Cessna L-19 Bird Dog

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Sniffi ng out the enemyfrom 1,000 feet agl

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n August 1949, Cessna Aircraft Company learned

that the U.S. Army wanted a new. all-metal liaison

airplane to replace its aging and shrinking fleet of

fabric-covered Piper L-4 Grasshoppers and Stin­

son L-5 Sentinels. The Army planned to evaluate

all competing aircraft during a "fly-off" at Wright

Field in Dayton. Ohio. the following April.

PHOTOGRAPHY BY MIKE FIZER

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Cobb spent a year restoring the 4,400-hourairplane, and emblazoned it with theshark-mouth paint scheme used bythe 19th Tactical Air Support Squadron.

Stenciling identifiesthis airplane as anAir Force Q-1E with

military serial number56-2534 (oppositepage, lower left). Thepilot's window can liftopen in flight at up to120 mph (right). Each

wing of a Bird Dogcan carry four smokerockets, and this leftwing (below right) has

two dummy rocketsand a vacant hard point(weapon station). Aninsignia for the 7th(Pacific) Air Force isaffixed to each side of

this Bird Dog's verticalfin (below left).

With so little time available to developan entirely new airplane, Cessna beganwork by mating the tail of a Cessna 195and the wings of a Cessna 170B with anewly designed fuselage. The effort wasparticularly challenging because one ofthe military specifications required thatthe airplane be capable of taking off andlanding over a 50-foot obstacle in lessthan 600 feet at its maximum-allow­

able gross weight. The prototype wasbuilt in 90 days; made its first flight onDecember 14,1949; and handily won thecompetition against entries from Piper,Taylorcraft, and Temco.

Two months later, on June 25, 1950,the North Korean Army crossed theThirty-Eighth Parallel. Suddenly, therewas a greatly increased need for Cessna'sModel 305, which became better knownas the L-19 Bird Dog-an apt namebecause of how well it enabled pilots

and their rear-seat observers to search

for and locate enemy ground positions.Once found, such targets were identifiedand their locations radioed to those whowould respond with an air assault, artil­lery, or ground troops.

When enemy ground troops spotted aBird Dog flying low and overhead, it gavethem good reason to believe that some­thing bad might soon happen. Althoughthe L-19's slow speed made it vulner­able to ground fire, enemy soldiers oftenwould not shoot at one for fear of reveal­ing their position.

In 1962 and during America's earlyinvolvement in Vietnam, the Depart­ment of Defense standardized aircraftdesignations, and the 1.-19 (Lfor liaison)suddenly became the 0-1 (0 for obser­vation). During the Vietnam conflict,enemy targets were marked by firingwhite-phosphorous smoke rockets at

them. These burst on impact and gen­erated intense white clouds that werevisible for miles.

There are endless war stories involv­

ing the venerable Bird Dog. One of themost fascinating involves Maj. Bung-Ly,a South Vietnamese Air Force pilot whocrammed his wife and five children into

a Bird Dog on April 29, 1975, to escapethe North Vietnamese takeover of SouthVietnam. They took off from Con SonIsland, skirted enemy ground fire, andheaded into the Gulf ofThailand with the

hope of finding a rescue ship rumoredto be somewhere out there. After a longoverwater flight and running low on fuel,Bung-Ly finally spotted USS Midway, itsflight deck jam-packed with helicopters.He circled the ship a few times and thenflew low over the deck to drop a notewritten on a chart. It pleaded for somehelicopters to be moved so that there

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When enemy ground troops spotted aBird Dog flying low and overhead, it gavethem good reason to believe somethingbad might soon happen.

would be room for him to land. The

Midway's captain, L.c. Chambers, didnot believe that the seven occupants ofthe Bird Dog could survive a ditching inthe rough sea, so he ordered $10 millionworth of I luey and Chinook helicoptersscuttled overboard to allow 13ung-Lyandhis family a shot at landing on the rain­soaked, windswept flight deck. Bird Dog51-4981 is now in the U.S. Naval AviationMuseum in Pensacola, Florida, and theBung-Lyfamily, sponsored by the crew ofthe Midway, lives not far away.

The pristine Bird Dog shown on thesepages is owned by Troy Cobb, a retiredbusinessman and 2,OOO-hour pilot. Aself-declared "history nut," he very muchwanted to buy a warbird but discoveredthat most were too expensive for him toown and maintain. "The Cessna Bird Dogis ideal," he says. "It is both affordableand fun, and I enjoy flying low and slow.The really good news is that the airplaneis FAA-certified in the Normal category."

He purchased N62534 (military num­ber 56-2534) as a restoration project in2005. The 1956 airplane had originallybeen based at Fort Riley, Kansas, asan Army reconnaissance airplane andwound up as a floatplane in Alaska. Itnever saw duty outside the United States.Cobb spent a year restoring the 4,400­hour airplane, and emblazoned it withthe shark-mouth paint scheme used bythe 19th Tactical Air Support Squadronthat was based at the Bien Hoa Air Basenear Saigon.

Cobb's Bird Dog was finished in timeto be flown to Sun 'n Fun in 2006 where

it earned the title of Grand Champion inthe category of post -World War [) war­birds. You have to see this airplane toappreciate his attention to detail. Theunder-wing hardpoints on Cobb's air­plane contain dummy marking rocketsthat look like the real thing. The whiterectangle on the fuselage aft of the cabindoor was used to write in grease pencilthe specific weaponry \vith which the air­craft had been armed for any given flight.Cobb estimates that his airplane is worthabout $160,000, but most L-19s sell forbetween $60,000 and $150,000.

Some Cessna engineers thought dur­ing the "patchwork" design process that

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the Modcl305 would be an ugly airplane,it turned out not to be. Almost all who

fly the Bird Dog regard it as lovable, anadjective taken perhaps from the title ofMinard D.Thompson Jr.'sdefinitive bookabout the L-19, The Lovable One-Niner.

It takes some effort to haul one's selfinto the pilot's seat, and serious con­torting is required to climb into therear "observer's" seat. Once inside, youare surrounded by military feel andambiance. The throttle, mixture, andcarburetor-heat controls are clustered

in a military-style quadrant on the leftsidewall. The only cockpit features thatremind me that the Bird Dog is a Cessnaare the float-type fuel gauges in the wingroots. These are identical to the gaugesfound in other Cessna singles of that era.

The control stick in the rear cockpitis noticeably taller than the one in front.This presumably is to provide the flightinstructor with additional leverage tooverpower a student manhandling thecontrols. The rear stick is easily remov­able, and the rear rudder pedals can befolded flat and out of the way to give anobserver plenty of room t9 move around.

Although the flaps are extended man­ually in early models of the L-19, theyoperate electrically on later models.

A normal Bird Dog takeoff involvesusing 30 degrees of flaps. As the flightcontrols become effective, raise thetail slightly and the airplane leavesthe ground at 55 mph. I prefer insteadto keep the tailwheel on the groundand allow the airplane to levitate in its13-degree, three-point attitude.

Climb rate is almost 1,000 fpm (ormore when lightly loaded). At thetop of climb, however, the Bird Dog'sperformance comes to an end. Cruiseflight is little more than 100 mph. If youhave a need for speed, this airplane is notfor you. The 213-horsepower, six-cylinderContinental 0-470-11 engine swings along, 90-inch, fixed-pitch propeller, butone model, the L-19D, has a constant­speed propeller and, in some cases, asecond instrument panel for a backseatinstrument student.

The L-19's cockpit is roomy andvisibility is as good as it gets in a single­engine airplane. On a warm day, you canopen the upper half of the cabin door,which swings up and out, like the one ona Piper J-3 Cub. This, plus acres of Plexi­glas, help make the Bird Dog an effectiveobservation and reconnaissance aircraft.

An outstanding example of thisoccurred on February 24, 1967, when

The military layout of theolive-drab cockpit (above) isstrictly utilitarian and logical.The map case (far right) is affixedto the forward portion of the door.Most pilots wore fatigues and asurvival vest (right) that includeda hand grenade and a .38-caliberSmith and Wesson revolver.

The armament panel(opposite page, lower left)has a red-guarded arming switchfor each rocket and one for

each hardpoint (weapon station).A chieu hoi (opposite page, topleft) was a "get-out-of-jail-free"card dropped by the thousandsto encourage the Viet Cong tosurrender.

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USAF Capt. Hilliard A.Wilbanks spotteda South Vietnamese hillside pockmarkedwith camouflaged foxholes that could bedetected only by a trained eye flying lowand slow.The Viet Cong lay in wait, hopingto ambush an approaching and unsus­pecting South Vietnamese Ranger unit.With an M-16 rifle as his only weapon,Wilbanks made repeated passes over theVC position in an attempt to disrupt theenemy from springing its trap. Wilbankswas shot down during this engagementand was posthumously awarded the Con­gressional Medal of Honor.

You might recall that the wing flaps onearly models of the Cessna 172 could belowered 40 degrees. Cessna reduced thisto 30 degrees in later models because 40degrees create so much drag that somepilots inadvertently get too low and tooslow during a landing approach. Well, theBird Dog has 60 degrees of slotted flaps,and fully extending them is like openinga pair of barn doors. You get the feelingthat speed brakes have been deployedand the airplane is stopping in midair.You need to be serious about getting thenose down or adding a fistful of throttleto prevent the L-19 from falling out of thesky.Should you really want to come downlike a stone, perform a maximum-effortslip with the flaps fully extended.

Airspeed bleeds rapidly during a land­ing flare into a three-point attitude withfull flaps, so be sure to carry an adequatereserve of airspeed with which to flare.Most Bird Dog pilots land with a flap set­ting of only 30 or 40 degrees. The springlanding gear makes wheel landingschallenging, as it does on single-engineCessna taildraggers with similar landing

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gear. It is ideal, however, for a militaryairplane because of its energy-absorbingcapacity in the event of a botched landingor a forced landing in rough terrain.

The pilot's manual for the L-19 is thor­ough. It states, "In case of an emergencylanding in enemy territory, open all fueldrains and ignite the fuel from a safedistance." In the section labeled, "Pres­surization System," the manual advisesmatter of factly, "The 0-1 aircraft is notequipped with a pressurization system."

Cessna had built 3,395 Bird Dogswhen production ended on January 22,1957, and it provided them to the mili­tary forces of almost every country in theFree World. There currently are about 300L-19s registered in the United States.Although many are owned by warbirdaficionados, others have served in theworkforce as glider tugs and search-and­rescue platforms for the Civil Air Patrol.

In the late 1960s, the Italian armyexpressed a need for an observationairplane with significantly more perfor­mance than its Bird Dogs had. The Italianairframe manufacturer SIAl Marchettiresponded. The result was the SM.1019,which first flew on May 24, 1969. TheItalian reconnaissance airplane has a317-shaft -horsepower Allison 250- B15Gturboprop engine that provides a 150-knot cruise speed at 10,000 feet and aservice ceiling of25,000 feet. The SM.1019is almost four feet longer than the BirdDog and has thicker skin, a beefed-upwing, a larger vertical fin to assist in con­trolling the additional horsepower, and a

separate rear door for the passenger. SW I EMarchetti built about 80 of these aircraft,and 20 to 25 of them are registered in theUnited States. A few are powered by theAllison 250-B17, a 420-shaft horsepowerengine (flat-rated to 350 shaft horse­power) that became available towardthe end of the SM.1019'sproduction run.

The repository now for everythingabout the Bird Dog is the InternationalBird Dog Association (www.ibdaweb.com). It used to publish a magazine titledBowwow, but now the association insteademails to its members a newsletter calledThe Monthly Bark.

Cobb says that beyond the joy of flyinga Bird Dog is the camaraderie with thosewho own and fly this great airplane. "TheL-19 guys are a close-knit group, andform a wonderful circle of friends. I'm

having a hard time getting rid of them,"he says with a wink and a smile. fGJA

Visit the author's website (www.barryschiffcom).

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