tion with really TIGHT loops - a joy to behold. We all look forward to seeing our old favorites - Ernie Fill more's big red Stinson, Mel Heflinger's unique Har low PJC2, the Cessna Airmasters of Ken Coe and Gary White; the big green Howard DGA of Mary and Joe Hecker of San Diego; Bill Nutting 's Waco; Ted Ho man 's American Eagle; the Knode's Pietenpol; Bob Yates' Kinner Ryan, etc. We all have our favorites in all the different aircraft types. It's not fair to men tion just a few - but many of these ai rcraft that show up every year have been back to Oshkosh and Blakes burg and are national favorites too. Just seeing the old favorites each year makes it seem like home.
51 years of life when it was at Watsonville. The fellow who owned it for 45 years had bought it as a young college man . He managed to prang it twice in the 4 hours he flew it. He rebuilt her once, but just never got around to rebuilding the second time. The new owner, Richard Stephens, was awarded the AAA Award for rarest antique and First Award for Pioneer Age. Th ere were 8 ai rcraft owners wh 0 won special medallions for having planes on the field and flying that were 50 years old or older. This is a new award for Watsonville and very impressive - especially for us who are in the over 50 age ourselves! These special awards went to:
Among the real eye catchers this year was the 1936 Rearwin Sportster, flown in by owner and restorer Alan Bushner of Fresno, California. What a beauty! Authentic to the last detail, says my "old timer" hus band, and with a gleaming red paint job. Never walked by when Alan wasn ' t out polishing. His efforts were rewarded with the Grand Champion Award, and well deserved. I'm sure the judges had a tough choice be tween the Rearwin and a beautiful red Howard DGA flown in from Rockford, Illinois by owner Ronnie Rip pon . The beauty and detailing won Ronnie the Mayor's Award, which is the same as Grand Champion Runner up at Watsonville. Ronnie also won the award for the longest distance flown in for judging. And gave us a chance to chat again with Frank Rezich - Big Nick's little brother.
1918 Curtiss Jenny - Jim Nissen, Livermore, CA 1927 Waco 10 - N3931 - Larry Stephen, Scotts Valley, CA 1928 American Eagle - N7172 - Owned by the Northern California Chapter of AAA - formerly owned by Ted Homan 1928 Krieder-Reisner- N831N - John Reid, San Jose, CA 1928 Vulcan American Moth - N-62298 - Richard Stephens, Baldwin Park, CA 1929 Travel Air 4000 - N9032 - Carroll Pope, Rogue River, OR 1929 Waco, ASO - N4W - William Detour, Jr., Van couver, WA 1929 Boeing 100, P-12 - N872H - Lew Wallick, Bell view, WA 1929 New Standard - N155M - George Day, Concord, CA
Another very interesting antique was a 1937 Fair child 45, owned and restored by Bob Harbord, who flew it in from the home hangar at Crest Airpark in the Seattle area. Bob has been working on his bird since 1968 and had it flying the first time after a complete rebuild on July 31, 1976. There are just 3 of the 17 original 45's left and coincidentally, two of them, Bob's NC16878 and 16879 (belonging to someone else) are in adjoining hangars at Crest Airpark! Bob received the AAA President's Choice and the Angeles Antiquer's Choice for his efforts. Another little antique that caught the eye of the knowledgeable was a little blue and silver Vulcan American Moth - 1928. This is a forerunner of the Davis, and had many people, even our super sharp announcer, Jonny Reid, fooled at first. This little plane was at Chino, but this was the first appearance at Wat sonville. Believe it or not, it was truly found in a barn where it had resided for 45 years! I was told recently that the barn burned down a day after the Moth was removed, but have no verification on that one. The little bird had accumulated only 46 TT in its
18
An interesting aircraft that caught my eye was a 1943 Piper PT. It is claimed to be a one and only of its kind - the first low wing retractable gear built by Piper. It's owned by Tom Wathen of Encino, California and was restored by Ian Benne. There were so many beautiful classics this year that there is no way we can cover them all. The Northern California Antique Chapter gives out as many awards as possible to truly show their ap preciation for the work and effort it takes to restore these aircraft and to say "thank you" to the pilots who bring them to show to all, thus making a fly-in successful. So there are awards for Best of Everything from Aeroncas to Taylorcrafts, right on through the list: Aeronca, Beech, Bellanca , Cessna, Ercoupe, etc., etc. We were really impressed with some of the work manship and can truly appreciate the work that goes into the shiny polished aluminum oldies (we have a 1964 Cessna 206 in polished aluminum and we know how hard it is to keep it just presentable - let alone in judgi ng condition). We were really impressed with a Luscombe 8A brought to the fly-in by a young man,
Tim Bowers, from Woodland, California. Tim had worked on his little beauty for three and a half years and did a super restoration job. He even had the brass hi nges on his cowli ng polis'/led up to look brassy agai n! Tim didn 't get the Best Luscombe Award that I might have given him , but he did get the Merced Pilot's As sociation Choice which made him feel good , I'm sure . At any fly-in the custom built judges have their problems. As one judge said to us, " How do you tell a fellow his plane is not perfect when it is, and so are a couple of others?" So, they all look and they tally up the points and the Grand Champion Homebuilt Award went to Richard Shaefer, from Torrance, Cali fornia, for his blue Thorp T-18, with a super cockpit layout and instrumentation and all the details that catch judges' eyes. Runner-up and Best Starduster Too was Gary Solmi's American Adventure. We had a real lecture on how to apply gold leaf for trim and numbers from Gary. This was a really sharp and dif ferent looking, to us anyway, trim for aircraft. Gary had rebuilt this plane from the ground up after having had a "smashing trip" when it was quite new. As usual Watsonville put on a great air show for the public and the flying enthusiasts. This year among the West Coast's most talented air show pilots were Eddy Andreini in his stock Stearman PT-13D; Don Car ter flying an authentic Buecker Jungmeister; Freddy Ludtke with his 165 Warner powered Monocoupe; John Pigget flying a Pitts S-2; Amelia Reid in a Cessna Aero bat; Frank Ranuio flying his aerial ballet to music in a Piper J-3; Herb Ross and Wes Ament flying a dual Pitts act; and World Champion Charlie Hillard flying both the Christen Eagle I and the Eagle II each day. Watsonville is just a memory now for this year but Memorial Day Weekend in 1980 will see us all there again - renewing old friendships, seeing all the old favorites again, catching up on the news and looki ng for what is new and the beautiful new restora tions that will come as surely as the swallows come back to Capistrano. Maybe you should try and make it too!
WATSONVILLE '79 AWARD WINNERS GRAND CHAMPION - Rearwin C1oudster, N15857 Alan Buchner:Fresno, CA BEST HOMEBUILT IN SHOW - Thorp T-18, N41RS Richard Schaefer, Los Angeles, CA RAREST ANTIQUE - Vulcan American Moth, N62298 Richard Stephens, Baldwin Park, CA