flight "The Spirit of Flight #2." Number 1 was a flight to several states by An ders Ljungberg, EAA 2836, during 1960, in the P-5 Pober Sport built by Paul Poberezny and his brother Norman in 1959. The BUcker was parked by Basler Avi ation in Steve Wittman's old hangar, the same building where he had built Bonzo and other famous racers. Sam returned to Hawaii until the fly-in started. The trip was made to prove that a homebuilt aircraft could be safe and re liable. Articles on the 50 state trip ap peared in the October-November issues of SPORT A VIA TION with the BUcker on the front cover. Many letters were received, with one from Dave Jameson encouraging Sam to write a full-blown book on his trip. Three years later "Jungmeister Junket (50 States in a Bi plane)" was published.
In 1971 the Jungmeister was donated to the EAA Museum for its historic value and is presently on display in the Air Adventure Museum. When the JM had only ten hours on it, Paul Poberezny made a trip to Hawaii with the Air Na tional Guard in a KC-97 refueler and flew the Jungmeister. This was his 107th home built to be flown, many for the very first time. Since then Sam Burgess has built two Pitts and another BUcker, powered by an Allison turboprop engine of 420 hp. That airplane holds the NAA/FAI world record for time to climb to 10,000 feet (2:18). This unit has since been re placed with a Russian 9 cylinder radial Vedenyev engine of 360 hp. At age 79, Sam is presently building a Knight Twister biplane with the intent of even tually racing it at Reno, Nevada. Two days after the Convention, when
Sam departed for the AAA Fly-In at Ottumwa, Iowa, he experienced an un usual sight. Taking off to the west and looking to the left for a view of the parking area, he did a double take as hundreds of air craft appeared to be still parked there. How could this be? On a second look it was revealed that each aircraft had been perfectly out lined by the multitude of tire kickers as they inspected their handiwork, tram pling the verdancy from the grass.
(Editor's note: My kids refer to the little grass airplanes as "airplane ghosts." You can always tell where the most popular air planes were parked - the grass around them is trampled until it is devoid of color, and a bright green wing, [uselrrge and tail appear in base relief in the turf when the real air plane taxis away.)
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VINTAGE AIRPLANE 11