April/May/June 2008 Vol. XXXI, No. 2

Gone But Not Forgotten

Ann Baumgartner Carl1918-2008

Fleetwood Garner1914-2008

Donald S. Lopez1923-2008

They Will Be Missed

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VIRGINIA EAGLESthe official newsletter of the

VIRGINIA AERONAUTICALHISTORICAL SOCIETY

Officers and Board of DirectorsVan E. Crosby, Richmond, President

John G. Dankos, Mechanicsville, 1st Vice PresidentScott Gross, Williamsburg, 2nd Vice President

Charles J. Williams, Jr., Prince George, SecretaryBruce Russell, Richmond, Treasurer

Albert M. Orgain IV, Richmond, ChairmanTom Woodburn, Richmond, Vice Chairman

Neilson J. November, Richmond, Chairman EmeritusCourtney A. Beamon, Midlothian

Hartwell F. “Tee” Coke, IV, QuintonCalvin Falwell, LynchburgDewitt L. Freeman, Louisa

Charles Hundley, RichmondBill Kelly, Richmond

Charles A. Kulp, Sr., BealetonCarl M. Lindner, Richmond

Claude “Buz” Rich, WilliamsburgKenneth A. Rowe, RichmondBill Schultz, Williamsburg

Ret. Judge William Shelton, RichmondDeborah J. Sterling, AshlandMark Sternheimer, Richmond

Ken Strafer, FairfaxH. Ray Tyson, Jr., Ashland

Maxine M. Walker, DeltavilleMarguerite Wonsey, Williamsburg

Organizational DirectorsMike Boehme, Director, Virginia Aviation Museum

Randall Burdette, Director, Virginia Dept. ofAviation

Chapter RepresentativesNorthern Neck Middle Peninsula – Cary “Doc”

BroadwayWilliamsburg – John R. “Dick” Pitman

StaffJennifer Melton, Editor

Linda Burdette, Feature Article Editor

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Back in Front

Rich Conti, a former Naval Flight Officer, andmore recently and to the point, the past and veryeffective Executive Director of Nauticus in Norfolk, isnow in place as the Director of the Science Museumof Virginia, succeeding Walter Witschey. At theinvitation of Mike Boehme, the Director of the VirginiaAviation Museum, I got to spend some informative

time withD i r e c t o rConti, aformer RIO( R a d a rInterceptO f f i c e r )with VF-11the RedR i p p e r s .He flew offof the USS

Forrestal CVA-59 in the back seat of an F-14 Tomcatand seemed to be very comfortable posing in front ofthe VAM’sTomcat fora picturewith yourstruly, af o r m e rA r m ya v i a t o r(low andslow) andCol. MikeBoehme, af o r m e rZ o o m i e( F - 1 5 shigh andfast). I wasimpressed with his desire to get his arms around thevarious SMV constituencies that he must try now to

market and satisfy. The visit was a get-acquaintedsession, to be followed by a later meeting with otherofficers of the VAHS and then with the Board, at whichtime our Board members will have a chance to askquestions.

Our Society’s special relationship with theVirginia Aviation Museum and the Science Museumof Virginia makes us a very interested party in the futureof those two intertwined organizations. I can tell frommy session with Rich Conti that, true to his MBAtraining, he will proceed in an organized, thoughtful,and planned way towards goals which, by hisdescription, will need to be adopted by all of the playersin the Science Museum of Virginia family.

If the turnaround experienced by Nauticus isany sign of things to come, then the Science Museumof Virginia is in for some interesting and exciting times.We will wish this back seater good luck as he takesthe front seat at the SMV and be hoping for a targetrich environment.

Historical Markers Galore

Under the guidance of Bill Schultz, ourHistorical Marker Committee has been instrumentalin, or helpful in, organizing and preparing for theplacement of two (2) more historical markers. Theapproval has been received for a marker to be placedat the Wallops Island Flight Facility (WAL) on theEastern Shore. Please be alert for a notice from oursecretary when this event is to take place. I have it ongood authority from Dr. John Campbell, the Directorof the Wallops Island Flight Facility, that a PPR (PriorPermission Required) can probably be achieved for afly-in to Wallops for this event. We have receivedearly indications that sponsors for this event will beprepared to launch a memorable time to commemoratethe contribution to space flight and space research that

(L to R) SMV Director Richard Conti, VAMExecutive Director Mike Boehme, VAHSChairman Al Orgain beside the F-14 at VAM

VAHS Board of Directors presenting VirginiaAirports book and Neil November present-ing the Walter Jefferies biography Beyondthe Clouds to SMV Director Rich Conti infront of the WACO YOC which was donatedto the VAHS by Walter Jefferies.

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has come from the activities of NACA and NASA atWallops.

Closer by and basic to more ancient aviatingskills, is a planned dedication of a marker in HanoverCounty near Studley. This marker will commemoratethe location of Delta Airmail Beacon #47 which wasof one of the airway light beacons that previouslyformed the basis for night navigation before radiobeacons, radar and GPS. Those who flew shortlyafter 1922 will remember that the U.S. Post OfficeDepartment established beacon #47 (part of theAtlanta-New York Civil Airways Corridor) andnumerous others across the country to guide pilots fromairfield to airfield flying their mail planes at night. M yUncle William Alexander “Buster” Coln got his startthis way and survived this dangerous business tobecome a Captain flying 707’s for American Airlines.See God Is My Co-Pilot (1943) by Robert Scott fora tall tale told by Uncle Buster about flying the mail atnight.

More will be circulated about these two eventsas the schedule becomes more apparent. We hopeyou can attend both.

Eastern Shore Outreach

Bill Kelly, the Chair of the VAHS PublicRelations Committee, is organizing a VAHS Day Fly-In and “Soup-on-Sunday” event. The former KellamField, now Campbell Field Airport (9VG) atWeirwood on the Eastern Shore has, under theownership of Gordon Campbell, become an activeGA spot with his field improvements and thesponsoring of a fine meal of soup and Sabrett hot dogsfor fly-ins on Sundays during good weather. The plan,as Bill describes it, is for Randy Burdette (our BoardMember and Director of the Virginia Department ofAviation), to be present for the event to talk aboutVirginia Aviation, along with his VDOA “Show andTell” trailer. He may also have a few good things tosay about the VAHS. In addition, Jen Melton(Secretary of the VAHS) and David Hahn (VAHSMember) are updating the VAHS PowerPointpresentation so that the aviators who fly in can find out

what the Society does and, we hope, join the effort.Pray for good weather for Sunday, May 4th, 2008from noon to 3 p.m. You do not need a PPR to landat Campbell Field. Go to CampbellFieldAirport.comfor more details on the airport, its history and fly ininstructions.

Recent Lessons Learned

1. After receiving a birthday present ofa new and fairly complex Garmin 496 GPS, it is bestfor your passengers’ comfort not to read the GPSmanual while flying to Atlanta.

2. On return from Atlanta after a veryhard and intense rain in Richmond and Goochland, itis best to land on a hard surface, rather than a turfrunway. Note to self: With three people on board ittakes almost full power to taxi on a very wet and muddyturf runway.

3. Remember when one is required towash off the mud from the aircraft after landing on awet turf runway, that the wing height of the sharp trailingedge on a Cessna 182 comes about in the middle ofthe forehead of someone who is 6 feet 3 inches tall.Ouch!

Al OrgainVAHS Chairman(804) 783-7243AOrgain@SandsAnderson.com

Law Office Address:Sands Anderson Marks & Miller801 East Main StreetPost Office Box 1998Richmond, Virginia 23218-1998

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Van’s Vectors

One of the greatest things about being involved withthe VAHS is getting to work with so many friends thatare so willing to give their time for the benefit of theSociety. Our members come from pilots to historians,CEO’s to students. We have those involved in themilitary, general aviation and the airlines. Some areretired and some are in the prime of their careers.Regardless of each member’s background, it is theinterest in Virginia aviation history that brings us alltogether.

One such member is David Tyndall. David has beenour Treasurer for many years and has made sure thatwe remain solvent with his dedicated work behind thescene. He has done more than just keep the books;his efforts have resulted in the VAHS being as financiallystrong today as anytime in our history.

As a corporate pilot, David faces a strong possibilityof relocating to another state due to his employermoving their corporate headquarters. For that solereason, he has informed us that he must step down asthe treasurer of the Society. David has agreed to remainon our Board of Directors and evaluate that situationat a later date. Please join me in wishing David and his family the bestin their future and thanking him for all his time andservice to the VAHS. As we find ourselves forced to deal with change, weare blessed by our diverse membership. Bruce Russellhas recently retired as Finance Director from PhillipMorris and has agreed to accept the position oftreasurer. Bruce has already rolled up his sleeves andhas been hard at work. Make sure we all welcomeBruce to the Executive Board.

Van Crosby VAHS President (804) 200-5213 van.crosby@usi.biz USI Insurance Services 4880 Cox Road, Suite 102 Glen Allen, Virginia 23060-6506

Flight NoisesBy Norman L. Crabill, June 11, 1997

Alone in my aluminum skin,IFR at 10.0, in and out of cloud,Out of sight of that other world,My only contact is by sound.

Sounds of voices on the ground,Telling of altitudes and fixes,

Traffic and weather and squawks and headings,And “Have a good day.”

Sounds of others diverting around the Big T,Reporting cat or smooth,

At level 330 or 2.5,“What Scher” active and any reported traffic,Please call her, I’m OK, but two hours late.

Sounds of my airplane,Talking to itself as it does its thing,I listen as it roars, growls, hisses,

Swishes and sighs, with cable slap and fuel slosh,Nerdling, muted noises, muffled and masked,

By the flow by my skin.

Radios crackle, center calls,Updrafts whomp, airspeed whistles,

Rain drums the skin, splats hail-like on theplexiglass,

Airplane hums its wet weather tune—“A” abovemiddle C,

Till no more rain.

Two chirps at touchdown: gear clatter on rollout,A final call – for fuel,

Then mixture, mags and master,And silence, but for the wind.

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In MemoriamIn MemoriamIn MemoriamIn MemoriamIn Memoriam

In the first three months of this year, we have lost three Hall of Fame members: T. Fleetwood Garner, DonaldS. Lopez, and Ann Carl. The Richmond Times-Dispatch has graciously allowed the Virginia Eagles toreprint the articles that ran about T. Fleetwood Garner and Ann Carl. Ken Strafer has written about Donald S.Lopez. We will always remember them.

WWII vet Thomas Garnerdies at 94

Friday, Feb 01, 2008By Ellen RobertsonTIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER

Thomas Fleetwood Garner left school in the eighth grade to go into business with his father.Thomas Fleetwood Garner, a pioneer in Virginia’s aviation industry, started out operating primary

flight schools for the Navy during World War II. He taught novice Navypilots how to fly using some of the earliest Piper Cubs. “He built ahangar and a landing strip in Orbit, a hamlet in Isle of Wight Countywhere his father had his general store,” said a son, Thomas F. GarnerJr. of Richmond. Later his main center of operations was at Montvale,outside Roanoke.

Mr. Garner, who in 1986 was inducted into the Virginia AeronauticalHistorical Society’s Aviation Hall of Fame, died Tuesday at his HenricoCounty home. The 94-year-old pilot, who had 10,000 hours of flyingtime, had been in declining health for many years.

Trading as Garner Aviation Service Corp., he operated aviationfacilities and distributorships around Virginia and along the EastCoast, including Roanoke, Hot Springs, Byrd Field in Richmond andBartow, Fla.

He married Anna Lauder, a woman he taught to fly in Hot Springs. They moved to Henrico Countyin 1945.Ever an entrepreneur, Mr. Garner became a partner in the popular Clover Room ice cream shopand Richmond Dairy, as well as a machine shop.

In 1947, he sponsored a record-breaking P-51 Mustang flight from Washington to Havana thatcarried a 15-pound ham as a gift from Gov. William Tuck to the president of Cuba.

* * * * *

T. Fleetwood Garner

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From 1951 to 1959 his civilian programs under government contracts trained thousands of AirForce pilots in Piper Cubs and AT-6 Texans before going to twin-engine Cessna jets.

Besides selling Piper aircraft and training pilots, he tested early navigational system equipmentfor the forerunner of the Federal Aviation Administration.

Mr. Garner retired from active operation of his various businesses by 1960 to invest in and developland in California, especially in the Rancho Mirage area, where he and his wife had a winterhome.

The Garners were philanthropists who helped develop local institutions such as the ScienceMuseum of Virginia, where there is a pavilion named in their honor, the Virginia Opera, the VirginiaMuseum of Fine Arts, the Virginia Home, CollegiateSchool and the Virginia Aviation Museum.

Mr. Garner’s wife died in 2005. Survivors, besides his son, include another son, William VaughanGarner of Washington; and four grandchildren.

The family will receive friends Friday from 4 to 6 p.m. at the James River Clubhouse of theCountry Club of Virginia, 709 S. Gaskins Road. A private graveside service will be held inHollywood Cemetery.

**Copyright Richmond Times-Dispatch Used with permission.

* * * * *Donald S. Lopez

by Ken Strafer, VAHS Board MemberI’d like to take a moment of your time and tell you about one of Hall ofFame members and a friend, Don Lopez. Its old news now, but we shouldall know, Don was asked to “fly high cover for us and join the CAP” withnow many other aviators and pilots in “Saint Peter’s Air Corps”. Donand I would joke about it, but it seemingly did not bother him or at least itwas hard to detect if it did, he was jovial, thoughtful, thought provoking,and for me, motivating. Even though he had amassed a long list ofachievements through out his life of 84 years, Don was such an aviator henever flaunted it, as a matter of fact, he seemed to marvel at his guest’sachievements and moments of success. Colonel Lopez, a resident ofAlexandria, Va., had been hospitalized in Durham, where his daughter,Joy Lopez, lives.

Don was a “depression kid” born outside New York City in Brooklyn,then home of the Dodgers baseball team. Don and I shared stories of the“Brooklyn Bums”, but more so, the dreams they inspired. At and earlyage he had the chance to see and witness Charles Lindbergh as a hero of

Donald S. Lopez

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American aviation lore. His inner flame was kept alive by an occasional trip to a nearby airport and thenbeginning before age 10 rides in an open cockpit biplane. The vision of him flying in a uniform was kept alive ashe left New York and went to college in Tampa. Seizing on the moment of pre-World War II, Don told memany a tale of his training in the Civil Air Training Corps of the time. Don would “matter-of-fact” style, state hehad little problem with getting through the basic flight training program. I suspect that was an understatementfor, years later, he was selected for test pilot training and assignment. He transitioned into jets after World WarII then entered the Korean War. His love, he would tell his friends, were the older prop-driven fighters inwhich he downed five Japanese aircraft and was recognized as a combat ACE; earning this distinction as afighter pilot in the 23rd Fighter Group of the 14th Air Force in China.

I would have to join many others that would boast about Don. He worked his first formative years “living andmaking aviation history, and he spent the last half of his life preserving it and sharing it with the public”. Mr.Lopez joined the Smithsonian Institution in 1972 as an aeronautics specialist. Helping plan the National Air andSpace Museum, which opened four years later, he obtained planes for its Pioneers of Flight gallery; I first metDon at the opening and immediately admired this true “flying force”. He was the museum’s deputy directorfrom 1983 to 1990 and from 1996 until his death. As assistant director for Aeronautics, Lopez was instrumentalin developing the exhibits that welcomed visitors at the museum’s opening on July 1, 1976 and have made it themost visited museum in the world.

Lopez was a member of the American Fighter Aces Association, the Experimental Aircraft Association, andwas a Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society. In 1995, he was named an Elder Statesman of Aviation by theNational Aeronautic Association. He was presented the 1999 Federal Hispanic Heritage Month Excellence inLeadership Award. Don Lopez was also inducted into the Virginia Aviation Hall of Fame. Lopez was honoredin 2007 as one of the living legends at the Gathering of Mustangs and Legends at Rickenbacker Field inColumbus, Ohio.

Well enough, time for me to return to “our aviation get-away” in Virginia, the Udgar-Hazy Annex of theSmithsonian, the “living collection” Don was instrumental in helping develop and best symbolizes his life, dreams,and hopes-that is “Lope’s Hope” and for me, he’s still there just down from the entrance.

* * * * *Ann G.B. Carl, first U.S. woman to fly jet, dies

Saturday, Mar 22, 2008By KATHERINE CALOS TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER

A school lecture by Amelia Earhart in 1932 inspired Ann Gilpin Baumgartner Carl to learn to fly. Like Earhart,she became an aviation pioneer.

She was the first American woman to fly a jet airplane. While serving with the Women’s Air Service Pilots(WASP) during World War II, she first flew the turbo-jet powered Bell JP-59A on Oct. 14, 1944.During her wartime career as a test pilot at Wright Field in Ohio, she was the only woman test pilot flying WorldWar II combat aircraft such as the P-38, P-47 and P-51.

She met Orville Wright and often found herself seated next to him at dinners, said her son, Peter Carl ofCambridge, England.

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While flight testing the P-82 Twin Mustang, she met her husband-to-be, William P. Carl. They married on May2, 1945, four days after the Allies claimed victory in Europe.

Mrs. Carl, 89, died Thursday in a Kilmarnock nursing home.Mr. Carl died Feb. 19.

Mrs. Carl’s adventurous spirit continued after the family settledon Long Island, N.Y. She was a flying instructor and began asailing career with her husband. After his retirement, they sailedthe yawl “Audacious” across the Atlantic to cruise throughEurope and return. They eventually settled in the NorthernNeck of Virginia, from which they commuted yearly for 22years by boat to Abaco Cay in the Bahamas.

Born at Fort Gordon in Augusta, Ga., in 1918 while her fatherserved there during World War I, Mrs. Carl graduated fromSmith College in 1939 with a pre-med degree. She had briefstints as a medical researcher, a dancer and a writer for TheNew York Times before realizing her ambition to fly.

She wrote about her military experiences in “A WASP AmongEagles: A Woman Military Test Pilot in World War II” and

about her sailing life in “The Small World of Long Distance Sailors.”

In addition to her son, she is survived by a daughter, Margaret “Peggy” Laufer, of Ontario, Canada, and threegrandchildren.

Her memorial service will be Sunday at 3 p.m. at Grace Episcopal Church in Kilmarnock. Her cremains will beburied at sea with the cremains of her husband.

** Copyright Richmond Times-Dispatch Used with permission

Ann Baumgartner Carl

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April 19, 2008VAHS Annual Spring Party and Auction will beheld at the Virginia Aviation Museum from 5:30 to 9:00p.m. The Annual Meeting for members will be held at5:00. There will be an Open Bar and Heavy Horsd’oeuvres, and door prizes. Contact Jennifer Meltonat (804) 222-8690 or vahs@smv.org for ticketinformation. Tickets are $15.

May 3, 2008Tangier Island Fly-In to raise money for repavingthe airstrip and construction of a terminal building willtake place from 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. Tickets are$50.00 per person with proceeds to go to the project.Contact Neil S. Kaye, MD at nskaye@aol.com or302-234-8950 if you have questions or want to buytickets.

May 4, 2008VAHS Fly-In and Soup on Sunday at CampbellField 12:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m. VAHS Presentation at1 p.m. For more information contact Jen Melton at(804) 222-8690 or vahs@smv.org. Also visitwww.campbellfieldairport.com.

May 4, 2008Pancake Breakfast Fly-In will be held at the WilliamT. Piper Memorial Airport, Lock Haven, PA (LHV)Hangar 1 - 8:00 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. $6 adults, $3 underage 10. Pancakes, eggs, sausage, hash brown patty,orange juice, coffee or tea. Benefits SentimentalJourney Fly-In - Piper Aviation Museum open 9:00a.m. -2:00 p.m. More information call 570-893-4200or email j3cub@kcnet.org, website -www.sentimentaljourneyfly-in.com.

May 25, 2008Aviation Games at New Market Airport will takeplace from 1-6 p.m. Spot landing, flour bombing,balloon popping, and possibly sponge dropping. $15to enter — prizes from registration pot. Raindate: Sun.June 1. Info 540-433-3309 or www.geocities.com/eaa511va or zero.g@verizon.net.

June 1, 2008New London Fly-In will take place from 8:00 a.m. -4:00 p.m. Down home fly-in with fun for all ages!Country Style breakfast from 8:00 a.m. - 10:00 a.m..All American lunch at noon with refreshments all day.Kid friendly activities including “Bomb Drop,” and staticaircraft and car display. Raindate: June 8, 2008. Formore information contact David Miller, AirportManager, at 540-874-7776 or millerrv6@verizon.netor visit www.newlondonairport.com.

June 14-15, 2008Virginia Regional Festival of Flight will take placeat the Suffolk Executive Airport. Includes a full rangeof fly-in activities, including forums, workshops,aviation vendor displays, aircraft demonstration flights,activities for young people and acres of parking forattendees either flying or driving in. For moreinformation visit VirginiaFlyIn.org.

June 14, 20085th Annual Bluegrass Family Day and Fly-In willtake place beginning at 8:00 a.m. at the MiddlePeninsula Regional Airport. A day of fun for the WholeFamily! Admission is free, donations accepted. Gamesfor the children, live Bluegrass Bands, parking lotpicking. Pancake breakfast and lunch by the West PointVolunteer Fire and Rescue. Skydivers, airplane rides,display of fly-in aircraft. All proceeds go to theAmerican Cancer Society in memory of Mary AnnClements and Shirly Norman. For more informationcontact Tim Gaylord, Airport Manager, at 804-785-9725 or tgaylord@fly-fyj.com or visit www.fly-fyj.com.

June 17-21, 2008Sentimental Journey Fly-In at the William T. PiperMemorial Airport, Lock Haven, PA (LHV). Featuredaircraft J-5 Cruiser and Piper Pawnee, seminars, staticdisplays, vendors, food, camping, awards, contests,entertainment, tours, and fun for all! More informationcall 570-893-4200 or email j3cub@kcnet.org,website - www.sentimentaljourneyfly-in.com.

Calendar of Events

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Ongoing Events:

Pancake Breakfast at Mecklenburg-BrunswickRegional Airport takes place the first Saturday ofeach month (from 8:00-10:00 a.m.). Breakfast andsocial hour with regularly scheduled live presentationsby FAA and/or NTSB. Sponsored by Mecklenburg-Brunswick Regional Airport and The Club/LakeGaston Resort. For more information contact (434)729-2591or AVCAirport@buggs.net

Soup-on-Sunday at Campbell Field Airport (9VG)on the Eastern Shore of Virginia will take place eachSunday from noon-3:00 p.m. For more informationvisit www.campbellfieldairport.com or contact GordonCampbell at (757) 442-7519.

Friends of the Petersburg Pilots Association holdsa breakfast from 8:00-10:00 a.m. the third Saturdayof each month at the Dinwiddie County Airport. Formore information call (804) 861-9915.

Lonesome Pine EAA Chapter 1416 invites pilotsand guests to attend free “Hotdogs & Hangar Talk”beginning at 11:00 a.m. the third Saturday of eachmonth at Lonesome Pine Airport (follows the EAAChapter Meeting at 10:00 a.m.). For more informationcontact Bob Spera, Director, Liberty Flying Service,(276) 328-5300 or liberty@mounet.com or visitwww.libertyflyingservice.com.

Flying Circus Airshow (Open every Sunday, Maythrough October) including precision aerobatic andformation flying, wing walking, hot air ballooning,skydiving, and antique open cockpit airplanes. Biplanerides are available before and after every show. Gatesopen at 11:00 a.m. Show starts at 2:30 p.m. $10.00for adults and $3.00 for kids. Group rates available.Concession stand, picnic grounds, gift shop. Picnicpavilion available for party rental. The Flying CircusAerodrome is located at Rte. 17 and Rte. 644 (RichieRoad) in Bealeton, Virginia. For more information visitwww.flyingcircusairshow.com or call (540) 439-8661.

Today’s News is Tomorrow’sHistory

Help your Society’s effort to record and preservethe history of aviation in the Commonwealth. Youcan help by clipping and sending any newspaperarticles relating to your local airport, aviators orrelated events to the VAHS office. Also welcomeare any photos of Virginia airports or anythingconcerning Virginia aviation history. We will fileand scan the information so it will be available onour website.

In ErrataIn the last issue I did not credit two of thesubmissions correctly. The article aboutCarl Swanson was submitted by NormCrabill. Norm also submitted the“Footnotes In History” referencing the birthof Naval aviation in Norfolk. Thank youNorm!

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Northern Neck/Middle Peninsula

Contact:Cary L. “Doc” Broadway – PresidentP.O. Box 32Merry Point, Virginia 22513(804) 462-0319e-mail: docnsue1938@earthlink.com

Meetings are held the 3rd Thursday of each month atthe Pilot House Restaurant in Topping, Virginia at 12:00p.m.

Northern Virginia Chapter

Contact:Bill Schultz Chapter Development Chairman(757) 258-8875

Williamsburg “Eagles” Chapter

Contact:Joe Kuppich, Jr. – President648 Fairfax WayWilliamsburg, Virginia 23185(757) 220-1370e-mail: jkuppich@cox.net

Meetings are held the 3rd Wednesday of the month at10:00 a.m. at the Williamsburg Airport.

January Chapter Notes:“Williamsburg Eagles”

The January 2008 Meeting of the WilliamsburgChapter started out the New Year in fine form just aswe completed the last!

Hugh Burns a local Williamsburg resident and businessman gave us an outstanding presentation of “Flyingthe Black Jet *** F-117 Nighthawk”.

Hugh founded theWi l l i amsburgB r e w i n gCompany in 1995after leaving theAir Force and wasits brew masteruntil 2005 when heand his wife,Nadia, opened“The Mise enPlace” familymeal prep kitchen.

Hugh graduatedfrom the Universityof Scranton with a BS in Biology in 1981, went to ayear of Med School at Georgetown and then enteredUSAF pilot training in 1982. He flew the RF4 Phantomafter completing flight training and was then sent toNellis AFB where he went thru the selection processand training to become an F-117 pilot.

Hugh provided us with an in-depth look at the weaponssystems of the plane the weapons that were utilized inIraq, the typical mission profiles that were flown andhis deployment with the first F-117s to an isolated basein Southern Saudi Arabia. This was the first time thatmany of us heard that the control systems of the F-117 were F-16 and the landing gear was F-15. Welearned about CBU-10s, 12s and 27s, refueling tracks,joining up and flying formation and to get fuel withoutradio communications. This was “heady stuff”.

We felt most fortunate to have Hugh talk with us, becandid and field the many questions from out augustgroup! Thanks Hugh-It was a distinct pleasure!

Stay tuned because in the months ahead we will befortunate to enjoy other informative speakers!

Chapter News

Hugh Burns

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February Chapter Notes:”Williamsburg Eagles”

Fifty Two members of the Williamsburg Chapter ofthe Society were treated to a “Three for the Price ofOne” talk by member Alex Kuras for the Februarymeeting!

Alex gave us great insight into his WWII experiencesof being an Army Air Force B-24 navigator, his training,and bombing missions in the European theater afterhis graduation from high school in Chicago! This isamazing since after being inducted Alex spent five ofthe first eight weeks of his Army career in the hospitalafter being diagnosed with spinal meningitis.

His B-24 squadron was part of the 15th Air Force, 49Bomb Wing, and 451st Bomb Group. They werebased at Foggia, Italy. He flew some 33 missions duringlate 1944 and 1945 prior to the war in Europe beingover. His experiences of losing engines on missions,having to lighten the plane to make it to a divert field,make engineering decisions for some inexperiencedpilots with the accompanying descriptive narratives andpictorials were most enlightening.

During Vietnam Alex flew on C-47s and EC-47s in a“Rescue Squadron” to pick up downed aircrew. Thelandings were made on unimproved fields and if neededfour Jato bottles were attached to the aircraft to get itairborne with it valuable cargo! These missions usuallyran some 6-7 hours in length. His ferry flight of a C-47 with a 500 gallon ferry fuel tank from the East Coastto Saigon via Alaska, Wake, Midway and Guam is astory by itself!

In-between all this during the 1960s, Alex was involveddeeply with the 12 flight Gemini program which wasthe two man orbital missions between Mercury andApollo at Cape Canaveral.

Somewhere during all this work he managed to acquirea BS degree in Electrical engineering fromNorthwestern University and a MS degree from theAir Force Institute of Technology at Wright PattersonAFB, Ohio.

March Chapter Notes:“Williamsburg Eagles”

The March Meeting of the Williamsburg Chapter wastreated to a great story of the first and only commercialcharter passengerflight around theworld that wentover both the Northand South Poles.

Chapter MemberHal Neff in 1967was Chief Pilot forModern Air acharter companybased in Miamiflying Convair990s! This trip wasarranged to raisemoney to build theRichard E. ByrdPolar Center, a museum, in Boston.

The Convair 990 was built to carry 150 fare payingpassengers, cruising at .91 mach. It was pushed byfour GE CG-805 aft fan engines. The basic enginewas similar to the J-79 and was a smoker then. Landingspeed was about 156 kts and this plane was the onlyone that had an anti skid braking system on the nosegear. Hummm? Only 37 Convair 990s were built.

The trip was from November 8, 1968 thru December3, 1968. For a mere $25,000 per passenger (in 1968dollars), this plane was reconfigured to carry 67 folksin 1st class passenger seats.

The first leg of route took these folks from Boston, toThule, where it was found out that a tire had shed it

Alex is supposed to be retired however he currentlyvolunteers on the Board of the Community ServicesCoalition.

Thank you very much Alex for your outstandingpresentation!

Hal Neff

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tread coming out of Boston causing some electricalproblems and an unsafe gear down and lockedindication that necessitated repairs prior to continuing.

The next legs were over the North Pole, Anchorage,AK, Tokyo, Manila, Darwin, Sydney, Auckland,Christchurch, McMurdo (landing on the ice-the runwayat McMurdo was aligned with red 55 gallon drumsthat had to be changed periodically due to walrusesbreaking thru the ice), then over the South Pole, RioGallegos, Argentina, Rio De Janiero, Manaus, BZ,Dakar (where a oil consuming engine was changed),Rome, Copenhagen, London, Moscow, then backhome to Boston.

This trip took 28 days, amassing 80 flight hours and22 legs. The Polar Center for which the flight wasarranged to raise money for never was built!

This would have been the trip of a life time. Can youimagine the cost today to do this??

Hal’s graphics were great and really added to thepresentation. We were most fortunate to have heardof this trip. Thanks a lot Hal for sharing your experiencewith us!

Remember to sendin your Renewals!Add your spouse for only $15

more at each level!

Support TheSupport TheSupport TheSupport TheSupport TheSocietySocietySocietySocietySociety

Support the VAHS…. Buy aSupport the VAHS…. Buy aSupport the VAHS…. Buy aSupport the VAHS…. Buy aSupport the VAHS…. Buy aT-shirt or a Polo shirt withT-shirt or a Polo shirt withT-shirt or a Polo shirt withT-shirt or a Polo shirt withT-shirt or a Polo shirt withthe VAHS logo on it….the VAHS logo on it….the VAHS logo on it….the VAHS logo on it….the VAHS logo on it….

t-shirt: $5.00t-shirt: $5.00t-shirt: $5.00t-shirt: $5.00t-shirt: $5.00polo shirt: $10.00polo shirt: $10.00polo shirt: $10.00polo shirt: $10.00polo shirt: $10.00

Contact: Jen Melton,Contact: Jen Melton,Contact: Jen Melton,Contact: Jen Melton,Contact: Jen Melton,(804) 222-8690 or e-mail:(804) 222-8690 or e-mail:(804) 222-8690 or e-mail:(804) 222-8690 or e-mail:(804) 222-8690 or e-mail:vahs@smv.orgvahs@smv.orgvahs@smv.orgvahs@smv.orgvahs@smv.org

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Virginia Aeronautical Historical Society

Auction andSociety Social

Saturday, April 19, 20085:30-9:00 p.m.

Virginia Aviation Museum

Lots of wonderful Auction Items!

A Fun time!!!

Lots of Door Prizes!Lots of Door Prizes!Lots of Door Prizes!Lots of Door Prizes!Lots of Door Prizes!

Open Bar and Cocktail ReceptionTickets are $15.00

Call Jennifer Melton at (804) 222-8690 or email her at vahs@smv.org topurchase tickets or donate items.

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F-14 Tomcat SymposiumThe Virginia Aviation Museum at the Richmond International Airport is the proud custodian of F-14D

(buno 164346). In keeping with the museum director’s policy of bringing the real life history of the museumsvaried inventory to the public’s awareness he will conduct a symposium on the Tomcat on May 3, 2008.

The format is a one-day affair with both morning and afternoon presentations. The morning sessionwill consist of a presentation on the basic history of the development of the F-14—why and how it wasdesigned— followed by a moderator- led panel of pilots, RIOs, maintenance personnel and possibly someonefrom Grumman who will talk about their training and the basic features of the Tomcat. The afternoon sessionwill follow similar format but having a F-14 test pilot/engineer talk about the flight testing the F-14 followed bythe second panel who will expand upon their personal experiences flying and maintaining the Tomcat operationally.

Generally, the program starts at 10 a.m. and is over by 4 p.m. with time for an onsite luncheon for theparticipants. The history and flight testing presentations will be about 1-hour each and the panel discussionswill be about 1:15-hour each and include time for questions. There will also be time for “walk-around tours”of the Museum’s F-14D. The Museum has 35mm projectors, overhead projectors, and LCD projectionequipment for video, DVD, and PowerPoint presentations.

Former members of the F-14 community that live in the eastern Virginia area from DC to VirginiaBeach are invited to take part in the symposium as both participants and general audience. It will be anopportunity for old Tomcatters to gather for some good old camaraderie.

In fact, if you have access to flight transportation such as T-34Cs or private aircraft, you can land atRIC and park at Richmond Jet Center, which is only a few minutes walk from the Museum—or call and we’llpick you up.

If you are interested in serving as a moderator, a panel member or just an attendee please contact Mr.Mike Boehme, Director, Virginia Aviation Museum at 804-236-3622 or mboehme@smv.org.

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Virginia Aviation History Project

* * * * *Lighting the Night for Virginia Airways

by Linda Burdette, Feature Article Editor

It began with a casual conversation while traveling around Virginia in the quest to complete the Virginia AviationAmbassador program. While visiting the Lawrenceville-Brunswick Airport, I mentioned that I wrote articlesfor the Virginia Aeronautical Historical Society. Eyes immediately lit up. “Did you know there was a beaconnear here years ago to guide pilots? Back then there weren’t any navigational aids and the pilots followed atrail of rotating beacons. Yeah, one of them was just off the airport here.” Well, interest piqued, I had to findout more about these beacons.

Today’s aircraft find their way by using airways and their ground-based navigational systems based on thedevelopment of the VOR, DME, and ILS since World War Two. Today’s airways, though, trace their roots toa time before radio.

On May 15, 1918, the U.S. Post Office began the new and innovative service of air mail. President and Mrs.Woodrow Wilson, Assistant Navy Secretary Franklin D. Roosevelt , the Postmaster, and Members of Congresswere all present to witness the event. Pilots selected for the initial run included Lieutenants Howard P. Culver,Torrey H. Webb, George L. Boyle, and James C. Edgerton. The two former were accomplished pilots, butalthough Boyle and Edgerton had completed pilot school, they had barely flown.

President Wilson signed a letter carrying the first airmail stamp to be auctioned for charity when it arrived inNew York. Boyle was handed a map showing the route from Union Station in Washington, north to Philadelphia128 miles away and told to follow the railroad tracks. At 10:45 a.m., Boyle tried to start the plane’s engine—three times. The crowd laughed as mechanics ran for gas, realizing that the aircraft had not been fueled.

Boyle took off 45 minutes late. He carried 3,300 letters weighing 140 pounds and barely cleared the trees.Boyle circled, then flew away—but to the south. Just 24 miles away, on a farm near Waldorf, Maryland, Boylelanded and flipped over. He was unhurt, but his mail had to be unloaded and put onto a train to Philadelphia.

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The other pilots had better luck at navigation. Lieutenant Webb took off at 11:30 a.m. from Belmont Park inNew York and arrived at 12:40 p.m. in Philadelphia. Webb handed Lieutenant Edgerton 150 pounds of mail.Edgerton took off andlanded in Washington at2:30 p.m. to a small butcheering crowd.

However, LieutenantBoyle’s experienceproved prophetic.Navigation became theAchilles’ heel of air mail.Maps showed large citiesbut no elevations orlandmarks. Mail planes ofthe day normally cameequipped with a compass,a turn-and-bankindicator, and an altimeter.Pilots were oftenskeptical of theirinstruments and wouldonly fly along a well-known route. In thosedays, maps printed forother applications provided the only source of navigation information and the first airmail pilots flew cross-country by following railroad tracks and jotting down notes, describing routes between airfields. This systemworked adequately, of course, when the weather was clear and the sun was out. Weather and night flying,however, posed different problems and it didn’t take long for the Post Office to understand that a system hadto be developed to allow flight in all types of conditions.

Paul Henderson, who became the Second Assistant Postmaster General in 1922, believed that Air Mail wouldbecome profitable only when it became a round-the-clock operation. He knew that in 1919, U.S. Army AirService Lieutenant Donald L. Bruner began using bonfires and the first artificial beacons to help with nightnavigation. In February 1921, an airmail pilot named Jack Knight put this to the test with his all-night flight toChicago from North Platte, Nebraska. Knight found his way across the black prairie with the help of bonfireslit by Post Office staff, farmers, and the public.

Henderson saw what was needed. “An airway exists on the ground, not in the air”. He pressed his requests forthe development of a system using rotating light beacons for the Air Mail routes. Congress, in 1923, approvedfunding for the lighting of the Transcontinental Air Mail Route designed to link the east and west coasts. Workstarted immediately on the Cheyenne to Chicago segment. Being in the middle of the nation, flights starting atdaybreak on the coasts would be able to fly to either end of the lighted segment before dusk. Other plannedroutes soon followed, including one from New York to Washington, and eventually to Atlanta.

On July 1, 1924, postal authorities began regularly scheduled night operations over parts of this route. By1927, the Post Office, under the Air Commerce Act, transferred 4,121 miles of lighted airways to the Department

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of Commerce, including 2,041 miles on the transcontinental route. The airways contained 719 airway beaconsand 124 intermediate (emergency) fields, each with beacons and airfield lighting. By 1933, the Federal AirwaySystem operated by the Airways Division comprised 18,000 miles of lighted airways containing 1,550 rotatingbeacons and 236 intermediate landing fields. Air Mail pilots routinely navigated the skies during the night,following the “signposts” of the rotating beacons.

This was the first ground based civilian navigation system in the world. High-intensity beacons were establishedapproximately 10 miles apart along these civil airways. Intermediate landing fields provided every 30 milesalong these routes, in the absence of suitable commercial or municipal fields, were equipped with beacon,boundary, approach, obstruction, and wind-cone lights.

Night or day, from elevated platforms, a 24 inch searchlight rotating at 6 rpm, containing a 1000 watt lamp,swept the sky. At the top of a 51-foot steel tower, the beacon consisted of a 24-inch parabolic mirror and a110-volt, 1000 watt lamp. The beacons, rotating at 6 rpm, showed a one-million candlepower flash every 10seconds for 1/10th second duration. The beam from the airways beacon, aimed 1.5° above the horizon, wasa high-intensity pencil of light of about 5-degree beam width visible 20 to 40 miles in clear weather. A smallpercentage of the beacon’s light was reflected upward to provide close-range visibility.

Two course lights were mounted on the tower just below each searchlight; one pointed forward along theairway and the other pointed backward. These 500-watt searchlights gave a 15 degree horizontal beam width.

The course lights were fitted with either red or green lenses. Every third beacon had green course lightssignifying that it was on an intermediate landing field. Thus the pilot knew at a long range the availability oflanding fields. (This is the forerunner of today’s airport rotating beacons which alternately flash green andwhite.) All other beacons had red course lights.

As the mechanism revolved and the clear flash of the beacon passed from the pilot’s vision, the red or greenflash of the course light came into view. Course lights flashed coded dot-dash signals to indicate the beacon’sposition on the airway. Code signals ran from 0 to 9; thus, if a pilot received a signal for the number 4, he knewhe was flying over the fourth beacon of a particular 100-mile stretch of airway. But he could not determine hisprecise position merely by receiving a course-light signal if he did not know independently over which 100-milestretch he was flying.

Letters designated the airways, the first letters of their terminal cities. The order of the letters was establishedas south to north and west to east. Thus Omaha to Chicago was Airway O-C. LA-SF defined the Los Angelesto San Francisco airway, and so forth.Regular maintenance of the airway beacons and intermediate fields was crucial. This duty was entrusted toAirway Caretakers. Daily they climbed the steel towers to check every beacon within their territory, cleaneddirty lenses, replaced burned-out bulbs, etc. Repair problems requiring more expertise or equipment and toolsnot locally available were referred to “mechanicians,” who serviced a 175-mile route with a half-ton pickuptruck.

Caretakers at intermediate fields were on duty from 6:00 pm to 6:00 am. If a pilot “dropped” in to one of theseemergency fields, caretakers were expected to provide transportation to and from town, furnish them withmeals, and assist in repairing their aircraft.

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The beacons were also built to aid daytime navigation. Each tower was built on an arrow shaped concrete slabthat was painted yellow. The arrow pointed to the next higher numbered beacon. An equipment/generator shednext to the tower had the beacon number and other information painted on the roof.

Because of this effort, by the mid-1920s the Postal Service was able to focus on safety and reliability as wellas on expanding operations. It established minimum lighting requirements for all airmail stations: a 500-wattrevolving searchlight, projecting a beam parallel to the ground to guide pilots; another searchlight projectinginto the wind to show the proper approach; and aircraft wingtip flares for forced landings. It also prescribedthat all landing fields should be at least 2,000 feet by 1,500 feet to allow plenty of room for landings. As a finalsafety device, the requirement for a searchlight to be mounted on airmail airplanes was appended to the PostOffice’s set of requirements.

In October 1931, D. C. Young of the Airways Lighting Sub-Committee recapped the progress of lightedairways at a lighting conference in Pittsburgh, Pa.

“Ten years ago, a scheduled night flight by airplane across the United States was only a dream. Now, suchflights occur nightly, and on scheduled time. The converting of this hazardous journey into one of comparativesafety ... is the achievement of constructing aerial highways for the airman.

However, just as the last of the light beacons was being put in service, the introduction of the first low frequency(low hundreds of kilocycles) radio range stations began. The Bureau of Standards had begun to work on two-way technology in December 1926 at its experimental station in College Park, Maryland. By 1928, they haddeveloped a radio navigation beacon system, and in 1929 the Aeronautics Branch standardized a four-courseradio range whereby pilots listened to audio signals to determine if they were on course. In September 1929,Army Lt. James H. Doolittle became the first pilot to use only aircraft instrument guidance to take off, fly a setcourse, and land. He used the four-course radio range and radio marker beacons to indicate his distance fromthe runway. An altimeter displayed his altitude, and a directional gyroscope with artificial horizon helped himcontrol his aircraft’s attitude, without seeing the ground. Following this, the Aeronautics Branch stepped upinstallation of four-course radio ranges, and this technology became standard for civil air navigation throughWorld War II.

But the light beacons had left an important legacy. They had established the concept of airways in the sky.

And Virginia?

Well, we know that one of the air mail routes went from Washington to Richmond to Atlanta, Georgia, andfrom there mail could be carried along unlighted routes to both Mobile, Alabama, and to Miami, Florida. Thebeacon at the Lawrenceville-Brunswick Airport was doubtless part of that system. Another one was atStudley, in Hanover County, just north of Richmond. Beacon Field in Alexandria was also part of it, owing itsname to the program. The beacon was installed in the 1920’s on land owned by W.F.P. Reid and the airportfollowed, obtaining a license on April 11, 1932.

And a very tangible part of that history can be seen at the Virginia Aviation Museum. The 1927 Pitcairn PA-5 Mailwing on display has seen many of the beacons while flying air mail. When flying the mail became opento private contractors in 1926, Pitcairn Airways of Byrn Athyn, Pa., was one of the first to be granted aContract Air Mail route. Flying the mail from New York to Atlanta to Miami, the company later becameEastern Air Transport, forerunner to Eastern Airlines. The company selected Richmond’s Byrd Field as a

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center base for its two divisions - Hadley, N.J., to Richmond and Richmond to Atlanta. Aircraft flying thenorthern route were equipped with radio as an experimental program; those flying the southern route to Atlantahad nothing but the airway beacons.

The Centennial of Flight web site includes a map of the U.S. showing the routes in 1927, and the Virginia routeis clearly shown, although it gives no details of the specific locations of the beacons in Virginia. The search goeson for a detailed map with all the Virginia beacons identified.

Sources:

Virginia Aviation Museum

Columbia University, http://www.fathom.com/course/10701016/session1.htmlEarly Contributions to Aviation, Oral History Research Office

FAA History, The Early Years, History written by John Schamel; http://www.atchistory.org/History/faa.htm

The Development of Night Navigation in the U.S., John Schamel

Beacon Field Airport, Airport History, http://beaconfieldairport.com/beaconfield.html

U.S. Centennial of Flight Commission, The Evolution of Airway Lights and Electronic Navigation Aids

Aviation Records - Improvements in Design bring Speed and Endurance Records, 1929-1931, TheTriumph of Instrument Flight, Copyright 2007 Franklyn E. Dailey Jr.

* * * * *Help Wanted (Needed!)

For some time I have had research put on hiatus for a book about the Virginia Air National Guard. I’d like tofinish the project. I would like to talk to anyone who might be able to provide their insights into the Guard.

One thing I am very concerned about getting is a list of serial numbers of all aircraft flown by the unit. Anyonewith details such as this would be of great help. I have so far documented about 250 individual aircraft. Mybiggest gap is in the B-26 and F-84 eras as well as all aircraft of the utility unit.

If anyone is interested in seeing some of my work, I have a website which features a portion of my information.I have purposely locked out the 149th History portions to save for the book. The pages begin at http://www.caiella.org/BasePages/Aviation/192FW.html.

Thank you for any help you can provide.

Sincerely,Jim Caiella(804) 741-0656 - home (410) 295-1066 - work

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* * * * *From The Mountains To The Sea

By William M. Davenport, VAHS Hall of Fame Member

In the 1930s Gordonsville, Virginia had a total population of about 375 people. The town built one of the firstmunicipal airports in Virginia. The airport is located just north of town at the foot of the Southwest MountainRange.

How could a kid from a small mountain town learn to fly and eventually fly giant flying boats?

JUST LUCKY I GUESS.

When the airport opened and I started flying there, I started doing odd jobs to earn flight time. When Igraduated from high school, the University of Virginia hired me as a flight instructor. From there I went to anArmy flight school as a flight instructor, teaching in Stearman airplanes. I taught many hours of aerobics.

The US Navy offered me a commission and I jumped at the chance. The flight school at Pensacola was veryeasy. They only gave me 24 hours of flight training and pinned Navy Wings on my uniform. I thought that wasvery foolish until I received my permanent orders. My orders were to report to a primary flight school as aninstructor. I had been doing this for the Army as a civilian, now I was doing this for the Navy.

I told my flying friends that I was going to talk with the admiral, who was the top ranking officer there. Theysaid, “Are you crazy – you can’t do that!” I said, “Watch me!”

The Wave secretary told the Admiral that I wanted to speak with him and he invited me in. “What is it that youwant to talk with me about, Ensign,” he asked. I told him my history about instructing for the Army and I feltthat it was unfair that I had been assigned instructing in the Yellow Pearl.

“What is it you want,” he asked. “I want to fly a single winger with four fans on it,” I replied. He leaned wayback in his chair with a great big laugh. I had touched his funny bone! “What you need is to be in the Naval AirTransport Service.” He called in his secretary and dictated a new set of orders. He said he was sending me toAtlanta to the top Instrument Flight School because I would be called on to fly in all kinds of weather. In myorders after completing the instrument training I reported to VR-6 at Dinner Key Florida.

I worked very hard on my instrument training. I could hardly believe that I was getting this wonderful trainingand it was free. If there was an opening in the Link simulators I took advantage of it. I think that I flew thesimulators about 65 hours. We were flying the Twin Beechcraft.

When I completed the training in Atlanta, my 1941 Ford convertible was pointed at Miami. I was told that iswhere I would find Dinner Key. On my arrival, I was surprised. It was Pan American’s seaplane base.

With luck I found a cute little house in Coconut Grove, very close to Dinner Key. Quite a few friends weremade and I enjoyed the area very much.

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Dinner Key is very close to downtown Miami at Coconut Grove. The seaplane ramps were used by PanAmerican Airlines to fly their flights south. Their airplanes were very old and most interesting looking. TheCoast Guard was also flying from there, using the OSTU single engine seaplanes to patrol the coast. TheOSTU would run forever trying to get off the water. I think that they were heavily loaded with gasoline for theirlong patrol flights. We didn’t have a hangar for our airplanes and all of the maintenance was done out on theramps. This was not very satisfactory and very soon a beautiful hangar was built. The hangar is now used bythe city of Miami as a civic center.

We were flying the Martin Mariner PB-M. The PB-M is a large twin engine airplane that can only land andtake off in the water. For this reason we could land on the rivers in the middle of cities in South America andserve the islands that didn’t have runways for the land planes. We improved the Pan American launching

ramps and the area where weparked the airplanes out of thewater because our airplanes weremuch heavier and we neededmore room.

On my first flight, I could tell thatthe Flight Commander had toomuch to drink the night before.He scared the HELL out of me.We had flown out past Nassauto Great Exuma. On the wayback as we got close to Miami,we got into a heavy thunderstorm.Instead of staying at our assignedaltitude, he dropped down veryclose to the water. At that altitudein the heavy rain we couldn’t see

anything in front of us. I thought that we would see the buildings in Miami just about the time that we hit them.We were very lucky. The rain let up when we were about a mile offshore, looking straight at the city. Welanded safely.

I immediately went to the training officer and told him that I wanted to be checked out as a Flight Commanderso that I could be in command of the airplane that I flew. I was reminded that I had only been in the squadrona week and that he wouldn’t consider anyone unless they had at least 1000 hours flight time. I rushed home,picked up my logbook and took it to him for his inspection. He was completely surprised by the amount offlight time I had. The training officer noticed the amount of instructing that I had been doing. He wanted me toteach the other pilots. I was put through a very vigorous ground school and flight training. This put me inposition as instructor for the squadron. I am very glad that I did because I think that teaching other pilots mademe much more confident and at ease in the seaplane. I may have learned more than they did. When a pilot wastrained and ready to fly the scheduled runs, I flew with him until the squadron was satisfied that he was up to thetask. Flying the scheduled runs was very enjoyable. We flew to Cuba, San Juan, and Puerto Rico downthrough the islands and landed at Guadeloupe, Martinique and Trinidad. From there we flew down the coastof South America. We landed at Georgetown, Guyana and then down to Belem and Natal, Brazil. We hadother flights to Key West, Kingston, Jamaica and to the Panama Canal.

Martin Mariner PB-M

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On one of the flights coming back from Natal, we were in Belem, Brazil where the Amazon River empties intothe South Atlantic. My airplane was on the ramp ready to be launched for our flight back to Miami. One of theother PB-Ms in our squadron had just taxied out to take off. I noticed that the plane was sitting pretty deep inthe water. My copilot suggested that they sit deeper because they are in fresh water. That seemed logical until,all of a sudden, they came back to the ramp as fast as they could. They didn’t quite make it and the airplanestarted scraping on its bottom. They had hit something in the river, tearing a hole in the hull. THEY WERESINKING. They were stuck in the mud. We sent small boats out and brought everyone ashore. The tide wascoming in and everything was unloaded. Pumps were sent out to get her floating again with no luck. The tidecame in and took its toll.

When the tide went out pumps were started again and this time she floated. The beaching gear was attachedand the airplane was brought up the ramp onto dry land.

There wasn’t any way to repair the airplane there because there weren’t any mechanics with proper tools. Asluck would have it, there was a Pan American mechanic there who was wise to the ways of fixing things withouttools. He said he will fix the hull so that it would be watertight and it could be flown back to Miami. We allthought he was crazy until he went to work. To our surprise he found the rip in the bottom and isolated it. Hethen poured concrete into the compartment. The concrete hardened and the airplane was stronger than new.The pilots and crew flew it back to Miami without any trouble. The hull was repaired and the airplane was putback into service.

On one of the flights to Natal I was told to be on the lookout for an Army B-24. The B-24 was a four enginebomber that was on a ferry flight from the US to Africa via Natal and across the South Atlantic. The bomberhad gone down in the jungle near the Amazon River. I looked for it but saw nothing.

When I returned to the United States I learned that I had been looking for my close friend, Duke Drum. Dukecame to Gordonsville to fly for Graham Cameron and soloed me. I was very close to Duke and it worried mevery much knowing that his plane had crashed in the jungles of South America.

I later learned that there was a gas leak and the plane was on fire. The entire crew had jumped out as close aspossible to each other so they would be close when they landed in the trees. They all got down safely. The bigquestion for them was what to do to survive.

The only thing they had was the clothes on their backs. They were in the jungle without food, shelter, transportationand no way to communicate with a search party if there was one. They knew they were in grave danger andwere very grateful that no one was injured during the parachute jump. After a few days of fear a nativestumbled upon them. He was afraid of them and they were afraid of him. Using sign language, they explainedthat they had been in the big birds he had seen flying over. He realized that they had not come to harm him andstarted teaching them how to survive in the jungle. He showed them what they could eat and helped them builda bamboo raft with a small shelter on it.

They were all set. He helped them launch their new home and waved good-bye for their long journey downthe Amazon River to civilization. Duke and his crew floated down the river arriving in Belem in about ten daysin very good health and very happy. Duke was very interested in Civil War history, and became a historyprofessor at Washington and Lee University. After he retired he moved to the Charlottesville area where helived until his death a few years ago.

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Back at Dinner Key we began flying the Martin Mariners at night. This was a new experience. Flying aseaplane off the water at night is very difficult. The water is black and if you use the landing lights there is a lotof glare that will confuse you. Landing on the water at night is like being in a coal bin with the lights off and thedoor closed. That’s dark! The training was very intense. I felt that a big change was on the way. The changecame and I was transferred to Naval Air Transport Squadron VR-2. VR-2 was located in Oakland, Californiaacross the foggy bay from San Francisco. The seaplanes were the giant four-engine Coronado PB2Y3R. Ourflights were all over the Pacific to Manila and in the South Pacific near Australia.

When I arrived at VR-2 they checked my background and found that I was checked out in the PBM MartinMariner. There was a PBM there that was to be delivered to Honolulu. Guess who was given that job! Verylarge extra fuel tanks were installed in the bombays behind each engine for the long 16 to 18 hour flight. Thismade the plane very heavy. The crew was one other pilot, a navigator, a radioman and a flight engineer. (Alsoa few sandwiches). We knew that if an engine failed, the airplane would not be able to stay in the air.

Knowing that there were no navigational aids along the long over-water flight, we elected to take off in theafternoon so that we would have the stars all night to navigate by. We would then arrive in Honolulu in daylight.I am glad we made that choice.

We were tired, sleepy and hungry when we spotted those beautiful islands. We flew over the island to a Navybase on the north side of Honolulu and circled the landing area. BANG! BANG! THE AIRPLANE SHOOKVIOLENTLY! All of a sudden gasoline started flowing down inside the airplane. The fumes were choking usand our eyes were hurting. We immediately cut off the electrical power and cut off the gasoline to the engines.We were very afraid that we would explode any minute. We landed with no engine or electrical power. Justas soon as we got on the water we climbed out and went out on the wing tip. One of the extra fuel tanks hadbroken loose and was hanging down. There was gasoline all over the water. The crash boat came out and weyelled not to come close because he may set the gasoline on fire. He stayed upwind from us and put a floatcushion on a rope and let it float down to us. We tied the rope to the airplane and he pulled us away from thegasoline that was on the water.

We were then able to get aboard the crash boat. WHAT A RELIEF TO PUT OUR FEET ON SOLIDEARTH. If this had happened anywhere else along our flight I don’t think that I would be here. When we gotback to Alameda I was checked out in the PB2Y3R Flying Boat. I hope to have an article that I wrote aboutthe Coronado published in the Virginia Eagle soon.

* * * * *Engineering Test Pilot

The Exceptional Career of John P. “Jack”Reeder

byMark Chambers

Read about the Virginia Aviation Hall of Fame’s 2005 Inductee John P. “Jack”Reeder’s career as a test pilot at NACA/NASA. To order your copy, contactJen Melton at (804) 222-8690 or vahs@smv.org. $20 plus tax and shipping.

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The following was submitted by Luther Gore, an esteemed member of VAHS with the wonderful trait ofbeing able to laugh at himself:

ONE WET PASSENGER

Back in the 1980’s I was a practicing aviation artist who went to air shows on the East Coast, selling mypaintings and getting a few commissions from owners and pilots. I think it was at an air show in Greensboro,NC where I sold a painting of a WACO 9 to the owner, a man who lived in Kaiser, WV (sorry, I can’tremember his name.) As part of the deal, I was to get a free ride in the old bird. I was thrilled!

I’ll never forget the sensation of sitting in that forward cockpit, while the prop churned us through the air in aslow and comfortable ride around the pattern.

You may remember that the radiator for the WACO 9 sat pretty much right above the forward cockpit. Well,we made a fairly rough landing, and the bounce sent all the condensation on the outside of the radiator into mylap. Judge William Spain, who knew me by name, had been watching the flight and came over to the airplaneand up to the cockpit where I was just getting over the side. He looked at me and said in a loud voice: “Well,Luther, that was a kind of rough landing, I know, but you didn’t need to wet yourself!”

Everyone but me got a good laugh out of that.

VIRGINIA AIRPORTS Vera Foster Rollo & Norman L. Crabill. THE most in-depth historical survey ofour Virginia airports, aeronautical events, and the people that make it happen, from the earliest days of aviationin the Old Dominion. Extensively researched and detailed with many never-before-seen aerial maps of air-ports from the beautiful Shenandoah Valley to the Tidewater area of Virginia. 8 1/2 by 11 paperback. 244pages and is packed with b/w photos and illustrations. It can be purchased from the publisher for $25 percopy (U.S.) which includes shipping and handling. Order at Virginia Aeronautical Historical Society, 5701Huntsman Road, Richmond, Virginia 23250-2416 or call (804)222-8690 or email vahs@smv.org.

* * * * *

Get Your Copy Now!

26

Mystery Plane Contest

Well the results are in and again I failed to stump the membership. Casey Bland was the first one inidentifying the December mystery plane as the Fleetwing XBTK-1. Bill Byrd and Jim Rodgers also turned incorrect answers but unfortunately too late. Casey will receive a free one year membership to the VAHS.

This aircraft was one of 5 prototypes built by Fleetwing as part of the Navy competition that subsequentlyspawned the famous Douglas Skyraider. You can see it was up against some serious competition. Poweredwith a PW 2800-34W and developing 2100hp it was quite a robust machine.

This issue we are going to try something different. Since I’m not sliding anything by the experts outthere how about we post an easy mystery plane and let everyone join in the fun. It will become a race to seewho can get to the phone or email fastest.

When you think you have an answer reach me at 757-258-8875 or sbill@wans.net. Good hunting.

Bill SchultzMystery Plane Editor

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Non-Profit OrganizationUS Postage PAIDRichmond, Va. 23232Permit No. 120

Virginia Aeronautical Historical Society5701 Huntsman RoadRichmond International Airport, Virginia 23250-2416

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