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Vintage Airplane - Nov 1982

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Page 1: Vintage Airplane - Nov 1982
Page 2: Vintage Airplane - Nov 1982

STRAIGHT AND LEVEL

The Fall season has arrived with its warm days and cool evenings, and in most parts of the USA the fly-in season has ended. Scattered among these har­vest days are small social gatherings known in North Carolina as "Pig Pickin's". The purpose is to enjoy fellowship, refreshments and excellent food. Most "Pig Pickin's" engage a chef with the know-how and ex­pertise to slowly roast a whole pig over the hickory fire.

In late September we received a phone call from Antique/Classic Division member Farrell James of Kannapolis, North Carolina, inviting my wife Ferne and myself to a "Pig Pickin'" on their strip. We eagerly accepted his kind invitation and our plans for that Saturday were set. Now, you do not attend a "Pig Pickin'" in a modern aircraft. My homebuilt has only one seat, the Staggerwing is still under restoration, so the choice was obvious - scrounge an appropriate aircraft for the trip. Pete Covington, Co-chairman of the Antique judging committee at Oshkosh, resides in Spencer, Virginia, about 45 miles from the residence of yours truly. Knowing that Pete had just restored an immaculate J-3 needing some flight time, Pete and I agreed that his J-3 should attend the event.

Late that Thursday afternoon I flew the homebuilt to Pete's strip and returned home with the J-3 Cub. Friday afternoon was spent giving the Cub a good washing and overall clean-up in preparation for the trip Saturday.

Never having flown in a tandem seat aircraft, my wife was afforded the pleasure of making the trip in the front seat of the Cub, where the little internal wind draft was no threat to her hairdo. The ceiling was no problem but the visibility was only about four to five miles and navigating from the rear seat and around the hairdo makes you often lean to one side to see the compass.

For the first thirty miles, there were no IFR (I follow roads) conditions, and assuming the compass was not in calibration, we took up a relative heading of 195° by taking a visible 15° correction after de­parting runway 18. On this heading the compass read 150°, which we used for the next few minutes . Soon the sun broke through the clouds and it became ap­parent we were not on a heading of 195°. It took only a couple of left and right turns to realize the compass was inoperative and , finally arriving near a site that could be identified, we found ourselves several miles east of our intended course. By this time we were near 1-85 and continued to our destina­tion via IFR.

We had planned to arrive early and watch the ar­rivals, but we were late and parked in the pasture next to the strip were fifteen arrivals ahead of us . "James International" is about 1500 feet , slightly up­hill to the northwest and has a beautiful approach over a deep blue lake. At touchdown on the right were two hangars and the James' residence; to our left was

By Brad Thorn as President

Antique/Classic Division

the temporary parking area - part of the James' cow pasture, with cut grass and an open fence for entrance . After engine shutdown we were greeted , photographed, and then Ferne undertook the gymnas­tics of departing the front seat of the J -3. At home the temperature forecast for the day had been the middle 60s, but by the time we arrived it had already climbed to the mid-seventies. Crossing the runway we entered the hangar, registered, shook hands with the early arrivals and began the day enjoying the fellowship and taking photographs.

At around 1 p.m. the food line assembled and the roasted pig was raised from the cooking pit. The smell was tantalizing and we enjoyed a fantastic barbecue meal with all the trimmings, including dozens of home­made desserts. After completing the delicious meal, with seconds, we wandered to our aircraft to begin some informal fly-bys.

Many a pilot was taught to fly in J-3 Cubs and many feel nostalgic about them. Among the 35 air­craft attending, eighteen were early Piper models and at one time the fly-by pattern consisted of eleven yellow J-3 Cubs! Mter they finally landed, all eleven were lined up on the grass runway for the camera bugs. It looked like the early days of Bradford, Pennsyl­vania where the production models were lined up for pick-up or delivery.

As the evening approached the planes struggled home to various parts of both North and South Caro­lina, and yours truly, with better visibility , navi­gated via the sun toward our base airport. We were touched by this event. Our venture represented the "old days" for low cross country flying, the gather­ing of many types of similar aircraft, and above all the tremendous fellowship that makes these events so successful and enjoyable. We visited with many friends we had not seen for years and compared stories with those we had seen as recently as the EAA Inter­national Convention this year in Oshkosh.

We realize that similar events are happening throughout our wonderful country and that many of you have participated in such affairs. Let us not allow these events to fade away as so many have, but strive to keep these friendly and fun-type fly-ins in existence. The grass roots are still here ... let's not forget it. •

2 NOVEMBER 1982

Page 3: Vintage Airplane - Nov 1982

~\ TH VI~TA(I AIWLA~~~DIVISIOll :ftt'\~ ~~\ PUBLICATION OF THE ANTIQUE/CLASSIC DIVISION, INC.

\ ~J OF THE EXPERIMENTAL AIRCRAFT ASSOCIATION, INC. ,. P.O. BOX 229, HALES CORNERS, WI 53130

COPYRIGHT © 1982 EM ANTIQUE/CLASSIC DIVISION, INC., ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

NOVEMBER 1982 VOLUME 10 NUMBER 11

OFFICERS President Vice-President

W. Brad Thomas, Jr. Jack C. Winthrop 301 Dodson Mill Road Route 1, Box 111

Pilot Mountain, NC 27041 Allen, TX 75002 919/368-2875 Home 214/727-5649 919/368-2291 Office

Secretary Treasurer M. C. " Kelly" Viets E. E. " Buck" Hilbert Route 2, Box 128 P.O. Box 145 Lyndon, KS 66451 Union, IL 60180

913/ 828-3518 Home 815/923-4591

DIRECTORS ADVISORS

Ronald Fritz Morton W. Lester Ed Burns 15401 Sparta Avenue P.O. Box 3747 1550-Mt. Prospect Road Kent City , MI 49330 Martinsville, VA 24112 Des Plaines, IL 60018

616/678-5012 703/632-4839 31 21298-7811

John S. Copeland 9 Joanne Drive

9635 Sylvia Avenue 3744 North 51st Blvd . Claude L. Gray , Jr. Arthur R. Morgan

Westborough, MA 01581 6171366-7245Northridge , CA 91324 Milwaukee, WI 53216

213/34S-1338 414/442-3631 Stan Gomoll 1042 90th Lane, NE

Minneapolis, MN 55434 Dale A. Gustafson 6121784-1172

7724 Shady Hill Drive John R. Tu rgyan 1530 Kuser Road

Indianapol is, IN 46274 Espie M. Joyce, Jr.Trenton, NJ 08619317/293-4430 Box 468609/585-2747

Madison, NC 27025 919/427-0216

AI Kel ch S. J. Wittman 66 W. 622 N. Madison Ave Box 2672 Gene Morris

Cedarburg , WI 5301 2 Oshkosh , WI 54901 27 Chandelle Drive 414/377·5886 414/235-1265 Hampshire, IL 60140

3121683-3199

Roy Redman Robert E. Kesel George S. York Rt. I , Box 39 455 Oakridge Drive 181 Sloboda Ave.

Kilkenny, MN 56052 Rochester , NY 14617 Mansfield , OH 44906 507/334-5922 716/342·3170 419/52S-4378

S. H. " Wes" Schmid 2359 Lefeber Road

Wauwatosa, WI 53213 414/771-1545

PUBLICATION STAFF

PUBLISHER EDITOR Paul H. Poberezny Gene R. Chase

ASSOC, EDITOR EDITORIAL ASSISTANTS George A. Hardie, Jr. Norman Petersen Pat EHer

FRONT COVER. , . The Grand Champi­ BACK COVER ... 1931 scene at Lock­on Antique at Oshkosh '82 was this heed's Bu rbank, CA plant. The Lock­1936 Stinson SR-8C, NC17116, SI N heed Vega is NC926Y. Note the lower 9801 owned by Roy and Judie Red­ two headlights on the Packard Eight man, Kilkenny, MN. See story on page turned in the same direction as the 5. front wheels . The curved line in the

(Ted Koston Photo) lower left of the picture is a portion of the compass rose located to the west of the factory build ing.

(Photo from the Lee Worthington Collection)

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Straight and Level . .. By Bmd Thomas .. . . . . . . . . .. 2

AlC News . .. By Gene Chase .. , . , . . .. .. .... . ... , .. 4

Stinson SR-8C- Four Time Grand Champ .. . By Gene Chase. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Wedell-Williams and the Haizlips- Part I .. ..... . ... 10

Flight of the Falcon . . . By Warwick J ohnson . ... .. . 15

Borden 's Aeroplane Posters From The 1930's . . . By Lionel Salisbury .. . .... . . ... . .. . ... . ...... . . 18

Mystery Plane ... . . ...... .... . . .. ...... .. . . . ...... 20

Letters To The Editor ... , ...... . .. . .. . .. .. . . . .. ... 21

Calendar Of Events ... . .. ... ... . .. . .. . . . . . . .. . .. , . 22

Page 5 Page 10 Page 15

Editorial Policy: Readers are encouraged to submit stories and photographs. Policy opinions expressed in articles are solely those of the authors. Responsibility for accuracy in reporting rests entirely with the contributor. Material should be sent to : Gene R. Chase, Editor, The VINTAGE AIR­PLANE, P.O. Box 229, Hales Corners, WI 53130.

Associate Editorships are assigned to those writers who submit five or more articles which are published in THE VINTAGE AIRPLANE during the current year. Associates receive a bound volume of THE VINTAGE AIRPLANE and a free one-year membership in the Division for their effort. THE VINTAGE AIRPLANE (ISSN 0091 -6943) is owned exclusively by EAA Antique/Classic Division, Inc., and is published monthly at 11311 W. Forest Home Ave., Franklin, Wisconsin 53132, P.O. Box 229, Hales Corners, Wisconsin 53130. Second Class Postage paid at Hales Corners Post Office, Hales Corners , Wisconsin 53130, and additional mailing offices. Membership rates ~or EAA Antique/ Classic Division, Inc., are $18.00 for current EAA members per 12 month period of which $12.00 is for the publication of THE VINTAGE AIRPLANE. Membership is open to all who are interested in aviation. ADVERTISING - Antique/Classic Division does not guarantee or endorse any product offered through our advertising. We invite constructive criticism and welcome any report of inferior merchandise obtained through our advertising so that corrective measures can be taken.

VINTAGE AIRPLANE 3

Page 4: Vintage Airplane - Nov 1982

THIRD CLASS MEDICAL CERTIFICATES

EAA President Paul Poberezny has called for the elimination of Third Class Medical Certificates in a recent letter to the FAA.

Commenting on FAA Docket No. 23190 concerning the review of medical standards and certification pro­cedures for pilots, he recommended the deletion of Para­graph 67.17 of the FAA Regulations that deals with the Third Class Medical Certificate. Paul said, "The time has come to question the need for supervised medical examinations for pilots who do not fly for hire or com­pensation. In lieu of the Third Class Medical Examina­tion, we suggest that an appropriate motor vehicle driver's permit, as issued by any state, be a suitable substitute. In our opinion, safety would not be endan­gered since a normal person who is allowed to drive a car at high speed on a crowded turnpike has enough coordination and skill to fly a small airplane, from the standpoint of physical fitness ."

In addition, Paul noted that the elimination of the Third Class Medical Certificate would result in a con­siderable dollar savings and increased efficiency for the FAA through the removal of an enormous amount of paperwork. He also said that the FAA might choose to require a Third Class Medical Certificate for pri­vate pilots who wish to qualify for an instrument rat­ing, and that position would be acceptable to the EAA.

It was also noted that the FAA had not set a time­table for the review of comments and their possible im­plementation, and Paul suggested that the FAA im­mediately set a deadline. "With no established time­table , the impression is that there is no plan for a serious adoption of any acceptable comments," he said.

THREE AVIATION PIONEERS PASS ON

Maude Irving Tait Moriarty, 81, a nationally known aviatrix in the 1920s and 1930s, died on October 5 in East Longmeadow, MA. The Tait family financed the construction of Gee Bee racing planes in Springfield, MA and in 1931 flying a Gee Bee Sportster she won the Aerol Trophy race for women and placed in two others at the National Air Races. She gave up competi­tive flying that year when she married attorney James Moriarty.

LeRoy R. Grumman, 87, founder, first chairman of the board and president of Grumman Aircraft Engi­neering Corp. died on October 4 at Long Island, NY. He had retired as board chairman in 1966.

George William Haldeman, Sr., 84, died in Lake­land, FL on September 10. During his long aviation career he set many altitude, endurance, speed and dis­tance records and in 1970 was admitted to the Avia­tion Hall of Fame in New York. George was co-pi lot with Howard Hughes on the celebrated test flight of the H-4 Hercules, better known as the Spruce Goose.

(American Airlines Photo) Ralph A. Bufano, Executive Di rector of the EAA Aviation Foundation accepts the donation of a Va-scale model of a DH-4 from American Airlines' General Manager Martin F. " Marty" Brueckner (right).

EAA AVIATION MUSEUM RECEIVES DH-4 MODEL

To commemorate their 50th anniversary in 1976, American Airlines commissioned Chicago model maker and sculptor Daniel J . Dorsey to build a Ys-scale model of a DeHavilland DH-4. The model had been on dis­play at American's Gate K-7 at Chicago's O'Hare In­ternational Airport until last month when it was pre­sented to the EAA Aviation Museum.

Historically , on April 15, 1926 Charles A. Lind­bergh, chief pilot for Robertson Aircraft Corp., the earliest predecessor of American Airlines, flew a DH-4 from St. Louis to Chicago. The beautiful scale model of the early air mail plane is now displayed at the EAA Aviation Museum.

TAPES AVAILABLE OF ANTIQUE/ CLASSIC FORUMS

Another advantage to moving the Antique/Classic forums from the Red Bam area at Oshkosh '82 to the EAA forums site north of the FAA control tower is that they can now be recorded as all other forums have been for years.

Following is a partial listing of forums tape re­corded at Oshkosh '82 which should be of interest to many A/C Division members:

Title Speaker Aeroncas "Buzz" Wagner Antique/Classic Aircraft

Judging Claude Gray Auto Engine Conversions Dave Blanton, Steve Sitt­

man, Rex Taylor, John Monnett, Dr. Max Shauck, Ed Lubitz

Bucker Jungmanns John Bergeson Cessna 120/140s "Curley" Owens Cessna 170s George Mock, Dale Faux Cessna 190/195s ClifT Crabs, Bill Terrell ,

Dick Moen Fairchild 24s Ed Wegner Fairchild PTs John Berendt Flying Flea, The Frank B. Easton National Waco Club Ray Brandly Piper TriPacers and

Pacers Bob Fuller

(Continued on Page 14)

4 NOVEMBER 1982

Page 5: Vintage Airplane - Nov 1982

Grand Champion Antique at Oshkosh '82 ... Roy Redman's (Photos COl/rtpsy of Roy Redman Excppt as Noted) 1936 Stinson SR-8C.

STINSON SR-8C FOUR TIME GRAND CHAMP

By Gene Chase

THE STORY ABOUT this beautiful 1936 Stinson Gullwing Reliant, NCl7116, is really three stories in one ... the plane , the ownerlrestorer Roy Redman, and a man named Olof A. Anderson. Roy Redman (EAA 83604, A /C 6600) lives at Rt. 1, Box 39, Kilkenny, MN 56052. The plane which was named Grand Champion Antique at Oshkosh '82 had previously received this top honor at three other major fly-ins - Blakesburg '80, Sun 'N Fun '82 and Watsonville '82. That in itself is an amazing feat, but considering this is Roy Red­man's very first restoration job of any kind makes it all the more amazing.

(Ted Koston Photo) Roy Redman with his four-time grand champion winning Stinson Reliant.

Olof A. " Ole" Anderson's role in the story dates back much earlier than that day in 1974 when Roy acquired the Stinson. In the late thirties Ole owned and flew a SR-8C at Fargo, North Dakota and Roy was the kid on the airport fence. On that day of days, Roy finally got his first airplane ride, with Ole Ander­son in Ole's Stinson which was but five serial num­bers less than Roy's NC17116, SIN 9801.

As Roy was growing up in Fargo , he never for­got that ride in Ole's elegant Stinson. He finished high school, took flying lessons soloing a Piper PA-11 in 1952, and graduated from college in 1953. He started to attend fly-ins ten years later and when he saw the beautiful Stinson SR-9s of Stan Kuck, Ralph Roznick and Charlie Bombardier his interest in pre-war civilian Gullwings started to grow.

In 1973 with the encouragement and help of friends . he began to actively search for a project. Typically he followed several disappointing leads before learn­ing of a SR-8 for sale in Oregon. In January, 1974 Roy hopped an airliner bound for Portland, Oregon where he was to get his first look at NC17116. It was in the shop of a small airport operator, with the wings off and in need of considerable patching.

For seven years the Stinson sat neglected in an orchard near Hood River, Oregon where ice sliding from a shed roof damaged the fabric. Roy admits to being extremely naive about the whole thing. He thought it would be as simple as installing the wings, patching the fabric, fixing the Mk II, running up the engine and flying it home! Never having owned an antique, or a round engine, or restored anything, he had a lot to learn.

VINTAGE AIRPLANE 5

Page 6: Vintage Airplane - Nov 1982

(Ted Koston Photo) Roy flew this beauty over 6,000 miles to fly-ins, including Blakesburg, lA, Lakeland, FL and Watsonville, CA before taking it to Oshkosh '82. It trues out at 146 mph using standard cruise power settings at 5,000', providing luxurious comfort today just as it did over forty years ago.

The Stinson logo on the vertical fin.

The following month he did get the airplane fly­able and back home to Minnesota with no major problems. He recalled a couple of fleeting moments enroute, when he passed over Hood River where the Stinson might have rotted away, and when he flew over the Fargo, North Dakota airport where his interest in aviation first started.

Roy Redman earns his living as a Captain with Northwest Airlines and when he wasn't flying 727s out of Minneapolis , he managed to put some 80 hours on NC17116 during the summer and early fall of 1974 including trips to Oshkosh and Blakesburg. The Stin­son may have looked pretty tacky but at least Roy had his own antique with a round engine.

On November 19 a flap cable broke during retrac­tion and this event caused Roy to make the decision to stop flying and begin to earnestly restore NC17116. That same afternoon he began to remove bolts, parts and pieces and spread them across his shop floor. Al­though he was sure he would remember where every­thing went, just for kicks he brought a notepad and pencil to the shop the next day. That's when he learned lesson number one . . . he already had trouble visualiz­ing his actions of the day before. From that moment on, he carefully documented the complete disassembly of the plane.

That was a ritual he followed every day for nearly six years during the restoration, and when he finished he had filled two thick notebooks and had taken hundreds of slides . This documentation saved him from failure many times and also gave him a sense of security when an overwhelming feeling would hit him that he was "destroying" the airplane. 6 NOVEMBER 1982

When the wings, tail feathers and engine were removed, he trailered the fuselage to his home where it took up residence in the garage after the gear legs were removed. Three months later absolutely every­thing was disassembled and SR-8 parts filled every shelf and corner in the garage.

It was at this time when the stark reality of the situation hit Roy . . . he hadn't restored anything, he had just "taken apart". He began to realize just how much time such a restoration project would require. Sitting down with his wife, Judie (who was totally sup­portive of the venture) they made the decision to place a high priority on the Stinson or it might never fly again . This meant that after family and his job, the plane had to come next.

In retrospect, Roy knows the time priority was an essential ingredient in the restoration of NCl7116. The whole project spanned five years and nine months and 4,000 hours of work. Without Judie's patience, under­standing and help the time commitment would have been impossible.

In addition to physically working on the plane all this time, Roy also researched the early history of the SR-8C. He determined that it was manufactured on 11/14/36 and sold through a Stinson distributor to the first owner, Mr. Robert F. Schermerhorn of Big Spring, Texas who operated it through 1938 as a personal air­craft. The FAA files indicate that Mr. Schermerhorn owned the Schermerhorn Oil Co. but all of Roy's efforts to locate him or his family have failed.

Page 7: Vintage Airplane - Nov 1982

The second owner was Mr. Lawrence Dresser o( Tulsa , Oklahoma. This Stinson was the first of thir­teen planes owned by Mr. Dresser, who was an avid aviation enthusiast. He kindly supplied Roy with several original photos which confirmed that NCI7116 car­ried the trim style of the "late" SR-B . . . the single lightning bolt and full wing treatment used only a couple of months prior to the start of SR-9 production.

During the World War II years the U.S. Govern­ment made a concerted effort to buy a fleet of civilian cabin planes as a part of the "mobilization" effort . Early in 1941 the government purchased NCI7116 from Mr. Dresser through the same Stinson distributor in Ft. Worth, Texas who handled the sale to the first owner. Such aircraft were registered to the "Defense Plant Corp." and it's rare to find a cabin plane of the thirties that wasn't "drafted" in this manner. This is bad news for the antiquers of today because most log books were separated permanently from the aircraft during those years ... such is the case with NCI7116.

One of its duties with Uncle Sam was use as a navigation trainer at Ft. Worth's Meacham Field. In 1944 the Stinson was released from government service and purchased by Paul Shaw in Iowa City, Iowa. He operated it commercially in 1944 and 1945 and in his words , " flew more charter than anyone in the area" . Mr. Shaw made numerous flights ranging from Florida to the Rockies. Indeed the USA is no stranger to NCl7116.

From Iowa City, the Stinson went to St. Louis , Missouri where it suffered the indignity of being re­possessed by a bank. In 194B it was returned to the Tulsa area and went through several owners until 1957 when Bryant Gilmore and John Horeth bought it. Al­though their experience was minimal , they had the good fortune to know Herb Harkcom who guided them through a complete restoration and in whose hangar at Harvey Young Airport the project was undertaken.

Bryant and John's restoration was well done but somewhat different by today's standards - authenti­city was not a high priority item in those days. How­ever, they did win the Sweepstakes Trophy in 1960 at the AAA National Fly-In at Oskaloosa, Iowa.

They flew NC17116 until 1962, puttmg some 150 hours on it. When Bryant's job transferred him out of state, they sold the plane to Bob Edling, a FBO at The Dalles, Oregon. Mr. Edling operated the plane as a personal use aircraft and an occasional charter until 1964 when he sold it to R. W. Perry of Hood River, Oregon. During the eight years that Mr. Perry owned the Stinson, he only flew it occasionally before the fabric was damaged by ice off a shed roof as described earlier. Roy Redman was the next owner of NCI7116.

Getting back to the restoration project, the years at Hood River with the torn fabric had taken its toll and all the wood in the fuselage had to be replaced. A puzzle for Roy was to determine the correct shape of the top fuselage formers as previous rebuilds of the plane seemed to have lost the curved and flowing lines, especially in the area between the wings.

Fortunately for Roy , he had located Ole Ander­son by this time , whose phenomenal mental recall and fabulous collection of photos of the mate to Roy's SR-BC saved the day . Between Roy and Ole and the use of e nlarged Wylam drawings they were able to come up with very accurate contours. Ole Anderson is a retired Northwest Airlines captain and his involve­ment with the restoration of NCl7116 is a story in it­self which Roy promises to write at a later date.

Throughout the project Roy became so engrossed in rebuilding each little sub-assembly such as door latch mechanisms (whether they needed it or not)

that his shop log shows this to be the major time con­sumer. The basic rebuild operations such as sandblast­ing, woodwork , covering/doping, etc. really didn't take so long ... it was the small things which took an eternity .

The landing gear legs , or beams as Stinson called them, are a welded, heat treated box section and are mighty rugged. Roy had heard various horror stories about the necessity of a close inspection of these items so he took them to his fri end , Bob Strom who oper­ates an inspection and repair station complete with pre­cision machine shop. Bob is one of the old timers whose experi ence dates back to the thirties a nd Roy con­siders him to be a real genius.

Bob pressed the tapered axles out of the gear beams and magnafluxed both sets of axles and beams. Some minute cracks appeared around the welds but he felt these were caused during manufacture in 1936 and not a result of stress. But just to be sure he tested the beams for hardness and repaired the small cracks.

Magnafluxing also revealed some axia l cracks in the tapered axles which Bob repaired by welding. He then turned them back to shape, shot peened them for strengthening, then pressed them back into the gear beams. To complete the gear work, the big shock struts were completely remanufactured resulting in a gear system that equals or exceeds factory new standards. In r etrospect Roy feels the horror stori es about the gear were greatly exaggerated as are most hangar yarns.

After completion of the gear work the remaining woodwork was fabricated including the door and win­dow frames, doors , baggage compa rtment and side stringers. The fuselage was then ready to cover so the wings were brought into the shop.

The fuselage ready to cover.

Over the years the moisture had left its mark on the wing structure too, but fortunately the corrosion wasn't all that bad. Roy chose to sandblast the wings himself because of the nearness of the 4130 truss spars to the light aluminum square tubing which make up the ribs . He removed the fuel tanks, tip bows, butt ribs , etc. and proceeded to blast nearly a half a ton of sand on the two wing panels over the next two days. Epoxy primer was then applied, the same as used on the fuselage .

Some common , but not so wise advice regarding fu el tanks is, " if they don't leak, don't mess with 'em". Roy ignored this misinformation and checked out the tanks, finding some necessary repair in each of them. Again, under Bob Strom's watchful eye, the tanks were repaired, welded back together, pressure tested, slushed and reinstalled in the wings.

VINTAGE AIRPLANE 7

Page 8: Vintage Airplane - Nov 1982

Roy priming tne Wings, and being careful to not damage the aluminum ribs.

From the start of the entire restoration project , Roy strove for authenticity but with an eye toward a good representation of what the SR-8C really looked like in 1936. So when it came to the covering process, instead of Grade A he chose Ceconite 101, cotton tapes and butyrate dope.

Expounding on the subject, Roy said, "There are many right ways to cover and finish, and this was one option. I won't say whether it is correct or that it is best, but it did satisfy my requirements. I must say, however, that synthetic fabrics make more sense on a complex project such as this Stinson. To use the original cotton for originality's sake would only add several variables, and nothing to the appearance. Original for originality's sake would also preclude the use of epoxy coating for ferrous metals, modern seals, modern glue, and if you will, modern oil in the engine. Lack of any of these would degrade longevity and add nothing to original appearance . . . certainly counterproductive to keeping the antiques flying."

Covering the wings was a normal operation. They are big and required thousands of rib stitches. They are also thick and required an 18" needle in places and the truss spar offered more than the usual obstruc­tions to the needle. The finish was two coats of clear nitrate with dac-proofer, then six clear butyrate, four silver, and ten color with generous sanding through­out. At this point Roy thought he was close to having an airplane again , but he would miss two more sea­sons of fly-ins.

Roy's Stinson had a full gyro panel but it didn't leave the factory with one (few did in those years), S0

"return to basics" was the plan. It may be of interest to know that in 1936 when

this Stinson listed at $10,300, the blind flying group cost $1 ,000. That included an artificial horizon, direc­tional gyro, vacuum pump, and alternate source (ven­turi) plumbing. Only the Pioneer turn and bank was standard equipment. Consider paying 10% of the cost of a new airplane today for only two instruments! It's no wonder that few left the factory with the gyro group. Most that did went to the CAA (who else?) and can be identified by the high center hump in the panel.

The useless holes in NCl7116's panel were filled by welding in appropriate pieces, then grinding the surfaces smooth. Roy was fortunate to obtain a close­up photo of an original panel from Ole Anderson which was used to create the new one.

8 NOVEMBER 1982

A hand wood grained finish in the original style was applied to the completed panel. Instruments of the original manufacture and series which Roy had accumulated over the years, were overhauled and in­stalled. In 1936 the standard panel included a non­sensitive altimeter, but for an extra $184, an "air­line type" altimeter (that's sensitive, folks) could be had.

The SR-8C originally had a bump cowl, but in 1949 when an E3B engine was installed, the cowl was re­placed with a shortened V-77 cowl. Roy was fortunate in obtaining an original bump cowl, but then was faced with altering everything firewall forward to accommo­date an original-type installation. He was able to make one acceptable dishpan out of two, one of which was in very bad shape. The boot cowl and hatches had to be made from scratch. Roy learned from this what all experienced restorers know very well, that when a change is made it always results in more changes downstream.

(Ted Koston Photo) The Lycoming R-6S0 is spotless and it operates exactly per the manual. Note the mint condition of the restored bump cowl.

Although Roy replaced all the metalwork except the formed fairings and the bump cowl, the re-work of the original metal pieces absorbed the major por­tion of the metalwork time. He worked over 200 hours to make like new, the upper and lower gear fairings, the wheel streamlines, and the cowl. All together these comprise a major share of the Reliant's exterior per­sonality. The soft aluminum parts were worked using the heel of his hand as the dolly against thumb pres­sure, and using a soft mallet only sparingly.

All the exterior metal was finished with black acry­lic lacquer over gray primer. The finish was brought up

Page 9: Vintage Airplane - Nov 1982

entirely by hand, starting with #600 sandpaper, fol­lowed by three hand rubs with decreasing coarseness of compound. A final glaze rub was then applied, with a hand wax application as the finale.

It was about this time that Forrest Lovley paid one of his regular visits to Roy's shop and Roy was deeply engrossed in making things more shiny. After listen­ing patiently to his complaints about one thing or another, and how he would redo this or that, Forrest said, "C'mon Roy, it looks fine . . . quit trying to make it look better, MAKE IT FLY!"

Forrest's suggestion was a good one and it caused Roy to change his philosophy somewhat. The pace of the restoration hastened and at last the end of the road was in sight.

But there was still a lot of rubbing to be done and the fuselage alone used up 2,000 palm-size pieces of #600 paper. Each piece used with soap and water was good for 15 strokes. This was followed by a coarse, a medium and a fine rub, then a seal and glaze rub topped ofT with a wax job. This same process was re­peated on the wings and tail group.

Roy is grateful that Judie helped with rubbing out the fuselage and number one son, Mike, came home in time to pitch in on the rest. Were it not for that help, Roy says he would have been carried from the shop in a straitjacket and taken to the funny farm.

Next came time for the wing hanging party and a group of friends assisted with this chore. The Stin­son was finally starting to look like an airplane again, but it was still three months from being flyable.

Now Forrest's words, MAKE IT FLY were ringing loud and clear as the remaining time was devoted to installing the tail feathers, propeller , wheels and brakes, the interior, the rigging of the controls and fitting all fairings. Funny how a couple hundred hours of work can be condensed into a sentence like that, but that's how it was.

The authentically restored instrument panel including the beautiful handcrafted wood grain finish. (Ted Koston Photo)

One final delay was waiting for a part to arrive while replacing the Hayes wheels and expander tube brakes with original Goodyear equipment. Roy strongly recommends that this be done for the longevity of both the plane and pilot.

On August 6, 1980 the Stinson was rolled out into the sunshine for some high speed taxi tests. Roy wanted to be sure the cowling and air intake change would allow the engine to breath O.K. at high power settings with a fair amount of ram air. On the very first run the tail came up and Roy couldn't resist . . . MAKE IT FLY ... a little tuck on the wheel, and it did!

Just prior to touchdown after the first flight on August 6,1980.

So now it flew, but there still remained the never­ending detail work to finish and also the interior up­holstery. The latter was accomplished by Todd Owens and Tim Oberg who created a masterful reproduction of the fine interiors Stinsons were noted for, using for reference a 1936 magazine ad, a couple of Ole's snap­shots, and raggedy pieces from another airplane.

The original red leather interior was duplicated as authenti­cally as possible.

Two major items have not been mentioned .. . the engine and electrical system. The Lycoming R-680 was majored in 1959 in Tulsa and Roy did some super­ficial things such as new gaskets and seals, new thrust seal, new wiring harness, mag overhaul, and a general refinish and replate of parts for appearance sake. The engine performs by the book which is a tribute to both the engine type and the overhaul mechanic.

During the 1958 rebuild in Tulsa, John Horeth, an electrical engineer scrapped the 1936 archaic wiring installation and designed and installed a superb new system complete with switching panel, in-line circuit breakers, and a main bus. All wires were numbered and carefully wrapped in neat bundles. The end product was so well done it would probably outshine any factory installation to this day. Roy removed the system in­tact in 1975 and later reinstalled it in its entirety. It functions flawlessly which is a tribute to John, now gone west.

For years, Roy Redman stood on the sidelines at fly-ins watching the antiques taxi by and hoping he might be invited for a ride. Occasionally he was and it was always a memorable experience. Now he can reciprocate and he enjoys sharing his antique with others so they, too can see how it was in 1936 . •

VINTAGE AIRPLANE 9

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Part I

WEDELL-WILLIAMS AND THE HAIZLIPS

This two part series of articles and pictures of the Wedell-Williams Memorial Aviation Museum in Pat­terson , Louisiana and James and Mary Haizlip was contributed by Truman C. (Pappy) Weaver (EAA 151476), P.O. Box 655, Patterson, Louisiana 70392. Pappy is a well known aviation historian and curator of this museum. He and his wife, Rita, live at the Patter­son airport in Louisiana's bayou country, some seventy miles west of New Orleans.

The Wedell-Williams Memorial Aviation Museum of Louisiana in Patterson, Louisiana, Louisiana's of­ficial state aviation museum , formally opened Sun­day, June 25, 1978. The museum takes its name from James R. "Jimmy" Wedell and Harry P . Williams, two of Louisiana's most famous aviation pioneers. Together in 1928 they formed Louisiana's first commercial air­line, the Wedell-Williams Air Service, Inc., and de­signed and manufactured airplanes which dominated the Air Races of the 1930s.

Jimmy Wedell, born in West Columbia, Texas, taught himself to fly and had made his living barn­storming, minus the sight in one eye. Harry Williams, born in Patterson, Louisiana, was heir to the Wil­liams Cypress millions . He had long been an advo­cate of speed, first backing horses , automobiles , and then speed boats. In 1928, Jimmy first sold Harry a plane and then he sold himself. The Wedell-Williams Air Service was born with Jimmy providing the avia­tion genius and Harry providing the management and financial support.

Louisiana's first commercial airline, based in Pat­terson , imported many new aircraft to provide daily air service to several points in Louisiana. Airports were maintained in Patterson , New Orleans, Jeffer­10 NOVEMBER 1982

son Parish, St. Bernard Parish and Shreveport. In 1930, Jimmy Wedell and Harry Williams began de­signing and manufacturing their low-wing monoplane racers . In the "44", the most famous of these planes, Jimmy Wedell was the first pilot to ever officially fly over 300 mph in a landplane. James Haizlip , flying the "92", set a new transcontinental speed record. Mary Haizlip, his wife, set a new women's world speed record in the "92". Roscoe Turner, the only three time win­ner of the Thompson Trophy, flew his Wedell-Williams Special racer to many victories.

As plans were being made to set up huge aircraft manufacturing plants to meet an army contract for Wedell- Williams designed fighters, tragedy struck. On June 24, 1934 Jimmy Wedell died in the crash of a Gypsy Moth training plane. His brother Walter Wedell took over his place in the company. Doug Davis, fly­ing the record holding "44", crashed to his death at the 1934 Air Races in Cleveland. The "44" was totally destroyed. Then Walter Wedell died July 19, 1935 when his plane crashed into the Mississippi Gulf. Johnny Worthern was made chief pilot. And the final blow was struck when Harry Williams and Johnny Worthern died in an airplane crash outside of Baton Rouge on May 19, 1936. The Wedell-Williams Air Service, which had made so many contributions to aviation both to Louisi­ana and the world, was snuffed out with the death of the five company leaders in less than 23 months. The company assets were sold to Eastern Airlines and Louisiana's first commercial airline was gone.

In 1973, a small group of people living in south Louisiana decided something should be done to pre­serve the achievements and contributions of these avia­tion pioneers. They formed the Wedell-Williams Memorial Foundation in 1975, and began to establish a museum. Later, in 1975, the Department of Public

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Works, State of Louisiana funded the construction of the museum building. James L. Firmin and Lynn J. Drury of Morgan City, Louisiana, donated their archi­tectural services to design a museum worthy of the name Wedell-Williams. In 1976, the Louisiana legis­lature designated the museum as the Official State Aviation Museum. This makes the museum responsible for the collection, preservation and exhibition of docu­ments commemorating all of Louisiana's aviation, past, present and future.

THE FOLLOWING WAS TAPE RECORDED IN JUNE, 1978 BY MARY AND JAMES HAIZLIP. THE SUBJECT IS THEIR TRIP TO PATTERSON AND THE 1932 NATIONAL AIR RACES.

MARY HAIZLIP SPEAKS: So many pleasant memories come to mind when we

think about Patterson, Louisiana and the Williams homestead that we could ramble along much more than any museum visitor would ever want to hear. It was truly, for us, a delightful experience. Right in the mid­dle of our day of travel from St. Louis, we were invited to be Mr. Williams' houseguests for the month of August, 1932. The visit had to do with the prepara­tion for our proposed flight in one of the Wedell­Williams racers in the forthcoming National Air Races. The events would begin August 29 and con­tinue through the Labor Day weekend.

But the real drama of our story occurs in the progress of the pre-race negotiations and the final preparation as only Jim and I know it. To tell it like it really was involves considerable detail. Since this is one of the true stories of aviation's vintage days, when we were nurturing the tender sprouts of what we hoped would become a great industry, it might be worthwhile putting it on tape. The account of those four weeks in August, 1932 will be told chronologically. Naturally we will touch only the high spots. We did not keep notes so the portion we can recall 46 years later will be our own impressions on what we observed and talked about at that time.

Each day had its memorable experiences. Life was interesting around the historical Williams family home with the nine or ten retainers who kept the place run­ning smoothly. The crew of shop specialists under the talent and competent guidance of Ed Roberton ' worked day and night building the three new racing airplanes. I remember driving to Lafayette in the cool of the evening in Mr. Harry's new Cord convertible and the jasmine-scented nights after the mosquitoes had finally given up the blood hunt. The bright early mornings when Miss Marguerite's parrot, "Bepo" , alerted the kitchen help, calling very loudly for his morning coffee.

For the museum record, it would be much more in line with the other exhibits if our story were only the saga of Jim Wedell and his exploits as the protege of the notable sportsman Harry P. Williams. Wedell was a person of great talent but his many achievements have been so fully reported and recorded in the media today that we shall confine our remarks to our part of the action.

JIM HAIZLIP (EAA 20762 Lifetime) In my case, my status was that of a pilot who was

invited to fly one of their airplanes. Mary's part from the first was to be my pleasant and decorated com­panion. My year-round occupation was that of busi­ness development pilot salesman for Shell Aviation Products. One of my activities was to make frequent calls to all the airfields in our 26 states middle western sales territory which extended from Minnesota to the Gulf. General aviation at that time was distinct from army, navy and commercial airline operations and con­

sisted of a few hundred commercial and experimental airplanes. These were scattered around the country with a few dozen seasoned pilots struggling to keep their airplanes flying and to make some eating money.

I had seen the Wedell brothers, Jim and Walter, at the Chicago races in 1930. I had also met them at the Menefee airport, east of New Orleans during a trip south at Mardi Gras time early the next year. But when I first stopped by their airport at Patterson to pay a courtesy call, I was truly surprised at what I saw - a level, firmly sodded airport lighted for night flying with two large hangars, office and shop and some 50 airplanes, mostly the latest models including five or six Lockheed Vegas which were the most ex­pensive single-engine passenger airplanes on the market. A quick eyeball appraisal showed me at least a one-half million dollar investment at 1931 prices.

Mary and I, though both licensed commercial pilots, didn't keep one airplane of our own. The reason for that was probably because all of my early flying had been with the military air forces where airplanes and engines with mechanics to keep them running were waiting on the flight line for the pilot to climb in and risk his neck. The pilot's main responsibility was that of learning to survive and, before something un­expected proved fatal, to acquire combat skills that could keep him alive. All the pilot had to do in war­time should engine stoppage, fuel exhaustion or enemy action cause him to crash and bend an airplane, was to walk to the nearest telephone after wringing the blood out of his helmet, and call his base. Then hitch a ride home and have them roll out another airplane to fly before his fear of flying set in. If the crash was fatal, the pick-up detail would bring his wallet and dog tags to the base and his commanding officer would write a comforting letter to the next of kin.

But Wedell , having this WWI experience, had used his tremendous motivation and acquired skills to bring himself in a short period of six years to the position of being Mr. Harry Williams' chief aviation advisor, air­craft designer , builder, test pilot and well published racing pilot. One didn't have to be around Jim very long to know that his mind was carrying a heavy load and was working all the time . So to establish the pecking order (as we arrived at Patterson by train while taking a month's leave from my Shell Oil Com­pany duties): we were tops as Mr. Harry's guests. But in the local aviation picture, we were superceded first by Mr. Harry as boss, then by Mr. Jim Wedell as the Wedell-Williams number one pilot. My pilot status came somewhere down the line. Roscoe Turner, with the Gilmore Oil Company behind him , was a customer, paying real cash for his airplane. I was a standby pilot waiting for Mr. Harry's #92 to be re­built and Mary's status was that of a possible alter­nate pilot.

This was a subject never discussed because we had gone so far by this time - one and one-half years . First our race hopes, then a flat turn-down for the 1931 races for Mary's flying. This time our strategy, if you could call it that, was to hope eventually to win Mr. Harry over to changing his mind. But after sizing him up closely, we did not want to prematurely bring the subject to a decision and get a no for an answer. I had gone in so deeply that, to cover my ex­penses, I needed some cash. This I would try to get from third place money in the Bendix race.

By this time, I could see that #92 was considerably slower than #44 or Turner's new ship. After discuss­ing our situation , Mary and I decided to play it by ear, trusting our experience and judgment to lead the way. Our report will include some concern, both about

VINTAGE AIRPLANE 11

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the outcome of the final concept and also the equally important issue: whether Mary would be permitted to fly one of the racers at Cleveland. The three airplanes that were being groomed for the big event were Jim Wedell's #44, Mr. Harry's personal airplane, #92, and the Gilmore Oil Company racer to be known as Roscoe Turner's racer.

The first airplane that Turner ordered had come to a sensational tragic ending. This not only set the program back, but opened up a great doubt that the wing design of all three airplanes could stand up under the higher speeds that were to be flown. In this account, I shall not go into the aerodynamics of the thin, high speed wing and what appeared to be hap­pening at those upper speeds. Jim Wedell had lost a wing during a high speed run while testing Roscoe Turner's first racer. Jim escaped almost by a miracle, but the airplane, just completed and ready for Turner's acceptance, was completely destroyed.

The accident called for some new thinking about what was causing this wing flutter . The cause was similar to that which had destroyed Lowell Bayles and the Gee Bee #4 at Wayne County, Michigan in late 1931. After Wedell-Williams had lost a brand new air­plane and engine that Gilmore Oil Company had ordered, Mr. Harry got in touch with some of the top aero­dynamicists at Wright Field and the resultant study produced what proved to be the solution to the prob­lem. But the delay put the airplane building program far behind schedule.

The plan for the 1932 race meet, if and when the three airplanes were completed, was for Turner to fly the new racer sponsored by Gilmore, Wedell would fly his #44, rebuilt with a new set of wings and a better streamlined fuselage to contain more fuel and the third pilot, maybe me, would fly the #92. All three were entered in the long cross country Bendix Trophy race. The race would start from Burbank, California and officially end at the finish line in front of the grand­stand at Cleveland. The contestants, at their option, could continue to New York in an attempt to lower the existing coast-to-coast speed record.

For those of you who have not heard of the Bendix race, it might be in order to say a word about it here. It was the most prestigious event of the whole week's air racing and it carried the biggest prize. But by the same token, because of the way it had to be run in those days, it was by far the most difficult. The dis­tance that had to be covered was such that the com­peting airplanes could not carry enough fuel to go all the way non-stop.

Slower airplanes might make it, but the small, fast, single seaters running their engines at full power would need to make at least two - and usually three - fuel stops enroute. Elapsed time from start to finish was counted against the contestant. Refueling facilities at the intermediate airports were the responsibility of each pilot contestant. The hazard of something hap­pening at one of the stops that would put the pilot out of the running, was always present in the contestant's mind.

One unavoidable hurdle present in this speed at­tempt was that the pilot could not wait for good weather. The race was scheduled for the opening day of the week-long race meet at Cleveland. A contestant had to arrive on that day before six o'clock to be counted in the race. Going from west to east and figuring about nine hours minimum for the elapsed time required a take-off in the dark at Burbank, plus a three hour loss in standard time even before starting. To follow the most direct route, a pilot would have to fly over the highest part of the Rockies where there was no 12 NOVEMBER 1982

The Wedell-Williams Memorial Aviation Museum of Louisiana.

Page 13: Vintage Airplane - Nov 1982

place to land safely for approximately 500 miles. If he chose the more southerly. safer route, his

chances of winning were slim because of the longer dis­tance. The last. most uncertain feature to look for­ward to was the weather. Summer rain storms over the high mountains were the rule rather than the ex­ception . Starting from Burbank with enough fuel for the first 900 or 1000 miles. the pilot would have to refuel somewhere east of the Rockies. Landing empty wouldn't be so bad , but after taking on a heavy load of fu el that totaled one-half the weight of the racer, the pilot better be sure of his loaded take-off or his participation in the race would end right there. Being an old cross country pilot with practice under more comfortable conditions of my own choosing, I did not have much desire to undertake the Bendix race.

The year before. when Jim Wedell had asked me to fly one of the airplanes, I was thinking of the more spectacular closed course races in front of the crowd. The invitation to be part of the racing team was of­fered while I was visiting Jim and Mr. Harry at the Patterson Airport. I told Jim. who I thought would have the final decision. that I would fly one if my wife Mary could also fly one for a women's international world's speed record . This was early in 1931 and our tentative plans were for Jim to notify us when the racer was ready to fly. Then Mary and I would come down from St. Louis, check out the airplane, and make the final arrangements.

About the first of July when we had not heard from Jim, I called from St. Louis to set up a date to arrive at Patterson. Jim , very embarrassed, had to tell me that Mr. Harry put his foot down; under no circum­stances would he allow any woman to fly the racers. That killed it for me - Jim said he would like to have me fly the airplane, but since the entire project had been conceived to have Mary set a world's speed record, I declined. Mary and I got busy obtaining other air­planes for her to fly and she ended the season with a string of wins and trophies, more than any other woman contestant.

When 1932 rolled around, we still thought there was some worth in the idea, so Mary and I decided to try again for her to fly a Wedell-Williams racer for the women's international speed record . For myself, I would have preferred to fly a few closed course pylon races; that would be like a jockey at thoroughbred rac­ing, getting on a mount that was ready to run, and steering him around the track. But Jim Wedell and Mr. Harry kept talking about the long and hazardous Bendix Trophy Race. I could write a book about the ins and outs of that undertaking. I have already put the unpublished story in an account of about 20,000 words, so will pass that by here. I didn't take to the idea of the Bendix Race at all, but if it were neces­sary to fly it in order for Mary to have a chance at the women's world speed record, I would give it a try.

During the winter of 1931 and spring of 1932, I made numerous calls on Mr. Harry and Jim Wedell. This kept the channel of communication open between us. In the spring of 1932, Mary and I decided on a plan of action . I would agree to fly the airplane in both the Bendix and also the closed course races at Cleveland. Mary would go to Patterson with me and we would let fate take it from there - even though Mr. Harry was rock firm on not letting a woman fly his airplane. I wagered that when he knew Mary better, he would change his mind. Mr. Harry's hospitality was legen­dary and when I indicated Mary would be free to ac­company me down to Patterson, he cordially invited us to be his houseguests. Marguerite Williams was spending the summer in New York with her sister as

VINTAGE AIRPLANE 13

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she usually did to get away from the heat of Patter­son . So Mr. Harry would be alone in the big house with eight or ten servants.

We took the Illinois Central t o Louisiana. The time was about the first of August and Mary had to be back in St. Louis the last week in August to drive the 500 miles to Cleveland. So during those weeks in Patter­son, not only was the question unanswered - will Mary be permitted to fly for the speed record - but the whole program was facing a deadline. The air­planes had to be ready. I would have to fly the #92 to the West Coast and get set for the Bendix and over­come the uncertainty. Would I be able to complete the long cross-country , making two stops enroute for fuel and arrive safely in Cleveland with the ai;plane in flying condition?

Day after day and many evenings when the shop crews were working nights , we spent hours at the shop watching the new wings being built for the three racers. I knew that Mr. Harry's #92 was going to be quite a bit slower than Jim's new 44 and Roscoe's replacement airplane. My experience with the Shell Travel Air "Mystery" had taught me a great deal about the effects of drag due to engine cowling design . Mr. Harry's #92 had originally been built for a smaller engine. When the larger engine was installed, the larger cowling left a wide gap at the trailing edge. This would create a lot of airstream turbulence around the fuse­lage. In turn, this would cost measurably in top speed. Since my function at Patterson was a stand-by pilot with no management interest in the building of the racers, I soon found out that any comment I might make had better be left unsaid .

The shop workers were wonderful. Eddie Roberton quickly won our hearts; his vast experience in the Williams mills and later with the aircraft building made him a most interesting person to talk with . I was particularly interested in that part of south Louisiana with its tremendous stands of cypress and the story of Mr. Frances B. Williams' operation that harvested a fortune in valuable timber from the almost im­penetrable swamps. About the third week of our stay, none of the airplanes were ready to fly . Mary had not even sat in the cockpit of the one that she would hope to fly. We both knew it was a tricky thing to check out one's self in an experimental single seater.

During these early days, there was no standardiza­tion of controls or cockpit arrangements. A cockpit familiarization was desperately needed. But it was always being worked on, so it was best to keep out of everyone's way. Late each night, after a pleasant din­ner with Mr. Harry, before he excused himself for the evening, Mary and I would ask ourselves whether she had any chance to get pe rmission to fly the #92 . I was concerned for I knew my chances of being first in the Bendix were almost nil against the faster air­planes of Jim Wedell and Roscoe Turner. But by this time, we were out on a limb financially with expenses already laid out and the additional losses in sight to cover the men standing by at refueling stops. Finally as the deadline for Mary's returning to St. Louis ar­rived , we were resigned to go ahead anyway even if she could not fly the airplane . I would try for at least third place in the Bendix . The prize ~money of this spot would barely cover my expenses.

It was easy to see that Mary's great charm and unusual intelligence had made an admirer of Mr. Harry, but all this time we had not talked with him about her flying his airplane. Finally the time came for her to leave Patterson before #92 was ready for anyone to fly . The wings had been completely rebuilt due to the loss of a wing on Turner's airplane during a high 14 NOVEMBER 1982

speed run by Wedell on April 3, 1932. Other changes had to be incorporated until we were convinced that the wings would stay on at speeds we anticipated. Our parting was a bit on the downbeat, but that was the way it had to be.

Three days later after Mary had left, #92 was ready for its first test hop. I took it up, tried it out at alti­tude, as we did in France during WWI, and found it was correctly rigged. The wheel brakes were ineffective and had to be stomped on to hold either wheel , but I thought I could cope with that. On the second flight , after I had checked with Eddie Roberton about the safety factors in inverted flight , I tried a few climb­ing slow rolls. The_boys on the ground had never seen that sort of maneuver at Patterson, so Mr. Harry asked me to put on a little Sunday afternoon show for his local friends as a special favor.

Two days later , after a few last minute adjust­ments had been made on 92, I had my last session with Mr. Harry before leaving for the West Coast. Then I loaded up for a non-stop flight to Wichita , Kansas where I would remain overnight. Mr. Harry shook my hand and said, "Jim, when you get to Cleveland, if you want your wife to fly the airplane, use your own judgment." •

- TO BE CONTINUED NEXT MONTH ­

Editor's Note: Mae Haizlip is a familiar name to most air racing history buffs as she set many records in the '30s , as listed in all the official race results . But her name is not Mae . .. it's Mary, and she tried for years to get the FA! to change their records, but they never did.

AlC NEWS ... (Continued from Page 4)

Rearwins and Commonwealths Gary VanFarowe, George

Williams Ryans and Kinner

Engines Ron Johnson Staggerwings Jim Gorman, George York Steve Wittman, The Life

of Steve Wittman Swifts Charlie Nelson Vagabonds Cecile Ogles and Ron Fritz

The following charges include postage and a 10% donation to the EAA Aviation Museum:

l lh hours $ 5.25 Up to 3 hours $ 8.50 More than 3 hours $10.75 A complete listing of forums which have been re­

corded from 1972 to the present, including many his­torical presentations is available upon request. Order from: Forum Recordings, Dave Yeoman, Rt. 3, Marion, IA 52302.

TIGER MOTH SPECIAL

The Aviation Historical Society of Australia has published a special issue of their Journal devoted en­tirely to DeHavilland Tiger Moths . In addition to many photos (black and white), it contains much historical data and info regarding the flying of these popular vintage biplanes.

The special Tiger Moth issue of Volume 22 , Num­ber 1 of the AHSA Journal. For information contact the Aviation Historical Society of Australia, P.O. Box 212, Footscray, Victoria, 3011 , Australia . •

Page 15: Vintage Airplane - Nov 1982

The Miles Falcon has a wide track trousered undercarriage.

By Warwick J ohnson (EAA 89281. A /e 1456)

S ecretary Queensland S tate/Sport A ircraft A ssociation of Australia

Mrs. Frederick Miles , wife of the designer of the Miles Fal con , described th e Fa lcon a s " th e nices t handling Miles aircraft built" . I can't vouch for her words, but I can say that a recent flight in the only Miles Falcon left in Australia and one of only two air­worthy Falcons left in the world , was a very memor­able experience. .

My flight in the Miles Falcon Major M3A VH-AAT came about on the morning of Thursday, February 19 a t Redcliffe ae rodrome. Nick Challinor (owner of a BA Eagle and a Tiger Moth) and I departed from South­port in my own Auster MK III and arrived at RedclifTe early to meet Pat Harrington (L.A.M.E ., B727 Flight Engineer , T.A.A.l , who had prepared the Falcon for a ferry fli ght to Berwich Airfi eld , Victori a , to where its new owner , Mr. Keith Hatfield of Park Orchards , Victoria was to take delivery of her. The purpose of the morning exerci se was to allow local Brisbane TV station Channel 0 to film a news segment on the Fal­con and its ferry flight to Victoria the following week.

After our arrival we wheeled the Falcon out of its hangar and ran up the engine while waiting for the TV team to arrive. After filming a segment on th e ground , they decided to do a n a eri a l segm ent . The camera man climbed into my Auster and both aircraft took ofT and we formated over Redcliffe at 1,500 feet. The aerial segment took about 20 minutes. From my Auster , the Falcon looked fabulous in flight.

After the news team departed, Pat asked if I would like a fli ght in the Falcon . Well , after doing about three backflips with joy I said yes and we climbed aboard . Pat said that to get an endorsement on the Fa lcon . he contac ted D.O.T . a nd afte r checking his license and seeing that he had vast experience in ta il­draggers a nd various vintage a ircraft, they then wrote out his endorsement and told him to go out and fly it.

Pa t informed me tha t the Falcon fli es like most pre-war Briti sh ai rcra ft of that type with one trait , be ing a noti ceable swing to right on ta ke-off if the

tail is lifted at too Iow an airspeed. He demonstra ted this to me by standing on the brakes and applying full power and as he let the brakes ofT, it developed a vicious swing t o s tarboard a nd headed for the ditch on the side of the Redcliffe runway. Pat reduced power , with opposite rudderlbrake combination and brought it back on a stra ight line.

After that he just kept the tail on the ground till about 25 knots and rotated a t about 45-50 knots and then found the take-ofTs to be very straight forward. We climbed out at 55-60 knots . I found the Falcon to be ra t her sluggish in t he climb a nd afte r r ea ching about 1,000 feet , Pat asked me if I would like a drive from the right-hand seat . I immedia tely accepted the ofTer and found the Fa lcon a delight to fly. I did a few

The 1935 Miles Falcon is a graceful machine in flight.

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VH-AAT at Archer Field Aerodrome, Brisbane before the ferry flight.

medium turns as we climbed up to do some stalls. I found the Falcon balanced out nicely in the turns and did not require as much rudder as my Auster.

Pat then decided to do some stalls. He stalled it clean first and it stalled 43 knots LA.8. and dropped the right-hand wing quite smartly. He then decided on a full flap stall. The flaps are hydraulically operated and are selected by opening a valve and selecting a lever to the down position and then by pumping a handle . The amount of flap is indicated by a dial on the instru­ment panel and when the required amount is indicated, you just stop pumping the handle.

To raise the flap you just select the level to the up position and begin pumping. After selecting full flaps, Pat performed the stall and she stalled at 38 knots LA.S. One thing I noticed about the Falcon when full flap was selected was the large amount of drag created by full flap, it really slowed the Falcon down.

On the way back to the airstrip we trimmed her out for cruise and reached an LA.S. of 90 knots which is pretty good for a 42-year-old aeroplane.

One interesting aspect of the Falcon is the for­ward sloping windscreen which was an experimental

Note the hawk emblem on the cowl of VH-AAT.

idea but added about 2-3 knots to the top speed. Pat then performed the landing and the Falcon landed nicely in the three point attitude. Pat said he found the Falcon liked being landed in the three point atti­tude rather than being wheeled on. The landing cul­minated a very interesting and memorable morning as the Falcon is the oldest aircraft I have ever had the pleasure to fly in.

The prototype Falcon was designed and built by Fred and George Miles at their factory at Reading, England in 1934. It was their first full cabin aero­plane and was based on their highly successful "Hawk" trainer.

The total number of Falcons built amounted to 19 M3A Falcon Majors (Gipsy Major engine) and 17 M3B through F . Falcon Six number coming to Australia was four, this being three M3A Falcon Majors (VH­AAS , VH-ACE) and one M3D Falcon Six (VH-ABT).

The Falcon I had the pleasure of being acquainted with, VH-AAT, received the British C. of A. on June 13, 1935 and was registered as G-ADHG being No. 8 off the line . Aircraft Distributors Ltd., of Shagness, U.K. sent the Falcon to Australia in May, 1937 where it received its registration VH-AAT. She was later impressed into the R.A.A.F. in 1940 as A73-3 . Aus­tralian owners include Arthur Schutt of Melbourne; Sam Hecker of Maryborough, Queensland; A. L. Hume of Hobart. Tasmania; H. L Burgess of Greevestow, Tas­

16 NOVEMBER 1982

Page 17: Vintage Airplane - Nov 1982

mania; L. Smothers of Somerton Park, S.A.; D. Barker and P. Ryan of Caloundra , Queensland; now finally Keith Hatfield of Park Orchards, Victoria who purchased her in November, 1974.

The only other airworthy Falcon left in the world is G-AEEG, owned by Edward Eves and is kept at Bagin­ton, England. This Falcon is also an M3A.

The ferry flight departed Redcliffe ('n Tuesday , February 24 at 0045 hours with Pat Harrington in com­mand and Bill McGruer acting as co-pilot. Pat was going to track direct to Coffs Harbour via Cool an­gatta, but not long after passing Coolangatta the radio began acting up and became unreliable. Pat then de­cided to divert to Casino to refuel and see if he could remedy the problem with the radio. After refueling, Pat realized the radio could not be fixed, so they departed for Coffs Harbour where they again refueled.

They then departed Coffs Harbour , tracking coastal via Kempsy, Taree and arriving at West Maitland at 0635 hours where they were to stay overnight. On ar­riving at West Maitland they found the place deserted, but they finally found someone and received a lift into town where they had a good feed and headed back out to the airfield to sleep. Pat said it was one of the worst nights he had ever spent as they camped in a hut on the airfield and it rained cats and dogs. The mos­quitoes were unbelievably bad.

Next morning they met Lance Fletcher who showed them over the maintenance operation there and Pat inspected with great interest several Tiger Moths and a Hornet Moth under rebuild. Pat then departed West Maitland at 2215 hours after a rather dodgy take-off in so much as the Falcon had sat out in the rain all night and had taken on quite a bit of water and with full fuel the Falcon was pretty heavy and she used nearly all the runway to get off. Pat then tracked to Cowra via Bankstown without any problems; in fact, she was performing extremely well.

At Cowra they refueled and then inspected a MKI Proctor in an unairworthy condition , just down the road, after which they departed Cowra at 0326 hours and headed to Albury via Cootamundra Wagga . At Albury they met Joe Drage, local aircraft museum owner who came out to see the Falcon. They then departed Albury and headed direct to Berwick, arriving there at 0175 hours to be greeted by Keith Hatfield, the new owner of the Falcon, so ending another interesting chapter in the life of Miles M3A Falcon Major VH-AAT.

NOTE: Times Quoted GMT. Est GMT. + 10 Hours.

Other Details

The Miles M3 Falcon is a 3-4 seat monoplane of spruce construction and birch plywood skin. The proto­type with the Gipsy Major engine was entered in the MacRobertson Air Race to Melbourne in 1934 and flown by Mr. H. L. Brook. He had no luck in the race, but set up a solo Australia-England record of 7 days, 19 hours.

The prototype Falcon Six G-ADLC was flown in the 1935 Kings Cup by Tommy Rose and won the exciting race at 176 mph. The following year this same aircraft again flown by Tommy Rose broke the record to Cape Town with a flight of 3 days, 17 hours.

Span - 25 ft. Length - 25 ft. Empty Weight - 1550 lbs. Loaded Weight - 2525 lbs. Maximum Speed - 180 mph Landing Speed - 40 mph Climb - 5000 ft . in 4 min., 55 sec. Engine - 200 hp Gipsy Six

The Falcon's office showing panel and controls.

MILES FALCON

It was the era of long distance records and air races. And it was in the world famous Kings Cup air race that the name of Miles Aircraft became a house­hold word in aviation circles. Between 1934 and 1964 they won nine of the 23 major races held in the United Kingdom and had placegetters in an amazing total of 18 races. As recently as 1957 a Falcon 3B took second place in the Kings Cup. The winner that year was the Miles M.77 "Sparrow-Jet" , the world's first jet pow­ered light racing aircraft . . . a modified version of 1938 "Sparrowhawk"!

The Rev. John MacGillivray, Chaplain of the Canadian Armed Forces base at Petawawa, Ontario, the enthusiastic owner of a 1934 Miles Hawk, sent Peter Ryan and David Barker, owners in 1974, a set of Miles decals he had made up. They are a copy of the original decals designed by Mrs. Blossom Miles . The brothers Frederick and George Miles had been given a live hawk by one of their early customers and Mrs. Miles based her design on their unusual gift.

It depicts a hawk with wings stretched upwards and holding in its talons "Miles Aircraft Co. - Read­ing, England". Head on, it is easy to see why the Fal­con was so named. The typical "trousers" on the main wheels give it the appearance of a live falcon in flight, its legs hanging down as if holding its prey.

The majority of Miles Aircraft were named after birds. Martlet, Hawk, Falcon, Merlin, Sparrowhawk, Nighthawk, Hawcon, Peregrine, Kestrel ... the list of the brilliant brothers' designs reads like the "Who's Who" of a British Aviary.

In a letter to David Barker, Mrs. Miles, who helped her husband at the drawing board and was herself an accomplished pilot, wrote , "The Falcon was the nicest handling Miles aircraft."

In his quest for air race honors, Fred Miles super­ceded the Falcon 3A with a more powerful 3B. The latter was re-engined with the DeHavilland Gipsy Six giving a maximum speed of 155 mph .

During the war thousands of allied airmen learned their basic skills on the Miles "Master" for training in aerial gunnery and fighter tactics. The company also put forward many revolutionary fighter and bomber designs to the Air Ministry but their ideas were too advanced for the Ministry's rather staid thinking.

After the war Miles continued manufacturing and their twin-engined "Gemini" aircraft were used ex­tensively in Australia. •

VINTAGE AIRPLANE 17

Page 18: Vintage Airplane - Nov 1982

BORDEN'S AEROPLANE POSTERS

FROM THE 1930'S Article Number 27, Poster Number 14, Series Num ber 2

By Lionel Salisbury (EAA 114523)

Seven Harper Road Brompton, Ontario Canada L6W 2W3

THE B/J ARMY PURSUIT PLANE

18 NOVEMBER 1982

Page 19: Vintage Airplane - Nov 1982

Almost all of the posters issued by the Borden Com­pany and its predecessor, the Thompson's Malted Milk Company, in the early 1930s, had a picture of the air­craft on the front and a line drawing on the back. The back of each poster usually gave a description of the machine and most of these descriptions were quite detailed.

In the case of the B/J Army Pursuit Plane, how­ever , there is very little information. The complete description as offered on the back of the poster on the B/J Army Pursuit Plane is as follows:

"Biplane type, upper wing span - 34 feet, length ­23 feet, 2 inches, 2 seater, rear cockpit for machine gunner to fight off attacking planes approaching from the rear."

Joseph P. Juptner, in his U.S. Civil Aircraft, Vol. 1, page 110, the Berliner-Joyce two-seated pursuit ship is described as follows:

"This was the Air Corps' P-16 which was a Cur­tiss 'Conqueror' powered gull-wing biplane that seated a pilot and a gunner in tandem open cockpits. This was a 'type' of very good performance, but its success was short-lived and sometime after, the company was dis­solved and completely absorbed into the North Ameri­can Aviation Corp."

This is the sixth and last poster from the collection of Mr. Marion McClure of Bloomington, Illinois . He

started to collect these in 1933 when they were first issued by the Thompson's Malted Milk Company of Waukesha, Wisconsin. This original series consisted of 18 posters and they were a promotion for their product, "Thompson's Double Malted". Each can had a coupon which could be sent in for redemption for a poster of your choice.

It appears that the following year, the Thompson Company was purchased by the Borden Company of New York City. They continued the promotion and issued a new series of posters, dropping some from the original series and adding a few new ones. For a while , the Borden Company continued to offer the product under its original name, as can be seen from the list and instructions reproduced below from the poster.

In 1936 the Borden Company made the posters avail­able in Canada. By this time the product had become known as Borden's Malted Milk. Once again there were some changes in the list of posters available. In total , 30 different posters were offered in this promo­tion. The posters that have been reproduced in The VINTAGE AIRPLANE have been provided from the collections of Mr. Glenn Inch of Brampton, Ontario, Canada; Mr. Cedric Galloway of Hesperia, California; and Mr. Marion McClure of Bloomington, Illinois .•

VINTAGE AIRPLANE 19

Page 20: Vintage Airplane - Nov 1982

MYSTERY PLANE This month's Mystery Plane comes from Lee Elliott, Answers received will appear in the Mystery Plane

Box 366, Valley City, ND 58072. It's another from that column in the January 1983 issue of The VINTAGE glorious pre-World War I period and appears to have AIRPLANE. been taken at some air show or "flying exhibition" .

The Mystery Plane in the September 1982 issue of The VINTAGE AIRPLANE was the Risso-powered "Pierce Arrow" cabin biplane built in Wichita, Kansas in 1926 by Charlie Laird, brother ofE. M. "Mattie" Laird. This was the forerunner of the Laird "Whippoorwill" cabin biplane built in 1928. Neither of these ships were ATC'd and only one of each was produced. Photo and information was supplied by member Mike Rezich of Chicago. No responses were received by press time.

The wrong photo was shown in the answer for the July Mystery as it appeared in the September issue. The correct photo is shown here. The airplane appears to be a Curtiss type pusher of the 1912-14 vintage, powered with a four-cylinder engine. No response was received so the details on this photo remain a mystery. See the Mystery Plane column in the July issue for identifica­tion of the mid-wing mistakenly printed as the July answer. •

20 NOVEMBER 1982

STATEMENT OF OWNERSHIP, MANAGEMENT AND CIRCULATION 1......... .,nu,5.c MtiJ

T HE VINTAGE AIRP~E 0\0 \. \1 \6\' ]'L3 \OotObe< 1. '.82 Monthly

A. NO 0' IS&4JlS ~IIHI.O JI.......,.UAI,. _SCIIiPTION "--U.t.l..L' ""let

12 $18. 00

11311 Wc !it. Forest Home Avenue, Franklin, MllwauKet', WI ~)130

11111 West. Forest H()II:'Ie Avenue, Frankiln, MIlwaukee, WI S3llO .. fun ""'..U"',.., CQM,..lT! IllAIUNG AOOllnl Of' ~UIHlII. IDITOfI . ANO __GINO tOtlOfl (t"'" _ .wusr HOT"_J

Paul H. Pobe r ezny, P.O. Bo x 229, Hales Comors , WI 53130

Gene R. Chase , P.O. Box 229 , Hal el! Come t s, WI <.>3130

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1. OWNEA IlI_o.r~c~.,_. m _Mldt'um.."Oor"..... _M..,""""""..'~O'_,__ f/l. __.... oluot:~,.<II<IIffS _JIIS'OI"oId1"f'HfC''''OI __ OIIGf~''''_I(JIJI''''. 1".(,, __ by . Corp{>l' I.on. I"'_."'d.oddr..._ofl"',""'''''''4io_nm~u 1» ...... If_Oy.P__I".rSh"'<Notfler""~,II.df"m . ' n""'. __.... ... ~/ .. "'.loIHCIt,"do~_m."lbot ...... / 1 ~J>VOI";~ """"publ,_Oy.,..,.,p''''n<N_'I.r.on.," ___,".m''''MII.,e(/. I(/~m''UM (om~l.d)

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Page 21: Vintage Airplane - Nov 1982

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Wright J-5 powered Travel Air, NC9946, SIN 1130 owned/ operated by Mike Rezich and flown by Nick Rezich as a smokewriter from 1947 to 1955.

Dear Gene: May I be one of the first to verify that the Hisso

powered SE5 pictured on p3.ge 24 of the September 1982 issue of The VINTAGE AIRPLANE is one of the original smoke writers in America. The first patent holder for both the method and the smoke gen­erating material was held by an Englishman by the name of Major John C. Savage. He was the pilot and also had several other pilots.

When I was a kid I met a fellow named Ackerly who was one of the pilots when they came through Chicago. Major Savage came to the U.S. in .1923 w.ith five single place Hisso SE5S and five or SIX Enghsh pilots. He set up operations at the old Curtiss Field in Mineola , New York.

The first American pilots to be licensed by the Skywriting Corp . of America were Art Davis , ~ed Fordon, and later Andy Stinis. In later years MIke Murphy and Joe Mackey did a lot of smoke writing.

One of the pilots of the modern day Miller Squad­ron "skytypers" is Andy Stinis, Jr., son of the pioneer smoke writer. My brother , Nick did a lot of smoke writing ill the Chicago area with our Speedwing Travel Air . When I was a wholesaler for the Blatz Brewing Co Nick wrote BLATZ over the White Sox's WrigleyFi~'ld for me. He also wrote the name of his lady friend , who worked for me, over my warehouse. This lady later became his wife.

I still own Mike Murphy's old J-5 Travel Air smoke writer, photo enclosed.

Regards, Mike Rezich (EAA 510, AlC 2239) 6424 S. LaPorte Avenue Chicago, IL 60638

CALENDAR OF EVENTS NOVEMBER 11 - FAIRVIEW, OKLAHOMA - Thirty-first Annual Break­

fast Fly-In. Free breakfast to those who fly in. Trophies for best experimental and antique aircraft. Field closes 12:30 p.m. For information contact Doug Wiens at Fair View Airport , Fairview, OK 73737.

MARCH 13-19 - LAKELAND, FLORIDA - 9th Annual Sun 'n Fun EAA Fly-In. Plans and site improvements being made to make '83 an even greater success than 1982. Never too early to start making your plans. Contact Sun 'n Fun EAA Fly-In, Box 2246, Lakeland , FL 33803 or Ann McKee, phone 813/ 688-8214 or 688-6280.

Dear Sir: I saw the two photos of the Goodyear Puritan blimp

in the September 1982 issue of The VINTAGE AIR­PLANE. The Puritan was built in 1928. It was 86,000 cu. ft . in size and later enlarged to 112,000 cu. ft. The blimp in your photos appears to be the smaller size.

The engines are Siemens-Halske Shl0's imported from Germany by Ryan Aeronautical Corp. of San Diego. The five cylinder engine had a 100mm and 120mm stroke and was rated at 60 hp at 1500 rpm and 70 hp at 1750 rpm.

In addition to the ShlO, Ryan also imported the Shl1 and Sh12. Ryan called them the models 5, 7 and 9. In the Ryan Catalog No.3, the Goodyear-Zeppelin Corp. and 19 other aircraft manufacturers are shown as users of these engines.

The Siemens-Halske engines on the Puritan were later changed to 110 hp Warner Scarabs, probably when the envelope was enlarged to 112,000 cu. ft.

This series of blimps were called "air yachts" be­cause all were named after famous American Cup de­fenders in international yachting. The other blimps were the Volunteer , Mayflower, Vigilant, Defender, Reliance (1931) and Resolute (1932).

The propellers are standard Curtiss-Reed twisted aluminum. Want one? I know where there is one for a Curtiss OX-5 engine.

Also in the same issue of VINTAGE there are several mistakes in the Thomas-Morse article. In the righthand column on page eight a reference is made to a "Wright radial engine" . This should be the 60 hp Lawrance as Wright didn't purchase Lawrance until 1923.

On page nine the caption for the bottom photo describes the engine as a "Rotary LeRhone" on the S-4C. It actually was a Gnome B-2 with the push rods disconnected.

Sincerely, Bill Lewis 3610 Schaefer Street Culver City, CA 90230 •

THE JOURNAL OF T H E EARLY AEROPLANE

JULY 30 - AUGUST 6 - OSHKOSH, WISCONSIN - 31st Annual Fly­In Convention. Start making your plans now to attend the World's S!\MPLE I SSUE $4 Greatest Aviation Event. Contact EAA, P.O. Box 229, Hales Corners, 15 CR ESCENT R D . POUGHKEEPSIE, N.Y. 12601WI 53130.

VINTAGE AIRPLANE 21

Page 22: Vintage Airplane - Nov 1982

Classic owners! STAMPE COLLECTOR Int.rior looking ahabbyfMiniature Scale Replicas of Your Favorite An­

tique or Classic Airplane, Meticulo usly Hand­crafted in American Black Walnut.

A Truly Unique Desk Set with Matching Pen and Goldtone I.D. Plate for Gift, Award or Flying Event Trophy.

Planes Can be Pedestal Mounted Depicting " [n­Finish it right with anFlight," or Base Mounted to Depict a "Landed"

Attitude. Qirtex interior

Complete interior assemblies lor do-it-yourself installation.

Custom Quality at economical prices .

• Cush ion upholstery sets • Wall panel sets • Headliners • Carpet sets • Baggage compartment sets • Firewall covers • Seat Slings • Recover envelopes and dopes

Free Catalog of complete product line. Fabric Selection Guide showing actual sample colors and styles of materials: $3.00.

For FREE Color PLANE PEOPLE Brochure with · t - .;:r VISA2017 Fieldcrest Court So. Qlr ex products, inc. I

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Jacket: Unl ined Poplin jacket, features kn it waist and cuffs. The gold and white braid trim on a Tan body emphasizes the colors proudly d is­played in the Antique/Classic logo. Sizes : X-small thru X-large

$28.95 ppd

Cap: Complete the look in this gold mesh hat with contrasting blue bill , trimmed w ith a gold braid . Your logo visibly d isplayed , makes this adjustable cap a must. Sizes : M & L (adjustabl e rear band)

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WEAR the IMAGE in an Antique/Classic jacket and cap Send Check To:

EAA ANTIQUE/CLASSIC DIVISION, INC. P.o. Box 229 Hales Corners, WI 53130

Allow 4-6 Weeks For Delivery

Wisconsin Residents Include 5% Sales Tax

22 NOVEMBER 1982

Page 23: Vintage Airplane - Nov 1982

THE VINTAGE AIRPLANE ADVERTISING RATES

1 Issue 3 Issues 6 Issues 1 Page $175.00 $165.00 $150.00 1 /2 Page 105.00 100.00 95.00 1/3 Page 95.00 85.00 80.00 1/4 Page 70.00 65.00 60.00 1/6 Page 60.00 55.00 50.00 1/8 Page 50.00 45.00 40.00

12 Issues $145.00

90.00 75.00 55.00 45.00 35.00

Rates are for black and white camera-ready ads.

CLASSIFIED RATES: Regular type - 45c per word; Bold face type - 50c per word; ALL CAPS - 55c per word. (Minimum charge - $7.00. Rate covers one insertion, one issue.)

COMMISSIONS: Non-commissionable.

For additional information, including color rates and required ad sizes, contact:

Advertising Department The VINTAGE AIRPLANE

P.O. Box 229 Hales Corners, WI 53130

414 /425-4860

FLYING AND GLIDER MANUALS

1929, 1930, 1931 1932,1933

2.50 ea . SEND CHECK OR MONEY ORDER TO:

EAA Aviation Foundation, Inc. Box 469 Hales Corners, WI 53130

Allow 4-6 Weeks For Delivery Wisconsin Residents Include 5% Sales Tax

AVAILABLE BACK ISSUES 1973 - March through December 1974 - All Are Available 1975 - All Are Available 1976 - February through May, August through

December 1977 - All Are Available 1978 - January through March, August, October

through December 1979 - February through December 1980 - January, March through July, September

through December 1981 - All Are Available 1982 - January through March, May through

_October Back issues are available from Headquarters for $1.25 rach, postpaid, except the July 1977 (Lindbergh Com­memorative) issue, which is $1.50 postpaid.

! CLASSIFIED ADS ,

ACRO SPORT - Single place biplane capable of un­limited aerobatics. 23 sheets of clear, easy to follow plans, includes nearly 100 isometrical drawings, photos and exploded views. Complete parts and materials list. Full size wing drawings. Plans plus 88 page Builder's Manual - $60.00. Info Pack - $4.00. Super Acro Sport Wing Drawing - $15.00. Send check or money order to: AeRO SPORT, INC. , Box 462, Hales Corners, WI 53130. 414/ 425-4860. ACRO II - The new 2-place aerobatic trainer and sport biplane. 20 pages of easy to follow, detailed plans. Com­plete with isometric drawings, photos , exploded views . Plans - $85.00. Info Pack - $4.00. Send check or money order to: ACRO SPORT, INC., P.O. Box 462, Hales Cor­ners, WI 53130.414/425-4860.

POBER PIXIE - VW powered parasol - unlimited in low. cost pleasure flying. Big, roomy cockpit for the over six foot pilot. VW power insures hard to beat 3lh gph at cruise setting. 15 large instruction sheets. Plans - $45.00. Info Pack - $4.00. Send check or money order to: ACRO SPORT, INC., Box 462, Hales Corners, WI 53130. 414/ 425-4860.

MEMBERSHIP INFORMATION EAA

ANTIQUE· CLASSIC lAC WARBIRDS

UL TRALIGHT

• Membership in the Experimental Aircraft Association. Inc. is $25.00 for one year, $48.00 for 2 years and $69.00 for 3 years. All include 12 issues of Sport Aviation per year. Junior Membership (under 19 years of age) is available at $15.00 annually. Family Membership is available for an additional $10.00 annually.

• EAA Member - $18.00. Includes one year membership in EAA Antique-Classic Division . 12 monthly issues of The Vintage Airplane and membership card. Applicant must be a current EAA member and must give EAA membership number.

• Non·EAA Member - $28.00. Includes one year membership in the EAA Antique-Classic Division , 12 monthly issues of The Vintage Airplane, one year membership in the EAA and separate membership cards. Sport Aviation not included.

• Membership in the International Aerobatic Club, Inc. is $20.00 annually which includes 12 issues of Sport Aerobatics. All lAC members are required to be members of EAA.

• Membership in the Warbirds of America , Inc . is $20.00 per year, which includes a subscription to Warbirds Newsletter. Warbird members are required to be members of EAA.

• Membership in the EAA Ultralight Assn. is $25.00 per year which includes the Ultralight publication ($15 .D!1 additiona/tor Sport Aviation magazine) . For current EAA members only, $15.00, which includes UltralIght publicatIOn .

• FOREIGN MEMBERSHIPS: Please submit your remittance with a check or draft drawn on a United States bank payable in United States dollars or an international postal money order similarly drawn.

MAKE CHECKS PAYABLE TO EAA OR THE DIVISION IN WHICH MEMBERSHIP IS DESIRED. ADDRESS ALL LETTERS TO EAA OR THE PARTICULAR DIVISION AT THE FOLLOWING ADDRESS:

P.O. BOX 229 - HALES CORNERS, WI 53130 - PHONE (414) 425-4860 OFFICE HOURS: 8:30 - 5:00 MONDAY-FRIDAY

VINTAGE AIRPLANE 23

Page 24: Vintage Airplane - Nov 1982

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