Va vol 40 no 12 dec 2012

DECEMBER 2012

Found in a Barn

BONANZA

•Barnstormers & Stearmans at EAA Pioneer Airport

•Water Birds in the Grass

CALL

FOR

V I N TA G E

AIRCRAFT

A S S O C I AT I O N

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

The person you nominate can be a citizen of any country and may be living or deceased; his or her involvement

in vintage aviation must have occurred between 1950 and the present day. His or her contribution can be in the areas of flying, design, mechanical or aerodynamic developments, administration, writing, some other vital and relevant field, or any combination of fields that support aviation. The person you nominate must be or have been a member of the Vintage Aircraft Association or the Antique/Classic Division of EAA, and preference is given to those whose actions have contributed to the VAA in some way, perhaps as a volunteer, a restorer who shares his expertise with others, a writer, a photographer, or a pilot sharing stories, preserving aviation history, and encouraging new pilots and enthusiasts.

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

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

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

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

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

This year’s induction ceremony will be held near the end of October. We’ll have follow-up information once the date has been finalized.

We would like to take this opportunity to mention that if you have nominated someone for the VAA Hall of Fame; nominations for the honor are kept on file for 3 years, after which the nomination must be resubmitted.

Mail nominating materials to: VAA Hall of Fame, c/o Charles W. Harris, Transportation Leasing Corp.

PO Box 470350

Tulsa, OK 74147 E-mail: cwh@hvsu.com Remember, your “contemporary” may be a candidate; nominate someone today!

Find the nomination form at www.VintageAircraft.org, or call the VAA office for a copy (920-426-6110), or on your own sheet of paper, simply include the following information: •Date submitted.

•Name of person nominated.

•Address and phone number of nominee.

•E-mail address of nominee.

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

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

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

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

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

(Must be between 1950 to present day.)

•Area(s) of contributions to aviation.

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

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

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

•Any additional supporting information.

•Submitter’s address and phone number, plus e-mail address.

•Include any supporting material with your petition.

A I R P L A N E Vol. 40, No. 12

2012

DECEMBER

CONTENTS 2 Straight and Level

Coming soon: A new and improved Vintage Airplane

by Geoff Robison

3 What Our Members Are Restoring

5 The Vintage Instructor Mentors: Are you one?

by Steve Krog, CFI

8 Lazy Days PMS of 124Summer

661 PMS

Barnstormers and Stearmans gather at EAA’s Pioneer Airport

by Jim Busha

16

16 Bonanza in a Barn Mike and Rosemary Leone’s ’49 V-Tail

by Mike Leone with Budd Davisson 26 Water Birds in the Grass Amphibians flock to AirVenture 2012

by Budd Davisson 32 It’s a Bird! It’s a Plane! . . .It’s a Baseball?

by Daniel J. Demers 34 The Vintage Mechanic The cellulosics

by Robert G. Lock

38 Mystery Plane

by H.G. Frautschy

40 Classifieds

8

ANY COMMENTS?

Send your thoughts to the Vintage Editor at: jbusha@eaa.org

COVERS FRONT COVER: Mike Leone and his “49 V-Tail Bonanza. Photo

For missing or replacement magazines, or any other membership-related questions, please call EAA Member Services at 800- JOIN-EAA (564-6322).

by Steve Cukierski

BACK COVER: EAA’s Pioneer Airport hosts the American Barnstormers group photo before resuming their summer tour. Photo

by Jason Toney.

VINTAGE AIRPLANE 1

STRAIGHT & LEVEL Geoff Robison

EAA #268346, VAA #12606 president, VAA

Comingsoon:AnewandimprovedVintageAirplane

B

y now most of our members have had the opportunity to read the October and November issues of Vintage Airplane magazine. The many subtle changes you have observed in these latest issues are a direct result of the excellent efforts of our new editor, Jim Busha. To date, I have heard a great deal of positive feedback from the membership on the developing new format of our magazine.

These well-received enhancements will soon become even more positive and dynamic as we head into the new year.

The new year will bring us an all-new publication with greatly enhanced content, and delivered on time. Beginning with the January edition of Vintage Airplane it will no longer be a monthly publication. The new bimonthly format you will see in early January will have a much more expanded level of content as well as a completely new and invigorating format. Your board of directors has long discussed changes of this magnitude to your publication, with one of the primary concerns being the growing monthly expenses of layout, content production, and printing and postage that are consumed with the process of delivering Vintage Airplane on a monthly basis. Over time we just never found ourselves prepared to launch a change of this magnitude without being absolutely committed to our ability to execute on a seriously enhanced publication that would continue to deliver a valued product to the Vintage membership. Now, the day has arrived that we are confident and prepared to deliver a much improved product to the members, and I believe that once you see the results of this longterm planning, you will agree that this decision was a sound one. As always,

2 DECEMBER 2012

your thoughts and comments are welcome! Please feel free to drop me a line at vintageaircraft@eaa.org and let me know what you think about the January issue, or anything else that may be on your mind for that matter.

I want to formally welcome Jack Pelton to the helm of EAA as our new chairman of the board. With the rather sudden departure of our EAA president, I strongly believe that Jack will provide the leadership necessary to guide this organization on a successful path to replacing our former president and CEO. Having enjoyed participating as a director on the EAA board for several years now, I look forward to participating in the process before us. This process is certain to take months to accomplish, but it is a critically important responsibility that I take very seriously. As I have previously stated to many of my EAA friends, “We have stumbled, but we have not fallen,” and we will succeed in our goal to attract the right individual with the proper DNA and culture of the EAA to join us in this critically important position.

Many thanks to all the VAA members who took the time to prepare and file a nominating form for the Vintage Hall of Fame for your favored vintage aviator. The VAA Hall of Fame Committee already has a packet full of nominating forms from all around the globe. We truly appreciate your participation in this honorable process of recognizing these many deserving nominees.

Now would also be a good time to remind everyone that we continue to make progress in delivering on our commitment to provide electronic access to all Vintage Airplane magazines, past and present. We are still in the process of compiling the scans for a complete, word-searchable online PDF

archive. We are working toward having it online soon. Also, if you happen to have an immediate need for a particular article, please don’t hesitate to ask by e-mailing vintageaircraft@eaa.org, and we’ll do our best to accommodate your request. Please include your VAA number in your note, along with the issue date and article title. You can also peruse the contents page of past issues by visiting the following link: www.

VintageAircraft.org/magazine/index.html.

Boy oh boy, isn’t it a wonderful thing to live in the Midwest! It has been nothing short of amazing to watch the number of TFRs that have been continuously popping up from Ohio all the way to Wisconsin. Today happens to be Election Day here in the United States, and I cannot tell you how pleased I am to see this election cycle finally come to an end.

Then consider all of the negative political advertising on the television, and, well, you can see where this is going. It’s over, and I am very happy! Let’s all hope that this country, along with our economic woes, are on a better path.

As always, please do us all the favor of inviting a friend to join the VAA, and help keep us the strong association we have all enjoyed for so many years.

VAA is about participation: Be a member! Be a volunteer!

Be there!

Let ’s all pull in the same direc tion for the overall good of aviation.

Remember, we are better to gether. Join us and have it all.

Come share the passion!

WHAT OUR MEMBERS ARE RESTORING Here are a few pictures of my recently completed restoration of my 1946 Aeronca Champ N84160. It is a 7AC CONV - Serial No. 2847.

I included a photograph of the first time I saw it. I also included one of how this one and another Chief project arrived from Seattle to my hangar at Sky Manor Airport in Pittstown, New Jersey, in 2001. It flew in January of this year after sitting in the condition of the first picture for around 25 years. It was based in the Seattle area for all of its prior life.

It has a number of additions that include the C-85-12 engine with the O-200 STC, two wing tanks for a total of 24 gallons of fuel, hydraulic brakes, skylight, Hanlon Wilson mufflers, Slick mags, Dave’s gascolator STC, and finished with Aero-Thane Santa Fe red over Sun Valley ivory and gold flake trim. There is no electric, so the Armstrong starter pulls it through and starts every time. It flies straight with feet on the floor and climbs out like the proverbial homesick angel. We have already given a bunch of Young Eagles rides and some Eagle flights as well. My partner, Bill Burns, and I are enjoying flying with the door off this summer and will be putting it on skis this winter.

Joe Preston, EAA 325836, Lifetime Member, VAA 15012 461 Mechlin Corner Rd. Pittstown, NJ 08867 908-963-8431

Hi, I finally finished the restoration/IRAN of my 1963 Schweizer SGU 2-22E. I purchased it from an estate sale in Boulder, Colorado, in 1999 and flew it for the first time on my 51st birthday August 27, 2012.

The fuselage was completely restored, and the wings were IRAN’ed and repainted.

I hope to fly some Young Eagles and also some (Bald) Eagles with it here at KFLY (Meadow Lake Airport, Falcon, Colorado), along with the hope that my 14-year-old son and his friends fly it also.

Thanks go to my wife for putting up with my aviation addiction and my IA, Evan McCombs.

Yours, Ian Wayman VAA 28681 VINTAGE AIRPLANE 3

Vintage Instructor

THE

BY Steve Krog, CFI

Mentors: Are you one?

O

4 DECEMBER 2012

It was exhilarating, and I’ll never forget that memorable flight! My second ride was again with my father’s friend when I was 16. Those rides, along with the encouragement of my mentor, kept my burning interest in flying alive.

When I was finally in a position to begin flying lessons, my mentor kept encouraging me. I always looked him up and talked airplanes whenever I came home for a weekend family visit. As the years went by, I moved further away, but I did acquire an airplane that was often used for home-

JIM BUSHA

ne recent evening while enjoying some good old-fashioned “hangar talk” and refreshments with a few of the Hartford airport bums, I brought up the subject of mentors. More precisely, how did each get involved in aviation, and who was the person or persons that guided them in one manner or another?

As the conversation progressed, two common denominators surfaced. We were all fascinated by flight beginning at a very early age. Whether it was watching airplanes flying overhead or building balsa wood models, there was something that drew us to airplanes and flight.

Two or three of the folks had uncles that flew, helping each expand their interest in flight. Several more had fathers that flew, some in the military and others for the sheer pleasure of flying. I personally was influenced by a friend of my father. Whenever we would meet I would hound him with questions about airplanes and flying them.

He always took the time, even when quite busy, to stop what he was doing, talk about airplanes, and answer my questions. I could never get enough when he talked about the thrill of flying.

I grew up in rural southwestern Minnesota, where very few people were pilots and even fewer owned airplanes.

Thus, my father’s friend was my primary source for learning everything I could about flight. Another was the four times daily when a North Central Airlines DC-3 flew directly over our family farm. I would look up and dream about what it would be like to be at the controls of that monster airplane.

There was a small private airstrip about a mile from our farm. When I learned to ride a bicycle, I would ride the 1 mile to the private airstrip where a couple of airplanes were kept in open-faced hangars. I would climb into the J-3 Cub and “hangar fly” for hours, dreaming about soaring through the air above the clouds doing loops and rolls and envisioning imaginary dogfights. Soon after though, the airport closed, the airplanes went away, and the strip became part of a larger cornfield.

I went for my very first real airplane ride at age 12, compliments of my father’s friend. I’ll never forget lifting off the ground and watching the earth drop away below me.

BRADY LANE

When I was finally in a position to begin flying lessons, my mentor kept encouraging me. town visits, landing in my uncle’s hayfield. The first person I contacted, after saying hello to my parents, was my mentor. However, our roles were now somewhat reversed. He had given up flying by this time due to some eye problems, but he never ever said no when I invited him out to fly my airplane. We had many great flights and conversations together before he passed away. I will always be grateful for his friendship and his mentoring.

When each of us takes the time to think about flying, usually there is one individual who “mentored” us. An individual who took a special interest in us; who gave direction but only when asked; who gave us inspiration!

According the Webster’s New World Dictionary, a mentor is a wise, loyal advisor; a teacher or a coach. How many of us qualify as a mentor? Probably not many, but we all have the knowledge and capability to be one.

How many of us have carried on the tradition of mentoring? Don’t we owe it to our own mentor to “pay it forward?”

Isn’t that what he or she would have wanted us to do?

A very good friend of mine based at our airport used to question me about always giving kids airplane rides.

When I asked what he intended to do with his airplanes when the time came to give them up, he always responded that he would sell them. But who are we to sell them to if there are no new pilots? After giving this idea some thought, he too made himself and his airplanes available for hopping rides. He now really enjoys sharing his unique airplanes and the thrill of flying them with others. Each time I solo a student pilot for the first time, my friend is always on hand to offer congratulations and welcome the student into the pilot fold.

It takes a good deal more effort to be a mentor today. In the name of progress and now security, there are very few public-use airports that remain “visitor” friendly. When individuals come to the airport to watch the airplanes, they are met by eight-foot-tall chain-link fences, padlocks, and security-coded locks preventing entry. Easy access for visitors to come and look at airplanes and talk to pilots is nearly a thing of the past.

When our generation is gone, who will be there to answer questions about the pleasure and thrill of flight for those of the next generation? Who will be there to become the next caretakers of the airplanes we love to maintain and fly?

One solution is the age-old method of mentoring—the means by which many of us were able to become pilots and enjoy flight. But being a mentor is easier said than done.

VINTAGE AIRPLANE 5

BRADY LANE

Where once individuals came to the airport to watch airplanes with fascination, they are now denied entry.

I asked several younger 20-something pilots recently if they had a mentor. One did not but was a very focused and driven young man. The other had a mentor whom he had met through a local EAA chapter. This young man’s mentor had several airplanes and had arrived at an age where he was unable to maintain and fly them all. He worked out an arrangement with the young pilot: Keep the airplanes clean and polished, and he could fly one of them whenever he liked. The only expense was fuel and oil. This young man spends a good deal of time at the air-

6 DECEMBER 2012

port now, trading labor for flying and building time.

The other young man, who didn’t have a mentor, dropped out of high school sports and got a job bagging groceries and stocking shelves every day after school and on Saturdays. Then, every Sunday, he would drive 100 miles each way to take flying lessons. He now has commercial and instrument ratings at the age of 22 and is currently working on earning his CFI ticket. This fellow is more the exception rather than the rule in today’s world, but it does prove that there are individuals out there who truly want to enjoy the pleasure of general aviation flight.

Neither the enthusiasm for flight nor the efforts of mentoring are dead. But it does take some effort to become a mentor at some level.

If a significant number of VAA members would find one prospective pilot to mentor, think of the new pilot base that would be generated in just a couple of years. Just imagine the impact we would have.

Most of the so-called alphabet groups involved in aviation continue to wring their hands about the diminishing pilot base. Some efforts have been good.

However, perhaps it is time to return to the true grassroots level of aviation in which we got our start and share the challenges and pleasure of flight with a younger prospective student pilot.

The challenge is there. Will you be one to accept this opportunity to broaden our general aviation base and share the pleasure of flight?

Lazy Days of

Barnstormers and Stearmans gather at EAA’s Pioneer Airport

by Jim Busha

Truth be told, could there really be any better backdrop to welcome both the American Barnstormers and the Stearman formation safety seminar than EAA’s own Pioneer Airport?

The long answer is, of course, no. The first to arrive during the third week of August were the Barnstormers— and they only stayed long enough to 8 DECEMBER 2012

have a cool drink of water and pose for a group photo before resuming their summer tour. The group consisted of a rainbow of colorful aircraft that included five Travel Airs, two Fairchilds, two Wacos, a Stinson, a New Standard, and a Monocoupe all flown to Oshkosh on the tour’s day off.

Shortly after 11 a.m., a few dozen

onlookers watched—and listened—as the mostly round-engined classics flew a large circuit around the field, then made final turns from the west to Runway 31. A moderate crosswind did not hinder the successive landings, started

by Hank Galpin and Dennis Guentzel in their 1928 Travel Air 6000, NC9038.

Following in order were a 1929 Waco

Summer

H.G. FRAUTSCHY

BRADY LANE

No better place!

VINTAGE AIRPLANE 9

H.G. FRAUTSCHY

H.G. FRAUTSCHY

BRADY LANE

10 DECEMBER 2012

BRADY LANE

H.G. FRAUTSCHY

H.G. FRAUTSCHY

. . . a rainbow of colorful aircraft that included five Travel Airs, two Fairchilds, two Wacos, a Stinson, a New Standard, and a Monocoupe . . .

VINTAGE AIRPLANE 11

JIM BUSHA PHOTOS

12 DECEMBER 2012

ATO, NC8565; a 1929 Travel Air 4D, NC689K, flown by Bruce McElhoe; a 1930 Monocoupe 90A, N15427, Mark Lightsey; a 1930 Waco ATO, N663N, Josh Brownell; a 1929 Travel Air 4000, NC397M, Clay Adams; a 1941 New Standard (the youngest of the bunch), NC9119, Ted Davis; a 1929 Travel Air 4000, NC379M, David Mars; a 1929 Travel Air 4000, N455N, Gary Lust; a 1931 Stinson Jr-S, NC10886, Jim Hammond; a 1935 Fairchild F-22, NC14768, Steve Roth; and a 1932 Fairchild 22, NC3166, Chad Willie.

And as quick as they arrived they took off again, making room for more than a dozen Stearmans that descended on Pioneer Airport a week later. The Stearman pilots stayed a little longer as they focused their fourday stay on safety, formation work, and vintage flying camaraderie. The Stearman pilots flew from the first rays of morning light until the golden hue of the setting sun, and only rested long enough to have the recently deceased bugs wiped clean from their wings and windscreens by a tireless 12-year-old boy named Charlie.

Most of the Stearman pilots in attendance honed their formation skills with multiple f lights taking place daily. The gathering was the direct result and promotion by Stearman Flight, an organization that is run by dedicated volunteer pilots and has but one objective—to promote safe formation flying. As an organization, Stearman Flight has developed a formation training program that is compliant with Formation and Safety Team (FAST) policy and principles.

Stearman Flight has no power to issue licenses or additional ratings, but it does have the authority to certify formation qualification and issue FAST cards. Stearman Flight also coordinates with FAST in a record-keeping system to track the qualification and currency of those who are formationqualified. By the time the week had come to a close, most of the Stearmans at Pioneer Airport headed south for the National Stearman Fly-In, which is held each year at Galesburg, Illinois.

Chances are by the time you end up reading these words, the large han-

JASON TONEY

JIM BUSHA

JIM BUSHA

VINTAGE AIRPLANE 13

The Stearman pilots flew from the first light until the setting sun . .

14 DECEMBER 2012

gar doors at Pioneer Airport are shut tight, keeping the Wisconsin snow at bay. And as the vintage aircraft proudly displayed inside rest for a long winter’s nap, please sit back and enjoy the vibrant colors of these visiting vintage aircraft and enjoy the lazy days of summer at EAA’s Pioneer Airport.

rays of morning golden hue of the .

For all his hard work, Harry Ballance of Georgia, took Charlie up for a ride in his Lycoming powered Stearman.

JIM BUSHA PHOTOS

With bug cleaning bucket at the ready, Charlie waits for the next Stearman to clean.

VINTAGE AIRPLANE 15

STEVE CUKIERSKI

W

ithin antique/classic circles, it’s easy to forget that not every airplane needs to be stripped down to its data plate and brought back up a rivet or rib stitch at a time. We forget that it’s possible to take an airplane that’s more or less flying and keep it flying while doing a “progressive restoration:” You periodically put it down, fix/restore a small part of it, then get it back into the air before yielding to the temptation to go

16 December 2012

deeper, which always, as in always, grounds it for much longer than expected. Mike Leone of Collinsville, Oklahoma, went the progressive restoration route with his ’49 Bonanza.

Of course, it helped immensely that he started out with a classic foundin-a-barn airplane.

Okay, so it wasn’t really a barn. But Mike’s story will start us all daydreaming about finding something similar that’s been sitting in a hangar just waiting to be discovered and lovingly brought back to its former glory.

It Always Starts With Models Mike’s stor y starts the same as many others in aviation: with models!

“I was born in a suburb of Chicago.

When we moved to Downers Grove from Cicero, it was really a move into farm country. Downers Grove was a farm community. It was the early ’50s, and the post-WWII and Korea vets were home and starting families.

That’s where I started to build model airplanes and cars. The dresser in my bedroom was filled with models. Various planes hung from the ceiling and

Bonanza in a Barn Mike and Rosemary Leone’s ’49 V-Tail

by Mike Leone with Budd Davisson from the wall. I was 5 or 6 years old and can still smell the glue.”

By the time Mike was in his late teens and early twenties, he was involved with building, flying, and racing U-control airplanes. Competing at the national level, some of these models would have speeds in excess of 165 mph, flying against two other airplanes at a time in the circle.

“I discovered ‘real’ airplanes in ’73 and started working on my private pilot certificate. A little over a decade prior I took my very first flight when

my parents decided on a vacation in Italy. Seventeen hours on a Connie, but my first time with my hands on the controls was at a small airport in Plainfield, Illinois, Clow International.

I didn’t have much money. But it was around my birthday, and I treated myself to a discovery flight. It was a Grumman AA-1 (Yankee). I do recall the instructor commenting on my morethan-naive attitude about flying.

“Shortly thereafter I was introduced to an old PBY pilot from WWII named Bill Thomas at DuPage County Air-

port and his Cessna 150, and I began lessons. $24.50 per hour, dual. Like I said, I didn’t have much money and would save up all week by not eating lunch and would bring that to Bill every Friday. Bill was pretty instinctive and knew I really wanted to fly. He would tell me to go wash the windows or clean the belly of the airplane, help him change oil, whatever. I would get two, sometimes three hours of dual for the price of one.

“In eight hours Bill soloed me at DuPage. As an aside, Bill had his own VINTAGE AIRPLANE 17

STEVE CUKIERSKI

airplane that wasn’t being used for training. Yep, you guessed it; it was a 1949 Beech Bonanza, called Choo Choo. It had a V-tail, swing-over yoke, and electric prop. I was hooked on V-tails then and there.”

The years passed and ratings were added to his ticket: instrument, commercial, multi, CFI, CFII, and eventually ATP. And then it was time for the first airplane.

“I found out about a 1977 Chero-

While the student was getting the weather for the rest of his flight, I was perusing the local bulletin board and there I saw it: a 1949 Beech Bonanza with a note saying, ‘ . . . must sell, illness.’

18 DECEMBER 2012

kee 140 and bought it. I flew that airplane for over 10 years. Rosemary, my wife (who is also a commercial pilot and flight instructor), and I married, and we talked about finding a faster cross-country airplane, so we sold the Cherokee.”

Quite often, when you’re not looking for a specific airplane is when you find the one you didn’t even know that you were looking for.

“It was kinda by accident that I discovered our Bonanza. I was flying with a student and flew into a small airport near Peoria, Illinois, called Mt. Hawley (3MY). I had stopped out there many times as that was the destination for my short cross-country. While the student was getting the weather for the rest of his flight, I was perusing the local bulletin board and there I saw it: a 1949 Beech Bonanza with a note saying, ‘ . . . must sell, illness.’ It definitely piqued my interest.

“I brought the flyer home, and Rosemary and I decided to contact the owner and spend an afternoon flying over to look at it. We flew out to a little airport in Missouri. When we got

STEVE CUKIERSKI PHOTOS

Mike and Rosemary Leone there we were met by an older couple in a nearly showroom-condition mid-’80s Cadillac Sedan De Ville. We made our greetings and followed them over to an old T-hangar with one of those sliding corrugated doors. Slowly the old gentleman got out of the Caddy and walked over to the door. I helped him slide the door open, and that’s when we saw our Baby (as we came to call her).

A Sad Old Hangar Queen We would all be surprised to know how many old hangars are hiding aircraft that haven’t flown for decades.

Maybe not for generations, which is why we never pass by a curious-looking

hangar without peeking inside.

“The old gentleman would go out to the hangar every week and wipe some dust off of her and maybe tinker a little. His illness precluded him from flying anymore. I remembered the way he looked at his old airplane: He had a sad smile, as if remembering those early days when the two of them would go for a Sunday flight. He had owned it for over 35 years. The interesting thing was that it was in nearly ‘stock’ condition. Rosemary looked it over while thinking, ‘Gee, should we buy it? But what do we do first to get it in flying shape?’

“We really weren’t looking for an

airplane, but the find won us over.

We were bit by the airplane, sitting in an old dirt-floor hangar syndrome, which would infect most people the same way our Bonanza did us. We say it was a hidden treasure, a diamond in the rough, and a small piece of history.

I don’t have to tell you that Antiques Roadshow and American Pickers are two of our favorite TV shows. Finding this airplane was truly a one-in-a-million fluke, as my wife would say. The airplane had its original paint scheme: red trim over what used to be polished aluminum. The paint was peeling all over the airplane, with the exception of the tail feathers, which seemed to have been repainted. Looking at this airplane it was easy to tell that it had not been abused. According to the logbooks, it had a gear-up landing early on, but was very straight otherwise.

One of the interesting things was who signed the original airworthiness certificate: Olive Beech!

“Although intact, I graded the airplane about a 3 out of 10. And given the hangar environment, I was afraid that mice had made a hotel out of the airplane and caused a lot of internal damage. But that wasn’t the case.

VINTAGE AIRPLANE 19

20 NOVEMBER 2012

STEVE CUKIERSKI

VINTAGE AIRPLANE 21

STEVE CUKIERSKI PHOTOS

The old gentleman was wise when he made aluminum barrel hoops and laid them around the landing gear, which kept most, if not all, of the mice and other little critters out of the airplane.

“I saw the look on the old gentleman’s face as he watched me examining his airplane. This was tough on him. It was a time that eventually comes to all pilots, if we live long enough. The time to let go and this was his time. I made a promise to him prior to taking possession of the airplane that I would get her back to her original condition and would keep her as close to the way he had kept her for the last 35 years.

Thinking back, it was more of a promise than I thought. Unfortunately, not long after the purchase, the old gentleman passed away.”

Time for a New Home Even though a barn-find airplane may appear to be in good condition, you don’t just jump into it and go. You back off, analyze the situation, and do what needs to be done.

“Rosemary and I flew back over a few weeks later, washed the airplane, checked it over with a fine-tooth comb, started it, and took off for her new home.

“As you may guess, the flight wasn’t totally without problems. By the time we got to Peoria, Illinois, to stop for the night, the battery had died. No lights and worse, a very slow landing 22 DECEMBER 2012

gear. We made it, however, and replaced the battery the next morning, making it home the same day.”

Often the first urge with a newly bought airplane is to put our stamp on it by changing things just to be changing things to make it “our” airplane.

That, however, works against the concept of originality.

“As time passed, I slowly started repairing things that needed repairing, cleaning, and polishing. Using photos of original ’49 Beeches, I made sure that I kept the airplane as close to original as possible. The airplane is unique to have survived so long in such original condition, so ideally I didn’t want to change anything that didn’t absolutely need changing or the original part couldn’t be found.

For instance, in 1949 Beech installed three flare ports on the side of the airplane. They are still there, not functional, but there. The other thing on the airplane that is a distinctive part of an original Bonanza is its relatively huge delta antenna. When we purchased her, the antenna wasn’t connected. Since then, we’ve found that it works and have connected it to our new radios.”

Although the goal is often originality, reliability and safety trump all, and Mike clearly knew that.

“I, of course, made changes that would make it more reliable and

STEVE CUKIERSKI PHOTOS

Correcting Rather Than Changing

VINTAGE AIRPLANE 23

safer because we wanted to fly it as if it were a modern airplane. The engine had already been upgraded. It is still the E-185, but an 11, not a dash 1 with which the airplane was originally equipped. It is a dry-sump engine, as was the original, but puts out 205 hp instead of 165 hp. We were on the way back from getting an annual, yes, an annual, when we blew a cylinder. That one was followed by two more only four hours apart. Nothing lasts forever. “ We still have the electric 215 p ro p e l l e r. W h e n I ove r h a u l e d the engine, I found a new one (a 60-year-old Beech prop) in Mexico still wrapped in oil paper. We had a propeller shop in San Antonio check it over, and it is still its full 88.25inch length with no ADs and a 500 24 DECEMBER 2012

write-off. At that time, we installed a new electronic pitch-change control that looks just like the original, but works so much more like a hydraulic propeller that many old Bonanza owners have gone to it.”

When someone is busy maintaining and restoring a 60-year-old flying machine, it almost always brings out the scrounger in all of us.

“I have become a real parts chaser.

Sometimes not even Beech has these old parts, so I contact my sources around the country to see if they have what I need to keep everything working. One thing that we didn’t want working was the retractable boarding step. The operating cable is connected directly to the nose wheel, and Beechcraft has had plenty of issues with gear-up landings. So, since the safety link was broken anyway, I thought I would just leave it disabled, and in my opinion, safer.”

STEVE CUKIERSKI PHOTOS

Digging Deeper for Secrets “I also found out that the old girl had put on a few pounds over the years in the form of oil and dirt in the belly. When we replaced the old wooden floor with new, we cleaned the inside of the belly and brought out lots of 60-year-old dirt and oil.

As it turned out, the new floor was lighter than the original because it wasn’t oil soaked.

“The interior had been changed in the ’70s and looks like it. Yep, it was done in gold plaid on purpose.

It is in good shape, but it needs to be changed to match the original covers more closely. Every year we pick something and work on it. Next year will be the seat covers and wall panels, but we’ll retain the curtains and slit windows.”

One of the items folks comment on in Mike’s cockpit is the mike that’s attached to the end of a flexible boom.

It was an early attempt at hands-free communication, and according to Mike, is surprisingly efficient. The radios, not so much so.

“We replaced the old, outdated radios with a Garmin 430 and a Narco Mark 12D and a four-place intercom.

We can put her into IFR conditions,

but I prefer not to. The brakes are now of course Clevelands. That was another good choice because the airplane stops and turns significantly better.

The Plan Is Simple: Keep It as Safe and as Original as Possible Mike says, “Summarizing my longterm plans: I want to keep this airplane as original as possible, but as time goes on and parts become too difficult, if not impossible, to locate, some changes are inevitable. Items such as the heading indicator instead of the DG and attitude indicator (artificial horizon) will just have to be changed out. The same thing holds true for the wiring because the cotton covering has grown brittle and cracked and poses a fire hazard. Lots of it has already been changed.

“We didn’t do all of the work at one time, but when we got it pretty much finished, we polished it and took it to Oshkosh again this year. We arrived as the number two ship in the second element (row) of all the Bonanzas flying in the B2 Oshkosh gigantic fly-in and landed on the spectator side of the runway show center. That was really an experience. There were 143 aircraft in that flight.”

So, what’s next for the fix-it-up project of the fourth owner of 63-yearyoung N8511A? “I am thinking about adding an inside aux gas tank for just a little more range. Forty gallons was great in 1949, but not today. I still cruise at a respectable 155 mph burning 9.5 gallons per hour, so it can use the extra fuel on the longer trips.”

Mike knows that, eventually, as with the old man he bought it from, he is going to have to let Baby go. But he’s philosophical about it.

“This airplane is an important part of aviation history, and I am hoping the fifth owner keeps her flying the same way I am doing.”

And this all started with a piece of paper on a small airport’s bulletin board. This will make most of us pay a little more attention to those boards. You never know what’s hiding just around the corner in some dirt-floor hangar.

VINTAGE AIRPLANE 25

Water Birds

The Grumman Widgeon has always been a favorite amongst the amphib crowd.

Not too big, not too small, just right.

Amphibians flock to AirVenture 2012

I

t’s an often overlooked aspect of EAA AirVenture Oshkosh that a few miles due east of the gigantic main gathering is an impressive roundup of airplanes of the aquatic persuasion. The majority of sunbaked (or rain-soaked) EAAers stroll the main show grounds among a variety of birds so diverse that they appear to share only one common trait—they fly. At the same time, however, the laid-back folks out at the Seaplane Base are enjoying airplanes that 26 DECEMBER 2012

by Budd Davisson photos courtesy author share an additional common trait— they float. Fortunately, a major subset of the flying/floating machines are as at home on land as they are on water, and lots of those amphibians spent the week sitting in the grass of the main show grounds rather than the water. So they brought the seaplane experience inland for all to enjoy.

Before World War I, water birds were looked at with great favor because they didn’t need runways. Decades later this ability to land in water was optimized in the huge China Clip-

pers and other flying machines that, being pure flying boats, were strictly creatures of the water. They enjoyed success because their designers didn’t have to worry how much runway their behemoths would need to take off and land; seas and major rivers are endless. It wasn’t long, however, before runway construction caught up with the designers and flying boats grew feet so they could waddle up on shore.

And the amphibious airplane was not only born, but really took off. (Sorry, couldn’t resist!)

that not only hooked me on the flying boat type of amphibian but showed me that to make them useful they had to be fairly fast and large enough to carry a big load. Too many amphibs can barely carry two people, and I have a family. So, I needed something different and bigger, but I couldn’t support something like a Goose. And a SeaBee was much too slow.

“I bought a Gull project in California and started working on that in ’93. Then, while researching reversible props, I ran across a Gull with those props that was a flying airplane but had been in a warbird museum for years.

The owner desperately wanted it to go to a good home. So he made me a good price, and it’s had a good home since.

“I use it for everything. It has 190 gallons of fuel and a 2,000-pound useful load but still cruises at 140 knots.

This is fairly fast for an amphibian. I took it to England to be in an air show, after putting a 70-gallon ferry tank in it, which gives 7-1/2 hours of fuel, and

in the

Grass Today, there’s a sizable segment of society that sees the amphibious airplane as the most unlimited form of transportation available. And fun, besides. In fact, most current-day amphib owners see them as flying carpets that can take them anywhere they want to go because they have so many landing spots open to them. This, in turn, widens their horizons in terms of both fun and utility.

John Mohr (yes, that John Mohr, he of the amazing air show routines in a stock 220-hp Stearman) had one of the more unusual amphibs on the line at AirVenture 2012: a 1956 Piaggio Royal Gull. He says, “I had a friend who owned a Grumman Goose, and

Airshow pilot John Mohr’s 1956 Royal Gull has been his family airplane for years, including a trip to England VINTAGE AIRPLANE 27

The ever-present Republic SeaBee.

GO-480 Lycomings power most Widgeons seen at AV 2012.

Cessna 180/185’s are the quintessential back country amphib.

28 DECEMBER 2012

it was great. It’ll easily handle 2-foot waves, you have helicopter visibility, and the geared GO-480 engines are turning the props slowly enough that they suffer very little spray erosion.

“Everyone bad-mouths the GO-480 engines. But if you operate them correctly, they give no problems and last nearly as long as any other engine.”

Did we forget to mention that the Piaggio Gull was originally certified as being aerobatic in Italy (but not in the United States)? You just have to love a country that gave the world pizza, Ferraris, and a twin-engine, fourplace, aerobatic amphibian. Maybe we’ll see John work the Gull into his air show routines?

There was every possible kind of engine represented in the Oshkosh amphibs. Pratt & Whitney, Lycoming, Continental, even a few turbines like the pair that powered the Grumman Goose flown in by Bob and Kimberly Redner of Bloomfield, Michigan.

The Grumman G-21 Goose has what is easily one of the most classic silhouettes in aviation. Originally built with the P&W R-985 450-hp round motors and the flat, eyelid-shaped faceted windshield, its blunt outline literally screams 1930s adventure. The Redners’ McKinnon-modified Goose, however, had one webbed foot solidly planted in yesterday and another in today. Even though its original round motors were replaced with motors that are even rounder (cylindrical, actually), its appearance and demeanor were drastically changed.

Bob says, “I’ve wanted one of these airplanes my entire life. It has literally been a dream for us. I’ve flown floats for 40 years, and my dad had a SeaBee. So I’ve always been around amphibs.

The Goose, especially the turbine G-21, was just something I dreamed about. Then life allowed us to locate this airplane and make it our own.”

The PT-6A engines not only increase the horsepower of any Goose (550 to 680 hp per side, depending on the model), but they are almost always paired with numerous other modifications, the most noticeable of which is the rounded, flat-wrap windshield. The engine mod and the windshield modi-

fication eliminate a barn door worth of drag and of course really change the way the airplane looks. Its entire attitude is changed.

Wandering down the line of amphibs at Point Fundy on the south end of Runway 17, I thought it was fun to watch as the different shapes of the aircraft came into view. A good portion of them were Grummans, the most elegant of which was the queen of the civilian Grumman amphibian fleet, the G-73 Mallard owned by Jack Goodale and flown by Rod McNeil, both of Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Although most familiar as the mainstay of the Chalk’s Airline operation between Miami and the Bahamas, Mallards saw many uses. Originally set up for 10 passengers and two pilots, they were powered by a pair of 600-hp R-1340 P&Ws and intended for shorthaul airline use. The Chalk’s airplanes eventually carried 13 passengers and mounted a pair of turbine engines.

However, the majority of Mallards were destined for corporate use and retained their original configuration.

Rod says of their airplane at Oshkosh, “We bought the airplane last year. It has spent most of its life as a corporate transport in and out of lodges in Canada. We intend on using it for the same sort of thing as well as attending lots of fly-ins.

“It’s an amazingly good flying airplane. It has a fast wing, which is why we flight-plan 150 knots while burning about 25 gallons per side. We expect to be flying the airplane for a long time.”

Not all the aircraft of the Oshkosh amphib line were either exotic or hyper-expensive. Some were aircraft many of us would recognize and have flown. Except these were either made waterworthy by the addition of floats or were smaller versions of their amphibious/flying boat brethren. There were, for instance, lots of Cessna 180s and Maules on amphib floats including the 1996 Maule M7-260 of Eric Boorom from Jackson, Michigan.

“I’ve been flying since I was 12 years old,” Eric says, “But the Maule is some of the most fun flying I’ve done. We’ve had it since 2005 and fly it about 30 hours a year, partially because our float season

A turbine Goose and a tent: does it get any better?

It took years for Rich Bertrand to get his ultra-rare Siai-Marchetti Riveria in the air.

Eric Boorom’s Maule is usually captained by his son, eight-year-old Zach.

Rod McNeil brought in Jack Goodale’s G-73 Mallard, considered the queen of the Grumman civilian amphibians.

VINTAGE AIRPLANE 29

Above & right: Gene and Kimberly Redner’s McKinnonmodified Goose has been their lifetime dream.

Lake amphibs have always been popular. Okie Steve Robinson gives instruction in his (bottom).

30 DECEMBER 2012

in Michigan is a little short. I use a Saratoga for my personal cross-countries.

“I should correct one thing. When I say ‘we,’ as a normal rule, when we’re flying, I’m just watching because my 8-old son, Zach, does most of the actual flying these days.”

Steve Robinson of Grand Sea Planes in Tulsa, Oklahoma, brought in his Lake LA4-200, which was about the same size as the Maule but less than half its height.

Steve says, “My airplane has about 1,500 hours on it, about half of which I’ve put on giving seaplane ratings in my business. (See GrandSeaplanes. com.) However, I also have a cabin on a lake that’s too far away to easily drive.

Since Oklahoma has no restrictions against landing on lakes, I can pretty much go where I want, which makes the cabin really accessible to me.”

For many walking the amphib line, the Widgeon would the perfect airplane for them. Sure would look good with a pair of 360 hp, Vendyev M-14P Russian radials, don’t you think?

Parked just across the aisle from Steve’s Lake was one of the rarest airplanes of any kind on the AirVenture grounds: Rich Bertrand’s Siai-Marchetti Riviera, which he brought out from Palm Springs, California.

He says, “There were 24 Rivieras built originally—26 according to some sources—and I believe this is the only one still flying in the U.S. I inherited it from my father. It hadn’t been flying for some time, and it took me seven years to get it back in the air, which included replacing most of the belly skin. I almost couldn’t get it airworthy because my landing gear was unusable, but I was able to get both gear legs from a wreck I purchased.

“While Siai-Marchetti in Italy produced most of the aircraft, it was originally designed by the Nardi brothers, who built four aircraft, this being one of those. Nardi was a small company and sold the manufacturing rights to Marchetti in 1959, and they went into production in 1962. The engine is a 250-horse Continental O-470 and so far has performed flawlessly. I had planned on taking it over to the Seaplane Base, but since I’d only had it in the water three times, I decided not to take the chance. I could feel it trying to porpoise on takeoff, so I need more time in the airplane.”

To the tens of thousands of AirVenture flightline warriors who braved the sun and rain but never made it out to the Seaplane Base: You missed one of the more pleasant aspects of the Big Show. However, thanks to the amphibian owners who brought their birds over to sit in the grass, you certainly didn’t miss out on all the hardware. There was definitely enough floatable eye candy to keep anyone happy.

Aircraft Finishing Products STC’d for Certified Aircraft

Safe for You, Safe for the World, Safe for Your Airplane

For Certified Aircraft, Stewart Systems is FAA approved for use with any certified fabric.

Superflite, Ceconite or Polyfiber us Non zardo a H -Fla n No mm able t n a li p m o EPA C Stewart Aircraft Finishing Systems 5500 Sullivan St., Cashmere, WA 98815 1-888-356-7659 • (1-888-EKO-POLY) www.stewartsystems.aero

VINTAGE AIRPLANE 31

It’s a Bird!

It’s a Plane! . . .

It’s a Baseball?

by Daniel J. Demers

photos courtesy of the author

Babe Ruth Wilbert “Uncle Robbie” Robinson lay prone on the ground, moaning and shouting, “Help, help. I’m bleeding to death!” Robinson, the manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers, had decided on pulling a publicity stunt on opening day of spring training at Daytona Beach. It was a tradition at the time for a dignitary to throw the opening ball from the grandstand onto the field. Robinson, always the showman, convinced pioneer aviator Ruth Law to toss a ball from a plane flying at 525 feet to him on the field below in lieu of the traditional toss. It was March 13, 1915.

According to newspaper accounts, Law took two baseballs up with her.

She threw both, each of which Robinson missed. Spotting a bag of grapefruit, Law then tossed one to Robinson 32 DECEMBER 2012

on her third approach. “Uncle Robbie,” assuming it was a baseball, got a bead on the falling orb and positioned his mitt. According to the Sporting News, “It smacked into the mitt and literally exploded.” The force of the dropping projectile was so great that it knocked Robinson to the ground and “all he knew was that he had all this liquid and stuff all over him,” continued the News. According to another source, Robinson thought he had lost an eye because of the stinging citric acid and the bloodlike spatter that covered him.

It was then that he screamed for help.

When his team ran to help and burst into laughter, Robinson realized the joke was on him. Another version of the story is that Dodgers outfielder Casey Stengel convinced Law to make

Ruth Law the switch. From then on, Robinson referred to airplanes as “fruit flies.” Robinson was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1945. In 1917, Ruth Law would become the first woman to wear an Army Air Corps uniform, although she was denied permission to fly in combat.

Eleven years later, New York Yankee great Babe Ruth would be talked into a similar stunt by military air pioneer Benjamin Foulois. Foulois was then commander of Mitchel Air Base on Long Island. The usually staid Foulois admitted “the requirement to assist in publicity stunts was a little difficult to shuck.” Foulois was the first military pilot and rose to be chief of the Air Corps after World War I. Capt. Harold McClelland piloted the aircraft to 250 feet. The Babe donned an Army uniform for the event designed to promote Citizen Military Training Camps. A total of seven balls were dropped before the Sultan of Swat finally caught one.

July 22, 1926, was a hot, sultry day, and Ruth was described as “darting about the field under the blistering sun, getting hotter and hotter.” Straight Dope Classics reports, “As the cowhide hit the leather of Ruth’s glove, the Bambino said, ‘Eeeeeeooooooowwwwwcccchhh!’”

Foulois remembers Ruth “was slowly flexing his burning hand and trying to smile about it as he left in a big limousine.” Ruth was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1936. Harold McClelland is now remembered as the

Sources

Joe Sprinz’s attempt at catching a 154-mph ball ends with a broken jaw. father of Air Force communications.

In 1939, catcher Joe Sprinz was playing for the San Francisco Seals, a minor league team. He had spent three years in the majors—two with Cleveland and one with St. Louis. Sprinz decided he wanted to set a new world record for catching a baseball dropped from a great height. On August 3, 1939, the Seals organization arranged for the Goodyear blimp to hover 800 feet over Treasure Island, which was then hosting the Golden Gate International Exposition—a World’s Fair type of event. It also happened to be Sprinz’s 37th birthday and the 100th anniversary of baseball. He missed the first four balls, but on the fifth Sprinz angled his catcher’s mitt in position to catch the hurtling sphere. The ball plummeting at an estimated 154 miles per hour smashed into his mitt, which according to the physicist, David Halliday, “slammed his glove hand into his face with such force that he broke his upper jaw in twelve places, fractured five of his teeth and [he] was rendered unconscious.” According to an era sportswriter, Harry Borba, Sprinz also broke his nose and “suffered ragged lacerations of both the upper and lower lips.” He spent three months in the hospital recovering.

Sprinz was not inducted into the Hall of Fame, but he is recorded in The Guinness Book of World Records. He holds the record for the “World’s Highest Catch”—a record that has stood now for 73 years.

After the Sprinz incident it seemed as though nobody wanted to catch a baseball dropped from an airplane

(much less a blimp). But in 2012 Zack Hample decided to try to break Sprinz’s record. Hample is a wellknown sportswriter and baseball aficionado—best known for his collection of baseballs. He has caught over 6,000 baseballs from 50 baseball stadiums all over North America. On July 2, 2012, Hample tried to break Sprinz’s record at LeLacheur Park in Lowell, Massachusetts. His intent was to catch the baseball dropped from a helicopter from 1,000 feet. He first caught a softball dropped from 312 feet—establishing a record. He then caught baseballs dropped from 312 feet, 562 feet, and 762 feet, respectively. Before he could break Sprinz’s record, though, the Federal Aviation Administration called off the stunt due to strong winds. Hample plans on attempting the stunt again next year. One major difference between Hample’s efforts and those of Robinson, Ruth, and Sprinz’s—Hample wore protective gear including a catcher’s mask with hard-shell protective head gear and breast plate.

Benjamin D. Foulois. From the Wright Brothers to the Astronauts. New York: McGraw Hill, 1968.

David Halliday, et al. Fundamentals of Physics, Chapter 2. New York: Wiley and Sons, 1993.

Lawrence Ritter. The Glory of Their Times. New York: Harper Collins, 1992, as reported in The Sporting News. New York: The Sporting News Publishing Company, 1991.

Babe Ruth Catches Ball From Airplane.

The New York Times, July 23, 1926.

Harry Borba, Seal Catcher Hit in Face With Ball Dropped by Blimp. San Francisco Examiner, August 4, 1939.

Harold McClelland, http:en.wikipedia. org/wiki/Harold_M._McClelland.

Accessed January 30, 2012.

Mitchel Air Force Base, http://en. wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitchel_Air_ Force_Base. Accessed January 30, 2012.

Ruth Bancroft Law, www.ctie. monash.edu.au/hargrave/law. html. Accessed January 30, 2012.

What is the record height for catching a baseball dropped and caught from an airplane, www.answerbag. com/q_view/57841. Accessed January 30, 2012.

Wilbert Robinson, http:// en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilbert_ Robinson#Brooklyn_Dodgers. Accessed January 29, 2012.

Winged Victory, Women in Aviation Webzine, http://thethunderchild. com/YouFlyGirl/Articles/Daytona BeachAviation.html. Accessed January 29, 2012.

E-mail from Sara Wilcox of Guinness Book of World Records to author confirming world record of Joe Sprinz, dated February 6, 2012.

Printed in 1974 and 1975 editions.

Zack Hample, http://en.wikipedia. org/wiki/Zack_Hample. Accessed October 5, 2012.

VINTAGE AIRPLANE 33

Vintage Mechanic

THE

BY ROBERT G. LOCK

The cellulosics Cellulose is the main constituent of the woody matter in trees and the linters (the small lint-like material that sticks to the seeds) of cotton plants and is claimed when the cotton is ginned. The relatively pure cellulose used in making the cellulosics can be obtained from wood pulp, such as used in making paper. The raw material is therefore readily available in large quantities and hence is not too expensive.

The organic acids used for combining with cellulose are obtainable in large quantities and at reasonable prices.

If cellulose is treated with nitric acid, a material called nitro cellulose is produced, which is very explosive. Cellulose nitrate was originally produced as a substitute for ivory in the making of billiard balls. It was later used in manufacturing molded articles and was marketed under the trade name “celluloid.” For many years, clear film of cellulose nitrate was used as the backing for photographic film, both for ordinary pictures and film for the early movies. However, when this film became ignited it burned with great intensity, destroying many early movie theaters.

In an effort to remove this dangerous fire hazard, two Swiss chemists, brothers Camille and Henri Dreyfus, developed the first commercial process to manufacture cellulose acetate in 1905 when experimenting in a shed behind their father’s house in Basel, Switzerland. Combining cellulose with acetone and acetic anhydride, they made cellulose acetate. The Dreyfus brothers were the first to produce cellulose acetate for the commercial market. Although cellulose acetate was first prepared in 1865 by the French chemist Paul Schützenberger, it was not until 1894 that Charles Cross and Edward Bevan patented the first industrial process for its manufacture in the United Kingdom. Early experiments in cellulose acetate were targeted to producing a yarn that could be woven into a synthetic fabric resembling silk. However, by adding plasticizer to the mixture, such as diethyl or dimethyl phthalate, a more flexible material could be produced. Cellulose acetate is a thermoplastic resin because it can be heat softened to change its shape any number of times.

Brothers Dreyfus set up a plant in Basel, Switzerland, just 3 miles from the border with Germany in 1910, and at the outbreak of World War I, they were invited to set up a factory in Spondon, Derbyshire, England, to make ace34 DECEMBER 2012

tate “dope” for waterproofing and stiffening fabric-covered aeroplane wings. The plant was constructed entirely with public moneys with no risk to those who stood to gain monetarily. The British Cellulose and Chemical Manufacturing Company was born March 1916. Two groups—an English group and a Swiss group—controlled the company. They set up a similar plant at Cumberland, Maryland, for the U.S. Army in 1917. What the English and Americans didn’t know is that the Dreyfus boys were also selling aeroplane dope to the Germans for their war aeroplanes. When the Spondon plant could not produce enough cellulose acetate dope for the English war aeroplanes, the material was imported from Basel. The British War Office was eager to get its hands on more supplies of dope because the number of military aircraft being constructed in Britain was increasing rapidly from a mere 200 ships in 1914 to 2,342 in 1915 and 6,633 in 1916. The number of ships that were constructed in 1916 nearly doubled the following year, and by 1918, approximately 30,782 military aircraft had been built. And they all were covered with linen fabric and coated with cellulose acetate dope.

Deliveries of dope from the Spondon factory started small in 1917, and the newly formed company was rewarded with a government contract for 25 tons of cellulose acetate per month, along with 2,500 tons of acetone. This order was rapidly increased to nearly 700 tons of the aeroplane dope. Profits from the British Cellulose and Chemical Manufacturing Company brought a huge sum of money, particularly for those large English and Swiss (the Dreyfus brothers) shareholders, to the tune of $141 million at today’s values! The Dreyfus brothers had hit the jackpot.

The English called for an investigation into the workings of British Cellulose and Chemical Manufacturing Company.

What they found out was a few people made a lot of money without taking any risks or investing a cent, the company being founded by financiers using public money. The press had a field day with the outcome of the investigation. On August 5, 1918, the newspaper Daily Chronicle reported, “The dope scandal, a most disgraceful transaction, 4,000 pounds becomes 12,230,000 pounds.” A huge profit for the time and during the crisis of war. The public was outraged.

It was bad enough for a group of foreigners (the Dreyfus

brothers) to have fleeced British taxpayers during a time of war, but the newspapers dropped the bomb that the Basel operation under the control of the Dreyfus brothers had been doing business with Germany at the same time as doing business with the British.

After the war the English Spondon factory began to manufacture cellulose acetate fibers that could be woven into a cloth that closely resembled silk. The English named it “Celanese.” In America that same product was named “Rayon.”

After the war they concentrated their efforts in England, and in 1919 introduced the first acetate yarn which they called Celanese. In 1924, they switched entirely to the U.S. where acetone and acetic anhydride were cheaply available.

In the same year, rayon became adopted as a generic term for all “artificial silk.”

Cellulose acetate (CA) in combination with plasticizers produces a plastics material, which can be heat softened and forced under pressure into a cool mold. This injection molding process was developed by Dr. Arthur Eichengrün of Celonwerke to exploit the molding properties of the plasticized CA molding materials he had produced. His first injection-molding machine had a maximum shot weight of about 8 grams provided by a hand-operated plunger mechanism, a far cry from today’s machines, some of which have a maximum molding size in excess of 100 kg.

When WWI ended so did the large demand for airplane dope. Of course there was some demand in the United States, England, and France as the airplane went “civil-

ian.” But the demand was not near as great as during WWI. In the early days of civilian flying machines in the United States, nitrate dope was still the standard and was manufactured to a military specification that carried from the war. As war clouds formed the prelude to WWII, a better dope was needed. The cellulose acetate and nitrate dopes were very flammable, causing chemists to experiment to reduce the burn rate of the dope. Butyrate, as it is commonly known, is a cellulose ester modified by using butyric and acetic acids, and when combined with cellulose acetate, produced cellulose acetate butyrate (CAB) dope. A new specification number was issued to identify the CAB products.

They were: Mil-D05549B (clear CAB dope), Mil-D-6069A (CAB thinner), Mil-D-7850 (CAB fungicidal first coat dope), Mil-D-5550A-1 (CAB pigmented dope), and Mil-D-5551-2 (CAB gloss pigmented dope).

So, any fabric-covered structural components of the aircraft used Grade A cotton fabric coated with CAB dope.

The burn rate of CAB compared to the old nitrate dope was subject to research by S.G. Weisberg. Mr. Weisberg determined the following, which is quoted from the abstract in his report: “Powerplant fires tests conducted on small fabric covered aircraft proved the futility of providing engine fire protection in an aircraft covered with fabric, which would be destroyed by fire within a few seconds.

“Fabrics treated with cellulose nitrate dope were destroyed by fire within two-seconds. Fabrics treated with cellulose acetate butyrate dope were destroyed by fire

Illustration 1 VINTAGE AIRPLANE 35

within six-seconds.

“Fire-retardant coatings have been developed which, when applied over fabrics treated with cellulose acetate butyrate dope, markedly increase the resistance to fire of the doped fabrics.”

The point here is that if a fabric-covered airplane has an in-flight fire, it’s going to burn! The newer synthetic fabric processes may not burn as quickly, but a fire in the air is disastrous.

It is interesting to analyze here that improvements in fabric-coating materials came about because of experiments by chemists for wartime purposes. It would not be until the middle 1950s through the middle 1960s that additional improvements in covering materials would be made, but in this case not because of a world war.

Illustration 1 shows a dope brochure from the Andrew Brown Company, Los Angeles, California. Although there is no date on the data, the telephone number would indicate that the data comes from the late 1940s through the late 1950s before the Los Angeles–based telephone companies changed their code to an all-number system.

Cotton fabric, being made of organic (natural) fibers, was prone to a fungus growth on the inside of a surface that would eventually deteriorate the cloth from the inside out.

To combat this fungus growth the first brush coat of dope could contain a fungicidal paste mixed in and thinned with the clear nitrate or butyrate dope. This fungicidal material would turn the dope either green or blue in color, thus making it easy to see the coverage and saturation of dope into the fabric weave. Fungicidal paste came in small pint cans or squeeze tubes, and only a small amount was needed. It was applied with the first brush coat only and was not used with subsequent coats. Fungus attacking the inside of a cotton surface could be detected by checking for small round black dots, which denoted a fungus growth eating cotton fibers.

Dope dries by evaporation of thinners and solvents incorporated in the material. As these materials evaporate, heat is extracted at the surface of the component. When the temperature of the surface reaches the dew point of the air surrounding it, moisture will condense and mix with the cold surface of the dope, causing “blushing.” Blushing in clear dope will turn the surface to a milky white color while blushing in pigmented dope will cause the color to turn to an opaque color, destroying the gloss and changing the color. To combat this it is necessary to “slow down” the drying time of the dope and the material by using what was called “retarder.” Retarder is a mixture of a slow dry reducer that is added in small amounts to the dope before spraying or brushing. Berry Brothers recommended adding about a pint per gallon; adding too much retarder could cause the dope to not dry at all. Retarder was also added to the color coats of pigmented dope to allow the material more time to “flow out,” thus giving it more gloss.

Dope, whether it is cellulose nitrate or cellulose acetate butyrate, will harden and crack after several years of service.

These cracks in the finish will expose raw fabric threads to the ultraviolet radiation from the sun and will eventually deteriorate the cloth. If the fabric tests in the “green,” then 36 DECEMBER 2012

Illustration 2 spraying the surface with a dope rejuvenator will soften old dope and seal the cracks. Normally this is how it works. First, the surface has to be cleaned, which requires removing any wax, dirt, grease, etc. Next, the surface is lightly wet-sanded with fine #400 wet-or-dry sandpaper. When all residue is removed the surface is sprayed with a wet coat of rejuvenator and allowed to set. The dope film should become tacky and begin to soften, and the fabric will sag slightly. This is normal because the fabric usually sags with each subsequent coat of dope during the covering process. It must be remembered that a cotton fabric surface has 15 coats of dope; there is only one film on the fabric. Each coat melts into the previous coat to become one. A second coat of rejuvenator is sprayed and allowed to dry for at least an hour. The fabric surface will, most likely, be slightly wrinkled or have sags in it. To remove these sags and wrinkles, one or two coats of tautening nitrate or butyrate dope will be sprayed on the surface. I used to spray silver butyrate, but it could be clear dope instead. Allow to set 24 hours to cure. All the wrinkles should be gone! After a very light sanding, two or three cross coats of pigmented nitrate or butyrate dope is then sprayed on the surface. The primary purpose of rejuvenator is to soften the old dope and seal the cracks.

One could not purchase silver dope, so it had to be specially mixed by the user. Here aluminum powder or paste was added to clear dope in proper quantities to create UVblocking silver dope. Normally 1-1/2 pounds of powder or 1 pound of paste was mixed with 5 gallons of unthinned dope, and then the mixture was thinned for spraying. The amount of reducing depended on the viscosity of the dope.

There were high-solid and medium-solid dopes—the high solid was more viscous and thus required more reducing. As

I recall, the dope was generally reduced about 40 to 50 percent for spraying; if it was too thick it would “orange peel,” and if too thin, it would not put enough dope on the surface and would run on vertical surfaces. You had to get it right or a poor finish would result.

A superior finish could be obtained on cotton fabric with dope filler. But it took a lot of labor in the way of sanding and rubbing out the dope. Just as one can “raise the grain” on wood by wetting the surface before sanding, cotton fabric was much the same. The first coat of brushed-on dope would raise small fibers along the threads, causing a very rough surface. Adding additional coats of dope would not smooth the surface; sanding was the only choice to make the surface smooth. And so it took much sanding to get a good finish. Predoped fabric and surface tape was available that laid the nap of the fabric, making it smooth. Predoped tapes were blue in color for butyrate dope and pink in color for nitrate dope. Predoped surface tapes eliminated much of the tedious sanding, particularly around rib lacings.

Next, samples from yesterday—an original Reeves Brothers package of 3-inch-wide pinked edge surface tape still in the packing from the 1950s and shown in Illustration 2.

Note their factory is 653 11th Avenue, New York, N.Y., and their logo is “Air Wing.”

Illustration 4 ried an identification number of AN231-1 through AN2314, depending on inside and outside diameter and shape.

Finally, perhaps I should list some of the advantages and disadvantages of nitrate and butyrate dope. A few are listed next.

Nitrate Advantages Will bond better to new raw fabric fibers.

Will not shrink the fabric as much as butyrate. After final coat has been applied and cured, maximum shrinkage has occurred.

Can be mixed with lacquer cement.

Nitrate Disadvantages Will support flame and burn very rapidly.

Cannot be applied over CAB dope.

Butyrate (CAB) Advantages More fire resistant than nitrate.

May be sprayed over nitrate acting as a rejuvenator.

Butyrate (CAB) Disadvantages Superior shrinking ability. Fabric continues to shrink up to six weeks after final coat of dope has dried.

Will not bond to Dacron fabric. Dacron fabric is used with most current synthetic fabric processes.

Cannot be mixed with lacquer cement; is not compatible with nitrate dope or thinner.

Illustration 3 Illustration 3 shows Grade A predoped surface tape (blue tint) on left and Intermediate Grade A surface tape (tinted pink) on right. I wonder how many old-timers who worked with Grade A cotton and Irish linen fabric remember using predoped tapes.

Drain grommets were either flat or seaplane, and inspection rings were manufactured from acetate plastic. Therefore they bonded nicely with CAB dope; just wet the area and press the grommet or ring into place.

Illustration 4 is removed from the 1946 Air Associates aviation supply catalog, advertising cellulose acetate drain grommets. Seaplane grommets are shown on right in photograph. The flat round and seaplane grommets are still in use today but must be glued or bonded with epoxy adhesive to fabric surface. In the old days, flat drain grommets car-

Hopefully this has been an interesting look back at the cotton and linen dope process. It is not used much anymore, only for truly authentic restorations. The synthetic processes are much better. I wrote much of this article on September 9, 1973, while instructing at Reedley College, with some revisions in May 2009. My, that is 36 years ago!

My, how time flies!

References

www.Plastiquarian.com/ca2.htm www.Fire.tc.FAA.gov/pdf/fsr-0250.pdf “The Man Who Fell From the Sky” by William Norris FAA Advisory Circular 20-44 Aviation Supply Catalog No. 19, dated 1946, by Air Associates VINTAGE AIRPLANE 37

by H.G. FRAUTSCHY

MYSTERY PLANE SEPTEMBER’S MYSTERY ANSWER

T

he September issue’s Mystery Plane was the last mystery of this column, and by golly, it appears it really was a mystery for the vast majority of you.

It came to EAA’s archive as part of the Cedric Galloway collection.

Only two answers were received, both from veterans of this column, Wayne Muxlow of Minneapolis, Minnesota, and Wes Smith of Springfield, Illinois. Here’s Wes’ answer: This one is very difficult to pin down. The closest I can come is the prototype of Lee Ulrich Eyerly’s Lee Monoplane, aka Comet 7-D, Sport, or Coupe (Eyerly Aircraft Corp.; Salem, Oregon). The wing, fuselage, undercarriage, and struts resemble those of the earlier Lee Monoplane and are similar to those of the Comet 7-D, which reputedly had an OX-5.

Unfortunately, I can find no direct photographic evidence to confirm this. However…

If it is the prototype Eyerly Lee Monoplane or Comet, Lee U. Eyerly was the inventor of several amusement rides, which evolved from his conception for a flight simulator. He was born in Fulton County (Cuba), Illinois, before moving to Canton (which, curiously, is 12 miles north of where I live in Springfield, Illinois) on 22 February 1892. His family moved to Hobson, Montana, and around 1911 he ventured to Dominguez 38 DECEMBER 2012

Field in California. He experimented with gliders, and on 22 June 1913 he married his wife, Meta. They had four children, two sons and two daughters.

The Eyerlys moved to Salem, Oregon, in 1919, and he worked as a driver for the Oregon state engineer. He developed the idea of a “greasing spot” to maintain vehicles, and was the top mechanic at the Ford dealership, earning 25 cents/hour, working 10-hour days. Eyerly soloed with a Curtiss JN-4D in 1920 after three hours of instruction from a barnstormer named Elmer Cook. In 1921, he enrolled in the engineering program at the Oregon Agriculture College. Eyerly then moved to Waldport where he ran a ferryboat service and operated an auto repair garage. From 1923 to 1927 he served on the Lincoln School Board and on the Alsea Port Commission. Eyerly purchased a “small mail plane” of unknown type in 1926, and in 1927, the Eyerlys returned to Salem, and Lee began a flying school and aircraft repair shop, the business being known as the Pacific Airplane Service. With funds provided by the American Legion, Eyerly purchased a 5-acre plot of land near the former governor’s mansion. This became Salem’s first municipal airport. Eyerly moved his business there in 1928 and built his first airplane, a three-place open-cockpit cabin monoplane. He suffered a broken arm and several cracked ribs

during a crash in July 1929, during a pioneer celebration at Eugene. Apparently, six of this aircraft type were built, using Siemens-Halske SH-14 or Kinner K-5 engines (one had a 70-hp Velie).

Eyerly’s next design was the Comet 7-D (apparently also known as the Lee Monoplane, Coupe, or Sport, depending on the version). The prototype, depicted in the Vintage Airplane photo, had a Curtiss OX-5. Others had Siemens SH-12 or Kinner K-5 engines. These later versions differed significantly from the OX-5 prototype. The undercarriage was much taller, with complex articulated struts. The rear cockpit was also removed, the vertical stabilizer and rudder were revised somewhat different in shape, and the radial engines shortened the overall length considerably. The wing struts were also mounted in the same fashion as the Vintage Airplane photo (see: www.Aerofiles.com, two photos of the Kinner-powered 27W). A photo of the Lee Monoplane shows a much different vertical stabilizer and rudder and V-wing struts; however, the undercarriage, wing, and wheels are very similar to the Vintage Airplane photo. This particular variant had a Siemens radial engine and much shorter nose.

But, the two-place cabin and rear-mounted open cockpit are in evidence. The cabane struts are also quite similar. Photos of 27W show that the wing was attached directly to the fuselage; on the Lee Monoplane the wing is mounted in nearly the same way as the magazine’s photo. Likewise, the cabin windows are also similar. A photo of this aircraft appears on page 19 of Joseph T. Juptner’s T-Hangar Tales: Stories of the Golden Age. Eyerly passed away from cancer at age 71 on 23 March 1963. In 2001, Eyerly was named as the third inductee to the Oregon Aviation Hall of Fame.

Once again, my thanks to each of you for your interest and support over the years this column has been a part of Vintage Airplane. Our career-long thanks to EAA librarian Sue Lurvey for her unfailing support of this column throughout the years I truly could not have done it without you, Sue. You’ve been Vintage Airplane’s “secret weapon!” My best wishes to all of you. HGF

CONTACT US TODAY! TOLL FREE: 800.323.0611 TEL: 618.931.5080 FA X: 618.931.0613 SALES: sales@super flite.com WEB: w w w.super flite.com Scan this QR code with your smartphone or tablet device to view our complete line of fabrics, tapes, and finishes.

AERO CLASSIC “COLLECTOR SERIES”

Vintage Tires New USA Production Show off your pride and joy with a fresh set of Vintage Rubber. These newly minted tires are FAA-TSO’d and speed rated to 120 MPH. Some things are better left the way they were, and in the 40’s and 50’s, these tires were perfectly in tune to the exciting times in aviation.

Not only do these tires set your vintage plane apart from the rest, but also look exceptional on all General Aviation aircraft. Deep 8/32nd tread depth offers above average tread life and UV treated rubber resists aging.

First impressions last a lifetime, so put these jewels on and bring back the good times..…

New General Aviation Sizes Available:

What Our Members Are Restoring

Are you nearing completion of a restoration? Or is it done and you’re busy flying and showing it off? If so, we’d like to hear from you. Send us a 4-by6-inch print from a commercial source or a 4-by-6-inch, 300-dpi digital photo. A JPG from your 2.5-megapixel (or higher) digital camera is fine. You can burn photos to a CD, or if you’re on a high-speed Internet connection, you can e-mail them along with a text-only or Word document describing your airplane. (If your e-mail program asks if you’d like to make the photos smaller, say no.)

500 x 5, 600 x 6, 700 x 8

Desser has the largest stock and selection of Vintage and Warbird tires in the world. Contact us with your requirements.

Telephone: 800-247-8473 or 323-721-4900 FAX: 323-721-7888 6900 Acco St., Montebello, CA 90640 3400 Chelsea Ave, Memphis, TN 38106

Formoreinformation,youcanalsoe-mailjbusha@eaa.org.

In Support Of Aviation Since 1920….

www.desser.com

VINTAGE AIRPLANE 39

VINTAGE AIRCRAFT ASSOCIATION

EAA Publisher . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Jack J. Pelton,

Chairman of the Board Vice President, EAA Publications. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . J. Mac McClellan Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Jim Busha

jbusha@eaa.org VAA Executive Administrator . . . . . . . . . . Theresa Books 920-426-6110. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . tbooks@eaa.org Advertising . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Jonathan Berger . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Katrina Bradshaw

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Sue Anderson 920-426-6127. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . sanderson@eaa.org VAA, PO Box 3086, Oshkosh, WI 54903

OFFICERS

President Geoff Robison 1521 E. MacGregor Dr. New Haven, IN 46774 260-493-4724 chief7025@aol.com

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

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

Treasurer Dan Knutson 106 Tena Marie Circle Lodi, WI 53555 608-592-7224 lodicub@charter.net

VINTAGE TRADER S o m e t h i n g t o b u y, s e l l , o r t r a d e ?

Classified Word Ads: $5.50 per 10 words, 180 words maximum, with boldface lead-in on first line.

Classified Display Ads: One column wide (2.167 inches) by 1, 2, or 3 inches high at $20 per inch. Black and white only, and no frequency discounts.

Advertising Closing Dates: 10th of second month prior to desired issue date (i.e., January 10 is the closing date for the March issue). VAA reserves the right to reject any advertising in conflict with its policies. Rates cover one insertion per issue. Classified ads are not accepted via phone. Payment must accompany order. Word ads may be sent via fax (920-426-4828) or e-mail (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 EAA. Address advertising correspondence to EAA Publications Classified Ad Manager, P.O. Box 3086, Oshkosh, WI 54903-3086.

AIRCRAFT

Steve Bender 85 Brush Hill Road Sherborn, MA 01770 508-653-7557 aaflagship@gmail.com

Dale A. Gustafson 7724 Shady Hills Dr. Indianapolis, IN 46278 317-293-4430 dalefaye@msn.com

WACO, tail-prop AristoCraft, universals for drive shaft, mufflers, small parts, engineering files, drawings. Make offer. O’Neill; 618-594-2681

Jeannie Hill P.O. Box 328 Harvard, IL 60033-0328 815-245-4464

EMPLOYMENT

David Bennett 375 Killdeer Ct Lincoln, CA 95648 916-952-9449 antiquer@inreach.com

Steve Krog 1002 Heather Ln. Hartford, WI 53027 262-966-7627 sskrog@gmail.com

DIRECTORS

Ron Alexander 118 Huff Daland Circle Griffin, GA 30223-6827 ronalexander@mindspring.com

Jerry Brown 4605 Hickory Wood Row Greenwood, IN 46143 317-422-9366 lbrown4906@aol.com Dave Clark 635 Vestal Lane Plainfield, IN 46168 317-839-4500 davecpd@att.net Phil Coulson 28415 Springbrook Dr. Lawton, MI 49065 269-624-6490 rcoulson516@cs.com

Robert D. “Bob” Lumley 1265 South 124th St. Brookfield, WI 53005 262-782-2633 rlumley1@wi.rr.com Joe Norris tailwheelpilot@hughes.net 920-688-2977 S.H. “Wes” Schmid 2359 Lefeber Avenue Wauwatosa, WI 53213 414-771-1545 shschmid@gmail.com Tim Popp 60568 Springhaven Ct. Lawton, MI 49065 269-624-5036 tlpopp@frontier.com

DIRECTORS EMERITUS Robert C. Brauer 9345 S. Hoyne Chicago, IL 60643 773-779-2105 photopilot@aol.com Gene Chase 8555 S. Lewis Ave., #32 Tulsa, OK 74137 918-298-3692 Ronald C. Fritz 15401 Sparta Ave. Kent City, MI 49330 616-678-5012 rFritz@pathwaynet.com Charles W. Harris PO Box 470350 Tulsa, OK 74147 918-622-8400 cwh@hvsu.com

40 DECEMBER 2012

E.E. “Buck” Hilbert 8102 Leech Rd. Union, IL 60180 815-923-4591 buck7ac@gmail.com Gene Morris 5936 Steve Court Roanoke, TX 76262 817-491-9110 genemorris@charter.net John Turgyan PO Box 219 New Egypt, NJ 08533 609-752-1944 jrturgyan4@aol.com

Established Midwestern company seeking seasoned lA with leadership experience. Candidate must have an extensive background in hands-on restoration activities, be able to manage large projects and be skilled in business development. Our restoration business is unique and requires extensive experience with vintage and Warbird type aircraft.

Send resume and salary requirements to wasiresume@gmail.com

MISCELLANEOUS

www.aerolist.org, Aviations’ Leading Marketplace.

SERVICES

Always Flying Aircraft Restoration, LLC: Annual Inspections, Airframe recovering, fabric repairs and complete restorations.

Wayne A. Forshey A&P & I.A. 740-4721481 Ohio and bordering states.

TM

VINTAGE AIRCRAFT ASSOCIATION

Current EAA members may join the Vintage Aircraft Association and receive VINTAGE AIRPLANE magazine for an additional $42 per year.

EAA Membership, VINTAGE AIRPLANE magazine and one year membership in the EAA Vintage Aircraft Association is available for $52 per year (SPORT AVIATION magazine not included). (Add $7 for International Postage.)

FOREIGN MEMBERSHIPS

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

Membership Services

PMS 661 Monday–Friday, 8:00 AM—6:00 PM CST

PMS 124

Join/Renew 800-564-6322 membership@eaa.org Copyright ©2012 by the EAA Vintage Aircraft Association, All rights reserved.

VINTAGE AIRPLANE (USPS 062-750; ISSN 0091-6943) is published and owned exclusively by the EAA Vintage Aircraft Association of the Experimental Aircraft Association and is published monthly at EAA Aviation Center, 3000 Poberezny Rd., PO Box 3086, Oshkosh, Wisconsin 549023-3086, e-mail: vintageaircraft@eaa.org. Membership to Vintage Aircraft Association, which includes 12 issues of Vintage Airplane magazine, is $42 per year for EAA members and $52 for non-EAA members. Periodicals Postage paid at Oshkosh, Wisconsin 54902 and at additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Vintage Airplane, PO Box 3086, Oshkosh, WI 54903-3086. CPC #40612608.

FOREIGN AND APO ADDRESSES—Please allow at least two months for delivery of VINTAGE AIRPLANE to foreign and APO addresses via surface mail.

ADVERTISING — Vintage Aircraft Association does not guarantee or endorse any product offered through the advertising. We invite constructive criticism and welcome any report of inferior merchandise obtained through our advertising so that corrective measures can be taken.

EDITORIAL POLICY: Members are encouraged to submit stories and photographs. Policy opinions expressed in articles are solely those of the authors. Responsibility for accuracy in reporting rests entirely with the contributor. No remuneration is made. Material should be sent to: Editor, VINTAGE AIRPLANE, PO Box 3086, Oshkosh, WI 54903-3086. Phone 920-426-4800.

EAA® and EAA SPORT AVIATION®, the EAA Logo® and Aeronautica™ are registered trademarks, trademarks, and service marks of the Experimental Aircraft Association, Inc. The use of these trademarks and service marks without the permission of the Experimental Aircraft Association, Inc. is strictly prohibited.

Proud Partners with EAA Why Would Anyone Buy Anything Else?

The Privilege of Partnership

“We are completely satisfied with the partnership program between Ford and EAA. We are a “Ford family” and the program is a great asset to our purchase of vehicles. So far, our family members have purchased or leased a total of seven vehicles with the program.

Thank you for providing this great opportunity.”

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

Mike and Brenda U. EAA #116285

VEHICLE PURCHASE PLAN PMS 661

PMS 430