Vintage Airplane - Jan 2012

8/20/2019 Vintage Airplane - Jan 2012

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2 Straight and Level Geoff Robison

3 News

5 It All Started With a Pony At least you don’t have to clean up after a Monocoupe by Budd Davisson

11 The Liberating Sky Pioneering black pilots broke barriers and climbed to new heights-Part I by Philip Handleman

16 Light Plane Heritage Twelve thousand miles in an Avro Avian by Bob Whittier

20 Just a Long Cross-Counry in an Antique, Right? A ferry flight adventure by Bill McClure

27 Type Club Listing

32 The Vintage Mechanic Repair data by Robert G. Lock

36 The Vintage Instructor Do you know what you don’t know?

Flying is a lifelong learning experience! by Steve Krog, CFI

38 Mystery Plane by H.G. Frautschy

39 Classifieds

VINTAGE AIRPLANE 1

A I R P L A N E J A N U A R Y

C O N T E N T S

S T A F FEAA Publisher Rod HightowerDirector of EAA Publications J. Mac McClellanExecutive Director/Editor H.G. Frautschy

Production/Special Projects Kathleen Witman

Photography Jim KoepnickCopy Editor Colleen Walsh

Publication Advertising:Manager/Domestic, Sue Anderson

Tel: 920-426-6127 Email: [email protected]

Fax: 920-426-4828

Senior Business Relations Mgr, Trevor Janz

Tel: 920-426-6809 Email: [email protected]

Manager/European-Asian, Willi TackePhone: +49(0)1716980871 Email: [email protected]

Fax: +49(0)8841 / 496012

Classified Advertising Coordinator, Jo Ann Cody SimonsTel: 920-426-6169 Email: [email protected]

C O V E R S

Vol. 40, No. 1 2012

FRONT COVER: Cam Blazer and a few of his friends (along with some new ones he met along

the way) restored this Monocoupe 90A, now powered with a 165 hp Warner. Read about his

restoration odyssey in Budd Davisson’s article star ting on page 5. EAA photo by Jim Koepnick,

EAA photo plane flown by Bruce Moore.

BACK COVER: Popular illustrator Barry Ross created this beautiful illustration of a Piper

Tri-Pacer climbing away from the Bear Island Lighthouse near Acadia National Park in Maine.

Along the shoreline, the Rockefeller yawl Nirvana cruises serenely along. Prints are available byordering from his website at http://www.barryrossart.com/ . Click on the “Aviation art” link.

5

For missing or replacement magazines, or

any other membership-related questions, please call

EAA Member Services at 800- JOIN-EAA (564-6322).

20


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Happy new year to each andevery member of the Vin-tage Aircraft Association.

Where did 2011 go?Well, for me it was yet another whirl-wind year of adventure and enjoy-ment of everything aviation. It’s

vitally important for the staff andvolunteers of VAA to look back andthank the many thousands of indi-viduals who support this organizationevery year. It’s appropriate to thankthose on the EAA staff who work hardevery day to sell the Vintage brandto members and potential members.Many thanks to each of you!

Now, what does 2012 have in storefor us? Well, many positive things areon our horizon, but we find ourselvesin a financial position where we canno longer avoid the really tough de-cision about our dues structure. Theexpense of operating an organizationsuch as ours has experienced manydistinct ebbs and tides over the past10 years or so since we last raised ourdues. The reality of the slow but everincreasing rate of inflation has caughtup with us, even though we’ve doneour best to broaden the income of the

division beyond dues revenue.We are simply no longer in a posi-tion to ignore the realities of the risingcosts of publishing Vintage Airplanemagazine. Ironically, the Vintageboard overwhelmingly supported adues increase, but until recently, weultimately chose not to implement adues increase. Be assured that a lot ofconsternation, discussion, and verycareful planning have now led usto implement what I believe to be a

well-thought-out plan on what theactual increase should be. The real-

ity of all this discussion results in adues increase of a mere 50 cents permonth, or $6 per year. We are all cer-tainly hopeful that the entire mem-bership will understand and supportthis decision to raise the dues, butrealistically, we understand that there

will be some who will question thevalue of staying on board. Please beassured we will understand regardlessof your decision, and please do nothesitate to communicate any con-cerns you may have about this or anyother board actions.

Another item that was discussed inthe fall board meetings was the needto respond to a number of recent de-partures from our board of directors.Through attrition that has naturallyoccurred over the last couple of years,I felt that the board should beginthe process of keeping the board ofdirectors staffed with some new en-ergy through the Advisory Member(“Advisors”) process as allowed by ourbylaws. Three active VAA volunteerswere carefully selected and agreed toserve as advisors to the board. Pleasejoin me and the board of directors inwelcoming Ron Alexander, Joe Norris,

and Tim Popp to the board of direc-tors. You’ll get a chance to meet thesethree men here in the pages of Vintage

Airplane in a future issue.A year ago I stated in this column,

“I often wonder what governmentregulatory issues we will be dealingwith in a year from now.” Yet againwe find ourselves concerned with thefunding mechanisms of our coun-try’s aviation system. The hot buttonconcept of user fees will just not go

away. The fiscal 2012 federal budgetfor the FAA has been reauthorized for

just four months of this current bud-get cycle, which extended the periodfor debate and negotiation on the re-mainder of that fiscal period’s budget.Of course, there are those who con-tinue to push for additional revenuesthrough the implementation of user

fees. True to my word, I have person-ally written a number of my congres-sional representatives in an attemptto convince them to push for adop-tion of sensible funding of the airportand aviation trust fund. The currentstatus of this debate resides in H.R.658, which addresses the remainingperiod of fiscal 2012, which I am ledto believe still does not include fund-ing through user fees. The House andSenate versions of this legislation arecurrently being resolved in Confer-ence Committee. So let’s all be sureto keep our eyes wide open on thisissue and stay in the debate. Let’s allprotect our personal right to fly.

The year 2011 has proven to be abanner year for our local VAA Chap-ter 37 as well as the local EAA Chapter2 here in northeast Indiana. I am per-sonally bursting with pride in both ofthese fine examples of what an EAA

chapter is really all about. These twochapters provided more than 1,000Young Eagles rides to the youth ofour local communities during 2011.What an accomplishment! Congratu-lations to all the local EAA memberswho made this possible.

Remember, it’s time to run yourchecklist and buckle your seat belts,because 2012 is shaping up to be yetanother exciting year for the VintageAircraft Association.

2 JANUARY 2012

Geoff Robison

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, VAA

STRAIGHT & LEVEL

Looking Ahead and Tightening the Belt


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EAA President/CEO Rod Hightower and Dr. Diane Thorn-

ton, national director for Learning for Life, sign a

memorandum of understanding to create joint avia-

tion opportunities for youth.

EAA’s Young Eagles program, the world’s largest youth

aviation education initiative, and the school- and career-

based Learning for Life (LFL) program, an affiliate of Boy

Scouts of America, have entered into an agreement that

will help young people discover and explore opportunities

in aviation, including orientation flights in GA aircraft.

Those opportunities will be primarily focused through

Learning for Life’s Aviation Exploring program, a hands-

on program that exposes young people to flying and of-

fers aviation experiences as a possible career or for thesheer pleasure of being around airplanes.

Learning for Life school-based programs serve boys

and girls from early childhood through 12th grade. Ex-

ploring is a worksite-based program for students ages 14

to 21 able to learn about careers through practical appli-

cation guided by experts in the field.

The agreement will provide students with the oppor-

tunity to:

•Highlight all aspects of the aviation industry,

•Explore career orientation opportunities, and

•Enjoy aviation education experiences.

For more information on the agreement and Learn-ing for Life, visit www.SportAviation.org .

Cubs to Oshkosh

If you’re one of the many Piper

Cub pilots who are in the planning

stages to make the trip to EAA Air-

Venture Oshkosh to celebrate the

75th anniversary of the Piper J-3

Cub, one of your first stops should

be to the website www.Cubs2Osh.

EAAChapter.org. Volunteer Rick

Rademacher of Urbana, Ohio, is

helping his fellow EAA and VAAers

plan their trip to Oshkosh by overseeing this special event website, including creating a list of members who wish

to bring their Cubs to Oshkosh. That’s where you come in—visit the chapter and sign up as a pilot planning on

flying to AirVenture, so we can plan for a sea of yellow Cubs.

While the bulk of the parking for the J-3s will be in the Type Club parking area, the exact parking arrangements

where various Cubs will be located is still being worked out, and much of that planning depends on the number

of pilots who register to park their airplanes in the Vintage area. We’ll have more on this great anniversary cel-

ebration for one of aviation’s great treasures in coming issues, but in the meantime, please visit www.Cubs2Osh.

EAAChapter.org to get started!

VAA NEWS

VINTAGE AIRPLANE 3

EAA and Learning for Life Sign Aviation Agreement


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4 JANUARY 2012

See Flabob Express at AirVenture 2012

See the DC-3 Flabob Express at AirVenture Oshkosh

2012.

Flabob Express, a DC-3 based at Flabob Airport in

Riverside, California, is among the first confirmed air-

craft scheduled to appear at EAA AirVenture Oshkosh2012, July 23-29. The aircraft will serve as the center-

piece for “a very comprehensive event at AirVenture”

by the Flabob-based Thomas W. Wathen Foundation’s

educational programs, said Bill Sawin, the foundation’s

executive vice president and chief development officer.

Up to 15 students from the Wathen Foundation

Charter Middle/High School Aviation Academy & Pro-

grams will attend and serve as docents for aircraft tours

and make presentations about EAA youth programs.

They will also get involved with KidVenture and inter-

act with the EAA Air Academy campers during AirVen-

ture week. In addition, organizers plan to bring two or

three airplanes built and flown by the students.

For links to more information on EAA AirVenture,

the plane, Flabob, and the Wathen Foundation, visit

www.SportAviation.org .

Classic J-3 Cub Is 2012EAA Aircraft Sweepstakes Grand Prize

Giveaway part of Cub’s 75th

anniversary celebration at EAA AirVenture

The Piper J-3 Cub, one of the legendary aircraft in

aviation history, will take center stage for the next

nine months as the grand prize for the 2012 EAA Win

the Cub Aircraft Sweepstakes.

The EAA Sweepstakes, one of the longest-running

airplane giveaways in the world, annually supports

EAA’s aviation education programs. In a change from

past years, entry forms will be available beginning

this week through EAA AirVenture Oshkosh 2012, takingplace July 23-29. All prizes will be awarded to winners

in random drawings at the EAA AirVenture Museum in

Oshkosh at 5 p.m. on September 10, 2012.

The Piper Cub grand prize in 2012 coincides with

AirVenture’s commemoration of the Cub’s 75th an-

niversary. The Sweepstakes Cub is a specially selected

model that is restored and maintained to EAA’s high

standards, which will make an unmatched piece of

flying history and fun for the winner. In addition, the

grand prize package includes skis for winter flying,

plus sport pilot and/or tailwheel endorsement train-ing, if desired.

“This is your opportunity to win one of the great,

iconic airplanes in aviation history that is perfect for

fun flying,” said Elissa Lines, EAA’s vice president of

business and donor relations. “At the same time,

you’ll be joining the rest of the aviation community

in supporting EAA’s activities and programs that are

helping to create the next generation of aviators.”

Entry forms are available on the sweepstakes web-

site at www.AirVenture.org/sweepstakes. Complete

sweepstakes rules are also available at that website.

What Our Members AreRestoring

Are you nearing completion of a restoration? Or is it

done and you’re busy fl ying and showing it off? If so,

we’d like to hear from you. Send us a 4-by-6-inch printfrom a commercial source (no home printers, please—

those prints just don’t scan well) or a 4-by-6-inch, 300-

dpi digital photo. A JPG from your 2.5-megapixel (or

higher) digital camera is fine. You can burn photos to a

CD, or if you’re on a high-speed Internet connection, you

can e-mail them along with a text-only or Word document

describing your airplane. (If your e-mail program asks

if you’d like to make the photos smaller, say no.) For

more tips on creating photos we can publish, visit VAA’s

website at www.VintageAircraft.org . Check the News

page for a hyperlink to Want To Send Us A Photograph?

For more in fo rmat ion , you can a l so e -mai l us a t

[email protected] or call us at 920-426-4825.

S

T E V E

C U K I E R S K I


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VINTAGE AIRPLANE 5

It All Started

With a PonyAt least you don’t have to clean upafter a MonocoupeBY BUDD DAVISSON

“Dad said . . .‘Why would you

want that when youcould be flying

a Tri-Pacer?’”.

JIM KOEPNICK


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6 JANUARY 2012

Horses are, to many peo-

ple, as habit forming as

airplanes. A disease of

the mind. Some breeds

are more addictive than others.

Airplanes are very much the same,

and if there’s one fact in aviation,

it is that once the Monocoupe bug

bites, you stay bitten.

“Technically,” says Cam Blazer

of Leawood, Kansas, “our Mono-

coupe actually started with a ciga-

rette, when I was about 10 years

old. Not a pony. But, there’s a def-

inite connection. My dad caught

me smoking, and he whipped me

good. Mom saw what was going on

and asked Dad to reason with me,

rather than whip. After a day or so,Dad said, ‘If you don’t smoke until

you are 21, I’ll give you a pony.’”

“Skip ahead 11 years. In 1957

I was 21 and didn’t smoke. Dad’s

construction workers and family

knew about the no-smoking deal

and would kid about the pony. One

day Dad called me at college and

asked if I would swap the pony for

flying lessons because he had de-

cided he wanted to learn to fly. A

deal was struck, and we learned to-gether in an old Aeronca Chief. So

that $50 pony turned into about

$500 worth of flying time.

“As I was working on my private

ticket, I came across a 90A Mono-

coupe that was for sale for $900. I

tried to get Dad interested, but he

took one look and said, ‘It has ring-worm and is leaking oil. Plus it’s old.

Why would you want that when

you could be flying a Tri-Pacer?’”

From that point on Cam’s story

reads very much the way so many

pilots’ biographies do with mar-

riage, family, and career slowing

down his flying. But, it didn’t keephim out of aviation.

Since he’s from the Kansas City area, we shouldn’t be surprised to seeCam Blazer wearing a baseball cap emblazoned with the Nicholas-Beazleyemblem. Cam credits his wife, Marie, with helping him throughout hisaviation avocation, and particularly with his latest effort, the MonocoupeSweet Marie .

JIM KOEPNICK

DEKEVIN THORNTON


9/44

VINTAGE AIRPLANE 7

“When I got married I wasn’t

doing much flying, but I’d discov-

ered homebuilt airplanes, and that

looked like something I might be

able to afford. I got interested in a

Sport-Aire II, an Al Trefethen de-

sign, and discovered a TWA pilot

who lived in my ZIP code was listed

as building one. So, I tracked him

down and knocked on his door. I

spent a lot of time working on his

airplane with him, and that led me

to Kansas City EAA Chapter 91. I

got heavily involved and was even

president for a while.

“I was in partnership to build a

couple of Pazmany PL-2s, but I had

to sell mine as a project, including an

Al Trefethen Lycoming O-290G. The

engine was $135. Hard to believe!”

By this time, the fits and starts of

his aviation career were starting to

form a pattern. One he didn’t like.“I had started a Midget Mus-

tang II when my third child came

along, and I had to sell the proj-

ect to expand the house,” he says.

“This was getting really old, but

this time, it didn’t work entirely

against me because my wife got a

fourth bedroom and the space be-

low it just happened to contain an

airplane workshop.”

The next chapter is from one of

those “If he didn’t have bad luck, he’dhave no luck at all” types of tales.

“I was pretty broke, what withthe family and all, but my career as

a project manager was just starting

to take off, so I felt I could afford

to build a KR-2 with a Revmaster.

I was doing just fine on that one

until I was electrocuted on the job.

My hands and toes took a real beat-

ing, and the doctor said if it hadn’t

been such a dry day, it would have

been the end of my story.

Cam Blazer is nothing if not per-

sistent.“On the way home from the

hospital, I stopped and attendedthat month’s EAA meeting. I didn’t

see any reason to wait another en-

tire month.”

Like we said: persistent.

“I’m glad I went because at the

meeting in the ‘wants and wishes’

part, Kelly Viets said his Stinson

108-2 was for sale.

“It was at this point that I real-

ized I came really close to not liv-

ing long enough to build or own

my own airplane, so I bought a Stin-son 108-2 that had been restored to

The one-piece wing was completely rebuilt by Cam and friends from his churchgroup. He was thankful Ed Sampson was keeping an eye on their progress.

While a complete fuselage, there was plenty to repair on the steel tubefuselage, which was expertly accomplished by D.J. Short at Short Air inWarrensburg, Missouri.

Doesn’t everyone have tail surfaceparts as part of the décor?

P H O T O S C O U R T E S Y C A M B

L A Z E R


10/44

8 JANUARY 2012

award-winning condition by Kelly

Viets. It’s easy to remember the day

I bought the airplane, because it was

2 degrees below zero in the hangar

when I was inspecting it. That was

1985, and I’ve owned it since.

“In 1996 my son Steve flew his

1940 Taylorcraft to Oshkosh, and

I flew the Stinson. He was parkedwith the Antiques, and I was parked

in the Vintage area. The Taylor-

craft was sitting next to the Mono-

coupes, and Steve said we should

get a Monocoupe. I had never for-

gotten that 90A I could have had

for $900, so I was more than ready

for a ’coupe.

“I found a D145 for sale but

couldn’t afford it. Later Steve found

a basket case 90A Monocoupe, and

we bought it on December 26, 1997.“If my dad had thought I was

nuts for wanting that 90A 40 years

earlier, this one would have given

him a heart attack. It was a project.

And not a particularly good project,

as projects go.

“The fuselage had been stripped

and primed, and the tail was in

reasonable condition, but the

wing, which is a huge one-piece

affair, was in terrible condition.

In 1956, the airp lane had been

ground looped somewhere down

around Chicago. The left wingtip

got torn up a little, so the airplane

was parked out in the weather and

mostly forgotten. A wooden wing

like that one doesn’t like being out

in the weather, and it didn’t take

long before it was mostly trash.

“The airplane changed hands a

couple of times, each new owner

looking for a 90-hp Lambert ra-dial that originally powered it,

but with no luck. So, not much

was accomplished in terms of re-

building it other than logging a

lot of road miles on trailers. The

owner I bought it from in Kansas

decided to re-engine it with a 165

Warner, which is significantly big-

ger and heavier than the Lambert.

The biggest engine certified in the

Monocoupe in the factory was the

145-hp Warner, so the 165 was il-legal. However, when I bought the

remains, the owner said he’d got-

ten all the proper paperwork and

it was a kosher conversion. I’d find

out later that wasn’t the case, and

it would give me lots of headaches.

“When I got it home, I had

neither the time nor the money

to jump into it with both feet, so

I decided to just do the engine. I

had Forrest Lovley in Minneapolisoverhaul the engine. My contribu-

tion to that part of the project was

to clean parts, which pretty much

matched my experience level when

it came to rebuilding round motors.

“Frankly, I was a little worried

about the wings. Being one-piece

tip-to-tip units, they are not only

heavy, but represent a huge amount

of work. I went to visit Ed Samson

in his shop to have him build a new

wing for me. Ed was thinking of re-

tiring and said he would loan me

the patterns and help with ques-

tions, if I built the wing myself. He

said I would get a great feeling of

accomplishment if I did it myself.”

In another part of his life Cam

had built a number of small, out-

board racing hydroplanes, so he

knew his way around a wood shop.

The wing, however, was four times

the work of a small boat.“At the beginning, I barely

dipped my toe on the water, pre-

ferring to go in little mouse-sized

chunks rather than whole hog, so

I rebuilt an aileron. I picked on an

aileron first because it was small

enough that I could see what I was

in for without spending too much

money. I did okay, so I got serious

about the wings in 2004. Every

Thursday night some of my church

buddies, Walt Calkins, Dan Marvinand Victor Cook, would come over

and build a rib. Ed Samson was our

adviser.

“We saved every fitting possible,

rebuilt them, and reused them. In

fact, that’s the way I approached

the entire airplane. I wanted to

make it as original to 1936 as pos-

sible. The bigger engine put the

airplane into the custom air show/exhibition category, but otherwise

it’s a 1936 airplane. To develop a

supply of original parts, I bought

a donor airplane that had ground

looped so hard that the wing was

broken clean through, and then

it sat outdoors until the fuselage

was good only for patterns. It did,

however, have an excellent instru-

ment panel and most of the origi-

nal aluminum fairings, so between

the two airplanes, we could puttogether a full set of fairings. Most

of those were beat up and required

a lot of handwork to make look

good again, but at least they were

original. All of the instruments are

1936, and even the radio that you

see is a 1936 Lear.”

Per capita, Monocoupes have

probably suffered more ground

loops than any other type of air-

plane (a guess), many of which

involved a landing gear collapsing

from hidden rust inside the tubing.

“The gear tubing is heat treated

to 180,000 psi, which is twice that

of normal chromoly, so when we

rebuilt the gear we had to have it

heat treated. But almost no one

wanted to touch it, and those that

did warped it, and when it was

warped it couldn’t be straightened.

So, we annealed it, built a huge

jig, TIG welded it and, when it washeat treated in the jig, it came out

straight. That was a much bigger

project than it sounds like.

“Earlier I had given the fuselage

to D.J. Short at Short Air in War-

rensburg, Missouri. He’s a magician

with steel tube fuselages, and that’s

what this one was going to need, a

magician. The basic tubing wasn’t

too bad, but it is a very complicated

little airplane, especially the con-

trol system. It has tons of rods andcast aluminum dog-bone f ittings

The left wingtip

got torn up a little,so the airplanewas parked out inthe weather andmostly forgotten.


11/44

that join one pushrod to another or to a bell crank. In

truth, it involves a lot of monkey motion to activate

the ailerons, and D.J. had to figure all the stuff out and

build new parts where we didn’t have the right ones.

And we didn’t do the Frize aileron STC to the airplane

because they’ve been known to flutter, and I didn’t

want to have to worry about that. When we covered

the airplane, we covered straight across the aileron

gap to make them more effective. Unfortunately, that

means that to take the ailerons off, you have to use a

razor blade.

“The big engine is set so far back that some parts ac-

tually stick through the firewall, which was originally

aluminum, but D.J. replaced it with a more fire-safe

stainless steel one. To show how far back the engine

sits, with no firewall in it, you can sit in the seat andtouch the carburetor with your feet.

“D.J. also had to fabricate a new cowling. My son

Chris was working for D.J., and D.J. showed him the

system and let him create the bumps himself. He ham-

mered the rocker arm bumps in place rather than

making them separate pieces and riveting or welding

them on. He made a female mold that clamped on,

and he’d gently hammer the aluminum down into it.

When the aluminum started to change sound, indi-

cating that it was work hardening, he’d anneal it and

keep going. It takes a real touch to do that kind of

thing and not cause cracks.“D.J.’s ability with aluminum really came in handy

VINTAGE AIRPLANE 9

JIM KOEPNICK


12/44

10 JANUARY 2012

with the wheelpants. These are

original Monocoupe pants and

had some serious issues,” Cam

says, “but, when D.J. was finished

with them, it took very little filler

to get them ready for paint. In fact,

they were so nice that I hated to

paint them.”

Although originality was a keygoal of the project, it was also go-

ing to be flown a fair amount, and

that’s where safety and mechani-

cal reliability had to become part of

the equation.

“The original brakes were close to

being useless,” he says. “They were

mechanical and self-energizing, so

we used a set of 6.50 by 10 Cessna

310 wheels and brakes and sized

the actuation cylinders so that they

were soft and would barely holdthe airplane during a run-up. Yes,

you want reliable brakes, but on

this airplane, you don’t want too

much brake.”

The tail wheel is especially intrigu-

ing, as it is a tiny little thing with a

handle protruding off the back that

allows the rudder to steer the tail

wheel directly. It is done exactly the

way the factory drawings show it.

“The fuselage formers,” he says,

“were essentially a moldy j igsaw

puzzle: Lots of individual pieces,

all of them ratty and dimensioned

for the donor airplane, so they

didn’t necessarily match my air-

plane. A lot of head scratching was

involved in getting them, and the

big wooden cove moldings that

run down all four corners of the aft

fuselage to the tail, shaped to fit.

There was some serious eyeballing

while doing that.“The seat frames were another

problem in that we didn’t have two

good ones between two airplanes. So,

we used them as patterns. The bottom

of the door was also mostly rusted

away, and he had to rebuild that.

“One of the bigger problems in

restorations like this is finding all

the small pieces for the interior.

In this case we didn’t have all the

window moldings, some of which

are pretty complicated because theywere originally s tamped out. We

made two complete sets of moldings

for the little ‘D’ windows before we

got the two we needed. The others

were a little easier, so we didn’t have

to build so many duplicates.”

Cam reports that they covered

the airplane using the Superflite

system all the way through, with

D.J. doing the covering.He says, “It t ook three solid

weeks, at eight hours a day, to fin-

ish sanding it. My contribution to

that part of it was in the role of

head sander. I really got my arms in

shape on the project.”

Every project, no matter how

complicated or fraught with prob-

lems, eventually gets finished, and

this included Cam’s Monocoupe.

“D.J. did the first flight, and al-

though I had a fair amount of tail-wheel time, I thought I needed to

do a little brushing up. Especially

considering the reputation the

Monocoupe’s ground handling has.

So, I flew Dick Michel’s Luscombe

for a while, with cardboard cover-

ing the windshield to simulate the

limited visibility that a pilot has in

a Monocoupe. Then I went down

to St. Louis, where Mel McCullom

let me fly his 90AL ’coupe.

“When I started flying my air-

plane, the visibility, or more cor-

rectly, the lack of visibility, was the

biggest surprise. On the ground there

is nothing but instrument panel

and motor in front of you, and you

have to look to the sides at a much

larger angle than in most taildrag-

gers. There’s just a tiny triangle of

windshield visible at each end of the

instrument panel. On most runways,

as you flare, you actually find your-self looking out the side window be-

hind the front door posts.

“I’d be lying if I didn’t admit

that I’m disappointed in the aile-

rons. They are too heavy with too

much system friction, and I’m not

convinced the Frize ailerons would

be any better. Still it’s an enormous

amount of fun to fly, and it’s espe-

cially fun to land somewhere and

taxi up to the gas pump. It draws

spectators like flies.“I bring it over the fence at about

75 mph, so it doesn’t land particu-

larly fast, and I usually wheel it on,

although it does three-point just

fine. It cruises at about 120-125 mph

at about 10-1/2 gallons per hour,

and I have two 14-gallon tanks and

a 9-gallon aux tank. It actually has

enough range and speed that it’s a

workable cross-country airplane.”By the time Cam Blazer had got-

ten well into the Monocoupe proj-

ect, he had risen far up the ranks

of his profession, as an engineering

project manager, and decided to re-

tire to have more time to work on

the airplane.

“Retiring sounded good in the-

ory,” he says, “but it drove my wife

crazy. And me, too. So I ‘unretired’

to save our sanity and probably our

marriage. Besides, I needed the ex-tra money for the airplane. It’s re-

ally ironic to think that I’ve spent

my life and built my reputation on

doing huge projects, like the $250

million Sprint arena in Kansas City,

and bringing it in on budget and

on time. The Monocoupe project

ran as if I’d never been involved in

a project of any kind. It took nearly

twice as much time as estimated

and went horribly over budget. It

went so far over budget that I have

purposely never added it all up,

so when my wife asks how much

it cost, I can honestly say I don’t

know. But, I had a huge amount of

fun. And, I think I’ve got a pretty

neat airplane, which makes it all

worth it.”

We think both of his p oints

are important, and we agree with

them both: What can be more fun

and more important than enjoyingyourself while you’re saving history?

A note from Cam to fr iends and

family: “Thanks to everyone who

helped with parts, advice, and encour-

agement over the 12 years of rebuild-

ing. Thanks to John Swander for set-

ting the example with his 1932 Waco

UEC 2000 Oshkosh Grand Cham-

pion, which is my hangar mate. And,

most important, thanks to my wife,

Marie. She’s the reason the Monocoupeis known as Sweet Marie.”


13/44

VINTAGE AIRPLANE 11

Aiming for the Heavens: African-Americans Blaze a Trail in the Sky

Long before the invention of the

airplane, idealized notions of the

sky suffused Western civilization.

By hurtling from earthly routine

into the unencumbered dome of air

that encircles our world, poets anddreamers imagined that humanity

might rise above itself and achieve

ennobling heights. This classical

interpretation holds that human

flight at its finest is a liberating

force that elevates the soul.

An African-American who not

only embraced flight as a means to

taste the fruits of freedom but also

helped to lay the intellectual foun-

dation for the idea within the black

community was William J. Powell.

Born in Kentucky in 1899, Powell

was raised by a widowed mother

who moved the family to Chicago

in 1904. A very bright student in

school, Powell enrolled in the Uni-

versity of Illinois at Champaign.

When America entered World

War I, Powell enlisted in the Army.

He served as a lieutenant in a seg-

regated infantry regiment on the

frontlines in France. Victimized bya poison gas attack, he needed a

long convalescence.

After the war, he became a suc-

cessful owner of gas stations in Chi-

cago. In August 1927, his life took

a dramatic turn when he went to

France to attend an American Le-

gion convention. It was only three

months after Charles Lindbergh’s

famous Atlantic crossing in the

Spirit of St. Louis. Like countless

people the world over, Powell was

captivated by the historic flight.

Powell ventured to Le Bourget,

the airport where the Lone Eagle

had landed. While there, Powell

paid for an airplane ride and in-

stantly became hooked. Shortly

after returning, he sold his chain

of gas stations and moved to LosAngeles with the single-minded

purpose of becoming a pilot and

pursuing a career in the burgeoning

field of aeronautics.

In 1934, Powell published a book

titled Black Wings, which was a

thinly veiled autobiographical ac-

count of his introduction to flight.

More importantly, it was a mani-

festo that called for blacks to en-

ter aviation as a career choice. The

book makes clear that Powell saw

flight as possessing the intrinsic

power to liberate those who engage

in it. His outlook was encapsulated

in his statement that “Negroes will

never ride as free men and women

below the Mason and Dixon Line…

until they ride in airplanes owned

and operated by Negroes.”Powell incessantly extolled the ben-

efits available to African-Americans

through their participation in the

emergent aviation industry. He felt

that the sooner blacks joined in,

the more prominent would be their

role. Unlike in such mature seg-

ments of commerce as steel and oil,

he argued that there was still room

for newcomers in aviation.

Powell’s advocacy included the

staging of elaborate air shows fea-

The Liberating SkyPioneering black pilots broke barriers and

climbed to new heightsPART 1

BY PHILIP HANDLEMAN

William J. Powell’s 1934 book, titled Black Wings , was a manifesto thatcalled for African-American involvement in aviation. Here he is picturedat his Los Angeles workshop, far right, hosting famed heavyweight box-ing champion Joe Louis, second from left.


14/4412 JANUARY 2012

turing African-American pilots and

stunt performers. He even orga-

nized an air demonstration team

with female black pilots, called the

Five Blackbirds. One of the women

had been a singer at New York’s sto-

ried Cotton Club.

Despite Powell’s undying opti-

mism, the Depression was in fullswing and nothing he did, which

included the publication of a news-

letter and the offering of classes,

attracted the financial support his

cause needed to actualize its ambi-

tion. In the late 1930s, heavyweight

boxing champion Joe Louis visited

Powell’s modest aviation workshop,

but even the tacit endorsement of

such a celebrity made little differ-

ence. By 1942, Powell was in failing

health due to his wartime afflic-tion. He died that year at the age of

only 43. Like Moses, he did not get

to the Promised Land, but he got

to glimpse his adherents’ first steps

into it because barely a year be-

fore his death the War Department

opened flight training to blacks.

It is worth noting that Powell

had deep roots in the church, both

as a parishioner and proselytizer. In

surveying the early involvement of

African-Americans in aviation, it

is hard to overstate the role of the

church. It is not that black pastors

believed in flight as a panacea or

even as a safe and wise endeavor.

However, in the liturgy and choir

music there were the familiar bibli-

cal allusions to the angelic abode as

a sanctuary of purity, peace, happi-

ness, and freedom. Also, a fervent

mantra expressed in resonant ser-

mons proclaimed that one’s dreamswere within reach. This positive re-

inforcement gave encouragement

to Powell and youngsters in the

pews who yearned to fly.

First Flights and Baptism of Fire:Early Birds and the Black Swallowof Death

Two decades before William Pow-

ell launched his movement to draw

African-Americans into the sphere

of flight, small numbers of peoplefrom the black community found a

way to seize the piloting experience.

What these pathfinders lacked in

formal philosophical underpinnings

they more than compensated for in

raw enthusiasm for the new and ex-

citing discipline of aeronautics.

Perhaps it was precisely because

aviation was so fresh and devoid of

regulatory constraint that the firstAfrican-American fliers didn’t feel

hamstrung by the biases so read-

ily apparent elsewhere. It was also

possible that some of them may

have known that the very inven-

tors of the airplane, Wilbur and Or-

ville Wright, had befriended fellow

Daytonian Paul Lawrence Dunbar,

a leading black poet of the time.

It is not clear who was the first

African-American to have piloted

an aircraft. By some accounts it wasCharles Wesley Peters of Pittsburgh.

He reportedly flew gliders of his own

design starting in 1906 and then

five years later installed an engine in

one to achieve powered flight.

New information has emerged

about the flying activity of Emory

Conrad Malick. He is said to have

built and flown gliders along a

stretch of the Susquehanna River in

Pennsylvania in the same time frame

as Peters. Later on, Malick received

flight instruction at the Curtiss Avia-

tion School in San Diego and earned

his pilot certificate in March 1912,

possibly giving him the distinction

of being the first African-American to

obtain a pilot certificate.

Malick went to work for a cou-

ple of Philadelphia-based flying

services, one of which specialized

in aerial photography. In 1928, he

stopped flying in the aftermath oftwo serious accidents. Although he

kept an eye on aeronautical devel-

opments, he pointedly refused to

fly for the rest of his life. He died in

1958 with his flying experiences as

a young man obscured and almost

lost to history.

Unquestionably, the leading

figure of early black flight was a

dashing young man who seemed

to have come straight from cen-

tral casting. Eugene Jacques Bullardwas born in 1894, the grandson of

slaves. He was raised in Columbus,

Georgia, where life was harsh and

racism overt.

While still in his youth, he liter-

ally ran from his surroundings. He

stowed himself aboard a ship to

Europe, where he made his liveli-

hood as a successful boxer. Just as he

landed in Paris, World War I loomed.

Seeing his newfound friends enlist,

he was impelled to join the French

Foreign Legion. Soon, he was at the

front where, for the next few years,

he was periodically ensnarled in

horrific battles that sometimes in-

volved hand-to-hand combat.

After sustaining a severe thigh

wound at Verdun, he transferredto the French air service. He had a

knack for flying and was accepted

into the ranks of the fabled Lafay-

ette Flying Corps. Composed of

rugged American volunteers who

were conscious of the Marquis de

Lafayette’s contributions in the

American Revolutionary War, the

Corps sought to return the favor

more than a century later. Bullard

flew the arrow-like SPAD, some-

times with his escadrille’s mascot, apet monkey named Jimmy.

In his youth, Eugene JacquesBullard escaped his terri fy-ing surroundings in Columbus,

Georgia. During World War I, hefought with the 170th Regimentof the French Foreign Legion.Later, he transferred to the La-fayette Flying Corps and pilotedthe SPAD in air combat.


15/44VINTAGE AIRPLANE 13

Bullard previously served with the

170th Regiment, a crack French in-

fantry unit nicknamed the Swallows

of Death. During his short but event-

ful stint as a pursuit pilot, he adopted

a version of his former regiment’s

nickname as his sobriquet. He called

himself the Black Swallow of Death.

When America entered the war,all American pilots flying for France

were to transition to U.S. squadrons,

but Bullard was alone in not being

permitted to make the switch. More-

over, some prejudiced French army

officers goaded him. One refused to

return his salute, the ultimate indig-

nity for a member of the uniformed

services. Bullard’s outburst in re-

sponse was deemed insubordination.

Despite his distinguished record in

the infantry and the air service, Bul-lard’s flying days were ended.

He had flown combat for two-

and-a-half months. During that

time, he claimed two enemy pur-

suit ships. He was the first Afri-

can-American to experience air

warfare from the cockpit. Sadly, as

he fought for liberty aloft, he was

denied it on the ground. His experi-

ence foreshadowed that of similarly

motivated African-Americans of

the next generation, for they also

were destined to confront the con-

temporaneous challenges of hostile

skies and pervasive prejudice.

Through the interwar years, Bull-

ard remained in Paris, where he felt

more at ease. He opened a swanky

nightclub and hobnobbed with ex-

patriate artists and performers like

Ernest Hemingway and Josephine

Baker. When France was invaded,

Bullard assisted the underground.He even tried to rejoin his old

regiment. However, he was in his

mid-40s and suffered from wounds

sustained in the prior war.

Much as his impulses gravitated

toward staying, Paris for him wasn’t a

viable option at the time. He returned

to his native country, virtually penni-

less. He found America little changed

from his frightful childhood in Geor-

gia. Living in a dilapidated tenement

in Harlem, Bullard scratched out aliving doing odd jobs. His last was in

the late 1950s as an elevator operator

in Rockefeller Center.

The NBC television network was

headquartered in that complex of

skyscrapers, and its news division got

wind of Bullard’s amazing life’s story.

In addition to being the focus of a

straight news report, the one-time

pursuit pilot was featured on the

network’s Tonight Show with Dave

Garroway. Bullard’s many French

military decorations were show-

cased. Included was the Legion of

Honor, France’s highest decoration.

A further honor came in 1960.

The imposing president of France,

Charles DeGaulle, stopped at an

event in New York at which Bul-

lard was in attendance. DeGaulle

walked across the room to thankBullard for his wartime service in

France and then physically em-

braced the old warrior/pilot.

In 1961, Bullard attired him-

self in the uniform of the French

Foreign Legion and laid a wreath

at the base of the statue of Lafay-

ette in New York’s Union Square. A

few months later, the Black Swal-

low died of natural causes. For his

burial, he had asked that he be

clothed in his legionnaire’s uni-form and that his coffin be draped

Bessie Coleman was the first female African-American to obtain a pilot

certificate. It was issued by the Fédération Aéronautique Internatio-nale on June 15, 1921. Because no airports in Chicago would provideflight training to a black woman at the time, she had sailed to Francefor instruction.

What these

pathfinders lackedin formal

philosophical

underpinnings

they more than

compensated forin raw enthusiasm

for the new and

exciting discipline

of aeronautics.


16/44

14 JANUARY 2012

in the tricolor flag of France. He

said that America was his mother

and he loved her, while France was

his mistress and he loved her, too.

Undaunted Dreamer, DeterminedBarnstormer: Queen Bess

Bessie Coleman was born in ru-

ral Texas in 1892. Both her parentswere illiterate. Yet, they recognized

the value of education and sent their

daughter off to the local schoolhouse

when she turned 6 years of age. It was

a 4-mile hike to the squat one-room

building every weekday morning.

Amid the myriad pressures of

the day, which included the real

threat of lynching, Coleman’s fa-

ther abandoned the family. Cole-

man’s mother became a domestic

servant, and Bessie herself laboredin the cotton fields. In her spare

time, Bessie read about successful

blacks, notably of the exploits of

Harriet Tubman in connection with

the Underground Railroad.

The dramatic stories of escape

from bondage to freedom gave the

young girl reason to believe that

there could be a better life. She

ached to break away from her stul-

tifying existence. In 1915, she fi-

nally left to join an older brother

who had moved to Chicago.

Coleman became a hairstylist and

manicurist at beauty parlors and bar-

bershops in Chicago’s predominantly

black south-side neighborhoods. As a

poor black from the Deep South who

had arrived in Chicago’s so-called

Black Belt, she was part of a surge of

migrating blacks from rural locations

to the northern metropolises. Her

longing for a sense of fulfillment wasnot cured. The impetus to reach for

something out of the mundane came

in an unlikely way.

Upon his return from service in

a segregated U.S. infantry unit dur-

ing World War I, Coleman’s brother

praised the French women fliers who

he had heard about while deployed

overseas. In the same breath, he de-

rided black women as not capable of

such feats. It was at that moment, in

defiance of such brazen stereotyping,that she determined to be the world’s

first black female pilot.

The problem was that no flying

school in greater Chicago would

give instruction to an African-Amer-

ican woman. Undeterred, Coleman

opted to go to France to acquire her

flight training. She had the encour-

agement of Robert Abbott, founder

and editor of the influential Chicago Defender , one of the country’s fore-

most African-American newspapers.

Coleman took French classes, ap-

plied for a passport, and located a

top-notch flight school in France.

In late 1920, Co leman sailed

abroad. Upon reaching France, she

wasted no time starting her flight

training. Her instruction proceeded

in a Nieuport Type 82. Seven months

after arriving, on June 15, 1921, she

was issued her license by the Fédéra-tion Aéronautique Internationale.

Once back home, Coleman real-

ized that merely flying an airplane

wasn’t enough to earn a living as

an exhibition pilot. She underwent

advanced instruction in aerobatic

flight on a second trip to France.

Thusly prepared, she embarked

on an adventurous and inspiring

new life performing flying displays

across the United States.

Finances were an unending chal-

lenge. Living hand-to-mouth like

many barnstormers of the golden

age of flight, she managed to scrape

together enough funds to purchase

a war surplus Curtiss JN-4 Jenny. For

the next five years, Coleman zig-

zagged the country, executing stuntsat aerial meets. During her show-

related travels, she tried to book her-

self as a speaker at local black theaters

where she could spread her thoughts

about flight and about achieving

one’s dreams. She also made a point

of appearing before groups of young-

sters at black schools and churches to

relate her message of hope.

The African-American media

hailed Coleman as a role model

for blacks. Her hometown paper,the Chicago Defender , dubbed her

Queen Bess. However, though she

enjoyed the freedom of the skies

and the fame accompanying her

pioneer status, she was never far

from reminders of America’s ugly

underside. As an example, on La-

bor Day 1923, Coleman was sched-

uled to give a flying exhibition at a

racetrack in Columbus, Ohio, when

AcknowledgementThe author is grateful for the assistance of the Tuskegee Airmen National

Historical Museum in Detroit, Michigan.

Sources and Further ReadingCarisella, P.J. and Ryan, James W. The Black Swallow of Death: The In-

credible Story of Eugene Jacques Bullard, the World’s First Black CombatAviator . Boston: Marlborough House, 1972.

Hardesty, Von and Pisano, Dominick. Black Wings: The American Black inAviation. Washington, D.C.: National Air and Space Museum/SmithsonianInstitution, 1983.

Hardesty, Von. Black Wings: Courageous Stories of African Americans inAviation and Space History . Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution/Harper Collins Publishers, 2008.

Powell, William J. Black Aviator: The Story of William J. Powell (Reissue ofBlack Wings . 1934.). Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1994.

Rich, Doris L. Queen Bess: Daredevil Aviator . Washington, D.C.: Smithso-nian Institution Press, 1993.

[The story of African-American aviation in the pre-World War II periodcontinues next month. The achievements of the first black pilots laid thefoundation for a series of consequential flights in the 1930s by members ofthe next generation of black fliers. These flights, in turn, inspired the na-tion to begin a journey of its own toward an embrace of greater tolerance.The second and concluding installment will examine the unflagging de-termination of those daring black aviators who overcame fearful obstacles

to bring a new measure of freedom to both the sky and the earth below.]


17/44

VINTAGE AIRPLANE 15

only a few miles away at the state

fairgrounds a huge gathering of

the Ku Klux Klan took place.

Airplanes of the post-World War

I era were still flimsy contraptions

and particularly unforgiving. Re-

grettably, on May 1, 1926, while on

a pre-show flight in Jacksonville,

Florida, Coleman’s Jenny flippedover, causing her to plummet to her

death. The reason for the anoma-

lous motion was traced to a mis-

placed wrench that jammed the

controls. Coleman’s mechanic died

in the same mishap.

Coleman had sought to estab-

lish a flight academy for African-

Americans. She wanted members

of the black community with an

interest in aviation to not have to

go through the travails she had ex-perienced in search of training. Her

dream of racially tolerant flight

instruction was dashed at least

temporarily with her demise. Nev-

ertheless, her shattering of long-

accepted conventions about both

blacks and women gave strength

to the disenfranchised that they

might someday take to the skies.

Thanks to Coleman’s example,

Chicago became a hotbed of black

flying. Indeed, flying clubs bear-

ing the late pilot’s name sprang

up there and elsewhere. Her last-

ing impact was further evidenced

in 1931 when a group of local pi-

lots started the tradition of flying

over her grave site in Chicago and

dropping flowers in her memory.

Years later, Coleman’s spirit was

even more conspicuously honored

in the city where, against extraor-

dinary odds, she proudly gaveflight to black wings and propa-

gated her dream that anything is

possible. Air travelers at Chicago’s

O’Hare International Airport,

one of the busiest air terminuses

in the world, are touched daily

by the legacy of the undaunted

pilot. As they scurry across the

grounds to make their flights to

all corners of the globe, it is hard

not to notice that the facility’s

main thoroughfare is named Bes-sie Coleman Drive.

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From US and Canada (All Others Call 920-426-5912)

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18/44

16 JANUARY 2012

Last month we discussed the Avro

Avian light biplane of the 1920s. This

month we’d like to remark that fliers

tend to become so absorbed in thetechnical aspects of aircraft, they of-

ten overlook the wonderful human-

interest stories that abound in avia-

tion. At a time when our young

people are so greatly in need of whole-

some and inspiring role models, it’s re-

grettable that many aviation heroes of

the past have been largely forgotten.

By telling the story of one of them,

perhaps we can remind today’s avia-

tion boosters that in flying’s great her-

itage, there are many people whose

stories are very much worth retelling.

One of the people who worked

in the Avro factory in the Hamble

section of Southampton, England,

during the 1920s was a chap from

Australia named Bert Hinkler. Few

modern aviation fans will recog-

nize that name, but in his day he

was one of the British Empire’s best-

known airmen.

Herbert John Louis Hinkler wasborn late in 1892 at Bundaberg on

Australia’s east coast, 200 miles north

of Brisbane. His mother, Frances, was

a strong-willed young woman from

a family that had pioneered in that

area, and his father, John, had come

from Germany in search of a better

future. Bundaberg 100 years ago was

a busy town of 3,000 souls, and the

commercial center for a sugar cane

growing industry that had developed

in the area.

As a boy Hinkler was a small

child, and even as an adult was a

mere 5 feet 3 inches tall. Nonethe-

less, the healthy life he led in semi-rural Bundaberg helped him to grow

into sturdy manhood, and to have a

mind of his own.

Near the grammar school he at-

tended was a lagoon where flocks

of a large wading bird called the ibis

came to forage. Though ungainly

looking on the ground they have

large, long wings that give them

magnificent soaring ability. He was

fascinated with them and dreamed

of joining them aloft.

In the last decades of the 19th

century, men like Lilienthal, Ader,

Hargrave, Chanute, Pilcher, Maxim,

and Langley had been studying andexperimenting in the field of man-

carrying aircraft. By the time Hin-

kler was a schoolboy, literature about

their discoveries had begun to reach

even such odd corners of the world as

Bundaberg. He managed to find and

devour much of it.

Soon Hinkler was catching birds

Light Plane Heritage

published in EAA Experimenter February 1993

Editor’s Note: The Light Plane Heritage series in EAA’s Experimenter magazine often touched on aircraft and concepts

related to vintage aircraft and their history. Since many of our members have not had the opportunity to read this se-

ries, we plan on publishing those LPH articles that would be of interest to VAA members. Enjoy!—HGF

TWELVE THOUSAND MILESIN AN AVRO AVIAN

BY BOB WHITTIER

EAA 1235

Extensively modified from its original 1926 Lympne lightplane competitionform, the Avro Avian G-EBOV carried Australian airman Bert Hinkler 12,000grueling miles from England to Australia in February of 1928.


19/44

VINTAGE AIRPLANE 17

to weigh and measure them. He even

killed and skinned an ibis—with the

feathers still in place—and worked

the skin into a crude model glider. At

14 he was working in a local foundry

and had the wherewithal to construct

what he optimistically called a man-

carrying glider. But no matter how

fast he ran, or how hard he flapped itswings, the contrivance never got him

up there with the ibises.

Swallowing his disappointment,

he continued to work at the foundry

and kept up with aviation’s prog-

ress. By the time he was 19, in 1911,

he was mature and knowledgeable

enough to design and build a real

glider. It was of tail-first design, and

save for the makeshift materials used

in its construction, looked rather like

today’s hang gliders.Accompanied by some young

friends, he towed it by trailer sev-

eral miles to an area of sand dunes

at the seashore and set it up. To take

advantage of the steady wind com-

ing off the Pacific Ocean and to test

it prudently, they flew it at the end

of a rope much like a kite. Hinkler

managed to soar as high as 30 feet

with the glider under somewhat un-

certain control. But to him, teth-

ered flight lacked the appeal that

he knew from his reading that free,

propelled flight must offer.

Progress in flying had been so rapid

since the Wrights first flew in 1903

that by 1911 there were even corre-

spondence courses in aviation. Hin-

kler signed up for one and applied

himself to it diligently. That was his

character—serious, studious, persis-

tent, yet adventurous and ambitious.

Hinkler’s understanding of the scien-tific and mathematical basis of flight

expanded quickly. And like many

other young people, he itched to get

out of his isolated, boring hometown.

Hinkler’s opportunity came in May

of 1912, with the sudden arrival in

Bundaberg of a barnstorming Ameri-

can airman by the name of “Wizard”

Stone. Operating out of Sydney, he

travelled around setting up and ex-

hibiting his Bleriot monoplane. Air-

planes at that time were still such anovelty that people would willingly

pay just to look at a real flying ma-

chine close up.

It was Hinkler’s chance to see

both a real flying machine and a

genuine aviator, so he was one of

the first to show up at the tent. Dur-

ing demonstration flights the Ble-

riot experienced wing problems.

Feeling like a deckhand telling theadmiral that his fly was open, Hin-

kler approached Wizard and, as tact-

fully as he could, pointed out that

perhaps the overhead brace wires

should be stronger. Wizard looked

at the short, serious youth in sur-

prise. But apparently he felt Hin-

kler’s advice was sound and installed

stronger wires. The Bleriot then flew

well. And wonder of wonders, right

then and there the astonished and

thrilled Hinkler found himself hiredas mechanic for a tour of Australia.

The two had many adventures

and misadventures. Wind and en-

gine trouble often kept the plane

from making advertised exhibition

flights, and disappointed crowds

could become ugly. The year 1913

saw the pair in New Zealand. One

day, when 1,000 paying customers

showed up to watch a flight, it was

so windy that Hinkler was all in favor

of the ship remaining in its tent. But

the bold and nervous Wizard felt un-

der pressure to fly.

Seventy feet into the air, turbulence

upset the Bleriot, a wingtip clipped a

tree, and the plane cartwheeled into

the ground. The Wizard crawled out

of the demolished Bleriot with a bro-

ken collarbone and a collection of

scrapes. The already much-repaired

plane was now obviously beyond fur-

ther repair. Hinkler was suddenly un-employed, and a few days later he

boarded a ship going to Sydney.

While waiting around for Wizard

to pay him off, Hinkler hatched the

idea of going to England, where he

knew from aviation magazines there

was more flying activity. He and a

buddy were able to get jobs aboard

a German freighter bound for Ham-

burg. Finally, in London in March

1914, he was extremely fortunate

to get a job at the Sopwith Aero-plane Works. Although his work in-

volved hours of toil at a workbench,

he happily realized he had a foot

on the bottom rung of a ladder that

soared skyward.

For a young fellow from obscure

Bundaberg, it was a heady feeling

to be in the middle of intense avia-

tion activity. He looked into learn-

ing to fly, but found the price oflessons to be more than he could af-

ford—probably much to the relief

of his parents. All through his ca-

reer and travels, by the way, he kept

them well informed of his doings by

means of long, detailed, and usually

very enthusiastic letters.

War broke out in the fall of 1914.

Hinkler’s aviation experience got

him into the Royal Flying Corps.

Because his knowledge of aviation

mechanics was far superior to thatof most recruits, he was posted to a

Royal Naval Air Service costal patrol

base at Whitley Bay near Newcastle

on the North Sea coast.

His duties there were primarily

mechanical, but he often served as

gunner on patrol flights and began

to develop “air sense.” Always highly

inventive, he greatly pleased his su-

periors by designing a bomb release

mechanism that weighed only one

pound, compared to the nine for

some devices then in use.

In 1916 he was transferred to Lon-

don and in early 1917 went to an

R.N.A.S. base near Dunkirk. He served

as gunner aboard two-seaters such

as the de Havilland 4 and the huge

Handley Page O/400 bombers, which

had 100-foot wingspans. His letters

home were rich with descriptions of

the weird, fascinating, and frighten-

ing sensations of riding in gunner’scockpits of these huge box kites as

they twisted and rolled in the dark-

ness of night to avoid German search-

light beams and anti-aircraft fire.

By the time he was sent back to

England in September 1917 he had

been on 122 flights over the lines, of

which 36 were bombing raids. He was

awarded the Distinguished Service

Medal (DSM). While on homeward

flights in two-seaters, pilots often let

him take the controls, and so he be-gan to learn the feel of a plane.


20/44

18 JANUARY 2012

Back in England he met a hospi-

tal sister named Nancy, whom he

courted and eventually married. Fi-

nally convinced of the value of mili-

tary aviation, British officialdom on

April 1, 1918, combined the R.N.A.S.

and the Royal Flying Corps into the

Royal Air Force. And at long last, Hin-

kler was posted to a real flying school.In July of that year he qualified as a

pilot. He wrote bubbling enthusiastic

letters home describing what it was

like to go skylarking in the fast, nim-

ble, and also tricky Sopwith Camel

single-seaters.

He finished the war with an R.A.F.

Camel squadron operating on the Ital-

ian Front. Flying in that region often

involved getting into clouds, some of

which contained Alps Mountains.

Now, since qualifying as a pilot, hehad been nursing an idea—how great

it would be to go home to Bundaberg

in an airplane instead of a crowded

troopship. While awaiting demobi-

lization in England, he set about to

find a way to do just that.

His old employer, Sopwith, had

modified a Pup single-seater into a

two-seat civilian version called the

Dove. By the time Hinkler saw it for

the first time, he had already started

serious work on planning a route and

schedule for a flight to Australia. Sens-

ing the publicity value of such a bold

demonstration of an airplane’s capa-

bility, and impressed with the thor-

ough seriousness of Hinkler’s flight

plan, the Sopwith people told him

they’d be happy to work with him if

he could find financial backing.

The Dove was powered by an 80-

hp LeRhone rotary engine, a type

designed for a short but merry lifeon the nose of a combat plane.

Everyone Hinkler approached for

backing told him they thought he

was bonkers. That’s British slang for

crazy as a coot. Among other faults,

World War I rotary engines had

huge fuel and oil appetites.

The amazing progress made in air-

craft design during that conflict had

other people thinking of the possibili-

ties of commercial aviation. Early in

1919 the Australian government, forexample, posted a 10,000-pound ster-

ling prize for the first flight from Eng-

land to its country. It would cost a lot

of money to find, buy, and prepare an

aircraft for such an undertaking.Several parties tried. In a memo-

rable flight that started on November

12 and ended on December 12 of that

year, Sir Ross and Sir Keith Smith won

the prize. Their plane was a war sur-

plus Vickers Vimy bomber powered

by two Rolls-Royce Eagle engines of

360 hp each. At that time they were

considered very dependable. With a

span of 67 feet, the Vimy could carry

a good fuel load but at the same time

was more manageable than the huge

Handley Pages.

That triumph put an end to Hin-

kler’s hopes of winning the prize.

He went to work for Avro at Ham-

ble. There he became intrigued with

the Avro Baby lightplane then be-

ing developed. He had the privilege

and thrill of taking the prototype up

for its first flight. He liked it, became

very good at flying it, and in spite of

the fact that it was powered by a 35-hp Green engine of 1910 vintage, he

talked Avro into selling it to him at a

price he could afford.

He had written so often to his par-

ents about the idea of flying home

to Bundaberg that he had come to

feel under obligations to make good.

What appealed to him about the

Green engine was that it was so sim-

ple that he felt he could repair it in

almost any remote place. He over-

hauled both the plane and its engine,and installed a larger fuel tank of 25

gallons capacity.

And so at daybreak on the dank,

chilly morning of May 31, 1920, he

took off from Croydon aerodromeand headed for the English Channel.

Over France and the cloud-wrapped

Alps he flew, and finally landed at Tu-

rin in northern Italy. This nonstop

flight of 650 miles took nine and a

half hours and set a new lightplane

distance record.

Two days later he took off for

Rome, where he made the frustrating

discovery that an Arab uprising in the

Middle East would make it impossible

to get permission to fly over that re-

gion to get to India and beyond. In a

series of shorter flights, he returned to

England and his work at Avro.

By now his long experience with

aircraft made him a valuable test pi-

lot. He had an ability to discover and

analyze shortcomings in new aircraft,

which was of great help to design-

ers. He test flew the Avro Aldershot

bomber, which was powered by a

single 1,000-hp Napier engine. Thishuge mill had 16 cylinders arranged

in banks of four to form an “X” con-

figuration. Because of his short stat-

ure, he had to sit on two cushions to

reach the controls.

A quirky side of Hinkler’s personal-

ity was shown by his habit of wear-

ing a long overcoat and black derby

while test flying. One photo shows

him wearing what look like platform

shoes. He also had a tendency to

avoid the press, a trait that sometimeshelped and sometimes hurt him.

The Avro Avian and Bert Hinkler at Hamble before leaving for Australia. WithHinkler (center) are Roy Chadwick, chief designer, and R.J. Parrott, generalmanager of the A.R. Roe and Co. Ltd.

T H E A E R O P L A N E


21/44

VINTAGE AIRPLANE 19

He saved his money, won some

extra in flying competitions, and

was finally able to book passage to

Australia aboard a steamship. The

securely crated Avro Baby went

along as freight. Arriving at Sydney,

he got the crate out to the airfield

and quietly set about assembling

and checking the little plane in his

usual very careful, skilled manner.

Then on the morning of April 11,

1921, he took off and headed north

toward Bundaberg, 700 miles away.

In those days the idea of flying such

a distance in a lightplane was un-

heard of. But several hours later the

little silver Avro circled low over

Bundaberg, with Hinkler waving ex-

citedly from the cockpit. He landed

in a field next to the foundry where

he had once worked. Then he taxiedalong a dirt road and came to a stop

at the doorstep of his parents’ house

for a reunion with the family he had

not seen for nine years.

This accomplishment set world

and Australian records for a non-

stop lightplane flight, and brought

Hinkler much favorable attention.

He looked into Australian civil avi-

ation, but there was so little going

on at that time that he felt it best to

return to England and Avro. Beforedeparting, he sold the Avro to an

Australian pilot, and after a long,

active life, it ended up on display

in the Queensland South Bank Mu-

seum in Brisbane.

Hinkler flew Avro’s motorcycle-

engined light monoplane in the

1923 Lympne competitions, and

went to the United States in 1924

with the British Schneider cup team.In 1926 he helped develop the Avro

Avian light, two-seat biplane for that

year’s Lympne contest. He was its pi-

lot there and was doing well when

forced to drop out by fuel tank and

engine problems.

In August of 1927 he agreed to

go to Riga in Latvia to test fly a new

plane. By that time, he had bought

and modified the Lympne Avian

and decided to fly it there. Leaving

Croydon early in the morning andin passable weather, he reached Riga

more than 1,200 miles away, late in

the afternoon and at the end of 10.5

hours in the air. This and the return

flight via Berlin gave him an oppor-

tunity to evaluate the long-distance

capabilities—capable if not spectac-

ular. The idea of a solo flight to Aus-

tralia was still in his mind.

The Avian’s original five-cylinder

Genet radial engine of 60 hp had

been replaced with an 80-hp A.B.C.

Cirrus having four cylinders inline.

The original squared-off wingtips

had been replaced by new ones of

semi-elliptical outline, probably to

reduce drag and increase range in

long-distance flights. The rudder-

only vertical tail had been replaced

with a conventional one having

both fin and rudder. The front

cockpit had had its seat replaced

by a large-capacity fuel tank, to givethe ship a total fuel capacity of 66

gallons. A somewhat bulgy-looking

headrest was installed on top of

the fuselage aft of the rear cockpit,

and in it was stowed an inflatable

rubber raft.

Convinced that he now had a

plane thoroughly able and reliable

enough for the formidably long

flight to Australia, he sought but

failed to get financial backing. A

number of long-distance flights in1927 had ended in disaster, and re-

sponsible people with money took

a dim view of this kind of activity.

But so strong was Hinkler’s desire

to realize his dream that he decided

to make the flight on his own mea-

ger resources. It would be necessary

for Nancy to remain in England be-

cause a gas tank occupied the Avi-

an’s passenger cockpit.The plane had no radio or sophis-

ticated instruments. As in his Turin

and Riga flights, Hinkler’s naviga-

tion equipment consisted of noth-

ing more than a good compass, an

ordinary groundling’s Times Atlas,

and a “navigation board” he had in-

vented. This was a crude forerunner

of later navigation calculators and

could quickly perform simple wind

drift figuring. We can only guess at

how he solved compass variationproblems; perhaps local airmen

along his route offered advice.

The morning of February 7, 1928,

dawned damp and misty. The Cirrus

was started, and while it was warm-

ing up, Hinkler and his wife bid each

other nervous and thus somewhat

perfunctory goodbyes. The Avro

taxied out onto Croydon’s turf and

took off into a ground fog, which

was fortunately soon left behind.

Hinkler retraced his 1921 route to

Turin, climbing to a very cold 8,000

feet to get over the cloud-shrouded

Alps. After passing Turin he headed

down the Italian peninsula. To the

right was the coastline, and off

to the left were the Apennines, a

mountain range running down the

spine of Italy. These features formed

a corridor that led him south to

Rome. After 12 hours and 45 min-

utes in the Avian’s cold, drafty cock-pit, he spotted an airfield at Rome

and landed in the dark.

Alas, the field proved to be a mili-

tary one and a multilingual hassle

with the police quickly ensued. But

finally things were straightened out

and he went to a hotel. Upon re-

turning to the field the following

morning, Hinkler was appalled to

see that the field had many tall ra-

dio towers, which he had very fortu-

nately missed in the dark.

Bert Hinkler

T H E A E R O P L A N E

continued next month in the February issue


22/44

20 JANUARY 2012

Like many old airplane

stories, my tale begins

quite a number of years

ago, and it involves

friends new and old. In

fact, it’s a story that is at

least as much about people as it isabout flying machinery.

Falling for a Pretty AirplaneMore than a year ago, my friend

Mitch Garner sent me an e-mail fo-

cusing my attention on an online

ad for a nice-looking antique air-

plane. One of Mitch’s favorite hob-

bies is helping other people find

ways to spend money, and this

time he hit the jackpot. The ad was

for an airplane I knew well, fromabout 15 years earlier.

At that time I was a resident at

the Fall Creek Airpark in Lebanon,

Tennessee, along with another good

friend, Ted Beckwith. Ted is a real

pilot’s pilot and a fellow antique air-

plane admirer. He was flying a beau-

tiful Fairchild 24G for an ownerwho had commissioned the aircraft

to be restored by a renowned crafts-

man, Richard Blazier of Tullahoma,

Tennessee. Unfortunately, when the

project was completed the owner

had some health problems, so he

asked Ted to take it home to his

hangar to fly it and keep it active.

During that time I frequently vis-

ited Ted at his hangar, and I always

stopped to admire the Fairchild. I

mentally put the sweet flying “24”series as an airplane to put on my

bucket list. Then, and I’m sure you

are ahead of me, some 15 years

later the airplane in the ad turned

out to be the very same plane. It

still looked very good.

I am blessed to have a beauti-

ful and understanding wife, Kath-leen, who at least semi-understands

this airplane obsession of mine. Al-

though I already had two other air-

craft—a Baron for fast trips and a

7ECA Citabria for flight training and

hamburger runs—I soon found my-

self on an airliner heading for Twin

Falls, Idaho, in early November

2009. We are residents of Falmouth

Airpark on beautiful Cape Cod, and

Idaho is a long way away. But the

Fairchild is an airplane, so I couldfly it home in just a few days, right?

Just a Long Cross-Countryin an Antique, Right?

A ferry flight adventureBY BILL MCCLURE


23/44

VINTAGE AIRPLANE 21

“We” Are on Our Way The price seemed attractive, the

airframe looked good, and overall

the airplane looked much the same

as when I had seen it last. The 24G

had a 145-hp Warner Super Scarab

installed on the pointy end, and

although I am an A&P/IA, I knew

little about Warner engines. Com-

pression on each of the cylinders

was good during the abbreviated

pre-buy inspection, the oil screens

were clean, and the logs lookedokay, although it was clear that at

600 hours since major, the time

was getting long for an “orphan”

radial engine. All in all, I was soon

the owner of this classic aircraft.

While I had quite a bit of experi-

ence in old airplanes, I approached

the long trip home with a fair degree

of concern. After all, this was a very

long ferry flight back to my home

and shop, in an unfamiliar airplane.

I really did not know how the air-

plane would perform, particularly at

the altitudes at which we would have

to fly on the trip home. I was sure it

would be a challenge. But, what the

heck, I thought. After retiring from

an airline career a year before, I was a

little itchy for another air adventure,

so away we went. And I mean “we”

in the Lindbergh sense.

It was later in the day than I

would have liked to get started, butI decided to try to get a couple of

hours down the road before night-

fall. The weather was good and un-

seasonably warm for the time of

year. I resolved to make the trip as

IFR (I follow roads) as possible. Sun-

set found me at Brigham City, Utah.

A really nice thing about travel-

ing by old airplane is that people

just naturally tend to come out to

see the bird after you land. Nice

folks steered me to a courtesy carand the good motels and restau-

rants in the area. So, I was set, and

later that night I was thrilled to

find out my granddaughter Chloe

had been born that day.

The next day presented what I

thought would be the toughest part

of the trip. There are few options

to get across this great land of ours

that do not present the challenge ofhigh terrain. I had hoped to follow

the old airmail route across Wyo-

ming and the Rocky Mountains,

along Interstate 80, from Provo to

Cheyenne and beyond. Flying a

Staggerwing I had been blessed to

own for 10 years, I had flown the

route many years before.

I studied the charts again and re-

membered the terrain along that

course ranged around 7,500 feet

or so. I thought we would haveto make at least 8,500 feet for the

crossing, and as I said, I was not

sure how the plane would perform.

Further complicating matters was

that although the ceiling and vis-

ibility were unlimited out in the

west, as is often the case, there

was a wind warning for the Rock-

ies, predicting winds to 50 knots,

mostly on our tail. This F-24G was

equipped with fuel tanks that were

unusually capacious for this model,

at a total of 60 gallons. So, with meaboard, my bags and tools, bottles

of oil, etc., we were at max gross

weight for takeoff.

I knew we would need the fuel

to cross Wyoming and continue

into Nebraska to escape the winds.

Still, I was wary of the performance

available at these weights, and the

turbulence and other conditions we

might encounter, especially due to

the winds. I resolved I would depart

Brigham City and climb to 8,500feet or more and see what the per-

formance and turbulence was like.

If conditions did not seem right,

I would abandon the Highway 80

Looking as nice as it did 15 years before, the Warner-powered Fairchildawaits my judgment. By the end of the day it was mine to enjoy and takecare of.

A landing into the wind in the large, freshly harvested bean field meant anapproach between the two structures in the background.

Left: “We,” after our arrival in westernTennessee. With the No. 5 pistondisintegrating and chewing up theinterior of the 145 Warner, it startedsmoking and dumping oil overboard,particularly down the belly and theport side of the fuselage.


24/44

22 JANUARY 2012

plan and proceed across the Four

Corners area to Albuquerque. I was

determined to leave viable “outs”

along the entire trip home.As it happened, we were able to

climb to 8,500 feet, and although

there was wind wave acti

Documents

Vintage Airplane - Jan 2012