GEOFF ROBISON PRESIDENT, VINTAGE AIRCRAFT ASSOCIATION
Next year is here
year ago in this column I spoke a bit about mak ing plans to attend a number of the many great aviation fly-in events around the United States. Although little of my original plan got implemented, I again find myself thinking ahead to a won derful all-new flying season. One of the events I had planned to attend last year was the annual Biplane Expo in Bartlesville, Oklahoma. I recently found out the 2009 event would be its last. How disappoint ing! For those few who may not be familiar with the National Biplane Association (NBA), you can read all about it on its website at www. NationaiBiplaneAssn.org. This truly unfortunate turn of events was announced to the NBA membership in a letter that ex plained the decision to make the 2009 event its last. An excerpt from this letter reads in part: "Next year 's Biplane Expo in Bartlesville, Oklahoma, will be the last of the annual fly-ins that began in 1987. The National Biplane As sociation finds itself facing increas ing costs and staffing requirements which resulted in the Board of Di rectors becoming convinced that the time had come to end the event. The final Biplane Expo is scheduled for June 4 through 6, 2009. During the past 23 years, nearly 2,500 bi planes have attended the Biplane Expo, along with more than 7,000 regular general aviation aircraft and 75,000 people. Regrettably, this type of an-
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noun cement has become increas ingly common for more and more organizations of this nature. Al though I was able to attend this event on only one occasion in 1998, I have always attempted to make time in my crazy schedule to get back to what I observed to be a
Next year's Biplane Expo in Bartlesville, Oklahoma, will be the last of the annual fly-ins that began in 1987. successful and well-run fly-in event that always attracted the finest bi planes and was truly a whole lot of fun. Well, that settles it. The 2009 Biplane Expo is now at the top of my list for the upcoming fly-in sea son. Hope to see you there! 2008 was a tough year for all of aviation, but we can Still count the few blessings we have seen in recent months. Gas prices have fi nally begun to fall in my part of the country. Although they are now under $4 per gallon, it seems a lit tle crazy to voice happiness about that when I remember in the '80s I was paying far less than half of
that for 100LL, and 80 octane was still widely available. Then again, I will always remember paying $5.61 a gallon in California this past spring. Let's remember, too, that as of yet, we haven't experienced the dreaded "user fees." But like the monster lurking in the shadows of a B-movie, only time will tell. We look forward to working with the new leadership within the Depart ment of Transportation and Fed eral Aviation Administration. We hope they will see the light of day when it comes to this subject and will develop a fair and more even handed initiative to finally resolve the infrastructure issues facing the air traffic control system in this country. Let's all stay active on this front and hope for the best for all of general aviation. You have all shown a great deal of patience with my bantering on about my experiences with the EAA B-17 Tour, but I just have to tell you about yet another opportunity that developed while I was volunteering with this vital EAA program. It was Sunday, November 30, and I found myself in Lancaster, California, when the space shuttle Endeavour was di verted from its planned landing in Florida to one at Edwards Air Force Base. The base is just down the road a bit from Lancaster. A couple of days later at breakfast, the B-17 crew en countered a young fellow from the NASA ground crew that prepares the shuttle for its return trip to Florida. This gentleman, who shall remain nameless, stated, "I would kill to get continued on page 39
VOL. 37, No.2
N E 2009
FEBRUARY
CONTENTS
I Fe
Straight & Level Next year is here by Geoff Robison
2
News
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Cupid Flies a Cessna Stephanie Allen's stellar Skyhawk by Budd Davisson
12
The Chastains' 1952 Rawdon T-1 Three generations and a heartwarming family history by Sparky Barnes Sargent
20
Light Plane Heritage The Szekely Aircraft and Engine Company by Jack McRae
24
The Vintage Instructor Lesson Learned by Doug Stewart
28
The Vintage Mechanic Aging Aircraft Issues, Part 2 by Robert G. Lock
30
Mystery Plane by H.G. Frautschy
34
The Bet And a little bit of winter preflight wisdom by Irven F. Palmer Jr.
37
Classified Ads
COVERS FRONT COVER: The Chastain family's Rawdon T-1 is a multigenerational aircraft. The fi足 nal restoration by Jack Chastain with help from his wife, MayBelle, and sons Terry and Phil, it won the Reserve Grand Champion Classic award at EAA's fly-in in 1978. To cele足 brate the 30th anniversary of that flight from St. Louis , Terry and his daughter, pilot Teri Lee, brought the Rawdon back to Oshkosh. See the story starting on page 12. In this photo by Don Parsons, family friend Dotty Kotik rides in the back seat, with Terry piloting the former spray plane. BACK COVER: February 23 marks the centennial of powered flight in Canada. This is John Alexander Douglas McCurdy, the pilot of the Aerial Experiment Association's fourth powered biplane, the Silver Dart, flown that historic day off the ice of Baddeck. Nova Scotia 's Bras d'Or Lake. Photo courtesy the Glenn H. Curtiss Museum in Hammondsport, New York .
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Display Advertising Representatives: Specialized Publications Co. U.S. Eastern Time Zone-Northeast: Ken Ross 609-822-3750 Fax: 609-957-5650 kr40@comcast.net U.S. Eastern Time Zone-Southeast: Chester Baumgartner 727-532-4640 Fax: 727-532-4630 cbauml ll@mindspring.com U.S. Central Time Zone: Gary Worden 800-444-9932 Fax: 816-741-6458 gary.worden@spc-mag.com U.S. Mountain and Pacific Time Zones: John Gibson 916-784-9593 Fax: 510-217-3796 johngibson@spc-mag.com Europe: Willi Tacke Phone: +49(0)17 16980871 Fax: +49(0)8841 /496012 willi@f/ying-pages.com VINTAGE AIRPLANE
Canada Flight Centennial an Oshkosh Highlight Thousands of Canadian avia tion enthusiasts annually trek to Oshkosh, and this year they'll have another reason to be here: to com-
memorate the 100th anniversary of the country's first successful pow ered flight. EAA is planning to commemo rate the occasion with a number of aircraft and activities.
"EAA AirVenture 2009's recogni tion of 100 years of flight in Can ada is a magnificent opportunity to show our global friends the con tributions, spirit, and pride of Ca nadian aviation," said Jack Dueck, an EAA member from High River, Alberta, who edits the Bits and Pieces e-newsletter for EAA mem bers in Canada. "If you're one of those Canadians who dreamed of one day making it to Oshkosh, this is the year to do it! We can show our proud colours at AirVenture Osh kosh during our flight centen nial year with the entire world of flight. Canadian aircraft and pilots who have been a part of the EAA AirVenture celebration in the past include the Snowbirds aero batic team, the world's only flying Lancaster bomber in Royal Cana dian Air Force markings, and doz ens of unique homebuilt, vintage, and other aircraft. Many Canadian members have also been Oshkosh volunteers during the event for a half-century. Specific programs and activities will be announced as they are fi nalized. As those activities are con firmed, complete information will be available at www.AirVenture.org, which also includes valuable infor mation regarding flying to Oshkosh from Canada, as well as admissions and housing information. II
Large historic aircraft such as this restored Martin 4-0-4 would be sub ject to onerous security regulations if the TSA proposal becomes law.
GA Greets LASP Hearings With Loud Opposition If the first two public hearings on the Large Aircraft Security Program (LASP) were any indication , public outcry is virtually unanimous in opposition to the sweeping new regulations proposed by the Transportation Security Adminis tration (TSA). Aviation enthusiasts and industry representatives sounded off against the proposed rules the TSA wants to impose on Part 91 operations and aircraft weighing 12,500 pounds or more . At the first hearings held January 6 at Westchester County Airport in White Plains, New York, abo ut 200 people attended, including Joe Gauthier, EAA 31860, of Cromwell, Connecticut. "It was an interesting meeting," said Gauthier, who serves on the EM Home built Aircraft Council. "Those who spoke stressed there are huge problems with the rule. The overall consensus was that it doesn 't make any sense and would be prohibitively costly and operationally negative for many operators." Two days later another hearing was held in Atlanta, drawing about 225 people saying many of the same things; essentially, the program is unreason able. Connie Bowlin, a director of EM Warbirds of America, testified, telling the panel , "The implementation and maintenance of these proposals will be so cost-prohibitive as to el iminate the ability of many to operate their aircraft. This will impact all of aviation , in particular the 'small operator' including personal and business aviation and the operators of historic aircraft. " In the case of the large, historically significant or classic aircraft, they are operated by dedicated individuals and organizations with a goal of preserving our nation's rich aviation heritage. At a minimum, the classic and historic air craft should be exempt. " Many in aviation fear that this security program will eventually trickle down from the 12,500-pound benchmark to all of aviation, thus ending freedom of flight as we know it. There is still time for our collective voices to be heard on this important issue. Visit the EM website at www.EAA.orgjgovtj tsa.asp and take a few minutes to send your comments to the TSA before February 27, 2009. (Read EM's briefing paper at www.EAA.orgjgovtjlasp_briefing.pdf.) 2
FEBRUARY 2009
406 MHz ELls Required in Canada by 2011 Transport Canada (TC) is moving forward with a rule requiring vir tually all aircraft operating in Ca nadian airspace to have 406 MHz emergency locator transmitters
(ELTs) on board within two years of February I, 2009. Despite re quests from general aviation pilots at home and abroad, TC will not make any exceptions other than gliders, balloons, ultralights, para chute aircraft, and a limited num ber of other operations. The rule is inspired by the Inter national Civil Aviation Organiza tion (ICAO) standard requiring the newer digital units for commercial international flights. Search and rescue satellites are scheduled to stop monitoring the current 121.5 MHz standard on February I, 2009. Denis Browne, chairman of the EAA Canadian Council, feels the requirement goes beyond the ICAO standard. "Transport Canada seems to be exceeding the requirements of other jurisdictions by requir ing virtually all aircraft to be so equipped," he said. "In effect they are going further than any other jurisdiction regarding non commercial flights." TC anticipates at least a two-year transition period in which a blanket exemption would be in effect to al low thousands of Canadian aircraft to comply with the rule. The pro posed exemption would allow flight in Southern Canada (below 50° lati tude east of 80° longitude/below 55° latitude west of 80° longitude) with an installed 121.5 MHz ELT. In the United States, the FAA does not plan to adopt the 406 MHz ICAO standard for domestic-only flights. EAA therefore requested that U.S.-registered aircraft 12,500 pounds gross weight or less with a maximum five seats be exempted from the 406 MHz rule, claiming an equivalent level of safety under the U.S. ELT regulatory requirements. Since most U.S. aircraft own ers will likely choose not to spend the estimated $1,000 (plus instal lation) to equip their aircraft, a sharp decline in tourism and busi ness flights by U.S.-registered air craft into Canada is expected. TC also denied EAA requests to allow U.S. pilots to use less costly 406 MHz personal locator beacons in
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Silver Dart Centennial One hundred years ago this month-on February 23, 1909-John Alexande r Douglas McCurdy flew the Aerial Experiment Association's (AEA) Silver Dart at Bad deck Bay, Nova Scotia, marking the first flight in the British Commonwealth. The Silver Dart was the culmination of two year's work by the AEA. Founded in the fall of 1907 by telephone inventor Alexander Graham Bell , and funded by Mrs. Bell, the AEA's members were Dr. Bell, John Alexander Douglas "Doug" McCurdy, U.S. Army Lt. Thomas Selfridge, F.W. "Casey" Baldwin, and Glenn H. Curtiss. In addi tion to experiments with Dr. Bell's kites, three fixed-wing aircraft (in the normal con vention of the day, they called each an "aerodrome ") were built by the group before the fourth, dubbed the Silver Dart due to its silver silk covering, was built in the fall of 1908 and first flown by McCurdy in Hammondsport, New York, on December 6, 1908. Powered by a 50-hp Curtiss V-8 engine, Aerodrome NO.4 was moved the next month to Baddeck, Nova Scotia, where it was flown from the frozen surface of Lake Bras d'Or on February 23, 1909. In Home Notes, Volume 58, McCurdy wrote: "The Silver Dart . .. rose from the ice after travelling about 100 feet & flew at an elevation of about 10-30 feet directly east for a distance of about a half mile. Landed without any jar whatsoever. The speed I should judge about 40+ miles per hr. " Years later, in a 1944 radio interview for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, McCurdy recalled the events of that day: "The whole scene is still very vivid to me. It was a brilliant day in more ways than one. The sun was glaring down on the ice of Lake Bras d'Or, which is near Baddeck. The town had turned out in a festive mood, done up in mufflers and heavy fur hats. "The town, by the way, consisted largely of very doubtful Scotsmen. Most of them were mounted on skates-the kind you strap to your feet. They didn't say much just came to wait and see. "The aircraft, or aerodrome as it was called in those days, which we had chris tened the Silver Dart, was surrounded by people. During the early afternoon it was wheeled into place. The propeller was cranked, and with a cough, the motor snorted into place. I climbed into the pilot's seat. With an extra special snort from the motor, we scooted off down the ice. "Behind came a crowd of small boys and men on their skates-most of them still doubtful I would fly. With a lurch and a mighty straining of wires we were in the air. It was amusing to look back and watch the skaters-they seemed to be going in every direction-bumping into each other in their excitement at seeing a man actually fly. "In taking off I had to clear one old Scot, so doubtful I would fly, that he had started off across the ice with his horse and sleigh. I think they both had the day lights scared out of them. I traveled three-quarters of a mile at a height of about 60 feet before again coming to the surface of the ice. I will say, the doubting ones over came their feelings in short order." For more on the Canadian Centennial of Right, visit WWN.FlightOfTheSilverDart.ca and www.SilverDartReplica.com.Aninteresting article written by McCurdy's grand son, Gerald Haddon, is published on WWN. VintageWings.ca, the terrific website ofthe Vintage Wings of Canada collection in Gatineau, Ontario. VINTAGE AIRPLANE
3
stead of an installed 406 ELT, as well as exempting pilots who fly common/direct flight routes over Canada between the Northeastern U.S. area and the Midwest with no intention of landing at a Cana dian airport.
EAA Canadian Council Members Named To better serve Canadian mem bers, EAA President Tom Poberezny confirmed new appointments to the restructured EAA Canadian Council. They are Mike Bourget of Orleans, Ontario; Denis Browne, of Campbell River, British Columbia; Jack Dueck, of High River, Alberta; Paul Dyck, of Winnipeg, Manitoba; and Lloyd Richards, of Timmins, Ontario. The council members serve as vol unteers, working to help Canadian members get the most out of their membership, while also communi cating their needs and aspirations to EAA headquarters. Read more about the members at www.EAA.org! bitsandpieces/articies/2009-01Jouncil.asp. Subscribe to Bits and Pieces, EAA's e-newsletter for Aviation and Can ada, at www.EAA.org/bitsandpieces/ subscribe.asp.
EAA Editor in Chief EAA has an excellent opportunity for an editor in chief to provide lead ership across the organization's en tire range of printed and electronic publications. The editor in chief will playa key role in implementing an exciting strategic vision for EAA's fu ture. This will include a reshaping of EAA's printed publications while also developing a closer interrela tionship with rapidly growing elec tronic publications, websites, and online communities. This is a unique leadership po sition within EAA, responsible for formulating and implement ing editorial policy, managing re lated budgets, and developing a world-class team of staff and out side contributors. Qualified candidates will have a minimum of ten (10) years of dem onstrated experience in editorial op4
FEBRUARY 2009
erations, including proven success in a leadership role and experience with a broad range of electronic com munications. such as e-mail publi cations, websites, blogs, wikis, and online communities. The successful candidate will have a strong passion for EAA's mission to serve the needs and interests of a diverse member ship and possess a broad knowledge of the wide range of aircraft, people, issues, and other subject matter that are represented under the banner of EAA. Pilot credentials, technical knowledge, and/or aviation back ground are strongly preferred. For consideration, send resume, cover letter, and salary history to hr@eaa.org or to EAA, Attn: Human Resources, P.O. Box 3086, Oshkosh, WI 54903-3086. A complete posi tion description can be found at www.EAA.org/careers.
New Aviation Event Grows From Rocky Mountain Fly-In Colorado Sport Aviation Inc. (CSA) will hold the first Colorado Sport International Air Show and Rocky Mountain Regional Fly-In (RMRFI) at the Rocky Mountain Metropolitan Airport in Denver, Colorado, on August 22-23, 2009. This new event brings a substan tial general aviation air show and fly-in to the Denver metro area, making it easily accessible to flight enthusiasts. The RMRFI was held for 29 years at three different locations: Gree ley, Longmont, and most recently at the Front Range Airport in Wat kins . There was no event in 2008, as the organization committed its resources to relocating the event. "We are anticipating something truly spectacular as we work to gether to incorporate the success ful annual Metro Airport Open House into our event," said Jim Cimiluca, CSA's president and event chairman. "Metro Airport's added on-site capabilities and easy access to many local businesses, accommodations, and restaurants in the Denver metro area will also enable the event to reach its de
sired future potential." Metro Airport is located on the northwestern edge of the Denver metropolitan area and just south west of Boulder. For event information, including additional services and available amenities, visit www.COSportAviation. org. Organizers are also looking for volunteers for the event and ask those interested to visit the website for a list of opportunities.
2009 Biplane Expo Is Grand Finale The chairman of the National Biplane Association (NBA), Char lie Harris, has announced that the 2009 event will be the last hosted by the NBA. Scheduled for June 4-6, 2009, the world's largest gathering of biplanes has been attracting these wonderful airplanes from across the United States for 22 years, and it's been the go-to event for biplane en thusiasts since its inception. Citing generational factors, staff ing issues, declining attendance, and event costs, the NBA board of directors made the difficult deci sion this past fall. In a letter to NBA members mailed this past Decem ber, Chairman Harris noted that the association plans to conduct the 23rd and last Biplane Expo as The Grand Finale, with the same for mat as previous events, including special guests, forums, evening pro grams, and dinner. The NBA will continue to exist as arrangements are made to perpetuate the Biplane Center and NBA Memo rial Center at Bartlesville, Oklahoma. For more information, write to the National Biplane Association, P.O. Box 470350, Tulsa, OK 74147, call 918-665-0755, or visit its web site at www.NationalBiplaneAssn.org.
Calendar of Events For a list of regional fly-ins and national EAA-oriented events, please see our abbreviated calendar of events on page 33. For details on EAA chapter fly-ins and other lo cal aviation events, visit www.EAA. org/events. .......
David W. Brown Warrenton, VA
• Licensed pilot for over 30 years • Commercial, Single and Multi· engine Land, Instrument rated, CFI • Over 2100 hours of tail wheel time • Stearman flight instructor • Air show pilot • Regular participant in the Flying Circus Airshow, Bealeton, VA
"AUA has given me great service over the last several years with competitive rates. They have always been very helpful when I needed the additional paperwork to attend an air show or fly my plane to a military base. Thanks so much!"
- David Brown
AUA is Vintage Aircraft Association approved. To become a member of VAA call 800·843·3612.
fAA Vintage Program oHers: Lower Premiums with payment options - Additional Coverages - Flexibility on the use of your aircraft - Experienced agents
allsk1te$
ShOUld come as no sur prise that Cupid flies a Cessna. Especially the Skyhawk. After all, with so many nosewheel derivatives of the 170 having been produced (36,000 plus!), the odds were pretty high that he (she? it?) would be fly ing one. In this case, Stephanie Al len found that her 1968 C-l72K turned out to be the vehicle that, in a very real way, was instrumental in setting up the marriage between her and Rich Jones (to clarify, she kept her maiden name). Living around Everett, Wash-
It 6
FEBRUARY 2009
ington (Mukilteo, to be exact), she was in an especially aviation-rich environment. "Airplanes were al ways around," she says, "but I really hadn't thought about learning to fly. Then I met a guy through a bi cycling club who owned a Skyhawk, and he started taking flying lessons. I was terrified and had to address my fears. That was accomplished by tak ing flying lessons to be a pinch hit ter with absolutely no intention of becoming a pilot. Then, one day the CFI said the weather was too bad to fly, and I grabbed him and started crying that it couldn't be that bad.
Then I realized that something had happened that had turned my fear into a passion. My friend talked me into becoming a partner with him in his Skyhawk even before I had my license. That was 1990. I switched my lessons over to that Skyhawk, which is the same one I own today. I bought him out of the airplane very early, so I've owned it since 1991, when I earned my Pri vate PIlot License." Although she had absolutely zero background in airplanes and even less in the concept of rehabil itating a slightly grungy airplane,
The Grand Champion Contemporary for 2008, Stephanie Allen 's 1968 Cessna 172K.
....I knew nothing about restoring an airplane and reallg didn·t care about it_ Ijust wanted it to look a little less ugly.··
she was game to learn. "As soon as I got the airplane, I started working on it. I took some lessons at a community college or ganized by the Washington Pilots Association, and the first thing I did was rip out the carpet. It was oil-soaked and awful looking. At the time all I was trying to do was improve the looks and comfort of my airplane. I knew nothing about restoring an airplane and really didn't care about it. I just wanted it to look a little less ugly. I bought the carpet from Boeing's surplus store, and as far as I know, it could have been intended for a 727 or even a 757, but after six hours of cutting and fitting, it went into N78797. It made me feel good seeing how much it improved the looks of my airplane, which was a little doggy all around. "Since I'd gone that far, I also pulled the interior side panels and yanked out the fiberglass insula tion. Someone had told me closed cell foam worked much better and didn't hold water, so that's what I replaced the fiberglass with." By this time she had begun to get involved with a unique educational association called Big World Flight for Education. They take airplanes to various locations throughout the area and put on presentations for local youth groups. She quickly be came its preSident. "At one pOint," she says, "I needed another airplane for a pre sentation, and I asked Rich, who was based on Paine Field with me, if he'd be willing to bring his Bo nanza, which had been Grand Champion Contemporary at Osh kosh in '96, and help me out. Rich is an engineer at Boeing and turned out to be an excellent instructor for the kids, grades four through eight. At that presentation we had about 120 students and teachers lined up in front of the two airplanes while VINTAGE AIRPLANE
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The key to moving up from a Silver Lindy in 2007 to the top award , a Gold Lindy in 2008, was the time spent detailing the engine compartment.
The now husband-and-wife duo of Stephanie Allen and Rich Jones. PHOTOS BONNIE KRATZ
we talked to them. At the time, we both knew we had to do something with my airplane because it looked so bad parked next to his. So the urge to improve my little airplane became just that much stronger. I really wanted it to look as good as his Bonanza, which I knew wasn't going to be easy, because his air plane is absolutely perfect." Initially, Stephanie jumped into the project on her own, determined to learn what she needed to know to make the airplane fit the image she had of it in her mind. "I'd started on the interior, which turned out to be three steps forward and two back, because I kept doing things, not liking it, then doing it again. The plastic on the interior needed a lot of work, and when I was doing the seat backs, which re quired drilling out rivets from the old backs to use the old trim for the new seat backs, I went over to Rich's hangar and asked him for help in that area. Little by little we began working together on the airplane. "The seat upholstery that was in it was automotive, and I'd changed 8
FEBRUARY 2009
What started as an effort to replace the carpeting so the airplane didn 't look "so doggy," eventually wound up being the "Well, if I'm doing this I might as well to that" story. The interior shows the great deal of effort made by Stephanie Allen and her eventual husband, Rich Jones.
it once, but it still wasn't right. So, with his help, we took everything out and started doing the entire in side. It's important to remember, however, that I didn't want the air plane down more than a month at a time, so we had to be careful we didn't get it too far apart. "With the interior out, we could see that the dingy appearance was much more than skin deep. The in side of the fuselage was full of oily gunk and was generally disheveled
looking. Plus it had lay ers of wires from each different avi onics package the air plane had received. So, we just took everything out, and this is where Rich really got his hands dirty: He rewired everything and I replaced all the old SCAT hose and I did my best to stay ahead of him with the cleaning. "I had done a couple of interior renovations on the airplane, but nothing as deep as we were going, so some things still needed doing. I should also mention that Rich is a perfectionist. And I mean a serious one. After a while that began to rub off on me, so I didn't object when
we pulled out the windshield and replaced it strictly because it was a clear windshield and only straight 172s had a clear one. This was a Sky hawk and it was supposed to have a lightly tinted one . A small detail, but in Rich's world, which is now my world, all details count. And, incidentally, we replaced the rest of the windows at the same time. "The plastic parts of the airplane were in pretty bad shape. Some were missing, most were broken, and even the glare shield was bro ken into three pieces. By the time VINTAGE AIRPLANE
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we were done, we'd replaced, re paired, and painted all of it." Most 40-year-old airplanes have seen a lot more than their share of radio changes, and N78797 was no exception. And, as seems tra ditional, as time goes on and the shine wears off an airplane, peo ple become more and more casual about what they do to instrument panels. Sometimes it's hideous; sometimes not so much so. "Our panel wasn't really butch ered, but it certainly wasn't right. For one thing, the radios were mounted crooked. I mean it. They were lopsided. And the metal strip with all the switches and placards across the bottom of the panel had been butchered so many times that we had no choice but to build a new one. At the same time, I started cleaning the original instruments and was amazed when they came out looking nearly new. I would have never believed it. "As we stripped stuff out of the interior, we could see where there had been some cosmetic damage to the airplane. There was very little corrosion, although right af 10 FEBRUARY 2009
ter I got the airplane, I did have to replace a cracked landing-gear mount casting. "As we worked on the rest of the airframe, we could see things like repaired bird strikes, and at one pOint, the horizontal stabilizer had been really beat up. It spent a lot of years in Arizona as a training plane, and there were places on the hori zontal that holes went all the way through the leading edge. We com pletely re-skinned the leading edge of the horizontal and the elevators and eventually re-skinned various other parts of the airplane." When it came to removing rivets and riveting skins, Stephanie devel oped a definite love/hate relation ship with the process. "I hated drilling out rivets. I can't tell you exactly why, but I never felt good doing it. Probably since Rich is the expert at drilling out rivets. How ever, I love my rivet squeezer and I love bucking rivets and, with my smaller hands, was able to get into some tiny spots, so eventually we divided up the responsibilities and he'd remove and I'd help replace. My favorite tool is a pneumatic Cleco gun."
Very few people are either equipped or trained to shoot their own exterior paint. Plus, now that so much of the material is lethal, the smart money sends their airplane to a pro, and that's what Stephanie and Rich did, although they did shoot all of the interior paint. "We have Sun Quest Air Special ties right on the field , so we disas sembled the airplane and took it over to them, and they stripped it for painting. When they got it com pletely stripped, we took it back and started going over the sheet metal we hadn't already worked on. "One of the things we found was that it appeared as if someone had removed ice from the tops of the wings with a screwdriver or maybe, Rich thought, an ice pick. There were dozens of fairly deep gouges and nicks, so we used lightweight body filler and high-build primer to fill those areas. "Also, the corrugated skins on most of the control surfaces were really bad. Some of them, we found you could pull the rivets at the trail ing, reach inside, and iron most of the wrinkles out with an oiled
The fact thilt the ilirplilne still cilrried its originill pilint., ilndthiitStephiinieloved both the scheme ilnd the colors., drove the rest of the pilintjob_ bucking bar. Three of the eight ai leron skins, however, had to be replaced, and we couldn't get pre drilled skins. Trimming the skins so the corrugations lined up, top and bottom, on ailerons that have twist built into them was one of the most difficult parts of the rebuild. A lot of people, including Rich, have a 'Cessna dimple'- that charac teristic diamond scar in their fore heads. I felt as if we had to get the corrugations lined up so at least the scars would be symmetrical." She's kidding. We hope. When they were done riveting, bumping, and ironing the metal straight it was time for it to go back to SunQuest to have the paint ap plied, a phrase which oversimplifies that process. "The colors, Vestal White, Valor Red, and Velvet black, were on a fac tory sticker on the edge of a door, just like on a car. But there were no paint codes, so we weren't exactly sure what color Valor Red actually is. We had to guess as best we could from the faded paint that remained. It is a very nice red, don't you think? Plus, the original paint scheme had pin striping, but we masked and painted the pin stripes." The fact that the airplane still carried its original paint, and that Stephanie loved both the scheme and the colors, drove the rest of the paint job: They were going to take it back as close as they could to original. Stephanie says, "I'm lucky enough to have an airplane with
classic looks that I absolutely love. I didn't want to change anything, so Sun Quest took digital pictures of the airplane from every angle. From those they could see exactly where a paint line went in relation to a given rivet or seam, so they could really get the scheme right. I was impressed at how exacting they were. The final paint used was Imron II. "What they couldn't paint at the same time as the airplane was the landing gear because they had to use it to move the airplane around. So, we built a cradle to sit the air plane in while we removed the gear to detail it. The steel legs are famous for rusting, and it's really hard to get it off. I spent a day or two with Scotch-Brite pads attached to a right-angle die grinder sanding ev ery little spot of rust down to good metal so we could paint it. So far we haven't seen any indications that the rust is returning. "We decided to take the airplane to AirVenture in 2007 even though we weren't totally finished with it. For instance, I put the wheelpants on the same morning I took off for Wisconsin. When we got there, I had no interest in having it judged, but Rich insisted. I was too nervous to want it judged. After all, it's just a plain Skyhawk and I thought there would be no interest. But I was very wrong. We actually had lines wait ing to take a closer look. So Rich checked the 'judge me' box, and judges showed up with clipboards and pencils. I couldn't believe it
when they gave us a Silver Lindy. Absolutely couldn't believe it! "Rich got a pep talk from the judges about bringing it back again, so he asked them what we'd need to improve to get a Gold Lindy, and they said to detail the engine com partment, which we had hardly touched. Plus, I thought we had a bunch of other areas that needed work. When we got home, the comment about detailing the en gine touched off an argument be cause I couldn't see spending the time detailing an engine that had 1,800 hours on it [Editor's note: She has put more than 2,000 hours on the airplane herself], but Rich's per fectionist streak won out . Before long, we had the engine out on a hoist. It took two weeks of cleaning and painting before it was ready to go back in, and I polished the fire wall while it was out. I even went so far as to mix up blue paint that matched the factory parts stamp and replaced those." No one can say Stephanie and Rich haven't got the perfection ist thing perfected, because all the work paid off. "We came back in 2008 and had it judged again, and this time we got a Gold Lindy. It just doesn't get any better than that!" Early in the rebuild, when they were both still living separate lives, it became obvious that they were building more than just an air plane . They were building a re lationship. This relationship was finally formalized at EAA AirVen ture Oshkosh 2002 as Cupid turned short final. "We were married on the fight line in front of the Bonanza . We had a lot of friends and family there, and it all seemed so fitting." So now that she's won the gold, what does she have left to do on the airplane? "It'll never be finished. I'm not happy about the door seals, and the nose wheel fairing, and the... " Stephanie, we see what you mean that it'll never be finished. Now, about that perfectionist thing....... VINTAGE AIRPLANE
11
The
Chastains'
Three generations and a heartwarming family history BY SPARKY BARNES SARGENT 12 FEBRUARY 2009 ............~_
The Chastains' elegantly restored and lovingly maintained 1952 Rawdon T-1.
This past summer, Teri Lee Chastain became the third genera tion of her family to fly the Raw don to EAA AirVenture Oshkosh 2008. Her father, Terry, proudly ac companied her, as together they celebrated their family's 30th an niversary of their first flight to Oshkosh. But before we delve into the Chastain family's history, let's ~ take a look back in time to discover J: a. more about Rawdon Brothers Air ~ craft Company. <!l 0:
~
t3 RAWDON
z
BROTHERS AIRCRAFT
0:
During the late 1920s, Herb Raw 1ii ~ don was employed by Travel Air The Rawdon is soloed from the front seat.
Cleveland brakes have replaced the original Goodyear brakes. 14 FEBRUARY 2009
~ and , along with Walter Bu rnham, was known for designing the suc cessfu l Travel Air Mystery Ship which flew faster than the favored military aircraft and won the first Thompson Trophy air race in 1929. Many of these engineers eventually formed th eir own companies, and Rawdon was among them. Herb was the aircraft designer, and Gene Rawdon fulfilled the role of busi ness manager. A prototype, the side-by-side R-1, was built in 1938 and tested as a ci vilian pilot trainer, but was rejected. Not to be defeated by that attempt to enter the aircraft manufactur ing market, Rawdon Brothers Air craft Company began production after World War II with its tandem cockpit T-1 models in Wichita, Kan sas. The T-1 had been tested for mil
itary use, but wasn't selected . But by 1947, the fixed gear monoplane, which was designed for training, touring, and crop spraying, was fi nally certified . Production mod els also included the T-1CS (crop sprayer), T-1M (Colombian Air Force version) , T-1S (sprayer), and the T-1SD (sprayer/duster with wingtip end plates and a modified tail). The T-1 was originally powered ~ by a 12S-hp Lycoming engine, and 1£ later upgraded to 150 hp in its ag- ~ C!l ricultural configuration . The semi- ~ cantilever, low-wing plane stood 13 z just over seven feet tall and was ~ barely 24 feet long, with a wing- !:: 0:: span over 33 feet. Early models were ~ fabric-covered with wooden wings. This Rawdon is powered by a Lycoming 0 ·320. Later models used sheet metal in place of the fabric, and the wings were constructed of metal. Corru gated metal was even used at one time for the wing section between the front and rear spars, and the aircraft also went through wingtip variations. The Rawdons wanted to make their T-1 fill an agricultural niche. Its large inboard struts rising up from the low wings to structural tubing inside the canopy created a protective turnover structure for the pilot. They designed and added a spray manifold system and spray nozzles in the wing, along with a hopper tank behind the pilot's seat. But the latter feature made it Closeup view of the tail , with its neatly less crashworthy than other agri painted trim. cultural sprayers, which placed the load in front of the pilot. Appar ently the Rawdon design was labor intensive, resulting in higher man ufacturing costs, and it was difficult to sell the aircraft competitively. Pi lot safety, cost, and eye appeal were major selling points, and the Raw don was eventually edged out of the market. Rawdon Brothers Aircraft incor porated several interesting design features in its airplane, and one of them was selected for use on mil itary trainers . Rawdon canopies, Right: Close-up view of the elevator trim mechanism. VINTAGE AIRPLANE
1S
(Chastain family photo OSH 1980) The Chastain family at Oshkosh 1980 (L-R): Phil, Betty, Bill , MayBelle, Jack, Terry, Mary, and Teri Lee. Teri Lee was the third-generation Chastain to fly the Rawdon to Air Venture; her father, Terry, accom panied her.
Jack Chastain , test pi lot and shop forema n for Rawdon Brothers Aircraft. Photo taken in 1948 with T-1 N44505.
"My DAD WAS THE
SHOP FOREMAN
AND TEST PILOT
FOR RAWDON
BROTHERS AIRCRAFT COMPANY, AND THAT'S HOW WE CAM E TO BE ATTACHED TO AT-I:'
This Aeronca Champ was the Chastain family's first restoration project.
- TERRY CHASTAIN
which covered the entire cock pit area, were contracted for use on the Fairchild PT-19/23 flown in cold weather climates. Quite a few were also manufactured for use on the PT series of Stearman train ers . About 800 were sold as an af termarket addition to enclose the open-cockpit trainers. Herb worked as an engineer and draftsman for several well-known aircraft compa nies throughout the years, includ ing Beech, Boeing, and Cessna. The T-1 has survived the test of time, albeit in even smaller num bers than were manufactured. Per haps the most significant tribute 16 FEBRUARY 2009
This Fairchild PT-26 was the Chastain family's second restoration project.
to Rawdon's classic, well-designed, and solidly built airplane is that more than half a century since its original manufacture, no Airwor thiness Directives (AD) have been issued for the airframe.
Today, brothers Phil and Terry Chastain are co-owners of N5160, and Terry can't help but smile when he describes the T-1: "It's a fun airplane to fly, it really is! It holds 38 gallons of fuel, burns
Young brothers Phil and Terry Chastain with their father 's Mirage in 1951. Their father raced the Mirage at Detroit in the early 1950s against Steve Wittman , Bill Flack, and other greats of that era.
After AirVenture 2008, the Chastains can add another "award winner" sticker to N5160.
1952 RAWDON Tl N5160 AIRVENTURE AWARDS CLASS IC RE S ERVE GRAND CH AMP I ON 1 978 RE SE RVE GR AND CHAMP I ON 19 7 9 BRON ZE LIN Dy-CLA SSIC 1 980 OUTS TANDIN G LI MI TED PRODUC T ION 1 98 1 BE ST RA WDON 1983 RESE RVE GRA ND CHAM P ION 1984 OUTST ANDING LI MI TED PRODUCTION 1987 PRESERVA T IO N AWARD- CLASSIC 2008 NUMERO US OTHER AWARDS, I NCLUD I NG ANTIQU E AIRP LAN E ASSOCIATION'S GRA ND CHA MPI ON 1 9 7 8 about 9 gallons per hour, and cruises about 118 mph. It has a short takeoff, and lands about 55 mph-you can bring it in and land it in probably 250-300 feet. The flight controls are very well harmonized, and it has a fast roll rate-it's very aerobatic." CHASTAIN FAMILY "My dad, Jack, was the shop foreman and test pilot for Raw don Brothers Aircraft Company in the 1940s and early 1950s," smiles Terry, "and that's how we came to be attached to a T-l. He and my
mom, MayBelle, flew a T-1 from Wichita, Kansas, to Bogota, Colom bia, and back in the early 1950s to demonstrate its capabilities to the Colombian Air Force. During that trip, Dad also flew the T-1 from Bo gota to Quito, Ecuador, over the Andes Mountains. He performed aerobatic demonstrations there, at a field altitude of over 9,200 feet." The Colombian government was impressed with the Rawdon T-1's capabilities and purchased three of them. "Dad and two other Rawdon pilots delivered the three Colom bian T-1s in 1952. Along the way,
one of the T-1s developed an oil leak and had to land, unauthorized, in Nicaragua," Terry shares. "In order to proceed to Bogota, he was forced to deliver a prisoner being extra dited to Colombia. The prisoner was handcuffed to the longeron in the rear seat! The T-1s were armed with 30-caliber machine guns in the wings, and a 100-pound bomb on a belly rack. They were used for ground attack ships during those unsettled times in South America." Jack also demonstrated the T-1's highly maneuverable aerobatic capa bilities during the early 1950s. "My dad flew it in air shows for many years at Wichita and all around the Midwest. And he gave air show an nouncer Roscoe Morton his check ride in Wichita. Roscoe's first air show announcing job was in 1952, and my dad was flying the T-1 during that show. Dad also flew the T-1 in the 1949 Miami All American Air Ma neuvers aerobatic competition." In 1954, Jack became a corporate pilot, flying a Beech E-18S . Terry and his brother, Phil, started their flight training in the twin Beech, and each of them made their first takeoffs and landings in that air plane. In 1962, both Phil and Terry soloed a 1946 Aeronca Champ at Creve Coeur Airport. "Dad, an in structor, traded his time for use of the Champ to instruct us," recalls Terry. "Phil, being two years older, was ready to solo as soon as the Champ became available to us, but I had to wait until my 16th birth day arrived. We later purchased the Champ for $200 and completely restored it as our first family proj ect around 1964. We upgraded it to a 7CCM with a Continental 0-200 and installed a complete IFR panel. Phil and I both earned our private licenses in the Champ, and Phil even earned his commer cial in the Champ." The Chastain family's next proj ect was a Fairchild PT-26-at $500, it was just a bit more costly than the Champ. The PT-26 was com pleted in 1969, and the Champ was sold to make room in the hangar. VINTAGE AIRPLANE
17
The sons had grown up listening to their father's intriguing stories about flying T-1s and working at Raw d o n Brothers Aircraft Com pa n y, and with two restorations completed, they encouraged their father to start looking for a T-1 as their next family project. Finally, in 1974, they found N5160. "It was a basket case, " says Terry, "but it had a set of new Raw don metal wings. It had been in a spraying accident; it was a crop sprayer at the time. My dad built this plane originally, and his signa ture is all over the logbook. So we bought the pieces, and Phil and my dad and mom and myself all worked on it. It took about three and a half years, and we had it scattered out all over the place-I had parts at my house, and Phil did all of the tail surface covering at his house. We didn't build it as a show airplane, just a fun airplane for the family." Terry, who worked internation ally for the oil industry, was trans ferred to Singapore during that time, so the bulk of the restoration was then completed by his brother and dad. Sadness coursed through the Chastain family toward the end of the Rawdon restoration, as their hearts were made heavy when they learned that Jack had cancer. 18
FEBRUARY 2009
"Dad was diagnosed with lym phoma in 1977, but did not let the illness deter him from work ing on the Rawdon. By 1978, the lymphoma was in remission, and the T-1 was ready to fly. I had been transferred to Sumatra, Indonesia, that year," shares Terry. "So the first flight after restoration had Dad in the front seat and Phil in back. The date was April 13, 1978, or better said as Friday the 13th! After the first flight, Dad got out and told Phil that he wanted to see the T-1 fly. Af ter all those years of hearing about the T-1, its harmonized controls and great performance, Phil finally had the chance to experience it first hand. I had to wait until vacation from the Far East before my chance came, which was in July of 1978. We found that all of Dad's 'braggin' about the T-1 was justified!" The Chastains had read about the great experiences people were having at Oshkosh every year, and since they'd recently completed the Rawdon and Jack was feeling pretty good, they decided to head north to Wisconsin in 1978. "Dad and Mom flew the Rawdon, Phil and his wife, Betty, flew their N model Bonanza, and Mary rode with me in the fami ly's PT-26. We had planned for only a two-day stay, since the kids were with
babysitters-but Dad and Mom were asked to stay on a little longer, since the classic judges had the T-1 in con tention for one of the Grand Cham pion awards, " says Terry, fondly reminiscing. "So Mom and Dad stayed in Oshkosh while Phil, Betty, Mary, and I flew back to St. Louis. A couple of days later, we received a call from Dad saying they were asked to stay until the awards presentations. They wanted to know if we could fly up and bring some money so they could stay! Phil and I flew back to Os hkosh in his Bonanza, with money in hand, and proudly watched Dad receive the Reserve Grand Champion Classic award." On the return flight home, May Belle rode with Phil in the Bonanza, and Terry flew the T-1, while Jack rode in the back to complete some fuel burn and other systems tests. A week later, Terry and his family went back to Singapore, and just three short months later, received a heart wrenching phone call. "Dad was in the hospital with acute leukemia. He went 'went west' just a few days later at the young age of 58, " shares Terry. "Dad's passing put even more focus on the great time and memo ries we all had at EAA Oshkosh 1978 and my last flight with him." As the family gathered together
fore retiring and is currently a pilot for the Historical Aviation Restora tion Museum, which means he has flown everything from Jennys to jets. His wife, Betty, flies her own Cessna ISO, Betty Boop. Terry is now retired from his career in interna tional oil production, and he re stores antique airplanes for John Cournoyer's Old Style Aircraft at Creve Coeur. Terry's wife, Mary, is a youth minister and shares in the joy of flying with her family. As for MayBelle, Terry grins and says, "Mom is 86, and she's a bona fide airport bum! She came up to Oshkosh with me several times after Dad died, and she parked herself by the T-1 and wouldn 't leave it. She said she had to be there to answer questions that people might have." for their beloved patriarch's funeral, their good friend Doug Watanabe was preparing to take delivery of a Rawdon T-1 (sin 2, N44S0S) that he had recently purchased. "N44S0S was the T-1 that Dad used in all of his air show work and the 1949 Mi ami All American Air Maneuvers. Doug had asked if we would perform the check flights when it arrived. Its delivery to St. Louis was sched uled for the day of Dad's funeral," Terry shares in a wistful tone, "and we thought it would not only be a tribute to Dad to fly his 'old mount,' but it would also give us the oppor tunity to be alone with him, beyond any earthly bounds. Phil and I flew N44S0S and our NS160 in forma tion that day, before breaking off to say our final farewells." For the Chastain family, the fol lowing year was filled with the min gled emotions of sadness and loss, swirled together with hope and an ticipation-for it was in Singapore that Terry and his wife, Mary, along with their two young sons, would joyfully welcome the addition of a baby girl-Teri Lee-to their family in October 1979. In later years, Terry's brother, Phil, became a corporate pilot, fly ing an MU-2 and a Cessna Citation S. He earned his A&P and IA be
THIRD GENERATION And then there is the third gener ation of Chastains. Phil and Betty's sons, Mike and Rob, are both quite naturally interested in flying. Terry and Mary's sons, Jack and Bill, work for NASA. Bill is a lead engineer on the space shuttle program, and Jack is a design engineer on the inter national space station program. Their baby sister, Teri Lee, soloed in a Champ at age 26 and earned her private in 2007 in a Cessna 140. "I always wanted to fly, and the opportunity came up where it wasn't that expensive," says Teri Lee, "so it was a perfect time!" Smil ing brightly, with her long blonde hair kissed by the summer sun, her sparkling light blue eyes reveal a quiet inner determination and con fidence. She transitioned to the Rawdon T-l in early 2008; to date, she's logged more than 100 hours' total flight time-all of which is in tailwheel aircraft. She enjoys tak ing friends and family up for rides, including her girlfriends, her two year old niece, her brothers and mother, and even her boss. Comparing the three airplanes, Teri Lee smiles and says, "The Champ's slow and pretty much flies itself because it wants to fly. The 140 was a little squirrelly when I
first started with it, because it's a lot faster and bigger. And then the T-1 was just pretty easy. When I was younger, he used to let me fly it in the air, so that was not a problem. It took me a while to get the land ings on concrete because the tail is longer, so it always wanted to whip. But once you get it down, it's not that bad." Teri Lee flew the entire five-hour flight from Missouri to Wisconsin, with her dad riding in the back seat. It's easy to sense the love between this father and daughter; it's virtu ally tangible, as is the humble pride they share in their family history. Brimming over with happiness, Teri Lee shares that "it's just really excit ing to fly the T-1 here for the 30th anniversary, and my grandma'S so excited! We called her when I landed in the Champ after my first solo, and that was the first time ever I saw my dad tear up. It just gave him a spe- cial feeling, and it's exciting coming here. I'm glad to have this experi ence with my dad. rt's exciting to see him so proud." Currently, Teri Lee is learning to fly a Waco, and she's starting to build her very own Hatz biplane. "It's a neat feeling to be that close to my dad and work on Wacos and stuff with him," she says with a smile. "He's going to help me build my classic Hatz, too. We have to finish the WacoYKS-7 first, but I can make a jig and start ribs in my basement now." As for NS160, it is a frequent flier, whether it's the second or third generation at the stick (and there may well be a fourth and fifth gen eration of flying Chastains, when they become of age). Additionally, the T-1 is often used as a photo ship for air-to-air photography of the antique and classic aircraft at Creve Coeur Airport. It's no surprise that this cherished Rawdon will remain in the Chastain family-especially now that the third generation has climbed into the cockpit. Together, father and daughter happily main tain and honor their unique Raw don family heritage. ...... VINTAGE AIRPLANE
19
Light Plane Heritage
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN
EAA Experimenter SEPTEMBER
1990
The Szekely Aircraft and
Engine Com pany
BY JACK
T
McRAE, EAA 93
he Szekely Aircraft and Engine Company of Hol land, Michigan, was one of a large number of aircraft companies that sprang up during the wave of aeronautical prosperity that began with the Lindberg transatlantic flight of 1927. Many of these companies lasted long enough to build a few airplanes, and then as the Depression developed in the 1930s, they disappeared after two or three years. The Szekely Company was unusual in that it produced both air planes and engines. For them, engine manufacturing turned out to be more successful than airplanes. Otto E. Szekely (Zay-Kay) was reported to have been an engineering graduate of schools in Berlin and Vienna before coming to the United States in the early 1920s. Af
ter working for the Velie Motor Corporation, he founded his own business of designing small gasoline engines and manufacturing piston rings. In about 1925 he moved to Holland, Michigan, where he continued to manufacture piston rings and small engines while he developed a 3-cylinder aircraft engine, which was his primary interest. In early 1928 it was announced in Aero Digest and Aviation magazines that the O.E. Szekely Corporation had begun production of two new types of airplane engines of the 3-cylinder (model SR-3) and 5-cylinder (model SR-5) design. The 3-cylinder Sky Roamer was the first to appear and was described as developing 40 hp at 1,800 rpm with a weight of 148 pounds. About a year later Szekely announced the Flying Dutch
Editor's Note: The Light Plane Heritage series in EAA's Experimenter magazine often touched on aircraft and concepts related to vintage aircraft and their history. Since many of our members have not had the opportunity to read this se ries, we plan on publishing those LPH articles that would be of interest to VAA members. Enjoy!-HGF 20
FEBRUARY 2009
Lead Scavenger
man airplane, a single-seat low-wing monoplane pow ered with the SR-3 engine. It was described as intended to supply the need for a light, single-place airplane with Now Available! Tep (Tri-Cresyl-Phosphate) Fuel quality of construction combined with moderate cost Additive for 1OOLL Avgas. TCP, the proven additive for lead and economy of operation. It was claimed that the air scavenging. TCP has been approved by the FAA since 1977 in plane could be operated for $1.60 per hour, which made scavenger formulations in Lycoming, Continental, Franklin, Pratt it ideal for building up flying time for a license. & Whitney and Wright engines. Construction of the fuselage and tail surfaces of Predator Drone of USAF the Flying Dutchman was of welded steel tubing, -Prevents Plug Fouling* fabric-covered. The cantilever wood wing was also fabric-covered. An unusual feature for a low-wing -Used by USAF airplane was the lack of dihedral, and it was claimed -Patent Pending that the shape of the wing tip would allow the air -UPS Ground Shipping plane to maintain lateral stability without dihedral. ('when used as directed) The landing gear was of the split-axle type with shock absorber of rubber rings. The wheels were 24 x 3 with Decalin "RunUpTM" fabric covering the spokes. It was stated that because of the high-lift airfoil used, the airplane could take OODecalin Chemicals LLC off in 75 feet. The top speed was said to be 80 mph. 793 S. Tracy Blvd.#319, The advertised price was $2,200. Tracy, CA 95376 A review of the Department of Commerce list ing of Licensed and Identified airplanes in Michigan Tel: 650-353-5062 for the years 1930, 1931, and 1932 shows ten Flying www.decalinchemicals.com Dutchman ID numbers, with Serial Number 21 the Distributors: highest number. All were shown as owned by the Sze Aircraft Spruce (877)477·7823, .!!W~ag~·!:!.Ae~r~o_~(8~OO!!J.)~55~8~·6:!!!86~8 kely Aircraft and Engine Company. Two were listed as Distributor enquiries welcome manufactured in 1928 and the remainder in 1929. It's uncertain how many were actually built or if any were I:===:;:::=::::;;::::;;:==============~-- sold. Department of Commerce approval was never ob tained, although an Approved Type Certificate (ATC) was applied for. The Flying Dutchman was, therefore, "COLLECTOR SERIES" limited to an experimental license or to an ID number permitting flight under certain conditions. Published photographs seem to show three differ New USA Production ent airplanes. The earliest shown, ID No. 3088 (Ser. Show off your pride and joy with a No.7, mfg. 1928) had a long tapered fairing forward fresh set of Vintage Rubber. These of the windshield. The most photographed airplane newly minted tires are FAA-TSO'd and speed rated to 120 MPH. Some was ID No. 9450 (Ser. No. 12, mfg. 1929), which had things are better left the way they checkerboard decorations and a conventional wind were, and in the 40's and 50's, these tires were perfectly in shield. The airplane appeared on the cover of Aviation tune to the exciting times in aviation. magazine for August 19, 1929, as well as in several Not only do these tires set your vintage plane apart from advertisements. A letter in Vintage Airplane magazine the rest, but also look exceptional on all General Aviation for May 1987 stated that it was destroyed in a crash. aircraft. Deep 8/32nd tread depth offers above average tread life and UV treated rubber resists aging. A third airplane, ID No. 9455 (Ser. No. 17, mfg. 1929), First impressions last a lifetime, so put these is shown in flight in a photo in the Aircraft Yearbook bring back the good times ..... for 1930. A Szekely advertisement in March 1929 New General Aviation Sizes Available: stated that production in the new factory would be 500 x 5, 600 x 6, 700 x 8 two airplanes and four engines per week. Although the Flying Dutchman never established Oesser has the largest stock and any aeronautical records or otherwise became fa selection of Vintage and Warbird mous, it was an interesting design that unfortunately tires in the world. Contact us came at a time when there was an overproduction of with private airplanes, followed by the stock market crash TelePhone: 800-247-8473 or and the Depression of the 1930s. ffi 323-721-4900 FAX: 323-721-7888 During 1930 the sales effort by Szekely was based _ 6900 Acco SI., Montebello, CA 90640 TIRE &: RUBBER COMPANY 3400 Chelsea Ave, Memphis, TN 38106 on engines entirely. At the St. Louis Aviation Exposi 01 Aviation 5inc.1920.... www.desser.com tion in February 1930, two new engines were intro
AERO CLASSIC Vintage Tires
DESSER
VINTAGE AIRPLANE
21
duced. These were similar to the previous 3-cylinder and 5-cylinder engines except that they were of the L-head design instead of the overhead valve type. The new 3-cylinder SR-3L developed 30 hp instead of 40 and was only a few pounds lighter than the older SR-3. The only advantage seemed to be that the outside diam eter was reduced from 36 to 30 inches. The SR-3L was granted Approved Type Certificate No. 53 in May 1930. Subsequently, an improved overhead valve engine, SR-3-45, received Approved Type Certificate No. 70 in January 1931 and was rated at 45 hp. This engine be came the most popular of the series and was used in a number of lightplanes. These included the Curtiss Wright Jr., Buhl Bull Pup, American Eaglet, Spartan, Rearwin Jr., Prest Baby Pursuit, Harper, Crawford Tri Motor, Crawford Power Glider, Simplex Kite, Nicholas Beazley NB-8, Corben Baby Ace, Alexander Flyabout, and Taylor Cub. Some of these used the engine only for test purposes. Development continued on the 5-cylinder engine, the 70 hp. SR-5L being of L-head design, followed by the 80-hp SR-5-0. which used overhead valves. Report edly the testing of these engines was very expensive and an ATC was never received. During 1930 and 1931 a 2-cylinder horizontally opposed engine was experi mented with, and also a 4-cylinder opposed type using cylinders from the 3-cylinder engine. The 4-cylinder model was rated at 65 hp and 1,850 rpm. In 1932 the Szekely Company went into receivership and was taken over by the Aviation Holding Company. In 1937 the factory was purchased by the Crampton Manufacturing Company, which supplied parts for the earlier engines. Eventually the Heath Aviation Com pany of Benton Harbor, Michigan, bought the parts in ventory for servicing existing engines. 22 F EBRUARY 2009
References: "Szekely Aircraft and Engine Company" by Phil Mich merhuizen, Vintage Airplane, July 1980. Aero Digest and Aviation magazines, 1928-1931. Aircraft Yearbooks, 1928-1931. Aerosphere, 1939. .......
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THE SPIRIT OF AVIATION
In Ilr"H-'I.
nSH~I-'5-H U nu II I :JI~
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BY DOUG STEWA RT
Lesson Learned
For me, one of the most impor tant phases of a flight comes after the engine has been shut down and the airplane rolled back into the hangar. It's that phase when I debrief myself on the job I have done as a pilot during the flight just completed. When necessary, I tend to be harsh on myself, but by be ing harsh I help myself continually learn and improve as a pilot. However, when the flight ends in the disaster of crashing into trees upon takeoff, and my pas senger and I end up in the hospi tal with multiple serious injuries, the word "harsh" in describing how I debriefed myself hardly suffices. Indeed, it doesn't come close to describing the emotions I went through during the early weeks following the accident I had late this summer, which was recounted in last month's issue of Vintage Airplane. Although many of my trusted friends and associates who called and wrote offering words of con cern, support, and wisdom said that I should not be too hard on myself as I dissected the events of the ac cident, it was virtually impossible for me not to be. The process had started even before the ambulance, with me on board, commenced the journey to the hospital from the ac cident site. There were so many unanswered questions running through my mind, but the most important one to me was, "What could or should 24
FEBRUARY 2009
I have done differently to avert this disaster?" Why didn 't I abort the takeoff the instant the thought oc curred to me? Why had I contin ued and lifted off as soon as we reached rotation speed? What was I thinking?
But as I made these
computations .. . I
realized one of
the major
mistakes I had made.
I recalled thinking, when I first thought of aborting the takeoff, that I probably would end up run ning off the end of the runway and damaging my airplane. Thus, as soon as I saw rotation speed on the airspeed indicator, I decided to con tinue with the takeoff. Mind you, not more than two seconds passed between seeing the airspeed drop from 55 to 52 and then come back up to the rotation speed of 65. I knew that under normal condi tions my Cardinal should have no problems clearing the trees. Earlier in the day, I noted how well the en gine was running, which reinforced the decision to continue . (Flying up that morning, I was running the engine lean of peak and made spe cial note that CHTs were about 50
~ ' --. degrees below typical temperatures when operating Rap (rich of peak), that I was burning about 1-1/2 gal lons less fuel per hour, and, best of all, that the engine was purring and really seemed to like it.) In light of those previous thoughts, it never entered my mind that that very same engine might have decided to "head south." Perhaps you can see how I was lulled into a sense of complacency by those facts, as I viewed them. The engine had appeared to be run ning great; neither the density al titude nor the weight and balance posed any issues. Although I had not referred to the performance charts that day, I was intimately familiar with the "typical" perfor mance of my own airplane and knew that there shouldn't be any problems whatsoever in clearing the trees, which stood more than 2,500 feet from where we started the take-off roll. As an aside, during my recov ery in the weeks following the ac cident, I had more time than usual to get some reading done. One of the books I chose to reread was Fate Is the Hunter by Ernie Gann. In that book, he describes a similar inci dent that happened to him in Agra, India. It was summertime, and he was taking off in a C-8 7, a less than-stellar performer. He had or dered a light load of fuel so that he would be able to get the best perfor mance possible in order to clear the Taj Mahal, which stood just beyond
the end of the runway. As he headed down the runway, he realized all was not as it should be. "I already sense something is wrong," he wrote. "We are halfway down the runway and have only achieved sixty miles an hour.... Ap preciation through habit is nearly instantaneous, but understand ing is not. What the hell is wrong now? ... Yet all is apparently in or der. These are the moments of truth in a pilot's life when he must de cide within seconds whether he should abandon take-off and jump the brakes, or fully commit his air plane to flight. There is still room for choice." Mr. Gann made the same choice I did. He decided to commit to flying. The similarities don't end there. As he broke ground and lumbered out of ground effect, he realized that he wouldn't clear the Taj Mahal unless he took some nonstandard action. And just as I did, in order to clear the first set of trees in my path, he deployed more flaps, which ballooned him over the Taj, just narrowly missing workers who were in the process of restoring the building. After clearing the Taj Mahal, Gann had no other obstacles in his path and now could afford to lose some altitude as he cleaned up the airplane to get a climb going. I, however, didn't have that luxury. More trees stood in my path. Once Gann arrived at his destina tion, he found that, unbeknownst to him, the fuel tanks had been topped off, contrary to his fuel order. He had not checked the tanks and thus was about 3 tons heavier on take off than he thought he would be. He had the answer to his problems shortly after the flight ended. For me, an answer is not yet forthcoming. I am still waiting for the NTSB probable cause report. They have downloaded the infor mation from my engine monitor and GPS, and they have the engine. They saw, in their initial investiga tion, that there was no scarring on the propeller blades save for some
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VINTAGE AIRPLANE
25
It's a mistake I have made, not curling at the tip of one blade, giv ing some indication that the en only as a pilot, but also as an in gine stopped as soon as the prop structor. And it is a mistake that I hit the first branch, which is evi see many other instructors make dence that the engine was not mak as well. When so many of us teach ing any power at all, so to speak, short-field takeoffs and maxi when we hit the trees. Nonetheless, mum-performance climbs, the big I still have not received a solution emphasis always seems to be on from the NTSB. clearing the obstacle. We all know Whereas the NTSB is slow in com the drill of the short-field takeoff. ing up with an answer to help me Get as much runway as possible; solve the riddle of what went wrong, hold the brakes as you apply full the FAA helped me out, albeit indi power; assuring full power, release rectly, when I received a certified let the brakes, allowing the stick to ter from them informing me that I "float" as you accelerate; lift off would have to take a recertification at the proper rotation speed; and checkride (the infamous 709) to the accelerate to Vx (best angle climb Commercial Pilot Practical Test Stan speed) until clear of the obstacle. dards on "performance and limita Everything we do in the short-field tions; and short field take-off with takeoff is predicated on clearing the maximum performance climb." obstacle, but therein lies the mistake. In preparing for the oral por When one uses the performance tion of the" ride," I pored over charts for the airplane, the first figure the performance tables, coming that one obtains as the planning for up with the performance I should the takeoff is done is the ground roll. have had on the day of the crash . Yet how often do we skip over that Even with a fudge factor added number and move on to find out if that took into consideration that we will have sufficient distance from the airframe was more than 30 the obstacle to clear it? years old, with "draggy" worn-out Had I done the actual planning paint, and that I wasn't under the on the day of the aCcident, with all employ of the Cessna folks as a the correct information relative to test pilot, we only needed 1,560 density altitude, wind, weight and feet to clear a 50-foot obstacle. But balance, and runway surface and as I made these computations gradient, I would have found out not only for the day of the acci that I needed 960 feet for a ground dent but also for the day of the roll. Then, when my airspeed fal test-with my FAA inspector on tered, knowing that I was about board, I realized one of the major 200 feet beyond the 960 required, mistakes I had made. And from there would have been no hesita that realization I have learned at tion in pulling the throttle to idle least one very important lesson. and aborting the takeoff. I would ----------------------------------,
To start receivi ng e- Hotllne th iS week, VISit www.EAA.orglnewsletters 26
FEBRUARY 2009
have been aided and abetted in the decision by sound fact rather than by a subjective guess. So although I still don't have a complete answer to what hap pened, and I might have to wait quite some time before the NTSB comes up with its "probable cause," hopefully discovering why the engine stopped making power, I have learned a very valuable les son: Even when you are intimately familiar with your airplane and its performance, you shouldn't get complacent about doing the re quired planning. And when you do that planning, consider absolutely all of the elements, not just the end result. Otherwise you might not be as lucky as I was, and instead of looking down at the daisies, you could be looking up at them. Also remember that regardless of how many hours you have in your logbook, the learning never ends. I learned a very valuable lesson in this episode of my flying career. May you not have to learn in such a dramatic way. May you be blessed with blue skies and tail winds while you continue, as I do, to learn more and more about the wonderful world of flight. Doug Stewart is the 2004 National CFI ofthe Year, a NAFI Master Instruc tor, and a designated pilot examiner. He operates DSFI Inc. (www.DSFlight. com) at the Columbia County Airport (lBl) in Hudson, New York. Editor's Note: A pair of copy-edit ing goofs introduced long after Doug submitted his article for publication crept into the January issue's article. First of(, the line concerning " ... the houses actually get bigger rather than smaller" should read: "In this regime, you will notice that if you increase backpressure on the stick, rather than making the houses get smaller, they actually get bigger." The other error that crept in was an incorrect spelling out of lAS, which is, of course, Indi cated Air Speed. Our apologies to Doug for the introduction of the errors into the copy he submitted.-HGF .....
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A. Orange planes B. Jets C. White planes D. Fanciful planes
BY ROB ERT G. LOCK
Aging Aircraft Issues Part 2 In this continuation of last month's article, we will discuss some more of the problems facing Aging Aircraft." Notice I said some of the problems. Trying to list ev erything would take more space than is available, so I will cover what I believe are some of the most important issues, keeping in mind that some of the airplanes we are dealing with were manufactured 70 or more years ago when aircraft design and construction were in their infancy. Now let's look briefly at wood structure. Rot: Discoloration in the wood is a key indication of wood rot. Dry rot will turn the wood a light tan to a light gray color. Dry rot is really a fungus growth that re moves the moisture and causes the wood to lose its strength and turn soft, like balsa wood. Most nails used in wood construction today are brass-coated steel wire. If the brass coating is removed by sand ing, the steel wire will rust, and the rust will discolor the wood dark gray to a black. This discoloration will be around the nails. Loo se glue joints: This is com mon, especially in old structure. Casein glue was primarily used in the old days. The glue rots and fails. Newer adhesives, particularly the epoxy adhesives, are much bet ter and withstand the elements and aging very well. Shakes, c heck s, an d l ongi II
28 FEBRUARY 2009
tudinal sp lit s: Shakes and checks are likely found on spar ends at the attach fittings. They are caused by moisture entering the wood grain, causing the wood to swell and
The expertise in keeping our aging fleet ahworthy no longer resides in the FAAit resides in the type clubs. crack. Shakes are cracks along the annual rings, and checks are cracks across the annual rings. Longitu dinal cracks are generally cracks along the annual rings that may ex tend several rib bays. They are most likely found at strut fittings where moisture can enter the wing. Compression failure: This is a big dea l now on acrobatic air planes with wood wings. The fail ures are normally located on the outboard edge of wing strut/wire attachment point. Most wings have plywood doublers glued to the spars. The failure will be along the outboard edge of the doubler. The failure can also be found along
the top of the spar, usually out board of the strut point. Compres sion failures are characterized by a "jagged" line across woodgrain. The grain actually fails with the application of very heavy bending load upward. This area is hard to see because, unless one installs in spection openings, there are no in spection openings on the top of a wing surface. Delamination in laminated structure: Glue failure along the bond line. The wood used in a laminated structure should have close to the same moisture con tent. Widely varying moisture content will stress along the bond line, and these stresses will cause wood to delaminate. Now let's move to a quick dis cussion of common problems with fabric covering: Wrinkles in f abric: Wrinkles may very well indicate structural problems underneath. Make a thor ough investigation of the structure using a flashlight and mirror. Don't be tempted to just heat-tighten the fabric! You might have to open some inspection holes or even cut the fabric open to completely in spect the problem area. Lack of ultraviolet protec tive coating: Silver or gray coat ings are required on all fabric (grade A and Dacron) to exclude the ul traviolet (UV) rays of the sun. Not enough UV protection will allow the fabric to deteriorate at a very
rapid pace. Shine a bright light from inside of the fabric and check if the light penetrates to the out side surface. If it does, then more UV protection material should be sprayed on the surface . It's re ally best to make this check before painting the topcoat on fabric sur faces. Usually, if the manufactur er's instructions for covering are followed and spray-gun technique is good, enough material will be sprayed . However, if spray-gun techniques are poor, there could very well be insufficient material to block the sun's rays. Aging Fabric: AC43.13-1B states that aircraft fabric can de teriorate to 56 pounds per inch pull strength . Originally this was 70 percent of new strength for grade A cotton fabric (80 pounds per inch new x .70 = 56 pounds). The 56 pounds per inch is for air craft with wing loading in excess of 9 pounds per square foot and VNE (velocity never exceed) of 160 mph or greater. This requirement is for any fabric-covered aircraft, no matter what type of fabric was used to cover the surfaces. Aircraft originally designed with a wing loading of less than 9 pounds per square foot and a VNE of less than 160 mph could be covered with in termediate grade A fabric that had a tensile strength of 65 pounds per inch. In this case, the minimum tensile strength is 70 percent of 65 pounds, or 46 pounds per inch. Cracking and peeling of fin ish and/or filler material: If filler material cracks or peels and you can see the fabric weave, sun light will destroy the material. It's really best to re-cover the surface. Anything less is purely cosmetic and may not last very long. Inspection and testing of fabric to determine airwor thiness: If this is necessary, the most accurate method is a pull test done under controlled con ditions in a laboratory. However, this leaves a rather large opening in the fabric surface that must be repaired. Owners don't like fab
ric repairs , so you may be able to field test using a Maule Fabric Tester. This test will give approxi mate strength of the fabric. How ever, let me point out that the old Seyboth tool was calibrated only for grade A fabric with about eight coats of dope. The more filler ma terial used, the more error there is in determining the actual fabric strength. If you're in doubt, have it pull tested by a laboratory for pre cise strength measurements. Finally, let me address a prob lem that is difficult to detect-con trol cable fraying. Recently I have found two cable problems in air craft I maintain. First, let me give a short description of the problem. Control cable fraying can occur where the cable rides on a pulley or through a fair-lead. To inspect, one must move the control surface to full deflection and then run a shop cloth over the cable. If there are broken wires, the rag will snag. I detected a frayed aileron ca ble where it traveled through a fair-lead in the lower wing. And just recently, another fraying problem in a rudder balance ca ble was detected, which is very difficult to inspect because it is located under the front seat, and the fraying was against the pulley and not on the outside where it could easily be found. Both cables were removed and replaced, but an inspection program was initi ated during which we loosened the aileron cable in order to pull the cable from the fair-lead and through an inspection opening in the fabric to inspect every 100 hours of flight time . The rudder balance cable will be removed every 500 hours of flight time for complete inspection. Re moving this cable is difficult because th e front seat must be removed, which is a real pain. So don't over look control cables, particularly in areas of pulleys and fair-leads . And remember, some disassembly of the structure may be required. Here, re fer to FAA AC43.13-1B, chapter 7, section 8, particularly paragraph
7-149 and figure 7-16. There are a lot of good data here on cable in spection techniques. Since we operate two New Stan dard D-25 and two Boeing Stear man ships, I have developed "critical area of inspection" guides for both aircraft types. Whenever a problem occurs more than once, it is logged and the inspection check list is modified to reflect these con cerns. Inspection guidance is a most important issue with aging aircraft. Here, the type clubs offer both owners and mechanics this type of gUidance. If you are not involved with a type club, think about joining. The expertise in keeping our aging fleet airworthy no longer resides in the FAA-it re sides in the type clubs . Continual vigilance is much better than re ceiving an Airworthiness Directive from the feds. ........
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VINTAGE AIRPLANE
29
BY H.G. FRAUTSCHY
THIS MONTH'S MYSTERY PLANE COMES TO US VIA
VAA MEMBER/EDITORIAL VOLUNTEER WESLEY SMITH.
Send your answer to EAA, Vintage Airplane, P.O. Box 3086, Oshkosh, WI 54903-3086. Your answer needs to be in no later than March 15 for inclusion in the May 2009 issue of Vintage Airplane.
You can also send your response via e-mail. Send your answer to mys足 teryplane@eaa.org. Be sure to include your name plus your city and state in the body of your note and put "(Month) Mystery Plane" in the sub足 ject line.
NOVEMBER ' S MYSTERY ANSWER
30 FEBRUARY 2009
The Sikorsky UN-4 monoplane conversion was built to improve the safety and performance as
pects of the venerable Curtiss Jenny and similar biplanes of that era.
ur two shots of the Fowler variable-area in Aviation by Frank Delear, 20 sets of the new G-S-1 wing modification of the Curtiss Jenny wings were sold. In that same time frame , Sikorsky and Gluhareff reminded us that a few other designers had built improved wings for the WWI also collaborated on a monoplane version of the Jenny era trainer. With so many Jennys surplused out of the modification. The UN-4, designed in late 1926/early military, it's not surprising the aircraft was chosen 1927, had a graceful strut-braced parasol wing that for modification. Buy one cheap, replace the engine spanned 43 feet, within a foot of the original span of or wings, and a new, more capable airplane could be the Jenny's upper wing. The wing was braced with two had. For most of the modifications, only one thing parallel struts and a set of jury struts that picked up prevented them: the cost. A Jenny was so inexpensive ,_ _ __ _ __ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ to buy in the early 1920s that any additional cost was tough to justify. Buy it, use it up in your flying circus, and when you where done, buy another one. Still, the prospect of making the Jenny a "better airplane" was irresistible to a few of the talented en gineers of that time, including Igor Sikorsky and one of his fledgling aircraft manufacturing company en gineers, Michael Gluhareff. Michael and h is brother, Serge, were a major part of the success of the fixed wing aircraft designed and built by Sikorsky. In 1925, Sikorsky, with the help of New England businessman Arnold Dickinson, had reorganized his small aircraft concern. The new firm, Sikorsky Manufacturing Com pany, had Dickinson as its president and Sikorsky as the vice preSident, a move that gave Igor Sikorsky the freedom to pursue the design and engineering of new and exciting aircraft. During 1926-1928, as the company began work on larger aircraft, Sikorsky and Michael Gluhareff became convinced that they could design a better set of wings for the Curtiss Jenny belonging to Roger Kahn, a local pilot who flew from Roosevelt Field on Long Islan d, where Sikorsky Manufacturing was based at that time. With fewer struts, a revised airfoil, and a cleaned-up bracing wire arrangement, the reincarnated Jenny flew 20 mph faster, stalled in a more predictable m anner, and climbed as well with two aboard as it h ad before modification with only the pilot flying the biplan e. According to the book Igor Sikorsky: His Three Careers
O
VINTAGE A IRPLANE
31
-UN-4 r--·<CJNG':JL.AI'.'r.: S IK 0 R S K
YI\/1F'G,
[j
oi"p'
. ; - •.=
! :, :I ;I
1
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L
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J
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I
:
~ .:.: -=r ':-" ~. "'-4 ..:. '- I ....:.
!
I
-
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r-- _ _~ ----------I.7' ..'- - - - - - - - - - --
---,,---- r:-
_.0-;- .. - . - ' ,
A factory general arrangement drawing of the UN-4,
the original fuselage's lower wing attach points. Otherwise, the air plane was unchanged. According to www.Aerofiles.com. the UN-4 wing could be adapted to other biplanes, including the Travel Air and Standard. There is one record listed in Au gust of 1927 for a Standard J-l, reg istration number 5469, with a UN-4 wing, and a pair of Standard J-l air planes registered in 1927 as NC2705 and NC2752, plus Standard J"1 reg istration NC6703 and a very heavily 32
FEBRUARY 2009
modified Standard J-l, X802W. There is one registration to an E.H. Burgin in New York for a UN-4 modified Curtiss Oriole (originally serial number 3), C3089, also in November of 1927. Then the Jennys that were modi fied: Curtiss IN-4D, serial number 5621, registration number 6166, August 1927. Curtiss IN-4D, serial number 5190, registration number 3030, March 1928.
The only photo I've seen of any of the three Jennys listed on this page is the one shown on A erofiles.com and in Vol. 9 of U.S. Civil Aircraft by Joseph P. Juptner, page 110. It's the shot we've printed here. The photo, of Curtiss IN-4D, serial number 5469, registration C-2044, received its Group 2 approval 6-15-1928. If anyone has additional infor mation on the Sikorsky UN-4, fee l free to share it with us at the ad dress shown in the introductory paragraphs of this article. ......
CALL FOR
VAA
~~
HALL OF FAME NOMINATIONS
Nommate your favonte aVIator for the EAA Vmtage Aircraft ASSoCIatIOn Hall of Fame. A huge honor could be bestowed upon that man or woman working next to you on your airplane, sitting next to you in the Chapter meeting, or walking next to you at EAA AirVenture Oshkosh. Think about the people in your circle of aviation friends, that mechanic, that photographer, that pilot who has shared innumerable tips with you and with many others. They could be the next VAA Hall of Fame inductees-but only if they are nominated. The person you nominate can be a citizen of any country and may be living or deceased, and his or her involvement in vintage aviation must have occurred between 1950 and the present day. His or her contribution could be in the areas of flying; design; mechanical or aerodynamic developments; administration; writing; some other vital, relevant field; or any combination of fields that support aviation. The person you nominate must be or have been a member of the Vintage Aircraft Association, and preference is given to those whose actions have contributed to the VAA in some way, perhaps as a volunteer; a writer; a photographer; or a pilot sharing stories, preserving aviation history, and encouraging new pilots and enthusiasts. To nominate someone is easy. It just takes a little time and a little reminiscing on your part. • Think of a person, think of his or her contributions. • Write those contributions in the various categories of the form. • Write a simple letter highlighting these attributes and contributions. Make copies of newspaper or magazine articles that may substantiate your view. • If you can, have another person complete a form or write a letter about this person, confirming why the person is a good candidate for induction. • Mail the form to: VAA Hall of Fame Charlie Harris PO Box 470350 Tulsa, OK 74147 REMEMBER, YOUR "CONTEMPORARY" MAY BE A CANDIDATE , NOMINATE SOMEONE TODAY!
Call the VAA office for a form (920-426-6110), find it at www.vintageaircra(t.org, or on your own sheet of paper, simply include the following information: • Date submitted. • Name of person nominated. • Address and phone of nominee. • Date of birth of nominee. If deceased, date of death. • Name and relationship of nominee's closest living relative.
• Address and phone of nominee's closest living relative.
• E-mail address of nominee.
.Time span (dates) of the nominee's contributions to aviation. (Must be
between 1950 to present day.) .VAA and EM number, if known. • Area(s) of contributions to aviation. • Describe the event(s) or nature of activities the nominee has undertaken in aviation to be worthy of induction into the VAA Hall of Fame. • Describe achievements the nominee has made in other related fields in aviation. • Has the nominee already been honored for his/her involvement in aviation and/or the contribution you are stating in this petition? If yes, please explain the nature of the honor and/or award the nominee has received. • Any additional supporting information. • Name of person submitting petition. • Submitter's address and phone number, plus e-mail address. • Include any supporting material with your petition.
EM Calendar of Aviation Events Is Now Online EAA's online Calendar of Events is the 'go-to" spot on the Web to list and find aviation events in your area. The user·friendly, searchable format makes it the perfect web-based tool for planning your local trips to afly·in. In EAA's online Calendar of Events, you can search for events at any given time within acertain radius of any airport by entering the identifier or a ZIP code, and you canfurther define your search to look for just the types of events you'd like to attend. We invite you to access the EAA online Calendar of Events at http://www.eaa.orgjca/endarj
Upcoming Major Fly-Ins Aero Frledrlchshafen Messe Friedrichshafen, Friedrichshafen, Germany April 2-5, 2009
www.Aero-Friedrichshafen.com/htm/jen Sun ' n Fun Fly-In at Lakeland Lakeland Linder Regional Airport (LAL) Lakeland, Florida April 21-26, 2009
www.Sun-N-Fun.org Golden West Regional F1y·ln Yuba County Airport (MYV) Marysville, California June 12-14, 2009
www.GoldenWestFlyln.org Virginia Regional Festival of Flight Suffolk Executive Airport (SFQ) Suffolk, Virginia May 30-31, 2009
www.VirginiaFlyln.org Rocky Mountain Regional Fly-In Front Range Airport (FTG) Watkins, Colorado
TBD www.RMRFI.org Arlington Fly-In Arlington Municipal Airport (AWO) Arlington, Washington July 8-12, 2009
www.NWEAA.org EAA AlrVenture Oshkosh Wittman Regional Airport (OSH ) Oshkosh, Wisconsin July 27-August 2, 2009
www.AirVenture.org MId-Eastern Regional Fly-In Grimes Field (174) Urbana, Ohio September 12-13, 2009
www.MERFI.info Southeast Regional Fly-In Middleton Field Airport (GZH) Evergreen, Alabama October 23-25, 2009
www.SERFI.org Copperstate Regional Fly-In Casa Grande Municipal Airport (CGZ) Casa Grande , Arizona October 22-25, 2009
www.Copperstate.org
VINTAGE AIRP L ANE
33
The Bet
And a little bit of winter preflight wisdom
BY IRVEN
As bets go, the money at stake was not that much. But we both agreed that it was the principle of the thing that was important, so we took the bet. After all, we could not let those guys think we were a couple of wimps. Winter in Alaska is long. Even in Anchorage, which lies in south central Alaska, winter is long. Snow fall starts in late October and gathers
all over the city in great piles that last until late April. Anchorage's el evation is 114 feet above sea level. My friend Bill and I had lived in Alaska for more than 25 years and had long since incorporated winter sports into our weekend activities. Downhill and cross-country skiing, ice hockey, hunting, ice fishing, and winter camping were all part of our weekend outings. For caribou hunting and ice fish ing, we often used my 1954 Cessna 170B on wheel-skis. Of course, we always had the required and neces sary winter survival equipment on 34
FEBRUARY 2009
F.
PALMER JR.
board. On many of these trips we of ten camped out in the wilderness in subfreezing weather. On some occa sions there was a lodge close by, and we could rent a cabin or room. But if we were in a really remote area, which we usually were, we would pitch our tent and rough it. Tolsona Lake is approximately 170 highway miles north of An chorage, which works out to about
Irven Palmer's Cessna 170 is kept frost-free on the upper sur faces with a set of covers.
one hour and 30 minutes of flying time. The lake is situated near the Glenn Highway and contains some fine-eating burbot (a kind of fresh water cod) . Bill and I made plans on Friday to fly up there Saturday morning, go ice fishing, stay overnight, and fly home to Anchorage on Sun day. We were up and raring to go on Saturday morning in the near
Irven Palmer's pre-heating system. The homemade shroud around the little Coleman stove shields the burner from the wind. It can be rotated to change the opening where it attaches to the reducer. The entire outfit weights only five pounds, and even includes a spare fuel bottle. The background of the photograph is a visual signal device he carries as part of his survival gear. Its made of bright International Orange nylon.
dark. It was mid-December, and there were only about five and a half hours of daylight. In fact, that is why we often stayed overnight on our outings, because after you fly in and do a little fishing, it is often dark. So it is a matter of safety to avoid flying around in the dark in the mountains. Now we get to the aviation part of this story. I had already gotten the weekend weather report. Get ting the airplane ready in the dead of winter is not a quick process. The temperature in Anchorage was 5 below zero. First I got out my small portable engine heater kit, assem bled the parts, lit the small burner, and placed the ducting up into the engine compartment under the in sulated engine cover. As the heat warmed the engine and the battery, which is also under the cowling, I began to remove all the covers from the airplane. Since they were covered in snow and ice, I had to shake all that off because we planned to take all the covers with us in a bag. If you leave a lot
of snow on the covers, you will have moisture inside the airplane as it warms up, which will con dense on the inside of the cockpit
"You mean you two are going to camp out there by that island tonight?" I felt I had to back up Bill, so I said, "Yep, that's the plan." windows, severely limiting your vi sion. So you should always have a cotton terrycloth towel ready dur ing the flight to wipe the inside of the windshield when needed. Once cleared of snow and ice, the covers were stowed inside the air
plane with our fishing gear and sur vival kit, sleeping bags, tent, camp chairs, catalytic heater, etc. But we weren't ready yet. I got out my push broom and carefully removed all the frost from the undersides of the wing and the underside of the horizontal stabilizer and any parts of the fuse lage that had frost on them. Most of us are aware that in flight icing, either airframe or car buretor ice, can be a pilot's worse nightmare. But all too often, pi lots forget to remove all the frost from their airplanes before trying to take off. Even a slight amount of frost on the wing will increase your ground run and increase your stall speed. Frost on the underside of the horizontal stabilizer can even in duce a tail plane stall with a severe pitching down of the nose during your take-off attempt. Even as lit tle as one-sixteenth of an inch of frost will severely degrade your air plane's performance. Always Remove All Frost From Your Airplane's Surfaces Prior to Takeoff! With all the frost removed and VINTAGE AIRPLANE
35
the engine preheated after about 3S minutes, I called flight service and filed our flight plan. We de parted, and I essentially followed the Glenn Highway north and east up past the Matanuska Glacier and on through the Tahneta Pass. After an hour and 30 minutes, we landed on Talsona Lake, elevation 2,000 feet. I taxied next to a small tree and brush-covered island, shut down, inserted ice pitons into the lake ice, and tied the plane down . Out came the airplane covers, and we covered up the entire plane. We got out our fishing equip ment, collapsible chairs, catalytic heater, and ice drill and drilled some holes. The ice was 24 inches thick, as it had been freezing up here in interior Alaska for at least two and a half months. We were dressed in our insulated pants, parkas, shoe pack boots, multilayered under clothes, gloves, hats, etc., so we were still comfortable even though the airplane temperature gauge read 2S below zero. It is always colder in the interior of Alaska than down near Cook Inlet, the large body of water near Anchorage. In about four hours we both caught and kept a couple of nice 20- to 24-inch burbot, throwing back the smaller ones. As we sat
there, it started to get dark, and as we occasionally dipped ice scum out of our fishing holes, we no ticed that over at the Tolsona Lodge there seemed to be a lot of arriving traffic, both cars and snow machines. Bill said, "What say we go over there and see what's going on?" So we removed our lines and stowed our gear next to the airplane and walked over to the lodge. Taking barstools at the bar, we ordered a couple of brews and asked the bar tender what was happening. He said, "We saw you guys land out there earlier a few hours ago, so how are you doing?" We told him we both had a cou ple of nice fish. I asked him, "Where did all these people come from?" He said, "You guys are in luck." "Why's that?" we queried. He said, "The Indian folks over at Copper Center are having their annual bison barbeque feed here tonight, and all the lodge guests are invited." Bill, my copilot and fishing buddy, told him that we planned on camping by the island. At that point, several guys nearby stopped talking and looked at us . By now the temperature was probably down around 30 below zero.
rAiLWt-lE:E:LS
t-lE:ADiI\1G SOurt-l 36 FEBRUARY 2009
Why Bill said that, I didn't know. It was a surprise to me! Back in An chorage, I had just assumed that, like we had done previously, we would rent a room at the lodge. Some guy said, "You mean you two are going to camp out there by that island tonight?" I felt I had to back up Bill, so I said, "Yep, that's the plan." Another fellow piped up and ex claimed, "I don't believe it!" "We do winter camping a lot," replied Bill. A third guy yells out, "I bet each of you 20 bucks that you don't camp out there on that ice all night." What could we do? We said in unison, "We' ll take that bet." We all had a great bison dinner, a couple more beers, and played some pool. Our bettor was staying at the lodge, so we would see him in the morning. Bill and I left and went out to the plane, got out the tent, and pitched it on top of a plas tic tarp on the ice. We laid out our foam sleeping pads under our down sleeping bags and crawled in. I must tell you that we turned over many times during the night as the cold seeped through the many layers between us and the ice. Our bodies had melted body-shaped indentations in the ice, our body heat penetrating right through the sleeping bag, foam pads, tent floor, and tarp. But the next morning when we walked up to the lodge for breakfast and met our bet tor; we had won the bet. The folks that were there the pre vious night congratulated us on our survival. The 40 bucks paid for breakfast and the avgas for the trip. If you are prepared, winter camping can be fun . But given some condi tions, you may shiver a lot. So if you are like me and like to keep flying even though it's winter, be sure to get yourself some covers, cover up that airplane, and remove all that snow, ice, and frost prior to takeoff. And if the temperature is be low freezing, then thoroughly pre heat the engine prior to starting it. Have fun and be safe out there ........
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 wh ite only, and no frequency discounts. Advertising Closing Dates: 10th of second month prior to desired issue date (i.e. , January 10 is the closing date for the March issue). VAA reserves the right to rej ect 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 (920-426-6845) or e-mail (classads@ 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 EM. Address advertising correspondencae to EM Publications Classified Ad Manager, P.O. Box 3086, Oshkosh, WI 54903-3086.
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WHAT OUR MEMBERS ARE RESTORING Are you nearing completion of a restoration? Or is it done and you're busy flying showing it off? If so, we'd like to hear from you. Send us a 4-by-6-inch print a commercial source (no home printers , please-those prints just don 't well) or a 4-by-6-inch, 30O-dpi digital photo. A JPG from your 2.5-megapixel higher) digital camera is fine. You can burn photos to a CD, or if you're on a igh-speed Internet connection, you can e-mail them along with a text-only or document describing your airplane. (If your e-mail program asks if you'd like make the photos smaller, say no.) For more tips on creating photos we can • • • •-:~~~},~: , 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
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on board a B-17 bomber." Well, as you can imagine, this turned into a "you show me yours and I'll show you mine" sort of an arrangement, and the B-17 crew was treated to an amazing tour of the space shuttle Endeavour. We arrived early in the evening, and as luck would have it, the decontamina tion fence was being taken down. This, of course, led to a close-up tour. We were actually walking around on the catwalk surround ing the shuttle, and we were even allowed to poke our heads inside the ship. What a treat! These guys spent a couple of hours with us as we looked this amazing spacecraft over. They were very friendly and tolerated all of our dumb ques tions. You could easily sense the immense pride this ground crew had in what they were doing for the space program. A number of these individuals shared with us the fact that they knew exactly what EAA was all about, and a few were even members. This was an experience of a lifetime, and I will always treasure having had this unbelievable opportunity. Speaking of space travel, as you know, Apollo 8 astronaut Frank Borman was the featured speaker at EAA's December 17 Wright Broth ers Memorial Banquet at the EAA AirVenture Museum in Oshkosh. Forty years ago this past Decem ber, Borman, EAA 300174, served as commander of NASA's Apollo 8 space mission to the moon. That mission gave humankind its first close-up view of the lunar surface and the dark side of the moon during the mission's 10 lunar or bits. Unfortunately, I was unable to attend, but I have watched the video feed of his talk. Wow! Borman, now 81 years old, gave an extremely interesting talk. He is an icon among our surviving
astronauts, and I'm certain you would enjoy watching him speak at the Wright Brothers Memorial Banquet. Go to http://EAA.org/ news/200B/200B-12-1B_borman.asp.
EAA also has a wonderful Timeless Voices interview of him online at www.EAA.org/video/timelessvoices. html?videold=5474347001. This,
too, is a must-see video of his many experiences in a life full of opportunity and challenges. Following his retirement as CEO of Eastern Airlines, Col. Borman moved to Las Cruces, New Mex ico, and began restoring vintage and warbird airplanes, several of which he has flown to Oshkosh. Over the years his company has restored 17 aircraft. Last on my list for this month's column is a heartfelt thanks from your board of directors to those of you who have chosen to hang in there with us as mem bers of the Vintage Aircraft Asso ciation. What with the economy of late being so lean and mean, this association still continues to experience excellent rates of membership renewal. It will al ways remain our mission to fulfill your expectations and offer you excellent value for your member ship dollar. As you can only imag ine, that will require your board of directors to remain engaged , creative, and productive through out the upcoming new year. EAA AirVenture Oshkosh 2009, The World's Greatest Aviation Cel ebration, is July 27 through August 2, 2009. VAA is about participation: Be a member! Be a volunteer! Be there!
VINTAGE AIRPLANE
39
Membershi~ Services Directory VINTAGE
THE MANY BENEFITS OF EAA AND AIRCRAFT ENJOY ~"~1I~ EAA's VINTAGE AIRCRAFT ASSOCIATION ASSOCIATION EAA Aviation Center, PO Box 3086, Oshkosh WI 54903-3086
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Copyright ©2009 by the EAA Vintage Aircraft Association, All rights reserved. VINTAGE AIRPlAN E (USPS 062-750; ISSN 0091-6943) is published and owned exclusively by the EAA Vintage Aircraft Association of the Experimental Aircraft Association and is published monthly at EAA Aviation Center, 3000 Poberezny Rd., PO Box 3086, Oshkosh, Wisconsin 54903·3086, e·mail: vintageaircraft@eaa.org. Membership to Vintage Aircraft Association, which includes 12 issues of Vintage Airplane magazine, is $36 per year for EAA members and 546 for non-EAA members. Periodicals Postage paid at Oshkosh, Wisconsin 54901 and at addijional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Vintage Airplane, PO Box 3086, Oshkosh, WI 54903-3086. PM 40063731 Retum undeliverable Canadian addresses to Pijney Bowes IMS, Station A, PO Box 54, Windsor, ON N9A 6J5. FOREIGN AND APO ADDRESSES - Please allow at least two months for delivery of VINTAGE AIRPlANE to foreign and APO addresses via surface mail. ADVERTISING - Vintage Aircraft Association does not guarantee or endorse any product offered through the advertising. We invite constructive criticism and welcome any report of inferior merchandise obtained through our advertising so that corrective measures can be taken. EDITORIAL POLICY: Members are encouraged to submij stories and photographs. Policy opinions expressed in articles are solely those of the authors. Responsibility for accuracy in reporting rests entirely with the contributor. No remuneration is made. Material should be sent to: Editor, VINTAGE AIRPLANE, PO Box 3086, Oshkosh, WI 54903-3086. Phone 920-426-4800. EAA® and EAA SPORT AVIATION®, the EAA logo® and Aeronautica T. are registered trademar1<s, trademar1<s, and service mar1<s of the Experimental Aircraft Association, Inc. The use of these trademar1<s and service marks without the pennission of the Experimental Aircraft Association, Inc. is strictly prohibited .
40
FEBRUARY 2009
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