official newsletter of the virginia aeronautical historical...
TRANSCRIPT
Official Newsletter of the Virginia Aeronautical Historical Society
April/May/June 2014 Volume XXXVI No. 2
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VIRGINIA EAGLESThe official newsletter of the
VIRGINIA AERONAUTICAL HISTORICAL SOCIETY
Officers and Board of DirectorsScott Gross, Williamsburg, President
(Open) Vice PresidentCharles J. Williams, Jr., Prince George, Secretary
Frank Lennon, Manakin-Sabot, Treasurer
Tom Woodburn, Richmond, ChairmanLinda Burdette, Fredericksburg, Vice Chairman
Neilson J. November, Richmond, Chairman Emeritus
Courtney Beamon, RichmondVan Crosby, Richmond
Kyle Falwell, LynchburgCarl Fisher, Richmond
Paul Galanti, RichmondDavid C. Hahn, Sandston
Charles Hundley, RichmondBill Kelly, Richmond
Charles A. Kulp, Sr., BealetonTom Leonard, Glen Allen
Carl M. Lindner, RichmondNancy Miller, Mathews
Albert M. Orgain IV, RichmondRet. Judge William Shelton, Richmond
Deborah J. Sterling, AshlandMark Sternheimer, Richmond
H. Ray Tyson, Jr., AshlandDavid Young, Lynchburg
Organizational Directors(Open), Director, Virginia Aviation Museum
Randall Burdette, Director, Virginia Dept. of Aviation
ChaptersLiberty University
John MarcelusNorthern Neck Middle Peninsula George Galo, Chapter President
WarrentonRon Gatewood, Chapter President
Williamsburg “Eagles” Jug Gerard, Chapter President
StaffJennifer H. Melton, Glen Allen, Editor
Linda Burdette, Fredericksburg, Feature Article Editor
Virginia’sAviation History
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Contact us by mail at:VAHS 5701 Huntsman RoadRichmond International Airport, VA 23250-2416
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From The Left Seat
This is my final article for the Virginia Eagle newslet-ter and by the time you read this a new Chairman will have been selected by our Board of Directors. That the nominating committee headed by board member Linda Burdette spent much time and gave careful consideration is made quite clear by the individual they selected to be presented to the board. Personally, I could not be more pleased by this selection and see the change in leadership as a beginning of great things for the VAHS. I know you will welcome the new Chairman and continue to give the en-thusiastic support that I have enjoyed during my tenure.
Along with a new chairman the So-ciety will enjoy the benefits of several new board members and officers who have joined over the past year. The talent and enthusiasm of these new members has already begun to make changes that will insure the continued success of the Society.
It is important for me to recognize all of the mem-bers and officers of the VAHS who have provided unwavering support for our mission and who have worked diligently to see that the Society has been successful. It is the efforts of our volunteer/ members that make our organization the leader in telling the story of Virginia’s rich aviation and space history. Thank you for your past and future support.
I mentioned in a previous article that many changes have taken place at the airline I currently fly for. Not all have been for the better but one positive has emerged and that is the scheduled delivery of our first Boeing 787-8 in late 2014. I plan to bid onto this airplane when it begins revenue service and while I expect it will be the final transport airplane I will operate I am pleased that the 787 will make a fitting bookend for my professional airline career that began on the Douglas DC-3. The DC-3 and
B-787 are years apart technologically but bear some remarkable similarities in how they changed, or will change, airline operations. The DC-3 matched proven technology in structures and aerodynamics with the latest engine technology in the form of the Curtiss-Wright R-1820 and in so doing produced
an airplane with unprecedented economy of operation. The DC-3 allowed the airlines
to finally leave airmail subsidies be-hind and turn a profit on passengers alone. Boeing took an entirely dif-ferent approach to achieving a new level of efficiency by leaving old technology behind. The B-787 uses
the latest in composite structures, trades systems traditionally powered
by bleed air and hydraulics for ones electrically powered and, just like in 1935,
will mate the latest engine technology in the form of the General Electric GEnex-1B or Rolls-Royce’s Trent 1000 to this revolutionary airframe. The B-787 is truly a new airplane.
75 years separate the DC-3 from The B-787. The DC-3 cost an airline $110,000, the B-787 $249,000,000.
The former could carry 21 passengers 1000 miles the latter 210 passengers for 8000 miles. One was aluminum the other carbon fiber and epoxy. Quite a contrast and yet the DC-3 was a revolution in economics and I think the B-787 will prove itself equally revolutionary in much the same way. I will watch to see how the history plays out and I will revel in flying and having flown two amazing machines that represent a 75 year span of aviation progress.
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STEVENS, Charles D., 97, of Henrico, died Monday, February 17, 2014. He was preceded in death by his wife of 70 years, Harriet Keith Stevens; and is sur-vived by his son, Brian K. Stevens; and his grandson, Benjamin P. Stevens. Charlie was a pioneer Air Traffic Controller, and served as Chief Controller at Rich-ard E. Byrd Airport, later Richmond International Airport, from 1946 until his retirement in 1976. He was inducted into the Virginia Aviation Hall of Fame in 2006.
In Memoriam
Today’s News is Tomorrow’s History
Help your Society’s effort to record and preserve the history of aviation in the Commonwealth. You can help by clipping and sending any newspaper articles relating to your local airport, aviators or related events to the VAHS office. Also welcome are any photos of Virginia airports or anything concerning Virginia aviation history. We will file and scan the information so it will be available on our website.
Note from the EditorBe sure to send in your pictures and stories of
your aviation adventures to be included in the
newsletter. We’d love to know the places you
visit, the things you are doing. Just forward
them to my attention, Jennifer Melton, VAHS,
5701 Huntsman Road, Richmond, VA. 23250 or
you can just e-mail them to vahsonline@gmail.
com.
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virginia aeronautical historical society
short stories of aviation(a compilation of true and tall aviation tales as
told by the men and women who lived them)
compiled and edited bydavid c. hahn
jennifer h. melton
Get your copy today!Only $10 plus $3 shipping.
If you have any stories you’d like to share, please get them in. Volume II of this great little book will be coming out next fall!
Contact Jen Melton at (804) 222-8690 or [email protected] to get your copy today and to submit your stories and photos
for the next edition.
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Chapter News
Liberty University
Contact: John Marselus Aviation Department 1971 University Boulevard Lynchburg, Virginia 24502 (434) 582-2183 e-mail: [email protected]
Northern Neck/Middle Peninsula
Contact: George Galo – President P.O. Box 545 Lancaster, Virginia 22503 (804) 462-0462 e-mail: [email protected]
Meetings are held the 3rd Thursday of each month at the Pilot House Restaurant in Topping, Virginia at 12:00 p.m.
Warrenton Chapter
Contact: Ron Gatewood 8399 Creedmore South Drive Warrenton, Virginia 20187-8911 (703) 534-1609 e-mail: [email protected]
Williamsburg “Eagles” Chapter
Contact: C.G. (Jug) Gerard – President 266 E. Queens Drive Williamsburg, Virginia 23185 (757) 258-0376 e-mail: [email protected]
Meetings are held the 3rd Wednesday of the month at 10:00 a.m. at the Williamsburg Airport.
Northern Neck/Middle Peninsula Reported by Nancy Miller
“Close Air Support and Air Operations—stories from Special Forces Opera-tions/Delta Force”-- A presentation by Lt. Col. Lewis H. “Bucky” Burruss, US Army Special Forces/Delta Force (Ret.)
The Northern Neck-Middle Peninsula Regional Chapter of the Virginia Aero-
nautical Historical Society hosted a very spe-cial guest speaker, Lt. Col. Lewis H. “Bucky” Burruss, on February 20 at its regular monthly meeting at the Pilot House Restaurant, Hum-mel Field in Middlesex County. Burruss related a variety of his experiences in the US Army Special Forces, Delta Force, as they re-lated to close air support and other related air
operations. Burruss’s extemporaneous presentation tickled, teased and at times nearly drew tears from the group—his stories were gleaned from decades of military service and included some high-risk/high
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profile operations, as told from an insider’s unique point of view.
Lt. Col. Burruss enlisted in the Army in 1965, volun-teered for the Special Forces and served two combat tours in Vietnam with the country-wide reaction force, Mobile Strike Force. (Although not men-tioned in the presentation, during this time he was awarded the Silver Star, four Bronze Stars, the Air Medal, and three Vietnamese Crosses of Gallantry.) Burruss commanded airborne and mechanized infantry companies in Germany, and instructed at the Special Forces School Officers Course, Opera-tions & Intelligence Course, and the Military Freefall Course—including night jumps with combat equip-ment from altitudes up to 30,000 feet. Burruss also completed the rigorous British Special Air Service Selection Course, and was selected by the late Colo-nel Charlie A. Beckwith to help form and train the 1st Special Forces Operational Detachment - Delta, known as the Delta Force. He commanded the unit’s first operational element, and participated in the ill-fated Iran raid, the invasion of Grenada, and a number of classified operations in the Middle East, South and Central America, and elsewhere. He was commended by the British armed forces for his assistance to the Special Air Service in the Falkland Islands campaign. After a sterling career, he now resides in his ancestral home in Gloucester County, Virginia, enjoying a very active retirement .
The Chapter’s next meeting will be held on March 20, 2014, and will feature Linda Burdette, VAHS Board Member. Linda will share secrets, little-known facts and entertaining stories unearthed in her research and development of VAHS aviation history projects.
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Warrenton/NVA Chapter reported by Ron Gatewood
The Warrenton Northern Virginia Chapter be-gan the January 2014 New Year meeting series
with a fascinating firsthand account of the heroism of the pilots and men on the ground and the role aviation played in the Chernobyl nuclear power plant disaster in 1986 by Sergey Baklanov PHD. In an attempt to quench the inferno and lacking the aviation resources in Ukraine to fight the nuclear disaster, the Soviet Union re-deployed MI-8s still in desert camouflage for both aircraft and pilot from Afghanistan to Chernobyl to fly the thousands of sorties.
Nick Atanasio, a high school student from Lib-erty High in Fauquier County, attended the meeting with his father Russell Atanasio – a re-tired federal pilot. Nick prepared an outstanding historical, technical, and political summary of the presentation and the events in 1986 as follows:
“In the middle of the 1980s, the World was coming down from an age of fear. After over 30 years of life spent in the shadow of the threat of nuclear holo-caust, multiple conflicts involving American and Soviet troops in various parts of Asia, and both do-mestic and international tension that left everybody on edge, the collective society of the Earth began to breathe a sigh of relief at a perceived notion that an end to international conflict was at hand.
This hope was not false. The Soviet Union was rap-idly collapsing under its own weight as the United States remained as strong as ever. The institution of the policies of Glasnost (“openness,” applied to the level of government secrecy) and Perestroika (“restructuring,” as in liberal economic and political reform) demonstrated that Soviet policy was fail-ing to the western world. In the course of only a few short years, it became very clear that the Soviet
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Union was moving further and further towards the brink of collapse. And all it would take would be one more shove to push the Soviet Union out of existence.
This metaphorical shove came in one of the most devastating displays of technological failure in hu-man history. At once causing economic, societal, governmental, international, and scientific complica-tions, the nuclear meltdown of the fourth reactor of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant was decidedly the ultimate catalyst which finally broke the back of the Soviet Union and led to its complete dissolution only five years later.
A nuclear meltdown occurs when the heat in the core of a nuclear reac-tor reaches such a high temperature that nuclear materials in-side will melt. Such an event is on par for the amount of damage it can cause with an
atomic bomb: a nuclear meltdown can cause large explosions if nuclear materials make contact with hydrogen and, even worse, often spreads large levels of radiation over vast expanses of land, poisoning people, plants, animals, and even the soil. In hu-man history, there have only been a handful of such incidents that are so catastrophic to be classified as a meltdown, and the accident at Chernobyl still argu-ably holds the record for the worst and is, fittingly, the most well-known.
The Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant was something of a wonder. Located just outside the city of Pripyat in the Ukraine, the station was a technological mar-vel, incorporating the best technology the modern age had to offer to create a highly advanced nuclear plant capable of supplying vast quantities of energy
to much of Ukraine and the Soviet Union. Located in the heart of Ukraine, it was also, to a large extent, part of the beating heart of the Soviet Union, and a symbol of its, albeit waning, strength.
On April 25, 1986, reactor number four of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant was scheduled to undergo an unofficial test to try and measure the success of a new method of preserving power to coolant pumps in the event of a nuclear shut down. This was unofficial in that it was not approved on any bureaucratic levels, rather, it was only approved by the Director of the Plant without consultation with any other scientific or government officials. The test, scheduled to take place during the day, would have involved the lowering of reactor four to greatly reduced power input preceding a shutdown, at which point the methods would be tested, with the reactor to come back online once the tests were concluded.
However, the plan was quickly knocked off its tracks, as a separate regional power station went offline and it was requested that the lowering of the power output of reactor four be postponed to compensate for the gap in energy output. However, although the test was postponed, preparations for it, such as turning off an emergency coolant system, were still initiated, demonstrating a disregard both for estab-lished procedure and safety.
When the test was finally allowed to resume at ap-proximately 11 p.m. that night, the intended proce-dure for the experiment was sped up to compensate for the lost time in postponement. A speedup of the power reduction processes led to reactor poisoning, which is the production of excess xenon caused by the hurried energy output decrease. This, in turn, caused the reactor to continue to reduce its power output past what was intended.
The design of the Chernobyl reactor involves 100 separate graphite rods inserted into the reactor core. These rods act as moderators to the nuclear reac-tion within: pull them out, and the power output will increase, insert them further and it decreases. Therefore, to bring the reactor back up to safe levels of power for the test, many of the reactor rods were
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taken offline from their automatic control system and removed manually. Eventually, nearly all of the rods in the core had been removed, many automatic safety features were bypassed to keep the reactor power level from decreasing further, and the crew ignored safety alarms in order to continue with the experiment.
Finally, at 1:23 in the morning on April 26, the ex-periment began. It lasted for less than a minute and, ironically, was successful. Upon completion of the experiment, for unknown reasons, the emergency shutdown function of the reactor was engaged. This function entails an insertion of all the graphite rods into the core at once. Under normal circumstances,
the rods would have caused power to decrease and the reactor to go offline, however, a flaw in the design of the rods actually caused them to cause an increase in reactor power before decreasing it once they were inserted. This caused a power spike significant enough to jam several rods and overheat the core, causing a massive subsequent buildup of steam in the reactor. Finally, it all became too much.
Not even a minute after the test had taken place, the reactor jumped to a power level of enormous magnitude, much greater than it was ever supposed to operate at. The creation of superheated steam caused a steam explosion, blowing through the roof above reactor four. Moments later, a second, more powerful explosion occurred for unknown reasons,
blowing hunks of superheated metal and graphite into the air and causing a massive plume of radia-tion to rise into the sky. It was from this point that the plant was doomed, with catastrophic damage already caused, and even worse problems in the future for workers at the reactor and civilians in the surrounding areas.
Reactor three was shut down in response, but radia-tion levels in the area were greatly underestimated, and so many workers stayed on at the plant, quickly receiving lethal doses of radiation. Initial firefighting crews were not told about the presence of radiation, and so did not wear protective gear for venturing
into radiation laden areas. In addition, at-tempts by these firefighters placed water near a still unstable nuclear reaction, which would separate the molecules and create hydrogen, which then only further exacerbated the fires.
This was where the tragic pilots of Chernobyl came into play. Since it was noted that the efforts by ground firefighters were proving largely ineffective against the fires raging in the reactor, units from the military were called to the site from as far away as Afghanistan to aid in putting out the flames.
The Soviet military’s response was to drop any-thing non-combustible, from boron to bags of
sand, in the hole blown by the explosions in order to quell the flames. For days, these pilots, each receiv-ing a radiation dose that is many, many times above what is tolerable by the human body flew above the site in helicopters dropping their payloads in a slow effort to put out a fire that could potentially grow larger and cause further damage from the remains of reactor four, or even spread to the other reactors and make the situation worse.
The method utilized by these men seems almost primitive in the face of counteracting such a techno-logically advanced machine, comparable to the story of David and Goliath. In the end, they won out, with thousands of tons of materials dropped onto the fire to put it out. However, this victory was tragically
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soured by loss – over 600 pilots and helicopter crew received dosages of radiation guaranteed to give them lethal cancers later in life, and one helicopter went down after clipping a construction crane, kill-ing all onboard.
However, involvement by pilots with the disaster was not yet complete. In the early months after the explosion, attempts were still being made to ascertain whether or not the reactor was active, how dangerous it was, and how much radioactivity it was releasing into the air. To measure this, MiG aircraft had to fly over the area and take readings of the plant. Sergey Baklavov, then a radar opera-tor in the Soviet Military, was on one such plane. Approximately three months after the incident, he flew over the area numerous times taking readings of the area. Doing this, he received high doses of radiation that may eventually prove fatal to him in service to his country.
Only a little over a month ago on Friday, January 24, Mr. Baklanov came to speak to the VAHS Warrenton chapter about the incident over dinner, speaking about the events leading up to it, the occurrence of the accident itself, the response of the Soviet Union, and his involvement in it. In addition to a special presentation by Mr. Baklanov, the members were shown a documentary on the incident with interviews from plant workers, civilians, and even Mikhail Gorbachev himself. These combined as-pects of the presentation allowed everybody to gain a unique perspective on the entire event, especially learning about it through a former Soviet’s eyes.
An intriguing point raised by Mr. Baklanov was that the entire event was the final push of the Soviet government into their soon-to-be ruin. The point, when given consideration, holds serious merit as not only a way to look at the meltdown on a larger scale, but also a way to study the ripple effect of an event of this magnitude across the rest of the USSR, and the implications it had on their society, economy, and government.
Many were kept in the dark about the seriousness of
the event, both due to unintentional and purpose-ful misinformation. For starters, as stated above, the magnitude of the damage was greatly under-estimated by the initial responders, as many of the workers who had experienced the event to know that the reactor was going into a meltdown had died. Even then, once the true extent of the damage and amount of radiation was realized, it was not revealed. The government in Moscow was only informed a few days afterwards, with the significance of the damage to reactor four underplayed significantly. Even worse, the people of Pripyat were allowed to go about their daily lives and not told anything was awry, with the only indicators of a problem being sudden cases of sickness from radiation poisoning. The people were finally evacuated on the afternoon of April 27, more than a day after the explosions.
At this point, however, many had already received massive dosages of radiation, with several civilians dying soon thereafter and many more expected to die in the future from fatal cancers.
This dealt an enormously significant blow to the society of the Soviet Union. All around, the inepti-tude of the Soviet government to prevent and then speedily respond to the accident was shown, not only to the Soviet people, but also to the rest of the world, diminishing confidence in the Soviet Union’s allies and providing a blow to the USSR in its fight against the west and capitalism. For one of the first times, the Soviet Union was forced to step onto the
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world stage and admit that it had made a serious mistake in front of its people, allies, and, worst of all, its enemies. For this reason, the institution of policies like Glasnost was readily welcomed, and even expected by the Soviet people.
Breaks in multiple layers of safety and bureaucratic protocols tarnished the glory seen in the scientific achievement of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. Even larger so, the scientific aptitude of the Soviet Union, a societal attribute over which it was fiercely competing with the United States, was shown to be inferior.
The economic effects were felt the worst. To begin with, the cleanup and final sealing of the reactor was a massive project requiring a quarter of a million cleanup workers, all of whom received high doses of radiation. Many of these men had to go onto the rooftop of the building and physically shovel debris off of the structure in 40 second shifts, as to avoid incurring too much radiation poisoning. This debris was removed mainly to prevent the further dis-semination of radiation in the air. Even then, once debris had been largely removed from the structure, an enormous metal sarcophagus was erected around the entire nuclear power plant in order to prevent water from further entering the structure, stop the spread of radia-tion from the destroyed reactor and, although this never happened, contain possible future explosions. The total cost of this was 18 bil-lion rubles, roughly equivalent to 38.5 billion US dollars today.
Even beyond this, there are numerous costs that cannot be measured. The loss of human life, for example, or the radiation poisoning taken on by people in the Soviet Union and across Europe is not a figure calculable by numbers. Nor is the sudden massive number of abortions received by mothers across Europe fearing radiation poisoning, or, be-yond economic losses, the psychological effects of moving the populace of several cities, and their fears of contracting painful, deadly cancer later on in life.
However, these costs were not even the worst when factored into the downfall of the Soviet Union. The largest cost of all to a nation whose economy was stagnating was that of the loss of farmland. The Ukraine, fertile and perfect for growing crops, had much of its land devastated by radiation, rendering it unusable for growing crops and farming animals. Because of the massive spread of radiation, the breadbasket of the Soviet Union was brought to its knees. The Soviet economy, already under enormous internal stress to keep its people fed, now struggled even further as food grew rarer. If one follows these damages and gazes at their effects only a few years later, it is easy to link them to the fall of the Soviet Union.
A devastated economy and a starving populace, in total, spelled doom for the pained USSR. The metaphorical straw that broke the camel’s back was Chernobyl, and it did so in only a few short years. It is of note that the Soviet government, society, and economy was already largely strained. All it required was one event of this magnitude, something truly this disastrous, to push it off the edge to its doom. Even so, it is deplorably tragic that the event which completely ended the Cold War and effectively brought peace to the world came out of the death and pain of so many.”
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Dr. Baklanov was born in 1961 in Poland. As a child, he was part of a Soviet military family. His family was posted around the world in locations such as Poland, East Germany, Ukraine, and Siberia where his father spent his last military tour. His father rose to the rank of Colonel in the Soviet Air Force, start-ing as a soldier in Stalingrad (1942).
Sergey graduated from the Moscow Institute of Energy.
From 1984 to 1986, he served in the Soviet military as a MIG 29 radar engineer. Under the Soviet edu-cational system, young adults must have a military and a civilian career. Sergey’s civilian career field of study was power reactors controls. His military field of study was avionics and radar technology. He worked on the MIG 29UB - a two seat supersonic jet. The mission of this regiment was to find and destroy cruise missiles.
After completing his short military career, world events and his drive for knowledge, lead him to earn a PHD in medical physics in 1991.
Dr. Baklanov came to the United State in 1999 and became a US citizen while working for the US Department of Energy subcontractor on the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP). The WIPP is a program to identify techniques for managing nuclear waste.
Dr. Baklanov is currently working on new radio-therapy technology for cancer treatment. He is one of the inventors of US patent pending “Nano-Hybrids Alpha-Radiotherapy for Solid Tumors” Technology (jointly with University of Maryland).
Since there was virtually no general aviation in the former Soviet states, Sergey had to wait until the opportunity presented itself in the United States (Philadelphia, KPNE, 2000). He is a private pilot based in Leesburg, VA (JYO) and who has flown his N513PC Socata Tampico coast to coast visiting such places as Washington State, various high altitude airports in the Rocky Mountains, Grand Canyon, Albuquerque, Santa Fe, Los Alamos, Roswell, Baha-mas and other locations we all wish we could visit
in our GA aircraft.
Nicholas Atanasio is a senior at Liberty High School in Bealeton, Virginia. He participates in Liberty’s Marching Band, Pep Band, History Club, NHS, and Theatre productions. He enjoys model making, Star Wars, LOST, tambourine, and listening to film and TV scores. In the fall, he plans to attend VCU School of the Arts for Cinema in Richmond, Virginia.
The following attended the Chapter meeting: Andy Ozals, Kelli Gatewood, Mr. and Mrs. Eric Tre-worgy, Ralph and Laura Hoover, Norman Wear, David Weston, Richard and Jennifer Deary, Frank Wickersham, Maggie Smith, Steve Marshall, Evelyn Marshall, Charles Kulp, Judy and Al Sparks, Sher-man Taffel, Camellia Blackwell, Doris Gatewood, Julie Gatewood, Olivia Gatewood, Sylvia Gatewood, Bobby Vaughan, Gene Barns, Bob and Penny Wood-berry, Mr. and Mrs. Mike Chappel, Linda Burdette.
* * * * *
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WILLIAMSBURG EAGLES CHAPTER
WINTER 2013 - 2014
Submitted by: Jug Gerard
December 2013 -- The December 18, 2013 meeting of the VAHS Eagles Chapter
was held at 10:00 in the conference room of the Williamsburg-Jamestown Airport (JGG). President Jug Gerard led the group participation in the Pledge of Allegiance. The meeting agenda provided both our guest speaker and the chapter’s traditional Christmas buffet catered by Charley’s Restaurant, with a short social period between the two. Forty-seven members and guests attended. Bill Riffer, a retired naval nuclear submarine skipper who has made his avocation military history presented Aviation on the Western Front during the First World War. Bill is the current Program Director and teacher of military history for the William & Mary Christopher Wren Program. Eagles Program Chairman Jackson Cartwright introduced Bill.
Bill couched his opening remarks about aviation in WWI as an endeavor in Learning to Fly, for that is what it was -- there was a war and there was an airplane, but the latter initially had little recognized position in the former. Together, over nearly four years, the antagonists developed modern warfare, step-by-step.
The aircraft was well established by 1914 and the warring powers had about 1,000 planes available, plus some dirigibles and many balloons. The physical and training requirements also were well established. Initially the one clear and recognized mission was observation and reconnaissance. Information gathered from aerial platforms was useful in many forms. Aircraft of the two factions often passed in the air on similar missions until the next step became denial of access for the opposition. Firing of personal weapons and side firing machine guns between adversaries began. Then the forward firing machine gun was attempted with limited success due
to often-damaging the spinning propeller. French aviator Roland Garros designed a metal deflector to limit damage to the wooden prop. He was successful in downing two German platforms -- balloons and dirigibles were particularly vulnerable -- before being forced down and taken prisoner in April 1915. The Germans salvaged Garros’ deflector prop from the wreckage and immediately improved and produced their synchronized propeller to preclude any prop-projectile impact. Installation of the synchronized propeller on the German Fokker aircraft provided immediate German aerial success noted as “The Fokker Scourge” beginning in May 1915. Garros eventually escaped and returned to flying, downing two more Axis planes before he was killed one month before the end of hostilities. (From the internet: Garros downed four Germans and is generally identified an Ace. The Ace term and number has varied considerably over the years, originally relating to a four-ace poker hand, but eventually settling out at five. That first five-plane Ace recognition belongs to Adolphe Pegoud, another Frenchman. In 1920, the French Open tennis tournament absorbed the Garros name, a national hero, in its full title, which it carries to this day.)
Thus, the fighter plane was fully established. The mission for both sides quickly became -- shoot down observation aircraft. In that pursuit, the dogfight pattern developed as the war became a performance and numbers contest. By the time America entered the conflict the war’s pattern was firmly established and U.S. aviation joined with its contribution to become part of the model. U.S. Ace count never matched other allied or axis numbers simply because of the late entry.
Aerial artillery spotting became a significant contributing mission, replacing the highly vulnerable balloons for that function, particularly after airborne radio communication was developed. Balloon observers were some of the first to utilize the parachute, often needed to evacuate their vulnerable platform when under ground and aerial attack. Air-to-ground attack also became important. Bombing
15
was attempted early with little success primarily because of limited size bomb loads on the flimsy minimally powered airframes. Some Zeppelins were used against London for bombing, mostly at night, but weather issues and vulnerability made them of little consequence. Technology just was not ready.
Thus, flying was generally tactical, although initial inroads toward strategic were made late in the war. At Amiens, over 1,000 aircraft took part. The Great War did generate tremendous strides in engine and airframe development. By 1918, the Allies were completely out-building the Germans. By war’s end, Allied aircraft outnumbered the Axis 6,300 to 2,500 on the Western Front. However, in the final analysis the aircraft was not a decisive weapon in the war.
January 2014 -- (Provided by Stan Lewis). The Williamsburg Eagles VAHS Chapter meeting,
January 15, 2014, was opened by Joe Kuppich, who led the members in the Pledge of Allegiance. The speaker was Dr. Aaron Smith, Denbigh High School Aviation Academy Program Director, who was introduced by Norm Crabill. Dr. Smith described in detail the goals, activities and achievements of the
Academy’s programs, including the construction of a RV-12 kit airplane.
The Academy is sited at the Newport News/Williamsburg Airport (PHF). The school has a hands-on curriculum in a safe learning environment, featuring classroom studies and experiences
outside the classroom. Subjects include aerospace, physics,computers, engineering, aviation, airport management, air traffic control, electronics and pilot procedures.
The presentation included a discussion of career opportunities, professional certifications through the Academy, cooperative college credits through Christopher Newport University and partnerships enjoyed by the institution.
The Academy is open to students from Newport News. Students from other towns can enroll after paying tuition. A number of families have relocated to Newport News so that their children can participate more easily. Core classes also include Geography, Earth Sciences, Honors English, Meteorology and advanced Mathematics. A number of the classes are conducted at the Denbigh High School home campus, not at PHF.
The Academy has a Cessna 172, which is used for aircraft operation and repair instruction. The students are building a RV-12 kit plane obtained from Eagles Nest Projects, which came with a tutorial video to guide the students during construction.
The manufacturing process is fully compliant with all FAA requirements, including all paperwork needed. The students are currently ahead of the required paperwork and have completed the empennage. When the RV-12 is ready, it will be test flown by an Eagles Nest test pilot and used by the Academy for school instruction. Two of the students are doing a running Blog on the project to keep all interested parties to up speed on progress.
The Peninsula is very fortunate to have a program like the Aviation Academy available for local students to use to both enter professional aviation related fields and to advance their general academic skills. Well done, Dr. Smith and all others involved.
(The Daily Press newspaper is carrying a
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series of progress articles on the Aviation Academy students work to build the kit airplane. Online, visit daily press.com to see a video of the plane in the making or their blog at http://community.nn.k12.va.us/rv-12/. Information and readings are also found online under RV-12 and Eagles Nest Projects.)
February 2014 -- The Williamsburg Eagles Chapter of VAHS met on the 19th in the
Williamsburg-Jamestown Airport (JGG) conference room at 10:00. Jug Gerard led the group in the Pledge of Allegiance. Guests were recognized and Norm Crabill provided the introduction of speakers.
Paul Glenshaw’s unconventionally titled presentation To Swing Through the Sky, purportedly to provide a history and parallel development of jazz music and flight, could only generate an initial degree of questioning reservation from the audience. Paul is an educator and artist by training with a creative bent often directed to getting young people hands-on and interested in their subject matter. That creative enthusiasm carried into his presentation highlighting two of his favorite subjects -- jazz and aviation. Backed with classic slides, video and sound
track he read the parallel script to highlight eerily matched pairings of the two subjects, beginning appropriately in 1903 and carrying through to the space walks of the mid- 1960s. Imagine these couplings:
- Wright Brothers - Buddy Bolden (1900-1905). The first to successfully synthesize all the elements of jazz and powered flight.
- Eddie Rickenbacker/Norman Prince - James Reese Europe/W.C. Handy (WW I). The rapid development of the music as a popular form paralleled the rapid expansion of the use of the airplane in WW I.
- Charles Lindbergh - Louis Armstrong (May 1927). Arguably the two most influential figures in their fields. All the music changed after Armstrong’s “Hot Five” and “Hot Seven” records, and all the flying changed after Lindbergh’s transatlantic flight. They were made within ten days of each other. Remember dancing “The Lindy“?
- Howard Hughes - Duke Ellington (1930s). Sophistication, elegance, record breaking transcontinental reach for each -- the H-1 Racer and Ellington’s national broadcasts.
- Amelia Earhart - Benny Goodman (1935). Earhart flew the Pacific from Honolulu to San Francisco alone and Goodman became the “King of Swing” the same year.
-Chuck Yeager - Charlie Parker (1947). The music and the machines pushed the boundaries of
harmony and aerodynamics. Bebop and the breaking of the sound barrier shared the motto “Higher, faster, farther.”
- Boeing 707 Jet Age - Miles Davis Cool Jazz (1950s/early 60s). Each shares a refined elegance emblematic of the time.
- Ed White’s space walk - John Coltrane’s “A love Supreme” (1965). The spacewalk revealed a human set against the earth, alone. The music was borne of deep inner reflection. Each is profound statement of our place in the universe.
- Moon Landing - Duke Ellington’s commission for music from ABC News. The
network was way ahead of Paul on this idea. ABC news commissioned music from Ellington to celebrate the moon landing, and he performed it on live TV in front of mock-ups of the Apollo spacecraft and projections of Saturn rocket launches.
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The follow-on presenter, Bill Hadden, an associate of Ken Hyde (2000 inductee to the VAHS Aviation Hall of Fame), the founder of Virginia Aviation, covered work of the Wright Experience team at their aviation restoration facility in Warrenton, Virginia. The company has a long list of reproduction and restored aircraft projects on display at many museums across the country. Bill spoke generally about the Wright brothers and in particular to the Wright’s ultimate gift to mankind, the 1903 Flyer. The world saw that Flyer reproduction come to life during the 1903 Centennial of First Flight on December 17, 2003, at The Wright Brothers National Memorial, Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. That aircraft is now exhibited in the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan. A second 1903 Kitty Hawk Flyer is on permanent display at the Park Service Kitty Hawk Museum. And, a third Flyer built by Ken and his team is on display at The Museum of Flight, in Seattle, Washington.
Detail of the failed December 2003 flight was explained in depth with the culprit being rainwater spray, which apparently shorted part of the engine electrical system about the time flying speed was approaching. As an engineer, Norm Crabill also showed his performance charts of the Flyer
confirming the power loss. Recordings of the engine noise during the attempted flight also audibly identify the power drop.
Bill covered details of the glider training conducted to prepare for piloting the Flyer, again using a reproduction airframe of the Wright’s design, at both Warrenton and Kitty Hawk dunes. Four candidates (one woman) and hours of tow practice and into-the-wind gliding went into preparation, mostly directed and monitored by one-time test pilot and first man to exceed twice the speed of sound, A. Scott Crossfield (1921-2006). The Wrights trained to over 1,200 glider flights.
Paul Glenshaw was able to quickly dial-up on the screen a background of slides and video to emphasize much of Bill’s presentation. A highlight was footage of Paul’s eight-year-old son successfully maneuvering the tethered glider through a flight off the Kitty Hawk dunes.
Both presentations generated considerable questions and contributing comment from the audience. Only limited time finally terminated their informative presentations.
VIRGINIA AIRPORTS Vera Foster Rollo & Norman L. Crabill. THE most in-depth historical survey of our Virginia airports, aeronautical events, and the people that make it happen, from the earliest days of aviation in the Old Dominion. Extensively researched and detailed with many never-before-seen aerial maps of airports from the beautiful Shenandoah Valley to the Tidewater area of Virginia. 8 1/2 by 11 paperback. 244 pages and is packed with b/w photos and illustrations. It can be purchased from the publisher for $25 per copy (U.S.) which includes shipping and handling. Order at Virginia Aeronautical Historical Society, 5701 Huntsman Road, Richmond, Virginia 23250-2416 or call (804)222-8690 or email [email protected].
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Calendar of EventsApril 1-6, 2014
Sun ‘n Fun International Fly-In and Expo will be held at Lakeland Regional Airport in FL.
April 12, 2014
Virginia Aeronautical Historical Society Annual Spring Party and Auction will take place at the Virginia Aviation Museum from 5:30 – 9:00 p.m. Tickets are just $35 for the best party in town. Lots of food, drink, great items to bid on in the silent auction and the voice auction, games and prizes. Contact Jen Melton at (804) 222-8690 or [email protected] to purchase your tickets.
April 12, 2014
Virginia Seaplane Pilots Association Splash-In will take place in Clarksville at the beach below the Lake Motel. Building on the great success of the Lake Gaston seaplane splash-in back in October of 2013, the Virginia Seaplane Pilots Association has paired with Mecklenburg County Tourism, the Clarksville Chamber of Commerce and the Lake Motel to bring a splash-in to Clarksville on Saturday, April 12th from 10 a.m.-5 p.m. This is the same day as the increasingly popular Clarksville Wine Festival; people will be able to attend the festival and then stroll right down to the lake to see these beautiful aircraft and meet the pilots. For more information on the splash-in, please contact Steve Harris/VA DOAV ([email protected]), Bill Fosdick/VA SPA ([email protected]), or Justin Kerns/Mecklenburg Tourism ([email protected]), or go to http://www.mecklen-burgva.com/2014clarksvillesplashin.aspx. Down-load additional details about the Splash-In.
April 12, 2014
Luray-Page County Aviation Meeting will take place at Luray Southern Grill (Rt. 340 about 3 miles
south of downtown Luray). Meal on your own (steak or shrimp) at 6:00 p.m. and program with John Billings “Pilot Safety-What is Often Overlooked” beginning at 7:00 p.m. Luray-Page County local pilots and aviation enthusiasts are welcome. Please RSVP by April 4th with meal selection ($23.00 per person for the meal) to (540) 743-3363 or [email protected]
April 28, 2014
Virginia Aviation Safety Week Program “Ac-cident Case Study: Live” will take place at the Virginia Air and Space Center in Hampton from 7:00 - 9:00 p.m. To the average person, it might seem a bit morbid that pilots pay so much attention to aircraft accidents. After all, when was the last time you saw an article about an accident in a car magazine? But flying isn’t like driving, and accidents deserve atten-tion: They let us learn from others’ mistakes, help us think critically about our skills, and provide a mental “nudge” if we find ourselves in similar situations.
With that in mind, the Air Safety Institute’s new seminar, Accident Case Study: Live, aims to put a new spin on safety-oriented accident analysis. Working with several compelling real-life cases, presenter and audience will play the role of accident investigator—starting at the crash scene and work-ing backwards through physical evidence, eyewit-ness testimony, and other leads to figure out exactly what went wrong, and why.
Virginia Aviation Safety Week Programs are pre-sented by the Virginia Department of Aviation and the AOPA Air Safety Institute.
April 29, 2014
Virginia Aviation Safety Week Program “Ac-cident Case Study: Live” will take place at the Virginia Aviation Museum located on Richmond International Airport from 7:00 - 9:00 p.m.
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April 30, 2014
Virginia Aviation Safety Week Program “Ac-cident Case Study: Live” will take place at the Blue Ridge Regional Airport in Martinsville from 7:00 - 9:00 p.m.
May 1, 2014
Virginia Aviation Safety Week Program “Ac-cident Case Study: Live” will take place at the Virginia Tech/Montgomery Executive Airport in Blacksburg 7:00 - 9:00 p.m.
May 3, 2014
Manassas Airport Regional Open House & Air-show 2014 will be held from 10:00 a.m. until 4:00 p.m. at Manassas Regional Airport. The event is sponsored by MARBA - Manassas Airport Regional Business Alliance. For more information visit http://www.marbainc.com/2014airshow.html
May 10, 2014
Women Can Fly will be held at Warrenton Fauquier Regional Airport. Check www.doav.virginia.gov for further details.
May 24, 2014
Women Can Fly will be held at Lynchburg Regional Airport. check www.doav.virginia.gov for further details.
May 31-June 1, 2014
Virginia Regional Festival of Flight will be held at Suffolk Executive Airport.
June 7, 2014
Williamsburg Jamestown Airport Helicopter Fly-In will take place from 9:00 a.m. until 3:00 p.m. Helicopter and fixed wing rides available. Fly-In participants receive $.20/gal fuel discount, 10% off lunch ticket and free parking.Sponsored by Williamsburg Jamestown Airport, Charly’s Airport Restaurant, and the Va. Helicopter Association. Rain date: June 8, 2014. For more information
contact Charley Rogers at (757) 229-9256 or Henry Schwartz at (703) 201-2759 or [email protected]
June 21, 2014
Women Can Fly will be held at Hampton Roads Executive Airport. Check www.doav.virginia.gov for further details.
June 28, 2014
Women Can Fly will be held at Charlottesville-Albemarle Airport. Check www.doav.virginia.gov for further details.
June 28, 2014
Annual Bluegrass Festival and Airport Fly-In will be held from 11:00 a.m. until 6:00 p.m. at Middle Peninsula Regional Airport in Mattaponi. Includes a bluegrass music festival, games, vendors, and flying contests such as spot landings and flour bag drops. For more information contact Bill Dale at (804) 785-9725 or [email protected] or visit fly-fyj.com
Ongoing Events
Pancake Breakfast at Franklin Municipal Air-port takes place the fourth Saturday of each month (from 8:00 - 10:30 a.m.) in the Old Dominion Squadron’s hangar. The cost per person is a $6.00 donation. Sponsored by EAA Chapter 339 and Old Dominion Squadron CAF. For more information call (757) 562-8764. (2013 Dates: Jan. 26, Feb. 23, March 23, April 27, May 25, June 22, July 27, Aug. 24, Sept. 28, Oct. 26, Nov. 23).
Fly-In 2010 at Twin County Airport (KHLX) will take place the second Saturday of every month April through October. Everyone is welcome for food, drinks, and fellowship. Food served from 8:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m. All proceeds go to Local EAA Chapter 1426. For more information contact Brian Sutphin (276) 733-4198.
Pancake Breakfast at Mecklenburg-Brunswick Regional Airport takes place the first Saturday of each month (from 8:00-10:00 a.m.). Breakfast
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and social hour with regularly scheduled live pre-sentations by FAA and/or NTSB. Sponsored by Mecklenburg-Brunswick Regional Airport and The Club/Lake Gaston Resort. For more information contact (434) 729-2591or [email protected]
Soup-on-Sunday at Campbell Field Airport (9VG) on the Eastern Shore of Virginia will take place each Sunday from noon-3:00 p.m. For more information visit the website or contact Gordon Campbell at (757) 442-7519.
Friends of the Petersburg Pilots Association holds a breakfast from 8:00-10:00 a.m. the third Saturday of each month at the Dinwiddie County Airport. For more information call (804) 861-9915.
Lonesome Pine EAA Chapter 1416 invites pilots and guests to attend free “Hotdogs & Hangar Talk” beginning at 11:00 a.m. the third Saturday of each month at Lonesome Pine Airport (follows the EAA Chapter Meeting at 10:00 a.m.). For more informa-tion contact Bob Spera, Director, Liberty Flying Service, (276) 328-5300 or [email protected] or visit www.libertyflyingservice.com.
Gordonsville Municipal Airport has a free lunch provided by GAPS (Gordonsville Airport Preserva-tion Society) members on Saturdays and Sundays. Call in advance to confirm menu (540) 903-6624.
Flying Circus Airshow (Open every Sunday, May through October) including precision aerobatic and formation flying, wing walking, hot air ballooning, skydiving, and antique open cockpit airplanes. Bi-plane rides are available before and after every show. Gates open at 11:00 a.m. Show starts at 2:30 p.m. $10.00 for adults and $3.00 for kids. Group rates available. Concession stand, picnic grounds, gift shop. Picnic pavilion available for party rental. The Flying Circus Aerodrome is located at Rte. 17 and Rte. 644 (Richie Road) in Bealeton, Virginia. For more information visit www.flyingcircusairshow.com or call (540) 439-8661.
World War II Veterans Honor Flights via DCA Air Carriers take place each Saturday and Wednes-
day April-May and Sept.-Oct. from 9:30 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport Terminals A, B, & C. Sponsored by US Airways, AAL, Delta, and Air Tran. Between 100-450 WWII veterans are flown to DCA via charters from various east coast airports to visit the WWII Memorial on the Mall in Washington, DC. Numer-ous air carriers fly-in vets on chartered flights while other passengers warmly cheer and welcome them back to DCA. 7700+ WWII vets flew into DCA on 64 charter flights during 2009.
National Capitol Squadron (NCS) of Culpeper, Virginia holds a hangar open house on the second Saturday of each month. The NCS is a division of the Commemorative Air Force and is focused on World War II aircraft and honoring past and present veterans and more specifically the aviation history of the 1940’s. For more information visit http://www.nationalcapitolsquadron.org/site/
Regular Meetings:
Virginia Aeronautical Historical Society - North-ern Neck-Middle Peninsula Chapter meets at the Pilot House, Hummel Field, in Topping, Virginia in the “Eagle’s Nest” at 12 Noon on the third Thursday of each month unless otherwise posted. Pilots can fly-in and park at the door of the restaurant. Visi-tors are welcome at these luncheon meetings. There is an interesting speaker from the field of aviation each month. Come visit the “Eagle’s Nest” at any time and see the collection of aviation art and other memorabilia.
Williamsburg Chapter of the Virginia Aeronauti-cal Historical Society meets the 3rd Wednesday of each month at the Williamsburg-Jamestown Airport in the upstairs meeting room at 10:00 a.m. Call (757) 229-1597 or (757) 220-9115 for information.
Ninety-Nines - Hampton Roads Chapter meets the first Monday of each month at 7:00 p.m. alternating between Newport News-Williamsburg Airport and Norfolk International Airport. For more informa-tion, contact Linda Mathias (757) 242-3491 or Diana Curtis 757 877-6803.
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Ninety-Nines - Shenandoah Chapter meets the third Sunday of each month at 2:00 p.m. at the Shenandoah Valley Regional Airport. All women pilots and student pilots are welcome. Contact Sara Fultz (540) 896-9842 or Jackie Estes (540) 347-5679, to confirm meeting date in the event of late changes.
Ninety-Nines - Virginia Chapter meets the third Saturday of each month at various airports around the state. All women pilots and student pilots are invited to attend. For more information contact Bar-bara Headley at (804) 580-4624 or (804) 347-7592 or [email protected]. See the website at http://VirginiaChapter99s.shutterfly.com
Ninety-Nines - Old Dominion Chapter meets the third Tuesday of each month at various locations. All women pilots and student pilots are invited to attend. For more information call Susan Passmore at 703-328-2051. See the website at http://www.olddominion99s.com.
Peninsula Airport Commission Meetings are held the third Thursday of every month beginning at 8:00 a.m. in the Commission Room at the Newport News-Williamsburg International Airport. The meeting is open to the public.
Wingnuts Flying Club meets on the first and third Tuesday of each month at 7:00 p.m. in the Chester-field County Airport terminal building. See the web site at www.wingnutsflying.com.
Civil Air Patrol - Hampton Roads Composite Squadron of the Civil Air Patrol meets every Thursday evening at 6:30 p.m. at Chesapeake Re-gional Airport located at 1777 West Road, Chesa-peake, VA. Cadets aged 12-21 interested in solo flying airplanes/gliders, search & rescue, and more are invited to join. Adults welcome! Email us at [email protected], call 757-77-HRCS-1 (757-774-7271), or visit www.GoCivilAirPatrol.com to find a squadron near you.
Civil Air Patrol - The Newport News Composite Squadron of the Civil Air Patrol meets every Tues-
day evening at 6:30 p.m. at 904 Bland Blvd on the grounds of the Newport News-Williamsburg Inter-national Airport. All aviation enthusiasts interested in search-and-rescue and young people ages 12-18 interested in the Cadet Program are invited to join. For details visit www.vawg.cap.gov/newportnews
Civil Air Patrol - Leesburg Composite Squad-ron of the Civil Air Patrol - Adult members meet the first and third Tuesday of the month and cadet members meet every Tuesday at 7pm at the Lees-burg National Guard Armory. We welcome anyone interested in Search & Rescue and aviation. Details and directions at: www.leesburgcap.org
Shenandoah Valley EAA Chapter 511 meets at 7:30 p.m. on the third Tuesday of each month at the Shenandoah Valley Regional Airport. For more information visit www.geocities.com/eaa511va.
Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA) Chap-ter 231 meets at 7:00 p.m. on the second Wednesday of each month at the rear of the Virginia Aviation Museum (except for February which is designated for the Annual Dinner). For more information and to confirm meeting date and time visit www.eaa231.org.
Experimental Aircraft Association Chapter 1099 meets at 7:00 p.m. on the first Tuesday of each month at Dogwood Air Park. For more information go to www.eaa1099.org, e-mail [email protected] or call Lindy Kirkland at (540) 903-7580.
The Orange County Airport Boosters Associa-tion, Inc. (OCABA) holds its monthly organiza-tion meeting on the first Saturday of each month. Welcome to all supporters of Orange County Airport (KOMH). See http://www.ocaba-omh.org for more details.
CAF Old Dominion Squadron holds monthly meetings on the second Saturday of each month (ex-cept December) beginning at 10:00 a.m. at Franklin Municipal Airport in the Squadron’s hangar or the airport’s adjacent Base Operations building confer-ence room (depending on weather).. The meetings
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are open to the public. For more information view the brochure or visit www.OldDominionSquadron.org
Civil Air Patrol – The Fort Pickett Composite Squadron of the Civil Air Patrol meets every Thursday evening at 7:00 p.m. at the National Guard Armory at 1008 Darvills Road, Blackstone or the Army Airfield, Blackstone. All aviation enthusiasts interested in search-and-rescue and young people ages 12-18 interested in the Cadet Program are invited to join. For more information and to con-firm meeting location please contact 1LT Kruse at [email protected]. The Bombers
Whenever I see them ride on highGleaming and proud in the morning skyOr lying awake in bed at nightI hear them pass on their outward flightI feel the mass of metal and gunsDelicate instruments, deadweight tonsAwkward, slow, bomb racks fullStraining away from downward pullStraining away from home and baseAnd try to see the pilot’s faceI imagine a boy who’s just left schoolOn whose quick-learned skill and courage
coolDepend the lives of the men in his crewAnd success of the job they have to do.And something happens to me insideThat is deeper than grief, greater than prideAnd though there is nothing I can sayI always look up as they go their wayAnd care and pray for every one,And steel my heart to say,“Thy will be done.”
— Sarah Churchil
daughter of Sir Winston.
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Virginia Aviation History Project
In the last VAHS newsletter, the article ended on Day 14 with the fliers and Kit Foxes in Bettles,
Alaska, with the intent of heading north to Barrow. We resume the travelogue at that point.
DAY 15 (June 14) – POINT BARROW, AK
There are two passes through the Brooks Range, the “Atigun Pass” and the “Anaktuvuk Pass”. The “Ati-gun Pass” is where the Haul Road (Dalton Highway) and oil pipeline pass through on their way to Prudhoe Bay near an airport called Deadhorse (PASC). The pass we chose to transverse the Brooks Range was the “Anaktuvuk Pass” that is over 50 nautical west of the Atigun Pass at the head of the roadless 80 mile long John River valley . It is a shorter distance to Barrow from Bettles (more direct) than through the Atigun Pass. With the Anaktuvuk Pass route, you do not have to take the long way to Barrow through Prudhoe Bay, via Deadhorse.
We were advised by a local pilot at Bettles to take the Anaktuvuk Pass, since it is much wider and
easier to fly through. The walls of Atigun Pass are so steep in places that it would be much more diffi-cult to turn around in an airplane when the weath-er deteriorates. There is no weather reporting at Atigun and the weather often deteriorates without warning. The only weather reporting for the pass is via PIREP’s.
We departed Bettles at 10:55 AM with a planned route to Barrow via the Anaktuvuk Pass (PAKP)
Kit Foxes to Alaska – Part 2Text and Photos by John King
Anaktuvuk Pass on the way to Barrow, Alaska
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and Umiat (PAUM). Finding the entrance to the Anaktuvuk Pass was easy; just follow the John Riv-er up the South Slope of the Brooks Range to the Village of Anaktuvuk. The Anaktuvuk Pass airport lies atop the Brooks Range almost overlooking the North Slope. The Umiat village and airport is just beyond the North Slope and lies on what is referred to as flat frozen Arctic tundra.
Just prior to entering the pass, Fox #3 (Stan Specht) reported that he felt some unusual vibration up front and did not feel comfortable continuing on at this point. He though it might be related to the prop and was going to return to Bettles, since he might have to order a new prop. The rest of the
group continued on stating that we would see him on our return from Barrow. As he would later dis-cover the problem was really related to spark plugs, not the propeller.
As we passed over the village of Anaktuvuk, Fox #2 (Robert Oliver) reported a suspect break in the en-gine exhaust system, causing an EGT reading to go to zero. We immediately turned around and landed on the gravel strip at Anaktuvuk. A quick exami-nation verified that the right rear exhaust manifold
had completely separated from the cylinder head. Could we possibly find a welder here at the Anak-tuvuk Village?
A couple of the female locals drove up in a van and advised us that; (1) the village was DRY (no alcohol allowed), and (2) no taking pictures of the native population without their explicit permission. Any alcohol consumed, brought in, or sold would result in a $200 fine. Oh yes, there was a welder in the vil-lage. We had only two requests; is there a place to eat lunch, and could we talk to the welder?
We were taken to meet Scott Szmyd, the local ma-chinist and welder and fellow worker Bill Weber.
When Scott introduced himself as the “Town Drunk and he just came out of the closet”, our first thought was; “this is not a good idea”. As it turned out, Scott was a great guy that loved to kid around. Herb, who is our self-appointed technical coun-selor, inspected Scott’s repair work and Robert was pleased with the workmanship. Scott refused pay-ment, stating all he wanted was to take a close look at our airplanes.
After lunch when the repaired ex-haust pipe was installed, we departed Anaktuvuk for Umiat (PAUM). Our only reason for stopping at Umiat was to top off on fuel prior to our last leg to Barrow. While we had suffi-cient fuel to make Barrow, it would
be unwise to proceed without a large fuel reserve. Cold northerly winds over the arctic ice cap could quickly fog in Barrow and the entire Arctic coastline, extending our flight time far be-yond our existing fuel reserves.
It would be an overstatement to say that “there is very little at Umiat”, which is basically operated by the oil exploration companies. The airport was simply a gravel strip with a couple of small shacks and several white fuel tanks. Most of the buildings were a series of special built industrial trailers, tee-
Enroute to Barrow
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connected together. Fuel cost us $5.25 per gallon and a small cubical room went for $200 a night. Not a good place for an overnight. After refueling we immediately departed for Barrow. The terrain from Umiat to Barrow consisted of vast stretches of flat Arctic tundra with thousands of frozen small lakes or ponds. There were no trees or substantial vegetation, except for marsh grass that was brown in color. Not a safe place to put down anywhere. We did see a sandbar or two along the Chipp River that might afford a possible landing spot, but you would never get airborne again. We had 150 nm of nothing but this stuff between us and Point Barrow. As it turned out, this was the only leg of our entire Alaska trip where the conversation over the radio was almost nonexistent.
About 35 miles out of Barrow, as we approached the frozen Admiralty Bay, we started to enter light rain and the visibility began to deteriorate, but no fog. Barrow Radio cleared us for landing on Run-way 6 with rain and high wind. Our approach to Runway 6 took us several thousand feet out over the Arctic Ocean and shoreline pack ice. Rain on the windshield was not being sufficiently cleared by the idling prop wash as I turned to base. High on my list of concerns was flying low and slow in cold rain; normally ideal conditions for carbure-tor icing. After touching down and turning off the runway, the wind and cold rain became the next concern. Flight Service instructed us to taxi up to the tower and tie down. It soon became obvious that we were not adequately dressed for Point Bar-row. Tying down the aircraft in the cold, blowing rain was the most unwelcoming experience we had encountered to date.
Having made our way up the tower stairs to get out of the cold rain and talk with Flight Service, we quickly managed to display our ignorance with two simple questions. First, is there a courtesy car avail-able, and second, where can we get a quick beer and pizza? Response was loud and clear: “Where the Hell do you think you are? There is NO courtesy car and this village is DRY!” Welcome to Point Bar-row!!!
After we checked into the Barrow Airport Inn, one block away, and eating a good meal served with ice tea, we completed our self-guided walking tour of everything interesting to see in Barrow in just two hours. All the roads and property surround-ing the buildings were hard packed dirt and gravel, no grass or vegetation of any kind. Structures were mostly single story, wooden buildings with lots of telephone poles running everywhere. Some of the Government buildings were larger with two or more stories. Our plan was to arise at sunrise the next morn-ing, eat breakfast and depart Barrow early. Since it never gets dark this time of the year, there is no sunrise, so to speak. We soon learned of another Barrow phenomenon. In addition to a fuel charge of $4.34 a gallon, the fuel truck driver advised us of a required $50.00 callout fee PER AIRCRAFT. To most of the large cargo aircraft that service Barrow, that is an insignificant added cost, but an outright rip-off in our case. After a little negotiation, our only recourse was to purchase all of the required fuel on one charge card. That we could do - a sav-ings of $250.
After fueling our Kitfoxes we saw a DC-6 from Air Cargo Express land and taxi up to the maintenance hangar. They fly in from Fairbanks twice a week to provide Barrow with all their supplies. The pilot, who also owns a homebuilt, allowed us to tour the DC-6. When we complained about the fuel charg-es at Barrow, he stated the four radial engines on a DC-6 burn more fuel on takeoff (over 100 gallons) than the combined fuel all of our flying machines can carry together. Although interesting, we didn’t feel any better.
DAY 16 (JUNE 15) - BETTLES, AK
Our early departure from Barrow was not going to happen, due to heavy fog all along the Arctic coast-line. While checking the weather at the FBO we were befriended by another pilot, David Kessler the CEO of Barrow Computer. David took us under his wing and allowed us the use of his store for Internet updates. The heavy fog delayed our departure un-
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til 6:55 that evening and only after our request for a Special VFR departure. The ceiling to the south was only a few hundred feet, but that would be no problem since the terrain was flat frozen tundra, void of all vegetation and any obstacles. You could fly just 10 feet off the surface and not run into any-thing. Twenty miles out of Barrow and the Arc-tic coastline it was SVFR all the way to the North Slope. Of course, we had to once more traverse the vast stretch of flat Arctic tundra with thousands of frozen small lakes or ponds prior to flying up the North Slope and over the Brooks Range.
Our return plan was to fly nonstop from Point Bar-row to Bettles and not stop at the airstrips at Umiat or Anaktuvuk, as we did on the flight north. As we over flew Umiat, we soon discovered that locating the Anaktuvuk Pass from the North Slope side of the Brooks Range was not going to be as easy as it was from the South Slope side. The river that fol-lows the Pass was not that well defined and there were several to choose from. Neither of us Bird Dogs in the lead flight could agree on the exact lo-cation of the Pass. We also notice convective activ-ity ahead in the general area we were headed. If the tall dark clouds forming ahead were over the Pass we would have to do a 180 and land at Umiat.
By this time the Bird Dogs were climbing up the North Slope following a small river we hoped was the entrance to the Pass. The dark clouds were just off our right wing and light rain was visible on the windshield. Our GPS’s were of no value at this time since there are no navigation aids to define the Pass. It was then we realized that we had made two mistakes. First, we did not punch in the lat-long position on our GPS’s defining the entrance to the Pass before departure, and second, we had already erased the trails on our GPS defining our flight path on the trip north. Flight trails take up a lot of the GPS memory if not periodically erased. BIG MISTAKE HERE!!!
We soon discovered another problem. The small rivers flowing down the North Slope often joined together where the pass narrowed, forcing us to de-cide which path to follow -- turn right or left? The
Bird Dogs wrongly guessed right and soon found ourselves heading the wrong way up a very nar-row valley. Fortunately, we passed a small cut in the mountain to our left that appeared to lead to the other pass. Once back on the correct mountain pass, we radioed the Foxes to take the left pass go-ing up the slope. Since we were low in the moun-tains, we often lost radio communications with the Foxes. Once we overflew the village of Anaktuvuk we knew we were in the pass which is well defined at this point.
The rest of the flight to Bettles was uneventful, ex-cept that the scenery flying down the South Slope of the pass was stunning. At this point Bird Dog #2 (Miguel) was a couple of miles behind me, so he decided to join up with the Foxes for the rest of the leg. The John River valley was much wider at this point and the winding river snaked its way through tall green grass and low pine trees. It was a real treat to see some green vegetation on the ground once again. I flew as slow as I could at 500 feet fol-lowing the river as it wound its way down the valley looking for wild life.
About 30 nm out of Bettles, but still in the Pass, the Foxes and Miguel decided to land on a small private grass strip at Crevice Creek. After meeting the family that lives there and taking some pictures they took off for Bettles. Since I had already landed and met up with Stan, we stood by and watched the Foxes and Miguel showing off by doing a low flyby over the Bettles Lodge. After they landed on the ground we were once again a flight of seven Kit-foxes.
DAY 17 (JUNE 16) - CIRCLE HOT SPRINGS, AK
Big decision time was at hand. Before we return for home, we wanted to see more of what Alaska had to offer for pilots eager to find a landing strip that of-fered interesting places to visit, different from those we can access in the Lower 48. The Alaska Interior has hundreds of hot springs where some of them have been used for centuries by Natives and more recent arrivals. The three most popular, that are
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accessible by airplane, are Chena, Manley, and Circle. Since I had flown to Chena Hot Springs during the 1998 Alaska trip, and some of the local pilots talked a lot about the Arctic Circle Hot Springs (called Circle), we decided to treat Circle to a flight of seven Kitfoxes.
We departed early from Bettles heading east-ward just 20 nm to Prospect Creek (PAPR) to pick up the Haul Road and the Pipeline and head southeast to 5-Mile (PAFV) and Liven-good (4AK2). Just about 15 nm north of Fair-banks we diverted northeast and headed to the Poker Flat Research Range to follow the Steese Highway to Circle on the Yukon River.
As usual the Bird Dogs were well in the lead, while the Foxes were several miles behind. We had a rule that the fastest flight group would takeoff first and the slower group of aircraft would take off last. This was so that we all would not be together in the pattern at the des-tination airport, and that we would not all be at the fuel pumps at the same time. The Foxes never really understood that. They hated be-ing last, so they took short cuts whenever pos-sible, sometimes flying over unfriendly terrain (a No, No). They even went so far as to provide the Bird Dogs with false position data in hopes to beat us to the destination airport. It never worked, but they came close once, at Circle Hot Springs. The Foxes had taken another short cut through another mountain pass without a highway below. As we approached Circle there was a race between the Bird Dogs and the Foxes as to who could get on the ground first. Not a real smart thing to do.
The Circle Hot Springs airport was built in 1924 and claims to be one of the first in Alaska. The 08-26 gravel, 3,670 feet long runway, has no buildings and is a long walk to the resort hotel. They will drive out and pick you up as well as return you when you leave. There is no fuel at the airstrip, but a local bush pilot who runs an air charter service out of his home at Circle, of-fered us fuel if we wanted to taxi down a gravel
road to his home where he keeps several of his air-craft. His name was Ronnie “Frenchy” Drouin and he flies hunting parties and sightseeing groups to wilderness drop-offs in Alaska. He allowed us to tie down our aircraft at his home for the night.
The hotel was built more than 80 years ago and still looks much as it did then. The adjacent saloon is one of Alaska’s more atmospheric watering holes. We watched the World Cup Soccer championship match between Mexico and the USA in the saloon that night. Bad news for Miguel, Mexico lost. The hotel had rooms available from fully appointed suites to spartan attic dormers where you can un-roll your sleeping bag on the floor. The outdoor Olympic-size swimming pool is the biggest hot-spring-fed bathing facility in the state.
Each room had its own sink, which only had one spigot, that was hot water direct from the hot spring. Even the toilets were plumbed with hot spring water, providing a nice warm sensation when in use. We had a very relaxing day, enjoy-ing the swimming pool, the excellent meals, the saloon, and the tranquil surroundings. Room rates and meals were very reasonable.Without much dickering, the very nice lady/owner offered us an excellent discount on single room rates. They love to meet pilots.
DAY 18 (JUNE 17) - FAIRBANKS, AK
After breakfast the hotel van drove us back to Fren-chy’s home so that we could taxi our aircraft back to the Circle airstrip. Ill fortune was about to ruin Tony’s day. Again, as we taxied out to the narrow gravel road, Tony failed to stay in the center of the road and his right main gear dropped down into a drainage ditch shattering his propeller. This was a show stopper for Tony; for it would take three to four days at best to receive a replacement prop. Good news; there was no further damage to the aircraft and he was in a place where he could or-der a replacement and wait out its arrival. Frenchy would take him into Fairbanks to pick up a new prop shipped from the Lower 48.
The six remaining Kitfox’s departed Circle Hot Springs back down the Steese Highway straight into Fairbanks International. The air traffic on arrival to Fairbanks was heavier than we experi-enced before. Since we were in two flights, each of three Kitfox’s, separated by 5 to 7 nm, and the two lead Kitfox’s of each group had similar tail num-bers (i.e. N993JK and N193JK), the tower and two other nearby aircraft on approach at the same time were confused as to just where they were in rela-tion to the two Kitfox groups. The almost identi-cal tail numbers of the lead aircraft confused the tower relative to which group was the first to land. With lots of radio chatter and some time lapse, the Fairbanks tower finally sorted it all out and every-one landed safely on runway 19L at Fairbanks.
While at Barrow we had become friends with one of the pilots of a DC-6 flying in cargo with Air Cargo Express. He was also the owner of an experimental aircraft and was interested in our Kitfoxes and what we were doing at Barrow. As a result he suggested that we stop by the Air Cargo Express hangars at Fairbanks and say hello. So, once on the ground we asked Ground Control to direct us to the Air Cargo Express on the west side of the airport. This would be a perfect place to perform our required maintenance, such as oil changes, spark plug cleaning, and anything else that required looking into.
Our arrival at the Air Cargo Express hangar fa-cilities was a bit of a surprise to the Air Cargo Express management personnel. They were not expecting to see seven Kitfoxes line up in front of their hangar. After all they only serviced DC-6’s and the like. We were greeted by the vice presi-dent who gracefully accepted our rational for be-ing there. They not only allowed us to pull up to their hangars and service out aircraft, but drove us into town for things we needed. We met a lot of really friendly and helpful aviation people during our trip, in both Alaska and Canada.
As soon as our maintenance was completed we taxied over to the campground facilities at the other side of the airport, rented a car and drove
into town for a meal and a room at the Golden North Motel.
DAY 19 (JUNE 18) - DAWSON CITY, YT
We had another decision to make the next morn-ing. Should we fly back to the Lower 48 from here and head back down the Alaska Highway, the way we came, or should we take a different route back home. We had heard a lot about Dawson City in the Yukon Territories of Canada, the heart of the Klondike Gold Rush where they still have oper-ating gold mines. Dawson City is east of Fair-banks almost on the same parallel as Fairbanks. From Dawson City we could then fly south over the Klondike Highway to Whitehorse and join up with the Alaska Highway heading south through Canada to the U.S. border. Dawson City won out.
By the time we checked out of the motel, had breakfast, drove back to the Fairbanks airport campground, and turned in the rental car, it was 9:30 AM before wheels up departure. Our route to Dawson Creek would take us back down the Alaska Highway over Eielson Air Force Base, Del-ta Junction (D66), and on to TOK Junction (6K8). Just 10 nm east of TOK at Tetlin Junction, we picked up the Taylor Highway north to Chicken (CKX), and on to Boundary (BYA) at the Alaska/Yukon border. At the border we followed the Top Of The World Highway into the Dawson City Air-port (CYDA) with wheels down at 10:15 AM.
The Dawson City Airport is a small but very well equipped facility with very welcoming FBO man-agement as well as a friendly Canadian Customs lady. The airport is located several miles out of town, but the Fifth Avenue Red B&B in Dawson City drove out to pick us up. Once we checked in at the B&B we had the whole day to tour the town.
Dawson City lies at the convergence of the Yukon & Klondike Rivers. With its year around popula-tion of 2000, it is very rich in history dating back to the gold rush days of the 1890’s. They say it would take a whole week to see it all, but we were only going to be there for that day. They still have
the dirt streets and wooden sidewalks. That eve-ning we decided to try out the Diamond Tooth Gertie’s Casino, Canada’s first legalized gambling hall. It has live entertainment with three different live shows nightly, plenty of booze, slot machines, black jack tables, poker, and roulette wheels. The entertainment with dancing girls was profession-al and outstanding. The good news; Miguel got lucky. He borrowed two quarters from Robert, hit the slots and won $100.00. He then bought all of our group drinks from the bar. The bad news; he poured all the rest back into the machines. At best, we got some free drinks that night. Being a tourist spot you’d expect prices to be high, but lodging, food, and entertainment are very reason-able, especially for us Americans getting an ex-change rate break on the U.S. Dollar.
DAY 20 (JUNE 19) - WATSON LAKE, YT
After a nice breakfast at the B&B and the long ride back to the airport we managed to get wheels up at 10:40 AM. The first leg of our flight plan for the day would take us along the Klondike Highway to McQuesten (CFP4), Pelly Crossing (CFQ6), Car-macks (CEX4), Braeburn (CEK2), and landing at Whitehorse (CYXY).
As the Bird Dogs approached Carmacks, the point where we would no longer follow the Yukon Riv-er, they were the lead flight about 10 to 15 miles ahead of the Foxes. About the time it became ob-vious that the Foxes were not going to be able to close on the Bird Dogs, Fox #2 came on the radio saying “I got to pee, so let’s make a pit stop at Car-macks.” I had just overflown Carmacks and Bird Dog #2 (Miguel) suggested we turn around and land. As we taxied to the FBO, Fox #2 (Robert) came back on the radio and said, “I no longer have to go, so let’s proceed on”!!! This was an obvious tactic to play catch up. After thinking it over, they thought better of leaving us on the ground and landed. Otherwise, they would have missed our second encounter with an RCMP.
After landing and taxing up to the FBO, it became obvious that the airport was not manned. As
soon as I opened the door to the FBO the burglar alarm sounded, both inside the building and from a nearby power pole. We all stood there know-ing there was nothing we could do to shut down the alarm. It continued for about five minutes before shutting itself down. Just about that time, we could see a police vehicle approaching the air-port with lights flashing. It turned out to be an RCMP female Constable who pretty much figured out what the situation was. After we apologized for the trouble we caused her, we inquired about where we could find a place to eat. It turns out that the local town was several miles down the road and there was no taxi service available.
This is where Fox #1 (Chuck) usually steps in. He could charm a bird right out of a tree, hon-ey flows freely right from his mouth, especially when talking to females. We often capitalized on that. Within two minutes we had a ride to town in a police vehicle. After lunch we had a similar problem, no transportation back to the airport. I didn’t think setting off another alarm was the smart thing to do, so we sent Fox #1 out on the hunt. In five minutes we had a pickup truck ready to take us back to the airport.
The remaining portion of the flight to Whitehorse was uneventful with wheels down at 3:30 PM. Immediately after refueling, our planned last leg to Watson Lake would take us along the Alaska Highway via Telsen (CYZW). On arrival at Wat-son Lake, the man running the fuel pumps con-vinced us to stay at the Hardwen’s Airport B&B which happens to be run by his wife. Our other choices were to stay at the camp ground, as we did on the trip up, or get a cab into town and stay at a motel. Mr. Hardwen drove us into town in his van so that we could bring back some beer and pizza for our dinner.
DAY 21 (JUNE 20) - DAWSON CREEK, BC
After an early breakfast at the B&B, we walked back to the airport where our aircraft were tied down and taxied back to the FBO to check weath-er and file a flight plan. An early departure was
not going to happen. Miguel detected fuel drip-ping from the trailing edge of his left wing, aft of the fuel tank.
This had to be fixed now. Lucky for us the Watson Lake airport had a very large World War II mili-tary hangar, which has been converted to civilian use for maintenance and hangar space. We fold-ed the left wing at the maintenance hangar and discovered the fuel was leaking at the fuel sight gauge. With the aid of some borrowed tools, fuel cans, and a ladder from the locals, we decided to remove the sight gauge and plug the holes in the tank. Replacement parts for the fuel gauge were not available.
We were finally off the ground at 10:50 AM head-ed for Fort Nelson, BC (CYYE). Our route would take us via Liard River (now abandoned), Mun-cho Lake Sea Plane Base, and Toad River (CBK7). We would once again have to traverse the three mountain passes that are sometimes impassible for aircraft flying the Alaska Highway. The first one we would encounter is not named on the charts. The second is located at Summit Lake near Stone Mountain, and finally the infamous Steam-boat Pass.
The Highway basically follows the Liard River eastward until it reaches the Town of Liard Riv-er. From there the Highway turns southeast to-ward the seven mile long Muncho Lake, one of the most beautiful lakes in the Canadian Rockies. The Highway hugs the eastern shoreline, in places cut into the sides of cliffs over 300 foot deep water.
The flight through the three passes weather wise, although not ideal, was far better than that which we experienced on our flight north up the High-way on Day #11. The visibility was excellent, but the turbulence and strong headwinds took a lot of the joy out of the flight. In an effort to seek more favorable winds through the first two passes, we decided to climb out over the tops of the moun-tains. Although this did help reduce the effects of turbulence, the view was more spectacular at the higher elevations. On our flight north we flew low
in the passes over the Highway looking up at the towering snowcapped mountain peaks. Some-times it felt like we were flying through a long tunnel. Now we were looking down on the same passes from a completely different perspective. The entire mountain range was now visible in all directions. By the time we approached Steamboat Pass we were back flying low over the Highway and the weather was more favorable.
On landing at Fort Nelson we taxied up to the Shell FBO for fuel and were greeted by the same friendly crew we met on our flight up. They called over to the nearby sandwich shop to keep the doors open until we arrived for a bit to eat. Just prior to our departure the FBO operator gave us all “Skynorth AV Fuels” baseball hats with “Fort Nelson CYYE” embroidered on the back. These were high quality hats.
Our flight from Fort Nelson along the Alaska Highway would be nonstop to Dawson Creek (CYDQ) where we planned to spend the night. This route would take us via Profit River (aban-doned), Sikanni Chief (abandoned), and Fort St. John (CYXJ). The airports designated “aban-doned” on the charts were originally part of the chain of airstrips developed in 1942 all along the overland route to Alaska (then called the Alcan Highway). These are gravel strips that are 4,000 to 6,000 feet long by 150 to 200 feet wide. Although they are unmanned and listed as use-at-your-own-risk emergency strips, they are still quite us-able and are excellent for camping and picnicking.
The weather along this leg was just great and the winds had subsided. As usual on the longer legs, the Bird Dog flight group was way ahead of the slower Foxes. They were at their usual games-manship of trying to play catch-up. On landing at Dawson Creek we immediately fueled up and gave our friend Gerry Randall a call to let him know we were back in town. Gary soon drove up in his van and we were off to register at the Lodge Motor Inn, followed by a good steak dinner at Mike’s Restaurant.
DAY 22 (JUNE 21) - CUT BANK, MT
As usual, Gerry was right on time to take us to breakfast and back to the airport. Our plan for the day was to make it all the way across the U.S Border by days end. Robert (Fox #2) decided that this was a good point for him to depart the group and start his solo journey back home to San Luis Obispo, California. One of the benefits of saying goodbye to your fellow pilots is that you can talk to them on the radio long after seeing them depart. We chatted back and forth with Robert for about a half hour. Robert made it back to California with-out any mishaps and great cooperation from the weather. He spent the night in Wenatchee Wash-ington (EAT) and made it home the next evening about 7:00 pm.
For the rest of us, we planned our next leg along the Highway through Grand Prairie (CYQU), Valleyview (CEL5), Fox Creek (CED4), Whitecourt (CYZU), Edmonton Vil-leneuve (CZVL), and then Red Deer (CYFQ). The visibility started to dete-riorate somewhat as we approached the Edmonton airspace. Edmonton Ap-proach vectored us west of Edmonton and in the process instructed us to squawk a designated tran-sponder code. Under these circumstances all other air-craft in the flight group ex-cept the lead aircraft should place their transpon-ders in standby. We were warned several times by Edmonton Approach to place all other transpon-ders in standby, because they were receiving more than one reply. It took some time before we real-ized that Herb could not place his transponder in standby without affecting his radio. Anyway he finally turned it off and Edmonton was happy.
While in the pattern at Red Deer you could see many aircraft parked in front of the FBO, far more than you would normally expect to see. We also heard on the radio someone ask about the COPA fly-in. That was our first clue that we were about to be guests at the Canadian Owners and Pilots Association (COPA) Annual Fly-In at Red Deer Regional Airport (CYQF) in Alberta, Canada. COPA happens to be the Canadian equivalent of the AOPA in the USA. We taxied up to the tar-mac next to where most of the other aircraft were parked and called for the fuel truck.
While being fueled several of the pilots attending the convention came out to look over our flying machines, apparently thinking we were mem-
bers of COPA. Finding out most of us were re-ally members of AOPA, they invited us to be their guests and look over the exhibits. They gave us pins and decals commemorating the COPA con-vention and the Red Deer Flying Club. Although our initial intentions were to just get fuel at Red Deer, we stayed for a couple of hours to take in the festivities and have a little lunch.
The adventurous pilots who comprised our international team of travelers.
Our next task was to file a flight plan for the next leg which required notification that we would be entering U.S. airspace and landing at Cut Bank, Montana (CTB). Chuck spent a lot of time on the phone with U.S. Customs, passing along the vast amount of required information for five aircraft to enter the United States. This leg would take us over Calgary (CYYC), High River (CEN4), Leith-bridge (CYQL), the U.S. Border, and finally land-ing for Customs in Cut Bank, Montana (CTB).
After overflying Leithbridge, following the 151 degree radial to Cut Bank, Montana, we were just 40 nm north of the U.S. border. Current U.S. Cus-toms regulations following the 9/11 terrorist at-tack, required us to radio ahead our intentions to cross the U.S. border on a specified frequency. All attempts to contact anyone on that frequency were fruitless, so we proceeded ahead anyway. Since we were a flight of five aircraft crossing the U.S. border, I was expecting to see a couple of F-16’s fly up alongside, but that never happened. After all, we did file a flight plan notifying Customs of our intended arrival.
Cut Bank (CTB) is a relatively small airport out in the middle of the flat plains of nowhere Montana with two 5,300 foot cross runways. Nothing to stop the winds except maybe a barbed wire fence or two. Two customs agents were standing by as the five aircraft approached the FBO. After iden-tifying the Aircraft ID plates, we were all invited inside to answer a lot of questions and fill out lots of paper work. One of the agents stated that they never had five aircraft land at one time from out-side the country.
By the time we cleared Customs and refueled the aircraft, it was well past 8:00 PM and we were ready to end our long day. We borrowed the airport car, drove into town to eat dinner, and registered for the night at the Glacier Gateway Inn. There was one problem. Only one room was available with two beds and a cot. Stan volunteered to spend the night on a sofa at the airport, since he wanted to rise at dawn and start his solo journey home
on his last leg to Lakewood, Colorado. Herb and Chuck shared a bed, Miguel took the cot, and I had the other bed all to myself. One of the few rewards for being the trip organizer/planner.
DAY 23 (JUNE 22) - LAUREL, MT
On our arrival at the Cut Bank Airport it was ob-vious that Stan had left early as planned. With good weather he could make it all the way home to Colorado that evening. Our flight plan was to fly southeast over Great Falls, MT (GTF), Lewis-town, MT (LWT), Billings, MT (BIL), Sheridan, WY (SHR), Gillette, WY (GCC), and then due east as far as Rapid City, SD (RAP). The first part of this route would take us on a course paralleling the east side of the Rockies and then due east fol-lowing Interstate 90 at Rapid City.
The weather was not going to cooperate this time. After passing west of Lewiston, MT and on our approach to Billings, the wind picked up and the weather started to deteriorate. Reports indicated strong winds and a possibility of hail in the area, so we decided to set down at the nearest airport and wait out any possible storm. The charts showed a small airport at Laurel, MT (6S8) with two cross runways just 10 nm southwest of Billings. After landing and refueling, the fuel man advised us to park our aircraft under the nearby “Hail Hangars”. These open sided hangars were primar-ily constructed to protect aircraft from the dam-aging effects of hail, not necessarily from wind or blowing rain. However, they were greatly ap-preciated, since all of our aircraft were fabric cov-ered and could easily become unflightworthy in a heavy hail storm.
Even though we never experienced any hail, pe-riodic weather reports indicated that the weather was not going to clear for several hours. Although we had only flown for 2.8 hours this day, it became obvious that we were here for the night. We bor-rowed the airport courtesy car, drove into town for dinner, and checked into the Travelers Motel. The owner of the motel recognized the airport car we were driving, since he was also the owner of
the FBO that loaned us the car. I love these small towns where everybody’s connected, lots of nice things happen. We received word via cell phone that Stan made it safely home.
DAY 24 (JUNE 23) - IOWA CITY, IA
Arriving at the airport, we turned in the car and checked the weather with Flight Service. Since yes-terday’s flight was relatively a short one, we would have to put in two long days of good weather flying if Chuck and I were going to make it to Virginia in just two more days. Today’s flight would take us due east over Interstate 90 to Mitchell, SD (MHE), then southeast to Gurney, SD (YKN), Sioux City, IO (SUX), Harlan, IO (HNR), and then due east to Des Moines, IO (DSM) paralleling Interstate 80 and on to Iowa City, IO, (IOW).
About 100 nm out of Laurel, Montana, Miguel departed the group and flew south all alone for Colorado Springs, then on his final leg home to San Luis Potosi, Mexico. It gets really depressing to see your flying buddies of the past few weeks separate from the group one by one. We would soon be saying goodbye to Herb on our approach to Chicago. Then it would be just Chuck and I headed for Virginia.
The intermediate stops for fuel were at Rapid City, SD (RAP) and Gurney, SD (YKN). As usual, flying in the morning hours was far better with smooth air, whereas turbulence would build up in the af-ternoon as the sun warmed up the surrounding landscape. The combination of long hours in tur-bulent air and the lack of continuous radio chatter when there were six to seven aircraft in the group made it very difficult to stay alert or even awake. With the constant low level roar of the engine, it becomes very scary at times to find yourself nod-ding off for a few seconds. The only way to stay alert is to keep yourself physically and mentally active. That takes a bit of creativity when flying an airplane in a straight line at a fixed altitude.
After passing Gillette, SD (GCC), Chuck noticed on the charts that we would be passing close by
the Mt. Rushmore National Park which was only 20 nm southwest of Rapid City. He wanted to get some close up pictures of the four U.S. Presidents. The monument is located right in the middle of the Black Elk Wilderness Area so we did not fly too low in front of the monument. We circled once, took our pictures and then departed for the Rapid City Airport for fuel. Once at Harlin, Iowa (HNR) we were flying due east, parallel to Interstate 80 once again. That is the same highway we took on Day #2 flying west from Chicago to Wyoming. The remaining part of our flight took us over Des Moines, Iowa (DSM) and then on to Iowa City, Iowa, (IOW) where we planned to spend the night. With wheels down at 7:35 PM, we borrowed the airport courtesy car, drove into town for dinner and checked into the Sheraton Hotel. For some strange reason all of the motels were booked for the night. Our total time in the air that day was a long 10.4 hours.
DAY 25 (JUNE 24) - WARRENTON, VA
An early morning call to Flight Service confirmed that, weather wise, we should be able to make all the way home to Virginia by early evening. By 7:48 AM we were wheels up headed to Daven-port, IO (DVN), Joliet, IL (JOT), Ft. Wayne, IA (FWA), and finally Lima, OH (AOH) for fuel. As we approached Davenport, Herb (Fox #3) turned northeast and headed for home at Mt. Prospect, Illinois, leaving Chuck and me to carry on as a flight of two.
Once we overflew Joliet, IL the rest of our flight home to Virginia would be relatively boring. Ev-ery year for the past eight years I have flown this route traveling to the EAA Fly-in at Oshkosh. The constant changing of the ground topology and magnificent scenery of the past 24 days was now gone. Now all we wanted to do was get home.
On landing at Lima, Ohio for fuel we did have a little bit of excitement. Lima is just a small county airport, but we noticed a small twin business jet parked in front of the FBO. When one of the pi-
lots of the jet came over to look at our Kitfoxes, we found out that it belonged to Senator Dole and he and his wife were due there within the hour. I re-ally would have loved to meet the Senator and his wife, but we had a long flight ahead of us. Some-time later when we were back in the air and ap-proaching the Ohio River, one of the pilots of the Senators jet overheard Chuck and I talking and chatted with us for a brief period.
The heavy haze in the afternoon, especially over the Allegheny and Appalachian Mountains of West Virginia, limited our visibility. That was something we were not used to seeing in Canada and Alaska, except when we entered areas where smoke due to forest fires created a haze effect lim-iting visibility. Landing at Warrenton at about 5:00 PM was a nonevent, but it felt good to roll the airplane in the hangar and forget about it for a couple of days. The last two days of the Alaska trip were the most tiring. Nothing exciting hap-pened and we just wanted to get home. Now we can wind down.
FINAL TRIP NUMBERS
The following is a summary of the statistical data for the entire Alaska trip. These numbers are sole-ly related to my aircraft and my point of depar-ture; Warrenton, Virginia (W66).
Trip Duration = 24 Days
Total Mileage Traveled = 10,230.4 Statute (8,896 Nautical)
Total Flying Time (Hobbs) = 118.5 Hours
Total Airports Landed = 50
Different Airports Landed = 43
Fuel Consumed = 507 U.S. Gallons
Fuel Burn Rate (Rotax 912 ULS) = 4.27 Gal/Hr
Total Fuel Cost = $1,358.52 (USD)
Average Cost of Fuel = $2.72 per Gal (USD)
Highest Cost of Fuel (Umiat, AK) = $5.25 (USD)
Total Lodging Costs = $679.59 (USD)(most times 2 to 3 to a room)
Total Number of Charts = 19 Sectionals
Sharing a room or tent sure saves money and ef-fort, but one soon finds out who snores the most. Everyone I slept near or with did. The trip miles traveled is on the low side since we did not fly point to point, as the numbers indicate. We usu-ally followed the roads (IFR). However, since the “Foxes” (2nd Flight Group) often took short cuts to keep up with the “Bird Dogs” (lead flight group), the indicated miles traveled will be more realistic for them.
ABOUT FLIGHT PLANNING
Even though we flew in two flight groups, we al-ways filed a VFR flight plan as a single flight group. That was acceptable to Flight Service provided we all stayed relatively close together and arrived at the same airport within a few minutes of each oth-er. When the first flight group arrived at the desti-nation airport, the tower or Flight Service wanted to know where the last group was and wanted to know their tail numbers. In Canada and Alaska the tower or airport advisory would automatical-ly close your flight plan for you on landing. Al-though we usually followed the roads and rivers (when a road was not available), we always had our GPS tuned to the next waypoint or destina-tion airport. That way the two flight groups could give relative position data (DME) to the next way-point.
Another thing that worked well was to talk to all the airports enroute. In the event you go down somewhere, or fail to close your flight plan, they will know where you were last. That helped out once when we landed short of our destination due to encountering bad weather and did not timely close the flight plan. The RCMP’s in Canada knew just where to look for us.
Dick Hague is on a roll. He not only identified the Klemm 35, but e-mailed me a photo of a model box top, complete with a picture of the Klemm. The one pictured in the last newsletter was registered in Sweden, however it was owned by the Bremen Germany Sailplane Club. I got to tow gliders with it during the summer of 1953.
Plane # 2 is a Stout 1-AS Airsedan. William B. Stout later designed the Ford Tri-Motor. Dick had this one nailed also.
This issue’s bi-planes were among a rather large group powered by the Wright engines made famous by powering the Spirit of St. Louis. The surplus OX-5 supply was finally drying up.
Ray Tyson (804) 381-1585 e-mail: [email protected]
Mystery Plane
Mystery
Plane #1
Mystery
Plane #2
Stout 1-AS AirsedanKlemm 35
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