Vintage Airplane - Sep 2000

8/12/2019 Vintage Airplane - Sep 2000

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2/36

STRAIGHT AND LEVEL

2 EAA AIRVENTURE 2 VAA AWARDS

3 VAA NEWS

4 AEROMAIL

5 THIRTY FIVE YEARS AT THE OUTER

MARKER Dutch Redfield

9 PASS IT

TO

BUCKl

E E

Buck Hilbert

10

YUKON TREASURE/J

ohn

Underwood

18

YUKON

GOLD/j

ohn

Underwood

22 FORCED LANDING ATTITUDE/

Denis

M

Arbeau

24 MYSTERY PLANE/H.G. Frautschy

27 CALENDAR

28 WELCOME NEW MEMBERS

29 CLASSIFIEDS

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3/36

s

by ESPIE BUTCH

JOYCE

PRESIDENT

,

VINT GE IRCR FT SSOCI TION

NEW AIRVENTURE

D TES

FOR 2 1

Thoughts on Fly-Ins

Following

up

on suggestions made in 1999 and after sur

veying members and volunteers during the past AirVenture, it

has been decided to shift the dates for AirVenture by

one

day,

making it now a Tuesday

through

Monday event. In 2001,

EAA

AirVenture will take place Tuesday, July 24th through

Monda

y,

July

30th.

Based on

the

feedback we received,

the

new schedule should better accommodate volunteers, guests

and vendors.

I'm looking forward to the change in the AirVenture sched

ule. As a member

and

volunteer

who

attends the entire event,

it will make it easier to plan our trip and give us plenty of time

to work our way

home

after AirVenture.

AirVenture 2000 is now part of this past summer 's mem

ories, and we sure had a great time Were you there in

Oshkosh? Lots of fun, a little rain, cool temperatures and

great airplanes and airplane people all

added

up to a won

derful week.

Total attendance was

down

a bit for the event, and there

may have been

a

number

of

reasons.

Gas prices,

and the

weather, while generally good in the upper Midwest, was poor

for some people trying

to

fly in

during

the early part of Air

Venture. Quality seems to be the hallmark of the airplanes that

did make it here in our area and those of the homebuilt, war

birds and ultralight airplanes.

It

was quite a

week

We

had about

th e same amount of airplanes in our area,

with a marked increase in Contemporary airplanes. While we

were down on Antique airplanes, the judges told me that the

airplanes we had were of outstanding quality.

I'll have plenty more to write

about

concerning the 2000

For us

diehard

enthusiasts

who

will

never give up our

love

for avi

ation

and the kindred

spirits

who share our

affliction, it

was

business

as usual, however. The

same little

groups

were to be

found

sitting under wings taking airplanes, or out wandering up and

down

the

parking

lines admiring the

showplanes

and talking

to

their own

ers. For us

,

little changes

-

we

just

keep enjoying the same 01' same

1 , year

after

year. There are always newly built

or newly

restored

airplan

es

to pique

our

interest and an occasional newcomer to take

into the fold, but

how

much has really changed

in

the past halfcen

tury sinc

e

EAA

, V

AA and AAA were formed?

Maybe that's

really

the crux the

matter.

With all the dramatic

and

often traumatic

upheavals we've seen in our way life in the

past

half

century, perhaps it should not be surprising that there is

a

certain comfort level in being able to

sit down

under an airplane

wing

occasionally

and ramble on about our favorite things with

someon

e

who

feels

the same way about them we do. The

older

we

get

,

think, the

more we

tend to

appreciate

such simple

pleasures .

..

and

in the context our

current

ever-mare-frenetic

world,

just

how

precious and inevitably transitory

they

really

are.

There

is

one cold,

hard

fact oflife

in all

this

we

have to acknowl

edge,

though.

There

is not now and

there never

will

be again

a

generation

that

has the same passion

for aviation that

those

ofus

have who were

born in roughly

the

first half

the 20th

century.

We

grew

up

at

a

time

when

being

a

pilot

was

the

most

exciting,

heroic

thing a

person could

do-a

time before astronauts, rock stars,

and

dot.com

instant billionaires. When we open our hangar doors and

see our airplanes

waiting

ther

e, we

experience

emotions based on

memori

e

s, attitudes and experiences that

are

a

different time and

a

differ

ent

cultural context.

We can't

expect

younger

enthusiasts

to


4/36

E IRVENTURE 2

V W RDS

ANTIQUE

GRAND CHAMPION

John

Swander, De Soto, KS, Waco UEC

(NCI2471)

RESERVE GRAND CHAMPION

Densel Williams, Jackson, MI, Aeronca

Chief (NX22378)

SPECIAL

AWARD

- JUDGES

CHOICE

Delta Airlines, Inc. , Atlanta GA, Dou

gl

as

DC-3-G202A (N28341)

CHAMPION - CUSTOMIZED AIR

CRAFT

Richard Ash, Piffard, NY,

Waco

UPF-7

(NC29303)

RUNNER U

Mark Gulbrandson Prior Lake, MN

Waco UPF-7 (N39748)

OUTSTANDING

Charles Davis,

Washington

Island, WI,

Waco YQC-6 (NCI6009)

CHAMPION - TRANSPORT CATE

GORY

Greg Herrick, Jackson, WY, Stinson Tri

motor

(N11153)

TRANSPORT RUNNER

UP

Delta Airlines, Inc., Atlanta GA, Travel

Air 6000 (NC8878)

CHAMPION REPLICA AIRCRAFT

Jim Drew Jenkins, Waquoit,

MA,

Gee

OUTSTANDING OPEN COCKPIT

BIPLANE

Dan Haas, Galesburg, IL, Boeing A75N1

(N40lDB)

RUNNER

U

Mark Haag, Houston TX,

Boeing

E75

Stearman (N99AN)

OUTSTANDING CLOSED COCKPIT

BIPLANE

Archie Lane, Cypress, CA, Beech D17S

(N67736)

CHAMPION SILVER AGE

1928-1932)

Jack

Tiffany,

Spring

Valley, OH, Davis

D1W (NC854N)

BRONZE AGE 1933-1941)

CHAMPION BRONZE AGE 1933

1941)

Kent and Sandy Blankenburg Grove

land,

CA,

Lockheed 12A (N99K)


MONOPLANE

Max Davis, Waconia, MN, St inson Re

liant SR-6A (NCI5 127)

OUTSTANDING OPEN COCKPIT

MONOPLANE

William Rose, Barrington,

IL

, Ryan

ST-A

Special (N17368)


BIPLANE

William

Nutting

Prescott AZ, Waco

BEST CLASS

I

0-80 HP)

James

Zangger,

Cedar

Rapids, lA, Tay

lorcraft BCl2D (NC94953)

BEST CLASS II 81-150 HP)

Sydney Cohen, Wausau, WI,

Erco

up

e

4150

(N94196)

BEST CLASS III 151 -235 HP)

Mark Ohlinger, Akron, OH,

Bellanca 14-13-2 (N86937)

BEST CLASS IV 236 HP

:

UP

Charles Luigs, Bandera, TX, Cessna 195

(N9836A)

BEST CUSTOM CLASS A

Carol Cansdale, Eden Prairie, MN, Piper

J-3 (N7072H)

BEST CUSTOM CLASS B

Ell is Clark, Bath, MI, Piper J-3 (N6615H)

BEST CUSTOM CLASS

C

Hal Cope, Spring, TX Globe Swift GC1B

(N3303K)

BEST CUSTOM CLASS D

Ronald

Judy

Gate

OK Navion

(N8915H)

BEST AERONCA CHAMP

Me lvin

Vorbach Romne

y, WV, 7EC

(N4306C)

BEST AERONCA CHIEF

Wilbur

Hostetler Marion IN, l lAC

Chief (NC9659E)


5/36

BEST ERCOUPE

Alan

Cuthbert

,

Dowagiac

, MI

415-C

(N93512)

BEST LUSCOMBE

jerry Cox, Mattoon,

IL

8F (N1947B)

BESTNAVION

Andrew

Woodside, Pickerrington,

OH

(N4448K)

BEST PIPERJ 3

William Hogan,

North

Little Rock,

AR,

j3C-65 (N92611 )

BEST PIPER OTHER

Curtis

Cumberland, Woodbine,

MD ,

PA-20

Pacer (N7403K)

BEST STINSON

William

Smith

, Long Beach, CA, 108-1

(N97979)

BESTSWIFf

Duane

Golding ,

Marion,

TX,

Globe

B

(N80626)

BEST TAYLORCRAFT

john Knight , jackson , Ml,

BC12-D

(N

96035)

BEST LIMITED PRODUCTION

Duane Peters, Anchorage,

AK,

DeHavil

land Beaver (N73Q)

CONTEMPORARY

GRAND CHAMPION

Steve Koshar,

Coloma

, MI, Cessna 172

(N3626L)

CESSNA 1

70

/

172/1

75

Charles Papas,

Crown

POint, IN, Cessna

172 (N7612T)

CESSNA 180/182 /210

john

Voninski, Manlius, NY, Cessna

182 (N2435G)

CESSNA 310

Leonard Rennie, Glenn

Dale, MD,

Cessna 310 (N31OjT)

PIP

ER PA-2 2 TRI PACER

j. D'Amico, Mount Airy , MD, PA-22

(N7455D)

PIPER PA

24

COMANCHE

Clifton Davis, Elida, OH

,

PA-24

(N5271P)

UNIQUE AIRCRAFT

Bob

Luskin, Long Beach

, CA, Cessna

175 taildragger (N9300B)

LIMITED

PROD

UCTION

jack

Arthur, Des Moines, lA, Forney (Er

coupe) (N3044G)

CUSTOM CLASS I SINGLE ENGINE

0-

160

hp)

james Douglass, Kennedyville, MD PA

20/22 (150 hp) (N6043D)

CUSTOM CLASS II SINGLE ENGINE

23 1 HP

:

HIGHER)

David Bennet, Colorado Springs,

CO,

Cessna

21O-B

(N21OEA)

CLASS IV MULTI ENGINE

jim Simmons , Nashville, TN, PA-23

(N3294P)

VAANEWS

compiled y H G Frautschy

GRASSROOTS

GATHERING TOUR

Tom Poberezny, President and

Chief Executive Officer

of EAA,

is

taking

his message

to fellow EAA

members

this fall

with

a

six-stop

"Grassroots

Gathering"

Tour. Fol

lowing the success of the

spring

meetings held in Wheeling, Illinois

and Fairfax, Virginia additional gath

erings have been scheduled for the

following dates: Monday, September

25th, Arlington, Texas; Tuesday, Sep

tember 27th, Dallas, Texas; Tuesday,

October 17th, San Jose, California;

Wednesday, October 18th,

Long

Beach, California; Tuesday, Novem

ber

14th,

Tampa, Florida;

Wed

nesday,

November 15th,

Orlando,

Florida

Exact times

and

locations for the

gatherings are still being determined.

For

the latest

information, check

EAA s web site at www.eaa.org.

f

you've wanted

to

find

out

more

about EAA programs and services,

EAA s position on key issues, or you

wanted to ask questions or give feed

back

to

EAA

president

Tom

Poberezny, the Grassroots gatherings

are your opportunity to do so. We

look forward to seeing you there! . . . . .

THE COVERS

FRONT

COVER . . .

The

Fokker Universal

restored by Clark Seaborn for the Western

Canada Aviation

Museum

scollection is a
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6/36

PIPER 0

WINDOWS

Dear

H G

.,

Sometimes an obvious,

simple

mechanical cure isn't

what

it seems

to be.

Reference your page Type

Club Notes" in the August 2000 is

sue of

Vintage Airplane.

Cl

yde Smith,

]r advocates drilling a

hole

in the

bottom of "D" type side windows in

all

Piper taildraggers to prevent rust

ing in the lower window channel. If

this is

done,

a

more serious,

long

range problem will develop as the

water will drip or flow on

the

inside

of

the

fabric,

down

to

the

lower

longerons, and flow to the aft end of

the tail, hence, rusting

out

this im

portant structural member.

A more positive cure

for

this

problem is to initially set the plexi

glass

window in a

but

yl rubber

compound when affixing the win

dow aft in

the channel.

This

compound, which comes in strips

(Th e ex mple

sent

measured

7/16xl/16

Editor

)

is easily

gotten

at

a local plate glass window store for

literally pennies. The product is li

and it will be very difficult to extract

the

window

at a later date. Please

point

these

suggestions

out

to

the

Piper taildragger own ers as

our

planes

must

have a safe longevity

in

order to stay in the air without struc

tural problems.

Frank Sperandeo III

Piper N3383A

Fayetteville,

AR

THE END

OF

THE

MV 1

STAR FLIGHT

Greetings,

I just received my August

Vintage Airplane

and

was

amazed that the aircraft piC-

tured

on page

8 was the

airplane that I had taken

piC-

tures of in May of 1993

While

traveling on

vaca

tion in

the

low

er

Louisiana

area, I saw a sign with directions to

the Wedell-Williams museum . I am

one of those who has to check out

all

aviation museums and

airfields.

You

never know

what you

might

find at one of these places.

The enclosed

photos

will

show

what I found at

the

museum in Pat

terson, Louisiana. What a mess. The

aircraft was in such a state that it was

difficult to tell what kind it was

Best

Wishes,

Brooks Lovelace, ]r.

Albany, GA


7/36

I

e rs

tt

Outer Marker

The

P

an

American,

once again the

leader

and again

the pioneer

had placed the first industry

order with Boeing Aircraft Company

for seven Boeing 707s, with options

for many more.

In 1958

Jack Ryan

and I were assigned to Pan Ameri

can s initial

707

ground

school at

New York and felt very privileged to

be in the first group

of pilots

to re

ceive 707

flight

training. This

training was most extensive, with all

of

it

being

given on

the airplane

it

22 hours on the airplane itself, after

simulator,

was required for very ex

perienced airline pilots. These

airmen, long accustomed

to

pro

peller

driven

aircraft and the docile

characteristics of straight wing

air

planes, had to

adapt

to

the

very

different

and

often unforgiving char

acteristics of this new swept wing, jet

powered airplane.

In many, many instances the posi

tioning

of

hands and

feet to produce

an

aircraft response to control inputs

large portion

of

the wing

behind

the

propellers,

with the direct

result an

immediate increase in the wings lift,

even prior to speed being gained,

or

vice versa i power was reduced. This

resulted in the airplane s being liter

ally lifted back

toward the

desired

descent profile with

a

minimum

change

in

the

airplane s pitch atti

tude and use

of power

for landing

approach

glideslope

control was

quite effective. But it took a while or

many airmen to become

really con


8/36

incidents

and accidents, I believe

almost

all of them during

pilot

training, in which airplanes got in

deep trouble

because

they were

flown

in

conditions

of

excessive

and uncorrected yaw. When thus

triggered,

and

whether

the

yaw de-

veloped

gradually or

rapidly, the

subsequent snap rolls were of such

violence

as to cause severe struc-

tural

damage

and in almost

all

cases

ended up

with the

airplane

inverted.

My friend Jack Ryan partici-

pated in

what

was probably the

first

of such

incidents. A between

trips layover airplane was being pi-

lot trained in the vicinity

of

Paris,

France,

and

Jack was

conducting

a

training demonstration of

the

min-

imum

speed at

which

directional

control can be

maintained with

two engines at

idle

on one side,

and very high thrust on the

other

two engines. Up to

that

time it was

a required demonstration.

The early 707 models had an

un-

boosted

rudder and

to

protect

the

vertical tail surfaces from damaging

pilot rudder inputs at higher speeds,

force limiting springs were placed

in

the

rudder actuating system between

the

pilot's rudder pedals and the big

rudder itself.

During

the

Paris demonstration

the

rudder was fully deflected,

but

as

the demonstration proceeded, speed

slowly increased causing the forces

in the

rudder actuating system to

build

up

in excess of the values pro-

grammed

into the force limiting

.. .

t took a

while

for

many

airmen

to

become

really

convinced that

these

old

techniques would

not

work on

the

ietliner.

..

As the airplane was leveling off over

the farmlands of France, Herb Seil-

berger,

the

flight engineer,

shouted,

"We've lost No . 4 engine "

Jack

replied,

"Well, let's

get

it going

again " Herb yelled back, "No, no, I

mean it fell offl"

The flight was closer to better re-

pair facilities in London, so the

crippled airplane was gingerly flown

there

and

safely

landed. Inspection

showed that besides

No.4

engine be-

ing no longer there, that No.3

engine was hanging by little more

than

the

skin of its cowlings.

inaugural flight could be flown on

the

anniversary

of the

airline's

first flight.

Corporate Officer Waldo Lynch,

an

airman on

th

e pilot's

roster

hims

e

lf

proposed to Juan Trippe,

president of the airline, that until

such time as signing

of the

pilots'

contract

could in fact take place,

that the many

supervisory

pilots

throughout the airline's system

could easily

be

qualified

on

the

707, thereafter operating

th

e new

jet liners as administrative person-

nel. Captain Lynch's proposal was

quickly approved

and

imple-

mented on a crash training

program.

The inaugural 707 flight was

flown as

scheduled,

New York

to

London,

on

October 26, 1958, with

Captain Sam Miller, Chief Pilot of

the airline's Atlantic Division

as

pi-

lot in command and Captain

Waldo Lynch performing th e du-

ties of First Officer. Thereafter, the

newly and hastily qualified 21 ad-

ministrative airmen operated the

airline's 707 schedules between New

York, London, Paris and Rome while

contract negotiations dragged on for

the next 14

months.

t was

a few months

following

the inaugural

flight

that Captain

Lynch was scheduled in command

of

Pan

American's flight

115 from

Paris

to

New York, with

the

flight

leaving Paris at six

in

the evening.

Captain Sam Peters,

Chief

Pilot of

the

Pacific Division, was assigned

as

First Officer.


9/36

refueling before

contin

uing on to

New York. After a 12

minute turn

around

at London, the flight was

fueled and again airborne and a short

while later reached its initial cruising

altitude of 29,000 feet. The 707

had

flight plan clearance to later climb to

higher altitudes

as

fuel consumption

produced lighter gross weights.

Weather reports indicated a large

low pressure area with heavy snow

storms along

the

flight s normal

route, so

the

course purposely flown

took

Flight 115 somewhat

south

of

its normal track, with a turn back to

ward

the

north anticipated about

600 miles from Gander.

t cruising altitude the 7 7 was in

and out of cloud tops with its associ

ated moderate

turbulence

and

concerned with the

comfort

of his

passengers, Captain Lynch re-cleared

to

35,000

feet where they were

on

top

of

the

weather

and

in

smooth

ahead of flight plan. In on the discus

sion and seated in the observer s seat

directly behind the captain s seat was

Flight Dispatcher Tom Mackay out of

the New York flight dispatch center.

As part of his duties Mackay was ob

serving the

company s

new aircraft

in line operation.

Satisfied,

Captain

Lynch walked

back through the open cockpit door

way.

This was

prior to the

FAA

regulation that airliner cockpit doors

in flight remain

closed

and locked

due

to later-experienced hijacking

problems.

It

was necessary only that

a small felt-covered rope be

un

clipped for crew members to leave or

enter the cockpit.

The copilot,

now

alone in his for

ward pilot s position,

huddled

head

down in the dimly lit cockpit study

ing

his

fuel

charts.

A few

minutes

later, his earphones pressed tightly

to his head, he endeavored at the

encountered the flight s Purser, who

was just finishing up

dinner

service.

As he asked him how the after din

ner

cabin clean-up was progressing,

he was again aware of the gradual in

crease in the plane s speed. Then

as

he turned

back toward

the

cockpit,

passengers seated

in

the

forward

lounge

area asked about New York

weather and the flight s approximate

arrival time. Waldo did

not

wish to

cut

them

short

despite

now

feeling

mounting

apprehension

about

the

still gradually and steadily increasing

and uncorrected aerodynamic

airstream noises. He did not think of

the

plane possibly being

in

an ever

steepening dive.

In

response to

his

passenger s

question Captain Lynch temporarily

perched on the edge of the forward

lounge seat, facing aft. From this po

sition

he

could

see

through

a cabin

window

and

out

over

the

airplane s

But, n the meantime, n

the dark

nd unnoted,

the autopilot h d silently diseng ged...

air. Shortly after

the

change in alti

tude, Flight

lIS s

navigator advised

the crew that it was time to change

course to Gander. Using

the

engaged

autopilot, a gentle

turn

to the

right

was made.

Captain Lynch had not

left

his

cockpit

position

since

departure at

Paris and

now

wished to stretch his

legs and make use of

the lavatory.

scheduled time to read

and

copy

weather observations along the

flight s

westbound

route on

the

sta

tic-ridden

high frequency

receiver.

But,

in the meantime, in the dark

and unnoted, the autopilot had

silently disengaged,

permitting

the

airplane over a period of

many

min

utes

to

very

gradually and

very

gently enter a very slowly steepening

left wing,

which was in near level

flight,

as evidenced

by stars visible

above

the

wing.

He

hastily apprised

the passengers of New

York

weather,

that

ceiling

and

visibility were at ap

proach minimums but

that

no

problems

were anticipated and the

flight s

arrival time

at

New

York

would

be quite close

to

that sched

uled. Then

before he was able

to


10/36

copilot's seat quickly, took over and

attempted

to recover from the now

steeply banked diving turn, but he

was faced

with

two

big

problems.

First, later research showed that at

very

high

Mach,

if rudder

and

aileron control is applied,

as

in this

case, to level the wings, with rudder

possibly

applied

in excessive

amounts,

in response,

the

airplane

either will not roll at all, or will pos

Sibly

roll

in

a

direction

exactly

opposite

to

the

aileron

and rudder

being

applied.

Second,

at high

Mach

the

center

of

pressure on

the

plane's wing

is

caused to move rear

ward

making an already diving,

accelerating airplane more and

more nose heavy.

Unlike

the

preceding

generation

of propeller aircraft

which had a

fixed, bolted-into-position stabilizer

(the

horizontal

surfaces on

the

tail

forward of the trailing moveable ele

vators)

this

new generation of

jetliners was eqUipped with an ad

justable stabilizer designed

to

minimize drag while still providing a

normal means for cockpit crews to

achieve "hands off" longitudinal

trim of the airplane. These very large

stabilizing surfaces were

normally

positioned by

an

electric drive sys

tem and

caused to change position

by means of thumb switches on the

pilot's control wheels.

At

very

high

speeds, however, under conditions

of excessive elevator inputs, it was

known

that the

stabilizer drive sys

tem could be loaded up to the point

where its drive motor would stall

out

George shouted, "Waldo, power is

still at

cruise

setting " As

Waldo

crashed into his chair he immedi

ately slammed

the

throttles closed,

while shouting to NaVigator Laird

who

had traded pOSitions

with

Dis

patcher Mackay during his absence,

"Strap my belt

on for me "

Lynch

never was able to slide his seat for

ward to its

normal position, nor

was he

able

to pull his feet from

alongside

the

pedestal up

onto the

rudder pedals. Although the flight's

cruising altitude had been at 35,000

feet, as Lynch

took

control

the

air

plane's plunge was

taking it

through

17,000 feet.

Waldo's

attitude horizon, the

prime instrument for precise presen

tation

of

the

airplane's wings level,

or climbing/diving attitudes, had

long ago tumbled

and

now flopped

in a

random,

useless

fashion.

His

Turn

Indicator, a very basic, non

preCise back-up instrument of flight,

showed a full right deflection as dis

played

on

its fully displaced

turn

needle. The altimeter was

unwind

ing at a frightful rate, "Clunk, clunk,

clunk" per thousand feet, almost as

fast as it can be spoken, and the air

speed indicator was totally off scale

at 400 knots. Due to Waldo's far aft

seat

position

his Mach meter could

not be seen.

On the other

side

of

the

cockpit

the

buffeting

was so severe that a

gray plastic decorative shield, also

providing indirect instrument light

ing

for the copilot's

panel,

had

shaken loose

and

fallen

down,

ob

lighting

was thus available on

Lynch's panel

from

emergency

sources, and Engineer Sinski, under

the

diving

turn's

centrifugal loads,

was simply unable to raise his head

to see,

nor

was he able to raise his

arm

in order to actuate necessary

switches on his panel to correct this.

As Waldo

took

the controls his

first action in the black of night, and

with the

airplane

now in heavy

cloud,

was

to

attempt

to

level

the

wings,

and this

by reference to his

only usable panel instrument,

the

turn indicator. This successful action

momentarily relieved the turns "G"

loads, and at this poin t Engineer Sin

ski was able to reach up and quickly

restore power to the Essential Electri

cal

Bus

thus again providing normal

cockpit lighting.

Noting that

the

stabilizer indi

cated full forward (nose down)

and

feeling a desperate need to be of as-

sistance in a very desperate situation,

Sinski released his seat belt and care

fully edged his way forward from his

engineer's station

to

a

position

where he straddled the pedestal be

tween

the two

pilots'

seats. Here,

with superhuman effort, he began a

turn at a time

hand

cranking the sta

bilizer toward a nose-up position.

(Boeing engineers later reported

that

hand cranking

under

the air loads

being experienced would be impos

sible for one person to overcome.)

NaVigator Laird,

seated

behind

Lynch, shouted, "Captain, we're go

ing through

8,000 feet " Waldo,

realizing that

it

was

now

or never,


11/36

PASS

IT TO

BUCK

by E.E. Buck Hilbert

EAA

21

VAA

5

P.O.

Box

424

Union

IL

60180

Dear Buck,

It was good to talk to you the

other

day. I need a 1918

D3-A

Mercedes engine for

my

Fokker D.VII replica. I have a new

Wolf propeller made by Guy Watson.

The D.VII Fokker, as shown

in

the pictures, is

completely

hand-crafted from German draWings

done in

Metric scale.

t this time I m making the fuel lines and

hand

pressure

pump fittings and

tubing.

All the

instruments

are 1918 Ger

man Bosch. New wheels are being made at this time. The fabric

is from Belgium,

and

I expect it here any time. I need either a


12/36

Fokker s

talented staff creates a back country workhorse.

A

nthony

H.G. Fokker was

not

the

most popular aviation per

sonality in the

early

20s.

Fokker, a Dutchman,

had

thrown in

with the

Germans in 1914. He was

widely perceived

to

be a war profi

teer and,

ind

ee d,

had

be

en one

of

the few major

suppliers

of the

Kaiser s air service to survive with his

industrial base more or less intact

and plenty of

money

in

th

e bank.

ering, helped with the arrangements.

The future Reichsmarshall, equipped

with a pacified Fokker D.VII, would

be Fokker s sales

representative

in

Scandinavia for a year or more

Fokker s

detractors have

alluded

to a secret 1922 agreement between

th e manufacturer an d the new Ger

man government, wherein

that

government would have first call

on Fokker s

serv

ices in

th

e

The secret of Fokker s success was

his genius for hiring talented people.

He had picked the right engineers

and designers, such as the gifted

Reinhold Platz, a welder

who

rose

from the ranks, and Walter Rethel,

whose mas-


13/36

terpiece would be the Messerschmitt

Bf

109.

This team

created air

craft that were among the best avail

able anywhere in the world.

Fokker himself,

though no

engi

neer, had

an instinctive under-

standing for what was technologi-

cally correct. He was a superb

pilot

and

did much of

his own

test

fly

ing. Fokker s

brilliant

demon-

stration flying and masterful sales

manship was a combination that

invariably spelled success. That and

the fact that he was

not

averse to

cheating

to

make

a good perfor-

mance look even better on paper.

Fokker s warplanes were far supe

rior to anything

available

in the

United

States, which had precious

little expertise in the production of

combat aircraft. The air service had

been

equipped

exclusively

with

French, English, and Italian aircraft

during 1917 and 1918. Indigenous

designs were regarded as unsuitable

for combat for a considerable period

of time thereafter.

Fokker fighters remained in ser

vice well into the

20s,

both in

Europe

and the

United States, which

had

acquired 50

highly esteemed

D.VIIs for the military. In addition,

the army and the navy procured

small quantities of postwar Nether

lands-built Fokkers. These included

fighters such as the PW-5, CO-2 ob

servation craft,

and

T-2

transports,

one of which made the first nonstop

coast-to-coast crossing of the United

States in May of 1923.

The T-2 was a stretched version of

Tony Fokker, shown in a 1912 Spin

(Spider) . He uilt and flew his first mono

plane in 1910 at age 20. He moved to

Germany (Johannistal) in 1912

to

seek

his

fortune, becoming a naturalized citizen in

1917. Fokker later became a U.S. citizen

and lived in Nyack, NY, when he died of

complications

following

minor surgery in

December

1939.

land

on the q.t. The F.III, with its

comfortable passenger cabin (pilots

preferred to remain

in

open cock

pits) , quickly

found

favor

with

Europe s infant airline industry,

which

included

KLM and DVR

the

forerunner of Lufthansa. Fokker, on

one of his early

U.S.

visits, brought

two F.IIIs to test the North American

market.

There was strong resistance to the

importation of foreign aircraft, par

ticularly anything Teutonic. Fokker s

modest

success in selling aircraft to

the U.S. military was roundly criti

cized

from almost

every quarter.

Why spend American dollars over

seas when

the

aircraft industry at

home was in dire need of what little

business there was?


14/36

The Fokker

F-11

built at Schwerin in

1919

featured

cabin comfort for

six passengers.

Fokker adopted the

full-cantilever wing

in 1917.

Wartime

sentiments notwith

standing, Fokker

had

friends

and

admirers

in

the

business world

and

in the U.S.

military. One of

them was Brig.

Gen.

Billy

Mitchell, assistant chief of the

air service.

The upshot of this

was the establishment of a com

Canada. His mother was

English. Unlike Fokker,

Noorduyn had helped

supply the Allies with

aircraft during

the

war,

notably

in the employ

of Tom Sopwith

and

Sir

W.G. Armstrong-Whit

worth Co.

Noorduyn had been

an

assistant

to

another

Dutch

designer,

Fritz

Koolhoven, at

Arm

strong-Whitworth,

which led to a

postwar

hitch in the same

ca

pacity

with the British

Aerial

Transport

Co. ,

which pro

duced

the B T

monoplane fighter,

an

ultralight

monoplane

called

the

Fokker and Pushka Galanschikoff,

an

early

Russian

aviatrix, in 1913. Fokker

sold her a Spider and fell in love.

Pushka fled the

Russian

Revolution,

lived in New York, and performed pub

lic relations services

for

Fokker.

She

aspired

to

fly the

tlantic

in a Fokker,

but

Earhart beat her

to

it.

Crow, and the

FK.26

transport,

a

cabin biplane. He was

an

engineer

designer by

training

and

a

born

manager with

a full measure of fi

nancial sense.

Noorduyn

was named

general manager

and

treasurer of t-

lantic Aircraft.

Bob

Noorduyn s

first production

order was for 135 welded steel tube

fuselages

to

rejuvenate the U.S. air

service s

dilapidated

de Havilland

DH-4 bombers. The welded fuselage

was largely a Fokker innovation, and

his

welders were among the most

skilled in the industry. Many were

Dutch

imports themselves.

Indeed,

the language on the factory floor was

as

much Dutch-German

as

it

was

English.

Commercial

aviation was late in

developing in

the

United States,

and

Fokker's F.III transport, which was

widely used in Europe by

KLM and

Lufthansa, was a marketing disap

pointment. Only two

F.IIIs were

imported,

one

of which found its

way to Anchorage , where

the broth

ers Wien hoped to start

an

airline.

The

other

later

belonged

to

a

boot-

A lineup of Fokker D.Vlls still bearing German crosses

at

Kelly Field

circa 1920.

Peter M. Bowers photo.


15/36

The

first Fokker Tri-Motor was created on short notice

to

compete in the 1925 Ford Reliabi lity Tour. It was qui

te

a sensat ion.

Variants pioneered the airways

with

WAE

American, and

Pan

Am.

legger. The lack of suitable landing

facilities,

both

in

the

Lower 48

and

in the territories, was a major obsta

cle that had to be overcome.

That

situation

began to

change

with the

privatization of airmail,

which became the

foundation

for

scheduled passenger services. The

Fords had foreseen

the

future of air

transportation;

So

had the Guggen

heims, whose funding

for

an

experimental

airline resulted

in

Western Air Express,

which began

carrying

a few passengers almost

from

the outset.

W

Ewould pro

foundly

affect Fokker's American

sojourn.

Ford aroused

public interest

by


16/36

The

F.III,

introduced in

the

United States in

1922,

needed better landing fields than were generally

available

at the

time. This one made profits

for

its

owner by hauling Canadian bootleg.

These developments created the

climate for a viab le manufacturing

enterprise that began with th e

Fokker Universal, designed specifi

cally for the North American market.

Noorduyn and hi s technical staff,

which

included chief engineer A

Franc is Arcier, a Witteman-Lewis

holdover from the Barling Bomber

had formulated specifications for a

five-passenger monoplane to be

powered by a 200- hp Wrigh t J-4

Whirlwind.

The Universal embodied the prin

cipa l characteristics

of

its Dutch

predecessors with the exception of

the wing, which was semi-cantilever.

Heretofore, Fokker s t ranspor ts had

featured cantilever wings, innovative

in themselves, almost to the point of

being proprietary. The

Universal s wide-track

tripod landing gear,

also innovative, would

be widely emulated in

the decade to follow.

Up to that

point

Whirlwind production

had

been

reserved ex

clusively for the

military. The availabil

ity

of the J-4 and

J-5 for commercial ap

plications

greatly

en

hanced Fokker s pro

spectus for the Whirl

wind

was

eminently

reliable. The Univer

sal, first

flown in

October 1925, had come to fruition

in

the

remarkably short gestation

period

of

two months. t was an

immediate success.

Colonial Air Transport acquired

the first of three Universals early in

1926. Eddie Hubbard, a pioneer air

mail contractor, became Fokker s

distributor

in

the

West. Eddie flew

up and

down the Pacific Coast, ag-

Hermann Goering, last commander

of the

famed "Richtofen Flying Circus

, was

at loose ends

following the

armistice.

He

became Fokker's

sales

representative in Sweden before

turning to

politics. This was his D.

VII

demonstrator. The

cross

on

the

fin

has been painted over

with white

paint, and

the LVG

guns have been removed while

their

cartridge chutes remain in place. It's

interesting

to

note

that

the biplane s engine is running,

but

Herr Goering is nowhere

to

be seen


17/36

gressive ly demonstrating the

Universal from Canada to Mex

ico. This resulted in sa les to

Pacific Air Transpor t and

th

e

Aero Corporation of California,

whose CEO,

Jack

Frye,

was

about

to

launch the

ancestral

beginnings of TWA .

A gold rush in northern On

tario, near Hudson Bay,

brought

the

first of many

Canadian orders.

Wes

t ern

Canada

Airways, founded

by

Capt.

A.C.

Doc

Oakes,

co

l

lected his first Universal at the

factory on Christmas

Day,

1926,

during

a heavy snowfa ll, F-32 then the largest airliner in North America, seldom carried profitable payloads and

was prone to distributing passenger equanimity when rear engines failed from overheat

which necessitated

the

installa- ing. Only three F-32s were in airline service, and they retired early.

tion of skis.

Oakes

was so

pleased with the Universal that

he ordered two

more on floats for

with extensive

arctic flying experi

invaluable asset to th

e

Unive

rsa l

service in the gold-mining district. ence. Balchen, lured

to

the

United

program and a great d eal more.

WCA

eventually

had a fleet of

12

States by

Cmdr.

Richard

Byrd's

Early o n the Canadians found

Universals.

promise

of

a flying job, did much of themselves with severa l dam aged

Fokker

then

hired Bernt Balchen, the experimenta l testing

at Teter

aircraft.

T

hi

s

was

due mainly

to

a young Norwegian army aviator boro.

He would

prove himself an harsh winter flying

conditions

and

pilot error. It was a new kind of fly

ing,

and

everyth in

g

had to

be

learned

the

hard way. Balchen , a

sk ill

ed

mechanic as

we

ll as a

pilot,

was loaned out to Western

Canada

Airways to

oversee

repairs

and

ge t

their Universals

back

in service. On

his return he was named chief pilot.

Whereas the Whirlwind's 200

to

220

hp

had

seemed

sufficient for a

ll

practical purposes in 1925, it

was

not long before customers were agi

tating for more

horsepower

and

increased payloads. No less a voice

than

Jack Frye s joined the chorus


18/36

Fokker's chairman,

James A.

Talbott,

who

also presided over Richfield Oil, traveled in style in this executive F-10A. NC535E was

often detailed

to

events

to

promote air-mindedness.

t

conveyed thousands of first timers

aloft

during its

four

years

with

Richfield. Florence Pancho Barnes sometimes spared

pilot

Jake Littlejohn

at

the controls.

canyon

while

wending

his way

through the Cascades. Lacking

the

power to extricate himself by climb-

ing out, he

had

no

option but

to

reverse course with a vertical turn .

The

canyon

was narrow and steep

and the Fokker s wheels brushed

leaves from a tree

s

Frye rolled

out

of the turn .

t

had been a white

knuckle affair,

one

that Frye s

passengers would never forget.

A stretched version of the

Uni

versal, known as

th

e Universal


19/36

with

the

windshield

raked forward

in

the

characteristic manner of later

Fokker Tri-Motors. This aircraft was

a one-only production.

The

Super Universal which fol

lowed differed

mainly

in having a

new fully cantilever wing and re

vised tripod landing gear attached to

the wing spar. The advent of the Su

per Universal coincided with

an

expansion program and corporate

name

change. Atlantic

Aircraft be

came Fokker Aircraft Corporation of

The

Super Universal became

Fokker s best-selling

commercial

airplane. Eighty were built the last

of

which

in 1931 many for

Cana

dian users. Western Canada Airways

had

13.

In

addition

Canadian

Vick

ers built 14 under license

and

the

Japanese firm of Nakajima

built

47

many of which were military C2N-1

utility airplanes. Japan Air

Trans

port, with government subsidies

permitting fares

commensurate

with railroad fares inaugurated pas-

Capt.

Edward V Rickenbacker as

sales

manager.

The

company

planned

to

build the giant, four

engine 32-passenger F-32 at a new

plant at Alhambra, California but

the airplane was

neither ready nor

the economy right for so

capa

cious

an airplane.

Production

had

come to a

virtual

standstill when

Fokker having divested

himself of

his shares,

returned to

Holland in

1931.

The

advent

of the Great Depres-

A master self-promoter, Fokker never missed an opportunity

to

place his name before the public. Richfield s management

held the majority of Western Air Express stock, reequipping

the

airline with

F 10s

and

F 14s.

They controlled

the

Fokker com

panyin 1928 and 1929.


20/36

Fokker's bush country workhorse

erial photography by Jim Koepni

ck

ground photography by Leslie ilbert

arly in 1929 the twenty-seventh for

an

Arctic expedition, and Holtzem

y

John Underwood

was a test

pilot

for Pfalz. Fokker had


21/36

conduct the business of war. There was

a kind of camaraderie between airmen

on both sides at first, with sa lutations

of

one

kind

or another as

th ey passed

each other over

the

front lin

es

. Then

someone took

a

pot shot

at someone

else with a revolver, and soon the sky

became

as

dangerous a place to be as

the battlefields below.

Holtzem's

engagement

as a Pfalz

test pilot was between two tours with

fighter squadrons. By

th

e latter part

of

1917, there was a greater need for ex

perienced pilots at

the

front,

so

he was

posted to a Fokker D.VIII unit.

By the

war's end he had downed four enemy

airplanes. Decades later,

as

a retiree in

California, Holtzem liked to

point

out

that

his four victories had not been

fa

tal to the vanquished.

Holtzem, even in 1916, was famous

for

being

able to walk away from

crashes.

So

was Doolittle, a fellow test

pilot. But Holtzem's military days were

over, and he saw no future

as

a flier in

Germany, so he migrated to South

America to

operate

a

flying

circu

s.

Then

came

a

job

offer

from Tony

Fokker

at

Teterboro . Produ

ction

had

begun to accelerate with

the

introduc

tion of

the

Super Universa l

and the

F-lO

, which was being built at Wheel

ing, West Virginia.

A

30-min ut

e

hop

was

usually

enough to sort out any bugs,

and

in

the

case

of AAM

there probably was

n't much that needed

attention.

The

wing was jig built, and little was re

quired in

the way of rigging

adjustments . There being no logbooks

from

that

time, we may assume

that

it

was a routine test hop and that AAM

(Top)

Staggered seats in the cabin

meant side-by-side seating could be

had inside

the

Super Universal.

According

to

Punch

Dickins

, there

was a need for cockpit security even in

1929,

to protect the pilots from smelly

sled dogs and drunken prospectors.

(Left)

Shock absorption

at its

most

maintainable, the shock cords snub the

impact of landing when acted upon

by

the sliding tube assembly.

the right direction, but they were short

on

payload. 'AAM's mission was to ser

vice r

emote

mining sites, both as a

freighter

and

perso

nn

el transport.

'AAM's

pilot,

Ken Dewar,

had

learned to fly in

the RFC

in 1917.

His

flight

mechanic, Bob Niven,

had

trained

at

Pratt Whitney and knew

the

Wasp inside

and

out. They would

work

as

a team for

the

next five years,

during which tim

AAM

served

as the

flagship of Cominco's growing fleet.

occasional exceptions

when

hu man i

tarian considerations were involved.

Late in th e fall of 1929, Dewar and

Niven were sent to aid in

the

search

and

rescue

of

ei

ght

missing prospec

tors working for

an o

th

er

company.


22/36

The search concluded successfully,

largely due to the lost party's

own

re

sourcefulness

and

help from

the

local

Inuit, but the cost in equipment was

considerable. Five aircraft were either

seriously damaged or destroyed. Dewar

and

Niven

made their

last trip

out

of

Fort Reliance on December 4, 1929 ar

riving at

Winnipeg

on the December

6, after an eight-week absence.

AAM resumed Cominco business,

first

at

Prince Albert

and

then

at The

Pas,

where

Dewar was involved in a

forced landing in September 1930.

most aircraft servicing facility.

AAM shared a shelter with another

Super Universal, G-CASL, which be

longed to Canadian Airways. The next

morning the

aircraft

went their

sepa

rate ways, loaded with prospectors

and

mining gear. Three

months

later

CASL

crashed

in

the vicini ty of Yellowknife,

killing its

three-man

crew. Fifty years

later the remains of the one Super Uni

versal would facilitate the rebirth of

the other.

During 1933 and 1934, AAM served

Cominco in the Germanson

Lake re-

Dewar reported another accident

in

February 1934. This time AAM was

on

skis, and they

had

frozen

to the

sur

face. Efforts to free them were only

half successful.

When

Dewar applied

power,

one

ski slid forward while

the

other

remained stuck. The result was

collapsed landing gear. Such accidents,

though routine in bush

flying,

could

be catastrophic.

CF-AAM based at Columbia Gar

dens, near Trail, British Columbia , in

September 1934, where Ken Dewar

and

the Fokker parted company. They

(Left) The utilitarian cockpit

is

basic VFR . To the right of the center windshield strip

is

the mirror used to read the compass

which

is

mounted on the bulkhead behind the pilot's head. The markings on

the

compass read backwards unless read in

the

mirror (Right) From a simpler time,

the pitot tube is

itself an elegant sculpture.

While on floats and with no open wa

ter in sight, the Wasp quit. Dewar dead

sticked into a stubble field. The pon

toons

dug

in, shearing the

landing

gion of

the

British Columbia interior.

At

this time, Dewar saved

an

aspiring

airline

operator from certain ruin.

Grant

McConachie, a

rather impetu

had been paired for five years . Dewar

subsequently joined Canadian Pacific

Air Lines, retiring in 1958.

In October 1934, AAM was sold to


23/36

geoning airline, which was upgrading

its equipment. Eight

hours

of flying

each day was

not uncommon

at that

time, and Randall, the principal pilot,

sometimes logged 150 hours a

month.

Both the Fokker and the Ford flew

reg-

ular mail

and passenger

runs

to

Whitehorse, Dawson City, Telegraph

Creek, AtIin, Selkirk, Mayo, and Teslin.

In the spring of

1935, AAM

was

chartered by the National Geographic

Society

to support the

Washburn

Ex-

pedition,

whose mission

was to

explore

and

chart

the

St.

Elias Range.

This was a 2,000-square-mile blank

spot on the map of Canada

and

Alaska.

Piloted by Randall and Everett Was

son, AAM

proved indispensable

during

the

80-day expedition, which

was featured in the

June

1936 issue

of

National Geographic magazine.

On January

6, 1936, Bob Randall

flew a charter to Francis

Lake

in

AAM.

t

was a 2S0-mile trip with several pas

senger

stops

along the

way,

and he

remained there overnight. The next

morning

he cranked

up AAM

for

the

return flight to Carcross. t would be a

one-minute flight,

and the

journey it

self would take months to complete.

As

Randall

became

airborne

the

heal of his port

ski

struck a hard snow

drift, snapping the forward restraining

cable attachment. This

permitted the

ski to rotate downward, bringing the

aft end up hard

against

the landing

gear strut, thereby creating enormous

asymmetriC drag. Randall could

not

maintain

altitude, and the toe of the

disabled ski snagged

another

drift,

causing the aft section to break off

when it struck the strut again. The ski

Clark Seaborn,

Don McLean and

Bob Cameron

wife, expecting their

third child, began to

fear

the

worst.

One

can imagine her re

lief when, after

a

week of silence, a

telegram arrived.

Bob was fine.

In

deed, he would

move

on

to a career

with

Canadian

Pacific

Air

Lines, retir

ing

as a 3S,OOO-hour jet captain. So

would

his twin

sons,

who

have also

reached

retirement.

A third son and

two grandsons continue to fly for CPA.

Nineteen thirty-seven was

a

bad

year

for

Simmons and

his partners.

Northern Airways other Super Univer

sal, CF-ATJ, experienced a similar

mishap at Francis Lake. This left them

with but

one

aircraft, the Ford Tri-Mo

tor,

and

its

days of

usefulness were

numbered.

Ford G-CARC

had

been

damaged at

Telegraph

Creek

in

the

previous November, although it con

tinued in service for several months.

t

was

eventually grounded

and placed

in storage. (It s

currently awaiting

restoration in Greg Herrick s hangar,

but that s another story.)

The Fokkers were repaired at Francis

Lake under arduous conditions, one

wing at a time. This was accomplished

in subzero weather by thrusting the

damaged wing through

the

window of

a cabin large enough to accommodate

the damaged

section

. This took four

The undamaged wing was shipped

back

to Carcross and eventually in

stalled

on Northern Airways'

replacement Fokker, CF-AJC, which

continued to provide

yeoman

service

until 1942. In June of

that

year it was

engaged in salvaging parts

and

equip

ment

from four B-26s

that

had crash

landed in a nameless valley after be

coming lost

on

the way

to

Fairbanks.

Thereafter, the location was known as

Million Dollar Valley.

On its last trip the Fokker, diverted

by

weather, landed

on

the Dezdeash

River, little more

than

a stream, with

nearly empty tanks. After refueling, a

takeoff

was

attempted, but the

air

plane struck an overhanging tree. The

result was a violent water loop into the

riverbank. The

engine and

fuselage

were salvageable, but the

unwieldy

wing was abandoned beside the river.

Thus ended the career of AAM s origi

nal wing.

Fast forward four decades ...

A second-generation Canadian bush


24/36

commentary

Forced Landing

ttitude

One

reason

why

flying can

be

more

dangerous

today

than

t

was

S

years

ago

y Denis M

rbeau

F

ying more dangerous now than

it was 75 years ago? That's silly,

you say? I can understand why

you would feel

that

way. Orville

Wright

did not sign your

pilot

's li

cense and you don ' t fly an old

antique

biplane

with

an unreliable

90-some-odd horsepower

engine

that may quit at any moment . Your

engine is highly maintained to

th

e

strict levels that

common

sense and

safety require . It is a basic, relatively

modern,

long-reliable

design that

has flown millions of safe hours in

thousands of airplanes. Modern air

Modem d y pilots

m y not take the

prospect ofa forced

landing as seriously

as their pioneer

brethren did

thinking it can't possibly happen.

Today, most pilots, from the time

they go to full throttle on takeoff un

til

the

moment they

turn

off

the

runway, are not

mentally

prepared

to

immediately deal with the chal

lenge of

what they

would do

and

where they would land if

an

engine

failed . Ironically, it is because of

the

reliability of modern aviation en

gines that the vast majority of pilots

are lulled into being unprepared.

I've given more than 10,000 hours

of dual instruction and have seldom

seen pilots handle unexpected simu


25/36

GROUND AFTER

AN

ENGINE

FAIL-

URE

A

pilot who

is not

mentally

prepared to manage a forced landing

will

most

likely panic

and try to

make the airplane do something it

is

not capable of doing. n fact there

is

a group of Internet Swifters out there

who will recall they were standing

right

next

to me a few years ago at

Shelter Cove Airport in

Northern

California when we were witnesses

to a pilot reacting in just that way.

He took his wife, two kids and least

of all a very nice

Stinson with

him ...Most forced landings

that

end

500 feet in the air and

the

engine

stops

and you

were

not

ready for

something like this to happen, how

well do you think you are going to

handle

it? Unless you're prepared,

you probably won't do very well.

Sure,

sometimes

we fly

our

air

craft in situations

and/or

over

terrain where if the engine stops it's

going to be hard, if

not

impossible,

to find a reasonably safe place to set

the aircraft down.

t is

our right and

our decision to accept that

risk

should we choose to do so. But not

being mentally

prepared

to cor

at any given moment while in flight.

That's the key to being properly pre

pared to have a reasonable chance to

bring a forced landing to a successful

conclusion.

I'll probably go flying within the

next 24 hours after

I

write what

you've just finished reading here.

f

I

am

true to

what

I've just discussed,

I will, after I take

the

runway and

just before I go to full throttle,

turn

on

that switch

in

the back of my

mind

that

arms me to

react

to

an

engine

failure

as best I can.

That

switch will not be

turned

off until I


26/36

by H.C. Frautschy

Zephyr

and POIter ield Sportster.

The last remaining Rearwin

Jr

3000

of 23 built,

NCll 92

belonging to

Marion

McCLure

(Wiley Post biplane

Thanks to the collection of R

W

Buttke, we

have this month

's Mys

tery

Plane to

share with you. Now

obviously, we know who made

it

,

but which

one

is it?

Send your an-

swers

to:

EAA,

Vintage

Airplane

,

P.O. Box 3086, Oshkosh, WI 54903

3086. Your answers need

to

be in no

later than October

25, 2000, for in

clusion

in the December

issue of

Vintage Airplane.

You

can

also send your

response

via e-mail. Send

your

answer

to

vin

[email protected].

Be sure to include

both

your name

and

address in

the

body

of

your note,

and

put (Month) Mystery Plane

in

the

subject line.

owner)

of

Bloomington, Illinois was

soLd

at

auction

in

Billings,

Montana

for

$35,000. The original new

price was

$1795

in 1932.

The Junior

was

then

donated

to

the

Oscar Cooke Museum.

Oscar Cooke re-registered the Junior

as N507Y,

after Rearwin

Junior X507Y.

An

Aero

Digest

ad

for Annitie All-Pur

pose Cleaning Compound shows this

X507Y with

the wing

and

tail the same

color shade as the fuselage . Possible

color was red

with a black spear point

strip

and

registry.

Regards,

Russ Brown

Lyndhurst,

Ohio

July's

Mystery Plane,

which

ap-

peared courtesy of David Carlson,

Hay Springs,

Nebraska

was

known

to

a

number

of

you. Here's

our

first

letter:

Hanging high abov

e farm equipment

seats

and

Lanterns

is

the bright red and

yellow parasol Rearwin Junior 3
mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]


27/36

T i l

0 R 0 U 0 II B R E

I

t

I .... Jr . } -0; ; - ---;-;c.,..--,-,---,--,-,

l

. . . 4I:i Le p roud I 0

. . . .

. . . Heftr .. r ..

H

F4.R \\,. l J

, . H P

L4.lIIIJE.i

..-:0 a. t ..

4

FAIIIH,X

AlilPOkT.

KANSAS

en y.

)l":ANIAS

In

Til&: J:RARWIH JII.. AT T il E O"TIIOtT

SIlO W-ON TilE

FLOOR AND IN THE AIR

n -I1Ioo't;

I J t o i T ~ 5

~ = Z ~ = : . : ~ ~ t . - i ? ; : ; ~ ~ ~ : H

As advertised in the

April

1932 issue

of Aero

Digest

Lester Everett,

Jr., of Craw

fordsville, Indiana adds:

... Manufactured in Kansas City,

Kansas, it

was

d

es

igned

in

1931

and

produced in 1932. The Junior was

available with either the Szekely

45

hp

or the Aeromarine AR-3 50 hp engine.

The

aircraft

was

a two -seater in a

single tandem

cock

pit with dual

con

troLs. A detachable winter enclosure

was

available.

The

wing span

was

36

ft., Length 21 ft .,

8

in. and

th

e height

was

7

ft

., 6

in

. C

ruis

i

ng speed was

78

mph with a top speed of91 mph

Landing

speed was 25

mph, absolute

ceiling was 16,400 ft., with an initial

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28/36

Thirty

ive Years

continued from page 8

been called upon to support the air

plane's estimated weight of 195,000

pounds

in

wings level cruising flight,

was now called upon to support an

effective weight, due to the arcing

parabola, of 1 million pounds. For it

to do so was aerodynamically impos

sible and the

terribly

flexed wing,

close

to the point

of

failure, went

into a shattering high speed stall.

The subsequent fearful pounding

was described as extremely severe,

yet in a few seconds, the altimeter,

one

of

the

two useful instruments

on

Captain

Lynch s panel, began

slowing from its

unwinding

scream

ing dive, then, as zooming, upward

flight

into

the

night

sky was

as

sumed, began winding

at

a fearful

rate

in the

opposite direction. The

dive had been arrested somewhere

near

6,000 feet, then back at

about

11,000 feet the airplane was finally

pushed over into level flight, where

the

airspeed gradually began

drop

ping for

the

first time from its

pegged position at 400 knots.

The

throttles

throughout

were in the

tight closed position.

s speed diminished the airplane

became nose heavy

and Sinski, at

Waldo s request,

and still in his

pedestal

straddling

position,

hand

cranked the cockpit stabilizer wheel

in response.

t

wasn't until this point

that Sinski was able to reach forward

and actuate switches to crossover

Lynch's artificial horizon so

that

it

airframe, and second, that they re

sponded normally. A careful climb

was made back to 29,000 feet where

flight at slow speed range cruise was

established.

In

the

cockpit, as

they

leveled off,

little

was said with all busy with

they own

thoughts.

At Waldo s re

quest, Sinski left his engineer s

station to check the main

cabin

for

injuries and possible damage. There,

in response

to a public address an

nouncement, the

cabin

was

being

prepared for a

possible emergency

landing and

the life rafts had been

lowered

from their ceiling storage

positions and laid in their assigned

aisle positions adjacent to exit doors

and windows.

s

George worked his

way back and over the rafts, passen

gers

and cabin

crew

members

impulsively grasped his hand

and

squeezed his arm in gratitude.

t last,

on

a sparkling clear night,

the lights

of Gander

could be seen

far ahead.

s

a precautionary mea

sure as

the

flight descended through

10,000

feet

the

airplane was

tem

porarily leveled off, slowed,

and the

gear and

wing flaps

extended

to

check

their operation. Except for a

previously observed difficulty

in

es

tablishing lateral

trim and

a now

somewhat

sluggish response to

aileron inputs, control seemed near

normal

and

a normal approach

and

landing was made,

although

flown

at

higher

speeds

due

to Lynch's

un

certainty

at

what

yet

might be

encountered.

A short while later

as

the airplane

30-inch section of

the

fairing

was

missing and had fallen into the cold

Atlantic. The tail root fairings were

also damaged and there were heavy

wrinkles in

the

skin of

the

tail's hori

zontal stabilizer.

Boeing engineers later estimated

the plane

dove to a

speed

of

.99

Mach, just below the speed of sound

and far beyond its design limits.

During the 707's earlier certification

destruct tests conducted with

hy

draulic jacks

on

the

factory floor, the

wing tips were purposely and very

gradually

flexed upwards 17

feet

from their normal in-flight position

before

permanent

set to the wings

structure

began to take place. Later

checks on Lynch's airplane, after it

was ferried to

the

factory, showed

that

the

wings

under

the

6.7 G pull

out loads had taken a permanent

set

of

severa l inches.

t

is not diffi

cult to visualize the loads that this

wing was subjected to and its sur

vival

is quite a tribute to

an

extremely well-built, strong

air

plane which returned and flew the

airline for

many

years afterward.

Waldo's recovery was effected

in

the black

of

night and in cloud and

flown

from a full aft and low

seat

position with

only

two usable in

struments of flight,

the

Turn

Indicator and the Altimeter. He af

terward noted,

had

he

been

able to

get his feet on the rudder pedals, he

probably would have caused damage

to, or parting of, the airplane's verti

cal tail surfaces, or possibly caused

an

engine, or engines, to part com


29/36

Yukon from page 21

the

remains while the

helicopter

hovered,

and

plucked

th

em

out

be

fore

th

e

astonished

hippies

kn ew

what was

happ

ening.

What

was left

of 'AAM was so o n on the wa y to

Whit

ehorse, Ca

meron

's home base.

Cameron made

further

inquiries

and determined that

A

MM's wing

mi

ght still be

where it

had bee n

aband oned

in

1942, 80 miles

from

Whitehorse. He'd spoken to a

hunt

er

who had seen it some years before.

The hunter

had

been

in too

grea t a

hurry to inves tigate the remains. His

main co ncern at the time wa

s

putting dis

tanc

e between

hims

elf

and a bear.

The

hunt

er, known as Scotty, led

Camero n

to

the

site. It was difficult

to find, being

an

isolated spot, and it

seemed to be the last place in th e

world one would pick to land

an

air

plan e on floats. Yet,

there

was

'AAM's

decomposing

wing, incon

trovertible evidence that an airplane

h ad

once

landed

there

on

what

passed for a river,

and

tried

to tak

e

off again. Alas,

the

wing was

too

far

gone, except for a bucket full of fit

tings. In

th e summer

of

1982, Clark

Seaborn's family stood aghast

at

th e

sight of a trailer-load of junk being

dump ed in the driveway of th eir

Calgary h ome. Lying on the pave

ment

were

th

e

rusting components

of not one, but several Fokker Super

Universals,

including the remnants

of CF -AA M. They had come

from

th

e Western Ca

nada

Aviation Mu

Fly

In

alendar

The following

li

st ofcoming even ts is furnished to our readers as a matter of

infor

mation only

and does not co

nstitute

approval,

sponsorship,

involv

e

ment, contro

l

or

direction

of

any

event

(fl

y

-in

, seminars, fly market, etc.)

li

sted. Please send

the

infor

mation to EAA

,

Au: Vintage

A

irplan e, P o Box 30

86, Os

hko

sh,

WI

54903-3086.

Information should be r

eceiv

ed our months

prior

to the eve

nt dat

e.

EAA

R

egiona

l Fly-Ins shown in bold.

SEPTEMBER 15-I7-WATERTOWN,

WI

-(RNV) 16th

Annual Byron Smith Memorial Stinson R

eunion.

In

fo: Suezette

Selig, 630/904-6964.

SEPTEMBER J6-17-ROCK FALLS, IL -Whiteside

County Airport (SQ I). North Central EAA Old

fashioned Fly-ln. Sun. morning pancake break

fast. Info: 630/543-6743 oreaa IOI

@aol

.com

SEPTEMBER J7-LANSING, IL-EAA Chapter 260

Fly- InlDrive-In pancake breakfasl. Info:

708

/474

3748 or 708/798-380

1.

SEPTEMBER 22-23-BARTLESVILLE,

OK

-Frank

Phillip

s

Fie

l

d. 43rd Annual Tulsa

Regional Fly-l

n.

Info:

Charlie Harris,

918/622-8400.

SEPTEMBER 23-24-ZANESVILLE, OHIO-John's

Landing.

VAA

Chapter

22

9th Anuual

Fall

Fly-I

n.

Breakfast both days, H

og roast

on Saturday night.

In

fo: Virginia at 740/453-6889

or

740/455

-

9900.

SEPTEMBER

22-23-ASHEBORO

, NC-EAA Chapter

11

76

Aerofest 2000 at

Smith

Airfield. Oldfash

ioned grass fieldJly-in and pig pickin . Un i

com

1

22.9.

Info: J

ejJSmith, 336

/879-2830.

SEPTEMBER 30-HANOVER, IN-Lee

Bollom

Air

OCTOBER

12-15 -

MESA, AZ-Copperstate Regional

EAA Fly-In_ Williams Gateway Airport Info:

52014

00-888 7

or

www_copperstate.

org

OCTOBER

21-DAYTON, OH-

Antique/Classic

Chili

Fly-IN at Moraine Airpark (I73). Call Darrell

Montgomery

at

937/866-2489.

OCTOBER 14-ADA,

OK-4th

annual Plane Fun

Fly-In

and

Youth

Expo

sponsored

by EAA

Chapter

1005

at Ada Muni. Airport (KA DH). Free T-shirtfor

first

50 pilots.

In

fo:

Terry Hall

,

580/436

-

8190.

OCTOBER 12-15-WICHIT

A,

KS-Travel Air

75th

Anniversary H

omecoming Celebration.

Raytheon

Aircraft, Beech Field

. For

schedu

l

ed

events and

registration mat

er

ials se nd SASE

to Travel

Air

Restorer's Assn.,

4925 Wilma

Way,

San

Jose, CA

95124 or Mike Sloan of Raytheon Aircraft, PO

Box

85,

Wichita, KS

67201.

OCTOBER

14

- RIDGEWAY,

VA

- Pa ce Field

(N36.35.05,

W79.52.48.)

Old

Fashioned Grass

Field

Fly-

In

Pig-Pi

ck

in

g. EAA

Chapter

970

. I

nfo:

Tommy

Pace,

540/956-2159.

OCTOBER 20-21 - ABILENE,

TX-EAA

SOllthwest

Regional Fly-III. The Big cOllntry Fly-In.

Info:8001727-77

04

or

lVlVw.slVrji.org

SEPTEMBER 16 -

AN

DOVER, NJ Andover-
mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:///reader/full/www_copperstate.orghttp:///reader/full/www_copperstate.orghttp:///reader/full/www_copperstate.orghttp:///reader/full/N36.35.05http:///reader/full/W79.52.48http:///reader/full/lVlVw.slVrji.orghttp:///reader/full/lVlVw.slVrji.orghttp:///reader/full/lVlVw.slVrji.orgmailto:[email protected]:///reader/full/www_copperstate.orghttp:///reader/full/N36.35.05http:///reader/full/W79.52.48http:///reader/full/lVlVw.slVrji.org


30/36

NEW MEMBERS

Mike Bourget .. ... .Orleans, Ontario, Canada

Barry G. Smith ... Oakville, Ontario, Canada

Leopold Veilleux ................... ....

..

..... .... .. ...

..

.

........... .............. St George, Quebec, Canada

Stephane Ollier ............................................ .

........ ....... ..........St Rambert D'Albon, France

Richard Moore ........... Boston, Great Britain

Alexander Tullis .......................................... .

........................... Black Heath, Great Britain

jeffrey W. Salter ........................................... .

......

..

............. Holywood Co.

Down

, Ireland

Kuni Hasegawa ...... .... .............Tokyo, japan

[van

Campbe ll

... ................................ .... ......

.........................Christchurch , New Zea land

james Schmidt . .. ..................... ....... ..............

.............. ..............Warkworth, New Zealand

Mervyn R Thompson

..... .....

..

......... ..... ....

.. ..

........................ C

hristchurch

, New Zea

land

Eric

Grover ........ ...................................... .

..

...

..

........ Pretoria, Republic

of South

Africa

William justusson ...Dhahran, Saudi Arabia

Franz Straumann ..............Elgg, Switzerland

Duane A.

Peters .................... Anchorage, AK

julian A. Smith ........ ............ Eagle River AK

Dennis L

Hasha ...... ...... ...... .Tuscombia, AL

Sidney

L

Brain ...... .. ... .. ....... Russellville,

AR

jason P. Overman ........................

Cabot,

AR

Donald Downin ............................ Mesa, AZ

Robert

A. Loogman

................. Hanford, CA

Kevin Mccarthy

........................Pacifica, CA

Brian Neal. ....... .................... ..

Monrovia

,

CA

William R. Schicora ..... .......Winchester,

CA

jeffrey Scholz ... ........................... ..Perris, CA

Phil Schultz ..........................

..

Lancaster, CA

Richard A. Sweet ...................... Ventura,

CA

Klaus

ten

Hagen ................... Sunnyvale, CA

Dirk

A. VanCott

................... ..... .Rescue, CA

john

C. Watts ....................... San Diego,

CA

Bradley

P.

Hindman

..............Littl

eton, CO

Kris D. Kluge .............

Co

lorado Springs,

CO

Tom

Poeling ...............................Eckert, CO

Stephen A. Tonozzi ......... .. .......................... .

................................Glenwood Springs, CO

Robert

L

Williams .......................... Erie,

CO

Roger

L

Klein .... .. ......... .......... Hadlym e, CT

john B.

Pelkey, Sr. ................. ..... Enfield, CT

john Benson .................... ....... .....

Nap

les,

FL

Jeffrey

A. Jones

... ...

..

..........

.. ..

Ciearwater,

FL

William Lowery Geneva FL

William G. Mercer .... ...... ... .jacksonville, FL

Art

K.

Sproch .......................jacksonville,

FL

Kempton Ballard, Jr. .. ..............Newnan, GA

Stiles D. Brown .... ..... .... .. .........

Newnan,

GA

Steve

Forsyth ..... .

Documents

Vintage Airplane - Sep 2000