Va Vol 48 no 4 Jul Aug 2020

JULY / AUGUST 2020

PIONEER PHOTOGRAPHERS TRAVELAIR WORKHORSE CUB PASSION

Twin CHAMPION

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T H E 2 0 2 1 F O R D M U S TA N G M A C H - E Preproduction vehicle image shown. Production models may differ. Available late 2021.

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Message From the President

July/August 2020

SUSAN DUSENBURY, VAA PRESIDENT

STAFF Publisher: Jack J. Pelton, EAA CEO and Chairman of the Board Vice President of Publications, Marketing, and Membership: Jim Busha / jbusha@eaa.org Senior Copy Editor: Colleen Walsh

Holding Pattern Clearing the way for AirVenture 2021 ABOUT NOW IS THE TIME when so

many of us under normal circumstances would be making plans for a pilot’s most favorite time of the year — AirVenture. Ordinarily, we’d be washing our planes and maybe changing the oil. We’d be looking for that perfect pair of shoes to carry us comfortably through a week of yet again exploring the grounds at EAA AirVenture Oshkosh to see what treasures we could find. We’d be excited about visiting with all of our aviation family who we have missed seeing during the past year. But this is the most unusual of times. For those of us with a passion for airplanes, we’ll have to wait another year for aviation’s greatest show on earth.

However, the planning for AirVenture 2021 has already begun.

I recovered from the disappointment of the cancellation of AirVenture pretty quickly and started looking forward to AirVenture 2021.

At Vintage we decided to take this “opportunity” (I’m trying to be positive here!) and run with it. At the time of this writing the EAA Aviation Museum and grounds are closed.

That includes our office and all of the Vintage grounds. VAA Administrative Assistant Amy Lemke is working from home. The last that I heard was that she goes to work in her pajamas with her cat in tow. Not bad duty! Right now, all of the Vintage volunteer work parties are on indefinite hold. But in spite of it all we are managing to get things done.

Copy Editor: Tom Breuer Proofreader: Meghan Plummer Graphic Designer: Cordell Walker

ADVERTISING

Contractors are allowed on the EAA grounds now, and Vintage has several crews working in Vintage Village and at the Tall Pines Café making some much needed repairs and upgrades. I think that you will all be pleased with what you see when you do fly into Wittman Regional Airport in July 2021.

Just maybe I’ll get my airplane project finished and fly something other than my Cessna 180 up to Oshkosh. Trust me. It will be a slow trip if I do!

Advertising Manager: Sue Anderson / sanderson@eaa.org

All of the programs that Vintage had planned for AirVenture 2020 will be carried forward to AirVenture 2021 along with those programs that we had scheduled for AirVenture 2021.

Current EAA members may join the Vintage Aircraft

Mailing Address: VAA, PO Box 3086, Oshkosh, WI 54903 Website: www.VintageAircraft.org Email: vintageaircraft@eaa.org

Visit www.VintageAircraft.org for the latest in information and news and for the electronic newsletter, Vintage AirMail.

Association and receive Vintage Airplane 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 Memberships Please submit your remittance with a check or draft drawn on a United States bank payable in United States dollars. Add required foreign postage amount for each membership.

Membership Service P.O. Box 3086, Oshkosh, WI 54903-3086 Monday–Friday, 8 AM—6 PM CST Join/Renew 800-564-6322 membership@eaa.org EAA AirVenture Oshkosh www.EAA.org/AirVenture

CONTINUED ON PAGE 64

PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY OF EAA ARCHIVES

888-322-4636

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1

Contents FE AT UR E S

12 The 616 Aircraft Photographers Pioneers of aviation history

By Brian R. Baker

24 Mini Multi Jason Somes and his Champion 402 Lancer

By Hal Bryan

34 A 1929 Travel Air S-6000-B This memory maker exemplifies endurance flying!

By Sparky Barnes

44 Are You Ready to Enjoy the Journey?

A Piper Cub in every hangar

By Harry Ballance

52 The Haggerty J-5A Piper Cruiser

By Budd Davisson with Jack Haggerty

2

July/August 2020

QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS? Send your thoughts to the Vintage editor at jbusha@eaa.org.

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

PHOTOGRAPHY BY LYLE JANSMA

July/August 2020 / Vol. 48, No. 4

COLUM NS COV ER S Front Scott Slocum zeros in on Jason Somes and his Champion 402 Lancer.

01

Message From the President

By Susan Dusenbury

04

Friends of the Red Barn

06

Hall of Fame Inductee 2020

08

How To? Replace Streamline Wire Terminal Ends

By Robert G. Lock

Back Connor Madison catches a 1929 Travel Air S-6000-B resting on the grass.

10

Good Old Days

60

The Vintage Mechanic Materials & Processes, Part I

By Robert G. Lock

64

Flymart

www.vintageaircraft.org 3

Friends of the

RED BARN 2020-2021

DEAR FRIENDS,

For one week every year a temporary city of about 50,000 people is created in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, on the grounds of Wittman Regional Airport. We call the temporary city EAA AirVenture Oshkosh. During this one week, EAA and our communities, including the Vintage Aircraft Association, host more than 500,000 pilots and aviation enthusiasts along with their families and friends.

With the support of the very capable VAA officers, directors, and more than 600 volunteers, the Vintage Aircraft Association annually welcomes more than 1,100 vintage showplanes throughout the week of AirVenture on our nearly 1.3-mile flightline. We continue to work to bring an array of valuable services and interesting programs to the VAA membership and to all of our Vintage Village visitors during this magical week. Across Wittman Road and in front of our flagship building, the VAA Red Barn, we will feature some really interesting airplanes, including the beautiful past Vintage Grand Champions, an array of fun and affordable aircraft, and some exciting rare and seldom-seen aircraft. In Vintage Village proper we have a hospitality service, a bookstore, a general store (the Red Barn Store), youth programs, educational forums, and much more.

As you can imagine, creating the infrastructure to support these displays, as well as the programs offered during the week, is both time-consuming and costly, but they are made possible thanks to donations from our wonderful members.

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As your president, I am inviting you on behalf of the Vintage Aircraft Association to join our association’s once-a-year fundraising campaign — Friends of the Red Barn (FORB).

The services and programs that we provide for our members and guests during AirVenture are made possible through our FORB fundraising efforts.

A donation from you — no matter how large or small — supports the dream of aviation for aviators and aviation enthusiasts of all ages and levels of involvement. We invite you to join us in supporting this dream through the Friends of the Red Barn.

I thank you in advance for your continued support of the Vintage Aircraft Association as we move this premier organization forward on behalf of our membership and the vintage aircraft movement.

If you have already made a 2020-2021 FORB contribution, thank you for your dedication and support of the vintage aircraft movement.

I look forward to seeing you all in Vintage Village at EAA AirVenture Oshkosh beginning July 26, 2021!

SUSAN DUSENBURY, PRESIDENT VINTAGE AIRCRAFT ASSOCIATION

PHOTOGRAPHY BY LYLE JANSMA, CONNOR MADISON

C A L L F O R V I N TA G E A I R CR A F T A S S O CI AT I O N

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

The person you nominate can be a citizen of any country and may be living or deceased; his or her involvement in vintage aviation must have occurred between 1950 and

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

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

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

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

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

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

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 three years, after which the nomination must be resubmitted.

Mail nominating materials to: VAA Hall of Fame, c/o Amy Lemke VAA PO Box 3086 Oshkosh, WI 54903 Email: alemke@eaa.org

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.

•Email 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 be 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 email address.

•Include any supporting material with your petition.

2020 Hall of Fame Inductee

Steve Dyer IT IS WITH THE GREATEST HONOR that the Vintage Aircraft Association has chosen Stephen Edward “Steve” Dyer as the EAA Vintage Aircraft Association Hall of Fame inductee for 2020. From 1976 until 2005 Steve was the president of Univair Aircraft Corp., a manufacturer and supplier of quality aircraft parts and supplies for general aviation.

Steve has been an avid supporter of the vintage aircraft movement throughout his lifetime. He has been instrumental in developing replacement parts to keep our aging aircraft in the air while enjoying his passion for aviation through aircraft that he has restored and flown including his Oshkosh award-winning D-17S Staggerwing Beech, a Dyercraft (obviously, his own design!), and a Stinson 108-5 just to name a few. The Stinson 108-5 was developed by Univair as a new model on the type certificate. Only the prototype was built by Univair, but 18 or 19 conversion kits were sold in the late 1960s.

Univair Aircraft Corp. was formed in the Denver, Colorado, area on February 25, 1946, by Army Air Corps veteran J.E. “Eddie” Dyer and fellow World War II veteran Don Vest. Originally formed as the Vest Aircraft Co., this new organization would later become the Univair Aircraft Corp. At its formation, the company was a full-service aircraft sales and repair facility with Don handling the sales and financing of airplanes while Eddie managed the aircraft repair part of the business.

After the tragic death of Don in an aircraft accident, Eddie became the sole proprietor of Univair. This accident occurred at about the same time that the supply of used aircraft parts was rapidly evaporating.

Steve always had a “leg up” when it came to flying the vintage aircraft in his life.

Here he prepares to handprop one of the many aircraft he has flown.

He has been instrumental in Steve Dyer

developing replacement parts to keep our aging aircraft in the air while enjoying his passion for aviation through aircraft that he has restored and flown.

Eddie became aware of the dwindling supply of airworthy aircraft parts and started manufacturing new replacement parts. Business continued along these lines until Eddie’s untimely death in 1963. It was then that Eddie’s very capable wife, Veda, took control of the company.

6 July/August 2020

PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY OF EAA ARCHIVES

Under Veda’s management the company thrived, and in 1976 Veda turned the company over to her 30-year-old son, Steve. It was under Steve’s leadership that the company added thousands of FAA-PMA approved parts. The result is that with the exception of the airline industry, Univair holds more FAA-PMA approvals than any other airframe parts manufacturer. When Piper closed its operations at the Lock Haven factory, wing ribs for the older Piper aircraft were going to be discontinued. Realizing the negative impact that this would have on general aviation, Steve then led the development of STC-approved stamped aluminum replacement ribs for most all of the older Piper aircraft that had been type certificated with the truss-type ribs. Steve had the foresight to purchase Piper’s entire inventory of available excess parts for fabric-covered airplanes. He purchased these parts for resale and for use in the development of patterns for future manufacturing. After an FAA airworthiness directive announced that “sealed” lift struts did not need the repetitive and time-consuming (costly!) inspections per the airworthiness directive, Steve saw this as an opportunity to serve the general aviation aircraft owners of strut-braced aircraft. Steve was instrumental in the development of and approval for lift struts for the entire line of Piper strut-braced aircraft. Besides supporting classic general aviation aircraft with FAA-PMA approved parts, his company also purchased the type certificates for the Ercoupe, the Stinson 108 series aircraft, and Swift aircraft as well as the Flottorp line of propellers. Without Steve’s foresight these aircraft would simply have no replacement parts support. The Swift type certificate was later sold to the Swift Museum Foundation located in Athens, Tennessee. In the early 1980s, Steve was highly involved in obtaining two STCs to replace the Franklin engine that was originally installed in the 108 series Stinsons. The STC called for use of either the Lycoming O-360 180-hp engine or the Lycoming IO-360 200-hp engine. At about the same time many of the fabric-covered airplanes of the ’50s and ’60s were developing airworthiness issues due to lack of replacement parts. In addition to the above-mentioned wing ribs, Univair manufactured and made available assembled and almost ready-to-cover FAA-PMA approved Piper aircraft wings for some of Piper’s most popular models.

These models included the J-3, PA-11, PA-12, PA-14, PA-18, PA-20, and PA-22 aircraft. Also available for sale through Univair are FAA-PMA fuselages for the J-3, and PA-18 models. In addition to the foregoing, Univair developed control surfaces, landing gears, engine cowlings, and spinners.

Fortunately for the vintage aircraft movement, approved replacement parts have also been developed by Univair for other aircraft manufacturers.

Steve and his mother Veda pose in front of his biplane.

Just one of the many awards Steve has received during his career.

In the late ’70s, Univair purchased and brought to market an STC’d kit to convert Piper’s PA-22 Tri-Pacer to a PA-22/20 Pacer. This conversion resulted in a better-performing and more aesthetically pleasing airplane. Many airplanes have been converted, and this kit is still available today.

In 2005 the management of Univair was turned over to the third generation of the Dyer family, James E. “Jim” Dyer. That same year, Steve took over as chairman of the board for the company. Today, he still serves in that capacity. He and his wife, Susan, regularly commute between Colorado and Wyoming in the family Bonanza.

www.vintageaircraft.org

7

How To? ROBERT G. LOCK

REPLACE STREAMLINE WIRE TERMINAL ENDS

Photo 3

BY ROBERT G. LOCK

STREAMLINE WIRE TERMINAL ENDS are made of high-grade

steel and heat-treated for strength. After this process the ends are plated with cadmium for surface protection against corrosion we call rust. Cadmium is a sacrificial plating process, and corrosive elements will eventually eat away the plating, exposing terminal ends to the corrosive atmosphere. When this happens the ends must be removed, cleaned, and inspected, and the plating reapplied. Photo 1 shows the effects of corrosion on terminal ends. But when you remove these ends the rigging can be affected, causing the owner to have the airplane re-rigged. But now you can use my process of replacing terminal ends without having to re-rig the airplane. Here’s how.

Photo 1

Photo 2

8 July/August 2020

First, check the wire tension of each wire before you loosen anything. This will assure the airplane will go back into rig when wires are replaced. I have a Pacific Scientific wire tensiometer that dates back to the Stearman days during World War II. It is very handy. Photo 2 shows the tensiometer in use. Record the tension of each flying wire and each landing wire; however, landing wire tension is determined by flying wire tension as they pull against each other.

The Stearman maintenance manual gives recommended wire tensions; most other old aircraft have no such data.

Loosen the flying wires, but don’t touch the landing wires because they set wing dihedral. Count the number of full turns when the flying wires are loosened, making the turns all the same for both sides of the airplane, and then mark the wires using masking tape and a pencil to reflect each wire’s location.

Remove the flying wires from the airplane and unscrew both terminal ends and jam nuts. Now, support the lower wings at the strut point, raising both wingtips to loosen the tension on the landing wires.

Loosen the jam nut but not the terminal ends and then remove each wire individually. Using a long 2-by-4, lay each landing wire on the 2-by-4 and drill holes through the terminal end, inserting a bolt to make sure alignment is correct. Photo 3 shows the wires on the 2-by-4. Carefully mark each wire and location (front landing left, aft landing left, etc.).

Then remove all terminal ends and jam nuts and install the newly plated parts. I have the parts plated with Class I type plating that is silver in color, just like the original plating as in Photo 4.

Begin by installing the landing wire terminal ends and jam nuts, putting the same number of turns in each end (I usually start with 20 complete turns) and then adjust later. Photo 4 shows the new ends just coming back from the plating shop. Once the exact length of each wire has been set, the landing

PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY OF EAA ARCHIVES

FREE SHIPPING From Univair Photo 4

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wires are reinstalled in the proper location. Once again, do not alter the length of the landing wires. Do the same thing to each of the flying wires, screwing on each terminal end by about 20 turns and install these wires. Remove the lower wingtip supports so the wings hang on the landing wires. I install cotter pins in clevis pins and align with the wires, and then I tension all flying wires to the tension reading before removing. Photo 5 shows the reinstallation of flying wires but before the final tension is set.

When tensioning the flying wires, work on both sides of the aircraft. I do not put all tension in one side because it puts a strain on the structure, and on some biplanes it can pull the wings off-center.

Center section roll wires generally have two parallel diagonal wires that place the center section centerline directly above the longitudinal axis of the aircraft. If there are two wires, measure and record tension, then remove one wire from each side to replace the terminal ends and then tension until the reading is the same.

Tension on parallel streamline wires should be within 100 pounds of each other. When tension is set, remove the remaining wires to replace the terminal ends. The center section should remain in its existing position.

I have used this method successfully on my Command-Aire and on Stearman aircraft. It has worked well. Just remember that whatever length and tension you have before removing a wire, you should have the same length and tension after you reinstall it. Otherwise, rigging will be compromised.

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Photo 5

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9

Good Old Days

From the pages of what was ...

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

10 July/August 2020

www.vintageaircraft.org 11

PIONEERS OF AVIATION HISTORY

BY BRIAN R. BAKER

IN THE LATE ’20S, following Charles Lindbergh’s

famous trans-Atlantic flight, the aviation industry began to rapidly expand in the United States and throughout the world. Aviation caught the public eye, and nearly everyone had at least some interest in it. As we all know, aviation is one of the most expensive avocations, and at the time few people could actually afford to fly or be personally involved at any level. Many people without the financial

CHECK OUT THE DIGITAL EDITION of Vintage for a photo gallery on the pioneers of aviation history.

12 July/August 2020

resources to participate directly chose a different route: aviation photography. Some people, mostly young men, began to hang around airports taking pictures of the airplanes that were in use at the time.

In 1928, Ben Heinowitz, an enthusiast from Mountainside, New Jersey, began to wonder if perhaps other people throughout the country shared the same interest. In the August 1933 issue of Model Airplane News, he wrote:

“I started in a small way back in ’28 to take pictures of representative type aircraft which I found at the local fields I frequented and did some flying from (mere passenger). After a while, as this hobby became more absorbing, I wondered if there were others through the states engaged in the same hobby. With a bit of scouting around, I made contact with those interested in exchanging aircraft photos. Returns were so gratifying, the thought of forming a club came into mind and on airing said thought, to the fellows who I had started swapping shots with, the idea over first rate, which as a result, gave us the nucleus of a club, devoted to the exchanging of aircraft photos. The club was officially organized in May 1930, with members in Washington, California, Colorado, and New Jersey.

“Since the birth of the club, we have expanded considerably, having accredited member collectors in all parts of the country and abroad.”

The organization was officially named the International Amateur Aircraft Photo Exchange, and during the ’30s many new members were accepted into the club. Prospective members had to meet the following requirements: 1. A listing of at least 50 negatives of representative

type aircraft from which prints could be made.

Foreign members were required to have only 25.

2. Members had to have a working knowledge of

photography as applied to aviation, taking photos that showed the complete plane, and giving the best detail of that particular plane.

3. Members were required to cooperate in mat-

ters related to the club and obey all rules and regulations.

4. Members were required to have a general knowl-

edge of the representative production type planes and engines and be able to provide the desired information along with photos of the planes.

Kodak 616 Camera

There doesn’t seem to be any documentary evidence to suggest that the 616 camera and film were standardized, but that is apparently what happened. At the same time, railroad photographers, who organized their activities along similar lines, used postcard cameras that shot 122-sized film, but postcard cameras were large and bulky even by 1920s standards, and the 616 camera became standard, mainly because it used the smallest-sized film that would produce an adequate-sized contact print, making enlarging unnecessary except in special situations. As most aircraft photographers during the Great Depression were operating on a financial shoestring, and nearly all did their own developing and printing, the 616 camera seemed ideal for this kind of photography.

The IAAPE developed standards for photography of airplanes that bordered on the artistic. As this developed, photographers who contacted other members for trading frequently expressed their requirements. In a March 1938 letter from Bill Yeager, an established Cleveland aircraft photographer and IAAPE member, to the then-neophyte collector William T. Larkins, Yeager stated his standards: “As to what I can use, can most always use anything in the commercial, racing, and military line. So long as it fills the following restrictions.

• Ailerons, rudder must be straight • No canvasses over cockpits, motors • No hangars or people around or in background • Doors closed in ships”

There were no dues or officers, but membership was divided into two classes: juniors and seniors. Junior members were “freelance members, corresponding and exchanging at their convenience,” while senior members were the “backbone members, active in club work right along.” The organization expanded and published its business in issues of Model Airplane News and Model Aircraft Engineer during the ’30s. The IAAPE lasted until the late ’30s, when an incident involving the publication of a photo of a Navy prototype fighter caused the club to disband.

Therefore, an acceptable photo was one in which the airplane was posed in the open with no people or objects around it, nothing in the background, with all cowlings, canopies, panels, and doors closed, with control surfaces in a neutral position and, of course, with the sun in the proper position. This was a tall order in those days, and it must have been very time-consuming for the photographer to wait for those conditions. However, since there were relatively few aircraft available to photograph, most collectors went along with these standards, and a vast number of photographs were taken and exchanged. The 616 negative became standard, a type of currency used by airplane photographers for trading.

www.vintageaircraft.org 13

PRESERVATION OF PHOTOGRAPHS AND DOCUMENTATION

CLICK HER

E TO SEE A FLIC KR GALLERY ON THE PIONEERS OF AVIATION HIST ORY

At that time, most photographers viewed themselves as collectors rather than the historians they later became. The pictures were art forms, and the objective seemed to be to amass a large collection of 616 negatives and prints of aircraft in pristine conditions and locations. Prints were usually mounted in albums, although some collectors used 3-by-5-inch card file boxes to keep them in order as new additions were received. Negatives were filed in bank-style coin envelopes, usually about 3-by-5 inches in size, with the identification typed or printed on the envelope, although a few collectors printed the type and sometimes the engine and location on the clear edges of the negatives using a fountain pen and indelible ink.

Information (which was sometimes, but not always, recorded) could include the manufacturer; model; registration or military serial number; markings; military service, unit, or owner/operator; special information, such as pilot in the case of a racing or record-breaking plane; and documentation on where and when the photo was taken. Occasionally, the name of the original photographer was also listed, but this was comparatively rare, and that still presents photo credit problems today. As negatives often changed hands several times, names of the original photographers were often lost, and photos usually get credited to the collection from which the photo was obtained.

Since the specific identification of a particular airplane is important, many photographers made sure that the license, serial number, or other markings were visible in the photo, but this was not always the case, and most of us have many photos of aircraft for which we know the make and model but not the registration or serial number.

Of the approximately 250 collectors believed to have been active in the hobby from the beginning through the ’70s, when 616 film went out of production, many did not stay active in the hobby for long, and their collections were eagerly bought up by other collectors who pulled out the material that did not duplicate what they already had. They then traded off or sold the rest to other collectors. This has extensively diffused the material, and a fortunate result of this has been the preservation of material in case a fire or other disaster causes the loss of a collection. This has happened to several collections, as has the disposal of material after the death of a collector by family members unaware of its historical value.

SECURITY TOP: North American P-51D Racer, probably Cleveland, about 1948.

MIDDLE: Republic XF-12 Rainbow Experimental Recon plane.

Probably New York, c. 1948.

BOTTOM: Boeing F4B-4. 1930s photo by William T. Larkins, probably at NAS Oakland.

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As the world moved toward war in the late ’30s, a new problem emerged — security.

Previously, military aircraft could easily be photographed, and new prototypes and service models were often photographed by collectors, mainly when these aircraft landed at civilian airfields, a common occurrence during the ’30s. Military aircraft became less accessible, and even airport police sought to prevent people from taking photos of military aircraft. Civilian airplanes were still available for photography, and as aviation expanded in the late ’30s, there was no shortage of types to photograph. Photographers also took advantage of the numerous air shows and displays, although access to flightline areas during times when good photos could be taken was sometimes difficult to get.

WORLD WAR II

A number of 616 aircraft photographers served in the military during the war, and their pictures form a priceless record of some of the aircraft used during this period. Although cameras and photography were officially prohibited on military flightlines, servicemen routinely ignored this regulation and created many valuable photos. In addition, color film, notably Kodachrome, made color slides possible, and some photographers, not all of them 616 collectors, created photos that are now prized by collectors and publishers alike, as 616 black-and-white photos do not provide the information that color photos do. A few photographers, including Bill Larkins, used 616 color film to some extent, but this seems to have been fairly rare, as color film was much more expensive than the traditional black-and-white variety. To add to the confusion, a few photographers used orthochromatic film, which causes distortion in color tones, with blacks and reds appearing similar and yellow appearing very dark. This causes untold confusion today among historians trying to determine the color of an aircraft based on black-and-white photos.

Some of the more prolific photographers, including Howard Levy, Bill Larkins, Peter Bowers, Art Krieger, Bill Balogh, Merle Olmstead, and many others, created a priceless record of some of the military aircraft they encountered during the war. Their photos are often credited in publications, and the quality of their work remains unsurpassed. By this time, some photographers came to the realization that their primary role was to be historians rather than merely collectors. As a result, they became less concerned with the artistic setting of an “in the clear” photo and more concerned with preserving a photo of the airplane in its operational environment.

TOP: Northrop A-17 taken 1940-41. Possibly Krieger.

MIDDLE: Republic P-47D South Pacific, c. 1945.

BOTTOM: Hamilton Metalplane. Information unknown.

THE POSTWAR PERIOD

After World War II, many of the old-timers slowed down, while a new generation of aircraft photographers appeared on the scene.

Those of us who began in the ’50s still had the expertise and guidance of the experts, and many of us received the opportunity to obtain prewar negatives still held as spares by older collectors. The 616 camera still reigned supreme, although some collectors were supplementing their work with 35 mm color slides. The large number of war surplus aircraft that populated American civilian airports in the early postwar period, along with the diversity of airliners and nonscheduled or supplemental air carriers, made aviation photography exciting. There was almost no security at civilian airports, allowing one to wander at will with no challenge. Military airfields were by and large off limits except during Armed Forces Day open houses, where carefully selected aircraft could be viewed and photographed by the public in less than ideal circumstances. To get decent photographs, you had to get on the line early and get your photos before the crowd arrived.

Another advantage of that period was that the majority of light aircraft at airports were in open tiedowns, not individual hangars as they are today. A visit to the local airport would yield a large number of older and sometimes unusual types, whereas today these valuable airplanes are nearly always locked away in hangars. I recall visiting many airports and photographing such types as Waco biplanes, Travel Airs, and Stinson Reliants, not to mention the large number of fabric-covered lightplanes that were so common during that time.

www.vintageaircraft.org 15

MECHANICS OF THE HOBBY

As aircraft photography developed as an established avocation during the ’30s and ’40s, certain procedures became standard. We would make the rounds of the local airports on a regular basis, photographing anything we hadn’t seen before. Most photographers shot three, or sometimes five, views of an aircraft, unless there was a reason for better coverage. Most of us shot a one-half front, side, and one-half rear view, while others shot three-quarters front, one-quarter front, side, one-quarter rear, and three-quarter rear views, and occasionally a direct front and rear photo as well. We all shot extra negatives, which used up a lot of film but which also allowed us to accumulate a selection of spare negatives for trading purposes.

Obviously, with a rarer or more unusual subject, a greater number of spares could be traded.

TRADING

Trading is what made the hobby really fun and fascinating. Although a few of us did a considerable amount of traveling, most photographers did most of their photography in their local areas. Frequent trips to the local airports would often provide an ample variety of aircraft to photograph, and with a collection of spare negatives accumulated, trading could diversify the collection. Especially prized were contacts in foreign countries or places where a lot of aviation activity occurred. Contact was made through credits stamped on the backs of prints, or sometimes through advertisements in aviation magazines, where a collector would state that he was looking for correspondents in specific places to trade 616 negatives. The respondent would send a sample of his work, describing the type of photography he did, the types of aircraft he photographed, and his overall access to local airports, and if conditions were acceptable, trading would begin. A batch of 10 to 20 negatives would be sent, and the receiver would accept the ones he wanted, returning the rest along with some of his own negatives, or those obtained from others, in trade. The system worked quite well, and most of us added some interesting and historic photos and negatives to our collections in this way. Some collectors traded prints, but most preferred negatives. A few collectors sold prints, but to the true collector, negatives were the preferred trade item. Some collectors are still involved in trading negatives — often original extra views from collections in trade for photos the collector especially wants to obtain. In addition, some collectors routinely photographed aircraft outside of their area of interest in order to obtain trading material for aircraft they were really interested in.

16 July/August 2020

TOP: Curtiss P-40N-5-CU Privately owned, Detroit Wayne Major Airport, (Now Metro) c1952. Brian Baker.

MIDDLE: Hunting Percival Provost. Iraqi markings, London, early fifties. JMG Gradidge.

BOTTOM: Curtiss P-40N. RAAF. South Pacific, c1944

THE PHOTOGRAPHER AS A HISTORIAN

TOP: Douglas B-23 Dragon U.S. Army bomber, probably Chicago area, c. 1940. Krieger.

MIDDLE: Seversky SEV-2AP. Probably Cleveland, c. 1938-39.

BOTTOM: Curtiss Kingbird. Data unknown.

In the ’50s, a number of collectors began recording more specific data with their photos. Many collectors listed the aircraft type, registration or serial number, and the place and date the photo was taken. At this time, definite identification of an aircraft was difficult unless the photographer was able to check the manufacturer’s data plate or aircraft registration, which was supposed to be displayed in the cockpit of a civilian airplane, but this was often not visible from the outside. There were no civil registers available to check an “NC” number for owner and serial number; these weren’t available from the FAA until the ’60s.

Although civil registers of prewar American civilian aircraft have now been published on such websites as www.Aerofiles.com, there was and is a gap in coverage between the end of World War II and the ’60s, and even the FAA in Oklahoma City lacks accessible data on most of the aircraft sold surplus by the military after World War II. We are better served when it comes to military aircraft, as serial number identification listings are readily obtainable from numerous sources.

Some collectors recorded the colors of the aircraft, but without federal standards, this information was not really very useful, and the use of color film made these records unnecessary. Leo J. Kohn of Milwaukee was the first collector I encountered who made extensive color notes, and he is the one who got me started recording this information.

A change that showed the shift from collecting to recording history was the decline in the purist approach to in-the-clear photography. Backgrounds were now permissible, and even support equipment and people, such as flight or ground crews, were allowable. I recall being asked by one of the major collectors years ago to trade him a negative of a Navy plane taken at NAS Oakland in the late ’30s. He wanted to trade a shot of the same type “in the clear,” as my negative had in the background a picture of the old hangar on the field. He said that in all his years photographing aircraft at Oakland, he never took a picture showing the hangar in the background, and the hangar had by then been torn down.

Another factor in aircraft photography was the recording of the condition of a particular airplane over a period of years. It was not uncommon to photograph an airplane several times during its career, with changes in paint scheme, airline markings, or actual configuration being recorded. These photos are especially useful to any researcher doing an in-depth study of a particular airplane or aircraft type. Occasionally, a photo would be taken of an aircraft immediately before the plane was destroyed in an accident or by a storm, and this increased the value of the photo. Although it wasn’t common during the 616 era, modern photographers, especially of military and airline aircraft, take at least one photo of each airplane in the unit so that they have a complete record of the unit or airline during its operations.

Often, 616 collectors are approached by serious researchers and historians seeking information on specific aircraft or units that operated the type — the intent being the publication of a book or magazine article on that particular subject. Often the reward is merely a credit line in the book and, hopefully, a copy of the book after publication, but this is better than nothing, and sometimes it’s a welcome addition to an expanding library. Of course, the owner of a negative has publication rights, and in many cases the original photographer is impossible to determine.

www.vintageaircraft.org 17

THE 616 CAMERA

TOP: Lockheed Orion. Detroit News, Wayne County Airport, c. 1936-37. Bill Balogh.

MIDDLE: Curtiss P0-1A. Hawk at Selfridge Field, Michigan, c. 1929 Ray H. Baker.

BOTTOM: Thomas Morse S-4 flying in Milwaukee area, 1950s. Leo J. Kohn.

18 July/August 2020

Although there were a number of manufacturers of 616 cameras over the years, the Kodak Monitor Six-16 seemed to be the favorite of collectors. There was a Monitor Six-20, but it didn’t become standard. This was perhaps the top of the line for Kodak. It was a folding-bellows-type camera that shot an eight-exposure roll of film. The 616 film negative measured 2-3/4 by 4-1/2 inches. In the ’50s, Verichrome Panchromatic and Super XX were the common types of Kodak film, although there were other producers, especially in Europe. Super XX was a faster film than Verichrome, but it was also more expensive, so most of us used Verichrome, which sold for 50 cents to a dollar a roll in the ’50s. In addition, another film size, 116, also existed. It had the same dimensions, but the spool was slightly different.

The 616 Monitor featured an anastigmat lens with a Supermatic shutter with speeds up to 1/400 of a second and f-stop openings from f-22 down to f-4.5. The lens rotated outward for focusing. A tripod mount was provided, but focusing was done by estimate only, and a light meter was necessary — although most of us shot so much film that we had a standard setting for bright sunlight and a standard focus setting for small or large airplanes. Sighting could be done using the reflective sight, for which the photographer looked down into the sight glass, or with a direct-view folding sight mounted on the top of the camera. There was an automatic film counter on the top of the camera that most of us never used, as we just shot eight shots or looked at the camera’s red glass indicator to check the number of exposures left in the camera. A trigger was mounted on the top of the camera, but there was a part of the trigger mechanism just below the lens that could be operated by the middle finger while using the direct sight, and this worked better and also reduced camera shake. A delayed-action shutter was also mounted on the lens, but I rarely saw this used in aircraft photography. The film-rolling handle was located on the left side of the top of the camera, but most of us removed it and remounted it inverted to create a better grip that allowed faster rolling, not to mention blackened fingers at the end of a long day’s shooting, as the metal on the handle tended to rub off with extended use.

The camera had some problems that were never solved.

The slightest jar could knock the camera lens out of line, resulting in out-of-focus pictures, and this would not be known until the film was developed, sometimes weeks later.

Another problem was the bellows, which tended to dry out and develop light leaks over time. My solution was to leave the camera open all the time and cover the bellows with black electrical tape, which made the camera bulkier to handle. On the other hand, it probably still doesn’t leak today, 30 years after I stopped using it.

These cameras were bulky, fragile, and awkward to use. No telephotos were available, and its eight-exposure limit required frequent reloading. But the 616 camera served us well, and I would suspect that most photos of airplanes taken from the late ’20s until at least the late ’60s were taken on 616 film. The 616 camera certainly has played a premier role in the preservation of aviation history.

THE DEMISE OF 616 PHOTOGRAPHY

In the mid-1970s, Kodak stopped the production of 616 film, long after it had manufactured its last 616 camera. This effectively ended 616 aircraft photography in the United States. A few collectors hoarded large quantities of the film, but it was used up rather quickly. I bought about 100 rolls in 1975 and ran out in 1976. Some photographers switched to 120/620 film, but it never replaced 616. Most of us switched to 35 mm color slides, and this is the most common medium for aircraft photography today, although many other formats are also in use. Now we trade 35 mm color slides instead of 616 negatives, but the process is still the same.

The advantages of smaller, more technologically sophisticated cameras were significant. Modern cameras have automatic metering, computer chips to adjust light and speed settings, autowind systems, and adaptability for zoom lenses and telephotos, as well as built-in flash units. They are more robust and less easily damaged, and they’re certainly more useful in air-to-air photography. Modern 35 mm cameras are relatively inexpensive, but they are probably on their way out as digital photography takes over the market. Digital photography simplifies the process, and the new equipment available makes aircraft photography much easier and more economical.

TOP: Grumman F8F-1. French, probably Indo China, c. 1948. Unknown.

MIDDLE: Northrop YRB-49A. Stored in desert near Muroc, California (now Edwards), early ‘50s. Doug Olson.

BOTTOM: Boeibng B-50A at Boeing factory, late ‘40s. Probably Peter Bowers.

PRESERVATION OF THE COLLECTIONS

A major concern associated with 616 aircraft photograph collections involves their preservation and accessibility to future historians. Some negative collections have been donated to museums, historical societies, and university libraries, but most institutions do not have the resources to catalog and print the photos, much less make them available to researchers. A few collectors and their heirs have attempted to sell prints by mail or over the internet, with varying results. Most collections have been sold to other collectors over the years.

It’s an old practice, but at least it keeps the material available in some cases. Probably the best place for the collections would be organizations like EAA, which is dedicated to the preservation of aviation history and will probably never go defunct.

Another possibility would be a university with an established aviation history department that is heavily involved in research activity and can guarantee that its collections remain accessible to bona fide aviation historians and writers.

Although aircraft photography today is highly sophisticated, the originators of the hobby — or art — began in the late ’20s, developed the skills and techniques, and set the standards for modern-day historical preservation. The old negatives are usually of very high quality, and prints can be made easily using a contact printer or digital scanner.

THE PHOTOGRAPHERS

Following is a list of individuals believed to have been active 616 photographers from the late ’20s until the mid-’70s. If anyone can provide more information on this subject, please contact the author through the editor at jbusha@eaa.org.

www.vintageaircraft.org 19

LIST OF PHOTOGRAPHERS BELIEVED TO HAVE BEEN 616 AIRCRAFT PHOTOGRAPHERS AND NEGATIVE TRADERS

Allison, R.H.

Jamestown, New York

Anderson, O.K.

Arlington, Texas

Deigan, Edgar

New York City

Collection to Bob Esposito

Andrews, Harold

Washington, D.C.

Active, 1975

DeMarchi, Italo

Venice, Italy

1950s

Apostolo, Georgio

Italy

1950s

Deschenes, Paul

Sgt. USAF

Dickey, Fred C.

Armstrong, Bob

Sold photos as Airphotos; 1950s

Davidson, Jesse

Later changes to Oakes, 1940-1941

Arnold, Henry

San Diego

1960s

Dickson, Robert L.

Artof, Henry

Brooklyn, New York

Later Los Angeles

Donawwto, Bude

Attwood, Bob

Seattle

Prewar; 1933 IAAPE

Duncan, L.M.

Auerbach, Will Dale

Oakland, California

Boeing School of Aeronautics

Durand, John

Bachmann, A.L.

Newark, New Jersey

Airline mechanic; Eastern?

Bagoff, David

Brooklyn, New York

Prewar

Baker, Brian

Michigan, Arizona (your author)

1951-1976

Eckert, Howard D.

New York City

Prewar; IAAPE

Balogh, William J.

Detroit

WWII pilot; my mentor

Ederr, Bern

Baltimore

Prewar

Bamberger, Fred

New York City

Prewar; IAAPE

Engelhardt, Dean

St. Louis

Banfield, Greg

Sydney, Australia

1960s

Enich, Lee

Los Angeles

Prewar

Esposito, Robert

Somerdale, New Jersey

Works for FAA

Bates, Corbett K.

Oakland, California

Collection to Larkins and Geen, 1940

Asheville, North Carolina

Prewar

Durrenberger, Justin

Brooklyn, New York

Prewar; IAAPE

Dyson, James

Australia

Beer, Art C.

Australia

IAAPE; 1930s

Feist, William R.

Boston

Prewar

Beeukes, L.B.

Baltimore

Prewar

Flax, Eli

New York City

Prewar

Benner, Norman

Philadelphia

Prewar

Franforter, An Freeman, Fred G.

New York City

1940s to 1960s

Brinati, Vincent

New York City

Prewar; known as “Beans”

Fahey, James C.

New York City and Washington, D.C.

Author; prewar

Berlepsch, Lewis E.

New Haven, Connecticut

Fleming, William N.

New Jersey

Prewar

Berry, Peter

England-Scotland

Bennis, Steve

Galloway, Cedric

California

Prewar

Besecker, Roger

Gann, Harry

Phoenix, Los Angeles

Douglas Aircraft Co.

Blanchard, Fred

Geen, Harold

Oakland, California

Collection sold to Olson, 1952

Gelbudas, Anthony

Milwaukee

1950s and 1960s

Bodie, Warren

Haynesville, North Carolina

Border, Marvin J.

Buffalo, New York

Prewar

Goldsmith, Julian R.

Oak Park, Illinois

Prewar

Bowers, Peter M.

Seattle

Author, pilot, designer; EAA, AAHS

Goodhead, George

Tulsa, Oklahoma

Pilot; prewar

Branam, Curtiss

Los Angeles

Prewar

Gradidge, Michael

London

1950s and 1960s; later name change

Brashear, A. Ray

Los Angeles

Prewar

Green, Arthur

Brinsley, Harold(?)

Bronx, New York

Brodsky

Brooklyn, New York

Brown, Ralph I.

Decatur, Illinois

Budoff, Norman

Brooklyn, New York

Bulban, Erwin

New York, Dallas

Prewar

Hamilton, Charles, V.

Miami, Oklahoma

Prewar

Burgess, Bob

St. Louis

1950s and 1960s

Haney, E.C. “Handy”

Dallas, Fort Worth

1950s and 1960s

Prewar

Hardesty, Bergan

Los Angeles

Prewar; IAAPE had World War I photos

Burke, R.S.

Gresham, Deward B.

Alameda, California

1950s

Groffman, Norman

Brooklyn, New York

Prewar

1950s and 1960s

Hafter, Abbott

Brooklyn, New York

Prewar

Hagedorn, Danial

1 Shot with Hiller

Caler, John W.

California?

Restored ME-109G?

Hardman, Joe

Canary, Jack

Oak Park, Illinois

Prewar

Hare, Bob

Carter, Anthony

Australia?

Hasse, J.M.F.

Carter, Dustin

California

Hay, John

Casker, Johnny

New York City

Prewar

Hawkins, Jim

Brooklyn, New York

Prewar; IAAPE

Chvala, J.V.

Chicago

IAAPE; prewar

Heinowitz, Ben H.

Mountainside, New Jersey

Prewar; IAAPE, founder

Clark, Henry

New York and New Jersey

Prewar; flew J-3 on floats

Hiller

Brooklyn, New York

Prewar

Coats, Ed

Tasmania, Raleigh, North Carolina

1950s and 1960s; originally English

Holmquist, Earl

Oakland, California (SFO)

1950s; aircraft mechanic

Cole, Ron

England

Hosley, Mac

New York City

Collins, John

Dallas

Cooke, David

New York City

Hunt, M.C.

La Grange, Illinois

Prewar

Coombs, Logan

Minneapolis

Illing, Richard J.

Lake Mahopac, New York

Prewar

Cooper, Kipp

Los Angeles

Prewar

Irons, Gordon

Vancouver, British Columbia

Prewar

D’Appuzo, Nick

New York City

Homebuilt designer

Jackson, Wally “Tex”

Elizabeth, New Jersey

Prewar

Darby, E.C. “Bunny”

New Zealand

Jacobson, Vernon

Chicago

Prewar

20 July/August 2020

Prewar

1931; prewar; may be Navy Harrison, New York

Huefner, Jack

Jameson, Bud

Los Angeles

Jansson, Clayton

San Francisco

Prewar

Joerns, B.

New York City

Johnson, Chalmers A.

San Francisco

Johnson, David

Rockhampton, Queensland, Australia

1950s and 1960s

Moore, R.O.

Johnson, Gene (R.R.)

Franklin, Pennsylvania

Prewar; also Glendale, California

Morrison, Robert C.

California

Nawrot, R.I.

California

Prewar

Kasulka, Duane

Millerin, Roy

Elyria, Ohio

Prewar

Mitchell, John C.

Los Angeles

Prewar

Modlin, C.T. Jr.

Houston

Moore, E.R./R.R. Ned

Ysleta, Texas

Prewar

Kaczanowicz, John

Massachusetts

Prewar; signed prints “Katzy”

Nieto, Joe

Texas Prewar

Kauer, Donald F.

New York City

Prewar

Niffenegger, Fred Jr.

St. Petersburg, Florida

Prewar

Kaufman, H.C. “Clif”

Baltimore

Prewar

Nolen, Harold

Oakland, California

Prewar

Kelman, Morton B.

New York City

Oakes, Paul*

Salem, Massachusetts

Prewar; was Paul Duschenes

Kemp, Burton

Chicago

1950s

O’Dell, Robert T.

New Jersey

Sold collection to Challenge Publications

King, Phillip C.

Long Beach, California

Prewar

Olmstead Merle

Paradise, California

Master Sgt., 8th AF World War II; author

Prewar

Olson, Douglas D.

San Francisco

Luscombe pilot; 1950s on

Koch, Charles Kohn, Gregory C.

Milwaukee

Leo’s brother

Ostrowski, David

St. Louis

Now in Fairfax, Virginia; used Dave Oster

Kohn, Leo J.

Milwaukee

Gregory’s brother

Palmer, Williams

Los Angeles

Prewar

Parnell, Neville

Sydney, Australia

1960s

Charlotte, North Carolina

Prewar

Kopitzke, Bob Kossack, Charles W.

Chicago

Prewar; IAAPE

Patterson, Reid

Krieger, Adolf “Art”

Chicago

World War II B-24 gunner; later California

Paul, Lionel

Kuhn, Gary

Minneapolis

Shot 620, traded 616; Latin American

Pegdan, Al

Pittsburgh

Prewar; IAAPE

Prewar; killed in World War II

Peltz, Steve

London

1950s and 1960s

Kulick, Harold W. Kuster, Mike

Brooklyn, New York

Prewar; IAAPE

Phillips, Art

Seattle

Prewar

Larkins, William T.

San Francisco

Prewar; founder, AAHS; author

Phillips, Chester W.

Moorehead, Minnesota

Prewar

Phillips, Oliver R.

Seattle

Prewar; IAAPE

Prewar

Pinnell, Bill

Brooklyn, New York

Prewar; IAAPE

Larson, Jim Lavelle, Don

New York City

Leavitt, Robert

Georgia

Shot a few 616s, some color 616s

Pleakis, Dominick

Levy, Howard

Brooklyn, New York

Prewar; shot during World War II

Polk, Irwin

Lippencott, Harvey

Connecticut

Lougheed, Jack

Detroit

Lucabaugh, David W.

Annapolis, Maryland

Prewar Newark, New Jersey

Prewar; IAAPE

Rankin, David A.

Malden, Massachusetts

1950s; MASS-ANG for many years

Ranson, Wilford

Los Angeles

Prewar

Reed, Boardman C.

Pasadena, Chico, California

Prewar

Reisonger, Homer

Cleveland

Prewar Prewar

Price, Arthur Prewar

Lundahl, Eric MacSorley, Frank

D.C. area

Malone, Al

New York City

Air Force

Rice, E.J.

Detroit

Malone, Pete

New York City

Prewar

Ronald, A.M.

Minesing, Ontario

Maloney, Edward

Chino, California

Founder, Planes of Fame Museum

Russell, Dave

New York City

Hartin, Harold G.

New York, Miami

Prewar; Grumman photographer

Salo, Mauno

Martin, R.R.

Sanford, F. Kenneth

Prewar, 1934 Prewar?

Los Angeles

Prewar

Mathews, Leslie

England

Prewar

Roos, Fred

Mayborn, Mitch

Dallas, Fort Worth

Airline pilot?

Sarkis, Pete

New York City

Prewar

Schuler, Charles

Dallas

Prewar

McCallum, LeRoy McCash, Don

Palo Alto, California

Prewar; IAAPE

McCormick, Harold

Detroit, California

USAF; collection to Krieger?

Selikoff, Joe

Brooklyn, New York

Prewar

McClenney, Ferrill

Dallas

Prewar

Shalvoy, C.E.

Los Angeles

Prewar; IAAPE

McCullon, Ed

Long Beach, California

Prewar

Sharp, Walter/Wallace

Oakland, California

Prewar; IAAPE

McLarren, Robert

Los Angeles

Prewar

Sheetz, Charles

McNulty, Jack

Toronto

Prewar

Shertzer, Frank

Oakland, California

Prewar

McRae, Jack

New York City

Prewar; aeronautical engineer

Schmidt, A.U. (Al)

Kansas City, Missouri

Prewar; IAAPE

Meehan, Kenneth

Australia or New Zealand

Scott, Clark

Glendale, California

Prewar; IAAPE

Meese, Edwin

Baltimore

Seeley, R.C. “Carson”

Linthicum, Maryland

1960s

Menard, David W.

Lombard, Illinois

Shipp, Warren D.

New York City

Prewar

Mesko, Jim

Shyrock, E.L. “Ed”

Wilkinsburg, Pennsylvania

Prewar; IAAPE

Meyer, D.

Smalley, Lawrence

San Francisco

1950s

USAF; later at AFM; writer

Schureman

www.vintageaircraft.org 21

Smith, George Milton

Florida

Prewar

Sommerich, E.M.

St. Louis

Prewar; career USAF; postwar

Soumouile(?)

Paris

Postwar unknown

Stainer, Brian

England

Postwar

Staines, G.E. “Ed”

Australia

Prewar; IAAPE

Steeneck, William

New York City

Postwar; airline mechanic

Stevens, R.W. “Bob”

Baltimore

Prewar; IAAPE

Stollar, Leonel

Oakland, California

Strasser, Emil

Akron, Ohio

Strnad, Frank

Long Island, New York

Stuart, Cliff

Toronto

Aeroplane Photo Supply

Stuckey, Robert

Minneapolis

Commercial pilot

Sullivan, Jim

East Coast?

Sumney, Kenneth M.

Pittsburgh

Prewar

Sutter, Art

Oakland, California

Prewar

Swanborough, Gordon

England

Swisher, William

Los Angeles

Prewar

Tabio, Ernesto

Havana, Cuba

Prewar; IAAPE

Taylor, Robert L.

Ottumwa, Iowa

Founder, AAA; now Blakesburg, Iowa?

Tenety, James Jr.

Corona, New York

Prewar

Thorell, Henry

Bridgeport, Connecticut

Prewar

Trask, Charles N.

New York City

Career Army

Troop, Peter

Toronto

Collection sold to Olson, 1956

Ulrich, L. Russell

Washington (D.C.?)

Flew LTA in World War II

Underwood, John

Los Angeles

Author, historian; may have shot 616

Van Sickle, B.

Hamilton, Ontario

Prewar; IAAPE

Walker, P.T.

Ashford, Kent, U.K.

Prewar; IAAPE

Walsh, Don

Oakland, California

Prewar; IAAPE

Weaver, Truman Whitmer, Arthur L.

Oakland, California

Prewar; IAAPE

Williams, Gordon S.

Seattle

Prewar; IAAPE; well-known photographer

Williams, Joe

New York City

Prewar

Wilkie, J.S.

Plandome, New York

Prewar

Wiltshire, Norman

Australia

Sydney or Melbourne; 1950s and 1960s

Winkler, Gilbert

Brooklyn, New York

Prewar

Winstead, George

Prewar

Wommack, Jim

North Carolina

Wischnowski, Edgar

Washington, D.C.

Yeager, William F.

Cleveland

Young, Hugh J.T.

Winnipeg, Manitoba

Prewar

Prewar; IAAPE

BRIAN R. BAKER is a retired high school and college history and English instructor. He has a master’s degree in history and started photographing airplanes with a 616 camera in 1951 when he was in junior high school. His has more than 30,000 616 negatives, not to mention a larger collection of color slides and digital photos, all of aircraft. He is also a commercial pilot with instrument and instructor ratings and does tailwheel conversion training. He owned a classic Luscombe 8A Silvaire but recently passed it on to his son, who is an airline pilot. He currently lives in Sun City, Arizona.

He is interested in contacting anyone who has any information about the 616 collectors listed in the article, as this project is far from finished.

Note: The photographs that will illustrate this article consist of several black-and-white photos of groups of collectors, a photo of a Kodak Six-16 Monitor camera, and examples of some of the negatives I have in my collection, illustrating the formats required by collectors in the ’30s and ’40s.

22 July/August 2020

TOP: Group of airplane photographers, probably at Dayton, Ohio, Air show, in early ‘50s.Photo from William T. Larkins.

MIDDLE: Group of airplane photographers, NSAS Oakland, 1956 (I was there). People are (L-R) W.T. Larkins, Frank Strnad, Dou Olson, Brian Baker, Chalmers Johnson. Unknown. 616 photo sent to me by William T. Larkins.

BOTTOM: William T. Larkins, about 25 years ago, taking a photo from the back seat of a Stinson L-5.

C H A R G E D T H E

A L L- E L E C T R I C

F O R F O R D

R E S E R V E N O W AT F O R D . C O M Terms and conditions apply. Preproduction vehicle images simulated. Production models may differ. Available late 2021.

TA K E O F F M U STA N G

M AC H - E

JASON SOMES AND HIS CHAMPION 402 LANCER

BY HAL BRYAN

t just looked fun,” said Jason Somes, EAA Lifetime 623505, of Santa Rosa Valley, California, describing his first reaction to seeing a 1963 Champion Lancer 402 for sale on Barnstormers.com. “I mean, it’s just a neat airplane. What can I say?”

The Champion Lancer, which was built and sold as an inexpensive multiengine trainer, traces its roots back to Aeronca, manufacturer of classics like the 7-series Champion — always just the Champ to most of us. Aeronca — from Aeronautical Corporation of America — was founded in Ohio in 1928 and started producing the C-2 the following year. During World War II, the company produced a tandem trainer called the Defender, the three-seat TG-5 glider, and the L-3, a light liaison airplane. As the war wound down, the company focused on the civilian market, introducing the

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PHOTOGRAPHY BY SCOTT SLOCUM

Champ and the 11-series Chief, which shared a name but little else with one of the company’s prewar designs. The four-seat Sedan came around in 1947.

In 1951, after 23 years of producing more than 50 different types, Aeronca got out of the aircraft business and switched its focus to building components for a number of other companies, eventually becoming a division of Magellan Aerospace. That may have been the end, of sorts, for the Aeronca Aircraft Corp., but it wasn’t the end of Aeronca’s aircraft. In 1954, a man named Robert Brown purchased the type certificate for Aeronca’s last Champ, the 7EC, and formed a company called Champion Aircraft Corp. in Osceola, Wisconsin. Champion Aircraft produced a range of aircraft for the next 15 years or so, all of them based to one degree or another on the 7-series, including the Citabria and its derivative, the 8-series Decathlon.

Champion was acquired by Bellanca in 1970, and its assets were sold to the American Champion Aircraft Corp. in 1988. www.vintageaircraft.org 25

The front cockpit is equipped with a yoke, while the rear cockpit holds with tandem Aeronca tradition and is equipped with a stick. Also of interest is the “phantom” landing gear switch that does nothing but change the color of the three lights next to it, but added to the airplane’s short-lived utility as a multiengine trainer.

JASON’S JOURNEY

“I started building plastic models as a young child, as most do,” Jason said. “I started building planes probably aged 7 or something — plastic models. And then I started finding a way to put motors in them — power-driven, World War II fighters — and putting motors in the propellers, which were [only] moderately successful but gave me something to do.”

When he was a teenager, he started flying radio-controlled models, and that led him to a fateful encounter.

“I met a guy at the model field at age 16; he was a United Airlines pilot,” Jason said. “And he took me under his wing to come out to his hangar, clean airplanes, do odd projects in trade for learning to fly. He offered me either money, which I … didn’t really need … or to learn to fly. So I think I worked like 16 hours for every hour of flying time.”

Jason’s first 25 hours or so of dual with that pilot, whose name is Dan Gray, were in an airplane that most people wouldn’t think of as a primary trainer — a Pitts S-2B. “Yeah, it was the first airplane I took off [in], the first airplane I landed,” he said. “On my first flight I did a roll, my second flight I did a loop. … There was no ball in the Pitts, so you just get your body used to what feels right and what doesn’t feel right.”

When it came time to solo, and then finish his private, he transitioned to a much more traditional trainer, a Cessna 150. You would think that the transition from a hot rod like the Pitts to the gentle and forgiving 150 would have been easy, but it wasn’t at first.

26 July/August 2020

“As I was going down the runway in this 150 my first time, the nose was darting back and forth,” he said. “In the Pitts I would always dance on the rudder pedals, right?

But keep it straight. … Dan says [to] stop the airplane. He goes, ‘Now put your feet on the floor and push the throttle forward.’ I’m like, ‘You’re kidding me.’ He says, ‘No, just do it.’ And we locked heads a little bit, but basically he said, ‘Look, you don’t need to be working the rudder like you do on the Pitts.’”

Jason has fond memories of those early days.

“Dan was a good instructor, a lot of aircraft experience, a lot of teaching in Pitts,” he said. “He was just a great mentor of mine growing up, and he just retired out of United actually three or four months ago as a 787 captain.”

When Jason told Dan that he wanted to be a pilot, Dan’s advice was as insightful and unconventional as the idea of giving Jason his first dual in the Pitts.

“He goes, ‘Look, everyone wants to be a pilot,’” Jason said. “He goes, ‘Here’s what I suggest you do. Go get your maintenance, go get your A&P. Because you can always get your further ratings.’ And I did that, and it wound up being probably the best career advice ever for me.”

By the time he turned 20, Jason had finished his A&P mechanic certificate and gotten a job at a corporate flight department working on a Falcon 50 and a Gulfstream III in Venice, California. That same year, while many of his peers would have been studying in college and racking up student loan debt, Jason bought a house — not an easy thing to afford in Southern California. He rented rooms out to some local flight instructors who were doing their best to build time.

PHOTOGRAPHY PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY

BY SCOTT OF RON SLOCUM PRICE

“It’s funny, those original few guys that were renting from me are still my friends, and they chose airline careers, and I’ve been watching their struggles and furloughs and whatnot through the years,” he said. “They’re all doing very well, don’t get me wrong. But at age 20, I was doing I’d say fairly well as a mechanic, and they were struggling trying to cut their teeth in aviation as far as the flying side goes.”

Over the years, Jason continued to build up his certificates and ratings on his own timetable, and then he got the chance to transition from the maintenance side of corporate aviation to the pilot side.

“And now I’m just doing the corporate flying thing,” he said. “I fly a Gulfstream 650 for a very prominent Southern California-based company, and it gives me a lot of free time to do my hobbies and activities. … It’s a nice, challenging airplane to fly, and I work with some great people and fly some great people around. So I’m very fortunate.”

Obviously, Jason flies for fun, too.

“If I’m going to go on a trip, and if I know I’m going to be away for a week or two, I try to fly all my airplanes before I go. And then when I get home, I do it again,” he said. “I actually fly less when I’m working than when I’m at home.”

All of his airplanes? Yes, Jason has an interesting and enviable fleet. He owns, either outright or as part of a partnership, a Pitts S-2C, a Cessna 150, an A36 Bonanza, an L-29 Delfin, a MiG-17, and a WWII-era Schweizer TG-2 that’s currently on loan to a museum. Speaking of museums, Jason also flies as a wing leader for the Southern California Wing of the Commemorative Air Force and its associated WWII Aviation Museum. The organization has 13 flyable airplanes, and Jason gets to fly all of them. His pilot certificate is sprinkled with authorizations to fly Bearcats, Zeros, Mustangs, Spitfires, you name it.

But the airplane that most recently captured his attention was the Lancer.

“I pulled the airplane out to fly it one day and my airplanes were all stacked in my hangar, and everything I own is single-engine other than the Lancer. And this gentleman comes up to me and says, ‘You know, that airplane won’t maintain altitude … if you lose an engine.’ I turned to him and said, ‘Nor will anything else in my hangar.’”

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ATTENTION-GETTER

The Lancer was arguably the second-most unusual airplane produced by Champion Aircraft during its heyday (see the sidebar for the aircraft that gets the first-place nod.) The prototype, which first flew in 1961, was an outgrowth of the company’s 7FC Tri-Traveler, essentially a tricycle-gear version of the Champ. While the prototype used two Continental C95s, the production versions were equipped with a pair of 100-hp O-200s mounted in nacelles on the upper surface of the wing. The main gear is mounted directly under the nacelles, making the airplane look a bit like a baby Britten-Norman Islander.

The Lancer was built using traditional steel tube and fabric construction, and when it was introduced in 1963, the retail price was $12,500. That works out to a bit more than $100,000 today, which seems like a huge number until you remember that it’s equivalent to the price of an upper-midrange LSA. The Lancer was targeted at flight schools that were looking to help train a generation of airline pilots, and its major competitor at the time was the more complex — and, yes, more capable — Piper Apache. The Apache was also more expensive by far, selling new in 1962 for $45,000, or more than $385,000 in today’s dollars.

One of the most interesting things about the airplane aside from its overall rarity is what you find in the cockpit.

To make the airplane more valuable as a trainer, Champion introduced what Budd Davisson aptly referred to, in a piece about the type he wrote for EAA almost a quarter century ago, as “phantom controls.” (“Champion Lancer,” EAA Sport Aviation, November 1995.)

The first of these is a gear switch. That’s not normally an odd thing to find in a light twin, but in the case of the fixed-gear Lancer, it does absolutely nothing. Well, almost nothing.

“You take the switch and put it up, and the lights go out; put the switch down, the lights come on,” Jason said. “It’s a complete training aid.” As quirky as it seems, it would certainly build up some muscle memory, and it’s arguably no weirder than airline pilots practicing their flow using laminated posters of their instrument and control panels. While Jason’s doesn’t, some Lancers also included dummy prop levers for the same reason, even though all of them use fixed-pitch propellers. Even the flight controls themselves are unusual.

“It’s a unique airplane in that the rear seat has a stick like the Citabria or Champ or Decathlon would,” he said. “[But] the front seat has a yoke.”

There is some debate when it comes to the total number of Lancers built, but many sources suggest that the final number was 26. Of these, nine are still registered in the United States, and Jason knows of maybe three that are flyable. It’s likely that Champion had higher expectations for the airplane, but in spite of the “phantom controls,” the FAA eventually frowned on the airplane’s limitations.

In the year and a half or so that he’s owned the airplane, Jason has met several people who got their multiengine rating in Lancers, but that all happened in a fairly narrow period of time.

According to Jason, the large exhausts on the upper surface of the wing make the O-200s sound like IO-550s.

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PHOTOGRAPHY BY SCOTT SLOCUM

“Then the FAA … said, ‘Wait a second, you’re giving a multiengine rating to a guy, you can’t feather the engines, you can’t raise the landing gear, yeah. Maybe not,’” Jason said. “Because the guy is going to go out on a 421 or a King Air and go hurt himself.” It wasn’t long before the FAA put a limitation on the airplane that effectively killed its viability as a multiengine trainer.

“If you get your rating in a Lancer,” Jason said, “it’s only good for the Lancer. … Not a single flight school wanted it after that, so I assume they sold off to personal collections and that’s it.”

Jason’s airplane ended up in the collection of the Mid America Flight Museum in Mount Pleasant, Texas, and he bought it from the organization about 18 months ago.

“When I bought the airplane from the museum, they go, ‘Yeah, this airplane gets more attention than our P-51 Mustang does,’” he said.

“And I’ll tell you it’s true, because I fly our P-51 and our other fighters here at the museum.

When you fly that airplane, the Lancer, the curiosity is huge. And when you land at airports, like these where we’re fuel-stopping and coming back, you get the most interesting people coming out. … It’s interesting, most people that come up that don’t know what it is think it’s a seaplane. I get that all the time. They all think it’s amphibious. I think the only way to make that airplane perform worse would be to make it amphibious.”

PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY OF HAL BRYAN

The Champion 7JC Tri-Con

ANOTHER RARITY While working on this story, we came across another uncommon descendant of the Champ: the 7JC Tri-Con. Overall, the airplane looks like a typical 7-series Champ until you get to the landing gear. It’s a sort of reverse tricycle configuration, as if you took a Tri-Traveler and started nudging the nose wheel back toward the tail, then changed your mind and stopped halfway.

Twenty-five of them were reportedly built, and the type certificate specifically spells out that the airplane could be converted to a 7EC taildragger. There are two currently listed in the FAA database, one in Texas and one in Illinois, both registered to corporate entities. A third one, described as complete but not legally airworthy, sold at auction in 2017, but it was deregistered in 2018, as was, coincidentally, the example in the photo above. If anyone out there knows more about any surviving 7JCs, we’d love to hear from you. Drop us a line at editorial@eaa.org.

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Like its more traditional predecessors, the Lancer was a simple and straightforward design, built as a creative alternative to more costly multiengine trainers.

JUST FLYING AROUND

Other than some basic maintenance, Jason hasn’t had to do much of anything on the airplane.

“No modifications, no upgrades, no nothing. No other work,” he said. “Just flying around.”

As for flying the airplane, Jason keeps it simple.

“The airplane, it has two speeds,” he said. “[One for] climb and landing, and the other one’s cruise, which is slightly higher than the other two. I climb out at 85 and come in at 85.”

In cruise, at something just north of 100 mph, Jason plans a fuel burn of about 6 gph per side — 12 gph total.

With 26 gallons in each of two wing tanks, that gives him plenty of endurance.

“I’ve flown the airplane three and a half hours, no problem,” he said. “It’s got plenty of gas.”

Speaking of cruise, that’s when another of the airplane’s many quirks manifests itself, and it stems from the fact that the throttle, mixture, and carb heat controls are mounted on the ceiling.

“When your hands are up on them it seems to be pretty comfortable and pretty normal,” Jason said. “But like for me, once you’re cruising for quite a while and you want to change the power, you instinctively go to what is now the elevator and rudder trim, which is where the throttle is on any classic Citabria, Decathlon, or Scout.”

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At the lower end of the speed spectrum, the Lancer proves to be quite docile.

“It doesn’t stall, it just sinks,” Jason said. “I’ve never gotten the airplane to break on me. It just sinks. … It’s never dropped a wing, never broken on me, never departed controlled flight.”

When it’s time to land, getting it to slow down isn’t an issue.

“When you get the nose up, they become so draggy, with two propellers at idle, two big cowlings, all the struts and landing wires and flying wires and the tail and all the whatnot,” he said. “So you chop it right off the runway, rotate, and put it on.”

That big, long main gear looks like it can take a lot of abuse, and Jason said that it does. “It’s not an airplane you’re going to grease on,” he said. “It’s a bit more of an arrival. And I’d say success is if you could hold the nose wheel off. If you can just touch the mains, arrive on them, and hold the nose wheel off, you’ve done a good landing in a Lancer, rather than plopping it all on and banging it on hard enough to where the nose drops.”

Interestingly, Jason also pointed out that he finds the airplane easier to land from the back seat, with the stick, than he does in the front with the yoke, even though, in spite of the engine nacelles, the visibility is a bit better in the front.

PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY OF RON PRICE

BUT WHAT IF YOU LOSE AN ENGINE?

“Everyone gets all hung up about engine failures in twins,” Jason said. “I pulled the airplane out to fly it one day and my airplanes were all stacked in my hangar, and everything I own is single-engine other than the Lancer. And this gentleman comes up to me and says, ‘You know, that airplane won’t maintain altitude … if you lose an engine.’ I turned to him and said, ‘Nor will anything else in my hangar.’”

Jason is pragmatic when it comes to the prospect of an engine failure.

“It doesn’t have enough power in the [remaining] operating engine to get you into any trouble,” he said. “So the airplane is not going to roll over on you or do anything silly. It’s just going to lose some power and say, ‘Okay, we’re heading downhill, not unlike any other single-engine airplane.’”

One of Jason’s favorite things about the engines is how they sound.

“So it’s a tiny exhaust going into a big tube,” he said. “That comes out over the top of the wing on the flap, and it sounds throaty; it just sounds like it’s got a big IO-550 or something. It sounds like it’s going to be impressive, but it’s not.”

For all its charms, Jason actually thinks the airplane is a great platform for multiengine training.

“I think it’s a fantastic multitrainer because it’s got nose-wheel steering on the pedals, like any smaller airplane tends to, but they’re not very effective,” he said. “The engines, as small as they are, with a slight power change on one side and the other is far more effective than the steering. … I don’t want to really use the steering other than for a big, tight turn. … I sail and I use power only, which I think makes it a really good trainer for learning how to use the throttle.”

CHANGES?

Jason has no plans to make any major changes to the airplane.

“I like things as they are; I don’t really modify much,” he said. “I just take it for what it is, you know? I loved it when I saw it, and I’m like, ‘I have to have it.’ So I’ll take it for what it is. … It just looked cool, looked like a new adventure. You know what I mean? I like different things, you know?”

HAL BRYAN, EAA Lifetime 638979/VAA 714005, is senior editor for EAA digital and print content and publications, co-author of multiple books, and a lifelong pilot and aviation geek. Find him on Facebook,

SPECS 1963 Champion 402 Lancer LENGTH:

22 feet, 3 inches

WINGSPAN:

34 feet, 5 inches

HEIGHT:

10 feet

MAXIMUM GROSS WEIGHT:

2,450 pounds

EMPTY WEIGHT:

1,790 pounds

FUEL CAPACITY:

52 gallons

SEATS:

2

POWERPLANT MAKE AND MODEL:

2 Continental O-200

HORSEPOWER:

100 (each)

PROPELLER:

Two-bladed McCauley fixed pitch

CRUISE SPEED/FUEL CONSUMPTION:

118 mph/12 gph (6 gph per side)

RANGE:

449 miles

VNE:

162 mph

VS0:

43 mph

Twitter, and Instagram at halbryan or email him at hbryan@eaa.org.

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32 July/August 2020

PHOTOGRAPHY BY SCOTT SLOCUM

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34 July/August 2020

A 19 29 S-

6 0 0 0 -B

THIS MEMORY MAKER EXEMPLIFIES ENDURANCE FLYING!

BY SPARKY BARNES

DRESSED IN BRILLIANT TWO-TONED blue with glowing orange wings and tail, this 1929 Travel Air S-6000-B was the only one of its kind at EAA AirVenture Oshkosh 2019. At a casual, sweeping glance, NC9084 (serial No. 865) could easily be assessed as little more than a handsomely restored sentinel of early aviation. Ah, but that would merely be a reflection of the beholder, for this humble-yetstately Travel Air has an impressive history.

Current caretaker Howard Wright of Seattle has the indubitable pleasure of ensuring that NC9084 flies upward and forward in its current role as a general aviation ambassador. That’s partly because flying this Travel Air is one of his joys, and partly because this airplane evokes more than admiration — it conjures memories and emotions that reverberate within the minds and souls of countless individuals whose lives have been entwined with it.

PHOTOGRAPHY BY ED HICKS

Howard’s family roots are in the Pacific Northwest, and he was inspired to become a pilot when he had a spectacular floatplane flight as a youth. After graduating from Washington State University, he earned his private pilot certificate in a Cessna 152 and soon thereafter acquired his seaplane rating in a Cessna 172. “Then I bought a Cessna 180 on Edo floats and flew that for several years,” Howard said. “I upgraded to a 185 and went from that to a Beaver.” Howard holds an airline transport pilot certificate, and juxtaposed with his Boeing 767 type rating is his FO-5 (VFR only) rating for the Ford Tri-Motor.

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TRAVEL AIR

Built in January 1929 by the Travel Air Manufacturing Co. of Wichita, Kansas, the 6000-B was promoted as the “Limousine of the Air.” Its cabin provided cozy creature comforts, and the airplane was dependable and efficient. Aircraft historian Joseph Juptner wrote, “The performance of this big beauty was among the best of its type and its agility both in the air and on the ground was surprising for a ship of this type and size.”

Rugged and capable, its outrigger gear has a 9-foot tread and shock absorber struts. Its fabric-covered airframe is made of wooden wings and a steel tube fuselage and tail. Wheel brakes and a steerable tail wheel make it easy to maneuver on the ground. Powered today by a 420hp Wright Whirlwind R-975, NC9084 can haul a heavy load, climb about 800 feet per minute, and cruise at around 110 mph. Around 55 6000-Bs were manufactured, and perhaps a dozen are still around in various conditions, with only half of those airworthy.

ENDURANCE ATTEMPTS

When NC9084 was brand new it was owned by Phillips Petroleum Co. of Bartlesville, Oklahoma. About half a year later, it went to the Travel Air Co. in Wichita, and just a few months later it was owned by Wichita Air Service.

On August 17, 1930, then-pilot/owner Charles Landers, along with Roger Rudd, attempted to set a new endurance record in the monoplane. Travel Air had modified it for the endurance attempt. NR9084 was dubbed City of Wichita and received air-to-air refueling from another Travel Air 6000, the Romancer, flown by Clarence Clark and Newman Wadlow. Their first attempt ended after a fuel leak developed 11 hours and 20 minutes into the flight.

On August 21, they made another attempt, but a stuck hose valve put them on the ground after 13 hours and 55 minutes aloft.

Landers sold the Travel Air to Ted Colbert, and it acquired the moniker Century of Oklahoma City (for Century Oil). Pilots Bennett H. Griffin and Roy O. Hunt attempted to set their own endurance record. While the aircraft was in flight, the fuel tank developed a leak and was replaced. But as their 13th day was drawing to a close, a monstrous, visibility-reducing dust storm forced NR9084 to settle back down to earth at Norman, Oklahoma, after 292 hours and 24 minutes.

“I’m sure they must have been incredibly disappointed after 13 days of flying,” Howard said. “I cannot imagine sitting in that wicker seat for 13 hours, let alone 13 days! We have a very cool photo of their in-flight refueling and another photo of a fellow out on the catwalk on the outside of the airplane adding oil to the engine in flight.”

Flying the Travel Air is flying back in time...

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PHOTOGRAPHY PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY OFBYRON ED HICKS PRICE

IMPRESSIVE RÉSUMÉ

44 BELOW TO 105 ABOVE

The Travel Air was later owned by several flying service companies, including Keenan Brothers Flying Service in Pampa, Texas (1936), and Duck Air Service in Oakland, California (1938). After it spent time in Idaho with various owners, Johnson Flying Service of Missoula, Montana, purchased it in 1956. Through the years, NC9084 was used for barnstorming, charter flights, aerial photography, high-altitude surveying, hauling smoke jumpers for the U.S. Forest Service, and spraying trees. It also carried passengers to the backcountry; it was ideal for operating from short, unimproved airstrips.

In 1971, Bill and his wife, Barbara, and their two children used the Travel Air as a family station wagon of sorts when they flew it “from Alaska to New York … with no heater to combat a temperature of 44 below zero encountered along the way at Watson Lake. From New York they headed south to Santee, South Carolina … [and then] flew on to Vicksburg, Mississippi, across the southern tier of states to California and finally back to Alaska. ‘We hit everything from 44 below to 105 above on that 160hour trip … with no heater and no air conditioner. The heater was the one we really needed!’” (“Bill de Creeft’s … Travel Air 6000” by Jack Cox, Sportsman Pilot, Winter 1992, Vol. 11, No. 4.)

KACHEMAK BAY FLYING SERVICE

In 1969 Bill de Creeft of Homer, Alaska, heard that Johnson Flying Service was selling its hardworking Travel Air 6000s.

Bill needed a roomy and reliable airplane for his Kachemak Bay Flying Service, so he bought NC9084 (and later bought NC9038 as a basket case). Bill was pleased with the Travel Air’s capabilities; among other things, he delivered mail and supplies, and flew search-and-rescue missions. The Homer community came to depend on him and the Travel Air.

“I just love flying the Travel Air; it’s slow and loud and drippy, and it’s just a wonderful place to be during the day.”

— HOWARD WRIGHT

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‘STILL EARNING ITS KEEP’

The de Creefts wrote an article about their Travel Air that appeared in the July 2000 issue of Vintage Airplane (Vol. 28, No. 7). “This aircraft has always worked for a living. We used it on floats and wheels for passengers and freight in the Alaskan bush. NC9084 has always operated on an air taxi certificate, and, in fact, it still stays busy carrying passengers over the glaciers and backpackers to mountain lakes for camping trips. It was also used to transport building materials to remote native villages, baby fish for the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, and moose meat and antlers to Anchorage. It even carried an injured man from Homer to Anchorage one night because there was no other aircraft available. We retired the Travel Air in 1976 when we bought our Otter.”

The Travel Air was restored to a 1929 factory configuration instead of a working bushplane.

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Bill de Creeft replicated an aft lavatory by studying detailed photos of an original factory lavatory.

Bill launched an extensive restoration of NC9084 that lasted from 1987 to 1990. With help from others, he lavished his attention on the Travel Air, from the bare frame all the way up through its wicker seats and roll-down windows. It was restored to a 1929 factory configuration instead of a working bushplane. Modifications and repairs included the removal of a 1930s camera hatch, new woodwork and fabric, a newly fabricated louvered engine cowling, and the installation of original-type 36-by-2 wheels and mechanical brakes. A new interior was also installed, along with an aft lavatory, which Bill replicated by studying detailed photos of an original factory lavatory.

The engine was overhauled and the fuselage finished in a black-and-orange paint scheme. All dolled up, NC9084 was ready to go to work again. Bill and Barbara flew the Travel Air down to California, where he gave sightseeing trips and champagne flights for five winter seasons over the wine country at Santa Paula.

MEMORY MAKER

Travel Air NC9084: The History of a 75-year-old Working Airplane was written by Alaskan author Jim Rearden in 2004. The book describes, in part, how Bill de Creeft came in contact with many individuals who had special connections to the Travel Air. In 1994, one such encounter came after a passenger showed Bill a photo of his then-19-year-old grandmother with NC9084 in 1929 at the Pratt Air Races in Kansas. Remarkably, 91-year-old Charles Landers, who attempted an endurance flight in 1930, was planning to come out to the airport in a few days, so Bill encouraged the passenger to bring his grandmother out to meet Charlie. Eighty-threeyear-old Louise Vosberg remembered Charlie — after all, he gave Louise her first airplane ride!

On another occasion, a man who had previously been a smoke jumper and had jumped from NC9084 when it was flown by Johnson Flying Service went up for a flight with Bill. That flight evoked far more than appreciation for the scenery below; it was the catalyst for a rushing cascade of memories. Rearden wrote that Bill looked back to see the man “kneeling by the back door, looking out the window. Tears were running down his cheeks. … He was very honest about his emotions, and it choked me up. … That’s when I began to realize it wasn’t only history I was dealing with when people with memories of our airplane came forward. Their lives were involved. That airplane often triggers strong emotions, and it has been surprising how many people we have met who have intimate and vivid memories of it.”

An overview of Howard Wright’s 11,000-mile cross-country adventure in 2016 (see next page).

In July 2015, Howard flew NC9084 to the Museum of Mountain Flying at Missoula to help celebrate the 75th anniversary of smoke jumping. Another one of the former Johnson Flying Service Travel Airs was on hand as well; Hank Galpin of Kalispell, Montana, flew his there. (Hank had purchased NC9038 as a basket case from Bill de Creeft and spent 10 years restoring it.) “We gave rides and a few of the now-elderly smoke jumpers came out to the airport for the day,” Howard said. “We gave one guy a ride, and after we landed he said, ‘This is my first landing after dozens and dozens of takeoffs!’ That line made my day!”

Another restoration took place in 2001 and 2002, at which time Bill made a rather interesting discovery — NC9084’s wings had different airfoils. The right was a flat-bottomed Clark Y-15 and the left was a curved-bottom Gottingen 398. Rearden wrote that Bill had often wondered why “one wing would quit flying before the other … and the airplane veered a bit to the right on landing.” They built new wings with Gottingen airfoils per the drawings.

Additionally, a door on the front right-hand side of the fuselage was built and installed to facilitate the pilot’s entry and egress, especially when the aircraft was operating on floats.

NC9084 was finished in a two-tone factory paint scheme, which it still has today.

POLE PASS AIRWAYS

Howard has a penchant for floatplanes and had first seen NC9084 on floats at Homer, Alaska. Several years later, he learned the airplane was for sale and purchased the Travel Air from Bill. Since that time, NC9084 has been adorned with the name “Pole Pass Airways, Orcas Island, Washington.” The plane came with a spare engine and exhaust, 1934 Edo 4650 floats, and 1929 Bacon skis.

“I bought it in September 2008, which marked the official beginning of the Great Recession. It was the largest investment in an aircraft I had made, and I thought, ‘Oh dear, what have I done now?’ I am sure I would not have bought it had I known that I couldn’t fly it on floats,” said Howard. “When I say ‘couldn’t,’ that means that I talked with a handful of Travel Air 6000 owners who said, ‘What are you going to do with it?’ I said I was going to keep it on floats and fly it off of Puget Sound. They said, ‘Well you’re not going to fly it on salt water! You don’t want to mix salt water with a fabric-covered fuselage and wings.’ So I followed their advice; the floats for this wonderful floatplane are hanging in the rafters of my hangar at home. We put it on wheels when I bought it and flew it 2,400 miles down the Alcan [Alaska-Canadian Highway] in three days and had a blast! The following summer was my first time at Oshkosh, and it was with this airplane.”

PHOTOGRAPHY BY ED HICKS,CONNOR MADISON, PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY OF HOWARD WRIGHT

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LEFT: Howard Wright charts the course through the Bahamas to Turks and Caicos.

ABOVE: Island hopping in the 1929 Travel Air.

ANTIQUE FLYING

OUTWARD AND INWARD

The Travel Air carries a total of 80 gallons of fuel in its two wing tanks, and the Wright Whirlwind burns 20 gallons an hour. Flying along at about 100 mph provides four hours’ endurance, which Howard finds ample for cross-country flying. “My personal safety limit is three hours, but that’s also my physical limit.

So it’s just about perfect having an hour of course-reversal or diversion time; that’s just my personal comfort zone. It’s a really soft, forgiving airplane — it stalls at 40, so I come in over the fence at 60 and touch down about 48 to 50. If I’ve got a nice long runway, I’ll do a two-point landing, but if it’s short I’ll really slow her down and do a three-point landing.”

Howard also enjoys flying his 1929 Hamilton Metalplane H-47. Not long ago, he happened to fly the Hamilton right over the small strip where he soloed 40 years ago. It gave him pause for reflection: “What a dream that I’d be so lucky and get to fly so many wonderful airplanes in my life!” Howard said.

“I don’t use my CFI anymore, but I loved to instruct, and I only instructed on the water. I loved watching students’ eyes light up when they made a connection and understood — it’s pretty humbling and rewarding. For me, flying is a sense of accomplishment.”

Clearly passionate about flying, Howard is also captivated by Latin America and has frequented those countries ever since he was an exchange student. In 2016, Howard boldly combined his passions by embarking on a special tour in the Travel Air. Outwardly, it was an 11,000-mile epic flying adventure that charted his course through the uncertainties of a tour across several countries.

Starting in Seattle, he flew to Idaho and Montana, then southeast through Nebraska, Missouri, Tennessee, and Georgia. Flying south through Florida, he proceeded on to the Bahamas and then the Turks and Caicos. Then he headed north and west, flying along the Gulf Coasts of Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, and Texas. Still following the Gulf Coast, Howard headed south through Mexico and then into Guatemala. He eventually returned to Seattle via a northerly route through Mexico and California. Among the items he carried on the flight were some spare mechanical parts, tools, spark plugs, oil, and empty 5-gallon fuel cans that he used in order to have fuel available in remote locations. Though he didn’t take a mechanic along, he was prepared for the possibility that he would need to find one or have to fly one down from home.

Inwardly, it was a journey of a different kind, made palpable by a nearly 90-year-old ship that carried Howard into a headlong exploration of his own personal territories. He reached inside himself and embraced the essence of his being, growing beyond his self-imposed boundaries and opening his inner worldview to the marvelous wonder of being present and intensely alive in each moment of his journey.

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PHOTOGRAPHY BY CONNOR MADISON, PHOTOGRAPHY PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY COURTESY OF HOWARD OF RON WRIGHT PRICE

“It was a test of sorts — of my assumptions and approach to life,” Howard said. “I’ve always been very goal-oriented, and I like predictable outcomes. I’ve undertaken many ventures that would have been much more enjoyable if I had been less concerned about achieving an exact outcome. My family was wholeheartedly supportive, and my wife, Kate, had the courage to let me follow this particular dream.”

Howard had many pilot friends who volunteered to go with him on the flight, so he made a schedule and rotated them in and out. “A co-pilot is exactly that — a co-pilot,” Howard said. “Their opinion counts as much as mine. If my co-pilot questions my thinking, I listen. My co-pilots had different skill sets and perspectives, but they all were highly skilled and experienced, and I respected their advice and input. We had a great time; it was a lot of fun. I just love flying the Travel Air. It’s slow and loud and drippy, and it’s just a wonderful place to be during the day.”

The longest leg lasted three and a half hours. “We had powered back and leaned it out, so we still landed with an hour’s worth of fuel,” Howard said.

“We were stuck — a loosely used term — in the Bahamas for several days when the sky and sea merged in the mist. I’m willing to fly over open water, but I want to see the island in front of me or the island behind me.

Wherever we landed, we’d have a lot of folks looking at the airplane, and we found that the friendlier and more accessible we made ourselves and the airplane, the more the authorities treated us accordingly. We never had any issues with them. It was a terrific trip — I’d do it again in a heartbeat, you bet! I’d leave tonight!”

Specs NC9084, S/N 865 1929 Travel Air S-6000-B ATC No. 130 / Group 2-138 approval* Not eligible to be flown by a sport pilot.

WINGSPAN:

48 feet, 7 inches

WING CHORD:

78 inches

TREAD:

9 feet

LENGTH:

30 feet, 10 inches

HEIGHT:

9 feet, 3 inches

EMPTY WEIGHT:

2,608 pounds

GROSS WEIGHT:

4,230 pounds

SEATS:

One pilot, six passengers

ENGINE:

420-hp Wright Whirlwind R-975

FUEL:

80 gallons

OIL:

7 gallons

MAX SPEED:

130 mph

CRUISING SPEED:

110 mph

LANDING SPEED:

50 mph

STALLING SPEED:

40 mph

RATE OF CLIMB:

800 fpm

SERVICE CEILING:

16,000 feet

CRUISING RANGE:

500 miles

*AVIATION HISTORIAN JOSEPH JUPTNER WROTE, “AFTER A YEAR OR SO, THE S-6000-B WAS DEVELOPED INTO THE NEW 6-B WHICH WAS APPROVED UNDER ATC # 352. THERE WERE ALSO A NUMBER OF THE 6000-B IN A 7 PLACE VERSION THAT WERE LICENSED UNDER A GROUP 2 APPROVAL NUMBERED 2-138.”

NC9084’S OPERATIONS LIMITATIONS CITE THE GROUP 2-138 APPROVAL.

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NC9084 received the Antique Transport Category Runner-Up award at AirVenture 2019.

Thanks in large part to Bill de Creeft, who operated the Travel Air for 39 years, and now to Howard Wright, NC9084 has achieved a lofty endurance record that its pilots in 1930 would never have dreamed possible — that of flying over a span of nine decades. Perhaps more importantly, this “Limousine of the Air” has evolved into quite the memory maker by endearing itself to its pilots and passengers alike.

INTERESTED IN TRAVEL AIRS? Contact the Travel Air Restorers Association at www.travelair.org for more information.

Flying past the Agua Volcano, a dormant volcano looming over the old city of Antigua.

UPWARD AND FORWARD

Just prior to Howard’s flight to Oshkosh in July 2019, he had a newly rebuilt engine installed. “When we left Seattle the engine had three hours on it, and we flew 1,800 miles across the Rockies,” Howard said. “I fly defensively and always try to have an out, so I’m always planning ‘what if?’ and ‘where am I going to land?’ I use a chart and look outside for navigation, and we have an old Garmin GPS 296. We followed I-90 the entire way here; you know if you’re over I-90, you’ve got a place to go. I’ve put over 500 hours on the airplane since I bought it, and I’m going to send the previous engine for a full rebuild so that I’ll always have a spare engine.”

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Heads-up view of the Wright Whirlwind R-975.

PHOTOGRAPHY BY ED HICKS, LYLE JANSMA, PHOTOGRAPHY PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY BY OF CONNOR HOWARDMADISON WRIGHT

Online Forums and Workshops

Pilot Discussions

Exclusive Interviews With Aviation Legends

Virtual Exhibitors

While we can’t gather in Oshkosh, we can still share The Spirit of Aviation.

EAA Spirit of Aviation Week™ on July 21-25 will celebrate the entire aviation community by showcasing the spectrum of flight in a virtual way.

EAAtogether.org

#EAAtogether

The author, Harry Ballance, standing beside Judy, the Cub.

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PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY OF HARRY BALLANCE

A PIPER CUB IN EVERY HANGAR

BY HARRY BALLANCE

A PIPER CUB in every hangar? Well, maybe not. Not every pilot deserves a J-3. Ownership should be reserved for those who appreciate a Cub’s lines and performance (or lack thereof ) and want to become members of the Cub cult. A J-3 Cub probably has more true devotees than almost any other airplane. If one is passionate about a J-3, one is, indeed, passionate. Not to sound like “The Father of Flight,” which I admittedly am not, but I have been flying a J-3 Cub over a period that spans six decades. It makes me older than dirt in the eyes of the young, but it also gives me a bit of perspective about the venerable J-3, its predecessors, and its successors.

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et’s start with a Cub’s appearance. There it is, all pristine yellow with its signature black lightning bolt and Cub logo on the vertical stabilizer, poised in the three-point attitude that just makes you want to take it aloft and have fun flying it. There are a lot of taildraggers of the same vintage — Taylorcraft, Aeronca Champ and Chief, Luscombe, Interstate Cadet, and on into the sunset — but none, in my opinion, has the curb appeal of the J-3. It is “cute.” In my experience, ugly airplanes don’t fly very well. Maybe it’s a head game, but to me a good-looking airplane tends to fly better. And then one has to look at it when one gets out at the end of the flight. One winter day when it was too cold to fly, I was sitting in my hangar reminiscing with a good friend who is an A&P mechanic, and we agreed that sometimes it was just enough to look at the airplanes; you didn’t have to work on them or fly them to enjoy them.

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FOR INSTANCE, ONE OF THE MOST SATISFYING THINGS ABOUT FLYING A CUB IS EXECUTING A NICE POWEROFF APPROACH IN THE TWILIGHT OF A SUMMER DAY, MANAGING ITS SPEED AND TURNING RADIUS SO AS TO EFFECT A LANDING ON THE DESIRED SPOT, AND JUST LETTING IT ROLL SOFTLY ONTO THE GRASS.

PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY OF RON PRICE

There is a humorous — at least to me — story of how I managed to buy my Cub, whose name is Judy. My wife names our airplanes. Turn back the clock to 1967 and I was a DC-6 co-pilot. I was on the cusp of buying an AT-6, being a bachelor and all. Over the course of a three-day trip, the captain said, “Harry, in 10 years the price of gas will be over $1 a gallon, and you won’t be able to afford to fly that T-6.

Let me sell you my J-3 Cub.” And so a 53-year relationship with my Cub began. Interestingly enough, the DC-6 captain, a man named Dave Gates, was correct. Not so much about the gas, but the overall operating cost of a Cub versus a T-6 meant that if I wanted to pay to educate four munchkins, buy a house, and support my wife in the manner to which she would like to become accustomed, I simply could not operate a T-6 during the “lean” years. A J-3 Cub, on the other hand, costs about as much to operate as a used Plymouth sedan. You burn about 3&1/2 to 4 gallons of gas an hour, spend less than a thousand dollars a year for insurance, and need to come up with the cost of a hangar, which varies wildly across this vast country. Plenty of people specialize in the repair of older airplanes, and their rates are significantly lower than if one had to venture into the world of corporate aviation maintenance. There are probably as many guys (or gals) who like to work on vintage airplanes as there are guys (or gals) who fly them. It is a pretty tight loop. Don’t even think about buying a J-3 unless you are going to hangar it. It’s just not fair to the airplane.

PHOTOGRAPHY BY CONNOR MADISON, PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY OF HARRY BALLANCE

Harry Ballance and grandson Kale Moore.

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Performance! What’s that? A J-3 simply doesn’t do anything very well, but the perpetual enigma is “why do so many people like them?” It is sort of lethargic on takeoff, sluggish in the climb, slow in cruise, and void of any meaningful cabin heat in the winter. What it is is a good teacher, and just plain fun to fly. For instance, one of the most satisfying things about flying a Cub is executing a nice power-off approach in the twilight of a summer day, managing its speed and turning radius so as to effect a landing on the desired spot, and just letting it roll softly onto the grass.

This is a lot more difficult to do consistently than the uninitiated might imagine. But it sure is a satisfying airplane to fly around locally. I will close this performance section by saying that the two things it does well are providing endless hours of flying fun and functioning in the role of a great teacher. In my experience, a pilot who has done his ab initio flight training in a Cub never has to worry about the concepts of angle of attack, crosswind techniques, and just basic airmanship. Many of the newer airplanes have a lot of the airmanship techniques “engineered” out of them, with differential aileron travel to reduce yaw, ad nauseam. I honestly can’t recall a flight in Judy that I have not enjoyed, and I’ve always learned something.

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Harry Ballance, lead, and Ed Bowlin (of P-51 fame), left wing, enjoying the sights of bucolic central Georgia.

PHOTOGRAPHY BY CONNOR MADISON, PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY OF HARRY BALLANCE

FOR SOMEONE WHO IS USED TO TRAVERSING THE UNITED STATES IN FOUR HOURS, MORE OR LESS, THE CUB’S LACK OF SPEED IS DIZZYING. THE FLIP SIDE IS THAT ONE GETS TO SEE MUCH OF AMERICA’S HEARTLAND AT LOW ALTITUDES AND SLOW SPEEDS. ALL OF THAT DOES MAKE ONE APPRECIATE OUR GREAT COUNTRY — GEOGRAPHICALLY, AT LEAST.

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A J-3 is a utility category airplane.

Sure, there are some great “Flying Farmer” air show routines in Cubs, and many have beefed-up wing struts and are configured as clipped wing Cubs, which strengthens the hypotenuse of the triangle formed by the struts. A clipped wing Cub is a fine aerobatic airplane, but your stock Cub is not. They were never made for aerobatics, so don’t abuse the airplane by attempting to perform such feats, which merely place undue stress on the airframe for the next person who flies it.

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A J-3 is harder and harder to enter and exit as one ages, but once you’re ensconced in the cockpit, it’s pretty comfortable. I flew Judy to Oshkosh for the 75th anniversary of the J-3 in 2012 — a feat that took four days and something like 14 hours of flying time. Did I have a good time? Again, the answer is a resounding yes! Sure, it was a tough trip, but it was a grand experience for the Cub and me. For someone who is used to traversing the United States in four hours, more or less, the Cub’s lack of speed is dizzying. The flip side is that one gets to see much of America’s heartland at low altitudes and slow speeds. All of that does make one appreciate our great country — geographically, at least.

However, as we all know, it is not the destination but the journey.

PHOTOGRAPHY BY CONNOR MADISON

A J-3 Cub is a little bit pricier than other comparable makes such as a Champ or Taylorcraft.

Quite frankly, a Cub is more difficult to enter and exit, and cruises at slower speeds. So why is a J-3 more expensive? The short answer is “I don’t know.” The Cub has great visual appeal, is a wonderful teacher, and is just fun to fly. It is also very forgiving and is a totally honest airplane. If I had to pare down my supply of airplanes, my Cub, Judy, would be the last to go. I began my flying career with my first lesson in a J-3 in 1960. It will likely be the last airplane I fly as well. As others have said, “It is easy to fly a J-3 but hard to fly one well.”

HARRY BALLANCE operates out of Peach State (Alexander Memorial) Airport south of Atlanta. He flew for a major airline for 35 years and as a corporate pilot for 11 years after that. He is a CFI and ATP with 14 different airplane ratings, ranging from a DC-3 to a B-777.

He is a recipient of the FAA Wright Brothers Master Pilot Award. He owns and flies a T-34, a J-3 Cub, a Stearman. and a 1934 Stinson SR-5 which he, along with a host of friends, restored, and flew to OSH last July. Harry recently received his Single Engine Sea rating as well. He is also an active tailwheel instructor.

www.vintageaircraft.org 51

52 July/August 2020

“WHEN I BOUGHT THE CRUISER in 1987, it was in flyable condition but had been tied up outside for a while, so I thought it prudent to dig a little deeper.

My friend and [A&P]/IA, Bud Anthonson, who then owned Anthonson Airport, a 1,250-foot grass strip in our area, signed it off for a ferry permit to his airstrip. His annual inspection did not find any serious issues so he said to just fly it and have fun.

As the years went by, we would find things to do with the old girl to keep her safe and looking presentable, but I never had any intentions of making her a showplane. It was the perfect platform for our family of three, soon to become four, to have a good time flying.”

Jack Haggerty of Skaneateles, New York, is talking about his 1940 Piper J-5A Cruiser, N33187, which was on the line in the Vintage area at AirVenture 2019. That was its seventh appearance at AirVenture.

“I’m just not a builder type,” he continued. “We all know people who would rather build than fly, but I’m not one of those. After I helped Bud with an engine

PHOTOGRAPHY BY JIM BUSHA

overhaul in 1989 and the re-covering with Ceconite in ’93, we installed the beefed-up struts, added the skylight, slightly redesigned the cowling for the straight pipes, and I continue to like messing with the original bladder and puck brake system on the 8-by-4 wheels. The 75-hp C-75-12F Continental now has about 1,350 hours on it, and I replaced the jugs a few years back when there were about 3,400 hours on the airframe. There is always something that needs a little tweaking now and then, but keeping her safe and having fun flying is my primary objective.”

About that re-covering job. Jack said the fabric came off a lot easier than it went back on.

“Like I said, I’m a flyer, not a builder,” he said.

To a certain extent Jack breaks the mold from which a lot of sport aviators come. For instance, he didn’t have model airplanes hanging all over his bedroom, and his first word wasn’t “airplane.”

BY BUDD DAVISSON WITH JACK HAGGERTY

53

PHOTOGRAPHY BY XXXX CONNOR www.vintageaircraft.org MADISON

eah, I have to admit that I came into aviation in a slightly different way,” he said. “In my teens, I was somewhat of a problem child. When I was 17, however, my dad found a way to give me direction in life, although I doubt if he could have guessed how well his ploy would work.

“Dad was a plumber, and his friend Tony, a World War II ferry pilot, had a small FBO, among other things,” Jack said.

“He owed my dad $900 for some plumbing work, so they worked out a trade. Soon I was taking flying lessons at Hancock Airport in Syracuse to pay off the bill. That absolutely turned my life around, and looking back at it I can’t believe how quickly I fell in love with aviation. Some might call it an obsession! Unfortunately, Tony was killed later that year on a charter in an Aero Commander. The cause was found to be carbon monoxide poisoning. My flying plans were curtailed for a while, but I learned early that these beautiful machines can bite.”

Although his father was no longer flying, he had a long, solid background in aviation.

“Dad was caught up in the Lindbergh era and learned to fly in an OX-5-powered Travel Air out of Roosevelt Field, soloing in 1928. His first flight instructor had a motto: Aviation — Starvation and Death. Dad dusted cotton in Tallulah, Louisiana, for a time in a Waco 9 and owned an OX-5-powered Bird in the early ’30s, barnstorming in the Hudson Valley area of New York state. He had 11 forced landings that he could recall due to engine failure, mostly in the OX-5, and logged over 1,250 hours.

His last aviation work was as a mechanic instructor in the CPT program in the early ’40s at Amboy Airport in Syracuse.”

54 July/August 2020

Jack soloed at 17 but didn’t get his private and commercial certificates until he was at MiamiDade Junior College training at Burnside-Ott in its two-year program. He then transferred to Southeastern State College in Durant, Oklahoma, which had an affiliation with American Flyers.

He graduated with a degree in aviation science and got his ratings through CFII. “Shortly after college I joined the U.S. Air Force, primarily due to the positive influence of two retired Air Force pilots who were on the staff,” he said. “The Air Force basically ‘retrained’ me to fly their way, and it was an exciting year in Arizona flying at Williams AFB in the T-37 and T-38. I wound up flying C-130s based at CCK Air Base in Taiwan, but flying missions primarily in Vietnam and Thailand.

Most of my ‘trash hauling,’ as we called it, was routine, but occasionally we would hear and feel things blowing up, and we would realize this war was for real.”

After leaving the Air Force Jack started on a new aviation adventure.

“Since high school I had always wanted to go to Alaska,” he said. “Those stories of the bush pilots, the rugged individualism, and the awesome landscape were tearing at my soul. After separating from the Air Force in 1975, I headed north from Arizona to Alaska with my dog in my truck camper, with a stop in Seattle to get my single- and multiengine float ratings on the GI Bill. I flew floatplanes there for a while but Alaska was calling.

PHOTOGRAPHY BY JACK FLEETWOOD

“At the time, the Alaska Air Guard was transitioning from C-123s to C-130s, and they had a pilot slot for me to fit into,” Jack said. “I had a great time flying to all corners of the state and beyond for almost 10 years. This still left time to fly floats for Harbor Air Service in Seward, get time in Twin Otters and the AW-650 Argosy supporting the firefighters, and still fly a summer for Wien Air Alaska.

“In 1978 I was hired by Flying Tigers [cargo airline] as a flight engineer on the DC-8,” he said. “I still remember the first time we had an up-close introduction and how huge that airplane was compared to the C-130. After the merger, I flew as captain on the B-727 at FedEx for 15 years. I could have transitioned to some of the larger long-haul airplanes but liked my schedule and really enjoyed flying the 72. I really like older airplanes, and the 727 was the DC-3 of the jet age. I think there was a little tear in my eye on that last flight.”

Almost from the beginning, Jack knew about EAA and joined the ranks in 1987. It was while instructing in a J-3 owned by his EAA chapter that he discovered how much he enjoyed instructing in vintage aircraft. That year he soloed his first taildragger student. Jack’s first flight into Oshkosh with his J-5 came the following year with that student.

“The J-5 came about when I began thinking that maybe I should find an airplane of my own,” he said. “This was also in 1987, and I saw a J-5A Piper Cruiser listed on the local airport bulletin board and had to have someone explain to me how that differed from the J-3. I liked the fact that it had the wide back seat and room for my wife, Karen, and our 2-year-old son, who was soon to have a sister. After checking it out, I agreed with the owner that $5,500 was a fair price and became the owner of my first airplane.”

When Jack first brought the J-5 home to Anthonson Airport, it ended up being unsheltered outside for a couple of years.

However, when Bud, the airport owner who had helped Jack rebuild the airplane, decided he had paid enough taxes in his life and refused to pay any more, something had to give. The local government was about to throw him out on his ear. However, at the last moment, Jack stepped in and they drew up a purchase agreement for the property that allowed Bud and his wife to have lifetime use of the adjoining house and a place to continue his airplane repair business. Jack became an airport owner, which included the benefit of being able to park his J-5 indoors. Buying the airport is an unusual way to get hangar space!

The front seat of any Cub Cruiser is one of the widest front seats in any tandem airplane of the period.

Since retiring as a “freight dog,” Jack has soloed an average of a couple of young pilots each year. He says it’s pretty cool to walk away from the Cruiser and solo them while their parents stand by watching their babies fly off all by themselves.

“I have had more than one parent who did not realize that ‘solo’ means alone,” Jack said. “Many of my fledglings are pursuing flying careers and tell me how their instructors are very impressed that they have the tailwheel endorsement.”

One of the most worthwhile and enjoyable things Jack said he does in the Cruiser is fly Young Eagles.

“To date I have flown over 650 youngsters,” he said.

“In 2017 I drove to Oshkosh with my wife. She had agreed to go and camp out but preferred to forgo the flying adventure part. While at the Young Eagles dinner I was surprised to receive an award along with 13 others who were the only pilots to have flown at least one Young Eagle every year since the program began in 2002. I know what a profound effect aviation has had on me, and I want to pass that along to as many young people as I can. As the Young Eagles flight coordinator for our chapter, I am forever grateful to our many volunteers who donate their airplanes and time to this program. But I must admit that, as pilots, we are always looking for any excuse to go flying.

“There is always something that needs a little tweaking now and then, but keeping her safe and having fun flying is my primary objective.”

— JACK HAGGERTY

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Jack’s J-5A carries the same registration number that was assigned to it in November of 1940.

“Not all of those Young Eagles I’ve flown were in the J-5,” he said. “For most of my life I had heard stories from my dad about his adventures in his Bird biplane. Those inspired me to track down a Bird of my own. However, I had heard enough stories about the unreliability of the OX-5 that I wanted nothing to do with one of those. I found a 1929 Bird out near Chicago that was originally an A model with an OX-5 but was converted to a 100-hp Kinner and then a Continental W-670 [220 hp]. With serial No. 1,002, I believe it is the oldest Bird flying. It’s such a kick to strap a kid in the front seat and give them what may very well be not just their first airplane ride but for sure the first one in an open-cockpit biplane. That being said, however, the J-5 is still my favorite.”

Designer Walter C. Jamouneau’s (that’s where the “J” comes from) distinctive signature graces the CAA statement of conformity for Piper J-5A, serial No. 5-462 (registered as NC33187 on November 29, 1940). Jack’s Cruiser flew primarily in Pennsylvania and New York and has had a total of 21 previous owners. It was first sold to a Richard Benson of Kenmore, New York, for $1,798.

“Although I love flying the J-3, the J-5 is so much more comfortable and useful that there is really no comparison,” Jack said. “Flying from the front gives you awesome visibility, and you have a wide back seat that’s very roomy for one but gives you the option of more, depending on size and weight.

“The last of the J-5s, the J-5C went up to 100 hp with the O-235 Lycoming, and that made a big difference,” he said. “The ‘C’ was also converted to an ambulance version with a rear hinged fuselage version during WWII known as the HE-1/AE-1. About 1,400 J-5s were produced, and after the war it was redesigned as the PA-12 (Piper Aircraft) Super Cruiser with more horsepower, an enclosed engine cowling, and different landing gear. The PA-12s are very common in Alaska and most are re-engined with at least 150 hp and tundra tires. The original PA-12s are heavier airplanes, and even though they have more power, they do not perform much different than the J-5, although they are faster. Operating my J-5A out of our 1,250-foot strip with obstacles while carrying 36 gallons of fuel and a passenger requires serious attention to the wind direction and density altitude.”

Jack had a special mission for his most recent trip to Oshkosh.

“Last year, 2019, was one of the better years at AirVenture for me because I took 15-year-old Mark ‘Koos’ Belamy with me in the J-5,” he said. “He’s the son of my IA and corporate pilot friend of the same name — that’s why the nickname — and a very competent pilot. Mark had heart surgery when he was just a few days old, and although his doctor says he’s 100 percent okay, the feds were balking at giving him his medical, which would have prevented his upcoming solo in a couple of weeks. I wanted him to sit face to face with the FAA folks at AirVenture so they would get to know him and perhaps expedite the matter.

The 8.00-4 tires hide the original expander tube brakes, both of which are standard Cub equipment.

One of the most worthwhile and enjoyable things Jack said he does in the Cruiser is fly Young Eagles.

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PHOTOGRAPHY BY JACK FLEETWOOD

“The lady we worked with absolutely could not have been nicer or more supportive,” he said. “She said she would push as hard as she could but could not guarantee that it would go through before his 16th birthday on August 5. She was a woman of her word, and Mark got the required paperwork just a couple days after his birthday and was able to solo a Piper Colt, which was followed in the next few days by my J-5, an Aeronca Champ, C-140, Bonanza, Stearman, C-150, Challenger II, C-170B on floats, Taylorcraft, and a Travel Air B-95 twin.

Few things in my life have been as satisfying as helping him achieve his goals.”

Jack has made the trip to Oshkosh more than 20 times, mostly by flying in, and has a lot to say about the event itself.

“First, I should say that although I’m a flyer, not a builder, I really appreciate the work of those who bring old planes back to better than new,” he said. “I am grateful that they bring them out so we can admire them. However, for me the real draw of Oshkosh isn’t the airplanes. It’s the people. I don’t know where else you can go to meet so many really nice folks like you do at Oshkosh. I have made many great friends through the years and look forward each year to renewing friendships and creating new ones. Last year it was especially rewarding for me to listen to the Rutan brothers, astronaut Mike Collins, and Col. Bud Anderson. What history!

Jack’s airplane still has the original 75-hp Continental. The final version of the Cruiser was the J-5C and it had a 100-hp Lycoming O-235.

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PHOTOGRAPHY BY JACK FLEETWOOD

“When you fly into Oshkosh you quite literally leave one world behind and enter into another that is populated by an entirely different type of person,” he continued. “It simply blows me away, always renews my faith in humanity, and reassures me that general aviation is alive and well. They are why I love to fly my small plane across middle America and will continue this annual pilgrimage as long as I can still climb into the cockpit.”

What does the future hold for Jack and his airplane?

J-5A and B had exposed cylinders. The J-5C cowled them.

Fun Flyer airplanes are flown so much they develop a character all their own.

A President sticker on a Piper J-5A. How American!

“I know I am nothing more than a caretaker of the J-5 and in the future will pass her on to our son Seamus [an FO on Embraer 145s],” he said. “He has made the trip with me several times and also has the Oshkosh addiction. I only hope that she brings as many fond memories to generations yet to come as she has for me and my family. She may not be a beautifully restored airplane, but she has a beautiful soul and has opened an equally beautiful world to me.”

It would be a sacrilege for us to think we can add any words to that.

Amen, brother!

Lemme see...crank forward...no, crank back.

INTERESTED IN CUBS? Contact the Cub Club at www.cubclub.org for more information.

www.vintageaircraft.org 59

The Vintage Mechanic ROBERT G. LOCK

Materials & Processes, Part I

BY ROBERT G. LOCK

IN THIS ISSUE, WE WILL DISCUSS an airframe and powerplant technician general-knowledge subject that I once taught at Reedley College: materials and processes.

Materials, meaning structural and nonstructural elements of the airplane; and processes, meaning how to form and fabricate components. Older aircraft were limited in their material makeup. This was before the invention of hightech aluminum, so we find the earliest of materials used.

My discussion will focus on some of these early aluminum types, identification, and fabrication techniques.

First, let’s understand that there are two types of aluminum used in manufacture: heat-treated and non-heat-treated. One material gains its strength by being subjected to an elevated temperature for a specified period of time, then quickly quenched in water. The other material gains its strength through “cold working,” which is a process of rolling, stretching, or hammering. Heat-treated aluminum is not weldable (except alloy 6061), while nonstructural aluminum is readily weldable.

Pure aluminum has very little strength and is not widely used in aircraft construction. However, pure aluminum is the least corrosive, so it is commonly used to coat the surfaces of some heat-treated alloys. This is called cladding.

There are several terms associated with aluminum: • Ductile, meaning flexible;

• Malleable, meaning capable of being extended by hammering or rolling; • Hardness, meaning ability to resist distortion; • Brittleness, meaning allows little bending without breaking; • Elasticity, meaning able to return to original shape after being deformed; • Fusibility, meaning ability to become liquid with application of heat; and • Expansion and contraction, meaning reaction to heating or cooling.

So, material that has been hardened exhibits brittleness and hardness, while a material that is soft exhibits ductility and malleability.

60 July/August 2020

In order to gain a strength advantage, pure aluminum is mixed with other elements to increase its tensile strength.

This is called alloying. The most common alloying element is copper. The old designations for aluminum alloyed with copper were 17S and 24S. When the material was heat-treated a -T was added, as in 24S-T. These two alloys were commonly called dural (17S-T) and double dural (24S-T).

In order to rivet these materials, a special high-strength rivet was needed, and A17S-T was born. Al7S-T rivets had a dimple on the head for identification purposes and were driven as received. That is, they could be taken from the shelf, placed in a drilled hole, and driven with a rivet gun.

The old designation was replaced sometime in the 1950s and became 17S-T (2017-T3), 24S-T (2024-T3), and A17S-T (2117-T4).

2024-T3 is the most commonly used high strength alloy for light, general aviation type airplanes.

It is possible to obtain any of the aluminum alloys in the softest state, which is annealed-designated with an “O” in the code.

Thus there can be 2024-0, which can be hand- or machineshaped into complex parts, then hardened by heat-treating.

Before we look at the strain-hardened alloys, let me give a quick discussion of hardening by heat treatment. The pure aluminum has been alloyed primarily with copper (and a few other trace elements). The material is heated in a controlled fashion in an oven to 920-970 degrees Fahrenheit , then immediately removed and quenched in water. This is called solution heat treatment (SHT).

The SHT process is similar to adding a catalyst to an epoxy resin to cross-link molecules and harden the material. The copper diffuses throughout the material and is cross-linked in the grain structure causing it to be very hard and strong.

Aluminum alloy 2024 that has been heat-treated, naturally aged, and then rolled is designated 2024-T3. This alloy is primarily used in structural applications and must be riveted with 2117-T4 rivets (dimpled head). This rivet will be coded as AD (AN470AD4-4). This aluminum alloy, 2024-T3, can be bent or rolled, but it cannot be shaped by hammering or stretching. It is not weldable.

The alloys that gain strength by cold-working are the old 2S, 3S, and 52S. New designations are 1100 (2S), 3003 (3S), and 5052 (52S). Aluminum designated as 5052 is alloyed with magnesium. If the material is in its softest state, the designation is followed with an “O,” as in 5052-0. If these materials are strain-hardened (by cold rolling), an H will be displayed, as in 5052-H. Then, two additional numbers will be added to show the type of strain hardening (the first number) and the degree of hardening (the second number). An example is 5052-H18 (strain to maximum hardness).

PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY OF EAA ARCHIVES

Figure 1

Hardness (the second number) is designated by 2 (1/4 hard), 4 (1/2 hard), 6 (3/4 hard), and 8 (full hard). If full hard is 8, then that actually means 8/8 hard. For example, 2/8 reduces to 1/4, 4/8 reduces to 1/2, 6/8 reduces to 3/4, and 8/8 is full hardness. This is probably a little beyond what a restorer needs to know, but it’s handy to know when you must fabricate a cockpit or engine cowling. The harder the material, the stronger it is, but it is also more resistant to bending or shaping.

When fabricating parts from non-heat-treated alloys, the preferred rivet to use is the “A” rivet made from pure aluminum. This rivet will have no markings on its head; the AN (Army/Navy) code will show an A (AN470A4-4).

I have fabricated fuel and oil tanks from 5052-H34 aluminum (strain-hardened, stabilized, and in the 1/2 hard condition).

My fuel lines are fabricated from 5052-0 tubing in the annealed condition. This tubing can be bent and flared easily.

Finally, I should brief you on a few additional terms we use in aircraft structures. Stress means the load acting on a material. Strain means the deformation of a material by an applied load. Strength is defined as (1) tensile, which means to resist forces tending to stretch or lengthen material, (2) yield, which means load that causes initial indication of permanent displacement, and (3) ultimate, which means load applied beyond which the material will fail.

There are five stresses that the aircraft will encounter in flight or while static on the ground. Figure 1 identifies the five stresses the aircraft will encounter in operation. These stresses are bending, which actually causes two types of stress to a member. The part of the member on the outside of the bend is under tension, and the part on the inside of the bend is under compression. Torsion is a twisting force. Tension tends to pull apart or stretches the member. Compression presses together or tends to crush a component. Shear is most commonly developed when two components are bolted or riveted together.

When a force is applied such that the two plates tend to slip, shear force is applied to the bolt. If the force becomes greater than the shear strength of the bolt, it will be cut as if with a pair of shears.

When a stress is applied to a piece of material, there is always some deformation of the material, even though it may appear very small. This deformation of the material is called strain. If the applied stress does not exceed the elastic limit of the material, the material will return to its original shape when the stress is removed.

It’s like bending a piece of heat-treated aluminum a small amount by hand. Let go and it will return to its original shape.

The ability of a material to return to its original shape after being placed under stress is called elasticity. When a material is stressed beyond its elastic limit, it becomes permanently deformed. The point at which permanent deformation begins to take place is called the yield point. If the stress is increased beyond the yield point, the ultimate strength of the material will eventually be reached and, at this point, the material will rupture or break. Figure 2 shows the stress/strain curve related to yield point and ultimate strength of a material.

Figure 2

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61

The Vintage Mechanic ROBERT G. LOCK

When discussing the ultimate strength of an aluminum material, it is easy to see the difference between structural (carries in-flight and landing loads) and nonstructural material. The ultimate strength of 5052-HlS (strain hardened to full hard) is 29,000 psi. The ultimate strength of 2024-T3 heat-treated aluminum is 68,000 psi. The ultimate strength of 6061-T6 heat-treated aluminum is 42,000 psi. One can easily see the difference between strain-hardened and heattreated aluminum.

Other nonferrous materials used in aircraft construction are magnesium (the lightest metal and most corrosive), copper (tubing), brass (screws/ brazing rod), and bronze (bushings).

Now, I’d like to briefly discuss common ferrous metals. Ferrous metals contain carbon, which is added to iron to make steel. The more carbon, the harder and more brittle the metal becomes.

The last two digits in the identifier of steel indicate the amount of carbon added to the iron. Two types of steel were used in fabrication of older aircraft: 1025 and 4130 (known as chromoly due to its makeup of chromium/molybdenum). The amount of carbon in 1025 is 0.25 percent and in 4130 is 0.30 percent.

4130 will take a heat-treat, 1025 a partial heat-treat, and anything below about 0.25 percent carbon will not heat-treat at all. A plain carbon steel designated 1010 will not gain strength by heat-treating. On the other hand, 4130 that is used for most components comes in the condition N (normalized).

Normalizing is the heating of alloy 4130 to 1, 600-1, 700 degrees Fahrenheit and allowing the material to air cool. When this is done, the 4130 will come out at a tensile strength of 90,000 psi. When you purchase chromoly tubing or sheet stock, the identifier code will indicate 4130 - Cond N. If a part is to be heat-treated, alloy 4140 welding rod will be used, because mild steel welding rod will not take a heat-treat.

Heat-treating 4130-alloy steel happens by heating it in an oven to l,575-l,625 degrees Fahrenheit , allowing it to soak at that temperature, then removing it from the oven and immediately quenching it in oil.

The tensile strength will be around 225,000 psi; it becomes very hard and brittle. The metal is usually tempered by heating it to a specified temperature and allowing it to cool in still air. For instance, if the part were to be heat-treated, to 125,000 psi, the material would be heated again to l,050 degrees Fahrenheit and allowed to cool.

All structure that was originally fabricated with 1025 steel can be repaired or replaced by using 4130 chromoly. In fact, alloy 1025 is quite hard to find in quantity in specific dimensions. I tried to locate 1025 in sheet form and could not find a source. I did find alloy 1020 in quantity, but no 1025. So, I fabricated wing fittings for the New Standard D-25 from 4130, a much better choice anyway.

For chromoly structure, the most common fabrication method is welding. Brazing and riveting are rarely used, but bolting is sometimes an option.

One last comment on steel alloys that were heat-treated by the factory; once a part is heat-treated, it cannot be repaired unless it is subject to exactly the same type of heat treatment. Don’t let anybody make welded repairs to a heat-treated engine mount or landing gear unless it is re-heat-treated, which can be difficult to do unless one has the specific instructions for original heat-treat.

62 July/August 2020

We have discussed several technical items of interest for the builder/owner of aging aircraft.

Repairs and replacement of components involve complex tasks. Substitution of materials should not be done without approval. FAA AC43.13-1B authorizes replacing 1025 steel with 4130 steel, both tube and sheet or plate. But take care not to substitute nonstructural aluminum in place of heat-treated structural aluminum. The results could be catastrophic.

Finally, let’s finish this discussion of materials and processes with common AN hardware.

Figure 3 shows typical AN bolt head markings for nickel-steel bolts. AN bolts come in sizes from 3/16-inch diameter and up. Most old aircraft don’t use any bolt larger than 1/2-inch diameter.

These bolts are designated in size by AN3 (3/16) to AN8 (8/16). The 3/16-inch to 1/2-inch diameter bolts are most common in older aircraft.

They are made from 2330 nickel-steel and are heat-treated for strength (0.30 percent carbon), then plated with cadmium for corrosion protection. Their threads are “rolled”; therefore, never use a thread cutter to re-cut the threads. A thread “chaser” may be used on occasion, but that removes the cad plating. Never lengthen the threads of any fastener by using a thread cutter. Never heat a bolt for any reason if it is to be reused. And if you send bolts out for cadmium plating, make sure the plating process meets military specifications (MILSPEC) standards and that the parts are baked to remove hydrogen embrittlement.

Figure 3

PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY OF EAA ARCHIVES

Figure 4

Type 1 plating is silver in color, while Type 2 plating is gold in color.

All early aircraft used the AN310 castle nut safetied with a cotter pin. That is because lock nuts had not been invented yet. Both castle and lock nuts are tension fasteners, so observe the torque chart in AC43.13-1B and don’t over-torque these fasteners, particularly on wood structure.

Perhaps I could devote a column to the proper use of fasteners in a future issue of the magazine.

That’s it for now. Hopefully you all have a slightly better understanding of structural and nonstructural application of aluminum and steel used for fabrication and repair of our aircraft. When repairing or fabricating components, factory drawings are a must. The drawings will show the type of material originally used, and whether the parts were or were not heat-treated for increased strength.

When drawings are not available is when things get more difficult.

One can use the original structure as a pattern, but try to determine if it is actually the original, or something that has been reproduced. AN bolts started sometime in the late 1920s and the head markings were simply an “X” stamped into the head. I removed some of these bolts from the wings during the restoration of my 1929 Command-Aire SC3.

I’m still hopeful that someday we’ll see some of these factory drawings that have been stored away for all these years by the FAA. These first-copy ATC drawings have been and continue to be inaccessible.

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63

Message From the President SUSAN DUSENBURY, VAA PRESIDENT

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

This past January I appointed a committee to review our VAA website. We all know that it is necessary from time to time to review and critique a website in this fast-paced and ever-changing world of technology. Upgrades and changes are a must if you want to stay in the game and remain relevant. Anyway, a thoughtful and thorough evaluation was done by our committee.

Team members were Vintage Directors Dan Knutson (chairman), Dan Wood, Tim Popp, John Hofmann, Vintage Adviser Joel Meanor, and staff member Amy Lemke. This dedicated group constructed a plan to make our website more user-friendly and add more content that would be of interest to our members on a yearround basis. They have worked to create a website that is centered on people, which includes a new tab devoted to Vintage volunteers.

Social media will be playing a larger role as will AirVenture coverage. We have set the second half of July 2020, or about the same time you receive the July/August issue of Vintage Airplane, to debut our upgraded website.

On a final note, I would like to mention that all of the programs that Vintage had planned for AirVenture 2020 will be carried forward to AirVenture 2021 along with those programs that we had scheduled for AirVenture 2021. AirVenture 2021 is shaping up to be a great year!

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DIRECTORY OFFICERS President Susan Dusenbury 1374 Brook Cove Rd. Walnut Cove, NC 27052 336-591-3931 sr6sue@aol.com

Secretary Steve Nesse 2009 Highland Ave. Albert Lea, MN 56007 507-383-2850 stnes2009@live.com

Vice President Tim Popp 60568 Springhaven Ct. Lawton, MI 49065 269-760-1544 tlpopp@frontier.com

Treasurer Jerry Brown 4605 Hickory Wood Row Greenwood, IN 46143 317-627-9428 lbrown4906@aol.com

DIRECTORS Dave Clark 635 Vestal Lane Plainfield, IN 46168 317-839-4500 davecpd@att.net

Dan Knutson 106 Tena Marie Circle Lodi, WI 53555 608-354-6101 lodicub@charter.net

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

Paul Kyle 1273 Troy Ct. Mason, OH 45040 262-844-3351 paul_e_kyle@hotmail.com

Jon Goldenbaum P.O. Box 190 Warner Springs, CA 92086 951-203-0190 jon@conaircraft.com

Earl Nicholas 219 Woodland Rd. Libertyville, IL 60048 847-367-9667 eman46@gmail.com

John Hofmann 548 W. James St. Columbus, WI 53925 608-239-0903 john@cubclub.org

Joe Norris 264 Old Oregon Rd. Oshkosh, WI 54902 pilotjoe@ntd.net 920-688-2977

Ray L. Johnson 347 South 500 East Marion, IN 46953 765-669-3544 rayjohnson@indy.rr.com

Dan Wood 75 Walton Place Dr. Newnan, GA 30263 678-458-3459 fly170@gmail.com

ADVISERS Kevin McKenzie 40550 La Colima Rd. Temecula, CA 92591

Joel Meanor 1015 Trail Ridge Ct. Keller, TX 76248

DIRECTORS EMERITUS David Bennett antiquer@inreach.com

Robert D. “Bob” Lumley rlumley1@wi.rr.com

Robert C. Brauer photopilot@aol.com

Gene Morris genemorris@charter.net

Phil Coulson rcoulson516@cs.com

S.H. “Wes” Schmid shschmid@gmail.com

Ronald C. Fritz itzfray@gmail.com

John Turgyan jrturgyan4@aol.com

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