vintage airplane - dec 1999

8/12/2019 Vintage Airplane - Dec 1999

1/36


2/36

VAA NEWS

2

VINTAGE HALL OF FAME

4

AEROMAIL

5

THIRTY FIVE YEARS AT THE OUTER

MARKER/Dutch Redfield

8

JOE

KREUTZER

&

CO./John Underwood

3

ANOTHER TREASURE IN

THE

SIERRA

MADRE/John Underwood

2

PA SS IT

TO

BUCKlE E Buck Hilbert

23

MYSTERY PLANE/H G Frautschy

24

WHAT

OUR

MEMBERS ARE RESTORING/

H G Frautschy

26

WELCOME NEW MEMBERS /

CLASSI

FIED ADS

3

VINTAGE

MERCHANDISE

Ott,lNNlfoftMEM St.ffNUi,tIuJ,

flHntoft>int:bwr e ~

W ~ I i J c o .

' ,,- '.r.fo

NUi,HPf . f e M M ,

Pu blisher

TOM

POBEREZNY

Editor-in-Chief

SCOTT SPANGLER

Ed

itor

HENRY G. FRAUTSCHY

Executive Editor

MIKE DIFRISCO

Contributing Editor

JOHN UNDERWOOD

BUDD DAVISSON

Art

Director

BETH BLANCK

Photography S ta

JIM KOEPNICK

LEEANN ABRAMS

MARK SCHAIBLE

Adverlising/Editorial Assista

nt

ISABELLE WISKE

SEE PAGE 8 FOR FURTHER

VIN

TAGE AIRCRAFT ASSOCIATION INFORMATIO


3/36

NEWS

compiled by H G Frautschy

CLUB LIST

Next month we will publish our annual

of type clubs which cater to Antique,

nd Contemporary aircraft . We've

ntly received this lis

ti

ng for the Piper

he:

Flying Apache Assoc.

John 1 Lumley

6778 Skyline Drive

Delray Beach, FL 33446

Dues: $25 00 annually

Quarterly newsletter

561-499-1

11

5

THE COVERS

FRONT

COVER ..

The one and

only remaining

Kreutzer K-5

Air Coach

is back n

the ai

r again , and part of

the

Yello

w

stone Aviation collection heade

d

up by Greg Herrick of

Jackson ,

WY

.

Noted aviation author

John

Under

w

ood chronicles the life and times

of

Joseph Kreutzer

himself,

as

well as the

saga

of

NC612

, starting

on page 8.

EAA

photo by Jim

Koepnick

, shot

with

wi

th

aCanon

EOS

nequipped with

an

80 -220 mm lens on 100ASA Fuj i

Provia slide

fi

lm

.

EAA

Cessna 210

photo

plane

flownby

Bruce

Moore.

B CK

COVER

. .

Northw

est Fligh

t"

by

Jim D

etz

. Painted in

the mid

-1980s,

th is oil render ing by Jim depicts the

fi

rst

flight in

the Sea

ttle, WA area ,

whi

ch

took place on March

11,1910 at

the

Meadows

Race

Track. The site is

now

part of

Boeing

Field

.

Cha

rles K.

Hamilton

, flying theCurt i

ss Rheims

Race

r performed four

flights

that

day

,

taki

ng up

a ady

passenger on one

of

his tri

ps.

For his finale he skimmed too

low

over

the standing water on the

prope rty

and prov

i

ded Seattle's

fi

rst

airp l

ane

crash Ham ilton

and

air

craft

were both rescued , mo re wet

than

injured .

(Our thanks to the

Museum of

Flight's

Senior Curator

Dennis

Parks

for

prov

i

ding the

historical note

on

Northw

est Flight.

)

Fax 561-495-73

11

E-mail: [email protected]

If

you have a n ew

club

or

on

e not in

cluded in th e Janua ry 1999

editi

on of

Vi ntage Airplane, pl ease se nd in a note

with the appropriate information and

we'

ll

include it in the listing and on the Vintage

A

ircr

aft Ass ociation

we

b site at http ://

www.vintageaircraft.org

EAA HOSTS AIRCRAFT BUILDING

AND

MAINTE

NANCE WORKSHOPS

Aircraft builders and owners who want

to

en

hance th

eir

ow n skills are urged to

att end comp rehensive weekend work

shops at the EAA Avia

ti

on Center on Jan.

22-23, 2000.

The two-day workshops, presented by

Alexander SportAir, allow amateur builders

or those interested in beginning an airplane

project to learn the necessary ski

ll

s from

experienced instructors. Topics include In

troduction

to

Aircraft

Build ing;

Basic

Fabric Covering; Composite Construction;

Basic Sheet Metal Construction; and Elec

trical Wiring and Avionics. All sessions

include extensive

hands-on

experience

that enhance an individual's confidence

level to begin or complete their project.

In addition, a one-day Owner's Mainte

nance course on Saturday, Jan. 22 offers

air

craft owners of all types homebuilt or

production models training on basic main

tenance procedures that aircra

ft

owners can

perform themselves.

Th

e hands-on session

includes safety wiring, maintenance items

such as spark plugs, filters and tires, as we ll

as proper pre-flight techniques.

In most cases, the biggest hurdle keep

ing a person from building or maintaining

their own airplane is a lack of confidence

ar ising from know ing exactly WHAT to

do or HOW to do it, said Ron Alexander,

director of the EAAlSportAir Workshops.

These workshops are particularly useful

because peopl e learn by do ing

and

can

then take those new-fo und ski lls and con

fidence back to

thei

r

own

building

or

maintenance projects.

Aircraft Spruce & Specialty will also be

present at the event with many

of

the tools,

books and materials needed to build an air

p lane. A representative from Aircraft

Spruce will be available to answer ques

tions and assist with aviation product needs.

An additional benefit of the Oshkosh

workshops

is their location at the EAA

A viation Center, the home of recreational

aviation and site of the annual EAA Air

Continued on ge 27

V VOLUNTEERS

OF

THE YE R

Our

congratulations to Dave Thomas, VAA Flight Line

volunteer

of

the

year, and

Operations Volunteers of

the

year Dave Morrow and Dave Clark (above, with VAA

Director Dale Gustafson). Honored for

their

commitment

to the

Association during EAA

AirVenture, each was presented with an engraved plaque to

commemorate their

dedica

tion

. Dave Thomas was unable to

attend the

presentation

du r

ing

the

Fall Board

of

Directors meeting in Oshkosh,

so

Phil Blake stepped up

to

accept the award. Dave's pres

ence

on

the

flight

line day

in

and day

out

in

the

heat

and in

the

cold

for

many years has

earned

him

the gratitude of many members.

Dave

Morrow

and Dave Clark dubbed the [)2 team by Dale Gustafson) have served

the membership over 15 years as aircraft judges.

VIN

TAGE AIR

P

LANE

1
mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:///reader/full/www.vintageaircraft.orghttp:///reader/full/www.vintageaircraft.orghttp:///reader/full/www.vintageaircraft.orghttp:///reader/full/www.vintageaircraft.orghttp:///reader/full/www.vintageaircraft.orgmailto:[email protected]:///reader/full/www.vintageaircraft.org


4/36

Ed soloed in a Funk n early 1943 at the Kohler, WI airport, and later that

same

year,

his

reward

for

cleaning up the f ixed

base

operator s American Eagle

101,

Waco Taperw lng and J-3 Cub was a checkout in each airplane. Joining the CPT

program in December (top, right) he served until war s end, and then worked

at the

Kohler

airport

for

a year, finishing

hiS

private pilot s license In 1946 This

Funk Model B was Ed s first project.

In 1959, Nadene and Randall Wegner pose for the camera

while dad

sits

in the cockpit

of

the family Fairchild 24.

Newly minted Private Pilot Ed Wegner had some great

times giving rides In a surplus PT-19. The pretty girl behind

Ed

is

his future wife, Isabel.


5/36

Ed

won

the

first

trophy

awarded a Grand Champion

Classic,

presented at

the

Rockford EAA Fly-In

in

1969. The

trophy

was presented

for

his

restoration

of

the only example of the Spartan Model

12

. The airplane was the prototype. Over 15 airplanes have enjoyed

Ed s

lov

ing

care

. Ed and his restorations have been presented with many awards, including the National Biplane Association's Robert P. Moore

Memorial award, awarded to a restorer

who is

singled

out

for his Outstanding Aircraftmanship .

(Left)

Ed

and

his

longtime friend Charlie Bell with Ed s other airp lane - a 1940 Fairchild 24

powered by a 200 hp Ranger. Ed s expertise With

the

Ranger engine

S

Widely

know

n

Fairchild circles.

HIs

restoration of

the

24 earned him a Antique Contemporary Age

Outstanding Closed monoplane trophy Charles Stewart photo


6/36

BLERIOT COMMENTS

Dear Henry,

I have

just

read

the

new issue

of

Vintage Airplane with delight as al

ways. I was especially interested

in

the

flight report on Roger Freeman's new

Bleriot XI.

My trouble with reviews like this,

which describe such dangerious flying

charactertistics of an old aeroplane is

that they

don't

correspond very well

with flight reports of

the

period.

Granted, people 's experience in flying

aeroplanes

in

1910 and 1911 was not as

extensive as many

people's

today, in

cluding Roger's, but his description of

immense tail-heaviness and instability

on the ground just are not matched by

people at the time. The machine was

tail-heavy under certain conditions of

trim- we delt with this at some length

in WWI AERO over the past several

years. But by-and-Iarge these pre-war

machines flew well and fast and high

and over long distances. Chavez flew

one over the Alps before he had his

heart attack.

Remembering that Cole Palen built

his Curtiss Pusher from drawings by

Hayward and

discovered afterwards

that the drawings were so far off as to

make the machine unflyable, it seems

worth looking sharply at the particular

layout of this Bleriot, the operation of

the engine, the relation of the engine to

the propeller- all

of

these things have

made trouble for the early machines at

Rhinebeck, when these factors were not

properly coordinated.

I would hate to see these machines

described as basically more unsafe and

more unstable than they seem to have

been originally.

A thought, anyway.

Very best wishes,

Leonard E Opdycke

Publisher, WWI Aero and Skyways

LEO s comments regarding Roger s

experiences

are well taken. Sam

Burgess s article on

Roger s

experi

ences

with the

newly

constructed

Bleriot were meant

to

simply convey

the difficulty

in

accurately reproduc

4 DECEM ER 1999

ing the flights o f Pioneer aviatiors.

Differences in powerplants

and

air

frame construction can wreak havoc

with the most meticulously constructed

replica, as Roger s experiences can

attest.

The

snapshot of time detailed in

Sam s article was not meant

to

repre

sent Roger s total experience with the

Bleriot, only some of the challenges he

needed to meet. - HG

PROPer DEPARTURE

Dear Mr Frautschy,

The letter from

H

Kennard Perkins

about the massive engine failure

of

the

Cessna 190 reminds me of an almost

identical situation out of Asbury Park

Neptune Airport

in

New Jersey in the

later 1960s.

Charles Teeters owned a Cessna 190

with the Continetal 670 engine. (The

Spec Sheet says W670-23). One sum

mer

day

he and some friends were

westbound just north

of

Harrisburg, PA

Their discription was that the engine

failed and as they were gliding they no

ticed the prop was missing. They landed

in a corn field, with the only damage

done to the landing gear box . The en

gine had

seized

so

abruptly that

the

crankshaft had sheared and the prop de

parted.

t

had not hit the plane and was

found later the same day, undamaged.

The plane was repaired and he re

placed the engine with a Jacobs. He

never opened

the

engine to

find

the

cause of the failure but I have walked

by that engine a hundred times and al

ways

marveled

at how

smoothly the

crakshaft had sheared.

Sincerely,

Billy Gibson

Farmingdale, NJ

APRIL S CERTIFICATE

Hello H.G.,

I wanted to drop you a quick note to

give you an update on the staus

of

April

Stewart's flight training. As you may

recall, we flew our 1936

J-2

Stewart

Family

Cub

to Oshkosh for AirVen

ture '97 and April soloed in the Cub in

June 1998, at the age

of

16 On Septem

ber

15, 1999 April

completed

her

training and received her Private Pilot

liscense at age 17. Below is a photo

graph

of

April and her "ancient" Cessna

150. April took her mother, Martha, as

her first passenger in a 1946 J-3 stating

that "I would rather fly the Cub than the

150." April is now the third generation

of the Stewart family currently flying.

April's grandfather,

Bob, turned

80

this past November and still flies his

J-2 regularly. April is a high school

senior and plans to study mechanical

engineering at Carnegie Mellon Uni

versity or Penn State University next

fall.

Sincerely,

Mark Stewart

Niskayuna, NY


7/36

I e rs

tt

Outer Marker

arning

a

living with ea Wings

For

the next co

u

ple

of

mont

hs

we barn

o central New

working the

towns

and resorts along

beautiful shores

o

the Finger Lakes,

Ontario

and

villages

and

towns lying

the Erie

Barge

Canal.

Although

we

were having much fun,

learning every

day we

really weren't

better than making hamburger

and

enough more

to at

least buy

to

keep the Waco going. But, I

my

own boss was a

feeling as well as having the

an occasional self-earned

in my pocket.

In

the meantime, Barb June,

who was

me work the Waco kept

pestering

about moving

our

base

of operations to

In

prior

Barb

had experience working there

an early

Stinson

on

floats. This very early

seaplane

had no

water rudders

it was Barb's job,

when

taxiing to po

on the

aft

end o one o

the

floats during docking or beaching

where

he

would steer the sea

a

canoe paddle.

Early

in

July,

we

packed our bags

and

the Waco

northeast

to

her new

base of

operations on Third Lake one

of

the Fulton

Chain

of Lakes in

the central

Adirondacks.

Barb's mother had a wonderful old camp

there and the F-2 was nosed

up

on

a

nearby

shaded sandy shore , secured

by

ropes

from

her wing struts

to

the trees. Thus was the

beginning

o

several wonderful years

o

seaplaning

in this magnificent

area.

Also operating his airplane in this

Adirondack area

was Haro

Scott, flying a

Wright J-6-7 powered, red and yellow

Waco Straight-wing three-place open bi

plane

.

At the

beginning of

our second year

there, Scotty suggested we team

up

and

come work alongside of

him

, but it turned

out there

was

just not enough business to

go around

and at the end

o

the

season

we

broke up and went our separate ways. In

another year I

was

to change our summer

base

to

the Thousand Islands on the St.

Lawrence River thereafter operating in

the

Adirondacks only during the spring and

fall months, when I wou ld carry

fi

shing

and

hunting

parties back into the

woods

.

Scotty taught

me much

about seaplan

ing

and

flying

in

the Ad

irondacks.

He was

an exceptional and natural airman and a

fine

seap

l

aner.

I learned an awful lot just

by

watching him fly , and I studied how

beautifully he handled his seaplane when

working under difficult dock and wind

conditions.

t was during this second summer and

whi le still working with Scotty that

we

shifted operations, thereafter operating

from Scott's

base

at Eagle Bay and at

night

keeping

the F-2 tied up

near Scotty's pri

vate hangar, which was a low concrete

highway bridge spanning a gently flowing

stream between Fourth

and

Fifth Lake

s.

Scotty's Waco would just fit under the

bridge provided the prop wa s positioned

crosswise

with perhaps

a

foot

of

clearanc

e

at the wingtips.

To get

to

this spot was a half-mile taxi

from

where

the

creek emptied

into

Fourth

Lake.

What

a way to start

or fmish

a day of

seaplaning; taxiing with slow-turning

pro

peller around

the

windy creek bends

with

the

wingtips brushing low hanging leaves

positioned high in the rear cockpit while

standing

on the

rudder pedals

with elbows

on the

leather cockpit coamings, smelling

and

feeling the soft serenity. And

the float

keels

sliding gently

al

ong

a

barefoot or

two

clear

o

the sun-shafted coppery brown

creek

bed with

gentle eddies off

the floats

stems and

shifting

bottom grasses marking

our passage,

as

did the darting minnows

and crawling crabs, alarmed by our

by olland

Dutch

Redfield

VINTAGE IR PL NE 5


8/36

shadow. Scotty showed

me the

route once

and how

to

take the outside of the

bends

for

deeper water and

how

to steer around

the

long-established

mossy

boulders and mud

bogged old logs that were hard to pick out

in the coppery

waters.

There

are a

myriad

of Adirondack lakes

and many

of

those

located

in

proximity to

mountain roads are bordered by resort

ho

tels hidden among the trees. As

part of our

day s

work we would fly from

one

lake

to

the next working the lakefront hotel docks

as

well

as

small

grocery

store

docks or

state

park benches.

If

the

weather

was good and it was the

right time of

the

week for

the hotel

guests

meaning perhaps that they

were

becoming

a

little bored

with

midweek

inactivity

or

it

was

too cold

to

swim

or

hike

or they

were

tennis d out-under these conditionswe

could be kept very busy hopping passen

gers

from the

hotel docks

and

at

the end of

the day have our pockets bulging.

As we flew

from one

lake to another

or

one

dock

to another Barb and

I

would of

ten get into disagreement on

which

spot we

should try next.

As we

flew

low

over

the

more

often than not it turned out that

Barb

was right.

It was customary

to

announce our ar

rival at a resort

by for

some distance out

establishing a shallow, low-powered dive

for the

end o

the

hotel

dock.

Then abeam

its end full throttle would be applied and a

pull-up made

into a steep climbing, turn

ing

wing over.

At

the wing over s top

and

with low airspeed, power would be re

duced and a strong, fast descending,

sideslip entered, with sideslip recovery

made just

as

the flare for touchdown was

begun. The F-2 did this beautifully and

with

great ease

week

in and week out.

As I started the flare late

one

afternoon

it was with great dismay that I discovered

the

airplane

was

not responding to my

flar

ing

control stick inputs ,

and

before I really

knew

what happened we hit the water hard

in

a

wing-low nose-low ungainly bouncing

splash.

It

wasn t until power

had

been ap

plied for recovery that I discovered that for

the last

few split

seconds the control

stick s

rubber grip handle, which had been loose

for some time, had finally slipped up and

off

when needed most

and I

had been

fran

black clouds showed broad sheets o rain

falling in heavy curtains of opaqueness ad

vancing toward

us and fast.

From our position, it appeared the

storm

was

still a bit

west

of Third

Lake.

I

could at anytime put the Waco down

quickly if I had to but it was only a short

distance

to

the end

o

Fourth Lake, and

then only a

few

hundred yards

o

land and

high trees to cross

and we

would be at our

destination. Although I could land now

I

much preferred, i possible,

to

ride out

this oncoming storm with the airplane

tied down at her regular beach site, than

take

a chance

on

riding out possibly

pow

erful winds while taxiing around in the

middle ofFourth

Lake.

We kept

on and

were suddenly

in

very

heavy rain. It pelted

and

streamed off the

small windshields, and stung and hurt my

cheeks

as

with

my

goggled face over the

side I endeavored not to lose visual con

tact with the surface. The heavy rain

on

my

goggles blurred and badly distorted

my VISIOn

The Waco was being badly

buffeted

by

the

storm s

advancing gusts

and I

was busy

Sometimes to

really

make his point

he

would

grasp the

interplane

bracing

wires

and slowly

slide

himself along the

wing

leading

edge

out

to

the

interplane

struts

with

me

hollering all the w y for him to come back.

lakes

the

entire Adirondacks surely must

have heard

us

as

we

shouted

back

and

forth

between cockpits.

Occasionally, Barb would become

ex

asperated at my stubbornness, forcing

open the small forward cockpit door

against

the

strong propeller stream easing

himself out onto the lower wing walkway

while clinging

to

the upper wing center

section struts, where

he

would then sit

down with his legs dangling down over

the

lower

wing s leading edge.

Sometimes

to

really make his point

, he

would grasp the interplane bracing wires

and slowly slide himself along the wing

leading edge out

to the

interplane struts,

with me hollering all the way for him

to

come

back

in.

He would

then

just sit

out

there enjoy

ing the view

with

the

tears running

down

his flapping cheeks and the buttons pop

ping from his wind bulged, puffed-out

shirt.

Under

such

conditions, I

would have

to give in

to

such strong convictions and

DECEM ER

999

tically flying the dickens out

o

the

disconnected grip, the control stick itself

impassively retaining its position.

I threw the innocent grip as far as I

could, and finished up the summer with

out one. Also,

we

didn t

go

back

to

that

hotel dock for a week, and then only

when certain that a new roster

o

guests

would be

registered.

Late one muggy

hazy

August afternoon

Barb and I were flying southwest down

Fourth Lake toward our home base at Third

Lake.

We

were only a few hundred feet

above the lake s surface and down low

there is

a

real

appreciation ofan airplane s

speed as the

scenery unrolls

beneath. There

is also much more o interest when flying

down low

watching

fishermen reeling in

a

catch from a guide boat, swimmers, pic

nickers

and

boaters thinking

they are

alone

etc. But the sky was rapidly getting very

dark ahead. A fast maturing mountain

thunderstorm with low, white fringed,

at the

controls. There

was no

turning

back

now because an instrumented tum, if en

deavored , would have to be made at a very

slow rate and

we

d be into

the

hills rising

behind the shore before completing it. A

straight-ahead climb into the lowering

clouds

would put us right in the core

of

the

storm and even i we made it safely

through, it was

the

end

of

the day and we

were low on fuel. And then

making a

safe

descent back through

the

clouds from

any

thing but a pinpointed position

in

this

mountainous area

would be

imprudent dif

ficult

and

hazardous.

Through the deluge something dark

loomed close ahead, then

as

it

moved be

low I could just make out the misted

outlines of the wing span width meander

ing

creek that connected

the

waters of

the

two

lakes. We often

taxied

down this

creek

between Fourth and Third Lakes rather

than make

a

short flight. Then the darkness

below slipped behind the wing s trailing

edges and

was

quickly gone and although


9/36

was unable to see, I knew we

now had

to

over Third Lake.

t

was small and I

I

had to get her down, and

down

very

we ran out oflake.

I

side

slipped

the Waco to slow her and

lose some height, but I was afraid

to

with

the slip as I couldn't make

water's surface

in

the sheeting

The throttle was closed and

we

descending at a high rate with the

level

and

just

above

their stall speed

we hit the lake's surface with the

high

and very hard, but I was

awfully

to be down

.

Barb,

peering out

the side

e front cockpit, hurt his nose as

we

on. At least we

were

somewhere on

we

were

safe,

but we were

to find the

shore through

the

sheet

downpour

until

it began to

ease

off 20

later. Then as the vague

outline of

dark shoreline

began to

appear, we

rec

dock and taxied in. Barb

his bruised nose

.

What

a wonderful way to

now

be

earn

a living, flying in this beautiful area.

our summer operations, during

spring and fall we would fly hunters

fishennen back

to

totally isolated

and

lakes and ponds that were oth

inaccessible except

by

long hikes

heavy packs , hikes that

had to be

of

mountain

. We would deposit our passengers

their gear on a lakeshore, then fly

in for them a few days or weeks

These spots were sparkling in their

and it was seldom that

deer were not bounding along the

as we landed .

Those considered the most desirable

by

my nature-loving fare

paying pas

most apt to be the

in the

area.

An approach

to one

of

lakes might well necessitate a tree

across the shoreline, a

to

get quickly down

the

surface, followed by

an

undigni

finn touchdown. When the

floats

planing

and came

bows

high down

the steps, the Waco's

tail

would gently

back to taxi attitude and the lake would

all gone.

To get the seaplane back out

of

that

pond

could

be

a considerable chal

The

plane would

be

taxied

as

close

possible

to

the upwind shore, then the

initiated with a planing step run

di

of

the

.

Here,

a high

speed

skidding

tum with

planing, but the wings

not

yet

fly

would

be made back into the wind, full

power applied,

and

in a very short

distance

we'd

be

airborne.

To

avoid

the

high trees

ahead, a

low-

l

evel

climbing tum would

be

immediately started, then, like the wing

beating loon, we'd circle and circle 'till

high enough

to

flyaway. More than once,

as we've climbed away, I've looked down

to see

if

there were any pine boughs

caught

in

the float gear, and quite often, a deer

lashed

to the

floats

would peer back at me

with unseeing eyes.

Most of the Adirondack lakes were at el

evations

of

about 2,000 feet. The thinner

air, even at this modest height, greatly at

tenuated the performance of the airplane

and there were many times that I wished

the

F-2 had more power.

t was near the end of our second

Adirondack

season

that I

learned

of another

Waco F-2 seaplane powered

by

a 210 hp

Continental.

This

was 45 more hp than the

plane

I

was flying and almost double that

of

the Warner engine of

my

first love, the

Waco F. The seller flew the airplane up to

the mountains

so I

could fly it.

Before, or since, I have never

flown an

airplane with such nimble characteristics

and

high perfonnance.

As

a land plane,

it

had

been developed

by

Waco for the

U.S.

Navy

who

required a very fast-clinlbing, but

slow-flying airplane

to act as

a courier

and

scout plane

for the

dirigible airships Akron

and Macon.

In

this Navy version, the F 2

was

equipped with a large hook mounted

above

the

upper wing

center

section

,

and

the

pilot flew so as to engage the

hook

with a

trapeze suspended beneath

the

airship,

fol

lowing which the

airplane

would be

hoisted

into an internal

hangar.

The higher-powered

F 2

was

known as

the Macon Scout. As a

seaplane

it

was also equipped with some

what larger and more buoyant floats, which

greatly improved its water performance.

It

was a powerful, magnificent airplane ,

and

I

bought

it

on the spot.

Yes, yes-of course land plane flying is

great. But true joy,

my

landlubber

friend, is

skimming over the Adirondacks' rolling

forested hills, stretched below like

an

un

ending carpet of many shades of greens,

clearing

the

hilltops

by

a

few

hundred

feet

with another, then another breath-taking

view exploding beneath, views that hikers

and

campers sometimes tramp through

the

woods and over mountain trails for hours

and days to see. But for me , day after day,

one after

the

other, they unfold before

me.

And, unlike

the

land plane

in

this hostile

terrain, such flying can

be

safely done as

pond

after pond, lake after lake , slides be

neath

my wings.

Small

ponds , in-the-valley

ponds, big ponds,

on

the side-of-the-hill

ponds, with winding, connecting white

rapid turmoiled streams meandering

through

the

forests.

All

totally beautiful,

unspoiled

and

nature

pure.

Many times,

upon

arriving over a lovely

backwoods

lake,

I've practiced

my 720 de

gree power

off

overhead approach,

spiraling down

with

propeller completely

stopped

and

engine stilled.

While descend

ing, the

only sounds are those of airfoils in

unpowered gliding flight, gliding, and

banking

,

and

swooping

to

a soft

touchdown

on the

pond

's lightly rippled, sparkling sur

face. A fmal soft swish as the float's planing

lift fades, then

she's

down

off

the steps and

afloat. All is quiet

until the

small waves of

our touchdown run splash ashore,

then

all is

quiet

again

.

I rest

my

chin

on

the cockpit coaming

and the plane now drifts as she pleases

in

the varying light airs. I contemplate the

beauty, the serenity, the loneness. In the

cockpit my helmet and strap-frayed gog

gles drape over

the now

unfeeling control

stick, held forward under the instrument

panel by the weight of the elevators on

the tail.

In

the darker depths

of

the cock

pit, one shiny foot-worn rudder pedal

remains depressed in the position I had

last set it to aid her aimless backward

drift.

An

occasional glance at

the

start air

pressure gauge shows

it

to be holding.

t

could

be

a long walk out ofhere. What a

flash in

the

pan is

my

existence.

And

how often, in just such a moun

tain setting, have I nosed the float bows

onto a short stretch of sandy beach under

overhanging trees, stepping down from

the floats to greet and to help load the

gear

of

fishermen or campers who had

been anxiously waiting

my

arrival. And

we've climbed away

from the

backwoods

lake

in deteriorating weather, perhaps

fol

lowing homeward a known creek bed

descending from one pond to the next,

sometimes circling and circling at a cloud

hidden, intervening ridge, hoping for the

clouds

to

lift enough so

we can

get

up and

over. What a different

and

ominous mood

the woods are in now. Anxiety clearly

shows as

my passengers look back

at me

and I am unable to convey to them, no

matter what happens, that I can put her

easily down

on the tiny pond below

us

,

where we can wait, maybe even 'till to

morrow, for the weather to lift. But we

can

quickly get down, and we'll

be

safe.

Continued Next Month in Vintage

Airplane

VINTAGE

IRPL NE


10/36

BY JOHN UNDERWOOD

M

989

"

..

. ..

.

;'

:

.

,.

.. ..- ...............

he remodeled

K-S f

r.merly

the

prope y

of the

Kinner company, serveCl.1lPhoenix

charter operator before going to Mexico

as XB-AAC

to

fill in for XB-AHO

8 DECEMBER

1999
http:///reader/full/serveCl.1lhttp:///reader/full/serveCl.1l


11/36

osef

Kreutzer, born

in

Vienna,

had already realized the

American dream. At 34, Joe

was the

wealthy

owner of a

Buick sales and service fran-

chise in Los Angeles. By the summer

of 1928, he was entertaining still

loftier ambitions, inspired largely by

Lindbergh s flight to Paris. Aviation

was the entrepreneurial new frontier

and the smart money was getting in

on the ground floor.

Kreutzer (pronounced Kroyt-zer)

created an aircraft division

of

the par-

ent Joseph Kreutzer Corporation and

hired A.

J

Edwards as vice president

and general manager.

A.J.

had con

vinced Joe that the possibilities were

limitless and Edwards had credibility.

After all, he d sold what became the

most famous airplane in the world to

the then unknown Charles Lindbergh.

Kreutzer

had an

option

to

buy

a

large parcel of land adjacent to

the

new Culver City Airport and his mas-

ter

plan for a factory

complex

included an academy

of

aeronautics to

teach everything from manufacturing

skills to flying. Lt. Henry (Hank) Og-

den,

newly

hired as

Kreutzer s chie f

pilot, was to be the school's director.

Ogden

had

been one

of

the

Douglas

World Cruisers.

VINTAGE

IRPL NE


12/36


13/36

in the

and Kreutzer had no one capable

f

addressing design problems until

K.

Peterson presented his cre

He was

immediately

chief

Peterson, a former naval airman

had survived the Shenandoah

was largely self-taught, but

had co-created the 14

much in the news as the largest

farthest flying trimotor in the

his proposal to

Kreutzer

six-passenger

late in 1928.

u:x,U1 r ~ ; : : : )

lTH

Day one in the life of S N 102, March 1929.

: ~ . . u l ~ ; . ; ; J . 1 111.OPXIJ... :lS

Prop maker rt Fritzen California-Fritzen in

Jtr'ou'ue:r .I.1roratt Oorpn ' s . six pns.seJ:liGT ,

more recent times) never forgave

Joe

Kreutzer

;eto..-od oabin monoplao.e . 'i:'hl, plane Ms

t O\:lll trom

1.,03 Ant"relo:J

to Dotroit tor

for

declaring bankruptcy before his bills were

on

ptll POSQS

r.t

the

Detroit. Areo

3how

.

paid.

rt

Fritzen photo

Kreutzer inspects the Menasco-powered Kreutzer SM-4 while Lt. Hank Ogden makes observations from the cockpit. rt White contem

the empennage.

Injust

over a month from the com

of the design

the

prototype

X 71 E, was christened

Air Coach at a rollout ceremony

Mines Field, now world famous as

starlet Raquel Tor

performed

the traditional

grape juice.

The TM-4 proved to be a big disap

engines, rated at

were more on the order of

40

They were prone to overheating

the

TM-4 s shakedown cruise,

doubled

as a

honeymoon

trip

Hank Ogden and his bride, was

more like a roller coaster ride on the

Sierra Wave. With only two occu

pants, the TM-4 barely

cleared

the

mountains between California and Ari

zona. For a service test it was more an

exercise in motor-gliding.

Peterson worked furiously to up

grade

the

design

using the

newly

introduced Le Blonds-a single 90 and

twin 60s. The result was the Kreutzer

K-2, finished

just

in time for the an

nual Los Angeles

Automobile Show

staged during the first week

of

March.

There

wasn t

time even for a single

test hop. The unfledged X-50 1

was

among a dozen aircraft on display, in

cluding a pair of Lockheed Vegas and

several models offered by the Mono

coupe company.

On the

second

day of the

event

a

blaze

erupted and the show, which

was housed in circus style tents, be

came a conflagration which destroyed

an

entire city block.

Fortunately,

there were no fatalities, but all the air

craft and over 300 automobiles were

incinerated.

This was a debacle for the Joseph

Kreutzer Corporation, which had ex

ceeded its R&D budget to the point of

VINTAGE AIRPLANE


14/36

(Left) Summer,

1931. E L.

Hollywood, Sr. (right) and associates pose

with the ir Coach

bound

for

Guatemala, Kinner s

K-5 ir Coach

in

the

background. (Right) The remodeled

K-5

formerly the property of the Kinner company, served a Phoenix charter operator before going

to

Mexico

as

X8-AAC

to

fill in

for

X8-AHO.

jeopardizing the company's viability.

Although production

of

several units

was underway in the old Bach plant n

Venice, California, an Approved Type

Certificate had yet to be granted. Sur

vival depended on having something to

show at the upcoming All

American

Aircraft Show

in

Detroit

,

which

was

only a matter of weeks away. An all-out

effort was mounted to finish the third

Air Coach, Serial Number 102, n time

for its debut at Detroit.

Outwardly, the Kreutzer Corporation

expressed great optimism. Detroit press

releases alluded to a 32-passenger air

liner in the

offing

and a surge in

production, but behind the scenes de

velopments were decidedly negative.

Several key members

of

the manage

ment team defected during the Detroit

Show. Edwards threw n with an Ohio

group to market a cheap flivver called

12 DECEMBER 1999

the Aeronca and Ogden formed his own

company to build light trimotors.

Instead

of one-a-week

production ,

only nine Air Coaches were completed

in the five months

it

took

the

Joseph

Kreutzer Corporation to go belly up ,

beginning n April. By September 1929,

there were no funds to meet the payroll.

One month later the Wall Street crash

precipitated the Great Depression.

The

Kreutzer assets

,

valued

at

$53,300, were auctioned

off

in bank

ruptcy court for

7,000

in July 1930,

at which time the Hodkinson Aircraft

Corporation, under the

management

of ex-filmmaker E . L. Hollywood ,

Sr. , undertook the completion of two

unfinished airframes, both for service

n Guatemala.

In the following year, the Hodkin

son company reorganized as the

Air

Transport Manufacturing Company to

resume Air Coach production in the

old Timm plant at Glendale. Holly

wood, in association with designer A.

K.

Peterson

,

produced

a single , cus

tomized

K-5

for banker-oilman G.

Allen Hancock. This was the fifteenth

Air Coach

and it was

delivered in

July 1931.

A modernized version of the Air

Coach

appeared

in 1933

and

a

pro

duction batch

of

four were in various

stages

of completion

when an

early

morning

fire in the dope shop en

gulfed one unit of the two-bay

factory.

Fire hoses

had

to be st

rung

across the adjacent Southern Pacific

track s and in the confusion no one

was posted to flag down an oncoming

freight.

The

ho

ses

were

severed and

half the factory was destroyed.

ATM made several attempts to re

sume

aircraft

production,

the last in

1940. The company had fallen heir to

the General P2S Meteor, a

Peterson

design similar to the Fairchild 22, and

it was offered with a view towards at

tracting CPT Program business.

It

was

too dated

to

compete

on

a

market

flooded

with new

designs . A twin

Whirlwind version of the

Air

Coach

was proposed at the same time, but

seems

to have progressed no further

than the preliminary design and model

making stage.

ATM mainly survived the '30s as a

repair and overhaul station. It reached

its full

potential

as an

airframe

parts

subcontractor during the

war

years ,

afterwards gravitating to the electron

ics field ,

manufacturing

sheet metal

chassis.

The

company

is still

very

much in business.


15/36

merican dreamer

Kreutzer

ade his fortune

utting Buicks

nd lost it all

uilding some

irplanes.

n Tuesday morning,

Marc'

24, 1919, Henry

Ogden and rt WIllie de

parted Santa Monica's Clover

Field

and set a coune for Detroit.

T'eir

objective was

t ' e

Second

Annual All American

Aircraft

S ow. It was by no means certain

a t

t 'e

Josep' Kreutzer Corpo

ration would be allowed to s'ow

t 'eir new, six-passenger Air

Coac'. T'e airplane,

finis'ed

only tllree days earlier, a d barely

Oown

and

ere

was no guarantee

it would be admitted.

It

was unli

censed

and

t ' e

Detroi ters were

unwilling to admit any

aircraft

not bearing a valid NC or X

prefh on its registration.

Entry to tile

DetroIt

ow was

t ' e

aeronautical equivaleat

to

.mug a ticket

to

tlae Presideat s

Inaugural Ball. Any manufac

turer w'o didn't

preseat Ids new

airplane

t 'ere

wasn t taken seri

ously. Joe Kreutzer, well aware of

thls and ' ad reserved space

With-

out

knowing

whether he would be

able to use it. Ogden

and

White

were halfway there when they re

ceived confirmation

that

the ir

Coach, Serial Number 102, had

been issued

an

experimentalU

cense, X-612.

Ta t

would get the

airplane through

the

exhibition

a l l gate and it would permit pas

senger

Oights afterwards, but for

demonstration purposes only

VINT GE

AIRPLANE

3


16/36

Greg Herrick

Jackson

WY

The Air Coach was well received at

Detroit.

Businessmen, weary

of long

commutes by rail and automobile, took

to the idea that corporate ownership of

aircraft made sense. Moreover, the

price was right. Provisionally priced at

$15,000, the Kreutzer K-2, wi th its sin

gle

90

hp

Le

Blond and twin 60s, was

by far the least expensive multi-engine

aircraft on the domestic market.

The

Air

Coach's nearest competitor, the

I O-passenger Bach 3CT Air Yacht, cost

$35,000 and its closest equivalent in load

carrying capacity and performance were all

single-engined. They included the Buhl

Airsedan at $13,500, Fairchild's Model 71

at $18,900, Fokker's Universal at $15,000,

Ryan's

B-5 Brougham at 13,250, the

Stinson SM-I F Detroiter at $13,500 and

the Travel

Air

6000B at $13,000.

Trimotor safety was the sales pitch that

counted more than anything else . Hank

Ogden was so committed to that ideal that

he resigned immediately after the Detroit

show to build his own light trimotor, the

Ogden Osprey, with

90

hp American Cir

ruses. Within a matter

of

months several

other light twins and trimotors were mak

ing a bid for a share of what seemed

to

be

a burgeoning market.

It was clear from the outset that the Air

Coach needed more power and the K-3,

certified under ATC

170

in June 1929, dif

fered from the K-2 mainly in having 90 hp

LeBlonds

in

the outboard stations. The ad

ditional 50

to

60 hp was a significant boost

and, although the K-2 was approved under

4

DECEMBER

999

Greg Herrick contracts

with the

crew

at

HO Airc raft based

at

Anoka County Ai.rport

just north

of

Minneapolis MN

for

much

of his

restoration work. From

left to nght

we

see

John Mohr Tom Oostdik Melissa Mliem and

Ryan

Mohr. Not shown are Dan

White Mike Rawson Chad Miller Carie Dahlenberg and Jill Literski.

ATC

171

in July, only five were built and

nearly all were quickly upgraded.

The powerplant situation was by no

means resolved and the LeBlonds were

found

to

have their

share

of

idiosyn-

crasies. More powerful engines were

becoming available, most notably the 100

hp Kinner and 110 hp Warner. The Kin

ner K-5, manufactured locally, seemed to

be the better value. Kreutzer's engineer

ing department was detailed to adapt the

Air Coach to take the Kinner, in which

form

it

became the K-5.

X-612 remained experimental until it

was licensed NC612 as a K-3 in July, at

which point the Joseph Kreutzer Corpora

tion was desperate for working capital.

Obtaining a loan on NC612 and NC714K

from the

Pacific Finance

Corp., which

specialized in financing aircraft, raised

$16,000. But the crash on Wall Street just

a few weeks later sealed the company's

fate and

that

of thousands

more. The

Great Depression had begun. The bank

rupt Kreutzer Corporation defaulted on

the loan and the PFC seized both aircraft

on December 13 1929.

Little is known ofNC612's activities

during the next nine months, but almost

certainly it was domiciled at the new Los

Angeles Metropolitan Airport in Van

Nuys, in

Hangar

6, in the care of Larry

Therkelsen's aircraft

brokerage.

Therkelsen was responsible for liquidat

ing PFC's aircraft holdings and was well

known in South California aviation cir

cles. His listings for July 1930 included

NC612, priced at $8,500.

In

August,

a

sale

was

transacted by

Therkelsen between the Pacific Finance

Corporation and one

Clyde

Palmer of

Seattle. Palmer and

his

partner

Don

Phillips proposed to operate a daily ser

vice six times a week linking Seattle with

Yakima, via Wenatchee, with no flying on

the Sabbath.

Phillips,

the chief pilot, was well

known in the Northwest. Their company,

Inter Citiair Express, Inc., had in fact be

gun flying the hump some six months

earlier with a Lockheed Vega. Flying the

Cascades was dicey business in a single

engine plane and the partners opted to re

equip with Kreutzer trimotors.

Inter Citiair Express seems to have re

organized

early on as Seattle-

Wenatchee-Yakima Airways, Inc. In any

event, Palmer was doing business under

that banner when the Pacific Finance Cor

poration caught up with NC612 at

Oakland, where it had been grounded as

unairworthy by Dept. of Commerce In

spector Wiley Wright on November 23,

1930. Palmer, having failed to make any

payments on the financed purchase price,

was summarily relieved

of

the airplane.

There had been little maintenance on

the airplane during its service in the North

west. Messrs. Palmer and Smith seem to

have operated more as a charter service


17/36

an airline. Exactly

how

much sched

passenger flying they did is

unknown

,

the

logbook was not aboard at the

o repossession. t

is

known, how

NC612

was a sometime visitor

the Canadian side, the implication

be

that it

was

engaged

in

a fly-by-night

Prohibition

had

yet

to

repealed and the huge profits

from

haul

libations were a temptation

was

almost irresistible.

Once again NC612 was handed over

Larry

Th

erkelsen, who included it in

May

1931

listings with the notation

Less than

100

hours. This must be a

to engine time since major

the

, which were not really up

to

sk, were wheezing again and in

o

a full measure

o

TLC.

price was only $2,500.

Therkelsen was not long in placing

under new management, this time

Winslow, Arizona. Messrs. W. L.

Car

, Columbus

L.

Giragi and C. J.

doing business as Navajo Air

to provide a feeder

Western Air

Ex

at Winslow. Tourism to the Grand

n and sightseeing excursions over

e Great Meteor Crater would be their

and butter. The sale was consum

on May 30 1931.

By March

1932

, NC612 was weather

tattered. t was time

for

a com

airframe overhaul and new fabric .

control cables

were

all rusty and the

Ac

to the

paperwork,

NC612

had but

197 hours total time. From this, one can

only suppose that a lot o flying went

un

recorded, and that the airplane spent a fair

amount

o

time outdoors. The airplane

was

ferried

to

Los Angeles

for

a thorough

refurbishing.

Although Navajo Airways

was not

an

element o the T&W

AE merger that

res

ulted

in

today's TWA it operated from

the WAE terminal and went so far as to

copy the line's distinctive

red

and silver

color scheme.

Navajo

ma

y well have

used

WAE as their ticket agent,

too

.

t

is likely that NC612 participated in

supply drops that prevented starvation

among Indians marooned

by

the blizzard

o January 1932. Other Kreutzers may

ha

ve been involved as well, there having

been

three

in

operation

in

Arizona

at

that

time. The International Flying Service

kept

an elegant K-5 , NC243M

at

Phoenix

and

the Packard family at Payson owned

NC9493, which spent much o its li e

barnstorming Arizona, New Mexico and

Texas. William

A.

Packard, close kin

to

the automaker, had

fond

memories o the

airplane.

As for Navajo Airways, little is known

beyond the fact that it probably was a bust

for its owners. The company went out o

business toward the end o 1932 and on

January

9 1933

, NC612 became the

prop

erty o Willard F. Hellman o Glendale,

California. Hellman owned a little Kinner

Airster biplane that had

once

been demon

strated by the Kinner Company's Boston

agent

Amelia Earhart.

Hellman was the proprietor o a radio

and appliance business.

Hi

s serviceman

was a radio expert and when Harold

Bromley complained one

day

that

no

af

fordable lightweight transmitter/receivers

were

on

the market, Hellman

said

he'd try

to

build

one

. The unit delighted Bromley,

whose friend, Wiley Post, ordered one

just like

it.

That unit may still

be

part

o

Winnie Mae's avionics.

On

the trip

home

from Winslow it was

evident that the gasping LeBlonds were in

need

o

yet another valve job. Hellman

took the matter

up

with E. L. Hollywood,

Sr., whose Glendale based Air Tran

spo rt

Manufacturing Company was created to

continue Air Coach production. ATM had

a cash flow problem, however, and only

one new airplane had been produced. t

was

a custom K-5 for oilman Allen Han

cock,

one

of Hollywood's creditors.

Hollywood's engineer/partner

was

Al

bin K. Peterson, who had designed the

Air Coach in the first place. Peterson had

so me improvements

he

was eager to try

out and Hellman

was

offered a refurbish

ing proposition he could not refuse. t

included the latest Kinner

K-5

engines at

cost. The Kinner Company, its factory

just down

the

street, hoped to see

the

Air

Coach back in production . Its CEO,

Robert Porter, is thought to have had a

personal stake

in

the matter.

NC612

was

converted

in

compliance

with

ATC

223

, which

had

been amended

The cockpit of the Kreutzer

K-5

with

the throttle quadrant mounted on the

floor between the seats.

VINTAGE AIRPLANE 5


18/36

The

three Kinner K-5s swing a trio of

Sensenich

fixed pitch, wood props

to

move

the

K-5

Air Coach along

at

a stately 100

110

mph. AI Ball

of

Santa

Paula

CA gets all

the credit for restoring the three Kinners

to

outstanding condition.

to permit a new fin

and

rudder design

and

windshield , mainly in the interests of

styling enhancement. The airplane was

flying again

in

March just in time to pro

vide

an

aerial platform to inspect the

devastation caused by the Long Beach

earthquake. The modernization program

seemed to generate new interest, espe

cially

from

operators south of the border,

and a production line was set

up

to pro

duce

an

initial batch of three ATM style

Air Coaches.

In the spring of 1933 Willard Hellman

found himself

at

loose ends. Business re

versals and a failing marriage prompted

him to relocate and start afresh. Through

his friend Harold Bromley a connection

was made with West Mexican Mines,

Ltd., headquartered at Hidalgo de Parral

in

the state

of

Chihuahua. The company,

which operated

an

aging Ryan Brougham,

had need of a more modern airplane for

its

mountain operations

and

NC612, with

16 DECEMBER 1999

Greg Herrick shows great form as he demonstrates the correct procedure for

strong-arming Kinner K-5s. The Heywood

ir

Starters were not installed in time

for

AirVenture 99.

its

Kinner engines,

had the

desired perfor

mance. Hellman received another offer he

couldn't refuse.

In

a convoluted

deal

engi

neered by Hancock, the oilman, ATM

would be paid 29,000 for the airplane.

This included development costs and a

generous bonus to Hellman, the actual

owner, plus a two-year job contract.

The journey to Mexico was not with

out incident. Bromley had never flown a

Kreutzer before, but he d done a fair

amount of test flying for Lockheed and

Emsco, which had produced aircraft for

his

transpacific escapades

in 1929-30.

He

felt confident that

the

Air Coach was just

another airplane.

It was therefore, a bit of


19/36

a shocker when , on the approach to

Yuma , a

dust devil

caused the airplane to

lurch

sideways close to the ground, drop

ping a wing . Bromley was unable to

check

the

low wing, which impacted vi

olently, resulting

in

a partial cartwheel.

Fortunately, nobody was seriously in

, but the airplane appeared

to be all

but a total write-off.

Bromley, somewhat chastened, pro

ceeded on

to

Parral to explain

to

the

management why there would

be

a slight

delay

in

implementing the new trimotor

service to the mines. HeHman caught the

next westbound Curtiss Condor at

El

Paso, TX, which happened to be a non

revenue ferry flight with no passengers

and

no

copilot. The

captain explained

that

he was

fatigued

from

a long

night

of liba

tion

and

wondered if HeHman would spare

him at the controls while he took a nap.

Thus it was that Hellman flew himself

back to Glendale, courtesy of American

Airways, while the captain snored

in

the

back until it was time

for

the landing.

Hellman

returned to

Yuma with

Peter

son, took stock of the situation and had

NC6l2 ignominiously dumped on a rail

road flatcar for the return trip. Two

months later, this time with ATM's Del

Hay at the controls, the reconstituted

NC6l2

was

delivered

to

West Mexican

Mines as XB-AHO. Bromley made the

first run to Guadeloupe Y Calvo on the

morning ofJune 7, 1933.

For the next several years Bromley re

mained XB-AHO's pilot exclusively,

save for one thoroughly unhappy occa

sion. The airplane gave 100 percent

reliable service and there were only three

minor engine incidents, all due to

the

cen

ter Kinner's appetite for valves,

in

nearly

3,000 hours

of

flying. There were, how

ever,

a

number

of landing incidents.

Bromley

was

only carrying a payroll

when he landed on GYC's slushy runway

and stood

the

Air Coach

on

its nose after

coasting into a snow bank. The hot en

gines melted the packed snow and

XB-AHO gradually toppled over on its

back. Bromley had

to hitch a ride on a

mule train

to

fetch a

new propel1er.

The

Bromley family, which

was

domiciled at Guadeloupe Y Calvo, were

planning a long overdue vacation

by

the

summer of 1935 . Harold arranged with

Lake Littlejohn, a former PanAm pilot

with several thousand hours of trimotor

LlnLEJOHN CRAWLED

OUT, THOROUGHLY

HUMBLED,

BUT

OTHERWISE

UNHARMED. "NEVER IN

MY 20 YEARS

OF

fLYING,"

HE WAILED,

"HAVE

SEEN

SUCH

HAVOC

FROM

SUCH

SLIGHT

PROVOCATION!"

time, to be his substitute for the month

of

August. Littlejohn was happy to

oblige, because he was between jobs

and found the Chihuahua Mountains

much to

his

liking.

Littlejohn, with his vast experience,

saw no need for a checkride and the

Bromleys left for California. The very

next day, Littlejohn was finishing the

daily maiVpassenger

run

to GYC when he

slightly overshot his landing

at

Parral and

applied some

brake.

t was a tad too much.

The tail

lifted slowly, hesitated

in

midair,

then

flopped over on its

back

with a grind

ing crunch . Littlejohn crawled out,

thoroughly humbled, but otherwise un

harmed . "Never in

my 20

years offlying,"

he

wailed, "have I seen such havoc from

such

slight provocation "

XB-AHO

was

clearly out of commis

sion

for months to come . The nose Kinner

had broken off its mount, all the pro

pellers were curled, the fuselage was

buckled and the landing gear had folded

back. It

was

Bromley's second

day

on va

cation and now he had to find a

replacement airplane, preferably another

K-5 Air

Coach.

t took the rest

of

the month to find

one. NC243M,

original1y

the property of

the Kinner company, had been updated

by

ATM

for

the previously mentioned

In

ternational Flying Service of Phoenix.

Bromley got it, through the good offices

of broker Charlie Babb , for $3,000 . Thu s

it wa s NC243M migrated

to

Mexico as

XB-AA

C.

XB-AHO was eventually returned to

service and plied the airways for West

Mexican Mines for

several

more years.

In

the late 1930s, however,

the

Gringo

pilots

were being disenfranchised and sent

home, so native airmen could have the

high paying jobs. The trouble was

none

of

the Mexican applicants seemed to be able

to

get

the hang of flying XB-AHO. Brom

ley, himself, occasionally alluded to its

"tricky ways." In the air, "No

problema

"

But

getting

back

on

the

ground again was

something else, especially

on

primitive

airstrips at elevations

up

to 8,000

ft

.

Even

after

the

deadline, Bromley

was

given special dispensation

to

remain un

til

he

could train a replacement. Whereas

all Americans who held commercialli

censes had their tickets invalidated in

Mexico, a special category had been cre

ated for Bromley, who

was

held in high

esteem by the Mexicans. He

was

named

Asesor Tecnico # I-literally it meant

technical advisor

and

it permitted

him

to

remain on

the

job until a qualified

Mexi

can pilot could

be

found .

The qualified Mexican

turned

out

to be

another American,

Leo

Lopez T., for Ta

lamantes, used only in formal

introductions. Leo, born and educated

in

EI Paso, held dual citizenship. He had

learned

to

fly

in

1931 and, by 1936 ,

was

instructing in Col. Roberto Fierro's flight

academy.

Fierro,

former

head of the Mex

ican AF, was also the governor

of

Chihuahua. For the next several years

XB-AHO would be flown

by

Leo, who

was to become one

of Mexico s

best

known commercial operators.

In 1939, XB-AHO became the prop

erty of one Gerardo Heimpel, a German

national, long suspected of clandestine

activities. Heimpel

was an

avowed Nazi

and claimed personal friendship with

Adolf Hitler. His mission, it was said, was

to

strengthen German ties with Mexico,

which were already strong. Heimpel

and

his countrymen

hoped

to

make Mexico

an

Axis ally, or at the

very

least keep

it

neu

tral in the event

of

an American

declaration of war on Germany.

Heimpel

was

involved

in

mining

oper

ations,

which

also served

Nazi needs

. One

of his mining operations

was

Huizopa,

in

the

Western Sierras. Its landing strip was

VINTAGE

AIRPLANE 7


20/36

-'

11

c

E

reputed

to

be one of the most dangerous

in

the State

of

Chihuahua,

which

had

many dangerous strips. XB-AHO's job

was to create links between

Heimpel'

s

headquarters in Chihuahua, Huizopa and

other holdings.

There were rumors that Heimpel's air

plane, sometimes described as a twin, was

making border crossings into Texas and

New Mexico at night,

dropping agents

and supplies. However true that may be

has yet

to be

determined. What

is

known

for certain is that

Heimpel'

s services to

the Fuhrer came

to

an abrupt end shortly

after

the U.S.

entered

WW II.

Mexico

threw in with the Allies and a few days

later Heimpel was packed off to prison for

the duration.

Sometime previous to

Heimpel's

in

carceration, X8-AHO had been involved

in an

accident

at Huizopa. The pilot,

Desiderio

Chilelo

Varela had trained

his copilot to

do

the braking, but the tech

nique proved his undoing. There was a

fairly violent ground loop, resulting in

damage to the wing and center engine.

Chilelo

and his brakeman-mechanic

were out of a job and XB-AHO went into

dead storage. Mining operations had been

discontinued at Huizopa, due to unprof

itable

production, and the

place

was

abandoned. For the next four decades XB

AHO was all but forgotten.

In 1980, a charter pilot by the name

of

18 DECEM ER

999

Hernando Garcia Contreras acquired title

to

XB-AHO

from the

Heimpel

family,

which was still domiciled in Chihuahua,

although the patriarch Nazi, Geraldo and

his pilot son were long gone. The aircraft

was complete, except for the three Hamil

ton Standard propellers and

all

of

the

instruments. The propellers had been dis

tributed

among family members as

mementos

of

bygone days.

Garcia's initial sal

vage operation,

which

got

underway in

May

1981, in

volved

a

work party

of

25 men and 20

pack animals. They retrieved the engines,

fuel tanks, oil tanks, tail wheel, controls

and other items. That same year, during

November and December, a second expe

dition was mounted, involving 22 men

and

9

pack

animals. The fuselage was

moved a few kilometers before snowfall

halted the program.

Garcia could not return until Novem

ber 1982, this time with a party of 34 men

and 25 pack animals. They were in the

mountains for another two months, hack

ing paths with machetes and actually

clearing a roadway near the end

of

the

trail to permit trucking their treasures of

the Sierra Madre over the last leg of the

journey

to

Casa Grande.

XB-AHO

had not been the only air

craft

retrieved from Huizopa.

Another

wreck had been

of

sufficient interest to

Garcia to add to his collection. It was an

unidentified biplane and only the fuselage

and tail were salvageable. The writer and

Garcia examined the remains and found a

serial number stamped on a longeron. It

was 1000. Could this have been some sort

of

experimental aircraft? The puzzle re

mained

unresolved until I

remembered

the daughter

of

another pilot who had vis

ited Huizopa as a charter pilot in the early

1930s-an American, George Law. Law

had crashed

on his last flight out

of

Huizopa in 1934. A check of the records

revealed that Law had been flying a J-5

Eaglerock, NC542Y, Serial Number 1000.

For the next several years, Garcia, his

son and nephew, with

the

help of a

Guatemalan mechanic, Marcelino Jolon

Camey, labored day in and day out to get

the Air Coach back

in

the

air

again.

Camey, in his seventies , had worked on

Kreutzers in Guatemala in his youth. Pro

pellers and instruments had

to

come from

north of the border, however, and finding

them became a task for Senor Juan. The

writer had been recruited as some kind of

purchasing agent.

Funding for the enterprise came from

an investment group composed of local

businessmen and teachers. Art Acosta

was the titular head, mainly because he

could understand my brand

of

Spanish, or

maybe it was the other way around. None

of

them, except the Garcias, knew any

thing about aviation. All the backers knew


21/36

was that a trimotor in the U.S . was sup

posed to be worth upwards of a million

dollars. That was the incentive behind the

salvage operation from the outset.

If

XB

AHO could be made airworthy enough to

fetch

$500,000

, then it would

all

be

worthwhile.

XB-AHO was repatriated at EI Paso as

N612A

in 1986 and

trundled

to

Santa

Teresa, a few miles west

of

the New Mex

ico side ,

where

the

Garcias

busied

themselves with their activities. N612A

was ready to fly, or so it seemed, and an

tique

airplane

guru

Bob

Taylor

came

down from Iowa to give it his blessing.

Alas, the problem was no one with the

necessary credentials was willing to sign

off the paperwork.

California seemed

to

offer more favor

able prospects. The Los Angeles office of

the FAA was used to dealing with licens

ing vintage aircraft. Southern California

also seemed

to

be a better place to locate

a buyer. Besides, it was N612A's place of

birth and there was the prospect of some

free TV coverage. Once again, the

Kreutzer was trundled off on a flatbed

tractor-trailer.

Finding an airport suitable for a test

flight with hangar accommodations was

not easy. Chino was considered and ruled

out. (Hangar space was $900 per month

and there was nothing available.) So was

Mojave. Camarillo seemed ideal, with its

10,000 foot runway surrounded by farm

land and a huge, half-empty hangar for

only $400 a month.

The next step was to find a suitable

test pilot. There were several volunteers,

including Bill Turner

of

Repeat Aircraft,

Mel Heflinger, retired from United Air

lines, and a gentleman who had flown for

ASA

for many

years, whose name

I

can't now recall.

Chuck Yeager had also been ap

proached. He liked to fly oddball aircraft

and agreed to do the job at no charge, pro

vided certain insurance conditions could

be met. That was the first hang-up. The

actuaries knew Yeager could handle

jet

fighters "no problem," but they wanted to

know how much recent time he had in tri

motors. In the end , no underwriter was

illing to provide coverage on a 60-year

old trimotor,

except

L1oyds , and

their

premiums were prohibitive.

Licensing was another problem. FAA

wanted N612A licensed in the homebuilt

category . While the aircraft had con

formed

to

ATC 223, there was nothing

in

the FAA ' s files

to

guide them in the way

of

an inspection handbook with A TC 223

specifications. All that information had

been purged from their files decades ear

lier.

There

had

not

been a

Kreutzer

trimotor on the FAA's books since 1940

By a curious coincidence, a long de

ceased friend, Lee Enich, had fallen heir

in the 1950s to the Kreutzer engineering

residue, which consisted mainly of a crate

of

blueprints for the Kreutzer trimotors

(three models), the General Western Me

teor and the Hodkinson trimotor, a Don

Berlin venture that had not gone beyond a

single prototype. Lee, an early EAA ac

tivist, had donated everything

to

the EAA

museum, then in its infancy.

An appeal was made

to

Paul

Poberezny, who had a vague recollection

of the

collection

, and made a personal

search of material in dead storage . The

crate had not been entered into the EAA's

computerize property inventory, which

necessitated a massive search that proved

unfruitful, initially.

Meanwhile, things in California had

taken a

downward

turn.

Having been

carefully inspected, N612A revealed it

self

to

be a cosmetic restoration. Despite

invoices in the amount

of

$7,000 for air

craft grade spruce and plywood, much of

the structure was not aircraft grade. More

over, the fabric proved to be improperly

applied. It was shrinking with the passage

of time,

warping improperly installed

fairing stringers.

It

was beginning to look

like Hell. Close inspection ofweldments

in the forward fuselage revealed kinked

tubing

in

critical locations.

Meanwhile, efforts continued to find a

buyer.

For

the next couple of years the

writer showed N612A on the average

of

once

a

week

to

prospects, including

a

Japanese group, which was looking for a

theme park attraction. On one occasion,

having

just

returned from the l20-mile

round trip to Camarillo, a Trade-a-Plane

reader called to say he wanted to see the

airplane that very afternoon. It meant an

other l20-mile trip, but this time at the

other party's expense.

He asked me to meet him at nearby

BUR

and

we'd

fly out in his

airplane,

which was assumed to be a Bonanza or

Cessna.

It

turned out to be a beautiful, re

cently restored B-25. Hey, my friends,

that was a memorable trip and a highlight

of my mission to find a new home for

N612A. Alas, the gentleman declined

to

make an offer, which was disappointing,

although not entirely unexpected.

N6l2A's owners, having despaired of

ever consummating a sale on terms ac

ceptable

to all concerned, eventually

hauled the airplane back to Texas, where I

never

knew exactly

.

Another decade

passed, more or less , before the arrival

upon the scene

of

an extraordinary young

man by the name of Greg Herrick. Herrick

had just acquired Channing Clark's proto

type Fleetwings Seabird. He told me he

was interested in the Kreutzer and won

dered

if

knew where

it

had gone to after

CMA. I didn't, but I gave him some leads.

The upshot

of

this was Greg Herrick's

becoming N

612A'

s protector and bene

factor, probably for life. I think

Greg's

ambition

is

to own the largest private col

lection of vintage aircraft in the world.

Reflecting upon that expectation is his

new hangar at Anoka County Airport, 25

miles north of Minneapolis.

It

was fin

ished during this past summer and is big

enough to hold 100+ aircraft.

The thing

about

Greg's taste in air

planes is that he prefers the rarest

of

the

rare, although he does make exceptions.

For example,

he has a

weakness for

Fairchild

PTs, not on

the

endangered

species list, and a couple of Wac os in the

same category, but most of his fleet con

sists of one-only survivors, such as his

"Packard"

Buhl CA-3D, Cunningham

Hall PT-6F and Stinson "A" trimotor.

Once again a search was mounted for

the Kreutzer blueprints, because nothing

much could be achieved without them.

For one thing, the Mexican built wings

deviated so far from the originals as to be

unrecognizable. The spars were all wrong,

so too was the airfoil. This time the blue

prints

were

found and they gave new

impetus to the program. Indeed, without

them the restoration would have been vir

tually impossible.

Greg has the team and the wherewithal

to perform marvelous restorations,

but

without the late Lee Enich's long ago con

tribution it probably could not have been

done. Hey, it's the happy hour as I write

this, so

here's

to you Lee you didn't

have the foresight to save those blueprints,

NC612A might still be a moldering relic

with very little future. Instead, it's a delight

to behold and one that will be enjoyed by

generations of air show spectators in the

new millennium. .......

VINT GE IRPL NE

9


22/36

PASS

IT TO

BUCK

by E.E. Buck Hilbert

EAA

21

VAA 5

P.O. Box 424 Union IL 60180

CESSNASCE

SSNAS

AND

MOR

The dates, September 24 and 25, the

place, Poplar Grove, Illinois, the event,

the Annual Cessna 120-140 Associa

tion bash.

The weather was absolutely beautiful ,

as myoId friend Walt Weber used to say,

"Seventeen layers

of

severe clear "

I attended on Saturday the 25. W. D.

"Dip" Davis had flown out with the group

to Pioneer Airport at your EAA AirVen

ture Museum and had such good things

to say about it all, I had to get over there

and

see what it

was all about. Take

a

look at the photos that EAA

s

Mary Jones

took during the shindig in Oshkosh (H.G.

was in St. Louis for the Monocoupe fly

in

- hi s

report will

be in

next month

s

issue .

The group has kept me on their mailing

list for some time, so I was all primed to

go anyway, but seeing as "Dip" was going

to do a forum, I decided to chase after him

and attend. He

drove, carrying

all

his

demo dope and stuff. I flew.

Unfortunately, I

don t

have a Cessna,

so the new

Champ, N83760 was put

to

use . I felt like that Chrysler ad , the red

pepper in with all the potatoes, but it was

a lot

easier

to

get there. That

18

mile

drive is an insult when you can fly, even

at

75

mph.

Landing, I was met by Don Alesi near

his restored aqua pick-up truck. The truck

calls attention to his sign and you then fol

low his

lea d or hi s

radio directions

to

parking. Since I was an oddball (correc

tion, odd bird) , I parked way over there,

away from the stars

of

the fly-in.

Don then gave me a ride up and down

20

DECEMBER 1999

Above) The highlight fly out event of the 120 140 Convention was a trip to Oshkosh to visit

EAA s

Pioneer Airport and the

EAA

AirVenture Museum. Landing first at Wittman Field, the

pilots were briefed by

Joe

Schumacher, Director

of

Flight Operations and then

took

off

for

the short

flight

over to Pioneer field, which it not normally open to transient traffic.

Below) Richard Harden of Minneapolis, MN arrives at Pioneer Airport

with

his beautifully

polished Cessna 140.

8/12/2019 Vintage Airplane -

vintage airplane - dec 1999

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