VA-Vol-31-No-2-Feb-2003

VOL 31 No 2 FEBRUARY 2003

2 VAA NEWS HG Frau tschy

3 FRIENDS OF THE RED BARN

4 JOHN MILLER RECALLS

A Dc-3 ADVENTUREl]oh n M Miller

7 ICE

AND OTHER WAYS TO BREAK AN AIRPLANE 10 OR AIRMANBi ll Dunn

10 MYSTERY PLANE

13 THE WINSTEAD SPECIAL

THE 1920s WERE SPECIAL

Giles Auliard

17 THE FAMILY FLIVVER

THE KOSHARS 1966 SKYHAWK

Budd Davisson

21 THE VINTAGE INSTRUCTOR shy DISTRACTIONS

ITS WHAT YOU DONT SEE THAT MIGHT BITE

Dou g Stewart

22 PASS IT TO BUCK

25 CALENDAR

27 CLASSIFIED ADS

28 NEW MEMBERS

30 VAA MERCHANDISE

Publisher Editor-in-Chief Executive Editor News Editor Photography Staff

Advertising Coordinator Advertising Editorial Assistant Copy Editing

VINTAGE AIRPLAN-=E-shy

Executive Director Editor VAA Administrative Assistant Contributing Editors

Graphic Designer

TOM POBEREZNY scon SPANGLER MIKE DIFRISCO RIC REYNOLDS JIM KOEPNICK LEEANN ABRAMS TRISHA LUNDQUIST JULIE RUSSO ISABELLE WISKE COLLEEN WALSH KATHLEEN WITMAN

HENRY G FRAUTSCHY THERESA BOOKS JOHN UNDERWOOD BUDD DAVISSON OLIVIA L PHILLIP

17

FRONT COVER Its hard to believe that this Cessna 172 was delivered over 36 years ago One of the first bui lt with Cessnas Ommnivision back window its been a part of Robert Koshars family since 1972 It won the Contemporary Champion award at EM AirVenture 2000 EM photo by Jim Koepnick EAA Cessna 210 photo plane flown by Bruce Moore

BACK COVER Frank Warrens striking painting entitled All American Ace shows us Douglas Campbell the first pilot trained by Americans to become an ace during WW-I Campbel l downed his 5 German aircraft in 1918 He stands beside a Nieuport 28 bearing the Hat in the Ring markings of the 94th Squadron of the American 1st Pursuit Group Warren s painting was awarded an Honorable Mention ribbon from the judges of the 2002 EM Sport Aviation Art Competition

STRAIGHT Be LEVEL

It happens every so often we have winter weather in my part of North Carolina Since the first of Deshycember I have had either snow or ice lying in front of my hangar door about half the time My hangar door faces east and with the sun in the southern sky this time of year the hangar shades this area The snow and ice stays there until it warms up for a few days

I know those of you who live where you must put up with these conditions every winter are not goshying to have a good deal of sympathy for me Not having all of the necesshysary equipment to deal with the snow removal most of the time we southshyern guys rely on Mother Nature to remove this crunchy cold stuff I have a bi-fold hangar door and with it closed coupled with the insulation and a good propane heater it makes for a cozy atmosphere

In December we had our EAA Chapter Christmas party in our hangar This gathering is one that a number of people that may not atshytend other meetings very often will make an extra effort to attend It is a covered dish affair Norma and I supply the turkey and ham There is always a great deal of food for everyshyone With crummy uncomfortable weather outside the Chapter also held its January meeting at our hangar A number of aircraft did fly in including a new RV-S I would have liked to linger and admire it but it was windy and cold so I ducked back inside before I was chilled to the bone

With the weather so cold its a great time to stay in the hangar and work on the Luscombe panel again I have comshypletely removed the old panel and the wiring plumbing etc The windshield

BY ESPIE BUTCH JOYCE PRESIDENT VINTAGE ASSOCIATION

Winter Work

had to be removed to drill out the rivets securing the windshield retainer (Add that to the ever-growing list of just one more thingI)

I have mounted the new panel in a jig on the workbench All of the new instruments are installed and my radio guy is doing the wiring for me If I can keep every thing going forward maybe I can be finished somewhere between late spring and mid summer In the meantime I do have to throw in an annual inspecshytion on the Baron and maybe a golf game or two We can see over the horizon season-wise and warm weather is not far away

Think of Sun n Fun as

the coming-out party

for EAAs Countdown

to Kitty Hawk

We all know what that means it will soon be April Everyone needs to be at the annual Sun n Fun EAA Fly-In held at Lakeland Linder Reshygional Airport in Lakeland Florida The people at Sun n Fun continue to improve this great fly-in expandshying the attendance of airplanes and people each year

Think of Sun n Fun as the comshying-out party for EAAs Countdown to Kitty Hawk The Wright Flyer built by Ken Hydes Wright Experishyence will be the centerpiece of an exciting pavilion located just to the east of the FAA building Thanks to the sponsorship of the Ford Motor Company and Mishycrosoft this exhibit promises to be both entertaining and educational

The centennial reminds us of the great freedoms weve enjoyed over the years as we fly all over this great nation I am not sure how many of you have thought about the anshyniversary celebration in this light but I will offer the following for your thoughts

The Wright brothers would have no way of ever imagining that an aircraft could be used as a weapon against civilians in the way it was during the terrorism act of Septemshyber 11 The fallout of the action of terrorism affected the aviation comshymunity in a negative manner Some even wondered if we would ever get back in the sky with the freedom that we have known Because of a number of peoples hard work were close but there are still those within our own government who would prefer to see greater restrictions placed on us We cant let that hapshypen under the guise of national security The powered flight of the Wright brothers inspired others to become involved in aviation Now because of their flight in 1903 they are once again the leaders whose deshytermination and will to succeed will cause aviation people to celebrate flight and with renewed spirit find aviation once again enjoyable

I will be in the Vintage area durshying this years Sun n Fun Fly-In I hope to see you there Lets all pull in the same direction for the good of aviation Remember we are better together Join us and have it all

Butch

VINTAGE AIRPLANE

VAA NEWS

FAA FIELD ApPROVALS At this point we cant give you

specifics since the FAA has not yet issued a revision to the policy govshyerning field approvals and supplemental type certificates howshyever as this issue was going to press we learned the FAA Small Aircraft Directorate was in the process of putting together Revision 16 to the policy Coupled with some addishytional direction issued from FAA Washington the field approval process should become clearer We were also asked to urge any memshybers who have had problems particularly in the lower 48 states to appeal their denial of a field apshyproval to the manager of the facility with which theyve been working and if that does not work to contact us at EAA headquarters Specific non-emotional data is needed to be sure the word gets out that the field approval process is not to be held up and that field approvals should be continuing If you need to conshytact EAA Government Programs on this issue please e-mail us at govteaaorg or call 920-426-6522

METEOR RT-14 LOGS FIRST FLIGHT AT CHINO

With Dave Morss at the controls the Wathen Foundations replica of the Turner RT-14 Meteor made its first flight at Chino California on Thursday December 12 2002 Tom Wathen said the airplane flew for IS minutes and that golden era racer indicated 170 mph with its Pratt amp Whitney R-1830 producing just 17 inches of manifold pressure about 30 percent power

During the first flight the engine ran smoothly but hot We have to let more air out of the cowling Washythen said

Bill Turner built the replica in his Repeat Aircraft shop on the Flabob Airport which the Wathen Foundashytion saved from developers little more

FEBRUARY 2003

than two years ago but work to adshydress the cooling needs and other bugs such as the inability to get more than 10 degrees of fla ps will take place at Chinos Planes of Fame With a 2S-foot wing and an empty weight better than 3000 pounds with full flaps the lOOO-hp racer should land at 115 mph Wathen said which makes the airplane too hot for Flabob and its short runway

Morss called the RT-14 a real rocket ship Wa t hen said He added that the replica marked Morss 32Sth first flight and his 30th first flight of a prototype airshycraft Owned and flown by legendary race pilot Roscoe Turner the original RT-14 is in the collecshytion of the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum and comshypeted in the National Air Races from 1937 to 1939 placing first in 1938 and 39 -SM Spangler

DAVID ELMENDORF David Richard Elmendorf was born in

1911 in Puerto Rico His family then moved to New York and he attended St Johns Military School As a young man he moved to California in the late 1920s and settled in Culver City close to Clover Field in Santa Monica a center of early aviation in Califorshynia He learned to fly in a Reet biplane

In 1935 he entered the National Air Races in Cleveland and again in Los Angeshyles in 1936 with his plane the Elmendorf Special which was a Keith-Rider R5 This plane was later sold (1938) and renamed the Jackrabbit and today is on display in the Wittman hangar at the EAA AirVenture Museum in Oshkosh Wisconsin

Later he worked at Douglas Aircraft and in 1941 joined a pilot training school at Cal Aero in Ontario California where he trained young Air Corps cadets to fly He also served in the US Army in 1945 and continued to train pilots After the war he returned to Douglas and retired after 35 years as an airshycraft mechanic

Dave is survived by his wife of 70 years Helen Elmendorf He was buried on September 26 2002 at Forest Lawn in Hollywood Hills California

The Art of Engineering From NASAs Aeronautical Research AN EXHIBITION AT THE ART INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO

The architecture department at The Art Institute of Chicago and the Aeroshyspace Technology Enterprise of the National Aeronautics and Space Adminisshytration (NASA) are organizing an exhibition on aerospace design for showing August 2 2003 through February 8 2004 in the Kisho Kurokawa Gallery of Architecshy

ture at the Art Institute Later it will travel to two other museum locations in the nation and a photographic version will circulate to airports throughout the United States The project will have an accompanying book published by Merrell Publishers in London and an extensive educational program at the Art Institute

The exhibition itself will feature the architecture and engineering of wind tunnels through approximately 90 wind tunnel models from NASAs collection The earl iest of these is shown here and remains unidentified NASA and The Art Institute of Chicago would appreciate any ideas that members might have regarding the identification of this vintage artifact The exact nature of the routed-out hole and rectangular area on the side of the fuselage are also unknown Please contact John Zukowsky the John H Bryan Curator of Architecture The Art Institute of Chicago 111 S Michigan Avenue Chicago IL 60603 (phone 312-443-3949 fax 312-578-0960 e-mail jzukowskyarticedu) The first EAA member who correctly identifies this biplane (any documentation would be helpful since it is unidentified) will receive copies of two of the Art Institutes previous books on aerospace architecture entitled Building for Air Travel (1996) and 2001 Building for Space Travel (2001)

2

VAAs Friends of The Red Barn VAA 2003 Convention Fund Raising Program

The Vintage Aircraft Association is a major particishypant in the Worlds Largest Annual Sport Aviation Event - EAA AirVenture Oshkosh The Vintage Divishysion hosts and parks over 2000 vintage airplanes each year from the Red Barn area of Wittman Field south to the perimeter of the airport

The financial support for the various activities in connection with the weeklong event in the VAA Red Barn area has been principally derived from the Vinshytage Aircraft Associations general income fund Starting in 2002 the Vintage Board elected to more properly underwrite the annual Vintage Red Barn area Convention activities from a yearly special convenshytion support fund This effort is the VAAs Friends of the Red Barn program

This fundraising program is an annual affair beginshyning each year on July 1 and ending June 30 of the following year This years campaign is well underway with contributions already arriving here at VAA HQ Our thanks to those of you who have already sent in your 2003 contributions

You can join in as well There will be three levels of gifts and gift recognition

Vintage Gold Level - $60000 and above gift Vintage Silver Level - $30000 gift Vintage Bronze Level - $10000 gift Each contribution at one of these levels entitles

you to a Certificate of Appreciation from the Division Your name will be listed as a contributor in Vintage

Airplane magazine and on a special display at the VAA Red Barn You will also be presented with a special name badge recognizing your level of participation During AirVenture youll have access to the Red Barn Volunteer Center a nice place to cool off

Gold Level contributors will also receive a pair of certificates each good for a flight on their choice of EAAs Ford Trimotor or New Standard Biplane reshydeemable during AirVenture or during the summer flying season at Pioneer Airport Silver Level contribu shytors will receive one certificate for a flight on their choice of one of the two planes

This is a grand opportunity for all Vintage members to join together as key financia l supporters of the Vinshytage Division It will be a truly rewarding experience for each of us as individuals to be part of supporting the finest gathering of Antique Classic and Contemshyporary airplanes in the world

Wont you please join those of us who recognize the tremendously valuable key role the Vintage Aircraft Assoshyciation has played in preserving the great grass roots and general aviation airplanes of the last 100 years Your participation in EAAs Vintage Aircraft Association Friends of the VAA Red Barn will help insure the very finest in AirVenture Oshkosh Vintage Red Barn programs

For those of you who wish to contribute weve included a copy of the contribution form Feel free to copy it and mail it to VAA headquarters with your donation Thank you

-~---------------------------------------------------------------- -- ---- -- - ---- -- ------------------------

2003 VAA Friends of the Red Barn Name______________________________________________ EAA_______________VAA ______________

Address____________________________________________________________________________________

CityStateZip _______________________________________________________________________________

Phone_____________________________________E-Ma il ___________________________________________

Please choose your level of participation

_ Vintage Gold Level Friend - $60000 Mail your contribution to _ Vintage Silver Level Friend - $30000 EAA _ Vintage Bronze Level Friend - $10000

VINTAGE AIRCRAFT ASSOC o Payment Enclosed o Please Charge my credit card (below) PO Box 3086 Credit Card Number ______________________ Expiration Date ___________ OSHKOSH WI 54903-3086 Sign a ture_____________________________

00 you or your spouse work for a matching gift company If so this gift may qualify for a matching donation Please ask your Human Reshysources department for the appropriate form NameofCompany __________________________

The Vintage Aircraft Association is a non-profit educational organization under IRS sOlc3 rules Under Federal Law the deduction from Federal Inshycome tax for charitable contributions is limited to the amount by which any money (and the value of any property other than money) contributed exceeds the value of the goods or services provided in exchange for the contribution An appropriate receipt acknowledging your gift will be sent to you for IRS gift reporting reasons

VINTAGE AIRPLANE 3

uring World War II I was a -captain on Eastern Air

--- Lines (EAL) flying out of Newark airport (before LaGuardia had been built) and in addition I was also the chief test pilot for Coshylumbia Aircraft Corp at Valley Stream Long Island (extra duty on the side due to the necessities of wartime) On one of the rare days that I was at home I received an urgent call from the airline asking me to rush to Newark for an emershygency flight I realized that it must be an emergency since I had the day off from both jobs because the weather was absolutely horrible with zerozero fog over the eastern half of the United States and with the airlines at a standstill

I drove the 80 miles in that dense fog with real difficulty and it took almost twice as long as the usual trip I could hardly imagine what was in store for me during those nearly four hours of driving or why they would be calling for me to fly in such weather espeshycially since there were other pilots living much nearer to Newark than I who were also grounded I finally found out No other pilot wanted to fly the trip for several good reashysons First the fog was extremely dense right to the ground and was expected to be very deep Second there was a cargo load of live Boshyfors anti-aircraft ammunition aboard which made the airplane about 1000 pounds overweight Third there was no alternate airshyport other than the destination itself Atlanta and it too had the same weather but was expected to open before arrival Dispatch had

FEBRUARY 2003

called me confident that I would cooperate as usual

On arrival at Newark I found that another captain senior to me had volunteered so I was to be his copilot Evidently we were the only two volunteers I had done so without knowing what a difficult set of circumstances confronted us but I did not renege

The anti-aircraft cartridges were about 15 inches long as I rememshyber I do not know the caliber It was for a commonly used Swedish anti-aircraft gun This load was urshygently needed for a cargo ship due to depart from New Orleans the next day with a load of war mateshyrial The cartridges were packed three in each wood box and were loaded all along the floor of the passenger DC-3 and in each passhysenger seat Quite a sight We were told that the center of gravity (CG) was okay but the overload was about 1000 pounds I suspected it really weighed more It was all more than slightly illegal but it was wartime and regulations had to be ignored sometimes There were probably another thousand pounds worth of regulations being violated too

The fog was so dense that we had to be towed out to the runway by a special tow tractor made for that purpose (the driver could see better than we could because he was closer to the ground) We could not see the white lines or the taxiway and runway markings over the nose ahead of the windshyshield with the ta ilwheel on the ground The mechanic driving the tow tractor detached pulled the

two landing gear safety pins and held them up for both of us to see them We ran up the engines and checked the instruments and rashydios (low frequency receivers for four-leg ranges and high frequency for communication) set the direcshytional gyro carefully to the runway heading (toward the southwest where there were no high obstrucshytions ahead) and started the long slow acceleration for takeoff It took a long long time to get the extra airspeed necessary to get airshyborne with the heavy load aboard and we did not have any markings to tell us how much runway we had left

We were committed We had to hold an exact heading to stay on the runway with occasional glimpses of runway lights in our peshyripheral vision to assure us The fog was so dense that we could not acshytually see the runway approach lights as we passed over them only a glow from them After all they were faced in the same direction as we were Captain Dice gave me the thumbs-up signal to raise the gear when he was sure that he was going to stay in the air without inadvershytently touching down I already had my left hand on the gear lever

SURPRISE The gear lever reshyfused to unlock or move at all With all my strength I could not move it Captain Dice frantically held his thumb up and jabbed it into the air insistently but to no avail Thoughts raced through my mind that possibly the operator of

4

himshywJrlJgtUO~middot flPtiU some of the

~~J~Pl8eu~~ in the attempts The slow climb with the landing

gear fully extended did get us over the big oil refinery ahead of us at Kearny New Jersey but we could smell the chemical smoke as we skimmed over it The two Wright engines stayed at full takeoff power and were getting hot

Fortunately with flat terrain ahead we were able to hold level for a while to get more cooling air before starting a long slow climb to about 1000 feet That was enough for the present Only a sight reduction of power was possishyble without losing airspeed and altitude Here we were at low altishytude with all kinds of populated areas under us with an overload of ammunition The engines had to be left in a rich mixture condition to keep them from failing-we used the fuel for extra cooling There was no choice whatsoevershywe had to continue on course gain a little altitude and hope the enshygines would get us to Atlanta Fat chance We did not have autopishylots in EAL airplanes (Captain Eddies idea) so flying at that load and low airspeed was tiring We took turns at it and suspected that the overload was greater than we were told We could not decide what it could be that could preshyvent the gear from retracting unless a set of safety pins was still in place

Yet we had plainly seen them in the hand of the tow tractor driver

in store for me

during those

nearly four hours

of driving or why

they would be

calling for me

to fly in

such weather bull bull bull

We must have awakened a lot of people below us that night when we passed over at 2000 feet with the poor engines over-revving at almost full takeoff power We were using fuel at a very high rate so we were worried about getting to Atshylanta Any attempt to lean the mixture too much caused high oil and cylinder head temperatures We were busy controlling the enshygines to prevent failure We radioed ahead to Atlanta to preshypare to offload the cargo to another airplane and to divide the load between two of them if availshyable for the engines in our airplane would have to be changed due to such mistreatshyment even if we did succeed in getting there There was no chance

olina where a ReYollUtliOO battle was fought and ally told my passengers via a system about it I was thinking of that while we were still on instrushyments with Atlanta still below minimums At that moment the left engine suddenly started to vishybrate shaking the entire airplane with its steady vibration The oil pressure was okay and strangely was staying at red line temperature

Fortunately the engine kept right on running with that steady sharp vibration Switchshying the ignition had no effect so I concluded that both spark plugs had failed on one cylinder We had not tried the ignition before beshycause of the high power so we had not had any warning of one spark plug failing I was rushing ideas through my mind and suspected some metal was flying around in the dead cylinder that would batshyter the spark plugs The fast fuel burn-off had lightened the airshyplane so the loss of power was not serious But of course the total failure of the engine would be fatal for a dead-engine crash in that rolling farm country in a dark night We were mighty scared I inshytermittently tried the landing control lever without success I was pondering why it would not reshylease and operate

In reviewing the landing lockshying system in my mind it suddenly dawned on me that there was an up-lock cable that was extra taut due to the deflection of the wings under the unusually heavy overshyload on them I tried the gear lever

VINTAGE AIRPLANE 5

again It was still locked I was flyshying at that moment so I quickly shoved the wheel forward sharply to momentarily unload the wings and at the same time with my left hand on the gear lever it unlocked and came up to the retract posishytion With that the gear came up

Meanwhile Captain Dice was trying instinctively to overcome my sudden push on the wheel Beshyfore pushing forward I had slowly raised the nose a little What a reshylief With the engine about to fail we were able to reduce power and continue on to Atlanta which had suddenly opened up wide due to a warm front passage The engine kept right on running with its steady vibrations even while we taxied to the hangar

When we stopped the engines a column of oil smoke arose from the cowling of the left engine and a small stream of oil ran down to the tarmac The mechanics reshymoved the cowling and not to our surprise the master cylinder No 1 had a big open crack right across its head I stayed at the airport (afshyter midnight) instead of going to the hotel because I wanted to see what had caused the trouble The mechanics were curious too so they removed the cylinder and found the reason

The top of the piston had been pounded thousands of times by a piece of metal and had been disshytorted to a concave surface without being punctured The head of the exhaust valve was missing with only the broken valve stem showing It had done all of that pounding and had finally escaped out through the exhaust port into the exhaust pipe The tapered end section of the pipe had a long slot for the exhaust gases but was too narrow for the valve head to esshycape through it The section was removed and there was the head of the exhaust valve neatly folded double While it was in the cylinshyder and being heated red hot it had broken off its stem and being soft the piston crushing it edge-

FEBRUARY 2003

wise had quickly folded it tightly double By the greatest good forshytune it h ad not punctured the piston which would certainly have caused a fu lly catastrophic failure of the engine As for the failure of

Meanwhile

Captain Dice

was trYing

instinctively to

overcome my

sudden push

on the wheel

the landing gear to retract why didnt I think of that before I did Since Dick Dice had priority as captain he was entitled to keep the valve

Now here is a similar incident in a Bonanza You Bonanza people all know that it is de rigueur to crank up the landing gear by hand Such stress on the gearing may cause a failure in the gearbox The failure might not happen at the time of the cranking but pOSSibly later at an inconvenient time When I was flying the DC-8 out of ]FK airport it sometimes happened that I would land late at night just barely ahead of the sea fog rolling in off the Atlantic that would cover the airport with dense fog That could happen with only a few minshyutes warning One night just that happened When I finished the deshy

briefing in the operations office the ai rport was covered by dense sea fog My trusty litt le model C Bonanza was sitting out there in it and I wanted to get home as usual The weat h er at POU (Dutchess County Airport at Poughkeepsie) was showing 9002 and was exshypected to go down to below 5001 later The legal minimum on the only (VOR) approach was 600 feet Syracuse was my alternate quite a long way but well within my range and with Buffalo open I had a good set of alternates So I was driven out to my very damp steed The tower operator recognized my voice and said Any runway you wish Captain I chose 4 I was the only airline pilot who regularly commuted to my flights by private airplane in the entire New York area so the control tower operashytors knew me well Knowing that the top would be about 1000 feet I took off in the dense fog

In the climb I flipped the landshying gear switch to retract But it didnt After two or three trials I got the same result The circuit breaker was still engaged so pressshying it gave no help either By that time I was on top temporarily for I had a low overcast ahead of me at POU If the weather went below minimums I could not land beshycause the minimum descent altitude was the definite limit No landing could be made with runshyway in sight only at that time In case I had to go to my alternate SYR with the gear down all of the way I could run low on fuel So I wanted to get the gear up Rememshybering how I had unloaded with wings in the DC-3 (a long time beshyfore jet airliners) I made a series of short zooms and short push-overs each time getting a few turns of the crank while the weight of the landshying gear was zero and no load was on the gears in the box Presto The gear was safely up The weather at POU stayed above minimums and I got home on schedule The gear switch had failed but it worked fine for extension

6

break an airplane And lrman BILL DUNN

johnny Ringer hated ice Ice can be quite unpreshydictable If the

temperature and moisture are just right you can pick it up even when it isn t forecast And then again even when it is forecast you might not get any

Johnny and I were waiting at LaGuardia

wheel Just then a red light started blinking on my side of the inshystrument panel The warning light was inshydicating a loss of fuel pressure to the right engine

Under the throttles on the center console was a wobble pump handle to manually pump fuel pressure to

for a Lockheed C-60 to arrive on a cargo run The C-60 was to depart Buffalo for Rome Air Force Base in upstate New York and then continue on to LaGuardia We were to take it back the other way It arshyrived late The crew told us about the hairy trip they had As they were approaching Rome they started pickshying up rime ice fast and heavy The crew decided to pass up Rome and try for Albany

They soon had such a load of ice that the boots couldnt cope with it They also were unable to climb up out of it With full power they were just able to stagger into Albany Afshyter landing they said that the whole underside of the wings and even the fuselage had fingers of ice hanging down like stalactites Of course this load raised hell with the lift and added weight to the plane The capshytain was a good pilot and plenty cool He wasnt one to exaggerate

Johnny and I listened to all this and I figured that Johnny would cancel He certainly would have had

the right to But he didnt We took off for Rome and were

between layers at 6000 feet between Albany and Rome We started to let down into Rome and immediately started picking up ice Johnny let down to about 4000 when he deshycided that he had enough of that He poured the coal to the Lockheed and started a steep climbing turn to the left We used to teach chandelles under the hood at Burlington Johnny was doing a chandelle if I ever saw one

Johnny and I flew together a lot If he was looking at a chart or someshything besides his instruments and got a little off course I acted as his autopilot I would just reach up and make the correction He accepted that as routine after a while Actushyally it made us a pretty good team

On this particular flight Johnny was a bit overanxious to climb out of there When I saw that the airshyspeed had dropped to 90 I reached up and pushed forward on the

the engines I started pumping and Johnny asked me what I was doing I stopped pumpshying and showed him the red light that had come back on Johnny then did something that really shook me up He started pumping his control wheel back and forth and muttershying Oh shoot oh shoot oh shoot He had definitely panicked

We were able to climb back up between layers I kept pumping the wobble pump until I was tired We had a second lieutenant Air Force pilot in the back riding observer I called him up front and asked him to pump for a while I informed him that if he did a good job we could make it into Albany He did and we did

Johnny and I never mentioned that incident to each other or anyshyone The following year I had a flight as plane commander where panic got a grip on me It taught me never to be too critical of my fellow pilot It has always been amazing to me how critical some pilots can be of

VINTAGE AIRPLANE 7

other pilots even their friends I have to admit that from time to time I have been guilty I think that it came from the phrase There but for the grace of God go I

The demise of our Colonial Airshylines DC-2s was another series of wild experiences

To operate the hydraulic system to work the landing gear up or down the copilot would start with a lever next to his seat This lever had a button on the end of it with a reshymovable cap over the button After removing the cap and depressing the button the lever could be moved either up or down Then a long pump handle on the floor would be used to build up the hyshydraulic pressure

When the DC-2 would sit on the ground without the engines runshyning even for a short period of time the hydraulic pressure would go down It was the copilots job to pump the pressure back up More than once especially in the wee hours of the morning on an allshynight trip when we were parked and waiting to be loaded the presshysure would go down I would look at the pressure gauge and say to myself Self pump up the presshysure I would be thinking Up when I grabbed the gear lever Then I would say something else to myshyself like Dont do something stupid like pulling the lever up It is the pressure that has to come up not the gear The lever would have to be put in the down position and the pressure pumped up with the pump handle

One of our DC-2s was parked in front of the terminal at Buffalo My friend Johnny Strong was the copilot I forget who the captain was although I can think of a coushyple I wish it were The captain was in his seat and he asked Johnny to pump the pressure up Well Johnny pulled the lever up and the captain pumped The DC-2s didnt have the pins that would prevent the gear from folding as the later model DC-3s had It had a cable around the gear with a turn-

FEBRUARY 2003

buckle Unfortunately the turnshybuckle on the left gear of this DC-2 had been put on with on ly a coushyple of turns and it parted With that the left gear collapsed and the right gear folded sideways

I think that it came from the phrase

There but for the grace of God go

There sat that great old bird right in front of the terminal at Buffalo The left wing was sprung So you might say that it was terminal at the terminal

Captain Roe Nemmers was one of our check pilots He was checking out one of the new captains at LashyGuardia in the other DC-2 The brake system on the DC-2 was differshyent to say the least The captain had a brake lever on the left side of the cockpit and the copilot had one on the right If the captain wanted both brakes he would neutralize his rudshyder pedals and pull on his brake lever If he wanted left brake he would let off on the brake lever push the left rudder pedal and pull on the brake lever The same if he wanted right brake The lever would always have to be released before it could be applied again

The procedure after landing was for the copilot to take the wheel and for the captain to have his left hand on the brake lever and his right hand on the throttles It was raining on the day that Captain Nemmers was checking out the new captain Between the two pilots pushing and pulling on their respective brake levers they managed to get off the runway and onto the wet grass after landing They got it back heading for the runway and would have

made it except for two things One they started sliding sideways on the wet grass And two a B-24 was parked in the direction they were sliding They collided with the B-24 It wasnt a terrific crash Just hard enough to total our second and last DC-2 No fire and nobody hurt But Adios good old DC-2

At the end of 1942 Colonial Airshylines got a contract with the Air Force to operate a school to train Air Force pilots to fly C-47s The 10 senshyior copilots with 1000 hours were chosen to be checked out I was one of them We received horsepower ratings but not air transport ratings This being a military program apshyparently we did not need an instructors rating

The school was set up at Albany New York We arrived there in Janushyary 1943 with two C-47s These were the same as our DC-3s which were the old type with boilers for cabin heat They were flown into Albany by Colonial captains not us

We suggested that we be given the opportunity to do a little flying together to practice None of us had even flown a DC-3 or C-47 without an airline captain aboard Our reshyquest was denied with the ridiculous excuse that nothing was going to inshyterfere with the training program start ing on time So we sat around until February 10 If they had thought that we were going to bend one of their planes they would never know how close I came on the first early morning flight

Early morning was really the midshydle of the night-0400 to be exact It was February 10 1943 and it was 10 below zero and snowing My two students were second lieutenants who had just received their wings and had no twin-engine time I asked the chief pilot Charlie Wenshyzel and Mr Brown the director of the school what they thought I might be able to teach on a morning such as this They told me to just get the flight out on time and if nothshying else check the weather Ours was not to question why so I preshypared to depart

8

This was to be my first flight in a DC-3 without a captain Also as it turned out I would have been better off alone than to have those two students aboard

Those early DC-3s and C-47s had boilers that provided the cabin heat Those boilers could be the most temperamental contraptions ever invented Im not sure that even a lishycensed plumber could get any heat out of them some times This was one of those times As we taxied out one of the students was still messing around trying to get the boiler workshying with no success

The runway was covered with snow as I took off to the so uth There was a southwest wind blowshying They were giving the ceiling at 1200 feet and they were correct At that altitude the lights on the ground were starting to disappear I turned on the landing lights and it was snowing like crazy I made a 180 to the left and headed back toshyward the field I turned on the ADF (automatic direction finder) It was just going around and around A few minutes went by and we should have been able to see the field But we didnt I couldnt believe it Of course looking back I know what happened I had a wind out of the southwest and poor visibility and while making my 180 toward the east I had passed to the east of the field I was getting into serious troushyble Panic was setting in At least I always thought it was panic

Years later I read an article written by a flight surgeon about the mental effects of hypothermia We had no cabin heat and it was 10 below zero outside The students were scraping ice off the inside of the windshield They didnt have the slightest idea that I didnt know where in the world we were Actually they seemed to be getting a charge out of it All I could think of was to stay VFR and stay in the lowlands We had hills to the east and to the west The Moshyhawk River runs west from the Albany area and the Hudson runs north and south I picked up a river and started down it or perhaps up

it I dont even remember checking my compass Suddenly right ahead was one of the most beautiful sights I have ever seen Two blinking red lights that were on a bridge between Albany and Troy I had seen these lights many times from my hotel room in Albany I knew the heading from there to the airport I landed and went into operations I told them that if they fixed the boiler then come daylight I would go back out weather permitting

I told this experience to very few people but it really shook me I

knew that I had really panicked I also knew that I had not done a good job in preflighting For one thing I should have checked the ADF before taking off Even if I wasshynt planning on using it it didnt mean that I might not There were many other things that I could have done that I didnt It taught me an important lesson however A lesson about the consequence of not mainshytaining the best possible tranquility of spirit In other words keep cool so that you can keep thinking Thinking clearly that is

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VINTAGE AIRPLANE 9

BY H G FRAUTSCHY

As many of you noticed there was no Mystery Plane in last months issue so well double up on answers to keep on schedule First the October Mystery Plane was a pretty pre-war prototype from a well-known manufacturer that didnt make it to th e proshyduction line

Heres our first note from Jim Stothers Rancho Palos Verd es California

The Starliner was a six-place development of Lockheed s Vega dishyvision in 1939 It was powered by a 600-hp M enasco Unitwin enshyg in e whi ch was in fa ct a Si am ese-twin development of th e Menasco six-cylinder inverted air-

THIS MONTHS MYSTERY PLANE

OCTOBERS MYSTERY PLAN VEGA STARLINER

SEND YOUR ANSWER TO EAA V INshy SION IN THE MAY 2003 ISSUE OF V INshy

TAGE A IRPLANE PO B o x 30 8 6 TAGE A IRPLANE

OSHKOSH WI 54903 -3086 YOUR You CAN ALSO SEND YOUR RE shy

ANSWER NEEDS TO BE IN NO LATER SPONSE VI A E-MAIL S END YOUR

THAN MARCH 15 2003 FOR INCLUshy ANSWER TO vintageeaaorg

1 0 FEBRU ARY 2003

BE SU RE TO INCLUDE BOTH YOUR

NAME AND ADDRESS (ESPECIALLY YOUR

CITY AND STATE ) I N THE BODY OF

YOUR NOTE AND PUT ( MONTH) MYsshy

TERY PLANE IN THE SUBJECT LINE

WRE-2 BELLANCA SKYROCKET

NOVEMBER S MYSTERY P L ANE

Bellanca CH-400 Skyrocket designated by the U_S Navy as an XRE-2 BU No 9207

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STRUT CROSS SECTION

0 BlDCK AERO DIGEST JULY 1929

THIS MEMBER ON TOP ONLY ~14J(degI~~~ ~6~OD~~~SRTERA A~~~~~E~931 ~r~jf=rFr~T=rr===n===~=oL~OIJSON OF RUSSCRAFT HOBBIES SIDE REAR tmiddotshy U S NAVY AIRCRAFT 1921-1941

VIEW VIEW bull of $

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PROP HOOK 8 (030 CIA WIRE)

rALANCE HERE

BAMBOO REAR RUBBER PEG

COLOR SCHEME

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COVER WINDSHIELD WITH CELLULOID a OTHER WINDOWS WITH CELLOPHANE

US NAV Y BELLANCA

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~ A SALTY td P~ANUT __~=J~t~~=Jb==~==Jbull BY WILLIAW HANNAN

Bill Hannans sharp-looking peanut scale rubber-powered model airplane plan for the XRE-1 (this is sheet 1 of 2 sheets) is published in his small book entitled Plans amp 3-Views International Volume 1 Stock number BHPshy31 and priced at $995 (plus SampH) The book is available from Hannan s Runway PO Box 210 Magalia CA 95954 phone 530-873-6421 e-mail runwayhrunwaycom or on the website at wwwhrunwaycom

cooled IIBuccaneer engine resultshy source of most of my information is ing in effect in a V-12 engine I Aerofi les com think only one example of the airshy Tom Baldenhofer Waveland craft was built It was later modified Mississippi has some additional to a single-tail version (Model 22) memories of the Starliner with a furth er refinem ent of th e Unitwin engine producing 640 The Bob OHara photograph hp Further developmentproduction brought back some pleasant memoshywas terminated due to WW-II The ries of my young days in the 1940s

and 1950s scraping allowance mon ey to bu y a 25 -cent Comet model airplane kit Cleveland kits were too pricey for me then and Guillow kits were for little kidsshythey could not fly The Comet E-series was a good compromise They flew well there was a good asshysortment of subjects and with care they could fly fairly well Some of those I built and flew included the Waco EQC-6 Aeronca K on floats Piper J-4 Stin so n SR-7 Ryan ST Curtiss P-40C Grumman F4F-3 Republic P-47C and the P-51A The Navion that I built took about 10 days to ge t ready to fly and turned in some 30-second flights

Then there was the Vega Starshyliner

The following has been abshystracted from Lockheed Aircraft Since 1913 by Renee J FraneilshyIon (Putnam 1987)

In 1937 Lockheed fostered the founding of the A iRover Company to make a Unitwin engine from two Menasco C6S-4 engines and assemshyble some Lockheed Altair spare parts to act as a Flying Tes t Stand for the flight tests A iRover was renam ed Vega in 1938 and Vegas first airshyplane was the Starliner which was given the CAA registration of NX21725 It appears that the mashychine never had an ATC or even a Group 2 approval First flight was made with a centrally located fin rudder on 22 April 1939 but there was a g litch in the propeller control mechanism and the pilot made an off-airport landing Reshypairs were made quickly and a twin-fin rudder [as shown in the Vintage Airplane photograph] was made A further mishap took place when the nose gear failed to lower on a landing but due to the fact that all three wheels of the trishycycle landing gea r protruded from th e surface a la B-17 and DC-3 damage was minimal NX21725 amassed a total flying time ofnearly ninety hours but Vega deemed it too impractical for use as an airlinershyth e machine had only a five-s eat

VINTAGE AIRPLANE 1 1