Va Vol 47 no 3 may jun 2019

MAY / JUNE 2019

THE FLYING FLOODS CESSNA 170 CELEBRATION

Stinson a piper-built

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Message from the President

May/June 2019

SUSAN DUSENBURY, VAA PRESIDENT

STAFF Publisher: Jack J. Pelton, EAA CEO and Chairman of the Board

Vintage Youth at VAA 16 RECENTLY, I FLEW OUT TO Kansas

City, Kansas, via the airlines to meet with the members of Vintage Aircraft Association Chapter 16. VAA 16 is headquartered in Gardner, Kansas, which is about an hour drive from Kansas City International Airport (KMCI). It was a brief visit that reminded me of those short layovers that I used to have when I was flying for ABX Air (formerly Airborne Express). Kansas City was a frequent destination for me.

I had the opportunity to meet and talk with the officers and the members of the chapter, and I was certainly impressed by what I saw for a multitude of reasons. The first thing that I noticed was the demographics in the chapter. The ages of the members varied from anywhere in their 20s to, well, let’s just say up there!

The aviation experience levels ranged from the fledgling aviator to the really experienced flyer and airplane restorer. I immediately picked up on the fact that the more experienced chapter members are mentoring the less experienced aviators, which brings the entire group together, working toward a common goal with a common passion for airplanes. This fits in with their mission statement, which states that VAA 16 is dedicated to the preservation and maintenance of vintage aircraft. The members of VAA 16 call themselves Flatland Flyers, by the way.

I was heartened to see the influx of youth as the average age of the Vintage member has been climbing since the formation of the Vintage Aircraft Association. Jack Cox and I frequently talked about this subject.

I understand that at some point this age climb in Vintage will level off!

I’d just like to see a reversal.

Editor: Jim Busha / jbusha@eaa.org

Also impressive were VAA 16’s facilities. The members themselves constructed a building/hangar where they hold their meetings, restore airplanes, and host events.

They are now in the process of expanding the hangar to include a clubhouse that also houses a kitchen and restroom facilities. The hangar is spacious and obviously a place to meet and to work on airplane projects. The hangar is full of vintage parts and pieces, and the numerous workbenches look well used. Along with meeting and restoring, this group is out there flying and bringing young aviators into the fold while promoting fun and affordable airplanes. We’re talking about Champs, Chiefs, T-crafts, etc. They have also put a rare Funk into that mix. These planes are great for any pilot, but this is particularly true for young beginners looking to build time at a reasonable cost. As to those fun and affordable planes, I like to say that the fun is there and you can’t beat the price.

If you live in the greater Kansas City area and think that you may be interested in joining this dynamic group of vintage airplane enthusiasts, you can contact VAA 16 President Ron Sipple at rsipple@vaa16.com.

You can also find the chapter on Facebook, Vintage Aircraft Association Ch. 16, and check its website at www.VAA16.com. The Flatland Flyers hold regular meetings at the Gardner Municipal Airport (K34).

Back on the home front I am delighted to have this opportunity to introduce you to our new fulltime administrative assistant, Amy Lemke, whose first day at Vintage CONTINUED ON PAGE 64

Senior Copy Editor: Colleen Walsh Assistant Copy Editor: Katie Holliday-Greenley Proofreader: Jennifer Knaack Graphic Designer: Cordell Walker

ADVERTISING Vice President of Marketing and Business Development: Dave Chaimson / dchaimson@eaa.org Advertising Manager: Sue Anderson / sanderson@eaa.org 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

Current EAA members may join the Vintage Aircraft 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 PO Box 3086, Oshkosh, WI 54903-3086 Monday–Friday, 8:00 AM—6:00 PM CST Join/Renew 800-564-6322 membership@eaa.org EAA AirVenture Oshkosh www.eaa.org/airventure 888-322-4636

www.vintageaircraft.org

1

Contents F E AT U R E S

12

“There’ll Always Be a Stinson” The journey of one historical Flying Station Wagon

By Sparky Barnes Sargent

22

70 Years of Cessna 170s Birds of a feather flock to AirVenture 2018

By Budd Davisson

30

Giles Henderson, His Clipped Wing Cub, and the Flying Floods An icon revisits AirVenture

By Budd Davisson

40

Where the Fun Is It’s ‘Just a Chief’ The Harter family’s Aeronca 11AC

By Sparky Barnes Sargent

50

QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS?

Fresh, Vintage, Comfortable, and Attractive

Send your thoughts to the Vintage Editor at: jbusha@eaa.org

Martt Clupper and his half-brother’s Super Cub

membership-related questions, please call

By Hal Bryan

EAA Member Services at 800-JOIN-EAA (564-6322).

2

March/April 2019

For missing or replacement magazines, or any other

May/June 2019 / Vol. 47, No. 3

C OL U M N S Message From the President

01

By Susan Dusenbury

04

Friends of the Red Barn

06

VAA Election

08

How To? Cut straight lines on polyester fabric

By Robert G. Lock

10

Good Old Days

60

The Vintage Mechanic Repairs, alterations, maintenance, preventive maintenance

By Robert G. Lock

64

VAA New Members

C OV E R S Front A beautiful ‘49 Piper Stinson graces the Florida sky.

Photo by Scott Slocum

Back Matt Clupper’s Piper Super Cub cruises near Oshkosh.

Photo by Lyle Jansma

PHOTOGRAPHY BY CONNOR MADISON

www.vintageaircraft.org 3

Friends of the

RED BARN IN THE FALL OF 2001, two of the Vintage Aircraft

Association’s most effective officers created a program with the goal of having dedicated members support improvements to the Red Barn and all that the Red Barn represents. These two individuals were then-president Butch Joyce and VAA treasurer Charlie Harris. The idea behind the program not only included physical improvements to the Red Barn, but also offered a means to support and expand VAA’s programs for members and their guests during the EAA convention.

Over the years the Friends of the Red Barn has enjoyed a high level of success, which has allowed us to make muchneeded structural repairs to the Red Barn itself while developing and expanding programs for our guests at Vintage Village. As our flagship building, the Red Barn has served us well as a meeting place where old friends meet to renew their friendship and as a gathering place where you are certain to make new friends. The Red Barn is the home to Vintage hospitality and now houses an area depicting the very interesting history of the Red Barn. New to the Red Barn

This is the new north entrance to our iconic Red Barn. At the opening of AirVenture 2017, we rededicated our expanded Welcome Center and also dedicated the Stadtmueller Patio to the original family who farmed this land for more than a century.

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in 2018 was a tribute to our Hall of Fame inductees and to those individuals who were so instrumental in the founding and early success of our organization.

Interestingly, a large majority of the Red Barn’s supporters have been involved since the very first year of the Friends of the Red Barn program. Vintage is extremely proud of these dedicated members and supporters. They are at the very foundation of what we are working towards in the vintage aircraft movement. These donors are directly responsible for the Friends of the Red Barn’s success and for making the Red Barn the focal point of Vintage Village, with all of the gracious hospitality that the Red Barn is so famous for.

We are very proud of the fact that this VAA treasure — the Red Barn — was member created and is member maintained, principally through our Friends of the Red Barn fundraiser program. Our Vintage area has over the years grown from one dilapidated and abandoned barn into an entire village filled with interesting and fun places to visit. And yet, there is much, much more to be done. With your help, every year we will provide our members and guests with an ever more broadened fun-filled and interesting experience.

All of the supporters’ names are listed annually at the Red Barn and in the pages of Vintage Airplane magazine.

Please stand tall and join us in Friends of the Red Barn. You will be forever proud and happy that you did.

SUSAN DUSENBURY, PRESIDENT VINTAGE AIRCRAFT ASSOCIATION

PHOTOGRAPHY BY CONNOR MADISON, STEVE MOYER

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 is a VAA member.)

•Time span (dates) of the nominee’s contributions to vintage aviation.

(Must be between 1950 to present day.)

•Area(s) of contributions to aviation.

•Describe the event(s) or nature of activities the nominee has undertaken in aviation to be worthy of induction into the VAA Hall of Fame.

•Describe achievements the nominee has made in other related fields in aviation.

•Has the nominee already been honored for his or her involvement in aviation and/or the contribution you are stating in this petition? If yes, please explain the nature of the honor and/or award the nominee has received.

•Any additional supporting information.

•Submitter’s address and phone number, plus email address.

•Include any supporting material with your petition.

VAA Election TIM POPP Vice President LAWTON, MICHIGAN

TIM JOINED EAA IN 1988 and is now a lifetime member. He began taking flying lessons, attended his first EAA convention that same year, and has attended every convention since. Tim earned his private pilot’s license in 1989 and later added a

JERRY BROWN Treasurer GREENWOOD, INDIANA

AS A MEMBER OF EAA AND VAA since 1983, Jerry has served as an Antique Classic judge since 1999 and has received his 50-mission Young Eagles pin. He received a Bronze Lindy in 1991 and again in 1998 as VAA Customized Antique Champion. Since

DAN WOOD Director NEWNAN, GEORGIA

DAN CAUGHT THE FLYING BUG from his father, who owned Taylorcrafts back in the 1940s. His first flight, at the age of 9, was with his uncle in a Brantly helicopter. Dan earned his private pilot’s license in 1978 in a Cessna 150 while living near Lansing, Michigan. After he received a

JOHN HOFFMAN Director COLUMBUS, WISCONSIN

JOHN’S INTEREST IN AVIATION was handed down from his father. He grew up with plastic models, advancing to radio control, and culminating in his private pilot certificate in 1982.

He attended his first Oshkosh convention in 1978, joined EAA in 1982, and

6 May/June 2019

tailwheel endorsement and an instrument rating. He joined VAA in 1994, about the time he began volunteering with the VAA Contemporary Aircraft Judges, and currently serves as the vice chairman of the group. He owns a 1958 Cessna 172, which he purchased in 1994 and has slowly restored over the years. He is currently building a Van’s Aircraft RV-7.

Tim is an active member and past president of EAA Chapter 221 in Kalamazoo, Michigan. He is an active Young Eagles

program participant, having flown more than 500 Young Eagles over the years. He earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Michigan and is an environment, health and safety manager for a major pharmaceutical company. He has been happily married for more than 25 years to his wife, Liz, who also actively volunteers with the VAA.

his retirement in 1989, he has worked full time restoring WACOs. He is involved with most phases of the restoration process, including engines and airframes.

Jerry is a member of EAA Chapter 729 and served as treasurer of the American Waco Club for 16 years. Jerry is a private pilot, SEL, MEL, with 3,000-plus hours in single-engine airplanes, 1,000 of which is with conventional gear. His business and community service includes 25 years as founder and CEO in plastics manufacturing

and the custom sportswear business, as well as serving on the board of trustees of Franklin College.

degree in Aircraft Engineering at Western Michigan University in 1986, he earned his A&P certificate in 1995. His engineering discipline took Dan and his family from Michigan to Tennessee to Georgia. He worked at Aeroquip Aerospace, General Motors (Saturn), and he recently retired from Panasonic Automotive Systems as a global director of supplier quality assurance. He has owned a Cessna 172, Cessna 182, an Aeronca Champ, and currently a Cessna 170 and a Cessna 170 project.

Dan’s Cessna 170 has received awards at

Oshkosh, SUN ’n FUN, Blakesburg, SERFI, and local fly-ins. He is active in EAA Chapter 6 in Newnan, Georgia, including five years as president, and has flown Young Eagles. Dan joined EAA in 1988, VAA in 1994, and has attended numerous Oshkosh Conventions.

He started volunteering at Oshkosh in 2008 in the Classic Aircraft Judging group and has since moved to the Contemporary Judging group, where he currently is the vice chairman for contemporary awards. Dan and his wife, Debbie, live in Newnan.

became a VAA member in 1988. In 1990, John moved to Indiana and became involved with EAA Chapter 226 in Anderson, where he eventually served as secretary and president.

While in Indiana, John received his A&P certificate and worked in technical publications at Rolls-Royce. While working for Ken Cook Co. in Milwaukee, he also wrote marketing and technical materials for Beechcraft and was privileged to help edit Duane Cole’s final book. For the past decade, with his

wife, Susan, he has operated The Rees Group, Inc. in Madison, Wisconsin.

John is the past treasurer of the Midwest Antique Airplane Club, as well as the current editor of the Brodhead Pietenpol Association newsletter, Cub Clues, the Luscombe Association newsletter, and the Taylorcraft Owners Club newsletter. He has restored several aircraft and currently owns and flies a Piper J-3 Cub and a Pietenpol Air Camper.

DAVE CLARK Director PLAINFIELD, INDIANA

AS A CHILD, DAVE BUILT almost every type of flying model airplane.

Dave learned to fly in J-3 Cubs in 1958 in Indianapolis, where he and his wife, Wanda, moved so he could attend pharmacy school at Butler University. He has owned an Aeronca

RAY JOHNSON Director MARION, INDIANA

RAY GREW UP ON A FARM near Marion, Indiana, and has had a lifelong interest in old airplanes, having an uncle who took him for his first ride in an Aeronca Defender. He received his private pilot’s license in 1980 and the same year joined EAA and the

GEORGE DAUBNER Director OCONOMOWOC, WISCONSIN

GEORGE’S LOVE FOR AVIATION started at the tender age of 12, when he attended his first air show at his hometown airport in Hartford, Wisconsin. He realized then that he wanted to make flying a large part of his life. He started flying in 1969 and

EARL NICHOLAS Director LIBERTYVILLE, ILLINOIS

EARL’S LOVE OF FLYING came from his parents, who often took their children to airport fences to watch the planes. He began flying in college, but couldn’t afford to continue. At the urging of his father, he again took up flying at the Stick & Rudder Club at

Chief, an Aeronca Scout, and two TriPacers. Dave has been working on and restoring airplanes since 1969. Currently, he is restoring his 1946 Aeronca Chief. After his retirement, he enrolled as a student in the Vincennes University Airframe and Powerplant (A&P) program in Indianapolis and graduated in 2005. He is now an A&P instructor there.

For five years, Dave served as the president of the Hendricks County Board of Aviation Commissioners to build a new

airport (2R2), which opened in December of 2001. Dave attended two EAA conventions in Rockford and has attended all but two fly-ins in Oshkosh. He served as a judge of the antique aircraft category for 25 years, served as co-chairman of Antique judging, and now serves as the Vintage Aircraft Association chief judge. He also serves as the VAA Development Committee chairman.

Vintage Airplane Association. He was honored with a Bronze Lindy in 1995, and then again in 1996 received Grand Champion Classic Aircraft with his 1947 Aeronca Chief (11AC). Ray also owns and enjoys flying his 1963 Mooney M20C. Ray has attended every Oshkosh Convention since 1980. In 1991, he started the Fly/In Cruise/In held annually in Marion, Indiana, this year being the 27th consecutive Fly/In held there. This year will be his eighth year serving as chairman of

and conducting the daily “Vintage in Review” program at Vintage Interview Circle. Ray is retired from American Electric Power after 42 years of service.

earned his private ticket in 1970. In 1974, George was hired as a co-pilot, flying Beech 18s for a Milwaukee-based charter company. His job duties also included managing the Hartford Airport on weekends. During that period George was able to check out in many different types of antique and classic aircraft, including a Cub, Stearman, Great Lakes, and Luscombe, to name a few.

Having retired after 25 years of corporate flying, George spends his time now as

the program manager for the EAA B-17 Tour, and as a pilot on the EAA’s Ford Tri-Motor. Since 1983 George served the VAA during our Oshkosh convention as a volunteer for and chair of VAA parking and flightline safety, and today as vice chairman of Vintage field operations. In the past, George has also served the VAA as vice president.

Waukegan Airport (UGN) and passed his private checkride in 1974.

Earl served as a board member of Stick & Rudder and later as its assistant treasurer, treasurer, and president. His first visit to the Oshkosh convention was for one day in 1981. He began volunteering on the Vintage flightline the following year and joined Vintage in 1987. Earl has had many Vintage jobs over the years, including tracking volunteer hours, the Daily Aerogram, and producing volunteer name

tags. He was appointed an advisor to the board in 2015. He serves as Vintage Computer Ops chairman during AirVenture. Earl designed and launched the Vintage websites in 2013 and currently manages all of the Vintage online digital media.

See attached insert ballot to vote.

www.vintageaircraft.org

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How To? ROBERT G. LOCK

Cut straight lines on polyester fabric

BY ROBERT G. LOCK

WOVEN POLYESTER FABRIC TENDS

to unravel when it is cut dry, and the gluing process can be a real pain with threads and filaments pulling from the cut. To avoid this problem I use a process that coats the cut line with the first coat of filler material (in this case Poly-Brush), allowing it to dry, and then cutting with a good pair of scissors, razor blade, or knife. It works well and gives a nice straight line with no fraying of the fibers. See Figure 1.

Figure 1

8 May/June 2019

Figure 2 shows a left-hand Hatz biplane upper wing being covered with the Poly Fiber process. I always lap the seams where they won’t easily be seen; therefore, the final overlap on the upper wings is on the top, and on the lower wings it’s on the bottom. Install the top fabric first and securely bond it to the structure. When the glue dries, gently preshrink the fabric enough to remove any wrinkles from the leading and trailing edge. Then brush a strip of Poly Brush about 2 inches wide where the lower fabric will be attached. When this is dry, begin to attach the lower fabric, wrapping around the leading edge, and then mark the cut lines with a pencil and use a long straight edge. Brush a coat of Poly Brush along the pencil line

Figure 2

and allow it to dry. Then, place a clean 1-by-4-inch wood strip under the cut line and, using the long straight edge, razor cut the line. The wingtip can be done in the same manner, only you will have to heat shrink the fabric around the wing bow to avoid wrinkles. Once the fabric is heat shrunk around the bow, mark it with a pencil, brush on a coat of Poly Brush, and let it dry. Then make the cut with a pair of sharp scissors, starting the cut and then pushing the scissors to make the cut. Once the lap joints have cured, the fabric may be heat shrunk per instructions of the manufacturer.

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Visit FLYTHEFORD.org for a complete schedule!

Ford Tri-Motor 5-AT property of

Visit flytheford.org or call 1-877-952-5395 to reserve your flight.

www.vintageaircraft.org 

9

Good Old Days

10  

May/June 2019

From the pages of what was ...

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

www.vintageaircraft.org 11

THE JOURNEY OF ONE H I S T O R I C A L F LY I N G S TAT I O N W AG O N

BY SPARKY BARNES SARGENT

12  

May/June 2019

PHOTOGRAPHY BY SCOTT SLOCUM

www.vintageaircraft.org 13

n the mid-1980s, Mike White was the iconic young boy bicycling to the airport to watch the airplanes taking off and landing at Simsbury Airport in northern Connecticut. But on one memorable day, he did more than watch.

“Simsbury was about a mile from my house; it was a little 2,200-foot strip with about 25 airplanes tied down in the grass,” Mike said. “There was an elderly gentleman on the field who had a 1948 Stinson 108-3, and one day he gave me my first airplane ride. So I’ve had a love affair with the Stinson for more than 30 years.”

Mike, now a professional pilot flying cargo in 747s for Atlas Air, finally saw his Stinson love affair come full circle in September 2017. That’s when he and his wife, Sasha, adopted their own 108-3.

Based in Chesapeake, Virginia, he’d been shopping for an airplane on and off for years. So when he stumbled upon N4181C, he knew it was the one.

“The price was right, it was here in Virginia, and I had a really good feeling from the owner when I called to talk about it. I explained to Sasha what an excellently designed airplane Stinson built in the 1940s, and that it’s called a station wagon for a reason,” Mike said. “We can bulk the airplane out before we weigh it out. We like to take it on trips and go camping. It hauls a load and gets us where we need to go comfortably. It fits our mission. When I go to work, all I think about is flying my airplane.”

Sasha was sold on the 108-3 when Mike showed her how much weight (i.e., camping gear) it could carry, and even gave it a name: Charlie.

“I’m blessed that Mike wants to come home and still fly because we know a lot of people that work in the industry and don’t want to fly on their days off,” Sasha said. “So when he comes home, I just pick something on the map and we go fly there!”

Photographer Nick Williams took this photo of N4181C in California in 1972.

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May/June 2019

PIPER STINSON ’49 MODEL

The Piper Stinson ’49 models represent a historical transition for two of the major light airplane manufacturers of the era. Manufactured by Consolidated Vultee Aircraft Corporation—Stinson Division at Wayne, Michigan, these 108-3s were among the assets acquired

by Piper Aircraft Corporation of Lock Haven, Pennsylvania, in late 1948.

Author Devon Francis, in his book Mr. Piper and His Cubs, wrote that William Shriver helped arrange for the purchase of the assets of the Stinson Division of Consolidated Vultee in San Diego.

“Stinson’s parent company, controlled by Floyd Odlum … wanted to get rid of a dead property,” the book stated. “The Stinson had a fabric skin in a new day of metal personal aircraft. … No money changed hands in Piper’s purchase of the Stinson Division. Piper simply increased its number of common shares by one hundred thousand and handed them over for the acquisition.”

“Piper Aircraft Corp. moved quickly last week to take over its new purchase. … Terms of the transaction were unofficially reported at a figure of nearly $3,000,000,” Aviation Week reported in its December 6, 1948, issue. “There were indications that only a small part of the transaction was in cash, and that a stock transaction and a time payment arrangement covered the balance.”

The manufacturing plant and heavy equipment were not part of the deal, but the acquired assets included a large inventory of raw materials, components/parts, and completed Stinson 108 airplanes. As described in Piper Aircraft and Their Forerunners by Roger W. Peperell and Colin M. Smith, the assets of the Stinson Division “included about 200 Stinson 108-3 Voyagers and Station Wagons.”

William T. Piper Jr.’s flight entries in the airplane’s first logbook.

“Piper sales records show a total of 325 Stinson 108 airplanes sold, suggesting that they built 125 aircraft at the Stinson factory at Wayne, Michigan, from components that were included in the assets,” the book stated.

Additionally, according to author and historian John C. Swick (Stinson’s Golden Age, Volume 2), “Piper anticipated more than 300 Stinson dealers would be added to the Piper sales group, which already included about 1,300 dealers and 50 distributors. … Most Stinson dealers viewed the Piper line as being low-end, poorly engineered and underpowered aircraft.”

Hence, fewer than two dozen Stinson dealers joined the Piper dealership.

Lock Haven hometown hopefuls, disappointed if not alarmed at the postwar slump, were heartened when Piper acquired Stinson.

“The merger of Piper Aircraft with the Stinson Division of Consolidated Vultee is good news for Lock Haven, for it promises an eventual restoration of the local airplane plant to a leading position in the private airplane business,” an article in the December 1, 1948, issue of The Express stated. “The light airplane business, temporarily less active than many of its optimistic leaders expected immediately after the war, has excellent potentialities for the long pull in the next decade or two. The purchase of the Stinson airplane line and equipment, with its dealer organization and spare parts network, gives the Piper Corporation a wide and more varied base on which to build solid future development.”

Thus, Piper competed in the 1949 four-place niche market with its PA-14 Family Cruiser, PA-16 Clipper, and Piper Stinson Voyager and Flying Station Wagon.

(Competitor airplanes were the Aeronca Sedan, Cessna 170, and the Luscombe Sedan.) Piper proudly advertised in Flying (June 1949): “In the 1949 Piper Stinson, the two finest names in personal aviation are joined to assure the ultimate in performance and comfort at moderate price. Wonderful flight characteristics explain why Stinson has outsold all other 4-place aircraft.”

Although sales of the acquired Stinson 108-3s aided Piper’s financial recovery, Piper didn’t plan to go into production of these aircraft; Consolidated Vultee in San Diego still owned Type Certificate A-767. In 1955, Vest Aircraft Company (now Univair Aircraft Corporation) acquired the 108 manufacturing rights, including all production equipment and spare parts.

PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY OF MIKE WHITE

PROVENANCE

Mike and Sasha’s airplane was manufactured in 1948 as a 1949 model, and has a noteworthy provenance; it was one of three Stinson 108s that were flown to Lock Haven from Michigan. The first bill of sale for N4181C (serial No. 108-5181) was to Piper Aircraft Corporation from Consolidated Vultee Aircraft Corporation of Wayne, Michigan, dated January 11, 1949. After the paperwork was complete, none other than William T. Piper Jr. climbed inside N4181C on January 12, 1949, and settled into the pilot’s seat to fly solo to Lock Haven. On January 13, he flew the airplane from Lock Haven to Harrisburg. He carefully recorded his flights in his neat penmanship in the airplane’s logbooks.

As for the other two Stinsons flown to Lock Haven, The Express (February 1, 1949) reported that Piper held a two-day meeting to acquaint distributors with the new Piper Stinson sales program. “Distributors from all over the country are present, with Gentry Shuster, of Seward, Alaska, holding the long-distance travel record,” the article stated. “He and a companion will pick up two Piper Stinsons to fly home.”

N4181C didn’t tarry at Lock Haven; the next bill of sale was from Piper Aircraft to an Atlanta dealer, Blevins Aircraft Corporation, on January 28, 1949. R.J. Freeman was the cross-country ferry pilot, and when touching down at Atlanta after the seven-hour flight from Lock Haven, N4181C had accumulated a total of 11 hours.

Blevins sold the Piper Stinson to Alexander Hospital in Terrell, Texas, in 1951. N4181C stayed around Texas and Oklahoma for years, before flying west to California in 1972.

www.vintageaircraft.org

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In the late 1970s, N4181C flew north to Oregon, where then-owner Gene McBee did a five-year hands-on, award-winning restoration on the old bird. He flew the Piper Stinson not only for his own enjoyment, but also for search and rescue missions, and to help firefighting crews with guidance from above. In 2002, Steve Harris bought the airplane and flew it on perhaps its longest-ever cross-country, from the West Coast to his home in Maryland. He took it with him when he moved to Virginia in 2011 and then sold it to Mike and Sasha in 2017.

AIRFRAME

“[The] overall condition is good for a 30-year restoration because it’s been really well cared for,” Mike said regarding his reasons for not making changes to Charlie. “The only mods it has are Cleveland wheels and brakes, a Scott 3200 tail wheel, and the Petersen STC for auto fuel.”

Through a contact via the International Stinson Club Facebook page, Mike recently acquired a 1972 black and white photo of N4181C sitting on a ramp in Corona, California, with the stenciled “Piper Stinson ’49” visible on the cowling. That same stenciling adorned the cowling after restoration, though the colors were changed.

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May/June 2019

“It was originally Stinson Maroon and Diana Cream, and when Gene McBee covered the airplane with Poly Fiber, he painted it in Santa Fe Red and Irish Cream,” Mike said. “It’s a little brighter, and when you put it next to a Stinson with the maroon color, it really pops. It stands out as bright red in the sun; it’s a beautiful color.”

The Flying Station Wagon’s standard instruments in 1949 included a compass, altimeter, airspeed indicator, oil temp and pressure gauges, ammeter, recording tach, and fuel supply gauges. Mike said most of the original instruments are still in place, although an attitude indicator and engine indicating instruments were added at a later date.

ENGINE

N4181C is powered by a 165-hp Franklin engine, turning a McCauley 76-by-53 prop.

“It runs just fine; compressions are good and oil consumption is normal for an engine this age, so we’re going to keep running it. The engine was last overhauled in 1972 by George Heineley, who has since passed away, but at the time was the renowned Franklin expert in the country,” Mike said. “I’m told that’s the only reason it’s been running as long as it has, for as well as it has. Replacement parts are available from Susan Prall who owns Franklin Engine Aircraft Parts in Texas. Chris Collum owns Airworx LLC in Alabama, and he is the Franklin expert right now for engine work and overhauls.”

FLYING THE STATION WAGON

Piper touted the Stinson’s strong suits in an ad in Aviation Week (May 23, 1949), proclaiming: “There’ll Always be a Stinson. … Features of the Stinson have always included honest flight characteristics, rugged, reliable construction and luxurious styling. Now Stinson has become part of Piper Aircraft and we’re both proud of and impressed with our responsibility to uphold in the years to come the reputation that is Stinson’s.”

The Piper Stinson’s performance is enhanced by fixedwing slots and slotted flaps, while ground operations benefit from the cantilever landing gear’s long-stroke hydraulic shock absorbers and a full-swiveling, steerable tailwheel. Dual controls operate smoothly via ball or needle bearings, and brakes are installed on both the pilot and passenger side.

Fortunately, Mike, who first soloed in a Cessna 172 in 1998, was already familiar with tailwheel airplanes when the 108-3 came into his life. His introduction to tailwheel flying was a bit unusual; it occurred while he was a flight instructor living in Honolulu. Mike had a friend who was flying for Kamaka Air Inc. “They flew Beech 18s inter-island, and Bob offered me the opportunity to show up on the ramp at 4:30 in the morning and load frozen fish and other freight,” Mike said. “Then, if there was any room left in the airplane, I could ride along and fly the Part 91 empty leg back to Honolulu. That was my

“ WE CAN BULK THE AIRPLANE OUT BEFORE WE WEIGH IT O U T.”

— MIKE WHITE

first experience in a tailwheel airplane. Bob owned a Champ on the north shore of Oahu, and I got a tailwheel endorsement in that.”

After Mike had a few “refresher” flights in a friend’s Cub, he felt prepared to fly the Stinson.

“It’s an easy taildragger to fly; it’s really like flying a big Champ because it’s very simple and easy to land.

It’s one of the best-handling airplanes I’ve ever flown.

It’s balanced very well, and the flight controls are very smooth,” Mike said. “Some owners like to put a Lycoming engine on it, but I think it performs very well with the Franklin engine. I fly final at 70 mph, so we’re probably touching down about 60 mph. It holds 50 gallons of fuel — but only 46 are usable — and I flight plan for 10 gph while cruising around 115 mph.

The longest leg we’ve done at one time was 3.5 hours, and then we were ready to get out.”

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PHOTOGRAPHY BY CONNOR MADISON

www.vintageaircraft.org 17

ON THE HORIZON

Charlie has landed in the hands of owners who are happy to be its caretakers for the foreseeable future. Mike knows there will be some significant maintenance-related tasks in the future, such as an engine overhaul and re-covering the airframe.

“Charlie doesn’t need to be re-covered; however it’s been 30 years since it’s been opened up and thoroughly inspected with the fabric off. So I would like to have it re-covered in the next five years or so — keeping it the exact same colors. While I’m not in a hurry to do the ADS-B mandate by 2020, when I have the panel redone I’m just going to do a simple digital flip-flop radio with a Garmin transponder that’s compliant with the regulation. At that time I’m going to put the instruments back to the way they came out of the factory so it’ll look exactly like it did in 1948.”

HAVING FUN AND PRESERVING HISTORY

Mike and Sasha enjoy taking a special passenger on their cross-country journeys and camping trips.

“Our little dog goes everywhere with us,” Sasha said. “She’s a Yorkipoo and weighs only 4.2 pounds. Her name is Bocce, just like a little bocce ball. We took her to SUN ’n FUN and Sentimental Journey [in 2018].”

Speaking of Sentimental Journey, N4181C attracted some well-deserved attention at the annual June fly-in at Lock Haven.

“Charlie does have history at Lock Haven, and I bet it was the first time she’s been back since 1949,” Mike said. “We took the logbooks with us, and they were scanned into the archives by Roger Peperell, the official Piper historian. Roger shared Bill Piper’s personal logbook with us, and the entries in January 1949 match the entries in the airplane’s logbook.”

A few longtime attendees at Sentimental Journey persuaded Mike and Sasha to let the judges have an in-depth look at Charlie.

“Having the airplane judged at fly-ins is not something we’ve ever done. It’s never been important to us,” Mike said. “We know what we have, and she’s special to us. That’s all that’s ever mattered. To our surprise, we won Reserve Grand Champion! We were speechless at the banquet dinner. What an

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“ W E TO O K T H E LO G B O O KS W I T H U S , A N D T H E Y W E R E S C A N N E D I N TO T H E A R C H I V E S BY R O G E R P E P E R E L L , T H E O F F I C I A L P I P E R H I STO R I A N . R O G E R S H A R E D B I L L P I P E R ’S P E R S O N A L LO G B O O K W I T H U S , A N D T H E E N T R I E S I N J A N U A RY 1949 M ATC H T H E E N T R I E S I N T H E A I R P L A N E ’S LO G B O O K .”

PHOTOGRAPHY BY CONNOR MADISON

— MIKE WHITE

www.vintageaircraft.org

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honor to care for and fly this piece of history.”

To top it off, the proverbial “icing on the cake” came shortly after they returned home. Mike had previously set upon a quest to discover the precise date that N4181C was manufactured, to no avail.

“They say that your ‘born on’ date is the day they swing the compass and sign the weight and balance,” Mike said.

However, John wrote that after Piper acquired the Stinson 1083s, “each aircraft’s weight and balance were rewritten, dated and signed to match the same date as the bill of sale.”

So Mike personally reached out to John by telephone and found himself speechless yet again when he heard John assure him that N4181C’s “born on” date was June 23, 1948. It seemed that serendipity had quietly accompanied Mike and Sasha to Sentimental Journey; unbeknownst to them at the time, they had accepted the trophy precisely on Charlie’s 70th birthday!

With an eye to the future, Mike unabashedly declares he’ll keep the airplane forever, and Sasha agrees wholeheartedly. “We’re going to fly this airplane when it’s 100 years old; that will be 30 years from now,” she said. “We’re young enough to do it!”

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Specs Piper Stinson 1949 Model 108-3 Flying Station Wagon manufactured under ATC 767. Not eligible to be flown by a sport pilot.

SEATS:

4

WINGSPAN:

34 feet

LENGTH:

25 feet, 2 inches

HEIGHT:

7 feet, 6 inches

TREAD:

85 inches

EMPTY WEIGHT:

1,320 pounds

USEFUL LOAD:

1,080 pounds

GROSS WEIGHT:

2,400 pounds

ENGINE:

165-hp Franklin

FUEL:

50 gallons

OIL:

9 quarts

MAX CRUISING SPEED:

126 mph

CRUISING SPEED:

108 mph

NEVER EXCEED SPEED:

158 mph

LANDING SPEED (W/FLAPS):

55 mph

CLIMB AT SEA LEVEL:

580 fpm

SERVICE CEILING:

14,000 feet

CRUISING RANGE:

540 miles

BAGGAGE CAPACITY:

100 pounds

Derived from various sources, including Juptner’s U.S. Civil Aircraft, Volume 8, and ATC 767.

PHOTOGRAPHY BY SCOTT SLOCUM

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BIRDS OF A FEATHER FLOCK TO AIRVENTURE 2018

BY BUDD DAVISSON

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May/June 2019

ack in the day, when the term lightplane was tossed into a non-aviation conversation, the mental image most commonly projected in the mind was that of a Piper Cub. That day is long gone. Today, that image is of a Cessna 172. Every light airplane worldwide is a Cessna. However, the majority of folks, even those close to aviation have lost sight of the 172’s lineage. Too many have forgotten that before the avalanche of more than 44,000 172s was launched, there were more than 5,000 170s produced, and they formed the marketing foundation that gave birth to the 172. At EAA AirVenture Oshkosh 2018, the Cessna 170 community decided to come together to publicly celebrate the 70th birthday of the airplane that helped start a dynasty — an airplane they all dearly love.

The C-170 is an interesting airplane from a number of different perspectives. Produced from 1948 to early 1956, it arrived late to the orgy of aircraft production that saw something like 48,000 light aircraft produced in 1946 and 1947. By 1948, when the C-170 was introduced, it was obvious that the predicted aircraft boom wasn’t a boom but a bust, with aircraft production nationwide down to around 4,500 per year from a high of 33,000 only two years earlier (with a U.S. population less than half what it is today). Still, Cessna gambled that its new allmetal, four-place would find its way. And it did.

It says something about Cessna’s faith in the airplane in that it was not only willing to introduce it during a major aviation marketing debacle, but it continued to improve and refine it throughout its production life.

The first and most radical of the revisions to the new design came less than a year after its initial production. The straight 170 could easily be seen as a four-place C-140. Everything about

its lines was so similar that, other than size, from a distance it was hard to tell them apart. The fabric-covered wings had an identical planform to the 120/140.

Same thing with the tail shape and the flaps. Just move the decimal point over on a 140 and you have a 170. That, however, changed significantly in the last few months of 1948, the type’s inaugural year, with the introduction of the 170A. In some ways, it could be said that the 170A made the same changes as the 140A. The wings became all-aluminum and took on the signature planform that Cessna would use for the next nearly 70 years: The wing section outboard of the flap would be tapered with the trailing edge moving toward the straight leading edge and mounting the ailerons. The A is sometimes referred to as the straight wing because of the lack of dihedral. The tail also took on an entirely new shape with a large dorsal fin and rounded shape that had been pioneered in the C-190/195.

The A was replaced by the 170B in 1952 and introduced some changes that, although not visually significant definitely changed the aircraft and set the stage for the C-172 as we know it today.

Between A and B production, Cessna had designed and produced the Model 305, known by most aviators as the L-19 or O-1 Bird Dog. The 170B’s 3-degree dihedral and hugely effective slotted Fowler flaps came from Cessna’s experience with the Bird Dog and its need for STOL capabilities. Prior Cessna flaps in all models were simple hinged affairs of limited effectiveness. The barn door Fowlers slid back and down, which increased wing area, and their slots kept the airflow attached to them. They greatly affected the airplane’s

www.vintageaircraft.org 23

slow speed capabilities and, along with their postwar spring steel gear (licensed from Steve Wittman), became more Cessna trademarks. The flaps originally had 20-, 30-, and 40-degree settings but an additional 10-degree setting was added in 1955. The 170B’s tail also received aerodynamic and mass balances along with subtle outline changes.

One of the 170’s unique factors, which is generally not known in the non-170 part of the aviation community, is that although it’s a taildragger, it’s not a blind taildragger. In fact, a pilot of average height can clearly see over the nose in a three-point attitude. Plus, the spring gear is more tolerant of landing in a slightly off-heading attitude than bungee-type tubing main gear, making it one of the more benign taildraggers ever conceived.

“Tailwheel steering is notoriously poor in the 170,” said Dave Finamore, VAA 724169, who brought his 170B to AirVenture from Louisville, Colorado.

“Taxiing takes a lot of brake to make it go where you want. But that’s its only bad habit. It has an excellent view over the nose and is easy to handle in winds.

My airplane tracks perfectly straight on the ground, is very easy to land, and has never failed to make me

At its peak, the gathering of the 170 Faithful covered several acres.

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May/June 2019

look like a better pilot than I really am. I credit previous owners who had the gear properly aligned.

That’s very important with a tailwheel airplane, no matter which one. Poor alignment will cause the airplane to head for the weeds.”

The C-170 depended on the six-cylinder, 145-hp O-300 Continental for its entire production run. For some 170 owners, that isn’t enough power so larger engines have become a common modification.

Especially in the high country. In fact, it’s apparently a proven fact that a stock 170 can be landed in spaces it can’t get out of without more power.

Being a 1940s design, the instrument panel layout is distinct and, for some pilots, outdated.

In fact, there is a U-type modification for the control yoke assembly that allows the installation of a center-mounted radio stack. However, some pilots really like the traditional look. Others don’t and their airplanes reflect that.

Dave’s airplane had already been modified when he got it.

“The panel was replaced in 1993 with a custom fabrication by Aero Engravers of Camarillo, California. I don’t know if they still exist, but whoever did the work was a real artist. They improved

the instrument layout while retaining the classic appearance and aesthetics. Not a modern T-layout, but close enough for instrument flying. Engine instruments are on the right, and radios are in their original rack, lower center.”

The cockpit and useful load of less than 1,000 pounds allows the airplane to be a four-place, but not always with full fuel or full-sized people. That, however, doesn’t hurt its usability. Some at AirVenture 2018 explained how it works in their lives.

“This C-170 came to us at a time when I had two young children, Maura who was 12 and Michael who was 9,” said Steve McGreevy, VAA 716718, a retired ATC controller from Poplar Grove, Illinois. “It was the perfect airplane for a young family. We traveled extensively in it.

Before we got it, it was wrecked twice. In 1964 it was wrecked in an off-airport landing in Candler, Florida. The NTSB reported a clogged carb air screen led to an engine failure and off-airport landing with the aircraft coming to a stop in the water. It was restored and flying again in 1965.

Then in 1971 N8293A was wrecked again. The NTSB report stated that the pilot was distracted on rollout retracting the flaps, and the airplane nosed over. By April of 1972 it was flying again.”

One of the better parts about the 170, according to some pilots, is that their significant others have grown to like it so their airplane is a shared experience.

“My wife, Katie, is a great co-pilot,” Steve said. “She loves to take long trips and is very much of the belief that it is not the destination but the journey that counts.”

Another 170 pilot Dan Wood, VAA23243, of Newnan, Georgia, reported that his wife, Debbie, has always supported his “addictions.”

Dave said his wife, Mary, was not excited about aviation when he first started, but soon saw how much it meant to him and came to enjoy it herself.

“She likes traveling by GA and is a great flying companion because she’s calm and helps me make good decisions,” he said. “She likes the 170 because it has provided my kids and me so many great experiences together.”

TOP: The 170 instrument panel was seen in every possible configuration.

MIDDLE: The familiar 170 vertical tail shape was first introduced on the L-19.

BOTTOM: Cessna leased the design for the spring steel landing gear from its inventor, Steve Wittman.

PHOTOGRAPHY BY LYLE JANSMA

www.vintageaircraft.org 25

The background of the pilots on the grounds at AirVenture 2018 and the ways in which various 170 owners came to be 170 owners varies considerably, with luck sometimes being the major factor.

“I was looking for a four-place taildragger after getting experience in the 7AC Champ, and this 170 was available,” Dan said. “Since it was a little rough, I bought it with the condition that the seller would ferry it to Eagleville, Tennessee, where I was based. It’s an early ’48 rag-wing straight 170. It was a flying airplane, but an incident with water in the fuel forced me to rebuild it. A&P Jay Cavender did the wings for me and provided a lot of support.

Nick Wood helped buck rivets and polish with Nuvite. A few years later I had it at Oshkosh and was in my tent when I heard the previous owner outside tell someone he couldn’t believe it was the same airplane. He knew how much

work it took for me to get it to that point. One of the minor mods, by the way, was to put Monarch fuel caps on it to keep water out.

Once is enough.”

Canadian Jim McIntosh bought his C-170, C-FIHK, in 1995.

“At the time it was the lowest-priced 170 in Canada in a buyer’s market,” he said. “I took five hours of tailwheel instruction in a Cessna 140, flew commercial to Toronto, and began my 2,000-nm trip home with my first takeoff in a 170. I’m not a great pilot, but with time the aircraft has made me a better pilot. I’ve never thought of the 170 as a vintage aircraft. I wanted a plane with a large enough interior for a friend, gear, coupled with a low cost of operation and reliability. For me it has it all — the look, the stance, lines. The plane just seemed to say to me that I’m for you.”

Dave said to him, flying is largely about the visceral experience.

“For me aviation has always been about propellers, the view from a few hundred feet, and the smell of an old airplane,” he said. “I came to the 170 after I’d been partners in a C-210. We sold it, and I

Cessna 170 owners don’t let a little thing like winter slow them down.

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May/June 2019

PHOTOGRAPHY BY LYLE JANSMA, CONNOR MADISON

needed another airplane but wanted something different.

So, I asked myself, why did I start flying in the first place?

The answer was obvious — to fly a vintage tailwheel airplane. Beautiful classic lines and curves, four seats, easily maintainable, good performance, versatile, draws a crowd wherever you go. That’s the description of the Cessna 170.

I’d been shopping for a 170 for about a year when one day my mechanic called and said I should stop looking because the airplane I wanted was in his shop and was for sale. I couldn’t have been luckier because 55C has an Avcon 180hp conversion, making it perfect for Colorado.

Performance was already excellent, but a few years ago I swapped the Hartzell prop for an MT, which made it into a truly great airplane. Now it really climbs!”

Steve came to the 170 accidentally.

“Fred Gilbert, my good friend and co-worker, was shopping for a C-170. He traveled to Alaska several times a year and came across N8293A,” Steve said. “The owner and restorer, Howard Horn, offered the aircraft for sale less than 100 hours after he had completely restored it. Fred decided to buy it but wanted some company on the long trip back from Fairbanks. I was the fortunate one he asked. I had about 300 hours and zero tailwheel time. So I was basically ballast for the ride home. It was a fantastic adventure. Once we got home to Aurora Airport (KARR), where Fred would

“ O N E O F T H E 17 0 ’ S U N I Q U E FAC TORS, WHICH IS G E N E R A L LY N O T K N O W N I N T H E N O N - 17 0 P A R T O F T H E A V I A T I O N C O M M U N I T Y, I S T H A T A LT H O U G H I T ’S A T A I L D R A G G E R , I T ’S N O T A BLIND TAILDRAGGER.”

www.vintageaircraft.org 27

AirVenture saw many 170 owners sleeping with their airplanes.

“NO ONE EVER C L A I M S A C - 17 0 I S A SPEED DEMON, BUT ALL OWNERS PRAISE ITS OVERALL P R A C T I C A L I T Y. ”

Yet another variation on the C-170 instrument panel theme

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May/June 2019

hangar the airplane, he was kind enough to offer me a half-share partnership, which I foolishly declined since I lacked the tailwheel experience I felt I needed to own a nearly brand new, restored tailwheel airplane. This was September of 1998. In April of 2000, Fred asked me again if I was interested in a partnership, and by then I had come to my senses and jumped on the opportunity to own a beautiful and very capable aircraft. I took some dual to get the tailwheel endorsement, and have spent the last 19 years learning with every flight. I bought Fred out in 2014, when I moved to Poplar Grove.”

Steve said Howard did his best to make N8293A the nicest updated 170 he could during his restoration, which took place from 1990 to 1994. “[It’s] not original by any means, but a great reimagining of the 170 for his needs,” Steve said.

“He re-skinned the wings, added Cleveland wheels and brakes, a one-piece windshield, Cessna float kit, C-180 gear legs, 180 baggage door, Bush STOL kit, heated pitot, 172 U-yoke assembly to accommodate center stack radios, and he fabricated a one-piece, all-metal instrument panel, with 1995 state-of-the-art King radios and a new interior and new paint job.

Most importantly, though, Howard installed the Avcon conversion with the 180-hp Lycoming O-360 and a Hartzell constant-speed prop.”

The condition and quality of the airplanes, and the amount of restoration the pilots did or didn’t do on their airplanes, ranged from them being “store bought” to total restorations.

“I looked for a 170 when I started to fly and I saw my plane in an ad,” Jim said. “I flew from Vancouver to Toronto, where the owner picked me up and drove me out to see his plane. I saw it in the evening during a thunderstorm. It was parked outside, and it looked terrible! I gave it a

PHOTOGRAPHY BY LYLE JANSMA

brief look over and concluded it was worse than my fears. We discussed the plane a bit, but at the time I was not interested in buying it. I returned home, but for several weeks my mind kept on thinking about the aircraft’s greater endurance with its modified with 52-gallon fuel tanks. So, caution aside, I threw down the dice and decided to buy it after a test flight.”

Jim said the aircraft had suffered from repairs that failed to follow the criteria of good, better, and best.

“Signs of poor workmanship were disconnected wires running from side to side in the panel, poorly placed patched holes through the firewall and unattended to corrosion,” he said. “One example of a bad idea badly done to the plane were two large venturi mounted on the bottom of the fuselage.

This gave the aircraft the appearance of having a bomb load slung forward of the gear legs. It looked kind of cool, but bolting the flat bases of the venturis in an area of the skin that had compound curves caused several large skin cracks, and it didn’t help that the venturis were being coated in oil and dirt each flight. The repair required major disassembly of the lower fuselage for skin replacement.

The final list of repairs is a long one, but the major items include a new instrument panel, Lycoming 160-hp engine with constant-speed prop, and a Horton stall kit. Six years, 11 skin replacements, and paint later I had a beautiful flying airplane.”

No one ever claims a C-170 is a speed demon, but all owners praise its overall practicality.

“I’m getting 110 mph IAS at 21 inches and 2100 rpm,” Dave said. “At 7,500-9,500 feet MSL that gives me about 125 mph true at about 8 gph. At low rpm the EGTs on the 180-hp Lycoming O-360 level out, and I can lean 1 gph lower than at 2400 rpm.”

Steve said that with his bigger engine, he sees 120 knots true airspeed. Others with the original 145-hp report 100-105 knots indicated airspeed.

A good percentage of the fun of owning an airplane like the 170 is the camaraderie that aircraft type groups generate. It’s the birds of a feather thing in action. There’s a good bet that before they all headed for home there were lots of discussions about doing it again on the 75th birthday of their favorite airplane. So, we’ll look for flocks of them coming over the horizon at AirVenture 2023.

PHOTOGRAPHY BY JACK FLEETWOOD

Although a tall taildragger, the pilot can see over the nose on the ground.

Boarding the airplane is much easier than on many of its peers.

www.vintageaircraft.org 29

The Flying Floods Formation, back to front: Father, Joe, in 1939 Aeronca Chief, younger son, Jason, in Giles Henderson Clipped Cub; older son, Joseph, in 1947 Piper PA-12 Cruiser. They flew to AV18 together from New Jersey.

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May/June 2019

AN ICON REVISITS AIRVENTURE

BY BUDD DAVISSON

IT’S UNFORTUNATE THAT CLIPPED WING CUB

N6620H went unnoticed by far too many people at EAA AirVenture Oshkosh 2018. It was lost in the acres of much more sophisticated, flashier airplanes. So, only a few realized it had been the late Giles Henderson’s aerobatic competition and air show machine for well more than 50 years.

He and his Cub were regulars at Oshkosh for decades. When we lost Giles, the ultimate champion of grassroots flying, in December of 2017 in a skydiving accident, we lost one of EAA’s

PHOTOGRAPHY BY JACK FLEETWOOD

enduring personalities and supporters. And he did it all in the 90-hp, mildly modified clipped wing Cub that was brought to AirVenture 2018 as part of a trio of vintage airplanes flown in by the “Flying Floods.” Joe flew a 1939 Aeronca Chief while his older son, Joseph, flew a 1947 Piper PA-12 Cruiser and younger son, Jason, flew Giles Henderson’s 1946 clipped wing Cub. For many, it was terrific to see Giles’ airplane back in its home environment — among the grassroots faithful.

That is where he lived his life.

www.vintageaircraft.org

31

The Chief and the Super Cruiser were both restored by dad, Joe. For decades, the clipped wing Cub was flown by an icon, Giles Henderson, in air shows and competitions.

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May/June 2019

PHOTOGRAPHY BY CHRISTINA BASKEN

www.vintageaircraft.org 

33

GRASSROOTS AVIATION AS A LIFESTYLE

Joe Flood’s 1939 Chief still has the original upward exhaust system.

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May/June 2019

earning to fly as a teenager, Giles had a Cub before he had a car. He barely had his certificate when he decided he wanted to learn aerobatics, but there were no aerobatic schools in Montana. Also, he had nothing to fly but a stock, 65-hp J-3 Cub. Undaunted, he poked his nose into World War II training manuals and taught himself aerobatics of the loop, roll, and spin variety, which we definitely don’t recommend. He flew his first contest in that stock Cub at Vandalia, Ohio, in 1968.

Out of high school, he earned a bachelor’s and then master’s degree at Montana State University in Bozeman.

He went on to earn a doctorate at Indiana University and, in 1966, became a professor of chemistry at Eastern Illinois University where he taught until his retirement in 2000. But when he wasn’t teaching, he was flying. Or mountain climbing. Or backpacking, fishing, hunting, spelunking, or canoeing. He was serious about life, and he was even more serious about grassroots aviation and entry-level aerobatic competition.

Although he obviously had the talent to move up the aerobatic ladder, instead he wanted to stay with the Cub just to show that you didn’t have to be a high-roller to have aerobatic fun.

After his first couple of contests, he got more serious about aerobatic competition, which led him to clipping the wings on the Cub and installing a 90-hp Continental C90.

At that point, even though his mount was definitely not up to dueling with a Pitts Special or Extra 330, he could still be competitive at his chosen level. So, he went hunting for competition trophies in the entry level, which is what the Sportsman category was designed for.

Giles claimed his first win at the International Aerobatic Club Championships in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, in 1971. When he was in the Sportsman competitor lineup, he was the guy to beat. He repeated wins in ’75, ’86, and ’88, which meant he had the most wins of any Sportsman pilot in the world. During those same years, he became the only competition pilot to win the L. Paul Soucy Award, which is awarded to the pilot who accrues the most points in an IAC season, four times. This is another way of saying he was consistent, flew a lot, and won a lot. In recognition of not only his wins, but also his efforts at promoting grassroots aerobatics and entry-level aviation in general, he was elected to the International Aerobatic Club Hall of Fame in 2012.

At one point he bought the Cassutt racer that had been flown in air shows by Pete Meyers, another IAC/EAA legend.

Giles retired from aerobatic competition during the ’90s, but continued flying air shows in the Cassutt and sometimes in the clipped Cub.

ENTER JOE FLOOD: ARDENT HENDERSON ADMIRER AND AIRCRAFT REBUILDER

Joe Flood of Franklinville, New Jersey, is a second-generation grassroots kind of guy who has sired a third generation of grassroots sons. All three of them arrived at AirVenture 2018 in grassroots airplanes.

“I got one of my first airplanes rides in a 100-hp clipped Cub. It has always been a favorite,” Joe, VAA 12677, said.

This is saying a lot for a guy who has a lifetime invested in flying and restoring vintage grassroots airplanes. But he came by it naturally, just as his own kids have.

“I had three uncles that flew. One a Mustang pilot in WWII, another who was a helicopter test pilot for Piasecki, and another that was killed in action as a navigator in a B-17,” Joe said. “My dad managed base operations at McGuire Air Force Base in south New Jersey, and we built and flew lots of model airplanes. I grew up on 15 acres so we had the room and were in heaven when radio control airplanes were introduced. I started flying lessons at 15 years old and got my [private pilot certificate] at 17.”

Joe said that although his dad wasn’t a pilot, they “always talked about restoring an old airplane.”

“When I was 18, we found an Aeronca Chief being advertised in Trade-A-Plane that was only a few miles from our house,” he said. “We went to look at it, and it was a wonderful barn find. It was a ’39 with the 50-hp engine with upward-facing exhausts. It was totally original. Totally! It took us most of a year to get it flying again. We flew it for years, going to local fly-ins. I actually restored it twice because the first time, being a kid, I painted it white with an orange sunburst. I went back and redid it using factory documentation to be as close as I could to it being authentic. It was wildly original, including the big tachometer in the middle of the panel.

I took it to Oshkosh in 1983 where it won [Outstanding] Closed Cabin Monoplane in the Antique class. I was 22 years old and couldn’t believe it.”

After high school, Joe went to work for a railroad as a machinist but continued rebuilding vintage aircraft during every spare moment.

“Slowly, I started building up a local reputation for covering aircraft, so I quit the railroad to start my own business and have been doing that ever since,” Joe said.

In the intervening years, Joe said he’s re-covered more than 30 airplanes and has owned around 100 airplanes — about 35 of which were Pitts Specials — before raising a family slowed down his airplane-buying habit.

“But [that] gave me more reason to concentrate on covering airplanes,” he said.

A PIPE DREAM COME TRUE

“During the [U.S. National Aerobatic Championships], Giles and I spoke several times and, in fact, he asked me to prop him in his Cassutt,” Joe said. “He showed me how to put on his special white gloves so as to not leave finger prints on his highly polished pro. At one point, I told him I’d like to buy his clipped Cub, should he ever want to sell it. He laughed and said that wasn’t ever going to happen.”

Still, Joe said Giles and his airplane were always in the back of his mind.

“When we lost Giles, I was as upset as everyone else was. He was a really great person and someone I had looked up to for years,” he said. “For whatever reason, when he was killed his airplane didn’t even cross my mind. I’m not sure why. I guess I just figured it would always be his and didn’t think about it.”

Then, as he was making his morning pass through Barnstormers.com, Joe saw Giles Henderson’s clipped wing Cub for sale.

“It jumped off the page at me, and I almost couldn’t believe it! That morning I was scheduled to fly to Rhode Island to work on a customer’s Pitts. It was too early in the morning to call Illinois, so off to Rhode Island I went in my RV-4,” Joe said. “After landing and explaining to my customer about the possibility of purchasing Giles’ Cub, I immediately called the gentleman who was selling [it]. In my mind, it was a done deal.”

Except Joe had one minor problem: He didn’t have the money.

“I asked the gentleman if he would give me a couple of days to come up with a solution,” Joe said. “I had three friends who I knew would lend me the money. So, I called them and all three said yes, no problem. …

The next day I called the seller and told him I could come up with the funds. He sounded pleased and said he would consider it sold and we would work out the details. It took over three weeks to get the time to go to Illinois and make the final transaction.

While I was flying the Cub home, I kept thinking, This is a dream come true, which would hopefully include taking it back to Oshkosh at some point.”

HE [GILES] SAW A CLIPPED CUB AS AN EVERYMAN’S AEROBATIC MOUNT THAT WAS FAR MORE AFFORDABLE THAN MOST. PHOTOGRAPHY BY LYLE JANSMA

www.vintageaircraft.org 35

MADE FOR EVERYMAN AEROBATICS

“You see a lot of highly modified Cubs being used in competition,” Joe said.

“Most will have really big, 150-hp or more motors and have all sorts of beefups and modifications, including Taylorcraft wings, but Giles didn’t go that route. He saw a clipped Cub as an everyman’s aerobatic mount that was far more affordable than most. A clipped Cub that’s based on the Reed STC has 40-1/2 inches cut from the root of each wing with the front strut chopped and a vertical steel stiffener installed to pick up the top strut bolt to make up for the change in strut angle. This is a legal modification that makes a 65-hp Cub a legal aerobatic airplane. But not a very healthy one — 65 hp isn’t enough.

Because of that most make it into a hot rod via the big motor, single-seat route.

Not Giles.”

N6620H is powered by a 90-hp Continental C90, putting it in the experimental exhibition category primarily because of the 90-hp engine.

“If he’d stayed with a C85, which was STC’d, it would have been in standard category, but he had a few other things he wanted to do to it so he didn’t care about standard category,” Joe said. “The rib stitching on the inner bays is spaced at only 1 inch because of the increased speed, which might have been allowed in standard category but his landing gear mods wouldn’t be. He wanted to clean up the gear so he eliminated the draggy bungees and installed streamlined tubing to make the gear lighter, cleaner, and rigid.

He also was going to fix the jackscrew elevator trim that was heavy and replace it with a servo tab on the right elevator and a trim tab on the left. He got the tabs in place but hadn’t fixed the jackscrew yet.

“Even with all my Pitts time, I have to say that Giles’ little airplane is an absolute joy to fly and I can see why he stayed with it,” he added. “Everything about it is perfectly balanced and performance is much better than you’d expect from only 90 hp.”

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TOP: Originally restored as the family airplane, Joe had sold it, but the new owner loaned it back for the flight to AirVenture.

MIDDLE LEFT: The Super Cruiser had the only radio in the three-ship formation.

MIDDLE RIGHT: Giles Henderson’s Cub framed by the PA-12.

BOTTOM: The three-place Super Cruiser is an Alaska favorite.

PHOTOGRAPHY BY CHRISTINA BASKEN, LYLE JANSMA

www.vintageaircraft.org 37

“ PA R T O F MY O R I G I NA L C L I P P E D C U B D R E A M I N C LU D E D T H E E N T I R E FLO O D C L AN S H O W I N G U P AT A I R V E N T U R E I N T H R E E D I F F E R E N T V I N TA G E A I R P L AN E S A S A U N I T. A S LO W- M OV I N G U N I T T O B E S U R E , B U T S T I L L A FAT H E R AN D S O N F O R M AT I O N A R R I V I N G I N V I N TA G E A I R P L AN E S E ACH O F W H I CH H A S A FA M I LY CO N N E C T I O N .”

— J O E FLO O D

More of Giles’ attempts at streamlining.

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The C-90 is a good combination of power and weight.

Jason Flood showcases the original Giles Henderson clipped wing Cub. Note the cleaner, but rigid, landing gear.

Aerobatics is all about light weight.

THE FLYING FLOODS TO OSHKOSH

“Part of my original clipped Cub dream included the entire Flood clan showing up at AirVenture in three different vintage airplanes as a unit. A slow-moving unit to be sure, but still a father and son formation arriving in vintage airplanes each of which has a family connection,” Joe said. “That has always been a dream, but I had no idea Giles’ Cub would be part of the formation.”

Joe started laying the foundation to make the dream come true when his sons were children.

“Both of my sons were brought up pretty much as I was, with little airplanes being an inseparable part of their lives. And both of them started flying every kind of vintage airplane available to them, which was just about every kind of taildragger made, and both worked their way up to Pitts Specials,” he said. “In fact, Jason’s first solo on his 16th birthday was in a bargain basement Pitts S-1S that had been damaged by Katrina and left to sit for three years before we brought it back to life at a very minimal cost.”

Jason’s second solo flight was in the PA-12 his brother flew to AirVenture in 2018.

“It was one we had restored and used to own. When we got it, it hadn’t flown since ’73,” Joe said. “A friend of ours bought it from us, and we gave him his tailwheel training in it. He lets us use the PA-12 when needed, and surely the trip to Oshkosh, with Joseph flying the PA-12, was a needed trip.

I flew the ’39 Chief that I had restored in 2012 and flew to AirVenture in 2013. It won the [Bronze Age (1937-1941)] Outstanding Closed-Cockpit Monoplane award.”

The Floods might have been well named because bad weather dogged them the entire 750 miles that separates south Jersey from Oshkosh, Wisconsin.

“One day, try as we could, we barely made 50 miles,” Joe said. “None of the airplanes had navaids, but at least Joseph had a handheld GPS and the rest of us had our cellphones.

Only the PA-12 had a radio, and we communicated planeto-plane by cellphone and texting. A big percentage of the trip was flown down around 1,000 feet, which we usually do, but it’s a lot more fun when there’s more ceiling and less rain and haze.

“Coming in to land at OSH was an adventure, after circling five times over Steve Wittman’s house, we got a light gun and came in,” he added. “In total it took us 22 hours to fly the 1,500-mile round trip, but we’d all do it again in a heartbeat.”

The Floods like flying. That’s all there is to it. It is often said that the family that flies together stays together, and that was clearly demonstrated as three rag and tube outlines putt-putted their way over the horizon to aviation mecca north 2018.

PHOTOGRAPHY BY JACK FLEETWOOD, LYLE JANSMA

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PHOTOGRAPHY BY LYLE JANSMA

The Harter family of

Greenfield, Indiana, has developed and nurtured a special affinity for one particular 1946

Aeronca 11AC Chief since 1996. It all came about in a circuitous kind of THE HARTER FAMILY’S AERONCA 11AC

BY SPARKY BARNES SARGENT

way, starting with a Piper Cub.

www.vintageaircraft.org 41

y dad wanted a Champ, and on the way home from Oshkosh when I was 9, we stopped at the Racine airport to see if there were any Champs for sale on the bulletin board,” Ryan Harter said. “A Cub landed there in front of a thunderstorm, and the owner happened to walk inside when my dad was asking about airplanes for sale. The guy said his 1940 Cub was for sale, and Dad bought it right there on the spot for $6,000, and the guy delivered it to us.

Later on, the Cub needed an engine, and my dad found a Chief project in the local trader paper and bought it for its low-time engine, which he put on the Cub.”

GENERATIONS OF INSPIRATION

Ryan’s childhood was spent around vintage airplanes at Pope Field, a grass airport in Greenfield. Ryan’s father, Allan, and grandfather, Jester, learned to fly in Champs, and then acquired their own Cessna 120s and 140s before they progressed to larger airplanes — the most notable of which was a Cessna T-50, which fit under the heading of “make no small plans.”

Allan was indomitable when it came to tackling most any project, and he included a very young Ryan as much as possible in the restoration of a Bamboo Bomber.

“We pretty much restored it in an open hangar over the course of about four years — doing the wood repair, the fabric covering, the painting, and everything else it needed,” Ryan said. “It was a Herculean task, and we finished it in 1988. My dad and his close friend, Ed Freeland, were partners on the Bamboo Bomber, and Ed was killed in 1989. Dad couldn’t maintain the airplane by himself, so we decided to sell it to James Anderson in Minnesota. N88878 is still flying today in that restoration configuration and is here at Oshkosh. It has the Class of ’43 painted on the nose and is in the warbird area. It’s not a showpiece, but it’s really stood the test of time.”

The lure of girls and cars was stronger for Ryan at that point than airplanes, so he didn’t start flying on his own until his 30s.

“When Dad sold the Bamboo Bomber, we got a 1935 Custom Cabin Waco YOC, and my wife, Brandy, had her first airplane ride in it,” Ryan said. “Dad and I also worked on a Fleet 16B biplane and finished it 10 years or so ago. During that time, Dad told me to get to work on the Chief if I wanted my own airplane — even though it didn’t have an engine. The Chief was our first complete project together.”

RESTORATION BEGINS

Allan Harter, Bob Frost, and Jim Thomas working on the wing.

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Ryan started on the small parts, piece by piece, deciding (with his father’s help) what was salvageable and what needed to be replaced or obtained. Ryan didn’t know it then, but the Chief would become one of the greatest adventures of his life. Along the way, Allan teased Ryan about the Chief’s dubious stature in the lightplane world, telling his son it was “just a Chief.” But Ryan persevered with tenacious

determination, and slowly made progress on the Chief while working full time and raising a family of his own. All told, the project took the better part of a decade to complete.

“My dad’s knowledge of anything mechanical was unbelievable,” Ryan said. “I learned a great deal from him, but always wished I had started sooner. We ended up buying another Chief project that we found for sale on eBay — it was mainly just a fuselage and tail feathers, but the fuselage was in better shape than the one we had, so we combined two projects into one good complete project. We bought new wood spars and redid all the ribs, so the wings are basically new.”

be found, so they decided to reskin the old door frames. Perhaps not surprisingly, fabricating that and other sheet metal components required a bit more thought and time than first anticipated.

Since they didn’t have access to a spot welder, they flush riveted and glued the skins to the frames. They also made new top and bottom engine cowlings and a boot cowling by using the originals as patterns.

“Dad decided to make a three-piece top cowl with a long hinge on either side for ease of maintenance and checking the oil, and we bought new windshield fairing strips,” Ryan said.

The landing gear legs were badly rusted, so Allan rebuilt the landing gear and the oleo struts by salvaging parts from three different sets of gear. Then, instead of using fabric to cover the gear legs, they decided to use metal gear leg covers so the landing gear could be easily inspected and maintained.

They also restored the original metal wheelpants. As a finishing touch for the gear, Ryan bought a set of Aero Classic tires with diamond tread for the main gear, and installed a Scott 2000 tail wheel.

ATTENTION TO DETAIL

Sharing an anecdote about his father’s devoted attention to detail, Ryan said, “For example, all of the PK screw holes, top and bottom, were lined up with a straight edge and the ribs were drilled to ensure that all screws were in a perfectly straight line. It was a time-consuming step, but it’s definitely noticeable in the finished product.”

The exterior door panels were in bad shape, and replacements couldn’t

PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY OF RYAN HARTER

www.vintageaircraft.org 43

INSTRUMENT PANEL

There were a couple of items that Ryan wanted to have to authentically restore the Chief’s panel. One was the bezel that surrounds the instruments in the panel, and the other was the Chief emblem for the panel. For years, he reluctantly followed his father’s lead of rising at the crack of dawn and sitting in line for two hours on opening day for the Aeromart during AirVenture. Turns out, it was well worth the effort.

“I went in there one Tuesday morning and looked on the shelf, and there was an original uncut Aeronca Chief dash bezel for $15! I had three guys try to buy it from me before I got to the cash register.

From that point on, I never ever complained again about sitting in that two-hour line.”

Ryan also located an original, uncut panel for the Chief, as well as a sensitive 6 o’clock altimeter. Allan decided to try to replicate the original wood grain on the panel, and after considerable trial and error, he accomplished the task with great success.

“The wood grain was done with a paint sponge from Home Depot and some black paint,” Ryan said. “The finished product looks unbelievable and was done for about $20 total. Then we installed the glove box doors, new fabricated glove boxes, ash trays, and emblems. We cleaned the original yokes and polished the center emblems.”

OLD SCHOOL FINISH

NC3175E is covered with Ceconite and has a butyrate dope paint job that has been wet sanded, buffed, and polished.

“Dad taught me the art of painting dope — we didn’t use modern equipment, and we didn’t have a paint booth — it’s all old school,” Ryan said.

“That’s the beauty of using dope, because you can sand out the blemishes. But one of the reasons it took so long [is] in Indiana, like anywhere else with high humidity, you’ve got small windows in the spring and in the fall when you can paint. That makes a restoration take longer, but that’s one of the prices you pay. We finished it in 2015, and I just waxed it for the first time in 2017 because I was still trying to rub all those swirls out of it. We waxed it the second time this year, and it turned out really good.”

“Dad taught me the art of painting dope — we didn’t use modern equipment, and we didn’t have a paint booth — it’s all old school.”

— Ryan Harter

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May/June 2019

PHOTOGRAPHY BY JACK FLEETWOOD

PASSING OF THE PATRIARCH

Allan developed MDS (myelodysplastic syndrome), which transitioned into leukemia in the spring of 2014, but he wanted to keep working on the Chief between his treatments.

“Dad and I were working on it until the wee hours of the mornings, trying to get the Chief finished so we could fly it to the National Aeronca Association Fly-In at Middletown. We were able to get it done, but the Thursday night before we were supposed to leave, we were putting the factory-made tail brace wires on and two of them broke. So we pulled the stainless tail brace wires off our Champ and put them on the Chief, and we were able to get it flying. I was the first person to fly it, and Dad was the second.”

But flying the Chief to Middletown just wasn’t meant to be; the Continental A65-8 had an issue with low oil pressure. So the Harter family drove to Middletown, and even though it was a disappointment not to have the airplane there, Ryan was thankful that they went.

SPECS

1946 Aeronca 11AC Chief manufactured under ATC 761.

Eligible to be flown by a sport pilot.

WINGSPAN:

36 feet

WING CHORD:

60 inches

WING AREA:

175.5 square feet

AIRFOIL:

NACA-4412

LENGTH:

20 feet, 10 inches

HEIGHT:

6 feet, 10 inches

TREAD:

72 inch

EMPTY WEIGHT:

725 pounds

USEFUL LOAD:

525 pounds

PAYLOAD:

257 pounds

GROSS WEIGHT:

1,250 pounds

ENGINE:

Continental A65-8

FUEL:

15-gallon main plus 8-gallon auxiliary

OIL:

4 quarts

MAX SPEED:

105 mph

CRUISING SPEED:

90 mph

LANDING SPEED:

40 mph

CLIMB AT SEA LEVEL:

500 fpm

SERVICE CEILING:

10,800 feet

CRUISING RANGE:

330 miles

BAGGAGE CAPACITY:

Up to 70 pounds

Derived from Juptner’s U.S. Civil Aircraft.

Allan Harter was devoted to finishing the Chief.

PHOTOGRAPHY BY LYLE JANSMA, PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY OF RYAN HARTER

www.vintageaircraft.org

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“That was my dad’s last fly-in; we stayed over there all day, and he loved it,” Ryan said. “He seemed to be doing great with his continuing treatments, but we were on our way to Oshkosh on July 23, 2015, when I got the call from my mother that he had passed away.

He was my best friend.”

While grieving their loss, it took Ryan and his family and friends another year to complete all the small details on the Chief. They also placed a memorial stone for Allan on the plaza by the EAA Brown Arch at Wittman Regional Airport. In 2015, the Harter family brought its beloved Chief to AirVenture, where it was awarded a Classic Class I (0-80 hp) — Bronze Lindy. They also flew it to the National Aeronca Association Fly-In in 2016 and received the Grand Champion Post War award.

“Aubrey and a family friend, Bob Sauer, and I put every single PK screw in the wings, and I’ve worked a lot on the Chief,” said 17-year-old Michael. “Doing that has helped me learn about airplanes; that’s just what we did growing up. I also do a lot of the detailing and cleaning when we take the Chief somewhere.”

FAMILY EFFORT

SILVER LINDY

Through the years, the Chief project evolved into a fully encompassing Harter family effort. Ryan’s wife, Brandy, along with their children, Michael and Aubrey, and Ryan’s mom, Brenda, all helped throughout the restoration. There were three generations of Harters — Allan, Ryan, and Michael — who installed the wings.

“After Dad was gone, Mom would come out and help me when I was working,” Ryan said. “She wanted to be part of it, even if it was just bringing drinks or holding something — she helped in any way she could.”

“I wanted to help in the beginning, but I never could because I was too small and I wasn’t strong enough,” said Aubrey, who is now 13. “But when I started getting older and stronger, my dad said I could help, and I was like, ‘Yay!’ I did the PK screws in the wings, and did rivets; I helped wherever I could.”

A couple of months prior to EAA AirVenture Oshkosh 2018, Ryan bought a McDowell starter and installed it on the Chief. That sounds easy enough, but it presented its own challenges, starting with the quest to locate one at a reasonable price. Then Ryan found some miscellaneous starter parts on eBay and contacted Colie Pitts in Georgia.

“Colie was the McDowell starter expert, and he said he would take the parts I had bought on trade-in for a newly overhauled, 100 percent complete starter with new cables, handle, and even the leather boot for $900. I couldn’t pass that deal up and couldn’t have been happier when I received it,” Ryan said.

Then there was the conundrum that followed the installation of the starter.

“I couldn’t believe how easy it was to install; then I quickly realized the installation alone is the easy part.

Getting the cowling, baffling, and nose bowl to fit was a decent-sized challenge. I had about given up, and then decided I should call Colie to see if he could help.

I’m so glad I did; he told me how to fix my issue, and it worked perfect,” Ryan said. “Without Colie’s help, the McDowell starter would be a forgotten piece of history. I would be willing to wager that everyone who still uses one today has either bought parts from Colie or called to get his advice at

Michael, Brandy, Ryan, and Aubrey Harter.

PHOTOGRAPHY BY CONNOR MADISON, SPARKY BARNES SARGENT

some point. Another invaluable resource for all things Aeronca and someone else that has helped me throughout the restoration is Bill Pancake. Bill’s knowledge of everything aircraft, but especially Aeroncas, is second to none. There are so many parts on these older airplanes that you can’t just call up and order, and when you get in that situation, Bill Pancake is the man you call.”

And with the finishing touch of the McDowell starter installation, the Harter family’s 1946 Aeronca 11AC Chief (NC3175E) won the Classic Reserve Grand Champion—Silver Lindy at AirVenture 2018. “It’s not a perfect professional restoration — when you finish something like this there are always things you’ve learned, and the next project will be a little bit better than this one,” Ryan said. “It turned out good, but like I said, it’s not perfect.

It’s what we could do together, and I’m proud of it.” Rightfully so, Ryan!

The Chief and the Cub will never leave their stable; they’ll remain in the Harter family. Michael, a student pilot, is the third generation to fly the Chief. “The Chief is fun to fly, and I like it because it’s side by side, so you can talk to the person without a headset,” says Michael, “I just love to fly it, especially with our family history of how we finished it all. My goal is to become a mechanic and work on airplanes, and keep flying on my own time.”

Ryan is still flying that 1940 Cub, which by now, he said, is “in desperate need of restoration.”

“Michael’s going to solo it before it comes down [and Michael did solo the Cub on August 26, 2018],” Ryan said.

“Michael will be the fourth generation — my grandpa, my dad, me, and Michael — to fly it. And about a month ago, I had the opportunity to buy the only 1932 Waco IBA; in my opinion it’s one of the most beautiful biplanes ever made (see Vintage Airplane September/October 2018). I’m a 300-plus hour sport pilot, and a student pilot in the Waco IBA with a 90-day endorsement to fly solo. My instructor wants me to go ahead and get my private now!”

1 2 3 4 5 1: Note the hinged top cowl, and the McDowell cable assembly routed through the firewall and engine room.

2: Attention to details makes this instrument panel outstanding.

3: Close-up view of the Aeronca Chief emblem on the panel.

4: Note the McDowell hand starter and cable assembly on the left, and the heel brakes on the rudder pedals.

5: Instead of being covered with fabric, the gear legs have removable metal covers for ease of inspection and maintenance.

www.vintageaircraft.org 47

“My dad was a Champ man, and he just bought

that Chief for the engine. So any time there was

an issue or there was something that just wasn’t right, I was like, ‘Maybe we should redo that.’

Dad would always say, ‘Don’t worry about it, nobody’s going to notice; it’s just a Chief.’”

— Ryan Harter

“JUST A CHIEF”

Allan started the family’s running joke of “just a Chief” because he had observed that the Chief doesn’t get as much notoriety as the Champ or Cub. “My dad was a Champ man, and he just bought that Chief for the engine,” Ryan said. “So any time there was an issue or there was something that just wasn’t right, I was like, ‘Maybe we should redo that.’ Dad would always say, ‘Don’t worry about it, nobody’s going to notice; it’s just a Chief.’ In other words, it’s not a Champ, it’s not a Cub, it’s just a Chief, and nobody’s going to care! Dad was kidding, but every time I look at it now and see one of those little mistakes, I can see him with that little grin he would get, saying, ‘Don’t worry, it’s just a Chief!’ So it was fitting when we got the Bronze Lindy in 2015 that the grand champion was a Cub!” If you see the Harters’ Chief on the flightline, you’ll likely notice a large carryall bag embroidered with Just a Chief displayed right beside it. Brandy had the bag custom made, and it’s filled to the brim with supplies for detailing the Chief upon arrival at fly-ins. There’s one more nostalgic touch that Ryan wants to apply to the Chief — he’s going to have a talented friend of his hand paint Just a Chief on the nose as a sentimental tribute to his father, who unknowingly instigated a great adventure for his entire family when he bought the old Chief for its engine alone.

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May/June 2019

PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY OF RYAN HARTER

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Photo by Scott Slocum © 2019 EAA

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May/June 2019

MARTT CLUPPER AND HIS HALF-BROTHER’S SUPER CUB

BY HAL BRYAN

f you pricked Martt Clupper’s finger expecting to see a drop of blood, you’d be disappointed; all that flows in this man’s veins is a steady stream of aviation.

Martt, VAA 101, of Warsaw, Indiana, is a third-generation pilot, which is no mean feat for someone born in 1961.

“My granddad wasn’t what I’d call hardcore into aviation,” Martt said. “He just thought flying was cool, and he was a farmer

PHOTOGRAPHY BY ANDREW ZABACK

and didn’t have a lot of money but somehow he was able to have an Aeronca Defender.”

His grandfather was born in July of 1904, mere months after the Wrights’ triumphant success at Kitty Hawk, and got his private pilot certificate three days after V-J Day in August of 1945.

Martt’s dad, Robert, was 16 at the time and would soon start learning to fly in the family Defender, but he was already set on a life in aviation.

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n 1937, as an 8-year-old kid, he rode in a Ford Tri-Motor, and he knew right then he wanted to be an airline pilot,” Martt said.

After getting his ratings, his dad enlisted in what had just become the U.S. Air Force in 1947, but despite the recruiter’s promises, he wasn’t assigned a pilot slot. Instead, he ended up working as a mechanic, spending most of his two-year hitch in Panama, maintaining SB-17Gs, the boat-carrying air-sea rescue variant of the Flying Fortress affectionately known as Dumbo.

“When his two years were up he was out of there because he wanted to fly, and so he went to Purdue,” said Martt. “He wasn’t really a very good student, and it’s a good thing. A year and a half into Purdue he got hired by United and had very little time. … I mean today you’d laugh at the hours that he had. … They needed pilots so bad they trained him and off he went.”

So, at 23 years old in 1952, Robert embarked on an epochal career with United Air Lines that started in the right seat of a DC-3 and ended more than three decades later in the left seat of a 747. By the time Martt came along, Robert had built a Schweizer 1-26A glider, an unusual kit that, on completion, was considered a certified aircraft, not amateur-built. Even more remarkable was the first flight, which lasted more than seven hours.

Martt had an uncle who flew B-24s over Ploesti and survived being shot down, and another uncle who flew Stratocruisers for United. Once again, there’s nothing in those veins except aviation, and, like his father before him, Martt got started at an early age.

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STARTING YOUNG

“When I was 12, we bought a brand new Citabria 7KCAB,” he said. “And so then, when I was 14 my dad taught me how to fly the Citabria out of Elgin, Illinois, which … had a 2,000 foot asphalt runway, and it was really narrow.”

As a teenager, Martt flew everywhere with his dad in that Citabria, always sitting up front and doing the flying, even making a landing at Oshkosh during convention. Unfortunately, his dad wasn’t an instructor, so Martt couldn’t log the time, but, to him, those hours still count.

“They count because they make me the pilot that I am today, whatever that is,” he said. “I’m not a great pilot, but I think I’m a pretty decent one.”

Martt soloed a sailplane on his 14th birthday, and did some skydiving, another interest he shared with his father. Over the years, there were other airplanes in his life, including a clipped wing Cub, more sailplanes, a borrowed Luscombe, and a Pober Pixie he started building in high school. He cut the tubing himself and had an older friend help with the welding. As he worked on the airplane, he got it on the gear, had the fuselage covered and the engine hung, and then he ran into the supervillain that does its best to thwart any project: his own inner perfectionist.

“I had progressed with my skills to the point that I was not satisfied with some of the other work I had done — the early work,” he said. “So I went back and I was redoing things. And then I realized, I’m not getting any closer to being done, and I just messed up my head on that, and I just ran out of wind. … I sold it to the guy who had welded the fuselage. And he actually finished it, and it did fly.”

PHOTOGRAPHY BY BRETT BROCK

Martt went on to pursue a Renaissance man’s career of everything from laying tile to designing toys to running a major music festival, but aviation was never out of his mind. If you’re thinking his rather distinctive name sounds familiar, you might well remember it from his popular AirPigz.com blog, a site that’s been fairly quiet for a number of years but pops out of hibernation periodically.

A FAMILIAL ARRANGEMENT

Martt’s half-brother Marr was also interested in aviation when he was younger. He took lessons back in college but didn’t progress much past his solo. Life and his successful Bay Area concrete business caught and held his attention, but now that he’s getting close to retirement, he decided it was time to pick up where he left off. Martt was visiting Marr, and they got to talking.

Marr had done a bit of research and decided that he wanted a Super Cub. Martt originally pitched the idea of building a modern Cub from a kit, but quickly realized that it would be a lot cheaper to restore an original.

Martt spotted N9460D, a PA-18A Super Cub on Barnstormers.com that looked like a great candidate and, by happy coincidence, was built in 1959, the year Marr was born.

“That morning when I sent him that link and he saw that airplane, he bonded with it immediately because of their age,” Martt said. “So he and I negotiated back and forth as to whether or not, you know, I could really do this.”

With the benefit of hindsight, not to mention a good close look at the finished product, Martt’s early doubts seem small and unnecessarily modest, but they were very real. Aside from his teenage work on the Pixie and some covering and painting on a Citabria a few decades back, Martt’s craftsmanship was geared toward laying tile, not restoring airplanes.

“One of things I wish people understood more … is that the emotional mountain of an airplane project is real, and it is so difficult to scale that mountain for most human beings,” he said. “There’s a handful of overachievers out there that just seem to go right over all that. It’s just not something they have to deal with.

PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY OF MARTT CLUPPER

But I think the average person, the average homebuilder, that’s a massive, massive struggle on getting over the desire to just give up. And the constant reminder, ‘You can’t do this. What are you doing?’ And yet in reality you can do this, but you have to really stick with it.”

SCALING SUPER CUB MOUNTAIN

After they both looked at it in the summer of 2016, Marr bought the airplane and arranged to trailer it from Arizona to Martt’s home in Indiana to begin the restoration. The airplane was intact, still covered in original cotton and factory paint, but showed its share of wear and had been out of annual for 10 years or so.

As an A-model, it had a hinged door that was used to get access to a hopper for agricultural spraying operations. This in turn gives the airplane the distinctive “flat top” look that you don’t see much anymore.

“They built a bunch of these A-models, but most of them when they’ve been re-covered over the years or restored have had that flat top and the hopper door all removed, and they’ve been modified to be more like a standard Super Cub,” Martt said. Marr and Martt both liked the flat-top look and decided to retain it in the interest of originality.

Martt had access to some space in a corporate hangar and was able to set up a workshop that was about the size of a two-car garage.

Unfortunately, that space was in the hangar’s loft.

“I’d never understood how block and tackles can be used, really, but I learned right then, because I literally hand hoisted that airplane up into that loft by myself,” he said.

The cotton came off, and Martt stripped the fuselage down to the tubes and made a few structural changes based on STCs. One of them involved a little bit of work but came with the significant benefit of adding 250 pounds to the airplane’s gross weight.

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“There’s an aluminum extrusion that they ship to you … it’s about 3 feet long,” he said.

“What you have to do is you have to free four or five of the ribs from the spar in that area inboard and outboard of the rear strut attach point so that you can raise those ribs a little bit to slide this piece in that literally is just a doubler that mounts right on the top cap strip of the aluminum spar … so basically it’s just creating a little extra strength in the top cap strip of the rear spar.”

Other modifications included an extended baggage area and an enlarged baggage door based on STCs from F. Atlee Dodge, which required removing a couple of tubes and welding in some flat stock to create a sill.

“The STC didn’t really specify any specifics on how the door should be built, which I thought was really cool, actually, because it gave me some freedom,” he said. “So I built an all-wood door skinned with plywood inside and out, and then I covered the whole thing with fabric. … Plus, I made a flush door rather than a door that would just externally overlay the opening.”

Martt estimates that he spent 40 hours building that door, but he’s happy with how it came out. He also added a two-position adjustable rear seat and replaced the standard battery with a small gel cell that fits underneath the front seat. In the interest of safety, he added a cross-brace to strengthen the fuselage at the wing attach points and modified the seat belts to attach to the fuselage instead of the seat. All of these modifications were done within the framework of the appropriate STCs, and he gives credit to the online world for helping him find and implement them.

“SuperCub.org was a huge benefit, as well as connecting with some Super Cub gurus on Facebook. The internet was a huge help in getting me all the information,” he said.

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WORKING ON WINGS

While he had the airplane apart, Martt added some float fittings — just in case — and then sandblasted and primed the updated fuselage, and installed a new firewall. And then it was time to tackle the wings. He stripped the cotton and did a lot of cleanup, then fabricated new aluminum leading edges and new wood wingtip bows.

To accommodate his limited workspace, not to mention the fact that he was working by himself, which would have made flipping the wings problematic, when it came time to cover them, he came up with a novel solution.

“I decided to cover the wings with them hanging leading-edge down so they wouldn’t need to be flipped at any time,” he wrote in the September 2018 issue of EAA Sport Aviation magazine. “This unique process worked really well for covering, stitching, and all the way through to final color coats.”

Martt covered the airplane with Ceconite using the Stewart Systems process and used heavyweight fabric on several sections, including the bottom of the wings.

“The idea was on the bottom of the wing, if the tires kick anything up, that fabric’s just going to be a little more durable,” he said. “And I’d seen that some Alaska guy had done that, and I thought, ‘You know, that’s a really good idea.’”

So how much weight did the heavier fabric add to the airplane? About 1 ounce per square yard.

“Don’t wear socks that day if you really are bothered by the fact that you’ve gained a few extra ounces by using the heavyweight fabric,” he said. “Or skip lunch and you’re good to go.”

THE HOME STRETCH

The original Lycoming O-320 that was on the airplane when it left the factory in 1959 had only about 100 hours on it since its last overhaul. Since it had sat for so long, though, it was removed and inspected, and some minor repairs, including a muffler overhaul, were taken care of as needed before Martt hung it back on the airplane inside the new boot cowl he’d fabricated.

PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY OF MARTT CLUPPER

When it came to the interior, Martt had a specific vision. He wanted it to be, as he put it, “fresh, vintage, comfortable, and attractive.” Martt built new floorboards, and instead of repainting the interior side panels, he covered them in a thin red leather. All of the instruments were removed from the panel and sent off to Keystone Instruments, appropriately located in Lock Haven, Pennsylvania, home of the Cub. “I had all the instruments overhauled by them, and they rescreen the faces, so you get a really good-looking instrument,” he said. “Well, I had them use an off-white ink, because the modern ink is way too modern looking.

It’s harsh, and there’s no love in that color. But you take the edge off that color and instantly … they just feel rich.”

As for the lettering in the cockpit, Martt took a modern approach to achieve a vintage result.

“When it came to doing the lettering, I wanted to have a vintage look,” he said. “On the side wall of the interior where the throttle is, there was a really big marking that says ‘Throttle.’ They’re about inch-tall letters.” Martt took a picture of the word, fired up Microsoft Publisher, and — using the letters in throttle as a guide — designed his own font.

“And then I found online for free, there was a website where you could take those graphic images and they turn it into a TrueType font,” he said. “So I had my own font now, and I called the font Throttle.” Armed with the new font, Martt started creating new lettering for things like the circuit breakers and the master switch, which he kept up in the wing root rather than modernizing things by moving them down to the panel. The letters proved to be too small for his local sign shop, so he had them printed on clear matte vinyl and then cut out larger, leaving a clear border around each letter. He used clear, matte rattle-can epoxy to affix and encapsulate the letters.

He found estimates saying that it could cost thousands of dollars to have this work done professionally, but Martt came in well below that.

“I had a ton of hours in it, but I had like $80 in all this lettering, which normally that would be like $2,500 if you’re going to pay somebody to figure this out and make you these fancy letters,” he said. “And I just love those tasks because I could always find the time, but I can’t always find the cash.”

Martt’s theme of “fresh, vintage, comfortable, and attractive” extended to the exterior as well. He painted the airplane in Daytona White and Santa Fe Red, using Stewart’s EkoPoly with the maximum possible flattener, giving it a nice vintage-appropriate satin finish.

“ I c o u l d a lway s find the time, b u t I c a n ’ t a lway s f i n d t h e c a s h .”

— MARTT CLUPPER

PHOTOGRAPHY BY JIM RAEDER

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PHOTOGRAPHY BY LYLE JANSMA

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“ I s a i d I c o u l d d o i t, a n d t h e n I d i d i t.”

— MARTT CLUPPER “While the paint scheme is based on the 1959 Piper factory scheme, nearly every reference point and detail has been altered to hopefully improve the look,” he wrote. “I wasn’t trying to be highly accurate to the original factory airplane, but to rather capture vintage elements together in a package that’s not only beautiful, but also relevant to today’s graphic styles.”

FIRST FLIGHT AND A PLEASANT SURPRISE

In spite of his early doubts, Martt scaled the mountain, summiting after 13 months of work in a 20-month period, with intermissions coming courtesy of his day job.

“I said I could do it, and then I did it,” he said. “And I didn’t say that it’d turn out fabulous, but it did turn out fairly fabulous.” That’s about as close to boasting as you’ll get from Martt, but his pride is obvious and well-deserved.

The first flight took place in June of 2018.

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“It was pretty amazing,” he said. “I wasn’t as apprehensive as I thought I might be … realizing, my goodness, I’ve had this thing down to just a pile of pieces. And now I’m trusting my life to it. I’m trusting my life to my work.”

That trust was not misplaced.

“It was a lot less stressful than I expected, just from all those emotional elements, and then I picked good weather and everything in my favor for just feeling comfortable about it, and oh my goodness, it was a piece of cake,” Martt said. “It flew fantastic. … One of the most amazing things about it was how routine it felt.”

The following month, he flew the airplane to Oshkosh and met up with Marr. If the airplane’s first flight was predictable, the reception it got at AirVenture definitely was not, at least to Martt — the airplane earned a Bronze Lindy in the Contemporary Class I Single Engine (0-160 hp) category.

“That was like a bigger high than the first flight was, I guess because ultimately I knew the airplane was going to fly.

That wasn’t a surprise. Winning an award? That was a huge surprise,” he said. “And so here it is, I’m 57 years old, and for

PHOTOGRAPHY BY BRETT BROCK, JIM RAEDER, PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY OF MARTT CLUPPER

the first time I have an airplane that I’ve either built or rebuilt on the ground at Oshkosh, and then I win an award. So for me, that experience was massive, absolutely massive.”

As of this writing, Marr has resumed his flight training and soloed the Super Cub, and is well on his way toward earning his private pilot certificate, some 40 years after his first lesson.

This was Martt’s first real restoration, but luckily for us, it won’t be his last. In addition to a clipped wing J-3 project of his own that he’s working on, he’s hung out his shingle as Open Door Flying LLC, making himself available for hire. We think he’s going to stay plenty busy.

Hal Bryan, EAA Lifetime 638979, is senior editor for EAA digital and print content and publications, co-author of two books, and a lifelong pilot and aviation geek. Find him on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram @halbryan or email him at hbryan@eaa.org.

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316-283-8000 • BandC.com www.vintageaircraft.org 59

The Vintage Mechanic ROBERT G. LOCK

Repairs, alterations, maintenance, preventive maintenance WE BEGIN THIS ISSUE with a discussion about maintenance, repairs, and alterations for the antique airplane. Let’s proceed from the owner’s standpoint and talk briefly about preventive maintenance. Federal Aviation Regulations FAR Part 43, Appendix A(c) describes preventive maintenance as maintenance that can be accomplished by the owner, provided it does not involve complex assembly operations. We will cover just a few; if you’re interested, consult FAR 43.

Originally, these conversions were completed with a field approval from the CAA. Try doing a complete engine change without any type of approved data in today’s world.

First, the owner can make minor fabric repairs consisting of bonding a fabric patch to small holes. It does not allow patching large holes or doing any kind of rib lacing. Also included is making sheet metal repairs to secondary structures, such as cowling, fairings, and the like. It does not authorize repairs to the primary structure. The owner can repaint the aircraft, but not balanced control surfaces. The owner can replace tires and tubes, replenish fluid in shock struts and brake cylinders, and replace upholstery. The owner can replace shock absorbers, pack wheel bearings, and lubricate components, as long as there is no disassembly required. The owner can replace seat belts, light bulbs in landing and navigation lights, and replace and service the battery. As far as the engine is concerned, the owner can change oil; inspect oil and fuel screens; replace, clean, and gap spark plugs; and replace hoses in fuel and oil systems (excluding hydraulic systems). Please note that this is only a partial listing.

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If the airplane is operated “for hire,” then the work needs to be supervised by an A&P mechanic who needs to make an appropriate entry in the logbooks.

An A&P mechanic can perform and return to service minor repairs, minor alterations, and maintenance, including 100-hour inspections. An A&P mechanic cannot approve major repairs, major alterations, annual inspections. An A&P holding an inspection authorization (A&P/IA) can approve the above; however, the only major alterations that can be approved by the A&P/IA are those listed in FAA Advisory Circular 43-132A and some supplemental type certificate (STC) installations. But this major alteration issue is good for another column devoted to this one subject at a future date.

A simple definition of a major repair is a repair to the aircraft structure that returns the airplane to conformity with its approved type certificate (ATC), or in rare cases its Group 2 approval.

Similarly, a major alteration is something done to the structure that moves the airplane outside of its ATC or Group 2 approval.

Let me list just a few major repairs, as specified by FAR Part 43, Appendix A(a): Splicing of structural members, such as spar splices, steel tube splices, large repairs to stressed sheet metal components, and the replacement of fabric (original type only). And there are many more.

Now, here is a very brief list of major alterations, as specified by FAR Part 43, Appendix (b): Electrical system installations in nonelectrical airplanes, radio installations, battery installations, and replacing of synthetic fabric on surfaces originally approved for Grade A cotton fabric. Again, there are many more to list. But, some major alterations can be approved by an A&P/IA. Other major alterations cannot be approved by the A&P/IA. A few of these alterations are engine and/or prop changes, changes in wheels and brakes, changes in tail wheel installations, changes in fuel system (addition or subtraction

Figure 1

of fuel tanks), installation of an entire electrical system including battery and charging system, and alteration of wing and/or control surface shape.

So what happens (with the FAA) when a person buys an airplane that had been converted to a crop duster/ sprayer and wants to return it to “stock” configuration? That’s always a good one to analyze. The A&P/IA can remove the modifications to the structure and replace components originally used in the airplane — and can return it to service.

However, when all work has been completed, the FAA must do a conformity inspection to determine if the airplane conforms to its original type certificate, and issue a new standard airworthiness certificate.

The old airworthiness certificate was in the restricted category, and it is no longer valid. The point here is that the mechanic is modifying an existing structure back to standard, not the opposite.

Thus far, in my career as an aircraft mechanic, I’ve been through six different FAA conformity inspections, the most difficult being on my 1929 Command-Aire because there were no drawings or other type design data.

You may be fortunate if there is a type club for your aircraft that may have a large collection of drawings for the purpose of keeping an aircraft airworthy. And that is a most important factor for future dealings with the FAA. We’ll have more on that later.

Factory drawings continue to be important for aging aircraft but may be the most difficult to obtain. Drawings are needed when the owner finds it necessary to replace a primary structural component, such as wings, control surfaces, fuselage, landing gear, etc.

How were drawings originally submitted to the Aeronautics Branch of the U.S. Department of Commerce, or later the Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA)? The answer

lies in Aeronautics Bulletin No. 7-A dated July 1929. (See Figure 1.)

Within the CAA’s bulletin, Paragraph 4 — PROCEDURE reads: “The drawings, which the manufacturer is required to furnish in duplicate, are checked for conformity.” After the airplane is approved for manufacture, “One set of drawings is impressed with the seal of the Department of Commerce and returned to the manufacturer to be used in the construction of his airplanes.

The other set is placed in the department’s files.” It is the location and access to the second set of drawings that is always controversial (these drawings are commonly called “first copy”).

Some drawings have been released, either hard copy or microfiche, while some are still in storage. And many drawings were destroyed. Such was the case for the Command-Aire.

Where were (are) the drawings stored? Originally they were stored in Washington, D.C., in the department’s files. As the drawing files grew and more aircraft received the coveted approved type certificate, the drawing files were relocated to the old torpedo factory building at Alexandria, Virginia. As the files continued to grow, the newly formed FAA relocated the drawings to the district office (DO) nearest to where the airplane was manufactured. Some drawings were lost during transfer, and some were destroyed at the DO. But many drawings are still stored at the Federal Records Storage Center in Suitland, Maryland. I have perused boxes and boxes of original blueprint drawings stored there for years! It’s absolutely amazing what is there. But no one knows exactly what is in each of the boxes. I have a brief transcript of what I saw in 1982, but it’s a drop in the bucket of what is actually there.

Perhaps this could be another column in the future.

So drawings are important when it comes to repairing a structure or fabricating new. What if you want to make a new wing structure and there are no drawings available? Aha! The wall has been set and it is almost impossible to obtain drawings from the FAA, although it is the “caretaker” of all ATC drawings.

I will say that wood structures are probably the easiest to reproduce from original parts, because aircraft quality wood is still aircraft quality wood and the component can be reverseengineered. A major deviation will be the type of adhesive used to manufacture the part. The manufacture of metallic parts provides yet other challenges. What type of aluminum is it? Was it heat-treated or not heat-treated, and what type of heat treatment did it receive? The same is true with steel-tube structures. Was it originally SAE 1020, SAE 1025, or SAE 4130? What type of filler rod was originally used? Was the structure not heat-treated, or if heat treatment was used, what specifications were followed and what was the final tensile strength of the material?

My point here again is that drawings are most valuable when

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The Vintage Mechanic ROBERT G. LOCK

reproducing parts. Without them it can be very difficult. And these needed drawings are sometimes impossible to obtain or have been destroyed. If the drawings are not available and the owner needs to fabricate a primary structural part for his or her own airplane, then my question is, where is the middle ground? And how can we keep this airplane airworthy? FAR Part 21.303(a) allows the owner to reproduce parts for his or her own aircraft, but not to sell an exact duplicate to others. Still, the owner is responsible for overseeing the construction of such parts to make sure they conform to original specifications.

Alterations are often necessary to make an aircraft safe; one doesn’t want to build problems that came with the airplane in 1929 back into a restoration completed today. What are some common alterations that one finds when dealing with older aircraft? The first that jumps out at me is an engine change. Say from an OX-5 or Wright J-5 to a Continental W-670 or Lycoming R-680, as is commonly found in many Travel Air airplanes.

Originally, these conversions were completed with a field approval from the CAA. Try doing a complete engine change without any type of approved data in today’s world.

Darned near impossible. To remove a Wright R-600 Challenger engine of 185 hp and install a Wright R-760 engine of 240 hp, I had to do a one-time STC! It involved more than four years of time and a lot of paperwork, and the process rapidly increased the gray hair on my head. But I finally prevailed and have a onetime STC approval for NC997E only. I cannot do another installation, but I can use my original Form 337 as substantiating evidence that the installation might be field approved again. The use of previously approved Form 337s can be another topic for the column at a future date. Perhaps when the waters are a little less muddy. There are many changes occurring within the FAA at this time, and field approvals happen to be one. So we’ll just have to wait and see what happens.

Supplemental type certificates are just what the term indicates, a major alteration of the original type certificate. Obtaining an STC from the FAA takes time, money, and the know-how to get it through the system.

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WHERE ARE THE YOUNG A&PS? I’d like to briefly discuss the certification of Airframe and Powerplant mechanics and why there is a shortage of qualified people. When I began instructing in the A&P program at Reedley College in 1967, the local FAA mandated that we teach students how to make a five-tuck wovencable splice, splice a wood wing spar, and weld a cluster out of steel tubing. Their reasoning was that many modified Stearman agricultural aircraft were located in the valley and that all mechanics should have these skills. Eventually these skills became even more outdated and were dropped in the level of importance.

Skill levels are determined by the FAA and appear in FAR Part 147. There are now 44 subject areas to which all students for the A&P certificate must be exposed, and there are three levels of exposure. Level 1 means to be lectured, look at pictures, and maybe touch the item.

Level 2 means to have some knowledge that can be repeated. And Level 3 means that an extensive knowledge of the subject must be taught. Wood, fabric covering, gas welding, the radial engine, and many other subjects that relate directly to older aircraft are now relegated to the bottom of the knowledge rung, Level 1. Therefore, most entry-level mechanics with little experience do not have the skills necessary to inspect, maintain, and repair older aircraft. Owners either have an experienced mechanic/ inspector who supervises their work and signs off on such work in logbooks, or they have an experienced person who actually can do the work. These experienced wood, fabric, steel-tube welders, and radial-engine folks are becoming harder and harder to locate. Type clubs have several experienced mechanics and inspectors within their ranks. But there never seems to be enough to go around.

To compound the problem of this mechanic shortage, general aviation A&P mechanics must endure very low wages to stay in the business.

And fixed-base operators don’t like to hire newly certificated mechanics because they don’t have experience and must be trained. It’s a vicious cycle; it was there when I started teaching in 1967, and it’s still there now. Where are we going to find experienced young mechanics to maintain the fleet of aging airplanes? I’m still looking for that answer!

Mechanics who seek careers in the vintage portion of general aviation type ships are usually influenced by mentors. Mentors are either a friend or an employer, and they offer encouragement to continue in this area of aviation, either through their experiences or someone they know who has had an illustrious career in vintage aircraft.

Albert Vollmecke, chief engineer and designer for Command-Aire, and your humble author search for Albert’s drawings in the Federal Records Storage Center. These boxes contain the first copy of the original ATC drawings. No Command-Aire drawings were found, but other important data did turn up.

condition. Many owners are not certificated mechanics, but it is extremely important to be able to diagnose a problem or be able to thoroughly describe what the problem is to get it repaired. As I stated earlier, many new young mechanics don’t have a clue about the older airplanes. I have instructed my son, Rob, who operates a 1929 New Standard D-25 biplane, how to time a magneto and how to check and reset idle mixture or speed — just a couple of the things that can or will go wrong with a radial engine. Now, Rob cannot do any of these maintenance items because he operates the airplane commercially. But, he can describe a problem and diagnose how to fix it, and if the problem involves a magneto, he knows how to time it to the engine. (Since this column was published in the TARA newsletter in 2002, Rob has earned his

Airframe and Powerplant certificate and now has the authority of returning to service maintenance and minor repairs to his aircraft.) It’s kind of like when I ferried his Fairchild PT-26 from Kentucky to California; the tail wheel went flat out on the plains of Nebraska. The young A&P had never seen a tail wheel like this, so I said, “You jack up the tail, I’ll disassemble the wheel, you fix the tube, and I’ll reassemble the wheel and reinstall it.” I did most of the work; it cost about $45 as I recall, but he was happy and I was on my way.

Constant maintenance by a mechanic, coupled with preventive maintenance by the owner, will keep our old airplanes airworthy. Let’s fix them before they break ... and be safe!

When I was working on my onetime STC for the Command-Aire, there were FAA folks who did not have a clue about the existence of a Command-Aire! They knew what a McDonnell-Douglas DC-10 was or a Boeing 727. In other words, these engineers primarily were assigned major modifications to very large transport category aircraft. That’s part of the problem! I finally had to hire a designated airworthiness representative (DAR) to help get the STC application off dead-center. All I can say is that it was a nightmare! But I, with the help of my DAR, finally prevailed, and the Command-Aire was certificated in the standard category (NC) in 1989. It has been flying ever since.

Lastly, I’d like to say a few words about maintenance. I know I am preaching to the choir, but continual maintenance will keep the older airplane in airworthy www.vintageaircraft.org

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Message From the President SUSAN DUSENBURY, VAA PRESIDENT

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

was March 11. Amy’s first few weeks included a lot of training, which she handled with grace and aplomb. She immediately dug into the mountain of paperwork required to manage our association on a daily basis. Amy has experience as a customer sales specialist, in banking and in consumer loans.

We think that she is a great fit for our team, you can reach Amy between 8 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. at 920-426-9110 or by email at alemke@eaa.org.

Our former administrative assistant, Jan Johnson, took a new job outside of VAA/EAA. We wish Jan well in her career change as she moves forward.

NEW MEMBERS James Edwards (VAA 727792), Anchorage, Alaska Katherine Bowers (VAA 727820), Montclair, California Andrew Copp (VAA 727813), Anaheim, California Joe DeAngelo (VAA 727838), Winters, California Gary Franco (VAA 727803), Chico, California Ronald Hull (VAA 727827), Temecula, California Ron Randel (VAA 727809), Greeley, Colorado William Doty (VAA 727837), Venice, Florida Alan Fischer (VAA 727788), Boca Raton, Florida Emilio Lopez (VAA 727807), Pinecrest, Florida Russell Tokarski (VAA 727817), Harmony, Florida Marco Adolph (VAA 727799), Alpharetta, Georgia Dwain D. Nix (VAA 727835), Meansville, Georgia Johnathan Travis (VAA 727798), Griffin, Georgia Roger Beck (VAA 727826), Evanston, Illinois Peter Limberger (VAA 727812), Ottawa, Illinois Anita Mack (VAA 727829), Scott Air Force Base, Illinois Anthony Hensley (VAA 727790), Selma, Indiana Doug Kimball (VAA 727808), Bedford, Indiana Glenn Clark (VAA 727794), Derby, Kansas Michael Petri (VAA 727816), Mayo, Maryland Michael Dupont (VAA 727815), Berkley, Massachusetts Ronald Flaugher (VAA 727830), Mount Pleasant, Michigan Jason Ledbetter (VAA 727789), Ypsilanti, Michigan Monica Arcand (VAA 727811), Forest Lake, Minnesota Timothy Dempsey (VAA 727797), Pacific, Missouri Malcolm Holcomb (VAA 727836), Estancia, New Mexico Rodger Anderson (VAA 727804), Scotia, New York Bill Kahl (VAA 727814), Syracuse, New York John Dennis (VAA 727818), Mooresville, North Carolina Deborah Dennis (VAA 727819), Mooresville, North Carolina Cindy McSwain (VAA 727832), Hickory, North Carolina James Parlier (VAA 727831), Hickory, North Carolina Michael Then (VAA 727800), Troy, Ohio Shannon Angstadt (VAA 727822), Slickville, Pennsylvania Connor Creek (VAA 727824), Slickville, Pennsylvania Kaylee Creek (VAA 727825), Slickville, Pennsylvania Thomas Paxton (VAA 727828), Aiken, Sout Carolina Max Langham (VAA 727833), Memphis, Tennesee Katherine Gustafson (VAA 727806), Fort Worth, Texas Robert Moreau (VAA 727796), Granbury, Texas Thomas Stuart (VAA 727793), Heber City, Utah Gary Schue (VAA 727802), Fredericksburg, Virginia Ian Ward (VAA 727795), Arlington, Virginia Joshua Williams (VAA 727805), Arlington, Virginia Michael Hoover (VAA 727834), Ridgeland, Wisconsin Dana Podeweltz (VAA 727787), Merrill, Wisconsin Rich Bastian (VAA 727823), Burns, Wyoming Sabu Sivaraman (VAA 727791), Chennai, India

COPYRIGHT © 2019 BY T HE E AA VIN TAGE AIRCR AF T A SSOCIAT ION. ALL RIGHT S RESERVED. VINTAGE AIRPLANE (USPS 062-750; ISSN 0091-6943) is published and owned exclusively by the EAA Vintage Aircraft Association of the Experimental Aircraft Association and is published bi-monthly at EAA Aviation Center, 3000 Poberezny Rd., PO Box 3086, Oshkosh, Wisconsin 54903-3086, email: vintageaircraft@eaa.org. Membership to Vintage Aircraft Association, which includes 6 issues of Vintage Airplane magazine, is $45 per year for EAA members and $55 for nonEAA members. Periodicals Postage paid at Oshkosh, Wisconsin 54902 and at additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Vintage Airplane, PO Box 3086, Oshkosh, WI 54903-3086. CPC #40612608. FOREIGN AND APO ADDRESSES — Please allow at least two months for delivery of VINTAGE AIRPLANE to foreign and APO addresses via surface mail. ADVERTISING — Vintage Aircraft Association does not guarantee or endorse any product offered through the advertising. We invite constructive criticism and welcome any report of inferior merchandise obtained through our advertising so that corrective measures can be taken.

EDITORIAL POLICY: Members are encouraged to submit stories and photographs. Policy opinions expressed in articles are solely those of the authors. Responsibility for accuracy in reporting rests entirely with the contributor. No remuneration is made. Material should be sent to: Editor, VINTAGE AIRPLANE, PO Box 3086, Oshkosh, WI 54903-3086. Phone 920-426-4800.

EAA® and EAA SPORT AVIATION®, the EAA Logo® and Aeronautica™ are registered trademarks, trademarks, and service marks of the Experimental Aircraft Association, Inc. The use of these trademarks and service marks without the permission of the Experimental Aircraft Association, Inc. is strictly prohibited.

64 May/June 2019

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

Secretary Steve Nesse 2009 Highland Ave. Albert Lea, MN 56007 507-373-1674 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

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

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

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

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

Robert D. “Bob” Lumley 1265 South 124th St. Brookfield, WI 53005 262-782-2633 rlumley1@wi.rr.com

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

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

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

ADVISORS Paul Kyle 1273 Troy Ct. Mason, OH 45040

Kevin McKenzie 40550 La Colima Rd Temecula, CA 92591

Dan Wood fly170@gmail.com

DIRECTORS EMERITUS David Bennett antiquer@inreach.com

Ronald C. Fritz itzfray@gmail.com

Robert C. Brauer photopilot@aol.com

Gene Morris genemorris@charter.net

Phil Coulson rcoulson516@cs.com

S.H. “Wes” Schmid shschmid@gmail.com

John Turgyan jrturgyan4@aol.com

Š 2016 Experimental Aircraft Association, Inc.

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