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STRAIGHT AND LEVEL
2 EAA AIRVENTURE 2 VAA AWARDS
3 VAA NEWS
4 AEROMAIL
5 THIRTY FIVE YEARS AT THE OUTER
MARKER Dutch Redfield
9 PASS IT
TO
BUCKl
E E
Buck Hilbert
10
YUKON TREASURE/J
ohn
Underwood
18
YUKON
GOLD/j
ohn
Underwood
22 FORCED LANDING ATTITUDE/
Denis
M
Arbeau
24 MYSTERY PLANE/H.G. Frautschy
27 CALENDAR
28 WELCOME NEW MEMBERS
29 CLASSIFIEDS
www.vintageaircraft.org
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s
by ESPIE BUTCH
JOYCE
PRESIDENT
,
VINT GE IRCR FT SSOCI TION
NEW AIRVENTURE
D TES
FOR 2 1
Thoughts on Fly-Ins
Following
up
on suggestions made in 1999 and after sur
veying members and volunteers during the past AirVenture, it
has been decided to shift the dates for AirVenture by
one
day,
making it now a Tuesday
through
Monday event. In 2001,
EAA
AirVenture will take place Tuesday, July 24th through
Monda
y,
July
30th.
Based on
the
feedback we received,
the
new schedule should better accommodate volunteers, guests
and vendors.
I'm looking forward to the change in the AirVenture sched
ule. As a member
and
volunteer
who
attends the entire event,
it will make it easier to plan our trip and give us plenty of time
to work our way
home
after AirVenture.
AirVenture 2000 is now part of this past summer 's mem
ories, and we sure had a great time Were you there in
Oshkosh? Lots of fun, a little rain, cool temperatures and
great airplanes and airplane people all
added
up to a won
derful week.
Total attendance was
down
a bit for the event, and there
may have been
a
number
of
reasons.
Gas prices,
and the
weather, while generally good in the upper Midwest, was poor
for some people trying
to
fly in
during
the early part of Air
Venture. Quality seems to be the hallmark of the airplanes that
did make it here in our area and those of the homebuilt, war
birds and ultralight airplanes.
It
was quite a
week
We
had about
th e same amount of airplanes in our area,
with a marked increase in Contemporary airplanes. While we
were down on Antique airplanes, the judges told me that the
airplanes we had were of outstanding quality.
I'll have plenty more to write
about
concerning the 2000
For us
diehard
enthusiasts
who
will
never give up our
love
for avi
ation
and the kindred
spirits
who share our
affliction, it
was
business
as usual, however. The
same little
groups
were to be
found
sitting under wings taking airplanes, or out wandering up and
down
the
parking
lines admiring the
showplanes
and talking
to
their own
ers. For us
,
little changes
-
we
just
keep enjoying the same 01' same
1 , year
after
year. There are always newly built
or newly
restored
airplan
es
to pique
our
interest and an occasional newcomer to take
into the fold, but
how
much has really changed
in
the past halfcen
tury sinc
e
EAA
, V
AA and AAA were formed?
Maybe that's
really
the crux the
matter.
With all the dramatic
and
often traumatic
upheavals we've seen in our way life in the
past
half
century, perhaps it should not be surprising that there is
a
certain comfort level in being able to
sit down
under an airplane
wing
occasionally
and ramble on about our favorite things with
someon
e
who
feels
the same way about them we do. The
older
we
get
,
think, the
more we
tend to
appreciate
such simple
pleasures .
..
and
in the context our
current
ever-mare-frenetic
world,
just
how
precious and inevitably transitory
they
really
are.
There
is
one cold,
hard
fact oflife
in all
this
we
have to acknowl
edge,
though.
There
is not now and
there never
will
be again
a
generation
that
has the same passion
for aviation that
those
ofus
have who were
born in roughly
the
first half
the 20th
century.
We
grew
up
at
a
time
when
being
a
pilot
was
the
most
exciting,
heroic
thing a
person could
do-a
time before astronauts, rock stars,
and
dot.com
instant billionaires. When we open our hangar doors and
see our airplanes
waiting
ther
e, we
experience
emotions based on
memori
e
s, attitudes and experiences that
are
a
different time and
a
differ
ent
cultural context.
We can't
expect
younger
enthusiasts
to
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E IRVENTURE 2
V W RDS
ANTIQUE
GRAND CHAMPION
John
Swander, De Soto, KS, Waco UEC
(NCI2471)
RESERVE GRAND CHAMPION
Densel Williams, Jackson, MI, Aeronca
Chief (NX22378)
SPECIAL
AWARD
- JUDGES
CHOICE
Delta Airlines, Inc. , Atlanta GA, Dou
gl
as
DC-3-G202A (N28341)
CHAMPION - CUSTOMIZED AIR
CRAFT
Richard Ash, Piffard, NY,
Waco
UPF-7
(NC29303)
RUNNER U
Mark Gulbrandson Prior Lake, MN
Waco UPF-7 (N39748)
OUTSTANDING
Charles Davis,
Washington
Island, WI,
Waco YQC-6 (NCI6009)
CHAMPION - TRANSPORT CATE
GORY
Greg Herrick, Jackson, WY, Stinson Tri
motor
(N11153)
TRANSPORT RUNNER
UP
Delta Airlines, Inc., Atlanta GA, Travel
Air 6000 (NC8878)
CHAMPION REPLICA AIRCRAFT
Jim Drew Jenkins, Waquoit,
MA,
Gee
OUTSTANDING OPEN COCKPIT
BIPLANE
Dan Haas, Galesburg, IL, Boeing A75N1
(N40lDB)
RUNNER
U
Mark Haag, Houston TX,
Boeing
E75
Stearman (N99AN)
OUTSTANDING CLOSED COCKPIT
BIPLANE
Archie Lane, Cypress, CA, Beech D17S
(N67736)
CHAMPION SILVER AGE
1928-1932)
Jack
Tiffany,
Spring
Valley, OH, Davis
D1W (NC854N)
BRONZE AGE 1933-1941)
CHAMPION BRONZE AGE 1933
1941)
Kent and Sandy Blankenburg Grove
land,
CA,
Lockheed 12A (N99K)
OUTSTANDING CLOSED COCKPIT
MONOPLANE
Max Davis, Waconia, MN, St inson Re
liant SR-6A (NCI5 127)
OUTSTANDING OPEN COCKPIT
MONOPLANE
William Rose, Barrington,
IL
, Ryan
ST-A
Special (N17368)
OUTSTANDING CLOSED COCKPIT
BIPLANE
William
Nutting
Prescott AZ, Waco
BEST CLASS
I
0-80 HP)
James
Zangger,
Cedar
Rapids, lA, Tay
lorcraft BCl2D (NC94953)
BEST CLASS II 81-150 HP)
Sydney Cohen, Wausau, WI,
Erco
up
e
4150
(N94196)
BEST CLASS III 151 -235 HP)
Mark Ohlinger, Akron, OH,
Bellanca 14-13-2 (N86937)
BEST CLASS IV 236 HP
:
UP
Charles Luigs, Bandera, TX, Cessna 195
(N9836A)
BEST CUSTOM CLASS A
Carol Cansdale, Eden Prairie, MN, Piper
J-3 (N7072H)
BEST CUSTOM CLASS B
Ell is Clark, Bath, MI, Piper J-3 (N6615H)
BEST CUSTOM CLASS
C
Hal Cope, Spring, TX Globe Swift GC1B
(N3303K)
BEST CUSTOM CLASS D
Ronald
Judy
Gate
OK Navion
(N8915H)
BEST AERONCA CHAMP
Me lvin
Vorbach Romne
y, WV, 7EC
(N4306C)
BEST AERONCA CHIEF
Wilbur
Hostetler Marion IN, l lAC
Chief (NC9659E)
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BEST ERCOUPE
Alan
Cuthbert
,
Dowagiac
, MI
415-C
(N93512)
BEST LUSCOMBE
jerry Cox, Mattoon,
IL
8F (N1947B)
BESTNAVION
Andrew
Woodside, Pickerrington,
OH
(N4448K)
BEST PIPERJ 3
William Hogan,
North
Little Rock,
AR,
j3C-65 (N92611 )
BEST PIPER OTHER
Curtis
Cumberland, Woodbine,
MD ,
PA-20
Pacer (N7403K)
BEST STINSON
William
Smith
, Long Beach, CA, 108-1
(N97979)
BESTSWIFf
Duane
Golding ,
Marion,
TX,
Globe
B
(N80626)
BEST TAYLORCRAFT
john Knight , jackson , Ml,
BC12-D
(N
96035)
BEST LIMITED PRODUCTION
Duane Peters, Anchorage,
AK,
DeHavil
land Beaver (N73Q)
CONTEMPORARY
GRAND CHAMPION
Steve Koshar,
Coloma
, MI, Cessna 172
(N3626L)
CESSNA 1
70
/
172/1
75
Charles Papas,
Crown
POint, IN, Cessna
172 (N7612T)
CESSNA 180/182 /210
john
Voninski, Manlius, NY, Cessna
182 (N2435G)
CESSNA 310
Leonard Rennie, Glenn
Dale, MD,
Cessna 310 (N31OjT)
PIP
ER PA-2 2 TRI PACER
j. D'Amico, Mount Airy , MD, PA-22
(N7455D)
PIPER PA
24
COMANCHE
Clifton Davis, Elida, OH
,
PA-24
(N5271P)
UNIQUE AIRCRAFT
Bob
Luskin, Long Beach
, CA, Cessna
175 taildragger (N9300B)
LIMITED
PROD
UCTION
jack
Arthur, Des Moines, lA, Forney (Er
coupe) (N3044G)
CUSTOM CLASS I SINGLE ENGINE
0-
160
hp)
james Douglass, Kennedyville, MD PA
20/22 (150 hp) (N6043D)
CUSTOM CLASS II SINGLE ENGINE
23 1 HP
:
HIGHER)
David Bennet, Colorado Springs,
CO,
Cessna
21O-B
(N21OEA)
CLASS IV MULTI ENGINE
jim Simmons , Nashville, TN, PA-23
(N3294P)
VAANEWS
compiled y H G Frautschy
GRASSROOTS
GATHERING TOUR
Tom Poberezny, President and
Chief Executive Officer
of EAA,
is
taking
his message
to fellow EAA
members
this fall
with
a
six-stop
"Grassroots
Gathering"
Tour. Fol
lowing the success of the
spring
meetings held in Wheeling, Illinois
and Fairfax, Virginia additional gath
erings have been scheduled for the
following dates: Monday, September
25th, Arlington, Texas; Tuesday, Sep
tember 27th, Dallas, Texas; Tuesday,
October 17th, San Jose, California;
Wednesday, October 18th,
Long
Beach, California; Tuesday, Novem
ber
14th,
Tampa, Florida;
Wed
nesday,
November 15th,
Orlando,
Florida
Exact times
and
locations for the
gatherings are still being determined.
For
the latest
information, check
EAA s web site at www.eaa.org.
f
you've wanted
to
find
out
more
about EAA programs and services,
EAA s position on key issues, or you
wanted to ask questions or give feed
back
to
EAA
president
Tom
Poberezny, the Grassroots gatherings
are your opportunity to do so. We
look forward to seeing you there! . . . . .
THE COVERS
FRONT
COVER . . .
The
Fokker Universal
restored by Clark Seaborn for the Western
Canada Aviation
Museum
scollection is a
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PIPER 0
WINDOWS
Dear
H G
.,
Sometimes an obvious,
simple
mechanical cure isn't
what
it seems
to be.
Reference your page Type
Club Notes" in the August 2000 is
sue of
Vintage Airplane.
Cl
yde Smith,
]r advocates drilling a
hole
in the
bottom of "D" type side windows in
all
Piper taildraggers to prevent rust
ing in the lower window channel. If
this is
done,
a
more serious,
long
range problem will develop as the
water will drip or flow on
the
inside
of
the
fabric,
down
to
the
lower
longerons, and flow to the aft end of
the tail, hence, rusting
out
this im
portant structural member.
A more positive cure
for
this
problem is to initially set the plexi
glass
window in a
but
yl rubber
compound when affixing the win
dow aft in
the channel.
This
compound, which comes in strips
(Th e ex mple
sent
measured
7/16xl/16
Editor
)
is easily
gotten
at
a local plate glass window store for
literally pennies. The product is li
and it will be very difficult to extract
the
window
at a later date. Please
point
these
suggestions
out
to
the
Piper taildragger own ers as
our
planes
must
have a safe longevity
in
order to stay in the air without struc
tural problems.
Frank Sperandeo III
Piper N3383A
Fayetteville,
AR
THE END
OF
THE
MV 1
STAR FLIGHT
Greetings,
I just received my August
Vintage Airplane
and
was
amazed that the aircraft piC-
tured
on page
8 was the
airplane that I had taken
piC-
tures of in May of 1993
While
traveling on
vaca
tion in
the
low
er
Louisiana
area, I saw a sign with directions to
the Wedell-Williams museum . I am
one of those who has to check out
all
aviation museums and
airfields.
You
never know
what you
might
find at one of these places.
The enclosed
photos
will
show
what I found at
the
museum in Pat
terson, Louisiana. What a mess. The
aircraft was in such a state that it was
difficult to tell what kind it was
Best
Wishes,
Brooks Lovelace, ]r.
Albany, GA
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I
e rs
tt
Outer Marker
The
P
an
American,
once again the
leader
and again
the pioneer
had placed the first industry
order with Boeing Aircraft Company
for seven Boeing 707s, with options
for many more.
In 1958
Jack Ryan
and I were assigned to Pan Ameri
can s initial
707
ground
school at
New York and felt very privileged to
be in the first group
of pilots
to re
ceive 707
flight
training. This
training was most extensive, with all
of
it
being
given on
the airplane
it
22 hours on the airplane itself, after
simulator,
was required for very ex
perienced airline pilots. These
airmen, long accustomed
to
pro
peller
driven
aircraft and the docile
characteristics of straight wing
air
planes, had to
adapt
to
the
very
different
and
often unforgiving char
acteristics of this new swept wing, jet
powered airplane.
In many, many instances the posi
tioning
of
hands and
feet to produce
an
aircraft response to control inputs
large portion
of
the wing
behind
the
propellers,
with the direct
result an
immediate increase in the wings lift,
even prior to speed being gained,
or
vice versa i power was reduced. This
resulted in the airplane s being liter
ally lifted back
toward the
desired
descent profile with
a
minimum
change
in
the
airplane s pitch atti
tude and use
of power
for landing
approach
glideslope
control was
quite effective. But it took a while or
many airmen to become
really con
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incidents
and accidents, I believe
almost
all of them during
pilot
training, in which airplanes got in
deep trouble
because
they were
flown
in
conditions
of
excessive
and uncorrected yaw. When thus
triggered,
and
whether
the
yaw de-
veloped
gradually or
rapidly, the
subsequent snap rolls were of such
violence
as to cause severe struc-
tural
damage
and in almost
all
cases
ended up
with the
airplane
inverted.
My friend Jack Ryan partici-
pated in
what
was probably the
first
of such
incidents. A between
trips layover airplane was being pi-
lot trained in the vicinity
of
Paris,
France,
and
Jack was
conducting
a
training demonstration of
the
min-
imum
speed at
which
directional
control can be
maintained with
two engines at
idle
on one side,
and very high thrust on the
other
two engines. Up to
that
time it was
a required demonstration.
The early 707 models had an
un-
boosted
rudder and
to
protect
the
vertical tail surfaces from damaging
pilot rudder inputs at higher speeds,
force limiting springs were placed
in
the
rudder actuating system between
the
pilot's rudder pedals and the big
rudder itself.
During
the
Paris demonstration
the
rudder was fully deflected,
but
as
the demonstration proceeded, speed
slowly increased causing the forces
in the
rudder actuating system to
build
up
in excess of the values pro-
grammed
into the force limiting
.. .
t took a
while
for
many
airmen
to
become
really
convinced that
these
old
techniques would
not
work on
the
ietliner.
..
As the airplane was leveling off over
the farmlands of France, Herb Seil-
berger,
the
flight engineer,
shouted,
"We've lost No . 4 engine "
Jack
replied,
"Well, let's
get
it going
again " Herb yelled back, "No, no, I
mean it fell offl"
The flight was closer to better re-
pair facilities in London, so the
crippled airplane was gingerly flown
there
and
safely
landed. Inspection
showed that besides
No.4
engine be-
ing no longer there, that No.3
engine was hanging by little more
than
the
skin of its cowlings.
inaugural flight could be flown on
the
anniversary
of the
airline's
first flight.
Corporate Officer Waldo Lynch,
an
airman on
th
e pilot's
roster
hims
e
lf
proposed to Juan Trippe,
president of the airline, that until
such time as signing
of the
pilots'
contract
could in fact take place,
that the many
supervisory
pilots
throughout the airline's system
could easily
be
qualified
on
the
707, thereafter operating
th
e new
jet liners as administrative person-
nel. Captain Lynch's proposal was
quickly approved
and
imple-
mented on a crash training
program.
The inaugural 707 flight was
flown as
scheduled,
New York
to
London,
on
October 26, 1958, with
Captain Sam Miller, Chief Pilot of
the airline's Atlantic Division
as
pi-
lot in command and Captain
Waldo Lynch performing th e du-
ties of First Officer. Thereafter, the
newly and hastily qualified 21 ad-
ministrative airmen operated the
airline's 707 schedules between New
York, London, Paris and Rome while
contract negotiations dragged on for
the next 14
months.
t was
a few months
following
the inaugural
flight
that Captain
Lynch was scheduled in command
of
Pan
American's flight
115 from
Paris
to
New York, with
the
flight
leaving Paris at six
in
the evening.
Captain Sam Peters,
Chief
Pilot of
the
Pacific Division, was assigned
as
First Officer.
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refueling before
contin
uing on to
New York. After a 12
minute turn
around
at London, the flight was
fueled and again airborne and a short
while later reached its initial cruising
altitude of 29,000 feet. The 707
had
flight plan clearance to later climb to
higher altitudes
as
fuel consumption
produced lighter gross weights.
Weather reports indicated a large
low pressure area with heavy snow
storms along
the
flight s normal
route, so
the
course purposely flown
took
Flight 115 somewhat
south
of
its normal track, with a turn back to
ward
the
north anticipated about
600 miles from Gander.
t cruising altitude the 7 7 was in
and out of cloud tops with its associ
ated moderate
turbulence
and
concerned with the
comfort
of his
passengers, Captain Lynch re-cleared
to
35,000
feet where they were
on
top
of
the
weather
and
in
smooth
ahead of flight plan. In on the discus
sion and seated in the observer s seat
directly behind the captain s seat was
Flight Dispatcher Tom Mackay out of
the New York flight dispatch center.
As part of his duties Mackay was ob
serving the
company s
new aircraft
in line operation.
Satisfied,
Captain
Lynch walked
back through the open cockpit door
way.
This was
prior to the
FAA
regulation that airliner cockpit doors
in flight remain
closed
and locked
due
to later-experienced hijacking
problems.
It
was necessary only that
a small felt-covered rope be
un
clipped for crew members to leave or
enter the cockpit.
The copilot,
now
alone in his for
ward pilot s position,
huddled
head
down in the dimly lit cockpit study
ing
his
fuel
charts.
A few
minutes
later, his earphones pressed tightly
to his head, he endeavored at the
encountered the flight s Purser, who
was just finishing up
dinner
service.
As he asked him how the after din
ner
cabin clean-up was progressing,
he was again aware of the gradual in
crease in the plane s speed. Then
as
he turned
back toward
the
cockpit,
passengers seated
in
the
forward
lounge
area asked about New York
weather and the flight s approximate
arrival time. Waldo did
not
wish to
cut
them
short
despite
now
feeling
mounting
apprehension
about
the
still gradually and steadily increasing
and uncorrected aerodynamic
airstream noises. He did not think of
the
plane possibly being
in
an ever
steepening dive.
In
response to
his
passenger s
question Captain Lynch temporarily
perched on the edge of the forward
lounge seat, facing aft. From this po
sition
he
could
see
through
a cabin
window
and
out
over
the
airplane s
But, n the meantime, n
the dark
nd unnoted,
the autopilot h d silently diseng ged...
air. Shortly after
the
change in alti
tude, Flight
lIS s
navigator advised
the crew that it was time to change
course to Gander. Using
the
engaged
autopilot, a gentle
turn
to the
right
was made.
Captain Lynch had not
left
his
cockpit
position
since
departure at
Paris and
now
wished to stretch his
legs and make use of
the lavatory.
scheduled time to read
and
copy
weather observations along the
flight s
westbound
route on
the
sta
tic-ridden
high frequency
receiver.
But,
in the meantime, in the dark
and unnoted, the autopilot had
silently disengaged,
permitting
the
airplane over a period of
many
min
utes
to
very
gradually and
very
gently enter a very slowly steepening
left wing,
which was in near level
flight,
as evidenced
by stars visible
above
the
wing.
He
hastily apprised
the passengers of New
York
weather,
that
ceiling
and
visibility were at ap
proach minimums but
that
no
problems
were anticipated and the
flight s
arrival time
at
New
York
would
be quite close
to
that sched
uled. Then
before he was able
to
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copilot's seat quickly, took over and
attempted
to recover from the now
steeply banked diving turn, but he
was faced
with
two
big
problems.
First, later research showed that at
very
high
Mach,
if rudder
and
aileron control is applied,
as
in this
case, to level the wings, with rudder
possibly
applied
in excessive
amounts,
in response,
the
airplane
either will not roll at all, or will pos
Sibly
roll
in
a
direction
exactly
opposite
to
the
aileron
and rudder
being
applied.
Second,
at high
Mach
the
center
of
pressure on
the
plane's wing
is
caused to move rear
ward
making an already diving,
accelerating airplane more and
more nose heavy.
Unlike
the
preceding
generation
of propeller aircraft
which had a
fixed, bolted-into-position stabilizer
(the
horizontal
surfaces on
the
tail
forward of the trailing moveable ele
vators)
this
new generation of
jetliners was eqUipped with an ad
justable stabilizer designed
to
minimize drag while still providing a
normal means for cockpit crews to
achieve "hands off" longitudinal
trim of the airplane. These very large
stabilizing surfaces were
normally
positioned by
an
electric drive sys
tem and
caused to change position
by means of thumb switches on the
pilot's control wheels.
At
very
high
speeds, however, under conditions
of excessive elevator inputs, it was
known
that the
stabilizer drive sys
tem could be loaded up to the point
where its drive motor would stall
out
George shouted, "Waldo, power is
still at
cruise
setting " As
Waldo
crashed into his chair he immedi
ately slammed
the
throttles closed,
while shouting to NaVigator Laird
who
had traded pOSitions
with
Dis
patcher Mackay during his absence,
"Strap my belt
on for me "
Lynch
never was able to slide his seat for
ward to its
normal position, nor
was he
able
to pull his feet from
alongside
the
pedestal up
onto the
rudder pedals. Although the flight's
cruising altitude had been at 35,000
feet, as Lynch
took
control
the
air
plane's plunge was
taking it
through
17,000 feet.
Waldo's
attitude horizon, the
prime instrument for precise presen
tation
of
the
airplane's wings level,
or climbing/diving attitudes, had
long ago tumbled
and
now flopped
in a
random,
useless
fashion.
His
Turn
Indicator, a very basic, non
preCise back-up instrument of flight,
showed a full right deflection as dis
played
on
its fully displaced
turn
needle. The altimeter was
unwind
ing at a frightful rate, "Clunk, clunk,
clunk" per thousand feet, almost as
fast as it can be spoken, and the air
speed indicator was totally off scale
at 400 knots. Due to Waldo's far aft
seat
position
his Mach meter could
not be seen.
On the other
side
of
the
cockpit
the
buffeting
was so severe that a
gray plastic decorative shield, also
providing indirect instrument light
ing
for the copilot's
panel,
had
shaken loose
and
fallen
down,
ob
lighting
was thus available on
Lynch's panel
from
emergency
sources, and Engineer Sinski, under
the
diving
turn's
centrifugal loads,
was simply unable to raise his head
to see,
nor
was he able to raise his
arm
in order to actuate necessary
switches on his panel to correct this.
As Waldo
took
the controls his
first action in the black of night, and
with the
airplane
now in heavy
cloud,
was
to
attempt
to
level
the
wings,
and this
by reference to his
only usable panel instrument,
the
turn indicator. This successful action
momentarily relieved the turns "G"
loads, and at this poin t Engineer Sin
ski was able to reach up and quickly
restore power to the Essential Electri
cal
Bus
thus again providing normal
cockpit lighting.
Noting that
the
stabilizer indi
cated full forward (nose down)
and
feeling a desperate need to be of as-
sistance in a very desperate situation,
Sinski released his seat belt and care
fully edged his way forward from his
engineer's station
to
a
position
where he straddled the pedestal be
tween
the two
pilots'
seats. Here,
with superhuman effort, he began a
turn at a time
hand
cranking the sta
bilizer toward a nose-up position.
(Boeing engineers later reported
that
hand cranking
under
the air loads
being experienced would be impos
sible for one person to overcome.)
NaVigator Laird,
seated
behind
Lynch, shouted, "Captain, we're go
ing through
8,000 feet " Waldo,
realizing that
it
was
now
or never,
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PASS
IT TO
BUCK
by E.E. Buck Hilbert
EAA
21
VAA
5
P.O.
Box
424
Union
IL
60180
Dear Buck,
It was good to talk to you the
other
day. I need a 1918
D3-A
Mercedes engine for
my
Fokker D.VII replica. I have a new
Wolf propeller made by Guy Watson.
The D.VII Fokker, as shown
in
the pictures, is
completely
hand-crafted from German draWings
done in
Metric scale.
t this time I m making the fuel lines and
hand
pressure
pump fittings and
tubing.
All the
instruments
are 1918 Ger
man Bosch. New wheels are being made at this time. The fabric
is from Belgium,
and
I expect it here any time. I need either a
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Fokker s
talented staff creates a back country workhorse.
A
nthony
H.G. Fokker was
not
the
most popular aviation per
sonality in the
early
20s.
Fokker, a Dutchman,
had
thrown in
with the
Germans in 1914. He was
widely perceived
to
be a war profi
teer and,
ind
ee d,
had
be
en one
of
the few major
suppliers
of the
Kaiser s air service to survive with his
industrial base more or less intact
and plenty of
money
in
th
e bank.
ering, helped with the arrangements.
The future Reichsmarshall, equipped
with a pacified Fokker D.VII, would
be Fokker s sales
representative
in
Scandinavia for a year or more
Fokker s
detractors have
alluded
to a secret 1922 agreement between
th e manufacturer an d the new Ger
man government, wherein
that
government would have first call
on Fokker s
serv
ices in
th
e
The secret of Fokker s success was
his genius for hiring talented people.
He had picked the right engineers
and designers, such as the gifted
Reinhold Platz, a welder
who
rose
from the ranks, and Walter Rethel,
whose mas-
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terpiece would be the Messerschmitt
Bf
109.
This team
created air
craft that were among the best avail
able anywhere in the world.
Fokker himself,
though no
engi
neer, had
an instinctive under-
standing for what was technologi-
cally correct. He was a superb
pilot
and
did much of
his own
test
fly
ing. Fokker s
brilliant
demon-
stration flying and masterful sales
manship was a combination that
invariably spelled success. That and
the fact that he was
not
averse to
cheating
to
make
a good perfor-
mance look even better on paper.
Fokker s warplanes were far supe
rior to anything
available
in the
United
States, which had precious
little expertise in the production of
combat aircraft. The air service had
been
equipped
exclusively
with
French, English, and Italian aircraft
during 1917 and 1918. Indigenous
designs were regarded as unsuitable
for combat for a considerable period
of time thereafter.
Fokker fighters remained in ser
vice well into the
20s,
both in
Europe
and the
United States, which
had
acquired 50
highly esteemed
D.VIIs for the military. In addition,
the army and the navy procured
small quantities of postwar Nether
lands-built Fokkers. These included
fighters such as the PW-5, CO-2 ob
servation craft,
and
T-2
transports,
one of which made the first nonstop
coast-to-coast crossing of the United
States in May of 1923.
The T-2 was a stretched version of
Tony Fokker, shown in a 1912 Spin
(Spider) . He uilt and flew his first mono
plane in 1910 at age 20. He moved to
Germany (Johannistal) in 1912
to
seek
his
fortune, becoming a naturalized citizen in
1917. Fokker later became a U.S. citizen
and lived in Nyack, NY, when he died of
complications
following
minor surgery in
December
1939.
land
on the q.t. The F.III, with its
comfortable passenger cabin (pilots
preferred to remain
in
open cock
pits) , quickly
found
favor
with
Europe s infant airline industry,
which
included
KLM and DVR
the
forerunner of Lufthansa. Fokker, on
one of his early
U.S.
visits, brought
two F.IIIs to test the North American
market.
There was strong resistance to the
importation of foreign aircraft, par
ticularly anything Teutonic. Fokker s
modest
success in selling aircraft to
the U.S. military was roundly criti
cized
from almost
every quarter.
Why spend American dollars over
seas when
the
aircraft industry at
home was in dire need of what little
business there was?
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The Fokker
F-11
built at Schwerin in
1919
featured
cabin comfort for
six passengers.
Fokker adopted the
full-cantilever wing
in 1917.
Wartime
sentiments notwith
standing, Fokker
had
friends
and
admirers
in
the
business world
and
in the U.S.
military. One of
them was Brig.
Gen.
Billy
Mitchell, assistant chief of the
air service.
The upshot of this
was the establishment of a com
Canada. His mother was
English. Unlike Fokker,
Noorduyn had helped
supply the Allies with
aircraft during
the
war,
notably
in the employ
of Tom Sopwith
and
Sir
W.G. Armstrong-Whit
worth Co.
Noorduyn had been
an
assistant
to
another
Dutch
designer,
Fritz
Koolhoven, at
Arm
strong-Whitworth,
which led to a
postwar
hitch in the same
ca
pacity
with the British
Aerial
Transport
Co. ,
which pro
duced
the B T
monoplane fighter,
an
ultralight
monoplane
called
the
Fokker and Pushka Galanschikoff,
an
early
Russian
aviatrix, in 1913. Fokker
sold her a Spider and fell in love.
Pushka fled the
Russian
Revolution,
lived in New York, and performed pub
lic relations services
for
Fokker.
She
aspired
to
fly the
tlantic
in a Fokker,
but
Earhart beat her
to
it.
Crow, and the
FK.26
transport,
a
cabin biplane. He was
an
engineer
designer by
training
and
a
born
manager with
a full measure of fi
nancial sense.
Noorduyn
was named
general manager
and
treasurer of t-
lantic Aircraft.
Bob
Noorduyn s
first production
order was for 135 welded steel tube
fuselages
to
rejuvenate the U.S. air
service s
dilapidated
de Havilland
DH-4 bombers. The welded fuselage
was largely a Fokker innovation, and
his
welders were among the most
skilled in the industry. Many were
Dutch
imports themselves.
Indeed,
the language on the factory floor was
as
much Dutch-German
as
it
was
English.
Commercial
aviation was late in
developing in
the
United States,
and
Fokker's F.III transport, which was
widely used in Europe by
KLM and
Lufthansa, was a marketing disap
pointment. Only two
F.IIIs were
imported,
one
of which found its
way to Anchorage , where
the broth
ers Wien hoped to start
an
airline.
The
other
later
belonged
to
a
boot-
A lineup of Fokker D.Vlls still bearing German crosses
at
Kelly Field
circa 1920.
Peter M. Bowers photo.
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The
first Fokker Tri-Motor was created on short notice
to
compete in the 1925 Ford Reliabi lity Tour. It was qui
te
a sensat ion.
Variants pioneered the airways
with
WAE
American, and
Pan
Am.
legger. The lack of suitable landing
facilities,
both
in
the
Lower 48
and
in the territories, was a major obsta
cle that had to be overcome.
That
situation
began to
change
with the
privatization of airmail,
which became the
foundation
for
scheduled passenger services. The
Fords had foreseen
the
future of air
transportation;
So
had the Guggen
heims, whose funding
for
an
experimental
airline resulted
in
Western Air Express,
which began
carrying
a few passengers almost
from
the outset.
W
Ewould pro
foundly
affect Fokker's American
sojourn.
Ford aroused
public interest
by
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The
F.III,
introduced in
the
United States in
1922,
needed better landing fields than were generally
available
at the
time. This one made profits
for
its
owner by hauling Canadian bootleg.
These developments created the
climate for a viab le manufacturing
enterprise that began with th e
Fokker Universal, designed specifi
cally for the North American market.
Noorduyn and hi s technical staff,
which
included chief engineer A
Franc is Arcier, a Witteman-Lewis
holdover from the Barling Bomber
had formulated specifications for a
five-passenger monoplane to be
powered by a 200- hp Wrigh t J-4
Whirlwind.
The Universal embodied the prin
cipa l characteristics
of
its Dutch
predecessors with the exception of
the wing, which was semi-cantilever.
Heretofore, Fokker s t ranspor ts had
featured cantilever wings, innovative
in themselves, almost to the point of
being proprietary. The
Universal s wide-track
tripod landing gear,
also innovative, would
be widely emulated in
the decade to follow.
Up to that
point
Whirlwind production
had
been
reserved ex
clusively for the
military. The availabil
ity
of the J-4 and
J-5 for commercial ap
plications
greatly
en
hanced Fokker s pro
spectus for the Whirl
wind
was
eminently
reliable. The Univer
sal, first
flown in
October 1925, had come to fruition
in
the
remarkably short gestation
period
of
two months. t was an
immediate success.
Colonial Air Transport acquired
the first of three Universals early in
1926. Eddie Hubbard, a pioneer air
mail contractor, became Fokker s
distributor
in
the
West. Eddie flew
up and
down the Pacific Coast, ag-
Hermann Goering, last commander
of the
famed "Richtofen Flying Circus
, was
at loose ends
following the
armistice.
He
became Fokker's
sales
representative in Sweden before
turning to
politics. This was his D.
VII
demonstrator. The
cross
on
the
fin
has been painted over
with white
paint, and
the LVG
guns have been removed while
their
cartridge chutes remain in place. It's
interesting
to
note
that
the biplane s engine is running,
but
Herr Goering is nowhere
to
be seen
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gressive ly demonstrating the
Universal from Canada to Mex
ico. This resulted in sa les to
Pacific Air Transpor t and
th
e
Aero Corporation of California,
whose CEO,
Jack
Frye,
was
about
to
launch the
ancestral
beginnings of TWA .
A gold rush in northern On
tario, near Hudson Bay,
brought
the
first of many
Canadian orders.
Wes
t ern
Canada
Airways, founded
by
Capt.
A.C.
Doc
Oakes,
co
l
lected his first Universal at the
factory on Christmas
Day,
1926,
during
a heavy snowfa ll, F-32 then the largest airliner in North America, seldom carried profitable payloads and
was prone to distributing passenger equanimity when rear engines failed from overheat
which necessitated
the
installa- ing. Only three F-32s were in airline service, and they retired early.
tion of skis.
Oakes
was so
pleased with the Universal that
he ordered two
more on floats for
with extensive
arctic flying experi
invaluable asset to th
e
Unive
rsa l
service in the gold-mining district. ence. Balchen, lured
to
the
United
program and a great d eal more.
WCA
eventually
had a fleet of
12
States by
Cmdr.
Richard
Byrd's
Early o n the Canadians found
Universals.
promise
of
a flying job, did much of themselves with severa l dam aged
Fokker
then
hired Bernt Balchen, the experimenta l testing
at Teter
aircraft.
T
hi
s
was
due mainly
to
a young Norwegian army aviator boro.
He would
prove himself an harsh winter flying
conditions
and
pilot error. It was a new kind of fly
ing,
and
everyth in
g
had to
be
learned
the
hard way. Balchen , a
sk ill
ed
mechanic as
we
ll as a
pilot,
was loaned out to Western
Canada
Airways to
oversee
repairs
and
ge t
their Universals
back
in service. On
his return he was named chief pilot.
Whereas the Whirlwind's 200
to
220
hp
had
seemed
sufficient for a
ll
practical purposes in 1925, it
was
not long before customers were agi
tating for more
horsepower
and
increased payloads. No less a voice
than
Jack Frye s joined the chorus
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Fokker's chairman,
James A.
Talbott,
who
also presided over Richfield Oil, traveled in style in this executive F-10A. NC535E was
often detailed
to
events
to
promote air-mindedness.
t
conveyed thousands of first timers
aloft
during its
four
years
with
Richfield. Florence Pancho Barnes sometimes spared
pilot
Jake Littlejohn
at
the controls.
canyon
while
wending
his way
through the Cascades. Lacking
the
power to extricate himself by climb-
ing out, he
had
no
option but
to
reverse course with a vertical turn .
The
canyon
was narrow and steep
and the Fokker s wheels brushed
leaves from a tree
s
Frye rolled
out
of the turn .
t
had been a white
knuckle affair,
one
that Frye s
passengers would never forget.
A stretched version of the
Uni
versal, known as
th
e Universal
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with
the
windshield
raked forward
in
the
characteristic manner of later
Fokker Tri-Motors. This aircraft was
a one-only production.
The
Super Universal which fol
lowed differed
mainly
in having a
new fully cantilever wing and re
vised tripod landing gear attached to
the wing spar. The advent of the Su
per Universal coincided with
an
expansion program and corporate
name
change. Atlantic
Aircraft be
came Fokker Aircraft Corporation of
The
Super Universal became
Fokker s best-selling
commercial
airplane. Eighty were built the last
of
which
in 1931 many for
Cana
dian users. Western Canada Airways
had
13.
In
addition
Canadian
Vick
ers built 14 under license
and
the
Japanese firm of Nakajima
built
47
many of which were military C2N-1
utility airplanes. Japan Air
Trans
port, with government subsidies
permitting fares
commensurate
with railroad fares inaugurated pas-
Capt.
Edward V Rickenbacker as
sales
manager.
The
company
planned
to
build the giant, four
engine 32-passenger F-32 at a new
plant at Alhambra, California but
the airplane was
neither ready nor
the economy right for so
capa
cious
an airplane.
Production
had
come to a
virtual
standstill when
Fokker having divested
himself of
his shares,
returned to
Holland in
1931.
The
advent
of the Great Depres-
A master self-promoter, Fokker never missed an opportunity
to
place his name before the public. Richfield s management
held the majority of Western Air Express stock, reequipping
the
airline with
F 10s
and
F 14s.
They controlled
the
Fokker com
panyin 1928 and 1929.
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Fokker's bush country workhorse
erial photography by Jim Koepni
ck
ground photography by Leslie ilbert
arly in 1929 the twenty-seventh for
an
Arctic expedition, and Holtzem
y
John Underwood
was a test
pilot
for Pfalz. Fokker had
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conduct the business of war. There was
a kind of camaraderie between airmen
on both sides at first, with sa lutations
of
one
kind
or another as
th ey passed
each other over
the
front lin
es
. Then
someone took
a
pot shot
at someone
else with a revolver, and soon the sky
became
as
dangerous a place to be as
the battlefields below.
Holtzem's
engagement
as a Pfalz
test pilot was between two tours with
fighter squadrons. By
th
e latter part
of
1917, there was a greater need for ex
perienced pilots at
the
front,
so
he was
posted to a Fokker D.VIII unit.
By the
war's end he had downed four enemy
airplanes. Decades later,
as
a retiree in
California, Holtzem liked to
point
out
that
his four victories had not been
fa
tal to the vanquished.
Holtzem, even in 1916, was famous
for
being
able to walk away from
crashes.
So
was Doolittle, a fellow test
pilot. But Holtzem's military days were
over, and he saw no future
as
a flier in
Germany, so he migrated to South
America to
operate
a
flying
circu
s.
Then
came
a
job
offer
from Tony
Fokker
at
Teterboro . Produ
ction
had
begun to accelerate with
the
introduc
tion of
the
Super Universa l
and the
F-lO
, which was being built at Wheel
ing, West Virginia.
A
30-min ut
e
hop
was
usually
enough to sort out any bugs,
and
in
the
case
of AAM
there probably was
n't much that needed
attention.
The
wing was jig built, and little was re
quired in
the way of rigging
adjustments . There being no logbooks
from
that
time, we may assume
that
it
was a routine test hop and that AAM
(Top)
Staggered seats in the cabin
meant side-by-side seating could be
had inside
the
Super Universal.
According
to
Punch
Dickins
, there
was a need for cockpit security even in
1929,
to protect the pilots from smelly
sled dogs and drunken prospectors.
(Left)
Shock absorption
at its
most
maintainable, the shock cords snub the
impact of landing when acted upon
by
the sliding tube assembly.
the right direction, but they were short
on
payload. 'AAM's mission was to ser
vice r
emote
mining sites, both as a
freighter
and
perso
nn
el transport.
'AAM's
pilot,
Ken Dewar,
had
learned to fly in
the RFC
in 1917.
His
flight
mechanic, Bob Niven,
had
trained
at
Pratt Whitney and knew
the
Wasp inside
and
out. They would
work
as
a team for
the
next five years,
during which tim
AAM
served
as the
flagship of Cominco's growing fleet.
occasional exceptions
when
hu man i
tarian considerations were involved.
Late in th e fall of 1929, Dewar and
Niven were sent to aid in
the
search
and
rescue
of
ei
ght
missing prospec
tors working for
an o
th
er
company.
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The search concluded successfully,
largely due to the lost party's
own
re
sourcefulness
and
help from
the
local
Inuit, but the cost in equipment was
considerable. Five aircraft were either
seriously damaged or destroyed. Dewar
and
Niven
made their
last trip
out
of
Fort Reliance on December 4, 1929 ar
riving at
Winnipeg
on the December
6, after an eight-week absence.
AAM resumed Cominco business,
first
at
Prince Albert
and
then
at The
Pas,
where
Dewar was involved in a
forced landing in September 1930.
most aircraft servicing facility.
AAM shared a shelter with another
Super Universal, G-CASL, which be
longed to Canadian Airways. The next
morning the
aircraft
went their
sepa
rate ways, loaded with prospectors
and
mining gear. Three
months
later
CASL
crashed
in
the vicini ty of Yellowknife,
killing its
three-man
crew. Fifty years
later the remains of the one Super Uni
versal would facilitate the rebirth of
the other.
During 1933 and 1934, AAM served
Cominco in the Germanson
Lake re-
Dewar reported another accident
in
February 1934. This time AAM was
on
skis, and they
had
frozen
to the
sur
face. Efforts to free them were only
half successful.
When
Dewar applied
power,
one
ski slid forward while
the
other
remained stuck. The result was
collapsed landing gear. Such accidents,
though routine in bush
flying,
could
be catastrophic.
CF-AAM based at Columbia Gar
dens, near Trail, British Columbia , in
September 1934, where Ken Dewar
and
the Fokker parted company. They
(Left) The utilitarian cockpit
is
basic VFR . To the right of the center windshield strip
is
the mirror used to read the compass
which
is
mounted on the bulkhead behind the pilot's head. The markings on
the
compass read backwards unless read in
the
mirror (Right) From a simpler time,
the pitot tube is
itself an elegant sculpture.
While on floats and with no open wa
ter in sight, the Wasp quit. Dewar dead
sticked into a stubble field. The pon
toons
dug
in, shearing the
landing
gion of
the
British Columbia interior.
At
this time, Dewar saved
an
aspiring
airline
operator from certain ruin.
Grant
McConachie, a
rather impetu
had been paired for five years . Dewar
subsequently joined Canadian Pacific
Air Lines, retiring in 1958.
In October 1934, AAM was sold to
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8/12/2019 Vintage Airplane - Sep 2000
23/36
geoning airline, which was upgrading
its equipment. Eight
hours
of flying
each day was
not uncommon
at that
time, and Randall, the principal pilot,
sometimes logged 150 hours a
month.
Both the Fokker and the Ford flew
reg-
ular mail
and passenger
runs
to
Whitehorse, Dawson City, Telegraph
Creek, AtIin, Selkirk, Mayo, and Teslin.
In the spring of
1935, AAM
was
chartered by the National Geographic
Society
to support the
Washburn
Ex-
pedition,
whose mission
was to
explore
and
chart
the
St.
Elias Range.
This was a 2,000-square-mile blank
spot on the map of Canada
and
Alaska.
Piloted by Randall and Everett Was
son, AAM
proved indispensable
during
the
80-day expedition, which
was featured in the
June
1936 issue
of
National Geographic magazine.
On January
6, 1936, Bob Randall
flew a charter to Francis
Lake
in
AAM.
t
was a 2S0-mile trip with several pas
senger
stops
along the
way,
and he
remained there overnight. The next
morning
he cranked
up AAM
for
the
return flight to Carcross. t would be a
one-minute flight,
and the
journey it
self would take months to complete.
As
Randall
became
airborne
the
heal of his port
ski
struck a hard snow
drift, snapping the forward restraining
cable attachment. This
permitted the
ski to rotate downward, bringing the
aft end up hard
against
the landing
gear strut, thereby creating enormous
asymmetriC drag. Randall could
not
maintain
altitude, and the toe of the
disabled ski snagged
another
drift,
causing the aft section to break off
when it struck the strut again. The ski
Clark Seaborn,
Don McLean and
Bob Cameron
wife, expecting their
third child, began to
fear
the
worst.
One
can imagine her re
lief when, after
a
week of silence, a
telegram arrived.
Bob was fine.
In
deed, he would
move
on
to a career
with
Canadian
Pacific
Air
Lines, retir
ing
as a 3S,OOO-hour jet captain. So
would
his twin
sons,
who
have also
reached
retirement.
A third son and
two grandsons continue to fly for CPA.
Nineteen thirty-seven was
a
bad
year
for
Simmons and
his partners.
Northern Airways other Super Univer
sal, CF-ATJ, experienced a similar
mishap at Francis Lake. This left them
with but
one
aircraft, the Ford Tri-Mo
tor,
and
its
days of
usefulness were
numbered.
Ford G-CARC
had
been
damaged at
Telegraph
Creek
in
the
previous November, although it con
tinued in service for several months.
t
was
eventually grounded
and placed
in storage. (It s
currently awaiting
restoration in Greg Herrick s hangar,
but that s another story.)
The Fokkers were repaired at Francis
Lake under arduous conditions, one
wing at a time. This was accomplished
in subzero weather by thrusting the
damaged wing through
the
window of
a cabin large enough to accommodate
the damaged
section
. This took four
The undamaged wing was shipped
back
to Carcross and eventually in
stalled
on Northern Airways'
replacement Fokker, CF-AJC, which
continued to provide
yeoman
service
until 1942. In June of
that
year it was
engaged in salvaging parts
and
equip
ment
from four B-26s
that
had crash
landed in a nameless valley after be
coming lost
on
the way
to
Fairbanks.
Thereafter, the location was known as
Million Dollar Valley.
On its last trip the Fokker, diverted
by
weather, landed
on
the Dezdeash
River, little more
than
a stream, with
nearly empty tanks. After refueling, a
takeoff
was
attempted, but the
air
plane struck an overhanging tree. The
result was a violent water loop into the
riverbank. The
engine and
fuselage
were salvageable, but the
unwieldy
wing was abandoned beside the river.
Thus ended the career of AAM s origi
nal wing.
Fast forward four decades ...
A second-generation Canadian bush
-
8/12/2019 Vintage Airplane - Sep 2000
24/36
commentary
Forced Landing
ttitude
One
reason
why
flying can
be
more
dangerous
today
than
t
was
S
years
ago
y Denis M
rbeau
F
ying more dangerous now than
it was 75 years ago? That's silly,
you say? I can understand why
you would feel
that
way. Orville
Wright
did not sign your
pilot
's li
cense and you don ' t fly an old
antique
biplane
with
an unreliable
90-some-odd horsepower
engine
that may quit at any moment . Your
engine is highly maintained to
th
e
strict levels that
common
sense and
safety require . It is a basic, relatively
modern,
long-reliable
design that
has flown millions of safe hours in
thousands of airplanes. Modern air
Modem d y pilots
m y not take the
prospect ofa forced
landing as seriously
as their pioneer
brethren did
thinking it can't possibly happen.
Today, most pilots, from the time
they go to full throttle on takeoff un
til
the
moment they
turn
off
the
runway, are not
mentally
prepared
to
immediately deal with the chal
lenge of
what they
would do
and
where they would land if
an
engine
failed . Ironically, it is because of
the
reliability of modern aviation en
gines that the vast majority of pilots
are lulled into being unprepared.
I've given more than 10,000 hours
of dual instruction and have seldom
seen pilots handle unexpected simu
-
8/12/2019 Vintage Airplane - Sep 2000
25/36
GROUND AFTER
AN
ENGINE
FAIL-
URE
A
pilot who
is not
mentally
prepared to manage a forced landing
will
most
likely panic
and try to
make the airplane do something it
is
not capable of doing. n fact there
is
a group of Internet Swifters out there
who will recall they were standing
right
next
to me a few years ago at
Shelter Cove Airport in
Northern
California when we were witnesses
to a pilot reacting in just that way.
He took his wife, two kids and least
of all a very nice
Stinson with
him ...Most forced landings
that
end
500 feet in the air and
the
engine
stops
and you
were
not
ready for
something like this to happen, how
well do you think you are going to
handle
it? Unless you're prepared,
you probably won't do very well.
Sure,
sometimes
we fly
our
air
craft in situations
and/or
over
terrain where if the engine stops it's
going to be hard, if
not
impossible,
to find a reasonably safe place to set
the aircraft down.
t is
our right and
our decision to accept that
risk
should we choose to do so. But not
being mentally
prepared
to cor
at any given moment while in flight.
That's the key to being properly pre
pared to have a reasonable chance to
bring a forced landing to a successful
conclusion.
I'll probably go flying within the
next 24 hours after
I
write what
you've just finished reading here.
f
I
am
true to
what
I've just discussed,
I will, after I take
the
runway and
just before I go to full throttle,
turn
on
that switch
in
the back of my
mind
that
arms me to
react
to
an
engine
failure
as best I can.
That
switch will not be
turned
off until I
-
8/12/2019 Vintage Airplane - Sep 2000
26/36
by H.C. Frautschy
Zephyr
and POIter ield Sportster.
The last remaining Rearwin
Jr
3000
of 23 built,
NCll 92
belonging to
Marion
McCLure
(Wiley Post biplane
Thanks to the collection of R
W
Buttke, we
have this month
's Mys
tery
Plane to
share with you. Now
obviously, we know who made
it
,
but which
one
is it?
Send your an-
swers
to:
EAA,
Vintage
Airplane
,
P.O. Box 3086, Oshkosh, WI 54903
3086. Your answers need
to
be in no
later than October
25, 2000, for in
clusion
in the December
issue of
Vintage Airplane.
You
can
also send your
response
via e-mail. Send
your
answer
to
vin
Be sure to include
both
your name
and
address in
the
body
of
your note,
and
put (Month) Mystery Plane
in
the
subject line.
owner)
of
Bloomington, Illinois was
soLd
at
auction
in
Billings,
Montana
for
$35,000. The original new
price was
$1795
in 1932.
The Junior
was
then
donated
to
the
Oscar Cooke Museum.
Oscar Cooke re-registered the Junior
as N507Y,
after Rearwin
Junior X507Y.
An
Aero
Digest
ad
for Annitie All-Pur
pose Cleaning Compound shows this
X507Y with
the wing
and
tail the same
color shade as the fuselage . Possible
color was red
with a black spear point
strip
and
registry.
Regards,
Russ Brown
Lyndhurst,
Ohio
July's
Mystery Plane,
which
ap-
peared courtesy of David Carlson,
Hay Springs,
Nebraska
was
known
to
a
number
of
you. Here's
our
first
letter:
Hanging high abov
e farm equipment
seats
and
Lanterns
is
the bright red and
yellow parasol Rearwin Junior 3
mailto:[email protected]:[email protected] -
8/12/2019 Vintage Airplane - Sep 2000
27/36
T i l
0 R 0 U 0 II B R E
I
t
I .... Jr . } -0; ; - ---;-;c.,..--,-,---,--,-,
l
. . . 4I:i Le p roud I 0
. . . .
. . . Heftr .. r ..
H
F4.R \\,. l J
, . H P
L4.lIIIJE.i
..-:0 a. t ..
4
FAIIIH,X
AlilPOkT.
KANSAS
en y.
)l":ANIAS
In
Til&: J:RARWIH JII.. AT T il E O"TIIOtT
SIlO W-ON TilE
FLOOR AND IN THE AIR
n -I1Ioo't;
I J t o i T ~ 5
~ = Z ~ = : . : ~ ~ t . - i ? ; : ; ~ ~ ~ : H
As advertised in the
April
1932 issue
of Aero
Digest
Lester Everett,
Jr., of Craw
fordsville, Indiana adds:
... Manufactured in Kansas City,
Kansas, it
was
d
es
igned
in
1931
and
produced in 1932. The Junior was
available with either the Szekely
45
hp
or the Aeromarine AR-3 50 hp engine.
The
aircraft
was
a two -seater in a
single tandem
cock
pit with dual
con
troLs. A detachable winter enclosure
was
available.
The
wing span
was
36
ft., Length 21 ft .,
8
in. and
th
e height
was
7
ft
., 6
in
. C
ruis
i
ng speed was
78
mph with a top speed of91 mph
Landing
speed was 25
mph, absolute
ceiling was 16,400 ft., with an initial
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8/12/2019 Vintage Airplane - Sep 2000
28/36
Thirty
ive Years
continued from page 8
been called upon to support the air
plane's estimated weight of 195,000
pounds
in
wings level cruising flight,
was now called upon to support an
effective weight, due to the arcing
parabola, of 1 million pounds. For it
to do so was aerodynamically impos
sible and the
terribly
flexed wing,
close
to the point
of
failure, went
into a shattering high speed stall.
The subsequent fearful pounding
was described as extremely severe,
yet in a few seconds, the altimeter,
one
of
the
two useful instruments
on
Captain
Lynch s panel, began
slowing from its
unwinding
scream
ing dive, then, as zooming, upward
flight
into
the
night
sky was
as
sumed, began winding
at
a fearful
rate
in the
opposite direction. The
dive had been arrested somewhere
near
6,000 feet, then back at
about
11,000 feet the airplane was finally
pushed over into level flight, where
the
airspeed gradually began
drop
ping for
the
first time from its
pegged position at 400 knots.
The
throttles
throughout
were in the
tight closed position.
s speed diminished the airplane
became nose heavy
and Sinski, at
Waldo s request,
and still in his
pedestal
straddling
position,
hand
cranked the cockpit stabilizer wheel
in response.
t
wasn't until this point
that Sinski was able to reach forward
and actuate switches to crossover
Lynch's artificial horizon so
that
it
airframe, and second, that they re
sponded normally. A careful climb
was made back to 29,000 feet where
flight at slow speed range cruise was
established.
In
the
cockpit, as
they
leveled off,
little
was said with all busy with
they own
thoughts.
At Waldo s re
quest, Sinski left his engineer s
station to check the main
cabin
for
injuries and possible damage. There,
in response
to a public address an
nouncement, the
cabin
was
being
prepared for a
possible emergency
landing and
the life rafts had been
lowered
from their ceiling storage
positions and laid in their assigned
aisle positions adjacent to exit doors
and windows.
s
George worked his
way back and over the rafts, passen
gers
and cabin
crew
members
impulsively grasped his hand
and
squeezed his arm in gratitude.
t last,
on
a sparkling clear night,
the lights
of Gander
could be seen
far ahead.
s
a precautionary mea
sure as
the
flight descended through
10,000
feet
the
airplane was
tem
porarily leveled off, slowed,
and the
gear and
wing flaps
extended
to
check
their operation. Except for a
previously observed difficulty
in
es
tablishing lateral
trim and
a now
somewhat
sluggish response to
aileron inputs, control seemed near
normal
and
a normal approach
and
landing was made,
although
flown
at
higher
speeds
due
to Lynch's
un
certainty
at
what
yet
might be
encountered.
A short while later
as
the airplane
30-inch section of
the
fairing
was
missing and had fallen into the cold
Atlantic. The tail root fairings were
also damaged and there were heavy
wrinkles in
the
skin of
the
tail's hori
zontal stabilizer.
Boeing engineers later estimated
the plane
dove to a
speed
of
.99
Mach, just below the speed of sound
and far beyond its design limits.
During the 707's earlier certification
destruct tests conducted with
hy
draulic jacks
on
the
factory floor, the
wing tips were purposely and very
gradually
flexed upwards 17
feet
from their normal in-flight position
before
permanent
set to the wings
structure
began to take place. Later
checks on Lynch's airplane, after it
was ferried to
the
factory, showed
that
the
wings
under
the
6.7 G pull
out loads had taken a permanent
set
of
severa l inches.
t
is not diffi
cult to visualize the loads that this
wing was subjected to and its sur
vival
is quite a tribute to
an
extremely well-built, strong
air
plane which returned and flew the
airline for
many
years afterward.
Waldo's recovery was effected
in
the black
of
night and in cloud and
flown
from a full aft and low
seat
position with
only
two usable in
struments of flight,
the
Turn
Indicator and the Altimeter. He af
terward noted,
had
he
been
able to
get his feet on the rudder pedals, he
probably would have caused damage
to, or parting of, the airplane's verti
cal tail surfaces, or possibly caused
an
engine, or engines, to part com
-
8/12/2019 Vintage Airplane - Sep 2000
29/36
Yukon from page 21
the
remains while the
helicopter
hovered,
and
plucked
th
em
out
be
fore
th
e
astonished
hippies
kn ew
what was
happ
ening.
What
was left
of 'AAM was so o n on the wa y to
Whit
ehorse, Ca
meron
's home base.
Cameron made
further
inquiries
and determined that
A
MM's wing
mi
ght still be
where it
had bee n
aband oned
in
1942, 80 miles
from
Whitehorse. He'd spoken to a
hunt
er
who had seen it some years before.
The hunter
had
been
in too
grea t a
hurry to inves tigate the remains. His
main co ncern at the time wa
s
putting dis
tanc
e between
hims
elf
and a bear.
The
hunt
er, known as Scotty, led
Camero n
to
the
site. It was difficult
to find, being
an
isolated spot, and it
seemed to be the last place in th e
world one would pick to land
an
air
plan e on floats. Yet,
there
was
'AAM's
decomposing
wing, incon
trovertible evidence that an airplane
h ad
once
landed
there
on
what
passed for a river,
and
tried
to tak
e
off again. Alas,
the
wing was
too
far
gone, except for a bucket full of fit
tings. In
th e summer
of
1982, Clark
Seaborn's family stood aghast
at
th e
sight of a trailer-load of junk being
dump ed in the driveway of th eir
Calgary h ome. Lying on the pave
ment
were
th
e
rusting components
of not one, but several Fokker Super
Universals,
including the remnants
of CF -AA M. They had come
from
th
e Western Ca
nada
Aviation Mu
Fly
In
alendar
The following
li
st ofcoming even ts is furnished to our readers as a matter of
infor
mation only
and does not co
nstitute
approval,
sponsorship,
involv
e
ment, contro
l
or
direction
of
any
event
(fl
y
-in
, seminars, fly market, etc.)
li
sted. Please send
the
infor
mation to EAA
,
Au: Vintage
A
irplan e, P o Box 30
86, Os
hko
sh,
WI
54903-3086.
Information should be r
eceiv
ed our months
prior
to the eve
nt dat
e.
EAA
R
egiona
l Fly-Ins shown in bold.
SEPTEMBER 15-I7-WATERTOWN,
WI
-(RNV) 16th
Annual Byron Smith Memorial Stinson R
eunion.
In
fo: Suezette
Selig, 630/904-6964.
SEPTEMBER J6-17-ROCK FALLS, IL -Whiteside
County Airport (SQ I). North Central EAA Old
fashioned Fly-ln. Sun. morning pancake break
fast. Info: 630/543-6743 oreaa IOI
@aol
.com
SEPTEMBER J7-LANSING, IL-EAA Chapter 260
Fly- InlDrive-In pancake breakfasl. Info:
708
/474
3748 or 708/798-380
1.
SEPTEMBER 22-23-BARTLESVILLE,
OK
-Frank
Phillip
s
Fie
l
d. 43rd Annual Tulsa
Regional Fly-l
n.
Info:
Charlie Harris,
918/622-8400.
SEPTEMBER 23-24-ZANESVILLE, OHIO-John's
Landing.
VAA
Chapter
22
9th Anuual
Fall
Fly-I
n.
Breakfast both days, H
og roast
on Saturday night.
In
fo: Virginia at 740/453-6889
or
740/455
-
9900.
SEPTEMBER
22-23-ASHEBORO
, NC-EAA Chapter
11
76
Aerofest 2000 at
Smith
Airfield. Oldfash
ioned grass fieldJly-in and pig pickin . Un i
com
1
22.9.
Info: J
ejJSmith, 336
/879-2830.
SEPTEMBER 30-HANOVER, IN-Lee
Bollom
Air
OCTOBER
12-15 -
MESA, AZ-Copperstate Regional
EAA Fly-In_ Williams Gateway Airport Info:
52014
00-888 7
or
www_copperstate.
org
OCTOBER
21-DAYTON, OH-
Antique/Classic
Chili
Fly-IN at Moraine Airpark (I73). Call Darrell
Montgomery
at
937/866-2489.
OCTOBER 14-ADA,
OK-4th
annual Plane Fun
Fly-In
and
Youth
Expo
sponsored
by EAA
Chapter
1005
at Ada Muni. Airport (KA DH). Free T-shirtfor
first
50 pilots.
In
fo:
Terry Hall
,
580/436
-
8190.
OCTOBER 12-15-WICHIT
A,
KS-Travel Air
75th
Anniversary H
omecoming Celebration.
Raytheon
Aircraft, Beech Field
. For
schedu
l
ed
events and
registration mat
er
ials se nd SASE
to Travel
Air
Restorer's Assn.,
4925 Wilma
Way,
San
Jose, CA
95124 or Mike Sloan of Raytheon Aircraft, PO
Box
85,
Wichita, KS
67201.
OCTOBER
14
- RIDGEWAY,
VA
- Pa ce Field
(N36.35.05,
W79.52.48.)
Old
Fashioned Grass
Field
Fly-
In
Pig-Pi
ck
in
g. EAA
Chapter
970
. I
nfo:
Tommy
Pace,
540/956-2159.
OCTOBER 20-21 - ABILENE,
TX-EAA
SOllthwest
Regional Fly-III. The Big cOllntry Fly-In.
Info:8001727-77
04
or
lVlVw.slVrji.org
SEPTEMBER 16 -
AN
DOVER, NJ Andover-
mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:///reader/full/www_copperstate.orghttp:///reader/full/www_copperstate.orghttp:///reader/full/www_copperstate.orghttp:///reader/full/N36.35.05http:///reader/full/W79.52.48http:///reader/full/lVlVw.slVrji.orghttp:///reader/full/lVlVw.slVrji.orghttp:///reader/full/lVlVw.slVrji.orgmailto:[email protected]:///reader/full/www_copperstate.orghttp:///reader/full/N36.35.05http:///reader/full/W79.52.48http:///reader/full/lVlVw.slVrji.org -
8/12/2019 Vintage Airplane - Sep 2000
30/36
NEW MEMBERS
Mike Bourget .. ... .Orleans, Ontario, Canada
Barry G. Smith ... Oakville, Ontario, Canada
Leopold Veilleux ................... ....
..
..... .... .. ...
..
.
........... .............. St George, Quebec, Canada
Stephane Ollier ............................................ .
........ ....... ..........St Rambert D'Albon, France
Richard Moore ........... Boston, Great Britain
Alexander Tullis .......................................... .
........................... Black Heath, Great Britain
jeffrey W. Salter ........................................... .
......
..
............. Holywood Co.
Down
, Ireland
Kuni Hasegawa ...... .... .............Tokyo, japan
[van
Campbe ll
... ................................ .... ......
.........................Christchurch , New Zea land
james Schmidt . .. ..................... ....... ..............
.............. ..............Warkworth, New Zealand
Mervyn R Thompson
..... .....
..
......... ..... ....
.. ..
........................ C
hristchurch
, New Zea
land
Eric
Grover ........ ...................................... .
..
...
..
........ Pretoria, Republic
of South
Africa
William justusson ...Dhahran, Saudi Arabia
Franz Straumann ..............Elgg, Switzerland
Duane A.
Peters .................... Anchorage, AK
julian A. Smith ........ ............ Eagle River AK
Dennis L
Hasha ...... ...... ...... .Tuscombia, AL
Sidney
L
Brain ...... .. ... .. ....... Russellville,
AR
jason P. Overman ........................
Cabot,
AR
Donald Downin ............................ Mesa, AZ
Robert
A. Loogman
................. Hanford, CA
Kevin Mccarthy
........................Pacifica, CA
Brian Neal. ....... .................... ..
Monrovia
,
CA
William R. Schicora ..... .......Winchester,
CA
jeffrey Scholz ... ........................... ..Perris, CA
Phil Schultz ..........................
..
Lancaster, CA
Richard A. Sweet ...................... Ventura,
CA
Klaus
ten
Hagen ................... Sunnyvale, CA
Dirk
A. VanCott
................... ..... .Rescue, CA
john
C. Watts ....................... San Diego,
CA
Bradley
P.
Hindman
..............Littl
eton, CO
Kris D. Kluge .............
Co
lorado Springs,
CO
Tom
Poeling ...............................Eckert, CO
Stephen A. Tonozzi ......... .. .......................... .
................................Glenwood Springs, CO
Robert
L
Williams .......................... Erie,
CO
Roger
L
Klein .... .. ......... .......... Hadlym e, CT
john B.
Pelkey, Sr. ................. ..... Enfield, CT
john Benson .................... ....... .....
Nap
les,
FL
Jeffrey
A. Jones
... ...
..
..........
.. ..
Ciearwater,
FL
William Lowery Geneva FL
William G. Mercer .... ...... ... .jacksonville, FL
Art
K.
Sproch .......................jacksonville,
FL
Kempton Ballard, Jr. .. ..............Newnan, GA
Stiles D. Brown .... ..... .... .. .........
Newnan,
GA
Steve
Forsyth ..... .