Ole runs up the Travel Air 2000 early in 1929 at Jamestown, NO after performing a top-overhaul on the OX-5 engine out in the open. Ole spent 1'12 hours removing the cylinders then took
them to the local Ford garage to have the valves ground. He then spent two more hours installing the cylinders.
NEW LICENSE NEW PLANE By Roy Redman (EAA 83604, Ale 6600) R. 3, Box 208 Faribault, MN 55021 Photos courtesy of Ole Anderson TRANSPORT PILOT
The winter of 1928-29 was a quiet one for Ole. Aside from doing a valve job on the Travel Air and a cross-coun try hop to Sioux City, Iowa there wasn't much aviation activity. He hung around the cab company office in James town, North Dakota and "did nothing ... in large quan tities." He shared a room with Ruff and John in the home of Dr. Claude Henderson. The idle winter allowed lots of time for hangar flying sessions, but lacking a hangar these were mostly held in the cab office, the Jamestown Cafe, or around the kitchen table at Henderson's. The success of the previous barnstorming season was well known and the young aviators were popular figures about town. Indeed, their friendly ways and engaging manner encouraged this status. The enactment of the Civil Aviation Act on January I, 1927 had started a long tedious process of bringing the splintered world of aviation under bureaucratic control. A certification procedure was put into effect and all aircraft manufactured were to be certified and registered. The licensing of pilots was initiated, but this was a bit more complex than certifying newly manufactured airplanes. There were thousands of experienced pilots actively plying their trade, and there was no way that their work could be halted for a mass licensing procedure. Wisely the Act made allowances. Ole and his friends could legally continue to fly passen gers for pay without a license for awhile. They were re stricted to their own back yard, so to speak, and could only hop passengers from their home airport. The intent was, in fact, to limit them from interstate cross-country travel 6 JUNE 1984
... a highly sophisticated art considered beyond the ken of the lowly barnstormer. The rules were pretty univer sally bent, however, and a "home airport" might be a pasture at the edge of most any town. Not every passenger wanted a hop around a pasture. The airplane was, after all, a modern mode of transporta tion , and the speed of a Travel Air certainly surpassed bumpy progress over rutted dirt roads. Occasionally Ole would take a passenger on a cross country hop, away from his home airport. His pay would be an amount only to defray the cost of operation of the airplane, of course, and therefore it was not actually a charter. Never mind the fact that on these trips the cost of operation might be high enough to keep Ole fed for several days. Nonetheless, they were not charters. Not yet, anyway . When the pilot licensing was announced Ole was im mediately interested. But when he first inquired he found that U. S. citizenship was one of the requirements. This was the first time he had been concerned about his status since his arrival in 1922 on a one-year visitor's visa. Now, as he pondered a pilot's license, he was troubled by the concern that he might be deported ifhe applied for citizen ship. He was six years past the visa limit. The love of flying that brought him from Sweden could possibly send him back again. One morning Ole was enjoying his coffee in the James town Cafe. He sat at the counter next to Earl Reed, another of the regulars , who was a clerk at the court house . The citizenship subject came up and Ole shared his concern. Earl laughed and said, "Oh, they won't send YOU back. You've been here for over five years and haven't even been in jail!" Greatly relieved, Ole applied for citizenship that day. A year had to pass before Ole could apply for the second paper for citizenship. Once he had done so, the CAA informed him , he was eligible for a license. There were three types of licenses in 1929: Private, Limited Commercial and Tra nsport. The Private was much the same as today. The Limited Commercial allowed flying for