and concerns from VAA members and the type clubs. I shared some of the concerns I have heard to this

point, but I believe these concerns can be sufficiently addressed in an appropriately structured rule. We probably all know of at least one restoration project in our in dividual regional area tha t has se rious issues because of the lack of available data to get it restored and signed off for flight , not to men tion those aircraft that will remain

EAA/VAA

proposed initiative

will be presented

at the aging aircraft

public meeting on

March 22-23 in

Kansas City, Missouri

in "basket" status until the owner has at least some assurance that his or her monetary resources and per sonal efforts will not be wasted . We have also heard some great ideas for additional new VAA-related initiatives from our members. This dialog is of great value to us, and I would encourage each of you to share your thoughts and ideas with the VAA. In just a short few days we have heard some great ideas, and I hope to see it continue. If you haven 't reviewed this proposa l in its entirety, it is availab le for re view at www.vintageaircraft.org/news.

Click on 2006 - 02/08 - EAA Set to Advance Vintage Aircraft Proposal Next Month. This jOint EAA/VAA-proposed ini tiative will be presented at the aging aircraft public meeting on March 22-23 in Kansas City, Missouri . The proposal, which conceptually met with approval by key mem bers of the FAA management team during the EAA/FAA Recreational Aviation Summit, was presented Tuesday, February 7, in Washing ton, D.C., to representatives from the National Air Transportation As sociation (NATA), General Aviation Manufacturers Association (GAMA), Professional Aviation Maintenance Association (PAMA), Aircraft Own ers and Pilots Association (AOPA), the Aircraft Electronics Association (AEA), and others. In other news, the VAA was deeply saddened to hear of the re cent death of Daryl Lenz in a traffic accident near his home. Daryl served as the director of aircraft mainte nance at the Kermit Weeks Han gar in Oshkosh for more than 15 years. Daryl most recently served as a key member of the EAA AirVenture Tea-m who was directly responsible for coordination and display of the ma ny special aircraft that have vis ited our annual event each year. Da ryl was a friend not on ly to me, but also to the entire VAA family. Daryl was truly one of us, and he will be continued on page 37

HAVE YOU MADE YOUR PLANS TO ATTEND THE 2006 EAA AIRVENTURE?

EAA AIRVENTURE OSHKOSH 2006 , THE WORLD ' S GREATEST AVIATION CELEBRATION- JULY VAA IS ABOUT PARTICIPATI ON : BE A MEMBER! BE A VOLUNTE ER! BE THERE!

24-30

VINTA GE AIRPLAN E

Lawrence to Speak on Aging Aircraft EAA Vice President of Industry and Regulatory Affairs Earl Lawrence will speak at a two-day public meeting on aging aircraft, scheduled for March 22-23 in Kansas City, Missouri. The meeting will emphasize what can be done to mitigate the effects of fatigue, corrosion, and deterioration on aging general aviation airplanes. PartiCipants will share informa tion, resolve questions, and discuss potential solutions regarding the continued airworthiness of older GA airplanes. The current fleet average is approximately 35 years old and will increase to SO years old by 2020. Vintage Aircraft Association Ex ecutive Director H.G. Frautschy also plans to share expertise at the meeting, which is slated to begin at 8 a.m. each day, with registration at 8 a.m. on March 22. Individuals may submit a request to present a statement at the meet ing. If unable to attend, either mail a statement to FAA Small Airplane Directorate, FAA Central Region, At tention: Mr. Marv Nuss, 901 Locust, Room 301, Kansas City, MO 64106, or e-mail marvin.nuss@{aa.gov.

VAA Board Members Retire Bob Brauer, of Chicago, Illinois, and Roger Gomoll, of Blaine, Min nesota, decided to step down from the VAA board last year, and during this past winter's VAA board meet ing, both men were recognized and honored for their long commitment to the VAA and for their past work as chairmen during EAA AirVenture. Bob has been a fixture of the VAA for nearly the en tire existence of the organization. An electrical en gineer by trade, Bob has served as the VAA build ing and mainte2

MARCH 2006

VAA Question of the Month

I fly a neat old biplane, and sometimes I need to extend my day

a bit on the trip home. My take on the required lights needed for : ~ying at ni~ht are position lights plus an anti-collision light, eIther a rotating beacon and/or strobes. My friend says antiques are grandfathered in here, and that they don't need anything but position lights. Can you shed some, er, light, on this subject? -An Antique Flier (the airplane, not the pilot!) : Antiques and classics are definitely reqUired to have an anti-collision lighting system as well as navigation lights if they want to fly at night. The only grandfathered part is they have to meet the ear lier requirements for the placement and coverage of the anti-collision beacon, rather than having to meet the most current requirements. It basically comes down to having a strobe or rotating beacon on either the top or the bottom of the aircraft (belly, tip of the vertical, or wher ever); that's sufficient for aircraft that wete type-certificated before April I, 1957. These aircraft can't get by without anything or just position lights, but they don't need as extensive a system as a more modern air plane would need. Since you asked, here's a bit more on requirements for flying at night:

CFR 14 Part 91.205 (c) Visual flight rules (night). For VFR flight at night, the following in struments and equipment are required: (1) Instruments and equipment specified in paragraph (b) of this section. (2) Approved pOSition lights. (3) An approved aviation red or aviation white anti-collision light system on all U.S.-registered civil aircraft. Anti-collision light systems initially installed after August 11, 1971, on aircraft for which a type cer tificate was issued or applied for before August 11, 1971, must at least meet the anti-collision light standards of part 23, 25, 27, or 29 of this chapter, as applicable, that were in effect on August 10, 1971, except that the color may be either aviation red or aviation white. In the event of failure of any light of the anti-collision light system, operations with the aircraft may be continued to a stop where repairs or replacement can be made. (4) If the aircraft is operated for hire, one electric landing light. (5) An adequate source of electrical energy for all installed electrical and radio equipment. (6) One spare set of fuses, or three spare fuses of each kind required, that are accessible to the pilot in flight .-]oe Norris, Senior EAA Infor mation Specialist, and H.G. Frautschy, Editor, Vintage Airplane Do you have a question related to vintage airplanes you'd like answered? If we don't know the answer, we'll find the right person to fill in the blanks, and publish the answer here. Submit your questions to Joe Norris at info@eaa.org or to the VAA at vintageaircraft@eaa.org. Be sure to put "VAA Question of the Month" in the subject line. If you'd prefer, you can drop us a note at VAA, Question of the Month, P.O. Box 3086, Oshkosh, WI 54903-3086.

nance chairman for many years. For well more than a decade, Bob worked with Roger's father, the late Stan Go moll, as they kept the VAA's build ings in good repair and oversaw the updating of some structures on the VAA grounds. He's worn a number of hats as chairman, including co-chair of the Parking committee, and he served for more than a decade as the board's point of contact man for VAA Chapters and the EAA Chapter Office. Bob was asked to come on board as an adviser to the VAA board in 1986, and became a director in 1988, a po sition he held until his retirement in the summer of 200S. Bob is still ac tive as a volunteer, and if you make it to any of the VAA work parties during this spring, he'll be happy to find you some work to do! Roger comes by his work for VAA naturally; his father, Stan, was a longtime board member and active vol unteer who en couraged his son's love of avi ation. Roger has served EAA as a vol unteer for many years, including his time at EAA's Pioneer Airport, where Roger can often be found grinning as he gives another ride to a paying customer in EAA's Travel Air biplane. Appointed to the VAA board after his father's untimely passing, Roger has been right in the thick of things, serv ing as the Type Club chairman, and during the year he served the board while overseeing our VAA mem bership recruiting efforts, a natu ral extension of his full-time work as a membership recruiting expert for Minnesota Public Radio. We'll miss his cool-mannered expertise as a chairman, but we also appreciate that any advice related to our mem bership campaigns is only a phone call away. Please join us in wishing our two col leagues well as they move on to their next opportunity, and our thanks to Roger and Bob for all the work they've done for the VAA and its members!

atnIP.nrHM_nrtl for complete details.

What Do You Want to Know? Forums and workshops

teach aviation

A wise man once said, "If it has something to do with aviation, chances are you can learn more about it at Oshkosh." Want to learn the proper way to build wing ribs? Or the latest in al ternative fuels research? How about wing flutter analysis from FAA aviation safety experts? Imagine hearing about a historic aviation achievement by the person who actually achieved it. Add the entire spectrum of EAA SportAir Workshops, sessions on any engine type imaginable, and the SpaceShipOne team of Burt Rutan, Mike Melvill, and Brian Binnie, and you've still only scratched the sur-

EM AlrVenture Planning Guide Once you've made the decision to attend EAA AirVenture Oshkosh 2006, you can't just wait for July, hop into the cockpit, and show up. You need to start planning, and now. A great way to start is by download ing the EAA AirVenture 2006 Plan ning Guide, now available at www. airventure.org. The handy document includes es sential information about admission, lodging, driving directions, commer cial flights, vehicle rental, ground transportation services, and a lot more. Get your copy today and start charting your EAA AirVenture Osh kosh adventure!

EAA AirYenture Pit Stops Attention FBOs and other way points: Send your information, includ ing name of business, airport, phone number, e-mail address, and any spe cial offers for EAA AirVenture travel ers, to webmaster@eaa.org, and then watch for it on www.airventure.org.

EAA AirYenture RideShare Looking for a ride, or have a spare right seat for Oshkosh? Visit www. airventure. org/rideshare. VINTAGE AIRPLANE

Helio Courier Notes If your Helio H-391-B, H-250, or H-295 has in excess of 3,600 hours and needs to be upgraded per Air worthiness Directive 82-16-08, Amendment 39-4427, parts are be coming an issue with older airplanes in the field. Several Helio owners have asked us recently about the availabil ity of new parts, the current own ers of Helio Aircraft. LLC are not presently manufacturing replace ment items, such as leading-edge slats and wing carry-through as semblies. With the current fleet at around 200 airplanes, those older models that have 4,500 hours plus are in need of replacement items. We can at this point direct you to rebuilders with an excellent reputa tion and knowledge in Helio Couriers based upon many years of experience. The following individuals and/ or organizations may be of some assistance. JAARS Aviation Div. Jim Metzler, Head of Maintenance Waxhaw, North Carolina

GIVING BACK

EAA Vintage Chapter 27 in Delaware, Ohio (DLZ), is a small but busy group. Chapter 27 had a very successful air show in August of 2004 and is planning another for August 2006. We also have a pancake breakfast on the third Saturday of each month from May through September. As a result, for the first time since the Chapter was organized in the early 1990s, we have some assets in the bank. We wanted to give back to the community that has supported our organization. As a result, the city has donated land on the airport for us to build a shelter house to be available to the public, and we have enclosed one end of it for the VAA kitchen for our pancake breakfast and meetings. Chapter 27 and donations from local businesses have supported the shelter costs. The city assisted us with trusses and some heavy work, and our members have done the rest. We have had a lot of fun with the construction project and plan to finish the interior this winter and be ready in May for our pancake breakfasts. Sincerely, Roger R. Brown VAA Chapter 27 President

www.jaars.org Aero Pacific Steve Murray Carlsbad, California 760-931-0022 A complete list of Helio main tenance personnel is to be made available March I, 2006. For additional information, visit

www.heliocourier.net.

International Young Eagles Day 2006: Make Plans to Participate The world's most successful youth aviation program holds its biggest day of the year on June 10, and you can take part. On International Young Ea gles Day, thousands of EAA volunteers in the air and on the ground bring the thrill and excitement of flight to thousands of kids aged 8-17. EAA Chapter leaders, make sure you let EAA's Young Eagles head quarters know about your flight rally plans and then, after it's over, drop an e-mail to YOllngeagles@eaa. org to let them know how it went. 4

MARCH 2006

SEND YOUR COMMENTS AND QUESTIONS TO:

VAA,

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

P.O. BOX 3086

WI 54903-3086

OSHKOSH

OR YOU CAN E-MAIL THEM TO: VINTAGEAIRCRAFT@EAA.ORG

Friends of the Red Barn Campaign

Many services are provided to vintage aircraft en thusiasts at EAA AirVenture Oshkosh . From parking airplanes to feeding people at the Tall Pines Cafe and Red Barn, more than 400 volunteers do it all. Some may ask, "If volunteers are providing the services, where is the expense?" Glad you asked. The scooters for the flightline crew need repair and batteries, and the Red Barn needs paint, new windowsills, updated wiring, and other sundry repairs, plus we love to care for our vol un teers with special recognition caps and a pizza party. The list really could go on and on, but no matter how many expenses we can point out, the need remains constant. The Friends of the Red Barn fund helps pay for the VAA expenses at EAA AirVenture, and is a cru cial part of the Vintage Aircraft Association budget. Please help the VAA and our 400-plus dedicated volunteers make this an unforgettable experience for our many EAA AirVenture guests. We've made it even more fun to give this year, with more giving levels to fit each person's budget, and more interesting activi ties for donors to be a part of. Thank·You Items by Level

Access to Volunteer Center

Special FORB Badge

Your contribution now really does make a differ ence. There are six levels of gifts and gift recognition . Thank you for wh atever you can do. Here are some of the many activities the Friends of the Red Barn fund underwrites: • Red Barn Information Desk Supplies • Participant Plaques and Supplies .Toni's Red Carpet Express Repairs and Radios • Caps for VAA Volunteers

• Pizza Party for VAA Volunteers • Flightline Parking Scooters and Supplies • Breakfast for Past Grand Champions • Volunteer Booth Administrative Supplies • Membership Booth Administrative Supplies • Signs Throughout the Vintage Area • Red Barn and Other Buildings' Maintenance • And More!

Two Passes to VAA Volunteer Party

Special FORB Cap

Two Tickets toVAA Picn ic

Close Auto Parking

2 Tickets

Full Week

2 People/ Full Wk

2 Tickets

2 Days

1 Person/ Full Wk

1 Ticket

Name Listed: Vintage, Web & Sign at Red Barn

Donor Appreciation Certificate

Diamond , $1,000

2 People/ Full Wk

Platinum, $750

Gold, $500

Silver. $250

Bronze, $100

Loyal Supporter, $99 & Under

Breakfast at Tall Pines Cafe

Tri·Motor Ride Certificate

VAA Friends of the Red Barn

Name_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _EAA#_ _ _ _ VAA#_ _ __ Address________________________________________ __ City/State/Zip_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ __ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ Phone______________________E-Mail____________________ Please choose your level of participation:

__ Diamond Level Gift - $1,000.00 __ Silver Level Gift - $250.00

__ Platinum Level Gift - $750.00 __ Bronze Level Gift - $100.00

__ Gold Level Gift - $500.00 __ Loyal Supporter Gift - ($99.00 or under) Your Support $ _ _ o Payment Enclosed (Make checks payable to Vintage Aircraft Assoc.) o Please Charge my credit card (below) Mail your contribution to: Credit Card Number ______________ Expiration Date _ __ Signature_________________

EAA, VINTAGE AIRCRAR ASSOC. PO Box 3086 OSHKOSH, WI 54903-3086

*00 you or your spouse work for a matching gift company? If so, this gift may qualify for ' - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - ' a matching donation. Please ask yo ur Human Resources department for th e appropriate form .

NameofCompany~-~--~~-~~-~~-~~~~~-~~~~-~~

The Vintage Aircraft Association is a non.profit educational organization under IRS SOld rules . Ullder Federal Law, the deduction from Federal Income tax for charitable contributiol'lS is limited to the amoullt by which any money (and the value ofallY property other than money) contributed exceeds the value of the goods or services provided in exchange for the contribution. An appropriate receipt acknowledging your gift will be sent to YOIl for IRS gift reporting reasons.

VINTA GE AI RP LA NE

PART II - HIGHLIGHTS OF 1930

A biography of

E.M. "Matty" Laird By

ROBERT

ELLIOTT

AND ED ESCALLON

The highlight of 1930 proved to be the design and construction of the Solution racer, which became the first and only biplane to win the coveted Thompson Trophy Race for the fastest aircraft of the day. The Solution had been built in a record 30 days and was completed just one hour before the race. In the follow ing year, Matty's newest racer, the Super Solution became the first air craft to win the new Bendix Tro phy, setting the trans-continental speed record of 11 hours, 15 min utes, under the capable pilotage of Jimmy Doolittle. An executive transport biplane became the next challenge to be de signed and fabricated at the Laird factory at Ashburn Field. Construc tion was mixed with an aluminum semi-monocoupe finely tapering fu selage, fabric-covered wood wings, and a steel tubing center section. The prototype was built to an order placed by George Horton, president of Chicago Bridge and Iron. SpeCial features included an on-board lava-

Matty and Elsie Laird enjoy their mountain retreat on the shores of Lake Tox away, North Carolina, and sat momentarily for this photograph in July 1975.

tory and provisions for the even tual incorporation of retractable gear. Performance data of the 450hp prototype included 180 mph cruise airspeed with over 200 mph at full power. While the Sesquiwing was be gun in 1931, the ailing economy, together with the extensive fabri cation details reqUired for the air craft, delayed its rollout until 1934. About the time that factory flight

tests were completed, but just prior to their being submitted for ATC certification, Horton suffered a fa tal heart attack. Subseq uently the airplane was given to his alma ma ter, Rensselaer Polytechnic Insti tute in Troy, New York. Sadly, the aircraft's subassemblies were last seen undergoing various stress tests for aero-engineering classes . Although no doubt of great edu cational value, it is a pity this one-

Reprinted from Vintage Airplane July 1976 6

MARCH 2006

Laird Solution, in which Speed Holman won the Thompson Trophy Race in 1930. This aircraft was 30 days old the day of the race, having been completed about one hour before the race began, allowing time enough for a short test hop and refueling due to a short postponement of the Thompson Race start. LEFT: Speed Holman. Full view of completed Laird Sesquiwing.

of-a-kind Laird was not preserved instead of being destroyed. The middle '30s saw the develop ment of a huge airline industry in this country. Chicago became a ma jor airline hub and drew heavily on the aviation talent in the area. Many of Matty's employees went with the airlines during the lean year that en veloped the Laird Co., and a few are still involved in the management of this industry today. After a few years of operation, the DC-3, which had become the airlines' workhorse, began to re quire refurbishment of the fuel tanks due to corrosion. Matty bid against the Curtiss Co . for t his work and won the contract offered by American Airlines. In the ensu ing years, work on these tanks for American, United, TWA and Bra niff provided steady income for the Laird factory. Matty also con tracted to build passenger-loading stands for the airlines. Reminiscent of the early '30s period, "Matty's race to the race" V INTAGE AI RPLA NE

Photograph taken at the 1930 Chicago National Air Races, which were conducted at Curtiss-Reynolds Airport, Chicago. Speed Holman is shown at right, rounding a pylon in the Laird Solution. Upper center is what is believed to be the plane of Arthur Page, who was pulling out of the race. Page made a crash landing and died of injuries, while Holman went on to win the Thompson Trophy Race.

continued into 1937, when Roscoe Turner brought in two projects just two months before the National Air Races. They were his damaged We dell-Williams and a partially com pleted new racer. Matty's brother Harold was assigned to rebuild the Wedell, which had been a victim of carburetor icing, causing an en gine-out landing in the wastelands of New Mexico. Its many flights as a basket case hadn't helped the lightweight air frame, either. Despite its condition, Harold and his team were able to meet the time schedule and ready the golden racer for the upcom ing National Air Races. Joe Mackey piloted this plane in several sub sequent seasons under an agree

MARCH 2006

ment with Roscoe. Obsolescence and technical problems prevented it from ever again placing in a ma jor event. Roscoe's second major project was a racer that had been designed by Messrs. Barlow and Akerman of the University of Minnesota and whose subsequent construction had been begun by Lawrence Brown of Los Angeles. Various technical, personal, and financial problems had erupted during the project, forcing Roscoe to have the airplane's assemblies shipped to Matty for completion. A review of the design revealed a wing configuration that was unsuit able for the challenges of the Ben dix and Thompson. The wings were disassembled to the spars and re

built with the internal drag bracing lightened, and a greatly improved fuselage attach method was incor porated. Existing ailerons were used, with the flaps extended to cover the span added to the wing. The result ing loading of 50 pounds per square foot was among the highest used in aircraft at the time, and much tech nical comment centered about it. Actually, the wing turned out to be one of the really outstanding as pects of the racer, and its configu ration was widely copied in World War II fighters. Additionally, Matty added about a square foot to the elevator sur face area and completely outfit ted the fuselage structure almost from scratch. Larger fuel tanks than Brown had planned on using were included. In many respects the ren ovation of the Laird-Turner Racer was more difficult than building a completely new aircraft. When finished, a weight check confirmed Matty had eliminated more than 400 pounds of weight just from the parts Brown had shipped him. The LTR-14 was tested success fully and accepted by Roscoe, who proceeded to California in it ... on its second flight. In succeeding years the Laird Turner Racer served to change the fortunes of tough-luck Roscoe. Dur ing the 1937 Thompson, Roscoe, who was leading the race, was mo mentarily blinded by the sun while rounding a pylon. Turning back to re-circle the pylon, he lost his lead to Earl Ortman and Rudy Kling. In a last-minute burst of speed, Rudy drove the diminutive Folkerts racer past Ortman to win. Roscoe fol lowed in third place. However, the following year, the Laird-Turner, racing as the Pes co Special, placed first in the Thomp son, breaking Michael Detroyat's re cord speed set two years previously. The 1939 National Air Races were largely overshadowed by the grim turn of events taking place in Eu rope. Roscoe, racing for the last time, again won the Thompson, fly ing the Laird-Turner, which for the

Jimmy Doolittle is congratulated by Matty Laird after winning ui: i ll.""_.~ the Bendix Race, September 1931. inUJ ti::

occasion had become Miss Cham 8 pion. This victory made him the 5 only man to ever win the coveted ::t:~ ~~=-----~~~~~~~--~~~~~~~~~~~~~--~ famil Thompson Trophy three times. De Laird-Turner on the line after being rebuiH by the E. iar Laird trademark on the tail. spite the credit due Matty, Roscoe never properly recognized him. Matty, however, never pressed the issue, saying, "That's just the way Roscoe was." Turner's victories plus those ear lier in the decades by the Solu tion and Super Solution gave Laird planes three first and two third places in the Thompson Races, one first in the Bendix, and a trans continental and tri-Capitol speed record, in addition to at least a dozen different inter-city records. For a small civil-based aircraft fac tory, the E.M. Laird Co. had won a large share of the records and races of the '30s, due to the skill of the employees and the genius of E.M. "Matty" Laird. As this country's involvement in the World War II became more im minent, Matty realized it was go ing to be pretty tough sledding for a non-military manufacturer. In an attempt to get subcontracting work on military aircraft, a Chicago friend persuaded him to consider setting up an aviation division for a manufacturer of metal door trim, at Laporte, Indiana. Matty looked the operation over and elected to be come vice president of the company (later becoming Laporte Corp.). He brought with him all his factory machinery, equipment, and mate Matty Laird, center, surrounded by his fellow craftsmen at the Laporte Corp. dur rials, but retained personally all his ing WWII. The vertical fins of the 8-24 behind are autographed by all members airplane designs. The Laporte Corp. of his workforce. (/)

VINTAGE AIRPLANE

The Laird Speedwing Solution (Pratt & Whitney Wasp Junior engine)

Winner First Place -Thompson Trophy Race Chicago, Illinois, September 1, 1930

Average speed 201.91 mph for 100-mile race (20 laps around a 5-mile course)

Piloted by C.W. "Speed" Holman

successfully met the challenges of wartime materials shortages with a labor force consisting mostly of women . Although untrained, and faced with schedules that doubled every month, they rapidly grew into a skilled team under the able guid ance of Matty. His talents in produc tion were directed to the production of B-24 and SB2C vertical fins, com plete empennage groups for Martin B-26s, and numerous other items, such as wing flaps, radio cabinets, crew bunks, and de-icer tanks for the Martin PBM. Matty never had any interest in military aircraft, with the possible ex ception of building a trainer for the armed services. He had lost an early bid for a trainer in the Laird Swallow days, when Maj. Reuben Fleet, a pro curement officer for the Army, vetoed the purchase. Fleet later resigned from the Army and organized the Consoli dated Aircraft Co., which received the order for his training plane. The wartime production of the Laporte Corp. was a credit to Mat ty's ingenuity in training and mustering every effort from his em ployees during the critical time of his country's need. At the war's end, Matty restudied the designs he had worked up for ci vilian airplanes before the war. One particularly appealing model was a four-place, high-wing monoplane with a semi-monocoupe aluminum fuselage and wooden wings. Plans were to use a new six-cylinder in to

MARCH 2006

verted engine that Continental was developing. In considering the cap italization costs involved that had doubled since the '30s, and know ing firsthand the boom-bust mar ket that followed the previous war, Matty decided to retire from the aviation business. An additional factor that prompted his decision was the fact that his daughter had contracted polio. At the time, the only known treatment was frequent immersions in warm water combined with physical ther apy. Consequently, Matty decided to move to a warmer climate, choosing Boca Raton, a small community on the lower east coast of Florida. There, he and his lovely Elsie, whom he married in 1933, devoted themselves to raising their son and daughter. In later years the Lairds purchased some land in the Lake Toxaway area of North Carolina and built a home. The lake had been a million aire's hideaway in the early 1900s until the dam supporting it burst in 1916, flooding many of the lower communities. Ironically, the lake was later re-dammed after the Lairds built their home, and the high wa ter level forced them to again move. Later they purchased an adjacent home on the lakeshore. They spent their summer months enjoying the beautiful mountain lake area, while wintering in their 50-year-old Span ish-style home in Boca. In 1967 Matty became president of the Early Birds, an international

organization of pilots who made their first flight before December 17, 1916. Matty also became active in the Connecticut Aeronautical Historical Association's restoration of the Solution beginning in 1964. He first became acquainted with the Florida Sport Antique and Clas sic Association at the Remuda Ranch Fly-In during November 1974, where he was an honored guest. There he joined the EAA. In recog nition of his many achievements prior to 1940, Matty was awarded the coveted Silver Eagle member ship in the association. Since then the Lairds have been active in EAA, being honored among the avia tion greats at Oshkosh, 1975, and appearing at many EAA functions throughout the state of Florida. His present work on EAA's res toration of the Super Solution has brought him back, full circle, to the work to which he began devoting his life in 1910 ... that of building the finest aircraft in the country. At 80 years on November 29, 1975, Matty has been described by his friends as "a Volkswagen with 80 hp." The Florida Association and the Experimen tal Aircraft Association are privileged to know and be able to work with people of Matty 's background, energy, and character. Matty Laird ... a true genius and pioneer of American aviation.

Editor's Note, 2005: Matty Laird passed away in 1982 at the age of 87. .......

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VAA TYPE

id you notice the rows of the same aircraft parked together at Oshkosh this year? There were Cessna 170s, Aeroncas, Taylorcrafts, and Swifts. Last year it was Stinsons and Helio Couriers. Ever wonder how they all got to park to gether in such a great spot? It's simple. The Vintage Aircraft Association provides a limited reserved parking area for type clubs. The type clubs are a part of Vintage activities, and year round they support their particular aircraft through activities such as fo rums, chat rooms, and newsletters on topics that range from historic infor mation to the latest maintenance is sues. Type clubs can be found during the convention in the large tent just south of the Vintage Red Barn. We publish an annual list in the January issue of Vintage Airplane, and we keep a continuously updated list on the Vintage Aircraft website. If you have an interest in a particular airplane, we encourage you to join the club. Last year I had the pleasure of coor dinating the Stinson type club fly-in to Oshkosh, and I wanted to help other type clubs see what's involved in taking advantage of this great VAA benefit. The process starts with your type club group. You need the commitment of not only the club leadership, but 12

MARCH 2006

H.G. FRAUTSCHY

Fox

CLUB PARKING COORDI N ATOR

the members as well. Nothing is worse than doing all the work, planning, and publicity, only to have no one show up. It had been several years since the Stin sons had been in a group at Oshkosh, and the club directors were excited about the possibilities. You have to start early in your planning efforts, and we started right after Oshkosh 2003 with announcements in the club newsletter. This past year's type club groups were organized and had their spots set up before the end of 2004. You should estimate the attendance potential of your group so you can request space in the type club area. Space is limited, and to reserve space, VAA is looking for a solid commit ment from your group. You should also be prepared to make your request ASAP. The groups for EAA AirVenture 200S already had their requests sub mitted in December and some groups did not get space, as the area was al ready filled. The groups that were not accommodated will have priority the following year, so it's never too late to start the process. Information needed for your re quest should include the type club represented, the number of aircraft parking spots requested (we reserve the right to limit the number of air planes for any given group so we can

accommodate a few different types every year), the wingspan of the air craft, and a contact person who will be coordinating the event. Your re quest should be forwarded to VAA, and they will forward it to the type club parking coordinator.

Planning Several steps are necessary to en sure a successful event for your club. Developing interest and enthusiasm will ensure that you have a good turn out and provide a good time for all. Many of your members may have never been to Oshkosh or have not come for many years. Some may at tend every year but park randomly, and not with a group. Oshkosh is a dream trip for most pilots, and I have never met one who didn't say he either has been or wanted to go. Make your event the reason to make that decision. With the Stinson group we had many first timers who made the decision to fly in from all over the United States and Canada. Our event was the motiva tion for many of these pilots. It was a trip they will remember for the rest of their lives! Many will come back again and again. Starting in January, I placed an ar ticle outlining a portion of the plans

for the event in every month's issue of the club newsletter. I wanted to be sure that all the pilots knew what was going to happen and what they could expect. It's important for pilots to make the commitment early so other summertime activities don't use up available leisure time. This can't be done on a last-minute basis. Also, when planned ahead, variables such as fuel costs, meals, and lodging do not playas big a role.

Arrival Many of you have seen the large group arrivals of the Bonanzas and Mooneys. Almost all pilots come in through the normal NOTAM arrival from Ripon, but if your group is large enough, you may qualify for a special arrival. The type club parking coor dinator can help you find out if your group qualifies. With special type club parking reserved, how and when your group arrives does not matter, as they are assured that their parking is reserved together.

Parking When most people arrive at Osh kosh they hold up placards that say VAC for "vintage aircraft parking." They are directed to Papa taxiway and head south into the Vintage area. Once they arrive they are parked in the next available open spot, in rows going south. The sooner you get there, the closer you are to the action. As many of you know, a late arrival can find you closer to Fond du Lac than Oshkosh! Type club reserved aircraft receive a special placard that identi fies them as having reserved park ing. You are then directed by ground handlers right to your parking in the type club area! Please keep in mind that we can't hold your spot indefi nitely. There is an arrival window, so you have to be there by a certain date and time (unless you are being held out by weather), or your spot will be given to someone else.

Registration Once you arrive, you'll proceed north to camper registration, regis

ter your aircraft, pay for camping if you're camping on the field, and get admission wristbands for your stay. Shortly after your arrival and regis tration, Vintage volunteers will come out and take a picture of your plane and it will be placed on a participant plaque. This is available free to VAA members, courtesy of the Vintage Air craft Association in the Vintage Red Barn Headquarters building. You are also entitled to a free participant mug. If you ask the participant plaque staff in the back of the hospitality center in the Red Barn, they can come out and take a special picture of you with your aircraft for the plaque. This plaque is available for all VAA participants at Oshkosh. While at the Red Barn you can check out the activities, browse the VAA store, or check out the type club and workshop tents.

Activities This is the cornerstone of your type club event. Plan activities for your group. The type club parking coordi nator can help you with suggestions and arrangements for ground trans portation, restaurant reservations, or group activities. This should all be set up as soon as possible, as you need plenty of time to advertise in your club newsletter. If you're stuck for ideas on what to do, here's some good news-the VAA already has things scheduled that you can participate in as a group, such as the VAA picnic. It's a great time for your type club to get together and have dinner at the EAA Nature Center with other vintage aircraft owners in a casual setting. The various forums presented during the convention may also be of interest to your members, and, of course, your group can meet together to discuss topics related to your specific aircraft. VAA also will showcase an airplane from the type clubs on the lawn in front of the VAA Red Barn HQ each day. This is a great way to get folks to come by the tent and chat about the airplanes. The Stinson group planned a din ner off EAA grounds with a local lakefront restaurant and chartered a

bus to transport everyone. The turn out was so large we had to charter an additional bus to handle the group! Stinson owners from all over the field wanted to join in, and hopefully we gained some new membership. The type club rented a van so the mem bers had a way to travel into town to resupply and get items not available on field. With the heavy airspace traffic around Oshkosh and the problems of moving and parking aircraft, daily fly outs are not encouraged, but on Satur day there is a fly-out to Shawano, Wis consin, that your group can participate in. Shawano is approximately SO miles north of Oshkosh, so it's a short flight. There is a signup list at the Vintage Red Barn, and a briefing is held early Saturday morning for participants. This is a great fl y-in hosted by the town, and they really enjoy the vin tage aircraft coming from Oshkosh. If you provide a list of your pilots they will send an invitation. All arriving pi lots get a free breakfast, ice cream, and some Wisconsin cheese. Of course, your parking places are saved back in Oshkosh, so you can leave your camp setup and come back at your leisure. There's really a lot for your group to do! Parking within your aircraft group is fun and a learning experience. Com mon interests and experiences are shared by owners with the same type of plane. It's also an opportunity to look at other aircraft to see how things were done. It's any easy way to see what modifications may be available and what equipment has been installed. Type club parking can be a great benefit for your group, and we encour age you to take advantage of this op portunity. Have a type club representa tive contact the Vintage Aircraft Asso ciation for further information. The most effective way to contact us about type club parking is to send an e-mail to vintageaircraft@eaa.org. Please put Type Club Parking Request in the subject line. We'll forward it to the type club parking coordinator, and he'll be in contact with you shortly. VINTAGE AIRPLANE

time, a pilot leaves something behind in the airplane's soul. Tom Dinndorf of Baudette, Minnesota, is acutely aware of that, and he doesn't take the responsibility lightly. "I've owned this airplane for over 30 years and carted its remains around to various locations as I moved," he said. "Eventually, I re alized I wasn't going to get the air plane done in my lifetime, and that just wasn't right. lowed it to the airplane and to history to get it fin ished. Thank goodness I found Rod and Dottie Roy. They are the only reason the airplane is finished, and they should get all of the credit." As Dinndorf got into the project, researching its history became a near obsession, but just as it's difficult to prove "Washington Slept Here," it's often impossible to prove a given pi lot has flown a given airplane. Unless, of course, you have his logbooks. "Doolittle kept very careful records of his flights, and when I started re searching the airplane, I found his logbooks were among his personal effects that had been donated to the University of Texas. I knew the air plane had been purchased by Shell Oil on 12 August of 1938, but I didn't know for sure if Doolittle had flown it at that time. If he did, it would prob ably be in the logs. " Tom called the university archives and asked the helpful curator if he 16 MARCH 2006

could take a look at the logbooks and get back to him. "I didn't expect him to drop what he was doing and search, but that was exactly what he did. He had me hold on while he got the logbook and thumbed back to August '38. He said, 'Yes, on Au gust 13th it says 'acceptance flight, new Stinson, 15 minutes.' I can't tell you how that made me feel. Today, I have copies of all of Doolittle's Stin son log entries, and I periodically pull them out and look at them to convince myself the Doolittle con nection is real. It's almost scary to own and fly an airplane with that much history to it. " Although the Stinson is a work of art today, it wasn't always that way. In fact, it has spent far more time in der elict and/or project condition than it did in flying condition. "The last time the airplane flew, before we got it back in the air, was in 1952, even though it was only 14 years old at the time. Then, somehow it wound up in an aviation mechanics school, where it was stripped and the seats and a bunch of other stuff disap peared. Then it was pushed outdoors and pretty much abandoned. Since it had not been licensed since 1952, it lacked a permanent airworthiness cer tificate, (which became) another hill to climb." It is at this point in an airplane's life that its continued existence hangs by

The luxurious front office of the Stin son and its massive control wheels.

a thread: The dual vandals of weather and human nature can reduce an airplane in this situation to junk in nothing flat unless a savior rides over the horizon. NC21104 was lucky. Its savior was named Luke Youngren. Dinndorf said, "In 1971 I heard about the airplane and thought I'd like to restore an antique. I went over to take a look at it, and it was a disas sembled, sad-looking thing crammed into Youngren's hangar along with a bunch of spray planes. Youngren was a duster pilot and didn't really intend to restore it. He had bought it strictly to save it. If he had waited a few more years, there wouldn't have been much to save. "We struck a deal and I trailered the carcass home. Looking back, I was in credibly naIve. I had been close to some Cub restorations, and that's what I must have had in my mind when I started

this. I put the fu selage in my base ment shop and the wings in the garage, thinking I'd start restor ing it. I bought a compressor and sandblaster and started cleaning the fuselage and I think that's when the lights started coming on that this was going to be a much big ger project than I thought it was." Dinndorf had worked in his father's pharmacy as a youngster and, when he went to college, continued in that direction. Eventually he was in the manufacturing end of the pharma ceutical business and found himself leaving Minnesota for Atlanta. "I trailered the fuselage down be hind a little 2-liter Oldsmobile. We were so marginal on power that we couldn't run the air conditioner and climb even the slightest hill, so we just rolled the windows down and sweated all the way. "When I got to Atlanta, life took over and I barely touched the air plane. It was sad. And I was getting really frustrated. Here I had this amaz ing historical artifact and I couldn't do anything with it!" Life eventually seems to work things out, and after he moved back to Minnesota, he met Rod Roy and Roy's wife, Dottie. "I was at Oshkosh and saw Paul Sensor's Stinson that he had done, and it was nice. It was past being nice. It was beautiful, and I started talking to Rod about doing my airplane." Rod and Dottie could easily be the poster children for aviation couples. They were high school sweethearts who went their own ways but even tually found each other again in their early 20s when Rod was already well into his career as airport manager. He has been the manager and primary FBO at several Midwestern airports and said, "We've always been a full-

service FBO in that we do every type of maintenance except avionics. The restoration projects are part of that." His first rebuild project was the "ratty" C-140 he and Dottie had bought. "We took it to Oshkosh as part of that 150 or so C-140 gaggle, and ours was the airplane the EAA singled out for photos when they were covering the event." Rod's first big project was a pair of Christen Eagles, one of which won a grand champion Lindy at Osh kosh. Along the way, Dottie, who is a trained and experienced nurse, be came part of the restoration team. "Almost from the beginning," Rod remembered, "she'd do all of the rib stitching and got really good at it. At the time, I didn't do upholstery and usually bought a kit and installed it. We were in the process of installing one of those when Dottie said, 'Hey, I can do that.' She took a trade school course in upholstery at night for a year and has been doing all of our in teriors since." Almost since the beginning, Rod had been doing the motors for his re builds, so adding upholstery rounded out his in-house capabilities. "We usually spend a little more time with a restoration than other shops, but that's deceiving because we aren't farming anything out. We're a one-stop restoration operation, and the airplane never leaves our build ing. Plus, I have to give credit to my shop crew. They're a group of really motivated and talented guys. "Our first restoration that gained any notoriety was the red-and-black SR-8 Gullwing that became Hallmark's Christmas ornament for that year. That's the airplane Tom saw at Osh kosh and started him talking to us." Tom loaded his airplane (even he uses the term "airplane" loosely), and all the parts onto a trailer behind a Ryder truck and headed for Grand Marais, Minnesota, where Rod has been the FBO for the last six years. Grand Marais, inCidentally is on the north shore of Lake Superior, 30 miles south of the Canadian border, eh? Rod said, "When we unloaded it, I knew it was bad, but later I real

ized that as negative as I had been, I had underestimated it badly. It was far from being a hopeless basket case, but it was far worse than I initially thought it was. It took us about a week to figure out what we had, but then it took over three years before we figured out what we didn't have." While Rod was banging on the airplane, Tom continued scroung ing, splitting his time between dig ging up historical information and missing parts. Tom said, "We had a lot of peo ple really help us on this, including George Alleman, president of the Na tional Stinson Club, but finding and visiting Jerry Arnold, another Gull wing restorer up in Winnipeg, got us some of the hardest-to-find parts, in cluding the front seats. The back seats are just slings, so Rod could fabricate those, but the front seats are very unique. Jerry has a trucking company and a nose for wrecked Stinsons. Since the airplane was sort of a 'poor man's Beaver,' lots of them were used in Ca nadian bush flying and many were torn up in the process. Many were just abandoned or pushed against hangars. Jerry scouted them out and backhauled them to his hangar. "The front seats I got still had the original leather on them, which was good because we could then do a bet ter job of duplicating the material and the pattern. He also had a vacuum tank that I had just about given up on finding." The original concept Eddie Stinson had, when it came to building his air planes, was that they should be lim ousines of the air, and since he was based in Detroit, it was natural that they would have a lot of automotive flavor to them. Tom said, "The SR series of air planes had a lot of car stuff in them. They had an artificial wood-grain panel, roll-down windows, cranks, hang straps, all the stuff you associate with a car and not an airplane. That was part of his marketing program make it look luxurious and then charge top dollar for it, and that's ex actly what he did." The target markets for the GullVINTAGE AIRPLANE

The Great Doolittle/Porta Potti Ambush

Tom Dinndorf admits to being a Doo little nut. Which is actually a huge un derstatement. " I'm a little frustrated that so many peop le only remember him for the To kyo raid when there are so many other things he should be remembered for. Besides his achievements in air racing, he pioneered instrument flight, did the first outside loop, and, if he hadn't read Hitler' s mind and talked Shell into set ting up production of 100-0ctane fuel in the 1930s, we would have been in real trouble in the early days of WW II. " During the four years we worked on this airplane, Doolittle was never more than a millimeter from my mind or from the heart of this project. I had read ev- Tom Dinndorf, proud caretaker of

erything I could on him and searched the DooliHlelSheli Stinson.

the archives in every museum you

could think of looking for things that would tie him to our airplane.

" During one search at the Smithsonian , I stumbled on a really nice 8 by-10 of our airplane in the original Shell paint job, and I wanted desp~r ately to not only meet Doolittle, but to show him the picture. My ~ppor~unlty came some years ago at Oshkosh when he chaired a panel on air racing. "I won't say that I was actually 'stalking' him. Well maybe I was. Anyway, I spotted him in the crowd just as he stepped into a Porta Potti. I waited. un til he came out, and introduced myself. I should also say that I was a little nervous but he could not have been more congenial or gracious. We talked about m~ airplane and him having flown it. Then I showed him the picture , and without asking, he took it away for a few minutes and came back hav ing signed it for me. I'm too old to do double back flips, but if I could have, I would have. He was just so nice about it. " Later, I saw a Discovery Channel program on him that featured his sec ond son, John P. I Googled the name for a phone number and hit him on the first call. I explained the airplane thing to him , and he was just as gracious as his father had been . Plus, he led me to Jonna Doolittle Hoppes, the granddaughter, who was doing an insider book on Jimmy, Calculated Risk. He also introduced me to Jimmy Doolittle III, grandson and namesake. "We spent some time together with them at Oshkosh, when we had the airplane there, and we tried to get up for a flight, but weather and schedules kept us from get t ing together. I' m still talking with Jimmy III and Jonna, and both really want to get up in their grandfather's Stinson. "Everything about this air plane just keeps get ting better and better."

MARCH 2006

wings were split between feeder air lines, corporations, and very rich sportsmen. Although Eddie Stinson had died in 1932, the result of a crash at the end of a forced landing in Chi cago's Jackson Park, the company policy was well entrenched and no corners were cut in building his air planes. The outline of his airplanes was very distinctive not only because of the "gull" at the wing root where it went into the fuselage, but also the finely shaped, bumped cowls all the civilian Gullwings sported (military Reliants had smooth cowls). Unfor tunately, the bumped cowl loomed large on Dinndorf's "missing" list. "It's difficult to describe how much effort we put into trying, and I em phasize 'trying,' to find the right cowl for the airplane. I had a cowling, but it was a smooth one, and I had de cided very early on that the airplane was going to be exactly, and I mean exactly, the way it was on August 13, 1938, when Doolittle first flew the air plane. Going with a smooth cowl sim ply wasn't an option." The airplane had already become as much a fabrication project as a res toration because, as Rod put it, " ... there was practically nothing on the airplane, either wood or metal, that was rebuildable." So the logical solu tion for the missing cowling was to build a new one-no small project. The bumps, rather than being formed separately and riveted to a base cowl ing, were part of the primary surface. To make matters worse, the cowl ta pered slightly toward the rear. Tom found a metal smith, Larry Rampic, through another SR-I0 owner and had him make the 18 bump cowl sections on an English wheel. Then Rod and his crew tackled the daunt ing task of making a cowl out of the sections. This required building a frame and then painstakingly fitting the sections, welding them together and then working the surface down to perfection. Then they had to add the hinges, door, and louvers. Rod said, "The steel part of the air plane was fairly straightforward, ex cept there's a lot of it. There was some

rust, but nothing catastrophic, and luckily, the steel truss wing spars weren't bad at all. We had to do a lit tle welding on it, but since this was a 300-hp airplane, not a 450, the spars weren't heat-treated. If they had been heat-treated it would have made re pairs much more difficult. "The very first time I saw the fu selage," Tom remembered, "my first thought was, 'This isn't made to fly; all the tubing is too stout.' It's abso lutely massive in some areas." The steel tube spars of the Gull wing are streamlined with ribs built up from small, square aluminum tub ing that is gusseted and riveted to gether. What makes the process of restoring them so "interesting" is that they use square aluminum tubing that was manufactured spedfically for Stinson. Luckily, according to Tom, getting a supply of it turned out to be no problem. "Charlie Near, yet another Stinson restorer, this one from Nebraska, han dled irrigation pipe, and he apparently found the original dies for the rib tub ing and had some made for his Stin son. The problem was, he had to buy the entire mill run, so he had thou sands of feet of the stuff. For someone like me, who thought we'd have to go through the same process as Charlie, that was a good problem to have." The double tapered wings hide a couple of complexities that Rod could only iron out by going back to the English Wheel again. Rod said, "Part of the leading edge, where it forms the 'gull,' is compound curved. The wingtips too. Being able to do that in-house, right on the airplane, really made

the process much easier." When it came to doing the inte rior, they were in trouble because nothing of the original remained and they were unsuccessful in finding suf ficient photos to use as a guide. They did, however, luck out when discover ing a series of detailed drawings. "We used the drawings done by William Wylam, which were incred ible in their detail and were drawn from Stinsons back when they were still in their heyday. We judged them as being accurate because we looked at his drawings of other airplanes for which there were photographs to use as comparisons, and he was dead on. So we felt safe in using his work." Dottie laid in a supply of whole hides and started cutting and stitch ing, using both the original, rotting seat upholstery and the Wylam draw ings as guides. One thing we'd like to ask Dottie is about rib stitching the wings: At the root, they are at least 16 inches deep. Running a stitching needle that far and being that accurate must be a real art. Or does she have some tricks she can share? When the airplane was up through silver (using the Super Flight system) it was time for the paint, but this was something Tom had been doing a lot of work on. "We wanted the paint to be so accurate Jimmy Doolittle wouldn't know it had been repainted, so we went right to the source. First, I found Jimmy Haislip, who had raced with Doolittle in the '30s and was still his good friend. He gave me Doolittle's phone number. I called the man him self and told him I had his airplane

Rod Roy, ace restorer from the shore of Lake Superior in Grand Marais, Minnesota.

and was looking for a way to exactly duplicate the colors and the logo. He in tum plugged me into someone in Shell, who not only gave us permis sion to paint the logo on the airplane, but also got us a color chip for us to match. It's kind of funny because when we gave the chip to PPG, they found it was identified as Shell Yellow. I guess we could have asked them first, but we probably wouldn't have trusted them anyway." Rod is justifiably proud that every single bit of trim, except the Stinson logo, is masked paint. Although Rod usually does his own engines, he was up to his hips in Stinson parts and both he and Tom wanted to get the airplane done in time for Oshkosh. So the R-680, 300 hp Lycoming was sent out to Radials Inc., in Guthrie, Oklahoma. So how did Tom feel the first time he felt the wheels leave the ground? "First, I was nervous as a cat. This airplane isn't really mine. It belongs to history and I'd hate to damage it somehow. Once I got over that and we were cruising around, I simply couldn't get Jimmy Doolittle off my mind. I met him only briefly, but he impressed me, and of course, what he contributed to aviation is legendary. I guess maybe I feel as if this airplane is my tribute to him, and the longer this airplane is flying, the longer more people will remember him and what he contributed." ....... VINTAGE AIRPLANE

Is it an end, or a beginning?

BY GLEN SCOTT

ew airplanes deserve a bi ography more than 01 Blue. She started out in Octo ber of 1934 as a Fairchild 22C7D, built at the Fairch ild factory in Hagerstown, Maryland. This Fairchild had character from the start and has touched many lives over the past 71 years. I can tell the story for 01 Blue, as I have had the tremendous pleasure of flying and learning how she was built. My time was short with her, only 54 days this past fall. I am telling this part of her story for now, as I expect someone to continue with Part Two in the future. NC14302 (Fairchild 22 SIN 915) suffered a serious blow that few airplanes can endure: a hangar fire, a freak incident that no one ever an ticipates will happen to them . My brief experience with Blue took years to make happen (30 years, to be ex act) but actually started out on the

MARCH 2006

afternoon of October 20, 2005, when Jon Bartell and his son Louis arrived at Ar lington, Texas, Airport in the afternoon. This was a mo mentous day as I waited with friends for their 1,000-mile journey to terminate at my hangar. Bartell had agreed to part with Blue after learning how much I appreciated the rare Menasco power plant. I have had a running C-4 Menasco that has never been installed on an aircraft, which would ensure many hours of flight over the Texas countryside. I intended to share the experience with as many people as possible over the next few years. Ralph Schmidt, the retired president of Menasco Manufacturing, was ea gerly waiting for the gala event, along with Clare Wright, a retired

Jon Bartell enjoys his last moment in 01 Blue.

Menasco employee and company historian. This history was thick in my hangar with a display of Me nasco archives provided by Al Me nasco h imself. There were original advertisements, brochures, photos,

Left: NC14302, 28 years after a Jim Dewey restoration. This is the very same airplane featured in the 2006 VAA calen dar, as published by Turner Publishing.

and blueprints. A lO-foot length of sectional chart was starched on the wall for the crew t o autograph at the end of their flight from Ohio. The last 12 days of October of fered few daylight hours to fly af ter a day of work, so I enjoyed my evenings making small improve ments and learning the aircraft. I managed to squeeze in a few flights before the annual inspection came due. I was on cloud nine! The entire month of Novem ber was spent learning the aircraft and performing the annual on this

Ralph Schmidt, retired presi dent of Menasco, checks out the Fairchild.

rare gem . I couldn't believe the incredible craftsmanship that Jim Dewey and his crew had lavished on the restora tion of 01 Blue in 1977. Jim was the original owner of this aircraft when her life began with a Gipsy engine, but he re stored her with a Menasco D 4-87 with the help of Al Ball of Santa Paula, California. I performed a very through in spection and found almost nothing that wasn't perfect . I spent much time on the gear, shocks, wheels, and brakes. The sport landing gear was showing a little age, as the dope was starting to peel. I removed all of the dope and enamel from the fab ric and refinished the gear. Much of the work was done at night in

The day after the fire. No wood, fabric and very little sheet metal survived. The annual inspection consumed the month of Novem ber. The fire consumed everything else.

my well-equipped hangar. The wings were awesome to in spect, as the woodwork was superb and there are no cables, pulleys, or moving parts in them. A simple push rod from the stick to the aileron does the job very well. The IS-foot ailerons were damage free and reflected Dewey's work, as did the cowling and metal wheel pants. Metal never fit so well! I enjoyed much of getting acquainted with Ole Blue and it was as if making a new friend . I realized that I had a thoroughbred that I could enjoy for many years to come. My next and last flight in the Fairchild was on December 3 with my wife Rosa, when we flew locally for an hour and experienced a stiff crosswind. The controls and han dling were better than anything I had flown and made easy work of the flight. The engine was perform ing well and started with ease, much to the surprise of the skeptical air port audience. After that great flight, it was time to study the D-4-87 en gine in detail and check all the maintenance items. I was to check the valve ad justment and re-index the prop to the exact requirement of the manual. I was to closely check the magnetos for proper advance/re tard and refinish the gorgeous Fahlin propeller. I polished the brass lead

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ing edges and repainted the tips, but now I had to put her to bed without her cowling. Later I would touch up the paint and detail that gorgeous Menasco engine. The evening of December 12 I was going to visit 01 Blue at the hangar. As my wife and I arrived at the air port in the dark, so did the fire trucks! They were also going to the T-han gars. Then I saw the black smoke boil ing from the end of a row of hangars. Our row! The smoke was coming from a spot only eight to 10 spaces from my hangar, but the firemen wouldn't let me get close. As Rosa and I stood 20 yards away from 01 Blue's hangar, we could see the glow and hear the explosions coming from within the hangars. This sent chills in us, but all that we could do was go home and try to sleep. Right. About 11:30 p.m., my good friend Clare Wright called to tell me the bad news; yes, my plane and spare engine were gone, and this was possibly the hot test spot of the fire. The next morning I took off continued on page 36 VINTAGE AIRPLANE

Flying as a

ort Becoming the first certificated sport pilot in Illinois BY MARTY TOWSLEY

became truly interested in aviation when my father and I started building and flying radio-controlled mod els in 1970. In 1977, at the age of 16, I started to take flying lessons, flying Grumman Tr-2 trainers and Cessna lS0s . Due to cars, motorcycles, girls, and the as sociated costs of those aforemen tioned items, I got out of flying for a while, even though I had passed my FAA written and had about 30 hours' flying time. A childhood friend of mine, Mike George, with whom I had flown ra dio-controlled planes, had started flying full-sized planes about the same time I did. He continued on and currently owns many planes, including a P-S1 Mustang and F4U SN Corsair. I had flown with him in several of his other aircraft, but one summer day in 2004 he de cided to put me in the left seat of his Piper Arrow. During and after the flight he encouraged me to start flying again and to get my certifi cate, as I seemed to have retained some of my skills. He told me about the sport pilot initiative and, dur ing ensuing conversations, urged me toward buying a Taylorcraft. He also owns a Taylorcraft L-2 and has always been pleased with how 22

MARCH 2006

At that time, unbeknownst to me, I had become the first certificated sport pilot in Illinois. well it flies. As a side note, both of my parents had flown 1941 Taylor crafts in the mid-1940s as part of the Civil Air Patrol and the Civilian Pilot Training Program. Encouraged with the thought of being a sport pilot, and the fact it truly fit my budget and how I wanted to fly, I started to search the Internet. I discovered a 1946 Tay lorcraft BC-12D not far from my home. After exchanging e-mails and photographs with the current owner, Mike offered to fly me, my wife, and a mechanic to the airport to inspect the Taylorcraft. It was a

clean l,3S0-hour example. While it wasn't a showplane, it flew nicely. Exactly one week later, October 16, 2004, it was mine. Mike had introduced me to an instructor who was a friend of his, Denny Taft. Denny was a former F-1 6 pilot, is a current airline pilot, and also had tailwheel time in a friend 's newer Taylorcraft that was based at Taylorville, Illinois, where I was go ing to base my aircraft. Denny and I flew my Taylorcraft to its new home in a stiff breeze, where I saw the cars on the two-lane roads making better headway than us. As I had decided to become a sport pilot and the rating was so new, Denn y and I had to liter ally rewrite the book. Many of the signoffs had to be re-created, as Denny was familiar with the pri vate pilot certificate requirements and ratings, such as the instrument rating, but not the brand-new sport pilot certificate. The lack of avail able information seemed to be a common issue while trying to ob tain my certificate. As I had stick time in many diffe r ent aircraft over the years, the flying part was not overly burdensome, though it was a workout at times, and I learned much from Denny. Probably the most challenging

nois spoke of this event. For the most part every one I have come into contact with has been supportive. There seemed to be inter est and questions whenever someone learned I was sport pilot certificated, and I have encouraged them to inves tigate this avenue of flying. Though one or two have be littled the certificate, I know those one or two will prob ably be looking at this cer tificate when perhaps minor health issues start to ap pear and they want to con tinue flying . Though I could have gone on and received aspect was landing in a taildrag ger, especially crosswind landings. At one point, while walking from the hangar after a particularly gru eling landing session, I dejectedly encouraged Denny to let me know if I needed to sell the T-craft. I told him I completely understood if he told me to sell it. He informed me everyone had the occasional bad day, and even though there were still rough days ahead, I was finally successful in soloing for the second time in my life. I started building time and prac ticing for the flight exam, but this was where another stumbling block was encountered. No one could be located who could conduct the flight exam in a fixed-wing cer tificated aircraft, so I did some re search. I learned any designated flight examiner could be a sport pi lot flight examiner, as long as he notified the local FSDO of his in tentions, experience, and the type of aircraft he wanted to test in. One day I was at the Illinois De partment of Transportation, Di vision of Aeronautics building in Springfield, Illinois, and met a gentleman named Don Cramer. In conversation with Don I learned he was a designated flight examiner, and I told him jokingly I needed him to be a sport pilot examiner.

As I left the building I called my instruc tor, Denny, and told him of my conversa tion with Don. Denny advised me he had re cently heard of Don and had wanted me to speak to him about being a sport pilot examiner. I retraced my steps and spoke with Don about this. As most of this was new to him and the local FSDO, several calls and conversa tions were made by him and the FSDO personnel to confirm what was needed for him to become a sport pilot examiner. Finally the day arrived, and I met a well-prepared Don for the ground portion of the exam. Once that was accomplished, Mike flew us to Tay lorville Municipal Airport, where the flight portion of the exam was started. A stubbornly fouled spark plug threatened to cancel the flight, but it was finally cleared and the flight exam took place. Apparently Denny's work with me had stuck, and I completed the exam just fine. At that time, unbeknownst to me, I had become the first certificated sport pilot in Illinois. Later, a small feature and picture in a newsletter sent to all registered pilots in Illi

my private pilot certificate, for the time being I am happy with my plane and the type of flying I do . I have the signoffs for Class C and D airspace, and I make the Sunday morning fly-in breakfasts with my friends, as well as lunch and dinner dates with my supportive wife. It seems many people I have spoken with have longed for their first plane and to perhaps own and fly it again. I decided to skip the middle portion of buying more expensive and complex airplanes, and stick with one of the finest air planes ever built. And nowadays, you really can't beat 4 gallons of gas an hour .. .

V I NTAGE AIRPLANE

Dear Famii't NASA is going to be atliN nRIN. 'can't wait! 1

Lov~

Your Pilot In Command

Make plans today to attend this week-long event filled with aviation seminars, workshops, daily airshows, miles of aircraft and industry exhibits, tastes at the acclaimed SUN'n FUN International Food Court and the spectacular Night Air Show - a schedule bursting with activities. Purchase your tickets online at www.sun-n-fun.org

and join thousands of aviation enthusiasts at the first of the 2006 aviation year.

Lakeland Lind er Airport (KLAL) Lakela n d Florida

E.E . " BUCK " HILB ERT

Here's the drill Most of us amateur metal bend ers and wood butchers reach for a drill and use it with little or no regard to whether or not the work calls for a special bit for the particu lar job. Oftentimes, we're in a hurry, in the middle of a job that can't wait, so we grab a hand drill, search through the available bits, grab the one closest to the size we need, and punch the hole.

Hey! It works. I can see daylight coming through the hole. What more do you want? Well, if you go by the book and do the job as required, you take your time, analyze the job and the needs, find the proper bit, make sure everything is in place, and then drill the hole. The job's done, but not the way the book says. Before we talk about bits, let's look at the drill motor first. What type of drill is safest to use around LIP OR aircraft? Pneumatic or CUTTING EDGE electric? I guess this question can be answered by the mechanic himself. Some learned using the pneu matic, others the elec tric. And if you are one

who prefers mobility, you use one of the new rechargeable battery powered, variable-speed jobs that

The tip does the actual cutting work; the flutes al low transport of the chops away from the work ... doesn't have cords or hoses to get tangled up, snag on the job, or trip people. Whatever the choice, the end result is about the same. Your comfort level is the concern here. continued on page 36

FLUTE

LAND

HEEL ANGLE (12°- 15°)

irl

LIP ANGLE (NORMALLY 59°)

LLI

i~::I:~~"=--==:::::::;:;:-",- L1PS OR

CUTTING EDGES

V I NTAGE AIRPLA NE

EAIS

at Huffman Prairie

The Wrights' home field advantage is celebrated ARTICLE AND PHOTOS BY SCOTTY MARKLAND

CHAPTER

We had a remark足 able experience on Monday, October 3, 2005. We watched as a replica Wright III 1905 biplane was cat足 apulted into the sky as a re-enactment of Orville and Wilbur's flights from historic Huffman Prairie, at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Greene County, Ohio . We were standing 500 feet away when mechanics for the Flyer III started

MARCH 2006

610

COUNSELOR

the engine. Pilot Mark Dusenberry re足 leased the weight on the catapult, the bi足 plane moved down the track, and then the Flyer rose from the track after a run of about 50 feet. We could hear the clatMark Dusenberry skims the surface of Huffman Prairie in his Wrigbt Flyer III replica, a few days before the official celebration.

ter of the engine clearly and saw the slowly turning propellers rotat ing at 400 to 450 rpm. Except for the engine noise, it was very quiet. It was early morning, the fog had lifted, and the grass was wet with dew. The pilot made a leisurely flight at 25 feet of altitude. Time aloft was 5 to 7 minutes, covering a mile or less. At the southwest end of the prai rie the pilot made a ISO-degree shallow bank and turned around a small tree before returning to the launching point and landing on its skids. It was eerie; it was like going back 100 years and watching a 1905 Wright airplane flying from the same field on a beautiful October morning. In your imagination you could see the brothers out there fly ing their invention, dressed in the clothing of the day. The group from EAA Chapter 610 was invited to static display our 1911 Wright B replica (more later). There were two other Wright B air craft on display as well, the Day ton Wright B and the Utah College Wright B. There were a total of three fly ing Wright airplanes, and one on static display. That's a remark able assembly in itself. During this demonstration, there were only 20 or 30 people present. On Wednes day, October 5, an official dedica tion marking the 100 th anniversary of the Wrights' flights at Huffman Prairie was made, with many digni taries present. Speeches were made, after which Mark flew his Wright Flyer III replica two more times in front of about 200 spectators . These flights were made straight ahead, as the FAA and National Park Service didn't want any of the replicas to do any more turns. There were officials from France, Brazil, and the United Kingdom observing the flights. After Mark's flights and the cer emonies, the Dayton Wright Band the Utah Wright B each mad e a pass over the prairie. This was fol lowed by a pass in review of 14

general aviation airplanes over the prairie. Most of these pilots were from Chapter 610. A little information about the EAA Chapter 610 Wright Model B. The aircraft is 99 percent com plete. The engine has been run 30 minutes with the flight propellers installed. A few minor oil and wa ter leaks were fixed, and the chains were adjusted. A tachometer and water temperature gauges were in stalled for the Model A engine. We are getting close to completion. We still have the problem: who is qualified and going to fl y this thing? It has to be someone with wing warping experience. We ob tained a lot of information from Mark on how he flew his wing

warping, but we have a different control system. Mark is an inter esting guy. He built the airplane and engine, and learned to fly it on a student permit. All of the workers on the 610 project are pi lots, and I am in awe. When I am standing beside that big-winged aircraft with its engine clattering, and the wings vibrating and shak ing, I think, "Someone's going to fly this thing?" We are used to smooth, easy op eration. But that is the state of the art today, and that was the state of the art 100 years ago, so that is what they flew. They really didn't know any better. It's like the old hot rodders saying, "You run wat cha brung." ...... VINTAGE AIRPLANE

One Six Right A movie by Brian Terwilliger This is a love story. Really. Sure, the title leads you to believe it's about the people and planes of gen eral aviation as manifested in Van Nuys Airport near Los Angeles, but it's really all about the love affair so many of us have with aviation. It just happens to be wrapped around the story of Van Nuys and the many people who've brought it to life over the past decades. It's about every airport and every pilot who ever loved his local airport and his fellow pilots. Twenty-nine-year-old Brian Terwilliger, the director and pro ducer of this terrific film, and a pilot himself, understands that underlying theme well; he subtitled his film The Romance ofFlying. With the exception of the IMAX for mat films shot with an aviation theme, few movies have captured the visceral essence of flying as well and as pro fessionally as Terwilliger and his crew have in One Six Right. Told through the voices of those who keep the airport alive (you may watch the entire film before you realize there is no narra tor) the passion these men and women have for flying and general aviation is highlighted by some of the best foot age ever shot of aircraft in flight. Steven Miles, the director of photog raphy, and aerial directors of photog raphy Carston Bell and Doug Holgate all get a standing ovation from me for the fabulous gyro-stabilized air-to-air and ground-to-air shots of everything general aviation, and serves as from a Fleet 7B biplane to a terrific and entertaining tool a Gulfstream business jet. to enlighten the general pub (A nod also to helicopter lic about the value of their lo pilot Kevin Larosa for his cal airport and general aviation. piloting skills during those I highly recommend it; in fact, shots.) Coupled with Kim after viewing a preproduction Furst's excellent editing, copy, I ordered both the DVD and a breathtaking original and the CD of the soundtrack. musical score by Nathan One Six Right is available by log Wang, and fun guitar mu ging on to www.onesixright.com sic by Freddy Clarke, One Six Right is a superb movie Rudy Salar and his Fleet 7 is just one of the many or by ordering from Sporty's at 800-776-7897. about all that we love in stories highlighted in One Six Right. 28

MARCH 2006

Flying Thoughts: An Aviator's Flight Through Life A book by Richard Ward Dick Ward's expertise when it comes to th e Twin Bonanza and its brethren is well known to Beech crafters, but I didn't know much else about this eru dite fellow Midwesterner until I read his self-published book. That's too bad, because he strikes me as the kind of fellow you 'd like to get to know. He's like many of us-nuts about airplanes since h e was a youngster building stick-and-tissue models of his fa vorites and then gathering as many ratings as time and circu mstances would allow. Sprinkled with Dick's poems and wide- ranging thoughts on subjects as diverse as politiCS and learn ing to fly float -equipped J-3 Cubs on the Allegh eny river in Pittsburgh, you'll never wonder where Dick Ward stands on subjects near and dear to his h eart. As a pilot, he shares how the diScipline and stru cture we're all taught can be applied to everyday life. It's all here, and quite entertaining to read. Flying Thoughts can be purchased through the Twin Bonanza Associ ation at www.twinbonanza.com-click on the Market place tab. Or you can write to them at: Twin Bonanza Association, 19684 Lakeshore Drive, Three Rivers, MI 49093 USA. The 156-page book costs $18.95 plus shipping for addresses in the United States.

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the many photographs and illustrations that comple ment the text. There are a couple of layout errors, most notably an upside-down reproduction of a still from the movie Hell's Angels of the zeppelin emerging from the clouds, but then it's not as if anyone today who's not an aviation enthusiast would recognize an upside down zeppelin! Wohl is a professor of history at the University of California at Los Angeles. The Spectacle of Flight, pub lished by Yale University Press, is available from book stores, identified as ISBN 0-300-10692-0.

Flights Forgotten . . . And Remembered

The Spectacle ofFlight A book by Robert Wohl Published by Yale University Press This beautifully printed volume of the history of flight during the past century (it still seems odd to write that!) starts off with a photograph of a crowd in front of a building that I instantly recognized; it was the St. Louis Art Museum, with thousands of spectators looking up at Lindbergh's Spirit of st. Louis after his re turn to the United States. I'd been on Art Hill dozens of times during my college career and have always marveled at the tre mendous crowds that gathered all over North Amer ica wherever Lindbergh flew after his record-setting flight. His impact is highlighted by the choice of au thor Robert Wohl to begin this 364-page book with 40 pages on the Spirit's flight in 1927. Mercifully, Wohl's intent is not to give the reader a blow-by-blow chro nology of the history of flight, but a neatly crafted book detailing the impact that aviation had on the world prior to 1950. In particular, the world changed directly due to the influence of both the technology of flight and the impact of those men and women who challenged the sky. From the aircraft design firms of America and Europe to the soundstages of Holly wood, aviation was part of everyday life during the first half of the 20th century in ways that only today's Internet seems to rival. Wohl's book is a terrific effort, and while scholarly in tone, it's not dry reading; rather, it's refreshing to read a chapter at a time, thanks in no small part to 30

MARCH 2006

Lt. Col. Boardman C. Reed (USAF Ret.) Boardman Reed has been a VAA member for de cades and was, for many years, a faithful responder to our Mystery Plane column. His military career, which offiCially started just before World War II, actually starts in 1928, when he began logging each flight ex perience in meticulous detail. Boardman maintained his very detailed logs until he was an aviation cadet, when he simply no longer had the time to dedicate to such detailed entries. I've enjoyed reading Tom Brokaw's The Greatest Generation, but there's simply nothing like hearing it from one who's been there, and Reed certainly was present and active flying so many of the remark able aircraft of the '30s, '40s, and '50s. As a career military man, he started life in the Army Air Corps, transitioning to the newly formed U .S. Air Force af ter the war. Later, he flew all manner of civilian aircraft, including his good friend Pete Bower's Fly Baby and Curtiss Pusher. All together, Boardman's book is an enjoyable read, wri tten by a man who seems quite pleased and content with a life well lived. We're lucky to have had men like him when we needed them the most. Flights Forgotten . .. And Remembered is available directly from the author, and he'll personally inscribe and autograph your copy if you make your request with your order. You can e-mail himatB17f@sbcglobai.net. Each copy costs $24.95, plus $2.07 per issue for ship ping in the United States. You can order the book from Boardman C. Reed, 2050 Springfield Dr., #109, ........ Chico, CA 95928-6361.

We're lucky to have had men like him when we needed them the most.

Peter Novak Bloomington, IL

• Soloed 1969, private same year • Commercial 1970 • Instrument MEL 1971 • CFI 1972; ATP 1973 • Captain United Airlines 8-777 - 23,000 hours total time

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BY DOUG STEWART

CRM CRM. In the airlines it stands for crew resource management. In the airplanes you and I fly it stands for cockpit resource management. And unfortunately for me, it so often seems to stand for can't remember much. (Bear with me a moment and I'll remember why I started to write this article ...) Oh ... right ... I remember now. CRM. It's an initialism that many of us have heard, but it's possible that you really don 't un derstand how a term that's used by the airlines could be applied to the cockpits of our personal airplanes . If we consider that it refers to using all available tools, it could make a bit more sense. Let's take a look at those tools and how we can use them, espe cially when the yogurt starts to creep up above the eyeballs. My list is not prioritized; because of my "can't remember much," they're listed as I think of them. Let's see now ... checklists . . . they're a good tool (especially for my personal CRM). I have a checklist in my airplane for every phase of the flight, from preflight through post-flight. It is one that has been in a slow evolution from the earliest days of my fly ing, and it includes all the things I have forgotten at one time or another. For example, my cruise check list includes, after setting the power, checking that the flaps and landing gear are cleaned up. (I know I'm not the only one who has forgotten to do that.) Cowl flaps closed, transponder on altitude (so that controllers don't ask me to recycle the XPDR, their nice way of saying you forgot to turn it on, dummy), and heading indicator checked with the compass are all included in my checklist, as they are all things I have forgotten at one time or another as a result

of distractions from passengers, air traffic control (ATC), or aircraft anomalies. Suppose you select gear down as you enter the down wind leg of the traffic pattern, and you don't see "three in the green." Is this an emergency situation? Do you need to have the manual gear extension procedure memorized? The answer to both questions is no. What should you do? The answer is simple .. .leave the traffic pattern, climb to a safe altitude, and get out the checklist. This is not a procedure that you have to have memorized. It is not an emergency situation ... yet. Us ing the checklist will ensure that you don't miss anything. Check lists are one of the best tools in our CRM flight bag. Passengers .. . they sometimes can be one heck of a distrac tion, especially if they have not been briefed on the sterile cock pit concept, which is no talking about anything (the wife and kids, the ball game , the great joke they just heard, etc.) except flight-related issues anywhere in the airport environment. That includes from on the ground while taxiing until 5 to 10 miles away from the airport on departure, or the reverse, if arriving. Passengers can indeed be major distractions, but they can also be fantastic aids as well, again, if they are properly briefed. They can look up information from a variety of resources while you fly the airplane. They can help program the GPS (if they know how), and they can dial in radio frequenCies. Most impor tantly, your passengers can serve as an extra set of eyes in scanning for traffic. Do ensure that they have been briefed to call traffic in "clock" direction and altitude relative to you.

If your sectional is

back in the luggage

compartment, it isn't

going to do you much good when the

batteries in your

handheld GPS die.

MARCH 2006

What about all the possible resources for informa tion that you, or your passengers, might be referenc ing? I certainly hope you have brought along all the current and proper charts that you might need, but I have noticed that many pilots forget to bring along a current Airport/Facility Directory (AFO) or other suit able reference for airport, NAVAID, and other related information. Many pilots are now tending to rely solely on their GPS for this information (as well as the daily lunch special at the airport restaurant) but forget that if the database in the GPS is not current, then the information might very well not be reli able, and if the batteries die, that information will become unavailable. Having current charts and publications is a big part of CRM, but another important part that is sometimes forgotten is proper cockpit organization. If your sec tional is back in the luggage compartment, it isn't go ing to do you much good when the batteries in your handheld GPS die. So be sure the charts are not only in the airplane, but also accessible in an organized manner. For those of you pilots flying instrument flight rules (IFR), this is even more important. For the IFR pilot, ATC is an essential part of good CRM. ATC can be a great source of weather infor mation, and weather avoidance vectors. just be sure you confirm with controllers whether or not they are painting the weather. just because the last control ler to hand you off was painting the weather does not necessarily mean the current controller is, even when they are sitting side by side in the same radar room . So please be sure to confirm that the new con troller is in sync with what you need. For the visual flight rules (VFR) pilot, ATC can also be a wonderful CRM tool. How often have I heard on the frequency, "... uh, approach ... uh ... any chance of vectors for the Boondock airport?" A tactful way of saying, "Help ... I'm lost." Even if you are superb at pilotage and dead reckoning, and don't ever get lost, ATC can still be a great resource. If you use ATC to provide flight following, control lers can (on an available basis) call out traffic for you and sometimes help to steer you clear of potential airspace violations. Remember, though, that the re sponsibility for remaining clear of restricted airspace is totally yours, the pilot in command, if you are fly ing VFR. So is staying clear of other airplanes. The radar coverage and communication from ATC is a handy reference, but it doesn't serve as a replace ment for your eyeballs. Regardless, whether IFR or VFR, ATC is another one of the good CRM tools for all of us to use. While discussing CRM tools relative to the radio, certainly other pilots on the frequency can be good resources . As an example, on a recent flight to the West Coast, I had departed johnson County Execu tive Airport (KOjC, near Kansas City) into a lOO-foot

ceiling. About 10 miles before reaching Emporia, Kansas (KEMP), the fog ended. At this time there was a pilot on the frequency with Kansas City Center who was inbound to OjC from the east. It was obvi ous the fog would not be lifting for a while, prevent ing the approach, but the pilot was unable to pick up the weather at EMP. He was thus unsure of where he should divert. A quick call from me to Kansas City Center confirmed that the fog ended a little bit east of EMP and that he could easily divert there. Remember that what goes around, comes around! I'm sure there have been times that you wished there were a pilot report (PIREP) to confirm weather con ditions somewhere along your route of flight, but none existed. If we all spent a little more time giving PIREPs, it would definitely aid in everyone's CRM. These are but a few of the tools that we can use in effective cockpit resource management. Next month I would like to discuss some more of them. Hopefully my CRM (can't remember much) won't take effect until I complete the article. In the meantime may you be blessed with blue skies and tail winds. Doug Stewart is the 2004 National CFI of the Year, a NAFI Master Instructor and a DPE. He operates DSFI Inc. (www.dsflight.com) based at the Columbia County Airport (1B1). .......

Just Uke in the Good Old Days All the Randolph products, aD the Randolph colors, aD the Randolph quaHty. An aviation icon is back on the market again... to stay. 800-362-3490~ Or e-mail us at info@ randolpbaircraft.com

VINTAGE AIRPLANE

BY H.G. FRAUTSCHY

THIS MONTH'S MYSTERY PLANE COMES TO US FROM A MEMBER'S COLLECTION, WHICH WE'LL

NAME WHEN WE GIVE THE ANSWER. I LOOK FORWARD TO YOUR REPLIES.

Send your answer to EAA, Vintage Airplane, P.O. Box 3086, Oshkosh, WI 54903-3086. Your answer needs to be in no later than April 15 for inclusion in the June 2006 issue of

Vintage Airplane. You can also send your response via e-mail. Send your answer to mysterypiane@eaa.org. Be sure to include your name, city, and state in the body of your note, and put "(Month) Mystery Plane" in the subject line. Those of you who are regular readers of the column caught the fact that during the page layout process, we wound up with the Mystery Plane from last September, the Aerial Mercury Senior. Our apologies! The December Mystery Plane, also from the "Emy" Emerson Collection, brought plenty of replies.

DECEMBER'S

MYSTERY ANSWER Here's our first letter: The December Mystery Planes are SE-SAs of the Skywriting Corpora足 tion of America. They are all painted white, are powered by 200-hp Hisso engines, and are lined up on Curtiss field , Long Island, where they were based. The picture was taken in 1923. Skywriting was made practical by an Englishman, John C. Savage, after about three years of experi足 menting with oil mixtures, heat足 ing means, valves, etc. Cyril Turner, formerly an RFC pilot in WWI, did most of the original test flying. The first full word written was "VIM." Shortly after, skywriting be足 came commercial as the Wakefield company paid to advertise their

MARCH 2006

product on May 30, 1922, with the word "CASTROL." Savage formed the Savage Sky writing Company, and acquired more planes and pilots. The busi ness did well in Europe, but was not so successful in England. Savage ex panded into the United States late in 1922. He brought two of the SE SAs with him, and bought the rest here. They had been built here un der license during the war, and were readily available. The company was based on Curtiss field, and did a good business. The original of the picture used in Vintage magazine had the com pany name "The Skywriting Corpo ration of America," written in large letters on the fuselages. I guess you "whited" them out to make us work harder. (Yes, we did. Couldn't make it too easy for aIL ofyou!-HGF)

Arnol Sellars Tulsa, Oklahoma

The six aircraft are Royal Aircraft Factory SE-SA World War I surplus fighters converted for skywriting. They are probably part of the fleet of the Skywriting Corporation of Amer ica operating from 1922-1924. All of my information comes from A.j. jackson's book British Civil Aircraft 1919-59 Vol. 2, published by Putnam of London. The infor mation is on pp. 230-235. "... In civil form the S.E.SA will be associated forever with Major J. c. Savage and skywriting, his first aircraft G-EATE being used by Cyril Turner for the first public demonstra tion of black smoke writing on May 30, 1922. Smoke producing chemi cals of secret formula were carried in a specially installed tank in the fu selage and could be fed at will, by means of a cock, into the hot exhaust gases. The smoke was led through a special pipe under the fuselage and the starboard elevator fabric was

partly removed to prevent charring. This system was soon superseded by white smoke led through lengthened exhause (sic) pipes to a Y junction at the stern post ..." The latter arrangement seems to be on your photo examples. There is some more interesting info on their practice techniques for the skywriting that I am omitting here, but jackson goes on later to say: "... Two were shipped to Amer ica, where they wrote 'Hello, New York' over the city and then car ried out a million dollar contract with the American Tobacco Com pany. They operated as the Skywrit ing Corporation of America whose fleet eventually numbered II, five of which were later Americanised with under-slung radiators and streamlined, spin polished cowl ings. In this form they continued to write 'Lucky Strike' until the end of 1924, when they passed into local ownership and were allotted new constructors and licence numbers 1-5 and NC2677-81 respectively." The examples in your photo have the original cowling, which is quite different from the later American ized, streamlined ones as pictured in the book. There is a neat reminis cence of Savage and the American Tobacco Co. on Aerofiles .com (use the SEARCH capability on "skywrit ing" to find it quickly). Jack Erickson State College, Pennsylvania Other correct answers were re ceived from Don Connell, Des Moines, Washington; Chuck War ing, Roanoke, Virginia; Toby Gur sanscky, Sydney, Australia; T. Streett, Baltimore, Maryland; Tom Lymburn, Princeton, Minnesota; Don Harris, Cherry Hill, New Jer sey; Russ Brown, Lyndhurst, Ohio; Wayne Van Valkenburgh, Jasper, Georgia; and Stephen S. Martin of Huntington Station, New York, who mentioned that one of the past members of the Bayport Aero drome, Tom Murphy, actually was an early skywriter and flew this type of aircraft at one time. ....... VINTAGE AIRPLANE

Blue Phoenix continued from page 21

continued from page 25

The second question is about drill bits. How are we supposed to choose from all those drills that are known by different sizes? Numbered (1 through 80), metric (heaven for bid), fractional, or decimal. In my case, the problem is nar rowed somewhat. I haven't a metric drill bit in the shop, nor any deci mal-sized bits. I haven't seen any of them since my apprentice days, a long time ago. I do have a couple of sets of numbered drills and a rack and box of fractional. The aircraft metal work uses mostly numbers 40, 30, 21, and II. All are just slightly larger than the rivet diameters to be used. The rivet is about .002 to .004 inch smaller than the hole being drilled by its corresponding number drill. That way it slips into place easily, and the small space on the sides of the rivet shank allows for shank expan sion when the head is bucked. A good supply of nicely sharpened numbered drills of these sizes is an absolute necessity. Wood work, on the other hand, requires a brad-pointed drill, and whatever you do, don't try to use one of them in metal. It isn't tem pered or intended for anything except woodwork. However, with care, it can be reworked to work well in Plexiglas, polycarbonates, and plastics. There are special bits made just for drilling Plexiglas and its plastic cousins. These bits are de signed to minimize chipping of the edges of the drilled hole; chips or edge cracks can quickly lead to a long crack in an expensive wind shield . I'll describe the technique for drilling plastic next month. Maybe a description of the drill is in order now. A drill bit has three main parts. The shank is what you stick in the chuck, and the drill size is usually stamped onto the shank. The tip does the actual cutting work; the flutes allow transport of 36

MARCH 2006

the chips away from the work, help cool the tip, and allow cutting oil to reach the tip. The tip, when looked at from the bottom, looks a bit like an hourglass. Believe it or not, the angle at which the lips or cutting edges are cut makes a big differ ence. Aluminum should have an included angle of 118 degrees. That makes the sharpening angle 59 degrees. Use a high speed and keep steady downward pressure to prevent the bit from chattering in the work. Bits used for stainless steel should have a sharpening angle of 70 degrees, 140 degrees included, with a slow tip speed and some what heavier downward pressure. Soft materials such as soft alumi num, lead, copper, and brass are 90 degrees or a 45-degree sharpening angle. Speed is determined by how the cutting is going. Unless you are a production shop, and most of us are not, drill bit sharpening gauges, and actual sharpening and going for the op timum angle for the material used, are best left to the experts who do it every day. I find that in the long run it is easier to just run down to the supply house and buy myself a couple of each size and a few more for spares. Of course, you can expend some dollars and buy one of those fancy bench-top drill bit sharpeners. However, if I did, I'd endanger my reputation as a retired "cheap air line pilot!" There is another rea son, too. I'd have to read the book to see how the proper sharpening angle is set. That could be a problem, because someone who doesn't understand English wrote most of those books. English that I can read, that is. That's the drill and it's over to you,

from work, but for safety and fire inspection reasons, I wasn't al lowed to see my hangar. A day later, Wright brought the photos of the disaster to my house, along with cheerful photos of the arrival of NC14302. My hangar suffered the most damage, as it was right next to the source. I was very con cerned of the source of the blaze, as I had practiced good house keep ing and safety measures. A few days later I was to learn that an electri cal short and careless housekeeping in the hangar next door caused it. I wasn't allowed to view the damage in the daylight until almost a week later-it was sickening! By my knowing the history on this Fairchild, I had no doubt that 01 Blue was to be a phoenix and fly again. Carefully, this skeleton was photographed, disassembled, and stored in a safe location. The engines were taken home for in spection and preservation, and the ashes were sifted for fittings, sam ples of craftsmanship, and puz zle pieces. Some areas were spared for replicating, and this Fairchild will fly again someday because the owners who preserved her history from 1934 until 2005 saved pho tos of the step-by-step restoration in 1977. When the right person comes along with dreams, ambi tion, and craftsmanship, the Bille Phoenix will fly again. This person is to take on the duties of caretaker and to write Part Two! The 54 days of enjoyment with serial number 915 will stay with me forever. This couldn't have been possible if Jon Bartell hadn't done everything pos sible to let me enjoy her, just like Bob Fergus did for him, and Jim did for Fergus. Now that this is done, I can start writing the biography on 01 Blue. This will take some time, but it will be worth it! I hope to have it finished before the Blue Phoenix is completed. ....

missed by the entire team at Osh kosh. Our hearts go out to his fam ily as well as his many friends and associates at the Fox Valley Techni cal College in Oshkosh. For those who may be inclined, a memorial scholarship fund has been set up at Fox Valley Tech in Daryl's name. Please contact Fox Valley Techni cal College, 1825 N. Bluemound Drive, P.O. Box 2277, Appleton, WI 54912-2277, 920-735-5600 or 800 735-3882. The Harold Neumann Mono coupe restoration team of volun te ers from VAA Chapter 37 made another trip to Oshkosh in Janu ary. This trip was scheduled for the purpose of transporting the Mono coupe fuselage to a hangar at the Dekalb County Airport in Auburn, Indiana, home to Vintage Chapter 37. The 350-mile trip home went without a hitch. Many thanks to all the volunteers for taking such good care of Harold's airplane while in transport. Chapter 37 President Tim Fox was on hand, and is plan ning on setting a schedule of work weekends soon for anyone wish ing to visit the project, or help out in the restoration. Also that week end was the annual Skiplane Fly in at Pioneer Airport at Oshkosh. Even though there was no snow in sight, a good time was had by all in attendance. A large crowd of avia tion enthusiasts were on hand for some great chili, and to wish Au drey Poberezny a happy birthday. Of course, on Sunday morning as we prepared to depart Oshkosh with the Monocoupe it was snowing like mad. By the time we finished our early morning breakfast there was a good 2 inches on the ground! Let's all pull in the same direc tion for the good of aviation. Re member, we are better together. Join us and have it all.

Come or t e wee en

BUILD FOR A LIFETIME

March 18-19 watsonville. CA

• • • •

March 24-26

Riverside. CA

• Repairman (LSA) Inspection- Airplane

March 24-26

Frederick, MD

• Repairman (LSA) Inspection- Airplane

Mar. 31-April 2 Griffin,GA (Atlanta Area)

Sheet Metal Basics Electrical Systems & Avionics Introduction to Aircraft Building Composite Construction

• TIC Welding

April 1-2

Calgary, Ab, Canada

• Sheet Metal Basics • Fabric Covering

April 22-23

Detroit, MI

• • • •

May 5-7

W. Palm Beach, FL • Repairman (LSA) Inspection- Airplane

May 6-7

Oshkosh, WI

Fabric Covering • Sheet Metal Basics Electrical Systems & Avion ics Introduction to Aircraft Building Composite Construction

• RV Assembly

(EAA HQ)

~ EAA

~A'

1-800-WORKSHOP

1-800-967-5746

www.sportair.com

."DII· rJfJl.

WORKSHOPS

---~--YOU CAN BUILD IT! LET EAA TEACH YOU HOW. VINTAGE AIRPLANE

The following list of coming events is furnished to our readers as a matter of information only and does not constitute approval, sponsorship, involve足 ment, control, or direction of any event (fly-in, seminars, fly market, etc.) listed. To submit an event, send the information via mail to: Vintage Airplane, P.O. Box 3086, Oshkosh, WI 54903-3086. Or e-mail the infor足 mation to: vintageaircraft@eaa.org. Information should be received four months prior to the event date. MAY 5-7-Burlington , NC-Alamace County Airport (KBUY). VAA Chapter 3 Spring Fly-In. All Classes Welcome! BBQ Fri Night, Acft Judging/Banquet Sat Night. Info: Jim Wilson 843-753-7138 or eiwi/son@homexpressway.net

MAY 21-Warwick, NY-Warwick Aerodome (N72). EAA Chapter 501 Annual Fly-In. 10am-4pm. Unicom advisory frequency is 123.0. Food available. Trophies awarded for difference classes of aircraft. Registration for judging closes at lpm. Info: Don Provost 973-492足 9025 or donprov@opton/ine.net MAY 21-Romeoville, IL-Lewis Romeoville Airport (LOT). EAA Chapter 15 Fly-In Breakfast. 7am-Noon. Info: George Linkis 630-243-8213 MAY 27-Zanesville, OH-Riverside Airport. EAA Chapter 425 Pancake Breakfast Fly-In, Drive-In Breakfast. 8am-2pm with lunch items available after 11am. Info: Chuck Bruckelmeyer 740-454-7487 JUNE 2-3-Bartlesville, OK-Frank Phillips Airfield. 20th Annual Biplane Expo. Info: Charlie Harris 918-622-8400 , www.bip/aneexpo .com JUNE 15-18-St. Louis , MO-Dauster Flying Field, Creve Coeur Airport (lHO) . American Waco Club Fly-In. Info: Phil Coulson 269足 624-6490, rcou/son516@cs.com or Jerry Brown 317-422-9366, /brown4906@ao/.com , www.americanwacoc/ub.com

JUNE 24-Zanesville, OH-Riverside Airport. EAA Chapter 425 Pancake Breakfast Fly-In, Drive-In Breakfast. 8am-2pm with lunch items available after 11am. Info: Chuck Bruckelmeyer 740-454-7487 JULY IS-Zanesville, OH-Parr Airport. EAA Chapter 425 Pancake Breakfast Fly-In , Drive-In Breakfast. 8am-2pm with lunch items available after 11am. Info: Chuck Bruckelmeyer 740-454-7487 AUGUST 26-Niles, MI-Jerry Tyler Memorial Airport (3TR). VAA Chapter 35 Fly-In Drive-In Corn & Sausage Roast. llam-3pm. Rain Date August 27th. Info: Len Jansen 269-684-6566 SEPTEMBER 2-Zanesville , OH-Riverside Airport. EAA Chapter 425 Pancake Breakfast Fly-In, Drive-In Breakfast. 8am-2pm with lunch items available after llam. Info: Chuck Bruckelmeyer 740-454-7487 SEPTEMBER 22-23-Bartlesville , OK-Frank Phillips Airfield. 50th Annual Tulsa Regional Fly-In. Info: Charl ie Harris 918-622-8400. www.tu/saf/yin.com SEPTEMBER 30-Hanover, IN-Lee Bottom Flying Field (641). 10th Annual

Wood, Fabric, & Tailwheels Fly-In. Come see what everyone is talking about. If you love the good old says, then you ' ll love this event. Info: www.LeeBottom.com 38

MARCH 2006

2006 MAJOR

FLy-INS

For details on EAA Chapter fly-ins and

other local aviation events,

visit www.eaa.org/events

Sun In Fun Fly-In Linder Regional Airport (LAL), Lakeland, FL April 4-10, 2006

www.sun-n-fun.org

EM Southwest Regional-The Texas Fly-In Hondo Municipal Airport (HDO), Hondo, TX May 11-14, 2006

www.swrfi.org

Golden West EM Regional Fly-In Yuba County Airport (Myv), Marysville, CA June 9-11, 2006

www.goldenwestflyin.org

Rocky Mountain EM Regional Fly-In Front Range Airport (FTG), Watkins, CO June 24-25, 2006

www.rmrfi.org

Northwest EAA Fly-In Arlington Municipal Airport (AWO) , Arlington, WA July 5-9, 2006

www.nweaa.org

EM AirVenture Oshkosh Wittman Regional Airport (OSH), Oshkosh, WI July 24-July 30, 2006

www.airventure.org

EM Mid-Eastern Regional Fly-In Marion Municipal Airport (MNN), Marion,OH August 25-27, 2006

Virginia Regional EM Fly-In Dinwiddie County Airport (PTB), Petersburg, VA September 30-0ctober 1, 2006

www.vaeaa.org

EM Southeast Regional Fly-In Middleton Field Airport (GZH), Evergreen, AL October 6-8, 2006

www.serfi.org

Copperstate Regional EM Fly-In Casa Grande (AR) Municipal Airport (CGZ) October 12-15,2006

www.copperstate.org

U.S. Sport Aviation Expo Sebring Regional Airport, Sebring, FL October 26-28, 2006

www.sport-aviation-expo.com For details on EAA Chapter fly-ins and other local aviation events, visit www.

eaa.org/ events

Something to buy, sell, or trade? Classified Word Ads: $5.50 per 10 words, 180 words maximum, with boldface lead-in on first line. Classified Display Ads: One column wide (2.167 inches) by 1, 2, or 3 inches high at $20 per inch. Black and white only, and no frequency discounts. Advertising Closing Dates: 10th of second month prior to desired issue date (Le., January 10 is the closing date for the March issue). VAA reserves the right to reject any advertising in conflict with its pOlicies. Rates cover one insertion per issue. Classified ads are not accepted via phone. Payment must accompany order. Word ads may be sent via fax (920-426-4828) or e-mail (c/assads@eaa.org) using credit card payment (all cards accepted). Include name on card, complete address, type of card, card number, and expiration date. Make checks payable to EAA. Address advertising correspondence to EAA Publications Classified Ad Manager, P.O. Box 3086, Oshkosh, WI 54903-3086 Warner engines. Two 165s, one fresh O.H., one low time on Fairchild 24 mount with all accessories . Also Helton Lark and Aeronca C-3 project. Find my name and address in the Officers and Directors listing and call evenings. E. E. "Buck" Hilbert. CUSTOM PRINTED T-SHIRTS for your flying club, flight shop, museum. Free samples. Call 1-800-645-7739 or 1足 828-654-9711 A&P I.A.: Annual, 100 hr. inspections.

Wayne Forshey 740-472-1481

Ohio - statewide.

THERE'S JUST NOTHING LIKE IT

ON THE WEB!!

www.aviation-giftshop.com A Website with the Pilot in Mind (and those who love airplanes)

BABBITT BEARING SERVICE - rod bearings, main bearings, bushings, master rods, valves, piston rings. Call us Toll Free 1-800-233- 6934, e-mail ramremfg@aol.com Website www.ramengine.com VINTAGE ENGINE MACHINE WORKS, N. 604 FREYA ST., SPOKANE, WA 99202 Airplane T-Shirts 150 Different Airplanes Available WE PROBABLY HAVE YOUR AIRPLANE!

www.airplanetshirts.com 1-800-645-7739 1938 CESSNA AIR MASTER 1874TI, 165 HP WARNER SUPER SCARAB, 480 HRS, CURTISS REED PROP, ALWAYS HANGARED, FRESH ANNUAL $54,500 (707) 812-0300 OR (707) 480-1012

flying wires available. 1994 pricing. Visit www.flylngwlres.com or call 800-517-9278. SPECTACULAR PRIVATE airport and estate home for sale. Upper bracket足 rare opportunity. Located 45 min south of Montgomery, AL. Just minutes from historic Greenville. Private historic airport with 3000' putting green runway, great approaches, large main hangar with offices, 2 aux hangars, 10,000 gal fuel and much more. Charming Sourthern estate home features 4500 sq. ft. and is situated on picturesque private lake. Located in area of other exclusive property. 60 acres total, more acreage available. Tremendous development potential. When only the best will do! $2.5 million. www. mcgowinfiled.com or call Jimmie Ann Campbell at Prudential Ballard Realty 334-221-5800.

WHAT OUR MEMBERS ARE RESTORING For many years, we ran a regular monthly feature called 'What Our Members Are Restoring ". Over the past couple of years, the number of submissions for that feature has dwindled to a trickle , and we 'd like you to help us give it a boost. In the distant past, each new and renewing member of EM and VM received an "activity card" that gave the member the opportunity to tell headquarters what airplanes they were working on. Since that card is no longer part of a new-member packet, we have no way of knowing what you're up to , so here's our request. Are you nearing completion of a restoration? Or is it done and you're busy flying and showing it off? If so, we'd like to hear from you. Send us a 4-by-6-inch print from a commercial source (no home printers, please-those prints just don't scan well) or a 4-by-6-inch, 300-dpi digital photo. A JPG from your 2 .5-megapixel (or higher) digital camera is fine. You can burn photos to a CD, or if you're on a high-speed Internet connection , you can e-mail them along with a text-only or Word document describing your airplane. (If your e-mail program asks if yo a' d like to make the photos smaller, say no.) For more tips on creating photos we can publish , visit VAA' s website at www.

vintageaircraft.org. Check the News page for a hyperlink to Want To Send Us A Photograph? For more information, you can also e-mail us at vintageaircraft@eaa.org or call us at 920-426-4825. VINTAGE AIRPLANE

Membershi~ Services VINTAGE

AIRCRAFT

ENJOY THE MANY BENEFI TS OF EAA AND ASSOCIATION THE EAA VI NTAGE A IRCRAFT A SSOCIATION OFFICERS President Geoff Robison 1521 E. MacGregor Dr.

New Haven, IN 46774 260-493-4724 cllief7025~{loJ.com

Secretary Steve Nesse 2009 Highland Ave. Albert Lea, MN 56007 507-373-1674 stlles@''fleskmedia.com

Vice-President

George Daubner 2448 Loug h Lane Hartford, WI 53027 262-673-5885 vaa{lyboyCiVtrlSfl.com

Treasure r Charles W. Ha rriS 7215 Eas t 46th 51. Tu lsa, OK 7~147 918-622-8400

cwh@hvsu.coll1

DIRECTORS Steve Hender

Jeannie Hil l

85 Brush Hill Road Sherborn, MA 0 1770 50B-653-7557

P.O. Box 328 Harvard, IL 60033-0328 815-943-7205 dinghao®owc.l1et

sst 10@comcast.1Iet

David Bennett P.O. Box 1188 Rosevi lle, CA 95678 916-645-8370 antiqller@;nreadl.co1ll John Berendt 7645 Echo Point Rd. Ca nnon Fall s, M N 5S009 507-263-24 14 mjb(cItJd@rcol1llect. co l1J

Dave Clark 63S Vestal Lane Plainfield, IN 46168 3 17 -839-4500

davecpdcr!liques t.llet

Espie "Butch" Joyce 704 N. Regional Rd.

Greensboro, NC 27409 336-668-3650

windsock@aoi.com Steve Krog

1002 Heathe r Ln . Hartford, WI 53027 262-966- 7627

EAA Aviation Center, PO Box 3086, Osh kosh WI 54903-3086 Phone (920) 426-4800

Fax (920) 426-4873 E-Mail: vintageaircra(t@eaa.org

Web Site: www,vintageaircraft,org and www.airventure.org EAA and Division Membership Services 800-843-3612 . ....... FAX 920-426-676 1 (8:00 AM-7:00 PM Monday-Friday CST) - New/renew memberships: EAA, Divi sions (Vi ntage Aircraft Associatio n, lAC, Wa rbirds), Na tion al Association of Flight Instructors (NAFI)

-Address changes

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-Gi ft memberships

Programs and Activities EAA AirVenture Fa x-O n- Demand Directory . ..... _... . .. . ........ . . 732-885-671 1 Auto Fuel STC5 ............ 920-426-4843 Build/ res tore in fo rmatio n ... 920-426-482 1 Chapters: locating/orga nizing920-426-4876 Ed uca tion ....... . ... . .... 888-322-3229 - EAA Air Academy

- EAA Scholarshi ps

Flight Advisors info rmation .. 920-426-6864 Flight Instruct or info rmation 920-426-6801 Flying Start Program _.. .... 920-426-6847 Library Services/Research .... 920-426-4848 Medical Questions _.... . _.. 920-426-6112 Techn ical Counselors ... , ... 920-426-6864 Young Eagles ..... .... , _. _ 877-806-8902 Benefits AUA Vintage Insurance Plan _ 800-727-3823 EAA Aircraft Insurance Plan . 866-647-4322 Term Li fe and Accidental. ... 800-24 1-6103 Death Insurance (Harvey Watt & Com pa ny) Editorial ....... __ ........ 920-426-4825 Vi ntage ..... _. __ ..... FAX 920-426-6865 - Subm itting article/photo • Adve rtiSi ng in fo rmation EAA Aviatio n Foundati on Artifact Donations .... . ... 920-426-4877 Financial Support. .. . ... _, . 800-236-1025

sskrog@aoi. com Robert D. "Bob" Lumley 1265 South 124th St. Brookfiel d, W I 53005 262-782-2633 lumper(if!('xecpc.com

John S. Co pe land

Gene Morris

IA Deacon Street

5936 Steve Court Roanoke, TX 76262 8 17-491-91 10

Northborough , MA 01532 508-393-477 5 (opeland l @jllllo. com

genemorris@charter."et

Phil Coulson 2841 5 Springbrook Dr. L.lwton, Ml 49065 269-624-6490 rcoll/sonS 16@cs.co11l

1429 Kings Lynn Rd Stoughton, WI 53589 608-877-B485 dar@.)aprilaire.com

Da le A. Gustafson 7724 Shady H i lls Dr.

2359 Lefeber Avenue

Ind ianapoli s, IN 46278

Wa uwatosa, WI 532 13

3 17-293-4430

414-771- 1545 sllsch,nid@fllilwp c,coln

dalefaye@msIJ. com