Va vol 43 no 4 july aug2015

JULY/AUGUST 2015

Lockheedsi n O s h k o s h

Uniquely FordApollo Edition Mustang: See this one-of-a-kind build, celebrating NASA’s Apollo missions and benefitting the Young Eagles program

Ford Performance Lineup Vehicles: See the all-new Ford GT Concept and F-150 Raptor Concept, Mustang GT 350R, Focus RS, and ST vehicles

Lincoln Continental is Back: View the stunning Lincoln Continental Concept and all of the Lincoln vehicles

Ford Performance Simulator: Experience this race-inspired ride where your driving skills are pushed to the max

“No Boundaries” Gyrotron: Send yourself into a three-dimensional orbit in this amazing self-propelled experience

Model T Experience: Take a break and tour the grounds in a Model T ride, only at the Ford Hangar

Family Fun Throughout the Week: F-150 Lil’ Truckers Power Wheels, Raptor Rock Wall, Tough Tumblers bungee trampolines and other fun activities for the kids

Ford Autograph Headquarters: Autographs from celebrities, air show performers and living legends

“Lincoln Touch” Upper Body Massage: Enjoy a complimentary therapeutic experience, exclusively in the Lincoln Pavilion

Lincoln Lounge: Stay in touch with family and friends with our free email stations

Free Collectibles: Limited edition hats provided daily

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

Another Great Experience with Ford at AirVenture

Ford Proudly PresentsDierks Bentley in Concert: Opening-night concert on Monday, next to the Ford Hangar on Boeing Plaza

Hotel California – The Original Eagles Tribute Band in Concert: Experience the Grammy Award-winning sounds that defined a generation. Close your eyes and feel certain you’re listening to the original Eagles, live, on Saturday night at 6:30 pm next to the Ford Hangar

Fly-In Theater: Nightly at Camp Scholler, epic blockbuster movies and classic aviation-themed films: Sun: Flying the Feathered Edge: The Bob Hoover Project and Living in the Age of Airplanes, Mon: Interstellar, Tue: Unbroken, Wed: Edge of Tomorrow, Thu: Planes: Fire & Rescue, Fri: Apollo 13, and Sat: Battle of Britain. Fabulous presenters and free popcorn!

Free Ice Cream: Nightly deliveries; watch for the Ford Transit Connect Van

2015-July_Visit_EAA_Divis_Ad-Final.indd 1 6/2/15 9:58 AM

EAA Publisher / Chairman of the Board. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Jack J. Pelton

Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Jim Busha. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [email protected]

VAA Executive Administrator . . Erin Brueggen920-426-6110 . . . . . . . . . . . [email protected]

Art Director . . . . . . . . . . . . . Livy Trabbold

ADVERTISING:Vice President of Business DevelopmentDave Chaimson . . . . . . . . . . [email protected]

Advertising ManagerSue Anderson . . . . . . . . . . . [email protected]

Business Relationship ManagerLarry Phillip . . . . . . . . . . . . [email protected]

VAA, PO Box 3086, Oshkosh, WI 54903Website: www.vintageaircraft.orgEmail: [email protected]

www.vintageaircraft.org 1

I hope you Midwesterners have survived all of the severe weather we have been experiencing. It’s been somewhat of a barnstorming event with all the tornadoes and severe thunderstorms all over the Midwest. I am glad that it has all passed us by for now. Stay alert out there because some of the hammerhead fronts with funnel clouds hanging out the bottom of them have sure been scary-looking.

All of the news coming out of EAA and VAA about the Oshkosh 2015 event has been nothing short of incredible. The lineup of featured aircraft and events for this year is impressive. A B-52, at least one B-29, an F-100 that will fly during the air show, an airworthy 1911 B Model Wright flyer replica, and a myriad of other vintage aircraft are all planning to attend. This will be yet another incredible event that you will not want to miss.

The Vintage area of operations is currently undergoing an unprecedented upgrade to the area in front of the Red Barn and the Vintage Hangar. The old blacktop for the Vintage in Review program has been removed and replaced with a huge Vintage-logo-shaped concrete pad. This major capital project includes a new, much larger set of bleachers for our guests during the Vintage in Review program that will also serve as excellent seating for the daily air shows. Many other new amenities in this area are also planned. This upgrade to the Vintage Plaza would have never been possible without the amazing generosity of Myrt Rose from South Barrington, Illinois. Myrt’s long-term plan has always been to memorialize her late husband Bill and his love of old airplanes by constructing an appropriate memorial in the Vintage Plaza. Myrt approved the preliminary plans for the plaza upgrade in April, and a short time later the construction began. Under the careful watch of our south maintenance crew led by Steve Taylor, this amazing upgrade has been making great strides. Thank you, Myrt! Your generosity is amazing, and we hope we make you proud of the results of your investment.

You all remember Sploshkosh back in 2010? Some of my worst memories of that year were trying my best to keep my socks dry while eating breakfast at the VAA Tall Pines Café. Well, the long-awaited upgrade to the Tall Pines is now well underway. Come join us for a great breakfast while dining on our all-new concrete floor under the tent. Two of the primary benefactors of this upgrade are John Turgyan and Jerry Brown. John is a VAA director emeritus, and Jerry is the treasurer of the VAA. We will also soon be launching a funding campaign to construct a proper and permanent pavilion structure so we can forego the expense of the tent currently being used. Many thanks to both of you gentlemen for your amazing generosity as well!

The Vintage Airplane magazine continues to catch the eye of Antique,

Straight & Level Vintage AirplaneSTAFF

Oshkosh 2015: It’s going to bea great one!

GEOFF ROBISONVAA PRESIDENT, EAA Lifetime 268346, VAA Lifetime 12606

continued on page 63

VINTAGE AIRCRAFT ASSOCIATIONCurrent EAA members may join the Vintage

Aircraft Association and receive VINTAGE AIR-PLANE magazine for an additional $45/year.

EAA Membership, VINTAGE AIRPLANE magazine and one-year membership in the EAA Vintage Aircraft Association are available for $55 per year (SPORT AVIATION magazine not included). (Add $7 for International Postage.)

FOREIGN MEMBERSHIPSPlease 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 ServicePO Box 3086

Oshkosh, WI 54903-3086 Monday–Friday, 8:00 AM—6:00 PM CST

Join/Renew 800-564-6322 [email protected]

EAA AirVenture Oshkoshwww.eaa.org/airventure

888-322-4636

VISITwww.vintageaircraft.orgfor the latest in information and news

and for the electronic newsletter:

Vintage AirMail

2 JULY/AUGUST 2015

C O N T E N T SVol. 43, No. 4

22The Piper J-4Not “Coupe-d” up!Roger Thiel

24Wheelbarrowing an Airplane. . .. . .is not cool!Rob Knight

28Lovely Lockheeds!The perfect setting for a pair of P&WsBudd Davisson

40Silver SplendorThe Indian National Airways StaggerwingSparky Barnes Sargent

50Sun ’n Fun 2015 Vintage Style

JULY/AUGUST 2015

JIM BUSHA


C O V E R SFRONT COVER: Lockeeds stacked up over Oshkosh was a rare sight and an wonderful treat in the Vintage area. Photo by Ty-son Rininger.

BACK COVER: A beautifully re-stored Staggerwing in its orig-inal colors it wore in India. Photo by Tyson Rininger.

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

ANY COMMENTS?Send your thoughts to theVintage Editor at: [email protected]

COLUMNS1 Straight and Level Oshkosh 2015: It’s going to be a great one! Geoff Robison

7 VAA 2015 Hall of Fame Dale “Gus” Gustafson

8 Ask the AME Altitude-induced decompression sickness John Patterson, M.D., AME

10 VAA AirVenture 2015 News

14 How to? Make inspection cover and drain grommet doilies Robert G. Lock

16 Good Old Days

18 Art of Flying The boy and the old plane—Part 3 Sarah Wilson

58 The Vintage Mechanic Evolution of aircraft instruments—Part 3 Robert G. Lock

63 VAA New Members

64 Vintage Trader

4 JULY /AUGUST 2015

VAA members like you are passionate about your affiliation with vintage aviation, and it shows. You’re the most loyal of all EAA members, renewing your VAA membership each and every year at a rate higher than any other group within the EAA family. We appreciate your dedication! Each year we give you another opportunity to strengthen your bond with the VAA by inviting you to become a Friend of the Red Barn.

This special opportunity helps VAA put together all the components that make the Vintage area of EAA AirVenture a unique and exciting part of the World’s Greatest Aviation Celebration. This special fund was established to cover a significant portion of the VAA’s expenses related to serving VAA members during EAA AirVenture Oshkosh, so that no dues money is used to support the convention activities.

This is a great opportunity for Vintage members to join together as key financial supporters of the Vin-tage division. It’s a rewarding experience for each of us as individuals to be a part of supporting the finest gathering of Antique, Classic, and Contemporary air-planes in the world.

At whatever level is comfortable for you, won’t you please join those of us who recognize the tre-mendously valuable key role the Vintage Aircraft As-sociation has played in preserving the irreplaceable grassroots and general aviation airplanes of the last 100 years? Your participation in EAA’s Vintage Air-craft Association Friends of the Red Barn will help ensure the very finest in EAA AirVenture Oshkosh Vintage programs.

To participate in this year’s campaign, fill out the donation form by visiting our website at www.Vin-tageAircraft.org/programs/redbarn.html to make an on-line contribution. Or fill out the form on the right and mail to FAA FORB, PO Box 3086, Oshkosh, WI 54903-3086. And to each and every one of you who has al-ready contributed, or is about to, a heartfelt “thank you” from the officers, directors, staff, and volunteers of the Vintage Aircraft Association!

TM

Friends of theRED BARN

Keep the Vintage dream alive andflourishing at Oshkosh 2015

Please join us with a gift to the Friends of the Red Barn . . . You will

be forever glad you did.

Donate NOW to receive yourdonation perks before

AirVenture 2015.


#

TM

CONTRIBUTIONLEVELS ↓

DonorAppreciationCertificate

SpecialFORBBadge

Access toAir-ConditionedVolunteerCenter

A “6-pack”of ColdBottledWater!

Two Passesto VAAVolunteerParty

Breakfast at Tall PinesCafé

Tri-Motor OR HelicopterRideCertificate

Two Ticketsto VAA Picnic

Close AutoParking

SpecialAir ShowSeating

EAA PHPCenter Access

DIAMOND PLUS $1,500 & higher

X X X X X 2 people, full week

2 tickets X Full week 2 people,full week

2 people, full week

DIAMOND $1,000 - $1,499


2 tickets X Full week 2 people,1 day

PLATINUM$750 - $999


1 ticket X 2 days

GOLD$500 - $749

X X X X X 1 person,full week

1 ticket

SILVER $250 - $499

X X X X X

BRONZE PLUS$150 - $249

X X X X

BRONZE$100 - $149

X X X

LOYALSUPPORTER$99 and under

X

Vintage Aircraft Association | 3000 Poberezny Rd., Oshkosh, WI 54902 | 920.426.6110 | EAAVintage.orgThe Vintage Aircraft Association is a non-profit educational organization under IRS 501c3 rules. Under Federal Law, the deduction from Federal Income tax for charitable contributions is limited to the amount by which any money (and the value of any property other than money) contributed exceeds the value of the goods or services provided in exchange for the contribution. An appropriate receipt acknowledging your gift will be sent to you for IRS gift reporting reasons.

Name: ___________________________________________________ EAA #:_______________ VAA #: _____________

Address: ______________________________________________________________________________________________

City: _____________________________________________________ State: _______________ ZIP: _______________

Phone: ____________________________________________________ E-mail: ____________________________________

Badge Information (for Bronze Level and above)o Yes, prepare my name badge to read:

_____________________________________ (Please print name)

o No, I do not need a badge this year.

Certificateso Yes, I would like a certificate. o No, I do not need a certificate for this year.

Choose your level of participation:o Diamond Plus ($1,500 or more)o Diamond ($1,000-$1,499)o Platinum ($750-$999)o Gold ($500-$749)o Silver ($250-$499)o Bronze Plus ($150-$249)o Bronze ($100-$149)o Loyal Supporter ($99 or less)

o Payment enclosed (Make checks payable to Vintage Aircraft Association)o Please charge my credit card for the amount of: $ Credit Card Number:

Expiration Date:

Signature:

6 JULY /AUGUST 2015

To nominate someone is easy. It just takes a little time and a little reminiscing on your part.•Think of a person; think of his or her contributions to vintage aviation.•Write those contributions in the various categories of the nomination form.•Write a simple letter highlighting these attributes and contributions. Make copies of newspaper or magazine articles that

may substantiate your view.•If at all possible, have another individual (or more) complete a form or write a letter about this person, confirming why the

person is a good candidate for induction. We would like to take this opportunity to mention that if you have nominated someone for the VAA Hall of Fame; nominations for the honor are kept on file for 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: [email protected], 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.

Nominate your favorite vintage aviator for the EAA Vin-tage 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 coun-try 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 per-son you nominate must be or have been a member of the Vintage Aircraft Association or the Antique/Classic Divi-sion of EAA, and preference is given to those whose ac-tions 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 sto-ries, preserving aviation history, and encouraging new pilots and enthusiasts.

CALL FOR VINTAGE AIRCRAFT ASSOCIATION

Nominations


Dale “Gus” Gustafson—a 53-year member of EAA, a 42-year member of the Vintage Aircraft Association, and a 40-year member of the An-tique Classic/Vintage Aircraft Association board of directors—has been selected for posthumous induction into EAA’s Vintage Aircraft Associa-tion Hall of Fame.

Gus, as Dale was universally known, lived his life with faith, family, and flying as his granite corner-stones. From his earliest days, airplanes and the magic of flight were centermost in Gus’ life.

A native of South Bend, Indiana, Gus got his first airplane ride at the age of 10, began taking flying les-sons in his mid-teens, soloed at 16, worked at the South Bend airport parttime during after-school hours in ev-ery FBO odd job available, including handling cargo, ser-vicing airplanes, performing light maintenance, etc. He advanced his formal flight training in 1948 and 1949 when he attended the Spartan School of Aeronautics in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and obtained his private and commer-cial certificates and multiengine and instrument ratings.

In 1950, Gus was extremely fortunate to obtain a rare, near-nonexistent copilot job with (Roscoe) Turner Airlines based in Indianapolis. Turner Airlines was an independent, non-scheduled operation flying surplus World War II C-47s and DC-3s on a freelance basis. The experience was highly varied and invaluable. Turner eventually evolved into Lake Central Airlines and then into US Airways, from which Gus would retire as a se-nior captain at the age of 60.

But, Gus flew far more exciting airplanes than the air carrier’s commercial passenger aircraft. During his ten-ure with Lake Central and US Air, Gus found the time to devote 16 years of service to the Indiana Air National Guard in Indianapolis flying its F-86 Sabres.

Gus became a member of EAA in 1961 and became a member of the Antique Classic Division/Vintage Air-

craft Association as soon as it was formed in 1972-1973. He be-came a Vintage direc-tor almost immediately and quickly became an invaluable member of the EAA Oshkosh Vintage Aircraft Judging Team. He was shortly thereafter ap-pointed chief judge and served as Vintage chief judge for 40 years, supervising many Antique, Classic, and Contemporary judging teams at Oshkosh for 40 years. All of this was in addition to serving 10 years as presi-dent of Indianapolis’ EAA Chapter 1311, as well as maintaining active membership in Indianapolis’ EAA Chapter 67 and Indianapolis’ Warbird Squadron 3.

Gus owned, flew, and restored various older airplanes over the years, including a Stearman, Piper J-4 Cub Coupe, and an Aeronca 11AC Chief; his inventory of old airplane parts at the time of his death was extensive.

Gus became ill with an incurable malignancy in late May 2014; he expired June 26, 2014. During the last several weeks before his demise, just like Paul Pober-ezny, Gus was busy making plans to attend EAA Os-hkosh 2014 and tour the Vintage area in one of the judges’ John Deere Green Machines. It was his life.

The Vintage Aircraft Association will be deeply hon-ored to present Dale A. “Gus” Gustafson as its EAA/VAA Hall of Fame inductee for 2015 during the EAA direc-tors meeting in November 2015.

VAA 2015 Hall of Fame

Dale “Gus” Gustafson

Dale Gustafson

Dale when working for the Roscoe Turner Airlines

8 JULY /AUGUST 2015

R.L. asks, “What are the rules for flying after scuba diving?”

This question actually came up during a recent flight to the Bahamas, something that I have always wanted to do. It is hard to believe that our Mooney is a vintage aircraft (okay, so it is a Contemporary cat-egory aircraft), but built in 1964, it is over 50 years old! Bimini is the closest airport in the Bahamas off the coast of Florida and is only 60 nm. From there you can island hop. While it does take some planning, the weather is almost always great, especially when it is cold back home. It is a great experience, and I highly recommend it.

Divers Alert Network (DAN) has come up with a recommendation, updated in 2002. For uncertified individuals who take part in a “resort” or introduc-tory scuba experience, it is recommended they wait 12 hours before flying.

For certified divers who make unlimited dives that do not require decompression, the no-fly wait time is 18 hours.

The recommendation is considerably longer (most recommend 24-48 hours) for technical divers making dives that require staged decompressions.

Most dives over 20-30 meters require some staged decompression, and some suggest a dive more than 18 feet may require some decompression stages.

Why is there a concern? The air we breathe con-tains 78 percent nitrogen and 21 percent oxygen. When subjected to increased pressure, which in-creases with the depth of the dive, more nitrogen is dissolved into the blood and cells. When ascend-ing, the nitrogen comes out of solution and can form bubbles. The faster the ascent the larger the bubbles, and this can then cause a variety of symptoms called

altitude-induced decompression sickness (DCS). Symptoms of DCS are related to the location of the nitrogen bubbles. The most common are in the large joints such as elbows, shoulders, hips, and wrists, commonly called “the bends.” Bubbles can also form in the brain and spinal cord, causing headache, fa-tigue, dizziness, burning, tingling, or numbness sen-sations. Skin “bends” manifest as itching, usually on the face and neck, with the sensation of “insects crawling” on the skin.

Rules regarding flying after scuba diving apply to both commercial and personal flying. Commercial flights are typically pressurized to simulate an al-titude of no more than 8,000 feet above sea level, while general aviation can fly to 12,500 feet without supplemental oxygen and higher with oxygen supple-mentation. In addition, there are several places in the world where scuba diving is popular, done at sea level, and then the nearby hotel or airport may be at 10,000 feet. So the same rules apply and care needs to be taken to avoid decompression sickness.

Treatment for altitude-induced decompression sickness is initially breathing 100 percent oxygen. Definitive treatment may require the use of a hy-perbaric chamber in which the patient is placed in an oxygen chamber at 2.5 times normal pressure. If symptoms described above occur while airborne, it is recommended to descend and land as soon as possible. Treatment should be initiated even if the symptoms disappear during descent, as delayed symptoms can occur even after returning to ground level. Also if the symptom is joint pain, it is recom-mended to keep the joint still and not try to work the pain out through movement.

Until next time, blue skies and turquoise waters! See you at Oshkosh.

Ask the AME

Altitude-induced decompression sickness

JOHN PATTERSON, M.D., AME

10 JULY /AUGUST 2015

VAA AirVenture 2015 News

Vintage area improvements to enhance visitor experience at EAA AirVenture Oshkosh 2015

VAA project creates center of activityfor legendary aircraft

EAA Chairman Jack J. Pelton joined Vintage President Geoff Robison and the Vintage board of directors at the groundbreaking for the expanded Vintage Plaza. Behind them are EAA Vice President of Communities & Member Programs Rick Larsen and EAA Director of Fa-cilities Steve Taylor. The new plaza, made possible by a generous gift from VAA member Myrt Strong Rose of South Barrington, Illinois, in memory of her late hus-band, Bill, will be dedicated on Monday, July 20, the opening day of EAA AirVenture 2015.

Artist drawing of expanded Vintage Plaza. Showplane registration has been relocated more centrally near the tram stop and aircraft repair. The restaurant is being moved south to the former location of show-plane registration.

Artist drawing of the new Interview Circle with more aircraft display area and expanded seating.

EAA AirVenture Oshkosh 2015 attendees will enjoy a better atmosphere and experience while see-ing some of the rare, legendary aircraft of the past century, as the Vintage Aircraft Association has com-menced a major expansion of its Red Barn headquar-ters and Vintage Plaza complex for this year’s fly-in.

The 63rd annual EAA fly-in convention will be held July 20-26 at Wittman Regional Airport in Oshkosh. The Vintage Aircraft Association (VAA), one of EAA’s special interest communities, each year coordinates one of AirVenture’s most popular areas, featuring aircraft from aviation’s colorful history. The VAA Red Barn headquarters has been a part of the EAA fly-in since 1974, when it was the lone remnant of a long-dormant farm that was near the airport.

“This project was a true partnership between the Vintage Aircraft Association and EAA,” said Geoff Robison, VAA president. “The goal is to create a more inviting and functional environment to enjoy the magnificent airplanes and people involved with vin-tage aircraft. We’ll have the look of a barnstorming airfield with more space to showcase the antique, classic, and contemporary aircraft that come to Osh-kosh from around the world.”

The project is made possible through a gift from longtime VAA member Myrt Strong Rose of South Barrington, Illinois, who committed support to create a new plaza in the Vintage area in honor of her late husband. Bill and Myrt brought as many as 14 vintage

Vintage Begins Major Oshkosh Expansion


aircraft to Oshkosh each year flown by a group affec-tionately called “Rose’s Raiders.” Bill Rose also believed in flying the aircraft for the audiences, especially dur-ing the daily afternoon air shows at Oshkosh.

“Bill was a longtime member and supporter of EAA and VAA, so I wanted to do something that honored our love of vintage aircraft,” said Myrt, a pilot, wing walker, parachutist, and parachute exhibitor at Osh-kosh who continues to fly her beloved 1941 Piper J-3 Cub Winston. “I also wanted to recognize the work the Vintage-area volunteers do each year to bring these wonderful airplanes together at Oshkosh.”

The Vintage enhancement project is highlighted by an expansion of the Vintage Interview Circle, where award-winning aircraft are brought each day during AirVenture. Live interviews with the owners, pilots, and mechanics bring life to each aircraft’s story.

The expansion project, developed by VAA in asso-ciation with Steve Taylor, EAA’s director of facilities, includes a larger display area and new seating areas. Vintage showplane registration will also move south to a more central location as part of the expansion.

“The project will also reduce vehicle congestion in the Vintage Red Barn area, which will enhance pedes-trian safety and convenience,” Robison said. “We’re looking forward to the formal dedication of the ex-panded area on July 20, AirVenture’s opening day.”

Vintage Mini-ForumsSponsored by B&C Specialty Products

Ask the AMECome and ask an AME any question you have

about your next flight medical exam; find out what medications are okay, your blood pressure read-ings, what medical exemptions are available, etc. Ask your questions without the stress of asking during your exams.

At the Vintage Hangar Mini-Forums area Monday, Wednesday, and Friday from 9:00 to 10:00 a.m. Pre-sented by John Patterson, M.D., AME.

Dr. Patterson writes the Ask the AME articles in Vintage Airplane magazine.

AeroncasAeronca expert Bill Pancake will host another fo-

rum to answer all of your questions, large or small, on any subject relating to Aeronca airplanes. Bill is an A&P/IA, commercial pilot, and flight instructor.

At the Vintage Hangar Mini-Forums area Tuesday from 9:00 to 10:00 a.m.

So, You Want to Buy a Vintage Airplane?Get a Pre-Purchase Inspection First!

Make sure you find an A&P who knows vintage air-planes, and hopefully, the type you are interested in buying. Bill Pancake, A&P/IA, commercial pilot, and flight instructor, has been doing pre-purchase inspec-tions on vintage airplanes for many years. He will tell you what to look for in an A&P and the condition of the airplane in question. Bill will share some guide-lines he has developed over the years that should save you some money and lots of heartache as well.

At the Vintage Hangar Mini-Forums area Friday from 10:00 to 11:00 a.m.

How We Judge Your Vintage Airplanes

This mini-forum will explain, in detail, how the Vintage judges will judge your airplanes at Oshkosh. Everyone will receive a sample judging sheet, and all of the items will be explained in full. Bring your ques-tions; we will answer them all!

At the end of the presentation, we will take the audience to a vintage airplane in front of the hangar and demonstrate how each item is judged in detail.

Presented by Chief Vintage Judge Jerry Brown and Judge Phil Coulson.

At the Vintage Hangar Mini-Forum area Tuesday and Thursday from 10:00 to 11:00 a.m.

Youth ProgramCalling all youths who are interested in air-

planes. This forum is being put on by our youths and for our youths. This program is for the young and the young at heart. All are welcome.

They are inviting all young people to come and hear how they are involved and excited about aviation, and how you can get as involved and excited as they are.

Presenters include: Chairman Dillon Barron, age 19, private pilot and Gold Lindy winner with his restoration of a Cessna 170 in 2014; Charlie Water-house, age 20, private pilot and sophomore at Purdue University School of Aeronautical Engineering; Luke Lachendro, age 16, student pilot flying Piper Cubs, avid Vintage volunteer, and chairman of the Vintage Welcome Wagon program, which delivers cold bottles of water and goodies to arriving pilots and passengers in the Vintage aircraft parking and camping area; and Andrew Griffith, age 18, recent high school graduate, private pilot, and FAA powerplant mechanic working on his airframe ticket.

At the Vintage Hangar Mini-Forum area Wednes-day from 10:00 to 11:00 a.m.


Stromberg Carburetor Trouble-Shooting Bob Kachergius is the go-to guy when you have

problems with Stromberg carburetors, or any car-buretor for that matter. Bob will describe why some carburetors will leak and how to fix them. Be pre-pared to learn a lot.

At the Vintage Hangar Mini-Forum area Thursday from 8:00 to 9:00 a.m.

NTSB Learn how NTSB investigators actually go about

putting the pieces of an aircraft accident puzzle to-gether to find the cause and promote flying safety.

Presented by accident investigator Tim LeBaron. Tim is an A&P/IA, commercial pilot with multiengine rating, and a very interesting presenter.

International Cessna 195 AssociationThe Cessna 195 Association will be conducting its

mini-forum in the Vintage Hangar Forum area on Thursday at 9:00 a.m. There is a lot to discuss this year.

Vintage Area Activities

Paul’s Vintage WorkshopLearn vintage-era aircraft welding techniques,

safety wiring, special Poly-Fiber covering methods used on vintage airplanes, wheel bearing lubrica-tion, calculating torquing limits, torquing, and much more. A&Ps Jim Hamilton and Don Bartlett will demonstrate all of these each day, Monday through Friday.

Located in the northeast corner of the Vintage Hangar. See the schedule in the hangar for specific times for each activity.

Radial Engine Ltd. DemonstrationRadial Engine company experts will assemble an

antique radial engine from parts during the week and will start the engine near the last days of the convention. They will welcome volunteers to help and learn the secrets of radial engines. Come and learn from them.

At the north side of the Vintage Hangar.

Vintage Metal-Shaping DemonstrationsSee demonstrations of the equipment and tech-

niques used in shaping metals into amazing and unique shapes needed for aircraft construction and restoration. Demonstrations continue Monday through Friday at the southwest corner of the Vin-tage Hangar on the outside of the building.

Vintage Interview Circle, in theNew Rose Memorial Plaza

Ray Johnson interviews the owners and restorers of many beautiful and unique vintage airplanes every day, Monday through Friday at 11:00 a.m.

Come and try out the new bleachers. Now located just on the east side of the Vintage Hangar.

Vintage Red Barn Sales AreaVisit the newly renovated Red Barn sales area and

enjoy the new and exciting inventory. Yes, some of the old favorites are still there as well. Get a 10 percent dis-count if you show your Vintage membership card.

Vintage Red Barn Hospitality AreaSandy and Barry Pearlman host the hospitality

area. They have information, emergency phone num-bers, schedules of events, popcorn, and lemonade and can also arrange transportation on and off the field. You can also pick up your participant plaque if you flew an aircraft into the Vintage area, or purchase tickets for the Vintage Picnic held on Wednesday at 5:30 p.m. at the EAA Nature Center. All of this they do with a big smile.

Hand-Propping DemonstrationsProp it right and save a life. Greg and Cindy Heck-

man will demonstrate the safe and legal way to hand-prop an aircraft engine. Many vintage aircraft must be started by hand-propping since they have no elec-tric starters. The Heckmans have taught more than a thousand visitors over the past years since Dale Gustafson suggested, and conducted, the first dem-onstrations at Oshkosh.

VAA Volunteer BoothIf you would like to be a volunteer in the Vintage

area for a day or more, visit our new volunteer booth at the north end of the Red Barn sidewalk.

We love our Vintage volunteers!


VAA Membership BoothYou may renew your Vintage membership here

or sign up to join the ever-increasing roles of the EAA Vintage Aircraft Association. Or just stop by and say hi. Located at the north end of the Red Barn sidewalk.

Vintage BookstoreDo you have old or used books with a vintage avia-

tion theme? Have you been wondering what to do with them? Your Vintage Aircraft Association has the solution for you!

VAA will be adding a Vintage Bookstore to the convention grounds at AirVenture. The bookstore will be located near the Red Barn. All proceeds from the sale of these books will be used to enhance the Vintage experience during AirVenture and to pro-vide a conduit for out-of-print books for our mem-bers and guests.

Books can be dropped off during AirVenture 2015 at the book depository located at the information desk in the Red Barn or mailed to the following ad-dress: Vintage Aircraft Association, PO Box 3086, Os-hkosh, WI 54903-3086. Attn.: Vintage Bookstore.

The Vintage Aircraft Association is a nonprofit edu-cational organization under IRS 501(c)(3) rules.

AeromartOne of AirVenture’s most popular activities returns

for another year in 2015. Turn your old parts into new money at Aeromart! The last day to order vendor tags prior to convention is Thursday, July 9. Payment must be received by Monday, July 13, 2015.

The EAA Aeromart is managed by more than 80 VAA volunteers under the capable leadership of Chairman Paul Kyle. With a deep core of active convention volunteers, the VAA is ready to help match vendors with visitors in search of just the right part.

Call it a swap meet, consignment sale, or clean-out-the-hangar sale, Aeromart provides one of the best places for individuals to sell their extra aircraft parts and other aviation-related items.

Since 1992 Aeromart has been among the most popular annual attractions at Oshkosh’s fly-in and air show. And it has always been operated by great volunteers from a series of Wisconsin EAA chapters.

Each year approximately 21,000 people visit the Aeromart sales tent to shop the almost 6,000 items that are consigned by more than 300 different ven-dors. Those vendors are EAA members with unused or extra aviation-related parts and tools who turn them into extra money, while possibly helping oth-ers to complete their projects.

Type ClubsThe Type Club hours of operation have

changed for 2015.The Type Club exhibit area tables will be in

operation Monday through Friday from 11:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. this year.

This will allow a new feature, Vintage Mini-Forums, to be added to the Vintage Hangar schedule. The mini-forums will be in operation Monday through Friday from 8:00 to 11:00 a.m.

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

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

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

I use the lid from a 1-gallon paint container as the diameter to cut the doilies to size. Mark each doily while the fabric is still stretched in the panel. Mark with a pencil, then brush Poly-Brush (or whatever the base coat is) around the pencil marks and allow it to dry. Note that I have drilled a hole in the center of the can lid so the center of the cir-cle can be located. Cut out the doilies with pinking shears—the base coat will hold fibers in place and prevent raveling of threads and filaments. Drain grommet covers can be made the same way but, of

course, use a smaller diameter circle—something around 2 inches.

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

How to?

Make inspection cover and drain grommet doilies

ROBERT G. LOCK


FIGURE 1

FIGURE 2

Wet out the center of the inspection ring with a brush and the base coat material, and place the doily in the center of the ring using the cen-ter dot as a guide. Press the doily well into the base coat and use the paintbrush handle to work the doily tightly against the plastic ring. Allow it to dry before going on to the next step.

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

With a little care and patience the final prod-uct will look something like this. By using a

two-step method of bonding the doily to the fabric surface, a good air bubble and wrinkle-free covering of the inspection ring will occur. If you don’t let the center dry before sticking down the outer part, the doily will continue to creep around and you will never get it centered, remove all the air bubbles, and get it stuck se-curely to the plastic ring.


FIGURE 3

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Good Old Days

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

From pages of what was . . .

SCRAPBOOK

June 1938

What would you have found . . .Classified Ads


SCRAPBOOK


Many years had passed, almost 10, until the boy waded waist-high in the wheat once again. The boy was now a young man. It was the evening before he was to leave for college. His plans had grown as tall as him. He had majors to declare and graduate school to attend. Jobs to win and a house to buy, maybe two? He was such a busy young man, with so much to do. Lost in his ambition, he didn’t notice the P-51 flying past him until he heard the sound of a radial engine. He looked up and questioned, How could that be? That’s not the sound a Mustang makes. Just then he re-membered what he had forgotten to remember again. Over the field, through the orchard, and past the old barn the young man ran. Trip-ping over his guilt, he fell short of his expectations at the door of the shed. Ashamed to face the plane he had left alone for so long. The young man stared at the door in front of him.

“Please come in,” the plane said from within the darkness of the shed. “I’ve been waiting for you.”

The Art of Flying

The boy and the old plane—Part 3

SARAH WILSON

SARA

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SARA

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The young man turned the knob and peeked inside. Stacked floor to ceiling, boxes and bags and parts and pieces sat motionless in the dark. Just as he remem-bered them, but different. The plane looked tired and older then it had been. The young man opened the door wide to let the sunlight in, then gently brushed the dust off the corner of the wooden wing.

The plane smiled inside. It had been so long since the plane had a young man brush its wing. “You’ve grown so high,” the plane replied. “I have so much to tell you. It will take some time to restore me, but time flies by when you like what you do. I remembered so much while you were away. There is so much to say. I believe I can fly again. Will we start today?”

The young man blushed and looked back at the door. Thinking his actions before he did them. “I don’t have time” were the only words he could say.

The plane started thinking very seriously. Planes do that when they want to tell you something you don’t know is true but they do. The plane had so many things to tell the young man before he went away. The plane knew it would be a long time until they talked again. So much was about to happen to the young man. The plane wanted to warn him.

“Listen to me,” the plane said. “Stay out of the trees. There’s burble there. Burble is wind that’s lost its way. It doesn’t know what to do; it’s confused. Burble starts to listen to what the trees say, instead of what the wind knows is true. Burble in the trees can be very dangerous to you.

“Listen to me. Beware of the slope; don’t go there. Once you start down the slope you can’t stop. Never listen to what the slope has to say. Put on your brakes and brake straight ahead. Then take off and fly the other way.

“Listen to me. Learn to read the clouds. Indiffer-ence can turn to anger in an instant. If the clouds start to boil, bark, and turn dark, fly toward the light. Never stay in a dark sky. Learn to feel the gust front approaching and watch for ripples on your skin. They warn you that there is danger hiding within.

“Listen to me. The route anywhere is never direct. Learn to turn left and turn right. If you never get lost, how can you ever find found? You have to wan-der off your course to find your way back again. When you can’t see what’s ahead of you, let go. Weather-vane. The wind will show you the way.”

The young man’s impatience grew as broad as his

SARA

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shoulders. Ego and pride flexed inside him. “I am not a boy anymore,” he said. “I am a man. I don’t need your advice. I don’t have time to stay here lis-tening to a crazy old plane and waiting for a stupid Eighth Day. None of what you say makes sense. I have so much to do before I leave for school. There’s packing and a suit to buy and fireworks on the lake tonight with chocolate cake. I said, I don’t have time for you!”

The young man searched through the shed until he found what he was looking for. A hammer, nails, and a large wooden board. “I am doing this for your own good,” he said. “I am protecting you. I have my life all planned out. I’m going to make a lot of money and be a big deal. After I’m rich and famous I’ll buy you. All it takes to restore a plane is money anyway. Right?”

The plane didn’t reply. Nothing says a lot, it just doesn’t use any words to say it.

The young man boarded the door and left. From inside the darkness of the shed the young

man could not see the plane’s rudder wagging back at him. Planes can never hurt anyone back, only people

can. Had the young man spent time with the plane that day, he would have learned his life had a much different plan for him.

The next morning the young man sat on the dock of the lake and hung his head over the edge with his legs. He was ashamed of the way he had treated the plane. He said inside, Forgive me, please? I’m sorry I didn’t make time for you. The sound of a radial engine answered him. A Beaver lifted off in the fog as his tears filled the empty space its floats left on the surface of the lake. The young man knew what he had to do. So over the field, through the orchard, and past the old barn he ran once again.

The young man stood outside the shed. He wanted to open the door and say, I love you. But saying I love you is something young men find very hard to do. He whispered at the door of the shed instead, “Remember, I am your Wish Twin. I promise we will fly together soon. I won’t forget you ever again.”

The young man was already past the orchard and through the field when the plane replied, “I forgive

SARAH WILSON


you. I love you, too.” The plane smiled inside, grinning wing to wing. It had been so long since the plane had said I love you, too to him. The young man did not know what the plane had meant when 10 years ago the plane had told him, “I used to fly with a little boy like you.” Planes live forever so time is different for them. The young man did not understand the little boy the plane used to fly with—was him.

Just then, on the left of the shed, hidden in the corner of an old panel, the very small clock, with a set of very red hands, started to change . . . and glow.

To be continued . . .

TakeTime...

to visit the VAA Red Barn during 2015 AirVenture. The place to immerse yourself in the planes and people of the Vintage Assoc.

SARAH WILSON


Psst. . .hey. . .it’s nice up here, fly-ing in this Cub. Can you hear me? Of course you can, but I have to lean over just a bit closer to you anyway, because we’re traveling in that rar-est of side-by-side lightplanes—one with real shoulder room!

2014 was another year in the 75th anniversary curve of some great classic years for Piper Aircraft. In 1937 Piper moved to Lock Ha-ven, Pennsylvania; this is consid-ered the birth year of the J-3 Cub. And 1939—a stellar, emblematic year for overall U.S. history—is the year the bear cub “went uptown,” with the creation of the Piper J-4 Cub Coupe.

The little bear cub must have

been, well, “beside himself ” with pride as the daring-for-its-time new model made its debut.

Piper scored a design, ah, “coup” with the J-4. C.G. Taylor had split from Piper and created the side-by-side Taylorcraft, and other major lightplanes like the Aeronca Chief used the same configuration. Piper’s design, an obvious retort to those others (especially Taylor!), one-upped the others with a huge cabin, commodious by both the side-by-side standards of the day and now! The art deco cowling and cabin de-signs, with plastic knobs and chrome strips, even reached out to challenge very expensive models such as Stin-son and Beech Staggerwing.

You fly the J-4 with Piper long-wing authority but curiously not on the centerline, a feature shared only by the PA-14 Family Cruiser. The J-4 was the first production Piper with this seating arrangement that would, of course, be adopted by al-most all subsequent Piper models.

And the year 1939! Considered a watershed year by historians, it contained glimmers that 10 years of hard times might finally be over. We were out of the Depression, ex-cept that we weren’t. Huge issues of global fate teetered in the balance. In Europe, “borrowed” years would be terminated in September by Hit-ler’s invasion of Poland. America hosted the World’s Fair in New York

ThePiper J-4

Not “Coupe-d” up!by Roger Thiel

Photos by Roger Pepperell


City, and the year’s crop of movies was perhaps the best in all of Ameri-can history. Isolationist sentiment countered pro-war interventionists. Some consider 1939 the crest year of a decade-long golden age of aviation: U.S. aviation had created so much during the 1930s with so little, in an effort that is still felt with apprecia-tion at historic flying gatherings.

The J-4 delivered art deco for the masses, and the image of the little bear cub in a mill town in Pennsylva-nia using hard-won profits from J-3 sales to achieve some luxury and up-

scale glitz was an apt metaphor for the economic end in sight optimisti-cally held by the country at large.

Most lightplane ads from the 1930s depict their aircraft in com-mercial use, but the image of two businessmen, wearing formal jack-ets, fedora hats—and full winter overcoats!—is usually laughable. The only lightplane of the day in which they might have actually fit would be the J-4 Cub Coupe!

After the war, the J-4 underwent terrible attrition. Its style of luxury features were replaced by new air-craft with design technology cre-ated substantially by World War II. The J-4 was often the aircraft put behind a hangar or barn and al-lowed to deteriorate, its steel tub-ing cannibalized to repair another

aircraft or to make a homebuilt, and many J-4 wings have been taken to be used for custom designs.

With the long Piper wing, large cabin, and doors on both sides, the J-4 was an obvious choice as a sea-plane, and many went to northern states and Alaska, becoming greatly modified for this work in an era when seaplanes were not treated as well as in current days.

The art deco cabin trim pieces could not be easily reproduced, and most instrument panels were gut-ted with functional-but-crude re-

placements; for many years almost no one even knew what an original J-4 interior looked like. The stylish but complicated cowlings suffered similar fates, almost always becom-ing chopped, cobbled, and riveted together. Only recently have a few restorations re-created these cowl-ings, even adapting pieces of Eu-ropean car trim for the classic Cub Coupe look!

The J-4 originally came with a tail wheel mounted forward of the tail post, but some of these have been converted to conventional rear-extending leaf springs be-cause tail-wheel parts are so rare. One part available—ironically!—are wheelpants. Most originals were rendered unserviceable with time, but their curvaceous shape inspired fiberglass artists making supplies for homebuilders. Thus, J-4 owners can buy close-to-original reproduc-tion wheelpants, although usually only they know the special path the wheelpant design has taken.

Now, 75 years later, to merely show up in a J-4 Cub Coupe—any-where!—is to invite curiosity, pos-sibly a crowd, and certainly a type of cult status. Aging baby boomers are often a bit heftier than pilots in 1939, but in a J-4 you can usu-ally get away with it! Launch into your J-4 101 routine. You’ll be giv-ing plenty of smiles—without your teeth touching the sides of the cabin!—and you’ll see an airport ramp full of furrowed brows lapse into respectful, admiring eyes.

A rare bird from a well-known fam-ily: Everything is unique, and it flies uniquely well. But this wouldn’t have surprised the original Piper design team, the employees who produced the J-4, the pilots who have flown it over the decades, and the passen-gers who have enjoyed the abundant cabin space . . . and it won’t surprise YOU, after you’ve, well . . .FLOWN THE “COUPE!”


Scene 1: A fine day with a light wind blowing across the runway at about 5 knots. A light aircraft is on short finals, airspeed is just a few knots fast, and the aircraft, tracking slightly, is astride the centerline and a bit high. The aircraft reaches the flare point farther into the runway than the pilot likes, so he decides to get the wheels onto the ground where he will have some braking.

Scene 2: Inside the cockpit, the pi-lot hasn’t allowed the aircraft to float as normal to wash the airspeed off. He flares just enough to let the air-craft touch down on the mains and nose wheel simultaneously.

Scene 3: From outside the air-craft, the tires squeak and the aircraft bounces gently. You can see the trail-ing edge of the elevator move down as the pilot pushes the stick forward to hold the aircraft on the ground. The nose is forced down onto the nose wheel, and the nose-wheel suspension flexes as the leg shortens. The aircraft has begun to drift slightly across the runway with the crosswind.

Scene 4: Inside the cockpit, the pi-lot reaches for the brakes and applies them firmly. Too much of the runway is behind him, so he presses the stick farther forward and applies even more pressure on the brakes.

Scene 5: The main wheel leg lengths extend as the tail rises and the nose pitches even farther down. The main

wheels stop rotating as the traction diminishes; the weight has come al-most completely off the main wheels. Directional control is lost—falling airspeed has robbed the controls of their effectiveness, and any chance of useful differential braking is gone—the braking wheels are virtually off the ground. And anyway, the pilot is too engaged to try to use them. The aircraft continues to drift farther away from the runway centerline.

Final scene: The aircraft suddenly snaps and yaws violently, yawing into wind and pivoting around the point of contact of the nose wheel with the runway. The nose leg fractures and collapses. The prop strikes the ground and bends backward as the cowling crumples and tears away beneath the engine. The tail and windward wing rise and the aircraft slowly topples tail over nose to lie upside down on the runway. There is silence except for the crackle of bending metal as the wreck settles. There is a strong smell of petrol in the air. . .

Wheelbarrowing is a dangerous condition that occurs when the weight of an aircraft becomes con-centrated on the nose wheel during a takeoff or landing roll.

On takeoff, the common cause is the pilot holding the airplane on the ground too long, particularly when a crosswind is present. When

this flawed technique is used, the forward stick that holds the air-plane on the ground by pitching the nose down unloads the main wheels, transferring the load to the nose wheel. This extra heavy nose-wheel loading compresses the nose-wheel suspension and forces the nose wheel to remain in firm contact with the runway. This is wheelbarrowing.

In this condition, any yaw will set up a couple that will turn your airplane—and your very world—upside down. All directional con-trol will be lost, and the airplane will trip over its nose wheel.

In reality, there is no cause to keep an airplane on the ground af-ter it has reached its VX (best angle of climb speed); indeed, there are very good reasons to be airborne before this figure is reached. If a pilot considers that he should hold his airplane down until attaining its VX before liftoff, then the flight should be canceled or postponed until better conditions exist.

Wheelbarrowing is more fre-quently an issue during the land-ing phase. Commonly, it results from approaching too fast and then touching down too flat. As the re-bound from the undercarriage tries to make it fly off again, the pilot takes the stick forward to hold the aircraft on the ground. The applied

Wheelbarrowing an Airplane . . .. . . i s n o t c o o l !

by Rob Knight


forward stick will pitch the airplane nose down, unloading the main wheels and loading the nose wheel instead. With the aircraft main wheels on tiptoes, braking will be lost because the wheels have insuf-ficient weight on the tires to pro-vide traction for brakes to function. The nose wheel, still in firm contact with the runway, will suffer sub-stantial drag. And any lateral move-ment will create a powerful couple that yaws the airplane, and it will pivot violently about its nose wheel.

To get a grip on this topic, it is necessary to be clear on what a “couple” is in this sense.

In a normal landing, when the main wheels (PW and SW) touch the runway with the nose wheel (NW) clear, two couples are gener-ated by the contact the wheels have with the runway. The magnitude of each couple is determined by the drag force of the tire/wheel and the length of the couple arm—the distance between the point of ap-plication of the drag force and the aircraft center of gravity.

Assuming the same drag applies

to each wheel, when the aircraft is pointing in the same direction as it is traveling, the couples are equal (red and blue couple arms are the same length), and no yaw will be caused by this interaction. This makes a nose-wheel-equipped air-craft easy to control on the runway because it is directionally stable and its forces try to keep its nose aligned with its direction of move-ment without pilot input. See Fig-ure 1.

As Figure 2 illustrates, this is a stable action because it yaws the air-craft back toward its direction of mo-tion, and as it does so the couple arm

shortens, diminishing the force as the align-ment completes. In other words, the air-plane wants to move in a straight line. The weight and drag forces tend to keep the air-plane moving straight.

However, this will only be the case while the main wheels are on the runway and have traction with it. If the main wheels are not in contact with the runway and the load is on the nose wheel, an en-tirely different situa-tion exists.

I f , w h i l e the aircraft has weight on the main wheels, the nose wheel is clear but the air-craft nose is not pointing in the same direction as the aircraft is moving, then the couples will not be equal—the leading main wheel will have a greater arm and therefore more powerful couple. This, the red couple as illustrated, is more pow-erful than the blue couple,

and the imbalance provides a force to yaw the aircraft’s nose and align it with the direction of motion.

However, when the nose wheel is on the runway and the main wheels aren’t, the situation be-comes critical.

Figure 3. If, in this state, the drag generated by the nose wheel is directly aligned with the center of gravity and the direction of mo-tion, no couple is formed and there is no yaw force generated.

However, if immediately the nose wheel diverges from its align-ment with the center of gravity, it

A couple is a force acting about a point. The magnitude (power) of a couplevaries with either a change in the power of the force applied or a change in the arm of the force. A couple can only beopposed by another couple.


will instantly create a couple that generates the unstable yawing moment. For example, see Fig-ures 4, 5, and 6.

Figure 4. If the nose wheel has moved to the right, the drag force caused by nose-wheel contact with the runway is now no longer aligned with the center of gravity and direction of motion. A couple is formed.

Yaw creates an unstable condition that that can quickly became an out-of-control situation.

Figure 5. The gray force of the aircraft’s mass act-ing through the aircraft center of gravity is mov-ing forward, while the red drag force created by the drag on the nose wheel’s contact with the runway acts rearward. This will savagely yank the aircraft into a right yaw state, and as the yaw takes effect and the angle change increases, the arm gets lon-ger and thus very quickly more powerful.

Figure 6. The magnitude of the couple has in-creased greatly with the changing angle. Not only is the arm longer, but the front wheel has less rolling ability and the now scuffing tire has greater drag than it initially had.

The situation is now serious. The aircraft still has just the nose wheel on the runway, and the yaw forces are now beyond correction by the rudder. Removing forward pressure on the stick and then adding full power may allow the aircraft to fly off, but as a curative action it is doubtful at best. Effec-tive control is lost, and there are no remedial op-tions available to the pilot at this late stage.

In effect, this is a ground loop condition, and the side loads on the nose-wheel assembly will quickly exceed their design limits. The nose leg will fail. The prop may strike the ground and dis-integrate. Parts of the propeller may enter the cockpit with fatal consequences. This can ruin your whole day. However, on the bright side, the landing will be short!

While the best correction is to never get into this condition in the first place, an immediate go-around before substantial yaw is experienced can resolve the problem—but early recogni-tion of the pending problem is paramount. The correct landing technique has the main wheels touching first and the nose wheel settling only in such a manner that a positive load is retained on the main wheels as the speed washes off.

As you can see, there are very good reasons for this.

Ford Super Duty Helps Build a Legacy“At Brooks Farm we buy Ford Super Duties because, quite simply, we need a truck that works and plays as hard as we do.

Since Ford developed their 6.7-Liter Scorpion Diesel, nothing on the market even comes close in performance and dependability. With this engine, we are able to get all the performance we need from our trucks, without any after-market modifications. We prefer the King Ranch package because it provides all the added features we want and need, from heated and cooled premium leather seats to special wheels.

Our dealer, Bergstrom Ford, makes the purchase so simple and easy. Brad, the general manager there, always gets us what we need, when we need it. And our EAA membership allows us to purchase our vehicles with the Ford Partner Recognition program which saves us thousands of dollars on our Super Duty Fleet.

Ford trucks have become synonymous with Brooks Farm’s 160 year old legacy, and it is a partnership that we are sure will continue for generations to come.” Ron B. EAA #349641The Privilege of Partnership EAA members are eligible for special pricing on Ford Motor Company vehicles through Ford’s Partner Recognition Program. To learn more about this exclusive opportunity for EAA members to save on a new Ford vehicle, please visit www.eaa.org/ford.

Tell Us Your StoryFord Motor Company is proud of our long-standing partnership with EAA and wants to hear from you! Feedback from those who have participated in Ford’s Partner Recognition Program is appreciated and owners are occasionally featured in EAA publications. Send us your story and photos to Becky at [email protected]. We look forward to hearing from you!

2015-June_Testim_EAA_Divis_Ad-Final.indd 1 4/15/15 9:38 AM


A sight unlikely to ever be repeated: eventually a total of 7 Lockheed 12A’s were present at AV14.


What is it about some airplanes that elevates them to cult status? They are mechanical

celebrities of enormous stature but often only to a small part of the av-population. However, the passion those airplanes engender

i n t h a t s e g m e n t i s b e y o n d understanding. The Lockheed 12A is certainly one of those airplanes. Those who own them universally see themselves as short-time curators, guardians, if you will, of one of history’s most fragile, but most enduring, artifacts. It is

also one of the sexiest. L-12A ownership, however,

isn’t without its pitfalls and frustrations. Certainly one of the most frustrating aspects of ownership is coming up with tactful ways of saying, “No, it’s not a Twin Beech” at air shows.

Lockheeds!The perfect setting for a pair of P&Ws

by Budd Davisson

Lovely


At the same time, much of that frustration is balanced by those air show warriors who know the airplane for what it is and approach the owner with enthusiasm and reverence: They recognize the deco shape as pure art and understand the airplane’s place in history and are simply excited at finally getting to see one. That’s why AirVenture ’14 will live in many minds as the high point in their long list of Oshkosh firsts: There were seven Lockheed 12As lined up side by side. Being able to see seven of the 11 still flying in the United States was a rare treat for everyone concerned.

Birth of the Electra Junior It’s hard to pick out an American

decade that saw as much civilian aviat ion advancement as the 1930s. I t star ted with funky biplanes and Ford Tri-Motors, but the decade ended with sleek Spartan Executives, DC-3s, and most of the basic tools required to fight the air war that was just over

the horizon. During that decade, Lockheed went from the vaguely pudgy Vega to P-38s and the early design stages of the immortal Constellation. Industry changes came fast and furious. No sooner would an air travel advancement be made by one company before it was leapfrogged by another company.

Part of the advancement in the early ’30s was spurred by the rapid public acceptance of the airplane as a viable form of transportation. Two markets actually developed at the same time: tending to the needs of the traveling public and serving business executives who were seeking ways of setting their schedules via their own airplanes. L o c k h e e d r e c o g n i z e d b o t h markets, initially focusing on the airline market with its Model 10 Electra. The airplane was to be a direct competitor to Boeing’s 247 and Douglas’ DC-2

Seen as a light transport, the Electra was powered by two 450-hp R-985 P&W’s and was capable

of carrying 10 passengers nearly 700 miles at 190 mph. Many of the initial wind tunnel tests were carr ied out in the University of Michigan’s wind tunnel by a graduate assistant named Clarence “Kelly” Johnson. Yes, “that” Kelly Johnson. Later he would spend his career at Lockheed, guiding the fantastic design work done at that company’s Skunk Works. Only a few individuals in aviation could claim a résumé that includes projects from a twin-engine mini-liner to the SR-71 Blackbird.

It seems as if Lockheed was in the right place at the right time for most of the 1930s. Just about the same time that it decided the Model 10 was too big to be a corporate airplane and began designing a smaller one, the government decided the need existed for a smaller aircraft to shuttle people from small airports to the big ones to make its new airport system work. The “hub” system was born, and the aircraft chosen to initiate

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Peter Ramm, from Ontario, Canada, had never restored an airplane before and as-sembled a task force to take his Lockheed down to the last nut and bolt to bring it back up to perfection.


it was a promising new mini-liner and corporate airplane, the Lockheed 12A Electra Junior.

Although it is often said that the Electra Junior was simply a scaled-down Model 10, there was nothing simple about the project. First of all, when the company started the Model 10, it had been doing monocoque metal construction for only a few years. To get its feet wet in the new material, it had produced the DL-1, an aluminum fuselage version of its 1928-29 trend- sett ing al l - wood Vega , through the Detroit Aircraft Corp. Then it leaped right into the much more complex Model 10 in 1932-33. It flew a year later. The Model 12 flew only two years after that. So, Lockheed was a beehive of new technology and development.

“The Model 12 is a scaled-down Model 10” cliché is often repeated, but nothing could be further from the truth. Although the Model 10 did set the basic concept and configuration (which was to apply

to a long series of Lockheed high-performance twins), the Model 12 was a clean sheet of paper design. It had to be because it was significantly smaller, so other than the powerplant packages (again, a pair of R-985s), few, if any, components were actually interchangeable. Plus the airplane w a s a l l a b o u t s p e e d , w h i c h demanded the lowest frontal area possible and resulted in the long, sleek lines that so identify the airplane, along with the tiny mail slot windscreens.

By the way, one critical fact that separates the 12A from the Twin Beech is the construction of the engine-to-engine center section structure. The Twin Beech has a welded steel truss in that area that, over the years, has been the subject of a large number of airworthiness directives stemming from cracks and rust. The same unit in a 12A is a massive a luminum tr uss structure that, other than the usual corrosion concerns, has not been

a trouble spot for the airplanes. In fact, it has been reported that no airframe ADs have been issued against the Lockheed 12A.

A History Worth KnowingA total of 130 Model 12s were

built, which includes a significant number of those ordered directly by the government or military. Only a very small number were used by the airlines as feeder ships, even though, by default, it won the Bureau of Air Commerce competition for a feeder line (the other two competitors, Beechcraft and Barkley-Grow, didn’t finish their aircraft in time).

T he U.S . A r my b ou g ht the airplane as the C-40 and the Navy as the JO. However, the Royal Netherlands East Indies Army Air Force bought 36, making it the largest military buyer. Military use increased rapidly as soon as World War II was underway because almost all civilian-owned 12As were impressed into the

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NC18097 was well known to airshow goers before David Marco of Atlantic Beach, FL, completely re-restored it. Kent and Sandy Blankenberg campaigned it for years.

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Front to back, Les Whittlesey, Dave Marco and Peter Ramm form a truly iconic stack of art deco beauties.


military. Nearly half of the Royal Netherlands aircraft, however, differed from most Model 12As so much that they were labeled Model 212. These were configured to train bomber crews and had a partially retractable top turret mounting a .303 machine gun, a similar gun fixed in the nose, and center section bomb racks (eight bombs, 100 pounds each).

The Decline Began D u r i n g W W I I L o c k h e e d

stopped production of the 12A to concentrate on more important aircraft, like P-38s, P2Vs, and a host of other combat and transport aircraft. Beechcraft, on the other hand, continued cranking out its D-18 Twin Beech in a wide variety of models for the military. In fact, nearly half of the 9,000 Twin Beeches sold during the airplane’s record-setting, 32-year production life were ordered by the military.

Although prior to the war the 12A was reportedly outselling t h e Tw i n B e e c h t wo - to - o n e ,

immediately after the war the light executive aircraft market was quickly owned by Beechcraft. Under the pressure of so many surplus Twin Beeches for corporate conversions, the Electra Junior began to disappear. Although a few diehard corporations, like Phillips Oil, operated their 12As into the ’60s, they were the rare exceptions, and slowly but surely the elegant survivors began sinking into the dirt of forgotten airfields. Smelters eventually found the rest.

Then the Rebirth: The Oshkosh Seven’s Airplanes

It’s hard to put a finger on the time when the L-12A turned the corner, but the truth is that to many, the air plane had never actually left the scene. Some, like the two that Phillips Petroleum continued f ly ing , were never allowed to decline. They drifted from one enthusiast to another. One of the Phillips airplanes, N C 1 8 0 9 7 ( o r i g i n a l n u m b e r was NC18970), which had been

delivered in 1938, stayed with the company for more than 25 years. Then, a few years later, it became par t of the equally pampered collection of airplanes owned and flown by legendary antiquers Kent and Sandy Blankenburg of Grove, California. Eventually it passed to its current owner, David Marco of Jacksonville, Florida, who has, like most current L-12A owners, carried its pampering to an extreme.

David says, “As with many ’30s aircraft, this one was modified to the ‘latest and greatest’ the ’60s had to offer. That’s just what people do with 25-year-old airplanes. After I got it, I had Kirk McQuown and his team spend two years and 10,000 hours going over the entire aircraft to bring it back to original, because that’s what people do with 76-year-old airplanes! We do have a Garmin stack nestled neatly within a reconstructed original panel, but a hollowed-out 1940s autopilot covers up the modern stack.

“The original fuel system fed

The Perris brothers are legendary within the antique com-munity because they did the entire ground up restoration themselves on normal, working man’s pay.


both engines from the same tank, so we, of course, put in a safer system, which feeds each engine from a separate tank. Our airplane is the only 12A still f lying with the beautifully smooth, original Goodyear Air wheels—and we will do so as long as we can. Then we ’ l l conver t to D-18 wheels like everyone else has. Even the original style wire antennas are functional, and the only visible modern antenna is the marker beacon, and that is covered by a 1930s loop antenna. The interior was painstakingly crafted by Ric Zobel, who had experience with Les Whittlesy ’s Lockheed. We used natural ‘bomber jacket’ leather, which has to be kept oiled—just like in the 1930s. The executive interior exudes a period look with rich wools and lacquered cabinets and exposed hinges, just as it was when Phillips had it—minus the cigar smoke and Scotch!

“ When the time came to test fly it, I found it flew just

as it looked: beautiful and solid with amazing performance—even by today’s standards. It’s hard to imagine an aircraft that is more representative of that fabulous deco period of aviation than the spectacularly beautiful Lockheed 12A. Many equal—but none better!”

Some of the other surviving Lockheed 12As were not as lucky as David’s. Joe Shepherd’s airplane in Fayetteville, Georgia, a 1936 model, S/N 1208, which makes it the eighth one built, is one of those.

He says, “It had spent a lot of the years before I bought it sitting around on various airports. When I found it in Texas, it had

been sitting there for nine years untouched. Prior to that it had been flying jumpers in Montana, and the interior consisted of a shag carpet. It wasn’t derelict, but it was headed in that direction. The owner was looking for a 195 and I had one, so a deal was done. It took us three weeks of almost solid work just to get it ferryable and bring it home.”

Early on he partnered with his father-in-law, Robert Parker, whom he characterizes as “a master mechanic. Robert and his friend Bear Ebert were instrumental in seeing this project to completion. All of the work was done in my hangar

next to my house. We totally disassembled the airplane and did a lot of re-skinning on the nose and the aft fuselage. Parts were a real problem, and I wound up buying two wrecked 12As just to get the stuff to fix critical areas.”

Joe considers the 12A to be “the perfect airplane for personal transportation, but

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The Lockheed 12A is as practical as any airplane for normal cross country duties, which is what Les Whittlesey uses his for: it is the family airplane.


it has branched out into many new roles. It was used in the movies Amelia and ’42 and has done a few commercials. It took nearly 19 years to get it back in the air, but it has been worth every minute of that time.”

He also says if he had it to do over again, he might consider painting it because, “Keeping it polished is a big job!”

O n t h e o p p o s i t e s i d e o f the countr y, in Coto de Caza, California, Les Whittlesey, bought a good-looking, f lying 12A that he initially thought was going to be minor touch-up project. He had a long line of major aircraft restorations behind him so, given his history, he told his wife, “This is not a project. It’s a f lier that just needs a little work. She still periodically reminds me of that conversation, even though she really loves what we’ve done with the airplane.”

L e s ’ a i r p l a n e w a s b u i l t i n 1939 (S/N 1277) and was almost immediately taken over by the Treasury Department and shipped to Britain as part of the lend-lease program. After being discharged by the RAF, it spent the next 17 years as a short-haul airliner covering most of Europe. Then it immigrated to the United States and went

through several owners before Les found it. It’s worth noting that 1277 had spent almost its entire life as a revenue-generating, hard-working airplane. It had never been allowed to sit around gathering spiders and corrosion. Also, it was set up in the C-40 military interior configuration it had carried through its entire life.

Les describes the rebuilding process, “It was a flying airplane, and we thought we might replace just one or two dented panels. But the instant we did that, the new panels made the old ones look really bad. So we wound up re-skinning both outer wing panels and about 80 percent of the fuselage. Part of the difficulty in the re-skinning was having to find the unique little brazier head rivets they used. And there are thousands and thousands of them!”

Up in St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada, Electra Junior owner Peter Ramm came from an aviation-oriented family (father flew in RAF, then Israeli air force, then was an El Al captain), but, as he puts it, “I ignored aviation until I was in my 30s. Then took up glider flying in the ’80s and loved it.”

He rapid ly moved throug h a series of aircraft, then dived headlong into his first restoration

project, the Lockheed 12A, S/N 1222. He bought it immediately after seeing a photo of it parked i n t h e b a c k g ro u n d b e h i n d a S p a r t a n h e w a s c o n s i d e r i n g buying. However, he says, “I can’t be trusted with a screwdriver,” so being a successful businessman, he created a mechanical task force to do the restoration, with Steve Martin as the project manager. Peter had a specific goal in mind, and with his guidance, Steve Martin made it happen

Peter explains, “We wanted 1222 to come out of restoration still a 1937 aircraft, and still giving the pilots a 1930s experience. In other words, we would need to balance form and function to make this an ‘original’ L-12 but one that was very usable in today’s world. We also wanted to keep as much as possible of the original aircraft structure and components. As we went along, we were constantly struggling with parts or systems that could be refurbished/salvaged, restored in factory stock configuration, o r r e p l a c e d w i t h i m p r o v e d components. We did the best we could. For example, we replaced damaged skins but kept skins with dents in them because they have been part of the aircraft since new. In many cases—the wings,

The Perris Brothers, Yon and Uwanna, did their own trim and wood work, when restoring their airplane.

Joe Shepherd’s Lockheed was an ex-jump airplane that had set for nine years semi-abandoned on a rural Texas airstrip.


for example—refurbishing the original skins was more laborious than replacement would have been. However, we could not bring ourselves to throw away history.”

P a t D o n o v a n o f S e a t t l e , Washington, is another whose overwhelming desire to own a piece of history sucked him into the Lockheed 12A community and brought him to AirVenture ’14.

“My airplane was originally delivered to Conoco Oil in 1938,” Donovan says. “Later in life, it spent at least a decade in a glider museum in Texas, so at least it was protected from the elements. I bought it in 1989, patched it up, and ferried it home.

“Eventually I had Ken Orford of Air Metal Fabricators in Texas go through the entire airplane and fix what needed to be fixed, which was a bunch! I went through one set of engines in 35 hours, then had Gordon Holbrook at Kenmore Air Harbor here in Seattle build me a pair. He still looks after them.”

Pat f l i e s t h e w i n g s o f f h i s airplane, including a f light to New Zealand, and periodically finds himself and his airplane drawn into the limelight cast by the movie Casablanca. In the final scenes of Casablanca, there is an artful scene in which a Lockheed

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Lockheed 12As scream out to be outfitted for comfort, which is exactly the way Peter Ramm did his.

John O’Keefe’s Lockheed had never been allowed to deteriorate, so most of his work was cleaning, not restoring.


12A is cranking up in the fog as Bogie says a tense goodbye to Ingrid. Although there is some controversy as to whether it was a real airplane (recent discoveries pretty much prove that it was real), local music festival promoters have featured the movie and rides in his airplane as prizes.

John O’Keefe of Winthrop, Washington, owns one of the more unique Lockheed 12As flying. It’s unique because it has never actually been restored. It has never been restored because it never stopped flying so was just maintained and didn’t need a thorough restoration.

Okeefe, a dentist by trade, says, “I purchased the 12 from Quinn Boyd in 2001. It was in good condition overall, and I flew from El Paso to my home base at Paine Field north of Seattle without incident. After about 20 hours of flying enjoyment, the right engine failed catastrophically. However, the single-engine performance was admirable , and I l ande d uneventfully. I resolved to overhaul both engines and embarked on a two-year project to address critical systems. For instance, the 12 is known to be sensitive in the landing gear department. So, my friend and now retired IA, Peter

Johnson, removed and rebuilt the entire gear system. In addition we replaced control cables and went through the whole aircraft. We even overhauled the fire suppression system, making my 12 one of the only ones with operational engine fire extinguishers. The fuselage was in good shape, no corrosion, so no sheet metal work was done and no serious disassembly was called for.

Probably the Lockheed 12A that has gone through the most heroic restoration is that of the Perras brothers, Uwanna and Yon. They usually refer to themselves as “just regular working guys,” and that’s what makes their accomplishment so heroic. At the time they restored their airplane (and won Grand Champion Antique in ’99), Uwanna was a flight line supervisor for the California Air National Guard and Yan was a technician at Sandia National Laboratories. Early on, they realized the only way they could afford a fancy airplane of any kind was to buy a dog that was really cheap and rebuild it themselves. So, never having done any kind of aircraft restoration in their lives, they bought a D17S Stagger wing project, which is universally considered one of the most challenging aircraft to

restore. They taught themselves all the skills needed and began winning awards with it right out of the gate.

Then they decided they wanted something bigger and stumbled across a Lockheed 12A that had been sitting in the dirt next to a runway in Texas. In fact, it was sitting right next to the airplane Joe Shephard bought: Both were shag-carpeted ex-jump airplanes. That airplane became the central focus of the Perras brothers’ life for the next decade. They worked on it before and after work until 9 or 10 at night. Then every weekend it was 14 hours a day. By the time they were done, the only original skin on the airplane was a small piece outboard of the left nacelle and a piece or two on the horizontal stab. Plus the center section spar caps were bad, and they had to have an extrusion made to replace them. Their airplane was taken apart right down to the smallest piece and brought back up looking new. They even cast their own replacements for missing door handles and similar items.

Such is the passion some old airplanes can engender. And the Electra Junior may just be the leader of that particular pack.

LAURIE GOOSSENS

Often confused for Twin Beeches, the leaner lines and subtly swept back vertical tails point out the differences


With the sunlight sparkling on its silver wings and fuselage, N233EB was a dazzling sight as it taxied into the grassy vintage field at Oshkosh. In fact, it stopped many spectators in their tracks. It was this Staggerwing’s first time at AirVenture, but its owner

and pilot, Dave Smith of Milaca, Minnesota, has been attending since 1991. It’s remarkable that this particular biplane still exists, given its history.

N233EB is one of three E17Bs originally ordered by Indian Na-tional Airways (INA) of New Delhi,

India, in 1938. It took 36 years and a chain of successive owners, in which each performed neces-sary steps to preserve and restore the biplane, to allow it to arrive at its current airworthy and award-winning status. N233EB won the Bronze Age (1937-1941) Cham-

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pion—Bronze Lindy award during AirVenture 2014.

The Model E17BFifty-some E17Bs were built

by Beech Aircraft Company from 1937 to 1940, and only seven are currently listed on the FAA Regis-try. According to a company bro-chure, the E17B’s cabin width was

increased by 6 inches from earlier models, its fuselage lengthened, and its wheel base was increased by 18 inches. Its main gear and tail wheel were retractable, and its elliptical wings had 8-inch rib spacing. Electrically operated flaps were on the lower wings, and the ailerons were on the up-per wings. Other revisions for the

E17B included heel brakes that were linked to the rudder ped-als (instead of a hand-operated Johnson bar brake). The brochure proudly declared: “The most expe-rienced pilots have stated that the new Beechcrafts stand in a class by themselves, even surpassing the previous models in ease and convenience of operation.”

SplendorThe Indian National Airways Staggerwing

by Sparky Barnes Sargent

Silver


Additionally, a company ad touted: “Beechcrafts are preferred where airports are primitively small and conditions are difficult. The principal reasons for this pref-erence are that Beechcrafts render a unique combination of highest cruising speed and lowest landing speed; a special type of flight sta-bility at slow speeds; several valu-able and exclusive safety features; and a type of trouble-free rugged-ness that is not surpassed by any aircraft. Beechcrafts are in use in 22 countries besides the United States. They give satisfaction under the most difficult operating condi-tions in all sorts of climates.”

The airframe is coming back together after extensive work by Big Sky Stearman.

The original sheet metal still has a faint image of the INA insignia.

The old Jacobs L-5 engine and exhaust.

Beech Aircraft Company ads that were in Aero Digest magazine.

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Indian National Airways Ltd.INA established a Calcutta-

Rangoon air service in 1933, car-rying mail and passengers and operating airplanes such as de Havilland Fox Moths and Drag-ons. As its air service grew, it added more airplanes, including Beech Staggerwings, the de Havilland Moth, and Percival Gulls. INA was awarded a first-class mail contract on the Karachi-Lahore and Karachi-Colombo routes beginning in 1938.

In July 1938, INA ordered its first three E17B Staggerwings. Beech Aircraft Company promised delivery by September 12, and beat its promise by 10 days.

The CAA’s original certification of these Staggerwings was an ex-port certificate of airworthiness to India; they were not CAA/U.S. registered or issued a standard air-worthiness certificate when they were built. The trio—VT-AKJ (S/N 232, E-4395), VT-AKK (S/N 233, E-4396), and VT-AKL (S/N 234, E-4397)—were exported as brand new aircraft.

While INA was generally success-ful, not all of its flights were. VT-AKL crashed in 1939, and VT-AKJ

crashed after an in-flight collision with a Percival Vega Gull on Febru-ary 23, 1939. According to combined reports from the New York Post and the Ottawa Citizen, these INA air-planes collided and crashed over the jungle near Karachi. An American oil company agent, Burford Davidson, was killed, as well as P.D. Sharma, winner of the viceroy’s gold medal air race, and his brother.

I N A p u r c h a s e d t w o m o r e E17Bs to replace the ones that had crashed. Unfortunately, VT-ALV (S/N 336) and VT-ALA (S/N 274) crashed in early 1947. Hence, through attrition, VT-AKK became the sole survivor.

SpecificationsIn 1938, INA selected specific

equipment and items for VT-AKK, which included two Grimes ST 250-315 CP landing lights in the lower wings, three 1-/2-minute flares, Breeze shielding, special rear seats, fuselage alterations, metal cabin lining, Sperry’s artificial horizon, two sun visors, throttle mixture linkage, Kollsman magnetic com-pass, and a Reid & Sigrist turn-and-bank indicator. A special mail

bin and luggage compartment were installed so that when removed, the plane could be converted into a five-place airplane. The addition of these items increased the empty weight for VT-AKK by 70 pounds, resulting in a total empty weight of 2,150 pounds.

The tanks were calibrated in Im-perial gallons, and all nameplates and tank caps were calibrated in Imperial gallons instead of U.S. gal-lons. Per a Beech memo dated Au-gust 11, 1938, “The throttle and mixture control on this airplane must be connected in such a man-ner that the mixture will automati-cally return to the proper position for sea level flying when the throt-tle is closed.”

The tare and maximum permis-sible weights were painted on the side of the fuselage just under the forward edge of the horizontal stabilizer, in half-inch blue block letters, and the Indian National Airways insignia was painted on the fuselage.

The seats and the sidewalls, from the floor up to the window sills, were finished in Laidlaw’s Tan Basketweave Broadcloth. Addition-ally, the cabin ceiling was covered with a complementary Laidlaw’s Tan Broadcloth. The instrument panel was finished in Dupont Du-lux Boatswain Blue. The fuselage and wings were finished in silver, and the cowling and top of the fu-selage in front of the windshield were painted with Berry’s Consoli-dated Blue. The outline of the ver-tical fin and stabilizer, the striping, insignia, and registration letters were also painted with Consoli-dated Blue.

The invoice for VT-AKK was $10,131.75, which included $375 for disassembling, packing, and crating the plane for export. Over-land freight from Wichita to New York, then ocean freight to Bom-

1938 bill of sale from Beech Aircraft Company to Indian National Airways, Ltd.

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bay, with marine and war all-risk insurance, was a total of $972.28. The shipping crates bearing the state-of-the-art aircraft arrived via primitive but reliable oxen-pulled carts at New Delhi.

INA’s Initial ChallengesIt’s interesting to peruse the his-

torical records regarding INA’s pur-chase, and that opportunity was kindly made available through the Beechcraft Heritage Museum’s ar-chives in Tullahoma, Tennessee.

For example, one concern arose from Beech Aircraft’s instructions to hoist the airplane with a sling to check the operation of the retract-able landing gear. A letter from the director of Civil Aviation in In-dia to Beech, dated September 12, 1938, stated: “It is desired to point out that Government aerodrome buildings in India have no provi-sion for slinging heavy weights from the roof trusses…. There is no mention in the handbook of any jacking points on which the aircraft could be supported when checking the undercarriage. Information on this point would be much appreci-ated. . . .[signed] I have the honour to be, Gentlemen, Your most obe-dient servant.”

Beech responded on October 15: “We have recently developed a spe-

cial jack pad which may be attached to the rear truss for use in those localities where facilities for hoist-ing the airplane from above are not available. A drawing of this jack pad is enclosed (#174-1).”

After the shipment of aircraft arrived in India, a significantly disconcerting obstacle arose. INA wrote to Beech on November 1: “We find that no Bureau of Com-merce Certificate of Airworthi-ness has been forwarded with the aircraft which have just arrived, and consequently we are unable to use these aircraft for commer-cial purposes.” To which Beech re-sponded on November 5: “…we wired the C.A.A. asking when the certificates were mailed. They re-plied that they would be mailed the next day indicating that the

Above: The judges give the Staggerwing a thorough going-over as Smith answers their questions.

Left: David Smith and his Bronze Age Champion award winner, N233EB, during AirVenture 2014.

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applications had in some way be-come mislaid in Washington and had not received any attention until the time we wired them.”

Another item of concern re-garded unexpected fees levied on INA for customs clearance. On No-vember 15, INA wrote to Beech: “Though we have paid you on the entire consignment of three Beech-craft and the spare engine on the C.I.F. Bombay basis, we find that your invoices do not include insur-ance and freight charges, the same being incorporated in an entirely separate invoice . . . not signed by your Company. . . . This formality is required for Customs clearance purposes . . . .”

Beech responded: “With refer-ence to your letters…we are enclos-ing freight and expense invoices on each shipment, certified and signed. We deeply regret that we failed to do this in the first place and inconvenienced you in your Custom clearance. We hope that these will enable you to make and receive your claim of refund of the

excess customs charges paid by your company.”

Finally, after all hurdles had been cleared and various govern-ment requirements had been met, INA wrote to Beech on November 29, 1938: “The three aircraft are now all in regular operation and have up to date given very satisfac-tory service.”

Chain of OwnersAfter World War II, VT-AKK ap-

parently languished in New Delhi for more than three decades, and the Indian climate took an insidi-ous and egregious toll on the bi-plane’s myriad wood and steel components. Various sources in-dicate that H.C. True brought the Staggerwing, in its sad state of dis-repair, to Lunken Airport in Cin-cinnati in early 1978. FAA records reveal that a bill of sale from J.G. Armstrong to Howard Nettleton of Kent, Washington, was recorded in September 1978—and so started the American chain of ownership.

Nettleton and his brother, Greg-

ory, commenced restoration ef-forts. In March 1984, Charles Hamilton of Oregon bought the airplane and devoted a consider-able amount of time to restoring the empennage and wings. Hamil-ton registered the Staggerwing in 1988 as N233EB. In a letter to the FAA in April 1994, he stated: “This aircraft has been in my possession in Portland, Oregon, since the time of purchase; I have been rebuild-ing the aircraft. It has been on no foreign or domestic registry since deregistration from the Indian Civil Registry on March 21, 1985.”

The Staggerwing project was later purchased by Phoenix Resto-rations LLC (Jim Parish) of Bright-wood, Oregon, in July 2005. Parish then commissioned John Pike and his team at Big Sky Stearman to fully restore N233EB.

Ground-Up RestorationAll told, the Big Sky Stearman

team logged 6,000 hours restoring N233EB. At that time, the biplane had 1,800 total hours. With a res-

The lower wing has new fabric.

Smith did extensive sheet metal work.

Installing the engine.

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toration goal of originality blended with modern reliability, the proj-ect began. The fuselage was media-blasted, repaired as necessary, and epoxy painted. New stringers were made from Sitka spruce, and bulk-heads were made from mahogany plywood. New wings, flaps, and ai-lerons were fabricated by using old parts as patterns in conjunction with factory drawings. New ply-

wood floorboards were also built, and all of the wood components were epoxy varnished. The team repaired and reused some compo-nents, such as the sheet metal.

The Poly-Fiber system was used for covering the airframe, with Aero-Thane as the finish coat. The original interior and exterior color schemes and materials were matched as closely as possible with

contemporary materials. The uphol-stery and interior was done by Inte-rior Solutions of Troutdale, Oregon.

The old Jacobs L-5 engine was replaced with a Jacobs R-755-B2 engine, which was overhauled by Radial Engines Ltd. of Guth-rie, Oklahoma. An STC was re-quired for the engine installation, and that process was completed in May 2007. The original L-5 ex-

Close-up view of the air filter for the Jacobs R755B2.

Left landing gear.

View of the cabin entryway.

Indian National Airways insignia.

Grand command center of the 1938 E17B Staggerwing.

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haust system was modified for use with the R-755 engine. Mods included an ignition coil, an Air-wolf air-oil separator and oil filter system, a Bracket air filter, and a Skytronics 50-amp alternator. A freshly overhauled Hamilton Stan-dard 2B20 constant-speed propel-ler was installed.

Cleveland wheels and disc brakes were installed, and the original stirrup heel-brake pedals were re-tained. Aerof lash anti-collision strobe lights were included during the restoration, and a few mod-ern avionics were installed, in-cluding a WAAS-certified Garmin 430W, audio panel, and transpon-der. The original instruments were overhauled and retained, and the original low-frequency comm and direction finder radio faces were adapted to cover the Garmin and transponder for static display.

In-depth research on the Stag-gerwing’s history was done by John Pike, Jeremy Harris, and Brian Pipher. A highly detailed and infor-mative restoration album was then created to recount N233EB’s early career and modern restoration.

N233EB finally left terra firma in September 2007, after having been earthbound for more than six decades. Sadly, this handsome Staggerwing enjoyed only 30 hours aloft when it suffered a landing ac-cident in July 2008. (Quite possi-bly, the tricky-to-operate original heel brakes may have been a con-tributing factor.)

The NTSB accident report states: “The pilot reported that he made a normal approach and landing at Lenhardt Airpark on Runway 2. He followed his standard landing pro-cedure for the airplane, landing on the main wheels and holding the tail off the ground. He stated that as the tail lowered, he would nor-mally begin braking while pulling back on the control stick to keep

1938 Beech E17B Staggerwing General Specifications Manufactured under ATC No. 641

Length: 25 feet, 11-1/4 inches Height: 8 feet Wingspan upper: 32 feetWeight empty: 2,080 poundsUseful load: 1,270 poundsGross weight: 3,350 poundsFuel capacity: 77 gallons (125 optional)Oil capacity: 5 gallonsMaximum speed: 185 mphCruise: 177 mph at 7,200 feet Landing speed w/flaps: 45 mphJacobs R-830-1 L-5: 285 hp Fuel burn: 16.8 gphPropeller: Curtiss-Reed fixed-pitch metalRate of climb: 1,200 fpmCeiling: 18,000 feetCruising range: 700 miles

(Derived from various sources)


the tail down. The pilot indicated that he believes he began braking slightly early, before the tail was firmly on the ground. As the air-plane decelerated, the tail rose until the propeller impacted the ground. Thereafter, the airplane nosed over and stopped in an in-verted attitude.”

Repair and ReworkEnter N233EB’s current care-

taker, Dave Smith, who bought N233EB in March 2009. Smith, an A&P and private pilot with sev-eral thousand hours, is no stranger to airplane restorations. He has taken advantage of the long win-ter months in Minnesota to com-plete nearly 30 projects through the years. Most recently, those in-clude an award-winning Cessna 175A and a Meyers 145.

N233EB is the second early Stag-gerwing that Smith has owned, and he devoted 3,000 hours to repair-ing and reworking the aircraft. “We went through every detail to make it show quality,” says Smith. Those extensive efforts made N233EB the award-winner it is today.

“The nose-over accident pushed the front carry-through tubes down and buckled them, but we were able to repair the fuselage without re-moving the fabric,” says Smith. “We salvaged the prop; we took it to Maxwell Aircraft Services in Minne-

sota, and the engine was inspected for the prop strike, and it was okay.”

Smith devoted his time to doing more than just the minimum to get the biplane flying again. “My ex-pertise is sheet metal and the fin-ish,” shares Smith, with a smile. “I enjoy the heck out of rebuilding!”

Smith set about repairing the fabric on the fuselage, sanding down the old Poly-Fiber coatings, and refinishing the entire fuselage using the Poly-Fiber system. Of the injuries inflicted by the nose-over accident, the left upper wing and engine cowling bore the brunt of them. After repairs were made as necessary to ribs, spars, and aile-rons in that wing, all four wings were completely re-covered and re-finished, as well as the empennage.

Fortunately, the interior and up-holstery from the previous resto-ration was still in great condition, along with the instrument panel and its overhauled original instru-ments, so those items didn’t require any additional work by Smith.

“This airplane had the original sheet metal on it, and I replaced 90 percent of it myself,” says Smith, elaborating, “I was going to pro-duce the spinnings for the engine cowl, and called the Beechcraft Heritage Museum to ask if they knew anyone else who needed one while we were doing it, because the setup charge is where all the ex-

pense is. They found an OEM old stock cowling in storage there, so I was very fortunate to be able to get that. I’ve talked with the mu-seum folks for technical support, and they’ve been really helpful.”

Smith carefully duplicated and painted the INA insignia and regis-tration characters on the airplane, with the exception of the registra-tion number underneath the hori-zontal stabilizer on the fuselage. “I used vinyl for that, only so that if it leaves this country, it can be easily removed,” says Smith.

He also made a change to en-hance ease of operation on the ground. “This Staggerwing had the original rudder pedals with stir-rup brakes on the pilot’s side,” com-ments Smith. “I removed those and installed Beech rudder pedals with dual modern toe brakes for safer op-eration. Then I made stirrup-style covers to hang over them for static display. That way, they look authen-tic, but the brakes are easy to use.”

Smith, while observing passersby admiring N233EB at AirVenture, smiles and shares, “I always have friends hanging around and helping with something while I’m working on restoration projects. That’s great, and I really enjoy it. This Stagger-wing has been a very fun and chal-lenging project, and I just finished it in time to have it here. A friend and wonderful pilot, Kurt Leaders, put three hours’ flight time on it, and he made the fourth landing in it when he arrived here!”

Thanks to the diligent efforts of numerous individuals spanning decades, N233EB is a remarkable flying historical tribute to early American aircraft manufacturing as well as India’s early commercial aviation. It’s one more unique facet of the golden age that could easily have faded into the dusty archives of aviation history—yet it lives on in stunning silver splendor.

TYSON RININGER


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Aircraft instrument technology continued rapidly during the 1930s, particularly due to advancement in commercial air travel. Multiengine ships were now plying the skies, carrying passengers and mail; how-ever, the world faced a major war that began brew-ing in the latter part of the decade. As the United States tooled for war, aircraft instruments became a hot commodity and needed to be produced en masse. As older companies stepped forward, new companies were formed to meet the demand for thousands of in-struments, radios, navigation equipment, and other system needs. Figure 1 is an advertisement for U.S. Aircraft Instruments.

U.S. Gauge Co. was founded in 1904 and began to produce pressure- and temperature-measuring in-struments. Pictured in Figure 2 is a Bourdon tube

type oil pressure gauge from the late 1920s. Like a few other manufacturers, U.S. Gauge was a pioneer in aircraft instruments but had found itself in the midst of tooling up for large-scale production of instru-ments other than Bourdon tube units.

Pioneer Instrument Co. began in 1919 in Brook-lyn, New York, founded by Morris Titterington and Brice Herbert Goldsborough. They specialized in a bubble sextant and the earth inductor compass. They entered the market and produced a variety of aircraft instruments. In 1928 the company was acquired by Vincent Bendix and became part of his Bendix Avia-tion Corp. As the United States was entering World War II, the company became the Pioneer Instrument Division of Bendix Aviation, and the factory moved to New Jersey. By 1943 it had become the Eclipse-

The Vintage Mechanic

Evolution of aircraft instruments—Part 3

ROBERT G. LOCK

FIGURE 1

FIGURE 2


Pioneer Division of Bendix Aviation.Figure 3 is from the April 1941 issue of Western

Flying and shows the advertisement for Pioneer In-strument, of Bendix, New Jersey. When one peruses shelves of WWII instruments, it is amazing how many different manufacturers provided aircraft in-struments to the “cause.” There are literally too many to list, so only a few will be identified here, particu-larly those who advertised in major publications dur-ing wartime.

One of the largest suppliers of gyro horizons and directional indicators was the Sperry Gyroscope Co. of Brooklyn, New York. Since it was involved with the Guggenheim-funded Full Flight Laboratory in 1929, Sperry was the leader in the perfection of the artifi-cial horizon and directional indicator, both units gy-roscopically driven by suction from an engine-driven vacuum pump. With the invention of turn and bank indicators, it became possible for a pilot to fly blind for short periods using what aviators termed “nee-dle, ball, and airspeed.” By scanning the instruments, straight and level flight and turns could be accom-plished but not takeoff and landings.

By 1934 Sperry had developed advanced (for the time) gyroscopic aircraft instruments that it touted as the “Sperry Pilot.”

So here is a direct result of the Jimmy Doolittle

“blind” flights of 1929 when the gyro-type instru-ments were invented. As the technology grew, there became a gigantic need for gyro instruments as the airlines grew into larger aircraft and longer routes. And on the horizon loomed World War II.

Sperry designed individually mounted gyro-scopic instruments for all types of WWII aircraft. However, Sperry was not the only manufacturer of these specialty instruments, but it was no doubt the largest supplier.

The gyro horizon shown in Figure 4 drew about 5.25 inches of suction to operate properly and had a “cage” knob at the 5 o’clock position. When perform-ing aerobatics, the instrument was caged, which locks the internal gyro so it will not “tumble.” The center knob adjusted the gull wings that represented the air-plane. The numbers on top indicated angle of bank. All instruments manufactured for military use car-ried an AN or approved type number, which meant that the unit conformed to Army-Navy standards. Just think of how many thousands of instruments of all types were needed to support the war effort. From primary, basic, and advanced training aircraft to fighters, bombers, and support aircraft, the demand was great.

Figure 5 is a schematic sketch of the working parts of a gyro horizon instrument. In the center is the spinning gyro that makes the horizon bar rigid. The gyro is driven by suction from an engine-driven vac-uum pump. Airflow is from the inside of the cockpit or cabin, through a filter, through the instrument, through a suction regulator, through the pump, then

FIGURE 4

FIGURE 3


overboard. Sometimes the positive pressure on the overboard side of the pump was used to drive other devices other than gyro instruments.

The airplane replica (bar) is fixed to the aircraft via the instrument mount to the panel, and the rotating gyro keeps the horizon bar parallel to the earth’s hori-zon. The sketch shown here is for an instrument that uses positive air pressure to drive the gyro rather than suction. However, the operating theory is the same.

To accompany the gyroscopic horizon was the di-rectional gyro indicator, a gyroscopic compass that eliminated compass lead and lag during turns and variation due to magnetic fields on earth. Note that the gyro spin axis for the directional gyro is hori-zontal, while the spin axis of the artificial horizon is vertical. This instrument initially required suction air of about 4.5 inches to operate properly and was installed in parallel with the horizon indicator. The cage knob at the 6 o’clock position was used to syn-

chronize the instrument with the magnetic compass before the aircraft became airborne. It could also cage the gyro during aerobatics to keep the unit from tum-bling. Figure 5 shows a typical WWII directional gyro, and Figure 7 is a schematic drawing of the internal workings of the gyro assembly.

Another well-known company manufacturing air-craft instruments was the Jaeger Watch Co. It manu-factured chronometric tachometers by the thousands that found their way into many single-engine aircraft, particularly training ships. Pictured in Figure 8 is a 0-4500 rpm Type C-11 tachometer that was used in training aircraft, particularly the Boeing PT-13/17, Fairchild PT-19/23-16, and Ryan PT-20/21/22. These instruments were made like a watch with many mov-ing parts but were very accurate. I have flown behind one of these tachometers and remember that the nee-dle hunts somewhat, but that was just something one had to tolerate.

FIGURE 5

FIGURE 6

FIGURE 8

FIGURE 7


In 1934 Pioneer Instrument Co. produced the first electric (AC) tachometer for single- and multi-engine aircraft. As multiengine aircraft advanced, it became impossible to run flexible tachometer drive shafts from engine nacelles into the indicator in the cockpit; thus this development was very important.

Figure 9 is an advertisement taken from Western Flying, September 1934, and states, “Positive engine synchronization is easily secured by inserting three small lamps in the standard wiring system. . .no ad-ditional equipment required.”

Electric tachometers eliminated the use of heavy flexible drives that would have caused severe main-tenance problems. Instead there was an alternating current (AC) engine-driven generator with electri-cal wires (at least three wires) leading to the cock-pit indicator. The Weston Co. was founded in 1921 under the name British Sangamo as the U.K. sub-sidiary of the Sangamo Electric Co. of Springfield, Illinois, and was first associated with the manu-facture of integrated kilowatt-hour meters, and it later expanded its activities to include industrial time switches.

In 1936 British Sangamo acquired the Weston Elec-

trical Instrument Co. of Surbiton, Surrey, England. This company was the U.K. subsidiary of the Weston Elec-trical Instrument Corp. of Newark, New Jersey, a com-pany founded by Dr. Weston (a pioneer in the field of electrical measurements) and recognized as one of the world’s leading manufacturers of electrical measuring and associated equipment. The resources, knowledge, and expertise of the two companies were combined to form Sangamo Weston, a company with consider-able scope for design and manufacture of a wide range of electrical measuring and control equipment. It was through this newly acquired interest in electrical mea-suring instruments that Sangamo Weston became asso-ciated with products for the aviation industry, and as a result, devoted its entire resources during World War II to the production of measuring instruments, indicators, and associated ancillary equipment for use on aircraft, both military and civilian. By the late 1930s, electrical instruments were making great advances. By 1936 the Weston Electrical Instrument Corp. located in Newark, New Jersey, was marketing engine, flight, and power supply indicators. From the April 1941 issue of Western Flying comes this full-page advertisement of its prod-ucts as shown in Figure 10.

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Figure 11 shows a Weston ampere gauge used to monitor the charge rate of aircraft electrical systems.

There are many more companies that supported

both military and civilian aviation during this criti-cal time in our history. This is only a portion of what would be a very large dissertation of the his-tory of aircraft instrumentation. I trust you have found this interesting.


FIGURE 11

Electric tachometers

eliminated the use

of heavy flexible

drives that would

have caused severe

maintenance

problems.

FIGURE 9

FIGURE 10

George Belden . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Belmont, CABret Chilcott . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Neodesha, KSDeanna Close . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Kenilworth, ILDouglas Collins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . San Diego, CALeondaro Correa Luna . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Livermore, CADennis D’Angelo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Tampa, FLFrancis DeBellis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Elkton, MDAmanda Dehner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Godfrey, ILChristopher Denault . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Union Hill, ILJames Drinkwater . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Alba, TXTravis Eddleman . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Pea Ridge, ARDonald Enea . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Thompson, OHKimberly Ewing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Locust Grove, GAJames Ferguson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . New Cambria, KSPaul Francis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Overbrook, KSKendall Gjelsness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Coal Creek, COKenneth Glaze . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . San Diego, CADavid Gray . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . New Philadelphia, OHCarla Hanson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Appleton, WIKeshena Hanson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Appleton, WIAugust Wilhelm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Hamburg, GermanyJeffrey Hettling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Queen creek, AZJason Hickox . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Oakville, ONJeff Kallberg . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Brandywine, MDLarry Kluskens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Schiller Park, ILRyan Leeward . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Vandalia, OHRobert Levittan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Melville, NYCharles Longley . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Mukliteo, WAMarvin Melanson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Saginaw, MNJudy Moss . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Buckley, WAMarybess Mutchie . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Phoenix, AZJohn Neumann . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Walden, NYScott Oglesby . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Lakeland, FLCraig Patrick . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . New Braunfels, TXJamon Pruitt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Springdale, ARDave Retka . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . South St. Paul, MNJ See . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Centerburg, OHKevin Seeley . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Phoenix, AZDavid Seland . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Diamondhead, MSPaul Smith . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Kountze, TXJames Snodgrass Jr. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Racine, OHDavid Tuck . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Houghton Lake, MIAlfred Vancil . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Arcadia, FLDaniel Wall . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Spencer, WIRobert Walton . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Franklin Lakes, NJArthur White . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Columbia, MOWalter Windecker . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Ponchatoula, LA


Straight & Level NewMembers

Classic, and Contemporary aircraft enthusiasts and owners. Based on recent communications with our membership around the globe, I personally believe that our magazine is now the go-to publication for vintage aircraft here in this country as well as abroad. One of the most unique reactions we have recently witnessed is the renewed desire from a good number of people who are requesting the opportunity to share their personal vintage-aviation-related stories with us. We are receiving a lot of new and excellent material for the magazine, and I just want to encourage anyone who has a great story to tell to reach out and share it and your pictures with us. Everyone, if you have ever thought of submitting a piece or story to Vintage Airplane magazine, please feel free to do so. I strongly believe they will be greatly appreciated and enjoyed by all of our membership.

Please submit your featured article and materials to our editor at [email protected].

It’s not too late! The Vintage Friends of the Red Barn fundraising program is in full swing again this year. I can never properly thank the many dozens of VAA members who have long been actively involved in this program. Your extremely generous support of the VAA is the backbone of our efforts to bring the membership solid programming, events, and facilities to the Vintage area of operations during Oshkosh! The Red Barn fund has eight different levels of giving. Check us out at www.EAAVintage.org, and click on the Friends of the Red Barn tab for complete information on this program.

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Keep in mind as well that if you own an aviation-related business and you are looking to get your name out to vintage aircraft owners, we always have different programs during Oshkosh that are sponsorship events, and you can easily attach your business name and logo to these events or programming. Please contact Erin at 920-426-6110.

Again, as always your thoughts and comments regarding the magazine as well as the business of the VAA are very much welcome! And if you have some words of wisdom to share with your president, please also feel free to contact me at [email protected]. We would really like to continue to hear your thoughts, positive or otherwise, regarding AirVenture Oshkosh and the VAA in general.

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.

continued from page 1


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Libertyville, IL [email protected]

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-by-6-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.)

For more information, you can also e-mail [email protected].

The VAA Insurance Program is brought to you by EAA Insurance and administered by Falcon Insurance Agency, Inc. © 2012 Experimental Aircraft Assoc., Inc.

Standard Category | Vintage | Aerobatics | LSA | Homebuilts | Warbirds | Sea Planes | Powered Parachutes & Trikes | Gliders | Helicopters

The new standard in antique.Introducing the EAA and Vintage Aircraft Association Aircraft Insurance Plan with all

of the special coverage options VAA Members require for hand propping, tailwheel,

grass strips, and unique aircraft. When you insure with the EAA Aircraft Insurance Plan

you are helping VAA to continue to promote the heritage of vintage aviation.

Check out the EAA and VAA Plan today! Go to EAALowerRates.com or call us toll-free at 866-647-4322.

The VAA Insurance Program is brought to you by EAA Insurance and administered by Falcon Insurance Agency, Inc. © 2012 Experimental Aircraft Assoc., Inc.

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Va vol 43 no 4 july aug2015

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Transcript of Va vol 43 no 4 july aug2015