Vintage Airplane - Dec 2004
Vintage Airplane - Dec 2004
Vintage Airplane - Dec 2004
2004
COVERS
CONTENTS
Aeromail
VAA News
11
Pass It to Buck
Porterfield 35-70
by Buck Hilbert
14
20
Oshkosh Oasis
The Vette Seaplane Base 2004
by Kathie Ernst
25
Mystery Plane
STAFF
Publisher
Editor-in-Chief
Executive Director/Editor
VAA Administrator
News Editor
Photography
Production Manager
Advertising Sales
Classified Ad Manager
Copy Editor
by H.G. Frautschy
26
Classified Ads
GraphiC Design
Tom Poberezny
Scott Spangler
H.G. Frautschy
Theresa Books
Ric Reynolds
Jim Koepnick
Bonnie Bartel
Julie Russo
Loy Hickman
913-268-6646
Isabelle Wiske
Colleen Walsh
Kathleen Witman
Olivia Phillip
VINTAGE AIRPLANE
GEOFF ROBISON
PRESIDENT, VI NTAGE AIRCR AFT ASSOCIAT ION
DECEMBER 2004
Thanks Butch!
When Vintage Airplane magazine
arrives in the mail, it gets opened
immediately, and the first thing
I read as I slowly walk from the
mailbox to the house is "Straight
and Level." After the August issue I
will be one of many who will miss
Butch's words.
Butch, thanks for being a great
president of the Association for so
many years. Many of us appreciate
your accomplishments and the en
ergy and effort you have put into
that job for all of us.
Ken Woodard
North Andover, Massachusetts
Bh!riot's Crossing
The referenced article reminded
me of my mother's mention many
years ago of her experience of view
ing the Bleriot channel-crossing
monoplane following its history
making flight. At the time Mother
was a young nurse in her home city
of London.
After th e July 25, 1909 , epic
flight, the Selfridge Store placed the
airplane on display in London to
be seen July 26th, 27th, 28th, and
29th. Mother was given a small
card setting forth all performance
and technical data.
Parks ID
Greeting from sunny Florida ...
my wife and I moved down here
after finally calling it quits on
Connecticut winters . We live in
the Spruce Creek fly-in commu
nity in Daytona Beach and are en
joying it very much .
I'd hate to see a fellow Parksman
get in trouble with the ghost of
old Oliver Parks so I figured I bet
ter "correct the record" on a cap
tioned pict ure in the August issue
of Vintage Airplane. In the "Remi
niscing with Big Nick " article on
page 7, the middle photo is de
scribed as a KR-3 1 Challenger. As
an avid (or is it rabid?) researcher
and collector of early Parks" stuff"
I guess the nitpicker in me couldn't
stay silent . .. it is in fact a Parks
P-l. NC962K was manufactured in
September of 1929 sportinll
~
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it
marvellous leat 0 l~~ation {or some few years ~~f 'nearly 9 miles. m \ \ mln~~~;ale the e.cnt
.
C
S T oUf Y to A rlenay. h3 dlstanCnumenl was erected to
has been
560 olfcr<.. 1 by u\e
country Gig It rom kr;ble at the time t ~t a mo the Pox du V oyage 0 I e aC -,):ll l,~ .'!>hed lO
coosloO'eredJ ;37;ro{ 'thiS year. M, B\enotn~yonAlghl of 25 tmles 10 an d~:~!~~: in les ~ ~ha:\ on"
( \
o UY
{ I' the first cross- COU
erformlOg 1lIe
Aero Club of F ranee a M Blen ot was success U dIn fP over 40 miles an hour'hed ll"
hcu"c It,
h 6 hours . '
d a spee 0
eed:; no s
.
no morl t \ an Ch~nnel fhgh t he h<ls a~tamc f the smanest in CXISlfd'lCe. n,
motor c~r. ~ ur.J..'\y 50
st,dYr
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spah
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t It
Sp'3n o[ wmgs .
1
. 11 [eel . 7 toe.leS.
T he wooden frames 0
Span of e\e\'atmg p a,:,es
a RIght of 2 hours,
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Vintage Ai/plane.
DECEMBER 2004
DECEMBER 2004
Humble Oil's red and white 15, one of many Howards sold to the oil companies.
DECEMBER 2004
DOUG STEWART
Landings
Several weeks ago on a beautiful
fall afternoon I sat in the back of
my Super Cruiser as a dear friend of
mine flew us down to Candlelight
Farms Airport, located in western
Connecticut. We were flying there
so she could fly a PT-17 Stearman.
She has long admired the airplane
that was used to teach so many
pilots how to fly prior to WWII,
and I thought it would be a great
treat for her and a way of saying
"thanks for all the help she had
given me during the previous year.
Tim Preston runs a marvelous
operation, offering Stearman
training out of the Candlelight
Airport during the summer, and
moving to the Mid-Florida Airport
for the winter months. His Stearman
is a 1941 N2S4, built originally as a
PT-17 but then taken over by the
Navy and converted. Tim is not
only a CFI, but an IA as well and
he keeps his Boeing in pristine
condition. If you are interested in
flying with him, check out www.
f1ytailwheel.com. (He also offers
training in a J-3 Cub.)
My friend had been a little
nervous about flying this big
biplane, particularly the landing
phase. Although she had many
hours in my PA-12, it appeared
quite small when parked beside the
PT-17. I assured her that it would
probably be an easier airplane to
fly than the Super Cruiser, and that
as soon as she recognized just how
much higher her posterior would
be above the ground in the flare,
she would have no problems with
the landing.
II
The Glide.
The glide has to be on target and
on speed. By on target I mean that
the pilot has chosen an aim point
on the runway. The aim point
SELECTED WORKS
FROM A 20 - YEAR
RETROSPECT I VE OF
EAA CH IEF'
PHOTOGRAPHER
JIM KOEPNICK
jim Koepnick' s
Touchdown.
This phase will occur just once,
if everything preceding it has been
done correctly. If you are not in
the proper attitude, and have not
dissipated enough energy, it will
undoubtedly occur more than once.
I could probably write a whole
article on this, and the following
phase, particularly for taiIwheel
pilots, but suffice to say that if
everything prior to this phase has
been flown properly, it will occur
10
DECEMBER 2004
Rollout.
For you Ercoupe pilots it's a
pretty simple phase. But if you
happen to be flying a close-coupled
taildragger in a strong crosswind,
it's probably the most exciting and
demanding phase of the landing.
We must remember to maintain
proper control deflection while
we maintain directional control.
There are way too many incidents
that occur during this phase of the
landing that never make it into the
statistical databases. We cannot
become complacent now, lest we
find ourselves off the runway in a
less than fortuitous situation.
So if we can keep track of where
we are in the landing sequence
of events, and can manage our
aircraft's energy properly, every
landing should be a great one.
Perhaps you have heard it said that
"a good landing is anyone that
you can walk away from ... a great
landing is one in which you can
use the airplane again." There is
no reason why all of our landings
shouldn't be even better than that.
Now you might be wondering
how my friend's landings went in
the Stearman. Many eyes were on her
as she came in for her first landing.
She was on target and on speed;
she broke the glide at the proper
moment and held the plane off as
she dissipated the energy. When she
touched down there was a slight
bounce (of about six inches), but
she kept working, not relaxing the
controls, and the next touchdown
she stayed down. Her rollout was
right down the center of the grass
runway. Her first landing in the PT
17 was much more than great. May
all your landings be as good! ~
Porterfield 3570
11
DECEMBER 2004
13
A
14
DECEMBER 2004
VINTAGE AIRPLA NE
15
DECEMBER 2004
17
Aeronca
Chief-This is a side-by-side Champ; good Super Chiefs (85 hpj probably won't
be in the $15K budget.
65TAC-Defender-Pre-war/wartime tandem, pick carefully because of age.
Piper
J-4 Cub Coupe-A side-by-side Cub that for some reason hasn't skyrocketed in
price like the J-3. Good project but rare.
Colt-A two-place Tri-Pacer. $15K should buy a reasonable flying airplane or
build a good project.
125 Tri-Pacer-This is an early Tripe w/0-290 but look for a good engine and
prepare to do some welding. Check the engine carefully-the 0-290 is an "orphan"
engine as far as Lycom ing is concerned.
Interstate Cadet
A-65-lsn't really enough power but still flies okay. Some had Franklins.
Ercoupe
Thousands out there, $15K will buy a flying airplane or super project.
Funk
Both pre- and post-war models, a good flyer, and fairly fast. Has a T-bar control!
yoke system. A real antique in a tiny package.
Cessna 150
Don't laugh. The square tail, pre-1963 models are true contemporary classics
but look for a good engine, as the 0-200 is expensive to overhaul.
Stinson lOA
Hasn't caught on at all. Two-place but could use more power (can't everything?).
This will probably be a project.
18
DECEMBER 2004
Oshkosh Oasis
Like the water lilies that ring the perimeter of the base, Cub row extended southwest
into the seaplane cove, thanks to the clever work of the seaplane docking crew.
20
DECEMBER 2004
While not a vintage airplane, the BE-103 is an interesting airplane that gets plenty of attention. This year I was fortunate to
be offered a flight in a new Russian twin-engine amphibian, the Beriev BE-103. It's a rather unusual looking light twin, with its
wing-in-the-water configuration. I had never seen anything quite like it before and was curious as to how it would fly.
We had a very experienced crew at the controls; Skip Niedhardt (the Seaplane Pilot's Association's most experienced
instructor) and Kent Linn (another seaplane pilot and the North American distributor for the BE-103) were the pilots.
We embarked on our adventure in the late afternoon, hoping to catch a sunset flight. I must admit that it was a little
unsettling to sit so low in the water, I but was reassured of its very sturdy construction. It handled remarkably well in both
the air and in the water. It was a very enjoyable flight. "Spasibu," thanks to the Russians!
The Outstanding
Amphibian of this
year's convention is
Bill Bardin's Republic
Seabee, which is
based in Brockport,
New York, not too far
from where it was
built at the Republic
plant on Long Island.
VINTAGE AIRPLANE
21
Bill Schlapman of the Heath Parasol Club took this photo of Chris
and his Heath just prior to starting. You can see how small the Heath
and its floats really are. Each is buiH up with spruce framing covered
in 3I32-inch mahogany plywood, with the floats then covered in
lightweight aircraft fabric.
With the changes he had to make to the airplane to power it with
a Continental A-40, Chris wasn't too sure about the float rigging, so
he built a shallow tank in his hangar to test the configuration!
To fly it to the seaplane base from his hangar in Brodhead,
Wisconsin, Price had to truck the Heath to Decatur Lake, just north
of Brodhead.
After takeoff during his initial test flight on floats, VAA member
and volunteer photographer Nigel Hitchman captured these two
dawn photographs of the Heath with Chris at the controls. Chris
flew formation for a bit with the Curtiss Jenny restored by Frank
Schelling, and being flown by Eric Presten.
After the float installation was deemed proper, the Heath was
fueled and then flown off the lake for a 60-mile cross-country flight
to the Vette Seaplane base.
The Bronze Lindy winner in the Seaplane category is this sharp Piper PA14 mounted on a pair of amphibious Wipline 2100
floats, and owned and flown by Jon Gottschalk of Phillips, Wisconsin, up in the lake country of the state, northwest of Tomahawk.
VINTAGE AIRPLANE
23
III Membeps
on
10UP
paPlnep.
recognl~lon
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DECEMBER 2004