Vintage Airplane - Nov 1977

8/12/2019 Vintage Airplane - Nov 1977

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Restorer sCornerfJJ I.J.R.NIELAl\nEH,.JR.

Your officers, directors, advisors, convention chairmen and convention co-chairmen of your EAA An-tique/Classic Division respectfully dedicate this convention coverage issue of THE VINTAGE AIRPLANE toeach of you who volunteered your time to the Divisionand put forth your efforts to make th is 1977 Silver An-niversary EAA Conventio n such a great success. It wouldnot have been possible without your help and dedication. This year 170 of you, a 33 increase in Divisionvolunteers over last year, pitched in and took over convention duties so that your fellow members, their families and guests could enjoy your convention. We knowthat all of you who helped got a great amount of personal satisfaction out of being a member of the team .Many of you worked as much as fourteen hours per day,and we are all very much indebted to you for th is greatdevotion to your fellow members. We sincerely apologize to those of you who, because of this great devotion,did not have the opportunity to see the other areas ofthe convention. I an add itional 210 members had offered to help with convention duties this year, then two3-hour shifts sometime during the week would have been

all that would have been needed from any volunteer inorder to supply the complete Division convention manpower requirements. This desired total of 380 convention volunteers would have made your Division's part ofthe convent ion op erate even more efficiently and wouldthus have made it even more enjoyable for all of us. Wehope that next year the additional needed volunteerswill step forward and help ou r very ded icated and hardworking group.

Your convention chairmen and co-chairmen are meeting with your Division officers, directors and advisors atEAA Headquarters on Saturday, November 12th, for acombined co nvention debriefing and Board of Directorsmeeting. The suggestions for improvement of the convention which come out of this meeting will be forwarded to EAA convention management. Your Division convention management team welcomes suggestions for im-provement or recognition of areas of deficiency. Pleasesend any comments to Division Headquarters as soon aspossible so that they can be included in the Divisiondebriefing report.

We have written on numerous occasions about thedesirability and necessity of increasing the membershipin the Division. With the holiday season coming up next

month, many of us are wondering what kind of a presentwe can give to that good friend who has helped us somuch with the work on our restoration, or who hashelped us to maintain our bird in such beautiful condition. Others of us are wondering how we can show ourappreciation to the A P who has been so helpful insupervising our work, or the inspector who has beensigning off our periodic inspections, or the base operatorwho has gone out of his way to help us locate muchneeded scarce parts. Why not show your appreciation tothese good and valued friends by giving them a membership in the EAA Antique/Classic Division? Certainlythey have demonstrated their interest in vintage aircraftby the interest they have shown in your project. Theywould surely enjoy such a present, and it would be re-membered all year long with the monthly arrival of THEVINTAGE AI RPLANE magazine.

If your friend is already an EAA member, you canenroll him as a Division member for just fourteen dollars. If he is not an EAA member, the cost is just twentydollars, and this includes full membership in EAA aswell, but without the subscription to SPORT AVIATION magazine. You can use one of the membershipapplication blanks included with this issue to sign himup. If you will attach a note to the application statingthat it is a gift membersh ip from you, an appropriateletter will be sent to your friend from Headquarters advising him of your gift. Do it today so that he will re-ceive his membership in time for Christmas.
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ANTIQUE AND CLASSICDIVISIONOFFICERS

PRESIDENTJ. R. NI'ELANDER , JR.P.O. BOX 2464FT. LAU DERDALE, FL 33303VICEPRESIDENTJACK WI NTHROPa RT. 1, BOX 111ALLEN, TX 75002

SECRETARYRICHARD WAGNERP.O. BOX 181LYONS, WI 53148TREASURERE.E. BUCK HILBERT8102 LEECH RD.UNION, II,. 60180

,THE V INTAGE AI RP LANE is ownedHales Corners, Wisconsin 53130.531 30, and additional ma iling 01period of which 1 0.00 is fo r theinte,ested in avia tion.

ditorialtaffEditorAI Kelch

Associate EditorRobert G. Elliott1227 Oakwood Ave.Daytona Beach. Florida 32014

Assistant EditorLois KelchAssociate Editor

Edward D. Williams713 Eastman Dr.Mt. Prospect, Illinois 60 056Associate Editors will be identified in the tdble of contents on articles they send in and repeated on the articleif they have written it. Associate Editorships will beassigned to those who qualify 5 articles in any calendaryear).

D irect orsWilliam J. EhlenRoute 8 Box 506Tampa, Florida 33618

Claude L. Gr dy, Jr.9635 Sylvia AvenueNorthridge, California 91324Dale A. Gustafson7724 Shady Hill DriveIn dianapolis, In didna 46274

W. Brad Thomas. Jr.301 Dod son M ll Road

Evander M. BrittBox 1525Lumberton, North Carolina 28358AI Kelch7018 W. Bonniwell RoadMequon, Wisconsin 53092

Morton W. LesterBox 3747Martinsville, Virginia 24112

Pilot Mountain, North Carolina 2704 1Advisors

M.e. Kelly VietsRR1,Box151Stilwell, Kansas 66085

Arthur R. Morgan513 North 91s1 StreetMilwaukee, Wiscons in 53226Roger J. Sherron446-C LasCasi tasSanta Rosa California 95401

Stan Gomoll104290th Lane, N.E.Minneapoli s, Minn esota 55434Rob ert E. Kesel455 Oakridge DriveRoch ester, New York 14617

Robert A. White1207 Falcon DriveOrlando, Florida 32803usively by Ant ique Classic Aircraft, I nc . and is published monthly atPostage paid at Ha les Corners P ost Office, Hales Co rners. Wisconsin

ship rates for Antique Classic Aircraft. Inc. at $ 14. 00 per 12 monthion of THE V INTAGE AIRPLANE. Membership is open to all who are

OFFICIAL MAGAZINEANTIQUE CLASSIC

IVISIONofTH E EXPERIMENTAL AIRCRAFT ASSOCIATION

P.O. Box 229 Hales Corners Wis 5313NOVEMBER 1977 VOLUME 5 NUMBER 11flljtecial d ~ f ~ t '77 C i f ~

Editor's NoteWe have dedicated this issue to the winners at Oshkosh '77 and have attempted to have one article

for each airplane. The following are winners whose article was not available at press time .Best Cessna 190 /195 Best Taylorcraft Limited Prod uctionRaybourn Thompson Edwin Disch/Kent Jarellien/Wm. Knight Johnson RocketHouston, TX Brodhead, WI Orval Fairbai rn

Sunnyvale, Ca.The response was amazing, all but three responded, making this issue a fat and sassy one. We thank

all the contributors and hope you enjoy the reading as much as we have.AI Kelch

Assistant Editor's Note:It has been a pleasure to work with the great stories received from this year's winners. We thankthem for their t ime and effort in preparing their restoration stories to share with us all. It is interestingto note the similarity of so many of them that of finding them in barns or in the back of hangars, andthe work and patience to restore them back to their original. Also noted was the fact that almosteveryone states they could not have done i t a lone they had the help of family and friends, and insome cases had the help of total strangers, who through the project, became close friends.

Lo is Kelch(Photos of winners receiving their trophy were taken by Bob Mi//er)EAA ANTIQUE/CLASSIC DIVISION MEMBERSHIPo NONEAA MEMBER - 34.00. Includes one year membersh ip in the EAA Antique /Classic Division . 12monthly issues 01 THE VINTAGE AIRPLANE; one year membership in the Experimental Airc raft Associati on. 12 monthly issues 01 SPORT AVIATION and separate membership cards.o NONEAA MEMBER - 20.00. Includes one year membership in the EAA Ant ique /Classic Division, 12

month ly issues 01 THE VINTAGE AIRPLANE; Gne year membership in the Experimental Aircraft Association and separate membership cards. SPORT AVIATION not included.o EAA MEMBER - 14.00. Includes one year membership in the M Antique/Classic Division , 12 monthlyissues 01 THE VINTAGE AIRPLANE and membership card . (Applicant must be current EAA member andmust give EAA membership number.PICTURE BOX

ON THE COVER (Back Cover)Don Freitag s Grand Champion

An tique (Photo by Les Elliott)Forrest Lo v/ey s Grand Champion Classic. (Photo by Les Elliott)

Copyri9ht C 1977 Antique Classic Aircraft, Inc . All Rights R ed .2


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GRAND CHAMPIONKARl KEEN SIOUX COUPE

NC1 721By: Forrest Lo vely6905 Elliot A venue SouthRichfield, N 55423

Strange as it may sou nd, this project started withGary Hanson breaking the crankshaft in the Velie engineon his Star Cavalier on the way to Oshkosh '75. Whilelooking for Velie parts a friend told me of a Kari-Keen inElroy, Wisconsin that had a littl e round engine with onecylinder missing. Upon contacting owner Dick Braund Ifound that it was a 90 H.P . Warn er and not a Velie .Gary Hanso n, Harlan Darr and I went to Elroy oneFriday to look at the airp lane and to make a long storyshort, we sti didn't have the Velie parts but I now had abig proj ect ahead of me. The co ndition of the airplanecan best be described by the fact that about a year laterGary admitted to me that he wondered what I was evergoi ng to do with all that j unk that we hau led homefrom Elroy.We finally got started rebuilding in February of 1976.The fuselage was in pretty good shape and only twopieces of tubing needed to be replaced. The entire st ickcontrol system was mi ss ing and had to be built using

original factory drawings obtained from Wayne Ri sk ofSioux City, Iowa. One gear leg was missing and wasmade from a piece of old style stream lin ed tubingsupplied by Larry Frost of LeSeur, Minn. This aboutwrapped up the work on the fuse lage, exce pt for sandblasting and painting, so it was put aside and work was started on the wing.The wing is another story a by itself. There wasn't awhole rib left on the wing. They had been broken andsome had been lost in the many times it had bee n movedsi nce the airp lane was dismantled in 1942. Since every ' .J ' .rib is different, I had im agi ned at least a year's work in :: .getting the rib s lofted and built. Wayne Risk came to the Forrest Lov/ey and his pride and joy. (Photo byrescue again and supplied me with nearl y a com pl ete set of Ted Kaston)or igi na I factory r ~ s tha t had been left over when theywent out of business . Better yet, he had a the rib jigsand Fred Dav is used these to make the four ribs that he was smart enoug h to build a turning fixture for hi s. Awere missing. The spars nee ded so me new plywood in point of interest here - wh en we first got the a irpl aneplaces where it had gotten wet and also in a few pl aces home it took seve n or eight men to move the wingwhere I ope ned them up to have a good look at the aro und because anythin g that big just had to weigh atwood. All new wires were bought from MacWhyte and least 500 pounds. After it was completed we weighed itthe wing was reassembled. The wing was put on the and found that two guys cou ld easily move it aro und asfuselage for the first time in May 197 6 and all cables it only weighed 17 5 pound s co mpl ete .(nicopress) were installed. At this time I decided not to The engine had bee n a continuing project all alongpush the project to completion and took the summer and although it only had 171 hours total time it was inoff. We actually didn't go back to work on it until about terrib Ie shape. I had sat in the rafters of a mach inc shedNovember. for twenty years missin g one cylinder and the birds hadIn the meantime Gary had come hom e fro m Oshkosh moved in and made a four-plex out of the rest of it.with the id ea to go completely original in order to qual Luckily mo st of the top end parts are the sa me as theify in the antique category. This, along with Claude ol d 110-7 cylinder engine and enough parts were foundGray's article prompted me to remove a the nicopress to make it run. The only thing that was impossible tocab les and lear n the five-t uck sp lice. All the elastic stop find were the ex haust va lves. To solve this problem Inut s came out and Fred Dav is clai ms to have bent over visited an old friend , Ed Canaday, of Redwood Falls,at lea st a million billion cotte r keys. The on ly conces Mn . one weekend. When I asked him what he thought Isio n to originality was made on the landing gear. The cou ld do abo ut my problem he calmly walked over to aoriginals were 22 X lOX 4 Goodyear Airwheels with corner of hi s shop and came back with a fistfull of 7/ 16mechanical brakes. Since it was impossible to find tires Lycoming exhaust valves. Not only did the valves fitand tubes these were changed to 8.50 X 6 ti res on perfectly but 50 did the entire spring retainer, andCleveland 600 X 6 me cha ni cal brake wheels. This end ed keeper asse mbl y. The stem is just a little larger diameterup with a profil e within 1/ 2 inch of orig in al and st ill than the original Warner valve which enabled us to reamretained the cushion needed as the gear had no shock out the worn out guides and we were in bu siness.absorbers. Things got pretty hectic aro und the first week in July

Th e covering process took longer than normal and eve rybody pitched in to help get the ship done to gobecause of the wing being 30 feet long a nd 7' 6 wide to Oshkosh. Ted Dahl volunteered to replace the originaland nothing to hang on to. It became a regular Saturday interior and did a beautiful job of it. Little did he knowritual at the Lydia airport for a the neighbors to stop that he was goi ng to ha ve to do it while we were testby the hangar and help turn the wing over. I don't envy running the engi ne. My parents duplicated the originalGar Williams with his hu ge Cessna AW wing but at least sea t cushions and they must have done everything right

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Forrest Lovley and Gary Hanson making a fly by in theGrand Champ. (Photo by Ted Koston)as I sat on them for four hours going to Blakesburg and Icould still walk when I got there.The airplane was test flown on Friday, July 29thafter A.1. Ken Muxlow and F A.A. inspector Jess Larsongave it their stam p of approval. I flew the sh ip about 10minutes and then after an adjustment on the fin Garyflew it another 10 minutes. On Saturday Gary and Iwent out and rode around together for one hour to getan idea of the gas and oil consumption . On Monday Itook off at sun-up and 2 hours and 20 minutes later Iwas sitting at Oshkosh.One of my greater thrills in life was to have had myairplane judged Grand Champion at Oshkosh '77.Although I did not hire any work done on the airplane,by no means can I take any where near all the cred it forits restoration. To list all the friends that helped, justbecause they wanted to, would take at least a ream ofpaper. I will say that Gary and I figured out that in thesixteen months spent restori ng the airplane that webought 320 cases of beer. That's cheap labor if I eversaw itAfter flying the ship for about 20 hours now, we arequite pleased with it. It cruises at about 100 MPH on 6gallons of gas and no oil. It used a quart of oil in the firsthour and hasn't used any since. With that big, thickunder-cambered wing it climbs flat and goes fast. Itdoesn't have any trouble hauling a load and about theonly difference it makes with a full load is that the tailskid runs for about 1 feet before the tail comes up.When the ship is light, the tail comes up immediately.All in all, it seems to be a pretty honest airp lane and wewill enjoy flying it for some time to come.

d nd oyuRESERVE GRAND CHAMPION

PITCAIRN PA-8 MAILWINGN10753 - 1931

By: Jack RoseRoute Box 737Spangle, W 99037

Built by Pitcairn Aviation for Eastern Air Transport,five model PA-S's saw service from May 1930 to August1933. Last registered in 1936, Pitcairn No. 164 wasbrought back to life by myself, wife and friends. I havethe bones of No. 162 resting in the corner of my hangar(available for restoration) and along with No. 164 arethe only remaining examples of the PA-S. The servicelife of these ships was typical of the times, hauling thenight mail for Eastern Air Transport CAM Route No. 19,Newark to Atlanta to Miami. Early in 1931 the PostOffice Department, through the Watres Bill, stipulatedthat the mail planes must be able to carry passengers. Inanticipation of orders by small mail lines who wouldnow be forced to buy new equipment, the PA-S was

A boat load of long stem roses to jack and joyce Rosefor such a magnificent machine. (Photo by Ted Koston)designed by Pitcairn to fill that need. Eastern AirTransport ordered 5 PA-8's for their own use and as ithappened, they were the only customer. The advances inaircraft design had made the commercial biplane obsolete and even the Condors and Curtis Kingbirds had ashort life span. The PA-S's were equipped for nightflying and were the first to use the Sperry artificialhorizon. PA-8 pilots such as Earl Potts and Dick Merrilltaught themselves how to fly instruments in these shipsand were supplied with radios for the first time. PitcairnAviation was deep in the Autogiro development at thesame time the 8's were being built. Little enthusiasmremained regarding further development of the Pitcairnbiplane. Consequently the PA-S Mailwing was theculmination of efforts of a group of dedicated individuals and reflected the ultimate in mail carrying design.

In 1973, Tony Stei nback of Klamath Falls, Oregonadvertised two Pitcairn mailwings for sale. Looking for aproject but with no idea what I wanted, I called myfriend Skeeter Carlson and asked him what Pitcairn PA-Swas. After talking to Skeeter, I could hardly wait to goto Klamath Falls and take a look. When we arrived wemet Tony and he took us to the hangar where the shipshad been stored for 25 years. Stacked in the corner ofthe loft of a huge ex-military hangar were the bones oftwo complete Pitcairns, so he said. Skeeter and I counted wings, flying wires, struts, etc. and spent half of a daytrying to match up parts. In my mind, I decided the bestcourse was to buy all the parts he had and sort later,hoping for one complete airplane. I also found out thatTony was very attached to the Pitcairns and wasn't at a sure he wanted to sell them. I took all afternoon to

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flJuci owllty X kiGOLDEN AGE CHAMPION

( 9 8 - 927)SWALLOW MAIL PLANE 3

By: Buck Hilbert8 702 Leech RoadUnion L 60780

In 1926 when the Swallows of Varney Airlines beganthe CAM 5 operation, maximum payload was about6001bs, Range about 3 hours, or approximately 250miles. Weatker was the BIG factor and the pilot's ofVarney flew a schedule under conditions that today areunthinkable. There is more weather information avail-able to the general public today than to professionalmeterologists of the day. Weather observers were farmersalong the route, or Forest Ranger stations that could betelephoned and queried about the weather at theirposition.Capt. Leon D. Cuddeback who was Varney's Chief

The beautiful workmanship is evident in this picture. For authenticity they had the help ofarl Potts who flew the same plane for Eastern Air Transport. Photo by Ted Kaston)

convince him that I was sincere and that I intended torestore the ships. Time was running out and our flightback to Spokane was due to leave soon. I hadn't mademuch progress but decided to make one last effort. Wehad agreed on a price for both ships and thanks to hiswife, he reluctantly decided to sell. Making a run for theairliner, I grabbed the fin, which was still covered, toshow my buddies that I had found a genuine antiqueairplane to restore. Two trailer trips from Spangle toKlamath Falls brought all the parts home. Now the funbegins. Matching the parts using ID numbers and boltholes revealed that I did indeed have two complete air-planes which were very restorable and would be veryoriginal upon completion. It also became apparent thatneither ship had flown a great number of hours and thebest estimate was approximately 450 hours each.The actual restoration began in May of 1973 with mywife sandblasting the fuselage. The nuts and bolts of arestoration and the frustrations involved regarding thesuppliers is known to all and there is no need to delveinto that. The knowledge and skills gained from aproject such as the Pitcairn are reward ing and when it'sall said and done, it's what it's all about.

In order to make an authentic restoration, valuablecontacts were made with Stephen Pitcairn, the son ofthe founder and with Carl Gunther, the Pitcairn histor-ian. Never can a restoration be completed wholly by oneperson --- so with the help of Bill Duncan, Skeeter Carl-son, Art Swenson, Jack Hordemann and our FAA friendDale Mumford, this Pitcairn No. 164, the only exampleof its type, flies again .Many people have asked me "how does it fly) Myanswer is how would you like a big old biplane tofly?" Its handling qualities are the results of a successionof designs by Agnew Larson who combined all the goodtraits of the previous models and came up with a shipthat took a load off the pilot's shoulders and allowedhim to concentrate on "flying the mail ".Wingspan 35' Empty Wt. 2,294Total Wt. 4,000 Useful Load 1,706Wing Loading 14.4 Ibs. pel- sq. ft. 100 gals. fuelCruise speed 120 at 15 gal per hourStall Speed 50 Engine Wright WhirlwindHorsepower 440 Price New $12,500Manufactured April 1931

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Pilot, related to me how when the pass was closed, theyused to hire a State Trooper to drive a speciallyequipped Chrysler over the pass. The Swallow wouldland at an auxiliary field near the pass, th e mail wouldbe transferred to the waiting Chyrsler and the Trooperwould make a high spe ed run of about fifty mil es to theother side, where the mal would be transferred intoanother waiting Sw allow and then flown on to itsdestination.Navigation was striclty pilotage. If you couldn't seeto fly, you set her down and waited till you could. Th eengine reliability was a bit shakey, too. Walter DocEefsen, number seven Varney pilot, showed me his logbook in an attempt to cheer me up after our Wri ght J 4had disentegrated. I was absolutely astounded to findthat about eve ry third entr y was a forced landing, andthe majority of those "irregularities" as they are calledtoday, were engine malfunctions. He explained it thisway, ."The Wri ght Whirlwind was the greatest and mostreliable engine we had ever seen or used. Adimiral Byrdhad used them on his first Polar f l ghts, the engines hadset all kinds of endurance and other records, but nowthe J-5 was coming along and the J-4's were surplused bythe Navy. That was how Varney acquired our s."

"With a ll the valve mechanisms out in the open andno overhead oiling of any sort, we greased and oiledeveryth ing before eac h fl ight. These engi nes used a lot ofoil too, normal being abo ut a gallon an hour. After takeoff it was sheer fo lly to st ick your head out beyond thewindscreen. You'd get a ll full of grease and oil. It tookabout an hour to throw off all of the extra grease andoil, then you could almost set your watch in anticipationof what was going to happen. About an hour and a halfafter the engine dried up an d quit throwing off oil andgrease, almost without exce ption one or more of theva lves would start to get st ick y. If one stuck open, whichwas often the case, the pushrod would fall out and youmade an eight cylinder landing, took out your oi l canand little hamm er , and tapped on the offending va lvewhile oiling it until it broke loose and bega n operatingagain. You then stuck in a spare pushrod and went onyour way."

Doc showed me pictures of land in g places thatwould make a stro ng Helicopter pilot cringe. From ta lk ing with these old timers I ca n tell you forced landingsain't what they used to be. To illustr ate; the firstSwallow to be di spatched to Pasco, Washington wh ere it

was to start the airmail service the next morning, hadseven, yes, SEVEN, forced landings on the way up there.At that time it was equipped with a Curtiss C 6 engine,and although they were noted for being hard starting, itwouldn't run at all with out gas.The Varney pilots and mechanics, often one and thesame, didn 't trust those new fangled aluminum fueltanks and so had theirs made of turnplate. That's kindalike galvanized steel to you young fellows. Whoev er hadsoldered up the tan k had left all the solder flakes insidethe tank . As the engin e vibrated in f l ght it shook allthose little flakes and beads down to the point wherethey would block off the fuel outlet and the engine wouldquit. Bouncing along the ground during the subsequentlanding would shake th em all up, uncover the out let andwhen they'd attempt a restart, the eng in e would run as ifnothing happened. On the last and final forced landingluck deserted them. They ran thru a ditch and flippedthe Swallow.

All this goes to illustrate that today we have enginesand airframes to take you across the country in livingroom comfort at speeds better than 10 miles a minute.We take this for granted. It' s inconceiveable to try, butlet's compare. Sw allow of fifty years ago with thatFreighter you saw fly-by at Oshkosh. I flew one of thoseDC-8 Freighters from Chicago's O'Hare Field to DetroitMetro. Last Tuesday morning we carried thirty sixthousand pounds of freight and the trip took forty-threeminutes.Let the mind wander for a minute. Swallow's payloadis 600 pounds. WOW that means we'd have to havesix-hundred Swallows to do the job, with about fourhours flight time for each one . Lets see .. six hundredtimes 12 gallons tim es four hours . Whats the weather?Hey l, How do we navi gate? Wow Can you imagine wh atthe tower will do when 600 no radio Swallows come onthe scene? What about hotel rooms for all those pilots?Oh man l This is too muchAnd so, when we show the Swallow alongside one ofthose big jets we aren't just showing an airplane, we areshowing FIFTY years of aviatio n. Fifty YEARS ofAviation progress, and although there are those who sayall the fun is gone and adventure is no longer, I feel it'sbeen all our way. We can now take our trip in livingroom comfort, at da zz ling speeds, with inflightentertainment, and be reasonably assured of reachingour destination when the sc hedu le says we should .....And the Swallow ..... showed them the way ...

Buc k and his immortal Swallow, one of the bestknown antiques of the day. (Photo by Bob Miller)

SILVER AGE CHAMPION{1928-1932}

1930 PARKS P2-A NC499HBy: Wayne L Amelang77 2 Stone BoulevardTullahoma, TN 7 88

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Right: Wayne Amelang built up what was a sorry oldbird that formerly belonged to Richard Bach I canattest to the fine workmanship as I stopped to visitseveral times on the way to Sun N FunI have been flying a Ryan PT-22 for the past 10 years,but during all this time I always wanted an old biplane. Iheard about the Parks being for sale in December, 1975.It was disassembled and stored in a hangar in Newman,Georgia and I was fortunate in having first choice atbuying it. I trailered it home in January, 1976 and start

ed work on it almost immediately. It was obvious thatthe airplane had been badly neglected and was in need ofsome TLC.The restoration of the Parks was more or less routine;the only thing unusual being the short period of time inwhich it was done. It was dismantled down to barebones; all welding repairs made, and all steel parts sandblasted and primed. All the wood in the fuselage wasreplaced and many ribs in the wings replaced due todamage or bad repair work. I even spliced in a newsection on one of the wing spars. All leading and trailingedges were replaced. All covering was with grade Acotton, butyrate dope, and more sanding than I care todo again soon. All new cowling was fabricated and newstainless steel flying wires purchased. I had never builtup a Wright J6-5 engine before, but it didn t present anyunusual problems. I was able to buy all the new parts Ineeded and it runs beautifully, using very little oil.My original goal was to complete the restoration intime to go to the North Georgia Chapter Fly-in at Gainsville, and I made it with 5 days to spare. I test flew the

to Bobby Graves for their help. They all spent many Above: Sharing your rare airplane with others is h lf the fun of owning it. Gene is most generous, and if you looklong hours with me and were always available when closely, there s a pair of goggles barely visible over the back cockpit - no doubt some future aviator is gettingneeded. initiated to the grand thrill of open cockpit, light plane flying. (Photo by Ted Koston)

plane on June 26 and was very pleasantly surprised at how nice it was. I later flew it to Oshkosh and l k e s ~ : . . ~ I : ~ I I . burg, and I have enjoyed every minute of it. It s a :: 1 . ;;;:-JJl ;Jdelightful old airplane and a joy to fly. I did have a small . problem on July 4. I had neglected to grease the plainbearings in my wheels; one wheel locked up on a landing resulting in a ground loop and minor gear damage.Fortunately, I was on the grass strip. I learned from thisexperience to keep the wheels well greased and have hadno problems since.As you know, a job like this restoration can t be doneby one person, and th is restoration was no exception. I llbe forever grateful to my son Jerry, to Gene Hood, and ~ ~ _ ; ; f o t ; Y ; t a r ~ ': .,'p..;., - : " ' , ; : i : : : 1 ~ ~

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SILVER AGE RUNNER U1931 AMERICAN EAGLET

NC548YBy: ene and Mary Morris4 Chandelle DriveHampshire I L 60740Whoops, my white scarf just got caught around thecabane struts and even at sixty indicated it tied a knot initself and as I moved to look around the nose I wasstartled by a pulling around my neck.Th is story takes place enroute to AI Kelch's for hisannual "Turkey Shoot where all of the Wisconsinantiquers gather at AI's beautiful strip to partake ofscrumptious roasted turkey, sweetcorn, tomatoes, and

all the rest. This fly-in is looked forward to by all of us,all year long.My trip in the Eaglet, just like any other, in any otherairplane, just like it has always been to us, that is wedon't hide our little bird back in the corner only tocome out for a special fly-in on a special no wind day.We fly it just like we would a Cub or Champ and enjoytaking anyone that drops in to visit for a ride. I amalways amazed, and joined by many other, at how those35 horses can carry two grown men, so well.Since our last "Trophy Winner" article we have flownour Eaglet and abused "Ole Zeke" about 150 hours, so

in that time it's only natural that Murphy's law wouldget around to leaving the oil shut off at least once and Isure hope it's the last time I had to steal the crankshaftfrom my spare engine and just barely got it altogetheragain for Oshkosh. That was my wife, Mary's lesson so Ididn't say too much, but if she does it again, I'll cut herarm off.So, this day is a beautiful September day with a southbreEze eager to push me along my way. Higher andhigher Ole Zeke pulls us 15002000 ft. it's getting coolnow and my sweater is in the rear seat with my brandnew white scarf. After four or five minutes of bobblingand wobbling around I have my sweater on and my scarfflying behind. I'll fly by, when I get there, and let thescarf fly in the breeze. 3,000 ft. MSL and I level offenjoying an estimated 30 mile tailwind. I estimate, for Ihave no map or compass, just a watch which says I willbe one of the last to arrive. As I near the Milwaukee areaI'm on top of some scattered clouds, I climb up to 4,000to stay more legal and perhaps pick up even more wind.The clouds are beautiful from any airplane but I had towonder if Ole Zeke had ever been there before. I 's alsogetting cold. Almost to Kelch's I see Timmerman off attwo o'clock and moving slowly to my right. I'll just stayup here, I'm thinking, I'll be over head, on top and see ifanyone can figure out what that funny sound is highabove the clouds. I can see Kelch's now with some 15beautiful antiques lined up on AI's lawn, a sight tobehold. I'll get a picture from up here before I comedown. AI's is under a cloud at first but I can see a holejust south and moving north. One three sixty and thehole is right over Kelch's where everyone is basking inthe sun. I quickly turn around and get one, my last,picture with my wing struts and tip framing my subject.Down I come throttling back and spiraling. Ole Zekeis really funny now, if they hadn't seen me by now,they'll surely hear the popping and backfiring thatsounds like a comical shoo ting gallery. Round andround, down and down I come at one point I reach 95MPH. I've never had it that high before and slowly easeit back, thinking of those frail little ribs hanging on tothe spars with all their might. Again my scarf is tiedaround the cabanes, I take time to free it before my"low pass" so that it will fly properly. It did, I flew byand landed white scarf and all, just in time to walk tothe chow line and fraternize with my fellow antiquers,knowing all the while that that little Eaglet with thatfunny little engine makes it all possible.

SILVER AGE OUTSTANDINGOPEN COCKPIT BIPLANE1929 ALLIANCE ARGO N596K

By: Jim Browder56 7 W SutliffPeoria I L 67607

The first time I saw the Argo, it was in the back of ahangar (it wasn't for sale at that time) under whatappeared to be an inch of dust and bird droppings.In 1950, they had removed all front cockpit,controls, main wheels and the very low time HessWarrior and installed a Continental R670, smoke tank inthe front cockpit, Glidertow hitch, wing walk and usedit in various air shows.

Bill Sweet refers to the oddball (because of the 220Cont. engine) in his book 'They Call Me Mr. Air Show.The plane was last flown in 1952.I acquired it a few years later. A ferry permit wasissued, and the plane was flown to Peoria to be rebuilt.The airplane was completely dismantled and the momentous task of trying to find any information and missingparts was undertaken.

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Right: Not only is the Argo a rare airplane, but theHess Warrior engine was built specifically for the air-plane. It would be very safe to say that it is the onlysuch engine operable,as is the airplane.Very few people ever heard of it and no one had anyinformation on the airp lane. All welds were dyechecked, the wings and center section rebuilt with SitkaSpruce (as original) by "Custom Woodcraft, Milan,Michigan." All new stainless steel flying wires, Grade A

cotton and butyrate dope. Everything completelyoriginal except tail wheel instead of skid, new tires,chromed stacks, shielded ignition, and I added a 100channel trans-receiver radio.Both aircraft and engine restoration was watched andcarefully checked by Herbert O. Edwards, air craftIn spector.Many years were spent in collecting bits of information. I talked to Mr. lato, one of the company's testpilots several times. I also learned, Russ Miller had builtthe "Miller Special" using the Hess Warrior and otherparts of the Argo.Anyway, after many, many years, Argo N596K and Imade the first flight in May of 1974.I received several trophies at various Fly-Ins in themiddle westin 1974 and 1975, including WWII P.T. FlyIn , Nationa l A.A.A.-A.P.M. Fly-In . Due to the weather, Imade Oshk osh on the last day of the show in 1975.The plane stayed in the hangar and flew very little in1976 and the spring of 1977, as the weather and mywork kept me from havi ng much time to fly it.The plane was built by the Alliance Aircraft Company, Alliance, Ohio, one of the few companies of thatera that built both aircraft and engine. Approximately28 were built.N596K is the only one flying, and accordi ng toresearch, the only one in existence. There was anotherone in Massachusetts. It was rebuilt using a 145 Warnerengi ne. When this one was being restored, I made severaltrips to the East coast and acquired the origi nal groundadj ustable propeller and miscellaneous items. However,that Argo was later destroyed in a hangar fire.The ai rcraft is fully aerobatic and unrestricted. It isreally a crowd pl easer . Ve ry few know what it is. Manythink it is an original design. Few o ld timers recognize itas an Alliance Argo.I was very happy to receive the award at the1977-25th Anniversary Convention.

~ __n [email protected] @fJlJe Hess Warrior Aircraft Engitle

A.I.(;o, powered by our own seven cylmder,r ~ d ~ J . . r-coolcd eDglnC, dc,'clops 115 horse.powt't:u 1925 R P. M Thn en,!:lnc c.ames the App""r,df HEThe H ~ : t ~ ' . ~ t R : O ~ ~ ' - ( : : ~ U j n s uoh- mmriah recommended Iw tmy ;tod N : l Y ~ Srandlfd . Cylinder coostruc tion IS the same U (ound In n l ~ l cn,Rlnes (wiCe the COSI ofthe \\ 'RRIOR

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The ...Argof HE oUlsundrng f ' C ' r l o r m ~ n c c . rn.1lncu\cT;l.bdtty ~ n J beaut)' o( thergoh:tvc on (or II well men ed distinct iOn l nd pr.1lsc whereverhunownClp.1blc of l high ~ p c e d of IlS MPH cruising s ~ e ofJOO M. P. H ., Ihe Argo hu euned Ihe righl CO IcldcrshlP 10 rhc s m ~ 1 Ipl ne field.

w h ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ : r b r ( l O ~ : ~ S r : r ~ d ; : d h s ~ j l ; ~ n ; n ~ ' r l O n e e r Insrrumenrs, BendixThe rnHlo t response. to Ihe controls hu won pr io rs ldm lrllion Ihe

COUntry o' er. Visrhrll ty IS perfC C1 In Ilndmg or flYing due ro Ihe merhod of(onstrunionFor rhose seckln,': a smlll, flu, DEPENDABLE ship for sporr, t r ~ l " , n gor huuness, Ihe Argo IS rdeal.

'FLY IT AND YOll \\ ' ILL Bl."Y IT ..

.. .SILVER AGE - OUTSTANDINGCLOSED COCKPIT BIPLANE(OPEN COCKPIT WITH COUPE TOP)1932 WACO IBA # N12453

By: Ed Paclwrd22 7 S. Eddy StreetSouth Bend, IN 4667 7

When I was learning to fl y 25 yrs. ago, I used topractice landing at Cadet field , which was all sod thatused to be South Bend, Indiana Municipal Airport. I sawthis old biplane in a hangar that fascinated me. For yearsafter I got my license, I would stop in and im agine thingsabout that o ld biplane. I never saw it fly or knew whoowned it.One day I landed on a farm with a friend, my oidinstructor, to ride his horses. Hi s wife came by car topick him up, and when I took off, I found to mydismay, the wind had changed, and my Cessna 182didn't fly too well from a vall ey field with a tai l wind. Ito taled it, so I needed a new airplane .

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My son Barney Packard with coupe top on ready to go

A housing development had gone in where the sodfie ld was; so I inquired as to what ever happened to thato d biplane. I discovered the fuselage had been stored ina barn for 12 yrs. and the wings in another barn 30 milesaway . I gave $1900 for the pieces, and had it rebuilt. Sixmonths late r the engine quit because of crud in thecarburetor; and it went down and over in a cornfield thelast week in August. I met Walt Sh elto n, wh o is an A&E,and he used to teach at Parks. He s an art ist who lovesold planes, so he didn't repair it; he restored it. I sti ldidn't realize what I had, excepti ng an o d biplane that Iliked to fly.I sa w Haro d Joh nso n from Day ton fly an ai rshow inWabash. He saw my pl ane and said, you have a rareWaco, so why don 't you join the Waco Club? He toldme about Ray Brandl ey, and my education began.The IBA was delivered 45 yrs. ago with the coupe-topinstalled. It was gray with silver wings and tail. It wasadvertised as the golfers' airplane you land on the golfcourse when you play . Behind the back baggagecompartment, it says golf clubs only. One ad from1932 showed the golfer with his knickers, cap, and clubsby the plane on a golf course.

Another ad from '32 said, The plane for the manwho wants to go places and do things. The frontbaggage compartment holds 87 Ibs. and the back one 35Ib s. My wife can take all the suitcases and luggage shewants, and does.It stalls at 39 MPH ; cruises at 92 MPH. Th e coupe-topspeeds it up abo ut 3 MPH and can be insta ll ed in 20 min.It is in three pieces. One piece goes in each doo r withsid e window and plastic V shape on top so when doorope ns V pulls out, so you ca n step down inside withoutcraw ling under. With coupe- top on, you can easi lyconverse and look at maps, etc .It has the 125 HP Kinner B54 and wheels are off theground in 150 feet. The span is 30 ft.; length 21 ft,;height 8'6 ; holds 30 ga ls. gas; and burns 71 z per hour.Waco only sold two IBA's.When I bought it, it had 687 hrs. airframe time. Th eKinner only had 12 hrs. on it, because the owner boughtit war surplus for $65. They put the B54's on PT 22's tostart with, but went to the 160 Kinner, so 125 HP B54'swere sold new for $65 war surplus. I've added almost800 more fun and loop-filled hours to it; and never planon stopping.

CONTEMPORARY AGE CHAMPION(1933 - 1945)

1941 WACO VKS-7F #N31653By: Vince Mariani24 9 Sweetwater RoadFindlay OH 4584

WACO N31653 was built in August of 1941 as a VKSand converted to a VKS-7F (addition of flaps byWACO in 1944. The airplane was used by the WACO Co.executives until 1949.I do hav e all of the original log books including theC ration gas card used du ring W.W.II.I purchased N31653 in August of 1963 and spent the

next 3 yea rs re-building and hand rubbing out thebutyrate d ope over the ceconite covers.Th e airplane is pure pl easure to fly and it is a goodcomfortable cross country airplane.(1 added lots ofsound proofing and padding.)It now has bee n flown 11 years + 1000hrs.) sincerestoration, and N31653 continues to bring hometrophies. The total trophies and awards number over 90,of which 20 were Grand Champions. N31653 has beenGrand Champion and past Grand Champion at least 5times at the Marion, Ohio EAA eastern regional fly-in. Ican only say, that owning and flying a WACO has beenmy boyhood dream come tru e.

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CONTEMPORARY AGERUNNER-UP1940 FAIRCHILD F 4

N25323By: Ed Wegner70 Stafford Street

Plymouth WI 53073

My Fairchild 24 was purchased from a good friendAndy Dettman from our area. He did some work on theairframe . He also built up a zero time engine from allnew parts - yes - all new parts. This was about IS yearsago. The Ranger performs and runs very well.I completely rebuilt th e wood and wings; insta ednew wiring instruments radio and interior. It is finishedin red and cream.It cruises at 120 at 22 inches 2100 RPM uses or12 gallons per hour.I enjoy flying this Fairchild as this is my seco nd F24.I was very pleased to receive the award for Contemporary Age Runner-up.

Above: Bonnie and Vince Mariani from previous page) and their 7947 WACO VKS 7F. It has won a boat load oftrophies, including 2 Grand Champions. Photo by Bob Miller)Below: Over the years, Ed Wegner has cranked out a stable full of immaculate restorations the Fairchild 24 beingno exception, is letter perfect. f all the exotic airplanes he has restored, Ed says the 24 is one he intends tokeep.


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OUTSTANDING OPENCOCKPIT BIPLANE1941 STEARMAN N57041By: j F Atkinson, Jr.4873 Concho CourtSacramento, CA 75847

N57041 is a Boeing A-75N1, serial No. 75-2935,PT-17. According to the Stearman Guide book, it wasone of a batch of 84 delivered in 1941 .It was restored by Drs. Larry Ingemanson and RichO' Day. The covering, painting, rigging and engine workwere done by Air Repair in Clarksburg, Ca lif. (just southof Sacramento Executive Airport.) I know nothing ofthe plane's history prior to that. The current airworthycertificate is dated Sept. 16, 1970.I purchased N57041 in the fall of 1973. It has alwaysbeen hangared. The airplane is flown about 100 hrs year.Th e engine is a Conti nental W670-A. The aircraft is asnear stock as possib le. The only exceptio ns are electricstarter, T,Geneve Nav-Com with built-in intercom andan anti,co li ision strobe on the belly.The photo included was taken two years ago. Theonly change vis ible since then is the fire extinguisher

Right: The flight to Oshkoshfrom California in a sturdyold Stearman would beenough of a thrill - takinghome a trophy is frosting onthe cake

door in the proper color (reddish brown) with thestencil, "fire extinguisher".The flight to Oshkosh took four days and was greatfun. We departed Sacramento Executive Airport andstopped over night in Ogden, Utah; New Castle,Wyoming and LaCrosse, Wisconsin. Flying time wasapproximately 23 hours. We settled quickly on legs of21 2 hrs., more in deference to our sore butts than fuelconsiderations.The Stearman seemed reluctant to climb much over9,000 feet, but we were able to get her up to almost11,000 at times by taking advantage of thermals. Probably the most exciting part of the trip was departingElko, Nevada t noon time fully loaded with a temperature of 95 F and density altitude of 8,700 feet. Imglad th t there were no obstructions higher than a jackrabbits' ears for a few miles.

We thoroughly enjoyed our stay in Oshkosh ( ourfirst) and plan to repeat the tr ip next year.I received the plaque in the mail and need less to saywas very happy. The Stearman has two trophys fro mMe rced, Ca lifornia Annual West Coast An itq ue Fly- in.The latest and best 1st place Primary Trainer Bip lane inJune 1976.

CONTEMPORARY AGEOUTSTANDING CABIN BIPLANE

1936 WACO EQC-6N16591

By: Stan Gomoll7042 90 th Lane N E.Minneapolis, MN 55434

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Stan Gomoll 44479- 7936 WA co EQC 6 (Photo by Bob Miller)

rr

On November 9, 1936, this Waco known as N16591model DQC-6 was delivered to H. L. Linder - ParamountTrucking Svc. Inc., Milwaukee, WI. It was delivered witha 285 HP Wright engine with a 2B20 constant speedpropeller. The airplane was painted gray with a vermilionstrip, edged in gold. It was the most plush airplane youcould buy at that time. The custom series Wacos werethe executive planes of the day being owned by moviestars such as Victor Fleming, Howard Hawks, LelandHoward and Henry King. Henry B. DuPont and JesseVincent. Other owners were Stokely Bros. Food, anAerial Taxi in the Philiippines, 2 large newspapers,several oil companies. 2 were shipped to Argentina and 3were used by the Coast Guard. There were 20 EQCmodels and 11 DOC models built in 1936.The selling price of DQC. with 285 HP Wright enginewas $8,975.00and $9,650.00 for EQC model with 350HP Wright engine.The second owner of th is airplane was Howard Aircraft Company, Chicago, IL. They owned the airplanefrom 11-15-38 to 111539 when Anthony Sedlek ofConrath, WI became the third owner. It was then sold toLawrence Sadlek, Walter W. Sittler and B. D. Gordon ofChicago, IL. on 38-43. From there it went to Harlen M.Sheldon of Okanogan, WA on 12-1-45.About this time the engine was changed to a 350 HPWright model R-760-E2 with a super charger blowerratio of 9.17 to 1 which gave it a service ceiling of19,000 feet. This changed the model to a EQC-6. Theinterior was changed to leatherette and Y plywood floorinstalled as the next record owner as Okoma Airways,

Inco Box 809 Okanogan, Wash ington on 6-1 -46.The next recorded owner was Herb Brouker Aviation Industries Inc., Coeurd 0 Alene, Id aho.It changed owners on 48-53 to Ray Phillips andElmer Carlson in Idaho. Shortly after they bought it, theairplane went into dead storage due to a cracked powercase.In 1965 Bob Lueck of Missoula, Montana was lookingfor an airp lane to use in his flight school to have parachute jumpers in. He found this Waco sitting in the backcorner of a dark hangar with its tail feathers removed.Not knowing about the cracked power case he boughtthe airplane and brought it home to Missoula, Montana,where it took several years to find another engine andhave it overhau led . This is when he found out why theairplane had changed owners many times, and had lowtime on airframe. When the engine was changed to aR760 E-2, they installed a bump cowling off a 1935Waco, which has a sma er diminsion at the fire wall so

the cowling would not let the air pass thru as it should,which caused overheating problems in warm weathersuch as high cylinder heat temps. an.d high oil temps.I bought the airplane on Feb. 3 1968 and became the13th owner. I flew it home to Minneapolis, Minnesota inthe middle of winter. When warm weather came I foundout the problem I had inherited. It took severa l years tosolve all the problems, with the help from many people.The airplane now flies year around with no problems.This airplane was recovered 19 years ago with grade Afabric, 33 coat finish and so has never been restored, justmaintained thru the years. It is a fun airplane to fly.

CONTEMPOR RY AGEOUTST NDING OPENCOCKPIT MONOPL N E

RY N STA NC 736By Dorr Carpenter

5 S SaundersLake Forest, IL 60045Ryan STA, serial number 166 was manufactured onJuly 7, 1937 by the Ryan Aeronautical Company of SanDiego, Calif. The company records show that she wasdelivered to Booth Hemming, a dealer, and as the logs

prior to 1942 have been lost, we have only sketchyinformation of her early days.Nevertheless, we do have a few facts. Her logs startwith 1875 hours and are well kept. At th is time she wasused hard; day after day the logs show four or morehours in the air per entry. By February, 1944, this paceleveled off to a more usual individual entry of half anhour per flight. By June, 1945 she had accumulated3210 hours total.From 1948 to 1953 she was not flown and only 50hours were added by Stanley Sicora in the next twoyears. Again she went into storage, this time in an apart

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ment building basement in Chicago. Here she stayeduntil purchased by Dario Toffinetti in 1967. For thenext eight years, Dario flew the aircraft to many eventsand the red and white Ryan became a familiar sight.Two items of interest come out of the logs: first,there are no recorded incidents of damage of any kind tothe aircraft. Secondly, one engine, a Menasco D4, stayedon her for over 3000 hours. It was majored at least fourtimes and topped three times.I purchased number 166 in the fall of 1975 in.slightlydamaged cond ition. The propeller was broken and therudder bent.In the process of checking out the aircraft, it wasnoted that the left wing had been replaced. This wasmost certainly done before 1942. The overhaul includedrefabricing the flying surfaces and re-shinning thealuminum fuselage. Also, a new Canadian surplusMenasco D4-87 engine was installed along with a Fahlinpropeller.

In Ju ly of this year she was assembled under an oaktree in the newly cut alfalfa field behind my home. Onthe eighteenth of the month' she flew for the first time intwo years . Two weeks later she was on her way toOshkosh.Any aircraft used for training, that was never amilitary plane, and was not involved in accidents of anyconsequences, is bound to have a dull history. But basedon the fact that this plane flew safely for at least sixregistered owners for 40 years and 3445 hours provesshe is a good aircl'aftlBelow: orr Carpenter s Ryan STA.

CONTEMPORARY AGEOUTSTANDING CABIN MONOPLANEPORTERFIELD MODEL 35-70,1935

By: john P. Innes52 Valley Circle BoulevardWoodland Hills CA 97367

AN AEROPLANE CALLED "SPINACH"By way of introduction; I am a model 35-70 Porterfie ld . This designation was give n when my design wascreated in 1935 and thus the 35. My power plant was a70 hp LeBlond and that is where the 70 ca me from.My serial number is 229 so I had 228 sisters beforeme and many more younger, some with 90 Warners ,.Wow, what performers they wereOn August 26, 1936, I was released to the sky, fromthe Porterfie ld factory at Kansas City, Mo. How proud I

was of my new owner. He had selected me above manyothers. My forest green color suggested the name:"Spinach" which he promptly gave me. My happinesswas even greater when I discovered I was to be a sporttrainer for Instructor, License No. l ... Bob Cummings.. My first owner.Between Bob (I always cal led him by his fi rst name,'cause we were so intimate) and my Present Master, Ihad many owners and vast experiences which I intend totell the entire world, in a book-size story.I had an affair with John for twenty short minutes atOgden, Utah on Feb. 28, 1943. I knew at that time, (hedidn't) that some way, some time, some where I wouldcapture and possess him.

Twenty six years passed and one day I presented myselfto John at Santa Paula, California. I was a mess Myweary bones crumpled in the corner of a breezy, leakycorrugated metal hangar.The moment we met, I knew I had been saved ... to beborn againSeven and a half years later, I blossomed forth, betterthan new, under the careful, meticulous, loving hands ofmy Saviour. John did 90 of the work himself. Only myengine was entrusted to a good buddy to recreate.Oh, .. there's so much to te ... but must keep it shortThis was our third trip to Oshkosh. We won a beautiful trophy. We travelled over most of the whole UnitedStates, even up to New York. We were away from home(Los Angeles) for over six weeks.I showed John many beautiful views of our wonderful country. I also taught him a thing or two about howtempermental we gals can be. Jealous too. John simplyhad to learn to straighten up and fly rightTell you all about it in the book.Children of all ages wi love the story of romance,adventure, happiness, sadness and even stark terror.say, Children, because they love my kind of Spinach.

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nairplane called Spinach . (Photo by Ted Koston)

CUSTOMIZED ANTIQU E CHAMPION1943 HOWARD DGA 15P

NC95462By "Ch ub " Trainor22 Kathleen Co ur tWay ne NJ 07470

I purchased Big Red in December, 1976 from JohnTurgyan. Thus ended my long, often frustrati ng, coast tocoast, and eve n international search for an antique airplane in good, flying condition. Finding this beauty, inmint condition was certainly one of the hi ghl ights of mylong interest in flying.When I saw For Sale in the window of this DamnGood Airplane at Oshkosh '76, I couldn't believe thatJohn was se lling his labor of love . The more I fly thisaircraft, the more I reali ze that a th e fi ne things Johnand I had discussed about it are fact and then some. Th isHoward has had eleven other owners, so consequently,has an indefinite restoration history. Originally built forthe Navy, it has progressed on to becoming a beautifulclassic. The last two owners were Ron Rippon, and ofcour se, John Turgyan The engi ne and prop had 57hours on them when I bought it, and John, at one timeor another, had rebuilt every syste m. The Howard hasgot dual 360 channel Comm, and dual Nav receivers,dual glid e sco pe receivers, ADF, markers, transponderand DM E. It was repainted with Dupont Delux enamel.This was 30 coats of dope and two coats of enamel. Itwas also fitted with a leather interior.My interest in antique aircraft is long standing, and Ife el it a privilege to fly this one. To me, it is an infinitethrill to be behind that PW R 985 engi ne, to hear it'ssound and to feel it 's capabilities. It is no stranger tofly-ins, and I appreciate everyone's interest in this airpl ane. It is my Irish good fortune to own this prizewinner.

Chub Trainor and his Howard DG . Photo by Bob Miller)

CUSTOMIZED ANTIQUERESERVE CHAMPION

1940 PIPER J4A NC30340By: A/an and Mary Anderson28988 Swan IslandGrosse l ie MI 48738

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This article is written as an Epilogue in that most


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things worth knowing about our Cub Coupe wereprinted in the August issue of Vintage Airplane. Thatstory was prompted by our success at Oshkosh '76, inwhich we won the award for Outstanding Workmanship.Since that time, we have had the good fortune to win atMarion, Ohio's Mid-Eastern Regional Fly- In, '76 and'77, Sandusky Fly-I n and culminated in 1977 with Reserve Champion in Class at Oshkosh. At the insistence ofyour Editor, AI Kelch, who has the ability to apply pressure better than anyone I know, we would like to address this "Epilogue" to a special part of the "VintageAirplane Scene" unforeseen by us and the source of thetitle to th is vignette .WIND: The terrible bugaboo of all Antiquers. A constant worry whether we are on the ground or in the air-is it too windy to fly today? Anyth ing over 5 knotssomehow feels like a full gale: Once in the air, the J4Aperforms like the elegant lady she was intended to be,"First Cabin all the way". We guess this is usually thecase for most Vintage Aircraft. Eventually, however, onemust land and a crosswind on the ground can causesweaty palms and shaking knees while mentally reviewing the countless rib stitches, tip bows, nav. lights, etc.,that could be sacrificed to the Ground Looping Gods.If the plane is located at an airfield away from home,wind seems to become an obsession and the Antique isbaby-sat in the best of parental style during the durationof the stay. Once home and properly hangared, windbecomes something to casually listen to and contemplatein front of a fire pl ace. Owners finally get a good ni ghtssleepWEATH E R: Besides wi nd, Antiq uers seem to worrymore about elements - is it too hot to fly today, or is ittoo cold with the possibility of a start-up carb fire as shedecides not to digest her 80 Octane. Worry, worry, worry. Ha s it rained recent ly and is that airstrip paved or is ita hu ge mud puddle bent on redesigning the fi ni sh? Maybe it 's going to drizzle, which would be an easy methodof was hin g the bugs clean enr oute to a show; but what ifthe drizzle turns into a downpour and the visibilitydrops to zero (good thing we have a great local FlightService Station sy mp athetic to Antiquers).Wheel pants and snow present another problem to becontended with and mulled over . Is our airport reallyplowed clean and what about our destination? Will theslush on the runway accumu late in the pants and tai l

Alan and Mary Anderson she loves the ub Coupebecause t is the plane in which she was courted.wheel lock and create a more sudden stop than plannedor an uncontrollable beast bent on embarrassing its owner by being only capab le of traveling in circ les? Theunesthetic solution (removal) seems to be to concurrently detract from the plane's beauty, reduce preciousspeed by about 3 MPH and leave lovely streaks on thewings undersides. Hence, to remove or not to remove"the wheel pants until warm and dry weather returns is initself the source of a real trauma.PEOPLE ATTENDING FLY-INS: Are they goingto exhibit the touch of the real airplane lover or are theygoing to completely ignore the EAA P lease Don'tTouch signs and poke and probe in an ulcer provokingway. As have those Antiquers before us, we have becomeaccustomed to the attention drawn at every airfie ld andthen suffered reverse conditioning when we rent a "storebought" and receive no more attention other than "Gas,Sir" or Will you be staying overn ight ". Some Psychologist wou ld love to probe the Antiquer's world.From the dear woman who love the Cub Coupebecause it is the plane in which she was courted, to theA and E who repaired NC 30340 when she was onl y 3months old, to the countless picture takers who areworking on their own Antiques, the year and a half offlying our J4A has been fu ll of personal rewards farexceeding the effort or anxieties we have portrayed here,somewhat tongue-in-cheek. Many tha nks to you a ll andthe staff of EAA and Vintage Airplane whose effortmakes our "Antique Airplane Lifestyle" possible.

OUTSTANDING AI RCRAFT1943 STEARMAN # N9078H

By Griff and j eannie Griffin3022 Northview RoadMinnetonka MN 55367How can a person write a few paragraphs about anairplane that you've worked on fo r 4 years?I all happened by accident on a very warm day inAugust 1973. Bill Duncan and Jack Rose were visitingour neighbor who introduced us, and also negotiated aride for us in Stearman 9078 H. These two fe ll ows wereon their way home to Spokane, Wash. from Oshkosh.We had no intention on buying a pl ane until that rid eand that same eve ning, when we fo und out that Jackwould sell the Stearman. That night was a sleep less one,wonderi ng about whether or no t our banker was airp laneoriented . He was.Most of my time was in a J-3 and Tri-Pacer so, just tobe sure I took so me extra in struct ion with Nei ls Sorenson who was a W.W.II Stearman instructor.Later on that fall, we flew to Montana on a weekendto vis it some friends when Jean ni e noticed a stickflapping in the breeze on the left al ero n. She got myatte ntion in a hurry thinking that I had not checked over

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the plane thoroughly enough when a head appeared, andthen Mr. mouse tried to climb up onto the wing. BeforeI had time to reach for the camera or the fire extinguisher, he slid down the aileron, all fours extended for hisfree fall 2000 feet to the ground. We had to rib stitchand patch some wing area, and decided to look for ahangar with a door; a very tight door. We were renting ahangar, but with no door and we were always worryingabout vandalism, etc.In Nov . 1973, we bought a hangar at Crystal airport.More payments to the paymentsWe made arrangements with the tower at Crystal tofly in. Now we had a home and workshop for our Stearman. Since the R680 hadn t been majored since 1946,we had Bolduc Aviation check it over to see if it neededthe valves ground and then re-ring it. That move turnedout to be an R & R job. Remove and replace with allnew parts from the case outward. More payments to thepayments to the oaymentsThe next step was to check the propeller, which Maxwell Prop Shop found unfit for service. Two new bladeslater, the prop was in A-1 condition. Then we added arad io, shielded ignition, electric starter, generator,battery and re-wire for strobe lights. Also removed andhad the instruments overhauled.I n early spring of 1974, we had it painted in the navycolor and markings and thought it was correct ly done. Itwasn't and we didn t like it.

By now, Jeanne is almost hysterical and ready tosupplement her day time teaching job with a night time

Left: jeannie and Griff enjoya lot of cross country in thisbeauty.

cab driving job. Yup - more paymentsDuring the winter of 1975 we removed and strippedall the metal, sanded fabric and re-painted it in our ownhangar. Ask Rick Hovind how much metal there is tostrip on a Stearman. It's a big pile when its on the floor.Every time someone came into the hangar, he was given apiece of 400 wet or dry and told which area to work on.In 5 months and 300 cases of beer, we were finishedwith the paint job. Jeannie was the designer. She wasfussy, fussy, fussy, with the color scheme, which I didn tappreciate at that time.Now to start building my dream engine which wouldbe a 300 with a front exhaust and constant speed propeller. I figured you could build one of these in 120 days. Ittook 1Y years. Kenny Maxwell did the prop and governor work, and John Sandberg assembled the crank andpower section and supervised all the rest of the work. Ofcourse with a new engine, you need more gauges, soanother friend's help was enlisted . Eddy Jacobson, whois rebuilding a V77 Stinson made up a new little panelabove the radio. There were so many people that helped,and a special thanks to all of them.Also a special thank you to the Antique and ClassicDivision for the beautiful and treasured plaque.Jeannie quits flying with me around Halloween whenthe weather cools off, but any day that I have the time,and it is above zero, you can see that 01 Griffin birdheading out of Crystal airport. The coldest day Iveflown was -6 degrees and that's too cold for comfort.The payments continue

OUTST ANDING CUSTOMIZ EDANTIQUE 1941 MONOCOUPE 9 A

# N38922By: Bud Dake8 78 FairbanksBerkeley, O 63734

When asked to write words about our 1941 Monocoupe 90A, where does it begin? First I want to thankthe Ant ique/Classic Division for the Outstand ingCustomized Antique Award . It was certainly an honorand a big surprise. We still find such an Award hard tobelieve, after remembering all those beautifully restoredand customized Antique/Classic planes which attendedOshkosh '77.I had been searching several years before I found myMonocoupe. I was happy with the other airplanes I hadowned but there was always that someth ing specialwanted, to fulfill my needs. That little extra is what theMonocoupes have and that's what makes them suchdelightful airplane. The one I now own was built in 1941at the factory in Orlando, Florida, where they movedafter they left Robertson Airport (now Lambert Field)in St. Louis, Missouri. It featured fuselage framework of1025 and 4130 steel tubing. The Model 90A used duralmetal sheet formers and wood fairing strips to come up

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with the attractive Monocoupe styling. The entire airplane was fabric covered with the best linen. The wingspan is 32', overall length 20' 10 and height 60 withthe wing area of 145 sq. ft., the wing loading is 11 Ibsper sq. foot. Empty weight is 1025 Ibs., gross is 1610pounds. A Clark Y airfoil is used on this model. Itcarries 28 gallons of fuel in the two wing root locatedtanks.I acquired my Monocoupe in July 1973. Althoughshe was in good mechanical condition, having at thattime, a 135 Lycoming installed. She needed some minorairframe, interior, and metal work. So while my wife,Connie, and I had a fun flying machine we also had workahead. We also needed to find some of the originalequipment, like fairings, wheel pants, etc.

In September 1974 we completely disassembled theairplane for a comprehensive inspection. I installed newbolts, control cables, pulleys, new brakes and tires and anew exhaust. I removed the instrument panel, whichsomeone had made of aluminum and made a new panelof birch plywood. My wife stained it and I then applieda clear acrylic finish. This new panel was more like theoriginal, which was also of wood. I also made up a new

Left: Bud and Connie Dake,making like a bird. Photo byRobert Hegge

Right: james Patterson hasmade this 7938 Spartan thepassion of his life and pocket-book for three years.

bottom cowl for a more original look and a slight gain ofspeed.A new interior, new glass, soundproofing, firewallpad, new engine cowl and several new inst ruments wereinstalled. Now it was time for the cosmetics. This wasone of the more time consuming jobs consisting ofsanding, cleaning and preparing for the finish. It wasquite a job to maneuver that 32' wing... preparing oneside, painting and then the good part...you have to turnthat wing over, with its one degree dyhedral, withoutdoing any damage. A job not for the weak of heart. Alsoa new skylight needed to be doped into place. Nextcame a repeat performance of getting the fuselageprepared for painting. The yellow and red Monocoupehas over 35 coats of dope on Irish Linen and three coatsof hot enamel.From the factory this Monocoupe originally had a 90hp opposed Franklin. It was later changed to a0-290-D11 and in the winter of 1976 we began theinstallation of a 9-320 Lycoming and this undertakingwas completed and Field Approved in August 1976.The time spent rebuilding N38922 was well worth allthe effort. The labors of love are never a chore. Monocoupes have always been our favorite, guess that is whywe have enjoyed Luscombes, but then they aregenetically related, through the same designers, ClaytonFolkerts and Don Luscombe. My wife and I have takenover the original Monocoupe Club, very recently, andhopefully there will be more of the magnicent Monocoupes attending many more of the Fly-ins. We wouldlike to see more interset in the preservation of the Monocoupe.

OUTSTANDING AIRCRAFT938 SPARTAN W #N17615

By Dr. James T Patterson7977 Falmouth DriveLOUiSVille, KY 4 2 5I was the most beautiful airplane I had ever seen Sosold my Beechcraft Bonanza and forced $35,000 onthe guy who owned it. And that's how I came to own the1938 model Spartan airplane that for three years andmore has been the passion of my life, consuming my

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time, attention, plus week-ends and a considerable share


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of my money. For this, the plane has returned me fun,and forced the learning of new skills.The plane was built in February 1938 by SpartanAirplane Co. of Tulsa, Okla. It was one of 32 such planesmade from 1932 to 1942. n the year of its birth itparticipated in the cross country Bendix Trophy race. Ithas passed through the corporate hands of BelmontRadio Corp. of Chicago, Airpath Instrument of St.Louis, and Scripps-Howat-d Corp. of Cincinnati. DuringWorld War II it was in the Navy - officially designated aUC 71 - as a personnel transpOi t on the West Coast.When I bought it around Christmas 1972 it had abright red paint job, and had been extensively alteredinside. At first I had no intention of doing anything butflying and enjoying it; certainly not rebuilding the wholething. But a minor mishap changed all that. DUI ing anearly familiarization flight, my son dropped the rudderlock beneath the floorboards. Aftet- landing I removedthe floorboards to retrieve it. The more I took up, themore problems I encountered - corrosion, aging, andthe like. Mid 1973 found me in an extensive rebuildingand restoration job. I dismantled the plane entirely;wings, motor, fuselage, everything that could come offdid. I worked every weekend and every Thursday for ayear and a half, under the supervision of two licensedmechanics.I was enough to qual ify me for licensing by the FAAas an air-frame mechanic, should oral surgery ever pall.The project became a passion for the family, as well .My wife and two boys came out to lend a hand. Oursocial life was zero.

My goal was to restore the plane as closely to its 1938configuration as I could. I replaced the upholstery withplush material that reproduces its original very closely,had the plane repainted to its original design, in a lovely,cool mint green.In January 1973, two years after I bought the Spartan, it was finished. I now have a beautiful five placeplane powered by a rebuilt-to-new 450 horsepower PrattWhitney radial engine. It cruises at 200 miles an hourand its range is 1,000 miles. At crusing speed it burns 22gallons of gas and hour. Now I am hooked and thinkingabout buying and restoring a biplane, if I can find themachine I want. I have the feel ing my wife will welcomea new project.J ust the other day she was asking Nowthat the Spartan is finished, what am I going to do withyou all winter long?

OUTSTANDING AIRCRAFT1944 BEECH STAGGERWING 0175

#N16MBy: W McBride7969 Fair Oak DriveRochester, M I 48063

Above: Mr McBride is to be commended for his for-titude, and if there was a trophy for "Bravery", hewould be the recipient. (Photo by Robert F Pauley)

Exactly why I became interested in the Staggerwing,and when my interest was aroused, I don't recall; Isuppose it had to do with the fact that I owned a Stearman and that I am partial to biplanes. Also, a goodfriend of mine, George York, a Staggerwing buff, got meinterested.I actively started looking for an airplane in the springof 1975, and attended the Staggerwing Convention inAlbuquerque in October 1975, to look at several airplanesthere for sale.Upon leaving the convention, I went to Salt LakeCity and looked at an airplane that had been partiallyrebuilt. It was in a dark hangar on a cold evening, andfrom what I could determine the airplane looked prettygood. The best part of it was that the airplane had beencompletely recovered and was still in the silver, which Iliked because it gave me the opportunity of finishing thecraft any way I wanted. The sheet metal looked good

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and from what I could see, the workmanship didn't looktoo bad. I later found out I didn't look too closely.) propeller back in his shop in Gunnison. He told me toremove the flaps and prop.decided on the latter.The interior of the airplane had been recently reuphol


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The airplane also had no radios, which I also liked,because I wanted to start with an all new rad io package.I went back to Detroit, made my decision, called theseller, and made a deal. I was assured the airplane wouldbe put together and in working condition within acouple of weeks. However, several weeks went by andseveral phone calls made, and for various reasons givenme the airplane was still in the condition in which I hadleft it in back in October. So I decided to go to SaltLake City and put it together myself. The oil tank,exhaust system and all of the sheet metal had beenremoved and were scattered about the hangar. Optimistically I told my wife I would be gone a couple of days.After a week and a half, in a cold, poorly lit hangar, andwith only one change of clothes, I finally got the airplane assembled. By this time it was late in Novemberand the weather was not good.I was told there was a man in Gunnison, Colorado, bythe name of Rocky Warren, who owned two Staggerwings and had acquired thousands of hours in Staggerwings. Since I had never flown one, I decided to call himand ask if he would come to Salt Lake City and checkme out. And th is he did. When he arrived, the weatherwas bad so it was a couple of days before we could getthe plane flying. I wanted to run a retraction test, couldfind no one on the field to help me. So, against mybetter judgement we flew the airplane without one. Weflew for a couple of hours, then Rocky suggested that hemake the first landing, of which I was in favor. We hadflared out and were in the touch-down position whenRocky suddenly poured on full power. I heard a terriblesound. The prop was digging into the cement, and as Ilooked out the side window I could see the flaps bei ngground down by the pavement. Somehow he got it backinto the air. We got the gear down manually, and checked the gear position by looking at our shadow in thesnow. Rocky then madean uneventful landing, and wetaxied up to the fixed base operator on the field. Withtears in my eyes, I viewed a prop which had six inchesremoved from the blades, the flaps torn to shreds, andgear doors ruined. Luckily we did no damage to thebottom of the fuselage with the exception of wearing offthe heads of a few sheet metal screws. I assumed this wasthe end of my airplane, but "good old Rocky put hisarm around my shoulder and told me not to worrybecause he had a brand new set of flaps and a new

He made a few phone calls, and in about three hoursa friend of his rolled up in a 320 with the seats removedand in their place were a new prop, two flaps, and a fewother things we needed. By 9:00 that night we had theairplane completely back together and ready to go. Ibelieve I had the only man in the world with me who atthat time had a spare set of flaps and a prop for aStaggerwing. The next morning we departed forGunnison and had an uneventful landing. We were unab e to put the plane in Rocky's hangar because thehangar was broken, so we had to work outside. I removed the wheels and brakes, which were not functioning,and replaced them with a set off of one of his planes. Inow had a Staggerwing with borrowed flaps, borrowedprop, borrowed battery, borrowed brakes, and borrowedwheels.I spent a couple of days working on the airplane infeeezing cold weather but finally got the gear problemsolved, and was ready for a check-out with Rocky.I believed that if you could fly a Stearman you couldfly anything. Wrong I had a terrible time landing andtaking off the airplane, and had decided there was noway I could ever handle it, and Rocky thought I was atypically rotten flat-land pilot. However, with a goodnight's sleep and a couple of hours in Rocky's 180,Rocky felt I was good enough to try it from the leftseat, at which time he opened the door and started outof the airplane. I asked him why he was getting out, andI don't remember his exact words, but they were something to the effect that since there were only brakes onthe left-hand side he could do me no good in the righthand seat, and besides he didn't want to put his life indanger. I made a couple of terrifying landings anddecided it was time to head for home. By this time overtwo weeks had elapsed on my two day trip. Wetopped off the plane fuel, and Rocky made me file aflight plan and promise to call him after I had made itover the mountains. Somehow I did, and I called himform Pueblo, Colorado. The rest of the trip wentsmoothly, and even my landings started to improve.Upon getting home and looking the airplane overmore closely, I decided that probably I had made a bigmistake. The plane was now out of license. I had tomake the decision whether to rei icense it and learn howto fly it, or to tackle the bigger job of rebuilding it andhaving the airplane the way I would really like it. I

stered in a horrible blue vinyl. My financial resources didnot allow me to redo the upholstery, so I decided topaint the airplane in a color that would be compatiblewith the interior.Another good friend of mine, Ken Wilson, whoknows everything about airplanes, suggested thatrestore the aircraft to the configuration of a mil itaryYC-43. There were three aircraft of this type built in1939 for the U.S. Embassy : one each for London,Rome, and Paris. These three aircraft had the identicalcolors of the Stearman PT-17, that is blue fuselage,yellow wings, red and white stripped rudder, and starson the wings. I had restored my Stearman in these exactcolors and had lots of butyrate dope left over so thedecision was easily made.The complete project took me approximately 1 zyears . I removed every nut and bolt I could get at without removing the fabric. There were numerous problems.The fabric job was very poor, and much of it had to bedone over.I even had problems, after the airplane was completed, with the dope peeling off in sheets to below thesilver. On a couple of wings I was faced with peeling allthe dope off and starting over again.The engine was rebuilt, I pulled the instrument paneland re-conditioned every instrument, installed all newNarco radios, and I rewired the aircraft completely. As itturned out, both of my flaps were unusable because thespars were broken, which meant building new flaps fromscratch.One of the major problems I had in completing theaircraft was getting the U.s. Embassy seal for the side ofthe fuselage. It seems that the State Department doesnot like to sell decals to private individuals regardless oftheir intended use. I don't know how many times I called Washington and hung up frustrated. I finally had anartist friend of mine draw the seal free hand and throughthe process of using seven silkscreens made me somebeautiful decals.The Staggerwing convention in 1977 started June8th, I completed the airplane the evening of June 8thand made it to the convention in Wichita the morning ofthe 9th.The Hobbs meter now records over 40 hours and I'mbecoming more comfortable with every hour. I may evenget to like it almost as much as my Stearman.


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rREPLIC CHAMPION

FOKKER DVIII N7557UBy Ed Swearinyen40 Monee Roadark Forest, I L 60466

The Fokker eased in behind and slightly above theSopwith. Glancing behind to his right and left theFokker pilot checked for unwelcome traffic. Satisfied,he dropped his left wing, at the same time tapping inright rudder. The Fokker went into a slight slip, allowinghim to see down past the nose and check again theposition of the seemingly unwary British plane. Thesun's rays glanced dully off its olive brown wings and thecockades of red, white, and blue were in sharp contrastto its generally dull finish. Not so the German plane.With its red and white cowling and black stripedempennage it proudly proclaimed its identity withjagstaffel-6. True, the camouflage pattern on the fuselageand green painted wing made it hard to see from above,but from the side it was a cock pheasant among hens.Straightening, the Fokker pilot dove and picked uphis quarry over the sites of his twin guns. Start from therear and rake forward as you pull up and away. The gapclosed slowly at first and then the pace quickened as thefaster German plane closed rapidly. Not too close, he's

flying steadily, but you can't be too careful. Then it wastime, and he pushed hard with his thumb on the top ofhis control column.Nothing There was no crashing, bucking of twinmachine guns, no powder smoke pouring back in hiseyes and streaking his face with burnt cordite, no rattleof cartridges racing through guide chutes. Malfunctioning guns over France 1918, no. It was Toronto, Canada1972. The British plane was a rotary powered copy ofthe Sopwith Pup built and flown by George Neal, chieftest pilot for De Havilland of Canada. The German planewas my own Fokker DVIII N7557U, built in ParkForest, Illinois, and the occasion, the Canadian NationalExposition.Walter Middyish, perhaps, but not solely. It had beenfun to fly in shows such as this, and in fact we will be inone Oct. 15 and 16, 1977 in Virginia flying a World WarI segment with Dick King of Old Rhinebeck, New Yorkand his Pup. On rare occasions, we have stalked unsuspecti ng Cubs and Cessnas, the Fokker and I Butprimarily, the Fokker was built for my own pleasure justto have fun.

As late as the day this is being written I have hadfriends and strangers alike ask; what's in you that saysyou have to do this? Why did you choose an old planelike that to build? To me the answer is very simple.Since I was a teen-ager I have yearned to own a WW Ifighter.As early as that, too, I have felt that the D-VIII wasthe one that I wanted if I could have a choice. To me ithas always been the neatest and cleanest of all the WW Idesigns. But of course there are no choices, findingauthentic examples of WW I aircraft today is a combi na-tion of luck and perseverance. There are still somearound, you hear stories all the time but lives andfortunes will be spent before they are all found. Myodyssey with my fighter started in the Spring of 1960,shortly after earning my private license. Just as everypilot in the past and all those in the future will do, Ibegan to search for a plane to own. I found to mydismay that you could spend thousands of dollars andstill not have anything different than dozens of otherplanes on the field. This is not to say the Cubs, Cessnas,Aeroncas, etc. aren't alright, but I didn't feel at the

2

moment like owning one. It was then I decided to builda plane. Once that decision was made there was no or measurements since it automatically was one tenthscale. From these sketches all of the working drawings the original and one aft bay is 5 millimeters longer, making my D-VIII 100 millimeters longer than the one still


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question which it would be; if I was going to build thenit would be the one I had always wanted, the D-VIII.With this decision I unknowingly opened up a phase ofmy life that has proven to be one of the most gratifyingand fruitful and certainly one of the most stimulating.Although airplanes and aviation have been a part ofmy life off and on since I was eighteen, this would bemy first attempt to build one. Not knowing any different, therefore, my search for information of theFokker began with all the easy sources; the SmithsonianI nstitute, the Air Force Museum, etc. Soon letters weregoing overseas to England, France, Germany, and Italyand though I cannot read these languages the word Noshows up fairly quick in any langauge. After manydisappointments, an answer came back from the curatorof the Munich Museum in . West Germany saying theoriginal designer, Herr Platz, was still alive. In this letterhe sent what he felt was Herr Platz s correct address withthe suggestion I write directly to him. With hope born offrustration, a letter was sent off to Herr Platz telling himof my ambition to build a Fokker D-VIII. Within a fewweeks I received a letter from this great man stating thathe would be glad to help. There were, however, a coupleof conditions. First, since it had been many years sincehe had designed the D- VIII and he had designed manyplanes, would I be so kind as to send him the generaldimensions to refresh his memory. That was easy, thesecond requirement was not quite so simple. Please, toaid him, all future correspondence would have to be inGerman. Not only mine to him but his answers. Manthat was a killer. I could neither read nor write German.Fortunately our very good friends and neighbors, Dr.and Mrs. Vrla, were German and for the next six yearsthey received a liberal education in the design andconstruction of fighter aircraft. Without them and theirinvaluable help, it would have been an impossible task.With this, however, our correspondence and later ourfriendship began and as stated above, this was one of themost gratifying six years of my life. My greatest loss wasin not being able to meet Herr Platz personally, butthrough his letters, notes, and cards I will always feelthat I did know him.Gathering up all my information, I sent it to HerrPlatz and within a few months back came a package. Init were sketches on millimeter graph paper showing thegeneral details of the D-VIII. There were no dimensions

have been made and from them the plane itself, also acomplete set of blueprints are being drawn. Certaindetails of Fokker construction techniques were learnedfrom other sources and with available measurements andgraph paper, the empennage was laid out, Herr Platznever forwarded this information.Through the years, Platz would send additional information as it became needed. Because the wing was thegreatest mystery and, of course, the secret of success asfar as the D-VIII was concerned, our correspondence onthis was to say the least, interesting. The only questionnever really answered was how he hung the ailerons, andI have come to believe that this was a deliberate omission on his part. I feel that he felt the original systemwas dangerous in light of later knowledge gained and hesuggested instead, the piano hinge type that was a postwar development for Fokker. This detail by the way,precipitated one of the more humorous episodes in ourvolumnous correspondence. In one letter after muchprompting, he gave a long and detailed explanation ofthe airleron hinge arrangement and then in a post script,he advised I disregard all that he had written. It seemsthat he disagreed with himself.Looking back on those years, I have come to realizein retrospect that I have had a privilege and an honorafforded only a few men.After some time the shocking realization came to methat Herr Platz was ill. On occasion his answers wouldbe delayed and once or twice I wrote and answers explaining the delay came from members of his family.This set for me an unknown deadline and I worked everypossible moment to no avail. In the early Fall of 1966, Ireceived the inevitable black bordered card telling me ofthe death of my friend.

The plane is full scale, wing span is 27'6 and lengthis approximately 19 . Construction details are as accurate to Fokker practice as was possible to duplicate.Some specifics, the fuselage is welded steel tubing, wirebraced with .090 piano wire, wire ferrels and turn buckles. The Platz practice of weld ing loops in the corners ofhis bays and looping the wire through was researchedand duplicated. I have had the pleasure of measuring theonly known example of an original D-VIII fuselage,which belongs to the Caproni family in Milan, Italy. HerrPlatz s 44 year old memory was fantastic, he made onemistake. My cockpit area is 95 millimeters longer than

in existence. All other major dimensions are exact.The landing gear is mounted in the Fokker ball andsocket arrangement with the cross bracing taking theloads. The hinges on the rudder and elevator are straphinges with bronze bushings silver soldered inside anddrilled for lubricating. The empennage, rudder, etc., is ofsteel tubing as is the landing gear. The wing is of woodconstruction with two full span box spars, Fokker typeribs covered with 1.5 milometer three-ply birch plywood. Over this, I doped on razorback and then painted.The original had the 110 horsepower Oberursal rotaryengine. Mine has 145 horsepower Warner and from

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Vintage Airplane - Nov 1977

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