Vintage Airplane - September/October 2017

1 Message From the President Thanks for the memories Susan Dusenbury 8 How to? Prepare a surface for fabric covering Robert G. Lock 10 Good Old Days 59 The Vintage Mechanic Teaching a nation how to fly, Part 5 Robert G. Lock 63 VAA New Members 64 Vintage Trader 6 AirVenture 2017 Vintage Awards 12 Worth All The Effort EAA Chapter 211 hatches an Eaglet by Budd Davisson 22 The Stearmans A son reminisces about his father’s legacy by Sparky Barnes Sargent 30 Cruisin’ Into the Future Piper J-5 Cub Cruiser N38130 by Budd Davisson 40 Preiser’s Penchant for Perfection Twin Stinson sister ships by Sparky Barnes Sargent 50 Simplified Flying The Luscumbe T8F Observer by Moose Peterson MOOSE PETERSON 4 SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2017 www.vintageaircraft.org 5 The VAA Red Barn is the centerpiece, the central gathering place for virtually all Vintage members during EAA Oshkosh each year. The Red Barn is where we meet our friends, get our questions answered, sit on the front porch to rest a bit, drink lemonade, and thoroughly enjoy our aviation friends and the spectacular events of the day. But the Red Barn as we know it today did not just happen. In 2000-2001, Vintage found itself attempting to provide a proper, acceptable facility to meet, greet, and accommodate its members. We created the Friends of the Red Barn program in 2001. We kicked off our first campaign in early 2002. Our goal was to interest a small number of dedicated Vintage members to financially support the physical improvement of the Red Barn and, far more important, upgrade and support it to the point where it became an inviting, pleasant place to meet, greet, relax, and simply enjoy the magic and magnificence that is Oshkosh each summer. The Friends of the Red Barn has become a wonderfully successful support program for Vintage members and guests during the convention. 2017 is its 16th year, and you will be amazed to know that the majority of the Barn’s loyal supporters have been a part of the group since the very first year. Vintage is extremely proud of this dedicated group of members. Their names are listed annually at the Barn and in the pages of Vintage Airplane. These donors have made the Red Barn and its gracious hospitality what you enjoy today . . . and we are just beginning. When that day comes Friends of the Red Barn will be there to do our part. We hope each Vintage member realizes what a treasure we have in our own facility to serve all of us each summer, and also know that it is member-created and member-maintained, principally through our Friends. Vintage is privileged to provide some very neat thank-yous when you become a Friend in return for your contribution. It is a win- win for all. Vintage is the very finest such organization in the world. We attract visitors from all over the world to the Red Barn and our newly expanded Vintage airplane area each summer. We have grown from one lone, abandoned barn to an entire complex replicating a small country airport. With your help, every year we will provide more enhanced hospitality for all. Please stand tall and join with us in Friends of the Red Barn; you will be forever proud and happy that you did. Charlie Harris, Director Emeritus EAA Life Member 96978, VAA Life Member 2158 TM Friends of the RED BARN To nominate someone is easy. It just takes a little time and a little reminiscing on your part. • Think of a person; think of his or her contributions to vintage aviation. • Write those contributions in the various categories of the nomination form. • Write a simple letter highlighting these attributes and contributions. Make copies of newspaper or magazine articles that may substantiate your view. • If at all possible, have another individual (or more) complete a form or write a letter about this person, confirming why the person is a good candidate for induction. We would like to take this opportunity to mention that if you have nominated someone for the VAA Hall of Fame, nominations for the honor are kept on file for three years, after which the nomination must be resubmitted. Mail nominating materials to: VAA Hall of Fame, c/o Charles W. Harris, Transportation Leasing Corp. PO Box 470350 Tulsa, OK 74147 E-mail: cwh@hvsu.com Remember, your “contemporary” may be a candidate; nominate someone today! Find the nomination form at www.VintageAircraft.org, or call the VAA office for a copy (920-426-6110), or on your own sheet of paper, simply include the following information: • Date submitted. • Name of person nominated. • Address and phone number of nominee. • E-mail address of nominee. • Date of birth of nominee. If deceased, date of death. • Name and relationship of nominee’s closest living relative. • Address and phone of nominee’s closest living relative. • VAA and EAA number, if known. (Nominee must have been or is a VAA member.) • Time span (dates) of the nominee’s contributions to vintage aviation. (Must be between 1950 to present day.) • Area(s) of contributions to aviation. • Describe the event(s) or nature of activities the nominee has undertaken in aviation to be worthy of induction into the VAA Hall of Fame. • Describe achievements the nominee has made in other related fields in aviation. • Has the nominee already been honored for his or her involvement in aviation and/or the contribution you are stating in this petition? If yes, please explain the nature of the honor and/or award the nominee has received. • Any additional supporting information. • Submitter’s address and phone number, plus e-mail address. • Include any supporting material with your petition. Nominate your favorite vintage aviator for the EAA Vin- tage Aircraft Association Hall of Fame. A great honor could be bestowed upon that man or woman working next to you on your airplane, sitting next to you in the chapter meeting, or walking next to you at EAA AirVenture Oshkosh. Think about the people in your circle of aviation friends: the mechanic, historian, photographer, or pilot who has shared innumerable tips with you and with many others. They could be the next VAA Hall of Fame inductee — but only if they are nominated. The person you nominate can be a citizen of any coun- try and may be living or deceased; his or her involvement in vintage aviation must have occurred between 1950 and the present day. His or her contribution can be in the areas of flying, design, mechanical or aerodynamic developments, administration, writing, some other vital and relevant field, or any combination of fields that support aviation. The per- son you nominate must be or have been a member of the Vintage Aircraft Association or the Antique/Classic Divi- sion of EAA, and preference is given to those whose ac- tions have contributed to the VAA in some way, perhaps as a volunteer, a restorer who shares his expertise with others, a writer, a photographer, or a pilot sharing sto- ries, preserving aviation history, and encouraging new pilots and enthusiasts. C A L L F OR V I N TA G E A I R C R A F T A S S O C I AT ION Nominat ions shows. We are already making plans for 2018 for improvements to our Interview Circle programs as well as some cosmetic improvements to the Bill and Myrt Rose Plaza. (Interview Circle is located in this plaza.) The Vintage Bookstore was also a very popular destination and rightly so. If you have any interest in aviation history or maybe you are looking for something to read during the week, then the bookstore is the place for you. Personally, one of my interests lies in the history and development of aircraft engines. I hit a home run this year in the bookstore when I found three separate books: one on the R-2800, another on the R-4360, and the third one on Allied piston engines of World War II. These are very comprehensive books totaling more than 1,700 pages. I know what my winter reading will be! Anyway, this great bookstore/resource will be there for you in 2018 replete with many “new” old books. And yes, let’s not forget the vin- tage airplanes. There were more than 1,100 of them, and they were absolutely spectacular. I always spend time on the flightline, where I marvel at the beauty of our vintage planes. Thanks to all who flew their vintage showplane to Oshkosh for all to see. We look forward to seeing you next year. Honestly, I could go on and on about Oshkosh 2017. Let me just close by saying that all of our very talented and dedicated volunteers did a stupendous job at providing our members and guests with a magical week filled with friends (both new and old) and airplanes. The Vintage volunteers are the best, and the Vin- tage culture is the best. Remember, Vintage is the fun place to be! Message from the President continued from page 1 6 SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2017 www.vintageaircraft.org 7 A n t i q u e s Antique Continuously Maintained Aircraft 1930 Stearman Aircraft 4E N663K Ben Scott, Reno, NV World War II Military Trainer/Liaison Aircraft Runner-Up 1941 Boeing A75N1(PT17) N55569 Brad Mcginnis, Worthington, KY Transport Category Runner-Up 1940 Douglas DC-3 HBIRJ Yannick Bovier, Saviese, Switzerland Customized Aircraft Outstanding 1940 Piper J4A N28209 Timothy Shea, Pearland, TX Customized Aircraft Runner-Up 1941 Waco UPF-7 N32094 Frank Winkler, Dallas, TX Outstanding Silver Age Open Cockpit Biplane 1929 Stearman Aircraft C3-B N8811 Patrick Weeden, Oregon, WI Bronze Age Outstanding Closed Cockpit Monoplane 1941 Taylorcraft BC12-65 N29654 Lowell Baker Effingham, IL Bronze Age Runner-Up 1940 Piper J3C-65 N26868 Alvin Musser, Memphis, MO Silver Age Runner-Up 1932 Fairchild 22 NC13166 John Thomason, Sonoma, CA World War II Military Trainer/Liaison Aircraft Champion 1941 Boeing A75N1 (PT17) N311HR Randy McCoy, Winnemucca, NV Transport Category Champion 1936 Douglas DC-3 N17334 Blake Butler, Shelbyville, TN Customized Aircraft Champion 1941 Waco UPF-7 N32083 Benjamin Redman, Faribault, MN Bronze Age (1937-1941) Champion 1941 Waco UPF-7 N32133 Jeffrey Gaulrapp, Coal Valley, IL Silver Age (1928-1936) Champion 1932 Waco UBF 2 NC2091K John Cournoyer, Maryland Hts, MO Antique Reserve Grand Champion 1941 Piper J3C-65 N37916 Rod Mckenzie, New Fairfield, CT Antique Grand Champion 1937 Stinson SR-9F N18445 Scott Woods, Tiburon, CA C l a s s i c Outstanding Beech 1954 Beech B50 N633F Brad Gardner, Kansas City, MO Outstanding Bellanca 1950 Bellanca 14-19 CFEDW Doug Wilson, Delta, BC, Canada Outstanding Cessna 120/140 1947 Cessna 120 N120VW Sarah Dickerson, Kansas City, MO Outstanding Cessna 170 1951 Cessna 170A N1471D Mike Schwarzkopf, Saint Peters, MO Outstanding Cessna 180 1954 Cessna 180 N3643C Scott Thompson, Stoutsville, OH Outstanding Cessna 190/195 1952 Cessna 190 CFISR Wayne Eggen, Langley, BC, Canada Outstanding Ercoupe 1946 Ercoupe 415-C N93949 Robert Porter, Batavia, IL Outstanding Luscombe 1946 Luscombe 8E N1201K James Spurgeon, Stillwater, OK Outstanding Piper J-3 1946 Piper Cub J3 NC92312 Bruce Bowen, Sturgis, SD Outstanding Piper Other 1949 Piper PA-11 N5084H Daren Hrabe, Tea, SD Outstanding Swift 1950 Temco GC-1B N814CC Scott Naumann, Arroyo Grande, CA Outstanding Taylorcraft 1948 Taylorcraft, BC12D-85 N5612M Best Continuously Maintained 1954 Beech E35 N3214C Jeffrey Deaton, Morehead City, NC Preservation 1953 Piper PA-22-135 N1301C Vaughn Lovley, Prague, MN Custom Class A (0-85 hp) 1946 Aeronca 7AC N2688E George Spelman, Noblesville, IN Custom Class B (86-150 hp) 1948 Luscombe 8F N1866B Ronald Morrison, Geneva, IL Custom Class C (151-235 hp) 1947 Piper PA-12 N4433M Mary Build, Naples, ME Custom Class D (236-up hp) 1947 Ryan Navion N660NE William Guerrieri, Simpsonville, SC Best Customized Runner-Up 1954 Piper Pa-18-135 N807EJ James Miller, Genoa, OH Class I (0-85 hp) 1946 Aeronca 7AC N82940 Shane Vande Voort, Pella, IA Class II (86-150 hp) 1950 Cessna 140A N5360C Lorraine Morris, Poplar Grove, IL Class IV (236-up hp) 1951 Cessna 195 N195PK Phillip Pedron, Denton, TX Champion Replica Classic 1951 Luscombe 10 NX34337 Bill Bradford, Independence, MO Champion Customized Classic Amphibian 1946 Grumman G-44A N86611 Steve Hamilton, Washoe Valley, NV Champion Customized Classic 1954 Cessna 170B N2771C Kyle Fosso, Aacortes, WA Reserve Grand Champion 1949 Piper PA-11 N5533H Donald Wade, Helena, AL Grand Champion 1946 Piper J3C-65 N88354 Daniel Uminski, Ryan Johnson & Cory Johnson, Middleton, WI C o n t e m p o r a r y Outstanding Beech Single Engine 1967 Beech A23A N6928Q Robert Prange, Ashburn, VA Outstanding Beech Multi-Engine 1957 Beech D-50 N261B Christopher White, Granville, OH Outstanding Cessna 170/172/175/177 1959 Cessna 175 N175XX Ryan Nelson, Hibbing, MN Outstanding Cessna 180/182/210 1958 Cessna 180B N5067E Rodd Rickenbach, Denver, CO Outstanding Champion 1969 Champion 7ECA N5170X Nancy Fitzpatrick, Fredericksburg, TX Outstanding Mooney 1964 Mooney M20C N7163U Daniel & Tori Patterson, Frankfort, KY Outstanding Piper PA-24 Comanche 1959 Piper PA-24-250 N5778P Hunter Neucere, Grapevine, TX Outstanding Piper PA-28 Cherokee 1964 Piper PA-28-160 N5770W Danny Gallo, Nashotah, WI Outstanding Piper PA-30 Twin Comanche 1967 Piper PA-30 N8368Y Kyle and Shevon Gee, New Waverly, TX Outstanding Limited Production 1963 M-4 N4706T Susan Maule, Media, PA Most Unique 1961 Helio H-295 N5383G Andrew Stolte, Spring Hill, FL Preservation Award 1970 Champion 7GCBC N9060L Paul Shank, Gaithersburg, MD Class II Single Engine (161-230 hp) 1957 Cessna 182A N3982D Jeff Standford, Saint Marys, GA Class III Single Engine (231-up hp) 1964 Beech S35 N335JA Joseph Astrologo, Red Wing, MN Outstanding Customized 1957 Beech H35 N64JW Joseph Weaver, Flower Mound, TX Outstanding Multi Engine 1970 Beech A56TC N4620A David Glaser, Peyton, CO Reserve Grand Champion Customized 1960 Piper PA-24-250 N6455P Lee Hussey, Martinsville, VA AirVenture 2017 Vintage Awards Prepare a surface for fabric covering How to? ROBERT G. LOCK Champ wing chord is too wide to blanket cover the wing; therefore, three strips of fabric had to be sewn together so there was no need to glue fabric to the leading edge. Do not glue fabric to the padding; it won’t work. Using this method of leading edge protection will lead to a very smooth covering job where skin overlaps and nail or screw heads cannot be seen. Whenever possible I always use padding on the leading edges and a few other places on occasion. Photo 3 is a Bucker Bü-133 Jungmeister wing I covered many years ago for John Hickman. These wings were narrow chord, and the fabric could be blanketed in place and not require any machine sewing. The upper Bucker Jungmeister wing was cov- ered with the Ceconite process back in 1970. This wing is all wood construction, and the leading edge and other areas are covered with padding. The fabric was installed around the leading edge and glued to the inside of the wing spar. A little preshrinking was done to tauten the leading edge and then it was coated with nitrate dope. Then the bottom of the fabric was bonded in place, wrapped all the way around the leading edge, and bonded to the area along the top of the spar. What did the airplane look like when it was fin- ished? Well, here it is in Photo 4. PREPARATION OF A STRUCTURE TO receive fabric covering requires some thought be given to sharp edges or overlaps that need to be covered with tape. And, depend- ing on what type of fabric attach- ment is chosen, one may want to cover the leading edge metal with a polyester padding that will blend out surface irregularities such as skin overlaps. I always cover any nail heads on the leading edge with a good grade tape — I particularly like to use “gaffer’s tape.” Gaffer’s tape has an adhesive that securely bonds it to an aluminum leading edge. Do that first before installing the polyester padding. Then inspect the rest of the structure, checking if there are any sharp edges that could pen- etrate and damage the fabric. I al- ways put tape over trailing edge rivets. See Photo 1. Polyester padding may then be installed on the leading edge of the wing by bonding it along upper and lower edges of spars. Do not attempt to bond the entire lead- ing edge as the padding needs to be soft and pliable. Photo 1, gaffer’s tape covers sheet metal attaching screws on a leading edge, and a strip of polyester padding is ready to be bonded in place. In photo 2, the padding is bonded in place using manufacturer’s approved adhesive. The Photo 1 Photo 2 Photo 3 8 SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2017 www.vintageaircraft.org 9 Photo 4 www.vintageaircraft.org 11 10 SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2017 Good Old Days Take a quick look through history by enjoying images pulled from publications past. From pages of what was . . . 12 SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2017 www.vintageaircraft.org 13 EAA Chapter 211 hatches an Eaglet by Budd Davisson Photos by Andrew Zaback WORTH ALL The EFFORT AMERICAN EAGLE www.vintageaircraft.org 15 14 SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2017 “Many EAA members would like to be building or restoring,” said Gary Van Farowe of Hudsonville, Michigan. “However, as interested as they are, many I talk to are con- cerned about the skills and the fi- nances involved. I don’t like to hear members talk that way. I’ve had a really full life in aviation and see my involvement with EAA Chapter 211 in Grand Haven, Michigan, as my way of giving back by encour- aging people to take the plunge. The mechanism for that has been to mentor members while doing ac- tual projects, which generally elimi- nates their concerns. When Chapter 211 first started, they repaired the wings of a Jodel and then covered a Luscombe’s wings. However, I came on board with the restoration of an American Eagle Eaglet. It was a great project and brought all of the skills involved in aircraft building and restoring into focus. Even bet- ter, it was really fun having the airplane at Oshkosh where the chapter members could share the fruits of their labor with other EAAers. They were proud and had a right to be.” The airplane he was discuss- ing was displayed on Interview Circle directly in front of the Vintage Aircraft Association’s well-known Red Barn headquar- ters during EAA AirVenture Os- hkosh. The Eaglet was a pioneer ultralight from the early 1930s, and nearly 100 were built. But to- day it is one of the lesser-known antiques. Certainly, there were more than the normal “What is it?” questions aimed at Gary and the chapter members. The American Eagle Aircraft Corp. was founded by Edward E. Porterfield (yes, the same man who later founded Porterfield Aircraft Corp.) and began pro- ducing airplanes in 1925-1926. At the time, his airplanes, the Eagle series, were large, OX-5-pow- ered, two - and three-place, open-cockpit biplanes. A suc- cessful venture from the begin- ning, the company, like all other aircraft companies at the time, was dealt a lingering deathblow by the stock market crash in 1929 After a number of failures, the CAA mandated that tie rods be installed to keep the cylinders in the general vicinity of the crankcase. Above: Is a Szekely a radial or a “triangular”? Right: Heat muffs for carburetor. Preflights are easy when all the im- portant stuff is out in the open. AMERICAN EAGLE www.vintageaircraft.org 17 16 SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2017 and the ensuing Depression. Its primary survival strategy was to design and build the Eaglet in an effort at offering the shrinking aviation market a more afford- able airplane. Combined with the three- cylinder, 45-hp Szekely engine, the Eaglet was exactly what they hoped it would be: a good- performing airplane that barely sipped fuel. Unfortunately, too much of the company’s poten- tial market was standing in soup kitchen lines, more worried about their next meal than reducing their cost per flight hour. Amaz- ingly enough, when the American Eagle Aircraft Corp. (later known as Lincoln-Page) ceased opera- tions in 1932, according to sev- eral sources, it had built and sold more than 700 airplanes, which at the time made it the third larg- est aircraft production company in the world. Today it is one of the least known, but enthusiasts or professionals such as Gary Van Farowe know it well. However, the big Eagles were Travel Air– sized projects; whereas, the Ea- glet was a fraction of their size and ideal for amateur restoration. That’s why when the Eaglet be- came available for restoration, he jumped on it. He saw it as the perfect chapter project. When it comes to mentoring beginning antiquers and build- ers, Gary brings a lot to the table. When he (a 21-year-old door gun- ner/mechanic) returned from Vietnam in 1970, he knew air- planes would be his life. “I immediately enrolled in the Spartan School of Aeronautics A&P program,” he said. “I learned to fly while there and opened my own shop in ’73, where I worked on vintage airplanes when I wasn’t working on Gulfstreams for a corporation. My heart has always been in vintage airplanes. Even at that age. I’ve always liked old stuff of every kind. Cars, trac- tors, biplanes — I’ve always been into all of them. “When I first opened, I was working with an old-timer, and most of our work was Aeronca and Cub types,” said Gary. “Those were airplanes the big shops didn’t want anything to do with, so it became a niche for us. The old-timer mentored me for eight years until he retired, and I’ve continued to work on the same age of aircraft. Nothing later than ’46. Now I’ve retired from my day job and do this full time. I’ve run a bunch of Wacos and classics through the shop. Basi- cally, I’ll do anything having to do with fabric, wood, or welding, from patches to full restoration. I also do a reasonable number of owner-assisted restorations. “The Eaglet had been in stor- The cockpit redefines “basic” and demands lightweight pilot/passengers. Spars were okay but Chapter 211 built over half of the ribs from scratch. AMERICAN EAGLE we received a $2,000 grant for the project. “We had people from every walk of life. Airline pilots, school teachers, engineers, retired busi- ness owners. Every background you can imagine. Most had very little hands-on experience with aircraft, and I probably frus- trated a few of them. From the beginning, I made sure we did everything to my standards, which, while I’m not a radical perfectionist, there is only one ‘right’ way to do things. And if something didn’t meet that stan- dard, we did it over again. My attitude is that the inside of a restoration should look as good as the outside, and that’s what we strived for.” While the fuselage wasn’t bad, Gary said they did have to do some repairs. When the pieces were ready to be welded, Gary’s son-in-law stepped in and did the actual welding (tungsten inert gas). He didn’t want anything but excellent welds, and an Ameri- can Eaglet was no place for a be- ginner to practice. But everyone learned a lot from watching. The landing gear was problem- atic because the V’s were made of streamlined tubing that were open ended rather than being welded closed. The net result was that they were badly rusted on the inside. One of the members was a machinist and made up the tubes that Gary welded together, including sealing both ends. “With the landing gear fin- ished,” Gary said, “we would have loved to have gone with the original 18-by-3 wheels and tires, which had no brakes and relied on a tail skid to keep it straight. But we were running on limited funds. So, we came up with an adapter that let us use 8-by-4 Cub tires. Not very original looking, but the price was right! “Eaglet wings are very light and fragile, as the entire airplane has to be to get good performance on 45 hp. Fortunately, the spars were fine, but over half of the ribs had to be replaced. And that meant, what with this being a very low-budget project, finding an inexpensive supply of aircraft- quality spruce to rip into 1/4- inch square strips to make new ribs. Here we lucked out because there was a company in Grand Rapids that had made gliders during World War II and still had some spruce left. We borrowed a rib jig from Gene Morris, and everyone got to make a number of ribs from scratch. Gene was a lifesaver and helped us out with many, many things.” The airplane apparently had been rebuilt sometime in the 1950s, so the sheet metal, what little there was of it, was in good shape. The same could not be said of the Szekely engine. Old engines, however, are one of Gary’s passions. “The Szekely is not the bad en- gine the myths make it out to be,” he said. “However, if you don’t know its intricacies, it can be. It has to be continuously monitored and various things adjusted and 18 SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2017 www.vintageaircraft.org 19 age for a few years, and its cotton fabric was practically falling off. It was thoroughly rotten, and the rest of the airplane wasn’t much better. The airplane needed a complete restoration. However, it was all there, and the chapter members were ready for it.” One of the more unique his- torical aspects to this particular Eaglet is that it is registered as a 1935 airplane, but the company shut the doors in 1932. And the engine serial number doesn’t fit the verbiage in the type certifi- cate that stipulates that “… no en- gine is to be built after 1932.” So, what’s the story? Gary explained, “We think the airplane was assembled in 1935 from leftover parts and new en- gines that were for sale from the failed engine company. It was registered to the president of the company who had to give an affi- davit to the CAA that the airplane was okay and should be licensed.” When the chapter started work, Gary donated the use of his own shop, and chapter members set up a work schedule: every Thursday night, 6 to 9:30. He said the project wound up taking four years, and there were 27 members involved over the years. However, he said, “Five of the guys practi- cally made a religion out of work- ing on the airplane. I could count on seeing them every Thursday, no matter what. The financing came from the members, which was matched by the chapter, and With no brakes, much of the Ea- glet’s directional ground stability comes from the tailskid digging in. babied. It also has at least one de- sign flaw that leads to the tie rods going from cylinder to cylinder to prevent them from totally de- parting the airplane. The cylin- der bases are square with bolts in each corner, and there’s a paper gasket between the flange and the case. So, if those bolts are over- tightened, they pull the corners down and crack the flange around the base of the jug. This problem is made worse because the cyl- inders are cast iron, not steel, so they are brittle. Enough Zeke- powered airplanes returned cov- ered in oil, with a piston flopping out in the breeze, that the CAA mandated the safety strap. “This engine didn’t have a lot of time on it, about 230 hours ac- cording to the logbooks, but past owners didn’t know how to take care of it. In fact, 75 percent of these engines have vise marks on them from backyard mechanics working on them. The master rod was a mess and ready to fail, and it took us a long time to find an- other. However, coming up with rings was no problem as a nice lady at Hastings came up with a direct substitute.” One thing that can’t be known from old photos is the proper color to paint a given antique airplane. With the Eaglet having been re- covered and repainted so many times since 1935, the chances of discovering the original color of the Eaglet were slim. But Gary and Chapter 211 were lucky. “We thought we were going to have a real problem in picking the final color,” Gary said. “How- ever, we lucked out when we found some original overspray on the bottom of the seat pans and back of the oil tank. It was an old color often referred to as ‘Early Travel Air Blue.’ Today it’s known as ‘True Blue.’ “We covered the airplane with Poly-Fiber and used their paint, too. A local Poly-Fiber distribu- tor, Jim and Doni Miller, gave us a good discount, which we really appreciated because every penny counted.” Getting an airplane finished and ready to display at Oshkosh often leads to lots of long nights and early mornings. In the case of the Chapter 211 Eaglet, they tried to get ahead of the game. “We set a goal of having the airplane finished at least two weeks before leaving for AirVen- ture,” said Gary. “We first did that for AirVenture 2014, which ob- viously didn’t work. This time, however, we made it. A good measure of how active Chap- ter 211 is can be seen in the fact that of the 30 members, 20 were at Oshkosh and helping with the display of the Eaglet. “I’d have to say that our goal of getting more people to actu- ally do hands-on airplane work has succeeded. While doing the Eaglet, one of our guys bought a Champ and is learning to fly, and all of them developed skills they definitely didn’t have be- fore. However, the real benefit of this kind of chapter project is that it develops friendships that will last a lifetime. That makes it worth all the effort.” 316-283-8000 • BandC.aero Let’s Talk Longevity Finally ... an Alternator that fits Lycoming Wide- or Narrow-Deck engines with NO change of oil cooler location required! Together we can update your Piper. Tell us about your classic at 316-283-8000. WWW.BANDC.AERO www.vintageaircraft.org 21 20 SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2017 AMERICAN EAGLE Top: Enjoying its moment of glory in Interview Circle at AV16. Middle: The chapter’s budget re- quired using Cub tires and wheels rather than the 18” original units. Bottom: Tail tubing required straightening and some replace- ment. Bill. “He liked to have control. When he and Walter Beech were working for Swallow, Jake Moel- lendick — who was a stodgy old character — opposed their sug- gestion to use steel tubing instead of wood for airframes. Moellen- dick thought spruce was good enough. So my father and Beech got disgusted, and they left. Then they were joined by Clyde Cessna and formed the Travel Air Co., and the Travel Air did pretty well. And this is also typical: They had my father design the Travel Air, and then Beech, Cessna, and my father all went and worked on it with their own hands. “They hired about three or four auto mechanics to help them, but they were out in their small plant, building the plane with their own hands. Can you imagine that? And who was running the operation? A 20-year-old secretary book- keeper called Olive Ann Mellor. This day and age, she’d be a senior executive vice president instead of a secretary bookkeeper! “My mother said she had more brains than all the rest of them put together; my mother adored her. And Olive Ann would do all of the administrative work, and the men didn’t know what was going on. They were just focused on building this plane. Eventually they split up; Cessna went and made his own plane famous, and my father went off to California and founded Stearman Aircraft Co. Beech, who had married Ol- ive Ann, stayed with Travel Air and then formed another com- pany called Beech Aircraft Co. When Walter Beech was still alive, my mother said Olive Ann was really the brains behind that business — and then when Wal- ter died, Olive Ann took over.” Family Memories Asked what his earliest avi- ation-related memory is, Bill shares, “My father first took me up when I was 22 months old in a Swallow, holding me in his lap and flying. I can remember when the first Stearman came out in Venice, California, in 1926. I was 4. My earliest memories are being around airplanes, and when I was 5, we moved back to Wichita.” Bill recalls overhearing many aviation-related conversations at home, and shares this about his www.vintageaircraft.org 23 22 SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2017 A number of Stearman biplanes were featured at AirVenture 2016 to help commemorate Boeing’s centennial year, and none other than Lloyd Carlton Stearman’s own son, Dr. William Lloyd “Bill” Stearman, was in attendance. Bill greatly enjoyed the opportunity to honor his renowned aviation- pioneering father. A worldly and accomplished man in his own right, Bill penned a memoir about his journey through life, replete with hard-earned insights and perspectives, titled An American Adventure: From Early Aviation Through Three Wars to the White House. It was published in 2012 by the Naval Institute Press. Born in 1922, Bill grew up sur- rounded by aviation. As a young man, he joined the Navy and ex- perienced combat in the Pacific during World War II. His exten- sive résumé includes 28 years as a Foreign Service officer, a dip- lomat in Europe during the Cold War, and head of the North Viet- namese Affairs Division of the Joint U.S. Public Affairs Office (stationed in Saigon). He also spent 17 years on the National Security Council at the White House and taught at Georgetown University for 16 years. Paternal Ties to Aviation Though many decades have rolled by, during which Bill lived and worked in a variety of coun- tries and cultures, his paternal ties to the world of pilots and airplanes remain cherished and vivid. Spurred by a few questions, Bill swept back the curtains of time, elucidating his personal re- flections and observations in an unabashed yet judicious manner. “My father liked to be the head of the company, but he didn’t like to do all the things you have to do to be a good administrator,” says S t e a r m a n sThe NC3440, Larry Tobin’s 1927 Stearman C3-B, was built in 1927 by Stearman Aircraft of Venice, California, and may be similar to the Stearman that Bill remembers seeing as a child in Venice. (2008) An example of an early Stearman: NC774H, a 1931 Stearman 4D. (SUN ’n Fun, 2005) Dr. William Lloyd “Bill” Stearman. (AirVenture, 2016) A son reminisces about his father’s legacy by Sparky Barnes Sargent SPARKY BARNES SARGENT SPARKY BARNES SARGENT able impression of flying, but he realized early on that it could be as perilous as it was joyous. “I enjoyed it to a point, but I saw a number of crashes,” recalls Bill. “We had a lot more crashes in those days. I must have been 6 or 7 when I was at an airport and a suicidal pilot spun his plane into the ground about 100 yards from where I was. It was the first time I saw a dead person; his plane was scattered all over, and there was his body in the middle of it. So that made an impression, and I’ve seen planes that, when they crashed, they disintegrated. So I saw a lot, and that was enough. Early avia- tion was a problematical thing.” On another occasion, Bill and his mother were seemingly the last to know about Lloyd not ar- riving at an airport as scheduled. “I was about 6, and we went out and picked up the paper, and the headline was ‘Lloyd Stea- rman Lost in the Mountains.’ He had made a forced landing in the mountains in a storm, and I could never figure out why the press knew about it and we didn’t know about it — we had to find out about it in the newspapers. He eventually made his way out; he was flying a Stearman. [In Jan- uary 1928], my father went on a rescue mission to find Fred Hoyt, who was delivering a Stearman and went down in Idaho. Hoyt had bailed out successfully in a snowstorm and walked within 50 yards of a house and didn’t see it. Hoyt was a test pilot I liked very much. He flew some early Stea- rmans while making the movie Wings, which was about World War I flyers and was one of the last great silent films and the first Oscar winner. Hoyt froze to death, and that made an impres- sion on me.” Designing Airplanes Despite those events, Bill was still interested in aviation. He re- calls that the Model 4 mail plane was one of his father’s favorites, as was an airplane that never ac- tually went into production. “We all loved the Coach [Stearman CAB-1, five-place Wright J-6- 7], which had an enclosed cabin for the pilot and passengers,” Bill recalls. “It had windows all around — 360 degrees. I loved go- ing up in that! We had excursions in that, and I loved that plane. They only made one of them. Why, I will never know. It was a great little plane and was fun to be in, because you could look out all the way around and see what was going on. The Coach came out about 1929. My father was the first president at Lock- heed Aircraft Corp. and designed the Lockheed Electra in our liv- ing room, so I saw the design de- velop. I watched him design this plane with just a slide rule and drawing board. The Lockheed Electra first flew in 1934 when I was 12 years old, and I flew in it. When we got airborne, I took the controls and flew it all around Los Angeles. “I’d visit my father in his of- fice and see him design things. He was a genius when it came to de- sign. All the education he had was three semesters of architecture at Kansas State Agricultural College; he had no aerodynamics training. He went to ground school in the Navy at the University of Wash- ington and then came down to North Beach, California, and learned to fly in a seaplane [Cur- tiss N-9 flying boat]. But he never had any aerodynamics training; you’d think he would have to have had that. In fact, I’ve talked to professors of aerodynamics, and they said my father couldn’t pos- sibly have designed the things he designed, because he didn’t have enough formal education and didn’t know enough math. It was early family life: “My father was very modest — extremely mod- est to a fault, and soft-spoken. He was introspective, but he loved music. My grandfather and I and my mother were also very musi- cal. My grandfather played the violin quite well and made violins as a hobby. My mother played the piano and taught me piano. All mothers were ‘stay at home’ in my day; there were never any working mothers. My mother used to say any woman who wanted to work outside the home must be out of her mind — be- cause you lose your freedom! “My parents had a good rela- tionship; marriages were differ- ent in my day. I had a younger sister, Marilyn Ruth, and had a pretty happy childhood on the whole. My father talked with my mother about aviation things — about problems he was hav- ing and triumphs that he had. I spent a good bit of time out at the airfields on weekends, watching planes fly. I used to go up with my father as a little kid, but he’d do acrobatics and scare the bejesus out of me! That may be one rea- son I never went in for flying!” Perils and Joys of Flying Overall, Bill acquired a favor- www.vintageaircraft.org 25 24 SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2017 A. Swallow ad – Aviation, 1926. B. Stearman C2B ad, Aero Digest, April 1928. C. Stearman ad, Aviation, March 9 1929. D. Stearman Aircraft Company of Venice, CA ad - Aviation, 1926. A. B. C. D. NC979, a 1927 Swallow powered by a Curtiss OX-5, may be similar to the Swallow in which Bill Stearman had his first flight. (AirVenture, 2006) NC663K, Ben Scott’s 1930 Model 4E Speedmail Junior. The Model 4 was one of Lloyd Stearman’s favorites. (2008) An example of an early Stearman - NC488W, a 1931 Stearman 4CM-1. (SUN ’n FUN, 2006) SPARKY BARNES SARGENT SPARKY BARNES SARGENT SPARKY BARNES SARGENT tioning. That gives you the inside situation to his character.” Naturally, Bill became acquainted with some of the Stearman employees, and admired one man in particular. “I adored test pilot ‘Deed’ Levy. He was an incredibly handsome young man and a super pilot. I remember him as a dashing, interesting chap — he should have been a movie star. He later battled for my father’s recognition, and he got my father [post- humously] into the National Aviation Hall of Fame. ‘Deed’ was extremely loyal to my father, because my father was loyal to him. My father was on a first- name basis with all the workers — and even when it was a pretty good-sized company, all his workers called him by his first name.” Joining the Navy Though Bill didn’t learn to fly while growing up under his father’s wing, his interest in becoming a pilot was heightened after the attack on Pearl Harbor. “I thought aviation was a fascinating pro- fession, and I liked flying well enough that I had a great desire to fly. Right after Pearl Harbor, I went down to enlist in the Navy Air Corps as an avia- tion cadet. My father was a naval aviation cadet in World War I. He never got his wings because the war ended too soon. But I went down to enlist as an aviation cadet, and he was excited about that because everybody was flying Stearmans, and the Navy was going to make a big PR thing out of it. 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He went ahead and de- signed his masterpieces, and they were great airplanes!” The Stearman-Hammond When asked which airplane was his father’s favorite to fly, Bill pauses for a moment and replies, “That’s a good question. He liked so many of them, but he probably got the biggest kick out of flying the Stearman-Hammond, which was the safest airplane in avia- tion history. They produced 22 of them, but they were too expen- sive; they sold at $35,000 each. That was big bucks in the 1930s. I liked the plane, and I’m sure I regret now that I never flew it! They did an experiment by get- ting an 11-year-old boy who had never been in a plane before, with a pilot sitting next to him, to fly it. The little boy took it off, flew it all around Los Angeles, and landed — and the pilot never touched the controls. The only way you could crash it would be to fly it horizon- tally into something. It couldn’t stall, and it had big dangling land- ing gear and drove like a car in the air [it had a control wheel and no rudder pedals]. It was extremely simple and extremely safe. One of the first unmanned aerial vehi- cles was a Stearman-Hammond flown by the Navy. There are so many planes, it’s hard to think of what really would be my father’s favorite. He didn’t do an awful lot of flying himself. He had test pi- lots who tested the planes, but he would go up once in a while.” Esprit de Corps Through the years, Bill devel- oped the utmost respect for his fa- ther — not only because he was his son, but also because of his father’s interactions with his employees. “They were very nonmateri- alistic back then. Nobody would agree to join a trade union, and my father’s workers couldn’t have gotten a better deal any- where. I mean, my father would pay them what they were worth, and they knew he could [per- sonally] replace them at any job they could do. He’d go out and replace any single worker and do the same thing the worker was doing. He built planes with his own hands. The workers really adored him, and they were privi- leged. He inspired a good esprit de corps, and I think that’s an important thing to bear in mind about him. He was just that way, and I’m sure the same thing was true when Stearman was bigger and more diversified. “He was always good and con- siderate, and never in the least greedy about making money. He was disinterested — except he loved cars! He built a car from scratch when he was in high school. He liked good cars, and he always drove Packards. We ul- timately built a pretty nice home in Wichita, and Stearman did ex- tremely well. Another thing: My father’s the only person I know of who lost money in the stock mar- ket before it crashed! Of course, everybody suffered when it crashed in October of 1929. Any- way, I think that’s all worth men- 26 SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2017 www.vintageaircraft.org 27 A trio of Stearmans represents a facet of Stearman’s legacy. In the middle is N9039H, a customized 1941 Boeing B75N1. (SUN ’n FUN, 2005) Homer Barnes, one of many who learned to fly in Stea- rman PT-17s during World War II. Stearman Aircraft Company logo from 1931. SPARKY BARNES SARGENT www.vintageaircraft.org 29 28 SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2017 “I was determined I was go- ing to learn to fly and be an ace or something like that. I was a great admirer of the aces of World War I. But I couldn’t pass the flight physical. I had clogged Eustachian tubes. The Navy surgeons tried their best to open them, but they just couldn’t do it, and we were devastated. So I joined the Navy V-12 program to become a deck of- ficer. Several months after World War II, I became one of the young- est ship captains in the Navy.” Return to Lockheed After World War II, thousands of Stearman trainers were sold as surplus. Bill remembers that his father seized that opportu- nity, buying a lot of Stearmans for cheap after the war. “He had a crop-dusting busi- ness, and they were great crop dusters. But in 1955 he wasn’t too happy being in the crop-dusting business because he couldn’t de- sign airplanes. So he went to Lockheed Aircraft Corp.’s per- sonnel office and filled out the [employment application] with the answer to ‘former position at Lockheed’ as ‘president.’ The per- sonnel people called the front of- fice on the phone and said, ‘You’ve got a nut case down here!’ My father knew the vice president well, but he didn’t go up the chain of command to see him. That’s typical of my father; he was very modest and unassuming. The personnel office was told, ‘Oh, I know Stearman! Send him up!’ So they put him in very special de- sign projects where he belonged. Those 13 years were the happiest years of his life.” Stearman’s Design Legacy When the name “Stearman” is mentioned today, it’s very likely to conjure a mental image of World War II biplanes, known as Stea- rman PT-17 Kaydets. These Boe- ing Model 75 primary trainers (PT-17) were manufactured by the Stearman Division of the Boeing Aircraft Co. in Wichita. Various sources indicate that the proto- type for the PT-17 was the Stea- rman Model 70, which in turn was based on Stearman’s early 1930s Model 6 Cloudboy. These vintage biplanes still bear the ubiquitous Stearman moniker. “O bv i o u s l y, t h e St e a r m a n trainer, which trained almost all of our pilots in World War II, is how my father is most remem- bered,” says Bill. “There were several aspects of the space pro- gram that could be attributed to him as well. But I think the Stearman legacy — the fact that the plane is so popular and well- known — is what he’s always go- ing to be remembered by. Now as I say, probably his greatest achievement was that he, in ef- fect, founded Lockheed Aircraft Corp., which created and built planes he designed. Lockheed Martin is now the world’s largest defense contractor. If you go in the headquarters, the first thing you’ll see is a photo of my father.” Lloyd Carlton Stearman died on April 3, 1975, at the age of 76. In his book, Bill quotes the New York Times obituary for his father: “[Lloyd Stearman] designed the swing wings for the F-111 fighter- bomber and worked on vertical take-off and landing rockets to loft men into space … [and] re-entry vehicles built of columbium to withstand high friction tempera- tures. In designing spacecraft, he found himself working with prob- lems he foresaw in 1930 ….” A group of pilots bid this vi- sionary aviation legend farewell by performing the quintessen- tial memorial tribute to him. Bill poignantly recalls, “They had a church service for him, and a whole lot of Stearmans flew in formation overhead while it was going on. I heard them, and I ran out and looked up and saw them.” Stearman’s legacy and the long-lived World War II-era Stearman biplanes continue to be celebrated at various fly-ins across the country. Notably, the National Stearman Fly-In, now in its 46th year, is held annually at the Galesburg Municipal Air- port in Illinois. Bill traveled from Maryland to attend that annual gathering a few times. “My father’s grandson, Pat Carr, was the only family member who took up flying. Pat’s mother — my sister Marilyn — and her whole family would go to the Galesburg fly-in every Septem- ber. They lived relatively nearby.” Proudly describing his father, Bill says, “He’s obviously one of the aviation greats and probably the most versatile of all of the greats in aviation in that he had such a vari- ety of planes he designed and built. I mean, he spanned the whole gamut of aviation, from [learning to fly during] World War I to civil- ian aircraft, and in the end he was designing space re-entry vehicles. I can’t think of anybody in the whole business that is as versatile as he was.” Visit Flytheford.org or call 1-877-952-5395 *Indicates liberty tri-motor Hagerstown, MD * | Aug. 31-Sept. 3 Ravenna, OH * | September 7-10 Iron Mountain, MI | September 14-17 Port Clinton, OH * | September 15-17 Richmond, IN * | September 21-24 Collegedale, TN * | Sept. 28-Oct. 1 Mt. Vernon, IL | Sept. 28-Oct. 1 Asheville, NC * | October 5-8 Clarksville, TN | October 5-8 Oak Island, NC * | October 12-15 Columbia, SC * | October 19-22 For an in-depth article about Lloyd Stearman’s airplane designs, see “Lloyd Stearman — His airplanes and his legacy” by Philip Han- d l e ma n , Vi ntag e A i r p l a n e , September 2011. NC663K was converted to a crop duster when owned by Mal Carberry in the 1940s. Lloyd Stearman bought and used surplus WWII Stearmans for crop dusting. Ben Scott’s father, Keith, took delivery of NC663K on February 18, 1930, at Wichita. Ben Scott and NC663K in front of the Stearman Aircraft hangar in Wichita, 73 years after his father bought the airplane. Lloyd Stearman’s legacy lives on! COURTESY BEN SCOTT www.vintageaircraft.org 31 30 SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2017 You know those airplane-in- a-barn stories we all love to tell? Well, this isn’t one of them. In fact, the hero in this tale is a 1940 Piper J-5A, N38130, that was never abandoned on a back tie-down line and never lacked a home. It did, however, spend far more time in the hospital than most. Then, after being fully re- habilitated, it passed through several foster homes before com- ing to roost at Brandon Nesmith’s flight school, Table Rock Avia- tion in Hickory, North Carolina, where it has a family connection that can’t be denied. About the J-5 Breed First, let’s do a little charac- ter study on the J-5, because al- though the type is a staple in the Piper community (the long- wing variety), you don’t have to get very far outside of the Piper city limits before it’s almost un- known. If you mention a Piper J-5 within earshot of the majority of general aviation folks, several are likely to correct you: “Don’t you mean J-3?” Truth is, there’s good reason to be confused about the J-5’s Cruisin’ Into the Future Piper J-5 Cub Cruiser N38130 by Budd Davisson KELSEY KAISER KELSEY KAISER www.vintageaircraft.org 35 34 SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2017 lineage. It can be a little confus- ing. It could be argued that Piper only built one airplane, the J-3 (or maybe the J-2), and until the com- pany left rag-and-tube construc- tion behind with the introduction of the Cherokee in 1960, every subsequent high-wing Piper was a slight variation on a theme. They’d take J-3 wings, tail, and other existing components and build a seemingly unending series of modified fuselages for them. This let Piper expand from the trainer market to the family cross-coun- try market with minimum de- velopment cost. However, those early airplanes, like the J-5, were aimed at a cross-country market that was in no hurry to get from A to B. Piper was aware that the narrow confines of the J-3 cockpit limited both the size and number of passengers, so it introduced the J-4 Cub Coupe, which widened the fuselage enough to allow cozy side-by-side seating. But its performance was still that of the J-3. The J-5 was Pip- er’s first serious move to attract families while, at the same time, recognizing aircraft needed a lit- tle more elbow room. Dubbing its new line “Cub Cruiser,” Piper widened the back seat to allow two passengers and moved the command pilot up front, although the airplane could be flown solo from either seat. However, the “two-passenger” back seat may be stretching the definition of “passenger,” because the seat is more like 1.7 people wide. And they’d better be good friends and willing to overlap shoulders. For smaller people, it’s fine; for normal or larger folks, not so much. What Piper did accom- plish, however, is create a two- place airplane with super-roomy seating environments in both front and back, or when solo pro- vided plenty of room to stow lots of gear. Unfortunately, the J-5A didn’t have the power to match. The J-5A had a tweaked A-65 Continental that turned out 75 hp. The J-5B had the ques- tionable, geared Lycoming GO- 145-C2 that put out 75 hp; most modern pilots consider it to be an engine that gives boat anchors a bad name. Piper quickly realized it had an underpowered potential winner on its hands and put the new 100-hp Lycoming O-235 in the J-5C that also had a starter. In addition, Piper got rid of the exposed-cylinder J-3 Cub type of nose and covered the engine in a full cowling and brought the bungee cords up inside of the fu- selage. The combination of more power and much less drag (al- most) made a 100-mph airplane out of it. Unfortunately, the war shut down J-5C production after only approximately 35 had been built. Incidentally, the J-5As that were impressed into the Army were known as L-4Fs, the J-5Bs were L-4Gs, and the J-5C was produced for the Navy as HE-1/ AE. About 100 were built. Navy aircraft had lift-up rear fuselage AIRCRAFT SPECIFICATIONS Top speed 95 mph Cruise speed 85 mph Landing speed 40 mph Takeoff roll 300-500 feet Rate of climb, gross 350-450 fpm Range at 65 percent, estimated 425 miles Empty weight 800 pounds Gross weight 1,450 pounds Useful load 640 pounds Fuel capacity 18 gallons without wing tanks Wingspan 35 feet 6 inches Wing area 179 square feet Length 22 feet 6 inches Engine A-75, 75 hp Subject plane C-85 stroked, 97 hp ERIN BRUEGGEN PHOTOS Dubbing its new line “Cub Cruiser,” Piper widened the back seat to allow two passengers and moved the command pilot up front . . . ERIN BRUEGGEN PHOTOS ERIN BRUEGGEN PHOTOS The overhead mag switch. The trim is as it is in most Piper products. The tail is pure J-3. The wider fuselage greatly benefits the front seat pilot. The panel in Brandon’s airplane is totally stock. A C-85 with a stroker kit gives the airplane good performance. Grass and a tailwheel: the way the gods wanted it. www.vintageaircraft.org 37 36 SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2017 tops to allow loading litter cases. After the war, Piper dropped the “J” designation, using PA (Piper Aircraft) instead, and with a much fancier interior and in- creased gross weight, the J-5C became the PA-12 Super Cruiser. About 3,700 Super Cruisers and around 1,500 J-5 Cub Cruisers of all variants were built. All of the versions are now regularly seen sporting 150-hp Lycomings and fat tires in the north country, where their bigger-than-a-Cub interior makes them a favorite. Reportedly there are approxi- mately 470 J-5s of all types on the FAA Registry. N38130: In the Beginning To tell the recent story of this particular Piper J-5A, it’s neces- sary to skip back beyond Bran- don Nesmith, the current owner, at least three previous owners to put it in context. We’ll start the trail with Pete and Jeanne Reed of Wiersdale, Florida. Pete said, “We’d owned the air- plane close to 15 years, when in 1999 I was making a short-field landing and decided to show how short I could make it. I got a little too enthusiastic with the brakes, and the airplane went over on its back. The nose, tops of the wings, struts, and rudder suffered the most. However, by that time, the airplane needed re-covering any- way. So, we figured we’d restore it.” In this case, “restore” meant taking the airplane completely back to its original factory con- dition. Actually, it went back to factory originality but greatly surpassed factory quality. “We were aiming for com- plete originality,” Pete said. “We were very particular, so a lot of time was spent researching ev- ery detail. We got factory con- struction drawings from Clyde Smith, but still had to depend on factory photos for a lot of infor- mation. This was especially true for the interior and instrument panel. We even went so far as to locate a bubble-faced compass as it originally had. Info for things like the fabric baggage ‘bag’ be- hind the back seat came entirely out of photos. “I located a set of original tires that had what amounted to a suc- tion cup tread, and those got a lot of comments at fly-ins. “We spent 13 years on the proj- ect, getting it into the air in 2009. Then three years later we had an engine failure, and it wound up on its back again. This time it was a real mess. I looked at the dam- age and the time I had available and decided to sell it as is.” Enter Ralph Young, Fayetteville, West Virginia Ralph learned to fly in 1974 but didn’t get a tailwheel endorse- ment until 2010. He said, “Now all I fly is tailwheel aircraft. I have a ’41 J-3 and at one time had a ’48 rag-wing Cessna 170. But in West Virginia I like to fly out of a lot of short strips, and the J-5 looked as if it would let me carry more weight in and out of those run- ways. So, I bought Pete’s airplane with the goal of taking it back to the condition it was in before the accident. However, I want to make one thing absolutely clear: I did none of the work myself. I handed it off to Dan Ward at Ward Aero in Linnwood, North Carolina. “Since the airplane had already been restored, what we were ac- tually doing was repair work, not restoration. The spars were okay, but Dan had to replace a bunch of ribs, the leading edges, and other detail parts that were mostly cos- metic. The fuselage was more or less okay with good longerons, but we had to replace the left main gear and the rudder. “ T h e c ow l i n g wa s t o t a l l y crushed, but we found a semi- finished nose bowl, and Dan put a lot of time into finishing it and making it perfect. “When we did the engine, we used Dan Sword’s STC to put an O-200 stroker crank in the C85, which supposedly puts out 97 hp. It performs really well with that engine.” To tell the recent story of this particular Piper J-5A, it’s necessary to skip back beyond Brandon Nesmith, the current owner, at least three previous owners to put it in context. ERIN BRUEGGEN ERIN BRUEGGEN The later J-5C not only enclosed the engine but went to the 100-hp O-235 Lycoming and brought the bungees up inside the fuselage. The J-5’s J-3 lineage is obvious. 38 SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2017 Ralph said he took the airplane to the Piper fly-in, Sentimental Journey, in Lock Haven, where he got a surprise. “The airplane won first place in its category, which is a testament to the work done by both Pete Reed and Dan Ward.” On the side of the fuselage the verbiage “Civilian Pilot Train- ing Program, Clarksdale School of Aeronautics, Fletcher Field, MISS” is Ralph’s way of com- memorating his dad’s service as a B-26 pilot in World War II. “Dad got his initial train- ing in CPT Cubs,” Ralph said. “J-5s were also part of that pro- gram, so we adapted the mark- ings of the Fletcher, Mississippi, CPT school. We teamed up with a friend in his Stearman, which bore the same markings, and be- came part of WWII re-enact- ment events. “A few years ago it was obvious that I only needed one airplane, so I decided that the J-3 stayed but the J-5 had to go.” Dave Hermann Brings It to AirVenture ’16 Dave is an inveterate airplane buyer. He averages changing air- planes at least once, sometimes twice, a year, and each is something unusual. From a Meyers OTW to more than half a dozen RVs of dif- ferent types, he loves owning and flying a wide variety of airplanes. He’s also the reason the airplane was noticed at AirVenture. “I know J-3s well but knew lit- tle about J-5s, and they intrigued me. Plus, I’m a big guy and barely fit in the J-3s I’ve owned. The J-5 literally welcomes me in. Plus, I can fly it from either seat and be very comfortable. I was drawn to this J-5 because of the quality of the restoration and the fact that the engine had a stroker kit in it. “This was an airplane I just flew. It needed nothing, and the only reason I sold it was be- cause I was starting several new businesses. One of them is EngraveHub.com, where I do specialized laser engraving on advertising products, but also do one-off pieces for aircraft.” N38130 Finds a Home and a Family Brandon Nesmith said, “A J-5 had been on my bucket list for a long time because of two very specific reasons. First, I’m 6-foot- 3, 250 pounds, and lots of little taildraggers, like J-3s, just don’t fit. More important, a J-5 was the first airplane my granddad owned, and he was a major influ- ence in my life. “After he got out of A&P school, he got a J-5. This was about 1972. He flew it less than 100 hours when a windstorm completely destroyed it. He salvaged a few parts, including a complete door, which he still has.” When Brandon saw that Dave was selling the airplane, he wasted no time getting in contact with him. “I bought it sight unseen, al- though I did have a friend look at it. I knew the quality of Pete Reed’s work plus the airplane had all of the right goodies: a stroked C-85, dual wing tanks, so I could go places with it, sealed struts and big clevises, good radio and transponder, and a full electrical system. Better yet, the panel is almost totally original with the square inlay in the middle and original instruments. This was not only a first-class airplane but one I could comfortably fly from either seat with no problem. “I knew I wouldn’t have to do any work on the airplane, but I’m going to do some anyway. We’re restoring the door from my granddad’s J-5, and when finished it will go on N38130. Granddad got me into avia- tion when I was around 5 years old. He’d have me in the han- gar while he was working on airplanes, and I thought things like uncovered wings that were hanging on the wall were art- work. I want to buy his J-5’s logbooks and registration along with what other parts he has laying around just to maintain the family connection. N38130 is more than just an airplane to me. It’s part of the family.” It looks as if this J-5 has finally found a long-term home. ERIN BRUEGGEN Heat from the single exhaust muff gives carb heat and a little cabin heat. www.vintageaircraft.org 41 ichard Preiser is a man of his word. He said he would, and he did. Persistence — dogged persis- tence — had him flying to his finish line: Oshkosh 2016. And when his immaculate 1948 twin Stinson sister ships arrived at Wittman field, folks did a double take at the remark- able duo sitting side by side on the flightline. W h e n R i c h a r d b o u g h t NC6364M in 2007, it was the Oshkosh 2006 Classic Reserve Grand Champion. He received many accolades for the Stinson but never felt he could accept compliments for a restoration that he didn’t do. He liked 64M so well that he became intrigued with the idea of having two identical Stinsons with consecutive serial numbers. He did a little research to see if 65M or 63M existed and discov- ered that 63M had crashed in the 1970s, but 65M was in San Mar- cos, Texas. Therein lies the tale. Richard’s personal restoration of NC6365M began when he and longtime friend/Stinson owner Kevin Proodian made the jour- ney to Texas. Recalling that trip, Kevin laughs and says, “Anybody who has enough money to buy a sec- ond airplane doesn’t buy the same kind of airplane — you buy something different! But no, he wants the next serial num- ber of the same airplane. Se- cretly, I thought he was crazy, but I didn’t want to burst his bubble so I went along with it. Then I tried to talk him out of it when we went to Texas and saw the airplane. I told Richard the guy was ask- ing way too much money for [a basket case]. Richard slept on it and asked me the next morning if he should get it. I said, ‘No!’ He said, ‘Well, I’m buying it.’ And that was it; he was determined.” Richard and Kevin hauled the project to Florida in 2007, but the forlorn (and previously metalized) Stinson was miss- ing so many parts that it was a challenge just to determine ev- erything they’d need to make it complete. “I made a promise to my wife, Peggy, that I wouldn’t get started on it until I finished a couple of house projects, so it was 2008 before I started work- ing on it part time,” says Richard. Flying Station Wagon NC6365M (serial No. 108- 4365) and NC6364M (serial No. 108-4364) were manufactured by Consolidated Vultee Aircraft Corp. Stinson Division in Wayne, M i c h i g a n . D re s s e d i n St i n - son Maroon with Diana Cream trim, each airplane has the orig- inal-type split windshield, paint scheme, and polished aluminum trim. The headliner is complete with original dome lights and elevator/rudder trim controls. Mahogany veneer panels com- plement the fabric and uphol- stery. Original details include cast aluminum fairings for the aileron hinges; inspection plates that have two fastener strips and four small, raised vents; and the low-frequency antenna for short- wave radio. Flying Station Wagons were touted as “America’s most useful, most practical personal planes” and as being spin resistant with slots in the wing leading edges. S l o t t e d w i n g f l a p s e n h a n c e takeoff performance, and 1948 models have a slightly offset ver- tical stabilizer to counteract the torque of the 165-hp Franklin engine. The cantilever gear has oleo-spring shock absorbers. Richard’s Stinsons have a few modifications, including Cleve- land wheels and brakes, a Stinson 108 oil cooler kit, and a Whelen nav/strobe light system. Modern avionics are concealed behind the vintage panel façade, and cir- cuit breakers are mounted on a small, hinged panel that can be folded out of sight. E v e r s i n c e h e p u r c h a s e d NC6364M, Richard has been dedicated to keeping it in top- notch condition, and it was named 2008 Best Restored Clas- sic and 2009 Outstanding Classic Preiser’s Penchant for Perfection Twin Stinson sister ships by Sparky Barnes Sargent R ERIN BRUEGGEN Aircraft at SUN ’n FUN. In fact, our story in the December 2009 issue about 64M (“One Outstand- ing Stinson Flying Station Wagon … Soon to be joined by its sister ship”) wrapped up with Rich- ard’s progress on NC6365M: The instruments had been over- hauled by Keystone, and Richard had completed the brakes and in- terior woodwork, and had started working on the wiring system and fuselage. First Restoration Back then, Richard thought he’d have 65M flying in three or four years. All told, it took nine years, during which he continued working full time at his printing business, Executive Label Inc. It was Richard’s first airplane resto- ration, so he had to conquer quite a learning curve. Having 64M in his hangar was the proverbial ace up his sleeve. “I could walk right over there and look at how Pete Engelskir- ger restored 64M,” says Richard. “When I bought 65M in Texas, it was just a fuselage, junk wings, and a handful of parts I don’t think I ever used. It’s not like I bought a plane, took it apart, cleaned it up, and put it back to- gether. It was tough. I had two wings that came with the deal and they were in bad shape, so I ended up buying a third Stinson from California, firewall back, because it had good wings. But when I got ready to do the wings, we found a dead rat in there that had peed on the spar, and the corrosion went right through the spar. So I had to re- build one wing.” Sheet metal was removed from the metalized fuselage, and the steel tubing was sandblasted. Richard primed and painted the fuselage at home. Another phase of the project involved cleaning, repairing, and priming the wings. Kevin showed Richard how to in- stall Poly-Fiber fabric covering. One conundrum was that Pete had used a pre-sewn envelope for 64M’s fuselage, and the new envelopes were made from a dif- ferent-length fabric. Hence, the seams didn’t match the old enve- lopes, and the blanket covering method had to be used instead — so Richard added faux seams just to make it match 64M. Richard and Kevin were both involved in the painting process, using a high-volume, low-pres- sure paint gun. “Even though I made a paint booth in my han- gar, it was really hard to paint the Aero-Thane finish coat because of dirt,” says Richard. “I was real picky on how I wanted the finish to look, and getting it to come out perfect was the hard part. I would literally have a tack cloth in my NC6365M as it appeared when Richard first saw it in Texas, August 2007. 42 SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2017 www.vintageaircraft.org 43 hand, clean the part, paint it — and then dirt would show up in the finish. So I wet-sanded and re- painted each part a couple times.” Kevin, who was also Rich- ard’s supervising A&P/IA, says, “Anybody who has never done an airplane restoration has no idea what goes into a restora- tion. Richard had restored a Cor- vette, and he’s really good with his hands; he’s very mechanically inclined. But as he worked on the Stinson, he really learned what a restoration requires.” Throughout the project, Rich- ard called Pete and asked him numerous questions regarding Pete’s restoration techniques for 64M. After understanding all that Pete had done, Richard says he told Pete, “I didn’t pay you enough for 64M! I owe you money.” And Pete would laugh and say, “Where is my check?” Matchmaker One of myriad challenges for Richard was corralling correct and acceptable parts to make 65M complete. “My whole thing was to match 64M; I wanted identical twins right down to the interior,” explains Richard, “so I paid the same man who did the interior on 64M — Paul Workman of Ohio — to come down to Florida and do the one for 65M. I had to match up all the cowling parts to find good ones that didn’t have dents. The firewall had a lot of small dents and extra holes in it, so I had to have a 0.020 sheet of stainless steel custom made to fit over the original, to make it match 64M.” Richard ended up buying a new nosebowl, strut and landing- gear fairings, and all new hard- ware from Univair and Aircraft Spruce. “Matching up cowling and parts from other airplanes was a challenge. Some other parts came from Earl Allen out of California. He sells used Stin- son parts, and I received the nickname from him as ‘Perfect Preiser’ because I would ask for only perfect pieces. I must have bought over 50 inspection plates just to find eight that matched!” Richard’s determination to make the two Stinsons identi- cal resulted in quite a bit of extra work — and expense — along the way. He couldn’t find a rudder in good condition, so he had some- one make a rudder from several old ones. “He did a beautiful job on the rudder,” says Richard, adding, “a lot of detail went into every little piece of the airplane, and of course I had to have two matching wooden Sensenich pro- pellers. I was so picky on putting the headliner in, I had one cus- tom made to match the other one. It took me a week to put the win- dows in; I had a hard time with the rubber molding because I didn’t know the easy way of do- ing it with the right tools and soaping it. So I called an automo- tive window place and asked how they did it, and they lent me the tools for the job.” General Specifications for Stinson 108-3 Flying Station Wagon Manufactured Under ATC 767 Wingspan 34 feet Length 25 feet, 2 inches Height 7 feet, 6 inches Tread 85 inches Empty weight 1,320 pounds Useful load 1,080 pounds Gross weight 2,400 pounds Engine 165-hp Franklin Fuel 50 gallons Oil 9 quarts Max cruising speed 126 mph Cruising speed 108 mph Never-exceed speed 158 mph Landing speed (with flaps) 55 mph Climb at sea level 580 fpm Service ceiling 14,000 feet Cruising range 540 miles Baggage capacity 100 pounds Derived from various sources, including Juptner’s U.S. Civil Aircraft, Volume 8 and ATC 767. COURTESY RICHARD PREISER Rich prepares to mount the 165-hp Franklin with his nephew, Gerard Preiser, who works for Boeing and is an A&P. COURTESY RICHARD PREISER 44 SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2017 www.vintageaircraft.org 45 A Little Help From Friends and Family Interestingly, Richard wound up finding a Franklin engine for 65M through a rather unique connection. “Ray Lemmon of Pennsylvania has a blue Stin- son, and after the Vintage Air- plane article about 64M came out in 2009, Ray called me up and said, ‘Your Stinson is on the front cover, and mine is on the back cover!’ We became friends, and later on I bought the engine from him. My nephew Gerard Preiser, who works for Boeing and is an A&P, helped me put it on. I also bought an original Hallicrafters radio from Ray — what a find!” Over the course of the nine- year restoration, Richard had helping hands from friends and family. “Whenever I needed in- formation, John Baker from Hangar 9 Aeroworks in Virginia would give it to me,” shares Rich- ard. “John’s a great guy, and I bought my rear interior wood panels from him, and then I did the rest of the woodwork. I also made the original-type antenna and used ceramic pieces that I found on eBay to attach the an- tenna to the wings and vertical stabilizer. Kevin made the an- tenna post for the top of the fu- selage, because my original one cracked. It was kind of last min- ute — I got the new one and had to paint it on Wednesday before we left on Friday for Oshkosh.” Interestingly, 65M’s outward appearance neatly conceals the fact that Richard was also look- ing into the future during the restoration. According to Rich- ard, “65M is 2020 compliant with the avionics that are hid- den under the seats and all the antennas inside the airplane. My brother, Jerry Preiser, and I worked hard at keeping ev- 65M’s engine room reveals attention to detail and a 165-hp Franklin engine. SPARKY BARNES SARGENT PHOTOS Above, close-up view of the classy wheel pants. Left, NC6365M’s rudder presented one of many restoration challenges. Close-up view of the Hallicrafters radio. Max baggage capacity is 100 pounds. 65M’s handsome vintage panel. A metal trim strip protects the fabric at the cabin entry. The cabin dome light and neatly installed headliner. Close-up view of the elevator and rudder trim controls. The Safe Flight Indicator (stall warning) on the panel. Close-up view of the cast aluminum aileron hinge fairings. The twin Stinson sister ships start their odyssey to Oshkosh. COPYRIGHT ® JOHN P.HERNANDEZ, IBIS IMAGES, INC. SPARKY BARNES SARGENT PHOTOS 46 SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2017 www.vintageaircraft.org 47 the airplanes to get a good start to our final destination. We were hoping to reach Oshkosh nice and early. Unfortunately, that was not the case — 64M’s engine was running rough and backfir- ing. Kevin checked the mags, and they were good. Then he pulled the No. 1 cylinder cover off and noticed the intake valve was not working properly. The mechanic had a borescope, and we looked inside the cylinder. The valve seat had come out of the cast- ing. Now what? By 1 o’clock we had the cylinder head off. But the only place we could get a spare Franklin cylinder was in my han- gar in Florida.” They borrowed the airport courtesy car and drove Kevin to Evansville to catch a 5 p.m. Delta flight, with a layover in Atlanta and arrival around mid- night at West Palm Beach. “Then he had to go pick up his tools at his house in Wellington, Florida, erything hidden so we wouldn’t take away from the original Stin- son look.” Richard, a 66-year-old Viet- n a m v e t e r a n a n d p a r t o f a devoted husband-wife “do-it- yourself ” team, admits running out of steam during the project but adamantly declares, “Failure is not in my vocabulary! I’m not a quitter; if I hit a brick wall, I find a different way to approach it. I don’t give up. I thank my grand- father and my father, who were both machinists, for giving me the skills to do stuff. My friends tell me I can’t talk or spell, but I can build things. You need a lot of time and skills to restore an airplane, along with an A&P/IA who has the knowledge to in- spect and sign off your work. If Kevin wasn’t around, I wouldn’t have done it. And Peggy was very supportive; she gave up a lot of weekends so I could keep work- ing on ‘the girls’ in the hangar, as she calls them.” Preiser Perfection Richard’s son, Brian Preiser, who is now a pilot for Delta, ac- quired his father’s love for avia- tion in his teens, when they built and flew radio-controlled model airplanes together. “I give a huge shout-out to my mom, who really helped out behind the scenes,” says Brian. “I didn’t realize how intensive this project would be. It takes determination to keep working on it, and what I would call ‘Preiser perfection’ — which means not being satisfied with ‘okay or mediocre,’ and making sure you get what you want. I’m blessed to have that same trait; 65M looks beautiful, and I’m glad that it’s done so he can enjoy it now. Taking two planes like this cross-country was a big deal, and Mom and I were kind of nervous about that.” As it turned out, the cross- country really was a big deal. Odyssey to OSH Richard and Kevin taxied the twin Stinsons across Richard’s yard to the dew-laden grass strip at Antiquers Aerodrome on Fri- day, July 22, 2016 — destination, Oshkosh! “Liftoff was about 7:30 a.m. with both planes in the air,” Richard recalls. “Our naviga- tor, Roby Denman, had planned three-hour legs, allowing for an hour-and-a-half fuel reserve if we needed it. Our first stop was in northern Florida at the Suwan- nee County Airport, and the next at Guntersville, Alabama. We ar- rived at Owensboro, Kentucky, at 6 p.m. Then bright and early the next morning we headed out to Richard’s award-winning twin Stinsons, NC6364M and NC6365M, at show center, AirVenture 2016. SPARKY BARNES SARGENT Richard and Peggy Preiser with son Brian. Roby Denman was navigator for the flight to Oshkosh, and Kevin Proodian flew NC6364M. SPARKY BARNES SARGENT SPARKY BARNES SARGENT 48 SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2017 and drive 35 miles to my house to get two spare cylinders, valves, and a pis- ton. By 4:30 a.m., Kevin was back at West Palm Beach for his return flight to Evansville. By 11 a.m., we were ready to get the job done, and the three of us worked like a pit crew on a race car, installing the new cylinder. By 4:30 p.m., we were done and ready to fire it up. All was good with a quick oil change, a smooth-run- ning engine, and we were up in the air at 6 p.m.” The twin Stinsons flew two and a half hours to Lincoln, Il- linois, where weather became a factor and prompted them to land and overnight for a much-needed rest. On Monday, they made it to Oshkosh — only to find that the vintage parking area was already full, with overflow parking all the way to the cornfields in the South 40. “On Tuesday, with the persistence of trying to move to the Vintage area, and the support of hardworking Oshkosh volun- teers, we finally reached a per- fect spot across from the Vintage Hangar,” says Richard, smiling. “Wow, what a spot! Show center with the twins!” Peggy’s Perspective Peggy, a vivacious blonde, was delighted to meet up with her husband at AirVenture. When asked how it felt to see the Stin- sons on the field, she replied, “With tears in my eyes, I am in awe. ‘The girls’ are right out there, and I’m thrilled for Rich- ard! We are hardworking people, and aviation is a passion for him. When he bought 64M, I was so happy because it was something that was complete, and he could enjoy it and not have to build it. When the twinkle came into his eye to take on this project, I did not fully understand the magni- tude of the project. Clueless! He would take a break in the early years and participate in some life things going on, but as time went on there were many functions that we didn’t participate in, be- cause I knew Richard was tired from working in the hangar. “As for me, I didn’t want to work on the plane as much as he would have liked me to, but I’m very good at sweeping the hangar and mop- ping the floor! And I’m not bad at providing nourishment and keep- ing the family going. I didn’t real- ize the project would take us this far into our lives, and I was writing our lessons in life. For one, I know now that life is the most difficult teacher I’ll ever have. Hardships come in all sizes, and our friends, who have been incredibly helpful through this project, are our great- est treasures … and I love Richard, but now I also realize how much I cherish him.” Richard wanted a presenta- tion book about 65M, but he was running out of time and energy as the deadline for Oshkosh drew near. Peggy realized that i t c o u l d o n l y b e done in time with the help of their nieces, CheraLee and MaCayla Prei- ser, who sprang into action to meet this last-minute request. I n l e s s t h a n t wo weeks, the elabo- rate book was ready for Peggy’s finish- ing touches. Double Rewards Richard understands just how daunting a restoration can seem at the outset. “When people do a project, they tend to look at the whole project all at once,” he re- flects, “but you have to look at it a wheelpant at a time. If you look at the big project, you’ll say to your- self, ‘What are you, nuts?’ So you just look at little projects one at a time, and just knock them out.” Richard not only did it, he out- did himself. He met his ultimate goal of having the twin Stinson sister ships at Oshkosh 2016 — and far exceeded it. Smiling, he commented afterward, “Re- member the article you did seven years ago, when I said I can’t take credit for 64M? Now, I can take credit for 65M. It’s hard to list the names of everybody that helped, but I would like to thank them all for making this dream come true. All the people I met at the show were incredibly warm and help- ful — what a trip! To come away with two outstanding awards, the Classic Preservation-Small Plaque for NC6364M and the Classic Grand Champion-Gold Lindy for NC6365M — priceless.” Well said, Richard, and indubita- bly deserved. ERIN BRUEGGEN 50 SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2017 www.vintageaircraft.org 51 Don Luscombe began his legacy in aviation in 1926 when he manufac- tured the first Monocoupe with Clayton Folkerts, a farm boy. Don wanted to go fast, but from the comfort of an enclosed cabin. In 1928 he wrote his first book, Simplified Flying, exemplifying his design philosophy, and by 1933 he was in Kansas City, Missouri, heading up the Luscombe Airplane Development Corp. Don left a legacy of light aircraft that are still flown by the hundreds today, revered by their owners for all the traits that were so important to Don in his day. Don was a dreamer, design genius, and master merchandiser, and the times didn’t support his concepts or passion. In 1934 Don found a plane the public wanted and could afford in his Phan- tom. Its success carried the company for a while, but slow times came. The Luscombe Silvaire pioneered the use of metal monocoque construction for light, general aviation airplanes. While successful (and many still fly), its success bolstered the company for only a short period. In the years lead- ing up to World War II, though, combining all of Luscombe’s successes into a single aircraft seemed to elude the company. In April of 1939, Don was ousted from the company that bore his name. Taking with him a new Model 8A, he left as the company, under Leopold Klotz, moved to Dallas, Texas. SIMPLIFIED Flying The Luscombe T8F Observer by Moose Peterson 52 SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2017 www.vintageaircraft.org 53 Luscombe got contracts to pro- duce tail surfaces for the F4F Wildcat, bomb bay doors for the TBF Avenger, ammunition feed chutes, carburetor intake assem- blies, and other parts, it basically was out of the airplane business. The Beginnings of the T8F Almost as soon as the Allies landed on the beaches of Nor- mandy, aircraft manufactur- ers started to plan for postwar sales. Luscombe was no different, wanting to update the Silvaire Model 8 line. Marketing sug- gested changing to Model 9, but that required recertification. By September 1945, Luscombe had completed its last WWII mili- tary contract, winning the cov- eted Army-Navy E Award. With supplies of aluminum loosen- ing up and wanting to continue to innovate, Luscombe took its General Characteristics Crew One Capacity One passenger Length 20 feet Wingspan 35 feet Height 6 feet, 3 inches Wing area 140 square feet Empty weight 870 pounds Gross weight 1,400 pounds Fuel capacity 25 U.S. gallons Powerplant One Continental C90 air-cooled flat four, 90 hp Propellers Two-bladed metal fixed-pitch, 5 feet, 11 inches in diameter Performance Maximum speed 128 mph Cruise speed 120 mph Stall speed 40 mph Range 500 miles Service ceiling 17,000 feet Rate of climb 900 feet per minute The Model 8A became known as the quintessential Luscombe. With just 15 hp more than the 8, it sold incredibly well. All knew a war was coming, and plane manufacturers looked for gov- ernment contracts. Luckily for Luscombe the aircraft was per- fectly suited for the Civilian Pilot Training Program, and the Mas- ter 8D was born. That luck ran out when on December 7, 1941, Pearl Harbor was attacked. By December 31, all civilian aircraft production was to cease. While lightplanes. They were needed for liaison flights for U.S. Army ground troops. The published bid proposal required an off-the- shelf (made from an aircraft/ parts already in production) air- plane with an 85-hp engine, a high wing, and tandem seating for two. It was stressed that the aircraft either be in current pro- duction or hold a current type certificate, which the Model 8E had. When the proposal was put before the Luscombe engineer- ing department, they were con- fident it would be relatively easy to convert the Model 8E to a tan- dem configuration because the Model 8E otherwise fit the pro- posal perfectly. Merle Mueller was assigned as project engineer and for a short period the IIA en- gineering team was brought in, all to win the off-the-shelf bid. With the proposal in mind a Model 8E was taken right from the production line. Making as few modifications as possible, the prototype XT-8E was cre- ated. Using 90 percent of the 8E’s parts, Luscombe produced three prototypes for the U.S. Army evaluations at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, shipping only one, NX2788K. The main changes be- tween the Model 8E and the XT- 8E were the 85-hp Continental C85-12 engine, modified cabin with tandem seating, larger cabin windows, and bubble rear win- dow. Luscombe went up against Aeronca and Taylorcraft with all three successfully completing the flight phase, but Aeronca won in large part because of an amaz- ingly low price. With the loss, the XT-8E was crated up and taken back to Dallas, and the Model T8E was further developed. Flight test- ing continued on the T8E to obtain CAA certification. The T8E became the T8F as certifi- cation went forward with a 90- hp Continental C90-12F engine and square rudder replacing the round version. The T8F Observer was being marketed to the civil- ian market for surveillance as well as power and pipeline in- spection. The other big change with the T8F was the Luscombe signature maroon trim being replaced with a new color for Luscombe, dark green (later re- turned to maroon). Luscombe changed up its pro- duction line with the T8F. It was made in units of five, and by May 1948, 20 had left the factory. The T8F Crop Master, a crop sprayer based on the Observer model, also had modest success for Luscombe. The Crop Master had oversized tires and a spray unit (manufac- tured by Independent), which in- cluded two 30-gallon self-agitating chemical tanks inside the wings. There were two wind-driven ro- tary spray dispensers just below the single-spar wing struts. The Luscombe factory kept mak- ing planes, but sales continued to dwindle with modifications and new models. In late 1949, Lus- combe was sold to Temco Aircraft, which in 1950 created the T8F-L prototype in a failed attempt to win a U.S. Army competition, bringing the T8F to an end. N478TF Luscombe T8F No. 6691 was built in June 1949 with the orig- inal bill of sale calling it a T8F Sprayer. Serial No. 6691 is prob- ably the last T8F to come off the Luscombe line before the com- pany became Temco, and it was one of the last aircraft to be built by Luscombe. In July 1949, 6691 was sold to its first owner, the Bellflower Airport in Bellflower, California, for $2,460. From there it was used as a Crop Master by various owners from Butte, Mon- tana, and Saskatchewan, Canada, then back in the States in Texas and Arizona. Other than a cou- ple of small access mods on the wing, 6691 is in large part as it came from the factory, never hav- ing any minor or major modifica- tions or restoration. Today you can see it flying around Houston, Texas. Only 108 T8Fs were pro- duced, and of those only a hand- ful fly today. 54 SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2017 www.vintageaircraft.org 55 stamped ribbed design further by going with an all-metal wing. To expand the market it became apparent that the company also needed a four-place lightplane to stay competitive in the market. Around the same time the Fly- ing Farmer Association (FFA) re- leased its specifications for the ideal farm/ranch aircraft. The FFA recommended rugged sim- plicity, off-airport operational characteristics, large cabin for multipurpose use, good cabin visibility, and low price. With Luscombe research showing 80 percent of all Luscombe sales in rural areas, it seemed the FFA was a market ripe for the com- pany’s new four-place aircraft. The new FFA aircraft would need to have a high wing so farm- ers and ranchers would have downward visibility on take- off and landing on unimproved fields. The high wing had design benefits in flight stability and permitted a gravity fuel system by moving the fuselage fuel tank and placing it in the wing. The 165-hp engine was fitted with a common float-type carburetor to further enhance fuel system stability. And while flaps weren’t on the prototype, the final pro- duction model had flaps, mostly a glide-control device for short- field operations. The large flaps that were added required the de- velopment of a simple, one-line hydraulic double-acting hand pump system. The flaps require about five strokes to extend fully and can operate from both pilots’ positions with a release valve op- erated by a trigger on the handle to raise the flaps. The landing gear needed to operate on rough fields. A fixed conventional-type landing gear was employed, but with a lon- ger-than-usual length. While it made the passengers in the back seat a little uncomfortable with the angle of the aircraft be- fore takeoff, this along with the 100-inch width virtually elimi- nated the possibility of ground looping. The cabin requirements were met by making the rear seat a hammock type, which could easily be removed to carry cargo. And with 3,716 square inches of window area, the farmer/rancher had lots of visibility. The Silvaire Sedan/8E took to the sky for the first time November 1946. The T8F Takes to the Sky In the spring of 1947, the U.S. Air Force was in the market to purchase 400 off-the-shelf Note: Thanks to T8F pilot Bernie Vasquez and photo platform pi- lot Kevin Crozier. 56 SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2017 www.vintageaircraft.org 57 The number of cadets reporting for primary flight training increased rapidly at all locations once the United States entered World War II. At the Lodwick School of Aeronautics in Lakeland, Florida, additional instructors are in demand. It is hard to imagine in today’s world of tower com- munication how so many Stearman aircraft could operate from an essentially nontowered airport without serious mishaps. Lon recalled, “The con- trol tower was the point of reference for all traf- fic at the main field. The tower was about 60 feet high with a glass-enclosed room at the top and a small balcony one level below. The tower was manned by flight instructors on a rotating basis. Paved runways were used for takeoffs and land- ings. A traffic tee was used to indicate the active runway with the long white section parallel to the selected runway. One of the two orange arms at the head of the tee was extended to indicate the direction of the traffic pattern. The other arm was folded parallel to the main white section. Cadets would set the tee as directed by the instructor on duty. A light gun, projecting a narrow beam of red or green light, was used to signal aircraft on the ground and in the air. A red light for ‘do not’ or a green light for ‘okay’ was used to con- trol taxiing, takeoff, and landing.” At left is a very interesting flow chart detailing flight-train- ing programs and their length in weeks. We will focus on the first 10 weeks of training. Lon recalled, “Students were Army Air Corps cadets selected to be trained as combat pilots. Our class sizes varied from 50 at first to 300 during the peak of train- ing. Five cadets were assigned to each instructor. Army primary was their first flight training, and for some, this proved to be their The Vintage Mechanic Teaching a Nation How to Fly ROBERT G. LOCK The Lon Cooper story: Part 5 Photo 1. Flowchart for WWII pilot training. first flight. A minimum of eight hours was required before solo. Each cadet received dual and solo flight time totaling 60 hours. Cadets also received 50 to 60 ho