THE RESTORERS CORNER

By J R Nie lander Jr

To all of you who volunteered your time to the Dishyvision and who put forth the great efforts requ ired to make your Divisions part of the 1978 EAA Convention such a great success we dedicate this second conshyvention coverage issue of The Vintage Airplane Your Division convention chairmen and co-chairmen have asked me to express their sincere appreciation for your help Your officers directors and advisors are also most appreciative of your dedication Without you none of it wou ld have been possible Because of your efforts your fellow members their families and their guests were able to enjoy your convention It is our sincere desire that each of you who volunteered reshyceived a great amount of personal satisfaction from being on the team We hope that you will again volunteer your services next year and bring a friend along to help too

just as was the situation last year the 1978 convenshytion had more antiques than warbirds and more classhysics than homebuilts There were 193 antiques on disshyplay this year a seven percent increase over 1977 Also there were 603 classics a twelve percent inshycrease over last year These two categories combined with five replica aircraft gave us a grand total of 801 display aircraft for the Division fifty-five percent of the total display aircraft at the convention It is no wonder that the Division parking committee chairmen Art Morgan and Bob Kesel along with their many ded icated volunteers were kept so busy

The statistics were up in other areas too Through the efforts of exhibit booth chairman jackie House and headquarters chairman Kate Morgan and their volunteers 189 new members were enrolled in the Division We extend a special welcome to all of our new members and a big thank you to jackie Kate

and all of those volunteers who helped them in the exhibit booth and in the headquarters barn

The Division membership drive is in the home stretch It will cross the finish line on December 31 If you have not as yet signed up your EAA chapter members and your airport friends now is the time to do so while you still have the opportunity of winning a pair of antique goggles for signing up five new memshybers and a leather flying he lmet for ten Also don t forget that the one who brings in the most new memshybers receives a five year free membership in the Dishyvision All you have to do is print your name and Dishyvision membership number on the back of the applishycation Elsewhere in this issue you will find an ad givshying full details of the contest

With the holiday season so close at hand many of us would like to show appreciation to that friend who helped us with our restoration or that A amp P mechanic who gave so freely of his knowlege or supervised our work or that AI who signed off our periodic inspecshytion These good and valued friends wou ld really appreciate receiving a gift membership in the EAA AntiqueClassic Division and they will be reminded of your gift each month of the year when their copy of The Vintage Airplane arrives To give a gift subscripshytion just attach a note to the membership application stating that the membership is a gift from you Please be sure to print your name clearly on the note Headshyquarters will send the recipient of your generosity a letter stating that you have given him a gift subscripshytion Send the application in today as it takes several weeks to process new members and you certain ly want him to receive his membership in time for the holidays

EAA ANTIQUECLASSIC DIVISION

MEMBERSHIP DRIVE

WIN

A pai r of Antique Goggles by persuading 5 people to JOin

erA Leather Flying Helmet when you get 10 people to sign up

- then start over and win again shy

~A free five year membershyship in the AntiqueClassic Division if you sponsor the most new members in 1978

To Qualify Write your name and membershyship number on the back of the membershyship blanks we ve been providing in THE VINTAGE AIRPLANE Headquarters will keep score

Editorial Staff

Publisher Paul H Poberezny

(David Gustafson Photo) EditormiddotAnother aircraft that never registered touches down at Oshkosh David Gustafson

Associate Editors H Glenn Buffington Robert G Elliott AI Kelch Edward D Williams Byron (Fred) Fredericksen

Readers are encouraged to submit stories and photographs Associate Editorships are assigned to those writers who submit five or more articles which are published in THE VINTAGE AIRshyPLANE during the current year Associates receive a bound volume of THE VINTAGE AIRshyPLANE and a free one-year memjgtership in the Division for their efforts POLICY-Opinions expressed in articles are solely thbse of the authors Responsibility for accuracy in reporting rests entirely with the contributor

Directors

ANTIQUECLASSIC WiJliam J Ehlen AI Kelch DIVISION Route 8 Box 506 7018 W Bonniwell Road

OFFICERS Tampa Florida 33618 M equon Wisconsin 53092

Claude L Gray Jr Morton W Lester PRESIDENT 9635 Sylvia Avenue Box 3747

J R NIELANDER JR Northridge California 91324 Martinsville Virginia 241 12 PO BOX 2464 Dale A Gustafson Arthur R Morgan

FT LAUDERDALE FL 33303 7724 Shady Hill Drive 3744 N 51st Bourevard Indianapolis Indiana 46274 Milwaukee Wisconsin 53216

VICEmiddotPRESIDENT Richard Wagner M C Kelly Vi ets JACK WINTHROP PO Box 181 RR 1 Box 151

RT 1 BOX 111 Lyo ns Wisconsin 53148 Stillwell Kansas 66085 ALLEN TX 75002

Advisors Ronald Fritz

1989 Wilson NW SECRETARY

W BRAD THOMAS JR Grand Rapids Michigan 49504301 DODSON MILL ROAD

PILOT MOUNTAIN NC 27041 John R Turgyan Robert E Kessel 1530 Kuser Road 445 Oakridge Drive

TREASURER Trenton New Jersey 08619 Rochester New York 1461 7

E E BUCK HILBERT Stan Gomoll Robert A White 8102 LEECH RD 1042 90th Lane NE Box 704 UNION IL 60180 Minneapolis Minnesota 55434 Zellwood Florida 32798

THE VINTAGE AIRPLANE is owned exclusively by EAA AntiqueClassic Division Inc and is published monthly at Hales Corners Wisconsin 53130 Second c lass Postage paid at Hales Corners Post Office Hales Corners Wisconsin 53130 and additional mailing offices Membership rates for EAA Antique Classic Division Inc are $1400 per 12 month period of which $1000 is for the publication of THE VINTAGE AIR PLANE Membership is open to all who are interested in aviation

The VINTAGEAI1PLANE OFFICIAL MAGAZINE

EAA ANTIQUECLASSIC DIVISION INC

of THE EXPERIMENTAL AIRCRAFT ASSOCIATION PO Box 229 Hales Corners WI 53130

CopyrightO 1976 EAA AntiqueClassic Division Inc All Rights Reserved

NOVEMBER 1978 VOLUME 6 NUMBER 11 (On The Cover Ron Wojnar s Grand Champion Class ic 1946 Aeronca Champion Photo by Ted Koston)

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Classic Aircraft In Attendance 4 Ron Wojnar s Grand Champion Champ by Jack Cox 8 Reserve Grand Champion Classic Jack Chastain s Rawdon T-1 16 Boeing by Edward D William s 18 Rebuilding A Vagabond by Larry Railing 23 Calendar of Events 26

EAA ANTIQUECLASSIC DIVISION MEMBERSHIP o NON-EAA MEMBER - $2000 Includes one year membership in the EAA Antique

Classic Division 12 monthly issues of THE VINTAGE AIRPLANE one yea r memshybership in the Experimental Aircraft Association and separate membersh ip ca rds SPORT AVIATION magazine not included

o EAA MEMBER - $1400 Includes one year membership in the EAAAntiqueClassic Division 12 monthly iss ues of THE VINTAGE AIRPLANE AND MEMBERSH IP CARD (Applicant must be current EM member and must give EAA membership number )

1-shyPage 4 Page 14 Page 23 3

(Lee Fray PhOlO)

78

CLASSIC AIRCRAFT IN ATTENDANCE

REGISTRATION amp AIRCRAFT TYPE PILOT ANDOR OWNER

AERONCA N46AC Champ Philip Beaulieu South Burlington VT Nl03RJ Champ Roy JacksonDarrell M Todd

Columbus OH Classic judges - Front Row L-R Paul Stephensen George LeMay Pat Padgett George York Brad Thomas Keith N555Y Champ - 7DC Dan McCormick Rockville MD Locke Rear Row L-R Paul justus Gene Padgett john Womack jim Mankins Stan York Art Nunes and DaleN1346E John Gronager Urbana IL N1390E 7BCM William Pancake Keyser WV Wolford N1617E 7AC Lon Dienst DeKalb IL N1648E 7AC Wayne E Reicher Dubuque IA N2372E 7AC Henry Hulboy Zanesville OH N2619E Champ James Swope Vicksburg MI N2757E 7DC Lee Lund Cheboygan MI CF-PRI 7AC c E Rankine Scarborough Ont BEECHCRAFT N2932E Champ Mike Ritter Hilliard OH Canada NIDS Bonanza David F Shaw Penn Yan NY N3019E 7AC Jeff Van DorenKaren Walker N3186E Chief Bill Husted St Charles IA N35LT Bonanza 35C Jerry D Turner Marion IL

Millstone NJ N3490E Chief Larry Lymburner New Albany IN N239V Bonanza Michael Sentell Maryville TN N4134E Ivan R Nagel Canton IL N3677E Chief Mike Messer Hilliard OH N693B Bonanza E W Fischer Mashpee MA N4574E 7AC Robert L Hughes Indian River MI N3710E Chief Bud Ledgerwood La Porte IN N718F Bonanza Brad J Larson Minneapol is MN N4867E Champ Terry A Brox Atchison KS N3805E Chief Donald Fairbetter Edmond OK N764B Bonanza Edward Wilson Corryton TN N8936R Champ Ron Koscal Madison WI N3814E Chief Fred Koetz Tampa FL N1847D Bonanza Richard Hare Northville MI N81428 7AC Randell R Morris Elizabethtown KY N3826E llAC Mark Hawkinson Minneapolis MN N1932D Bonarlza Dale Turner Buckley WA N81482 Champ Max Marion Asheville OH NC4031E llBC Max D Mayfield Timewell IL N2775V Bonanza John P Turgyan Trenton NJ NC81583 7AC Theodore Travis Flushing MI NC4189E 11CC Phil Lange Topeka KS N2946V Bonanza Ralph Haroldson Dallas TX N81841 7AC Victor R Hayes Richmond MI N46~8E Super Chief 11 CC David E Long Keyser WV N3150V Bonanza 35 John Sanders Knoxville TN N81910 7EC Keith Wernsman Metamora IL N4658E 11CC Clayton Lund Cheboygan MI N3244C Bonanza 35E Dan ToweryLogan V Miller Dover DE N82007 William L Sharp III Clinton NJ N9031E llAC Robert NelsonBrian Nelson Euless TX N3755N Bonanza 35 A C Freel Warren MI N82098 7AC J E LittellJohn SchneiderLloyd C N9318E llAC J Kirby Lidman Ames IA N3863N Bonanza Walter W Stroemer Brookfield IL

Harvey Ann Arbor MI NC9726E llAC David A Clark Plainfield IN N3981N Bonanza 35 John S Baldridge Sioux Falls SO N82934 7AC David St ArnoldGlen Frankie N9820E llAC Cliff Wadsworth Lapel IN N4326Y Bonanza David Michaels Southfield MI

Dunedin FL N85917 llAC Stephen M Hay Wheeling IL N4493V Bonanza 35 TerrenceBarbara Sullivan N83008 7AC17DC Jerry McNeil Dallas TX N85976 Chief Jim Zimmerman So St Paul MN Natchitoches LA N83338 7AC Myron Seitz Lees Summit MO N86079 llAC Tim Buttles Manawa WI N4637D Bonanza Lawrence Sciortino Ft Walton Beach N83589 7AC Kathy Jenkins East Dubuque IL C-FTDL llAC Len Taylor Nobleton Ont Canada FL N83633 7DC Melvin Hill Danville IL C-GQGT 11CC T Richmond Kettleby Ont Canada N4011B Bonanza 35F Cletus Haley Charleston WV N83686 Champ AI Hatfield So Bend IN N1134H 15AC Ed Arbo Charlotte ME N5077C Bonanza 35B D M Solomon Amarillo TX N83955 7AC ArtLeora Royon Columbia Station OH N1159H Sedan Don Idzik Fond du Lac WI N5155C B-35 M Ciarlariello Elk Grove IL N84121 Champ Albert Bendure Prairie Village KS N1267H 15AC John E CastorJohn A Reiser N8639A A-35 Gene Morris H~mpshire IL N84171 7AC Melvin Buchholz Greenleaf WI Minneapolis MN Nl04SV Bonanza Super V Clifford Ricker Tracy CA N84554 7AC Robert Ziehwein Hamel MN N1391H 15AC James F Thompson Roberts IL N4477 D-18S John Parish Tullahoma TN N84999 7AC Willi W Reif Honesdale PA N1413H 15AC J C HanifanlWiliiam P Hanifan N205A E-18S Deanie Montgomery CorSicans TX N85448 7AC Ronald Wojnar Milwaukee WI Shullsburg WI N85544 7AC Eugene M StrineRuss Strine NI480H 15AC Dick Welsh Issaquah WA

Harrisburg PA N6286C L-16 Dale Sees Jr Kirksville MO

4

BELLANCA N46LW 14-13-2 N6522N Cruisair N74392 14- 13-2 N86733 14-13 N86748 Cruisair N86771 Cruisair N86919 14-13-2 N86931 14-13 C-FKFK 14-13 N6RJ Cruisemaster 14-19 N6553N Cru isemaster N7679B 14-19-2

CESSNA N6RP 120 N16DF 120 NI672V 120 N1 766N 120

N1797V 120 NC1805N 120 N2036V 120 N2123V 120 N2550N 120 N4252N 120 N72273 120 N72839 120 NC73066 120 N761 37 120 N1 2BY 140 N119D 140A N161 2V 140 N1744V 140 N1752V 140 N2106N 140 N2123N 140 N2145V 140 N2151V 140 N2165V 140 N2274N 140 N2284N 140 N2302N 140 N2308V 140 N2327N 140

N2328V 140 N2436V 140 NC2483V 140 N2486V 140 N2491V 140 N2662N 140 N2733N 140 N2775N 140 N2809N 140 N2887N 140 N3506V 140 N3516V 140 N3555V 140 N3633V 140 N3704V 140 N3732V 140 N4000N 140 N4048N 140 N5302C 140A N5323C 140A N5364C 140A N5389C 140A N5398C 140A

N5630C 140A

Robert Knauff Langley AFB VA Joseph Russell Kankakee IL Marvi n Hayes Minneapolis MN Steichen Downers Grove IL Tom LeahyFred Leidy Medina OH Bud Cates Evansville IN S C Zandell Auburn WA Robin Hermanson Garretson SO R V Bays Dartmouth NS Canada Roland M Joslyn Malibu CA Jan Gerstner Delafield WI Kerr and Watts Stockton CA

Richard L Porter Franklin WI Duncan Fitzgerald Selma NC Dwain Hunter Manawa WI Max HendersonFloyd Henderson

LaPorter IN Steve Gillon Los Altos CA Lou S Bitton Redwood City CA Norris E Mealy Niles OH John H Hupe Wamego KS Glenn Trommater Eagle MI William R Schaben SI Charles IL Richard G Pettyjohn Charlotte NC Frank S Pavliga Canfield OH Frank Hancock Anderson IN Dale Spence Pickerington OH AI BlindYally Yasko New Buffalo MI Tom Norton Cottage Grove MN W A Cordoza Woodland CA Martin Arndt Sturgeon Bay WI Marcus Brewer FI Wayne IN John von Linsowe Jr Linden MI Allen C Smith New Berlin IL Thomas C Cahoon SI Paul MN Larry Schuessler Milwaukee WI Ted Steffens Buffalo Grove IL Dick Meyers Madison IN L Boykin San Angelo TX Larry Diedrich Lodi WI Ronald W Kind Detroit MI Story Flying ClubRussell Hendricks

Seattle WA Larry Baron International Falls MN M Thomas Weaver Kalispell MT Roger Piera II So SI Paul MN Lester L Zehr FI Wayne IN Richard Schaper Blue Earth MN BernieBryan Godlove Aurora CO Robert D Busch LeClaire IA Bobby B Brashear Waco TX James Baldwin Columbus OH Kennedy B Dweight Houston TX Larry Cole Redding CA Richard Harden Minneapolis MN Conrad R Case Minneapolis MN Jay Canvender Jackson MI E McKeeMilt Peters Sioux City NE Monte Peecher Littleton CO William R McFall Waukesha WI BrentonMary Ann Bowen Ft Wayne IN John E Vonlinsowe Linden MI Dennis Griffey Muncie IN H Danck Madison WI DouglasJean Weiler Bellbrook OH Red Rose Flying ClubEdgar Hess Jr

Lancaster PA William E WinterDee Ann Winter

N9632A N72150 N72208 NC72284

N72728 N72734 N72815 N76128 N76146 N76344 N76429 N76509 N76603 N76624

N76688 N76951 N77051 N89191 N89205 N89258 N89343 N89416 N89616 N89687 N89999 Noo067 N90111 CF-DMS N172J N1198M N2608V N2617V N2636V N2661V N2671D N3004A N3415D N3531C N3833V

N3958V N401 3V N4238V N4262V N4294V N4656C N5556C N5788C N8099A N9693A N711DR N1492D N1604D

N1746D N1781D N1793D N5466C N5507C N5795C

N5799C N9210A N9926A N9935A

N9971 A N170N N600JM

140A 140 140 140

140 140 140 140 140 140 140 140 140 140

140 140 140 140 140 140 140 140 140 140 140 140 140 140 170 170 170 170 170 170 170 170 170 170 170

170 170 170 170 170 170 170 170 170 170 170A 170A 170A

170A 170A 170A 170A 170A 170A

170A 170A 170A 170A

170A 170B 170B

Lawrence R ColeNila Cole Redding CA Dale Sizer Osseo MN Bill Killie Tullahoma TN Douglas H WilliamsCarol Simpson

Menlo Park CA Jerry L Hicks Charlotte NC Arlo Gosser Franklin IN Richard Daly Spencerport NY Howard Graf Mexico MO George A Winnie Definance OH Don Murphy Peru IN Kenneth E Jacobs New Baltimore MI James Schock Farmington Hills MI Carl Carlson Junction City KS Homer J HawksRobert Hawks

Dundee IL Ronald G Degnan Canfield OH Charles E Easterday Knoxville TN Bernard Nitz Rock Island IL Noel B Morgan Opelika AL Michael E Young Cuyahoga Falls OH James Clift Knoxvi lle TN Tom Jackson Dallas TX D Coates Oxon Hill MD Wm J Kinsman Manawa WI David H Currie Knoxville TN Dick Milner Plymouth MN J R Barker Hayward CA Norman Neher Hudson WI J Cascone Toronto Onl Canada Johnny Williams San Angelo TX L Neal Grand Rapids MI Dave Broadfoot Wauwatosa WI Roland Dilley Warren OH Leroy Shultz Harahan LA Wm P Newk irk Knoxville TN Anton N Lafata Lancaster CA Frederick W Kelch Columbia IL Jack RandyPam Reynolds Marion IA Peter Holman Tarrytown NY John A Van SanlRichard Holmlund

Erwinna PA Dale Dickinson Rock Island IL Mike Shores Kent WA Donald R Eversman Naperville IL Albert Graham Carthage IL Will iam B Jennings Fenton MI Guy E Blake Helfin AL Bob Baker San Angelo TX Tony Otto Lakeland MN Wm Rasor Dayton OH Dean F Ostler Kent WA Will iam 0 Lower Citrus Heights CA Roger L Th istle Sauk City WI William B TitlowR Farnam Sunnyvale

CA James Douglass Cheyenne WY Harry May Highland CA Tom Kuffel Anchorage AK William Decker Norwalk OH Charles L Henkenius Moorehead IA James Hancock Inver Grove Heights

MN Larry Roberts Hanna City IL Robert West Oreana I L Harold N Watson Sioux Falls SO Tim LuceroJim Thompson

Denver CO Mark Zilinsky Bolingbrook IL Tom Guyton Lexington TN Arthur T Morrison Burnsville NC

N2209D N2213D N2369D N2372D N2482D N2509C N2535C N2565C N2598C N2606D

N2724C N2735C N2908D N2947D N3064A N3066A N3160B N3225A N3230A N3410C N3500C N3516D N3543C N3550D N4381B N4541C N4546C

N4922 N8187A C-FTUZ N1663C N1681C N1697C N31 86D N4786B N9254C

N9455C N9916 CF-RYV

Nl055D

NllDK N88DL N195U Nl008D Nl022D N3020B N3045B

N3048B N3066B N3085B N3482V N3893V N3897V N4327V N4363V N4403C N4408C N4445C N4477C N6681H N9326A N9331 A N9849A N32190

170B 170B 170B 170B 170B 170B 170B 170B 170B 170B

170B 170B 170B 170B 170B 170B 170B 170B 170B 170B 170B 170B 170B 170B 170B 170B 170B

170B 170B 170B 180 180 180 180 180 180

180 180 180

190

Yaamp 195 195 195A 195 195 195

195B 195 195 195 195 195 195 195 195 195 195 195 195 195 195 195 195

John W Reeves Libertyville IL William E Flynn Wakefield MA John H Krauer East Detroit MI Bill Rigsby Ponca City OK James Swinker Midland PA Hank Asciutto Perris CA Michael R Baas Irving TX D W Graham Crystal Lake IL Thomas B Morris Imlay City MI Jack W Brooke JrJack Brooke Sr

La Mesa TX Robert E Peer Opa Locka FL Douglas A Nealey Wood Dale IL Robert Decker East Peoria IL Walter Groskulth Mankato MN Gary L Loos Columbia IL Rick Hannen Center Point LA Arnold Hohl Langhorne PA E D Booth Naperville IL Glenn Loy Flint MI Dale G Faux Daleville IN Quinton L Daniel Vicksburg MI Ted R Dobrick Elkhorn WI George M Mock Anderson IN John Gileno Sherman CT Jaime Alexander Crystal Lake IL Everett N Harr is Obetz OH Malcolm ReidCraig M Lieberg

Clear Lake MN Ernest L Hand Maryville TN Victor Varnum Tama IA H Fowler Barri~ Onl Canada Gary Volkmon Waunakee WI Robert Seigelkoff San Lorenzo CA Gordon H Hale Flint MI Gary Lust Iowa City IA Earl Long Wichita KS G M ZimmermanJames Zimmerman

Arvada CO Jerome Bousselot Sandwich IL Arthur W Anderson Madison WI Stan Fowke Portage La Prairie Man

Canada Terry D Wendel lRobert A Karcher

Mobile AL Dan Kindel Cincinnati OH John Ankers Boca Raton FL Bill Terrell Hillsboro OH Roy G McLain Colton CA William C Myers SI Charles MO Adrian R Smith Smithtown NY Mark SmokovitziStan Smokovitz

Detroit MI Michael J Speshock Chandler AZ John A Krueger Redlands CA Lawrence O Cox Longmont CO Thomas Epperson Germantown OH Maureen McMaster Wichita KS W C Schwarz Green Bay WI Raymond W Franke Walnutport PA Wayne Corn Elgin IL Robert M Young McLoud OK Robert Jessup Lantana FL Rex W Bechdolt Hurst TX Raybourne Thompson Jr Houston TX Donald Fairbetter Edmond OK C C Crabs N Olmsted OH Ronald G Adams Miamisburg OH James A Watters Dwight IL Francis Longuski Inkster MI

N5676C N89902 N9405A

140A 140 140A

Tulsa OK Rick Neuer Louisburg KS S K Murdock Dubuque IA Jack CroninCristin Cronin Denver CO

N1692D N1846C N1885C NI981C

170B 170B 170B 170B

John p Mertesdorf Nicollet MN Donale E Jensen Albert Lea MN Champe Pool Wormleysburg PA Wm A Schwinn Cincinnati OH

COMMONWEALTH N33300 Skyranger

N93258 Sky ranger

Ross GresleyPaul Schermerhorn Anderson IN

L O Rupe Elkhart IN

5

DeHAVILLAND N1829K 8E Eldon E Beresford Dundee IL N92615 J-3 Fred Brown Pampa TX N48110 Chipmunk Richard C Bidlack Fremont OH N1B40K BE John Slack Frankfort IL N98391 J-3 Kenneth DeCorte Gaithersburg MD N48260 Chipmunk Walter M Rozelle Coeur dAlene 10 N2197B 8E Jim Cardis Chicago IL N9B450 J-3 Loren Larson Fairmont MN N65153 Chipmunk Dale Bronson Greenwood IN N2229K BE Donald Adams Newton KS N98734 J-3 George Roth Ruston LA CF-URN Chipmunk Lionel Hamilton Guelph Ont Canada N2231K BE Ray Miller Turner MI C-FAOB PA-11 R E Clipsham Erin Ont Canada N613WB Besver Willard Walpole Wichita KS N2290K BE F N Mair San Ang elo TX N747UA PA-12 M V Johnson Waters MI N4040W Beaver E T Kirkpatrick Boston MA N2351K BE RonaldNoel EastonDennis Kelsey N290BM PA-12 Bob Byers Saukville WI

Beloit WI N3802M PA-12 Gary Robinson Rochester NY ERCOUPE N2368K BE Karyl B Herman San Bruno CA N3860M PA-12 L Duffield Youngstown OH NI5JL Jeffry K Lehner LaPorte IN N2493K 8E Leo Bachman Decatur IL N3B67M PA-12 Robert Kratz Robertsville OH N71H William Jordan Geneva OH NC2747K 8E James R Harrison West Carrollton OH N3890M PA-12 David Kratz Massillon OH N355E Herman J Koplin Lombard IL C-FYEC BE Robert E Fleming Caledonia Ont N4169M PA-12 Thomas S Hiemnz Aurora IL N20B1H Raymond W Ganzer EI Cajon CA Canada N7753H PA-12 Donald A Hass Seattle WA N2279H John A Wright Sr Springfield IL N1674K BF Jack J Borden Franklin WI N7B459 PA-12 Richland Aviators Inc Jim Hudson N2434H Charles Darne Lafayette IN N2210B BF Jack B Mclnally Grayline MI Ri ch land Center WI N2701H Scott Olson St Paul MN N1616Z 8F Larry Traskos Bellevi lle MI C-FKOH PA-12 Ron E Baines Waterloo Ont Canada N2929H Art Leblanc Potterville MI N1865B BF Paul Prentice Chelsea MI CF-ZJI PA-12 J M Thede Elmvale Ont Canada N3232H Charles Shaffer Cary IL N1892B BF John LaRoche Bloomfield CT C-GNYW PA-12 David S Bell Markham Ont Canada N3992H Paul Furney Columbus OH N1947B 8F F D Barnard Ann Arbor MI N5243H PA-16 Gilbert Easton Rockford IL N87308 A L Kimball Catlin IL N6895C llA George T Ramin Houston TX N5253H PA-16 Dee L Davidson Bedford IA N8731 2 Donald R Bonem Essexville MI N5382H PA-16 Ronald W Donner Gleason WI N93358 Fred F Sampson New Hartford NY MOONEY MITE N5716H PA-16 John Wood Anoka MN N93823 Robert D England Tullahoma TN N489M Wilbur Draves Hometown IL N5843H PA-16 Bill Schmidt Wi chita KS N93935 Wayne Lawrence Wichita KS N4149F Dave JamesonHenry Raettig N5921 H PA-16 Charles Lancaster Wh iteland IN N93946 Gregory Krush Oak Lawn IL Oshkosh WI N5967H PA- 16 Daniel Callahan St Louis MO N94160 Jesse Austin Muskegon MI N6835K PA-16 Rob Will Seattle WA N94407 Dennis Swan Paxton IL NAVION N6841 K PA-16 Martin A Robb Riverside CA N94844 Erie Berens Stevens Point WI NB8T Twin Navion Robert Roglen Eau Claire MI N6854K PA-16 Robert Cutler Dallas TX N99026 Lucy H Morgan Old Hickory TN N350FU Harvey L Brown Delray Beach FL H5945H PA-16 Ronald Szymanski New Berlin WI N99044 Hugh McKennaRussell Burtsch N437M R J Matt McHenry IL N4133H PA-15 Clark L Anderson Neenah WI

Oswego NY N999RM Donald L ThomannDon Johnson N4406H PA-15 Sarah L Kaeiser Lake City FL N99244 Lowell D Satterlee Lincoln NE Plano IL N442-H PA-15 Terry L Railing Lake Mills WI N99274 Charles C Ray Dubuque IA N2199W Ted Smith Wash ington IL N4469H PA-15 Douglas PfundhellerJohn Matson N99335 Donald Wolfe Niles MI N4020K George Barr Worthington OH Stoughton WI N9981 7 Dennis Sparr McNabb IL N4537K Mike Nallick Minneapolis MN N4600H PA-17 Harvey P Buller Mt Lake MN N99955 Richard L Schorey Bishop Hill IL N4549K Brian J Ryan St Paul MN N461 3H PA-17 Michael A Fish Lemont IL

N4609K Richard Beedy Springfield OH N4839H Vagabond Russell Kellog Rio WI FUNK N4802K Carl Koenig Flint MI N4B70H Vagabond Darryl M LeMire White Bear Lake MN N81176 G Dale Beach Sacramento CA N4882K Louis C Hook Flint MI N1591A Pacer David Vanciere Mitchell SO N811 86 DeanPat Krueger Omaha NE N5117K L A Carlsmith Amhurst NH N1643P PA-20PA-22 P W Steiner Rockville MD

N7803B Paul E Efield Orchard Park NY N1830A Pacer Wendell Smith Battle Creek MI

LUSCOMBE Nll07B 8A N1159B 8A N1204K 8A N1361K 8A N1364K 8A N1365K 8A N2079K 8A N2110K 8A N2158K 8A N2177B 8A

N2315K 8A N2424K 8E N2685K 8A N2764K 8A N2887K 8A N2938K 8A N21996 8A N28564 8A N45680 8A N45719 BA N45767 8A N71293 8A N71315 8A N71348 8A N71465 8A N71533 SA N71922 8A CF-CHM 8A

N45WB 8E N1671K 8E

James Bacon Linden MI Les Nelson Minneapolis MN Wayne Drewry Greencastle PA Mike Thern Winona MN Jack D Lane Indianapolis IN Robert Westerberg St Paul MN Ben Bricker Kalamazoo MI Greg Carroll Buffal o Grove IL Gregory Hendricks Peculiar MO Will iam Bumgardner Bloomfield Hills

MI Robert Bohrman West Allis WI Gregg Beitel Charlotte NC Monte Jestes Pawnee OK John Barowski Downers Grove IL Jim Bastien Madison WI Pete Fleis Imperial MO Craig Sheets Sturgeon Bay WI Malcolm Green Columbus OH Kent Johnson Faribault MN David E Hennington Livermore CA Ronald H Dixon Hoquiam WA John D Richey Batesville AR Nick Showalter Corunna MI Terry Volante Euclid OH Steve Lester Morrow GA Larry Hall Oklahoma City OK Maynard Wolkman Hinckley MN T A C Kennedy Mississauga Ont

Canada William F Bokodi Griffith IN Donald Sweatman Venango PA

N8662H N8684H N8821H NB830H N8997H N9600C N9141 6 N91608 N91738

PIPER N1455N NC1502N N18241 N32845 N3373N N3572N N3638K N3650K N42478 N42724 N42733 N6153H N6669H N7258H N78527 N87771 NC88461 NC88575 N88684 N88698 N92084 N92090

Twin Navion

J-3 J-3 J-3 J-3 J-3 J-3 J-3 J-3 J-3 J-3 J-3 J-3 J-3 J-3 J-3 J-3 J-3 J-3 J-3 J-3 J-3 J-3

William L Marcy Denver CO Howard G Shoemaker Wilmington DE J C Langran Jr Colorado Springs CO Ed Hedlund So Haven MI Ben Gentile Huntington LI NY Fred Garcia Remsenburg NY Jim D Stewart Dunedin FL G L Valbert Camby IN W T Christian Knoxville TN

Donald Richards Bellaire MI Roger Montambo Red Wing MN Mont Mendenhall Tho masville NC Lynn Chamber lain Mt Pleasant MI J L Burns Mt Morris IL Roger Turner Bingham Lake MN Anne Collins Joliet IL John Spiegel Port Byron IL John Lamascus Pacific Grove CA Bruce H Nagorske Bingham Lake MN Jerry Kennedy Murphysboro IL Ralph Korff Lockport NY Laran Larson Fairmont MN Donald V Lacouture Jr Marlboro MA Max Faulkner Bourbon IN Norman J Shuff Watertown WI Reid P JoyceG R Purifoy Valencia PA John V Rawson Jr Belle Meade NJ Dan PellKevin J Engel Sheldon IA David A Watson Framingham MA Winton D Glaser Appleton WI John GelasifTheodore Sanders

Highland Park IL

N2103A N2165A N2934Z N49AK N5179A N5538A

N7161K N7324K N7326K

N7629K N7672K N9132R C-FGCM

G-FLOK CF-RRU

N1214 N1947A N5466H N99302 CF-HCY C-FMDP

N72CJ Nll06C N1262C N1319C N1487A N1512P N1529P NI545P

PA-20 PA-20 Pacer PA-20 PA-20 PA-20

PA-20 Pacer Pacer

PA-20 PA-20 PA-20 PA-20

PA-20 PA-20

PA-18 PA-18 PA-18 PA-18 PA-18 PA-18

PA-22 PA-22 PA-22 PA-22 PA-22 PA-22 PA-22 PA-22

Gerald Shultz North Branch MN T J Champagne Houma LA Allen Simons Bristol CT Ed Cahill Juneau AK Brian Bristol Cottage Grove MN Robert RadoLedray Victorian

Toledo OH Walter FritzBrian Crull Indianapolis IN Charles C Myers Manchester TN Robert ManierBernard Menier

St Paul MN Robert Andrews Libertyville IL Robert Vasey Stafford KS James H Bristol Cottage Grove MN George McMillan North Bay Ont

Canada C Burbank Shelburne Ont Canada Gary M Ferguson Oshawa Ont

Canada Michael McKay Martins Ferry OH P W McKamy Billings MT Terry Henry Neenah WI Sherman B Elder Muskogee OK Karl H Bunder Aurora Ont Canada James Bilstad Thu nder Bay Ont

Canada Bruce LundC J Lund Mobile AL V L Dant Rome GA G Woerner Geneva OH Lowell Roberts Midwest City OK S D Stevens Arden Hills MN Jay Carter East Liverpool OH Wm T White Dallas TX James E Donaldson Eden Prairie MN

6

N2276A PA-22 Richard C Hill Harvard IL N78321 Michael P Kennedy Homestead AFB FL N43871 Marshall Kennard Enfield CT N3212Z PA-22 Wm W Ricketts Finksburg MD N80589 James Byland Moberly MO N43898 Temple amp Woodward Granger IN N3360B PA-22 Lloyd MookEddie Veach Harrisonville N80613 G W Goodland SI Paul MN N44204 Eugene M Townsend Decatur IL

MO N80665 Pete King Rockville MD NC44493 John W McDonald New Orleans LA N3377A PA-22 William Sherhan Lincoln NE N80689 Dave EbersoleScott Chr ist iansen N94941 Jon Ch almers Thompson Johnson N6125D PA-22 Wayne Minnis W Palm Beach FL Colorado Springs CO City TN N81 21C PA-22 Matthew Grainda Easton PA N80706 Mark Holliday Hastings MN N95109 Wm E Boggs Grove City OH N8588C PA-22 William A Rudolph Traverse City MI N80776 Joey N Kemp Tullahoma TN N95926 Dick AmRhein Troy OH Nl0306 PA-22 AI Morris Warminster PA N80905 Charles Hoover Jr SI Paul MN NC95957 Douglas Anderson Jackson MI CF-KKX PA-22 Alvin C Pomery Janetville Ont Canada N80949 Lowell Sterch i Coral Gables FL N96026 R R Reece San Angelo TX

N80969 Harry Lyon Jr North SI Paul MN N96275 Jim Hall Rockford IL REPUBLIC SEABEE N90383 Guy Eby Madison CT N96386 Robert W West Oreana IL N1CD Curtis Dax Chicago IL N96387 Everett Downey Albion NY N6570K Grant Leonard Prior Lake MN TAYLORCRAFT N96417 John Friling Lombard IL

NC922WT Paul Edward Nuss Juniata Altoona PA N96544 Steven N Landis FI Wayne IN middotSTlSON NC5020M Ralph LauritsenCliff Henry Boone IA N96818 Wm Knight Brodhead WI N389C Boyd Walsh Marion IN N5045M Robert ReedyCovert Holley Troy OH N96842 Tim Mickel Scioto Mills IL N584LW 108 Larry Wheelock Bloomfield IN N5109M Herbert Browning London OH N96979 Lester L Walls Shrewsbury PA Nl081S Voyager Richard Bourque Simsbury CT N5218M Richard Weimberger Fond du Lac WI CF-KFG James Takacs Port Colborne Ont N6323M 108 Paul Varner Rockford IL N5265M EM Air Museum Franklin WI Canada N6555M Nicholas C Selig Naperville IL N29753 James Foos Granger IN CF-PUW Ken Bimm Rexdale Onl Canada N8212K 108-1 Robert Reintgen Latrobe PA N34093 Paul Cusumano Mayfield Village OH N8509K 108-1 Daniel Bauman Oorr MI N39168 Thornton Cressy Westland MI ADDITIONAL CLASSICS N8747K Charles Brokaw Parker CA NC39222 SArt Bujnowski Huntington LI NY N242B Helio Couier Robert T Griff in Waxhaw NC N9088K 108-1 C O Depuy Ponca City OK N39974 William Fitch Epworth IA N424 L Meyers 145 L A Waite Durand MI N9117K Voyager James Strock Austintown OH N43163 Jerry Kramer FI Recovery OH C-FLWG Moranamp-Sauln ier 502 Frank Masak Scarboro Onl Canada N97367 108 Bruce Jacobs Albion MI N43344 Mark Yelich Franklin WI N5160 Rawdon T-l Jack Chastain Creve Coeur MO N97607 108 Rich Klepperich Webster MN N43556 Ray L Sherwood Fairf ield IA N711SV Stampe John Hanson Manistee MI N297K 108-2 Stinson IVBob LaBonte Hudson NH N43680 Parker Buckley Waynesville OH N25MB Stampe SV4 Don Good SI Joseph MO N971J 108-2 J Mankins Corona CA N43845 J C Latronigo Girard OH N8000K 108-2 Michael Hudgins Portage WI N9306K 108-2 Frank Sperry SI Ignace MI N9582K 108-2 David Peterson Inver Grove Heights MN N9836K 108-2 G M Huffman Tulsa OK CF-HZM 108-2 Fred Green Mississauga Ont Canada CF-SID 108-2 Augus Cameron London Ont Canada N675C 108-3 Curt Lindauer Belleville IL N762C 108-3 Harvey T EngenDavid Engen

Excelsior MN NC6018M 108-3 Carl Pflanzer Rome NY N6649M 108-3 Russel Arndt Big Falls WI N6698M 108-3 Joe D Wh ite Calumet City IL C-FKQC 108-3 Richard R Schaub Fenwick Ont

Canada CF-LLW 108-3 Kenneth Gamble Hamilton Ont Canada

SWIFT N1BJ Raymond Neuse Groesbeck TX N1ZF Ronald Thompson Jenks OK Nl0SS William Shepard River Ridge LA N1 3SW Steve Wilson St Charles IL N50BS Roland J Zavada Pittsford NY N77PB Pat Knight Waynesboro VA N853C Charles R Cannan San Juan

Capistrano CA N853P John R Dixon Mission Viejo CA N2115 Bonham E Cross Hopkins MN N2334B James J Montague Lake Elmo MN N2424B Carl Weddle Hendersonville TN N2429B William GoldmanJack Morgan

Chandler AZ N2442B John Cranfill Frankfort IL N2457B Dick McNeil North Wilkesboro NC N3248K Howard H Hanson Webster MN N3263K Howard Thalacker Chetek WI N3740K Ronald W Williamson San Diego CA N3816K Buz Johnson Mobile AL N3898K Tracy Rhodes Dayton OH N77756 George ONeal SI Petersburg FL N78083 Paul L Chesley Albuquerque NM N78247 Clyde B Ericson Barrington I L N78261 N78306 N78309 N78311

James Pope Washington DC Gary Scott Schoolcraft MI Bernard F Arnold Cuyahoga Falls OH Richard A Chisholm Oak Lawn IL

(Lee Fra y Photo)

Bill Ehlen and AI H enninger Forums Chairman and Co-Chairman

(Lee Fray Photo)

AntiqueClass ic Headquarters staffers J Kesel Markl and K Morgan

7

RON WOJNARS GRAND CHAMPION CHAMP

Going down this photo and the next give an indication of what Ron had to tear down prior to his very extens ive reshybuild

On day six Thursday of Oshkosh 78 acshytivities were already beginning to wind down The aircraft judges had pared their long long lists down to the top one or two in each category or in many cases had pretty well decided the final rankings About all that remained was to wait out the day to inshysure that no one flew in anything that would upset the apple cart at the last moment

Unbeknownst to the Classic judges the upsetter was already on the field having slipped in the previshyous evening right after the History of Flight pageant No one paid any particular attention when a mild and well mannered young man walked into the Classic trailer on Thursday morning and asked if he could get his airplane judged Half an hour later however ap-

By Jack Cox

pies were tumbling all over the AntiqueClassic parkshying area and judge-laden golf carts were rushing from all quadrants toward the scene of the calamity One quick walk around one sniff of the cabin aroma one peek under the cowling and it was all over The only sounds were a few anguished groans and the tearing of paper yesterdays judging sheets

Unless you were well into your 50s or an aficionado of Classic airplanes this Through the

The right wing before stripping inspection holes

Looking Glass scenario made little sense for in the middle of it all was just a little 01 Aeronca Champion

But what a Champion First it was yellow with the orange lower fuselage

- the familiar Aeronca factory paint scheme that we

rarely see today On the nose was a brand new Senshysenich wood propeller - a 72-42 climb prop just like the FBOs used to order for flight training The nose bowl and wrap-around cowl were as pristine as a newly minted dime - even the exhaust pipe stubs sticking out the bottom were barely smudged The tires were new the oleo struts at full normal extenshysion and the brake covers without a chip in the paint from prop blasted stones and gravel Inside the cashybin the brown crinkle-finish instrument panel held an array of dials the correct ones sporting the winged Aeronca emblem Black enameled floorshyboards brown flocked side panels and door and brown leatherette seat covers each emitted its own peculiar smell to combine with that of fresh dope and 80 octane to produce that aeromatic Evening in Middletown essence that few of us have experienced but none have forgotten

Outside again a glance across the top surface of the wings revealed chordwise rows of little bumps in

Naturally all wood was replaced Here the old is used as a pattern for a new window frame

8

the glistening fabric tell-tale mini-molehills marking the characteristically Aeronca PK screws taking the place of rib stitching 24 inch orange letters and numerals swam in the shimmering light reflected off the top of the right wing

Letting ones gaze swoop down the familiar mulshytifaceted sway back of the fuselage it was easy to see every stringer arced st raight and true to the tail - no warps no valleys between formers

Emblazoned on the fin and rudder - in orange shywere the stenciled winged Aeronca emblem and the rather odd sized and spaced N numbers

Stepping back for perspective ones mind reeled This wasnt a latter day restoration it was a new airplane only hours ago a ferry pilot had signed out the airplane from the factory ramp there in Middletown Ohio dated his voucher August 5 1946 and took off for Milwaukee to deliver the spankshying new airplane to Anderson Air Activities but on the way perhaps in the clouds of industrial smoke around Gary and South Chicago a time warp was enshycountered misdirecting the little bird through 3 deshycades to Wittman Field on the evening of August 2 1978

It looked that new it felt that new it even smelled that new

The next evening Ron Wojnar (EAA 31222) of Milshywaukee was called to the stage to receive the 1978 EAA Grand Champion Classic trophy for his 1946 Aeronca 7AC Champion and not a soul who had seen the airplane was surprised

The new frame s been installed along with a lot of other new wood

And not one of us who knew Ron personally was surprised either

Have you ever been to EAA Headquarters If you

have you may recall that in the main lobby two pedestals flank the entrance doors Atop these are glass cases containing two exquisite cut-away type airplane models one of an EAA Biplane and the other of a Tailwind They were meticulously crafted a number of years ago by a young college student who worked as a summer employee at the EAA Museum

That young man already exhibiting his concern for accuracy and authenticity his talent for minute detail and superb workmanship was Ron Wojnar

Born in Milwaukee on December 3 1949 Rons lifelong fascination with aviation came naturally His father Tony was a pilot who significantly often flew a Champ in those days before his family started comshying along and he was forced to give it up Earlier he had become an aircraft mechanic courtesy the Marine Corps and spent World War II keeping the heavy iron flying After V-J Day Tony returned to Milwaukee and signed on as a mechanic with the Wisconsin Air Nashytional Guard His Maintenance Officer - and pilot

The basic frame has been rebuilt by this point but th eres so much to go

for whom he served as a crew chief - was a Lt Colshyonel named Paul Poberezny

Three years before Rons birth a new Aeronca Champion was ferried into Mitchell Field just a couple of blocks from the Wojnar home by its new owner Andershyson Air Activities NC85448 labored for a number of

years as a trainer - climbing out and gliding in over the Wojnar household when the wind was right By early December of 1949 when the Wojnars were blessed with a healthy son the Champ had already accumulated alshymost exactly 3000 hours of flying time

A typical loving father Tony wanted his son to share his interest in aviation He built models for him until he was old enough to be taught to start building them himself He would often take little Ron along in the evening when he had to put in overtime and let him sit in the cockpits of the T-6s and P-51s on which

he was working and when his son was 6 years old Tony took him to nearby Waukesha Municipal Airshyport bought a couple of $250 tickets and treated hi m to his first airplane ride - in a Cessna 170

Those evenings in the cockpits of the Texans and 51s were making a far deeper impression on his son than Tony probably realized at the time Ron can vivshyidly recall the experiences to this day and he dates his determination to make aviation his lifes work to those wonderous moments when he sat there in the bucket seats pushing and pulling the sticks intently studying the dials and levers and wheels around him - and the rudder pedals down there in the bowels of the fuselage his little legs would not be able to reach for years to come

9

As the years went by Rons interest in airplanes and flying grew in sophistication in step with the growth of his body and mind He managed to get an airplane ride once in a while - sometimes in a Stearman piloted by his fathers boss Paul Poberezny and once when he was 11 in a Champ piloted by family friend Dick Mildebrandt Ron dearly longed to learn to fly but at the same time his academic success in high school was bending his inshyterests toward the scientific So much in fact that after graduation in 1967 he was soon packing to head for Lafayette Indiana to enroll as an aeronautical enshygineering student at Purdue University

Not surprisingly Purdue had been selected in part for its reputation as an aviation oriented institushytion Aside from its academic excellence Ron knew it must have a flying club a fact he confirmed within hours of his arrival on campus Excitedly relatshying this discovery to his father (with obvious intent) Ron found himself being brought back down to earth by the elder Wojnars reminder that he was there to earn a degree first and a pilots license maybe However he softened the admonition with the promshyise that after seeing Rons grades at the end of the first semester the situation would be open for further evaluation

No student was ever led down the path of academic achievement by a more tempting carrot Ron hit the books with a vengeance - sleep meant nothing social life was ignored and Big Ten football was just a Saturday afternoon recharging of Rons batshyteries for the REAL task at hand

At the end of the semester Tony had a wide and proud grin on his face and Ron was wasting little time getting enrolled in the school flying club To his surprise and pleasure he had found that in addition to its modern trainers Purdue still retained a Piper j-3 in its flight school fleet available for $550 per hour

For the next 312 years that Cub would virtually become Rons personal airplane He loved it - and soloed it in about 8 hours - but most of his fellow students sneered down their noses at the lowly yelshylow dog A few learned to fly in it simply because of the low rental rate but couldn t wait to move up to the REAL airplanes the Colts Cessnas etc Conshysequently Ron could count on getting the j-3 almost any time he wanted to fly it He checked out in the other aircraft also but never tired of just going off alone and shooting landings or watching a sunset in his Cub

Returning home that f irst summer he found himshyself without a job - wh ich meant no funds for flying

A couple of weeks later at an EAA fly-in he related his dilemma to Audrey Poberezny and a few days later received a phone call from Bill Chomo offering summer employment at the EAA Museum Ron jumped at the chance and would spend each of his college summer vacations mowing yards painting dusting airplanes - whatever was asked of him that wou Id support his flying habit

Ron had been a member of EAA Chapter 18 for a number of years and the summer job at EAA Headshyquarters (where 18 holds its meetings) intensified his relationship with various of the members Eventually he fell in with a bad crowd bounders like Bob Ladd Dick Mildebrandt and the notorious Ron Scott Soon they were putting terrible things in his head worst of which was the insidious idea of actually ownshying an airplane Together they schemed to chip in and buy a Cub Champ or some such fun airplane for giving rides to friends taildragger checkouts etc (Bob Dick and Ron Scott each had single place homebuilts in those days) Ron was sorely tempted to fall in with the plan but fortunately he was spared by the timely intervention of his father although there would be moments in the years to come when he had good cause to question the hand fate had dealt him

It wasnt that Tony objected to the terrible trio (acshytually they were and are today close friends) - or even the idea of owning an airplane he simply wanted to see his son apply his aviation skills and knowledge to a purposeful end He wanted the two of them to buy a basket case and restore it

Taken somewhat by surprise by this proposal Ron quickly recovered and began scouring Trade-A-Plane Chapter newsletters and the like One day during the summer of 1970 he picked up a Chapter 260 (Dolton IL) newsletter and began scanning it for ads - and there it was Leo Faoro (EAA 28636) of Dolton (south Chicago) had a basket case 1946 Aeronca Champion he was willing to part with for a reasonashyble price

I n rapid succession Ron talked the situation over with his father (who would be the financial backer of any deal) called Leo on the 4th of july and arranged a meeting time drove down with Tony the next day inspected the airplane liked what he saw and put a $100 deposit on it The following weekend the Champ was retrieved and was placed in his Aunts garage acshyross townJn Milwaukee

Immediately Ron and his father began taking the fuselage apart and the very first th ing Ron twisted off a brass fitting on the carburetor This reshyally upset him at the time because it pounded home

the realization that despite his book knowledge he was completely lacking in hands on experience in working on airplanes His dad however was just sitshyting back with a sly grin on his face Youve got to do things like that to learn he said Get your feet wet then pay close attention to what you are doing work carefully and do everything correctly Ron would listen to this advice and stick it out to the end For the first year or so however Tony would serve as his tutor and advisor - as well as fellow worker shyon the Champ project

In stripping the airframe down the Wojnars found that while they had a complete airplane they had a lot of work ahead of them to come up with a job to their personal standards Removing the paint from the fuselage tube framework for instance reshyvealed grinder marks - which meant replacement of some tubing The wings bore evidence of past groundloops - and atrocious repairs which would have to be completely redone And the landing gear oleos horizontal tail surfaces and a couple more smaller items were considered too bad for repair They would have to be replaced A close study of the logs revealed that such replacement of various comshyponents had been a common occurance in the life of NC85448 24 years of abuse at the hands of ham-fisted students had left only the wings intact from the airshyframe that rolled out of the factory in 1946

By this point it was time for Ron to head back to Purdue for his senior year He had signed up for some elective courses in the technical area including engine overhaul and maintenance so he took his enshygine with him hoping to overhaul it as his class proshyject He tore the A-65 down alright but it would be 7 years before it went back together again The cylinshyders were oversize and badly rusted a dye check reshyvealed a cracked crankcase the camshaft was worn out and the cam followers were eaten up with corroshysion In other words Ron found he had a pile of junk for an engine The only bright spot was the crank shyit was useable The expense of the overhaul this hunk of iron needed was out of the question while Ron was still in school so sadly the pieces were boxed up and sent back home

After graduating from Purdue in 1971 Ron reshyturned to his summer job at EAA while waiting to be assigned to officers training by the Air Guard It was an especially instructive summer The Acro Sport proshytotype was being built and with its construction (tube and rag) essentially the same as the Champ every day was a learning experience for Ron Not only could he get his hand in to pick up new skills he could apply to the restoration of his airplane but he had a golden

10

opportunity to pick the brains of pros like Bill Chomo Philippe Van Pelt Gil Bodeen and others includ ing of course the Acro Sport designer Paul Poberezny

As it turned out Ron did not get his OTS assignshyment that summer so on September 1 he accepted a full time position with the EAA Air Museum Foundashytion as Assistant Museum Director

That fall (1971) the fuselage frame was sandblasted and some pitting was found in addition to the aforementioned grinder marks Everything doubtful was cut out and replaced with new tubing Ron tacked each piece and Bill Chomo finished them later Ron would gain the experience and confidence to do his own welding By Christmas all the repair work had been done all the woodwork had been reshyplaced so that the next step was a cover job That as things turned out would be a way down the road however

In late December Ron started on the left wing He first tried to clean it up without d isassembling it bilt after several months of part time wasted effort tore it down and did it right Only one wing was done at a time so that the other could be used for reference Some wingtip repair (and rework of old bad repai rs) was necessary but essentially the wing work involved cleanup replacement of leading edges and refinishing of the spars (the only old wood reshytained in the entire airplane)

With the coming of the summer of 1972 Ron found the direction of his life changing - and the Champ temporarily moving to the back burner First his OTS assignment came through and he was off for Lackland AFB for 3 months then as a new 2nd Lieutenant one month of active duty with his local Guard unit

That fall Ron took a position with Hartzog Aviation in Rockford Illinois and moved to that city Living in an apartment he had to leave the Champ at his pashyrents home in Milwaukee driving back to work on weekends Small parts were taken home to Rockford to be reworked during the week Happily Ron had again found himself in fortuitous circumstances - at Hartzog he not only had some real aviation pros to call on for advice but a lot of sophisticated equipshyment that could be used after work

1972 saw only modest progress on the Champ what with adjustment to a new job new home and weekend travel back and forth between Milwaukee and Rockford The following year however things began to look up Perhaps most significant was the fact that Ron and his father made the first of many weekend trips to Bellancas Osceola Wisconsin plant

Aside from the spars theres not much of the o rigina l wings left in this p icshyture

The ingredients of a champions Champ are beginning to show up

to forage for parts Tom Brown and Bonnie Marlette of the Parts Sales Department took an immediate inshyterest in the restoration project and spared no effort to unearth 7AC parts that had been moved from Middletown Ohio to Wiscons in Bellanca had sufshyfered a disastrous fi re a few years before and much of the old stuff had been lost but fortunately some had been stored downtown in an old railroad depot Ron and his father were permitted to sift through evshyerything and together they came up with a lot of impossible to obtain goodies like frames for the sliding windows universal joints for the fuel valve extension rod etc A surprising number of off the shelf Citabria components are the same as for its anshycestor the 7AC All the wooden fuselage formers and stringers in fact are identical with the exception of the rear window area When completed Rons Champ looked like a new one because to a great exshytent it is thanks to the folks at Bellanca

During 1974 things began to get into high gear The wings were finished and late that year the Contishynental A-65 was given a complete major Schneck Avshyiation did the work needed and Ron did the final asshysembly - under the supervision of a licensed mechanic Thinking the end was in sight Ron purchshyased all his dope and fabric (dacron) from Bellanca and took two weeks vacation to cover the airplane He gets a big laugh today at his naivete in grossly unshyderestimating the time element involved in covering Two weeks in fact stretched into 2 years before the cover job was completed

In 1975 Rons life took another sharp turn He left Hartzog and took a career position with the FAA Asshysigned to EMDO 46 in Des Plaines IL (north side of Chicago) as an Aviation Safety Inspector (Manufacturshying) Ron was able to move back home in Milwaukee commute to work during the day and work on the Champ evenings and weekends From that point on something no matter how insignificant was done every night

One bit of help came from an unusual quarter Ironically one of Ron s FAA assignments was the Belshylanca factory - so that his friends from the days of scrounging for 7AC parts had now also become clients of sorts Every time Ron came in for an inspecshytion he had to give everyone a progress report on his Champ A couple of young girls in the covering department Donna Viebrock and Sue Dollery told Ron they would like to come to Milwaukee some weekend and install the wing envelopes Despite livshying in Wisconsin all their lives neither had been to the big city and th is would be their chance With

their expertise the work would take just a few hours and the rest of their time could be spent seeing the Sights It was an offer Ron couldn t refuse and sometime later it all came about He got a set of wings ready for doping and the girls got an expense paid fling in Wisconsin s biggest metropolitan area

With doping and finish coats to go orid inarily it would have been decision time as far as the paint scheme was concerned Not so in this case however Very early in the project Ron had made the decision to return the Champ to factory new condition and appearance This of course involved considerable research He had an original service manual given him by Ron Scott and a copy of a 1946 Skyways article on the Champ given him by George Hardie but most helpful was the complete certification record on the Aeronca 7AC on file right where hf worked EMDO 46 in Des Plaines (Bellanca still holds the Proshyduction Limitation Record for the airplane and could put it back in production tomorrow if they wanted to) The file is COMPLETE colors size and shape of markings everything All the draWings are dated 1945 and all the subsequent revisions are on file

1976 saw the covering completed and 1977 was spent doing all those little detail items you think are going to take about 2 weeks according to Ron He endured all manrer of frustration attempting to paint the fairings cowl and various other small metal pieces Ron was bugged literally He would spray on a beautiful coat of enamel - no runs no orange peel - only to have some hapless insect make a Kamakazi dive right into the shiny surface Striving for nothing less than perfection Ron stripped the parts completely after each bug attack and repainted them He estimates he pai nted the equivalent of 4 or 5 airplanes before he was satisfied Similarly the crinkle-finish instrument panel was done 3 times beshyfore a perfect job could be obtained

Ron had some interesting experiences down the stretch drive to complete the airplane A few items had seemed impossible to obtain in order to have a near 100 authentic restoration - the flocking of the interior for example For 3 or 4 years inquiries had been made through aviation channels in a vain atshytempt to locate a shop that could do the work Deshyspairing of ever achieving success Ron picked up the Chicago Yellow Pages one day and looked up Flockshying Sure enough there was such a classification He made a phone call and a friendly voice assured him the work would be no problem Ron was told how to prepare the panels (apply an epoxy base in the color desired for the flocking) and where to deliver them

There s not much here that could look any newer if it were coming right out of the factory

The work was done over the following weekend and turned out to be a beautiful job (The flocking incishydentally is an electro-static process with the comshymercial name of Velvetex)

Another tough nut (pun intended) was the fuel gage nut - Bellanca didn t have one and all that turned up were worse than Rons knarled overshytorqued original Finally driving through a small Minnesota town Ron spotted a sign that read Sewshying Machines Guns Trading Post and Airplane Parts Partly on a hunch and partly just out of curiosshyity he stopped entered the establishment and inshyquired of the owner if he had any Champ parts

Got enough to make 5 of them whatta ya need was the reply

Ron mentioned the fuel gage nut and was almost shocked to hear Sure how many you need whereupon the proprietor reached into a drawer and pulled out a loop of safety wire with a half dozen or so Aeronca fuel gage nuts strung on it

This sort of thing Ron chuckles today is why it took 7 years to restore the Champ He could have built up an airworthy even beauti f ul job in perhaps 3 years but not an authentic one That took a lot of time and patience

Finally however the day came when the airplane was taken to the Waukesha County Airport - on Ocshytober 23 1977 to be precise What should have been a joyous occasion however began a two month ordeal that is a story in itself Shortly after taking over

12

That first run-up a moment of supreme exaltation

a hangar from a friend who had sold his airplane Ron was informed by the FBO that he would have to give it up by January 1 This shocking news really put the pressure on After 7 years of work Ron was detershymined not to dismantle the Champ and tow it back home and he was absolutely not going to leave it outside Hangar space is extremely hard to come by in the Milwaukee area just as is the case in all large metropolitan areas so the only option left was to find a hangar in a nearby town Space was ultimately loshycated some 20 miles west at Watertown but having a January 1 deadline Ron resolved to fly the Champ out of Waukesha

It wasnt easy Bitter cold came to Wisconsin even earlier than usual making final assembly of the Champ a numbing experience Nevertheless Ron and his father toughed it out working every evening and weekends By late November it was so cold that work had to go in spurts ~ interrupted by thaw-out breaks in Rons or his dads car Several layers of insulated clothing didnt make working in tight spots easy and any job requiring a degree of digital finesse was frustshyration personified Trying to screw on a tiny nut he couldnt feel through numb fingers was not exactly Rons idea of a fun way to complete his project In December temperatures plunged below zero but Ron and Tony worked on getting the last of the fairshyings on control cables adjusted the King 360 radio and battery pack installed etc

Finally it was time for some engine run-in John Curtice Rons fellow inspector with EMDO 46 had previously been employed with Continental Motors in Muskegon Michigan and had gone through the proshycedure literally thousands of times He advised Ron on how to properly break in the newly majored A-65 and later issued a new Certificate of Airworthiness AI Bruce Rintelmann of Milwaukee had supervised the project from the beginning (since neither Ron nor his father have civilian A and P licenses) and had alshyready signed off the restoration work

And then it was done Ron could have test flown the Champ a day or so before Christmas but he decided against it His family had put so much of themselves in the project that Ron could not bring himself to pOSSibly ruin their Christmas in case anyshything went wrong Bright and early on the 26th howshyever he and his dad were heading for the airport

The temperature was 3deg F but the Continental started on the first pull Ron taxied over to the FBO shut down and squirmed into a Security parachute Mike Heuer had brought over for the occasion Firing up again he warmed up the engine until the oil

temperature came up to 90deg then taxied out for take-off Given the OK by the tower Ron opened the throttle and literally leaped into the frigid air He climbed out to 5000 feet staying over the south end of the airport - by prearrangement with the controlshylers All went well and after 36 minutes the cold had become so unbearable Ron had to land while he still had some feeling in his hands and feet The landing was a real squeaker (as he later saw on movies) On the 30th - right on schedule - Ron flew the Champ out of Waukesha and over to Watertown The airplane was there for about six weeks - and some 5 hours of further flying time - before it was transfershyred to a new home Air Troy Estates where Ron had bought a lot Hangar space was available until sumshymer when he would have his own 45 x 72 hangar built

With the passing of a really miserable winter Ron was able to enjoy a spring and summer of pleasure flying and fine tuning of the airplane for its debut at Oshkosh 78 The airplane had been test flown with a metal propeller but as a final authentic touch a wooden Sensenich had been ordered through Wag Aero There was some last minute anxiety over delivshyery of the prop but a week before the fly-in it arshyrived

Ron had intended to take a weeks vacation to enjoy all of the Convention but so many requests

had come in from EAAers wanting inspections so they could get their homebuilts to Oshkosh he couldnt get away until Wednesday

The rest you know On Friday night Ron walked out of the Meeting Pavillion with the Grand Champshyion Classic trophy and it was difficult to tell whose smile was wider his or his dads

The outcome had not been unexpected in many quarters despite the torrid competition every Oshkosh gathering provides Earlier Ron had atshytended the Aeronca Forum at the conclusion of which moderator Charlie Lasher had asked if the owner of NC85448 were present Ron raised his hand and Charlie said I want to come down and shake your hand - that is the finest Champ I have ever seen

In the weeks preceding the Convention Rons felshylow FAA employees at EMDO 46 had speculated on his chances of winning an award perhaps even the Big One Secretary Michele Facenda (who had helped with the Champs paperwork) had promised to bake a cake for him if he were successful - so on the next Monday morning Ron strode in with his trophy put it down on Micheles desk and anshynounced Youre going to have to do some baking

I already have she replied I knew you were going to win

Interior of Gregs Luscombe

Dick Stouffer Photo)

Class Winner Luscombe BE Gregg Biete Charlotte David Gustafson Photo) North Caro lina

Class I Winner Taylorcraft BC-120 Ralph Lauritsen Boone Iowa

David Gustafson Photo) Custom Class C Winner Bellanca 14-19 Ronald Joslyn Malibu California

By Edward D Williams Associate Editor 713 Eastman Dr

Mt Prospect IL 60056

An antique airplane which has been hanging in the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago since 1953 has a unique honored distinction This came about when an expert model builder made a 33-inch wingspan model of it that is considered a work of art So today both the full-size plane and the three-fourths scale model are on display in the same museum

The plane is a Boeing 40B which was donated to the museum after the close of the Century of Progress Exposishytion in Chicago in 1933 It was originally manufactured as a 40A and later converted to a 40B but the museums

The simplicity of the design is shown in this view of the Boeing 40A

plane is displayed in the colors and markings of a 40A And so the model built by Carl Buttita a commercial arshytist in Chicago is an exact copy of a 40A

When the Boeing plane NC288 factory serial number 899 was bought by Boeing Air Transport (BAD from its parent company the Boeing Airplane Company in June 1927 it cost $24500 Buttitas model which took him three years to complete was appraised at $7000

The Boeing hanging in the east court of the Museum of Science and Industry is considered of historic value

because it was one of a fleet of 24 BAT 40A aircraft that helped make transcontinental air travel possible for the first time in 1927 (See The Vintage Airplane December 1977)

Buttitas model although it was not built to fly looks every middotbit like it could It is so realistic that it later won him an important award from the Hobby Industry of America

The Museum of Science and Industry which is loshycated on Chicagos south side lakefront draws about four million visitors a year to see hundreds of exhibits depictshy

18

ing the laws of science and applications of technology in industry and other fields It is a non-profit independent institution and admission is free

The Museum was partially opened in 1933 with only a handful of exhibits By that time Boeing Air Transport and three other airline companies-- Pacific Air Transport Varney Air Lines and National Air Transport- were joined together to form United Airlines which on November 30 1933 donated the Boeing to the Museum

It took seven more years for the museum to be comshypleted so the Boeing was stored in the institutions basement until it finally was hung from the ceiling in 1939 Although the plane has been cleaned regularly and today remains in sparkling condition it has never been moved from its resting place and probably wont be for some time to come

The Boeing is part of a large aviation display which includes a number of other antique aircraft the Apollo 8 spacecraft and a full-sized model of the first class cabin of a Boeing 747

Other planes on exhibit with the Boeing 40B are a 1910 Curtiss a 1913 Morane-Saulnier a 1917 Curtiss J N-4 Jenny a Supermarine Spitfire a Lockheed F-104 Starfighter and the Travel-Air S Mystery NR1313 sponsored by Texaco and flown by Frank Hawks in setshyting a number of transcontinental records

The Museum also owns a Junkers Ju87B Stuka but it is not on exhibit in Chicago because it rests temporarily on loan in the Air Education Museum of the Experimental Aircraft Association in Franklin Wisconsin The German World War II dive bomber was restored after a cleaning accident at the Chicago Museum by the EAA Museum staff

The Model which Buttita finished three years ago is on exhibit in a special case It draws considerable interest because of its highly detailed work- down to the tiniest hinges on the doors

Boeing Air Transport (BAn probably owed its corposhyrate life to the Boeing 40A which enabled it to get into the airmail transport business

The Boeing Airplane Company first built a single Model 40 for a government competition in 1925 for the awarding of a contract for an airplane to be flown by the U S Post Office Department to replace the old de Havilshyland DH-4s it had been using since 1918 The governshyment bought the one Model 40 equipped with the old watercooled Liberty engine but did not award the comshypany a production contract It went instead to Douglas for its series of M aircraft

However the project was revived a year later when the Post Office Department decided to award Contract Air Mail (CAM) routes to private contractors for airmail The Model 40 plans were dusted off updated with the

After its Wasp engine was replaced with the PampW Hornet engine the 40A was designated the 408 and This picture of groundcrewmen unloading a 40A gives a looked like the above close-up view of the Pratt amp Whitney Wasp engine and

the dural sheet construction used throughout

latest improvements and redesigned to meet the postal requirements Designated the 40A it was powered with a 9 cylinder 420 horsepower Pratt amp Whitney Wasp enshygine a new aircooled radial engine Boeing was testing in its fighter type aircraft

The Boeing basic design with a pilot in an open cockpit was also changed to carry two passengers in a forward cabin although the awarding of the airmail conshytract and not passenger transportation was of paramount importance But the 40A could still carry 1200 pounds of mail in addition to the two hardy souls who pioneered passenger travel in 1927

It was the new designs low operating costs and high revenue potential that got BAT Boeings wholl y-owned subsidiary the low bid on the new San FranciscoshyChicago airmail (CAM number 18) route from the govshyernment BAT operated 24 of the 25 40As built The other plane was delivered to Pratt amp Whitney as a flying engine test bed This test aircraft proved its worth as in early 1928 the new 525 horsepower Pratt amp Whitney Homet engine became available in quantity and BAT quickly converted 19of its 40As to 40Bs with the installashytion of the new Hornet engine Among these was the Chicago museums NC288

According to the Model Specification and History document supplied to BAT by the Boeing Airplane Comshypany the 40A was a Three-place Landplane Biplane Closed Cabin Mailplane (3P-CiSl Factory numbers ran from 879 through 903 The first flight was made on May 20 1927 with delivery to BAT nine days later Dimenshysions were wingspan 442 length 332V and height 123 Empty weight was 2622 Ibs with a de sign gross of 4652 Ibs It boasted a top speed of 135 mph and a cruising speed of 125 mph but the actual pershyformance was closer to a maximum speed of 128 and a cruise of 105 mph It has a range of 550 miles and a sershyvice ceiling of 15700 feet

The 40A needed the altitude capability because of the rugged mountainous terrain on the 1 9113 mile San Francisco-Chicago run BAT started to use the new plane on the route with many intermediate stops on July 1 1927 When National Air Transport began its CAM Number 17 route operations with its Douglas M-4s betshyween New York and Chicago on September 1 1927 the two airlines link-up at Checkerboard Field at Maywood Illinois outside of Chicago gave the United States its first transcontinental air travel

The Chicago museum s Boeing 40B figured promishynently in th is important part of history Boeing NC288 amassed more than 6000 flight hours on the San Francisco-Chicago run and was flown many times by the famous airmail pioneer Jack Knight (See The Vintage Airplane February 1977) before it was retired

Construction of the Boeing 40A is shown in this picture of th e Boeing A irplane Company assembly line w ith A Boeing 40A NC286 - a sister ship of NC288 in the 40As in various stages of completion at Sea ttle Washingshy Chicago Museum - is show n fl ying over mountains on ton the Boeing A ir Transports San Francisco-Chicago run in

20

The Museums 40B in the coloring and markings of a 40A hangs with other historically significant aircraft in Chicagos Museum of Science and Industry The cockpit of the Boeing 40A w as simple making the

job o f duplica ting it in a model less demanding

(Museum of Science and Industry Photo)

- __ poundLlaquo

In 1933 it was used in the Wings of a Century pageant at the Century of Progress Exposition in Chicago after the Worlds Fair it was turned over to the Rosenwald Museum which later was renamed the Museum of Scishyence and Industry

Although the basic construction of the Boeing 40A was simple it had enough detail to make a model of it interesting Buttita said that he was a stickler for detail but admitted that he got carried away in making his model

When I decided to build the model I didnt intend to make it with such detail Buttita told this author I thought I could fake a lot by making the metal parts out of wood and painting them silver

But Buttita changed his mind and made every metal part out of metal and every wood part out of wood So the project which he thought would take him six or seven months eventually took three years

The more detail I put on it the better it looked he said so finally nothing could stop me and I detailed evshyerything

Buttita is an artist with the Accurate Silk Screen Sershyvice Company Chicago and his model building ability is well known

The three-quarter scale 40A is what is called a scratch model in which the builder starts from scratch as opposed to a kit in which plans and many formed parts are supplied

Buttita said a scratch model involves considerable reshysearch and study For the 40A he got a complete set of plans and all the photographs he could from Boeing and United

It took me three or four months of study before I could actually get started to build anything he said

Unlike kits which eliminate many of the interior parts that cannot be seen scratch models to be authentic must have all the details of construction such as all the ribs in the wings But that also makes them much stronger and keeps them from warping Buttita pointed out

Both the Boeing 40A flown by BAT and the Buttita model of it were constructed at the peak of the state of the art for their day

The airplane had a steel tubular fuselage with wood fairing strips and was dural and fabric covered The wings also fabric covered were built up of spruce spars and ribs The dural sheet on the fuselage covered the enshygine cowling cabin doors and compartment hatch openshyings

The two passengers sat in a cabin metal lined throughout and their seats and seat backs were upholsshytered in leather The windows of the two doors one on each side of the fuselage were made of non-shatterable glass and could be opened for additional ventilation and

21

Details of the construction of the 40As cabin door and wing struts are shown in this close-up

A close-up view of Carl Butshytitas model of the 40A shows how dedicated he was to deshytail in the models construction

Carl Buttita builder of the three-fourths sca le Boe ing 40A discusses fine points of the construction with Edshyward E Carlson chairman of UAL In c Chicago and a member of the board of trustees of the Museum of Scishyence and Indu stry before the model was put on display in the Museum

were large enough to give the passengers an excellent view of the scenery

The rear of the fuselage was braced with steel tie-rods and was heavily faired to shape although it still was fabshyric covered The tail assembly also was fabric covered but only the horizontal stabilizer was built up like the wings with spruce spars and wood built-up ribs The rest of the tail assembly was built up with welded steel tubshying It rested on a steerable tailskid The landing gear was made of streamlined chrome-moly and used oleo-spring shock absorbers

Buttitas construction problems for his model were reshysolved through the use of a wide variety of materials

The Boeing model is made of aluminum pine dentists plastic epoxy glue and Japanese silkspan paper About 40 percent of the model is metal but much of it is inside so you dont see it Buttita said These parts are the cables controls pilots seat corrugated floor panels hinges cockpit fire extinguisher medical kit and workshyable seat belts

Each part had to be hand made some several times to get them right or if they broke Buttita said I had to make 20 to 30 rims for the landing lights to get two

When you make a one-of-a-kind model you have to fabricate about 90 per cent of the parts yourself and make dies for almost everything he added

For the metal parts Buttita used small pieces of offset printers plate made of aluminum but with some tin for added strength The wood parts are made of spruce and the engine and wheels are made of the dental plastic

All the markings and lettering were drawn triple the size on paper and reduced photographically on decal paper That way they were better than if I had handshypainted them on the model he said

Buttita said he did all the construction work on a card table at home and the only power tool he used was a small electric drill

At least one other Boeing 40B is known to be on exshyhibit in another museum This is aircraft NC285 factory number 896 which was presented to the Henry Ford Museum at Dearbom Michigan in 1938 But so far it doesnt have a scale model of its own to highlight it And don t look to Carl Buttita to build one I will never do it again he sa id It was just too much work

Rebuilding AVagabond

By Larry Railing Box 5 7 -C P Avenue

Lake Mills WI 5355 7

I never realized at the time I started to rebuild or lets say restore Piper Vagabond PA-15 N4423H that so many people were interested in what Id term history So here it is

I started flying in Valparaiso Indiana around 1900 I learned in a )-3 owned by Mark Murvahill I later

graduated to the PA-12 In 1964 I graduated from high school and a year later I was married As most in like cirshycumstances I gave up flying for love until the newness wore off

My first airplane was a )-5 Cub that went down in a marsh I had started to rebuild it until Dick Wagner of Wag-Aero heard of it and made me an untimely offer This airplane was later destroyed at Burlington along with the Tri-Motor

I later owned other aircraft which included aT-Craft Somehow Dick Wagner heard of my T-Craft and flew up in a Vagabond to see it and made me an offer

I told him at that time if he ever got in the mood to sell the Vag to please call me That was in 1968

On December 26 1976 Dick called me and asked if I was still interested in the Vag I told him yes and Id come down the next Saturday morning The next Saturday came and so did I There the Vag stood on its nose just as pictures in past issues of The Vintage A irplane had shown

Dick with all his other projects had to let something go He offered me the Vag or one of two Cubs My thoughts never gave way to anything but the Vag

23

The stripped fuselage arrives at home ready for a long winter s night

Work completed the birds about ready for a runway

I climbed a ladder and pulled the tail down and began looking It was all there but in sad shape For the past four years it hadn t been outside It looked good in the dark but time took its toll The fabric was beyond even shot But it was all original Every instrument the seat and all were original In thirty years no one even drilled a hole in the panel

We tried to get the old Lycoming 65 started but no way

The next Saturday morning I borrowed a stock car trailer and headed for Lyons with my truck On the way down all was going so well until I met a car looked in my mirror and noticed the trailer to be about a foot wider than my pickup Id never given that a thought before Everytime I met another car I just got over a little I fishynally arrived at Dicks place and began taking the Vag

Fits like a sausage casing The envelopes ready for the hea t trea tment

apart I placed the wings on some racks on my truck and the fuselage or the trailer I didn t bother taking off the tail All was loaded and ready to roll in about three hours

About halfway into the dismantling it began to snow By the time I was ready to go we had gotten about three inches This worked out in my favor as it slowed everyone else on the highway down to my speed My greatest worry when hauling an airplane is when you meet a truck

All seemed to be going good The first car I met I got over to the right because of the trailer At this time I looked into the mirror and not only noticed the trailer a foot wider than the truck on each side but the horizontal stabilizer stuck out another foot on each side beyond the trailer What a shock

I stopped and tried to remove the tail but to no avail The snow kept coming and so did the end of the day It took me four and a quarter hours to go fifty-five miles By the time I got home we had eight inches of snow What a long ride

I began total disassembly right away The wings were in fantastic shape All that was needed was varnish on the tip bows I also put new cables in the whole airplane The original inspectors number date and signature are still on the spars

I worked the whole project under the watchful eyes of Paul Baker an AI from Beaver Aviation at Dodge County

The author tackles another flying surface with needle and twine

Airport He is really an EAAer I never heard of an AI so ready and willing to help restore an airplane He even came to my home after hours to inspect the fuselage as it was easier for me than taking it up there Paul says if Id hired him to do the restoring I could just hand over my paycheck for a year so he said you do the working and Ill do the looking

All the still pieces were sandblasted and sprayed with Imron primer Believe me you do have to wear a mask with that stuff

I gave Wag-Aero a call and told them what I needed for a complete cover job and not to call me until they had it all there in one pile with no monkeying around for a little of this and that

While waiting for the covering materials I began work on the engine The whole airplane had only 1100 hours and the engine 330 SMOH I just couldn t get it started I solicited the help of a local mechanic and Stinshyson owner Harold Hubrich We found three blown head gaskets one leaky valve the impulse spring in the left mag was broken and the P-Iead in the right mag the inshysulator of phenolic replaced with masking tape

I pulled the heads and Harold ground ~he valves had the mags rebuilt a complete new ignition system and the carburetor rebuilt We got her back together and bongo

- she started right off In the meantime I finished the wings and control surshy

faces I wanted to paint it all apart so a temporary gear 24

Larry applies a new cowling atter a fruitl ess encounter with sa ndblasting equipment

was made to support the fuselage The engine was never taken off Many people questioned that temporary gear I just said you had to be very careful on take-off and landshying

The actual covering was very enjoyable you could see some real progress including the stitching but that spraying and sanding Sixteen hours of work for every coat Six sandings fourteen coats and thirty gallons all total

The sheet metal was all in good shape I had planned to replace the cowl so a guy that was chicken could look in at the rubber band I tried Zip Strip to get down to bare metal with no luck at all I took all the aluminum parts over to a body shop including the boot and sandblasted them In less than ten minutes I destroyed every piece of aluminum except the instrument panel and nose bowl I then got some aluminum and began making new parts It all turned out very well

When I first brought the Vag home I contacted Cecil Ogles of Vag-News and he sent me more info than I think Piper has Among which was complete rigging

Im a little more fortunate than most- Im a tool and die model maker by trade and have my own shop Before beginning on the Vag my partner and I added on a 50 x 60 foot addition to our shop which served for a beautiful place to work over the winter to store parts until needed as well as an area to completely assemble the airplane for rigging

Its been a long time since the fuselage last shook from a run-up

Time came to go to the airport and sprout feathers There is a private strip just south of town so I went there along with about six helpers The airplane was assembled and flown two days later on June 28 1978 A year and a half after beginning

The first flight was all anyone could hope for It really flys hands off and is the easiest airplane for a taildragger to land that I have ever flown

Now for some numbers Cruise 85-90 Cruise RPM 2300 Fuel Consumption 30 gph Prop 70-36 Final and Climb 70 mph Over the Fence 60 mph Stall 40 mph Empty Weight 640 Ibs Take-off- For each 10 Ibs over 200 the passenger

weighs I added 100 feet I had the Vag at Oshkosh on Tuesday this year and

took it home and put it to bed the same night In this area we have about fifteen Vags flying with

five of them done original Myself I like to see airplanes kept original Its like a Model T with a Chevy 427 it just aint the same

The airplane is covered with Stits and the finish is Aerothane

Now that the airplanes finished work ca n proceed on the shop

I can say something most people cant about this airpshylane While at Oshkosh I went over and visited the Piper display and who would you guess was there Clyde Smith the test pilot of my airplane thirty years ago I took a couple of pictures of him and will be placing them in the log books next to his signature

The Vag is my first real attempt in restoring I did the whole airplane myse lf except the seat and the engine work Im very pleased with the end product Its all mine and paid for as well Im now enjoying the fruits of my labor and Id do it again if I could find another Vagshyabond

Oddly enough it seemed the hardest part of the whole project was the legal end Being that the FCC can t seem to find a good reason to charge for a restricted radio license I decided to send for one just in case I ever carried a radio along That took three months and the paperwork went back and forth six times The hardest part was the registration The airplane hadn t been regisshytered since 1967 The State of Wisconsin wasnt too bad That paperwork came back only once asking for an addishytional $333 because I didn t notify them within thirty days after purchase even though the airplane had been declared exempt But the Feds This took six months nine phone calls and six letters Finally I called once again and told them that after a year and a half of rebuilding with or without them I was going to fly it I think that finally did the trick

25

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Calendar of Events NOVEMBER 18-19 - MIAMI FlORIDA- Antique Classic and Cusshy

tom Built Fly-In at the third annual Harvest- A Country Fair sponsored by the Historical Association of Southern Florida at the Dade County Youth Fairground Coral Way at 112th Avenue Awards given for antique classic and custom built aircraft Conshytact Capt Ken Ufland of the Civil Air Patrol office (305) 552-3106 home after 600 pm (305) 251-5927 or Mary Dodd Russell Harshyvest Coordinator at the Historical Museum 3280 S Miami Ave shynue Building B Miami Fl 33129

JANUARY 21-27 - Sun N Fun the biggest fly-in in the southeastshyand the second biggest in the natron Its a full week of southern hospitality and flying fun daily aerial demonstrations fly-bys of antique classic homebuilt and warbird aircraft forums exhibits and static displays parties and com roasts big new food concesshysion country store for campers in our shady campsites Make motel reservations early- our free information booklet has a complete list of accommodations Write to Sun N Fun PO Box 3538 lakeland Florida 33802

(Dick Stouffer Photo)

Aeronca IICC Super Chief belonging to David E Long Keyser West Virginia

(Ted Koston Photo)

Heres a sharp Funk at Oshkosh Owner unknown didnt register

(Dick Stouffer Photo)

Another fine looking unregistered aircraft

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F4U CORSAIR

PLANE CHECKS The Leading Fighter 01 WWII - with a Record 01 2140 Japanese Aircraft Destroyed 28 01 which

Are Credited to Pappy Boyington Regular bank checks emblazoned with the F4U CORSAIR

- Complete the order form and write out your check Now get a deposit Slip from the same account and clearly indicate any changes or other notations as you wish it to appear on the checks (These two documents will furnish us all the data we need to make your checks compatible with your banks computer and Amer Bank Assn specs) On gift orders send your check and mark his check VOID Please allow 3 weeks for delivery

Start USing Plane Checks Now Your old checks will always be good

Identity Check Co Box 149-D Park Ridge III 60068 Activate my order for Plane Checks starting No ___ o 300middot$795 0 600-$1350 0 900middot$1875 Checks are printed with blue backgrounds and are top bound-one part deposit sUps registers and matching checkbook cover are Included In each order

o F4U CORSAIR o PIPER Assortment o BEECH AIICH1menl o UNITED DC-10

o Cherokee o Sundowner o NORTH CENTRAL DC9 DArrow o V Bonanza o CONTINENTAL OCmiddot10 o Seneca II o Baron o NATIONAL DC-l0

o PITTS SPECIAL o Pmiddot51 MUSTANG 11 AMERICAN OCmiddot10 o CESSNA Allottmenl o TWALmiddot1011 o EASTERN Lmiddotl011

o Hawk o PSA727 o WESTERN 0010 o 210Centurlon o BDmiddot5 o OZARK OCmiddotg0310 o MOONEY

o YELLOW Jmiddot3 CUB o HELICOPTER (BELL)

Ship via 0 UPS (insured) 0 Parcel Post o WEST COAST add one dollar-well fly it

Ship To

Address

City State___ Zip____

26

Editorial Staff

Publisher Paul H Poberezny

(David Gustafson Photo) EditormiddotAnother aircraft that never registered touches down at Oshkosh David Gustafson

Associate Editors H Glenn Buffington Robert G Elliott AI Kelch Edward D Williams Byron (Fred) Fredericksen

Readers are encouraged to submit stories and photographs Associate Editorships are assigned to those writers who submit five or more articles which are published in THE VINTAGE AIRshyPLANE during the current year Associates receive a bound volume of THE VINTAGE AIRshyPLANE and a free one-year memjgtership in the Division for their efforts POLICY-Opinions expressed in articles are solely thbse of the authors Responsibility for accuracy in reporting rests entirely with the contributor

Directors

ANTIQUECLASSIC WiJliam J Ehlen AI Kelch DIVISION Route 8 Box 506 7018 W Bonniwell Road

OFFICERS Tampa Florida 33618 M equon Wisconsin 53092

Claude L Gray Jr Morton W Lester PRESIDENT 9635 Sylvia Avenue Box 3747

J R NIELANDER JR Northridge California 91324 Martinsville Virginia 241 12 PO BOX 2464 Dale A Gustafson Arthur R Morgan

FT LAUDERDALE FL 33303 7724 Shady Hill Drive 3744 N 51st Bourevard Indianapolis Indiana 46274 Milwaukee Wisconsin 53216

VICEmiddotPRESIDENT Richard Wagner M C Kelly Vi ets JACK WINTHROP PO Box 181 RR 1 Box 151

RT 1 BOX 111 Lyo ns Wisconsin 53148 Stillwell Kansas 66085 ALLEN TX 75002

Advisors Ronald Fritz

1989 Wilson NW SECRETARY

W BRAD THOMAS JR Grand Rapids Michigan 49504301 DODSON MILL ROAD

PILOT MOUNTAIN NC 27041 John R Turgyan Robert E Kessel 1530 Kuser Road 445 Oakridge Drive

TREASURER Trenton New Jersey 08619 Rochester New York 1461 7

E E BUCK HILBERT Stan Gomoll Robert A White 8102 LEECH RD 1042 90th Lane NE Box 704 UNION IL 60180 Minneapolis Minnesota 55434 Zellwood Florida 32798

THE VINTAGE AIRPLANE is owned exclusively by EAA AntiqueClassic Division Inc and is published monthly at Hales Corners Wisconsin 53130 Second c lass Postage paid at Hales Corners Post Office Hales Corners Wisconsin 53130 and additional mailing offices Membership rates for EAA Antique Classic Division Inc are $1400 per 12 month period of which $1000 is for the publication of THE VINTAGE AIR PLANE Membership is open to all who are interested in aviation

The VINTAGEAI1PLANE OFFICIAL MAGAZINE

EAA ANTIQUECLASSIC DIVISION INC

of THE EXPERIMENTAL AIRCRAFT ASSOCIATION PO Box 229 Hales Corners WI 53130

CopyrightO 1976 EAA AntiqueClassic Division Inc All Rights Reserved

NOVEMBER 1978 VOLUME 6 NUMBER 11 (On The Cover Ron Wojnar s Grand Champion Class ic 1946 Aeronca Champion Photo by Ted Koston)

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Classic Aircraft In Attendance 4 Ron Wojnar s Grand Champion Champ by Jack Cox 8 Reserve Grand Champion Classic Jack Chastain s Rawdon T-1 16 Boeing by Edward D William s 18 Rebuilding A Vagabond by Larry Railing 23 Calendar of Events 26

EAA ANTIQUECLASSIC DIVISION MEMBERSHIP o NON-EAA MEMBER - $2000 Includes one year membership in the EAA Antique

Classic Division 12 monthly issues of THE VINTAGE AIRPLANE one yea r memshybership in the Experimental Aircraft Association and separate membersh ip ca rds SPORT AVIATION magazine not included

o EAA MEMBER - $1400 Includes one year membership in the EAAAntiqueClassic Division 12 monthly iss ues of THE VINTAGE AIRPLANE AND MEMBERSH IP CARD (Applicant must be current EM member and must give EAA membership number )

1-shyPage 4 Page 14 Page 23 3

(Lee Fray PhOlO)

78

CLASSIC AIRCRAFT IN ATTENDANCE

REGISTRATION amp AIRCRAFT TYPE PILOT ANDOR OWNER

AERONCA N46AC Champ Philip Beaulieu South Burlington VT Nl03RJ Champ Roy JacksonDarrell M Todd

Columbus OH Classic judges - Front Row L-R Paul Stephensen George LeMay Pat Padgett George York Brad Thomas Keith N555Y Champ - 7DC Dan McCormick Rockville MD Locke Rear Row L-R Paul justus Gene Padgett john Womack jim Mankins Stan York Art Nunes and DaleN1346E John Gronager Urbana IL N1390E 7BCM William Pancake Keyser WV Wolford N1617E 7AC Lon Dienst DeKalb IL N1648E 7AC Wayne E Reicher Dubuque IA N2372E 7AC Henry Hulboy Zanesville OH N2619E Champ James Swope Vicksburg MI N2757E 7DC Lee Lund Cheboygan MI CF-PRI 7AC c E Rankine Scarborough Ont BEECHCRAFT N2932E Champ Mike Ritter Hilliard OH Canada NIDS Bonanza David F Shaw Penn Yan NY N3019E 7AC Jeff Van DorenKaren Walker N3186E Chief Bill Husted St Charles IA N35LT Bonanza 35C Jerry D Turner Marion IL

Millstone NJ N3490E Chief Larry Lymburner New Albany IN N239V Bonanza Michael Sentell Maryville TN N4134E Ivan R Nagel Canton IL N3677E Chief Mike Messer Hilliard OH N693B Bonanza E W Fischer Mashpee MA N4574E 7AC Robert L Hughes Indian River MI N3710E Chief Bud Ledgerwood La Porte IN N718F Bonanza Brad J Larson Minneapol is MN N4867E Champ Terry A Brox Atchison KS N3805E Chief Donald Fairbetter Edmond OK N764B Bonanza Edward Wilson Corryton TN N8936R Champ Ron Koscal Madison WI N3814E Chief Fred Koetz Tampa FL N1847D Bonanza Richard Hare Northville MI N81428 7AC Randell R Morris Elizabethtown KY N3826E llAC Mark Hawkinson Minneapolis MN N1932D Bonarlza Dale Turner Buckley WA N81482 Champ Max Marion Asheville OH NC4031E llBC Max D Mayfield Timewell IL N2775V Bonanza John P Turgyan Trenton NJ NC81583 7AC Theodore Travis Flushing MI NC4189E 11CC Phil Lange Topeka KS N2946V Bonanza Ralph Haroldson Dallas TX N81841 7AC Victor R Hayes Richmond MI N46~8E Super Chief 11 CC David E Long Keyser WV N3150V Bonanza 35 John Sanders Knoxville TN N81910 7EC Keith Wernsman Metamora IL N4658E 11CC Clayton Lund Cheboygan MI N3244C Bonanza 35E Dan ToweryLogan V Miller Dover DE N82007 William L Sharp III Clinton NJ N9031E llAC Robert NelsonBrian Nelson Euless TX N3755N Bonanza 35 A C Freel Warren MI N82098 7AC J E LittellJohn SchneiderLloyd C N9318E llAC J Kirby Lidman Ames IA N3863N Bonanza Walter W Stroemer Brookfield IL

Harvey Ann Arbor MI NC9726E llAC David A Clark Plainfield IN N3981N Bonanza 35 John S Baldridge Sioux Falls SO N82934 7AC David St ArnoldGlen Frankie N9820E llAC Cliff Wadsworth Lapel IN N4326Y Bonanza David Michaels Southfield MI

Dunedin FL N85917 llAC Stephen M Hay Wheeling IL N4493V Bonanza 35 TerrenceBarbara Sullivan N83008 7AC17DC Jerry McNeil Dallas TX N85976 Chief Jim Zimmerman So St Paul MN Natchitoches LA N83338 7AC Myron Seitz Lees Summit MO N86079 llAC Tim Buttles Manawa WI N4637D Bonanza Lawrence Sciortino Ft Walton Beach N83589 7AC Kathy Jenkins East Dubuque IL C-FTDL llAC Len Taylor Nobleton Ont Canada FL N83633 7DC Melvin Hill Danville IL C-GQGT 11CC T Richmond Kettleby Ont Canada N4011B Bonanza 35F Cletus Haley Charleston WV N83686 Champ AI Hatfield So Bend IN N1134H 15AC Ed Arbo Charlotte ME N5077C Bonanza 35B D M Solomon Amarillo TX N83955 7AC ArtLeora Royon Columbia Station OH N1159H Sedan Don Idzik Fond du Lac WI N5155C B-35 M Ciarlariello Elk Grove IL N84121 Champ Albert Bendure Prairie Village KS N1267H 15AC John E CastorJohn A Reiser N8639A A-35 Gene Morris H~mpshire IL N84171 7AC Melvin Buchholz Greenleaf WI Minneapolis MN Nl04SV Bonanza Super V Clifford Ricker Tracy CA N84554 7AC Robert Ziehwein Hamel MN N1391H 15AC James F Thompson Roberts IL N4477 D-18S John Parish Tullahoma TN N84999 7AC Willi W Reif Honesdale PA N1413H 15AC J C HanifanlWiliiam P Hanifan N205A E-18S Deanie Montgomery CorSicans TX N85448 7AC Ronald Wojnar Milwaukee WI Shullsburg WI N85544 7AC Eugene M StrineRuss Strine NI480H 15AC Dick Welsh Issaquah WA

Harrisburg PA N6286C L-16 Dale Sees Jr Kirksville MO

4

BELLANCA N46LW 14-13-2 N6522N Cruisair N74392 14- 13-2 N86733 14-13 N86748 Cruisair N86771 Cruisair N86919 14-13-2 N86931 14-13 C-FKFK 14-13 N6RJ Cruisemaster 14-19 N6553N Cru isemaster N7679B 14-19-2

CESSNA N6RP 120 N16DF 120 NI672V 120 N1 766N 120

N1797V 120 NC1805N 120 N2036V 120 N2123V 120 N2550N 120 N4252N 120 N72273 120 N72839 120 NC73066 120 N761 37 120 N1 2BY 140 N119D 140A N161 2V 140 N1744V 140 N1752V 140 N2106N 140 N2123N 140 N2145V 140 N2151V 140 N2165V 140 N2274N 140 N2284N 140 N2302N 140 N2308V 140 N2327N 140

N2328V 140 N2436V 140 NC2483V 140 N2486V 140 N2491V 140 N2662N 140 N2733N 140 N2775N 140 N2809N 140 N2887N 140 N3506V 140 N3516V 140 N3555V 140 N3633V 140 N3704V 140 N3732V 140 N4000N 140 N4048N 140 N5302C 140A N5323C 140A N5364C 140A N5389C 140A N5398C 140A

N5630C 140A

Robert Knauff Langley AFB VA Joseph Russell Kankakee IL Marvi n Hayes Minneapolis MN Steichen Downers Grove IL Tom LeahyFred Leidy Medina OH Bud Cates Evansville IN S C Zandell Auburn WA Robin Hermanson Garretson SO R V Bays Dartmouth NS Canada Roland M Joslyn Malibu CA Jan Gerstner Delafield WI Kerr and Watts Stockton CA

Richard L Porter Franklin WI Duncan Fitzgerald Selma NC Dwain Hunter Manawa WI Max HendersonFloyd Henderson

LaPorter IN Steve Gillon Los Altos CA Lou S Bitton Redwood City CA Norris E Mealy Niles OH John H Hupe Wamego KS Glenn Trommater Eagle MI William R Schaben SI Charles IL Richard G Pettyjohn Charlotte NC Frank S Pavliga Canfield OH Frank Hancock Anderson IN Dale Spence Pickerington OH AI BlindYally Yasko New Buffalo MI Tom Norton Cottage Grove MN W A Cordoza Woodland CA Martin Arndt Sturgeon Bay WI Marcus Brewer FI Wayne IN John von Linsowe Jr Linden MI Allen C Smith New Berlin IL Thomas C Cahoon SI Paul MN Larry Schuessler Milwaukee WI Ted Steffens Buffalo Grove IL Dick Meyers Madison IN L Boykin San Angelo TX Larry Diedrich Lodi WI Ronald W Kind Detroit MI Story Flying ClubRussell Hendricks

Seattle WA Larry Baron International Falls MN M Thomas Weaver Kalispell MT Roger Piera II So SI Paul MN Lester L Zehr FI Wayne IN Richard Schaper Blue Earth MN BernieBryan Godlove Aurora CO Robert D Busch LeClaire IA Bobby B Brashear Waco TX James Baldwin Columbus OH Kennedy B Dweight Houston TX Larry Cole Redding CA Richard Harden Minneapolis MN Conrad R Case Minneapolis MN Jay Canvender Jackson MI E McKeeMilt Peters Sioux City NE Monte Peecher Littleton CO William R McFall Waukesha WI BrentonMary Ann Bowen Ft Wayne IN John E Vonlinsowe Linden MI Dennis Griffey Muncie IN H Danck Madison WI DouglasJean Weiler Bellbrook OH Red Rose Flying ClubEdgar Hess Jr

Lancaster PA William E WinterDee Ann Winter

N9632A N72150 N72208 NC72284

N72728 N72734 N72815 N76128 N76146 N76344 N76429 N76509 N76603 N76624

N76688 N76951 N77051 N89191 N89205 N89258 N89343 N89416 N89616 N89687 N89999 Noo067 N90111 CF-DMS N172J N1198M N2608V N2617V N2636V N2661V N2671D N3004A N3415D N3531C N3833V

N3958V N401 3V N4238V N4262V N4294V N4656C N5556C N5788C N8099A N9693A N711DR N1492D N1604D

N1746D N1781D N1793D N5466C N5507C N5795C

N5799C N9210A N9926A N9935A

N9971 A N170N N600JM

140A 140 140 140

140 140 140 140 140 140 140 140 140 140

140 140 140 140 140 140 140 140 140 140 140 140 140 140 170 170 170 170 170 170 170 170 170 170 170

170 170 170 170 170 170 170 170 170 170 170A 170A 170A

170A 170A 170A 170A 170A 170A

170A 170A 170A 170A

170A 170B 170B

Lawrence R ColeNila Cole Redding CA Dale Sizer Osseo MN Bill Killie Tullahoma TN Douglas H WilliamsCarol Simpson

Menlo Park CA Jerry L Hicks Charlotte NC Arlo Gosser Franklin IN Richard Daly Spencerport NY Howard Graf Mexico MO George A Winnie Definance OH Don Murphy Peru IN Kenneth E Jacobs New Baltimore MI James Schock Farmington Hills MI Carl Carlson Junction City KS Homer J HawksRobert Hawks

Dundee IL Ronald G Degnan Canfield OH Charles E Easterday Knoxville TN Bernard Nitz Rock Island IL Noel B Morgan Opelika AL Michael E Young Cuyahoga Falls OH James Clift Knoxvi lle TN Tom Jackson Dallas TX D Coates Oxon Hill MD Wm J Kinsman Manawa WI David H Currie Knoxville TN Dick Milner Plymouth MN J R Barker Hayward CA Norman Neher Hudson WI J Cascone Toronto Onl Canada Johnny Williams San Angelo TX L Neal Grand Rapids MI Dave Broadfoot Wauwatosa WI Roland Dilley Warren OH Leroy Shultz Harahan LA Wm P Newk irk Knoxville TN Anton N Lafata Lancaster CA Frederick W Kelch Columbia IL Jack RandyPam Reynolds Marion IA Peter Holman Tarrytown NY John A Van SanlRichard Holmlund

Erwinna PA Dale Dickinson Rock Island IL Mike Shores Kent WA Donald R Eversman Naperville IL Albert Graham Carthage IL Will iam B Jennings Fenton MI Guy E Blake Helfin AL Bob Baker San Angelo TX Tony Otto Lakeland MN Wm Rasor Dayton OH Dean F Ostler Kent WA Will iam 0 Lower Citrus Heights CA Roger L Th istle Sauk City WI William B TitlowR Farnam Sunnyvale

CA James Douglass Cheyenne WY Harry May Highland CA Tom Kuffel Anchorage AK William Decker Norwalk OH Charles L Henkenius Moorehead IA James Hancock Inver Grove Heights

MN Larry Roberts Hanna City IL Robert West Oreana I L Harold N Watson Sioux Falls SO Tim LuceroJim Thompson

Denver CO Mark Zilinsky Bolingbrook IL Tom Guyton Lexington TN Arthur T Morrison Burnsville NC

N2209D N2213D N2369D N2372D N2482D N2509C N2535C N2565C N2598C N2606D

N2724C N2735C N2908D N2947D N3064A N3066A N3160B N3225A N3230A N3410C N3500C N3516D N3543C N3550D N4381B N4541C N4546C

N4922 N8187A C-FTUZ N1663C N1681C N1697C N31 86D N4786B N9254C

N9455C N9916 CF-RYV

Nl055D

NllDK N88DL N195U Nl008D Nl022D N3020B N3045B

N3048B N3066B N3085B N3482V N3893V N3897V N4327V N4363V N4403C N4408C N4445C N4477C N6681H N9326A N9331 A N9849A N32190

170B 170B 170B 170B 170B 170B 170B 170B 170B 170B

170B 170B 170B 170B 170B 170B 170B 170B 170B 170B 170B 170B 170B 170B 170B 170B 170B

170B 170B 170B 180 180 180 180 180 180

180 180 180

190

Yaamp 195 195 195A 195 195 195

195B 195 195 195 195 195 195 195 195 195 195 195 195 195 195 195 195

John W Reeves Libertyville IL William E Flynn Wakefield MA John H Krauer East Detroit MI Bill Rigsby Ponca City OK James Swinker Midland PA Hank Asciutto Perris CA Michael R Baas Irving TX D W Graham Crystal Lake IL Thomas B Morris Imlay City MI Jack W Brooke JrJack Brooke Sr

La Mesa TX Robert E Peer Opa Locka FL Douglas A Nealey Wood Dale IL Robert Decker East Peoria IL Walter Groskulth Mankato MN Gary L Loos Columbia IL Rick Hannen Center Point LA Arnold Hohl Langhorne PA E D Booth Naperville IL Glenn Loy Flint MI Dale G Faux Daleville IN Quinton L Daniel Vicksburg MI Ted R Dobrick Elkhorn WI George M Mock Anderson IN John Gileno Sherman CT Jaime Alexander Crystal Lake IL Everett N Harr is Obetz OH Malcolm ReidCraig M Lieberg

Clear Lake MN Ernest L Hand Maryville TN Victor Varnum Tama IA H Fowler Barri~ Onl Canada Gary Volkmon Waunakee WI Robert Seigelkoff San Lorenzo CA Gordon H Hale Flint MI Gary Lust Iowa City IA Earl Long Wichita KS G M ZimmermanJames Zimmerman

Arvada CO Jerome Bousselot Sandwich IL Arthur W Anderson Madison WI Stan Fowke Portage La Prairie Man

Canada Terry D Wendel lRobert A Karcher

Mobile AL Dan Kindel Cincinnati OH John Ankers Boca Raton FL Bill Terrell Hillsboro OH Roy G McLain Colton CA William C Myers SI Charles MO Adrian R Smith Smithtown NY Mark SmokovitziStan Smokovitz

Detroit MI Michael J Speshock Chandler AZ John A Krueger Redlands CA Lawrence O Cox Longmont CO Thomas Epperson Germantown OH Maureen McMaster Wichita KS W C Schwarz Green Bay WI Raymond W Franke Walnutport PA Wayne Corn Elgin IL Robert M Young McLoud OK Robert Jessup Lantana FL Rex W Bechdolt Hurst TX Raybourne Thompson Jr Houston TX Donald Fairbetter Edmond OK C C Crabs N Olmsted OH Ronald G Adams Miamisburg OH James A Watters Dwight IL Francis Longuski Inkster MI

N5676C N89902 N9405A

140A 140 140A

Tulsa OK Rick Neuer Louisburg KS S K Murdock Dubuque IA Jack CroninCristin Cronin Denver CO

N1692D N1846C N1885C NI981C

170B 170B 170B 170B

John p Mertesdorf Nicollet MN Donale E Jensen Albert Lea MN Champe Pool Wormleysburg PA Wm A Schwinn Cincinnati OH

COMMONWEALTH N33300 Skyranger

N93258 Sky ranger

Ross GresleyPaul Schermerhorn Anderson IN

L O Rupe Elkhart IN

5

DeHAVILLAND N1829K 8E Eldon E Beresford Dundee IL N92615 J-3 Fred Brown Pampa TX N48110 Chipmunk Richard C Bidlack Fremont OH N1B40K BE John Slack Frankfort IL N98391 J-3 Kenneth DeCorte Gaithersburg MD N48260 Chipmunk Walter M Rozelle Coeur dAlene 10 N2197B 8E Jim Cardis Chicago IL N9B450 J-3 Loren Larson Fairmont MN N65153 Chipmunk Dale Bronson Greenwood IN N2229K BE Donald Adams Newton KS N98734 J-3 George Roth Ruston LA CF-URN Chipmunk Lionel Hamilton Guelph Ont Canada N2231K BE Ray Miller Turner MI C-FAOB PA-11 R E Clipsham Erin Ont Canada N613WB Besver Willard Walpole Wichita KS N2290K BE F N Mair San Ang elo TX N747UA PA-12 M V Johnson Waters MI N4040W Beaver E T Kirkpatrick Boston MA N2351K BE RonaldNoel EastonDennis Kelsey N290BM PA-12 Bob Byers Saukville WI

Beloit WI N3802M PA-12 Gary Robinson Rochester NY ERCOUPE N2368K BE Karyl B Herman San Bruno CA N3860M PA-12 L Duffield Youngstown OH NI5JL Jeffry K Lehner LaPorte IN N2493K 8E Leo Bachman Decatur IL N3B67M PA-12 Robert Kratz Robertsville OH N71H William Jordan Geneva OH NC2747K 8E James R Harrison West Carrollton OH N3890M PA-12 David Kratz Massillon OH N355E Herman J Koplin Lombard IL C-FYEC BE Robert E Fleming Caledonia Ont N4169M PA-12 Thomas S Hiemnz Aurora IL N20B1H Raymond W Ganzer EI Cajon CA Canada N7753H PA-12 Donald A Hass Seattle WA N2279H John A Wright Sr Springfield IL N1674K BF Jack J Borden Franklin WI N7B459 PA-12 Richland Aviators Inc Jim Hudson N2434H Charles Darne Lafayette IN N2210B BF Jack B Mclnally Grayline MI Ri ch land Center WI N2701H Scott Olson St Paul MN N1616Z 8F Larry Traskos Bellevi lle MI C-FKOH PA-12 Ron E Baines Waterloo Ont Canada N2929H Art Leblanc Potterville MI N1865B BF Paul Prentice Chelsea MI CF-ZJI PA-12 J M Thede Elmvale Ont Canada N3232H Charles Shaffer Cary IL N1892B BF John LaRoche Bloomfield CT C-GNYW PA-12 David S Bell Markham Ont Canada N3992H Paul Furney Columbus OH N1947B 8F F D Barnard Ann Arbor MI N5243H PA-16 Gilbert Easton Rockford IL N87308 A L Kimball Catlin IL N6895C llA George T Ramin Houston TX N5253H PA-16 Dee L Davidson Bedford IA N8731 2 Donald R Bonem Essexville MI N5382H PA-16 Ronald W Donner Gleason WI N93358 Fred F Sampson New Hartford NY MOONEY MITE N5716H PA-16 John Wood Anoka MN N93823 Robert D England Tullahoma TN N489M Wilbur Draves Hometown IL N5843H PA-16 Bill Schmidt Wi chita KS N93935 Wayne Lawrence Wichita KS N4149F Dave JamesonHenry Raettig N5921 H PA-16 Charles Lancaster Wh iteland IN N93946 Gregory Krush Oak Lawn IL Oshkosh WI N5967H PA- 16 Daniel Callahan St Louis MO N94160 Jesse Austin Muskegon MI N6835K PA-16 Rob Will Seattle WA N94407 Dennis Swan Paxton IL NAVION N6841 K PA-16 Martin A Robb Riverside CA N94844 Erie Berens Stevens Point WI NB8T Twin Navion Robert Roglen Eau Claire MI N6854K PA-16 Robert Cutler Dallas TX N99026 Lucy H Morgan Old Hickory TN N350FU Harvey L Brown Delray Beach FL H5945H PA-16 Ronald Szymanski New Berlin WI N99044 Hugh McKennaRussell Burtsch N437M R J Matt McHenry IL N4133H PA-15 Clark L Anderson Neenah WI

Oswego NY N999RM Donald L ThomannDon Johnson N4406H PA-15 Sarah L Kaeiser Lake City FL N99244 Lowell D Satterlee Lincoln NE Plano IL N442-H PA-15 Terry L Railing Lake Mills WI N99274 Charles C Ray Dubuque IA N2199W Ted Smith Wash ington IL N4469H PA-15 Douglas PfundhellerJohn Matson N99335 Donald Wolfe Niles MI N4020K George Barr Worthington OH Stoughton WI N9981 7 Dennis Sparr McNabb IL N4537K Mike Nallick Minneapolis MN N4600H PA-17 Harvey P Buller Mt Lake MN N99955 Richard L Schorey Bishop Hill IL N4549K Brian J Ryan St Paul MN N461 3H PA-17 Michael A Fish Lemont IL

N4609K Richard Beedy Springfield OH N4839H Vagabond Russell Kellog Rio WI FUNK N4802K Carl Koenig Flint MI N4B70H Vagabond Darryl M LeMire White Bear Lake MN N81176 G Dale Beach Sacramento CA N4882K Louis C Hook Flint MI N1591A Pacer David Vanciere Mitchell SO N811 86 DeanPat Krueger Omaha NE N5117K L A Carlsmith Amhurst NH N1643P PA-20PA-22 P W Steiner Rockville MD

N7803B Paul E Efield Orchard Park NY N1830A Pacer Wendell Smith Battle Creek MI

LUSCOMBE Nll07B 8A N1159B 8A N1204K 8A N1361K 8A N1364K 8A N1365K 8A N2079K 8A N2110K 8A N2158K 8A N2177B 8A

N2315K 8A N2424K 8E N2685K 8A N2764K 8A N2887K 8A N2938K 8A N21996 8A N28564 8A N45680 8A N45719 BA N45767 8A N71293 8A N71315 8A N71348 8A N71465 8A N71533 SA N71922 8A CF-CHM 8A

N45WB 8E N1671K 8E

James Bacon Linden MI Les Nelson Minneapolis MN Wayne Drewry Greencastle PA Mike Thern Winona MN Jack D Lane Indianapolis IN Robert Westerberg St Paul MN Ben Bricker Kalamazoo MI Greg Carroll Buffal o Grove IL Gregory Hendricks Peculiar MO Will iam Bumgardner Bloomfield Hills

MI Robert Bohrman West Allis WI Gregg Beitel Charlotte NC Monte Jestes Pawnee OK John Barowski Downers Grove IL Jim Bastien Madison WI Pete Fleis Imperial MO Craig Sheets Sturgeon Bay WI Malcolm Green Columbus OH Kent Johnson Faribault MN David E Hennington Livermore CA Ronald H Dixon Hoquiam WA John D Richey Batesville AR Nick Showalter Corunna MI Terry Volante Euclid OH Steve Lester Morrow GA Larry Hall Oklahoma City OK Maynard Wolkman Hinckley MN T A C Kennedy Mississauga Ont

Canada William F Bokodi Griffith IN Donald Sweatman Venango PA

N8662H N8684H N8821H NB830H N8997H N9600C N9141 6 N91608 N91738

PIPER N1455N NC1502N N18241 N32845 N3373N N3572N N3638K N3650K N42478 N42724 N42733 N6153H N6669H N7258H N78527 N87771 NC88461 NC88575 N88684 N88698 N92084 N92090

Twin Navion

J-3 J-3 J-3 J-3 J-3 J-3 J-3 J-3 J-3 J-3 J-3 J-3 J-3 J-3 J-3 J-3 J-3 J-3 J-3 J-3 J-3 J-3

William L Marcy Denver CO Howard G Shoemaker Wilmington DE J C Langran Jr Colorado Springs CO Ed Hedlund So Haven MI Ben Gentile Huntington LI NY Fred Garcia Remsenburg NY Jim D Stewart Dunedin FL G L Valbert Camby IN W T Christian Knoxville TN

Donald Richards Bellaire MI Roger Montambo Red Wing MN Mont Mendenhall Tho masville NC Lynn Chamber lain Mt Pleasant MI J L Burns Mt Morris IL Roger Turner Bingham Lake MN Anne Collins Joliet IL John Spiegel Port Byron IL John Lamascus Pacific Grove CA Bruce H Nagorske Bingham Lake MN Jerry Kennedy Murphysboro IL Ralph Korff Lockport NY Laran Larson Fairmont MN Donald V Lacouture Jr Marlboro MA Max Faulkner Bourbon IN Norman J Shuff Watertown WI Reid P JoyceG R Purifoy Valencia PA John V Rawson Jr Belle Meade NJ Dan PellKevin J Engel Sheldon IA David A Watson Framingham MA Winton D Glaser Appleton WI John GelasifTheodore Sanders

Highland Park IL

N2103A N2165A N2934Z N49AK N5179A N5538A

N7161K N7324K N7326K

N7629K N7672K N9132R C-FGCM

G-FLOK CF-RRU

N1214 N1947A N5466H N99302 CF-HCY C-FMDP

N72CJ Nll06C N1262C N1319C N1487A N1512P N1529P NI545P

PA-20 PA-20 Pacer PA-20 PA-20 PA-20

PA-20 Pacer Pacer

PA-20 PA-20 PA-20 PA-20

PA-20 PA-20

PA-18 PA-18 PA-18 PA-18 PA-18 PA-18

PA-22 PA-22 PA-22 PA-22 PA-22 PA-22 PA-22 PA-22

Gerald Shultz North Branch MN T J Champagne Houma LA Allen Simons Bristol CT Ed Cahill Juneau AK Brian Bristol Cottage Grove MN Robert RadoLedray Victorian

Toledo OH Walter FritzBrian Crull Indianapolis IN Charles C Myers Manchester TN Robert ManierBernard Menier

St Paul MN Robert Andrews Libertyville IL Robert Vasey Stafford KS James H Bristol Cottage Grove MN George McMillan North Bay Ont

Canada C Burbank Shelburne Ont Canada Gary M Ferguson Oshawa Ont

Canada Michael McKay Martins Ferry OH P W McKamy Billings MT Terry Henry Neenah WI Sherman B Elder Muskogee OK Karl H Bunder Aurora Ont Canada James Bilstad Thu nder Bay Ont

Canada Bruce LundC J Lund Mobile AL V L Dant Rome GA G Woerner Geneva OH Lowell Roberts Midwest City OK S D Stevens Arden Hills MN Jay Carter East Liverpool OH Wm T White Dallas TX James E Donaldson Eden Prairie MN

6

N2276A PA-22 Richard C Hill Harvard IL N78321 Michael P Kennedy Homestead AFB FL N43871 Marshall Kennard Enfield CT N3212Z PA-22 Wm W Ricketts Finksburg MD N80589 James Byland Moberly MO N43898 Temple amp Woodward Granger IN N3360B PA-22 Lloyd MookEddie Veach Harrisonville N80613 G W Goodland SI Paul MN N44204 Eugene M Townsend Decatur IL

MO N80665 Pete King Rockville MD NC44493 John W McDonald New Orleans LA N3377A PA-22 William Sherhan Lincoln NE N80689 Dave EbersoleScott Chr ist iansen N94941 Jon Ch almers Thompson Johnson N6125D PA-22 Wayne Minnis W Palm Beach FL Colorado Springs CO City TN N81 21C PA-22 Matthew Grainda Easton PA N80706 Mark Holliday Hastings MN N95109 Wm E Boggs Grove City OH N8588C PA-22 William A Rudolph Traverse City MI N80776 Joey N Kemp Tullahoma TN N95926 Dick AmRhein Troy OH Nl0306 PA-22 AI Morris Warminster PA N80905 Charles Hoover Jr SI Paul MN NC95957 Douglas Anderson Jackson MI CF-KKX PA-22 Alvin C Pomery Janetville Ont Canada N80949 Lowell Sterch i Coral Gables FL N96026 R R Reece San Angelo TX

N80969 Harry Lyon Jr North SI Paul MN N96275 Jim Hall Rockford IL REPUBLIC SEABEE N90383 Guy Eby Madison CT N96386 Robert W West Oreana IL N1CD Curtis Dax Chicago IL N96387 Everett Downey Albion NY N6570K Grant Leonard Prior Lake MN TAYLORCRAFT N96417 John Friling Lombard IL

NC922WT Paul Edward Nuss Juniata Altoona PA N96544 Steven N Landis FI Wayne IN middotSTlSON NC5020M Ralph LauritsenCliff Henry Boone IA N96818 Wm Knight Brodhead WI N389C Boyd Walsh Marion IN N5045M Robert ReedyCovert Holley Troy OH N96842 Tim Mickel Scioto Mills IL N584LW 108 Larry Wheelock Bloomfield IN N5109M Herbert Browning London OH N96979 Lester L Walls Shrewsbury PA Nl081S Voyager Richard Bourque Simsbury CT N5218M Richard Weimberger Fond du Lac WI CF-KFG James Takacs Port Colborne Ont N6323M 108 Paul Varner Rockford IL N5265M EM Air Museum Franklin WI Canada N6555M Nicholas C Selig Naperville IL N29753 James Foos Granger IN CF-PUW Ken Bimm Rexdale Onl Canada N8212K 108-1 Robert Reintgen Latrobe PA N34093 Paul Cusumano Mayfield Village OH N8509K 108-1 Daniel Bauman Oorr MI N39168 Thornton Cressy Westland MI ADDITIONAL CLASSICS N8747K Charles Brokaw Parker CA NC39222 SArt Bujnowski Huntington LI NY N242B Helio Couier Robert T Griff in Waxhaw NC N9088K 108-1 C O Depuy Ponca City OK N39974 William Fitch Epworth IA N424 L Meyers 145 L A Waite Durand MI N9117K Voyager James Strock Austintown OH N43163 Jerry Kramer FI Recovery OH C-FLWG Moranamp-Sauln ier 502 Frank Masak Scarboro Onl Canada N97367 108 Bruce Jacobs Albion MI N43344 Mark Yelich Franklin WI N5160 Rawdon T-l Jack Chastain Creve Coeur MO N97607 108 Rich Klepperich Webster MN N43556 Ray L Sherwood Fairf ield IA N711SV Stampe John Hanson Manistee MI N297K 108-2 Stinson IVBob LaBonte Hudson NH N43680 Parker Buckley Waynesville OH N25MB Stampe SV4 Don Good SI Joseph MO N971J 108-2 J Mankins Corona CA N43845 J C Latronigo Girard OH N8000K 108-2 Michael Hudgins Portage WI N9306K 108-2 Frank Sperry SI Ignace MI N9582K 108-2 David Peterson Inver Grove Heights MN N9836K 108-2 G M Huffman Tulsa OK CF-HZM 108-2 Fred Green Mississauga Ont Canada CF-SID 108-2 Augus Cameron London Ont Canada N675C 108-3 Curt Lindauer Belleville IL N762C 108-3 Harvey T EngenDavid Engen

Excelsior MN NC6018M 108-3 Carl Pflanzer Rome NY N6649M 108-3 Russel Arndt Big Falls WI N6698M 108-3 Joe D Wh ite Calumet City IL C-FKQC 108-3 Richard R Schaub Fenwick Ont

Canada CF-LLW 108-3 Kenneth Gamble Hamilton Ont Canada

SWIFT N1BJ Raymond Neuse Groesbeck TX N1ZF Ronald Thompson Jenks OK Nl0SS William Shepard River Ridge LA N1 3SW Steve Wilson St Charles IL N50BS Roland J Zavada Pittsford NY N77PB Pat Knight Waynesboro VA N853C Charles R Cannan San Juan

Capistrano CA N853P John R Dixon Mission Viejo CA N2115 Bonham E Cross Hopkins MN N2334B James J Montague Lake Elmo MN N2424B Carl Weddle Hendersonville TN N2429B William GoldmanJack Morgan

Chandler AZ N2442B John Cranfill Frankfort IL N2457B Dick McNeil North Wilkesboro NC N3248K Howard H Hanson Webster MN N3263K Howard Thalacker Chetek WI N3740K Ronald W Williamson San Diego CA N3816K Buz Johnson Mobile AL N3898K Tracy Rhodes Dayton OH N77756 George ONeal SI Petersburg FL N78083 Paul L Chesley Albuquerque NM N78247 Clyde B Ericson Barrington I L N78261 N78306 N78309 N78311

James Pope Washington DC Gary Scott Schoolcraft MI Bernard F Arnold Cuyahoga Falls OH Richard A Chisholm Oak Lawn IL

(Lee Fra y Photo)

Bill Ehlen and AI H enninger Forums Chairman and Co-Chairman

(Lee Fray Photo)

AntiqueClass ic Headquarters staffers J Kesel Markl and K Morgan

7

RON WOJNARS GRAND CHAMPION CHAMP

Going down this photo and the next give an indication of what Ron had to tear down prior to his very extens ive reshybuild

On day six Thursday of Oshkosh 78 acshytivities were already beginning to wind down The aircraft judges had pared their long long lists down to the top one or two in each category or in many cases had pretty well decided the final rankings About all that remained was to wait out the day to inshysure that no one flew in anything that would upset the apple cart at the last moment

Unbeknownst to the Classic judges the upsetter was already on the field having slipped in the previshyous evening right after the History of Flight pageant No one paid any particular attention when a mild and well mannered young man walked into the Classic trailer on Thursday morning and asked if he could get his airplane judged Half an hour later however ap-

By Jack Cox

pies were tumbling all over the AntiqueClassic parkshying area and judge-laden golf carts were rushing from all quadrants toward the scene of the calamity One quick walk around one sniff of the cabin aroma one peek under the cowling and it was all over The only sounds were a few anguished groans and the tearing of paper yesterdays judging sheets

Unless you were well into your 50s or an aficionado of Classic airplanes this Through the

The right wing before stripping inspection holes

Looking Glass scenario made little sense for in the middle of it all was just a little 01 Aeronca Champion

But what a Champion First it was yellow with the orange lower fuselage

- the familiar Aeronca factory paint scheme that we

rarely see today On the nose was a brand new Senshysenich wood propeller - a 72-42 climb prop just like the FBOs used to order for flight training The nose bowl and wrap-around cowl were as pristine as a newly minted dime - even the exhaust pipe stubs sticking out the bottom were barely smudged The tires were new the oleo struts at full normal extenshysion and the brake covers without a chip in the paint from prop blasted stones and gravel Inside the cashybin the brown crinkle-finish instrument panel held an array of dials the correct ones sporting the winged Aeronca emblem Black enameled floorshyboards brown flocked side panels and door and brown leatherette seat covers each emitted its own peculiar smell to combine with that of fresh dope and 80 octane to produce that aeromatic Evening in Middletown essence that few of us have experienced but none have forgotten

Outside again a glance across the top surface of the wings revealed chordwise rows of little bumps in

Naturally all wood was replaced Here the old is used as a pattern for a new window frame

8

the glistening fabric tell-tale mini-molehills marking the characteristically Aeronca PK screws taking the place of rib stitching 24 inch orange letters and numerals swam in the shimmering light reflected off the top of the right wing

Letting ones gaze swoop down the familiar mulshytifaceted sway back of the fuselage it was easy to see every stringer arced st raight and true to the tail - no warps no valleys between formers

Emblazoned on the fin and rudder - in orange shywere the stenciled winged Aeronca emblem and the rather odd sized and spaced N numbers

Stepping back for perspective ones mind reeled This wasnt a latter day restoration it was a new airplane only hours ago a ferry pilot had signed out the airplane from the factory ramp there in Middletown Ohio dated his voucher August 5 1946 and took off for Milwaukee to deliver the spankshying new airplane to Anderson Air Activities but on the way perhaps in the clouds of industrial smoke around Gary and South Chicago a time warp was enshycountered misdirecting the little bird through 3 deshycades to Wittman Field on the evening of August 2 1978

It looked that new it felt that new it even smelled that new

The next evening Ron Wojnar (EAA 31222) of Milshywaukee was called to the stage to receive the 1978 EAA Grand Champion Classic trophy for his 1946 Aeronca 7AC Champion and not a soul who had seen the airplane was surprised

The new frame s been installed along with a lot of other new wood

And not one of us who knew Ron personally was surprised either

Have you ever been to EAA Headquarters If you

have you may recall that in the main lobby two pedestals flank the entrance doors Atop these are glass cases containing two exquisite cut-away type airplane models one of an EAA Biplane and the other of a Tailwind They were meticulously crafted a number of years ago by a young college student who worked as a summer employee at the EAA Museum

That young man already exhibiting his concern for accuracy and authenticity his talent for minute detail and superb workmanship was Ron Wojnar

Born in Milwaukee on December 3 1949 Rons lifelong fascination with aviation came naturally His father Tony was a pilot who significantly often flew a Champ in those days before his family started comshying along and he was forced to give it up Earlier he had become an aircraft mechanic courtesy the Marine Corps and spent World War II keeping the heavy iron flying After V-J Day Tony returned to Milwaukee and signed on as a mechanic with the Wisconsin Air Nashytional Guard His Maintenance Officer - and pilot

The basic frame has been rebuilt by this point but th eres so much to go

for whom he served as a crew chief - was a Lt Colshyonel named Paul Poberezny

Three years before Rons birth a new Aeronca Champion was ferried into Mitchell Field just a couple of blocks from the Wojnar home by its new owner Andershyson Air Activities NC85448 labored for a number of

years as a trainer - climbing out and gliding in over the Wojnar household when the wind was right By early December of 1949 when the Wojnars were blessed with a healthy son the Champ had already accumulated alshymost exactly 3000 hours of flying time

A typical loving father Tony wanted his son to share his interest in aviation He built models for him until he was old enough to be taught to start building them himself He would often take little Ron along in the evening when he had to put in overtime and let him sit in the cockpits of the T-6s and P-51s on which

he was working and when his son was 6 years old Tony took him to nearby Waukesha Municipal Airshyport bought a couple of $250 tickets and treated hi m to his first airplane ride - in a Cessna 170

Those evenings in the cockpits of the Texans and 51s were making a far deeper impression on his son than Tony probably realized at the time Ron can vivshyidly recall the experiences to this day and he dates his determination to make aviation his lifes work to those wonderous moments when he sat there in the bucket seats pushing and pulling the sticks intently studying the dials and levers and wheels around him - and the rudder pedals down there in the bowels of the fuselage his little legs would not be able to reach for years to come

9

As the years went by Rons interest in airplanes and flying grew in sophistication in step with the growth of his body and mind He managed to get an airplane ride once in a while - sometimes in a Stearman piloted by his fathers boss Paul Poberezny and once when he was 11 in a Champ piloted by family friend Dick Mildebrandt Ron dearly longed to learn to fly but at the same time his academic success in high school was bending his inshyterests toward the scientific So much in fact that after graduation in 1967 he was soon packing to head for Lafayette Indiana to enroll as an aeronautical enshygineering student at Purdue University

Not surprisingly Purdue had been selected in part for its reputation as an aviation oriented institushytion Aside from its academic excellence Ron knew it must have a flying club a fact he confirmed within hours of his arrival on campus Excitedly relatshying this discovery to his father (with obvious intent) Ron found himself being brought back down to earth by the elder Wojnars reminder that he was there to earn a degree first and a pilots license maybe However he softened the admonition with the promshyise that after seeing Rons grades at the end of the first semester the situation would be open for further evaluation

No student was ever led down the path of academic achievement by a more tempting carrot Ron hit the books with a vengeance - sleep meant nothing social life was ignored and Big Ten football was just a Saturday afternoon recharging of Rons batshyteries for the REAL task at hand

At the end of the semester Tony had a wide and proud grin on his face and Ron was wasting little time getting enrolled in the school flying club To his surprise and pleasure he had found that in addition to its modern trainers Purdue still retained a Piper j-3 in its flight school fleet available for $550 per hour

For the next 312 years that Cub would virtually become Rons personal airplane He loved it - and soloed it in about 8 hours - but most of his fellow students sneered down their noses at the lowly yelshylow dog A few learned to fly in it simply because of the low rental rate but couldn t wait to move up to the REAL airplanes the Colts Cessnas etc Conshysequently Ron could count on getting the j-3 almost any time he wanted to fly it He checked out in the other aircraft also but never tired of just going off alone and shooting landings or watching a sunset in his Cub

Returning home that f irst summer he found himshyself without a job - wh ich meant no funds for flying

A couple of weeks later at an EAA fly-in he related his dilemma to Audrey Poberezny and a few days later received a phone call from Bill Chomo offering summer employment at the EAA Museum Ron jumped at the chance and would spend each of his college summer vacations mowing yards painting dusting airplanes - whatever was asked of him that wou Id support his flying habit

Ron had been a member of EAA Chapter 18 for a number of years and the summer job at EAA Headshyquarters (where 18 holds its meetings) intensified his relationship with various of the members Eventually he fell in with a bad crowd bounders like Bob Ladd Dick Mildebrandt and the notorious Ron Scott Soon they were putting terrible things in his head worst of which was the insidious idea of actually ownshying an airplane Together they schemed to chip in and buy a Cub Champ or some such fun airplane for giving rides to friends taildragger checkouts etc (Bob Dick and Ron Scott each had single place homebuilts in those days) Ron was sorely tempted to fall in with the plan but fortunately he was spared by the timely intervention of his father although there would be moments in the years to come when he had good cause to question the hand fate had dealt him

It wasnt that Tony objected to the terrible trio (acshytually they were and are today close friends) - or even the idea of owning an airplane he simply wanted to see his son apply his aviation skills and knowledge to a purposeful end He wanted the two of them to buy a basket case and restore it

Taken somewhat by surprise by this proposal Ron quickly recovered and began scouring Trade-A-Plane Chapter newsletters and the like One day during the summer of 1970 he picked up a Chapter 260 (Dolton IL) newsletter and began scanning it for ads - and there it was Leo Faoro (EAA 28636) of Dolton (south Chicago) had a basket case 1946 Aeronca Champion he was willing to part with for a reasonashyble price

I n rapid succession Ron talked the situation over with his father (who would be the financial backer of any deal) called Leo on the 4th of july and arranged a meeting time drove down with Tony the next day inspected the airplane liked what he saw and put a $100 deposit on it The following weekend the Champ was retrieved and was placed in his Aunts garage acshyross townJn Milwaukee

Immediately Ron and his father began taking the fuselage apart and the very first th ing Ron twisted off a brass fitting on the carburetor This reshyally upset him at the time because it pounded home

the realization that despite his book knowledge he was completely lacking in hands on experience in working on airplanes His dad however was just sitshyting back with a sly grin on his face Youve got to do things like that to learn he said Get your feet wet then pay close attention to what you are doing work carefully and do everything correctly Ron would listen to this advice and stick it out to the end For the first year or so however Tony would serve as his tutor and advisor - as well as fellow worker shyon the Champ project

In stripping the airframe down the Wojnars found that while they had a complete airplane they had a lot of work ahead of them to come up with a job to their personal standards Removing the paint from the fuselage tube framework for instance reshyvealed grinder marks - which meant replacement of some tubing The wings bore evidence of past groundloops - and atrocious repairs which would have to be completely redone And the landing gear oleos horizontal tail surfaces and a couple more smaller items were considered too bad for repair They would have to be replaced A close study of the logs revealed that such replacement of various comshyponents had been a common occurance in the life of NC85448 24 years of abuse at the hands of ham-fisted students had left only the wings intact from the airshyframe that rolled out of the factory in 1946

By this point it was time for Ron to head back to Purdue for his senior year He had signed up for some elective courses in the technical area including engine overhaul and maintenance so he took his enshygine with him hoping to overhaul it as his class proshyject He tore the A-65 down alright but it would be 7 years before it went back together again The cylinshyders were oversize and badly rusted a dye check reshyvealed a cracked crankcase the camshaft was worn out and the cam followers were eaten up with corroshysion In other words Ron found he had a pile of junk for an engine The only bright spot was the crank shyit was useable The expense of the overhaul this hunk of iron needed was out of the question while Ron was still in school so sadly the pieces were boxed up and sent back home

After graduating from Purdue in 1971 Ron reshyturned to his summer job at EAA while waiting to be assigned to officers training by the Air Guard It was an especially instructive summer The Acro Sport proshytotype was being built and with its construction (tube and rag) essentially the same as the Champ every day was a learning experience for Ron Not only could he get his hand in to pick up new skills he could apply to the restoration of his airplane but he had a golden

10

opportunity to pick the brains of pros like Bill Chomo Philippe Van Pelt Gil Bodeen and others includ ing of course the Acro Sport designer Paul Poberezny

As it turned out Ron did not get his OTS assignshyment that summer so on September 1 he accepted a full time position with the EAA Air Museum Foundashytion as Assistant Museum Director

That fall (1971) the fuselage frame was sandblasted and some pitting was found in addition to the aforementioned grinder marks Everything doubtful was cut out and replaced with new tubing Ron tacked each piece and Bill Chomo finished them later Ron would gain the experience and confidence to do his own welding By Christmas all the repair work had been done all the woodwork had been reshyplaced so that the next step was a cover job That as things turned out would be a way down the road however

In late December Ron started on the left wing He first tried to clean it up without d isassembling it bilt after several months of part time wasted effort tore it down and did it right Only one wing was done at a time so that the other could be used for reference Some wingtip repair (and rework of old bad repai rs) was necessary but essentially the wing work involved cleanup replacement of leading edges and refinishing of the spars (the only old wood reshytained in the entire airplane)

With the coming of the summer of 1972 Ron found the direction of his life changing - and the Champ temporarily moving to the back burner First his OTS assignment came through and he was off for Lackland AFB for 3 months then as a new 2nd Lieutenant one month of active duty with his local Guard unit

That fall Ron took a position with Hartzog Aviation in Rockford Illinois and moved to that city Living in an apartment he had to leave the Champ at his pashyrents home in Milwaukee driving back to work on weekends Small parts were taken home to Rockford to be reworked during the week Happily Ron had again found himself in fortuitous circumstances - at Hartzog he not only had some real aviation pros to call on for advice but a lot of sophisticated equipshyment that could be used after work

1972 saw only modest progress on the Champ what with adjustment to a new job new home and weekend travel back and forth between Milwaukee and Rockford The following year however things began to look up Perhaps most significant was the fact that Ron and his father made the first of many weekend trips to Bellancas Osceola Wisconsin plant

Aside from the spars theres not much of the o rigina l wings left in this p icshyture

The ingredients of a champions Champ are beginning to show up

to forage for parts Tom Brown and Bonnie Marlette of the Parts Sales Department took an immediate inshyterest in the restoration project and spared no effort to unearth 7AC parts that had been moved from Middletown Ohio to Wiscons in Bellanca had sufshyfered a disastrous fi re a few years before and much of the old stuff had been lost but fortunately some had been stored downtown in an old railroad depot Ron and his father were permitted to sift through evshyerything and together they came up with a lot of impossible to obtain goodies like frames for the sliding windows universal joints for the fuel valve extension rod etc A surprising number of off the shelf Citabria components are the same as for its anshycestor the 7AC All the wooden fuselage formers and stringers in fact are identical with the exception of the rear window area When completed Rons Champ looked like a new one because to a great exshytent it is thanks to the folks at Bellanca

During 1974 things began to get into high gear The wings were finished and late that year the Contishynental A-65 was given a complete major Schneck Avshyiation did the work needed and Ron did the final asshysembly - under the supervision of a licensed mechanic Thinking the end was in sight Ron purchshyased all his dope and fabric (dacron) from Bellanca and took two weeks vacation to cover the airplane He gets a big laugh today at his naivete in grossly unshyderestimating the time element involved in covering Two weeks in fact stretched into 2 years before the cover job was completed

In 1975 Rons life took another sharp turn He left Hartzog and took a career position with the FAA Asshysigned to EMDO 46 in Des Plaines IL (north side of Chicago) as an Aviation Safety Inspector (Manufacturshying) Ron was able to move back home in Milwaukee commute to work during the day and work on the Champ evenings and weekends From that point on something no matter how insignificant was done every night

One bit of help came from an unusual quarter Ironically one of Ron s FAA assignments was the Belshylanca factory - so that his friends from the days of scrounging for 7AC parts had now also become clients of sorts Every time Ron came in for an inspecshytion he had to give everyone a progress report on his Champ A couple of young girls in the covering department Donna Viebrock and Sue Dollery told Ron they would like to come to Milwaukee some weekend and install the wing envelopes Despite livshying in Wisconsin all their lives neither had been to the big city and th is would be their chance With

their expertise the work would take just a few hours and the rest of their time could be spent seeing the Sights It was an offer Ron couldn t refuse and sometime later it all came about He got a set of wings ready for doping and the girls got an expense paid fling in Wisconsin s biggest metropolitan area

With doping and finish coats to go orid inarily it would have been decision time as far as the paint scheme was concerned Not so in this case however Very early in the project Ron had made the decision to return the Champ to factory new condition and appearance This of course involved considerable research He had an original service manual given him by Ron Scott and a copy of a 1946 Skyways article on the Champ given him by George Hardie but most helpful was the complete certification record on the Aeronca 7AC on file right where hf worked EMDO 46 in Des Plaines (Bellanca still holds the Proshyduction Limitation Record for the airplane and could put it back in production tomorrow if they wanted to) The file is COMPLETE colors size and shape of markings everything All the draWings are dated 1945 and all the subsequent revisions are on file

1976 saw the covering completed and 1977 was spent doing all those little detail items you think are going to take about 2 weeks according to Ron He endured all manrer of frustration attempting to paint the fairings cowl and various other small metal pieces Ron was bugged literally He would spray on a beautiful coat of enamel - no runs no orange peel - only to have some hapless insect make a Kamakazi dive right into the shiny surface Striving for nothing less than perfection Ron stripped the parts completely after each bug attack and repainted them He estimates he pai nted the equivalent of 4 or 5 airplanes before he was satisfied Similarly the crinkle-finish instrument panel was done 3 times beshyfore a perfect job could be obtained

Ron had some interesting experiences down the stretch drive to complete the airplane A few items had seemed impossible to obtain in order to have a near 100 authentic restoration - the flocking of the interior for example For 3 or 4 years inquiries had been made through aviation channels in a vain atshytempt to locate a shop that could do the work Deshyspairing of ever achieving success Ron picked up the Chicago Yellow Pages one day and looked up Flockshying Sure enough there was such a classification He made a phone call and a friendly voice assured him the work would be no problem Ron was told how to prepare the panels (apply an epoxy base in the color desired for the flocking) and where to deliver them

There s not much here that could look any newer if it were coming right out of the factory

The work was done over the following weekend and turned out to be a beautiful job (The flocking incishydentally is an electro-static process with the comshymercial name of Velvetex)

Another tough nut (pun intended) was the fuel gage nut - Bellanca didn t have one and all that turned up were worse than Rons knarled overshytorqued original Finally driving through a small Minnesota town Ron spotted a sign that read Sewshying Machines Guns Trading Post and Airplane Parts Partly on a hunch and partly just out of curiosshyity he stopped entered the establishment and inshyquired of the owner if he had any Champ parts

Got enough to make 5 of them whatta ya need was the reply

Ron mentioned the fuel gage nut and was almost shocked to hear Sure how many you need whereupon the proprietor reached into a drawer and pulled out a loop of safety wire with a half dozen or so Aeronca fuel gage nuts strung on it

This sort of thing Ron chuckles today is why it took 7 years to restore the Champ He could have built up an airworthy even beauti f ul job in perhaps 3 years but not an authentic one That took a lot of time and patience

Finally however the day came when the airplane was taken to the Waukesha County Airport - on Ocshytober 23 1977 to be precise What should have been a joyous occasion however began a two month ordeal that is a story in itself Shortly after taking over

12

That first run-up a moment of supreme exaltation

a hangar from a friend who had sold his airplane Ron was informed by the FBO that he would have to give it up by January 1 This shocking news really put the pressure on After 7 years of work Ron was detershymined not to dismantle the Champ and tow it back home and he was absolutely not going to leave it outside Hangar space is extremely hard to come by in the Milwaukee area just as is the case in all large metropolitan areas so the only option left was to find a hangar in a nearby town Space was ultimately loshycated some 20 miles west at Watertown but having a January 1 deadline Ron resolved to fly the Champ out of Waukesha

It wasnt easy Bitter cold came to Wisconsin even earlier than usual making final assembly of the Champ a numbing experience Nevertheless Ron and his father toughed it out working every evening and weekends By late November it was so cold that work had to go in spurts ~ interrupted by thaw-out breaks in Rons or his dads car Several layers of insulated clothing didnt make working in tight spots easy and any job requiring a degree of digital finesse was frustshyration personified Trying to screw on a tiny nut he couldnt feel through numb fingers was not exactly Rons idea of a fun way to complete his project In December temperatures plunged below zero but Ron and Tony worked on getting the last of the fairshyings on control cables adjusted the King 360 radio and battery pack installed etc

Finally it was time for some engine run-in John Curtice Rons fellow inspector with EMDO 46 had previously been employed with Continental Motors in Muskegon Michigan and had gone through the proshycedure literally thousands of times He advised Ron on how to properly break in the newly majored A-65 and later issued a new Certificate of Airworthiness AI Bruce Rintelmann of Milwaukee had supervised the project from the beginning (since neither Ron nor his father have civilian A and P licenses) and had alshyready signed off the restoration work

And then it was done Ron could have test flown the Champ a day or so before Christmas but he decided against it His family had put so much of themselves in the project that Ron could not bring himself to pOSSibly ruin their Christmas in case anyshything went wrong Bright and early on the 26th howshyever he and his dad were heading for the airport

The temperature was 3deg F but the Continental started on the first pull Ron taxied over to the FBO shut down and squirmed into a Security parachute Mike Heuer had brought over for the occasion Firing up again he warmed up the engine until the oil

temperature came up to 90deg then taxied out for take-off Given the OK by the tower Ron opened the throttle and literally leaped into the frigid air He climbed out to 5000 feet staying over the south end of the airport - by prearrangement with the controlshylers All went well and after 36 minutes the cold had become so unbearable Ron had to land while he still had some feeling in his hands and feet The landing was a real squeaker (as he later saw on movies) On the 30th - right on schedule - Ron flew the Champ out of Waukesha and over to Watertown The airplane was there for about six weeks - and some 5 hours of further flying time - before it was transfershyred to a new home Air Troy Estates where Ron had bought a lot Hangar space was available until sumshymer when he would have his own 45 x 72 hangar built

With the passing of a really miserable winter Ron was able to enjoy a spring and summer of pleasure flying and fine tuning of the airplane for its debut at Oshkosh 78 The airplane had been test flown with a metal propeller but as a final authentic touch a wooden Sensenich had been ordered through Wag Aero There was some last minute anxiety over delivshyery of the prop but a week before the fly-in it arshyrived

Ron had intended to take a weeks vacation to enjoy all of the Convention but so many requests

had come in from EAAers wanting inspections so they could get their homebuilts to Oshkosh he couldnt get away until Wednesday

The rest you know On Friday night Ron walked out of the Meeting Pavillion with the Grand Champshyion Classic trophy and it was difficult to tell whose smile was wider his or his dads

The outcome had not been unexpected in many quarters despite the torrid competition every Oshkosh gathering provides Earlier Ron had atshytended the Aeronca Forum at the conclusion of which moderator Charlie Lasher had asked if the owner of NC85448 were present Ron raised his hand and Charlie said I want to come down and shake your hand - that is the finest Champ I have ever seen

In the weeks preceding the Convention Rons felshylow FAA employees at EMDO 46 had speculated on his chances of winning an award perhaps even the Big One Secretary Michele Facenda (who had helped with the Champs paperwork) had promised to bake a cake for him if he were successful - so on the next Monday morning Ron strode in with his trophy put it down on Micheles desk and anshynounced Youre going to have to do some baking

I already have she replied I knew you were going to win

Interior of Gregs Luscombe

Dick Stouffer Photo)

Class Winner Luscombe BE Gregg Biete Charlotte David Gustafson Photo) North Caro lina

Class I Winner Taylorcraft BC-120 Ralph Lauritsen Boone Iowa

David Gustafson Photo) Custom Class C Winner Bellanca 14-19 Ronald Joslyn Malibu California

By Edward D Williams Associate Editor 713 Eastman Dr

Mt Prospect IL 60056

An antique airplane which has been hanging in the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago since 1953 has a unique honored distinction This came about when an expert model builder made a 33-inch wingspan model of it that is considered a work of art So today both the full-size plane and the three-fourths scale model are on display in the same museum

The plane is a Boeing 40B which was donated to the museum after the close of the Century of Progress Exposishytion in Chicago in 1933 It was originally manufactured as a 40A and later converted to a 40B but the museums

The simplicity of the design is shown in this view of the Boeing 40A

plane is displayed in the colors and markings of a 40A And so the model built by Carl Buttita a commercial arshytist in Chicago is an exact copy of a 40A

When the Boeing plane NC288 factory serial number 899 was bought by Boeing Air Transport (BAD from its parent company the Boeing Airplane Company in June 1927 it cost $24500 Buttitas model which took him three years to complete was appraised at $7000

The Boeing hanging in the east court of the Museum of Science and Industry is considered of historic value

because it was one of a fleet of 24 BAT 40A aircraft that helped make transcontinental air travel possible for the first time in 1927 (See The Vintage Airplane December 1977)

Buttitas model although it was not built to fly looks every middotbit like it could It is so realistic that it later won him an important award from the Hobby Industry of America

The Museum of Science and Industry which is loshycated on Chicagos south side lakefront draws about four million visitors a year to see hundreds of exhibits depictshy

18

ing the laws of science and applications of technology in industry and other fields It is a non-profit independent institution and admission is free

The Museum was partially opened in 1933 with only a handful of exhibits By that time Boeing Air Transport and three other airline companies-- Pacific Air Transport Varney Air Lines and National Air Transport- were joined together to form United Airlines which on November 30 1933 donated the Boeing to the Museum

It took seven more years for the museum to be comshypleted so the Boeing was stored in the institutions basement until it finally was hung from the ceiling in 1939 Although the plane has been cleaned regularly and today remains in sparkling condition it has never been moved from its resting place and probably wont be for some time to come

The Boeing is part of a large aviation display which includes a number of other antique aircraft the Apollo 8 spacecraft and a full-sized model of the first class cabin of a Boeing 747

Other planes on exhibit with the Boeing 40B are a 1910 Curtiss a 1913 Morane-Saulnier a 1917 Curtiss J N-4 Jenny a Supermarine Spitfire a Lockheed F-104 Starfighter and the Travel-Air S Mystery NR1313 sponsored by Texaco and flown by Frank Hawks in setshyting a number of transcontinental records

The Museum also owns a Junkers Ju87B Stuka but it is not on exhibit in Chicago because it rests temporarily on loan in the Air Education Museum of the Experimental Aircraft Association in Franklin Wisconsin The German World War II dive bomber was restored after a cleaning accident at the Chicago Museum by the EAA Museum staff

The Model which Buttita finished three years ago is on exhibit in a special case It draws considerable interest because of its highly detailed work- down to the tiniest hinges on the doors

Boeing Air Transport (BAn probably owed its corposhyrate life to the Boeing 40A which enabled it to get into the airmail transport business

The Boeing Airplane Company first built a single Model 40 for a government competition in 1925 for the awarding of a contract for an airplane to be flown by the U S Post Office Department to replace the old de Havilshyland DH-4s it had been using since 1918 The governshyment bought the one Model 40 equipped with the old watercooled Liberty engine but did not award the comshypany a production contract It went instead to Douglas for its series of M aircraft

However the project was revived a year later when the Post Office Department decided to award Contract Air Mail (CAM) routes to private contractors for airmail The Model 40 plans were dusted off updated with the

After its Wasp engine was replaced with the PampW Hornet engine the 40A was designated the 408 and This picture of groundcrewmen unloading a 40A gives a looked like the above close-up view of the Pratt amp Whitney Wasp engine and

the dural sheet construction used throughout

latest improvements and redesigned to meet the postal requirements Designated the 40A it was powered with a 9 cylinder 420 horsepower Pratt amp Whitney Wasp enshygine a new aircooled radial engine Boeing was testing in its fighter type aircraft

The Boeing basic design with a pilot in an open cockpit was also changed to carry two passengers in a forward cabin although the awarding of the airmail conshytract and not passenger transportation was of paramount importance But the 40A could still carry 1200 pounds of mail in addition to the two hardy souls who pioneered passenger travel in 1927

It was the new designs low operating costs and high revenue potential that got BAT Boeings wholl y-owned subsidiary the low bid on the new San FranciscoshyChicago airmail (CAM number 18) route from the govshyernment BAT operated 24 of the 25 40As built The other plane was delivered to Pratt amp Whitney as a flying engine test bed This test aircraft proved its worth as in early 1928 the new 525 horsepower Pratt amp Whitney Homet engine became available in quantity and BAT quickly converted 19of its 40As to 40Bs with the installashytion of the new Hornet engine Among these was the Chicago museums NC288

According to the Model Specification and History document supplied to BAT by the Boeing Airplane Comshypany the 40A was a Three-place Landplane Biplane Closed Cabin Mailplane (3P-CiSl Factory numbers ran from 879 through 903 The first flight was made on May 20 1927 with delivery to BAT nine days later Dimenshysions were wingspan 442 length 332V and height 123 Empty weight was 2622 Ibs with a de sign gross of 4652 Ibs It boasted a top speed of 135 mph and a cruising speed of 125 mph but the actual pershyformance was closer to a maximum speed of 128 and a cruise of 105 mph It has a range of 550 miles and a sershyvice ceiling of 15700 feet

The 40A needed the altitude capability because of the rugged mountainous terrain on the 1 9113 mile San Francisco-Chicago run BAT started to use the new plane on the route with many intermediate stops on July 1 1927 When National Air Transport began its CAM Number 17 route operations with its Douglas M-4s betshyween New York and Chicago on September 1 1927 the two airlines link-up at Checkerboard Field at Maywood Illinois outside of Chicago gave the United States its first transcontinental air travel

The Chicago museum s Boeing 40B figured promishynently in th is important part of history Boeing NC288 amassed more than 6000 flight hours on the San Francisco-Chicago run and was flown many times by the famous airmail pioneer Jack Knight (See The Vintage Airplane February 1977) before it was retired

Construction of the Boeing 40A is shown in this picture of th e Boeing A irplane Company assembly line w ith A Boeing 40A NC286 - a sister ship of NC288 in the 40As in various stages of completion at Sea ttle Washingshy Chicago Museum - is show n fl ying over mountains on ton the Boeing A ir Transports San Francisco-Chicago run in

20

The Museums 40B in the coloring and markings of a 40A hangs with other historically significant aircraft in Chicagos Museum of Science and Industry The cockpit of the Boeing 40A w as simple making the

job o f duplica ting it in a model less demanding

(Museum of Science and Industry Photo)

- __ poundLlaquo

In 1933 it was used in the Wings of a Century pageant at the Century of Progress Exposition in Chicago after the Worlds Fair it was turned over to the Rosenwald Museum which later was renamed the Museum of Scishyence and Industry

Although the basic construction of the Boeing 40A was simple it had enough detail to make a model of it interesting Buttita said that he was a stickler for detail but admitted that he got carried away in making his model

When I decided to build the model I didnt intend to make it with such detail Buttita told this author I thought I could fake a lot by making the metal parts out of wood and painting them silver

But Buttita changed his mind and made every metal part out of metal and every wood part out of wood So the project which he thought would take him six or seven months eventually took three years

The more detail I put on it the better it looked he said so finally nothing could stop me and I detailed evshyerything

Buttita is an artist with the Accurate Silk Screen Sershyvice Company Chicago and his model building ability is well known

The three-quarter scale 40A is what is called a scratch model in which the builder starts from scratch as opposed to a kit in which plans and many formed parts are supplied

Buttita said a scratch model involves considerable reshysearch and study For the 40A he got a complete set of plans and all the photographs he could from Boeing and United

It took me three or four months of study before I could actually get started to build anything he said

Unlike kits which eliminate many of the interior parts that cannot be seen scratch models to be authentic must have all the details of construction such as all the ribs in the wings But that also makes them much stronger and keeps them from warping Buttita pointed out

Both the Boeing 40A flown by BAT and the Buttita model of it were constructed at the peak of the state of the art for their day

The airplane had a steel tubular fuselage with wood fairing strips and was dural and fabric covered The wings also fabric covered were built up of spruce spars and ribs The dural sheet on the fuselage covered the enshygine cowling cabin doors and compartment hatch openshyings

The two passengers sat in a cabin metal lined throughout and their seats and seat backs were upholsshytered in leather The windows of the two doors one on each side of the fuselage were made of non-shatterable glass and could be opened for additional ventilation and

21

Details of the construction of the 40As cabin door and wing struts are shown in this close-up

A close-up view of Carl Butshytitas model of the 40A shows how dedicated he was to deshytail in the models construction

Carl Buttita builder of the three-fourths sca le Boe ing 40A discusses fine points of the construction with Edshyward E Carlson chairman of UAL In c Chicago and a member of the board of trustees of the Museum of Scishyence and Indu stry before the model was put on display in the Museum

were large enough to give the passengers an excellent view of the scenery

The rear of the fuselage was braced with steel tie-rods and was heavily faired to shape although it still was fabshyric covered The tail assembly also was fabric covered but only the horizontal stabilizer was built up like the wings with spruce spars and wood built-up ribs The rest of the tail assembly was built up with welded steel tubshying It rested on a steerable tailskid The landing gear was made of streamlined chrome-moly and used oleo-spring shock absorbers

Buttitas construction problems for his model were reshysolved through the use of a wide variety of materials

The Boeing model is made of aluminum pine dentists plastic epoxy glue and Japanese silkspan paper About 40 percent of the model is metal but much of it is inside so you dont see it Buttita said These parts are the cables controls pilots seat corrugated floor panels hinges cockpit fire extinguisher medical kit and workshyable seat belts

Each part had to be hand made some several times to get them right or if they broke Buttita said I had to make 20 to 30 rims for the landing lights to get two

When you make a one-of-a-kind model you have to fabricate about 90 per cent of the parts yourself and make dies for almost everything he added

For the metal parts Buttita used small pieces of offset printers plate made of aluminum but with some tin for added strength The wood parts are made of spruce and the engine and wheels are made of the dental plastic

All the markings and lettering were drawn triple the size on paper and reduced photographically on decal paper That way they were better than if I had handshypainted them on the model he said

Buttita said he did all the construction work on a card table at home and the only power tool he used was a small electric drill

At least one other Boeing 40B is known to be on exshyhibit in another museum This is aircraft NC285 factory number 896 which was presented to the Henry Ford Museum at Dearbom Michigan in 1938 But so far it doesnt have a scale model of its own to highlight it And don t look to Carl Buttita to build one I will never do it again he sa id It was just too much work

Rebuilding AVagabond

By Larry Railing Box 5 7 -C P Avenue

Lake Mills WI 5355 7

I never realized at the time I started to rebuild or lets say restore Piper Vagabond PA-15 N4423H that so many people were interested in what Id term history So here it is

I started flying in Valparaiso Indiana around 1900 I learned in a )-3 owned by Mark Murvahill I later

graduated to the PA-12 In 1964 I graduated from high school and a year later I was married As most in like cirshycumstances I gave up flying for love until the newness wore off

My first airplane was a )-5 Cub that went down in a marsh I had started to rebuild it until Dick Wagner of Wag-Aero heard of it and made me an untimely offer This airplane was later destroyed at Burlington along with the Tri-Motor

I later owned other aircraft which included aT-Craft Somehow Dick Wagner heard of my T-Craft and flew up in a Vagabond to see it and made me an offer

I told him at that time if he ever got in the mood to sell the Vag to please call me That was in 1968

On December 26 1976 Dick called me and asked if I was still interested in the Vag I told him yes and Id come down the next Saturday morning The next Saturday came and so did I There the Vag stood on its nose just as pictures in past issues of The Vintage A irplane had shown

Dick with all his other projects had to let something go He offered me the Vag or one of two Cubs My thoughts never gave way to anything but the Vag

23

The stripped fuselage arrives at home ready for a long winter s night

Work completed the birds about ready for a runway

I climbed a ladder and pulled the tail down and began looking It was all there but in sad shape For the past four years it hadn t been outside It looked good in the dark but time took its toll The fabric was beyond even shot But it was all original Every instrument the seat and all were original In thirty years no one even drilled a hole in the panel

We tried to get the old Lycoming 65 started but no way

The next Saturday morning I borrowed a stock car trailer and headed for Lyons with my truck On the way down all was going so well until I met a car looked in my mirror and noticed the trailer to be about a foot wider than my pickup Id never given that a thought before Everytime I met another car I just got over a little I fishynally arrived at Dicks place and began taking the Vag

Fits like a sausage casing The envelopes ready for the hea t trea tment

apart I placed the wings on some racks on my truck and the fuselage or the trailer I didn t bother taking off the tail All was loaded and ready to roll in about three hours

About halfway into the dismantling it began to snow By the time I was ready to go we had gotten about three inches This worked out in my favor as it slowed everyone else on the highway down to my speed My greatest worry when hauling an airplane is when you meet a truck

All seemed to be going good The first car I met I got over to the right because of the trailer At this time I looked into the mirror and not only noticed the trailer a foot wider than the truck on each side but the horizontal stabilizer stuck out another foot on each side beyond the trailer What a shock

I stopped and tried to remove the tail but to no avail The snow kept coming and so did the end of the day It took me four and a quarter hours to go fifty-five miles By the time I got home we had eight inches of snow What a long ride

I began total disassembly right away The wings were in fantastic shape All that was needed was varnish on the tip bows I also put new cables in the whole airplane The original inspectors number date and signature are still on the spars

I worked the whole project under the watchful eyes of Paul Baker an AI from Beaver Aviation at Dodge County

The author tackles another flying surface with needle and twine

Airport He is really an EAAer I never heard of an AI so ready and willing to help restore an airplane He even came to my home after hours to inspect the fuselage as it was easier for me than taking it up there Paul says if Id hired him to do the restoring I could just hand over my paycheck for a year so he said you do the working and Ill do the looking

All the still pieces were sandblasted and sprayed with Imron primer Believe me you do have to wear a mask with that stuff

I gave Wag-Aero a call and told them what I needed for a complete cover job and not to call me until they had it all there in one pile with no monkeying around for a little of this and that

While waiting for the covering materials I began work on the engine The whole airplane had only 1100 hours and the engine 330 SMOH I just couldn t get it started I solicited the help of a local mechanic and Stinshyson owner Harold Hubrich We found three blown head gaskets one leaky valve the impulse spring in the left mag was broken and the P-Iead in the right mag the inshysulator of phenolic replaced with masking tape

I pulled the heads and Harold ground ~he valves had the mags rebuilt a complete new ignition system and the carburetor rebuilt We got her back together and bongo

- she started right off In the meantime I finished the wings and control surshy

faces I wanted to paint it all apart so a temporary gear 24

Larry applies a new cowling atter a fruitl ess encounter with sa ndblasting equipment

was made to support the fuselage The engine was never taken off Many people questioned that temporary gear I just said you had to be very careful on take-off and landshying

The actual covering was very enjoyable you could see some real progress including the stitching but that spraying and sanding Sixteen hours of work for every coat Six sandings fourteen coats and thirty gallons all total

The sheet metal was all in good shape I had planned to replace the cowl so a guy that was chicken could look in at the rubber band I tried Zip Strip to get down to bare metal with no luck at all I took all the aluminum parts over to a body shop including the boot and sandblasted them In less than ten minutes I destroyed every piece of aluminum except the instrument panel and nose bowl I then got some aluminum and began making new parts It all turned out very well

When I first brought the Vag home I contacted Cecil Ogles of Vag-News and he sent me more info than I think Piper has Among which was complete rigging

Im a little more fortunate than most- Im a tool and die model maker by trade and have my own shop Before beginning on the Vag my partner and I added on a 50 x 60 foot addition to our shop which served for a beautiful place to work over the winter to store parts until needed as well as an area to completely assemble the airplane for rigging

Its been a long time since the fuselage last shook from a run-up

Time came to go to the airport and sprout feathers There is a private strip just south of town so I went there along with about six helpers The airplane was assembled and flown two days later on June 28 1978 A year and a half after beginning

The first flight was all anyone could hope for It really flys hands off and is the easiest airplane for a taildragger to land that I have ever flown

Now for some numbers Cruise 85-90 Cruise RPM 2300 Fuel Consumption 30 gph Prop 70-36 Final and Climb 70 mph Over the Fence 60 mph Stall 40 mph Empty Weight 640 Ibs Take-off- For each 10 Ibs over 200 the passenger

weighs I added 100 feet I had the Vag at Oshkosh on Tuesday this year and

took it home and put it to bed the same night In this area we have about fifteen Vags flying with

five of them done original Myself I like to see airplanes kept original Its like a Model T with a Chevy 427 it just aint the same

The airplane is covered with Stits and the finish is Aerothane

Now that the airplanes finished work ca n proceed on the shop

I can say something most people cant about this airpshylane While at Oshkosh I went over and visited the Piper display and who would you guess was there Clyde Smith the test pilot of my airplane thirty years ago I took a couple of pictures of him and will be placing them in the log books next to his signature

The Vag is my first real attempt in restoring I did the whole airplane myse lf except the seat and the engine work Im very pleased with the end product Its all mine and paid for as well Im now enjoying the fruits of my labor and Id do it again if I could find another Vagshyabond

Oddly enough it seemed the hardest part of the whole project was the legal end Being that the FCC can t seem to find a good reason to charge for a restricted radio license I decided to send for one just in case I ever carried a radio along That took three months and the paperwork went back and forth six times The hardest part was the registration The airplane hadn t been regisshytered since 1967 The State of Wisconsin wasnt too bad That paperwork came back only once asking for an addishytional $333 because I didn t notify them within thirty days after purchase even though the airplane had been declared exempt But the Feds This took six months nine phone calls and six letters Finally I called once again and told them that after a year and a half of rebuilding with or without them I was going to fly it I think that finally did the trick

25

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Calendar of Events NOVEMBER 18-19 - MIAMI FlORIDA- Antique Classic and Cusshy

tom Built Fly-In at the third annual Harvest- A Country Fair sponsored by the Historical Association of Southern Florida at the Dade County Youth Fairground Coral Way at 112th Avenue Awards given for antique classic and custom built aircraft Conshytact Capt Ken Ufland of the Civil Air Patrol office (305) 552-3106 home after 600 pm (305) 251-5927 or Mary Dodd Russell Harshyvest Coordinator at the Historical Museum 3280 S Miami Ave shynue Building B Miami Fl 33129

JANUARY 21-27 - Sun N Fun the biggest fly-in in the southeastshyand the second biggest in the natron Its a full week of southern hospitality and flying fun daily aerial demonstrations fly-bys of antique classic homebuilt and warbird aircraft forums exhibits and static displays parties and com roasts big new food concesshysion country store for campers in our shady campsites Make motel reservations early- our free information booklet has a complete list of accommodations Write to Sun N Fun PO Box 3538 lakeland Florida 33802

(Dick Stouffer Photo)

Aeronca IICC Super Chief belonging to David E Long Keyser West Virginia

(Ted Koston Photo)

Heres a sharp Funk at Oshkosh Owner unknown didnt register

(Dick Stouffer Photo)

Another fine looking unregistered aircraft

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F4U CORSAIR

PLANE CHECKS The Leading Fighter 01 WWII - with a Record 01 2140 Japanese Aircraft Destroyed 28 01 which

Are Credited to Pappy Boyington Regular bank checks emblazoned with the F4U CORSAIR

- Complete the order form and write out your check Now get a deposit Slip from the same account and clearly indicate any changes or other notations as you wish it to appear on the checks (These two documents will furnish us all the data we need to make your checks compatible with your banks computer and Amer Bank Assn specs) On gift orders send your check and mark his check VOID Please allow 3 weeks for delivery

Start USing Plane Checks Now Your old checks will always be good

Identity Check Co Box 149-D Park Ridge III 60068 Activate my order for Plane Checks starting No ___ o 300middot$795 0 600-$1350 0 900middot$1875 Checks are printed with blue backgrounds and are top bound-one part deposit sUps registers and matching checkbook cover are Included In each order

o F4U CORSAIR o PIPER Assortment o BEECH AIICH1menl o UNITED DC-10

o Cherokee o Sundowner o NORTH CENTRAL DC9 DArrow o V Bonanza o CONTINENTAL OCmiddot10 o Seneca II o Baron o NATIONAL DC-l0

o PITTS SPECIAL o Pmiddot51 MUSTANG 11 AMERICAN OCmiddot10 o CESSNA Allottmenl o TWALmiddot1011 o EASTERN Lmiddotl011

o Hawk o PSA727 o WESTERN 0010 o 210Centurlon o BDmiddot5 o OZARK OCmiddotg0310 o MOONEY

o YELLOW Jmiddot3 CUB o HELICOPTER (BELL)

Ship via 0 UPS (insured) 0 Parcel Post o WEST COAST add one dollar-well fly it

Ship To

Address

City State___ Zip____

26

(Lee Fray PhOlO)

78

CLASSIC AIRCRAFT IN ATTENDANCE

REGISTRATION amp AIRCRAFT TYPE PILOT ANDOR OWNER

AERONCA N46AC Champ Philip Beaulieu South Burlington VT Nl03RJ Champ Roy JacksonDarrell M Todd

Columbus OH Classic judges - Front Row L-R Paul Stephensen George LeMay Pat Padgett George York Brad Thomas Keith N555Y Champ - 7DC Dan McCormick Rockville MD Locke Rear Row L-R Paul justus Gene Padgett john Womack jim Mankins Stan York Art Nunes and DaleN1346E John Gronager Urbana IL N1390E 7BCM William Pancake Keyser WV Wolford N1617E 7AC Lon Dienst DeKalb IL N1648E 7AC Wayne E Reicher Dubuque IA N2372E 7AC Henry Hulboy Zanesville OH N2619E Champ James Swope Vicksburg MI N2757E 7DC Lee Lund Cheboygan MI CF-PRI 7AC c E Rankine Scarborough Ont BEECHCRAFT N2932E Champ Mike Ritter Hilliard OH Canada NIDS Bonanza David F Shaw Penn Yan NY N3019E 7AC Jeff Van DorenKaren Walker N3186E Chief Bill Husted St Charles IA N35LT Bonanza 35C Jerry D Turner Marion IL

Millstone NJ N3490E Chief Larry Lymburner New Albany IN N239V Bonanza Michael Sentell Maryville TN N4134E Ivan R Nagel Canton IL N3677E Chief Mike Messer Hilliard OH N693B Bonanza E W Fischer Mashpee MA N4574E 7AC Robert L Hughes Indian River MI N3710E Chief Bud Ledgerwood La Porte IN N718F Bonanza Brad J Larson Minneapol is MN N4867E Champ Terry A Brox Atchison KS N3805E Chief Donald Fairbetter Edmond OK N764B Bonanza Edward Wilson Corryton TN N8936R Champ Ron Koscal Madison WI N3814E Chief Fred Koetz Tampa FL N1847D Bonanza Richard Hare Northville MI N81428 7AC Randell R Morris Elizabethtown KY N3826E llAC Mark Hawkinson Minneapolis MN N1932D Bonarlza Dale Turner Buckley WA N81482 Champ Max Marion Asheville OH NC4031E llBC Max D Mayfield Timewell IL N2775V Bonanza John P Turgyan Trenton NJ NC81583 7AC Theodore Travis Flushing MI NC4189E 11CC Phil Lange Topeka KS N2946V Bonanza Ralph Haroldson Dallas TX N81841 7AC Victor R Hayes Richmond MI N46~8E Super Chief 11 CC David E Long Keyser WV N3150V Bonanza 35 John Sanders Knoxville TN N81910 7EC Keith Wernsman Metamora IL N4658E 11CC Clayton Lund Cheboygan MI N3244C Bonanza 35E Dan ToweryLogan V Miller Dover DE N82007 William L Sharp III Clinton NJ N9031E llAC Robert NelsonBrian Nelson Euless TX N3755N Bonanza 35 A C Freel Warren MI N82098 7AC J E LittellJohn SchneiderLloyd C N9318E llAC J Kirby Lidman Ames IA N3863N Bonanza Walter W Stroemer Brookfield IL

Harvey Ann Arbor MI NC9726E llAC David A Clark Plainfield IN N3981N Bonanza 35 John S Baldridge Sioux Falls SO N82934 7AC David St ArnoldGlen Frankie N9820E llAC Cliff Wadsworth Lapel IN N4326Y Bonanza David Michaels Southfield MI

Dunedin FL N85917 llAC Stephen M Hay Wheeling IL N4493V Bonanza 35 TerrenceBarbara Sullivan N83008 7AC17DC Jerry McNeil Dallas TX N85976 Chief Jim Zimmerman So St Paul MN Natchitoches LA N83338 7AC Myron Seitz Lees Summit MO N86079 llAC Tim Buttles Manawa WI N4637D Bonanza Lawrence Sciortino Ft Walton Beach N83589 7AC Kathy Jenkins East Dubuque IL C-FTDL llAC Len Taylor Nobleton Ont Canada FL N83633 7DC Melvin Hill Danville IL C-GQGT 11CC T Richmond Kettleby Ont Canada N4011B Bonanza 35F Cletus Haley Charleston WV N83686 Champ AI Hatfield So Bend IN N1134H 15AC Ed Arbo Charlotte ME N5077C Bonanza 35B D M Solomon Amarillo TX N83955 7AC ArtLeora Royon Columbia Station OH N1159H Sedan Don Idzik Fond du Lac WI N5155C B-35 M Ciarlariello Elk Grove IL N84121 Champ Albert Bendure Prairie Village KS N1267H 15AC John E CastorJohn A Reiser N8639A A-35 Gene Morris H~mpshire IL N84171 7AC Melvin Buchholz Greenleaf WI Minneapolis MN Nl04SV Bonanza Super V Clifford Ricker Tracy CA N84554 7AC Robert Ziehwein Hamel MN N1391H 15AC James F Thompson Roberts IL N4477 D-18S John Parish Tullahoma TN N84999 7AC Willi W Reif Honesdale PA N1413H 15AC J C HanifanlWiliiam P Hanifan N205A E-18S Deanie Montgomery CorSicans TX N85448 7AC Ronald Wojnar Milwaukee WI Shullsburg WI N85544 7AC Eugene M StrineRuss Strine NI480H 15AC Dick Welsh Issaquah WA

Harrisburg PA N6286C L-16 Dale Sees Jr Kirksville MO

4

BELLANCA N46LW 14-13-2 N6522N Cruisair N74392 14- 13-2 N86733 14-13 N86748 Cruisair N86771 Cruisair N86919 14-13-2 N86931 14-13 C-FKFK 14-13 N6RJ Cruisemaster 14-19 N6553N Cru isemaster N7679B 14-19-2

CESSNA N6RP 120 N16DF 120 NI672V 120 N1 766N 120

N1797V 120 NC1805N 120 N2036V 120 N2123V 120 N2550N 120 N4252N 120 N72273 120 N72839 120 NC73066 120 N761 37 120 N1 2BY 140 N119D 140A N161 2V 140 N1744V 140 N1752V 140 N2106N 140 N2123N 140 N2145V 140 N2151V 140 N2165V 140 N2274N 140 N2284N 140 N2302N 140 N2308V 140 N2327N 140

N2328V 140 N2436V 140 NC2483V 140 N2486V 140 N2491V 140 N2662N 140 N2733N 140 N2775N 140 N2809N 140 N2887N 140 N3506V 140 N3516V 140 N3555V 140 N3633V 140 N3704V 140 N3732V 140 N4000N 140 N4048N 140 N5302C 140A N5323C 140A N5364C 140A N5389C 140A N5398C 140A

N5630C 140A

Robert Knauff Langley AFB VA Joseph Russell Kankakee IL Marvi n Hayes Minneapolis MN Steichen Downers Grove IL Tom LeahyFred Leidy Medina OH Bud Cates Evansville IN S C Zandell Auburn WA Robin Hermanson Garretson SO R V Bays Dartmouth NS Canada Roland M Joslyn Malibu CA Jan Gerstner Delafield WI Kerr and Watts Stockton CA

Richard L Porter Franklin WI Duncan Fitzgerald Selma NC Dwain Hunter Manawa WI Max HendersonFloyd Henderson

LaPorter IN Steve Gillon Los Altos CA Lou S Bitton Redwood City CA Norris E Mealy Niles OH John H Hupe Wamego KS Glenn Trommater Eagle MI William R Schaben SI Charles IL Richard G Pettyjohn Charlotte NC Frank S Pavliga Canfield OH Frank Hancock Anderson IN Dale Spence Pickerington OH AI BlindYally Yasko New Buffalo MI Tom Norton Cottage Grove MN W A Cordoza Woodland CA Martin Arndt Sturgeon Bay WI Marcus Brewer FI Wayne IN John von Linsowe Jr Linden MI Allen C Smith New Berlin IL Thomas C Cahoon SI Paul MN Larry Schuessler Milwaukee WI Ted Steffens Buffalo Grove IL Dick Meyers Madison IN L Boykin San Angelo TX Larry Diedrich Lodi WI Ronald W Kind Detroit MI Story Flying ClubRussell Hendricks

Seattle WA Larry Baron International Falls MN M Thomas Weaver Kalispell MT Roger Piera II So SI Paul MN Lester L Zehr FI Wayne IN Richard Schaper Blue Earth MN BernieBryan Godlove Aurora CO Robert D Busch LeClaire IA Bobby B Brashear Waco TX James Baldwin Columbus OH Kennedy B Dweight Houston TX Larry Cole Redding CA Richard Harden Minneapolis MN Conrad R Case Minneapolis MN Jay Canvender Jackson MI E McKeeMilt Peters Sioux City NE Monte Peecher Littleton CO William R McFall Waukesha WI BrentonMary Ann Bowen Ft Wayne IN John E Vonlinsowe Linden MI Dennis Griffey Muncie IN H Danck Madison WI DouglasJean Weiler Bellbrook OH Red Rose Flying ClubEdgar Hess Jr

Lancaster PA William E WinterDee Ann Winter

N9632A N72150 N72208 NC72284

N72728 N72734 N72815 N76128 N76146 N76344 N76429 N76509 N76603 N76624

N76688 N76951 N77051 N89191 N89205 N89258 N89343 N89416 N89616 N89687 N89999 Noo067 N90111 CF-DMS N172J N1198M N2608V N2617V N2636V N2661V N2671D N3004A N3415D N3531C N3833V

N3958V N401 3V N4238V N4262V N4294V N4656C N5556C N5788C N8099A N9693A N711DR N1492D N1604D

N1746D N1781D N1793D N5466C N5507C N5795C

N5799C N9210A N9926A N9935A

N9971 A N170N N600JM

140A 140 140 140

140 140 140 140 140 140 140 140 140 140

140 140 140 140 140 140 140 140 140 140 140 140 140 140 170 170 170 170 170 170 170 170 170 170 170

170 170 170 170 170 170 170 170 170 170 170A 170A 170A

170A 170A 170A 170A 170A 170A

170A 170A 170A 170A

170A 170B 170B

Lawrence R ColeNila Cole Redding CA Dale Sizer Osseo MN Bill Killie Tullahoma TN Douglas H WilliamsCarol Simpson

Menlo Park CA Jerry L Hicks Charlotte NC Arlo Gosser Franklin IN Richard Daly Spencerport NY Howard Graf Mexico MO George A Winnie Definance OH Don Murphy Peru IN Kenneth E Jacobs New Baltimore MI James Schock Farmington Hills MI Carl Carlson Junction City KS Homer J HawksRobert Hawks

Dundee IL Ronald G Degnan Canfield OH Charles E Easterday Knoxville TN Bernard Nitz Rock Island IL Noel B Morgan Opelika AL Michael E Young Cuyahoga Falls OH James Clift Knoxvi lle TN Tom Jackson Dallas TX D Coates Oxon Hill MD Wm J Kinsman Manawa WI David H Currie Knoxville TN Dick Milner Plymouth MN J R Barker Hayward CA Norman Neher Hudson WI J Cascone Toronto Onl Canada Johnny Williams San Angelo TX L Neal Grand Rapids MI Dave Broadfoot Wauwatosa WI Roland Dilley Warren OH Leroy Shultz Harahan LA Wm P Newk irk Knoxville TN Anton N Lafata Lancaster CA Frederick W Kelch Columbia IL Jack RandyPam Reynolds Marion IA Peter Holman Tarrytown NY John A Van SanlRichard Holmlund

Erwinna PA Dale Dickinson Rock Island IL Mike Shores Kent WA Donald R Eversman Naperville IL Albert Graham Carthage IL Will iam B Jennings Fenton MI Guy E Blake Helfin AL Bob Baker San Angelo TX Tony Otto Lakeland MN Wm Rasor Dayton OH Dean F Ostler Kent WA Will iam 0 Lower Citrus Heights CA Roger L Th istle Sauk City WI William B TitlowR Farnam Sunnyvale

CA James Douglass Cheyenne WY Harry May Highland CA Tom Kuffel Anchorage AK William Decker Norwalk OH Charles L Henkenius Moorehead IA James Hancock Inver Grove Heights

MN Larry Roberts Hanna City IL Robert West Oreana I L Harold N Watson Sioux Falls SO Tim LuceroJim Thompson

Denver CO Mark Zilinsky Bolingbrook IL Tom Guyton Lexington TN Arthur T Morrison Burnsville NC

N2209D N2213D N2369D N2372D N2482D N2509C N2535C N2565C N2598C N2606D

N2724C N2735C N2908D N2947D N3064A N3066A N3160B N3225A N3230A N3410C N3500C N3516D N3543C N3550D N4381B N4541C N4546C

N4922 N8187A C-FTUZ N1663C N1681C N1697C N31 86D N4786B N9254C

N9455C N9916 CF-RYV

Nl055D

NllDK N88DL N195U Nl008D Nl022D N3020B N3045B

N3048B N3066B N3085B N3482V N3893V N3897V N4327V N4363V N4403C N4408C N4445C N4477C N6681H N9326A N9331 A N9849A N32190

170B 170B 170B 170B 170B 170B 170B 170B 170B 170B

170B 170B 170B 170B 170B 170B 170B 170B 170B 170B 170B 170B 170B 170B 170B 170B 170B

170B 170B 170B 180 180 180 180 180 180

180 180 180

190

Yaamp 195 195 195A 195 195 195

195B 195 195 195 195 195 195 195 195 195 195 195 195 195 195 195 195

John W Reeves Libertyville IL William E Flynn Wakefield MA John H Krauer East Detroit MI Bill Rigsby Ponca City OK James Swinker Midland PA Hank Asciutto Perris CA Michael R Baas Irving TX D W Graham Crystal Lake IL Thomas B Morris Imlay City MI Jack W Brooke JrJack Brooke Sr

La Mesa TX Robert E Peer Opa Locka FL Douglas A Nealey Wood Dale IL Robert Decker East Peoria IL Walter Groskulth Mankato MN Gary L Loos Columbia IL Rick Hannen Center Point LA Arnold Hohl Langhorne PA E D Booth Naperville IL Glenn Loy Flint MI Dale G Faux Daleville IN Quinton L Daniel Vicksburg MI Ted R Dobrick Elkhorn WI George M Mock Anderson IN John Gileno Sherman CT Jaime Alexander Crystal Lake IL Everett N Harr is Obetz OH Malcolm ReidCraig M Lieberg

Clear Lake MN Ernest L Hand Maryville TN Victor Varnum Tama IA H Fowler Barri~ Onl Canada Gary Volkmon Waunakee WI Robert Seigelkoff San Lorenzo CA Gordon H Hale Flint MI Gary Lust Iowa City IA Earl Long Wichita KS G M ZimmermanJames Zimmerman

Arvada CO Jerome Bousselot Sandwich IL Arthur W Anderson Madison WI Stan Fowke Portage La Prairie Man

Canada Terry D Wendel lRobert A Karcher

Mobile AL Dan Kindel Cincinnati OH John Ankers Boca Raton FL Bill Terrell Hillsboro OH Roy G McLain Colton CA William C Myers SI Charles MO Adrian R Smith Smithtown NY Mark SmokovitziStan Smokovitz

Detroit MI Michael J Speshock Chandler AZ John A Krueger Redlands CA Lawrence O Cox Longmont CO Thomas Epperson Germantown OH Maureen McMaster Wichita KS W C Schwarz Green Bay WI Raymond W Franke Walnutport PA Wayne Corn Elgin IL Robert M Young McLoud OK Robert Jessup Lantana FL Rex W Bechdolt Hurst TX Raybourne Thompson Jr Houston TX Donald Fairbetter Edmond OK C C Crabs N Olmsted OH Ronald G Adams Miamisburg OH James A Watters Dwight IL Francis Longuski Inkster MI

N5676C N89902 N9405A

140A 140 140A

Tulsa OK Rick Neuer Louisburg KS S K Murdock Dubuque IA Jack CroninCristin Cronin Denver CO

N1692D N1846C N1885C NI981C

170B 170B 170B 170B

John p Mertesdorf Nicollet MN Donale E Jensen Albert Lea MN Champe Pool Wormleysburg PA Wm A Schwinn Cincinnati OH

COMMONWEALTH N33300 Skyranger

N93258 Sky ranger

Ross GresleyPaul Schermerhorn Anderson IN

L O Rupe Elkhart IN

5

DeHAVILLAND N1829K 8E Eldon E Beresford Dundee IL N92615 J-3 Fred Brown Pampa TX N48110 Chipmunk Richard C Bidlack Fremont OH N1B40K BE John Slack Frankfort IL N98391 J-3 Kenneth DeCorte Gaithersburg MD N48260 Chipmunk Walter M Rozelle Coeur dAlene 10 N2197B 8E Jim Cardis Chicago IL N9B450 J-3 Loren Larson Fairmont MN N65153 Chipmunk Dale Bronson Greenwood IN N2229K BE Donald Adams Newton KS N98734 J-3 George Roth Ruston LA CF-URN Chipmunk Lionel Hamilton Guelph Ont Canada N2231K BE Ray Miller Turner MI C-FAOB PA-11 R E Clipsham Erin Ont Canada N613WB Besver Willard Walpole Wichita KS N2290K BE F N Mair San Ang elo TX N747UA PA-12 M V Johnson Waters MI N4040W Beaver E T Kirkpatrick Boston MA N2351K BE RonaldNoel EastonDennis Kelsey N290BM PA-12 Bob Byers Saukville WI

Beloit WI N3802M PA-12 Gary Robinson Rochester NY ERCOUPE N2368K BE Karyl B Herman San Bruno CA N3860M PA-12 L Duffield Youngstown OH NI5JL Jeffry K Lehner LaPorte IN N2493K 8E Leo Bachman Decatur IL N3B67M PA-12 Robert Kratz Robertsville OH N71H William Jordan Geneva OH NC2747K 8E James R Harrison West Carrollton OH N3890M PA-12 David Kratz Massillon OH N355E Herman J Koplin Lombard IL C-FYEC BE Robert E Fleming Caledonia Ont N4169M PA-12 Thomas S Hiemnz Aurora IL N20B1H Raymond W Ganzer EI Cajon CA Canada N7753H PA-12 Donald A Hass Seattle WA N2279H John A Wright Sr Springfield IL N1674K BF Jack J Borden Franklin WI N7B459 PA-12 Richland Aviators Inc Jim Hudson N2434H Charles Darne Lafayette IN N2210B BF Jack B Mclnally Grayline MI Ri ch land Center WI N2701H Scott Olson St Paul MN N1616Z 8F Larry Traskos Bellevi lle MI C-FKOH PA-12 Ron E Baines Waterloo Ont Canada N2929H Art Leblanc Potterville MI N1865B BF Paul Prentice Chelsea MI CF-ZJI PA-12 J M Thede Elmvale Ont Canada N3232H Charles Shaffer Cary IL N1892B BF John LaRoche Bloomfield CT C-GNYW PA-12 David S Bell Markham Ont Canada N3992H Paul Furney Columbus OH N1947B 8F F D Barnard Ann Arbor MI N5243H PA-16 Gilbert Easton Rockford IL N87308 A L Kimball Catlin IL N6895C llA George T Ramin Houston TX N5253H PA-16 Dee L Davidson Bedford IA N8731 2 Donald R Bonem Essexville MI N5382H PA-16 Ronald W Donner Gleason WI N93358 Fred F Sampson New Hartford NY MOONEY MITE N5716H PA-16 John Wood Anoka MN N93823 Robert D England Tullahoma TN N489M Wilbur Draves Hometown IL N5843H PA-16 Bill Schmidt Wi chita KS N93935 Wayne Lawrence Wichita KS N4149F Dave JamesonHenry Raettig N5921 H PA-16 Charles Lancaster Wh iteland IN N93946 Gregory Krush Oak Lawn IL Oshkosh WI N5967H PA- 16 Daniel Callahan St Louis MO N94160 Jesse Austin Muskegon MI N6835K PA-16 Rob Will Seattle WA N94407 Dennis Swan Paxton IL NAVION N6841 K PA-16 Martin A Robb Riverside CA N94844 Erie Berens Stevens Point WI NB8T Twin Navion Robert Roglen Eau Claire MI N6854K PA-16 Robert Cutler Dallas TX N99026 Lucy H Morgan Old Hickory TN N350FU Harvey L Brown Delray Beach FL H5945H PA-16 Ronald Szymanski New Berlin WI N99044 Hugh McKennaRussell Burtsch N437M R J Matt McHenry IL N4133H PA-15 Clark L Anderson Neenah WI

Oswego NY N999RM Donald L ThomannDon Johnson N4406H PA-15 Sarah L Kaeiser Lake City FL N99244 Lowell D Satterlee Lincoln NE Plano IL N442-H PA-15 Terry L Railing Lake Mills WI N99274 Charles C Ray Dubuque IA N2199W Ted Smith Wash ington IL N4469H PA-15 Douglas PfundhellerJohn Matson N99335 Donald Wolfe Niles MI N4020K George Barr Worthington OH Stoughton WI N9981 7 Dennis Sparr McNabb IL N4537K Mike Nallick Minneapolis MN N4600H PA-17 Harvey P Buller Mt Lake MN N99955 Richard L Schorey Bishop Hill IL N4549K Brian J Ryan St Paul MN N461 3H PA-17 Michael A Fish Lemont IL

N4609K Richard Beedy Springfield OH N4839H Vagabond Russell Kellog Rio WI FUNK N4802K Carl Koenig Flint MI N4B70H Vagabond Darryl M LeMire White Bear Lake MN N81176 G Dale Beach Sacramento CA N4882K Louis C Hook Flint MI N1591A Pacer David Vanciere Mitchell SO N811 86 DeanPat Krueger Omaha NE N5117K L A Carlsmith Amhurst NH N1643P PA-20PA-22 P W Steiner Rockville MD

N7803B Paul E Efield Orchard Park NY N1830A Pacer Wendell Smith Battle Creek MI

LUSCOMBE Nll07B 8A N1159B 8A N1204K 8A N1361K 8A N1364K 8A N1365K 8A N2079K 8A N2110K 8A N2158K 8A N2177B 8A

N2315K 8A N2424K 8E N2685K 8A N2764K 8A N2887K 8A N2938K 8A N21996 8A N28564 8A N45680 8A N45719 BA N45767 8A N71293 8A N71315 8A N71348 8A N71465 8A N71533 SA N71922 8A CF-CHM 8A

N45WB 8E N1671K 8E

James Bacon Linden MI Les Nelson Minneapolis MN Wayne Drewry Greencastle PA Mike Thern Winona MN Jack D Lane Indianapolis IN Robert Westerberg St Paul MN Ben Bricker Kalamazoo MI Greg Carroll Buffal o Grove IL Gregory Hendricks Peculiar MO Will iam Bumgardner Bloomfield Hills

MI Robert Bohrman West Allis WI Gregg Beitel Charlotte NC Monte Jestes Pawnee OK John Barowski Downers Grove IL Jim Bastien Madison WI Pete Fleis Imperial MO Craig Sheets Sturgeon Bay WI Malcolm Green Columbus OH Kent Johnson Faribault MN David E Hennington Livermore CA Ronald H Dixon Hoquiam WA John D Richey Batesville AR Nick Showalter Corunna MI Terry Volante Euclid OH Steve Lester Morrow GA Larry Hall Oklahoma City OK Maynard Wolkman Hinckley MN T A C Kennedy Mississauga Ont

Canada William F Bokodi Griffith IN Donald Sweatman Venango PA

N8662H N8684H N8821H NB830H N8997H N9600C N9141 6 N91608 N91738

PIPER N1455N NC1502N N18241 N32845 N3373N N3572N N3638K N3650K N42478 N42724 N42733 N6153H N6669H N7258H N78527 N87771 NC88461 NC88575 N88684 N88698 N92084 N92090

Twin Navion

J-3 J-3 J-3 J-3 J-3 J-3 J-3 J-3 J-3 J-3 J-3 J-3 J-3 J-3 J-3 J-3 J-3 J-3 J-3 J-3 J-3 J-3

William L Marcy Denver CO Howard G Shoemaker Wilmington DE J C Langran Jr Colorado Springs CO Ed Hedlund So Haven MI Ben Gentile Huntington LI NY Fred Garcia Remsenburg NY Jim D Stewart Dunedin FL G L Valbert Camby IN W T Christian Knoxville TN

Donald Richards Bellaire MI Roger Montambo Red Wing MN Mont Mendenhall Tho masville NC Lynn Chamber lain Mt Pleasant MI J L Burns Mt Morris IL Roger Turner Bingham Lake MN Anne Collins Joliet IL John Spiegel Port Byron IL John Lamascus Pacific Grove CA Bruce H Nagorske Bingham Lake MN Jerry Kennedy Murphysboro IL Ralph Korff Lockport NY Laran Larson Fairmont MN Donald V Lacouture Jr Marlboro MA Max Faulkner Bourbon IN Norman J Shuff Watertown WI Reid P JoyceG R Purifoy Valencia PA John V Rawson Jr Belle Meade NJ Dan PellKevin J Engel Sheldon IA David A Watson Framingham MA Winton D Glaser Appleton WI John GelasifTheodore Sanders

Highland Park IL

N2103A N2165A N2934Z N49AK N5179A N5538A

N7161K N7324K N7326K

N7629K N7672K N9132R C-FGCM

G-FLOK CF-RRU

N1214 N1947A N5466H N99302 CF-HCY C-FMDP

N72CJ Nll06C N1262C N1319C N1487A N1512P N1529P NI545P

PA-20 PA-20 Pacer PA-20 PA-20 PA-20

PA-20 Pacer Pacer

PA-20 PA-20 PA-20 PA-20

PA-20 PA-20

PA-18 PA-18 PA-18 PA-18 PA-18 PA-18

PA-22 PA-22 PA-22 PA-22 PA-22 PA-22 PA-22 PA-22

Gerald Shultz North Branch MN T J Champagne Houma LA Allen Simons Bristol CT Ed Cahill Juneau AK Brian Bristol Cottage Grove MN Robert RadoLedray Victorian

Toledo OH Walter FritzBrian Crull Indianapolis IN Charles C Myers Manchester TN Robert ManierBernard Menier

St Paul MN Robert Andrews Libertyville IL Robert Vasey Stafford KS James H Bristol Cottage Grove MN George McMillan North Bay Ont

Canada C Burbank Shelburne Ont Canada Gary M Ferguson Oshawa Ont

Canada Michael McKay Martins Ferry OH P W McKamy Billings MT Terry Henry Neenah WI Sherman B Elder Muskogee OK Karl H Bunder Aurora Ont Canada James Bilstad Thu nder Bay Ont

Canada Bruce LundC J Lund Mobile AL V L Dant Rome GA G Woerner Geneva OH Lowell Roberts Midwest City OK S D Stevens Arden Hills MN Jay Carter East Liverpool OH Wm T White Dallas TX James E Donaldson Eden Prairie MN

6

N2276A PA-22 Richard C Hill Harvard IL N78321 Michael P Kennedy Homestead AFB FL N43871 Marshall Kennard Enfield CT N3212Z PA-22 Wm W Ricketts Finksburg MD N80589 James Byland Moberly MO N43898 Temple amp Woodward Granger IN N3360B PA-22 Lloyd MookEddie Veach Harrisonville N80613 G W Goodland SI Paul MN N44204 Eugene M Townsend Decatur IL

MO N80665 Pete King Rockville MD NC44493 John W McDonald New Orleans LA N3377A PA-22 William Sherhan Lincoln NE N80689 Dave EbersoleScott Chr ist iansen N94941 Jon Ch almers Thompson Johnson N6125D PA-22 Wayne Minnis W Palm Beach FL Colorado Springs CO City TN N81 21C PA-22 Matthew Grainda Easton PA N80706 Mark Holliday Hastings MN N95109 Wm E Boggs Grove City OH N8588C PA-22 William A Rudolph Traverse City MI N80776 Joey N Kemp Tullahoma TN N95926 Dick AmRhein Troy OH Nl0306 PA-22 AI Morris Warminster PA N80905 Charles Hoover Jr SI Paul MN NC95957 Douglas Anderson Jackson MI CF-KKX PA-22 Alvin C Pomery Janetville Ont Canada N80949 Lowell Sterch i Coral Gables FL N96026 R R Reece San Angelo TX

N80969 Harry Lyon Jr North SI Paul MN N96275 Jim Hall Rockford IL REPUBLIC SEABEE N90383 Guy Eby Madison CT N96386 Robert W West Oreana IL N1CD Curtis Dax Chicago IL N96387 Everett Downey Albion NY N6570K Grant Leonard Prior Lake MN TAYLORCRAFT N96417 John Friling Lombard IL

NC922WT Paul Edward Nuss Juniata Altoona PA N96544 Steven N Landis FI Wayne IN middotSTlSON NC5020M Ralph LauritsenCliff Henry Boone IA N96818 Wm Knight Brodhead WI N389C Boyd Walsh Marion IN N5045M Robert ReedyCovert Holley Troy OH N96842 Tim Mickel Scioto Mills IL N584LW 108 Larry Wheelock Bloomfield IN N5109M Herbert Browning London OH N96979 Lester L Walls Shrewsbury PA Nl081S Voyager Richard Bourque Simsbury CT N5218M Richard Weimberger Fond du Lac WI CF-KFG James Takacs Port Colborne Ont N6323M 108 Paul Varner Rockford IL N5265M EM Air Museum Franklin WI Canada N6555M Nicholas C Selig Naperville IL N29753 James Foos Granger IN CF-PUW Ken Bimm Rexdale Onl Canada N8212K 108-1 Robert Reintgen Latrobe PA N34093 Paul Cusumano Mayfield Village OH N8509K 108-1 Daniel Bauman Oorr MI N39168 Thornton Cressy Westland MI ADDITIONAL CLASSICS N8747K Charles Brokaw Parker CA NC39222 SArt Bujnowski Huntington LI NY N242B Helio Couier Robert T Griff in Waxhaw NC N9088K 108-1 C O Depuy Ponca City OK N39974 William Fitch Epworth IA N424 L Meyers 145 L A Waite Durand MI N9117K Voyager James Strock Austintown OH N43163 Jerry Kramer FI Recovery OH C-FLWG Moranamp-Sauln ier 502 Frank Masak Scarboro Onl Canada N97367 108 Bruce Jacobs Albion MI N43344 Mark Yelich Franklin WI N5160 Rawdon T-l Jack Chastain Creve Coeur MO N97607 108 Rich Klepperich Webster MN N43556 Ray L Sherwood Fairf ield IA N711SV Stampe John Hanson Manistee MI N297K 108-2 Stinson IVBob LaBonte Hudson NH N43680 Parker Buckley Waynesville OH N25MB Stampe SV4 Don Good SI Joseph MO N971J 108-2 J Mankins Corona CA N43845 J C Latronigo Girard OH N8000K 108-2 Michael Hudgins Portage WI N9306K 108-2 Frank Sperry SI Ignace MI N9582K 108-2 David Peterson Inver Grove Heights MN N9836K 108-2 G M Huffman Tulsa OK CF-HZM 108-2 Fred Green Mississauga Ont Canada CF-SID 108-2 Augus Cameron London Ont Canada N675C 108-3 Curt Lindauer Belleville IL N762C 108-3 Harvey T EngenDavid Engen

Excelsior MN NC6018M 108-3 Carl Pflanzer Rome NY N6649M 108-3 Russel Arndt Big Falls WI N6698M 108-3 Joe D Wh ite Calumet City IL C-FKQC 108-3 Richard R Schaub Fenwick Ont

Canada CF-LLW 108-3 Kenneth Gamble Hamilton Ont Canada

SWIFT N1BJ Raymond Neuse Groesbeck TX N1ZF Ronald Thompson Jenks OK Nl0SS William Shepard River Ridge LA N1 3SW Steve Wilson St Charles IL N50BS Roland J Zavada Pittsford NY N77PB Pat Knight Waynesboro VA N853C Charles R Cannan San Juan

Capistrano CA N853P John R Dixon Mission Viejo CA N2115 Bonham E Cross Hopkins MN N2334B James J Montague Lake Elmo MN N2424B Carl Weddle Hendersonville TN N2429B William GoldmanJack Morgan

Chandler AZ N2442B John Cranfill Frankfort IL N2457B Dick McNeil North Wilkesboro NC N3248K Howard H Hanson Webster MN N3263K Howard Thalacker Chetek WI N3740K Ronald W Williamson San Diego CA N3816K Buz Johnson Mobile AL N3898K Tracy Rhodes Dayton OH N77756 George ONeal SI Petersburg FL N78083 Paul L Chesley Albuquerque NM N78247 Clyde B Ericson Barrington I L N78261 N78306 N78309 N78311

James Pope Washington DC Gary Scott Schoolcraft MI Bernard F Arnold Cuyahoga Falls OH Richard A Chisholm Oak Lawn IL

(Lee Fra y Photo)

Bill Ehlen and AI H enninger Forums Chairman and Co-Chairman

(Lee Fray Photo)

AntiqueClass ic Headquarters staffers J Kesel Markl and K Morgan

7

RON WOJNARS GRAND CHAMPION CHAMP

Going down this photo and the next give an indication of what Ron had to tear down prior to his very extens ive reshybuild

On day six Thursday of Oshkosh 78 acshytivities were already beginning to wind down The aircraft judges had pared their long long lists down to the top one or two in each category or in many cases had pretty well decided the final rankings About all that remained was to wait out the day to inshysure that no one flew in anything that would upset the apple cart at the last moment

Unbeknownst to the Classic judges the upsetter was already on the field having slipped in the previshyous evening right after the History of Flight pageant No one paid any particular attention when a mild and well mannered young man walked into the Classic trailer on Thursday morning and asked if he could get his airplane judged Half an hour later however ap-

By Jack Cox

pies were tumbling all over the AntiqueClassic parkshying area and judge-laden golf carts were rushing from all quadrants toward the scene of the calamity One quick walk around one sniff of the cabin aroma one peek under the cowling and it was all over The only sounds were a few anguished groans and the tearing of paper yesterdays judging sheets

Unless you were well into your 50s or an aficionado of Classic airplanes this Through the

The right wing before stripping inspection holes

Looking Glass scenario made little sense for in the middle of it all was just a little 01 Aeronca Champion

But what a Champion First it was yellow with the orange lower fuselage

- the familiar Aeronca factory paint scheme that we

rarely see today On the nose was a brand new Senshysenich wood propeller - a 72-42 climb prop just like the FBOs used to order for flight training The nose bowl and wrap-around cowl were as pristine as a newly minted dime - even the exhaust pipe stubs sticking out the bottom were barely smudged The tires were new the oleo struts at full normal extenshysion and the brake covers without a chip in the paint from prop blasted stones and gravel Inside the cashybin the brown crinkle-finish instrument panel held an array of dials the correct ones sporting the winged Aeronca emblem Black enameled floorshyboards brown flocked side panels and door and brown leatherette seat covers each emitted its own peculiar smell to combine with that of fresh dope and 80 octane to produce that aeromatic Evening in Middletown essence that few of us have experienced but none have forgotten

Outside again a glance across the top surface of the wings revealed chordwise rows of little bumps in

Naturally all wood was replaced Here the old is used as a pattern for a new window frame

8

the glistening fabric tell-tale mini-molehills marking the characteristically Aeronca PK screws taking the place of rib stitching 24 inch orange letters and numerals swam in the shimmering light reflected off the top of the right wing

Letting ones gaze swoop down the familiar mulshytifaceted sway back of the fuselage it was easy to see every stringer arced st raight and true to the tail - no warps no valleys between formers

Emblazoned on the fin and rudder - in orange shywere the stenciled winged Aeronca emblem and the rather odd sized and spaced N numbers

Stepping back for perspective ones mind reeled This wasnt a latter day restoration it was a new airplane only hours ago a ferry pilot had signed out the airplane from the factory ramp there in Middletown Ohio dated his voucher August 5 1946 and took off for Milwaukee to deliver the spankshying new airplane to Anderson Air Activities but on the way perhaps in the clouds of industrial smoke around Gary and South Chicago a time warp was enshycountered misdirecting the little bird through 3 deshycades to Wittman Field on the evening of August 2 1978

It looked that new it felt that new it even smelled that new

The next evening Ron Wojnar (EAA 31222) of Milshywaukee was called to the stage to receive the 1978 EAA Grand Champion Classic trophy for his 1946 Aeronca 7AC Champion and not a soul who had seen the airplane was surprised

The new frame s been installed along with a lot of other new wood

And not one of us who knew Ron personally was surprised either

Have you ever been to EAA Headquarters If you

have you may recall that in the main lobby two pedestals flank the entrance doors Atop these are glass cases containing two exquisite cut-away type airplane models one of an EAA Biplane and the other of a Tailwind They were meticulously crafted a number of years ago by a young college student who worked as a summer employee at the EAA Museum

That young man already exhibiting his concern for accuracy and authenticity his talent for minute detail and superb workmanship was Ron Wojnar

Born in Milwaukee on December 3 1949 Rons lifelong fascination with aviation came naturally His father Tony was a pilot who significantly often flew a Champ in those days before his family started comshying along and he was forced to give it up Earlier he had become an aircraft mechanic courtesy the Marine Corps and spent World War II keeping the heavy iron flying After V-J Day Tony returned to Milwaukee and signed on as a mechanic with the Wisconsin Air Nashytional Guard His Maintenance Officer - and pilot

The basic frame has been rebuilt by this point but th eres so much to go

for whom he served as a crew chief - was a Lt Colshyonel named Paul Poberezny

Three years before Rons birth a new Aeronca Champion was ferried into Mitchell Field just a couple of blocks from the Wojnar home by its new owner Andershyson Air Activities NC85448 labored for a number of

years as a trainer - climbing out and gliding in over the Wojnar household when the wind was right By early December of 1949 when the Wojnars were blessed with a healthy son the Champ had already accumulated alshymost exactly 3000 hours of flying time

A typical loving father Tony wanted his son to share his interest in aviation He built models for him until he was old enough to be taught to start building them himself He would often take little Ron along in the evening when he had to put in overtime and let him sit in the cockpits of the T-6s and P-51s on which

he was working and when his son was 6 years old Tony took him to nearby Waukesha Municipal Airshyport bought a couple of $250 tickets and treated hi m to his first airplane ride - in a Cessna 170

Those evenings in the cockpits of the Texans and 51s were making a far deeper impression on his son than Tony probably realized at the time Ron can vivshyidly recall the experiences to this day and he dates his determination to make aviation his lifes work to those wonderous moments when he sat there in the bucket seats pushing and pulling the sticks intently studying the dials and levers and wheels around him - and the rudder pedals down there in the bowels of the fuselage his little legs would not be able to reach for years to come

9

As the years went by Rons interest in airplanes and flying grew in sophistication in step with the growth of his body and mind He managed to get an airplane ride once in a while - sometimes in a Stearman piloted by his fathers boss Paul Poberezny and once when he was 11 in a Champ piloted by family friend Dick Mildebrandt Ron dearly longed to learn to fly but at the same time his academic success in high school was bending his inshyterests toward the scientific So much in fact that after graduation in 1967 he was soon packing to head for Lafayette Indiana to enroll as an aeronautical enshygineering student at Purdue University

Not surprisingly Purdue had been selected in part for its reputation as an aviation oriented institushytion Aside from its academic excellence Ron knew it must have a flying club a fact he confirmed within hours of his arrival on campus Excitedly relatshying this discovery to his father (with obvious intent) Ron found himself being brought back down to earth by the elder Wojnars reminder that he was there to earn a degree first and a pilots license maybe However he softened the admonition with the promshyise that after seeing Rons grades at the end of the first semester the situation would be open for further evaluation

No student was ever led down the path of academic achievement by a more tempting carrot Ron hit the books with a vengeance - sleep meant nothing social life was ignored and Big Ten football was just a Saturday afternoon recharging of Rons batshyteries for the REAL task at hand

At the end of the semester Tony had a wide and proud grin on his face and Ron was wasting little time getting enrolled in the school flying club To his surprise and pleasure he had found that in addition to its modern trainers Purdue still retained a Piper j-3 in its flight school fleet available for $550 per hour

For the next 312 years that Cub would virtually become Rons personal airplane He loved it - and soloed it in about 8 hours - but most of his fellow students sneered down their noses at the lowly yelshylow dog A few learned to fly in it simply because of the low rental rate but couldn t wait to move up to the REAL airplanes the Colts Cessnas etc Conshysequently Ron could count on getting the j-3 almost any time he wanted to fly it He checked out in the other aircraft also but never tired of just going off alone and shooting landings or watching a sunset in his Cub

Returning home that f irst summer he found himshyself without a job - wh ich meant no funds for flying

A couple of weeks later at an EAA fly-in he related his dilemma to Audrey Poberezny and a few days later received a phone call from Bill Chomo offering summer employment at the EAA Museum Ron jumped at the chance and would spend each of his college summer vacations mowing yards painting dusting airplanes - whatever was asked of him that wou Id support his flying habit

Ron had been a member of EAA Chapter 18 for a number of years and the summer job at EAA Headshyquarters (where 18 holds its meetings) intensified his relationship with various of the members Eventually he fell in with a bad crowd bounders like Bob Ladd Dick Mildebrandt and the notorious Ron Scott Soon they were putting terrible things in his head worst of which was the insidious idea of actually ownshying an airplane Together they schemed to chip in and buy a Cub Champ or some such fun airplane for giving rides to friends taildragger checkouts etc (Bob Dick and Ron Scott each had single place homebuilts in those days) Ron was sorely tempted to fall in with the plan but fortunately he was spared by the timely intervention of his father although there would be moments in the years to come when he had good cause to question the hand fate had dealt him

It wasnt that Tony objected to the terrible trio (acshytually they were and are today close friends) - or even the idea of owning an airplane he simply wanted to see his son apply his aviation skills and knowledge to a purposeful end He wanted the two of them to buy a basket case and restore it

Taken somewhat by surprise by this proposal Ron quickly recovered and began scouring Trade-A-Plane Chapter newsletters and the like One day during the summer of 1970 he picked up a Chapter 260 (Dolton IL) newsletter and began scanning it for ads - and there it was Leo Faoro (EAA 28636) of Dolton (south Chicago) had a basket case 1946 Aeronca Champion he was willing to part with for a reasonashyble price

I n rapid succession Ron talked the situation over with his father (who would be the financial backer of any deal) called Leo on the 4th of july and arranged a meeting time drove down with Tony the next day inspected the airplane liked what he saw and put a $100 deposit on it The following weekend the Champ was retrieved and was placed in his Aunts garage acshyross townJn Milwaukee

Immediately Ron and his father began taking the fuselage apart and the very first th ing Ron twisted off a brass fitting on the carburetor This reshyally upset him at the time because it pounded home

the realization that despite his book knowledge he was completely lacking in hands on experience in working on airplanes His dad however was just sitshyting back with a sly grin on his face Youve got to do things like that to learn he said Get your feet wet then pay close attention to what you are doing work carefully and do everything correctly Ron would listen to this advice and stick it out to the end For the first year or so however Tony would serve as his tutor and advisor - as well as fellow worker shyon the Champ project

In stripping the airframe down the Wojnars found that while they had a complete airplane they had a lot of work ahead of them to come up with a job to their personal standards Removing the paint from the fuselage tube framework for instance reshyvealed grinder marks - which meant replacement of some tubing The wings bore evidence of past groundloops - and atrocious repairs which would have to be completely redone And the landing gear oleos horizontal tail surfaces and a couple more smaller items were considered too bad for repair They would have to be replaced A close study of the logs revealed that such replacement of various comshyponents had been a common occurance in the life of NC85448 24 years of abuse at the hands of ham-fisted students had left only the wings intact from the airshyframe that rolled out of the factory in 1946

By this point it was time for Ron to head back to Purdue for his senior year He had signed up for some elective courses in the technical area including engine overhaul and maintenance so he took his enshygine with him hoping to overhaul it as his class proshyject He tore the A-65 down alright but it would be 7 years before it went back together again The cylinshyders were oversize and badly rusted a dye check reshyvealed a cracked crankcase the camshaft was worn out and the cam followers were eaten up with corroshysion In other words Ron found he had a pile of junk for an engine The only bright spot was the crank shyit was useable The expense of the overhaul this hunk of iron needed was out of the question while Ron was still in school so sadly the pieces were boxed up and sent back home

After graduating from Purdue in 1971 Ron reshyturned to his summer job at EAA while waiting to be assigned to officers training by the Air Guard It was an especially instructive summer The Acro Sport proshytotype was being built and with its construction (tube and rag) essentially the same as the Champ every day was a learning experience for Ron Not only could he get his hand in to pick up new skills he could apply to the restoration of his airplane but he had a golden

10

opportunity to pick the brains of pros like Bill Chomo Philippe Van Pelt Gil Bodeen and others includ ing of course the Acro Sport designer Paul Poberezny

As it turned out Ron did not get his OTS assignshyment that summer so on September 1 he accepted a full time position with the EAA Air Museum Foundashytion as Assistant Museum Director

That fall (1971) the fuselage frame was sandblasted and some pitting was found in addition to the aforementioned grinder marks Everything doubtful was cut out and replaced with new tubing Ron tacked each piece and Bill Chomo finished them later Ron would gain the experience and confidence to do his own welding By Christmas all the repair work had been done all the woodwork had been reshyplaced so that the next step was a cover job That as things turned out would be a way down the road however

In late December Ron started on the left wing He first tried to clean it up without d isassembling it bilt after several months of part time wasted effort tore it down and did it right Only one wing was done at a time so that the other could be used for reference Some wingtip repair (and rework of old bad repai rs) was necessary but essentially the wing work involved cleanup replacement of leading edges and refinishing of the spars (the only old wood reshytained in the entire airplane)

With the coming of the summer of 1972 Ron found the direction of his life changing - and the Champ temporarily moving to the back burner First his OTS assignment came through and he was off for Lackland AFB for 3 months then as a new 2nd Lieutenant one month of active duty with his local Guard unit

That fall Ron took a position with Hartzog Aviation in Rockford Illinois and moved to that city Living in an apartment he had to leave the Champ at his pashyrents home in Milwaukee driving back to work on weekends Small parts were taken home to Rockford to be reworked during the week Happily Ron had again found himself in fortuitous circumstances - at Hartzog he not only had some real aviation pros to call on for advice but a lot of sophisticated equipshyment that could be used after work

1972 saw only modest progress on the Champ what with adjustment to a new job new home and weekend travel back and forth between Milwaukee and Rockford The following year however things began to look up Perhaps most significant was the fact that Ron and his father made the first of many weekend trips to Bellancas Osceola Wisconsin plant

Aside from the spars theres not much of the o rigina l wings left in this p icshyture

The ingredients of a champions Champ are beginning to show up

to forage for parts Tom Brown and Bonnie Marlette of the Parts Sales Department took an immediate inshyterest in the restoration project and spared no effort to unearth 7AC parts that had been moved from Middletown Ohio to Wiscons in Bellanca had sufshyfered a disastrous fi re a few years before and much of the old stuff had been lost but fortunately some had been stored downtown in an old railroad depot Ron and his father were permitted to sift through evshyerything and together they came up with a lot of impossible to obtain goodies like frames for the sliding windows universal joints for the fuel valve extension rod etc A surprising number of off the shelf Citabria components are the same as for its anshycestor the 7AC All the wooden fuselage formers and stringers in fact are identical with the exception of the rear window area When completed Rons Champ looked like a new one because to a great exshytent it is thanks to the folks at Bellanca

During 1974 things began to get into high gear The wings were finished and late that year the Contishynental A-65 was given a complete major Schneck Avshyiation did the work needed and Ron did the final asshysembly - under the supervision of a licensed mechanic Thinking the end was in sight Ron purchshyased all his dope and fabric (dacron) from Bellanca and took two weeks vacation to cover the airplane He gets a big laugh today at his naivete in grossly unshyderestimating the time element involved in covering Two weeks in fact stretched into 2 years before the cover job was completed

In 1975 Rons life took another sharp turn He left Hartzog and took a career position with the FAA Asshysigned to EMDO 46 in Des Plaines IL (north side of Chicago) as an Aviation Safety Inspector (Manufacturshying) Ron was able to move back home in Milwaukee commute to work during the day and work on the Champ evenings and weekends From that point on something no matter how insignificant was done every night

One bit of help came from an unusual quarter Ironically one of Ron s FAA assignments was the Belshylanca factory - so that his friends from the days of scrounging for 7AC parts had now also become clients of sorts Every time Ron came in for an inspecshytion he had to give everyone a progress report on his Champ A couple of young girls in the covering department Donna Viebrock and Sue Dollery told Ron they would like to come to Milwaukee some weekend and install the wing envelopes Despite livshying in Wisconsin all their lives neither had been to the big city and th is would be their chance With

their expertise the work would take just a few hours and the rest of their time could be spent seeing the Sights It was an offer Ron couldn t refuse and sometime later it all came about He got a set of wings ready for doping and the girls got an expense paid fling in Wisconsin s biggest metropolitan area

With doping and finish coats to go orid inarily it would have been decision time as far as the paint scheme was concerned Not so in this case however Very early in the project Ron had made the decision to return the Champ to factory new condition and appearance This of course involved considerable research He had an original service manual given him by Ron Scott and a copy of a 1946 Skyways article on the Champ given him by George Hardie but most helpful was the complete certification record on the Aeronca 7AC on file right where hf worked EMDO 46 in Des Plaines (Bellanca still holds the Proshyduction Limitation Record for the airplane and could put it back in production tomorrow if they wanted to) The file is COMPLETE colors size and shape of markings everything All the draWings are dated 1945 and all the subsequent revisions are on file

1976 saw the covering completed and 1977 was spent doing all those little detail items you think are going to take about 2 weeks according to Ron He endured all manrer of frustration attempting to paint the fairings cowl and various other small metal pieces Ron was bugged literally He would spray on a beautiful coat of enamel - no runs no orange peel - only to have some hapless insect make a Kamakazi dive right into the shiny surface Striving for nothing less than perfection Ron stripped the parts completely after each bug attack and repainted them He estimates he pai nted the equivalent of 4 or 5 airplanes before he was satisfied Similarly the crinkle-finish instrument panel was done 3 times beshyfore a perfect job could be obtained

Ron had some interesting experiences down the stretch drive to complete the airplane A few items had seemed impossible to obtain in order to have a near 100 authentic restoration - the flocking of the interior for example For 3 or 4 years inquiries had been made through aviation channels in a vain atshytempt to locate a shop that could do the work Deshyspairing of ever achieving success Ron picked up the Chicago Yellow Pages one day and looked up Flockshying Sure enough there was such a classification He made a phone call and a friendly voice assured him the work would be no problem Ron was told how to prepare the panels (apply an epoxy base in the color desired for the flocking) and where to deliver them

There s not much here that could look any newer if it were coming right out of the factory

The work was done over the following weekend and turned out to be a beautiful job (The flocking incishydentally is an electro-static process with the comshymercial name of Velvetex)

Another tough nut (pun intended) was the fuel gage nut - Bellanca didn t have one and all that turned up were worse than Rons knarled overshytorqued original Finally driving through a small Minnesota town Ron spotted a sign that read Sewshying Machines Guns Trading Post and Airplane Parts Partly on a hunch and partly just out of curiosshyity he stopped entered the establishment and inshyquired of the owner if he had any Champ parts

Got enough to make 5 of them whatta ya need was the reply

Ron mentioned the fuel gage nut and was almost shocked to hear Sure how many you need whereupon the proprietor reached into a drawer and pulled out a loop of safety wire with a half dozen or so Aeronca fuel gage nuts strung on it

This sort of thing Ron chuckles today is why it took 7 years to restore the Champ He could have built up an airworthy even beauti f ul job in perhaps 3 years but not an authentic one That took a lot of time and patience

Finally however the day came when the airplane was taken to the Waukesha County Airport - on Ocshytober 23 1977 to be precise What should have been a joyous occasion however began a two month ordeal that is a story in itself Shortly after taking over

12

That first run-up a moment of supreme exaltation

a hangar from a friend who had sold his airplane Ron was informed by the FBO that he would have to give it up by January 1 This shocking news really put the pressure on After 7 years of work Ron was detershymined not to dismantle the Champ and tow it back home and he was absolutely not going to leave it outside Hangar space is extremely hard to come by in the Milwaukee area just as is the case in all large metropolitan areas so the only option left was to find a hangar in a nearby town Space was ultimately loshycated some 20 miles west at Watertown but having a January 1 deadline Ron resolved to fly the Champ out of Waukesha

It wasnt easy Bitter cold came to Wisconsin even earlier than usual making final assembly of the Champ a numbing experience Nevertheless Ron and his father toughed it out working every evening and weekends By late November it was so cold that work had to go in spurts ~ interrupted by thaw-out breaks in Rons or his dads car Several layers of insulated clothing didnt make working in tight spots easy and any job requiring a degree of digital finesse was frustshyration personified Trying to screw on a tiny nut he couldnt feel through numb fingers was not exactly Rons idea of a fun way to complete his project In December temperatures plunged below zero but Ron and Tony worked on getting the last of the fairshyings on control cables adjusted the King 360 radio and battery pack installed etc

Finally it was time for some engine run-in John Curtice Rons fellow inspector with EMDO 46 had previously been employed with Continental Motors in Muskegon Michigan and had gone through the proshycedure literally thousands of times He advised Ron on how to properly break in the newly majored A-65 and later issued a new Certificate of Airworthiness AI Bruce Rintelmann of Milwaukee had supervised the project from the beginning (since neither Ron nor his father have civilian A and P licenses) and had alshyready signed off the restoration work

And then it was done Ron could have test flown the Champ a day or so before Christmas but he decided against it His family had put so much of themselves in the project that Ron could not bring himself to pOSSibly ruin their Christmas in case anyshything went wrong Bright and early on the 26th howshyever he and his dad were heading for the airport

The temperature was 3deg F but the Continental started on the first pull Ron taxied over to the FBO shut down and squirmed into a Security parachute Mike Heuer had brought over for the occasion Firing up again he warmed up the engine until the oil

temperature came up to 90deg then taxied out for take-off Given the OK by the tower Ron opened the throttle and literally leaped into the frigid air He climbed out to 5000 feet staying over the south end of the airport - by prearrangement with the controlshylers All went well and after 36 minutes the cold had become so unbearable Ron had to land while he still had some feeling in his hands and feet The landing was a real squeaker (as he later saw on movies) On the 30th - right on schedule - Ron flew the Champ out of Waukesha and over to Watertown The airplane was there for about six weeks - and some 5 hours of further flying time - before it was transfershyred to a new home Air Troy Estates where Ron had bought a lot Hangar space was available until sumshymer when he would have his own 45 x 72 hangar built

With the passing of a really miserable winter Ron was able to enjoy a spring and summer of pleasure flying and fine tuning of the airplane for its debut at Oshkosh 78 The airplane had been test flown with a metal propeller but as a final authentic touch a wooden Sensenich had been ordered through Wag Aero There was some last minute anxiety over delivshyery of the prop but a week before the fly-in it arshyrived

Ron had intended to take a weeks vacation to enjoy all of the Convention but so many requests

had come in from EAAers wanting inspections so they could get their homebuilts to Oshkosh he couldnt get away until Wednesday

The rest you know On Friday night Ron walked out of the Meeting Pavillion with the Grand Champshyion Classic trophy and it was difficult to tell whose smile was wider his or his dads

The outcome had not been unexpected in many quarters despite the torrid competition every Oshkosh gathering provides Earlier Ron had atshytended the Aeronca Forum at the conclusion of which moderator Charlie Lasher had asked if the owner of NC85448 were present Ron raised his hand and Charlie said I want to come down and shake your hand - that is the finest Champ I have ever seen

In the weeks preceding the Convention Rons felshylow FAA employees at EMDO 46 had speculated on his chances of winning an award perhaps even the Big One Secretary Michele Facenda (who had helped with the Champs paperwork) had promised to bake a cake for him if he were successful - so on the next Monday morning Ron strode in with his trophy put it down on Micheles desk and anshynounced Youre going to have to do some baking

I already have she replied I knew you were going to win

Interior of Gregs Luscombe

Dick Stouffer Photo)

Class Winner Luscombe BE Gregg Biete Charlotte David Gustafson Photo) North Caro lina

Class I Winner Taylorcraft BC-120 Ralph Lauritsen Boone Iowa

David Gustafson Photo) Custom Class C Winner Bellanca 14-19 Ronald Joslyn Malibu California

By Edward D Williams Associate Editor 713 Eastman Dr

Mt Prospect IL 60056

An antique airplane which has been hanging in the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago since 1953 has a unique honored distinction This came about when an expert model builder made a 33-inch wingspan model of it that is considered a work of art So today both the full-size plane and the three-fourths scale model are on display in the same museum

The plane is a Boeing 40B which was donated to the museum after the close of the Century of Progress Exposishytion in Chicago in 1933 It was originally manufactured as a 40A and later converted to a 40B but the museums

The simplicity of the design is shown in this view of the Boeing 40A

plane is displayed in the colors and markings of a 40A And so the model built by Carl Buttita a commercial arshytist in Chicago is an exact copy of a 40A

When the Boeing plane NC288 factory serial number 899 was bought by Boeing Air Transport (BAD from its parent company the Boeing Airplane Company in June 1927 it cost $24500 Buttitas model which took him three years to complete was appraised at $7000

The Boeing hanging in the east court of the Museum of Science and Industry is considered of historic value

because it was one of a fleet of 24 BAT 40A aircraft that helped make transcontinental air travel possible for the first time in 1927 (See The Vintage Airplane December 1977)

Buttitas model although it was not built to fly looks every middotbit like it could It is so realistic that it later won him an important award from the Hobby Industry of America

The Museum of Science and Industry which is loshycated on Chicagos south side lakefront draws about four million visitors a year to see hundreds of exhibits depictshy

18

ing the laws of science and applications of technology in industry and other fields It is a non-profit independent institution and admission is free

The Museum was partially opened in 1933 with only a handful of exhibits By that time Boeing Air Transport and three other airline companies-- Pacific Air Transport Varney Air Lines and National Air Transport- were joined together to form United Airlines which on November 30 1933 donated the Boeing to the Museum

It took seven more years for the museum to be comshypleted so the Boeing was stored in the institutions basement until it finally was hung from the ceiling in 1939 Although the plane has been cleaned regularly and today remains in sparkling condition it has never been moved from its resting place and probably wont be for some time to come

The Boeing is part of a large aviation display which includes a number of other antique aircraft the Apollo 8 spacecraft and a full-sized model of the first class cabin of a Boeing 747

Other planes on exhibit with the Boeing 40B are a 1910 Curtiss a 1913 Morane-Saulnier a 1917 Curtiss J N-4 Jenny a Supermarine Spitfire a Lockheed F-104 Starfighter and the Travel-Air S Mystery NR1313 sponsored by Texaco and flown by Frank Hawks in setshyting a number of transcontinental records

The Museum also owns a Junkers Ju87B Stuka but it is not on exhibit in Chicago because it rests temporarily on loan in the Air Education Museum of the Experimental Aircraft Association in Franklin Wisconsin The German World War II dive bomber was restored after a cleaning accident at the Chicago Museum by the EAA Museum staff

The Model which Buttita finished three years ago is on exhibit in a special case It draws considerable interest because of its highly detailed work- down to the tiniest hinges on the doors

Boeing Air Transport (BAn probably owed its corposhyrate life to the Boeing 40A which enabled it to get into the airmail transport business

The Boeing Airplane Company first built a single Model 40 for a government competition in 1925 for the awarding of a contract for an airplane to be flown by the U S Post Office Department to replace the old de Havilshyland DH-4s it had been using since 1918 The governshyment bought the one Model 40 equipped with the old watercooled Liberty engine but did not award the comshypany a production contract It went instead to Douglas for its series of M aircraft

However the project was revived a year later when the Post Office Department decided to award Contract Air Mail (CAM) routes to private contractors for airmail The Model 40 plans were dusted off updated with the

After its Wasp engine was replaced with the PampW Hornet engine the 40A was designated the 408 and This picture of groundcrewmen unloading a 40A gives a looked like the above close-up view of the Pratt amp Whitney Wasp engine and

the dural sheet construction used throughout

latest improvements and redesigned to meet the postal requirements Designated the 40A it was powered with a 9 cylinder 420 horsepower Pratt amp Whitney Wasp enshygine a new aircooled radial engine Boeing was testing in its fighter type aircraft

The Boeing basic design with a pilot in an open cockpit was also changed to carry two passengers in a forward cabin although the awarding of the airmail conshytract and not passenger transportation was of paramount importance But the 40A could still carry 1200 pounds of mail in addition to the two hardy souls who pioneered passenger travel in 1927

It was the new designs low operating costs and high revenue potential that got BAT Boeings wholl y-owned subsidiary the low bid on the new San FranciscoshyChicago airmail (CAM number 18) route from the govshyernment BAT operated 24 of the 25 40As built The other plane was delivered to Pratt amp Whitney as a flying engine test bed This test aircraft proved its worth as in early 1928 the new 525 horsepower Pratt amp Whitney Homet engine became available in quantity and BAT quickly converted 19of its 40As to 40Bs with the installashytion of the new Hornet engine Among these was the Chicago museums NC288

According to the Model Specification and History document supplied to BAT by the Boeing Airplane Comshypany the 40A was a Three-place Landplane Biplane Closed Cabin Mailplane (3P-CiSl Factory numbers ran from 879 through 903 The first flight was made on May 20 1927 with delivery to BAT nine days later Dimenshysions were wingspan 442 length 332V and height 123 Empty weight was 2622 Ibs with a de sign gross of 4652 Ibs It boasted a top speed of 135 mph and a cruising speed of 125 mph but the actual pershyformance was closer to a maximum speed of 128 and a cruise of 105 mph It has a range of 550 miles and a sershyvice ceiling of 15700 feet

The 40A needed the altitude capability because of the rugged mountainous terrain on the 1 9113 mile San Francisco-Chicago run BAT started to use the new plane on the route with many intermediate stops on July 1 1927 When National Air Transport began its CAM Number 17 route operations with its Douglas M-4s betshyween New York and Chicago on September 1 1927 the two airlines link-up at Checkerboard Field at Maywood Illinois outside of Chicago gave the United States its first transcontinental air travel

The Chicago museum s Boeing 40B figured promishynently in th is important part of history Boeing NC288 amassed more than 6000 flight hours on the San Francisco-Chicago run and was flown many times by the famous airmail pioneer Jack Knight (See The Vintage Airplane February 1977) before it was retired

Construction of the Boeing 40A is shown in this picture of th e Boeing A irplane Company assembly line w ith A Boeing 40A NC286 - a sister ship of NC288 in the 40As in various stages of completion at Sea ttle Washingshy Chicago Museum - is show n fl ying over mountains on ton the Boeing A ir Transports San Francisco-Chicago run in

20

The Museums 40B in the coloring and markings of a 40A hangs with other historically significant aircraft in Chicagos Museum of Science and Industry The cockpit of the Boeing 40A w as simple making the

job o f duplica ting it in a model less demanding

(Museum of Science and Industry Photo)

- __ poundLlaquo

In 1933 it was used in the Wings of a Century pageant at the Century of Progress Exposition in Chicago after the Worlds Fair it was turned over to the Rosenwald Museum which later was renamed the Museum of Scishyence and Industry

Although the basic construction of the Boeing 40A was simple it had enough detail to make a model of it interesting Buttita said that he was a stickler for detail but admitted that he got carried away in making his model

When I decided to build the model I didnt intend to make it with such detail Buttita told this author I thought I could fake a lot by making the metal parts out of wood and painting them silver

But Buttita changed his mind and made every metal part out of metal and every wood part out of wood So the project which he thought would take him six or seven months eventually took three years

The more detail I put on it the better it looked he said so finally nothing could stop me and I detailed evshyerything

Buttita is an artist with the Accurate Silk Screen Sershyvice Company Chicago and his model building ability is well known

The three-quarter scale 40A is what is called a scratch model in which the builder starts from scratch as opposed to a kit in which plans and many formed parts are supplied

Buttita said a scratch model involves considerable reshysearch and study For the 40A he got a complete set of plans and all the photographs he could from Boeing and United

It took me three or four months of study before I could actually get started to build anything he said

Unlike kits which eliminate many of the interior parts that cannot be seen scratch models to be authentic must have all the details of construction such as all the ribs in the wings But that also makes them much stronger and keeps them from warping Buttita pointed out

Both the Boeing 40A flown by BAT and the Buttita model of it were constructed at the peak of the state of the art for their day

The airplane had a steel tubular fuselage with wood fairing strips and was dural and fabric covered The wings also fabric covered were built up of spruce spars and ribs The dural sheet on the fuselage covered the enshygine cowling cabin doors and compartment hatch openshyings

The two passengers sat in a cabin metal lined throughout and their seats and seat backs were upholsshytered in leather The windows of the two doors one on each side of the fuselage were made of non-shatterable glass and could be opened for additional ventilation and

21

Details of the construction of the 40As cabin door and wing struts are shown in this close-up

A close-up view of Carl Butshytitas model of the 40A shows how dedicated he was to deshytail in the models construction

Carl Buttita builder of the three-fourths sca le Boe ing 40A discusses fine points of the construction with Edshyward E Carlson chairman of UAL In c Chicago and a member of the board of trustees of the Museum of Scishyence and Indu stry before the model was put on display in the Museum

were large enough to give the passengers an excellent view of the scenery

The rear of the fuselage was braced with steel tie-rods and was heavily faired to shape although it still was fabshyric covered The tail assembly also was fabric covered but only the horizontal stabilizer was built up like the wings with spruce spars and wood built-up ribs The rest of the tail assembly was built up with welded steel tubshying It rested on a steerable tailskid The landing gear was made of streamlined chrome-moly and used oleo-spring shock absorbers

Buttitas construction problems for his model were reshysolved through the use of a wide variety of materials

The Boeing model is made of aluminum pine dentists plastic epoxy glue and Japanese silkspan paper About 40 percent of the model is metal but much of it is inside so you dont see it Buttita said These parts are the cables controls pilots seat corrugated floor panels hinges cockpit fire extinguisher medical kit and workshyable seat belts

Each part had to be hand made some several times to get them right or if they broke Buttita said I had to make 20 to 30 rims for the landing lights to get two

When you make a one-of-a-kind model you have to fabricate about 90 per cent of the parts yourself and make dies for almost everything he added

For the metal parts Buttita used small pieces of offset printers plate made of aluminum but with some tin for added strength The wood parts are made of spruce and the engine and wheels are made of the dental plastic

All the markings and lettering were drawn triple the size on paper and reduced photographically on decal paper That way they were better than if I had handshypainted them on the model he said

Buttita said he did all the construction work on a card table at home and the only power tool he used was a small electric drill

At least one other Boeing 40B is known to be on exshyhibit in another museum This is aircraft NC285 factory number 896 which was presented to the Henry Ford Museum at Dearbom Michigan in 1938 But so far it doesnt have a scale model of its own to highlight it And don t look to Carl Buttita to build one I will never do it again he sa id It was just too much work

Rebuilding AVagabond

By Larry Railing Box 5 7 -C P Avenue

Lake Mills WI 5355 7

I never realized at the time I started to rebuild or lets say restore Piper Vagabond PA-15 N4423H that so many people were interested in what Id term history So here it is

I started flying in Valparaiso Indiana around 1900 I learned in a )-3 owned by Mark Murvahill I later

graduated to the PA-12 In 1964 I graduated from high school and a year later I was married As most in like cirshycumstances I gave up flying for love until the newness wore off

My first airplane was a )-5 Cub that went down in a marsh I had started to rebuild it until Dick Wagner of Wag-Aero heard of it and made me an untimely offer This airplane was later destroyed at Burlington along with the Tri-Motor

I later owned other aircraft which included aT-Craft Somehow Dick Wagner heard of my T-Craft and flew up in a Vagabond to see it and made me an offer

I told him at that time if he ever got in the mood to sell the Vag to please call me That was in 1968

On December 26 1976 Dick called me and asked if I was still interested in the Vag I told him yes and Id come down the next Saturday morning The next Saturday came and so did I There the Vag stood on its nose just as pictures in past issues of The Vintage A irplane had shown

Dick with all his other projects had to let something go He offered me the Vag or one of two Cubs My thoughts never gave way to anything but the Vag

23

The stripped fuselage arrives at home ready for a long winter s night

Work completed the birds about ready for a runway

I climbed a ladder and pulled the tail down and began looking It was all there but in sad shape For the past four years it hadn t been outside It looked good in the dark but time took its toll The fabric was beyond even shot But it was all original Every instrument the seat and all were original In thirty years no one even drilled a hole in the panel

We tried to get the old Lycoming 65 started but no way

The next Saturday morning I borrowed a stock car trailer and headed for Lyons with my truck On the way down all was going so well until I met a car looked in my mirror and noticed the trailer to be about a foot wider than my pickup Id never given that a thought before Everytime I met another car I just got over a little I fishynally arrived at Dicks place and began taking the Vag

Fits like a sausage casing The envelopes ready for the hea t trea tment

apart I placed the wings on some racks on my truck and the fuselage or the trailer I didn t bother taking off the tail All was loaded and ready to roll in about three hours

About halfway into the dismantling it began to snow By the time I was ready to go we had gotten about three inches This worked out in my favor as it slowed everyone else on the highway down to my speed My greatest worry when hauling an airplane is when you meet a truck

All seemed to be going good The first car I met I got over to the right because of the trailer At this time I looked into the mirror and not only noticed the trailer a foot wider than the truck on each side but the horizontal stabilizer stuck out another foot on each side beyond the trailer What a shock

I stopped and tried to remove the tail but to no avail The snow kept coming and so did the end of the day It took me four and a quarter hours to go fifty-five miles By the time I got home we had eight inches of snow What a long ride

I began total disassembly right away The wings were in fantastic shape All that was needed was varnish on the tip bows I also put new cables in the whole airplane The original inspectors number date and signature are still on the spars

I worked the whole project under the watchful eyes of Paul Baker an AI from Beaver Aviation at Dodge County

The author tackles another flying surface with needle and twine

Airport He is really an EAAer I never heard of an AI so ready and willing to help restore an airplane He even came to my home after hours to inspect the fuselage as it was easier for me than taking it up there Paul says if Id hired him to do the restoring I could just hand over my paycheck for a year so he said you do the working and Ill do the looking

All the still pieces were sandblasted and sprayed with Imron primer Believe me you do have to wear a mask with that stuff

I gave Wag-Aero a call and told them what I needed for a complete cover job and not to call me until they had it all there in one pile with no monkeying around for a little of this and that

While waiting for the covering materials I began work on the engine The whole airplane had only 1100 hours and the engine 330 SMOH I just couldn t get it started I solicited the help of a local mechanic and Stinshyson owner Harold Hubrich We found three blown head gaskets one leaky valve the impulse spring in the left mag was broken and the P-Iead in the right mag the inshysulator of phenolic replaced with masking tape

I pulled the heads and Harold ground ~he valves had the mags rebuilt a complete new ignition system and the carburetor rebuilt We got her back together and bongo

- she started right off In the meantime I finished the wings and control surshy

faces I wanted to paint it all apart so a temporary gear 24

Larry applies a new cowling atter a fruitl ess encounter with sa ndblasting equipment

was made to support the fuselage The engine was never taken off Many people questioned that temporary gear I just said you had to be very careful on take-off and landshying

The actual covering was very enjoyable you could see some real progress including the stitching but that spraying and sanding Sixteen hours of work for every coat Six sandings fourteen coats and thirty gallons all total

The sheet metal was all in good shape I had planned to replace the cowl so a guy that was chicken could look in at the rubber band I tried Zip Strip to get down to bare metal with no luck at all I took all the aluminum parts over to a body shop including the boot and sandblasted them In less than ten minutes I destroyed every piece of aluminum except the instrument panel and nose bowl I then got some aluminum and began making new parts It all turned out very well

When I first brought the Vag home I contacted Cecil Ogles of Vag-News and he sent me more info than I think Piper has Among which was complete rigging

Im a little more fortunate than most- Im a tool and die model maker by trade and have my own shop Before beginning on the Vag my partner and I added on a 50 x 60 foot addition to our shop which served for a beautiful place to work over the winter to store parts until needed as well as an area to completely assemble the airplane for rigging

Its been a long time since the fuselage last shook from a run-up

Time came to go to the airport and sprout feathers There is a private strip just south of town so I went there along with about six helpers The airplane was assembled and flown two days later on June 28 1978 A year and a half after beginning

The first flight was all anyone could hope for It really flys hands off and is the easiest airplane for a taildragger to land that I have ever flown

Now for some numbers Cruise 85-90 Cruise RPM 2300 Fuel Consumption 30 gph Prop 70-36 Final and Climb 70 mph Over the Fence 60 mph Stall 40 mph Empty Weight 640 Ibs Take-off- For each 10 Ibs over 200 the passenger

weighs I added 100 feet I had the Vag at Oshkosh on Tuesday this year and

took it home and put it to bed the same night In this area we have about fifteen Vags flying with

five of them done original Myself I like to see airplanes kept original Its like a Model T with a Chevy 427 it just aint the same

The airplane is covered with Stits and the finish is Aerothane

Now that the airplanes finished work ca n proceed on the shop

I can say something most people cant about this airpshylane While at Oshkosh I went over and visited the Piper display and who would you guess was there Clyde Smith the test pilot of my airplane thirty years ago I took a couple of pictures of him and will be placing them in the log books next to his signature

The Vag is my first real attempt in restoring I did the whole airplane myse lf except the seat and the engine work Im very pleased with the end product Its all mine and paid for as well Im now enjoying the fruits of my labor and Id do it again if I could find another Vagshyabond

Oddly enough it seemed the hardest part of the whole project was the legal end Being that the FCC can t seem to find a good reason to charge for a restricted radio license I decided to send for one just in case I ever carried a radio along That took three months and the paperwork went back and forth six times The hardest part was the registration The airplane hadn t been regisshytered since 1967 The State of Wisconsin wasnt too bad That paperwork came back only once asking for an addishytional $333 because I didn t notify them within thirty days after purchase even though the airplane had been declared exempt But the Feds This took six months nine phone calls and six letters Finally I called once again and told them that after a year and a half of rebuilding with or without them I was going to fly it I think that finally did the trick

25

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Calendar of Events NOVEMBER 18-19 - MIAMI FlORIDA- Antique Classic and Cusshy

tom Built Fly-In at the third annual Harvest- A Country Fair sponsored by the Historical Association of Southern Florida at the Dade County Youth Fairground Coral Way at 112th Avenue Awards given for antique classic and custom built aircraft Conshytact Capt Ken Ufland of the Civil Air Patrol office (305) 552-3106 home after 600 pm (305) 251-5927 or Mary Dodd Russell Harshyvest Coordinator at the Historical Museum 3280 S Miami Ave shynue Building B Miami Fl 33129

JANUARY 21-27 - Sun N Fun the biggest fly-in in the southeastshyand the second biggest in the natron Its a full week of southern hospitality and flying fun daily aerial demonstrations fly-bys of antique classic homebuilt and warbird aircraft forums exhibits and static displays parties and com roasts big new food concesshysion country store for campers in our shady campsites Make motel reservations early- our free information booklet has a complete list of accommodations Write to Sun N Fun PO Box 3538 lakeland Florida 33802

(Dick Stouffer Photo)

Aeronca IICC Super Chief belonging to David E Long Keyser West Virginia

(Ted Koston Photo)

Heres a sharp Funk at Oshkosh Owner unknown didnt register

(Dick Stouffer Photo)

Another fine looking unregistered aircraft

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F4U CORSAIR

PLANE CHECKS The Leading Fighter 01 WWII - with a Record 01 2140 Japanese Aircraft Destroyed 28 01 which

Are Credited to Pappy Boyington Regular bank checks emblazoned with the F4U CORSAIR

- Complete the order form and write out your check Now get a deposit Slip from the same account and clearly indicate any changes or other notations as you wish it to appear on the checks (These two documents will furnish us all the data we need to make your checks compatible with your banks computer and Amer Bank Assn specs) On gift orders send your check and mark his check VOID Please allow 3 weeks for delivery

Start USing Plane Checks Now Your old checks will always be good

Identity Check Co Box 149-D Park Ridge III 60068 Activate my order for Plane Checks starting No ___ o 300middot$795 0 600-$1350 0 900middot$1875 Checks are printed with blue backgrounds and are top bound-one part deposit sUps registers and matching checkbook cover are Included In each order

o F4U CORSAIR o PIPER Assortment o BEECH AIICH1menl o UNITED DC-10

o Cherokee o Sundowner o NORTH CENTRAL DC9 DArrow o V Bonanza o CONTINENTAL OCmiddot10 o Seneca II o Baron o NATIONAL DC-l0

o PITTS SPECIAL o Pmiddot51 MUSTANG 11 AMERICAN OCmiddot10 o CESSNA Allottmenl o TWALmiddot1011 o EASTERN Lmiddotl011

o Hawk o PSA727 o WESTERN 0010 o 210Centurlon o BDmiddot5 o OZARK OCmiddotg0310 o MOONEY

o YELLOW Jmiddot3 CUB o HELICOPTER (BELL)

Ship via 0 UPS (insured) 0 Parcel Post o WEST COAST add one dollar-well fly it

Ship To

Address

City State___ Zip____

26

BELLANCA N46LW 14-13-2 N6522N Cruisair N74392 14- 13-2 N86733 14-13 N86748 Cruisair N86771 Cruisair N86919 14-13-2 N86931 14-13 C-FKFK 14-13 N6RJ Cruisemaster 14-19 N6553N Cru isemaster N7679B 14-19-2

CESSNA N6RP 120 N16DF 120 NI672V 120 N1 766N 120

N1797V 120 NC1805N 120 N2036V 120 N2123V 120 N2550N 120 N4252N 120 N72273 120 N72839 120 NC73066 120 N761 37 120 N1 2BY 140 N119D 140A N161 2V 140 N1744V 140 N1752V 140 N2106N 140 N2123N 140 N2145V 140 N2151V 140 N2165V 140 N2274N 140 N2284N 140 N2302N 140 N2308V 140 N2327N 140

N2328V 140 N2436V 140 NC2483V 140 N2486V 140 N2491V 140 N2662N 140 N2733N 140 N2775N 140 N2809N 140 N2887N 140 N3506V 140 N3516V 140 N3555V 140 N3633V 140 N3704V 140 N3732V 140 N4000N 140 N4048N 140 N5302C 140A N5323C 140A N5364C 140A N5389C 140A N5398C 140A

N5630C 140A

Robert Knauff Langley AFB VA Joseph Russell Kankakee IL Marvi n Hayes Minneapolis MN Steichen Downers Grove IL Tom LeahyFred Leidy Medina OH Bud Cates Evansville IN S C Zandell Auburn WA Robin Hermanson Garretson SO R V Bays Dartmouth NS Canada Roland M Joslyn Malibu CA Jan Gerstner Delafield WI Kerr and Watts Stockton CA

Richard L Porter Franklin WI Duncan Fitzgerald Selma NC Dwain Hunter Manawa WI Max HendersonFloyd Henderson

LaPorter IN Steve Gillon Los Altos CA Lou S Bitton Redwood City CA Norris E Mealy Niles OH John H Hupe Wamego KS Glenn Trommater Eagle MI William R Schaben SI Charles IL Richard G Pettyjohn Charlotte NC Frank S Pavliga Canfield OH Frank Hancock Anderson IN Dale Spence Pickerington OH AI BlindYally Yasko New Buffalo MI Tom Norton Cottage Grove MN W A Cordoza Woodland CA Martin Arndt Sturgeon Bay WI Marcus Brewer FI Wayne IN John von Linsowe Jr Linden MI Allen C Smith New Berlin IL Thomas C Cahoon SI Paul MN Larry Schuessler Milwaukee WI Ted Steffens Buffalo Grove IL Dick Meyers Madison IN L Boykin San Angelo TX Larry Diedrich Lodi WI Ronald W Kind Detroit MI Story Flying ClubRussell Hendricks

Seattle WA Larry Baron International Falls MN M Thomas Weaver Kalispell MT Roger Piera II So SI Paul MN Lester L Zehr FI Wayne IN Richard Schaper Blue Earth MN BernieBryan Godlove Aurora CO Robert D Busch LeClaire IA Bobby B Brashear Waco TX James Baldwin Columbus OH Kennedy B Dweight Houston TX Larry Cole Redding CA Richard Harden Minneapolis MN Conrad R Case Minneapolis MN Jay Canvender Jackson MI E McKeeMilt Peters Sioux City NE Monte Peecher Littleton CO William R McFall Waukesha WI BrentonMary Ann Bowen Ft Wayne IN John E Vonlinsowe Linden MI Dennis Griffey Muncie IN H Danck Madison WI DouglasJean Weiler Bellbrook OH Red Rose Flying ClubEdgar Hess Jr

Lancaster PA William E WinterDee Ann Winter

N9632A N72150 N72208 NC72284

N72728 N72734 N72815 N76128 N76146 N76344 N76429 N76509 N76603 N76624

N76688 N76951 N77051 N89191 N89205 N89258 N89343 N89416 N89616 N89687 N89999 Noo067 N90111 CF-DMS N172J N1198M N2608V N2617V N2636V N2661V N2671D N3004A N3415D N3531C N3833V

N3958V N401 3V N4238V N4262V N4294V N4656C N5556C N5788C N8099A N9693A N711DR N1492D N1604D

N1746D N1781D N1793D N5466C N5507C N5795C

N5799C N9210A N9926A N9935A

N9971 A N170N N600JM

140A 140 140 140

140 140 140 140 140 140 140 140 140 140

140 140 140 140 140 140 140 140 140 140 140 140 140 140 170 170 170 170 170 170 170 170 170 170 170

170 170 170 170 170 170 170 170 170 170 170A 170A 170A

170A 170A 170A 170A 170A 170A

170A 170A 170A 170A

170A 170B 170B

Lawrence R ColeNila Cole Redding CA Dale Sizer Osseo MN Bill Killie Tullahoma TN Douglas H WilliamsCarol Simpson

Menlo Park CA Jerry L Hicks Charlotte NC Arlo Gosser Franklin IN Richard Daly Spencerport NY Howard Graf Mexico MO George A Winnie Definance OH Don Murphy Peru IN Kenneth E Jacobs New Baltimore MI James Schock Farmington Hills MI Carl Carlson Junction City KS Homer J HawksRobert Hawks

Dundee IL Ronald G Degnan Canfield OH Charles E Easterday Knoxville TN Bernard Nitz Rock Island IL Noel B Morgan Opelika AL Michael E Young Cuyahoga Falls OH James Clift Knoxvi lle TN Tom Jackson Dallas TX D Coates Oxon Hill MD Wm J Kinsman Manawa WI David H Currie Knoxville TN Dick Milner Plymouth MN J R Barker Hayward CA Norman Neher Hudson WI J Cascone Toronto Onl Canada Johnny Williams San Angelo TX L Neal Grand Rapids MI Dave Broadfoot Wauwatosa WI Roland Dilley Warren OH Leroy Shultz Harahan LA Wm P Newk irk Knoxville TN Anton N Lafata Lancaster CA Frederick W Kelch Columbia IL Jack RandyPam Reynolds Marion IA Peter Holman Tarrytown NY John A Van SanlRichard Holmlund

Erwinna PA Dale Dickinson Rock Island IL Mike Shores Kent WA Donald R Eversman Naperville IL Albert Graham Carthage IL Will iam B Jennings Fenton MI Guy E Blake Helfin AL Bob Baker San Angelo TX Tony Otto Lakeland MN Wm Rasor Dayton OH Dean F Ostler Kent WA Will iam 0 Lower Citrus Heights CA Roger L Th istle Sauk City WI William B TitlowR Farnam Sunnyvale

CA James Douglass Cheyenne WY Harry May Highland CA Tom Kuffel Anchorage AK William Decker Norwalk OH Charles L Henkenius Moorehead IA James Hancock Inver Grove Heights

MN Larry Roberts Hanna City IL Robert West Oreana I L Harold N Watson Sioux Falls SO Tim LuceroJim Thompson

Denver CO Mark Zilinsky Bolingbrook IL Tom Guyton Lexington TN Arthur T Morrison Burnsville NC

N2209D N2213D N2369D N2372D N2482D N2509C N2535C N2565C N2598C N2606D

N2724C N2735C N2908D N2947D N3064A N3066A N3160B N3225A N3230A N3410C N3500C N3516D N3543C N3550D N4381B N4541C N4546C

N4922 N8187A C-FTUZ N1663C N1681C N1697C N31 86D N4786B N9254C

N9455C N9916 CF-RYV

Nl055D

NllDK N88DL N195U Nl008D Nl022D N3020B N3045B

N3048B N3066B N3085B N3482V N3893V N3897V N4327V N4363V N4403C N4408C N4445C N4477C N6681H N9326A N9331 A N9849A N32190

170B 170B 170B 170B 170B 170B 170B 170B 170B 170B

170B 170B 170B 170B 170B 170B 170B 170B 170B 170B 170B 170B 170B 170B 170B 170B 170B

170B 170B 170B 180 180 180 180 180 180

180 180 180

190

Yaamp 195 195 195A 195 195 195

195B 195 195 195 195 195 195 195 195 195 195 195 195 195 195 195 195

John W Reeves Libertyville IL William E Flynn Wakefield MA John H Krauer East Detroit MI Bill Rigsby Ponca City OK James Swinker Midland PA Hank Asciutto Perris CA Michael R Baas Irving TX D W Graham Crystal Lake IL Thomas B Morris Imlay City MI Jack W Brooke JrJack Brooke Sr

La Mesa TX Robert E Peer Opa Locka FL Douglas A Nealey Wood Dale IL Robert Decker East Peoria IL Walter Groskulth Mankato MN Gary L Loos Columbia IL Rick Hannen Center Point LA Arnold Hohl Langhorne PA E D Booth Naperville IL Glenn Loy Flint MI Dale G Faux Daleville IN Quinton L Daniel Vicksburg MI Ted R Dobrick Elkhorn WI George M Mock Anderson IN John Gileno Sherman CT Jaime Alexander Crystal Lake IL Everett N Harr is Obetz OH Malcolm ReidCraig M Lieberg

Clear Lake MN Ernest L Hand Maryville TN Victor Varnum Tama IA H Fowler Barri~ Onl Canada Gary Volkmon Waunakee WI Robert Seigelkoff San Lorenzo CA Gordon H Hale Flint MI Gary Lust Iowa City IA Earl Long Wichita KS G M ZimmermanJames Zimmerman

Arvada CO Jerome Bousselot Sandwich IL Arthur W Anderson Madison WI Stan Fowke Portage La Prairie Man

Canada Terry D Wendel lRobert A Karcher

Mobile AL Dan Kindel Cincinnati OH John Ankers Boca Raton FL Bill Terrell Hillsboro OH Roy G McLain Colton CA William C Myers SI Charles MO Adrian R Smith Smithtown NY Mark SmokovitziStan Smokovitz

Detroit MI Michael J Speshock Chandler AZ John A Krueger Redlands CA Lawrence O Cox Longmont CO Thomas Epperson Germantown OH Maureen McMaster Wichita KS W C Schwarz Green Bay WI Raymond W Franke Walnutport PA Wayne Corn Elgin IL Robert M Young McLoud OK Robert Jessup Lantana FL Rex W Bechdolt Hurst TX Raybourne Thompson Jr Houston TX Donald Fairbetter Edmond OK C C Crabs N Olmsted OH Ronald G Adams Miamisburg OH James A Watters Dwight IL Francis Longuski Inkster MI

N5676C N89902 N9405A

140A 140 140A

Tulsa OK Rick Neuer Louisburg KS S K Murdock Dubuque IA Jack CroninCristin Cronin Denver CO

N1692D N1846C N1885C NI981C

170B 170B 170B 170B

John p Mertesdorf Nicollet MN Donale E Jensen Albert Lea MN Champe Pool Wormleysburg PA Wm A Schwinn Cincinnati OH

COMMONWEALTH N33300 Skyranger

N93258 Sky ranger

Ross GresleyPaul Schermerhorn Anderson IN

L O Rupe Elkhart IN

5

DeHAVILLAND N1829K 8E Eldon E Beresford Dundee IL N92615 J-3 Fred Brown Pampa TX N48110 Chipmunk Richard C Bidlack Fremont OH N1B40K BE John Slack Frankfort IL N98391 J-3 Kenneth DeCorte Gaithersburg MD N48260 Chipmunk Walter M Rozelle Coeur dAlene 10 N2197B 8E Jim Cardis Chicago IL N9B450 J-3 Loren Larson Fairmont MN N65153 Chipmunk Dale Bronson Greenwood IN N2229K BE Donald Adams Newton KS N98734 J-3 George Roth Ruston LA CF-URN Chipmunk Lionel Hamilton Guelph Ont Canada N2231K BE Ray Miller Turner MI C-FAOB PA-11 R E Clipsham Erin Ont Canada N613WB Besver Willard Walpole Wichita KS N2290K BE F N Mair San Ang elo TX N747UA PA-12 M V Johnson Waters MI N4040W Beaver E T Kirkpatrick Boston MA N2351K BE RonaldNoel EastonDennis Kelsey N290BM PA-12 Bob Byers Saukville WI

Beloit WI N3802M PA-12 Gary Robinson Rochester NY ERCOUPE N2368K BE Karyl B Herman San Bruno CA N3860M PA-12 L Duffield Youngstown OH NI5JL Jeffry K Lehner LaPorte IN N2493K 8E Leo Bachman Decatur IL N3B67M PA-12 Robert Kratz Robertsville OH N71H William Jordan Geneva OH NC2747K 8E James R Harrison West Carrollton OH N3890M PA-12 David Kratz Massillon OH N355E Herman J Koplin Lombard IL C-FYEC BE Robert E Fleming Caledonia Ont N4169M PA-12 Thomas S Hiemnz Aurora IL N20B1H Raymond W Ganzer EI Cajon CA Canada N7753H PA-12 Donald A Hass Seattle WA N2279H John A Wright Sr Springfield IL N1674K BF Jack J Borden Franklin WI N7B459 PA-12 Richland Aviators Inc Jim Hudson N2434H Charles Darne Lafayette IN N2210B BF Jack B Mclnally Grayline MI Ri ch land Center WI N2701H Scott Olson St Paul MN N1616Z 8F Larry Traskos Bellevi lle MI C-FKOH PA-12 Ron E Baines Waterloo Ont Canada N2929H Art Leblanc Potterville MI N1865B BF Paul Prentice Chelsea MI CF-ZJI PA-12 J M Thede Elmvale Ont Canada N3232H Charles Shaffer Cary IL N1892B BF John LaRoche Bloomfield CT C-GNYW PA-12 David S Bell Markham Ont Canada N3992H Paul Furney Columbus OH N1947B 8F F D Barnard Ann Arbor MI N5243H PA-16 Gilbert Easton Rockford IL N87308 A L Kimball Catlin IL N6895C llA George T Ramin Houston TX N5253H PA-16 Dee L Davidson Bedford IA N8731 2 Donald R Bonem Essexville MI N5382H PA-16 Ronald W Donner Gleason WI N93358 Fred F Sampson New Hartford NY MOONEY MITE N5716H PA-16 John Wood Anoka MN N93823 Robert D England Tullahoma TN N489M Wilbur Draves Hometown IL N5843H PA-16 Bill Schmidt Wi chita KS N93935 Wayne Lawrence Wichita KS N4149F Dave JamesonHenry Raettig N5921 H PA-16 Charles Lancaster Wh iteland IN N93946 Gregory Krush Oak Lawn IL Oshkosh WI N5967H PA- 16 Daniel Callahan St Louis MO N94160 Jesse Austin Muskegon MI N6835K PA-16 Rob Will Seattle WA N94407 Dennis Swan Paxton IL NAVION N6841 K PA-16 Martin A Robb Riverside CA N94844 Erie Berens Stevens Point WI NB8T Twin Navion Robert Roglen Eau Claire MI N6854K PA-16 Robert Cutler Dallas TX N99026 Lucy H Morgan Old Hickory TN N350FU Harvey L Brown Delray Beach FL H5945H PA-16 Ronald Szymanski New Berlin WI N99044 Hugh McKennaRussell Burtsch N437M R J Matt McHenry IL N4133H PA-15 Clark L Anderson Neenah WI

Oswego NY N999RM Donald L ThomannDon Johnson N4406H PA-15 Sarah L Kaeiser Lake City FL N99244 Lowell D Satterlee Lincoln NE Plano IL N442-H PA-15 Terry L Railing Lake Mills WI N99274 Charles C Ray Dubuque IA N2199W Ted Smith Wash ington IL N4469H PA-15 Douglas PfundhellerJohn Matson N99335 Donald Wolfe Niles MI N4020K George Barr Worthington OH Stoughton WI N9981 7 Dennis Sparr McNabb IL N4537K Mike Nallick Minneapolis MN N4600H PA-17 Harvey P Buller Mt Lake MN N99955 Richard L Schorey Bishop Hill IL N4549K Brian J Ryan St Paul MN N461 3H PA-17 Michael A Fish Lemont IL

N4609K Richard Beedy Springfield OH N4839H Vagabond Russell Kellog Rio WI FUNK N4802K Carl Koenig Flint MI N4B70H Vagabond Darryl M LeMire White Bear Lake MN N81176 G Dale Beach Sacramento CA N4882K Louis C Hook Flint MI N1591A Pacer David Vanciere Mitchell SO N811 86 DeanPat Krueger Omaha NE N5117K L A Carlsmith Amhurst NH N1643P PA-20PA-22 P W Steiner Rockville MD

N7803B Paul E Efield Orchard Park NY N1830A Pacer Wendell Smith Battle Creek MI

LUSCOMBE Nll07B 8A N1159B 8A N1204K 8A N1361K 8A N1364K 8A N1365K 8A N2079K 8A N2110K 8A N2158K 8A N2177B 8A

N2315K 8A N2424K 8E N2685K 8A N2764K 8A N2887K 8A N2938K 8A N21996 8A N28564 8A N45680 8A N45719 BA N45767 8A N71293 8A N71315 8A N71348 8A N71465 8A N71533 SA N71922 8A CF-CHM 8A

N45WB 8E N1671K 8E

James Bacon Linden MI Les Nelson Minneapolis MN Wayne Drewry Greencastle PA Mike Thern Winona MN Jack D Lane Indianapolis IN Robert Westerberg St Paul MN Ben Bricker Kalamazoo MI Greg Carroll Buffal o Grove IL Gregory Hendricks Peculiar MO Will iam Bumgardner Bloomfield Hills

MI Robert Bohrman West Allis WI Gregg Beitel Charlotte NC Monte Jestes Pawnee OK John Barowski Downers Grove IL Jim Bastien Madison WI Pete Fleis Imperial MO Craig Sheets Sturgeon Bay WI Malcolm Green Columbus OH Kent Johnson Faribault MN David E Hennington Livermore CA Ronald H Dixon Hoquiam WA John D Richey Batesville AR Nick Showalter Corunna MI Terry Volante Euclid OH Steve Lester Morrow GA Larry Hall Oklahoma City OK Maynard Wolkman Hinckley MN T A C Kennedy Mississauga Ont

Canada William F Bokodi Griffith IN Donald Sweatman Venango PA

N8662H N8684H N8821H NB830H N8997H N9600C N9141 6 N91608 N91738

PIPER N1455N NC1502N N18241 N32845 N3373N N3572N N3638K N3650K N42478 N42724 N42733 N6153H N6669H N7258H N78527 N87771 NC88461 NC88575 N88684 N88698 N92084 N92090

Twin Navion

J-3 J-3 J-3 J-3 J-3 J-3 J-3 J-3 J-3 J-3 J-3 J-3 J-3 J-3 J-3 J-3 J-3 J-3 J-3 J-3 J-3 J-3

William L Marcy Denver CO Howard G Shoemaker Wilmington DE J C Langran Jr Colorado Springs CO Ed Hedlund So Haven MI Ben Gentile Huntington LI NY Fred Garcia Remsenburg NY Jim D Stewart Dunedin FL G L Valbert Camby IN W T Christian Knoxville TN

Donald Richards Bellaire MI Roger Montambo Red Wing MN Mont Mendenhall Tho masville NC Lynn Chamber lain Mt Pleasant MI J L Burns Mt Morris IL Roger Turner Bingham Lake MN Anne Collins Joliet IL John Spiegel Port Byron IL John Lamascus Pacific Grove CA Bruce H Nagorske Bingham Lake MN Jerry Kennedy Murphysboro IL Ralph Korff Lockport NY Laran Larson Fairmont MN Donald V Lacouture Jr Marlboro MA Max Faulkner Bourbon IN Norman J Shuff Watertown WI Reid P JoyceG R Purifoy Valencia PA John V Rawson Jr Belle Meade NJ Dan PellKevin J Engel Sheldon IA David A Watson Framingham MA Winton D Glaser Appleton WI John GelasifTheodore Sanders

Highland Park IL

N2103A N2165A N2934Z N49AK N5179A N5538A

N7161K N7324K N7326K

N7629K N7672K N9132R C-FGCM

G-FLOK CF-RRU

N1214 N1947A N5466H N99302 CF-HCY C-FMDP

N72CJ Nll06C N1262C N1319C N1487A N1512P N1529P NI545P

PA-20 PA-20 Pacer PA-20 PA-20 PA-20

PA-20 Pacer Pacer

PA-20 PA-20 PA-20 PA-20

PA-20 PA-20

PA-18 PA-18 PA-18 PA-18 PA-18 PA-18

PA-22 PA-22 PA-22 PA-22 PA-22 PA-22 PA-22 PA-22

Gerald Shultz North Branch MN T J Champagne Houma LA Allen Simons Bristol CT Ed Cahill Juneau AK Brian Bristol Cottage Grove MN Robert RadoLedray Victorian

Toledo OH Walter FritzBrian Crull Indianapolis IN Charles C Myers Manchester TN Robert ManierBernard Menier

St Paul MN Robert Andrews Libertyville IL Robert Vasey Stafford KS James H Bristol Cottage Grove MN George McMillan North Bay Ont

Canada C Burbank Shelburne Ont Canada Gary M Ferguson Oshawa Ont

Canada Michael McKay Martins Ferry OH P W McKamy Billings MT Terry Henry Neenah WI Sherman B Elder Muskogee OK Karl H Bunder Aurora Ont Canada James Bilstad Thu nder Bay Ont

Canada Bruce LundC J Lund Mobile AL V L Dant Rome GA G Woerner Geneva OH Lowell Roberts Midwest City OK S D Stevens Arden Hills MN Jay Carter East Liverpool OH Wm T White Dallas TX James E Donaldson Eden Prairie MN

6

N2276A PA-22 Richard C Hill Harvard IL N78321 Michael P Kennedy Homestead AFB FL N43871 Marshall Kennard Enfield CT N3212Z PA-22 Wm W Ricketts Finksburg MD N80589 James Byland Moberly MO N43898 Temple amp Woodward Granger IN N3360B PA-22 Lloyd MookEddie Veach Harrisonville N80613 G W Goodland SI Paul MN N44204 Eugene M Townsend Decatur IL

MO N80665 Pete King Rockville MD NC44493 John W McDonald New Orleans LA N3377A PA-22 William Sherhan Lincoln NE N80689 Dave EbersoleScott Chr ist iansen N94941 Jon Ch almers Thompson Johnson N6125D PA-22 Wayne Minnis W Palm Beach FL Colorado Springs CO City TN N81 21C PA-22 Matthew Grainda Easton PA N80706 Mark Holliday Hastings MN N95109 Wm E Boggs Grove City OH N8588C PA-22 William A Rudolph Traverse City MI N80776 Joey N Kemp Tullahoma TN N95926 Dick AmRhein Troy OH Nl0306 PA-22 AI Morris Warminster PA N80905 Charles Hoover Jr SI Paul MN NC95957 Douglas Anderson Jackson MI CF-KKX PA-22 Alvin C Pomery Janetville Ont Canada N80949 Lowell Sterch i Coral Gables FL N96026 R R Reece San Angelo TX

N80969 Harry Lyon Jr North SI Paul MN N96275 Jim Hall Rockford IL REPUBLIC SEABEE N90383 Guy Eby Madison CT N96386 Robert W West Oreana IL N1CD Curtis Dax Chicago IL N96387 Everett Downey Albion NY N6570K Grant Leonard Prior Lake MN TAYLORCRAFT N96417 John Friling Lombard IL

NC922WT Paul Edward Nuss Juniata Altoona PA N96544 Steven N Landis FI Wayne IN middotSTlSON NC5020M Ralph LauritsenCliff Henry Boone IA N96818 Wm Knight Brodhead WI N389C Boyd Walsh Marion IN N5045M Robert ReedyCovert Holley Troy OH N96842 Tim Mickel Scioto Mills IL N584LW 108 Larry Wheelock Bloomfield IN N5109M Herbert Browning London OH N96979 Lester L Walls Shrewsbury PA Nl081S Voyager Richard Bourque Simsbury CT N5218M Richard Weimberger Fond du Lac WI CF-KFG James Takacs Port Colborne Ont N6323M 108 Paul Varner Rockford IL N5265M EM Air Museum Franklin WI Canada N6555M Nicholas C Selig Naperville IL N29753 James Foos Granger IN CF-PUW Ken Bimm Rexdale Onl Canada N8212K 108-1 Robert Reintgen Latrobe PA N34093 Paul Cusumano Mayfield Village OH N8509K 108-1 Daniel Bauman Oorr MI N39168 Thornton Cressy Westland MI ADDITIONAL CLASSICS N8747K Charles Brokaw Parker CA NC39222 SArt Bujnowski Huntington LI NY N242B Helio Couier Robert T Griff in Waxhaw NC N9088K 108-1 C O Depuy Ponca City OK N39974 William Fitch Epworth IA N424 L Meyers 145 L A Waite Durand MI N9117K Voyager James Strock Austintown OH N43163 Jerry Kramer FI Recovery OH C-FLWG Moranamp-Sauln ier 502 Frank Masak Scarboro Onl Canada N97367 108 Bruce Jacobs Albion MI N43344 Mark Yelich Franklin WI N5160 Rawdon T-l Jack Chastain Creve Coeur MO N97607 108 Rich Klepperich Webster MN N43556 Ray L Sherwood Fairf ield IA N711SV Stampe John Hanson Manistee MI N297K 108-2 Stinson IVBob LaBonte Hudson NH N43680 Parker Buckley Waynesville OH N25MB Stampe SV4 Don Good SI Joseph MO N971J 108-2 J Mankins Corona CA N43845 J C Latronigo Girard OH N8000K 108-2 Michael Hudgins Portage WI N9306K 108-2 Frank Sperry SI Ignace MI N9582K 108-2 David Peterson Inver Grove Heights MN N9836K 108-2 G M Huffman Tulsa OK CF-HZM 108-2 Fred Green Mississauga Ont Canada CF-SID 108-2 Augus Cameron London Ont Canada N675C 108-3 Curt Lindauer Belleville IL N762C 108-3 Harvey T EngenDavid Engen

Excelsior MN NC6018M 108-3 Carl Pflanzer Rome NY N6649M 108-3 Russel Arndt Big Falls WI N6698M 108-3 Joe D Wh ite Calumet City IL C-FKQC 108-3 Richard R Schaub Fenwick Ont

Canada CF-LLW 108-3 Kenneth Gamble Hamilton Ont Canada

SWIFT N1BJ Raymond Neuse Groesbeck TX N1ZF Ronald Thompson Jenks OK Nl0SS William Shepard River Ridge LA N1 3SW Steve Wilson St Charles IL N50BS Roland J Zavada Pittsford NY N77PB Pat Knight Waynesboro VA N853C Charles R Cannan San Juan

Capistrano CA N853P John R Dixon Mission Viejo CA N2115 Bonham E Cross Hopkins MN N2334B James J Montague Lake Elmo MN N2424B Carl Weddle Hendersonville TN N2429B William GoldmanJack Morgan

Chandler AZ N2442B John Cranfill Frankfort IL N2457B Dick McNeil North Wilkesboro NC N3248K Howard H Hanson Webster MN N3263K Howard Thalacker Chetek WI N3740K Ronald W Williamson San Diego CA N3816K Buz Johnson Mobile AL N3898K Tracy Rhodes Dayton OH N77756 George ONeal SI Petersburg FL N78083 Paul L Chesley Albuquerque NM N78247 Clyde B Ericson Barrington I L N78261 N78306 N78309 N78311

James Pope Washington DC Gary Scott Schoolcraft MI Bernard F Arnold Cuyahoga Falls OH Richard A Chisholm Oak Lawn IL

(Lee Fra y Photo)

Bill Ehlen and AI H enninger Forums Chairman and Co-Chairman

(Lee Fray Photo)

AntiqueClass ic Headquarters staffers J Kesel Markl and K Morgan

7

RON WOJNARS GRAND CHAMPION CHAMP

Going down this photo and the next give an indication of what Ron had to tear down prior to his very extens ive reshybuild

On day six Thursday of Oshkosh 78 acshytivities were already beginning to wind down The aircraft judges had pared their long long lists down to the top one or two in each category or in many cases had pretty well decided the final rankings About all that remained was to wait out the day to inshysure that no one flew in anything that would upset the apple cart at the last moment

Unbeknownst to the Classic judges the upsetter was already on the field having slipped in the previshyous evening right after the History of Flight pageant No one paid any particular attention when a mild and well mannered young man walked into the Classic trailer on Thursday morning and asked if he could get his airplane judged Half an hour later however ap-

By Jack Cox

pies were tumbling all over the AntiqueClassic parkshying area and judge-laden golf carts were rushing from all quadrants toward the scene of the calamity One quick walk around one sniff of the cabin aroma one peek under the cowling and it was all over The only sounds were a few anguished groans and the tearing of paper yesterdays judging sheets

Unless you were well into your 50s or an aficionado of Classic airplanes this Through the

The right wing before stripping inspection holes

Looking Glass scenario made little sense for in the middle of it all was just a little 01 Aeronca Champion

But what a Champion First it was yellow with the orange lower fuselage

- the familiar Aeronca factory paint scheme that we

rarely see today On the nose was a brand new Senshysenich wood propeller - a 72-42 climb prop just like the FBOs used to order for flight training The nose bowl and wrap-around cowl were as pristine as a newly minted dime - even the exhaust pipe stubs sticking out the bottom were barely smudged The tires were new the oleo struts at full normal extenshysion and the brake covers without a chip in the paint from prop blasted stones and gravel Inside the cashybin the brown crinkle-finish instrument panel held an array of dials the correct ones sporting the winged Aeronca emblem Black enameled floorshyboards brown flocked side panels and door and brown leatherette seat covers each emitted its own peculiar smell to combine with that of fresh dope and 80 octane to produce that aeromatic Evening in Middletown essence that few of us have experienced but none have forgotten

Outside again a glance across the top surface of the wings revealed chordwise rows of little bumps in

Naturally all wood was replaced Here the old is used as a pattern for a new window frame

8

the glistening fabric tell-tale mini-molehills marking the characteristically Aeronca PK screws taking the place of rib stitching 24 inch orange letters and numerals swam in the shimmering light reflected off the top of the right wing

Letting ones gaze swoop down the familiar mulshytifaceted sway back of the fuselage it was easy to see every stringer arced st raight and true to the tail - no warps no valleys between formers

Emblazoned on the fin and rudder - in orange shywere the stenciled winged Aeronca emblem and the rather odd sized and spaced N numbers

Stepping back for perspective ones mind reeled This wasnt a latter day restoration it was a new airplane only hours ago a ferry pilot had signed out the airplane from the factory ramp there in Middletown Ohio dated his voucher August 5 1946 and took off for Milwaukee to deliver the spankshying new airplane to Anderson Air Activities but on the way perhaps in the clouds of industrial smoke around Gary and South Chicago a time warp was enshycountered misdirecting the little bird through 3 deshycades to Wittman Field on the evening of August 2 1978

It looked that new it felt that new it even smelled that new

The next evening Ron Wojnar (EAA 31222) of Milshywaukee was called to the stage to receive the 1978 EAA Grand Champion Classic trophy for his 1946 Aeronca 7AC Champion and not a soul who had seen the airplane was surprised

The new frame s been installed along with a lot of other new wood

And not one of us who knew Ron personally was surprised either

Have you ever been to EAA Headquarters If you

have you may recall that in the main lobby two pedestals flank the entrance doors Atop these are glass cases containing two exquisite cut-away type airplane models one of an EAA Biplane and the other of a Tailwind They were meticulously crafted a number of years ago by a young college student who worked as a summer employee at the EAA Museum

That young man already exhibiting his concern for accuracy and authenticity his talent for minute detail and superb workmanship was Ron Wojnar

Born in Milwaukee on December 3 1949 Rons lifelong fascination with aviation came naturally His father Tony was a pilot who significantly often flew a Champ in those days before his family started comshying along and he was forced to give it up Earlier he had become an aircraft mechanic courtesy the Marine Corps and spent World War II keeping the heavy iron flying After V-J Day Tony returned to Milwaukee and signed on as a mechanic with the Wisconsin Air Nashytional Guard His Maintenance Officer - and pilot

The basic frame has been rebuilt by this point but th eres so much to go

for whom he served as a crew chief - was a Lt Colshyonel named Paul Poberezny

Three years before Rons birth a new Aeronca Champion was ferried into Mitchell Field just a couple of blocks from the Wojnar home by its new owner Andershyson Air Activities NC85448 labored for a number of

years as a trainer - climbing out and gliding in over the Wojnar household when the wind was right By early December of 1949 when the Wojnars were blessed with a healthy son the Champ had already accumulated alshymost exactly 3000 hours of flying time

A typical loving father Tony wanted his son to share his interest in aviation He built models for him until he was old enough to be taught to start building them himself He would often take little Ron along in the evening when he had to put in overtime and let him sit in the cockpits of the T-6s and P-51s on which

he was working and when his son was 6 years old Tony took him to nearby Waukesha Municipal Airshyport bought a couple of $250 tickets and treated hi m to his first airplane ride - in a Cessna 170

Those evenings in the cockpits of the Texans and 51s were making a far deeper impression on his son than Tony probably realized at the time Ron can vivshyidly recall the experiences to this day and he dates his determination to make aviation his lifes work to those wonderous moments when he sat there in the bucket seats pushing and pulling the sticks intently studying the dials and levers and wheels around him - and the rudder pedals down there in the bowels of the fuselage his little legs would not be able to reach for years to come

9

As the years went by Rons interest in airplanes and flying grew in sophistication in step with the growth of his body and mind He managed to get an airplane ride once in a while - sometimes in a Stearman piloted by his fathers boss Paul Poberezny and once when he was 11 in a Champ piloted by family friend Dick Mildebrandt Ron dearly longed to learn to fly but at the same time his academic success in high school was bending his inshyterests toward the scientific So much in fact that after graduation in 1967 he was soon packing to head for Lafayette Indiana to enroll as an aeronautical enshygineering student at Purdue University

Not surprisingly Purdue had been selected in part for its reputation as an aviation oriented institushytion Aside from its academic excellence Ron knew it must have a flying club a fact he confirmed within hours of his arrival on campus Excitedly relatshying this discovery to his father (with obvious intent) Ron found himself being brought back down to earth by the elder Wojnars reminder that he was there to earn a degree first and a pilots license maybe However he softened the admonition with the promshyise that after seeing Rons grades at the end of the first semester the situation would be open for further evaluation

No student was ever led down the path of academic achievement by a more tempting carrot Ron hit the books with a vengeance - sleep meant nothing social life was ignored and Big Ten football was just a Saturday afternoon recharging of Rons batshyteries for the REAL task at hand

At the end of the semester Tony had a wide and proud grin on his face and Ron was wasting little time getting enrolled in the school flying club To his surprise and pleasure he had found that in addition to its modern trainers Purdue still retained a Piper j-3 in its flight school fleet available for $550 per hour

For the next 312 years that Cub would virtually become Rons personal airplane He loved it - and soloed it in about 8 hours - but most of his fellow students sneered down their noses at the lowly yelshylow dog A few learned to fly in it simply because of the low rental rate but couldn t wait to move up to the REAL airplanes the Colts Cessnas etc Conshysequently Ron could count on getting the j-3 almost any time he wanted to fly it He checked out in the other aircraft also but never tired of just going off alone and shooting landings or watching a sunset in his Cub

Returning home that f irst summer he found himshyself without a job - wh ich meant no funds for flying

A couple of weeks later at an EAA fly-in he related his dilemma to Audrey Poberezny and a few days later received a phone call from Bill Chomo offering summer employment at the EAA Museum Ron jumped at the chance and would spend each of his college summer vacations mowing yards painting dusting airplanes - whatever was asked of him that wou Id support his flying habit

Ron had been a member of EAA Chapter 18 for a number of years and the summer job at EAA Headshyquarters (where 18 holds its meetings) intensified his relationship with various of the members Eventually he fell in with a bad crowd bounders like Bob Ladd Dick Mildebrandt and the notorious Ron Scott Soon they were putting terrible things in his head worst of which was the insidious idea of actually ownshying an airplane Together they schemed to chip in and buy a Cub Champ or some such fun airplane for giving rides to friends taildragger checkouts etc (Bob Dick and Ron Scott each had single place homebuilts in those days) Ron was sorely tempted to fall in with the plan but fortunately he was spared by the timely intervention of his father although there would be moments in the years to come when he had good cause to question the hand fate had dealt him

It wasnt that Tony objected to the terrible trio (acshytually they were and are today close friends) - or even the idea of owning an airplane he simply wanted to see his son apply his aviation skills and knowledge to a purposeful end He wanted the two of them to buy a basket case and restore it

Taken somewhat by surprise by this proposal Ron quickly recovered and began scouring Trade-A-Plane Chapter newsletters and the like One day during the summer of 1970 he picked up a Chapter 260 (Dolton IL) newsletter and began scanning it for ads - and there it was Leo Faoro (EAA 28636) of Dolton (south Chicago) had a basket case 1946 Aeronca Champion he was willing to part with for a reasonashyble price

I n rapid succession Ron talked the situation over with his father (who would be the financial backer of any deal) called Leo on the 4th of july and arranged a meeting time drove down with Tony the next day inspected the airplane liked what he saw and put a $100 deposit on it The following weekend the Champ was retrieved and was placed in his Aunts garage acshyross townJn Milwaukee

Immediately Ron and his father began taking the fuselage apart and the very first th ing Ron twisted off a brass fitting on the carburetor This reshyally upset him at the time because it pounded home

the realization that despite his book knowledge he was completely lacking in hands on experience in working on airplanes His dad however was just sitshyting back with a sly grin on his face Youve got to do things like that to learn he said Get your feet wet then pay close attention to what you are doing work carefully and do everything correctly Ron would listen to this advice and stick it out to the end For the first year or so however Tony would serve as his tutor and advisor - as well as fellow worker shyon the Champ project

In stripping the airframe down the Wojnars found that while they had a complete airplane they had a lot of work ahead of them to come up with a job to their personal standards Removing the paint from the fuselage tube framework for instance reshyvealed grinder marks - which meant replacement of some tubing The wings bore evidence of past groundloops - and atrocious repairs which would have to be completely redone And the landing gear oleos horizontal tail surfaces and a couple more smaller items were considered too bad for repair They would have to be replaced A close study of the logs revealed that such replacement of various comshyponents had been a common occurance in the life of NC85448 24 years of abuse at the hands of ham-fisted students had left only the wings intact from the airshyframe that rolled out of the factory in 1946

By this point it was time for Ron to head back to Purdue for his senior year He had signed up for some elective courses in the technical area including engine overhaul and maintenance so he took his enshygine with him hoping to overhaul it as his class proshyject He tore the A-65 down alright but it would be 7 years before it went back together again The cylinshyders were oversize and badly rusted a dye check reshyvealed a cracked crankcase the camshaft was worn out and the cam followers were eaten up with corroshysion In other words Ron found he had a pile of junk for an engine The only bright spot was the crank shyit was useable The expense of the overhaul this hunk of iron needed was out of the question while Ron was still in school so sadly the pieces were boxed up and sent back home

After graduating from Purdue in 1971 Ron reshyturned to his summer job at EAA while waiting to be assigned to officers training by the Air Guard It was an especially instructive summer The Acro Sport proshytotype was being built and with its construction (tube and rag) essentially the same as the Champ every day was a learning experience for Ron Not only could he get his hand in to pick up new skills he could apply to the restoration of his airplane but he had a golden

10

opportunity to pick the brains of pros like Bill Chomo Philippe Van Pelt Gil Bodeen and others includ ing of course the Acro Sport designer Paul Poberezny

As it turned out Ron did not get his OTS assignshyment that summer so on September 1 he accepted a full time position with the EAA Air Museum Foundashytion as Assistant Museum Director

That fall (1971) the fuselage frame was sandblasted and some pitting was found in addition to the aforementioned grinder marks Everything doubtful was cut out and replaced with new tubing Ron tacked each piece and Bill Chomo finished them later Ron would gain the experience and confidence to do his own welding By Christmas all the repair work had been done all the woodwork had been reshyplaced so that the next step was a cover job That as things turned out would be a way down the road however

In late December Ron started on the left wing He first tried to clean it up without d isassembling it bilt after several months of part time wasted effort tore it down and did it right Only one wing was done at a time so that the other could be used for reference Some wingtip repair (and rework of old bad repai rs) was necessary but essentially the wing work involved cleanup replacement of leading edges and refinishing of the spars (the only old wood reshytained in the entire airplane)

With the coming of the summer of 1972 Ron found the direction of his life changing - and the Champ temporarily moving to the back burner First his OTS assignment came through and he was off for Lackland AFB for 3 months then as a new 2nd Lieutenant one month of active duty with his local Guard unit

That fall Ron took a position with Hartzog Aviation in Rockford Illinois and moved to that city Living in an apartment he had to leave the Champ at his pashyrents home in Milwaukee driving back to work on weekends Small parts were taken home to Rockford to be reworked during the week Happily Ron had again found himself in fortuitous circumstances - at Hartzog he not only had some real aviation pros to call on for advice but a lot of sophisticated equipshyment that could be used after work

1972 saw only modest progress on the Champ what with adjustment to a new job new home and weekend travel back and forth between Milwaukee and Rockford The following year however things began to look up Perhaps most significant was the fact that Ron and his father made the first of many weekend trips to Bellancas Osceola Wisconsin plant

Aside from the spars theres not much of the o rigina l wings left in this p icshyture

The ingredients of a champions Champ are beginning to show up

to forage for parts Tom Brown and Bonnie Marlette of the Parts Sales Department took an immediate inshyterest in the restoration project and spared no effort to unearth 7AC parts that had been moved from Middletown Ohio to Wiscons in Bellanca had sufshyfered a disastrous fi re a few years before and much of the old stuff had been lost but fortunately some had been stored downtown in an old railroad depot Ron and his father were permitted to sift through evshyerything and together they came up with a lot of impossible to obtain goodies like frames for the sliding windows universal joints for the fuel valve extension rod etc A surprising number of off the shelf Citabria components are the same as for its anshycestor the 7AC All the wooden fuselage formers and stringers in fact are identical with the exception of the rear window area When completed Rons Champ looked like a new one because to a great exshytent it is thanks to the folks at Bellanca

During 1974 things began to get into high gear The wings were finished and late that year the Contishynental A-65 was given a complete major Schneck Avshyiation did the work needed and Ron did the final asshysembly - under the supervision of a licensed mechanic Thinking the end was in sight Ron purchshyased all his dope and fabric (dacron) from Bellanca and took two weeks vacation to cover the airplane He gets a big laugh today at his naivete in grossly unshyderestimating the time element involved in covering Two weeks in fact stretched into 2 years before the cover job was completed

In 1975 Rons life took another sharp turn He left Hartzog and took a career position with the FAA Asshysigned to EMDO 46 in Des Plaines IL (north side of Chicago) as an Aviation Safety Inspector (Manufacturshying) Ron was able to move back home in Milwaukee commute to work during the day and work on the Champ evenings and weekends From that point on something no matter how insignificant was done every night

One bit of help came from an unusual quarter Ironically one of Ron s FAA assignments was the Belshylanca factory - so that his friends from the days of scrounging for 7AC parts had now also become clients of sorts Every time Ron came in for an inspecshytion he had to give everyone a progress report on his Champ A couple of young girls in the covering department Donna Viebrock and Sue Dollery told Ron they would like to come to Milwaukee some weekend and install the wing envelopes Despite livshying in Wisconsin all their lives neither had been to the big city and th is would be their chance With

their expertise the work would take just a few hours and the rest of their time could be spent seeing the Sights It was an offer Ron couldn t refuse and sometime later it all came about He got a set of wings ready for doping and the girls got an expense paid fling in Wisconsin s biggest metropolitan area

With doping and finish coats to go orid inarily it would have been decision time as far as the paint scheme was concerned Not so in this case however Very early in the project Ron had made the decision to return the Champ to factory new condition and appearance This of course involved considerable research He had an original service manual given him by Ron Scott and a copy of a 1946 Skyways article on the Champ given him by George Hardie but most helpful was the complete certification record on the Aeronca 7AC on file right where hf worked EMDO 46 in Des Plaines (Bellanca still holds the Proshyduction Limitation Record for the airplane and could put it back in production tomorrow if they wanted to) The file is COMPLETE colors size and shape of markings everything All the draWings are dated 1945 and all the subsequent revisions are on file

1976 saw the covering completed and 1977 was spent doing all those little detail items you think are going to take about 2 weeks according to Ron He endured all manrer of frustration attempting to paint the fairings cowl and various other small metal pieces Ron was bugged literally He would spray on a beautiful coat of enamel - no runs no orange peel - only to have some hapless insect make a Kamakazi dive right into the shiny surface Striving for nothing less than perfection Ron stripped the parts completely after each bug attack and repainted them He estimates he pai nted the equivalent of 4 or 5 airplanes before he was satisfied Similarly the crinkle-finish instrument panel was done 3 times beshyfore a perfect job could be obtained

Ron had some interesting experiences down the stretch drive to complete the airplane A few items had seemed impossible to obtain in order to have a near 100 authentic restoration - the flocking of the interior for example For 3 or 4 years inquiries had been made through aviation channels in a vain atshytempt to locate a shop that could do the work Deshyspairing of ever achieving success Ron picked up the Chicago Yellow Pages one day and looked up Flockshying Sure enough there was such a classification He made a phone call and a friendly voice assured him the work would be no problem Ron was told how to prepare the panels (apply an epoxy base in the color desired for the flocking) and where to deliver them

There s not much here that could look any newer if it were coming right out of the factory

The work was done over the following weekend and turned out to be a beautiful job (The flocking incishydentally is an electro-static process with the comshymercial name of Velvetex)

Another tough nut (pun intended) was the fuel gage nut - Bellanca didn t have one and all that turned up were worse than Rons knarled overshytorqued original Finally driving through a small Minnesota town Ron spotted a sign that read Sewshying Machines Guns Trading Post and Airplane Parts Partly on a hunch and partly just out of curiosshyity he stopped entered the establishment and inshyquired of the owner if he had any Champ parts

Got enough to make 5 of them whatta ya need was the reply

Ron mentioned the fuel gage nut and was almost shocked to hear Sure how many you need whereupon the proprietor reached into a drawer and pulled out a loop of safety wire with a half dozen or so Aeronca fuel gage nuts strung on it

This sort of thing Ron chuckles today is why it took 7 years to restore the Champ He could have built up an airworthy even beauti f ul job in perhaps 3 years but not an authentic one That took a lot of time and patience

Finally however the day came when the airplane was taken to the Waukesha County Airport - on Ocshytober 23 1977 to be precise What should have been a joyous occasion however began a two month ordeal that is a story in itself Shortly after taking over

12

That first run-up a moment of supreme exaltation

a hangar from a friend who had sold his airplane Ron was informed by the FBO that he would have to give it up by January 1 This shocking news really put the pressure on After 7 years of work Ron was detershymined not to dismantle the Champ and tow it back home and he was absolutely not going to leave it outside Hangar space is extremely hard to come by in the Milwaukee area just as is the case in all large metropolitan areas so the only option left was to find a hangar in a nearby town Space was ultimately loshycated some 20 miles west at Watertown but having a January 1 deadline Ron resolved to fly the Champ out of Waukesha

It wasnt easy Bitter cold came to Wisconsin even earlier than usual making final assembly of the Champ a numbing experience Nevertheless Ron and his father toughed it out working every evening and weekends By late November it was so cold that work had to go in spurts ~ interrupted by thaw-out breaks in Rons or his dads car Several layers of insulated clothing didnt make working in tight spots easy and any job requiring a degree of digital finesse was frustshyration personified Trying to screw on a tiny nut he couldnt feel through numb fingers was not exactly Rons idea of a fun way to complete his project In December temperatures plunged below zero but Ron and Tony worked on getting the last of the fairshyings on control cables adjusted the King 360 radio and battery pack installed etc

Finally it was time for some engine run-in John Curtice Rons fellow inspector with EMDO 46 had previously been employed with Continental Motors in Muskegon Michigan and had gone through the proshycedure literally thousands of times He advised Ron on how to properly break in the newly majored A-65 and later issued a new Certificate of Airworthiness AI Bruce Rintelmann of Milwaukee had supervised the project from the beginning (since neither Ron nor his father have civilian A and P licenses) and had alshyready signed off the restoration work

And then it was done Ron could have test flown the Champ a day or so before Christmas but he decided against it His family had put so much of themselves in the project that Ron could not bring himself to pOSSibly ruin their Christmas in case anyshything went wrong Bright and early on the 26th howshyever he and his dad were heading for the airport

The temperature was 3deg F but the Continental started on the first pull Ron taxied over to the FBO shut down and squirmed into a Security parachute Mike Heuer had brought over for the occasion Firing up again he warmed up the engine until the oil

temperature came up to 90deg then taxied out for take-off Given the OK by the tower Ron opened the throttle and literally leaped into the frigid air He climbed out to 5000 feet staying over the south end of the airport - by prearrangement with the controlshylers All went well and after 36 minutes the cold had become so unbearable Ron had to land while he still had some feeling in his hands and feet The landing was a real squeaker (as he later saw on movies) On the 30th - right on schedule - Ron flew the Champ out of Waukesha and over to Watertown The airplane was there for about six weeks - and some 5 hours of further flying time - before it was transfershyred to a new home Air Troy Estates where Ron had bought a lot Hangar space was available until sumshymer when he would have his own 45 x 72 hangar built

With the passing of a really miserable winter Ron was able to enjoy a spring and summer of pleasure flying and fine tuning of the airplane for its debut at Oshkosh 78 The airplane had been test flown with a metal propeller but as a final authentic touch a wooden Sensenich had been ordered through Wag Aero There was some last minute anxiety over delivshyery of the prop but a week before the fly-in it arshyrived

Ron had intended to take a weeks vacation to enjoy all of the Convention but so many requests

had come in from EAAers wanting inspections so they could get their homebuilts to Oshkosh he couldnt get away until Wednesday

The rest you know On Friday night Ron walked out of the Meeting Pavillion with the Grand Champshyion Classic trophy and it was difficult to tell whose smile was wider his or his dads

The outcome had not been unexpected in many quarters despite the torrid competition every Oshkosh gathering provides Earlier Ron had atshytended the Aeronca Forum at the conclusion of which moderator Charlie Lasher had asked if the owner of NC85448 were present Ron raised his hand and Charlie said I want to come down and shake your hand - that is the finest Champ I have ever seen

In the weeks preceding the Convention Rons felshylow FAA employees at EMDO 46 had speculated on his chances of winning an award perhaps even the Big One Secretary Michele Facenda (who had helped with the Champs paperwork) had promised to bake a cake for him if he were successful - so on the next Monday morning Ron strode in with his trophy put it down on Micheles desk and anshynounced Youre going to have to do some baking

I already have she replied I knew you were going to win

Interior of Gregs Luscombe

Dick Stouffer Photo)

Class Winner Luscombe BE Gregg Biete Charlotte David Gustafson Photo) North Caro lina

Class I Winner Taylorcraft BC-120 Ralph Lauritsen Boone Iowa

David Gustafson Photo) Custom Class C Winner Bellanca 14-19 Ronald Joslyn Malibu California

By Edward D Williams Associate Editor 713 Eastman Dr

Mt Prospect IL 60056

An antique airplane which has been hanging in the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago since 1953 has a unique honored distinction This came about when an expert model builder made a 33-inch wingspan model of it that is considered a work of art So today both the full-size plane and the three-fourths scale model are on display in the same museum

The plane is a Boeing 40B which was donated to the museum after the close of the Century of Progress Exposishytion in Chicago in 1933 It was originally manufactured as a 40A and later converted to a 40B but the museums

The simplicity of the design is shown in this view of the Boeing 40A

plane is displayed in the colors and markings of a 40A And so the model built by Carl Buttita a commercial arshytist in Chicago is an exact copy of a 40A

When the Boeing plane NC288 factory serial number 899 was bought by Boeing Air Transport (BAD from its parent company the Boeing Airplane Company in June 1927 it cost $24500 Buttitas model which took him three years to complete was appraised at $7000

The Boeing hanging in the east court of the Museum of Science and Industry is considered of historic value

because it was one of a fleet of 24 BAT 40A aircraft that helped make transcontinental air travel possible for the first time in 1927 (See The Vintage Airplane December 1977)

Buttitas model although it was not built to fly looks every middotbit like it could It is so realistic that it later won him an important award from the Hobby Industry of America

The Museum of Science and Industry which is loshycated on Chicagos south side lakefront draws about four million visitors a year to see hundreds of exhibits depictshy

18

ing the laws of science and applications of technology in industry and other fields It is a non-profit independent institution and admission is free

The Museum was partially opened in 1933 with only a handful of exhibits By that time Boeing Air Transport and three other airline companies-- Pacific Air Transport Varney Air Lines and National Air Transport- were joined together to form United Airlines which on November 30 1933 donated the Boeing to the Museum

It took seven more years for the museum to be comshypleted so the Boeing was stored in the institutions basement until it finally was hung from the ceiling in 1939 Although the plane has been cleaned regularly and today remains in sparkling condition it has never been moved from its resting place and probably wont be for some time to come

The Boeing is part of a large aviation display which includes a number of other antique aircraft the Apollo 8 spacecraft and a full-sized model of the first class cabin of a Boeing 747

Other planes on exhibit with the Boeing 40B are a 1910 Curtiss a 1913 Morane-Saulnier a 1917 Curtiss J N-4 Jenny a Supermarine Spitfire a Lockheed F-104 Starfighter and the Travel-Air S Mystery NR1313 sponsored by Texaco and flown by Frank Hawks in setshyting a number of transcontinental records

The Museum also owns a Junkers Ju87B Stuka but it is not on exhibit in Chicago because it rests temporarily on loan in the Air Education Museum of the Experimental Aircraft Association in Franklin Wisconsin The German World War II dive bomber was restored after a cleaning accident at the Chicago Museum by the EAA Museum staff

The Model which Buttita finished three years ago is on exhibit in a special case It draws considerable interest because of its highly detailed work- down to the tiniest hinges on the doors

Boeing Air Transport (BAn probably owed its corposhyrate life to the Boeing 40A which enabled it to get into the airmail transport business

The Boeing Airplane Company first built a single Model 40 for a government competition in 1925 for the awarding of a contract for an airplane to be flown by the U S Post Office Department to replace the old de Havilshyland DH-4s it had been using since 1918 The governshyment bought the one Model 40 equipped with the old watercooled Liberty engine but did not award the comshypany a production contract It went instead to Douglas for its series of M aircraft

However the project was revived a year later when the Post Office Department decided to award Contract Air Mail (CAM) routes to private contractors for airmail The Model 40 plans were dusted off updated with the

After its Wasp engine was replaced with the PampW Hornet engine the 40A was designated the 408 and This picture of groundcrewmen unloading a 40A gives a looked like the above close-up view of the Pratt amp Whitney Wasp engine and

the dural sheet construction used throughout

latest improvements and redesigned to meet the postal requirements Designated the 40A it was powered with a 9 cylinder 420 horsepower Pratt amp Whitney Wasp enshygine a new aircooled radial engine Boeing was testing in its fighter type aircraft

The Boeing basic design with a pilot in an open cockpit was also changed to carry two passengers in a forward cabin although the awarding of the airmail conshytract and not passenger transportation was of paramount importance But the 40A could still carry 1200 pounds of mail in addition to the two hardy souls who pioneered passenger travel in 1927

It was the new designs low operating costs and high revenue potential that got BAT Boeings wholl y-owned subsidiary the low bid on the new San FranciscoshyChicago airmail (CAM number 18) route from the govshyernment BAT operated 24 of the 25 40As built The other plane was delivered to Pratt amp Whitney as a flying engine test bed This test aircraft proved its worth as in early 1928 the new 525 horsepower Pratt amp Whitney Homet engine became available in quantity and BAT quickly converted 19of its 40As to 40Bs with the installashytion of the new Hornet engine Among these was the Chicago museums NC288

According to the Model Specification and History document supplied to BAT by the Boeing Airplane Comshypany the 40A was a Three-place Landplane Biplane Closed Cabin Mailplane (3P-CiSl Factory numbers ran from 879 through 903 The first flight was made on May 20 1927 with delivery to BAT nine days later Dimenshysions were wingspan 442 length 332V and height 123 Empty weight was 2622 Ibs with a de sign gross of 4652 Ibs It boasted a top speed of 135 mph and a cruising speed of 125 mph but the actual pershyformance was closer to a maximum speed of 128 and a cruise of 105 mph It has a range of 550 miles and a sershyvice ceiling of 15700 feet

The 40A needed the altitude capability because of the rugged mountainous terrain on the 1 9113 mile San Francisco-Chicago run BAT started to use the new plane on the route with many intermediate stops on July 1 1927 When National Air Transport began its CAM Number 17 route operations with its Douglas M-4s betshyween New York and Chicago on September 1 1927 the two airlines link-up at Checkerboard Field at Maywood Illinois outside of Chicago gave the United States its first transcontinental air travel

The Chicago museum s Boeing 40B figured promishynently in th is important part of history Boeing NC288 amassed more than 6000 flight hours on the San Francisco-Chicago run and was flown many times by the famous airmail pioneer Jack Knight (See The Vintage Airplane February 1977) before it was retired

Construction of the Boeing 40A is shown in this picture of th e Boeing A irplane Company assembly line w ith A Boeing 40A NC286 - a sister ship of NC288 in the 40As in various stages of completion at Sea ttle Washingshy Chicago Museum - is show n fl ying over mountains on ton the Boeing A ir Transports San Francisco-Chicago run in

20

The Museums 40B in the coloring and markings of a 40A hangs with other historically significant aircraft in Chicagos Museum of Science and Industry The cockpit of the Boeing 40A w as simple making the

job o f duplica ting it in a model less demanding

(Museum of Science and Industry Photo)

- __ poundLlaquo

In 1933 it was used in the Wings of a Century pageant at the Century of Progress Exposition in Chicago after the Worlds Fair it was turned over to the Rosenwald Museum which later was renamed the Museum of Scishyence and Industry

Although the basic construction of the Boeing 40A was simple it had enough detail to make a model of it interesting Buttita said that he was a stickler for detail but admitted that he got carried away in making his model

When I decided to build the model I didnt intend to make it with such detail Buttita told this author I thought I could fake a lot by making the metal parts out of wood and painting them silver

But Buttita changed his mind and made every metal part out of metal and every wood part out of wood So the project which he thought would take him six or seven months eventually took three years

The more detail I put on it the better it looked he said so finally nothing could stop me and I detailed evshyerything

Buttita is an artist with the Accurate Silk Screen Sershyvice Company Chicago and his model building ability is well known

The three-quarter scale 40A is what is called a scratch model in which the builder starts from scratch as opposed to a kit in which plans and many formed parts are supplied

Buttita said a scratch model involves considerable reshysearch and study For the 40A he got a complete set of plans and all the photographs he could from Boeing and United

It took me three or four months of study before I could actually get started to build anything he said

Unlike kits which eliminate many of the interior parts that cannot be seen scratch models to be authentic must have all the details of construction such as all the ribs in the wings But that also makes them much stronger and keeps them from warping Buttita pointed out

Both the Boeing 40A flown by BAT and the Buttita model of it were constructed at the peak of the state of the art for their day

The airplane had a steel tubular fuselage with wood fairing strips and was dural and fabric covered The wings also fabric covered were built up of spruce spars and ribs The dural sheet on the fuselage covered the enshygine cowling cabin doors and compartment hatch openshyings

The two passengers sat in a cabin metal lined throughout and their seats and seat backs were upholsshytered in leather The windows of the two doors one on each side of the fuselage were made of non-shatterable glass and could be opened for additional ventilation and

21

Details of the construction of the 40As cabin door and wing struts are shown in this close-up

A close-up view of Carl Butshytitas model of the 40A shows how dedicated he was to deshytail in the models construction

Carl Buttita builder of the three-fourths sca le Boe ing 40A discusses fine points of the construction with Edshyward E Carlson chairman of UAL In c Chicago and a member of the board of trustees of the Museum of Scishyence and Indu stry before the model was put on display in the Museum

were large enough to give the passengers an excellent view of the scenery

The rear of the fuselage was braced with steel tie-rods and was heavily faired to shape although it still was fabshyric covered The tail assembly also was fabric covered but only the horizontal stabilizer was built up like the wings with spruce spars and wood built-up ribs The rest of the tail assembly was built up with welded steel tubshying It rested on a steerable tailskid The landing gear was made of streamlined chrome-moly and used oleo-spring shock absorbers

Buttitas construction problems for his model were reshysolved through the use of a wide variety of materials

The Boeing model is made of aluminum pine dentists plastic epoxy glue and Japanese silkspan paper About 40 percent of the model is metal but much of it is inside so you dont see it Buttita said These parts are the cables controls pilots seat corrugated floor panels hinges cockpit fire extinguisher medical kit and workshyable seat belts

Each part had to be hand made some several times to get them right or if they broke Buttita said I had to make 20 to 30 rims for the landing lights to get two

When you make a one-of-a-kind model you have to fabricate about 90 per cent of the parts yourself and make dies for almost everything he added

For the metal parts Buttita used small pieces of offset printers plate made of aluminum but with some tin for added strength The wood parts are made of spruce and the engine and wheels are made of the dental plastic

All the markings and lettering were drawn triple the size on paper and reduced photographically on decal paper That way they were better than if I had handshypainted them on the model he said

Buttita said he did all the construction work on a card table at home and the only power tool he used was a small electric drill

At least one other Boeing 40B is known to be on exshyhibit in another museum This is aircraft NC285 factory number 896 which was presented to the Henry Ford Museum at Dearbom Michigan in 1938 But so far it doesnt have a scale model of its own to highlight it And don t look to Carl Buttita to build one I will never do it again he sa id It was just too much work

Rebuilding AVagabond

By Larry Railing Box 5 7 -C P Avenue

Lake Mills WI 5355 7

I never realized at the time I started to rebuild or lets say restore Piper Vagabond PA-15 N4423H that so many people were interested in what Id term history So here it is

I started flying in Valparaiso Indiana around 1900 I learned in a )-3 owned by Mark Murvahill I later

graduated to the PA-12 In 1964 I graduated from high school and a year later I was married As most in like cirshycumstances I gave up flying for love until the newness wore off

My first airplane was a )-5 Cub that went down in a marsh I had started to rebuild it until Dick Wagner of Wag-Aero heard of it and made me an untimely offer This airplane was later destroyed at Burlington along with the Tri-Motor

I later owned other aircraft which included aT-Craft Somehow Dick Wagner heard of my T-Craft and flew up in a Vagabond to see it and made me an offer

I told him at that time if he ever got in the mood to sell the Vag to please call me That was in 1968

On December 26 1976 Dick called me and asked if I was still interested in the Vag I told him yes and Id come down the next Saturday morning The next Saturday came and so did I There the Vag stood on its nose just as pictures in past issues of The Vintage A irplane had shown

Dick with all his other projects had to let something go He offered me the Vag or one of two Cubs My thoughts never gave way to anything but the Vag

23

The stripped fuselage arrives at home ready for a long winter s night

Work completed the birds about ready for a runway

I climbed a ladder and pulled the tail down and began looking It was all there but in sad shape For the past four years it hadn t been outside It looked good in the dark but time took its toll The fabric was beyond even shot But it was all original Every instrument the seat and all were original In thirty years no one even drilled a hole in the panel

We tried to get the old Lycoming 65 started but no way

The next Saturday morning I borrowed a stock car trailer and headed for Lyons with my truck On the way down all was going so well until I met a car looked in my mirror and noticed the trailer to be about a foot wider than my pickup Id never given that a thought before Everytime I met another car I just got over a little I fishynally arrived at Dicks place and began taking the Vag

Fits like a sausage casing The envelopes ready for the hea t trea tment

apart I placed the wings on some racks on my truck and the fuselage or the trailer I didn t bother taking off the tail All was loaded and ready to roll in about three hours

About halfway into the dismantling it began to snow By the time I was ready to go we had gotten about three inches This worked out in my favor as it slowed everyone else on the highway down to my speed My greatest worry when hauling an airplane is when you meet a truck

All seemed to be going good The first car I met I got over to the right because of the trailer At this time I looked into the mirror and not only noticed the trailer a foot wider than the truck on each side but the horizontal stabilizer stuck out another foot on each side beyond the trailer What a shock

I stopped and tried to remove the tail but to no avail The snow kept coming and so did the end of the day It took me four and a quarter hours to go fifty-five miles By the time I got home we had eight inches of snow What a long ride

I began total disassembly right away The wings were in fantastic shape All that was needed was varnish on the tip bows I also put new cables in the whole airplane The original inspectors number date and signature are still on the spars

I worked the whole project under the watchful eyes of Paul Baker an AI from Beaver Aviation at Dodge County

The author tackles another flying surface with needle and twine

Airport He is really an EAAer I never heard of an AI so ready and willing to help restore an airplane He even came to my home after hours to inspect the fuselage as it was easier for me than taking it up there Paul says if Id hired him to do the restoring I could just hand over my paycheck for a year so he said you do the working and Ill do the looking

All the still pieces were sandblasted and sprayed with Imron primer Believe me you do have to wear a mask with that stuff

I gave Wag-Aero a call and told them what I needed for a complete cover job and not to call me until they had it all there in one pile with no monkeying around for a little of this and that

While waiting for the covering materials I began work on the engine The whole airplane had only 1100 hours and the engine 330 SMOH I just couldn t get it started I solicited the help of a local mechanic and Stinshyson owner Harold Hubrich We found three blown head gaskets one leaky valve the impulse spring in the left mag was broken and the P-Iead in the right mag the inshysulator of phenolic replaced with masking tape

I pulled the heads and Harold ground ~he valves had the mags rebuilt a complete new ignition system and the carburetor rebuilt We got her back together and bongo

- she started right off In the meantime I finished the wings and control surshy

faces I wanted to paint it all apart so a temporary gear 24

Larry applies a new cowling atter a fruitl ess encounter with sa ndblasting equipment

was made to support the fuselage The engine was never taken off Many people questioned that temporary gear I just said you had to be very careful on take-off and landshying

The actual covering was very enjoyable you could see some real progress including the stitching but that spraying and sanding Sixteen hours of work for every coat Six sandings fourteen coats and thirty gallons all total

The sheet metal was all in good shape I had planned to replace the cowl so a guy that was chicken could look in at the rubber band I tried Zip Strip to get down to bare metal with no luck at all I took all the aluminum parts over to a body shop including the boot and sandblasted them In less than ten minutes I destroyed every piece of aluminum except the instrument panel and nose bowl I then got some aluminum and began making new parts It all turned out very well

When I first brought the Vag home I contacted Cecil Ogles of Vag-News and he sent me more info than I think Piper has Among which was complete rigging

Im a little more fortunate than most- Im a tool and die model maker by trade and have my own shop Before beginning on the Vag my partner and I added on a 50 x 60 foot addition to our shop which served for a beautiful place to work over the winter to store parts until needed as well as an area to completely assemble the airplane for rigging

Its been a long time since the fuselage last shook from a run-up

Time came to go to the airport and sprout feathers There is a private strip just south of town so I went there along with about six helpers The airplane was assembled and flown two days later on June 28 1978 A year and a half after beginning

The first flight was all anyone could hope for It really flys hands off and is the easiest airplane for a taildragger to land that I have ever flown

Now for some numbers Cruise 85-90 Cruise RPM 2300 Fuel Consumption 30 gph Prop 70-36 Final and Climb 70 mph Over the Fence 60 mph Stall 40 mph Empty Weight 640 Ibs Take-off- For each 10 Ibs over 200 the passenger

weighs I added 100 feet I had the Vag at Oshkosh on Tuesday this year and

took it home and put it to bed the same night In this area we have about fifteen Vags flying with

five of them done original Myself I like to see airplanes kept original Its like a Model T with a Chevy 427 it just aint the same

The airplane is covered with Stits and the finish is Aerothane

Now that the airplanes finished work ca n proceed on the shop

I can say something most people cant about this airpshylane While at Oshkosh I went over and visited the Piper display and who would you guess was there Clyde Smith the test pilot of my airplane thirty years ago I took a couple of pictures of him and will be placing them in the log books next to his signature

The Vag is my first real attempt in restoring I did the whole airplane myse lf except the seat and the engine work Im very pleased with the end product Its all mine and paid for as well Im now enjoying the fruits of my labor and Id do it again if I could find another Vagshyabond

Oddly enough it seemed the hardest part of the whole project was the legal end Being that the FCC can t seem to find a good reason to charge for a restricted radio license I decided to send for one just in case I ever carried a radio along That took three months and the paperwork went back and forth six times The hardest part was the registration The airplane hadn t been regisshytered since 1967 The State of Wisconsin wasnt too bad That paperwork came back only once asking for an addishytional $333 because I didn t notify them within thirty days after purchase even though the airplane had been declared exempt But the Feds This took six months nine phone calls and six letters Finally I called once again and told them that after a year and a half of rebuilding with or without them I was going to fly it I think that finally did the trick

25

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Calendar of Events NOVEMBER 18-19 - MIAMI FlORIDA- Antique Classic and Cusshy

tom Built Fly-In at the third annual Harvest- A Country Fair sponsored by the Historical Association of Southern Florida at the Dade County Youth Fairground Coral Way at 112th Avenue Awards given for antique classic and custom built aircraft Conshytact Capt Ken Ufland of the Civil Air Patrol office (305) 552-3106 home after 600 pm (305) 251-5927 or Mary Dodd Russell Harshyvest Coordinator at the Historical Museum 3280 S Miami Ave shynue Building B Miami Fl 33129

JANUARY 21-27 - Sun N Fun the biggest fly-in in the southeastshyand the second biggest in the natron Its a full week of southern hospitality and flying fun daily aerial demonstrations fly-bys of antique classic homebuilt and warbird aircraft forums exhibits and static displays parties and com roasts big new food concesshysion country store for campers in our shady campsites Make motel reservations early- our free information booklet has a complete list of accommodations Write to Sun N Fun PO Box 3538 lakeland Florida 33802

(Dick Stouffer Photo)

Aeronca IICC Super Chief belonging to David E Long Keyser West Virginia

(Ted Koston Photo)

Heres a sharp Funk at Oshkosh Owner unknown didnt register

(Dick Stouffer Photo)

Another fine looking unregistered aircraft

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F4U CORSAIR

PLANE CHECKS The Leading Fighter 01 WWII - with a Record 01 2140 Japanese Aircraft Destroyed 28 01 which

Are Credited to Pappy Boyington Regular bank checks emblazoned with the F4U CORSAIR

- Complete the order form and write out your check Now get a deposit Slip from the same account and clearly indicate any changes or other notations as you wish it to appear on the checks (These two documents will furnish us all the data we need to make your checks compatible with your banks computer and Amer Bank Assn specs) On gift orders send your check and mark his check VOID Please allow 3 weeks for delivery

Start USing Plane Checks Now Your old checks will always be good

Identity Check Co Box 149-D Park Ridge III 60068 Activate my order for Plane Checks starting No ___ o 300middot$795 0 600-$1350 0 900middot$1875 Checks are printed with blue backgrounds and are top bound-one part deposit sUps registers and matching checkbook cover are Included In each order

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Ship To

Address

City State___ Zip____

26

DeHAVILLAND N1829K 8E Eldon E Beresford Dundee IL N92615 J-3 Fred Brown Pampa TX N48110 Chipmunk Richard C Bidlack Fremont OH N1B40K BE John Slack Frankfort IL N98391 J-3 Kenneth DeCorte Gaithersburg MD N48260 Chipmunk Walter M Rozelle Coeur dAlene 10 N2197B 8E Jim Cardis Chicago IL N9B450 J-3 Loren Larson Fairmont MN N65153 Chipmunk Dale Bronson Greenwood IN N2229K BE Donald Adams Newton KS N98734 J-3 George Roth Ruston LA CF-URN Chipmunk Lionel Hamilton Guelph Ont Canada N2231K BE Ray Miller Turner MI C-FAOB PA-11 R E Clipsham Erin Ont Canada N613WB Besver Willard Walpole Wichita KS N2290K BE F N Mair San Ang elo TX N747UA PA-12 M V Johnson Waters MI N4040W Beaver E T Kirkpatrick Boston MA N2351K BE RonaldNoel EastonDennis Kelsey N290BM PA-12 Bob Byers Saukville WI

Beloit WI N3802M PA-12 Gary Robinson Rochester NY ERCOUPE N2368K BE Karyl B Herman San Bruno CA N3860M PA-12 L Duffield Youngstown OH NI5JL Jeffry K Lehner LaPorte IN N2493K 8E Leo Bachman Decatur IL N3B67M PA-12 Robert Kratz Robertsville OH N71H William Jordan Geneva OH NC2747K 8E James R Harrison West Carrollton OH N3890M PA-12 David Kratz Massillon OH N355E Herman J Koplin Lombard IL C-FYEC BE Robert E Fleming Caledonia Ont N4169M PA-12 Thomas S Hiemnz Aurora IL N20B1H Raymond W Ganzer EI Cajon CA Canada N7753H PA-12 Donald A Hass Seattle WA N2279H John A Wright Sr Springfield IL N1674K BF Jack J Borden Franklin WI N7B459 PA-12 Richland Aviators Inc Jim Hudson N2434H Charles Darne Lafayette IN N2210B BF Jack B Mclnally Grayline MI Ri ch land Center WI N2701H Scott Olson St Paul MN N1616Z 8F Larry Traskos Bellevi lle MI C-FKOH PA-12 Ron E Baines Waterloo Ont Canada N2929H Art Leblanc Potterville MI N1865B BF Paul Prentice Chelsea MI CF-ZJI PA-12 J M Thede Elmvale Ont Canada N3232H Charles Shaffer Cary IL N1892B BF John LaRoche Bloomfield CT C-GNYW PA-12 David S Bell Markham Ont Canada N3992H Paul Furney Columbus OH N1947B 8F F D Barnard Ann Arbor MI N5243H PA-16 Gilbert Easton Rockford IL N87308 A L Kimball Catlin IL N6895C llA George T Ramin Houston TX N5253H PA-16 Dee L Davidson Bedford IA N8731 2 Donald R Bonem Essexville MI N5382H PA-16 Ronald W Donner Gleason WI N93358 Fred F Sampson New Hartford NY MOONEY MITE N5716H PA-16 John Wood Anoka MN N93823 Robert D England Tullahoma TN N489M Wilbur Draves Hometown IL N5843H PA-16 Bill Schmidt Wi chita KS N93935 Wayne Lawrence Wichita KS N4149F Dave JamesonHenry Raettig N5921 H PA-16 Charles Lancaster Wh iteland IN N93946 Gregory Krush Oak Lawn IL Oshkosh WI N5967H PA- 16 Daniel Callahan St Louis MO N94160 Jesse Austin Muskegon MI N6835K PA-16 Rob Will Seattle WA N94407 Dennis Swan Paxton IL NAVION N6841 K PA-16 Martin A Robb Riverside CA N94844 Erie Berens Stevens Point WI NB8T Twin Navion Robert Roglen Eau Claire MI N6854K PA-16 Robert Cutler Dallas TX N99026 Lucy H Morgan Old Hickory TN N350FU Harvey L Brown Delray Beach FL H5945H PA-16 Ronald Szymanski New Berlin WI N99044 Hugh McKennaRussell Burtsch N437M R J Matt McHenry IL N4133H PA-15 Clark L Anderson Neenah WI

Oswego NY N999RM Donald L ThomannDon Johnson N4406H PA-15 Sarah L Kaeiser Lake City FL N99244 Lowell D Satterlee Lincoln NE Plano IL N442-H PA-15 Terry L Railing Lake Mills WI N99274 Charles C Ray Dubuque IA N2199W Ted Smith Wash ington IL N4469H PA-15 Douglas PfundhellerJohn Matson N99335 Donald Wolfe Niles MI N4020K George Barr Worthington OH Stoughton WI N9981 7 Dennis Sparr McNabb IL N4537K Mike Nallick Minneapolis MN N4600H PA-17 Harvey P Buller Mt Lake MN N99955 Richard L Schorey Bishop Hill IL N4549K Brian J Ryan St Paul MN N461 3H PA-17 Michael A Fish Lemont IL

N4609K Richard Beedy Springfield OH N4839H Vagabond Russell Kellog Rio WI FUNK N4802K Carl Koenig Flint MI N4B70H Vagabond Darryl M LeMire White Bear Lake MN N81176 G Dale Beach Sacramento CA N4882K Louis C Hook Flint MI N1591A Pacer David Vanciere Mitchell SO N811 86 DeanPat Krueger Omaha NE N5117K L A Carlsmith Amhurst NH N1643P PA-20PA-22 P W Steiner Rockville MD

N7803B Paul E Efield Orchard Park NY N1830A Pacer Wendell Smith Battle Creek MI

LUSCOMBE Nll07B 8A N1159B 8A N1204K 8A N1361K 8A N1364K 8A N1365K 8A N2079K 8A N2110K 8A N2158K 8A N2177B 8A

N2315K 8A N2424K 8E N2685K 8A N2764K 8A N2887K 8A N2938K 8A N21996 8A N28564 8A N45680 8A N45719 BA N45767 8A N71293 8A N71315 8A N71348 8A N71465 8A N71533 SA N71922 8A CF-CHM 8A

N45WB 8E N1671K 8E

James Bacon Linden MI Les Nelson Minneapolis MN Wayne Drewry Greencastle PA Mike Thern Winona MN Jack D Lane Indianapolis IN Robert Westerberg St Paul MN Ben Bricker Kalamazoo MI Greg Carroll Buffal o Grove IL Gregory Hendricks Peculiar MO Will iam Bumgardner Bloomfield Hills

MI Robert Bohrman West Allis WI Gregg Beitel Charlotte NC Monte Jestes Pawnee OK John Barowski Downers Grove IL Jim Bastien Madison WI Pete Fleis Imperial MO Craig Sheets Sturgeon Bay WI Malcolm Green Columbus OH Kent Johnson Faribault MN David E Hennington Livermore CA Ronald H Dixon Hoquiam WA John D Richey Batesville AR Nick Showalter Corunna MI Terry Volante Euclid OH Steve Lester Morrow GA Larry Hall Oklahoma City OK Maynard Wolkman Hinckley MN T A C Kennedy Mississauga Ont

Canada William F Bokodi Griffith IN Donald Sweatman Venango PA

N8662H N8684H N8821H NB830H N8997H N9600C N9141 6 N91608 N91738

PIPER N1455N NC1502N N18241 N32845 N3373N N3572N N3638K N3650K N42478 N42724 N42733 N6153H N6669H N7258H N78527 N87771 NC88461 NC88575 N88684 N88698 N92084 N92090

Twin Navion

J-3 J-3 J-3 J-3 J-3 J-3 J-3 J-3 J-3 J-3 J-3 J-3 J-3 J-3 J-3 J-3 J-3 J-3 J-3 J-3 J-3 J-3

William L Marcy Denver CO Howard G Shoemaker Wilmington DE J C Langran Jr Colorado Springs CO Ed Hedlund So Haven MI Ben Gentile Huntington LI NY Fred Garcia Remsenburg NY Jim D Stewart Dunedin FL G L Valbert Camby IN W T Christian Knoxville TN

Donald Richards Bellaire MI Roger Montambo Red Wing MN Mont Mendenhall Tho masville NC Lynn Chamber lain Mt Pleasant MI J L Burns Mt Morris IL Roger Turner Bingham Lake MN Anne Collins Joliet IL John Spiegel Port Byron IL John Lamascus Pacific Grove CA Bruce H Nagorske Bingham Lake MN Jerry Kennedy Murphysboro IL Ralph Korff Lockport NY Laran Larson Fairmont MN Donald V Lacouture Jr Marlboro MA Max Faulkner Bourbon IN Norman J Shuff Watertown WI Reid P JoyceG R Purifoy Valencia PA John V Rawson Jr Belle Meade NJ Dan PellKevin J Engel Sheldon IA David A Watson Framingham MA Winton D Glaser Appleton WI John GelasifTheodore Sanders

Highland Park IL

N2103A N2165A N2934Z N49AK N5179A N5538A

N7161K N7324K N7326K

N7629K N7672K N9132R C-FGCM

G-FLOK CF-RRU

N1214 N1947A N5466H N99302 CF-HCY C-FMDP

N72CJ Nll06C N1262C N1319C N1487A N1512P N1529P NI545P

PA-20 PA-20 Pacer PA-20 PA-20 PA-20

PA-20 Pacer Pacer

PA-20 PA-20 PA-20 PA-20

PA-20 PA-20

PA-18 PA-18 PA-18 PA-18 PA-18 PA-18

PA-22 PA-22 PA-22 PA-22 PA-22 PA-22 PA-22 PA-22

Gerald Shultz North Branch MN T J Champagne Houma LA Allen Simons Bristol CT Ed Cahill Juneau AK Brian Bristol Cottage Grove MN Robert RadoLedray Victorian

Toledo OH Walter FritzBrian Crull Indianapolis IN Charles C Myers Manchester TN Robert ManierBernard Menier

St Paul MN Robert Andrews Libertyville IL Robert Vasey Stafford KS James H Bristol Cottage Grove MN George McMillan North Bay Ont

Canada C Burbank Shelburne Ont Canada Gary M Ferguson Oshawa Ont

Canada Michael McKay Martins Ferry OH P W McKamy Billings MT Terry Henry Neenah WI Sherman B Elder Muskogee OK Karl H Bunder Aurora Ont Canada James Bilstad Thu nder Bay Ont

Canada Bruce LundC J Lund Mobile AL V L Dant Rome GA G Woerner Geneva OH Lowell Roberts Midwest City OK S D Stevens Arden Hills MN Jay Carter East Liverpool OH Wm T White Dallas TX James E Donaldson Eden Prairie MN

6

N2276A PA-22 Richard C Hill Harvard IL N78321 Michael P Kennedy Homestead AFB FL N43871 Marshall Kennard Enfield CT N3212Z PA-22 Wm W Ricketts Finksburg MD N80589 James Byland Moberly MO N43898 Temple amp Woodward Granger IN N3360B PA-22 Lloyd MookEddie Veach Harrisonville N80613 G W Goodland SI Paul MN N44204 Eugene M Townsend Decatur IL

MO N80665 Pete King Rockville MD NC44493 John W McDonald New Orleans LA N3377A PA-22 William Sherhan Lincoln NE N80689 Dave EbersoleScott Chr ist iansen N94941 Jon Ch almers Thompson Johnson N6125D PA-22 Wayne Minnis W Palm Beach FL Colorado Springs CO City TN N81 21C PA-22 Matthew Grainda Easton PA N80706 Mark Holliday Hastings MN N95109 Wm E Boggs Grove City OH N8588C PA-22 William A Rudolph Traverse City MI N80776 Joey N Kemp Tullahoma TN N95926 Dick AmRhein Troy OH Nl0306 PA-22 AI Morris Warminster PA N80905 Charles Hoover Jr SI Paul MN NC95957 Douglas Anderson Jackson MI CF-KKX PA-22 Alvin C Pomery Janetville Ont Canada N80949 Lowell Sterch i Coral Gables FL N96026 R R Reece San Angelo TX

N80969 Harry Lyon Jr North SI Paul MN N96275 Jim Hall Rockford IL REPUBLIC SEABEE N90383 Guy Eby Madison CT N96386 Robert W West Oreana IL N1CD Curtis Dax Chicago IL N96387 Everett Downey Albion NY N6570K Grant Leonard Prior Lake MN TAYLORCRAFT N96417 John Friling Lombard IL

NC922WT Paul Edward Nuss Juniata Altoona PA N96544 Steven N Landis FI Wayne IN middotSTlSON NC5020M Ralph LauritsenCliff Henry Boone IA N96818 Wm Knight Brodhead WI N389C Boyd Walsh Marion IN N5045M Robert ReedyCovert Holley Troy OH N96842 Tim Mickel Scioto Mills IL N584LW 108 Larry Wheelock Bloomfield IN N5109M Herbert Browning London OH N96979 Lester L Walls Shrewsbury PA Nl081S Voyager Richard Bourque Simsbury CT N5218M Richard Weimberger Fond du Lac WI CF-KFG James Takacs Port Colborne Ont N6323M 108 Paul Varner Rockford IL N5265M EM Air Museum Franklin WI Canada N6555M Nicholas C Selig Naperville IL N29753 James Foos Granger IN CF-PUW Ken Bimm Rexdale Onl Canada N8212K 108-1 Robert Reintgen Latrobe PA N34093 Paul Cusumano Mayfield Village OH N8509K 108-1 Daniel Bauman Oorr MI N39168 Thornton Cressy Westland MI ADDITIONAL CLASSICS N8747K Charles Brokaw Parker CA NC39222 SArt Bujnowski Huntington LI NY N242B Helio Couier Robert T Griff in Waxhaw NC N9088K 108-1 C O Depuy Ponca City OK N39974 William Fitch Epworth IA N424 L Meyers 145 L A Waite Durand MI N9117K Voyager James Strock Austintown OH N43163 Jerry Kramer FI Recovery OH C-FLWG Moranamp-Sauln ier 502 Frank Masak Scarboro Onl Canada N97367 108 Bruce Jacobs Albion MI N43344 Mark Yelich Franklin WI N5160 Rawdon T-l Jack Chastain Creve Coeur MO N97607 108 Rich Klepperich Webster MN N43556 Ray L Sherwood Fairf ield IA N711SV Stampe John Hanson Manistee MI N297K 108-2 Stinson IVBob LaBonte Hudson NH N43680 Parker Buckley Waynesville OH N25MB Stampe SV4 Don Good SI Joseph MO N971J 108-2 J Mankins Corona CA N43845 J C Latronigo Girard OH N8000K 108-2 Michael Hudgins Portage WI N9306K 108-2 Frank Sperry SI Ignace MI N9582K 108-2 David Peterson Inver Grove Heights MN N9836K 108-2 G M Huffman Tulsa OK CF-HZM 108-2 Fred Green Mississauga Ont Canada CF-SID 108-2 Augus Cameron London Ont Canada N675C 108-3 Curt Lindauer Belleville IL N762C 108-3 Harvey T EngenDavid Engen

Excelsior MN NC6018M 108-3 Carl Pflanzer Rome NY N6649M 108-3 Russel Arndt Big Falls WI N6698M 108-3 Joe D Wh ite Calumet City IL C-FKQC 108-3 Richard R Schaub Fenwick Ont

Canada CF-LLW 108-3 Kenneth Gamble Hamilton Ont Canada

SWIFT N1BJ Raymond Neuse Groesbeck TX N1ZF Ronald Thompson Jenks OK Nl0SS William Shepard River Ridge LA N1 3SW Steve Wilson St Charles IL N50BS Roland J Zavada Pittsford NY N77PB Pat Knight Waynesboro VA N853C Charles R Cannan San Juan

Capistrano CA N853P John R Dixon Mission Viejo CA N2115 Bonham E Cross Hopkins MN N2334B James J Montague Lake Elmo MN N2424B Carl Weddle Hendersonville TN N2429B William GoldmanJack Morgan

Chandler AZ N2442B John Cranfill Frankfort IL N2457B Dick McNeil North Wilkesboro NC N3248K Howard H Hanson Webster MN N3263K Howard Thalacker Chetek WI N3740K Ronald W Williamson San Diego CA N3816K Buz Johnson Mobile AL N3898K Tracy Rhodes Dayton OH N77756 George ONeal SI Petersburg FL N78083 Paul L Chesley Albuquerque NM N78247 Clyde B Ericson Barrington I L N78261 N78306 N78309 N78311

James Pope Washington DC Gary Scott Schoolcraft MI Bernard F Arnold Cuyahoga Falls OH Richard A Chisholm Oak Lawn IL

(Lee Fra y Photo)

Bill Ehlen and AI H enninger Forums Chairman and Co-Chairman

(Lee Fray Photo)

AntiqueClass ic Headquarters staffers J Kesel Markl and K Morgan

7

RON WOJNARS GRAND CHAMPION CHAMP

Going down this photo and the next give an indication of what Ron had to tear down prior to his very extens ive reshybuild

On day six Thursday of Oshkosh 78 acshytivities were already beginning to wind down The aircraft judges had pared their long long lists down to the top one or two in each category or in many cases had pretty well decided the final rankings About all that remained was to wait out the day to inshysure that no one flew in anything that would upset the apple cart at the last moment

Unbeknownst to the Classic judges the upsetter was already on the field having slipped in the previshyous evening right after the History of Flight pageant No one paid any particular attention when a mild and well mannered young man walked into the Classic trailer on Thursday morning and asked if he could get his airplane judged Half an hour later however ap-

By Jack Cox

pies were tumbling all over the AntiqueClassic parkshying area and judge-laden golf carts were rushing from all quadrants toward the scene of the calamity One quick walk around one sniff of the cabin aroma one peek under the cowling and it was all over The only sounds were a few anguished groans and the tearing of paper yesterdays judging sheets

Unless you were well into your 50s or an aficionado of Classic airplanes this Through the

The right wing before stripping inspection holes

Looking Glass scenario made little sense for in the middle of it all was just a little 01 Aeronca Champion

But what a Champion First it was yellow with the orange lower fuselage

- the familiar Aeronca factory paint scheme that we

rarely see today On the nose was a brand new Senshysenich wood propeller - a 72-42 climb prop just like the FBOs used to order for flight training The nose bowl and wrap-around cowl were as pristine as a newly minted dime - even the exhaust pipe stubs sticking out the bottom were barely smudged The tires were new the oleo struts at full normal extenshysion and the brake covers without a chip in the paint from prop blasted stones and gravel Inside the cashybin the brown crinkle-finish instrument panel held an array of dials the correct ones sporting the winged Aeronca emblem Black enameled floorshyboards brown flocked side panels and door and brown leatherette seat covers each emitted its own peculiar smell to combine with that of fresh dope and 80 octane to produce that aeromatic Evening in Middletown essence that few of us have experienced but none have forgotten

Outside again a glance across the top surface of the wings revealed chordwise rows of little bumps in

Naturally all wood was replaced Here the old is used as a pattern for a new window frame

8

the glistening fabric tell-tale mini-molehills marking the characteristically Aeronca PK screws taking the place of rib stitching 24 inch orange letters and numerals swam in the shimmering light reflected off the top of the right wing

Letting ones gaze swoop down the familiar mulshytifaceted sway back of the fuselage it was easy to see every stringer arced st raight and true to the tail - no warps no valleys between formers

Emblazoned on the fin and rudder - in orange shywere the stenciled winged Aeronca emblem and the rather odd sized and spaced N numbers

Stepping back for perspective ones mind reeled This wasnt a latter day restoration it was a new airplane only hours ago a ferry pilot had signed out the airplane from the factory ramp there in Middletown Ohio dated his voucher August 5 1946 and took off for Milwaukee to deliver the spankshying new airplane to Anderson Air Activities but on the way perhaps in the clouds of industrial smoke around Gary and South Chicago a time warp was enshycountered misdirecting the little bird through 3 deshycades to Wittman Field on the evening of August 2 1978

It looked that new it felt that new it even smelled that new

The next evening Ron Wojnar (EAA 31222) of Milshywaukee was called to the stage to receive the 1978 EAA Grand Champion Classic trophy for his 1946 Aeronca 7AC Champion and not a soul who had seen the airplane was surprised

The new frame s been installed along with a lot of other new wood

And not one of us who knew Ron personally was surprised either

Have you ever been to EAA Headquarters If you

have you may recall that in the main lobby two pedestals flank the entrance doors Atop these are glass cases containing two exquisite cut-away type airplane models one of an EAA Biplane and the other of a Tailwind They were meticulously crafted a number of years ago by a young college student who worked as a summer employee at the EAA Museum

That young man already exhibiting his concern for accuracy and authenticity his talent for minute detail and superb workmanship was Ron Wojnar

Born in Milwaukee on December 3 1949 Rons lifelong fascination with aviation came naturally His father Tony was a pilot who significantly often flew a Champ in those days before his family started comshying along and he was forced to give it up Earlier he had become an aircraft mechanic courtesy the Marine Corps and spent World War II keeping the heavy iron flying After V-J Day Tony returned to Milwaukee and signed on as a mechanic with the Wisconsin Air Nashytional Guard His Maintenance Officer - and pilot

The basic frame has been rebuilt by this point but th eres so much to go

for whom he served as a crew chief - was a Lt Colshyonel named Paul Poberezny

Three years before Rons birth a new Aeronca Champion was ferried into Mitchell Field just a couple of blocks from the Wojnar home by its new owner Andershyson Air Activities NC85448 labored for a number of

years as a trainer - climbing out and gliding in over the Wojnar household when the wind was right By early December of 1949 when the Wojnars were blessed with a healthy son the Champ had already accumulated alshymost exactly 3000 hours of flying time

A typical loving father Tony wanted his son to share his interest in aviation He built models for him until he was old enough to be taught to start building them himself He would often take little Ron along in the evening when he had to put in overtime and let him sit in the cockpits of the T-6s and P-51s on which

he was working and when his son was 6 years old Tony took him to nearby Waukesha Municipal Airshyport bought a couple of $250 tickets and treated hi m to his first airplane ride - in a Cessna 170

Those evenings in the cockpits of the Texans and 51s were making a far deeper impression on his son than Tony probably realized at the time Ron can vivshyidly recall the experiences to this day and he dates his determination to make aviation his lifes work to those wonderous moments when he sat there in the bucket seats pushing and pulling the sticks intently studying the dials and levers and wheels around him - and the rudder pedals down there in the bowels of the fuselage his little legs would not be able to reach for years to come

9

As the years went by Rons interest in airplanes and flying grew in sophistication in step with the growth of his body and mind He managed to get an airplane ride once in a while - sometimes in a Stearman piloted by his fathers boss Paul Poberezny and once when he was 11 in a Champ piloted by family friend Dick Mildebrandt Ron dearly longed to learn to fly but at the same time his academic success in high school was bending his inshyterests toward the scientific So much in fact that after graduation in 1967 he was soon packing to head for Lafayette Indiana to enroll as an aeronautical enshygineering student at Purdue University

Not surprisingly Purdue had been selected in part for its reputation as an aviation oriented institushytion Aside from its academic excellence Ron knew it must have a flying club a fact he confirmed within hours of his arrival on campus Excitedly relatshying this discovery to his father (with obvious intent) Ron found himself being brought back down to earth by the elder Wojnars reminder that he was there to earn a degree first and a pilots license maybe However he softened the admonition with the promshyise that after seeing Rons grades at the end of the first semester the situation would be open for further evaluation

No student was ever led down the path of academic achievement by a more tempting carrot Ron hit the books with a vengeance - sleep meant nothing social life was ignored and Big Ten football was just a Saturday afternoon recharging of Rons batshyteries for the REAL task at hand

At the end of the semester Tony had a wide and proud grin on his face and Ron was wasting little time getting enrolled in the school flying club To his surprise and pleasure he had found that in addition to its modern trainers Purdue still retained a Piper j-3 in its flight school fleet available for $550 per hour

For the next 312 years that Cub would virtually become Rons personal airplane He loved it - and soloed it in about 8 hours - but most of his fellow students sneered down their noses at the lowly yelshylow dog A few learned to fly in it simply because of the low rental rate but couldn t wait to move up to the REAL airplanes the Colts Cessnas etc Conshysequently Ron could count on getting the j-3 almost any time he wanted to fly it He checked out in the other aircraft also but never tired of just going off alone and shooting landings or watching a sunset in his Cub

Returning home that f irst summer he found himshyself without a job - wh ich meant no funds for flying

A couple of weeks later at an EAA fly-in he related his dilemma to Audrey Poberezny and a few days later received a phone call from Bill Chomo offering summer employment at the EAA Museum Ron jumped at the chance and would spend each of his college summer vacations mowing yards painting dusting airplanes - whatever was asked of him that wou Id support his flying habit

Ron had been a member of EAA Chapter 18 for a number of years and the summer job at EAA Headshyquarters (where 18 holds its meetings) intensified his relationship with various of the members Eventually he fell in with a bad crowd bounders like Bob Ladd Dick Mildebrandt and the notorious Ron Scott Soon they were putting terrible things in his head worst of which was the insidious idea of actually ownshying an airplane Together they schemed to chip in and buy a Cub Champ or some such fun airplane for giving rides to friends taildragger checkouts etc (Bob Dick and Ron Scott each had single place homebuilts in those days) Ron was sorely tempted to fall in with the plan but fortunately he was spared by the timely intervention of his father although there would be moments in the years to come when he had good cause to question the hand fate had dealt him

It wasnt that Tony objected to the terrible trio (acshytually they were and are today close friends) - or even the idea of owning an airplane he simply wanted to see his son apply his aviation skills and knowledge to a purposeful end He wanted the two of them to buy a basket case and restore it

Taken somewhat by surprise by this proposal Ron quickly recovered and began scouring Trade-A-Plane Chapter newsletters and the like One day during the summer of 1970 he picked up a Chapter 260 (Dolton IL) newsletter and began scanning it for ads - and there it was Leo Faoro (EAA 28636) of Dolton (south Chicago) had a basket case 1946 Aeronca Champion he was willing to part with for a reasonashyble price

I n rapid succession Ron talked the situation over with his father (who would be the financial backer of any deal) called Leo on the 4th of july and arranged a meeting time drove down with Tony the next day inspected the airplane liked what he saw and put a $100 deposit on it The following weekend the Champ was retrieved and was placed in his Aunts garage acshyross townJn Milwaukee

Immediately Ron and his father began taking the fuselage apart and the very first th ing Ron twisted off a brass fitting on the carburetor This reshyally upset him at the time because it pounded home

the realization that despite his book knowledge he was completely lacking in hands on experience in working on airplanes His dad however was just sitshyting back with a sly grin on his face Youve got to do things like that to learn he said Get your feet wet then pay close attention to what you are doing work carefully and do everything correctly Ron would listen to this advice and stick it out to the end For the first year or so however Tony would serve as his tutor and advisor - as well as fellow worker shyon the Champ project

In stripping the airframe down the Wojnars found that while they had a complete airplane they had a lot of work ahead of them to come up with a job to their personal standards Removing the paint from the fuselage tube framework for instance reshyvealed grinder marks - which meant replacement of some tubing The wings bore evidence of past groundloops - and atrocious repairs which would have to be completely redone And the landing gear oleos horizontal tail surfaces and a couple more smaller items were considered too bad for repair They would have to be replaced A close study of the logs revealed that such replacement of various comshyponents had been a common occurance in the life of NC85448 24 years of abuse at the hands of ham-fisted students had left only the wings intact from the airshyframe that rolled out of the factory in 1946

By this point it was time for Ron to head back to Purdue for his senior year He had signed up for some elective courses in the technical area including engine overhaul and maintenance so he took his enshygine with him hoping to overhaul it as his class proshyject He tore the A-65 down alright but it would be 7 years before it went back together again The cylinshyders were oversize and badly rusted a dye check reshyvealed a cracked crankcase the camshaft was worn out and the cam followers were eaten up with corroshysion In other words Ron found he had a pile of junk for an engine The only bright spot was the crank shyit was useable The expense of the overhaul this hunk of iron needed was out of the question while Ron was still in school so sadly the pieces were boxed up and sent back home

After graduating from Purdue in 1971 Ron reshyturned to his summer job at EAA while waiting to be assigned to officers training by the Air Guard It was an especially instructive summer The Acro Sport proshytotype was being built and with its construction (tube and rag) essentially the same as the Champ every day was a learning experience for Ron Not only could he get his hand in to pick up new skills he could apply to the restoration of his airplane but he had a golden

10

opportunity to pick the brains of pros like Bill Chomo Philippe Van Pelt Gil Bodeen and others includ ing of course the Acro Sport designer Paul Poberezny

As it turned out Ron did not get his OTS assignshyment that summer so on September 1 he accepted a full time position with the EAA Air Museum Foundashytion as Assistant Museum Director

That fall (1971) the fuselage frame was sandblasted and some pitting was found in addition to the aforementioned grinder marks Everything doubtful was cut out and replaced with new tubing Ron tacked each piece and Bill Chomo finished them later Ron would gain the experience and confidence to do his own welding By Christmas all the repair work had been done all the woodwork had been reshyplaced so that the next step was a cover job That as things turned out would be a way down the road however

In late December Ron started on the left wing He first tried to clean it up without d isassembling it bilt after several months of part time wasted effort tore it down and did it right Only one wing was done at a time so that the other could be used for reference Some wingtip repair (and rework of old bad repai rs) was necessary but essentially the wing work involved cleanup replacement of leading edges and refinishing of the spars (the only old wood reshytained in the entire airplane)

With the coming of the summer of 1972 Ron found the direction of his life changing - and the Champ temporarily moving to the back burner First his OTS assignment came through and he was off for Lackland AFB for 3 months then as a new 2nd Lieutenant one month of active duty with his local Guard unit

That fall Ron took a position with Hartzog Aviation in Rockford Illinois and moved to that city Living in an apartment he had to leave the Champ at his pashyrents home in Milwaukee driving back to work on weekends Small parts were taken home to Rockford to be reworked during the week Happily Ron had again found himself in fortuitous circumstances - at Hartzog he not only had some real aviation pros to call on for advice but a lot of sophisticated equipshyment that could be used after work

1972 saw only modest progress on the Champ what with adjustment to a new job new home and weekend travel back and forth between Milwaukee and Rockford The following year however things began to look up Perhaps most significant was the fact that Ron and his father made the first of many weekend trips to Bellancas Osceola Wisconsin plant

Aside from the spars theres not much of the o rigina l wings left in this p icshyture

The ingredients of a champions Champ are beginning to show up

to forage for parts Tom Brown and Bonnie Marlette of the Parts Sales Department took an immediate inshyterest in the restoration project and spared no effort to unearth 7AC parts that had been moved from Middletown Ohio to Wiscons in Bellanca had sufshyfered a disastrous fi re a few years before and much of the old stuff had been lost but fortunately some had been stored downtown in an old railroad depot Ron and his father were permitted to sift through evshyerything and together they came up with a lot of impossible to obtain goodies like frames for the sliding windows universal joints for the fuel valve extension rod etc A surprising number of off the shelf Citabria components are the same as for its anshycestor the 7AC All the wooden fuselage formers and stringers in fact are identical with the exception of the rear window area When completed Rons Champ looked like a new one because to a great exshytent it is thanks to the folks at Bellanca

During 1974 things began to get into high gear The wings were finished and late that year the Contishynental A-65 was given a complete major Schneck Avshyiation did the work needed and Ron did the final asshysembly - under the supervision of a licensed mechanic Thinking the end was in sight Ron purchshyased all his dope and fabric (dacron) from Bellanca and took two weeks vacation to cover the airplane He gets a big laugh today at his naivete in grossly unshyderestimating the time element involved in covering Two weeks in fact stretched into 2 years before the cover job was completed

In 1975 Rons life took another sharp turn He left Hartzog and took a career position with the FAA Asshysigned to EMDO 46 in Des Plaines IL (north side of Chicago) as an Aviation Safety Inspector (Manufacturshying) Ron was able to move back home in Milwaukee commute to work during the day and work on the Champ evenings and weekends From that point on something no matter how insignificant was done every night

One bit of help came from an unusual quarter Ironically one of Ron s FAA assignments was the Belshylanca factory - so that his friends from the days of scrounging for 7AC parts had now also become clients of sorts Every time Ron came in for an inspecshytion he had to give everyone a progress report on his Champ A couple of young girls in the covering department Donna Viebrock and Sue Dollery told Ron they would like to come to Milwaukee some weekend and install the wing envelopes Despite livshying in Wisconsin all their lives neither had been to the big city and th is would be their chance With

their expertise the work would take just a few hours and the rest of their time could be spent seeing the Sights It was an offer Ron couldn t refuse and sometime later it all came about He got a set of wings ready for doping and the girls got an expense paid fling in Wisconsin s biggest metropolitan area

With doping and finish coats to go orid inarily it would have been decision time as far as the paint scheme was concerned Not so in this case however Very early in the project Ron had made the decision to return the Champ to factory new condition and appearance This of course involved considerable research He had an original service manual given him by Ron Scott and a copy of a 1946 Skyways article on the Champ given him by George Hardie but most helpful was the complete certification record on the Aeronca 7AC on file right where hf worked EMDO 46 in Des Plaines (Bellanca still holds the Proshyduction Limitation Record for the airplane and could put it back in production tomorrow if they wanted to) The file is COMPLETE colors size and shape of markings everything All the draWings are dated 1945 and all the subsequent revisions are on file

1976 saw the covering completed and 1977 was spent doing all those little detail items you think are going to take about 2 weeks according to Ron He endured all manrer of frustration attempting to paint the fairings cowl and various other small metal pieces Ron was bugged literally He would spray on a beautiful coat of enamel - no runs no orange peel - only to have some hapless insect make a Kamakazi dive right into the shiny surface Striving for nothing less than perfection Ron stripped the parts completely after each bug attack and repainted them He estimates he pai nted the equivalent of 4 or 5 airplanes before he was satisfied Similarly the crinkle-finish instrument panel was done 3 times beshyfore a perfect job could be obtained

Ron had some interesting experiences down the stretch drive to complete the airplane A few items had seemed impossible to obtain in order to have a near 100 authentic restoration - the flocking of the interior for example For 3 or 4 years inquiries had been made through aviation channels in a vain atshytempt to locate a shop that could do the work Deshyspairing of ever achieving success Ron picked up the Chicago Yellow Pages one day and looked up Flockshying Sure enough there was such a classification He made a phone call and a friendly voice assured him the work would be no problem Ron was told how to prepare the panels (apply an epoxy base in the color desired for the flocking) and where to deliver them

There s not much here that could look any newer if it were coming right out of the factory

The work was done over the following weekend and turned out to be a beautiful job (The flocking incishydentally is an electro-static process with the comshymercial name of Velvetex)

Another tough nut (pun intended) was the fuel gage nut - Bellanca didn t have one and all that turned up were worse than Rons knarled overshytorqued original Finally driving through a small Minnesota town Ron spotted a sign that read Sewshying Machines Guns Trading Post and Airplane Parts Partly on a hunch and partly just out of curiosshyity he stopped entered the establishment and inshyquired of the owner if he had any Champ parts

Got enough to make 5 of them whatta ya need was the reply

Ron mentioned the fuel gage nut and was almost shocked to hear Sure how many you need whereupon the proprietor reached into a drawer and pulled out a loop of safety wire with a half dozen or so Aeronca fuel gage nuts strung on it

This sort of thing Ron chuckles today is why it took 7 years to restore the Champ He could have built up an airworthy even beauti f ul job in perhaps 3 years but not an authentic one That took a lot of time and patience

Finally however the day came when the airplane was taken to the Waukesha County Airport - on Ocshytober 23 1977 to be precise What should have been a joyous occasion however began a two month ordeal that is a story in itself Shortly after taking over

12

That first run-up a moment of supreme exaltation

a hangar from a friend who had sold his airplane Ron was informed by the FBO that he would have to give it up by January 1 This shocking news really put the pressure on After 7 years of work Ron was detershymined not to dismantle the Champ and tow it back home and he was absolutely not going to leave it outside Hangar space is extremely hard to come by in the Milwaukee area just as is the case in all large metropolitan areas so the only option left was to find a hangar in a nearby town Space was ultimately loshycated some 20 miles west at Watertown but having a January 1 deadline Ron resolved to fly the Champ out of Waukesha

It wasnt easy Bitter cold came to Wisconsin even earlier than usual making final assembly of the Champ a numbing experience Nevertheless Ron and his father toughed it out working every evening and weekends By late November it was so cold that work had to go in spurts ~ interrupted by thaw-out breaks in Rons or his dads car Several layers of insulated clothing didnt make working in tight spots easy and any job requiring a degree of digital finesse was frustshyration personified Trying to screw on a tiny nut he couldnt feel through numb fingers was not exactly Rons idea of a fun way to complete his project In December temperatures plunged below zero but Ron and Tony worked on getting the last of the fairshyings on control cables adjusted the King 360 radio and battery pack installed etc

Finally it was time for some engine run-in John Curtice Rons fellow inspector with EMDO 46 had previously been employed with Continental Motors in Muskegon Michigan and had gone through the proshycedure literally thousands of times He advised Ron on how to properly break in the newly majored A-65 and later issued a new Certificate of Airworthiness AI Bruce Rintelmann of Milwaukee had supervised the project from the beginning (since neither Ron nor his father have civilian A and P licenses) and had alshyready signed off the restoration work

And then it was done Ron could have test flown the Champ a day or so before Christmas but he decided against it His family had put so much of themselves in the project that Ron could not bring himself to pOSSibly ruin their Christmas in case anyshything went wrong Bright and early on the 26th howshyever he and his dad were heading for the airport

The temperature was 3deg F but the Continental started on the first pull Ron taxied over to the FBO shut down and squirmed into a Security parachute Mike Heuer had brought over for the occasion Firing up again he warmed up the engine until the oil

temperature came up to 90deg then taxied out for take-off Given the OK by the tower Ron opened the throttle and literally leaped into the frigid air He climbed out to 5000 feet staying over the south end of the airport - by prearrangement with the controlshylers All went well and after 36 minutes the cold had become so unbearable Ron had to land while he still had some feeling in his hands and feet The landing was a real squeaker (as he later saw on movies) On the 30th - right on schedule - Ron flew the Champ out of Waukesha and over to Watertown The airplane was there for about six weeks - and some 5 hours of further flying time - before it was transfershyred to a new home Air Troy Estates where Ron had bought a lot Hangar space was available until sumshymer when he would have his own 45 x 72 hangar built

With the passing of a really miserable winter Ron was able to enjoy a spring and summer of pleasure flying and fine tuning of the airplane for its debut at Oshkosh 78 The airplane had been test flown with a metal propeller but as a final authentic touch a wooden Sensenich had been ordered through Wag Aero There was some last minute anxiety over delivshyery of the prop but a week before the fly-in it arshyrived

Ron had intended to take a weeks vacation to enjoy all of the Convention but so many requests

had come in from EAAers wanting inspections so they could get their homebuilts to Oshkosh he couldnt get away until Wednesday

The rest you know On Friday night Ron walked out of the Meeting Pavillion with the Grand Champshyion Classic trophy and it was difficult to tell whose smile was wider his or his dads

The outcome had not been unexpected in many quarters despite the torrid competition every Oshkosh gathering provides Earlier Ron had atshytended the Aeronca Forum at the conclusion of which moderator Charlie Lasher had asked if the owner of NC85448 were present Ron raised his hand and Charlie said I want to come down and shake your hand - that is the finest Champ I have ever seen

In the weeks preceding the Convention Rons felshylow FAA employees at EMDO 46 had speculated on his chances of winning an award perhaps even the Big One Secretary Michele Facenda (who had helped with the Champs paperwork) had promised to bake a cake for him if he were successful - so on the next Monday morning Ron strode in with his trophy put it down on Micheles desk and anshynounced Youre going to have to do some baking

I already have she replied I knew you were going to win

Interior of Gregs Luscombe

Dick Stouffer Photo)

Class Winner Luscombe BE Gregg Biete Charlotte David Gustafson Photo) North Caro lina

Class I Winner Taylorcraft BC-120 Ralph Lauritsen Boone Iowa

David Gustafson Photo) Custom Class C Winner Bellanca 14-19 Ronald Joslyn Malibu California

By Edward D Williams Associate Editor 713 Eastman Dr

Mt Prospect IL 60056

An antique airplane which has been hanging in the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago since 1953 has a unique honored distinction This came about when an expert model builder made a 33-inch wingspan model of it that is considered a work of art So today both the full-size plane and the three-fourths scale model are on display in the same museum

The plane is a Boeing 40B which was donated to the museum after the close of the Century of Progress Exposishytion in Chicago in 1933 It was originally manufactured as a 40A and later converted to a 40B but the museums

The simplicity of the design is shown in this view of the Boeing 40A

plane is displayed in the colors and markings of a 40A And so the model built by Carl Buttita a commercial arshytist in Chicago is an exact copy of a 40A

When the Boeing plane NC288 factory serial number 899 was bought by Boeing Air Transport (BAD from its parent company the Boeing Airplane Company in June 1927 it cost $24500 Buttitas model which took him three years to complete was appraised at $7000

The Boeing hanging in the east court of the Museum of Science and Industry is considered of historic value

because it was one of a fleet of 24 BAT 40A aircraft that helped make transcontinental air travel possible for the first time in 1927 (See The Vintage Airplane December 1977)

Buttitas model although it was not built to fly looks every middotbit like it could It is so realistic that it later won him an important award from the Hobby Industry of America

The Museum of Science and Industry which is loshycated on Chicagos south side lakefront draws about four million visitors a year to see hundreds of exhibits depictshy

18

ing the laws of science and applications of technology in industry and other fields It is a non-profit independent institution and admission is free

The Museum was partially opened in 1933 with only a handful of exhibits By that time Boeing Air Transport and three other airline companies-- Pacific Air Transport Varney Air Lines and National Air Transport- were joined together to form United Airlines which on November 30 1933 donated the Boeing to the Museum

It took seven more years for the museum to be comshypleted so the Boeing was stored in the institutions basement until it finally was hung from the ceiling in 1939 Although the plane has been cleaned regularly and today remains in sparkling condition it has never been moved from its resting place and probably wont be for some time to come

The Boeing is part of a large aviation display which includes a number of other antique aircraft the Apollo 8 spacecraft and a full-sized model of the first class cabin of a Boeing 747

Other planes on exhibit with the Boeing 40B are a 1910 Curtiss a 1913 Morane-Saulnier a 1917 Curtiss J N-4 Jenny a Supermarine Spitfire a Lockheed F-104 Starfighter and the Travel-Air S Mystery NR1313 sponsored by Texaco and flown by Frank Hawks in setshyting a number of transcontinental records

The Museum also owns a Junkers Ju87B Stuka but it is not on exhibit in Chicago because it rests temporarily on loan in the Air Education Museum of the Experimental Aircraft Association in Franklin Wisconsin The German World War II dive bomber was restored after a cleaning accident at the Chicago Museum by the EAA Museum staff

The Model which Buttita finished three years ago is on exhibit in a special case It draws considerable interest because of its highly detailed work- down to the tiniest hinges on the doors

Boeing Air Transport (BAn probably owed its corposhyrate life to the Boeing 40A which enabled it to get into the airmail transport business

The Boeing Airplane Company first built a single Model 40 for a government competition in 1925 for the awarding of a contract for an airplane to be flown by the U S Post Office Department to replace the old de Havilshyland DH-4s it had been using since 1918 The governshyment bought the one Model 40 equipped with the old watercooled Liberty engine but did not award the comshypany a production contract It went instead to Douglas for its series of M aircraft

However the project was revived a year later when the Post Office Department decided to award Contract Air Mail (CAM) routes to private contractors for airmail The Model 40 plans were dusted off updated with the

After its Wasp engine was replaced with the PampW Hornet engine the 40A was designated the 408 and This picture of groundcrewmen unloading a 40A gives a looked like the above close-up view of the Pratt amp Whitney Wasp engine and

the dural sheet construction used throughout

latest improvements and redesigned to meet the postal requirements Designated the 40A it was powered with a 9 cylinder 420 horsepower Pratt amp Whitney Wasp enshygine a new aircooled radial engine Boeing was testing in its fighter type aircraft

The Boeing basic design with a pilot in an open cockpit was also changed to carry two passengers in a forward cabin although the awarding of the airmail conshytract and not passenger transportation was of paramount importance But the 40A could still carry 1200 pounds of mail in addition to the two hardy souls who pioneered passenger travel in 1927

It was the new designs low operating costs and high revenue potential that got BAT Boeings wholl y-owned subsidiary the low bid on the new San FranciscoshyChicago airmail (CAM number 18) route from the govshyernment BAT operated 24 of the 25 40As built The other plane was delivered to Pratt amp Whitney as a flying engine test bed This test aircraft proved its worth as in early 1928 the new 525 horsepower Pratt amp Whitney Homet engine became available in quantity and BAT quickly converted 19of its 40As to 40Bs with the installashytion of the new Hornet engine Among these was the Chicago museums NC288

According to the Model Specification and History document supplied to BAT by the Boeing Airplane Comshypany the 40A was a Three-place Landplane Biplane Closed Cabin Mailplane (3P-CiSl Factory numbers ran from 879 through 903 The first flight was made on May 20 1927 with delivery to BAT nine days later Dimenshysions were wingspan 442 length 332V and height 123 Empty weight was 2622 Ibs with a de sign gross of 4652 Ibs It boasted a top speed of 135 mph and a cruising speed of 125 mph but the actual pershyformance was closer to a maximum speed of 128 and a cruise of 105 mph It has a range of 550 miles and a sershyvice ceiling of 15700 feet

The 40A needed the altitude capability because of the rugged mountainous terrain on the 1 9113 mile San Francisco-Chicago run BAT started to use the new plane on the route with many intermediate stops on July 1 1927 When National Air Transport began its CAM Number 17 route operations with its Douglas M-4s betshyween New York and Chicago on September 1 1927 the two airlines link-up at Checkerboard Field at Maywood Illinois outside of Chicago gave the United States its first transcontinental air travel

The Chicago museum s Boeing 40B figured promishynently in th is important part of history Boeing NC288 amassed more than 6000 flight hours on the San Francisco-Chicago run and was flown many times by the famous airmail pioneer Jack Knight (See The Vintage Airplane February 1977) before it was retired

Construction of the Boeing 40A is shown in this picture of th e Boeing A irplane Company assembly line w ith A Boeing 40A NC286 - a sister ship of NC288 in the 40As in various stages of completion at Sea ttle Washingshy Chicago Museum - is show n fl ying over mountains on ton the Boeing A ir Transports San Francisco-Chicago run in

20

The Museums 40B in the coloring and markings of a 40A hangs with other historically significant aircraft in Chicagos Museum of Science and Industry The cockpit of the Boeing 40A w as simple making the

job o f duplica ting it in a model less demanding

(Museum of Science and Industry Photo)

- __ poundLlaquo

In 1933 it was used in the Wings of a Century pageant at the Century of Progress Exposition in Chicago after the Worlds Fair it was turned over to the Rosenwald Museum which later was renamed the Museum of Scishyence and Industry

Although the basic construction of the Boeing 40A was simple it had enough detail to make a model of it interesting Buttita said that he was a stickler for detail but admitted that he got carried away in making his model

When I decided to build the model I didnt intend to make it with such detail Buttita told this author I thought I could fake a lot by making the metal parts out of wood and painting them silver

But Buttita changed his mind and made every metal part out of metal and every wood part out of wood So the project which he thought would take him six or seven months eventually took three years

The more detail I put on it the better it looked he said so finally nothing could stop me and I detailed evshyerything

Buttita is an artist with the Accurate Silk Screen Sershyvice Company Chicago and his model building ability is well known

The three-quarter scale 40A is what is called a scratch model in which the builder starts from scratch as opposed to a kit in which plans and many formed parts are supplied

Buttita said a scratch model involves considerable reshysearch and study For the 40A he got a complete set of plans and all the photographs he could from Boeing and United

It took me three or four months of study before I could actually get started to build anything he said

Unlike kits which eliminate many of the interior parts that cannot be seen scratch models to be authentic must have all the details of construction such as all the ribs in the wings But that also makes them much stronger and keeps them from warping Buttita pointed out

Both the Boeing 40A flown by BAT and the Buttita model of it were constructed at the peak of the state of the art for their day

The airplane had a steel tubular fuselage with wood fairing strips and was dural and fabric covered The wings also fabric covered were built up of spruce spars and ribs The dural sheet on the fuselage covered the enshygine cowling cabin doors and compartment hatch openshyings

The two passengers sat in a cabin metal lined throughout and their seats and seat backs were upholsshytered in leather The windows of the two doors one on each side of the fuselage were made of non-shatterable glass and could be opened for additional ventilation and

21

Details of the construction of the 40As cabin door and wing struts are shown in this close-up

A close-up view of Carl Butshytitas model of the 40A shows how dedicated he was to deshytail in the models construction

Carl Buttita builder of the three-fourths sca le Boe ing 40A discusses fine points of the construction with Edshyward E Carlson chairman of UAL In c Chicago and a member of the board of trustees of the Museum of Scishyence and Indu stry before the model was put on display in the Museum

were large enough to give the passengers an excellent view of the scenery

The rear of the fuselage was braced with steel tie-rods and was heavily faired to shape although it still was fabshyric covered The tail assembly also was fabric covered but only the horizontal stabilizer was built up like the wings with spruce spars and wood built-up ribs The rest of the tail assembly was built up with welded steel tubshying It rested on a steerable tailskid The landing gear was made of streamlined chrome-moly and used oleo-spring shock absorbers

Buttitas construction problems for his model were reshysolved through the use of a wide variety of materials

The Boeing model is made of aluminum pine dentists plastic epoxy glue and Japanese silkspan paper About 40 percent of the model is metal but much of it is inside so you dont see it Buttita said These parts are the cables controls pilots seat corrugated floor panels hinges cockpit fire extinguisher medical kit and workshyable seat belts

Each part had to be hand made some several times to get them right or if they broke Buttita said I had to make 20 to 30 rims for the landing lights to get two

When you make a one-of-a-kind model you have to fabricate about 90 per cent of the parts yourself and make dies for almost everything he added

For the metal parts Buttita used small pieces of offset printers plate made of aluminum but with some tin for added strength The wood parts are made of spruce and the engine and wheels are made of the dental plastic

All the markings and lettering were drawn triple the size on paper and reduced photographically on decal paper That way they were better than if I had handshypainted them on the model he said

Buttita said he did all the construction work on a card table at home and the only power tool he used was a small electric drill

At least one other Boeing 40B is known to be on exshyhibit in another museum This is aircraft NC285 factory number 896 which was presented to the Henry Ford Museum at Dearbom Michigan in 1938 But so far it doesnt have a scale model of its own to highlight it And don t look to Carl Buttita to build one I will never do it again he sa id It was just too much work

Rebuilding AVagabond

By Larry Railing Box 5 7 -C P Avenue

Lake Mills WI 5355 7

I never realized at the time I started to rebuild or lets say restore Piper Vagabond PA-15 N4423H that so many people were interested in what Id term history So here it is

I started flying in Valparaiso Indiana around 1900 I learned in a )-3 owned by Mark Murvahill I later

graduated to the PA-12 In 1964 I graduated from high school and a year later I was married As most in like cirshycumstances I gave up flying for love until the newness wore off

My first airplane was a )-5 Cub that went down in a marsh I had started to rebuild it until Dick Wagner of Wag-Aero heard of it and made me an untimely offer This airplane was later destroyed at Burlington along with the Tri-Motor

I later owned other aircraft which included aT-Craft Somehow Dick Wagner heard of my T-Craft and flew up in a Vagabond to see it and made me an offer

I told him at that time if he ever got in the mood to sell the Vag to please call me That was in 1968

On December 26 1976 Dick called me and asked if I was still interested in the Vag I told him yes and Id come down the next Saturday morning The next Saturday came and so did I There the Vag stood on its nose just as pictures in past issues of The Vintage A irplane had shown

Dick with all his other projects had to let something go He offered me the Vag or one of two Cubs My thoughts never gave way to anything but the Vag

23

The stripped fuselage arrives at home ready for a long winter s night

Work completed the birds about ready for a runway

I climbed a ladder and pulled the tail down and began looking It was all there but in sad shape For the past four years it hadn t been outside It looked good in the dark but time took its toll The fabric was beyond even shot But it was all original Every instrument the seat and all were original In thirty years no one even drilled a hole in the panel

We tried to get the old Lycoming 65 started but no way

The next Saturday morning I borrowed a stock car trailer and headed for Lyons with my truck On the way down all was going so well until I met a car looked in my mirror and noticed the trailer to be about a foot wider than my pickup Id never given that a thought before Everytime I met another car I just got over a little I fishynally arrived at Dicks place and began taking the Vag

Fits like a sausage casing The envelopes ready for the hea t trea tment

apart I placed the wings on some racks on my truck and the fuselage or the trailer I didn t bother taking off the tail All was loaded and ready to roll in about three hours

About halfway into the dismantling it began to snow By the time I was ready to go we had gotten about three inches This worked out in my favor as it slowed everyone else on the highway down to my speed My greatest worry when hauling an airplane is when you meet a truck

All seemed to be going good The first car I met I got over to the right because of the trailer At this time I looked into the mirror and not only noticed the trailer a foot wider than the truck on each side but the horizontal stabilizer stuck out another foot on each side beyond the trailer What a shock

I stopped and tried to remove the tail but to no avail The snow kept coming and so did the end of the day It took me four and a quarter hours to go fifty-five miles By the time I got home we had eight inches of snow What a long ride

I began total disassembly right away The wings were in fantastic shape All that was needed was varnish on the tip bows I also put new cables in the whole airplane The original inspectors number date and signature are still on the spars

I worked the whole project under the watchful eyes of Paul Baker an AI from Beaver Aviation at Dodge County

The author tackles another flying surface with needle and twine

Airport He is really an EAAer I never heard of an AI so ready and willing to help restore an airplane He even came to my home after hours to inspect the fuselage as it was easier for me than taking it up there Paul says if Id hired him to do the restoring I could just hand over my paycheck for a year so he said you do the working and Ill do the looking

All the still pieces were sandblasted and sprayed with Imron primer Believe me you do have to wear a mask with that stuff

I gave Wag-Aero a call and told them what I needed for a complete cover job and not to call me until they had it all there in one pile with no monkeying around for a little of this and that

While waiting for the covering materials I began work on the engine The whole airplane had only 1100 hours and the engine 330 SMOH I just couldn t get it started I solicited the help of a local mechanic and Stinshyson owner Harold Hubrich We found three blown head gaskets one leaky valve the impulse spring in the left mag was broken and the P-Iead in the right mag the inshysulator of phenolic replaced with masking tape

I pulled the heads and Harold ground ~he valves had the mags rebuilt a complete new ignition system and the carburetor rebuilt We got her back together and bongo

- she started right off In the meantime I finished the wings and control surshy

faces I wanted to paint it all apart so a temporary gear 24

Larry applies a new cowling atter a fruitl ess encounter with sa ndblasting equipment

was made to support the fuselage The engine was never taken off Many people questioned that temporary gear I just said you had to be very careful on take-off and landshying

The actual covering was very enjoyable you could see some real progress including the stitching but that spraying and sanding Sixteen hours of work for every coat Six sandings fourteen coats and thirty gallons all total

The sheet metal was all in good shape I had planned to replace the cowl so a guy that was chicken could look in at the rubber band I tried Zip Strip to get down to bare metal with no luck at all I took all the aluminum parts over to a body shop including the boot and sandblasted them In less than ten minutes I destroyed every piece of aluminum except the instrument panel and nose bowl I then got some aluminum and began making new parts It all turned out very well

When I first brought the Vag home I contacted Cecil Ogles of Vag-News and he sent me more info than I think Piper has Among which was complete rigging

Im a little more fortunate than most- Im a tool and die model maker by trade and have my own shop Before beginning on the Vag my partner and I added on a 50 x 60 foot addition to our shop which served for a beautiful place to work over the winter to store parts until needed as well as an area to completely assemble the airplane for rigging

Its been a long time since the fuselage last shook from a run-up

Time came to go to the airport and sprout feathers There is a private strip just south of town so I went there along with about six helpers The airplane was assembled and flown two days later on June 28 1978 A year and a half after beginning

The first flight was all anyone could hope for It really flys hands off and is the easiest airplane for a taildragger to land that I have ever flown

Now for some numbers Cruise 85-90 Cruise RPM 2300 Fuel Consumption 30 gph Prop 70-36 Final and Climb 70 mph Over the Fence 60 mph Stall 40 mph Empty Weight 640 Ibs Take-off- For each 10 Ibs over 200 the passenger

weighs I added 100 feet I had the Vag at Oshkosh on Tuesday this year and

took it home and put it to bed the same night In this area we have about fifteen Vags flying with

five of them done original Myself I like to see airplanes kept original Its like a Model T with a Chevy 427 it just aint the same

The airplane is covered with Stits and the finish is Aerothane

Now that the airplanes finished work ca n proceed on the shop

I can say something most people cant about this airpshylane While at Oshkosh I went over and visited the Piper display and who would you guess was there Clyde Smith the test pilot of my airplane thirty years ago I took a couple of pictures of him and will be placing them in the log books next to his signature

The Vag is my first real attempt in restoring I did the whole airplane myse lf except the seat and the engine work Im very pleased with the end product Its all mine and paid for as well Im now enjoying the fruits of my labor and Id do it again if I could find another Vagshyabond

Oddly enough it seemed the hardest part of the whole project was the legal end Being that the FCC can t seem to find a good reason to charge for a restricted radio license I decided to send for one just in case I ever carried a radio along That took three months and the paperwork went back and forth six times The hardest part was the registration The airplane hadn t been regisshytered since 1967 The State of Wisconsin wasnt too bad That paperwork came back only once asking for an addishytional $333 because I didn t notify them within thirty days after purchase even though the airplane had been declared exempt But the Feds This took six months nine phone calls and six letters Finally I called once again and told them that after a year and a half of rebuilding with or without them I was going to fly it I think that finally did the trick

25

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Calendar of Events NOVEMBER 18-19 - MIAMI FlORIDA- Antique Classic and Cusshy

tom Built Fly-In at the third annual Harvest- A Country Fair sponsored by the Historical Association of Southern Florida at the Dade County Youth Fairground Coral Way at 112th Avenue Awards given for antique classic and custom built aircraft Conshytact Capt Ken Ufland of the Civil Air Patrol office (305) 552-3106 home after 600 pm (305) 251-5927 or Mary Dodd Russell Harshyvest Coordinator at the Historical Museum 3280 S Miami Ave shynue Building B Miami Fl 33129

JANUARY 21-27 - Sun N Fun the biggest fly-in in the southeastshyand the second biggest in the natron Its a full week of southern hospitality and flying fun daily aerial demonstrations fly-bys of antique classic homebuilt and warbird aircraft forums exhibits and static displays parties and com roasts big new food concesshysion country store for campers in our shady campsites Make motel reservations early- our free information booklet has a complete list of accommodations Write to Sun N Fun PO Box 3538 lakeland Florida 33802

(Dick Stouffer Photo)

Aeronca IICC Super Chief belonging to David E Long Keyser West Virginia

(Ted Koston Photo)

Heres a sharp Funk at Oshkosh Owner unknown didnt register

(Dick Stouffer Photo)

Another fine looking unregistered aircraft

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F4U CORSAIR

PLANE CHECKS The Leading Fighter 01 WWII - with a Record 01 2140 Japanese Aircraft Destroyed 28 01 which

Are Credited to Pappy Boyington Regular bank checks emblazoned with the F4U CORSAIR

- Complete the order form and write out your check Now get a deposit Slip from the same account and clearly indicate any changes or other notations as you wish it to appear on the checks (These two documents will furnish us all the data we need to make your checks compatible with your banks computer and Amer Bank Assn specs) On gift orders send your check and mark his check VOID Please allow 3 weeks for delivery

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26

N2276A PA-22 Richard C Hill Harvard IL N78321 Michael P Kennedy Homestead AFB FL N43871 Marshall Kennard Enfield CT N3212Z PA-22 Wm W Ricketts Finksburg MD N80589 James Byland Moberly MO N43898 Temple amp Woodward Granger IN N3360B PA-22 Lloyd MookEddie Veach Harrisonville N80613 G W Goodland SI Paul MN N44204 Eugene M Townsend Decatur IL

MO N80665 Pete King Rockville MD NC44493 John W McDonald New Orleans LA N3377A PA-22 William Sherhan Lincoln NE N80689 Dave EbersoleScott Chr ist iansen N94941 Jon Ch almers Thompson Johnson N6125D PA-22 Wayne Minnis W Palm Beach FL Colorado Springs CO City TN N81 21C PA-22 Matthew Grainda Easton PA N80706 Mark Holliday Hastings MN N95109 Wm E Boggs Grove City OH N8588C PA-22 William A Rudolph Traverse City MI N80776 Joey N Kemp Tullahoma TN N95926 Dick AmRhein Troy OH Nl0306 PA-22 AI Morris Warminster PA N80905 Charles Hoover Jr SI Paul MN NC95957 Douglas Anderson Jackson MI CF-KKX PA-22 Alvin C Pomery Janetville Ont Canada N80949 Lowell Sterch i Coral Gables FL N96026 R R Reece San Angelo TX

N80969 Harry Lyon Jr North SI Paul MN N96275 Jim Hall Rockford IL REPUBLIC SEABEE N90383 Guy Eby Madison CT N96386 Robert W West Oreana IL N1CD Curtis Dax Chicago IL N96387 Everett Downey Albion NY N6570K Grant Leonard Prior Lake MN TAYLORCRAFT N96417 John Friling Lombard IL

NC922WT Paul Edward Nuss Juniata Altoona PA N96544 Steven N Landis FI Wayne IN middotSTlSON NC5020M Ralph LauritsenCliff Henry Boone IA N96818 Wm Knight Brodhead WI N389C Boyd Walsh Marion IN N5045M Robert ReedyCovert Holley Troy OH N96842 Tim Mickel Scioto Mills IL N584LW 108 Larry Wheelock Bloomfield IN N5109M Herbert Browning London OH N96979 Lester L Walls Shrewsbury PA Nl081S Voyager Richard Bourque Simsbury CT N5218M Richard Weimberger Fond du Lac WI CF-KFG James Takacs Port Colborne Ont N6323M 108 Paul Varner Rockford IL N5265M EM Air Museum Franklin WI Canada N6555M Nicholas C Selig Naperville IL N29753 James Foos Granger IN CF-PUW Ken Bimm Rexdale Onl Canada N8212K 108-1 Robert Reintgen Latrobe PA N34093 Paul Cusumano Mayfield Village OH N8509K 108-1 Daniel Bauman Oorr MI N39168 Thornton Cressy Westland MI ADDITIONAL CLASSICS N8747K Charles Brokaw Parker CA NC39222 SArt Bujnowski Huntington LI NY N242B Helio Couier Robert T Griff in Waxhaw NC N9088K 108-1 C O Depuy Ponca City OK N39974 William Fitch Epworth IA N424 L Meyers 145 L A Waite Durand MI N9117K Voyager James Strock Austintown OH N43163 Jerry Kramer FI Recovery OH C-FLWG Moranamp-Sauln ier 502 Frank Masak Scarboro Onl Canada N97367 108 Bruce Jacobs Albion MI N43344 Mark Yelich Franklin WI N5160 Rawdon T-l Jack Chastain Creve Coeur MO N97607 108 Rich Klepperich Webster MN N43556 Ray L Sherwood Fairf ield IA N711SV Stampe John Hanson Manistee MI N297K 108-2 Stinson IVBob LaBonte Hudson NH N43680 Parker Buckley Waynesville OH N25MB Stampe SV4 Don Good SI Joseph MO N971J 108-2 J Mankins Corona CA N43845 J C Latronigo Girard OH N8000K 108-2 Michael Hudgins Portage WI N9306K 108-2 Frank Sperry SI Ignace MI N9582K 108-2 David Peterson Inver Grove Heights MN N9836K 108-2 G M Huffman Tulsa OK CF-HZM 108-2 Fred Green Mississauga Ont Canada CF-SID 108-2 Augus Cameron London Ont Canada N675C 108-3 Curt Lindauer Belleville IL N762C 108-3 Harvey T EngenDavid Engen

Excelsior MN NC6018M 108-3 Carl Pflanzer Rome NY N6649M 108-3 Russel Arndt Big Falls WI N6698M 108-3 Joe D Wh ite Calumet City IL C-FKQC 108-3 Richard R Schaub Fenwick Ont

Canada CF-LLW 108-3 Kenneth Gamble Hamilton Ont Canada

SWIFT N1BJ Raymond Neuse Groesbeck TX N1ZF Ronald Thompson Jenks OK Nl0SS William Shepard River Ridge LA N1 3SW Steve Wilson St Charles IL N50BS Roland J Zavada Pittsford NY N77PB Pat Knight Waynesboro VA N853C Charles R Cannan San Juan

Capistrano CA N853P John R Dixon Mission Viejo CA N2115 Bonham E Cross Hopkins MN N2334B James J Montague Lake Elmo MN N2424B Carl Weddle Hendersonville TN N2429B William GoldmanJack Morgan

Chandler AZ N2442B John Cranfill Frankfort IL N2457B Dick McNeil North Wilkesboro NC N3248K Howard H Hanson Webster MN N3263K Howard Thalacker Chetek WI N3740K Ronald W Williamson San Diego CA N3816K Buz Johnson Mobile AL N3898K Tracy Rhodes Dayton OH N77756 George ONeal SI Petersburg FL N78083 Paul L Chesley Albuquerque NM N78247 Clyde B Ericson Barrington I L N78261 N78306 N78309 N78311

James Pope Washington DC Gary Scott Schoolcraft MI Bernard F Arnold Cuyahoga Falls OH Richard A Chisholm Oak Lawn IL

(Lee Fra y Photo)

Bill Ehlen and AI H enninger Forums Chairman and Co-Chairman

(Lee Fray Photo)

AntiqueClass ic Headquarters staffers J Kesel Markl and K Morgan

7

RON WOJNARS GRAND CHAMPION CHAMP

Going down this photo and the next give an indication of what Ron had to tear down prior to his very extens ive reshybuild

On day six Thursday of Oshkosh 78 acshytivities were already beginning to wind down The aircraft judges had pared their long long lists down to the top one or two in each category or in many cases had pretty well decided the final rankings About all that remained was to wait out the day to inshysure that no one flew in anything that would upset the apple cart at the last moment

Unbeknownst to the Classic judges the upsetter was already on the field having slipped in the previshyous evening right after the History of Flight pageant No one paid any particular attention when a mild and well mannered young man walked into the Classic trailer on Thursday morning and asked if he could get his airplane judged Half an hour later however ap-

By Jack Cox

pies were tumbling all over the AntiqueClassic parkshying area and judge-laden golf carts were rushing from all quadrants toward the scene of the calamity One quick walk around one sniff of the cabin aroma one peek under the cowling and it was all over The only sounds were a few anguished groans and the tearing of paper yesterdays judging sheets

Unless you were well into your 50s or an aficionado of Classic airplanes this Through the

The right wing before stripping inspection holes

Looking Glass scenario made little sense for in the middle of it all was just a little 01 Aeronca Champion

But what a Champion First it was yellow with the orange lower fuselage

- the familiar Aeronca factory paint scheme that we

rarely see today On the nose was a brand new Senshysenich wood propeller - a 72-42 climb prop just like the FBOs used to order for flight training The nose bowl and wrap-around cowl were as pristine as a newly minted dime - even the exhaust pipe stubs sticking out the bottom were barely smudged The tires were new the oleo struts at full normal extenshysion and the brake covers without a chip in the paint from prop blasted stones and gravel Inside the cashybin the brown crinkle-finish instrument panel held an array of dials the correct ones sporting the winged Aeronca emblem Black enameled floorshyboards brown flocked side panels and door and brown leatherette seat covers each emitted its own peculiar smell to combine with that of fresh dope and 80 octane to produce that aeromatic Evening in Middletown essence that few of us have experienced but none have forgotten

Outside again a glance across the top surface of the wings revealed chordwise rows of little bumps in

Naturally all wood was replaced Here the old is used as a pattern for a new window frame

8

the glistening fabric tell-tale mini-molehills marking the characteristically Aeronca PK screws taking the place of rib stitching 24 inch orange letters and numerals swam in the shimmering light reflected off the top of the right wing

Letting ones gaze swoop down the familiar mulshytifaceted sway back of the fuselage it was easy to see every stringer arced st raight and true to the tail - no warps no valleys between formers

Emblazoned on the fin and rudder - in orange shywere the stenciled winged Aeronca emblem and the rather odd sized and spaced N numbers

Stepping back for perspective ones mind reeled This wasnt a latter day restoration it was a new airplane only hours ago a ferry pilot had signed out the airplane from the factory ramp there in Middletown Ohio dated his voucher August 5 1946 and took off for Milwaukee to deliver the spankshying new airplane to Anderson Air Activities but on the way perhaps in the clouds of industrial smoke around Gary and South Chicago a time warp was enshycountered misdirecting the little bird through 3 deshycades to Wittman Field on the evening of August 2 1978

It looked that new it felt that new it even smelled that new

The next evening Ron Wojnar (EAA 31222) of Milshywaukee was called to the stage to receive the 1978 EAA Grand Champion Classic trophy for his 1946 Aeronca 7AC Champion and not a soul who had seen the airplane was surprised

The new frame s been installed along with a lot of other new wood

And not one of us who knew Ron personally was surprised either

Have you ever been to EAA Headquarters If you

have you may recall that in the main lobby two pedestals flank the entrance doors Atop these are glass cases containing two exquisite cut-away type airplane models one of an EAA Biplane and the other of a Tailwind They were meticulously crafted a number of years ago by a young college student who worked as a summer employee at the EAA Museum

That young man already exhibiting his concern for accuracy and authenticity his talent for minute detail and superb workmanship was Ron Wojnar

Born in Milwaukee on December 3 1949 Rons lifelong fascination with aviation came naturally His father Tony was a pilot who significantly often flew a Champ in those days before his family started comshying along and he was forced to give it up Earlier he had become an aircraft mechanic courtesy the Marine Corps and spent World War II keeping the heavy iron flying After V-J Day Tony returned to Milwaukee and signed on as a mechanic with the Wisconsin Air Nashytional Guard His Maintenance Officer - and pilot

The basic frame has been rebuilt by this point but th eres so much to go

for whom he served as a crew chief - was a Lt Colshyonel named Paul Poberezny

Three years before Rons birth a new Aeronca Champion was ferried into Mitchell Field just a couple of blocks from the Wojnar home by its new owner Andershyson Air Activities NC85448 labored for a number of

years as a trainer - climbing out and gliding in over the Wojnar household when the wind was right By early December of 1949 when the Wojnars were blessed with a healthy son the Champ had already accumulated alshymost exactly 3000 hours of flying time

A typical loving father Tony wanted his son to share his interest in aviation He built models for him until he was old enough to be taught to start building them himself He would often take little Ron along in the evening when he had to put in overtime and let him sit in the cockpits of the T-6s and P-51s on which

he was working and when his son was 6 years old Tony took him to nearby Waukesha Municipal Airshyport bought a couple of $250 tickets and treated hi m to his first airplane ride - in a Cessna 170

Those evenings in the cockpits of the Texans and 51s were making a far deeper impression on his son than Tony probably realized at the time Ron can vivshyidly recall the experiences to this day and he dates his determination to make aviation his lifes work to those wonderous moments when he sat there in the bucket seats pushing and pulling the sticks intently studying the dials and levers and wheels around him - and the rudder pedals down there in the bowels of the fuselage his little legs would not be able to reach for years to come

9

As the years went by Rons interest in airplanes and flying grew in sophistication in step with the growth of his body and mind He managed to get an airplane ride once in a while - sometimes in a Stearman piloted by his fathers boss Paul Poberezny and once when he was 11 in a Champ piloted by family friend Dick Mildebrandt Ron dearly longed to learn to fly but at the same time his academic success in high school was bending his inshyterests toward the scientific So much in fact that after graduation in 1967 he was soon packing to head for Lafayette Indiana to enroll as an aeronautical enshygineering student at Purdue University

Not surprisingly Purdue had been selected in part for its reputation as an aviation oriented institushytion Aside from its academic excellence Ron knew it must have a flying club a fact he confirmed within hours of his arrival on campus Excitedly relatshying this discovery to his father (with obvious intent) Ron found himself being brought back down to earth by the elder Wojnars reminder that he was there to earn a degree first and a pilots license maybe However he softened the admonition with the promshyise that after seeing Rons grades at the end of the first semester the situation would be open for further evaluation

No student was ever led down the path of academic achievement by a more tempting carrot Ron hit the books with a vengeance - sleep meant nothing social life was ignored and Big Ten football was just a Saturday afternoon recharging of Rons batshyteries for the REAL task at hand

At the end of the semester Tony had a wide and proud grin on his face and Ron was wasting little time getting enrolled in the school flying club To his surprise and pleasure he had found that in addition to its modern trainers Purdue still retained a Piper j-3 in its flight school fleet available for $550 per hour

For the next 312 years that Cub would virtually become Rons personal airplane He loved it - and soloed it in about 8 hours - but most of his fellow students sneered down their noses at the lowly yelshylow dog A few learned to fly in it simply because of the low rental rate but couldn t wait to move up to the REAL airplanes the Colts Cessnas etc Conshysequently Ron could count on getting the j-3 almost any time he wanted to fly it He checked out in the other aircraft also but never tired of just going off alone and shooting landings or watching a sunset in his Cub

Returning home that f irst summer he found himshyself without a job - wh ich meant no funds for flying

A couple of weeks later at an EAA fly-in he related his dilemma to Audrey Poberezny and a few days later received a phone call from Bill Chomo offering summer employment at the EAA Museum Ron jumped at the chance and would spend each of his college summer vacations mowing yards painting dusting airplanes - whatever was asked of him that wou Id support his flying habit

Ron had been a member of EAA Chapter 18 for a number of years and the summer job at EAA Headshyquarters (where 18 holds its meetings) intensified his relationship with various of the members Eventually he fell in with a bad crowd bounders like Bob Ladd Dick Mildebrandt and the notorious Ron Scott Soon they were putting terrible things in his head worst of which was the insidious idea of actually ownshying an airplane Together they schemed to chip in and buy a Cub Champ or some such fun airplane for giving rides to friends taildragger checkouts etc (Bob Dick and Ron Scott each had single place homebuilts in those days) Ron was sorely tempted to fall in with the plan but fortunately he was spared by the timely intervention of his father although there would be moments in the years to come when he had good cause to question the hand fate had dealt him

It wasnt that Tony objected to the terrible trio (acshytually they were and are today close friends) - or even the idea of owning an airplane he simply wanted to see his son apply his aviation skills and knowledge to a purposeful end He wanted the two of them to buy a basket case and restore it

Taken somewhat by surprise by this proposal Ron quickly recovered and began scouring Trade-A-Plane Chapter newsletters and the like One day during the summer of 1970 he picked up a Chapter 260 (Dolton IL) newsletter and began scanning it for ads - and there it was Leo Faoro (EAA 28636) of Dolton (south Chicago) had a basket case 1946 Aeronca Champion he was willing to part with for a reasonashyble price

I n rapid succession Ron talked the situation over with his father (who would be the financial backer of any deal) called Leo on the 4th of july and arranged a meeting time drove down with Tony the next day inspected the airplane liked what he saw and put a $100 deposit on it The following weekend the Champ was retrieved and was placed in his Aunts garage acshyross townJn Milwaukee

Immediately Ron and his father began taking the fuselage apart and the very first th ing Ron twisted off a brass fitting on the carburetor This reshyally upset him at the time because it pounded home

the realization that despite his book knowledge he was completely lacking in hands on experience in working on airplanes His dad however was just sitshyting back with a sly grin on his face Youve got to do things like that to learn he said Get your feet wet then pay close attention to what you are doing work carefully and do everything correctly Ron would listen to this advice and stick it out to the end For the first year or so however Tony would serve as his tutor and advisor - as well as fellow worker shyon the Champ project

In stripping the airframe down the Wojnars found that while they had a complete airplane they had a lot of work ahead of them to come up with a job to their personal standards Removing the paint from the fuselage tube framework for instance reshyvealed grinder marks - which meant replacement of some tubing The wings bore evidence of past groundloops - and atrocious repairs which would have to be completely redone And the landing gear oleos horizontal tail surfaces and a couple more smaller items were considered too bad for repair They would have to be replaced A close study of the logs revealed that such replacement of various comshyponents had been a common occurance in the life of NC85448 24 years of abuse at the hands of ham-fisted students had left only the wings intact from the airshyframe that rolled out of the factory in 1946

By this point it was time for Ron to head back to Purdue for his senior year He had signed up for some elective courses in the technical area including engine overhaul and maintenance so he took his enshygine with him hoping to overhaul it as his class proshyject He tore the A-65 down alright but it would be 7 years before it went back together again The cylinshyders were oversize and badly rusted a dye check reshyvealed a cracked crankcase the camshaft was worn out and the cam followers were eaten up with corroshysion In other words Ron found he had a pile of junk for an engine The only bright spot was the crank shyit was useable The expense of the overhaul this hunk of iron needed was out of the question while Ron was still in school so sadly the pieces were boxed up and sent back home

After graduating from Purdue in 1971 Ron reshyturned to his summer job at EAA while waiting to be assigned to officers training by the Air Guard It was an especially instructive summer The Acro Sport proshytotype was being built and with its construction (tube and rag) essentially the same as the Champ every day was a learning experience for Ron Not only could he get his hand in to pick up new skills he could apply to the restoration of his airplane but he had a golden

10

opportunity to pick the brains of pros like Bill Chomo Philippe Van Pelt Gil Bodeen and others includ ing of course the Acro Sport designer Paul Poberezny

As it turned out Ron did not get his OTS assignshyment that summer so on September 1 he accepted a full time position with the EAA Air Museum Foundashytion as Assistant Museum Director

That fall (1971) the fuselage frame was sandblasted and some pitting was found in addition to the aforementioned grinder marks Everything doubtful was cut out and replaced with new tubing Ron tacked each piece and Bill Chomo finished them later Ron would gain the experience and confidence to do his own welding By Christmas all the repair work had been done all the woodwork had been reshyplaced so that the next step was a cover job That as things turned out would be a way down the road however

In late December Ron started on the left wing He first tried to clean it up without d isassembling it bilt after several months of part time wasted effort tore it down and did it right Only one wing was done at a time so that the other could be used for reference Some wingtip repair (and rework of old bad repai rs) was necessary but essentially the wing work involved cleanup replacement of leading edges and refinishing of the spars (the only old wood reshytained in the entire airplane)

With the coming of the summer of 1972 Ron found the direction of his life changing - and the Champ temporarily moving to the back burner First his OTS assignment came through and he was off for Lackland AFB for 3 months then as a new 2nd Lieutenant one month of active duty with his local Guard unit

That fall Ron took a position with Hartzog Aviation in Rockford Illinois and moved to that city Living in an apartment he had to leave the Champ at his pashyrents home in Milwaukee driving back to work on weekends Small parts were taken home to Rockford to be reworked during the week Happily Ron had again found himself in fortuitous circumstances - at Hartzog he not only had some real aviation pros to call on for advice but a lot of sophisticated equipshyment that could be used after work

1972 saw only modest progress on the Champ what with adjustment to a new job new home and weekend travel back and forth between Milwaukee and Rockford The following year however things began to look up Perhaps most significant was the fact that Ron and his father made the first of many weekend trips to Bellancas Osceola Wisconsin plant

Aside from the spars theres not much of the o rigina l wings left in this p icshyture

The ingredients of a champions Champ are beginning to show up

to forage for parts Tom Brown and Bonnie Marlette of the Parts Sales Department took an immediate inshyterest in the restoration project and spared no effort to unearth 7AC parts that had been moved from Middletown Ohio to Wiscons in Bellanca had sufshyfered a disastrous fi re a few years before and much of the old stuff had been lost but fortunately some had been stored downtown in an old railroad depot Ron and his father were permitted to sift through evshyerything and together they came up with a lot of impossible to obtain goodies like frames for the sliding windows universal joints for the fuel valve extension rod etc A surprising number of off the shelf Citabria components are the same as for its anshycestor the 7AC All the wooden fuselage formers and stringers in fact are identical with the exception of the rear window area When completed Rons Champ looked like a new one because to a great exshytent it is thanks to the folks at Bellanca

During 1974 things began to get into high gear The wings were finished and late that year the Contishynental A-65 was given a complete major Schneck Avshyiation did the work needed and Ron did the final asshysembly - under the supervision of a licensed mechanic Thinking the end was in sight Ron purchshyased all his dope and fabric (dacron) from Bellanca and took two weeks vacation to cover the airplane He gets a big laugh today at his naivete in grossly unshyderestimating the time element involved in covering Two weeks in fact stretched into 2 years before the cover job was completed

In 1975 Rons life took another sharp turn He left Hartzog and took a career position with the FAA Asshysigned to EMDO 46 in Des Plaines IL (north side of Chicago) as an Aviation Safety Inspector (Manufacturshying) Ron was able to move back home in Milwaukee commute to work during the day and work on the Champ evenings and weekends From that point on something no matter how insignificant was done every night

One bit of help came from an unusual quarter Ironically one of Ron s FAA assignments was the Belshylanca factory - so that his friends from the days of scrounging for 7AC parts had now also become clients of sorts Every time Ron came in for an inspecshytion he had to give everyone a progress report on his Champ A couple of young girls in the covering department Donna Viebrock and Sue Dollery told Ron they would like to come to Milwaukee some weekend and install the wing envelopes Despite livshying in Wisconsin all their lives neither had been to the big city and th is would be their chance With

their expertise the work would take just a few hours and the rest of their time could be spent seeing the Sights It was an offer Ron couldn t refuse and sometime later it all came about He got a set of wings ready for doping and the girls got an expense paid fling in Wisconsin s biggest metropolitan area

With doping and finish coats to go orid inarily it would have been decision time as far as the paint scheme was concerned Not so in this case however Very early in the project Ron had made the decision to return the Champ to factory new condition and appearance This of course involved considerable research He had an original service manual given him by Ron Scott and a copy of a 1946 Skyways article on the Champ given him by George Hardie but most helpful was the complete certification record on the Aeronca 7AC on file right where hf worked EMDO 46 in Des Plaines (Bellanca still holds the Proshyduction Limitation Record for the airplane and could put it back in production tomorrow if they wanted to) The file is COMPLETE colors size and shape of markings everything All the draWings are dated 1945 and all the subsequent revisions are on file

1976 saw the covering completed and 1977 was spent doing all those little detail items you think are going to take about 2 weeks according to Ron He endured all manrer of frustration attempting to paint the fairings cowl and various other small metal pieces Ron was bugged literally He would spray on a beautiful coat of enamel - no runs no orange peel - only to have some hapless insect make a Kamakazi dive right into the shiny surface Striving for nothing less than perfection Ron stripped the parts completely after each bug attack and repainted them He estimates he pai nted the equivalent of 4 or 5 airplanes before he was satisfied Similarly the crinkle-finish instrument panel was done 3 times beshyfore a perfect job could be obtained

Ron had some interesting experiences down the stretch drive to complete the airplane A few items had seemed impossible to obtain in order to have a near 100 authentic restoration - the flocking of the interior for example For 3 or 4 years inquiries had been made through aviation channels in a vain atshytempt to locate a shop that could do the work Deshyspairing of ever achieving success Ron picked up the Chicago Yellow Pages one day and looked up Flockshying Sure enough there was such a classification He made a phone call and a friendly voice assured him the work would be no problem Ron was told how to prepare the panels (apply an epoxy base in the color desired for the flocking) and where to deliver them

There s not much here that could look any newer if it were coming right out of the factory

The work was done over the following weekend and turned out to be a beautiful job (The flocking incishydentally is an electro-static process with the comshymercial name of Velvetex)

Another tough nut (pun intended) was the fuel gage nut - Bellanca didn t have one and all that turned up were worse than Rons knarled overshytorqued original Finally driving through a small Minnesota town Ron spotted a sign that read Sewshying Machines Guns Trading Post and Airplane Parts Partly on a hunch and partly just out of curiosshyity he stopped entered the establishment and inshyquired of the owner if he had any Champ parts

Got enough to make 5 of them whatta ya need was the reply

Ron mentioned the fuel gage nut and was almost shocked to hear Sure how many you need whereupon the proprietor reached into a drawer and pulled out a loop of safety wire with a half dozen or so Aeronca fuel gage nuts strung on it

This sort of thing Ron chuckles today is why it took 7 years to restore the Champ He could have built up an airworthy even beauti f ul job in perhaps 3 years but not an authentic one That took a lot of time and patience

Finally however the day came when the airplane was taken to the Waukesha County Airport - on Ocshytober 23 1977 to be precise What should have been a joyous occasion however began a two month ordeal that is a story in itself Shortly after taking over

12

That first run-up a moment of supreme exaltation

a hangar from a friend who had sold his airplane Ron was informed by the FBO that he would have to give it up by January 1 This shocking news really put the pressure on After 7 years of work Ron was detershymined not to dismantle the Champ and tow it back home and he was absolutely not going to leave it outside Hangar space is extremely hard to come by in the Milwaukee area just as is the case in all large metropolitan areas so the only option left was to find a hangar in a nearby town Space was ultimately loshycated some 20 miles west at Watertown but having a January 1 deadline Ron resolved to fly the Champ out of Waukesha

It wasnt easy Bitter cold came to Wisconsin even earlier than usual making final assembly of the Champ a numbing experience Nevertheless Ron and his father toughed it out working every evening and weekends By late November it was so cold that work had to go in spurts ~ interrupted by thaw-out breaks in Rons or his dads car Several layers of insulated clothing didnt make working in tight spots easy and any job requiring a degree of digital finesse was frustshyration personified Trying to screw on a tiny nut he couldnt feel through numb fingers was not exactly Rons idea of a fun way to complete his project In December temperatures plunged below zero but Ron and Tony worked on getting the last of the fairshyings on control cables adjusted the King 360 radio and battery pack installed etc

Finally it was time for some engine run-in John Curtice Rons fellow inspector with EMDO 46 had previously been employed with Continental Motors in Muskegon Michigan and had gone through the proshycedure literally thousands of times He advised Ron on how to properly break in the newly majored A-65 and later issued a new Certificate of Airworthiness AI Bruce Rintelmann of Milwaukee had supervised the project from the beginning (since neither Ron nor his father have civilian A and P licenses) and had alshyready signed off the restoration work

And then it was done Ron could have test flown the Champ a day or so before Christmas but he decided against it His family had put so much of themselves in the project that Ron could not bring himself to pOSSibly ruin their Christmas in case anyshything went wrong Bright and early on the 26th howshyever he and his dad were heading for the airport

The temperature was 3deg F but the Continental started on the first pull Ron taxied over to the FBO shut down and squirmed into a Security parachute Mike Heuer had brought over for the occasion Firing up again he warmed up the engine until the oil

temperature came up to 90deg then taxied out for take-off Given the OK by the tower Ron opened the throttle and literally leaped into the frigid air He climbed out to 5000 feet staying over the south end of the airport - by prearrangement with the controlshylers All went well and after 36 minutes the cold had become so unbearable Ron had to land while he still had some feeling in his hands and feet The landing was a real squeaker (as he later saw on movies) On the 30th - right on schedule - Ron flew the Champ out of Waukesha and over to Watertown The airplane was there for about six weeks - and some 5 hours of further flying time - before it was transfershyred to a new home Air Troy Estates where Ron had bought a lot Hangar space was available until sumshymer when he would have his own 45 x 72 hangar built

With the passing of a really miserable winter Ron was able to enjoy a spring and summer of pleasure flying and fine tuning of the airplane for its debut at Oshkosh 78 The airplane had been test flown with a metal propeller but as a final authentic touch a wooden Sensenich had been ordered through Wag Aero There was some last minute anxiety over delivshyery of the prop but a week before the fly-in it arshyrived

Ron had intended to take a weeks vacation to enjoy all of the Convention but so many requests

had come in from EAAers wanting inspections so they could get their homebuilts to Oshkosh he couldnt get away until Wednesday

The rest you know On Friday night Ron walked out of the Meeting Pavillion with the Grand Champshyion Classic trophy and it was difficult to tell whose smile was wider his or his dads

The outcome had not been unexpected in many quarters despite the torrid competition every Oshkosh gathering provides Earlier Ron had atshytended the Aeronca Forum at the conclusion of which moderator Charlie Lasher had asked if the owner of NC85448 were present Ron raised his hand and Charlie said I want to come down and shake your hand - that is the finest Champ I have ever seen

In the weeks preceding the Convention Rons felshylow FAA employees at EMDO 46 had speculated on his chances of winning an award perhaps even the Big One Secretary Michele Facenda (who had helped with the Champs paperwork) had promised to bake a cake for him if he were successful - so on the next Monday morning Ron strode in with his trophy put it down on Micheles desk and anshynounced Youre going to have to do some baking

I already have she replied I knew you were going to win

Interior of Gregs Luscombe

Dick Stouffer Photo)

Class Winner Luscombe BE Gregg Biete Charlotte David Gustafson Photo) North Caro lina

Class I Winner Taylorcraft BC-120 Ralph Lauritsen Boone Iowa

David Gustafson Photo) Custom Class C Winner Bellanca 14-19 Ronald Joslyn Malibu California

By Edward D Williams Associate Editor 713 Eastman Dr

Mt Prospect IL 60056

An antique airplane which has been hanging in the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago since 1953 has a unique honored distinction This came about when an expert model builder made a 33-inch wingspan model of it that is considered a work of art So today both the full-size plane and the three-fourths scale model are on display in the same museum

The plane is a Boeing 40B which was donated to the museum after the close of the Century of Progress Exposishytion in Chicago in 1933 It was originally manufactured as a 40A and later converted to a 40B but the museums

The simplicity of the design is shown in this view of the Boeing 40A

plane is displayed in the colors and markings of a 40A And so the model built by Carl Buttita a commercial arshytist in Chicago is an exact copy of a 40A

When the Boeing plane NC288 factory serial number 899 was bought by Boeing Air Transport (BAD from its parent company the Boeing Airplane Company in June 1927 it cost $24500 Buttitas model which took him three years to complete was appraised at $7000

The Boeing hanging in the east court of the Museum of Science and Industry is considered of historic value

because it was one of a fleet of 24 BAT 40A aircraft that helped make transcontinental air travel possible for the first time in 1927 (See The Vintage Airplane December 1977)

Buttitas model although it was not built to fly looks every middotbit like it could It is so realistic that it later won him an important award from the Hobby Industry of America

The Museum of Science and Industry which is loshycated on Chicagos south side lakefront draws about four million visitors a year to see hundreds of exhibits depictshy

18

ing the laws of science and applications of technology in industry and other fields It is a non-profit independent institution and admission is free

The Museum was partially opened in 1933 with only a handful of exhibits By that time Boeing Air Transport and three other airline companies-- Pacific Air Transport Varney Air Lines and National Air Transport- were joined together to form United Airlines which on November 30 1933 donated the Boeing to the Museum

It took seven more years for the museum to be comshypleted so the Boeing was stored in the institutions basement until it finally was hung from the ceiling in 1939 Although the plane has been cleaned regularly and today remains in sparkling condition it has never been moved from its resting place and probably wont be for some time to come

The Boeing is part of a large aviation display which includes a number of other antique aircraft the Apollo 8 spacecraft and a full-sized model of the first class cabin of a Boeing 747

Other planes on exhibit with the Boeing 40B are a 1910 Curtiss a 1913 Morane-Saulnier a 1917 Curtiss J N-4 Jenny a Supermarine Spitfire a Lockheed F-104 Starfighter and the Travel-Air S Mystery NR1313 sponsored by Texaco and flown by Frank Hawks in setshyting a number of transcontinental records

The Museum also owns a Junkers Ju87B Stuka but it is not on exhibit in Chicago because it rests temporarily on loan in the Air Education Museum of the Experimental Aircraft Association in Franklin Wisconsin The German World War II dive bomber was restored after a cleaning accident at the Chicago Museum by the EAA Museum staff

The Model which Buttita finished three years ago is on exhibit in a special case It draws considerable interest because of its highly detailed work- down to the tiniest hinges on the doors

Boeing Air Transport (BAn probably owed its corposhyrate life to the Boeing 40A which enabled it to get into the airmail transport business

The Boeing Airplane Company first built a single Model 40 for a government competition in 1925 for the awarding of a contract for an airplane to be flown by the U S Post Office Department to replace the old de Havilshyland DH-4s it had been using since 1918 The governshyment bought the one Model 40 equipped with the old watercooled Liberty engine but did not award the comshypany a production contract It went instead to Douglas for its series of M aircraft

However the project was revived a year later when the Post Office Department decided to award Contract Air Mail (CAM) routes to private contractors for airmail The Model 40 plans were dusted off updated with the

After its Wasp engine was replaced with the PampW Hornet engine the 40A was designated the 408 and This picture of groundcrewmen unloading a 40A gives a looked like the above close-up view of the Pratt amp Whitney Wasp engine and

the dural sheet construction used throughout

latest improvements and redesigned to meet the postal requirements Designated the 40A it was powered with a 9 cylinder 420 horsepower Pratt amp Whitney Wasp enshygine a new aircooled radial engine Boeing was testing in its fighter type aircraft

The Boeing basic design with a pilot in an open cockpit was also changed to carry two passengers in a forward cabin although the awarding of the airmail conshytract and not passenger transportation was of paramount importance But the 40A could still carry 1200 pounds of mail in addition to the two hardy souls who pioneered passenger travel in 1927

It was the new designs low operating costs and high revenue potential that got BAT Boeings wholl y-owned subsidiary the low bid on the new San FranciscoshyChicago airmail (CAM number 18) route from the govshyernment BAT operated 24 of the 25 40As built The other plane was delivered to Pratt amp Whitney as a flying engine test bed This test aircraft proved its worth as in early 1928 the new 525 horsepower Pratt amp Whitney Homet engine became available in quantity and BAT quickly converted 19of its 40As to 40Bs with the installashytion of the new Hornet engine Among these was the Chicago museums NC288

According to the Model Specification and History document supplied to BAT by the Boeing Airplane Comshypany the 40A was a Three-place Landplane Biplane Closed Cabin Mailplane (3P-CiSl Factory numbers ran from 879 through 903 The first flight was made on May 20 1927 with delivery to BAT nine days later Dimenshysions were wingspan 442 length 332V and height 123 Empty weight was 2622 Ibs with a de sign gross of 4652 Ibs It boasted a top speed of 135 mph and a cruising speed of 125 mph but the actual pershyformance was closer to a maximum speed of 128 and a cruise of 105 mph It has a range of 550 miles and a sershyvice ceiling of 15700 feet

The 40A needed the altitude capability because of the rugged mountainous terrain on the 1 9113 mile San Francisco-Chicago run BAT started to use the new plane on the route with many intermediate stops on July 1 1927 When National Air Transport began its CAM Number 17 route operations with its Douglas M-4s betshyween New York and Chicago on September 1 1927 the two airlines link-up at Checkerboard Field at Maywood Illinois outside of Chicago gave the United States its first transcontinental air travel

The Chicago museum s Boeing 40B figured promishynently in th is important part of history Boeing NC288 amassed more than 6000 flight hours on the San Francisco-Chicago run and was flown many times by the famous airmail pioneer Jack Knight (See The Vintage Airplane February 1977) before it was retired

Construction of the Boeing 40A is shown in this picture of th e Boeing A irplane Company assembly line w ith A Boeing 40A NC286 - a sister ship of NC288 in the 40As in various stages of completion at Sea ttle Washingshy Chicago Museum - is show n fl ying over mountains on ton the Boeing A ir Transports San Francisco-Chicago run in

20

The Museums 40B in the coloring and markings of a 40A hangs with other historically significant aircraft in Chicagos Museum of Science and Industry The cockpit of the Boeing 40A w as simple making the

job o f duplica ting it in a model less demanding

(Museum of Science and Industry Photo)

- __ poundLlaquo

In 1933 it was used in the Wings of a Century pageant at the Century of Progress Exposition in Chicago after the Worlds Fair it was turned over to the Rosenwald Museum which later was renamed the Museum of Scishyence and Industry

Although the basic construction of the Boeing 40A was simple it had enough detail to make a model of it interesting Buttita said that he was a stickler for detail but admitted that he got carried away in making his model

When I decided to build the model I didnt intend to make it with such detail Buttita told this author I thought I could fake a lot by making the metal parts out of wood and painting them silver

But Buttita changed his mind and made every metal part out of metal and every wood part out of wood So the project which he thought would take him six or seven months eventually took three years

The more detail I put on it the better it looked he said so finally nothing could stop me and I detailed evshyerything

Buttita is an artist with the Accurate Silk Screen Sershyvice Company Chicago and his model building ability is well known

The three-quarter scale 40A is what is called a scratch model in which the builder starts from scratch as opposed to a kit in which plans and many formed parts are supplied

Buttita said a scratch model involves considerable reshysearch and study For the 40A he got a complete set of plans and all the photographs he could from Boeing and United

It took me three or four months of study before I could actually get started to build anything he said

Unlike kits which eliminate many of the interior parts that cannot be seen scratch models to be authentic must have all the details of construction such as all the ribs in the wings But that also makes them much stronger and keeps them from warping Buttita pointed out

Both the Boeing 40A flown by BAT and the Buttita model of it were constructed at the peak of the state of the art for their day

The airplane had a steel tubular fuselage with wood fairing strips and was dural and fabric covered The wings also fabric covered were built up of spruce spars and ribs The dural sheet on the fuselage covered the enshygine cowling cabin doors and compartment hatch openshyings

The two passengers sat in a cabin metal lined throughout and their seats and seat backs were upholsshytered in leather The windows of the two doors one on each side of the fuselage were made of non-shatterable glass and could be opened for additional ventilation and

21

Details of the construction of the 40As cabin door and wing struts are shown in this close-up

A close-up view of Carl Butshytitas model of the 40A shows how dedicated he was to deshytail in the models construction

Carl Buttita builder of the three-fourths sca le Boe ing 40A discusses fine points of the construction with Edshyward E Carlson chairman of UAL In c Chicago and a member of the board of trustees of the Museum of Scishyence and Indu stry before the model was put on display in the Museum

were large enough to give the passengers an excellent view of the scenery

The rear of the fuselage was braced with steel tie-rods and was heavily faired to shape although it still was fabshyric covered The tail assembly also was fabric covered but only the horizontal stabilizer was built up like the wings with spruce spars and wood built-up ribs The rest of the tail assembly was built up with welded steel tubshying It rested on a steerable tailskid The landing gear was made of streamlined chrome-moly and used oleo-spring shock absorbers

Buttitas construction problems for his model were reshysolved through the use of a wide variety of materials

The Boeing model is made of aluminum pine dentists plastic epoxy glue and Japanese silkspan paper About 40 percent of the model is metal but much of it is inside so you dont see it Buttita said These parts are the cables controls pilots seat corrugated floor panels hinges cockpit fire extinguisher medical kit and workshyable seat belts

Each part had to be hand made some several times to get them right or if they broke Buttita said I had to make 20 to 30 rims for the landing lights to get two

When you make a one-of-a-kind model you have to fabricate about 90 per cent of the parts yourself and make dies for almost everything he added

For the metal parts Buttita used small pieces of offset printers plate made of aluminum but with some tin for added strength The wood parts are made of spruce and the engine and wheels are made of the dental plastic

All the markings and lettering were drawn triple the size on paper and reduced photographically on decal paper That way they were better than if I had handshypainted them on the model he said

Buttita said he did all the construction work on a card table at home and the only power tool he used was a small electric drill

At least one other Boeing 40B is known to be on exshyhibit in another museum This is aircraft NC285 factory number 896 which was presented to the Henry Ford Museum at Dearbom Michigan in 1938 But so far it doesnt have a scale model of its own to highlight it And don t look to Carl Buttita to build one I will never do it again he sa id It was just too much work

Rebuilding AVagabond

By Larry Railing Box 5 7 -C P Avenue

Lake Mills WI 5355 7

I never realized at the time I started to rebuild or lets say restore Piper Vagabond PA-15 N4423H that so many people were interested in what Id term history So here it is

I started flying in Valparaiso Indiana around 1900 I learned in a )-3 owned by Mark Murvahill I later

graduated to the PA-12 In 1964 I graduated from high school and a year later I was married As most in like cirshycumstances I gave up flying for love until the newness wore off

My first airplane was a )-5 Cub that went down in a marsh I had started to rebuild it until Dick Wagner of Wag-Aero heard of it and made me an untimely offer This airplane was later destroyed at Burlington along with the Tri-Motor

I later owned other aircraft which included aT-Craft Somehow Dick Wagner heard of my T-Craft and flew up in a Vagabond to see it and made me an offer

I told him at that time if he ever got in the mood to sell the Vag to please call me That was in 1968

On December 26 1976 Dick called me and asked if I was still interested in the Vag I told him yes and Id come down the next Saturday morning The next Saturday came and so did I There the Vag stood on its nose just as pictures in past issues of The Vintage A irplane had shown

Dick with all his other projects had to let something go He offered me the Vag or one of two Cubs My thoughts never gave way to anything but the Vag

23

The stripped fuselage arrives at home ready for a long winter s night

Work completed the birds about ready for a runway

I climbed a ladder and pulled the tail down and began looking It was all there but in sad shape For the past four years it hadn t been outside It looked good in the dark but time took its toll The fabric was beyond even shot But it was all original Every instrument the seat and all were original In thirty years no one even drilled a hole in the panel

We tried to get the old Lycoming 65 started but no way

The next Saturday morning I borrowed a stock car trailer and headed for Lyons with my truck On the way down all was going so well until I met a car looked in my mirror and noticed the trailer to be about a foot wider than my pickup Id never given that a thought before Everytime I met another car I just got over a little I fishynally arrived at Dicks place and began taking the Vag

Fits like a sausage casing The envelopes ready for the hea t trea tment

apart I placed the wings on some racks on my truck and the fuselage or the trailer I didn t bother taking off the tail All was loaded and ready to roll in about three hours

About halfway into the dismantling it began to snow By the time I was ready to go we had gotten about three inches This worked out in my favor as it slowed everyone else on the highway down to my speed My greatest worry when hauling an airplane is when you meet a truck

All seemed to be going good The first car I met I got over to the right because of the trailer At this time I looked into the mirror and not only noticed the trailer a foot wider than the truck on each side but the horizontal stabilizer stuck out another foot on each side beyond the trailer What a shock

I stopped and tried to remove the tail but to no avail The snow kept coming and so did the end of the day It took me four and a quarter hours to go fifty-five miles By the time I got home we had eight inches of snow What a long ride

I began total disassembly right away The wings were in fantastic shape All that was needed was varnish on the tip bows I also put new cables in the whole airplane The original inspectors number date and signature are still on the spars

I worked the whole project under the watchful eyes of Paul Baker an AI from Beaver Aviation at Dodge County

The author tackles another flying surface with needle and twine

Airport He is really an EAAer I never heard of an AI so ready and willing to help restore an airplane He even came to my home after hours to inspect the fuselage as it was easier for me than taking it up there Paul says if Id hired him to do the restoring I could just hand over my paycheck for a year so he said you do the working and Ill do the looking

All the still pieces were sandblasted and sprayed with Imron primer Believe me you do have to wear a mask with that stuff

I gave Wag-Aero a call and told them what I needed for a complete cover job and not to call me until they had it all there in one pile with no monkeying around for a little of this and that

While waiting for the covering materials I began work on the engine The whole airplane had only 1100 hours and the engine 330 SMOH I just couldn t get it started I solicited the help of a local mechanic and Stinshyson owner Harold Hubrich We found three blown head gaskets one leaky valve the impulse spring in the left mag was broken and the P-Iead in the right mag the inshysulator of phenolic replaced with masking tape

I pulled the heads and Harold ground ~he valves had the mags rebuilt a complete new ignition system and the carburetor rebuilt We got her back together and bongo

- she started right off In the meantime I finished the wings and control surshy

faces I wanted to paint it all apart so a temporary gear 24

Larry applies a new cowling atter a fruitl ess encounter with sa ndblasting equipment

was made to support the fuselage The engine was never taken off Many people questioned that temporary gear I just said you had to be very careful on take-off and landshying

The actual covering was very enjoyable you could see some real progress including the stitching but that spraying and sanding Sixteen hours of work for every coat Six sandings fourteen coats and thirty gallons all total

The sheet metal was all in good shape I had planned to replace the cowl so a guy that was chicken could look in at the rubber band I tried Zip Strip to get down to bare metal with no luck at all I took all the aluminum parts over to a body shop including the boot and sandblasted them In less than ten minutes I destroyed every piece of aluminum except the instrument panel and nose bowl I then got some aluminum and began making new parts It all turned out very well

When I first brought the Vag home I contacted Cecil Ogles of Vag-News and he sent me more info than I think Piper has Among which was complete rigging

Im a little more fortunate than most- Im a tool and die model maker by trade and have my own shop Before beginning on the Vag my partner and I added on a 50 x 60 foot addition to our shop which served for a beautiful place to work over the winter to store parts until needed as well as an area to completely assemble the airplane for rigging

Its been a long time since the fuselage last shook from a run-up

Time came to go to the airport and sprout feathers There is a private strip just south of town so I went there along with about six helpers The airplane was assembled and flown two days later on June 28 1978 A year and a half after beginning

The first flight was all anyone could hope for It really flys hands off and is the easiest airplane for a taildragger to land that I have ever flown

Now for some numbers Cruise 85-90 Cruise RPM 2300 Fuel Consumption 30 gph Prop 70-36 Final and Climb 70 mph Over the Fence 60 mph Stall 40 mph Empty Weight 640 Ibs Take-off- For each 10 Ibs over 200 the passenger

weighs I added 100 feet I had the Vag at Oshkosh on Tuesday this year and

took it home and put it to bed the same night In this area we have about fifteen Vags flying with

five of them done original Myself I like to see airplanes kept original Its like a Model T with a Chevy 427 it just aint the same

The airplane is covered with Stits and the finish is Aerothane

Now that the airplanes finished work ca n proceed on the shop

I can say something most people cant about this airpshylane While at Oshkosh I went over and visited the Piper display and who would you guess was there Clyde Smith the test pilot of my airplane thirty years ago I took a couple of pictures of him and will be placing them in the log books next to his signature

The Vag is my first real attempt in restoring I did the whole airplane myse lf except the seat and the engine work Im very pleased with the end product Its all mine and paid for as well Im now enjoying the fruits of my labor and Id do it again if I could find another Vagshyabond

Oddly enough it seemed the hardest part of the whole project was the legal end Being that the FCC can t seem to find a good reason to charge for a restricted radio license I decided to send for one just in case I ever carried a radio along That took three months and the paperwork went back and forth six times The hardest part was the registration The airplane hadn t been regisshytered since 1967 The State of Wisconsin wasnt too bad That paperwork came back only once asking for an addishytional $333 because I didn t notify them within thirty days after purchase even though the airplane had been declared exempt But the Feds This took six months nine phone calls and six letters Finally I called once again and told them that after a year and a half of rebuilding with or without them I was going to fly it I think that finally did the trick

25

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Calendar of Events NOVEMBER 18-19 - MIAMI FlORIDA- Antique Classic and Cusshy

tom Built Fly-In at the third annual Harvest- A Country Fair sponsored by the Historical Association of Southern Florida at the Dade County Youth Fairground Coral Way at 112th Avenue Awards given for antique classic and custom built aircraft Conshytact Capt Ken Ufland of the Civil Air Patrol office (305) 552-3106 home after 600 pm (305) 251-5927 or Mary Dodd Russell Harshyvest Coordinator at the Historical Museum 3280 S Miami Ave shynue Building B Miami Fl 33129

JANUARY 21-27 - Sun N Fun the biggest fly-in in the southeastshyand the second biggest in the natron Its a full week of southern hospitality and flying fun daily aerial demonstrations fly-bys of antique classic homebuilt and warbird aircraft forums exhibits and static displays parties and com roasts big new food concesshysion country store for campers in our shady campsites Make motel reservations early- our free information booklet has a complete list of accommodations Write to Sun N Fun PO Box 3538 lakeland Florida 33802

(Dick Stouffer Photo)

Aeronca IICC Super Chief belonging to David E Long Keyser West Virginia

(Ted Koston Photo)

Heres a sharp Funk at Oshkosh Owner unknown didnt register

(Dick Stouffer Photo)

Another fine looking unregistered aircraft

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F4U CORSAIR

PLANE CHECKS The Leading Fighter 01 WWII - with a Record 01 2140 Japanese Aircraft Destroyed 28 01 which

Are Credited to Pappy Boyington Regular bank checks emblazoned with the F4U CORSAIR

- Complete the order form and write out your check Now get a deposit Slip from the same account and clearly indicate any changes or other notations as you wish it to appear on the checks (These two documents will furnish us all the data we need to make your checks compatible with your banks computer and Amer Bank Assn specs) On gift orders send your check and mark his check VOID Please allow 3 weeks for delivery

Start USing Plane Checks Now Your old checks will always be good

Identity Check Co Box 149-D Park Ridge III 60068 Activate my order for Plane Checks starting No ___ o 300middot$795 0 600-$1350 0 900middot$1875 Checks are printed with blue backgrounds and are top bound-one part deposit sUps registers and matching checkbook cover are Included In each order

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26

RON WOJNARS GRAND CHAMPION CHAMP

Going down this photo and the next give an indication of what Ron had to tear down prior to his very extens ive reshybuild

On day six Thursday of Oshkosh 78 acshytivities were already beginning to wind down The aircraft judges had pared their long long lists down to the top one or two in each category or in many cases had pretty well decided the final rankings About all that remained was to wait out the day to inshysure that no one flew in anything that would upset the apple cart at the last moment

Unbeknownst to the Classic judges the upsetter was already on the field having slipped in the previshyous evening right after the History of Flight pageant No one paid any particular attention when a mild and well mannered young man walked into the Classic trailer on Thursday morning and asked if he could get his airplane judged Half an hour later however ap-

By Jack Cox

pies were tumbling all over the AntiqueClassic parkshying area and judge-laden golf carts were rushing from all quadrants toward the scene of the calamity One quick walk around one sniff of the cabin aroma one peek under the cowling and it was all over The only sounds were a few anguished groans and the tearing of paper yesterdays judging sheets

Unless you were well into your 50s or an aficionado of Classic airplanes this Through the

The right wing before stripping inspection holes

Looking Glass scenario made little sense for in the middle of it all was just a little 01 Aeronca Champion

But what a Champion First it was yellow with the orange lower fuselage

- the familiar Aeronca factory paint scheme that we

rarely see today On the nose was a brand new Senshysenich wood propeller - a 72-42 climb prop just like the FBOs used to order for flight training The nose bowl and wrap-around cowl were as pristine as a newly minted dime - even the exhaust pipe stubs sticking out the bottom were barely smudged The tires were new the oleo struts at full normal extenshysion and the brake covers without a chip in the paint from prop blasted stones and gravel Inside the cashybin the brown crinkle-finish instrument panel held an array of dials the correct ones sporting the winged Aeronca emblem Black enameled floorshyboards brown flocked side panels and door and brown leatherette seat covers each emitted its own peculiar smell to combine with that of fresh dope and 80 octane to produce that aeromatic Evening in Middletown essence that few of us have experienced but none have forgotten

Outside again a glance across the top surface of the wings revealed chordwise rows of little bumps in

Naturally all wood was replaced Here the old is used as a pattern for a new window frame

8

the glistening fabric tell-tale mini-molehills marking the characteristically Aeronca PK screws taking the place of rib stitching 24 inch orange letters and numerals swam in the shimmering light reflected off the top of the right wing

Letting ones gaze swoop down the familiar mulshytifaceted sway back of the fuselage it was easy to see every stringer arced st raight and true to the tail - no warps no valleys between formers

Emblazoned on the fin and rudder - in orange shywere the stenciled winged Aeronca emblem and the rather odd sized and spaced N numbers

Stepping back for perspective ones mind reeled This wasnt a latter day restoration it was a new airplane only hours ago a ferry pilot had signed out the airplane from the factory ramp there in Middletown Ohio dated his voucher August 5 1946 and took off for Milwaukee to deliver the spankshying new airplane to Anderson Air Activities but on the way perhaps in the clouds of industrial smoke around Gary and South Chicago a time warp was enshycountered misdirecting the little bird through 3 deshycades to Wittman Field on the evening of August 2 1978

It looked that new it felt that new it even smelled that new

The next evening Ron Wojnar (EAA 31222) of Milshywaukee was called to the stage to receive the 1978 EAA Grand Champion Classic trophy for his 1946 Aeronca 7AC Champion and not a soul who had seen the airplane was surprised

The new frame s been installed along with a lot of other new wood

And not one of us who knew Ron personally was surprised either

Have you ever been to EAA Headquarters If you

have you may recall that in the main lobby two pedestals flank the entrance doors Atop these are glass cases containing two exquisite cut-away type airplane models one of an EAA Biplane and the other of a Tailwind They were meticulously crafted a number of years ago by a young college student who worked as a summer employee at the EAA Museum

That young man already exhibiting his concern for accuracy and authenticity his talent for minute detail and superb workmanship was Ron Wojnar

Born in Milwaukee on December 3 1949 Rons lifelong fascination with aviation came naturally His father Tony was a pilot who significantly often flew a Champ in those days before his family started comshying along and he was forced to give it up Earlier he had become an aircraft mechanic courtesy the Marine Corps and spent World War II keeping the heavy iron flying After V-J Day Tony returned to Milwaukee and signed on as a mechanic with the Wisconsin Air Nashytional Guard His Maintenance Officer - and pilot

The basic frame has been rebuilt by this point but th eres so much to go

for whom he served as a crew chief - was a Lt Colshyonel named Paul Poberezny

Three years before Rons birth a new Aeronca Champion was ferried into Mitchell Field just a couple of blocks from the Wojnar home by its new owner Andershyson Air Activities NC85448 labored for a number of

years as a trainer - climbing out and gliding in over the Wojnar household when the wind was right By early December of 1949 when the Wojnars were blessed with a healthy son the Champ had already accumulated alshymost exactly 3000 hours of flying time

A typical loving father Tony wanted his son to share his interest in aviation He built models for him until he was old enough to be taught to start building them himself He would often take little Ron along in the evening when he had to put in overtime and let him sit in the cockpits of the T-6s and P-51s on which

he was working and when his son was 6 years old Tony took him to nearby Waukesha Municipal Airshyport bought a couple of $250 tickets and treated hi m to his first airplane ride - in a Cessna 170

Those evenings in the cockpits of the Texans and 51s were making a far deeper impression on his son than Tony probably realized at the time Ron can vivshyidly recall the experiences to this day and he dates his determination to make aviation his lifes work to those wonderous moments when he sat there in the bucket seats pushing and pulling the sticks intently studying the dials and levers and wheels around him - and the rudder pedals down there in the bowels of the fuselage his little legs would not be able to reach for years to come

9

As the years went by Rons interest in airplanes and flying grew in sophistication in step with the growth of his body and mind He managed to get an airplane ride once in a while - sometimes in a Stearman piloted by his fathers boss Paul Poberezny and once when he was 11 in a Champ piloted by family friend Dick Mildebrandt Ron dearly longed to learn to fly but at the same time his academic success in high school was bending his inshyterests toward the scientific So much in fact that after graduation in 1967 he was soon packing to head for Lafayette Indiana to enroll as an aeronautical enshygineering student at Purdue University

Not surprisingly Purdue had been selected in part for its reputation as an aviation oriented institushytion Aside from its academic excellence Ron knew it must have a flying club a fact he confirmed within hours of his arrival on campus Excitedly relatshying this discovery to his father (with obvious intent) Ron found himself being brought back down to earth by the elder Wojnars reminder that he was there to earn a degree first and a pilots license maybe However he softened the admonition with the promshyise that after seeing Rons grades at the end of the first semester the situation would be open for further evaluation

No student was ever led down the path of academic achievement by a more tempting carrot Ron hit the books with a vengeance - sleep meant nothing social life was ignored and Big Ten football was just a Saturday afternoon recharging of Rons batshyteries for the REAL task at hand

At the end of the semester Tony had a wide and proud grin on his face and Ron was wasting little time getting enrolled in the school flying club To his surprise and pleasure he had found that in addition to its modern trainers Purdue still retained a Piper j-3 in its flight school fleet available for $550 per hour

For the next 312 years that Cub would virtually become Rons personal airplane He loved it - and soloed it in about 8 hours - but most of his fellow students sneered down their noses at the lowly yelshylow dog A few learned to fly in it simply because of the low rental rate but couldn t wait to move up to the REAL airplanes the Colts Cessnas etc Conshysequently Ron could count on getting the j-3 almost any time he wanted to fly it He checked out in the other aircraft also but never tired of just going off alone and shooting landings or watching a sunset in his Cub

Returning home that f irst summer he found himshyself without a job - wh ich meant no funds for flying

A couple of weeks later at an EAA fly-in he related his dilemma to Audrey Poberezny and a few days later received a phone call from Bill Chomo offering summer employment at the EAA Museum Ron jumped at the chance and would spend each of his college summer vacations mowing yards painting dusting airplanes - whatever was asked of him that wou Id support his flying habit

Ron had been a member of EAA Chapter 18 for a number of years and the summer job at EAA Headshyquarters (where 18 holds its meetings) intensified his relationship with various of the members Eventually he fell in with a bad crowd bounders like Bob Ladd Dick Mildebrandt and the notorious Ron Scott Soon they were putting terrible things in his head worst of which was the insidious idea of actually ownshying an airplane Together they schemed to chip in and buy a Cub Champ or some such fun airplane for giving rides to friends taildragger checkouts etc (Bob Dick and Ron Scott each had single place homebuilts in those days) Ron was sorely tempted to fall in with the plan but fortunately he was spared by the timely intervention of his father although there would be moments in the years to come when he had good cause to question the hand fate had dealt him

It wasnt that Tony objected to the terrible trio (acshytually they were and are today close friends) - or even the idea of owning an airplane he simply wanted to see his son apply his aviation skills and knowledge to a purposeful end He wanted the two of them to buy a basket case and restore it

Taken somewhat by surprise by this proposal Ron quickly recovered and began scouring Trade-A-Plane Chapter newsletters and the like One day during the summer of 1970 he picked up a Chapter 260 (Dolton IL) newsletter and began scanning it for ads - and there it was Leo Faoro (EAA 28636) of Dolton (south Chicago) had a basket case 1946 Aeronca Champion he was willing to part with for a reasonashyble price

I n rapid succession Ron talked the situation over with his father (who would be the financial backer of any deal) called Leo on the 4th of july and arranged a meeting time drove down with Tony the next day inspected the airplane liked what he saw and put a $100 deposit on it The following weekend the Champ was retrieved and was placed in his Aunts garage acshyross townJn Milwaukee

Immediately Ron and his father began taking the fuselage apart and the very first th ing Ron twisted off a brass fitting on the carburetor This reshyally upset him at the time because it pounded home

the realization that despite his book knowledge he was completely lacking in hands on experience in working on airplanes His dad however was just sitshyting back with a sly grin on his face Youve got to do things like that to learn he said Get your feet wet then pay close attention to what you are doing work carefully and do everything correctly Ron would listen to this advice and stick it out to the end For the first year or so however Tony would serve as his tutor and advisor - as well as fellow worker shyon the Champ project

In stripping the airframe down the Wojnars found that while they had a complete airplane they had a lot of work ahead of them to come up with a job to their personal standards Removing the paint from the fuselage tube framework for instance reshyvealed grinder marks - which meant replacement of some tubing The wings bore evidence of past groundloops - and atrocious repairs which would have to be completely redone And the landing gear oleos horizontal tail surfaces and a couple more smaller items were considered too bad for repair They would have to be replaced A close study of the logs revealed that such replacement of various comshyponents had been a common occurance in the life of NC85448 24 years of abuse at the hands of ham-fisted students had left only the wings intact from the airshyframe that rolled out of the factory in 1946

By this point it was time for Ron to head back to Purdue for his senior year He had signed up for some elective courses in the technical area including engine overhaul and maintenance so he took his enshygine with him hoping to overhaul it as his class proshyject He tore the A-65 down alright but it would be 7 years before it went back together again The cylinshyders were oversize and badly rusted a dye check reshyvealed a cracked crankcase the camshaft was worn out and the cam followers were eaten up with corroshysion In other words Ron found he had a pile of junk for an engine The only bright spot was the crank shyit was useable The expense of the overhaul this hunk of iron needed was out of the question while Ron was still in school so sadly the pieces were boxed up and sent back home

After graduating from Purdue in 1971 Ron reshyturned to his summer job at EAA while waiting to be assigned to officers training by the Air Guard It was an especially instructive summer The Acro Sport proshytotype was being built and with its construction (tube and rag) essentially the same as the Champ every day was a learning experience for Ron Not only could he get his hand in to pick up new skills he could apply to the restoration of his airplane but he had a golden

10

opportunity to pick the brains of pros like Bill Chomo Philippe Van Pelt Gil Bodeen and others includ ing of course the Acro Sport designer Paul Poberezny

As it turned out Ron did not get his OTS assignshyment that summer so on September 1 he accepted a full time position with the EAA Air Museum Foundashytion as Assistant Museum Director

That fall (1971) the fuselage frame was sandblasted and some pitting was found in addition to the aforementioned grinder marks Everything doubtful was cut out and replaced with new tubing Ron tacked each piece and Bill Chomo finished them later Ron would gain the experience and confidence to do his own welding By Christmas all the repair work had been done all the woodwork had been reshyplaced so that the next step was a cover job That as things turned out would be a way down the road however

In late December Ron started on the left wing He first tried to clean it up without d isassembling it bilt after several months of part time wasted effort tore it down and did it right Only one wing was done at a time so that the other could be used for reference Some wingtip repair (and rework of old bad repai rs) was necessary but essentially the wing work involved cleanup replacement of leading edges and refinishing of the spars (the only old wood reshytained in the entire airplane)

With the coming of the summer of 1972 Ron found the direction of his life changing - and the Champ temporarily moving to the back burner First his OTS assignment came through and he was off for Lackland AFB for 3 months then as a new 2nd Lieutenant one month of active duty with his local Guard unit

That fall Ron took a position with Hartzog Aviation in Rockford Illinois and moved to that city Living in an apartment he had to leave the Champ at his pashyrents home in Milwaukee driving back to work on weekends Small parts were taken home to Rockford to be reworked during the week Happily Ron had again found himself in fortuitous circumstances - at Hartzog he not only had some real aviation pros to call on for advice but a lot of sophisticated equipshyment that could be used after work

1972 saw only modest progress on the Champ what with adjustment to a new job new home and weekend travel back and forth between Milwaukee and Rockford The following year however things began to look up Perhaps most significant was the fact that Ron and his father made the first of many weekend trips to Bellancas Osceola Wisconsin plant

Aside from the spars theres not much of the o rigina l wings left in this p icshyture

The ingredients of a champions Champ are beginning to show up

to forage for parts Tom Brown and Bonnie Marlette of the Parts Sales Department took an immediate inshyterest in the restoration project and spared no effort to unearth 7AC parts that had been moved from Middletown Ohio to Wiscons in Bellanca had sufshyfered a disastrous fi re a few years before and much of the old stuff had been lost but fortunately some had been stored downtown in an old railroad depot Ron and his father were permitted to sift through evshyerything and together they came up with a lot of impossible to obtain goodies like frames for the sliding windows universal joints for the fuel valve extension rod etc A surprising number of off the shelf Citabria components are the same as for its anshycestor the 7AC All the wooden fuselage formers and stringers in fact are identical with the exception of the rear window area When completed Rons Champ looked like a new one because to a great exshytent it is thanks to the folks at Bellanca

During 1974 things began to get into high gear The wings were finished and late that year the Contishynental A-65 was given a complete major Schneck Avshyiation did the work needed and Ron did the final asshysembly - under the supervision of a licensed mechanic Thinking the end was in sight Ron purchshyased all his dope and fabric (dacron) from Bellanca and took two weeks vacation to cover the airplane He gets a big laugh today at his naivete in grossly unshyderestimating the time element involved in covering Two weeks in fact stretched into 2 years before the cover job was completed

In 1975 Rons life took another sharp turn He left Hartzog and took a career position with the FAA Asshysigned to EMDO 46 in Des Plaines IL (north side of Chicago) as an Aviation Safety Inspector (Manufacturshying) Ron was able to move back home in Milwaukee commute to work during the day and work on the Champ evenings and weekends From that point on something no matter how insignificant was done every night

One bit of help came from an unusual quarter Ironically one of Ron s FAA assignments was the Belshylanca factory - so that his friends from the days of scrounging for 7AC parts had now also become clients of sorts Every time Ron came in for an inspecshytion he had to give everyone a progress report on his Champ A couple of young girls in the covering department Donna Viebrock and Sue Dollery told Ron they would like to come to Milwaukee some weekend and install the wing envelopes Despite livshying in Wisconsin all their lives neither had been to the big city and th is would be their chance With

their expertise the work would take just a few hours and the rest of their time could be spent seeing the Sights It was an offer Ron couldn t refuse and sometime later it all came about He got a set of wings ready for doping and the girls got an expense paid fling in Wisconsin s biggest metropolitan area

With doping and finish coats to go orid inarily it would have been decision time as far as the paint scheme was concerned Not so in this case however Very early in the project Ron had made the decision to return the Champ to factory new condition and appearance This of course involved considerable research He had an original service manual given him by Ron Scott and a copy of a 1946 Skyways article on the Champ given him by George Hardie but most helpful was the complete certification record on the Aeronca 7AC on file right where hf worked EMDO 46 in Des Plaines (Bellanca still holds the Proshyduction Limitation Record for the airplane and could put it back in production tomorrow if they wanted to) The file is COMPLETE colors size and shape of markings everything All the draWings are dated 1945 and all the subsequent revisions are on file

1976 saw the covering completed and 1977 was spent doing all those little detail items you think are going to take about 2 weeks according to Ron He endured all manrer of frustration attempting to paint the fairings cowl and various other small metal pieces Ron was bugged literally He would spray on a beautiful coat of enamel - no runs no orange peel - only to have some hapless insect make a Kamakazi dive right into the shiny surface Striving for nothing less than perfection Ron stripped the parts completely after each bug attack and repainted them He estimates he pai nted the equivalent of 4 or 5 airplanes before he was satisfied Similarly the crinkle-finish instrument panel was done 3 times beshyfore a perfect job could be obtained

Ron had some interesting experiences down the stretch drive to complete the airplane A few items had seemed impossible to obtain in order to have a near 100 authentic restoration - the flocking of the interior for example For 3 or 4 years inquiries had been made through aviation channels in a vain atshytempt to locate a shop that could do the work Deshyspairing of ever achieving success Ron picked up the Chicago Yellow Pages one day and looked up Flockshying Sure enough there was such a classification He made a phone call and a friendly voice assured him the work would be no problem Ron was told how to prepare the panels (apply an epoxy base in the color desired for the flocking) and where to deliver them

There s not much here that could look any newer if it were coming right out of the factory

The work was done over the following weekend and turned out to be a beautiful job (The flocking incishydentally is an electro-static process with the comshymercial name of Velvetex)

Another tough nut (pun intended) was the fuel gage nut - Bellanca didn t have one and all that turned up were worse than Rons knarled overshytorqued original Finally driving through a small Minnesota town Ron spotted a sign that read Sewshying Machines Guns Trading Post and Airplane Parts Partly on a hunch and partly just out of curiosshyity he stopped entered the establishment and inshyquired of the owner if he had any Champ parts

Got enough to make 5 of them whatta ya need was the reply

Ron mentioned the fuel gage nut and was almost shocked to hear Sure how many you need whereupon the proprietor reached into a drawer and pulled out a loop of safety wire with a half dozen or so Aeronca fuel gage nuts strung on it

This sort of thing Ron chuckles today is why it took 7 years to restore the Champ He could have built up an airworthy even beauti f ul job in perhaps 3 years but not an authentic one That took a lot of time and patience

Finally however the day came when the airplane was taken to the Waukesha County Airport - on Ocshytober 23 1977 to be precise What should have been a joyous occasion however began a two month ordeal that is a story in itself Shortly after taking over

12

That first run-up a moment of supreme exaltation

a hangar from a friend who had sold his airplane Ron was informed by the FBO that he would have to give it up by January 1 This shocking news really put the pressure on After 7 years of work Ron was detershymined not to dismantle the Champ and tow it back home and he was absolutely not going to leave it outside Hangar space is extremely hard to come by in the Milwaukee area just as is the case in all large metropolitan areas so the only option left was to find a hangar in a nearby town Space was ultimately loshycated some 20 miles west at Watertown but having a January 1 deadline Ron resolved to fly the Champ out of Waukesha

It wasnt easy Bitter cold came to Wisconsin even earlier than usual making final assembly of the Champ a numbing experience Nevertheless Ron and his father toughed it out working every evening and weekends By late November it was so cold that work had to go in spurts ~ interrupted by thaw-out breaks in Rons or his dads car Several layers of insulated clothing didnt make working in tight spots easy and any job requiring a degree of digital finesse was frustshyration personified Trying to screw on a tiny nut he couldnt feel through numb fingers was not exactly Rons idea of a fun way to complete his project In December temperatures plunged below zero but Ron and Tony worked on getting the last of the fairshyings on control cables adjusted the King 360 radio and battery pack installed etc

Finally it was time for some engine run-in John Curtice Rons fellow inspector with EMDO 46 had previously been employed with Continental Motors in Muskegon Michigan and had gone through the proshycedure literally thousands of times He advised Ron on how to properly break in the newly majored A-65 and later issued a new Certificate of Airworthiness AI Bruce Rintelmann of Milwaukee had supervised the project from the beginning (since neither Ron nor his father have civilian A and P licenses) and had alshyready signed off the restoration work

And then it was done Ron could have test flown the Champ a day or so before Christmas but he decided against it His family had put so much of themselves in the project that Ron could not bring himself to pOSSibly ruin their Christmas in case anyshything went wrong Bright and early on the 26th howshyever he and his dad were heading for the airport

The temperature was 3deg F but the Continental started on the first pull Ron taxied over to the FBO shut down and squirmed into a Security parachute Mike Heuer had brought over for the occasion Firing up again he warmed up the engine until the oil

temperature came up to 90deg then taxied out for take-off Given the OK by the tower Ron opened the throttle and literally leaped into the frigid air He climbed out to 5000 feet staying over the south end of the airport - by prearrangement with the controlshylers All went well and after 36 minutes the cold had become so unbearable Ron had to land while he still had some feeling in his hands and feet The landing was a real squeaker (as he later saw on movies) On the 30th - right on schedule - Ron flew the Champ out of Waukesha and over to Watertown The airplane was there for about six weeks - and some 5 hours of further flying time - before it was transfershyred to a new home Air Troy Estates where Ron had bought a lot Hangar space was available until sumshymer when he would have his own 45 x 72 hangar built

With the passing of a really miserable winter Ron was able to enjoy a spring and summer of pleasure flying and fine tuning of the airplane for its debut at Oshkosh 78 The airplane had been test flown with a metal propeller but as a final authentic touch a wooden Sensenich had been ordered through Wag Aero There was some last minute anxiety over delivshyery of the prop but a week before the fly-in it arshyrived

Ron had intended to take a weeks vacation to enjoy all of the Convention but so many requests

had come in from EAAers wanting inspections so they could get their homebuilts to Oshkosh he couldnt get away until Wednesday

The rest you know On Friday night Ron walked out of the Meeting Pavillion with the Grand Champshyion Classic trophy and it was difficult to tell whose smile was wider his or his dads

The outcome had not been unexpected in many quarters despite the torrid competition every Oshkosh gathering provides Earlier Ron had atshytended the Aeronca Forum at the conclusion of which moderator Charlie Lasher had asked if the owner of NC85448 were present Ron raised his hand and Charlie said I want to come down and shake your hand - that is the finest Champ I have ever seen

In the weeks preceding the Convention Rons felshylow FAA employees at EMDO 46 had speculated on his chances of winning an award perhaps even the Big One Secretary Michele Facenda (who had helped with the Champs paperwork) had promised to bake a cake for him if he were successful - so on the next Monday morning Ron strode in with his trophy put it down on Micheles desk and anshynounced Youre going to have to do some baking

I already have she replied I knew you were going to win

Interior of Gregs Luscombe

Dick Stouffer Photo)

Class Winner Luscombe BE Gregg Biete Charlotte David Gustafson Photo) North Caro lina

Class I Winner Taylorcraft BC-120 Ralph Lauritsen Boone Iowa

David Gustafson Photo) Custom Class C Winner Bellanca 14-19 Ronald Joslyn Malibu California

By Edward D Williams Associate Editor 713 Eastman Dr

Mt Prospect IL 60056

An antique airplane which has been hanging in the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago since 1953 has a unique honored distinction This came about when an expert model builder made a 33-inch wingspan model of it that is considered a work of art So today both the full-size plane and the three-fourths scale model are on display in the same museum

The plane is a Boeing 40B which was donated to the museum after the close of the Century of Progress Exposishytion in Chicago in 1933 It was originally manufactured as a 40A and later converted to a 40B but the museums

The simplicity of the design is shown in this view of the Boeing 40A

plane is displayed in the colors and markings of a 40A And so the model built by Carl Buttita a commercial arshytist in Chicago is an exact copy of a 40A

When the Boeing plane NC288 factory serial number 899 was bought by Boeing Air Transport (BAD from its parent company the Boeing Airplane Company in June 1927 it cost $24500 Buttitas model which took him three years to complete was appraised at $7000

The Boeing hanging in the east court of the Museum of Science and Industry is considered of historic value

because it was one of a fleet of 24 BAT 40A aircraft that helped make transcontinental air travel possible for the first time in 1927 (See The Vintage Airplane December 1977)

Buttitas model although it was not built to fly looks every middotbit like it could It is so realistic that it later won him an important award from the Hobby Industry of America

The Museum of Science and Industry which is loshycated on Chicagos south side lakefront draws about four million visitors a year to see hundreds of exhibits depictshy

18

ing the laws of science and applications of technology in industry and other fields It is a non-profit independent institution and admission is free

The Museum was partially opened in 1933 with only a handful of exhibits By that time Boeing Air Transport and three other airline companies-- Pacific Air Transport Varney Air Lines and National Air Transport- were joined together to form United Airlines which on November 30 1933 donated the Boeing to the Museum

It took seven more years for the museum to be comshypleted so the Boeing was stored in the institutions basement until it finally was hung from the ceiling in 1939 Although the plane has been cleaned regularly and today remains in sparkling condition it has never been moved from its resting place and probably wont be for some time to come

The Boeing is part of a large aviation display which includes a number of other antique aircraft the Apollo 8 spacecraft and a full-sized model of the first class cabin of a Boeing 747

Other planes on exhibit with the Boeing 40B are a 1910 Curtiss a 1913 Morane-Saulnier a 1917 Curtiss J N-4 Jenny a Supermarine Spitfire a Lockheed F-104 Starfighter and the Travel-Air S Mystery NR1313 sponsored by Texaco and flown by Frank Hawks in setshyting a number of transcontinental records

The Museum also owns a Junkers Ju87B Stuka but it is not on exhibit in Chicago because it rests temporarily on loan in the Air Education Museum of the Experimental Aircraft Association in Franklin Wisconsin The German World War II dive bomber was restored after a cleaning accident at the Chicago Museum by the EAA Museum staff

The Model which Buttita finished three years ago is on exhibit in a special case It draws considerable interest because of its highly detailed work- down to the tiniest hinges on the doors

Boeing Air Transport (BAn probably owed its corposhyrate life to the Boeing 40A which enabled it to get into the airmail transport business

The Boeing Airplane Company first built a single Model 40 for a government competition in 1925 for the awarding of a contract for an airplane to be flown by the U S Post Office Department to replace the old de Havilshyland DH-4s it had been using since 1918 The governshyment bought the one Model 40 equipped with the old watercooled Liberty engine but did not award the comshypany a production contract It went instead to Douglas for its series of M aircraft

However the project was revived a year later when the Post Office Department decided to award Contract Air Mail (CAM) routes to private contractors for airmail The Model 40 plans were dusted off updated with the

After its Wasp engine was replaced with the PampW Hornet engine the 40A was designated the 408 and This picture of groundcrewmen unloading a 40A gives a looked like the above close-up view of the Pratt amp Whitney Wasp engine and

the dural sheet construction used throughout

latest improvements and redesigned to meet the postal requirements Designated the 40A it was powered with a 9 cylinder 420 horsepower Pratt amp Whitney Wasp enshygine a new aircooled radial engine Boeing was testing in its fighter type aircraft

The Boeing basic design with a pilot in an open cockpit was also changed to carry two passengers in a forward cabin although the awarding of the airmail conshytract and not passenger transportation was of paramount importance But the 40A could still carry 1200 pounds of mail in addition to the two hardy souls who pioneered passenger travel in 1927

It was the new designs low operating costs and high revenue potential that got BAT Boeings wholl y-owned subsidiary the low bid on the new San FranciscoshyChicago airmail (CAM number 18) route from the govshyernment BAT operated 24 of the 25 40As built The other plane was delivered to Pratt amp Whitney as a flying engine test bed This test aircraft proved its worth as in early 1928 the new 525 horsepower Pratt amp Whitney Homet engine became available in quantity and BAT quickly converted 19of its 40As to 40Bs with the installashytion of the new Hornet engine Among these was the Chicago museums NC288

According to the Model Specification and History document supplied to BAT by the Boeing Airplane Comshypany the 40A was a Three-place Landplane Biplane Closed Cabin Mailplane (3P-CiSl Factory numbers ran from 879 through 903 The first flight was made on May 20 1927 with delivery to BAT nine days later Dimenshysions were wingspan 442 length 332V and height 123 Empty weight was 2622 Ibs with a de sign gross of 4652 Ibs It boasted a top speed of 135 mph and a cruising speed of 125 mph but the actual pershyformance was closer to a maximum speed of 128 and a cruise of 105 mph It has a range of 550 miles and a sershyvice ceiling of 15700 feet

The 40A needed the altitude capability because of the rugged mountainous terrain on the 1 9113 mile San Francisco-Chicago run BAT started to use the new plane on the route with many intermediate stops on July 1 1927 When National Air Transport began its CAM Number 17 route operations with its Douglas M-4s betshyween New York and Chicago on September 1 1927 the two airlines link-up at Checkerboard Field at Maywood Illinois outside of Chicago gave the United States its first transcontinental air travel

The Chicago museum s Boeing 40B figured promishynently in th is important part of history Boeing NC288 amassed more than 6000 flight hours on the San Francisco-Chicago run and was flown many times by the famous airmail pioneer Jack Knight (See The Vintage Airplane February 1977) before it was retired

Construction of the Boeing 40A is shown in this picture of th e Boeing A irplane Company assembly line w ith A Boeing 40A NC286 - a sister ship of NC288 in the 40As in various stages of completion at Sea ttle Washingshy Chicago Museum - is show n fl ying over mountains on ton the Boeing A ir Transports San Francisco-Chicago run in

20

The Museums 40B in the coloring and markings of a 40A hangs with other historically significant aircraft in Chicagos Museum of Science and Industry The cockpit of the Boeing 40A w as simple making the

job o f duplica ting it in a model less demanding

(Museum of Science and Industry Photo)

- __ poundLlaquo

In 1933 it was used in the Wings of a Century pageant at the Century of Progress Exposition in Chicago after the Worlds Fair it was turned over to the Rosenwald Museum which later was renamed the Museum of Scishyence and Industry

Although the basic construction of the Boeing 40A was simple it had enough detail to make a model of it interesting Buttita said that he was a stickler for detail but admitted that he got carried away in making his model

When I decided to build the model I didnt intend to make it with such detail Buttita told this author I thought I could fake a lot by making the metal parts out of wood and painting them silver

But Buttita changed his mind and made every metal part out of metal and every wood part out of wood So the project which he thought would take him six or seven months eventually took three years

The more detail I put on it the better it looked he said so finally nothing could stop me and I detailed evshyerything

Buttita is an artist with the Accurate Silk Screen Sershyvice Company Chicago and his model building ability is well known

The three-quarter scale 40A is what is called a scratch model in which the builder starts from scratch as opposed to a kit in which plans and many formed parts are supplied

Buttita said a scratch model involves considerable reshysearch and study For the 40A he got a complete set of plans and all the photographs he could from Boeing and United

It took me three or four months of study before I could actually get started to build anything he said

Unlike kits which eliminate many of the interior parts that cannot be seen scratch models to be authentic must have all the details of construction such as all the ribs in the wings But that also makes them much stronger and keeps them from warping Buttita pointed out

Both the Boeing 40A flown by BAT and the Buttita model of it were constructed at the peak of the state of the art for their day

The airplane had a steel tubular fuselage with wood fairing strips and was dural and fabric covered The wings also fabric covered were built up of spruce spars and ribs The dural sheet on the fuselage covered the enshygine cowling cabin doors and compartment hatch openshyings

The two passengers sat in a cabin metal lined throughout and their seats and seat backs were upholsshytered in leather The windows of the two doors one on each side of the fuselage were made of non-shatterable glass and could be opened for additional ventilation and

21

Details of the construction of the 40As cabin door and wing struts are shown in this close-up

A close-up view of Carl Butshytitas model of the 40A shows how dedicated he was to deshytail in the models construction

Carl Buttita builder of the three-fourths sca le Boe ing 40A discusses fine points of the construction with Edshyward E Carlson chairman of UAL In c Chicago and a member of the board of trustees of the Museum of Scishyence and Indu stry before the model was put on display in the Museum

were large enough to give the passengers an excellent view of the scenery

The rear of the fuselage was braced with steel tie-rods and was heavily faired to shape although it still was fabshyric covered The tail assembly also was fabric covered but only the horizontal stabilizer was built up like the wings with spruce spars and wood built-up ribs The rest of the tail assembly was built up with welded steel tubshying It rested on a steerable tailskid The landing gear was made of streamlined chrome-moly and used oleo-spring shock absorbers

Buttitas construction problems for his model were reshysolved through the use of a wide variety of materials

The Boeing model is made of aluminum pine dentists plastic epoxy glue and Japanese silkspan paper About 40 percent of the model is metal but much of it is inside so you dont see it Buttita said These parts are the cables controls pilots seat corrugated floor panels hinges cockpit fire extinguisher medical kit and workshyable seat belts

Each part had to be hand made some several times to get them right or if they broke Buttita said I had to make 20 to 30 rims for the landing lights to get two

When you make a one-of-a-kind model you have to fabricate about 90 per cent of the parts yourself and make dies for almost everything he added

For the metal parts Buttita used small pieces of offset printers plate made of aluminum but with some tin for added strength The wood parts are made of spruce and the engine and wheels are made of the dental plastic

All the markings and lettering were drawn triple the size on paper and reduced photographically on decal paper That way they were better than if I had handshypainted them on the model he said

Buttita said he did all the construction work on a card table at home and the only power tool he used was a small electric drill

At least one other Boeing 40B is known to be on exshyhibit in another museum This is aircraft NC285 factory number 896 which was presented to the Henry Ford Museum at Dearbom Michigan in 1938 But so far it doesnt have a scale model of its own to highlight it And don t look to Carl Buttita to build one I will never do it again he sa id It was just too much work

Rebuilding AVagabond

By Larry Railing Box 5 7 -C P Avenue

Lake Mills WI 5355 7

I never realized at the time I started to rebuild or lets say restore Piper Vagabond PA-15 N4423H that so many people were interested in what Id term history So here it is

I started flying in Valparaiso Indiana around 1900 I learned in a )-3 owned by Mark Murvahill I later

graduated to the PA-12 In 1964 I graduated from high school and a year later I was married As most in like cirshycumstances I gave up flying for love until the newness wore off

My first airplane was a )-5 Cub that went down in a marsh I had started to rebuild it until Dick Wagner of Wag-Aero heard of it and made me an untimely offer This airplane was later destroyed at Burlington along with the Tri-Motor

I later owned other aircraft which included aT-Craft Somehow Dick Wagner heard of my T-Craft and flew up in a Vagabond to see it and made me an offer

I told him at that time if he ever got in the mood to sell the Vag to please call me That was in 1968

On December 26 1976 Dick called me and asked if I was still interested in the Vag I told him yes and Id come down the next Saturday morning The next Saturday came and so did I There the Vag stood on its nose just as pictures in past issues of The Vintage A irplane had shown

Dick with all his other projects had to let something go He offered me the Vag or one of two Cubs My thoughts never gave way to anything but the Vag

23

The stripped fuselage arrives at home ready for a long winter s night

Work completed the birds about ready for a runway

I climbed a ladder and pulled the tail down and began looking It was all there but in sad shape For the past four years it hadn t been outside It looked good in the dark but time took its toll The fabric was beyond even shot But it was all original Every instrument the seat and all were original In thirty years no one even drilled a hole in the panel

We tried to get the old Lycoming 65 started but no way

The next Saturday morning I borrowed a stock car trailer and headed for Lyons with my truck On the way down all was going so well until I met a car looked in my mirror and noticed the trailer to be about a foot wider than my pickup Id never given that a thought before Everytime I met another car I just got over a little I fishynally arrived at Dicks place and began taking the Vag

Fits like a sausage casing The envelopes ready for the hea t trea tment

apart I placed the wings on some racks on my truck and the fuselage or the trailer I didn t bother taking off the tail All was loaded and ready to roll in about three hours

About halfway into the dismantling it began to snow By the time I was ready to go we had gotten about three inches This worked out in my favor as it slowed everyone else on the highway down to my speed My greatest worry when hauling an airplane is when you meet a truck

All seemed to be going good The first car I met I got over to the right because of the trailer At this time I looked into the mirror and not only noticed the trailer a foot wider than the truck on each side but the horizontal stabilizer stuck out another foot on each side beyond the trailer What a shock

I stopped and tried to remove the tail but to no avail The snow kept coming and so did the end of the day It took me four and a quarter hours to go fifty-five miles By the time I got home we had eight inches of snow What a long ride

I began total disassembly right away The wings were in fantastic shape All that was needed was varnish on the tip bows I also put new cables in the whole airplane The original inspectors number date and signature are still on the spars

I worked the whole project under the watchful eyes of Paul Baker an AI from Beaver Aviation at Dodge County

The author tackles another flying surface with needle and twine

Airport He is really an EAAer I never heard of an AI so ready and willing to help restore an airplane He even came to my home after hours to inspect the fuselage as it was easier for me than taking it up there Paul says if Id hired him to do the restoring I could just hand over my paycheck for a year so he said you do the working and Ill do the looking

All the still pieces were sandblasted and sprayed with Imron primer Believe me you do have to wear a mask with that stuff

I gave Wag-Aero a call and told them what I needed for a complete cover job and not to call me until they had it all there in one pile with no monkeying around for a little of this and that

While waiting for the covering materials I began work on the engine The whole airplane had only 1100 hours and the engine 330 SMOH I just couldn t get it started I solicited the help of a local mechanic and Stinshyson owner Harold Hubrich We found three blown head gaskets one leaky valve the impulse spring in the left mag was broken and the P-Iead in the right mag the inshysulator of phenolic replaced with masking tape

I pulled the heads and Harold ground ~he valves had the mags rebuilt a complete new ignition system and the carburetor rebuilt We got her back together and bongo

- she started right off In the meantime I finished the wings and control surshy

faces I wanted to paint it all apart so a temporary gear 24

Larry applies a new cowling atter a fruitl ess encounter with sa ndblasting equipment

was made to support the fuselage The engine was never taken off Many people questioned that temporary gear I just said you had to be very careful on take-off and landshying

The actual covering was very enjoyable you could see some real progress including the stitching but that spraying and sanding Sixteen hours of work for every coat Six sandings fourteen coats and thirty gallons all total

The sheet metal was all in good shape I had planned to replace the cowl so a guy that was chicken could look in at the rubber band I tried Zip Strip to get down to bare metal with no luck at all I took all the aluminum parts over to a body shop including the boot and sandblasted them In less than ten minutes I destroyed every piece of aluminum except the instrument panel and nose bowl I then got some aluminum and began making new parts It all turned out very well

When I first brought the Vag home I contacted Cecil Ogles of Vag-News and he sent me more info than I think Piper has Among which was complete rigging

Im a little more fortunate than most- Im a tool and die model maker by trade and have my own shop Before beginning on the Vag my partner and I added on a 50 x 60 foot addition to our shop which served for a beautiful place to work over the winter to store parts until needed as well as an area to completely assemble the airplane for rigging

Its been a long time since the fuselage last shook from a run-up

Time came to go to the airport and sprout feathers There is a private strip just south of town so I went there along with about six helpers The airplane was assembled and flown two days later on June 28 1978 A year and a half after beginning

The first flight was all anyone could hope for It really flys hands off and is the easiest airplane for a taildragger to land that I have ever flown

Now for some numbers Cruise 85-90 Cruise RPM 2300 Fuel Consumption 30 gph Prop 70-36 Final and Climb 70 mph Over the Fence 60 mph Stall 40 mph Empty Weight 640 Ibs Take-off- For each 10 Ibs over 200 the passenger

weighs I added 100 feet I had the Vag at Oshkosh on Tuesday this year and

took it home and put it to bed the same night In this area we have about fifteen Vags flying with

five of them done original Myself I like to see airplanes kept original Its like a Model T with a Chevy 427 it just aint the same

The airplane is covered with Stits and the finish is Aerothane

Now that the airplanes finished work ca n proceed on the shop

I can say something most people cant about this airpshylane While at Oshkosh I went over and visited the Piper display and who would you guess was there Clyde Smith the test pilot of my airplane thirty years ago I took a couple of pictures of him and will be placing them in the log books next to his signature

The Vag is my first real attempt in restoring I did the whole airplane myse lf except the seat and the engine work Im very pleased with the end product Its all mine and paid for as well Im now enjoying the fruits of my labor and Id do it again if I could find another Vagshyabond

Oddly enough it seemed the hardest part of the whole project was the legal end Being that the FCC can t seem to find a good reason to charge for a restricted radio license I decided to send for one just in case I ever carried a radio along That took three months and the paperwork went back and forth six times The hardest part was the registration The airplane hadn t been regisshytered since 1967 The State of Wisconsin wasnt too bad That paperwork came back only once asking for an addishytional $333 because I didn t notify them within thirty days after purchase even though the airplane had been declared exempt But the Feds This took six months nine phone calls and six letters Finally I called once again and told them that after a year and a half of rebuilding with or without them I was going to fly it I think that finally did the trick

25

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Calendar of Events NOVEMBER 18-19 - MIAMI FlORIDA- Antique Classic and Cusshy

tom Built Fly-In at the third annual Harvest- A Country Fair sponsored by the Historical Association of Southern Florida at the Dade County Youth Fairground Coral Way at 112th Avenue Awards given for antique classic and custom built aircraft Conshytact Capt Ken Ufland of the Civil Air Patrol office (305) 552-3106 home after 600 pm (305) 251-5927 or Mary Dodd Russell Harshyvest Coordinator at the Historical Museum 3280 S Miami Ave shynue Building B Miami Fl 33129

JANUARY 21-27 - Sun N Fun the biggest fly-in in the southeastshyand the second biggest in the natron Its a full week of southern hospitality and flying fun daily aerial demonstrations fly-bys of antique classic homebuilt and warbird aircraft forums exhibits and static displays parties and com roasts big new food concesshysion country store for campers in our shady campsites Make motel reservations early- our free information booklet has a complete list of accommodations Write to Sun N Fun PO Box 3538 lakeland Florida 33802

(Dick Stouffer Photo)

Aeronca IICC Super Chief belonging to David E Long Keyser West Virginia

(Ted Koston Photo)

Heres a sharp Funk at Oshkosh Owner unknown didnt register

(Dick Stouffer Photo)

Another fine looking unregistered aircraft

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F4U CORSAIR

PLANE CHECKS The Leading Fighter 01 WWII - with a Record 01 2140 Japanese Aircraft Destroyed 28 01 which

Are Credited to Pappy Boyington Regular bank checks emblazoned with the F4U CORSAIR

- Complete the order form and write out your check Now get a deposit Slip from the same account and clearly indicate any changes or other notations as you wish it to appear on the checks (These two documents will furnish us all the data we need to make your checks compatible with your banks computer and Amer Bank Assn specs) On gift orders send your check and mark his check VOID Please allow 3 weeks for delivery

Start USing Plane Checks Now Your old checks will always be good

Identity Check Co Box 149-D Park Ridge III 60068 Activate my order for Plane Checks starting No ___ o 300middot$795 0 600-$1350 0 900middot$1875 Checks are printed with blue backgrounds and are top bound-one part deposit sUps registers and matching checkbook cover are Included In each order

o F4U CORSAIR o PIPER Assortment o BEECH AIICH1menl o UNITED DC-10

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o PITTS SPECIAL o Pmiddot51 MUSTANG 11 AMERICAN OCmiddot10 o CESSNA Allottmenl o TWALmiddot1011 o EASTERN Lmiddotl011

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Ship To

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26

the glistening fabric tell-tale mini-molehills marking the characteristically Aeronca PK screws taking the place of rib stitching 24 inch orange letters and numerals swam in the shimmering light reflected off the top of the right wing

Letting ones gaze swoop down the familiar mulshytifaceted sway back of the fuselage it was easy to see every stringer arced st raight and true to the tail - no warps no valleys between formers

Emblazoned on the fin and rudder - in orange shywere the stenciled winged Aeronca emblem and the rather odd sized and spaced N numbers

Stepping back for perspective ones mind reeled This wasnt a latter day restoration it was a new airplane only hours ago a ferry pilot had signed out the airplane from the factory ramp there in Middletown Ohio dated his voucher August 5 1946 and took off for Milwaukee to deliver the spankshying new airplane to Anderson Air Activities but on the way perhaps in the clouds of industrial smoke around Gary and South Chicago a time warp was enshycountered misdirecting the little bird through 3 deshycades to Wittman Field on the evening of August 2 1978

It looked that new it felt that new it even smelled that new

The next evening Ron Wojnar (EAA 31222) of Milshywaukee was called to the stage to receive the 1978 EAA Grand Champion Classic trophy for his 1946 Aeronca 7AC Champion and not a soul who had seen the airplane was surprised

The new frame s been installed along with a lot of other new wood

And not one of us who knew Ron personally was surprised either

Have you ever been to EAA Headquarters If you

have you may recall that in the main lobby two pedestals flank the entrance doors Atop these are glass cases containing two exquisite cut-away type airplane models one of an EAA Biplane and the other of a Tailwind They were meticulously crafted a number of years ago by a young college student who worked as a summer employee at the EAA Museum

That young man already exhibiting his concern for accuracy and authenticity his talent for minute detail and superb workmanship was Ron Wojnar

Born in Milwaukee on December 3 1949 Rons lifelong fascination with aviation came naturally His father Tony was a pilot who significantly often flew a Champ in those days before his family started comshying along and he was forced to give it up Earlier he had become an aircraft mechanic courtesy the Marine Corps and spent World War II keeping the heavy iron flying After V-J Day Tony returned to Milwaukee and signed on as a mechanic with the Wisconsin Air Nashytional Guard His Maintenance Officer - and pilot

The basic frame has been rebuilt by this point but th eres so much to go

for whom he served as a crew chief - was a Lt Colshyonel named Paul Poberezny

Three years before Rons birth a new Aeronca Champion was ferried into Mitchell Field just a couple of blocks from the Wojnar home by its new owner Andershyson Air Activities NC85448 labored for a number of

years as a trainer - climbing out and gliding in over the Wojnar household when the wind was right By early December of 1949 when the Wojnars were blessed with a healthy son the Champ had already accumulated alshymost exactly 3000 hours of flying time

A typical loving father Tony wanted his son to share his interest in aviation He built models for him until he was old enough to be taught to start building them himself He would often take little Ron along in the evening when he had to put in overtime and let him sit in the cockpits of the T-6s and P-51s on which

he was working and when his son was 6 years old Tony took him to nearby Waukesha Municipal Airshyport bought a couple of $250 tickets and treated hi m to his first airplane ride - in a Cessna 170

Those evenings in the cockpits of the Texans and 51s were making a far deeper impression on his son than Tony probably realized at the time Ron can vivshyidly recall the experiences to this day and he dates his determination to make aviation his lifes work to those wonderous moments when he sat there in the bucket seats pushing and pulling the sticks intently studying the dials and levers and wheels around him - and the rudder pedals down there in the bowels of the fuselage his little legs would not be able to reach for years to come

9

As the years went by Rons interest in airplanes and flying grew in sophistication in step with the growth of his body and mind He managed to get an airplane ride once in a while - sometimes in a Stearman piloted by his fathers boss Paul Poberezny and once when he was 11 in a Champ piloted by family friend Dick Mildebrandt Ron dearly longed to learn to fly but at the same time his academic success in high school was bending his inshyterests toward the scientific So much in fact that after graduation in 1967 he was soon packing to head for Lafayette Indiana to enroll as an aeronautical enshygineering student at Purdue University

Not surprisingly Purdue had been selected in part for its reputation as an aviation oriented institushytion Aside from its academic excellence Ron knew it must have a flying club a fact he confirmed within hours of his arrival on campus Excitedly relatshying this discovery to his father (with obvious intent) Ron found himself being brought back down to earth by the elder Wojnars reminder that he was there to earn a degree first and a pilots license maybe However he softened the admonition with the promshyise that after seeing Rons grades at the end of the first semester the situation would be open for further evaluation

No student was ever led down the path of academic achievement by a more tempting carrot Ron hit the books with a vengeance - sleep meant nothing social life was ignored and Big Ten football was just a Saturday afternoon recharging of Rons batshyteries for the REAL task at hand

At the end of the semester Tony had a wide and proud grin on his face and Ron was wasting little time getting enrolled in the school flying club To his surprise and pleasure he had found that in addition to its modern trainers Purdue still retained a Piper j-3 in its flight school fleet available for $550 per hour

For the next 312 years that Cub would virtually become Rons personal airplane He loved it - and soloed it in about 8 hours - but most of his fellow students sneered down their noses at the lowly yelshylow dog A few learned to fly in it simply because of the low rental rate but couldn t wait to move up to the REAL airplanes the Colts Cessnas etc Conshysequently Ron could count on getting the j-3 almost any time he wanted to fly it He checked out in the other aircraft also but never tired of just going off alone and shooting landings or watching a sunset in his Cub

Returning home that f irst summer he found himshyself without a job - wh ich meant no funds for flying

A couple of weeks later at an EAA fly-in he related his dilemma to Audrey Poberezny and a few days later received a phone call from Bill Chomo offering summer employment at the EAA Museum Ron jumped at the chance and would spend each of his college summer vacations mowing yards painting dusting airplanes - whatever was asked of him that wou Id support his flying habit

Ron had been a member of EAA Chapter 18 for a number of years and the summer job at EAA Headshyquarters (where 18 holds its meetings) intensified his relationship with various of the members Eventually he fell in with a bad crowd bounders like Bob Ladd Dick Mildebrandt and the notorious Ron Scott Soon they were putting terrible things in his head worst of which was the insidious idea of actually ownshying an airplane Together they schemed to chip in and buy a Cub Champ or some such fun airplane for giving rides to friends taildragger checkouts etc (Bob Dick and Ron Scott each had single place homebuilts in those days) Ron was sorely tempted to fall in with the plan but fortunately he was spared by the timely intervention of his father although there would be moments in the years to come when he had good cause to question the hand fate had dealt him

It wasnt that Tony objected to the terrible trio (acshytually they were and are today close friends) - or even the idea of owning an airplane he simply wanted to see his son apply his aviation skills and knowledge to a purposeful end He wanted the two of them to buy a basket case and restore it

Taken somewhat by surprise by this proposal Ron quickly recovered and began scouring Trade-A-Plane Chapter newsletters and the like One day during the summer of 1970 he picked up a Chapter 260 (Dolton IL) newsletter and began scanning it for ads - and there it was Leo Faoro (EAA 28636) of Dolton (south Chicago) had a basket case 1946 Aeronca Champion he was willing to part with for a reasonashyble price

I n rapid succession Ron talked the situation over with his father (who would be the financial backer of any deal) called Leo on the 4th of july and arranged a meeting time drove down with Tony the next day inspected the airplane liked what he saw and put a $100 deposit on it The following weekend the Champ was retrieved and was placed in his Aunts garage acshyross townJn Milwaukee

Immediately Ron and his father began taking the fuselage apart and the very first th ing Ron twisted off a brass fitting on the carburetor This reshyally upset him at the time because it pounded home

the realization that despite his book knowledge he was completely lacking in hands on experience in working on airplanes His dad however was just sitshyting back with a sly grin on his face Youve got to do things like that to learn he said Get your feet wet then pay close attention to what you are doing work carefully and do everything correctly Ron would listen to this advice and stick it out to the end For the first year or so however Tony would serve as his tutor and advisor - as well as fellow worker shyon the Champ project

In stripping the airframe down the Wojnars found that while they had a complete airplane they had a lot of work ahead of them to come up with a job to their personal standards Removing the paint from the fuselage tube framework for instance reshyvealed grinder marks - which meant replacement of some tubing The wings bore evidence of past groundloops - and atrocious repairs which would have to be completely redone And the landing gear oleos horizontal tail surfaces and a couple more smaller items were considered too bad for repair They would have to be replaced A close study of the logs revealed that such replacement of various comshyponents had been a common occurance in the life of NC85448 24 years of abuse at the hands of ham-fisted students had left only the wings intact from the airshyframe that rolled out of the factory in 1946

By this point it was time for Ron to head back to Purdue for his senior year He had signed up for some elective courses in the technical area including engine overhaul and maintenance so he took his enshygine with him hoping to overhaul it as his class proshyject He tore the A-65 down alright but it would be 7 years before it went back together again The cylinshyders were oversize and badly rusted a dye check reshyvealed a cracked crankcase the camshaft was worn out and the cam followers were eaten up with corroshysion In other words Ron found he had a pile of junk for an engine The only bright spot was the crank shyit was useable The expense of the overhaul this hunk of iron needed was out of the question while Ron was still in school so sadly the pieces were boxed up and sent back home

After graduating from Purdue in 1971 Ron reshyturned to his summer job at EAA while waiting to be assigned to officers training by the Air Guard It was an especially instructive summer The Acro Sport proshytotype was being built and with its construction (tube and rag) essentially the same as the Champ every day was a learning experience for Ron Not only could he get his hand in to pick up new skills he could apply to the restoration of his airplane but he had a golden

10

opportunity to pick the brains of pros like Bill Chomo Philippe Van Pelt Gil Bodeen and others includ ing of course the Acro Sport designer Paul Poberezny

As it turned out Ron did not get his OTS assignshyment that summer so on September 1 he accepted a full time position with the EAA Air Museum Foundashytion as Assistant Museum Director

That fall (1971) the fuselage frame was sandblasted and some pitting was found in addition to the aforementioned grinder marks Everything doubtful was cut out and replaced with new tubing Ron tacked each piece and Bill Chomo finished them later Ron would gain the experience and confidence to do his own welding By Christmas all the repair work had been done all the woodwork had been reshyplaced so that the next step was a cover job That as things turned out would be a way down the road however

In late December Ron started on the left wing He first tried to clean it up without d isassembling it bilt after several months of part time wasted effort tore it down and did it right Only one wing was done at a time so that the other could be used for reference Some wingtip repair (and rework of old bad repai rs) was necessary but essentially the wing work involved cleanup replacement of leading edges and refinishing of the spars (the only old wood reshytained in the entire airplane)

With the coming of the summer of 1972 Ron found the direction of his life changing - and the Champ temporarily moving to the back burner First his OTS assignment came through and he was off for Lackland AFB for 3 months then as a new 2nd Lieutenant one month of active duty with his local Guard unit

That fall Ron took a position with Hartzog Aviation in Rockford Illinois and moved to that city Living in an apartment he had to leave the Champ at his pashyrents home in Milwaukee driving back to work on weekends Small parts were taken home to Rockford to be reworked during the week Happily Ron had again found himself in fortuitous circumstances - at Hartzog he not only had some real aviation pros to call on for advice but a lot of sophisticated equipshyment that could be used after work

1972 saw only modest progress on the Champ what with adjustment to a new job new home and weekend travel back and forth between Milwaukee and Rockford The following year however things began to look up Perhaps most significant was the fact that Ron and his father made the first of many weekend trips to Bellancas Osceola Wisconsin plant

Aside from the spars theres not much of the o rigina l wings left in this p icshyture

The ingredients of a champions Champ are beginning to show up

to forage for parts Tom Brown and Bonnie Marlette of the Parts Sales Department took an immediate inshyterest in the restoration project and spared no effort to unearth 7AC parts that had been moved from Middletown Ohio to Wiscons in Bellanca had sufshyfered a disastrous fi re a few years before and much of the old stuff had been lost but fortunately some had been stored downtown in an old railroad depot Ron and his father were permitted to sift through evshyerything and together they came up with a lot of impossible to obtain goodies like frames for the sliding windows universal joints for the fuel valve extension rod etc A surprising number of off the shelf Citabria components are the same as for its anshycestor the 7AC All the wooden fuselage formers and stringers in fact are identical with the exception of the rear window area When completed Rons Champ looked like a new one because to a great exshytent it is thanks to the folks at Bellanca

During 1974 things began to get into high gear The wings were finished and late that year the Contishynental A-65 was given a complete major Schneck Avshyiation did the work needed and Ron did the final asshysembly - under the supervision of a licensed mechanic Thinking the end was in sight Ron purchshyased all his dope and fabric (dacron) from Bellanca and took two weeks vacation to cover the airplane He gets a big laugh today at his naivete in grossly unshyderestimating the time element involved in covering Two weeks in fact stretched into 2 years before the cover job was completed

In 1975 Rons life took another sharp turn He left Hartzog and took a career position with the FAA Asshysigned to EMDO 46 in Des Plaines IL (north side of Chicago) as an Aviation Safety Inspector (Manufacturshying) Ron was able to move back home in Milwaukee commute to work during the day and work on the Champ evenings and weekends From that point on something no matter how insignificant was done every night

One bit of help came from an unusual quarter Ironically one of Ron s FAA assignments was the Belshylanca factory - so that his friends from the days of scrounging for 7AC parts had now also become clients of sorts Every time Ron came in for an inspecshytion he had to give everyone a progress report on his Champ A couple of young girls in the covering department Donna Viebrock and Sue Dollery told Ron they would like to come to Milwaukee some weekend and install the wing envelopes Despite livshying in Wisconsin all their lives neither had been to the big city and th is would be their chance With

their expertise the work would take just a few hours and the rest of their time could be spent seeing the Sights It was an offer Ron couldn t refuse and sometime later it all came about He got a set of wings ready for doping and the girls got an expense paid fling in Wisconsin s biggest metropolitan area

With doping and finish coats to go orid inarily it would have been decision time as far as the paint scheme was concerned Not so in this case however Very early in the project Ron had made the decision to return the Champ to factory new condition and appearance This of course involved considerable research He had an original service manual given him by Ron Scott and a copy of a 1946 Skyways article on the Champ given him by George Hardie but most helpful was the complete certification record on the Aeronca 7AC on file right where hf worked EMDO 46 in Des Plaines (Bellanca still holds the Proshyduction Limitation Record for the airplane and could put it back in production tomorrow if they wanted to) The file is COMPLETE colors size and shape of markings everything All the draWings are dated 1945 and all the subsequent revisions are on file

1976 saw the covering completed and 1977 was spent doing all those little detail items you think are going to take about 2 weeks according to Ron He endured all manrer of frustration attempting to paint the fairings cowl and various other small metal pieces Ron was bugged literally He would spray on a beautiful coat of enamel - no runs no orange peel - only to have some hapless insect make a Kamakazi dive right into the shiny surface Striving for nothing less than perfection Ron stripped the parts completely after each bug attack and repainted them He estimates he pai nted the equivalent of 4 or 5 airplanes before he was satisfied Similarly the crinkle-finish instrument panel was done 3 times beshyfore a perfect job could be obtained

Ron had some interesting experiences down the stretch drive to complete the airplane A few items had seemed impossible to obtain in order to have a near 100 authentic restoration - the flocking of the interior for example For 3 or 4 years inquiries had been made through aviation channels in a vain atshytempt to locate a shop that could do the work Deshyspairing of ever achieving success Ron picked up the Chicago Yellow Pages one day and looked up Flockshying Sure enough there was such a classification He made a phone call and a friendly voice assured him the work would be no problem Ron was told how to prepare the panels (apply an epoxy base in the color desired for the flocking) and where to deliver them

There s not much here that could look any newer if it were coming right out of the factory

The work was done over the following weekend and turned out to be a beautiful job (The flocking incishydentally is an electro-static process with the comshymercial name of Velvetex)

Another tough nut (pun intended) was the fuel gage nut - Bellanca didn t have one and all that turned up were worse than Rons knarled overshytorqued original Finally driving through a small Minnesota town Ron spotted a sign that read Sewshying Machines Guns Trading Post and Airplane Parts Partly on a hunch and partly just out of curiosshyity he stopped entered the establishment and inshyquired of the owner if he had any Champ parts

Got enough to make 5 of them whatta ya need was the reply

Ron mentioned the fuel gage nut and was almost shocked to hear Sure how many you need whereupon the proprietor reached into a drawer and pulled out a loop of safety wire with a half dozen or so Aeronca fuel gage nuts strung on it

This sort of thing Ron chuckles today is why it took 7 years to restore the Champ He could have built up an airworthy even beauti f ul job in perhaps 3 years but not an authentic one That took a lot of time and patience

Finally however the day came when the airplane was taken to the Waukesha County Airport - on Ocshytober 23 1977 to be precise What should have been a joyous occasion however began a two month ordeal that is a story in itself Shortly after taking over

12

That first run-up a moment of supreme exaltation

a hangar from a friend who had sold his airplane Ron was informed by the FBO that he would have to give it up by January 1 This shocking news really put the pressure on After 7 years of work Ron was detershymined not to dismantle the Champ and tow it back home and he was absolutely not going to leave it outside Hangar space is extremely hard to come by in the Milwaukee area just as is the case in all large metropolitan areas so the only option left was to find a hangar in a nearby town Space was ultimately loshycated some 20 miles west at Watertown but having a January 1 deadline Ron resolved to fly the Champ out of Waukesha

It wasnt easy Bitter cold came to Wisconsin even earlier than usual making final assembly of the Champ a numbing experience Nevertheless Ron and his father toughed it out working every evening and weekends By late November it was so cold that work had to go in spurts ~ interrupted by thaw-out breaks in Rons or his dads car Several layers of insulated clothing didnt make working in tight spots easy and any job requiring a degree of digital finesse was frustshyration personified Trying to screw on a tiny nut he couldnt feel through numb fingers was not exactly Rons idea of a fun way to complete his project In December temperatures plunged below zero but Ron and Tony worked on getting the last of the fairshyings on control cables adjusted the King 360 radio and battery pack installed etc

Finally it was time for some engine run-in John Curtice Rons fellow inspector with EMDO 46 had previously been employed with Continental Motors in Muskegon Michigan and had gone through the proshycedure literally thousands of times He advised Ron on how to properly break in the newly majored A-65 and later issued a new Certificate of Airworthiness AI Bruce Rintelmann of Milwaukee had supervised the project from the beginning (since neither Ron nor his father have civilian A and P licenses) and had alshyready signed off the restoration work

And then it was done Ron could have test flown the Champ a day or so before Christmas but he decided against it His family had put so much of themselves in the project that Ron could not bring himself to pOSSibly ruin their Christmas in case anyshything went wrong Bright and early on the 26th howshyever he and his dad were heading for the airport

The temperature was 3deg F but the Continental started on the first pull Ron taxied over to the FBO shut down and squirmed into a Security parachute Mike Heuer had brought over for the occasion Firing up again he warmed up the engine until the oil

temperature came up to 90deg then taxied out for take-off Given the OK by the tower Ron opened the throttle and literally leaped into the frigid air He climbed out to 5000 feet staying over the south end of the airport - by prearrangement with the controlshylers All went well and after 36 minutes the cold had become so unbearable Ron had to land while he still had some feeling in his hands and feet The landing was a real squeaker (as he later saw on movies) On the 30th - right on schedule - Ron flew the Champ out of Waukesha and over to Watertown The airplane was there for about six weeks - and some 5 hours of further flying time - before it was transfershyred to a new home Air Troy Estates where Ron had bought a lot Hangar space was available until sumshymer when he would have his own 45 x 72 hangar built

With the passing of a really miserable winter Ron was able to enjoy a spring and summer of pleasure flying and fine tuning of the airplane for its debut at Oshkosh 78 The airplane had been test flown with a metal propeller but as a final authentic touch a wooden Sensenich had been ordered through Wag Aero There was some last minute anxiety over delivshyery of the prop but a week before the fly-in it arshyrived

Ron had intended to take a weeks vacation to enjoy all of the Convention but so many requests

had come in from EAAers wanting inspections so they could get their homebuilts to Oshkosh he couldnt get away until Wednesday

The rest you know On Friday night Ron walked out of the Meeting Pavillion with the Grand Champshyion Classic trophy and it was difficult to tell whose smile was wider his or his dads

The outcome had not been unexpected in many quarters despite the torrid competition every Oshkosh gathering provides Earlier Ron had atshytended the Aeronca Forum at the conclusion of which moderator Charlie Lasher had asked if the owner of NC85448 were present Ron raised his hand and Charlie said I want to come down and shake your hand - that is the finest Champ I have ever seen

In the weeks preceding the Convention Rons felshylow FAA employees at EMDO 46 had speculated on his chances of winning an award perhaps even the Big One Secretary Michele Facenda (who had helped with the Champs paperwork) had promised to bake a cake for him if he were successful - so on the next Monday morning Ron strode in with his trophy put it down on Micheles desk and anshynounced Youre going to have to do some baking

I already have she replied I knew you were going to win

Interior of Gregs Luscombe

Dick Stouffer Photo)

Class Winner Luscombe BE Gregg Biete Charlotte David Gustafson Photo) North Caro lina

Class I Winner Taylorcraft BC-120 Ralph Lauritsen Boone Iowa

David Gustafson Photo) Custom Class C Winner Bellanca 14-19 Ronald Joslyn Malibu California

By Edward D Williams Associate Editor 713 Eastman Dr

Mt Prospect IL 60056

An antique airplane which has been hanging in the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago since 1953 has a unique honored distinction This came about when an expert model builder made a 33-inch wingspan model of it that is considered a work of art So today both the full-size plane and the three-fourths scale model are on display in the same museum

The plane is a Boeing 40B which was donated to the museum after the close of the Century of Progress Exposishytion in Chicago in 1933 It was originally manufactured as a 40A and later converted to a 40B but the museums

The simplicity of the design is shown in this view of the Boeing 40A

plane is displayed in the colors and markings of a 40A And so the model built by Carl Buttita a commercial arshytist in Chicago is an exact copy of a 40A

When the Boeing plane NC288 factory serial number 899 was bought by Boeing Air Transport (BAD from its parent company the Boeing Airplane Company in June 1927 it cost $24500 Buttitas model which took him three years to complete was appraised at $7000

The Boeing hanging in the east court of the Museum of Science and Industry is considered of historic value

because it was one of a fleet of 24 BAT 40A aircraft that helped make transcontinental air travel possible for the first time in 1927 (See The Vintage Airplane December 1977)

Buttitas model although it was not built to fly looks every middotbit like it could It is so realistic that it later won him an important award from the Hobby Industry of America

The Museum of Science and Industry which is loshycated on Chicagos south side lakefront draws about four million visitors a year to see hundreds of exhibits depictshy

18

ing the laws of science and applications of technology in industry and other fields It is a non-profit independent institution and admission is free

The Museum was partially opened in 1933 with only a handful of exhibits By that time Boeing Air Transport and three other airline companies-- Pacific Air Transport Varney Air Lines and National Air Transport- were joined together to form United Airlines which on November 30 1933 donated the Boeing to the Museum

It took seven more years for the museum to be comshypleted so the Boeing was stored in the institutions basement until it finally was hung from the ceiling in 1939 Although the plane has been cleaned regularly and today remains in sparkling condition it has never been moved from its resting place and probably wont be for some time to come

The Boeing is part of a large aviation display which includes a number of other antique aircraft the Apollo 8 spacecraft and a full-sized model of the first class cabin of a Boeing 747

Other planes on exhibit with the Boeing 40B are a 1910 Curtiss a 1913 Morane-Saulnier a 1917 Curtiss J N-4 Jenny a Supermarine Spitfire a Lockheed F-104 Starfighter and the Travel-Air S Mystery NR1313 sponsored by Texaco and flown by Frank Hawks in setshyting a number of transcontinental records

The Museum also owns a Junkers Ju87B Stuka but it is not on exhibit in Chicago because it rests temporarily on loan in the Air Education Museum of the Experimental Aircraft Association in Franklin Wisconsin The German World War II dive bomber was restored after a cleaning accident at the Chicago Museum by the EAA Museum staff

The Model which Buttita finished three years ago is on exhibit in a special case It draws considerable interest because of its highly detailed work- down to the tiniest hinges on the doors

Boeing Air Transport (BAn probably owed its corposhyrate life to the Boeing 40A which enabled it to get into the airmail transport business

The Boeing Airplane Company first built a single Model 40 for a government competition in 1925 for the awarding of a contract for an airplane to be flown by the U S Post Office Department to replace the old de Havilshyland DH-4s it had been using since 1918 The governshyment bought the one Model 40 equipped with the old watercooled Liberty engine but did not award the comshypany a production contract It went instead to Douglas for its series of M aircraft

However the project was revived a year later when the Post Office Department decided to award Contract Air Mail (CAM) routes to private contractors for airmail The Model 40 plans were dusted off updated with the

After its Wasp engine was replaced with the PampW Hornet engine the 40A was designated the 408 and This picture of groundcrewmen unloading a 40A gives a looked like the above close-up view of the Pratt amp Whitney Wasp engine and

the dural sheet construction used throughout

latest improvements and redesigned to meet the postal requirements Designated the 40A it was powered with a 9 cylinder 420 horsepower Pratt amp Whitney Wasp enshygine a new aircooled radial engine Boeing was testing in its fighter type aircraft

The Boeing basic design with a pilot in an open cockpit was also changed to carry two passengers in a forward cabin although the awarding of the airmail conshytract and not passenger transportation was of paramount importance But the 40A could still carry 1200 pounds of mail in addition to the two hardy souls who pioneered passenger travel in 1927

It was the new designs low operating costs and high revenue potential that got BAT Boeings wholl y-owned subsidiary the low bid on the new San FranciscoshyChicago airmail (CAM number 18) route from the govshyernment BAT operated 24 of the 25 40As built The other plane was delivered to Pratt amp Whitney as a flying engine test bed This test aircraft proved its worth as in early 1928 the new 525 horsepower Pratt amp Whitney Homet engine became available in quantity and BAT quickly converted 19of its 40As to 40Bs with the installashytion of the new Hornet engine Among these was the Chicago museums NC288

According to the Model Specification and History document supplied to BAT by the Boeing Airplane Comshypany the 40A was a Three-place Landplane Biplane Closed Cabin Mailplane (3P-CiSl Factory numbers ran from 879 through 903 The first flight was made on May 20 1927 with delivery to BAT nine days later Dimenshysions were wingspan 442 length 332V and height 123 Empty weight was 2622 Ibs with a de sign gross of 4652 Ibs It boasted a top speed of 135 mph and a cruising speed of 125 mph but the actual pershyformance was closer to a maximum speed of 128 and a cruise of 105 mph It has a range of 550 miles and a sershyvice ceiling of 15700 feet

The 40A needed the altitude capability because of the rugged mountainous terrain on the 1 9113 mile San Francisco-Chicago run BAT started to use the new plane on the route with many intermediate stops on July 1 1927 When National Air Transport began its CAM Number 17 route operations with its Douglas M-4s betshyween New York and Chicago on September 1 1927 the two airlines link-up at Checkerboard Field at Maywood Illinois outside of Chicago gave the United States its first transcontinental air travel

The Chicago museum s Boeing 40B figured promishynently in th is important part of history Boeing NC288 amassed more than 6000 flight hours on the San Francisco-Chicago run and was flown many times by the famous airmail pioneer Jack Knight (See The Vintage Airplane February 1977) before it was retired

Construction of the Boeing 40A is shown in this picture of th e Boeing A irplane Company assembly line w ith A Boeing 40A NC286 - a sister ship of NC288 in the 40As in various stages of completion at Sea ttle Washingshy Chicago Museum - is show n fl ying over mountains on ton the Boeing A ir Transports San Francisco-Chicago run in

20

The Museums 40B in the coloring and markings of a 40A hangs with other historically significant aircraft in Chicagos Museum of Science and Industry The cockpit of the Boeing 40A w as simple making the

job o f duplica ting it in a model less demanding

(Museum of Science and Industry Photo)

- __ poundLlaquo

In 1933 it was used in the Wings of a Century pageant at the Century of Progress Exposition in Chicago after the Worlds Fair it was turned over to the Rosenwald Museum which later was renamed the Museum of Scishyence and Industry

Although the basic construction of the Boeing 40A was simple it had enough detail to make a model of it interesting Buttita said that he was a stickler for detail but admitted that he got carried away in making his model

When I decided to build the model I didnt intend to make it with such detail Buttita told this author I thought I could fake a lot by making the metal parts out of wood and painting them silver

But Buttita changed his mind and made every metal part out of metal and every wood part out of wood So the project which he thought would take him six or seven months eventually took three years

The more detail I put on it the better it looked he said so finally nothing could stop me and I detailed evshyerything

Buttita is an artist with the Accurate Silk Screen Sershyvice Company Chicago and his model building ability is well known

The three-quarter scale 40A is what is called a scratch model in which the builder starts from scratch as opposed to a kit in which plans and many formed parts are supplied

Buttita said a scratch model involves considerable reshysearch and study For the 40A he got a complete set of plans and all the photographs he could from Boeing and United

It took me three or four months of study before I could actually get started to build anything he said

Unlike kits which eliminate many of the interior parts that cannot be seen scratch models to be authentic must have all the details of construction such as all the ribs in the wings But that also makes them much stronger and keeps them from warping Buttita pointed out

Both the Boeing 40A flown by BAT and the Buttita model of it were constructed at the peak of the state of the art for their day

The airplane had a steel tubular fuselage with wood fairing strips and was dural and fabric covered The wings also fabric covered were built up of spruce spars and ribs The dural sheet on the fuselage covered the enshygine cowling cabin doors and compartment hatch openshyings

The two passengers sat in a cabin metal lined throughout and their seats and seat backs were upholsshytered in leather The windows of the two doors one on each side of the fuselage were made of non-shatterable glass and could be opened for additional ventilation and

21

Details of the construction of the 40As cabin door and wing struts are shown in this close-up

A close-up view of Carl Butshytitas model of the 40A shows how dedicated he was to deshytail in the models construction

Carl Buttita builder of the three-fourths sca le Boe ing 40A discusses fine points of the construction with Edshyward E Carlson chairman of UAL In c Chicago and a member of the board of trustees of the Museum of Scishyence and Indu stry before the model was put on display in the Museum

were large enough to give the passengers an excellent view of the scenery

The rear of the fuselage was braced with steel tie-rods and was heavily faired to shape although it still was fabshyric covered The tail assembly also was fabric covered but only the horizontal stabilizer was built up like the wings with spruce spars and wood built-up ribs The rest of the tail assembly was built up with welded steel tubshying It rested on a steerable tailskid The landing gear was made of streamlined chrome-moly and used oleo-spring shock absorbers

Buttitas construction problems for his model were reshysolved through the use of a wide variety of materials

The Boeing model is made of aluminum pine dentists plastic epoxy glue and Japanese silkspan paper About 40 percent of the model is metal but much of it is inside so you dont see it Buttita said These parts are the cables controls pilots seat corrugated floor panels hinges cockpit fire extinguisher medical kit and workshyable seat belts

Each part had to be hand made some several times to get them right or if they broke Buttita said I had to make 20 to 30 rims for the landing lights to get two

When you make a one-of-a-kind model you have to fabricate about 90 per cent of the parts yourself and make dies for almost everything he added

For the metal parts Buttita used small pieces of offset printers plate made of aluminum but with some tin for added strength The wood parts are made of spruce and the engine and wheels are made of the dental plastic

All the markings and lettering were drawn triple the size on paper and reduced photographically on decal paper That way they were better than if I had handshypainted them on the model he said

Buttita said he did all the construction work on a card table at home and the only power tool he used was a small electric drill

At least one other Boeing 40B is known to be on exshyhibit in another museum This is aircraft NC285 factory number 896 which was presented to the Henry Ford Museum at Dearbom Michigan in 1938 But so far it doesnt have a scale model of its own to highlight it And don t look to Carl Buttita to build one I will never do it again he sa id It was just too much work

Rebuilding AVagabond

By Larry Railing Box 5 7 -C P Avenue

Lake Mills WI 5355 7

I never realized at the time I started to rebuild or lets say restore Piper Vagabond PA-15 N4423H that so many people were interested in what Id term history So here it is

I started flying in Valparaiso Indiana around 1900 I learned in a )-3 owned by Mark Murvahill I later

graduated to the PA-12 In 1964 I graduated from high school and a year later I was married As most in like cirshycumstances I gave up flying for love until the newness wore off

My first airplane was a )-5 Cub that went down in a marsh I had started to rebuild it until Dick Wagner of Wag-Aero heard of it and made me an untimely offer This airplane was later destroyed at Burlington along with the Tri-Motor

I later owned other aircraft which included aT-Craft Somehow Dick Wagner heard of my T-Craft and flew up in a Vagabond to see it and made me an offer

I told him at that time if he ever got in the mood to sell the Vag to please call me That was in 1968

On December 26 1976 Dick called me and asked if I was still interested in the Vag I told him yes and Id come down the next Saturday morning The next Saturday came and so did I There the Vag stood on its nose just as pictures in past issues of The Vintage A irplane had shown

Dick with all his other projects had to let something go He offered me the Vag or one of two Cubs My thoughts never gave way to anything but the Vag

23

The stripped fuselage arrives at home ready for a long winter s night

Work completed the birds about ready for a runway

I climbed a ladder and pulled the tail down and began looking It was all there but in sad shape For the past four years it hadn t been outside It looked good in the dark but time took its toll The fabric was beyond even shot But it was all original Every instrument the seat and all were original In thirty years no one even drilled a hole in the panel

We tried to get the old Lycoming 65 started but no way

The next Saturday morning I borrowed a stock car trailer and headed for Lyons with my truck On the way down all was going so well until I met a car looked in my mirror and noticed the trailer to be about a foot wider than my pickup Id never given that a thought before Everytime I met another car I just got over a little I fishynally arrived at Dicks place and began taking the Vag

Fits like a sausage casing The envelopes ready for the hea t trea tment

apart I placed the wings on some racks on my truck and the fuselage or the trailer I didn t bother taking off the tail All was loaded and ready to roll in about three hours

About halfway into the dismantling it began to snow By the time I was ready to go we had gotten about three inches This worked out in my favor as it slowed everyone else on the highway down to my speed My greatest worry when hauling an airplane is when you meet a truck

All seemed to be going good The first car I met I got over to the right because of the trailer At this time I looked into the mirror and not only noticed the trailer a foot wider than the truck on each side but the horizontal stabilizer stuck out another foot on each side beyond the trailer What a shock

I stopped and tried to remove the tail but to no avail The snow kept coming and so did the end of the day It took me four and a quarter hours to go fifty-five miles By the time I got home we had eight inches of snow What a long ride

I began total disassembly right away The wings were in fantastic shape All that was needed was varnish on the tip bows I also put new cables in the whole airplane The original inspectors number date and signature are still on the spars

I worked the whole project under the watchful eyes of Paul Baker an AI from Beaver Aviation at Dodge County

The author tackles another flying surface with needle and twine

Airport He is really an EAAer I never heard of an AI so ready and willing to help restore an airplane He even came to my home after hours to inspect the fuselage as it was easier for me than taking it up there Paul says if Id hired him to do the restoring I could just hand over my paycheck for a year so he said you do the working and Ill do the looking

All the still pieces were sandblasted and sprayed with Imron primer Believe me you do have to wear a mask with that stuff

I gave Wag-Aero a call and told them what I needed for a complete cover job and not to call me until they had it all there in one pile with no monkeying around for a little of this and that

While waiting for the covering materials I began work on the engine The whole airplane had only 1100 hours and the engine 330 SMOH I just couldn t get it started I solicited the help of a local mechanic and Stinshyson owner Harold Hubrich We found three blown head gaskets one leaky valve the impulse spring in the left mag was broken and the P-Iead in the right mag the inshysulator of phenolic replaced with masking tape

I pulled the heads and Harold ground ~he valves had the mags rebuilt a complete new ignition system and the carburetor rebuilt We got her back together and bongo

- she started right off In the meantime I finished the wings and control surshy

faces I wanted to paint it all apart so a temporary gear 24

Larry applies a new cowling atter a fruitl ess encounter with sa ndblasting equipment

was made to support the fuselage The engine was never taken off Many people questioned that temporary gear I just said you had to be very careful on take-off and landshying

The actual covering was very enjoyable you could see some real progress including the stitching but that spraying and sanding Sixteen hours of work for every coat Six sandings fourteen coats and thirty gallons all total

The sheet metal was all in good shape I had planned to replace the cowl so a guy that was chicken could look in at the rubber band I tried Zip Strip to get down to bare metal with no luck at all I took all the aluminum parts over to a body shop including the boot and sandblasted them In less than ten minutes I destroyed every piece of aluminum except the instrument panel and nose bowl I then got some aluminum and began making new parts It all turned out very well

When I first brought the Vag home I contacted Cecil Ogles of Vag-News and he sent me more info than I think Piper has Among which was complete rigging

Im a little more fortunate than most- Im a tool and die model maker by trade and have my own shop Before beginning on the Vag my partner and I added on a 50 x 60 foot addition to our shop which served for a beautiful place to work over the winter to store parts until needed as well as an area to completely assemble the airplane for rigging

Its been a long time since the fuselage last shook from a run-up

Time came to go to the airport and sprout feathers There is a private strip just south of town so I went there along with about six helpers The airplane was assembled and flown two days later on June 28 1978 A year and a half after beginning

The first flight was all anyone could hope for It really flys hands off and is the easiest airplane for a taildragger to land that I have ever flown

Now for some numbers Cruise 85-90 Cruise RPM 2300 Fuel Consumption 30 gph Prop 70-36 Final and Climb 70 mph Over the Fence 60 mph Stall 40 mph Empty Weight 640 Ibs Take-off- For each 10 Ibs over 200 the passenger

weighs I added 100 feet I had the Vag at Oshkosh on Tuesday this year and

took it home and put it to bed the same night In this area we have about fifteen Vags flying with

five of them done original Myself I like to see airplanes kept original Its like a Model T with a Chevy 427 it just aint the same

The airplane is covered with Stits and the finish is Aerothane

Now that the airplanes finished work ca n proceed on the shop

I can say something most people cant about this airpshylane While at Oshkosh I went over and visited the Piper display and who would you guess was there Clyde Smith the test pilot of my airplane thirty years ago I took a couple of pictures of him and will be placing them in the log books next to his signature

The Vag is my first real attempt in restoring I did the whole airplane myse lf except the seat and the engine work Im very pleased with the end product Its all mine and paid for as well Im now enjoying the fruits of my labor and Id do it again if I could find another Vagshyabond

Oddly enough it seemed the hardest part of the whole project was the legal end Being that the FCC can t seem to find a good reason to charge for a restricted radio license I decided to send for one just in case I ever carried a radio along That took three months and the paperwork went back and forth six times The hardest part was the registration The airplane hadn t been regisshytered since 1967 The State of Wisconsin wasnt too bad That paperwork came back only once asking for an addishytional $333 because I didn t notify them within thirty days after purchase even though the airplane had been declared exempt But the Feds This took six months nine phone calls and six letters Finally I called once again and told them that after a year and a half of rebuilding with or without them I was going to fly it I think that finally did the trick

25

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Calendar of Events NOVEMBER 18-19 - MIAMI FlORIDA- Antique Classic and Cusshy

tom Built Fly-In at the third annual Harvest- A Country Fair sponsored by the Historical Association of Southern Florida at the Dade County Youth Fairground Coral Way at 112th Avenue Awards given for antique classic and custom built aircraft Conshytact Capt Ken Ufland of the Civil Air Patrol office (305) 552-3106 home after 600 pm (305) 251-5927 or Mary Dodd Russell Harshyvest Coordinator at the Historical Museum 3280 S Miami Ave shynue Building B Miami Fl 33129

JANUARY 21-27 - Sun N Fun the biggest fly-in in the southeastshyand the second biggest in the natron Its a full week of southern hospitality and flying fun daily aerial demonstrations fly-bys of antique classic homebuilt and warbird aircraft forums exhibits and static displays parties and com roasts big new food concesshysion country store for campers in our shady campsites Make motel reservations early- our free information booklet has a complete list of accommodations Write to Sun N Fun PO Box 3538 lakeland Florida 33802

(Dick Stouffer Photo)

Aeronca IICC Super Chief belonging to David E Long Keyser West Virginia

(Ted Koston Photo)

Heres a sharp Funk at Oshkosh Owner unknown didnt register

(Dick Stouffer Photo)

Another fine looking unregistered aircraft

STATEMENT OF OWNERSHIP MANAGEMENT AND CIRCULATION RlItdbyJ9U$C )681

I T1ILSOULe TOH

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26

As the years went by Rons interest in airplanes and flying grew in sophistication in step with the growth of his body and mind He managed to get an airplane ride once in a while - sometimes in a Stearman piloted by his fathers boss Paul Poberezny and once when he was 11 in a Champ piloted by family friend Dick Mildebrandt Ron dearly longed to learn to fly but at the same time his academic success in high school was bending his inshyterests toward the scientific So much in fact that after graduation in 1967 he was soon packing to head for Lafayette Indiana to enroll as an aeronautical enshygineering student at Purdue University

Not surprisingly Purdue had been selected in part for its reputation as an aviation oriented institushytion Aside from its academic excellence Ron knew it must have a flying club a fact he confirmed within hours of his arrival on campus Excitedly relatshying this discovery to his father (with obvious intent) Ron found himself being brought back down to earth by the elder Wojnars reminder that he was there to earn a degree first and a pilots license maybe However he softened the admonition with the promshyise that after seeing Rons grades at the end of the first semester the situation would be open for further evaluation

No student was ever led down the path of academic achievement by a more tempting carrot Ron hit the books with a vengeance - sleep meant nothing social life was ignored and Big Ten football was just a Saturday afternoon recharging of Rons batshyteries for the REAL task at hand

At the end of the semester Tony had a wide and proud grin on his face and Ron was wasting little time getting enrolled in the school flying club To his surprise and pleasure he had found that in addition to its modern trainers Purdue still retained a Piper j-3 in its flight school fleet available for $550 per hour

For the next 312 years that Cub would virtually become Rons personal airplane He loved it - and soloed it in about 8 hours - but most of his fellow students sneered down their noses at the lowly yelshylow dog A few learned to fly in it simply because of the low rental rate but couldn t wait to move up to the REAL airplanes the Colts Cessnas etc Conshysequently Ron could count on getting the j-3 almost any time he wanted to fly it He checked out in the other aircraft also but never tired of just going off alone and shooting landings or watching a sunset in his Cub

Returning home that f irst summer he found himshyself without a job - wh ich meant no funds for flying

A couple of weeks later at an EAA fly-in he related his dilemma to Audrey Poberezny and a few days later received a phone call from Bill Chomo offering summer employment at the EAA Museum Ron jumped at the chance and would spend each of his college summer vacations mowing yards painting dusting airplanes - whatever was asked of him that wou Id support his flying habit

Ron had been a member of EAA Chapter 18 for a number of years and the summer job at EAA Headshyquarters (where 18 holds its meetings) intensified his relationship with various of the members Eventually he fell in with a bad crowd bounders like Bob Ladd Dick Mildebrandt and the notorious Ron Scott Soon they were putting terrible things in his head worst of which was the insidious idea of actually ownshying an airplane Together they schemed to chip in and buy a Cub Champ or some such fun airplane for giving rides to friends taildragger checkouts etc (Bob Dick and Ron Scott each had single place homebuilts in those days) Ron was sorely tempted to fall in with the plan but fortunately he was spared by the timely intervention of his father although there would be moments in the years to come when he had good cause to question the hand fate had dealt him

It wasnt that Tony objected to the terrible trio (acshytually they were and are today close friends) - or even the idea of owning an airplane he simply wanted to see his son apply his aviation skills and knowledge to a purposeful end He wanted the two of them to buy a basket case and restore it

Taken somewhat by surprise by this proposal Ron quickly recovered and began scouring Trade-A-Plane Chapter newsletters and the like One day during the summer of 1970 he picked up a Chapter 260 (Dolton IL) newsletter and began scanning it for ads - and there it was Leo Faoro (EAA 28636) of Dolton (south Chicago) had a basket case 1946 Aeronca Champion he was willing to part with for a reasonashyble price

I n rapid succession Ron talked the situation over with his father (who would be the financial backer of any deal) called Leo on the 4th of july and arranged a meeting time drove down with Tony the next day inspected the airplane liked what he saw and put a $100 deposit on it The following weekend the Champ was retrieved and was placed in his Aunts garage acshyross townJn Milwaukee

Immediately Ron and his father began taking the fuselage apart and the very first th ing Ron twisted off a brass fitting on the carburetor This reshyally upset him at the time because it pounded home

the realization that despite his book knowledge he was completely lacking in hands on experience in working on airplanes His dad however was just sitshyting back with a sly grin on his face Youve got to do things like that to learn he said Get your feet wet then pay close attention to what you are doing work carefully and do everything correctly Ron would listen to this advice and stick it out to the end For the first year or so however Tony would serve as his tutor and advisor - as well as fellow worker shyon the Champ project

In stripping the airframe down the Wojnars found that while they had a complete airplane they had a lot of work ahead of them to come up with a job to their personal standards Removing the paint from the fuselage tube framework for instance reshyvealed grinder marks - which meant replacement of some tubing The wings bore evidence of past groundloops - and atrocious repairs which would have to be completely redone And the landing gear oleos horizontal tail surfaces and a couple more smaller items were considered too bad for repair They would have to be replaced A close study of the logs revealed that such replacement of various comshyponents had been a common occurance in the life of NC85448 24 years of abuse at the hands of ham-fisted students had left only the wings intact from the airshyframe that rolled out of the factory in 1946

By this point it was time for Ron to head back to Purdue for his senior year He had signed up for some elective courses in the technical area including engine overhaul and maintenance so he took his enshygine with him hoping to overhaul it as his class proshyject He tore the A-65 down alright but it would be 7 years before it went back together again The cylinshyders were oversize and badly rusted a dye check reshyvealed a cracked crankcase the camshaft was worn out and the cam followers were eaten up with corroshysion In other words Ron found he had a pile of junk for an engine The only bright spot was the crank shyit was useable The expense of the overhaul this hunk of iron needed was out of the question while Ron was still in school so sadly the pieces were boxed up and sent back home

After graduating from Purdue in 1971 Ron reshyturned to his summer job at EAA while waiting to be assigned to officers training by the Air Guard It was an especially instructive summer The Acro Sport proshytotype was being built and with its construction (tube and rag) essentially the same as the Champ every day was a learning experience for Ron Not only could he get his hand in to pick up new skills he could apply to the restoration of his airplane but he had a golden

10

opportunity to pick the brains of pros like Bill Chomo Philippe Van Pelt Gil Bodeen and others includ ing of course the Acro Sport designer Paul Poberezny

As it turned out Ron did not get his OTS assignshyment that summer so on September 1 he accepted a full time position with the EAA Air Museum Foundashytion as Assistant Museum Director

That fall (1971) the fuselage frame was sandblasted and some pitting was found in addition to the aforementioned grinder marks Everything doubtful was cut out and replaced with new tubing Ron tacked each piece and Bill Chomo finished them later Ron would gain the experience and confidence to do his own welding By Christmas all the repair work had been done all the woodwork had been reshyplaced so that the next step was a cover job That as things turned out would be a way down the road however

In late December Ron started on the left wing He first tried to clean it up without d isassembling it bilt after several months of part time wasted effort tore it down and did it right Only one wing was done at a time so that the other could be used for reference Some wingtip repair (and rework of old bad repai rs) was necessary but essentially the wing work involved cleanup replacement of leading edges and refinishing of the spars (the only old wood reshytained in the entire airplane)

With the coming of the summer of 1972 Ron found the direction of his life changing - and the Champ temporarily moving to the back burner First his OTS assignment came through and he was off for Lackland AFB for 3 months then as a new 2nd Lieutenant one month of active duty with his local Guard unit

That fall Ron took a position with Hartzog Aviation in Rockford Illinois and moved to that city Living in an apartment he had to leave the Champ at his pashyrents home in Milwaukee driving back to work on weekends Small parts were taken home to Rockford to be reworked during the week Happily Ron had again found himself in fortuitous circumstances - at Hartzog he not only had some real aviation pros to call on for advice but a lot of sophisticated equipshyment that could be used after work

1972 saw only modest progress on the Champ what with adjustment to a new job new home and weekend travel back and forth between Milwaukee and Rockford The following year however things began to look up Perhaps most significant was the fact that Ron and his father made the first of many weekend trips to Bellancas Osceola Wisconsin plant

Aside from the spars theres not much of the o rigina l wings left in this p icshyture

The ingredients of a champions Champ are beginning to show up

to forage for parts Tom Brown and Bonnie Marlette of the Parts Sales Department took an immediate inshyterest in the restoration project and spared no effort to unearth 7AC parts that had been moved from Middletown Ohio to Wiscons in Bellanca had sufshyfered a disastrous fi re a few years before and much of the old stuff had been lost but fortunately some had been stored downtown in an old railroad depot Ron and his father were permitted to sift through evshyerything and together they came up with a lot of impossible to obtain goodies like frames for the sliding windows universal joints for the fuel valve extension rod etc A surprising number of off the shelf Citabria components are the same as for its anshycestor the 7AC All the wooden fuselage formers and stringers in fact are identical with the exception of the rear window area When completed Rons Champ looked like a new one because to a great exshytent it is thanks to the folks at Bellanca

During 1974 things began to get into high gear The wings were finished and late that year the Contishynental A-65 was given a complete major Schneck Avshyiation did the work needed and Ron did the final asshysembly - under the supervision of a licensed mechanic Thinking the end was in sight Ron purchshyased all his dope and fabric (dacron) from Bellanca and took two weeks vacation to cover the airplane He gets a big laugh today at his naivete in grossly unshyderestimating the time element involved in covering Two weeks in fact stretched into 2 years before the cover job was completed

In 1975 Rons life took another sharp turn He left Hartzog and took a career position with the FAA Asshysigned to EMDO 46 in Des Plaines IL (north side of Chicago) as an Aviation Safety Inspector (Manufacturshying) Ron was able to move back home in Milwaukee commute to work during the day and work on the Champ evenings and weekends From that point on something no matter how insignificant was done every night

One bit of help came from an unusual quarter Ironically one of Ron s FAA assignments was the Belshylanca factory - so that his friends from the days of scrounging for 7AC parts had now also become clients of sorts Every time Ron came in for an inspecshytion he had to give everyone a progress report on his Champ A couple of young girls in the covering department Donna Viebrock and Sue Dollery told Ron they would like to come to Milwaukee some weekend and install the wing envelopes Despite livshying in Wisconsin all their lives neither had been to the big city and th is would be their chance With

their expertise the work would take just a few hours and the rest of their time could be spent seeing the Sights It was an offer Ron couldn t refuse and sometime later it all came about He got a set of wings ready for doping and the girls got an expense paid fling in Wisconsin s biggest metropolitan area

With doping and finish coats to go orid inarily it would have been decision time as far as the paint scheme was concerned Not so in this case however Very early in the project Ron had made the decision to return the Champ to factory new condition and appearance This of course involved considerable research He had an original service manual given him by Ron Scott and a copy of a 1946 Skyways article on the Champ given him by George Hardie but most helpful was the complete certification record on the Aeronca 7AC on file right where hf worked EMDO 46 in Des Plaines (Bellanca still holds the Proshyduction Limitation Record for the airplane and could put it back in production tomorrow if they wanted to) The file is COMPLETE colors size and shape of markings everything All the draWings are dated 1945 and all the subsequent revisions are on file

1976 saw the covering completed and 1977 was spent doing all those little detail items you think are going to take about 2 weeks according to Ron He endured all manrer of frustration attempting to paint the fairings cowl and various other small metal pieces Ron was bugged literally He would spray on a beautiful coat of enamel - no runs no orange peel - only to have some hapless insect make a Kamakazi dive right into the shiny surface Striving for nothing less than perfection Ron stripped the parts completely after each bug attack and repainted them He estimates he pai nted the equivalent of 4 or 5 airplanes before he was satisfied Similarly the crinkle-finish instrument panel was done 3 times beshyfore a perfect job could be obtained

Ron had some interesting experiences down the stretch drive to complete the airplane A few items had seemed impossible to obtain in order to have a near 100 authentic restoration - the flocking of the interior for example For 3 or 4 years inquiries had been made through aviation channels in a vain atshytempt to locate a shop that could do the work Deshyspairing of ever achieving success Ron picked up the Chicago Yellow Pages one day and looked up Flockshying Sure enough there was such a classification He made a phone call and a friendly voice assured him the work would be no problem Ron was told how to prepare the panels (apply an epoxy base in the color desired for the flocking) and where to deliver them

There s not much here that could look any newer if it were coming right out of the factory

The work was done over the following weekend and turned out to be a beautiful job (The flocking incishydentally is an electro-static process with the comshymercial name of Velvetex)

Another tough nut (pun intended) was the fuel gage nut - Bellanca didn t have one and all that turned up were worse than Rons knarled overshytorqued original Finally driving through a small Minnesota town Ron spotted a sign that read Sewshying Machines Guns Trading Post and Airplane Parts Partly on a hunch and partly just out of curiosshyity he stopped entered the establishment and inshyquired of the owner if he had any Champ parts

Got enough to make 5 of them whatta ya need was the reply

Ron mentioned the fuel gage nut and was almost shocked to hear Sure how many you need whereupon the proprietor reached into a drawer and pulled out a loop of safety wire with a half dozen or so Aeronca fuel gage nuts strung on it

This sort of thing Ron chuckles today is why it took 7 years to restore the Champ He could have built up an airworthy even beauti f ul job in perhaps 3 years but not an authentic one That took a lot of time and patience

Finally however the day came when the airplane was taken to the Waukesha County Airport - on Ocshytober 23 1977 to be precise What should have been a joyous occasion however began a two month ordeal that is a story in itself Shortly after taking over

12

That first run-up a moment of supreme exaltation

a hangar from a friend who had sold his airplane Ron was informed by the FBO that he would have to give it up by January 1 This shocking news really put the pressure on After 7 years of work Ron was detershymined not to dismantle the Champ and tow it back home and he was absolutely not going to leave it outside Hangar space is extremely hard to come by in the Milwaukee area just as is the case in all large metropolitan areas so the only option left was to find a hangar in a nearby town Space was ultimately loshycated some 20 miles west at Watertown but having a January 1 deadline Ron resolved to fly the Champ out of Waukesha

It wasnt easy Bitter cold came to Wisconsin even earlier than usual making final assembly of the Champ a numbing experience Nevertheless Ron and his father toughed it out working every evening and weekends By late November it was so cold that work had to go in spurts ~ interrupted by thaw-out breaks in Rons or his dads car Several layers of insulated clothing didnt make working in tight spots easy and any job requiring a degree of digital finesse was frustshyration personified Trying to screw on a tiny nut he couldnt feel through numb fingers was not exactly Rons idea of a fun way to complete his project In December temperatures plunged below zero but Ron and Tony worked on getting the last of the fairshyings on control cables adjusted the King 360 radio and battery pack installed etc

Finally it was time for some engine run-in John Curtice Rons fellow inspector with EMDO 46 had previously been employed with Continental Motors in Muskegon Michigan and had gone through the proshycedure literally thousands of times He advised Ron on how to properly break in the newly majored A-65 and later issued a new Certificate of Airworthiness AI Bruce Rintelmann of Milwaukee had supervised the project from the beginning (since neither Ron nor his father have civilian A and P licenses) and had alshyready signed off the restoration work

And then it was done Ron could have test flown the Champ a day or so before Christmas but he decided against it His family had put so much of themselves in the project that Ron could not bring himself to pOSSibly ruin their Christmas in case anyshything went wrong Bright and early on the 26th howshyever he and his dad were heading for the airport

The temperature was 3deg F but the Continental started on the first pull Ron taxied over to the FBO shut down and squirmed into a Security parachute Mike Heuer had brought over for the occasion Firing up again he warmed up the engine until the oil

temperature came up to 90deg then taxied out for take-off Given the OK by the tower Ron opened the throttle and literally leaped into the frigid air He climbed out to 5000 feet staying over the south end of the airport - by prearrangement with the controlshylers All went well and after 36 minutes the cold had become so unbearable Ron had to land while he still had some feeling in his hands and feet The landing was a real squeaker (as he later saw on movies) On the 30th - right on schedule - Ron flew the Champ out of Waukesha and over to Watertown The airplane was there for about six weeks - and some 5 hours of further flying time - before it was transfershyred to a new home Air Troy Estates where Ron had bought a lot Hangar space was available until sumshymer when he would have his own 45 x 72 hangar built

With the passing of a really miserable winter Ron was able to enjoy a spring and summer of pleasure flying and fine tuning of the airplane for its debut at Oshkosh 78 The airplane had been test flown with a metal propeller but as a final authentic touch a wooden Sensenich had been ordered through Wag Aero There was some last minute anxiety over delivshyery of the prop but a week before the fly-in it arshyrived

Ron had intended to take a weeks vacation to enjoy all of the Convention but so many requests

had come in from EAAers wanting inspections so they could get their homebuilts to Oshkosh he couldnt get away until Wednesday

The rest you know On Friday night Ron walked out of the Meeting Pavillion with the Grand Champshyion Classic trophy and it was difficult to tell whose smile was wider his or his dads

The outcome had not been unexpected in many quarters despite the torrid competition every Oshkosh gathering provides Earlier Ron had atshytended the Aeronca Forum at the conclusion of which moderator Charlie Lasher had asked if the owner of NC85448 were present Ron raised his hand and Charlie said I want to come down and shake your hand - that is the finest Champ I have ever seen

In the weeks preceding the Convention Rons felshylow FAA employees at EMDO 46 had speculated on his chances of winning an award perhaps even the Big One Secretary Michele Facenda (who had helped with the Champs paperwork) had promised to bake a cake for him if he were successful - so on the next Monday morning Ron strode in with his trophy put it down on Micheles desk and anshynounced Youre going to have to do some baking

I already have she replied I knew you were going to win

Interior of Gregs Luscombe

Dick Stouffer Photo)

Class Winner Luscombe BE Gregg Biete Charlotte David Gustafson Photo) North Caro lina

Class I Winner Taylorcraft BC-120 Ralph Lauritsen Boone Iowa

David Gustafson Photo) Custom Class C Winner Bellanca 14-19 Ronald Joslyn Malibu California

By Edward D Williams Associate Editor 713 Eastman Dr

Mt Prospect IL 60056

An antique airplane which has been hanging in the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago since 1953 has a unique honored distinction This came about when an expert model builder made a 33-inch wingspan model of it that is considered a work of art So today both the full-size plane and the three-fourths scale model are on display in the same museum

The plane is a Boeing 40B which was donated to the museum after the close of the Century of Progress Exposishytion in Chicago in 1933 It was originally manufactured as a 40A and later converted to a 40B but the museums

The simplicity of the design is shown in this view of the Boeing 40A

plane is displayed in the colors and markings of a 40A And so the model built by Carl Buttita a commercial arshytist in Chicago is an exact copy of a 40A

When the Boeing plane NC288 factory serial number 899 was bought by Boeing Air Transport (BAD from its parent company the Boeing Airplane Company in June 1927 it cost $24500 Buttitas model which took him three years to complete was appraised at $7000

The Boeing hanging in the east court of the Museum of Science and Industry is considered of historic value

because it was one of a fleet of 24 BAT 40A aircraft that helped make transcontinental air travel possible for the first time in 1927 (See The Vintage Airplane December 1977)

Buttitas model although it was not built to fly looks every middotbit like it could It is so realistic that it later won him an important award from the Hobby Industry of America

The Museum of Science and Industry which is loshycated on Chicagos south side lakefront draws about four million visitors a year to see hundreds of exhibits depictshy

18

ing the laws of science and applications of technology in industry and other fields It is a non-profit independent institution and admission is free

The Museum was partially opened in 1933 with only a handful of exhibits By that time Boeing Air Transport and three other airline companies-- Pacific Air Transport Varney Air Lines and National Air Transport- were joined together to form United Airlines which on November 30 1933 donated the Boeing to the Museum

It took seven more years for the museum to be comshypleted so the Boeing was stored in the institutions basement until it finally was hung from the ceiling in 1939 Although the plane has been cleaned regularly and today remains in sparkling condition it has never been moved from its resting place and probably wont be for some time to come

The Boeing is part of a large aviation display which includes a number of other antique aircraft the Apollo 8 spacecraft and a full-sized model of the first class cabin of a Boeing 747

Other planes on exhibit with the Boeing 40B are a 1910 Curtiss a 1913 Morane-Saulnier a 1917 Curtiss J N-4 Jenny a Supermarine Spitfire a Lockheed F-104 Starfighter and the Travel-Air S Mystery NR1313 sponsored by Texaco and flown by Frank Hawks in setshyting a number of transcontinental records

The Museum also owns a Junkers Ju87B Stuka but it is not on exhibit in Chicago because it rests temporarily on loan in the Air Education Museum of the Experimental Aircraft Association in Franklin Wisconsin The German World War II dive bomber was restored after a cleaning accident at the Chicago Museum by the EAA Museum staff

The Model which Buttita finished three years ago is on exhibit in a special case It draws considerable interest because of its highly detailed work- down to the tiniest hinges on the doors

Boeing Air Transport (BAn probably owed its corposhyrate life to the Boeing 40A which enabled it to get into the airmail transport business

The Boeing Airplane Company first built a single Model 40 for a government competition in 1925 for the awarding of a contract for an airplane to be flown by the U S Post Office Department to replace the old de Havilshyland DH-4s it had been using since 1918 The governshyment bought the one Model 40 equipped with the old watercooled Liberty engine but did not award the comshypany a production contract It went instead to Douglas for its series of M aircraft

However the project was revived a year later when the Post Office Department decided to award Contract Air Mail (CAM) routes to private contractors for airmail The Model 40 plans were dusted off updated with the

After its Wasp engine was replaced with the PampW Hornet engine the 40A was designated the 408 and This picture of groundcrewmen unloading a 40A gives a looked like the above close-up view of the Pratt amp Whitney Wasp engine and

the dural sheet construction used throughout

latest improvements and redesigned to meet the postal requirements Designated the 40A it was powered with a 9 cylinder 420 horsepower Pratt amp Whitney Wasp enshygine a new aircooled radial engine Boeing was testing in its fighter type aircraft

The Boeing basic design with a pilot in an open cockpit was also changed to carry two passengers in a forward cabin although the awarding of the airmail conshytract and not passenger transportation was of paramount importance But the 40A could still carry 1200 pounds of mail in addition to the two hardy souls who pioneered passenger travel in 1927

It was the new designs low operating costs and high revenue potential that got BAT Boeings wholl y-owned subsidiary the low bid on the new San FranciscoshyChicago airmail (CAM number 18) route from the govshyernment BAT operated 24 of the 25 40As built The other plane was delivered to Pratt amp Whitney as a flying engine test bed This test aircraft proved its worth as in early 1928 the new 525 horsepower Pratt amp Whitney Homet engine became available in quantity and BAT quickly converted 19of its 40As to 40Bs with the installashytion of the new Hornet engine Among these was the Chicago museums NC288

According to the Model Specification and History document supplied to BAT by the Boeing Airplane Comshypany the 40A was a Three-place Landplane Biplane Closed Cabin Mailplane (3P-CiSl Factory numbers ran from 879 through 903 The first flight was made on May 20 1927 with delivery to BAT nine days later Dimenshysions were wingspan 442 length 332V and height 123 Empty weight was 2622 Ibs with a de sign gross of 4652 Ibs It boasted a top speed of 135 mph and a cruising speed of 125 mph but the actual pershyformance was closer to a maximum speed of 128 and a cruise of 105 mph It has a range of 550 miles and a sershyvice ceiling of 15700 feet

The 40A needed the altitude capability because of the rugged mountainous terrain on the 1 9113 mile San Francisco-Chicago run BAT started to use the new plane on the route with many intermediate stops on July 1 1927 When National Air Transport began its CAM Number 17 route operations with its Douglas M-4s betshyween New York and Chicago on September 1 1927 the two airlines link-up at Checkerboard Field at Maywood Illinois outside of Chicago gave the United States its first transcontinental air travel

The Chicago museum s Boeing 40B figured promishynently in th is important part of history Boeing NC288 amassed more than 6000 flight hours on the San Francisco-Chicago run and was flown many times by the famous airmail pioneer Jack Knight (See The Vintage Airplane February 1977) before it was retired

Construction of the Boeing 40A is shown in this picture of th e Boeing A irplane Company assembly line w ith A Boeing 40A NC286 - a sister ship of NC288 in the 40As in various stages of completion at Sea ttle Washingshy Chicago Museum - is show n fl ying over mountains on ton the Boeing A ir Transports San Francisco-Chicago run in

20

The Museums 40B in the coloring and markings of a 40A hangs with other historically significant aircraft in Chicagos Museum of Science and Industry The cockpit of the Boeing 40A w as simple making the

job o f duplica ting it in a model less demanding

(Museum of Science and Industry Photo)

- __ poundLlaquo

In 1933 it was used in the Wings of a Century pageant at the Century of Progress Exposition in Chicago after the Worlds Fair it was turned over to the Rosenwald Museum which later was renamed the Museum of Scishyence and Industry

Although the basic construction of the Boeing 40A was simple it had enough detail to make a model of it interesting Buttita said that he was a stickler for detail but admitted that he got carried away in making his model

When I decided to build the model I didnt intend to make it with such detail Buttita told this author I thought I could fake a lot by making the metal parts out of wood and painting them silver

But Buttita changed his mind and made every metal part out of metal and every wood part out of wood So the project which he thought would take him six or seven months eventually took three years

The more detail I put on it the better it looked he said so finally nothing could stop me and I detailed evshyerything

Buttita is an artist with the Accurate Silk Screen Sershyvice Company Chicago and his model building ability is well known

The three-quarter scale 40A is what is called a scratch model in which the builder starts from scratch as opposed to a kit in which plans and many formed parts are supplied

Buttita said a scratch model involves considerable reshysearch and study For the 40A he got a complete set of plans and all the photographs he could from Boeing and United

It took me three or four months of study before I could actually get started to build anything he said

Unlike kits which eliminate many of the interior parts that cannot be seen scratch models to be authentic must have all the details of construction such as all the ribs in the wings But that also makes them much stronger and keeps them from warping Buttita pointed out

Both the Boeing 40A flown by BAT and the Buttita model of it were constructed at the peak of the state of the art for their day

The airplane had a steel tubular fuselage with wood fairing strips and was dural and fabric covered The wings also fabric covered were built up of spruce spars and ribs The dural sheet on the fuselage covered the enshygine cowling cabin doors and compartment hatch openshyings

The two passengers sat in a cabin metal lined throughout and their seats and seat backs were upholsshytered in leather The windows of the two doors one on each side of the fuselage were made of non-shatterable glass and could be opened for additional ventilation and

21

Details of the construction of the 40As cabin door and wing struts are shown in this close-up

A close-up view of Carl Butshytitas model of the 40A shows how dedicated he was to deshytail in the models construction

Carl Buttita builder of the three-fourths sca le Boe ing 40A discusses fine points of the construction with Edshyward E Carlson chairman of UAL In c Chicago and a member of the board of trustees of the Museum of Scishyence and Indu stry before the model was put on display in the Museum

were large enough to give the passengers an excellent view of the scenery

The rear of the fuselage was braced with steel tie-rods and was heavily faired to shape although it still was fabshyric covered The tail assembly also was fabric covered but only the horizontal stabilizer was built up like the wings with spruce spars and wood built-up ribs The rest of the tail assembly was built up with welded steel tubshying It rested on a steerable tailskid The landing gear was made of streamlined chrome-moly and used oleo-spring shock absorbers

Buttitas construction problems for his model were reshysolved through the use of a wide variety of materials

The Boeing model is made of aluminum pine dentists plastic epoxy glue and Japanese silkspan paper About 40 percent of the model is metal but much of it is inside so you dont see it Buttita said These parts are the cables controls pilots seat corrugated floor panels hinges cockpit fire extinguisher medical kit and workshyable seat belts

Each part had to be hand made some several times to get them right or if they broke Buttita said I had to make 20 to 30 rims for the landing lights to get two

When you make a one-of-a-kind model you have to fabricate about 90 per cent of the parts yourself and make dies for almost everything he added

For the metal parts Buttita used small pieces of offset printers plate made of aluminum but with some tin for added strength The wood parts are made of spruce and the engine and wheels are made of the dental plastic

All the markings and lettering were drawn triple the size on paper and reduced photographically on decal paper That way they were better than if I had handshypainted them on the model he said

Buttita said he did all the construction work on a card table at home and the only power tool he used was a small electric drill

At least one other Boeing 40B is known to be on exshyhibit in another museum This is aircraft NC285 factory number 896 which was presented to the Henry Ford Museum at Dearbom Michigan in 1938 But so far it doesnt have a scale model of its own to highlight it And don t look to Carl Buttita to build one I will never do it again he sa id It was just too much work

Rebuilding AVagabond

By Larry Railing Box 5 7 -C P Avenue

Lake Mills WI 5355 7

I never realized at the time I started to rebuild or lets say restore Piper Vagabond PA-15 N4423H that so many people were interested in what Id term history So here it is

I started flying in Valparaiso Indiana around 1900 I learned in a )-3 owned by Mark Murvahill I later

graduated to the PA-12 In 1964 I graduated from high school and a year later I was married As most in like cirshycumstances I gave up flying for love until the newness wore off

My first airplane was a )-5 Cub that went down in a marsh I had started to rebuild it until Dick Wagner of Wag-Aero heard of it and made me an untimely offer This airplane was later destroyed at Burlington along with the Tri-Motor

I later owned other aircraft which included aT-Craft Somehow Dick Wagner heard of my T-Craft and flew up in a Vagabond to see it and made me an offer

I told him at that time if he ever got in the mood to sell the Vag to please call me That was in 1968

On December 26 1976 Dick called me and asked if I was still interested in the Vag I told him yes and Id come down the next Saturday morning The next Saturday came and so did I There the Vag stood on its nose just as pictures in past issues of The Vintage A irplane had shown

Dick with all his other projects had to let something go He offered me the Vag or one of two Cubs My thoughts never gave way to anything but the Vag

23

The stripped fuselage arrives at home ready for a long winter s night

Work completed the birds about ready for a runway

I climbed a ladder and pulled the tail down and began looking It was all there but in sad shape For the past four years it hadn t been outside It looked good in the dark but time took its toll The fabric was beyond even shot But it was all original Every instrument the seat and all were original In thirty years no one even drilled a hole in the panel

We tried to get the old Lycoming 65 started but no way

The next Saturday morning I borrowed a stock car trailer and headed for Lyons with my truck On the way down all was going so well until I met a car looked in my mirror and noticed the trailer to be about a foot wider than my pickup Id never given that a thought before Everytime I met another car I just got over a little I fishynally arrived at Dicks place and began taking the Vag

Fits like a sausage casing The envelopes ready for the hea t trea tment

apart I placed the wings on some racks on my truck and the fuselage or the trailer I didn t bother taking off the tail All was loaded and ready to roll in about three hours

About halfway into the dismantling it began to snow By the time I was ready to go we had gotten about three inches This worked out in my favor as it slowed everyone else on the highway down to my speed My greatest worry when hauling an airplane is when you meet a truck

All seemed to be going good The first car I met I got over to the right because of the trailer At this time I looked into the mirror and not only noticed the trailer a foot wider than the truck on each side but the horizontal stabilizer stuck out another foot on each side beyond the trailer What a shock

I stopped and tried to remove the tail but to no avail The snow kept coming and so did the end of the day It took me four and a quarter hours to go fifty-five miles By the time I got home we had eight inches of snow What a long ride

I began total disassembly right away The wings were in fantastic shape All that was needed was varnish on the tip bows I also put new cables in the whole airplane The original inspectors number date and signature are still on the spars

I worked the whole project under the watchful eyes of Paul Baker an AI from Beaver Aviation at Dodge County

The author tackles another flying surface with needle and twine

Airport He is really an EAAer I never heard of an AI so ready and willing to help restore an airplane He even came to my home after hours to inspect the fuselage as it was easier for me than taking it up there Paul says if Id hired him to do the restoring I could just hand over my paycheck for a year so he said you do the working and Ill do the looking

All the still pieces were sandblasted and sprayed with Imron primer Believe me you do have to wear a mask with that stuff

I gave Wag-Aero a call and told them what I needed for a complete cover job and not to call me until they had it all there in one pile with no monkeying around for a little of this and that

While waiting for the covering materials I began work on the engine The whole airplane had only 1100 hours and the engine 330 SMOH I just couldn t get it started I solicited the help of a local mechanic and Stinshyson owner Harold Hubrich We found three blown head gaskets one leaky valve the impulse spring in the left mag was broken and the P-Iead in the right mag the inshysulator of phenolic replaced with masking tape

I pulled the heads and Harold ground ~he valves had the mags rebuilt a complete new ignition system and the carburetor rebuilt We got her back together and bongo

- she started right off In the meantime I finished the wings and control surshy

faces I wanted to paint it all apart so a temporary gear 24

Larry applies a new cowling atter a fruitl ess encounter with sa ndblasting equipment

was made to support the fuselage The engine was never taken off Many people questioned that temporary gear I just said you had to be very careful on take-off and landshying

The actual covering was very enjoyable you could see some real progress including the stitching but that spraying and sanding Sixteen hours of work for every coat Six sandings fourteen coats and thirty gallons all total

The sheet metal was all in good shape I had planned to replace the cowl so a guy that was chicken could look in at the rubber band I tried Zip Strip to get down to bare metal with no luck at all I took all the aluminum parts over to a body shop including the boot and sandblasted them In less than ten minutes I destroyed every piece of aluminum except the instrument panel and nose bowl I then got some aluminum and began making new parts It all turned out very well

When I first brought the Vag home I contacted Cecil Ogles of Vag-News and he sent me more info than I think Piper has Among which was complete rigging

Im a little more fortunate than most- Im a tool and die model maker by trade and have my own shop Before beginning on the Vag my partner and I added on a 50 x 60 foot addition to our shop which served for a beautiful place to work over the winter to store parts until needed as well as an area to completely assemble the airplane for rigging

Its been a long time since the fuselage last shook from a run-up

Time came to go to the airport and sprout feathers There is a private strip just south of town so I went there along with about six helpers The airplane was assembled and flown two days later on June 28 1978 A year and a half after beginning

The first flight was all anyone could hope for It really flys hands off and is the easiest airplane for a taildragger to land that I have ever flown

Now for some numbers Cruise 85-90 Cruise RPM 2300 Fuel Consumption 30 gph Prop 70-36 Final and Climb 70 mph Over the Fence 60 mph Stall 40 mph Empty Weight 640 Ibs Take-off- For each 10 Ibs over 200 the passenger

weighs I added 100 feet I had the Vag at Oshkosh on Tuesday this year and

took it home and put it to bed the same night In this area we have about fifteen Vags flying with

five of them done original Myself I like to see airplanes kept original Its like a Model T with a Chevy 427 it just aint the same

The airplane is covered with Stits and the finish is Aerothane

Now that the airplanes finished work ca n proceed on the shop

I can say something most people cant about this airpshylane While at Oshkosh I went over and visited the Piper display and who would you guess was there Clyde Smith the test pilot of my airplane thirty years ago I took a couple of pictures of him and will be placing them in the log books next to his signature

The Vag is my first real attempt in restoring I did the whole airplane myse lf except the seat and the engine work Im very pleased with the end product Its all mine and paid for as well Im now enjoying the fruits of my labor and Id do it again if I could find another Vagshyabond

Oddly enough it seemed the hardest part of the whole project was the legal end Being that the FCC can t seem to find a good reason to charge for a restricted radio license I decided to send for one just in case I ever carried a radio along That took three months and the paperwork went back and forth six times The hardest part was the registration The airplane hadn t been regisshytered since 1967 The State of Wisconsin wasnt too bad That paperwork came back only once asking for an addishytional $333 because I didn t notify them within thirty days after purchase even though the airplane had been declared exempt But the Feds This took six months nine phone calls and six letters Finally I called once again and told them that after a year and a half of rebuilding with or without them I was going to fly it I think that finally did the trick

25

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Calendar of Events NOVEMBER 18-19 - MIAMI FlORIDA- Antique Classic and Cusshy

tom Built Fly-In at the third annual Harvest- A Country Fair sponsored by the Historical Association of Southern Florida at the Dade County Youth Fairground Coral Way at 112th Avenue Awards given for antique classic and custom built aircraft Conshytact Capt Ken Ufland of the Civil Air Patrol office (305) 552-3106 home after 600 pm (305) 251-5927 or Mary Dodd Russell Harshyvest Coordinator at the Historical Museum 3280 S Miami Ave shynue Building B Miami Fl 33129

JANUARY 21-27 - Sun N Fun the biggest fly-in in the southeastshyand the second biggest in the natron Its a full week of southern hospitality and flying fun daily aerial demonstrations fly-bys of antique classic homebuilt and warbird aircraft forums exhibits and static displays parties and com roasts big new food concesshysion country store for campers in our shady campsites Make motel reservations early- our free information booklet has a complete list of accommodations Write to Sun N Fun PO Box 3538 lakeland Florida 33802

(Dick Stouffer Photo)

Aeronca IICC Super Chief belonging to David E Long Keyser West Virginia

(Ted Koston Photo)

Heres a sharp Funk at Oshkosh Owner unknown didnt register

(Dick Stouffer Photo)

Another fine looking unregistered aircraft

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F4U CORSAIR

PLANE CHECKS The Leading Fighter 01 WWII - with a Record 01 2140 Japanese Aircraft Destroyed 28 01 which

Are Credited to Pappy Boyington Regular bank checks emblazoned with the F4U CORSAIR

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Start USing Plane Checks Now Your old checks will always be good

Identity Check Co Box 149-D Park Ridge III 60068 Activate my order for Plane Checks starting No ___ o 300middot$795 0 600-$1350 0 900middot$1875 Checks are printed with blue backgrounds and are top bound-one part deposit sUps registers and matching checkbook cover are Included In each order

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26

opportunity to pick the brains of pros like Bill Chomo Philippe Van Pelt Gil Bodeen and others includ ing of course the Acro Sport designer Paul Poberezny

As it turned out Ron did not get his OTS assignshyment that summer so on September 1 he accepted a full time position with the EAA Air Museum Foundashytion as Assistant Museum Director

That fall (1971) the fuselage frame was sandblasted and some pitting was found in addition to the aforementioned grinder marks Everything doubtful was cut out and replaced with new tubing Ron tacked each piece and Bill Chomo finished them later Ron would gain the experience and confidence to do his own welding By Christmas all the repair work had been done all the woodwork had been reshyplaced so that the next step was a cover job That as things turned out would be a way down the road however

In late December Ron started on the left wing He first tried to clean it up without d isassembling it bilt after several months of part time wasted effort tore it down and did it right Only one wing was done at a time so that the other could be used for reference Some wingtip repair (and rework of old bad repai rs) was necessary but essentially the wing work involved cleanup replacement of leading edges and refinishing of the spars (the only old wood reshytained in the entire airplane)

With the coming of the summer of 1972 Ron found the direction of his life changing - and the Champ temporarily moving to the back burner First his OTS assignment came through and he was off for Lackland AFB for 3 months then as a new 2nd Lieutenant one month of active duty with his local Guard unit

That fall Ron took a position with Hartzog Aviation in Rockford Illinois and moved to that city Living in an apartment he had to leave the Champ at his pashyrents home in Milwaukee driving back to work on weekends Small parts were taken home to Rockford to be reworked during the week Happily Ron had again found himself in fortuitous circumstances - at Hartzog he not only had some real aviation pros to call on for advice but a lot of sophisticated equipshyment that could be used after work

1972 saw only modest progress on the Champ what with adjustment to a new job new home and weekend travel back and forth between Milwaukee and Rockford The following year however things began to look up Perhaps most significant was the fact that Ron and his father made the first of many weekend trips to Bellancas Osceola Wisconsin plant

Aside from the spars theres not much of the o rigina l wings left in this p icshyture

The ingredients of a champions Champ are beginning to show up

to forage for parts Tom Brown and Bonnie Marlette of the Parts Sales Department took an immediate inshyterest in the restoration project and spared no effort to unearth 7AC parts that had been moved from Middletown Ohio to Wiscons in Bellanca had sufshyfered a disastrous fi re a few years before and much of the old stuff had been lost but fortunately some had been stored downtown in an old railroad depot Ron and his father were permitted to sift through evshyerything and together they came up with a lot of impossible to obtain goodies like frames for the sliding windows universal joints for the fuel valve extension rod etc A surprising number of off the shelf Citabria components are the same as for its anshycestor the 7AC All the wooden fuselage formers and stringers in fact are identical with the exception of the rear window area When completed Rons Champ looked like a new one because to a great exshytent it is thanks to the folks at Bellanca

During 1974 things began to get into high gear The wings were finished and late that year the Contishynental A-65 was given a complete major Schneck Avshyiation did the work needed and Ron did the final asshysembly - under the supervision of a licensed mechanic Thinking the end was in sight Ron purchshyased all his dope and fabric (dacron) from Bellanca and took two weeks vacation to cover the airplane He gets a big laugh today at his naivete in grossly unshyderestimating the time element involved in covering Two weeks in fact stretched into 2 years before the cover job was completed

In 1975 Rons life took another sharp turn He left Hartzog and took a career position with the FAA Asshysigned to EMDO 46 in Des Plaines IL (north side of Chicago) as an Aviation Safety Inspector (Manufacturshying) Ron was able to move back home in Milwaukee commute to work during the day and work on the Champ evenings and weekends From that point on something no matter how insignificant was done every night

One bit of help came from an unusual quarter Ironically one of Ron s FAA assignments was the Belshylanca factory - so that his friends from the days of scrounging for 7AC parts had now also become clients of sorts Every time Ron came in for an inspecshytion he had to give everyone a progress report on his Champ A couple of young girls in the covering department Donna Viebrock and Sue Dollery told Ron they would like to come to Milwaukee some weekend and install the wing envelopes Despite livshying in Wisconsin all their lives neither had been to the big city and th is would be their chance With

their expertise the work would take just a few hours and the rest of their time could be spent seeing the Sights It was an offer Ron couldn t refuse and sometime later it all came about He got a set of wings ready for doping and the girls got an expense paid fling in Wisconsin s biggest metropolitan area

With doping and finish coats to go orid inarily it would have been decision time as far as the paint scheme was concerned Not so in this case however Very early in the project Ron had made the decision to return the Champ to factory new condition and appearance This of course involved considerable research He had an original service manual given him by Ron Scott and a copy of a 1946 Skyways article on the Champ given him by George Hardie but most helpful was the complete certification record on the Aeronca 7AC on file right where hf worked EMDO 46 in Des Plaines (Bellanca still holds the Proshyduction Limitation Record for the airplane and could put it back in production tomorrow if they wanted to) The file is COMPLETE colors size and shape of markings everything All the draWings are dated 1945 and all the subsequent revisions are on file

1976 saw the covering completed and 1977 was spent doing all those little detail items you think are going to take about 2 weeks according to Ron He endured all manrer of frustration attempting to paint the fairings cowl and various other small metal pieces Ron was bugged literally He would spray on a beautiful coat of enamel - no runs no orange peel - only to have some hapless insect make a Kamakazi dive right into the shiny surface Striving for nothing less than perfection Ron stripped the parts completely after each bug attack and repainted them He estimates he pai nted the equivalent of 4 or 5 airplanes before he was satisfied Similarly the crinkle-finish instrument panel was done 3 times beshyfore a perfect job could be obtained

Ron had some interesting experiences down the stretch drive to complete the airplane A few items had seemed impossible to obtain in order to have a near 100 authentic restoration - the flocking of the interior for example For 3 or 4 years inquiries had been made through aviation channels in a vain atshytempt to locate a shop that could do the work Deshyspairing of ever achieving success Ron picked up the Chicago Yellow Pages one day and looked up Flockshying Sure enough there was such a classification He made a phone call and a friendly voice assured him the work would be no problem Ron was told how to prepare the panels (apply an epoxy base in the color desired for the flocking) and where to deliver them

There s not much here that could look any newer if it were coming right out of the factory

The work was done over the following weekend and turned out to be a beautiful job (The flocking incishydentally is an electro-static process with the comshymercial name of Velvetex)

Another tough nut (pun intended) was the fuel gage nut - Bellanca didn t have one and all that turned up were worse than Rons knarled overshytorqued original Finally driving through a small Minnesota town Ron spotted a sign that read Sewshying Machines Guns Trading Post and Airplane Parts Partly on a hunch and partly just out of curiosshyity he stopped entered the establishment and inshyquired of the owner if he had any Champ parts

Got enough to make 5 of them whatta ya need was the reply

Ron mentioned the fuel gage nut and was almost shocked to hear Sure how many you need whereupon the proprietor reached into a drawer and pulled out a loop of safety wire with a half dozen or so Aeronca fuel gage nuts strung on it

This sort of thing Ron chuckles today is why it took 7 years to restore the Champ He could have built up an airworthy even beauti f ul job in perhaps 3 years but not an authentic one That took a lot of time and patience

Finally however the day came when the airplane was taken to the Waukesha County Airport - on Ocshytober 23 1977 to be precise What should have been a joyous occasion however began a two month ordeal that is a story in itself Shortly after taking over

12

That first run-up a moment of supreme exaltation

a hangar from a friend who had sold his airplane Ron was informed by the FBO that he would have to give it up by January 1 This shocking news really put the pressure on After 7 years of work Ron was detershymined not to dismantle the Champ and tow it back home and he was absolutely not going to leave it outside Hangar space is extremely hard to come by in the Milwaukee area just as is the case in all large metropolitan areas so the only option left was to find a hangar in a nearby town Space was ultimately loshycated some 20 miles west at Watertown but having a January 1 deadline Ron resolved to fly the Champ out of Waukesha

It wasnt easy Bitter cold came to Wisconsin even earlier than usual making final assembly of the Champ a numbing experience Nevertheless Ron and his father toughed it out working every evening and weekends By late November it was so cold that work had to go in spurts ~ interrupted by thaw-out breaks in Rons or his dads car Several layers of insulated clothing didnt make working in tight spots easy and any job requiring a degree of digital finesse was frustshyration personified Trying to screw on a tiny nut he couldnt feel through numb fingers was not exactly Rons idea of a fun way to complete his project In December temperatures plunged below zero but Ron and Tony worked on getting the last of the fairshyings on control cables adjusted the King 360 radio and battery pack installed etc

Finally it was time for some engine run-in John Curtice Rons fellow inspector with EMDO 46 had previously been employed with Continental Motors in Muskegon Michigan and had gone through the proshycedure literally thousands of times He advised Ron on how to properly break in the newly majored A-65 and later issued a new Certificate of Airworthiness AI Bruce Rintelmann of Milwaukee had supervised the project from the beginning (since neither Ron nor his father have civilian A and P licenses) and had alshyready signed off the restoration work

And then it was done Ron could have test flown the Champ a day or so before Christmas but he decided against it His family had put so much of themselves in the project that Ron could not bring himself to pOSSibly ruin their Christmas in case anyshything went wrong Bright and early on the 26th howshyever he and his dad were heading for the airport

The temperature was 3deg F but the Continental started on the first pull Ron taxied over to the FBO shut down and squirmed into a Security parachute Mike Heuer had brought over for the occasion Firing up again he warmed up the engine until the oil

temperature came up to 90deg then taxied out for take-off Given the OK by the tower Ron opened the throttle and literally leaped into the frigid air He climbed out to 5000 feet staying over the south end of the airport - by prearrangement with the controlshylers All went well and after 36 minutes the cold had become so unbearable Ron had to land while he still had some feeling in his hands and feet The landing was a real squeaker (as he later saw on movies) On the 30th - right on schedule - Ron flew the Champ out of Waukesha and over to Watertown The airplane was there for about six weeks - and some 5 hours of further flying time - before it was transfershyred to a new home Air Troy Estates where Ron had bought a lot Hangar space was available until sumshymer when he would have his own 45 x 72 hangar built

With the passing of a really miserable winter Ron was able to enjoy a spring and summer of pleasure flying and fine tuning of the airplane for its debut at Oshkosh 78 The airplane had been test flown with a metal propeller but as a final authentic touch a wooden Sensenich had been ordered through Wag Aero There was some last minute anxiety over delivshyery of the prop but a week before the fly-in it arshyrived

Ron had intended to take a weeks vacation to enjoy all of the Convention but so many requests

had come in from EAAers wanting inspections so they could get their homebuilts to Oshkosh he couldnt get away until Wednesday

The rest you know On Friday night Ron walked out of the Meeting Pavillion with the Grand Champshyion Classic trophy and it was difficult to tell whose smile was wider his or his dads

The outcome had not been unexpected in many quarters despite the torrid competition every Oshkosh gathering provides Earlier Ron had atshytended the Aeronca Forum at the conclusion of which moderator Charlie Lasher had asked if the owner of NC85448 were present Ron raised his hand and Charlie said I want to come down and shake your hand - that is the finest Champ I have ever seen

In the weeks preceding the Convention Rons felshylow FAA employees at EMDO 46 had speculated on his chances of winning an award perhaps even the Big One Secretary Michele Facenda (who had helped with the Champs paperwork) had promised to bake a cake for him if he were successful - so on the next Monday morning Ron strode in with his trophy put it down on Micheles desk and anshynounced Youre going to have to do some baking

I already have she replied I knew you were going to win

Interior of Gregs Luscombe

Dick Stouffer Photo)

Class Winner Luscombe BE Gregg Biete Charlotte David Gustafson Photo) North Caro lina

Class I Winner Taylorcraft BC-120 Ralph Lauritsen Boone Iowa

David Gustafson Photo) Custom Class C Winner Bellanca 14-19 Ronald Joslyn Malibu California

By Edward D Williams Associate Editor 713 Eastman Dr

Mt Prospect IL 60056

An antique airplane which has been hanging in the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago since 1953 has a unique honored distinction This came about when an expert model builder made a 33-inch wingspan model of it that is considered a work of art So today both the full-size plane and the three-fourths scale model are on display in the same museum

The plane is a Boeing 40B which was donated to the museum after the close of the Century of Progress Exposishytion in Chicago in 1933 It was originally manufactured as a 40A and later converted to a 40B but the museums

The simplicity of the design is shown in this view of the Boeing 40A

plane is displayed in the colors and markings of a 40A And so the model built by Carl Buttita a commercial arshytist in Chicago is an exact copy of a 40A

When the Boeing plane NC288 factory serial number 899 was bought by Boeing Air Transport (BAD from its parent company the Boeing Airplane Company in June 1927 it cost $24500 Buttitas model which took him three years to complete was appraised at $7000

The Boeing hanging in the east court of the Museum of Science and Industry is considered of historic value

because it was one of a fleet of 24 BAT 40A aircraft that helped make transcontinental air travel possible for the first time in 1927 (See The Vintage Airplane December 1977)

Buttitas model although it was not built to fly looks every middotbit like it could It is so realistic that it later won him an important award from the Hobby Industry of America

The Museum of Science and Industry which is loshycated on Chicagos south side lakefront draws about four million visitors a year to see hundreds of exhibits depictshy

18

ing the laws of science and applications of technology in industry and other fields It is a non-profit independent institution and admission is free

The Museum was partially opened in 1933 with only a handful of exhibits By that time Boeing Air Transport and three other airline companies-- Pacific Air Transport Varney Air Lines and National Air Transport- were joined together to form United Airlines which on November 30 1933 donated the Boeing to the Museum

It took seven more years for the museum to be comshypleted so the Boeing was stored in the institutions basement until it finally was hung from the ceiling in 1939 Although the plane has been cleaned regularly and today remains in sparkling condition it has never been moved from its resting place and probably wont be for some time to come

The Boeing is part of a large aviation display which includes a number of other antique aircraft the Apollo 8 spacecraft and a full-sized model of the first class cabin of a Boeing 747

Other planes on exhibit with the Boeing 40B are a 1910 Curtiss a 1913 Morane-Saulnier a 1917 Curtiss J N-4 Jenny a Supermarine Spitfire a Lockheed F-104 Starfighter and the Travel-Air S Mystery NR1313 sponsored by Texaco and flown by Frank Hawks in setshyting a number of transcontinental records

The Museum also owns a Junkers Ju87B Stuka but it is not on exhibit in Chicago because it rests temporarily on loan in the Air Education Museum of the Experimental Aircraft Association in Franklin Wisconsin The German World War II dive bomber was restored after a cleaning accident at the Chicago Museum by the EAA Museum staff

The Model which Buttita finished three years ago is on exhibit in a special case It draws considerable interest because of its highly detailed work- down to the tiniest hinges on the doors

Boeing Air Transport (BAn probably owed its corposhyrate life to the Boeing 40A which enabled it to get into the airmail transport business

The Boeing Airplane Company first built a single Model 40 for a government competition in 1925 for the awarding of a contract for an airplane to be flown by the U S Post Office Department to replace the old de Havilshyland DH-4s it had been using since 1918 The governshyment bought the one Model 40 equipped with the old watercooled Liberty engine but did not award the comshypany a production contract It went instead to Douglas for its series of M aircraft

However the project was revived a year later when the Post Office Department decided to award Contract Air Mail (CAM) routes to private contractors for airmail The Model 40 plans were dusted off updated with the

After its Wasp engine was replaced with the PampW Hornet engine the 40A was designated the 408 and This picture of groundcrewmen unloading a 40A gives a looked like the above close-up view of the Pratt amp Whitney Wasp engine and

the dural sheet construction used throughout

latest improvements and redesigned to meet the postal requirements Designated the 40A it was powered with a 9 cylinder 420 horsepower Pratt amp Whitney Wasp enshygine a new aircooled radial engine Boeing was testing in its fighter type aircraft

The Boeing basic design with a pilot in an open cockpit was also changed to carry two passengers in a forward cabin although the awarding of the airmail conshytract and not passenger transportation was of paramount importance But the 40A could still carry 1200 pounds of mail in addition to the two hardy souls who pioneered passenger travel in 1927

It was the new designs low operating costs and high revenue potential that got BAT Boeings wholl y-owned subsidiary the low bid on the new San FranciscoshyChicago airmail (CAM number 18) route from the govshyernment BAT operated 24 of the 25 40As built The other plane was delivered to Pratt amp Whitney as a flying engine test bed This test aircraft proved its worth as in early 1928 the new 525 horsepower Pratt amp Whitney Homet engine became available in quantity and BAT quickly converted 19of its 40As to 40Bs with the installashytion of the new Hornet engine Among these was the Chicago museums NC288

According to the Model Specification and History document supplied to BAT by the Boeing Airplane Comshypany the 40A was a Three-place Landplane Biplane Closed Cabin Mailplane (3P-CiSl Factory numbers ran from 879 through 903 The first flight was made on May 20 1927 with delivery to BAT nine days later Dimenshysions were wingspan 442 length 332V and height 123 Empty weight was 2622 Ibs with a de sign gross of 4652 Ibs It boasted a top speed of 135 mph and a cruising speed of 125 mph but the actual pershyformance was closer to a maximum speed of 128 and a cruise of 105 mph It has a range of 550 miles and a sershyvice ceiling of 15700 feet

The 40A needed the altitude capability because of the rugged mountainous terrain on the 1 9113 mile San Francisco-Chicago run BAT started to use the new plane on the route with many intermediate stops on July 1 1927 When National Air Transport began its CAM Number 17 route operations with its Douglas M-4s betshyween New York and Chicago on September 1 1927 the two airlines link-up at Checkerboard Field at Maywood Illinois outside of Chicago gave the United States its first transcontinental air travel

The Chicago museum s Boeing 40B figured promishynently in th is important part of history Boeing NC288 amassed more than 6000 flight hours on the San Francisco-Chicago run and was flown many times by the famous airmail pioneer Jack Knight (See The Vintage Airplane February 1977) before it was retired

Construction of the Boeing 40A is shown in this picture of th e Boeing A irplane Company assembly line w ith A Boeing 40A NC286 - a sister ship of NC288 in the 40As in various stages of completion at Sea ttle Washingshy Chicago Museum - is show n fl ying over mountains on ton the Boeing A ir Transports San Francisco-Chicago run in

20

The Museums 40B in the coloring and markings of a 40A hangs with other historically significant aircraft in Chicagos Museum of Science and Industry The cockpit of the Boeing 40A w as simple making the

job o f duplica ting it in a model less demanding

(Museum of Science and Industry Photo)

- __ poundLlaquo

In 1933 it was used in the Wings of a Century pageant at the Century of Progress Exposition in Chicago after the Worlds Fair it was turned over to the Rosenwald Museum which later was renamed the Museum of Scishyence and Industry

Although the basic construction of the Boeing 40A was simple it had enough detail to make a model of it interesting Buttita said that he was a stickler for detail but admitted that he got carried away in making his model

When I decided to build the model I didnt intend to make it with such detail Buttita told this author I thought I could fake a lot by making the metal parts out of wood and painting them silver

But Buttita changed his mind and made every metal part out of metal and every wood part out of wood So the project which he thought would take him six or seven months eventually took three years

The more detail I put on it the better it looked he said so finally nothing could stop me and I detailed evshyerything

Buttita is an artist with the Accurate Silk Screen Sershyvice Company Chicago and his model building ability is well known

The three-quarter scale 40A is what is called a scratch model in which the builder starts from scratch as opposed to a kit in which plans and many formed parts are supplied

Buttita said a scratch model involves considerable reshysearch and study For the 40A he got a complete set of plans and all the photographs he could from Boeing and United

It took me three or four months of study before I could actually get started to build anything he said

Unlike kits which eliminate many of the interior parts that cannot be seen scratch models to be authentic must have all the details of construction such as all the ribs in the wings But that also makes them much stronger and keeps them from warping Buttita pointed out

Both the Boeing 40A flown by BAT and the Buttita model of it were constructed at the peak of the state of the art for their day

The airplane had a steel tubular fuselage with wood fairing strips and was dural and fabric covered The wings also fabric covered were built up of spruce spars and ribs The dural sheet on the fuselage covered the enshygine cowling cabin doors and compartment hatch openshyings

The two passengers sat in a cabin metal lined throughout and their seats and seat backs were upholsshytered in leather The windows of the two doors one on each side of the fuselage were made of non-shatterable glass and could be opened for additional ventilation and

21

Details of the construction of the 40As cabin door and wing struts are shown in this close-up

A close-up view of Carl Butshytitas model of the 40A shows how dedicated he was to deshytail in the models construction

Carl Buttita builder of the three-fourths sca le Boe ing 40A discusses fine points of the construction with Edshyward E Carlson chairman of UAL In c Chicago and a member of the board of trustees of the Museum of Scishyence and Indu stry before the model was put on display in the Museum

were large enough to give the passengers an excellent view of the scenery

The rear of the fuselage was braced with steel tie-rods and was heavily faired to shape although it still was fabshyric covered The tail assembly also was fabric covered but only the horizontal stabilizer was built up like the wings with spruce spars and wood built-up ribs The rest of the tail assembly was built up with welded steel tubshying It rested on a steerable tailskid The landing gear was made of streamlined chrome-moly and used oleo-spring shock absorbers

Buttitas construction problems for his model were reshysolved through the use of a wide variety of materials

The Boeing model is made of aluminum pine dentists plastic epoxy glue and Japanese silkspan paper About 40 percent of the model is metal but much of it is inside so you dont see it Buttita said These parts are the cables controls pilots seat corrugated floor panels hinges cockpit fire extinguisher medical kit and workshyable seat belts

Each part had to be hand made some several times to get them right or if they broke Buttita said I had to make 20 to 30 rims for the landing lights to get two

When you make a one-of-a-kind model you have to fabricate about 90 per cent of the parts yourself and make dies for almost everything he added

For the metal parts Buttita used small pieces of offset printers plate made of aluminum but with some tin for added strength The wood parts are made of spruce and the engine and wheels are made of the dental plastic

All the markings and lettering were drawn triple the size on paper and reduced photographically on decal paper That way they were better than if I had handshypainted them on the model he said

Buttita said he did all the construction work on a card table at home and the only power tool he used was a small electric drill

At least one other Boeing 40B is known to be on exshyhibit in another museum This is aircraft NC285 factory number 896 which was presented to the Henry Ford Museum at Dearbom Michigan in 1938 But so far it doesnt have a scale model of its own to highlight it And don t look to Carl Buttita to build one I will never do it again he sa id It was just too much work

Rebuilding AVagabond

By Larry Railing Box 5 7 -C P Avenue

Lake Mills WI 5355 7

I never realized at the time I started to rebuild or lets say restore Piper Vagabond PA-15 N4423H that so many people were interested in what Id term history So here it is

I started flying in Valparaiso Indiana around 1900 I learned in a )-3 owned by Mark Murvahill I later

graduated to the PA-12 In 1964 I graduated from high school and a year later I was married As most in like cirshycumstances I gave up flying for love until the newness wore off

My first airplane was a )-5 Cub that went down in a marsh I had started to rebuild it until Dick Wagner of Wag-Aero heard of it and made me an untimely offer This airplane was later destroyed at Burlington along with the Tri-Motor

I later owned other aircraft which included aT-Craft Somehow Dick Wagner heard of my T-Craft and flew up in a Vagabond to see it and made me an offer

I told him at that time if he ever got in the mood to sell the Vag to please call me That was in 1968

On December 26 1976 Dick called me and asked if I was still interested in the Vag I told him yes and Id come down the next Saturday morning The next Saturday came and so did I There the Vag stood on its nose just as pictures in past issues of The Vintage A irplane had shown

Dick with all his other projects had to let something go He offered me the Vag or one of two Cubs My thoughts never gave way to anything but the Vag

23

The stripped fuselage arrives at home ready for a long winter s night

Work completed the birds about ready for a runway

I climbed a ladder and pulled the tail down and began looking It was all there but in sad shape For the past four years it hadn t been outside It looked good in the dark but time took its toll The fabric was beyond even shot But it was all original Every instrument the seat and all were original In thirty years no one even drilled a hole in the panel

We tried to get the old Lycoming 65 started but no way

The next Saturday morning I borrowed a stock car trailer and headed for Lyons with my truck On the way down all was going so well until I met a car looked in my mirror and noticed the trailer to be about a foot wider than my pickup Id never given that a thought before Everytime I met another car I just got over a little I fishynally arrived at Dicks place and began taking the Vag

Fits like a sausage casing The envelopes ready for the hea t trea tment

apart I placed the wings on some racks on my truck and the fuselage or the trailer I didn t bother taking off the tail All was loaded and ready to roll in about three hours

About halfway into the dismantling it began to snow By the time I was ready to go we had gotten about three inches This worked out in my favor as it slowed everyone else on the highway down to my speed My greatest worry when hauling an airplane is when you meet a truck

All seemed to be going good The first car I met I got over to the right because of the trailer At this time I looked into the mirror and not only noticed the trailer a foot wider than the truck on each side but the horizontal stabilizer stuck out another foot on each side beyond the trailer What a shock

I stopped and tried to remove the tail but to no avail The snow kept coming and so did the end of the day It took me four and a quarter hours to go fifty-five miles By the time I got home we had eight inches of snow What a long ride

I began total disassembly right away The wings were in fantastic shape All that was needed was varnish on the tip bows I also put new cables in the whole airplane The original inspectors number date and signature are still on the spars

I worked the whole project under the watchful eyes of Paul Baker an AI from Beaver Aviation at Dodge County

The author tackles another flying surface with needle and twine

Airport He is really an EAAer I never heard of an AI so ready and willing to help restore an airplane He even came to my home after hours to inspect the fuselage as it was easier for me than taking it up there Paul says if Id hired him to do the restoring I could just hand over my paycheck for a year so he said you do the working and Ill do the looking

All the still pieces were sandblasted and sprayed with Imron primer Believe me you do have to wear a mask with that stuff

I gave Wag-Aero a call and told them what I needed for a complete cover job and not to call me until they had it all there in one pile with no monkeying around for a little of this and that

While waiting for the covering materials I began work on the engine The whole airplane had only 1100 hours and the engine 330 SMOH I just couldn t get it started I solicited the help of a local mechanic and Stinshyson owner Harold Hubrich We found three blown head gaskets one leaky valve the impulse spring in the left mag was broken and the P-Iead in the right mag the inshysulator of phenolic replaced with masking tape

I pulled the heads and Harold ground ~he valves had the mags rebuilt a complete new ignition system and the carburetor rebuilt We got her back together and bongo

- she started right off In the meantime I finished the wings and control surshy

faces I wanted to paint it all apart so a temporary gear 24

Larry applies a new cowling atter a fruitl ess encounter with sa ndblasting equipment

was made to support the fuselage The engine was never taken off Many people questioned that temporary gear I just said you had to be very careful on take-off and landshying

The actual covering was very enjoyable you could see some real progress including the stitching but that spraying and sanding Sixteen hours of work for every coat Six sandings fourteen coats and thirty gallons all total

The sheet metal was all in good shape I had planned to replace the cowl so a guy that was chicken could look in at the rubber band I tried Zip Strip to get down to bare metal with no luck at all I took all the aluminum parts over to a body shop including the boot and sandblasted them In less than ten minutes I destroyed every piece of aluminum except the instrument panel and nose bowl I then got some aluminum and began making new parts It all turned out very well

When I first brought the Vag home I contacted Cecil Ogles of Vag-News and he sent me more info than I think Piper has Among which was complete rigging

Im a little more fortunate than most- Im a tool and die model maker by trade and have my own shop Before beginning on the Vag my partner and I added on a 50 x 60 foot addition to our shop which served for a beautiful place to work over the winter to store parts until needed as well as an area to completely assemble the airplane for rigging

Its been a long time since the fuselage last shook from a run-up

Time came to go to the airport and sprout feathers There is a private strip just south of town so I went there along with about six helpers The airplane was assembled and flown two days later on June 28 1978 A year and a half after beginning

The first flight was all anyone could hope for It really flys hands off and is the easiest airplane for a taildragger to land that I have ever flown

Now for some numbers Cruise 85-90 Cruise RPM 2300 Fuel Consumption 30 gph Prop 70-36 Final and Climb 70 mph Over the Fence 60 mph Stall 40 mph Empty Weight 640 Ibs Take-off- For each 10 Ibs over 200 the passenger

weighs I added 100 feet I had the Vag at Oshkosh on Tuesday this year and

took it home and put it to bed the same night In this area we have about fifteen Vags flying with

five of them done original Myself I like to see airplanes kept original Its like a Model T with a Chevy 427 it just aint the same

The airplane is covered with Stits and the finish is Aerothane

Now that the airplanes finished work ca n proceed on the shop

I can say something most people cant about this airpshylane While at Oshkosh I went over and visited the Piper display and who would you guess was there Clyde Smith the test pilot of my airplane thirty years ago I took a couple of pictures of him and will be placing them in the log books next to his signature

The Vag is my first real attempt in restoring I did the whole airplane myse lf except the seat and the engine work Im very pleased with the end product Its all mine and paid for as well Im now enjoying the fruits of my labor and Id do it again if I could find another Vagshyabond

Oddly enough it seemed the hardest part of the whole project was the legal end Being that the FCC can t seem to find a good reason to charge for a restricted radio license I decided to send for one just in case I ever carried a radio along That took three months and the paperwork went back and forth six times The hardest part was the registration The airplane hadn t been regisshytered since 1967 The State of Wisconsin wasnt too bad That paperwork came back only once asking for an addishytional $333 because I didn t notify them within thirty days after purchase even though the airplane had been declared exempt But the Feds This took six months nine phone calls and six letters Finally I called once again and told them that after a year and a half of rebuilding with or without them I was going to fly it I think that finally did the trick

25

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Calendar of Events NOVEMBER 18-19 - MIAMI FlORIDA- Antique Classic and Cusshy

tom Built Fly-In at the third annual Harvest- A Country Fair sponsored by the Historical Association of Southern Florida at the Dade County Youth Fairground Coral Way at 112th Avenue Awards given for antique classic and custom built aircraft Conshytact Capt Ken Ufland of the Civil Air Patrol office (305) 552-3106 home after 600 pm (305) 251-5927 or Mary Dodd Russell Harshyvest Coordinator at the Historical Museum 3280 S Miami Ave shynue Building B Miami Fl 33129

JANUARY 21-27 - Sun N Fun the biggest fly-in in the southeastshyand the second biggest in the natron Its a full week of southern hospitality and flying fun daily aerial demonstrations fly-bys of antique classic homebuilt and warbird aircraft forums exhibits and static displays parties and com roasts big new food concesshysion country store for campers in our shady campsites Make motel reservations early- our free information booklet has a complete list of accommodations Write to Sun N Fun PO Box 3538 lakeland Florida 33802

(Dick Stouffer Photo)

Aeronca IICC Super Chief belonging to David E Long Keyser West Virginia

(Ted Koston Photo)

Heres a sharp Funk at Oshkosh Owner unknown didnt register

(Dick Stouffer Photo)

Another fine looking unregistered aircraft

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F4U CORSAIR

PLANE CHECKS The Leading Fighter 01 WWII - with a Record 01 2140 Japanese Aircraft Destroyed 28 01 which

Are Credited to Pappy Boyington Regular bank checks emblazoned with the F4U CORSAIR

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Start USing Plane Checks Now Your old checks will always be good

Identity Check Co Box 149-D Park Ridge III 60068 Activate my order for Plane Checks starting No ___ o 300middot$795 0 600-$1350 0 900middot$1875 Checks are printed with blue backgrounds and are top bound-one part deposit sUps registers and matching checkbook cover are Included In each order

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26

to forage for parts Tom Brown and Bonnie Marlette of the Parts Sales Department took an immediate inshyterest in the restoration project and spared no effort to unearth 7AC parts that had been moved from Middletown Ohio to Wiscons in Bellanca had sufshyfered a disastrous fi re a few years before and much of the old stuff had been lost but fortunately some had been stored downtown in an old railroad depot Ron and his father were permitted to sift through evshyerything and together they came up with a lot of impossible to obtain goodies like frames for the sliding windows universal joints for the fuel valve extension rod etc A surprising number of off the shelf Citabria components are the same as for its anshycestor the 7AC All the wooden fuselage formers and stringers in fact are identical with the exception of the rear window area When completed Rons Champ looked like a new one because to a great exshytent it is thanks to the folks at Bellanca

During 1974 things began to get into high gear The wings were finished and late that year the Contishynental A-65 was given a complete major Schneck Avshyiation did the work needed and Ron did the final asshysembly - under the supervision of a licensed mechanic Thinking the end was in sight Ron purchshyased all his dope and fabric (dacron) from Bellanca and took two weeks vacation to cover the airplane He gets a big laugh today at his naivete in grossly unshyderestimating the time element involved in covering Two weeks in fact stretched into 2 years before the cover job was completed

In 1975 Rons life took another sharp turn He left Hartzog and took a career position with the FAA Asshysigned to EMDO 46 in Des Plaines IL (north side of Chicago) as an Aviation Safety Inspector (Manufacturshying) Ron was able to move back home in Milwaukee commute to work during the day and work on the Champ evenings and weekends From that point on something no matter how insignificant was done every night

One bit of help came from an unusual quarter Ironically one of Ron s FAA assignments was the Belshylanca factory - so that his friends from the days of scrounging for 7AC parts had now also become clients of sorts Every time Ron came in for an inspecshytion he had to give everyone a progress report on his Champ A couple of young girls in the covering department Donna Viebrock and Sue Dollery told Ron they would like to come to Milwaukee some weekend and install the wing envelopes Despite livshying in Wisconsin all their lives neither had been to the big city and th is would be their chance With

their expertise the work would take just a few hours and the rest of their time could be spent seeing the Sights It was an offer Ron couldn t refuse and sometime later it all came about He got a set of wings ready for doping and the girls got an expense paid fling in Wisconsin s biggest metropolitan area

With doping and finish coats to go orid inarily it would have been decision time as far as the paint scheme was concerned Not so in this case however Very early in the project Ron had made the decision to return the Champ to factory new condition and appearance This of course involved considerable research He had an original service manual given him by Ron Scott and a copy of a 1946 Skyways article on the Champ given him by George Hardie but most helpful was the complete certification record on the Aeronca 7AC on file right where hf worked EMDO 46 in Des Plaines (Bellanca still holds the Proshyduction Limitation Record for the airplane and could put it back in production tomorrow if they wanted to) The file is COMPLETE colors size and shape of markings everything All the draWings are dated 1945 and all the subsequent revisions are on file

1976 saw the covering completed and 1977 was spent doing all those little detail items you think are going to take about 2 weeks according to Ron He endured all manrer of frustration attempting to paint the fairings cowl and various other small metal pieces Ron was bugged literally He would spray on a beautiful coat of enamel - no runs no orange peel - only to have some hapless insect make a Kamakazi dive right into the shiny surface Striving for nothing less than perfection Ron stripped the parts completely after each bug attack and repainted them He estimates he pai nted the equivalent of 4 or 5 airplanes before he was satisfied Similarly the crinkle-finish instrument panel was done 3 times beshyfore a perfect job could be obtained

Ron had some interesting experiences down the stretch drive to complete the airplane A few items had seemed impossible to obtain in order to have a near 100 authentic restoration - the flocking of the interior for example For 3 or 4 years inquiries had been made through aviation channels in a vain atshytempt to locate a shop that could do the work Deshyspairing of ever achieving success Ron picked up the Chicago Yellow Pages one day and looked up Flockshying Sure enough there was such a classification He made a phone call and a friendly voice assured him the work would be no problem Ron was told how to prepare the panels (apply an epoxy base in the color desired for the flocking) and where to deliver them

There s not much here that could look any newer if it were coming right out of the factory

The work was done over the following weekend and turned out to be a beautiful job (The flocking incishydentally is an electro-static process with the comshymercial name of Velvetex)

Another tough nut (pun intended) was the fuel gage nut - Bellanca didn t have one and all that turned up were worse than Rons knarled overshytorqued original Finally driving through a small Minnesota town Ron spotted a sign that read Sewshying Machines Guns Trading Post and Airplane Parts Partly on a hunch and partly just out of curiosshyity he stopped entered the establishment and inshyquired of the owner if he had any Champ parts

Got enough to make 5 of them whatta ya need was the reply

Ron mentioned the fuel gage nut and was almost shocked to hear Sure how many you need whereupon the proprietor reached into a drawer and pulled out a loop of safety wire with a half dozen or so Aeronca fuel gage nuts strung on it

This sort of thing Ron chuckles today is why it took 7 years to restore the Champ He could have built up an airworthy even beauti f ul job in perhaps 3 years but not an authentic one That took a lot of time and patience

Finally however the day came when the airplane was taken to the Waukesha County Airport - on Ocshytober 23 1977 to be precise What should have been a joyous occasion however began a two month ordeal that is a story in itself Shortly after taking over

12

That first run-up a moment of supreme exaltation

a hangar from a friend who had sold his airplane Ron was informed by the FBO that he would have to give it up by January 1 This shocking news really put the pressure on After 7 years of work Ron was detershymined not to dismantle the Champ and tow it back home and he was absolutely not going to leave it outside Hangar space is extremely hard to come by in the Milwaukee area just as is the case in all large metropolitan areas so the only option left was to find a hangar in a nearby town Space was ultimately loshycated some 20 miles west at Watertown but having a January 1 deadline Ron resolved to fly the Champ out of Waukesha

It wasnt easy Bitter cold came to Wisconsin even earlier than usual making final assembly of the Champ a numbing experience Nevertheless Ron and his father toughed it out working every evening and weekends By late November it was so cold that work had to go in spurts ~ interrupted by thaw-out breaks in Rons or his dads car Several layers of insulated clothing didnt make working in tight spots easy and any job requiring a degree of digital finesse was frustshyration personified Trying to screw on a tiny nut he couldnt feel through numb fingers was not exactly Rons idea of a fun way to complete his project In December temperatures plunged below zero but Ron and Tony worked on getting the last of the fairshyings on control cables adjusted the King 360 radio and battery pack installed etc

Finally it was time for some engine run-in John Curtice Rons fellow inspector with EMDO 46 had previously been employed with Continental Motors in Muskegon Michigan and had gone through the proshycedure literally thousands of times He advised Ron on how to properly break in the newly majored A-65 and later issued a new Certificate of Airworthiness AI Bruce Rintelmann of Milwaukee had supervised the project from the beginning (since neither Ron nor his father have civilian A and P licenses) and had alshyready signed off the restoration work

And then it was done Ron could have test flown the Champ a day or so before Christmas but he decided against it His family had put so much of themselves in the project that Ron could not bring himself to pOSSibly ruin their Christmas in case anyshything went wrong Bright and early on the 26th howshyever he and his dad were heading for the airport

The temperature was 3deg F but the Continental started on the first pull Ron taxied over to the FBO shut down and squirmed into a Security parachute Mike Heuer had brought over for the occasion Firing up again he warmed up the engine until the oil

temperature came up to 90deg then taxied out for take-off Given the OK by the tower Ron opened the throttle and literally leaped into the frigid air He climbed out to 5000 feet staying over the south end of the airport - by prearrangement with the controlshylers All went well and after 36 minutes the cold had become so unbearable Ron had to land while he still had some feeling in his hands and feet The landing was a real squeaker (as he later saw on movies) On the 30th - right on schedule - Ron flew the Champ out of Waukesha and over to Watertown The airplane was there for about six weeks - and some 5 hours of further flying time - before it was transfershyred to a new home Air Troy Estates where Ron had bought a lot Hangar space was available until sumshymer when he would have his own 45 x 72 hangar built

With the passing of a really miserable winter Ron was able to enjoy a spring and summer of pleasure flying and fine tuning of the airplane for its debut at Oshkosh 78 The airplane had been test flown with a metal propeller but as a final authentic touch a wooden Sensenich had been ordered through Wag Aero There was some last minute anxiety over delivshyery of the prop but a week before the fly-in it arshyrived

Ron had intended to take a weeks vacation to enjoy all of the Convention but so many requests

had come in from EAAers wanting inspections so they could get their homebuilts to Oshkosh he couldnt get away until Wednesday

The rest you know On Friday night Ron walked out of the Meeting Pavillion with the Grand Champshyion Classic trophy and it was difficult to tell whose smile was wider his or his dads

The outcome had not been unexpected in many quarters despite the torrid competition every Oshkosh gathering provides Earlier Ron had atshytended the Aeronca Forum at the conclusion of which moderator Charlie Lasher had asked if the owner of NC85448 were present Ron raised his hand and Charlie said I want to come down and shake your hand - that is the finest Champ I have ever seen

In the weeks preceding the Convention Rons felshylow FAA employees at EMDO 46 had speculated on his chances of winning an award perhaps even the Big One Secretary Michele Facenda (who had helped with the Champs paperwork) had promised to bake a cake for him if he were successful - so on the next Monday morning Ron strode in with his trophy put it down on Micheles desk and anshynounced Youre going to have to do some baking

I already have she replied I knew you were going to win

Interior of Gregs Luscombe

Dick Stouffer Photo)

Class Winner Luscombe BE Gregg Biete Charlotte David Gustafson Photo) North Caro lina

Class I Winner Taylorcraft BC-120 Ralph Lauritsen Boone Iowa

David Gustafson Photo) Custom Class C Winner Bellanca 14-19 Ronald Joslyn Malibu California

By Edward D Williams Associate Editor 713 Eastman Dr

Mt Prospect IL 60056

An antique airplane which has been hanging in the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago since 1953 has a unique honored distinction This came about when an expert model builder made a 33-inch wingspan model of it that is considered a work of art So today both the full-size plane and the three-fourths scale model are on display in the same museum

The plane is a Boeing 40B which was donated to the museum after the close of the Century of Progress Exposishytion in Chicago in 1933 It was originally manufactured as a 40A and later converted to a 40B but the museums

The simplicity of the design is shown in this view of the Boeing 40A

plane is displayed in the colors and markings of a 40A And so the model built by Carl Buttita a commercial arshytist in Chicago is an exact copy of a 40A

When the Boeing plane NC288 factory serial number 899 was bought by Boeing Air Transport (BAD from its parent company the Boeing Airplane Company in June 1927 it cost $24500 Buttitas model which took him three years to complete was appraised at $7000

The Boeing hanging in the east court of the Museum of Science and Industry is considered of historic value

because it was one of a fleet of 24 BAT 40A aircraft that helped make transcontinental air travel possible for the first time in 1927 (See The Vintage Airplane December 1977)

Buttitas model although it was not built to fly looks every middotbit like it could It is so realistic that it later won him an important award from the Hobby Industry of America

The Museum of Science and Industry which is loshycated on Chicagos south side lakefront draws about four million visitors a year to see hundreds of exhibits depictshy

18

ing the laws of science and applications of technology in industry and other fields It is a non-profit independent institution and admission is free

The Museum was partially opened in 1933 with only a handful of exhibits By that time Boeing Air Transport and three other airline companies-- Pacific Air Transport Varney Air Lines and National Air Transport- were joined together to form United Airlines which on November 30 1933 donated the Boeing to the Museum

It took seven more years for the museum to be comshypleted so the Boeing was stored in the institutions basement until it finally was hung from the ceiling in 1939 Although the plane has been cleaned regularly and today remains in sparkling condition it has never been moved from its resting place and probably wont be for some time to come

The Boeing is part of a large aviation display which includes a number of other antique aircraft the Apollo 8 spacecraft and a full-sized model of the first class cabin of a Boeing 747

Other planes on exhibit with the Boeing 40B are a 1910 Curtiss a 1913 Morane-Saulnier a 1917 Curtiss J N-4 Jenny a Supermarine Spitfire a Lockheed F-104 Starfighter and the Travel-Air S Mystery NR1313 sponsored by Texaco and flown by Frank Hawks in setshyting a number of transcontinental records

The Museum also owns a Junkers Ju87B Stuka but it is not on exhibit in Chicago because it rests temporarily on loan in the Air Education Museum of the Experimental Aircraft Association in Franklin Wisconsin The German World War II dive bomber was restored after a cleaning accident at the Chicago Museum by the EAA Museum staff

The Model which Buttita finished three years ago is on exhibit in a special case It draws considerable interest because of its highly detailed work- down to the tiniest hinges on the doors

Boeing Air Transport (BAn probably owed its corposhyrate life to the Boeing 40A which enabled it to get into the airmail transport business

The Boeing Airplane Company first built a single Model 40 for a government competition in 1925 for the awarding of a contract for an airplane to be flown by the U S Post Office Department to replace the old de Havilshyland DH-4s it had been using since 1918 The governshyment bought the one Model 40 equipped with the old watercooled Liberty engine but did not award the comshypany a production contract It went instead to Douglas for its series of M aircraft

However the project was revived a year later when the Post Office Department decided to award Contract Air Mail (CAM) routes to private contractors for airmail The Model 40 plans were dusted off updated with the

After its Wasp engine was replaced with the PampW Hornet engine the 40A was designated the 408 and This picture of groundcrewmen unloading a 40A gives a looked like the above close-up view of the Pratt amp Whitney Wasp engine and

the dural sheet construction used throughout

latest improvements and redesigned to meet the postal requirements Designated the 40A it was powered with a 9 cylinder 420 horsepower Pratt amp Whitney Wasp enshygine a new aircooled radial engine Boeing was testing in its fighter type aircraft

The Boeing basic design with a pilot in an open cockpit was also changed to carry two passengers in a forward cabin although the awarding of the airmail conshytract and not passenger transportation was of paramount importance But the 40A could still carry 1200 pounds of mail in addition to the two hardy souls who pioneered passenger travel in 1927

It was the new designs low operating costs and high revenue potential that got BAT Boeings wholl y-owned subsidiary the low bid on the new San FranciscoshyChicago airmail (CAM number 18) route from the govshyernment BAT operated 24 of the 25 40As built The other plane was delivered to Pratt amp Whitney as a flying engine test bed This test aircraft proved its worth as in early 1928 the new 525 horsepower Pratt amp Whitney Homet engine became available in quantity and BAT quickly converted 19of its 40As to 40Bs with the installashytion of the new Hornet engine Among these was the Chicago museums NC288

According to the Model Specification and History document supplied to BAT by the Boeing Airplane Comshypany the 40A was a Three-place Landplane Biplane Closed Cabin Mailplane (3P-CiSl Factory numbers ran from 879 through 903 The first flight was made on May 20 1927 with delivery to BAT nine days later Dimenshysions were wingspan 442 length 332V and height 123 Empty weight was 2622 Ibs with a de sign gross of 4652 Ibs It boasted a top speed of 135 mph and a cruising speed of 125 mph but the actual pershyformance was closer to a maximum speed of 128 and a cruise of 105 mph It has a range of 550 miles and a sershyvice ceiling of 15700 feet

The 40A needed the altitude capability because of the rugged mountainous terrain on the 1 9113 mile San Francisco-Chicago run BAT started to use the new plane on the route with many intermediate stops on July 1 1927 When National Air Transport began its CAM Number 17 route operations with its Douglas M-4s betshyween New York and Chicago on September 1 1927 the two airlines link-up at Checkerboard Field at Maywood Illinois outside of Chicago gave the United States its first transcontinental air travel

The Chicago museum s Boeing 40B figured promishynently in th is important part of history Boeing NC288 amassed more than 6000 flight hours on the San Francisco-Chicago run and was flown many times by the famous airmail pioneer Jack Knight (See The Vintage Airplane February 1977) before it was retired

Construction of the Boeing 40A is shown in this picture of th e Boeing A irplane Company assembly line w ith A Boeing 40A NC286 - a sister ship of NC288 in the 40As in various stages of completion at Sea ttle Washingshy Chicago Museum - is show n fl ying over mountains on ton the Boeing A ir Transports San Francisco-Chicago run in

20

The Museums 40B in the coloring and markings of a 40A hangs with other historically significant aircraft in Chicagos Museum of Science and Industry The cockpit of the Boeing 40A w as simple making the

job o f duplica ting it in a model less demanding

(Museum of Science and Industry Photo)

- __ poundLlaquo

In 1933 it was used in the Wings of a Century pageant at the Century of Progress Exposition in Chicago after the Worlds Fair it was turned over to the Rosenwald Museum which later was renamed the Museum of Scishyence and Industry

Although the basic construction of the Boeing 40A was simple it had enough detail to make a model of it interesting Buttita said that he was a stickler for detail but admitted that he got carried away in making his model

When I decided to build the model I didnt intend to make it with such detail Buttita told this author I thought I could fake a lot by making the metal parts out of wood and painting them silver

But Buttita changed his mind and made every metal part out of metal and every wood part out of wood So the project which he thought would take him six or seven months eventually took three years

The more detail I put on it the better it looked he said so finally nothing could stop me and I detailed evshyerything

Buttita is an artist with the Accurate Silk Screen Sershyvice Company Chicago and his model building ability is well known

The three-quarter scale 40A is what is called a scratch model in which the builder starts from scratch as opposed to a kit in which plans and many formed parts are supplied

Buttita said a scratch model involves considerable reshysearch and study For the 40A he got a complete set of plans and all the photographs he could from Boeing and United

It took me three or four months of study before I could actually get started to build anything he said

Unlike kits which eliminate many of the interior parts that cannot be seen scratch models to be authentic must have all the details of construction such as all the ribs in the wings But that also makes them much stronger and keeps them from warping Buttita pointed out

Both the Boeing 40A flown by BAT and the Buttita model of it were constructed at the peak of the state of the art for their day

The airplane had a steel tubular fuselage with wood fairing strips and was dural and fabric covered The wings also fabric covered were built up of spruce spars and ribs The dural sheet on the fuselage covered the enshygine cowling cabin doors and compartment hatch openshyings

The two passengers sat in a cabin metal lined throughout and their seats and seat backs were upholsshytered in leather The windows of the two doors one on each side of the fuselage were made of non-shatterable glass and could be opened for additional ventilation and

21

Details of the construction of the 40As cabin door and wing struts are shown in this close-up

A close-up view of Carl Butshytitas model of the 40A shows how dedicated he was to deshytail in the models construction

Carl Buttita builder of the three-fourths sca le Boe ing 40A discusses fine points of the construction with Edshyward E Carlson chairman of UAL In c Chicago and a member of the board of trustees of the Museum of Scishyence and Indu stry before the model was put on display in the Museum

were large enough to give the passengers an excellent view of the scenery

The rear of the fuselage was braced with steel tie-rods and was heavily faired to shape although it still was fabshyric covered The tail assembly also was fabric covered but only the horizontal stabilizer was built up like the wings with spruce spars and wood built-up ribs The rest of the tail assembly was built up with welded steel tubshying It rested on a steerable tailskid The landing gear was made of streamlined chrome-moly and used oleo-spring shock absorbers

Buttitas construction problems for his model were reshysolved through the use of a wide variety of materials

The Boeing model is made of aluminum pine dentists plastic epoxy glue and Japanese silkspan paper About 40 percent of the model is metal but much of it is inside so you dont see it Buttita said These parts are the cables controls pilots seat corrugated floor panels hinges cockpit fire extinguisher medical kit and workshyable seat belts

Each part had to be hand made some several times to get them right or if they broke Buttita said I had to make 20 to 30 rims for the landing lights to get two

When you make a one-of-a-kind model you have to fabricate about 90 per cent of the parts yourself and make dies for almost everything he added

For the metal parts Buttita used small pieces of offset printers plate made of aluminum but with some tin for added strength The wood parts are made of spruce and the engine and wheels are made of the dental plastic

All the markings and lettering were drawn triple the size on paper and reduced photographically on decal paper That way they were better than if I had handshypainted them on the model he said

Buttita said he did all the construction work on a card table at home and the only power tool he used was a small electric drill

At least one other Boeing 40B is known to be on exshyhibit in another museum This is aircraft NC285 factory number 896 which was presented to the Henry Ford Museum at Dearbom Michigan in 1938 But so far it doesnt have a scale model of its own to highlight it And don t look to Carl Buttita to build one I will never do it again he sa id It was just too much work

Rebuilding AVagabond

By Larry Railing Box 5 7 -C P Avenue

Lake Mills WI 5355 7

I never realized at the time I started to rebuild or lets say restore Piper Vagabond PA-15 N4423H that so many people were interested in what Id term history So here it is

I started flying in Valparaiso Indiana around 1900 I learned in a )-3 owned by Mark Murvahill I later

graduated to the PA-12 In 1964 I graduated from high school and a year later I was married As most in like cirshycumstances I gave up flying for love until the newness wore off

My first airplane was a )-5 Cub that went down in a marsh I had started to rebuild it until Dick Wagner of Wag-Aero heard of it and made me an untimely offer This airplane was later destroyed at Burlington along with the Tri-Motor

I later owned other aircraft which included aT-Craft Somehow Dick Wagner heard of my T-Craft and flew up in a Vagabond to see it and made me an offer

I told him at that time if he ever got in the mood to sell the Vag to please call me That was in 1968

On December 26 1976 Dick called me and asked if I was still interested in the Vag I told him yes and Id come down the next Saturday morning The next Saturday came and so did I There the Vag stood on its nose just as pictures in past issues of The Vintage A irplane had shown

Dick with all his other projects had to let something go He offered me the Vag or one of two Cubs My thoughts never gave way to anything but the Vag

23

The stripped fuselage arrives at home ready for a long winter s night

Work completed the birds about ready for a runway

I climbed a ladder and pulled the tail down and began looking It was all there but in sad shape For the past four years it hadn t been outside It looked good in the dark but time took its toll The fabric was beyond even shot But it was all original Every instrument the seat and all were original In thirty years no one even drilled a hole in the panel

We tried to get the old Lycoming 65 started but no way

The next Saturday morning I borrowed a stock car trailer and headed for Lyons with my truck On the way down all was going so well until I met a car looked in my mirror and noticed the trailer to be about a foot wider than my pickup Id never given that a thought before Everytime I met another car I just got over a little I fishynally arrived at Dicks place and began taking the Vag

Fits like a sausage casing The envelopes ready for the hea t trea tment

apart I placed the wings on some racks on my truck and the fuselage or the trailer I didn t bother taking off the tail All was loaded and ready to roll in about three hours

About halfway into the dismantling it began to snow By the time I was ready to go we had gotten about three inches This worked out in my favor as it slowed everyone else on the highway down to my speed My greatest worry when hauling an airplane is when you meet a truck

All seemed to be going good The first car I met I got over to the right because of the trailer At this time I looked into the mirror and not only noticed the trailer a foot wider than the truck on each side but the horizontal stabilizer stuck out another foot on each side beyond the trailer What a shock

I stopped and tried to remove the tail but to no avail The snow kept coming and so did the end of the day It took me four and a quarter hours to go fifty-five miles By the time I got home we had eight inches of snow What a long ride

I began total disassembly right away The wings were in fantastic shape All that was needed was varnish on the tip bows I also put new cables in the whole airplane The original inspectors number date and signature are still on the spars

I worked the whole project under the watchful eyes of Paul Baker an AI from Beaver Aviation at Dodge County

The author tackles another flying surface with needle and twine

Airport He is really an EAAer I never heard of an AI so ready and willing to help restore an airplane He even came to my home after hours to inspect the fuselage as it was easier for me than taking it up there Paul says if Id hired him to do the restoring I could just hand over my paycheck for a year so he said you do the working and Ill do the looking

All the still pieces were sandblasted and sprayed with Imron primer Believe me you do have to wear a mask with that stuff

I gave Wag-Aero a call and told them what I needed for a complete cover job and not to call me until they had it all there in one pile with no monkeying around for a little of this and that

While waiting for the covering materials I began work on the engine The whole airplane had only 1100 hours and the engine 330 SMOH I just couldn t get it started I solicited the help of a local mechanic and Stinshyson owner Harold Hubrich We found three blown head gaskets one leaky valve the impulse spring in the left mag was broken and the P-Iead in the right mag the inshysulator of phenolic replaced with masking tape

I pulled the heads and Harold ground ~he valves had the mags rebuilt a complete new ignition system and the carburetor rebuilt We got her back together and bongo

- she started right off In the meantime I finished the wings and control surshy

faces I wanted to paint it all apart so a temporary gear 24

Larry applies a new cowling atter a fruitl ess encounter with sa ndblasting equipment

was made to support the fuselage The engine was never taken off Many people questioned that temporary gear I just said you had to be very careful on take-off and landshying

The actual covering was very enjoyable you could see some real progress including the stitching but that spraying and sanding Sixteen hours of work for every coat Six sandings fourteen coats and thirty gallons all total

The sheet metal was all in good shape I had planned to replace the cowl so a guy that was chicken could look in at the rubber band I tried Zip Strip to get down to bare metal with no luck at all I took all the aluminum parts over to a body shop including the boot and sandblasted them In less than ten minutes I destroyed every piece of aluminum except the instrument panel and nose bowl I then got some aluminum and began making new parts It all turned out very well

When I first brought the Vag home I contacted Cecil Ogles of Vag-News and he sent me more info than I think Piper has Among which was complete rigging

Im a little more fortunate than most- Im a tool and die model maker by trade and have my own shop Before beginning on the Vag my partner and I added on a 50 x 60 foot addition to our shop which served for a beautiful place to work over the winter to store parts until needed as well as an area to completely assemble the airplane for rigging

Its been a long time since the fuselage last shook from a run-up

Time came to go to the airport and sprout feathers There is a private strip just south of town so I went there along with about six helpers The airplane was assembled and flown two days later on June 28 1978 A year and a half after beginning

The first flight was all anyone could hope for It really flys hands off and is the easiest airplane for a taildragger to land that I have ever flown

Now for some numbers Cruise 85-90 Cruise RPM 2300 Fuel Consumption 30 gph Prop 70-36 Final and Climb 70 mph Over the Fence 60 mph Stall 40 mph Empty Weight 640 Ibs Take-off- For each 10 Ibs over 200 the passenger

weighs I added 100 feet I had the Vag at Oshkosh on Tuesday this year and

took it home and put it to bed the same night In this area we have about fifteen Vags flying with

five of them done original Myself I like to see airplanes kept original Its like a Model T with a Chevy 427 it just aint the same

The airplane is covered with Stits and the finish is Aerothane

Now that the airplanes finished work ca n proceed on the shop

I can say something most people cant about this airpshylane While at Oshkosh I went over and visited the Piper display and who would you guess was there Clyde Smith the test pilot of my airplane thirty years ago I took a couple of pictures of him and will be placing them in the log books next to his signature

The Vag is my first real attempt in restoring I did the whole airplane myse lf except the seat and the engine work Im very pleased with the end product Its all mine and paid for as well Im now enjoying the fruits of my labor and Id do it again if I could find another Vagshyabond

Oddly enough it seemed the hardest part of the whole project was the legal end Being that the FCC can t seem to find a good reason to charge for a restricted radio license I decided to send for one just in case I ever carried a radio along That took three months and the paperwork went back and forth six times The hardest part was the registration The airplane hadn t been regisshytered since 1967 The State of Wisconsin wasnt too bad That paperwork came back only once asking for an addishytional $333 because I didn t notify them within thirty days after purchase even though the airplane had been declared exempt But the Feds This took six months nine phone calls and six letters Finally I called once again and told them that after a year and a half of rebuilding with or without them I was going to fly it I think that finally did the trick

25

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Calendar of Events NOVEMBER 18-19 - MIAMI FlORIDA- Antique Classic and Cusshy

tom Built Fly-In at the third annual Harvest- A Country Fair sponsored by the Historical Association of Southern Florida at the Dade County Youth Fairground Coral Way at 112th Avenue Awards given for antique classic and custom built aircraft Conshytact Capt Ken Ufland of the Civil Air Patrol office (305) 552-3106 home after 600 pm (305) 251-5927 or Mary Dodd Russell Harshyvest Coordinator at the Historical Museum 3280 S Miami Ave shynue Building B Miami Fl 33129

JANUARY 21-27 - Sun N Fun the biggest fly-in in the southeastshyand the second biggest in the natron Its a full week of southern hospitality and flying fun daily aerial demonstrations fly-bys of antique classic homebuilt and warbird aircraft forums exhibits and static displays parties and com roasts big new food concesshysion country store for campers in our shady campsites Make motel reservations early- our free information booklet has a complete list of accommodations Write to Sun N Fun PO Box 3538 lakeland Florida 33802

(Dick Stouffer Photo)

Aeronca IICC Super Chief belonging to David E Long Keyser West Virginia

(Ted Koston Photo)

Heres a sharp Funk at Oshkosh Owner unknown didnt register

(Dick Stouffer Photo)

Another fine looking unregistered aircraft

STATEMENT OF OWNERSHIP MANAGEMENT AND CIRCULATION RlItdbyJ9U$C )681

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26

That first run-up a moment of supreme exaltation

a hangar from a friend who had sold his airplane Ron was informed by the FBO that he would have to give it up by January 1 This shocking news really put the pressure on After 7 years of work Ron was detershymined not to dismantle the Champ and tow it back home and he was absolutely not going to leave it outside Hangar space is extremely hard to come by in the Milwaukee area just as is the case in all large metropolitan areas so the only option left was to find a hangar in a nearby town Space was ultimately loshycated some 20 miles west at Watertown but having a January 1 deadline Ron resolved to fly the Champ out of Waukesha

It wasnt easy Bitter cold came to Wisconsin even earlier than usual making final assembly of the Champ a numbing experience Nevertheless Ron and his father toughed it out working every evening and weekends By late November it was so cold that work had to go in spurts ~ interrupted by thaw-out breaks in Rons or his dads car Several layers of insulated clothing didnt make working in tight spots easy and any job requiring a degree of digital finesse was frustshyration personified Trying to screw on a tiny nut he couldnt feel through numb fingers was not exactly Rons idea of a fun way to complete his project In December temperatures plunged below zero but Ron and Tony worked on getting the last of the fairshyings on control cables adjusted the King 360 radio and battery pack installed etc

Finally it was time for some engine run-in John Curtice Rons fellow inspector with EMDO 46 had previously been employed with Continental Motors in Muskegon Michigan and had gone through the proshycedure literally thousands of times He advised Ron on how to properly break in the newly majored A-65 and later issued a new Certificate of Airworthiness AI Bruce Rintelmann of Milwaukee had supervised the project from the beginning (since neither Ron nor his father have civilian A and P licenses) and had alshyready signed off the restoration work

And then it was done Ron could have test flown the Champ a day or so before Christmas but he decided against it His family had put so much of themselves in the project that Ron could not bring himself to pOSSibly ruin their Christmas in case anyshything went wrong Bright and early on the 26th howshyever he and his dad were heading for the airport

The temperature was 3deg F but the Continental started on the first pull Ron taxied over to the FBO shut down and squirmed into a Security parachute Mike Heuer had brought over for the occasion Firing up again he warmed up the engine until the oil

temperature came up to 90deg then taxied out for take-off Given the OK by the tower Ron opened the throttle and literally leaped into the frigid air He climbed out to 5000 feet staying over the south end of the airport - by prearrangement with the controlshylers All went well and after 36 minutes the cold had become so unbearable Ron had to land while he still had some feeling in his hands and feet The landing was a real squeaker (as he later saw on movies) On the 30th - right on schedule - Ron flew the Champ out of Waukesha and over to Watertown The airplane was there for about six weeks - and some 5 hours of further flying time - before it was transfershyred to a new home Air Troy Estates where Ron had bought a lot Hangar space was available until sumshymer when he would have his own 45 x 72 hangar built

With the passing of a really miserable winter Ron was able to enjoy a spring and summer of pleasure flying and fine tuning of the airplane for its debut at Oshkosh 78 The airplane had been test flown with a metal propeller but as a final authentic touch a wooden Sensenich had been ordered through Wag Aero There was some last minute anxiety over delivshyery of the prop but a week before the fly-in it arshyrived

Ron had intended to take a weeks vacation to enjoy all of the Convention but so many requests

had come in from EAAers wanting inspections so they could get their homebuilts to Oshkosh he couldnt get away until Wednesday

The rest you know On Friday night Ron walked out of the Meeting Pavillion with the Grand Champshyion Classic trophy and it was difficult to tell whose smile was wider his or his dads

The outcome had not been unexpected in many quarters despite the torrid competition every Oshkosh gathering provides Earlier Ron had atshytended the Aeronca Forum at the conclusion of which moderator Charlie Lasher had asked if the owner of NC85448 were present Ron raised his hand and Charlie said I want to come down and shake your hand - that is the finest Champ I have ever seen

In the weeks preceding the Convention Rons felshylow FAA employees at EMDO 46 had speculated on his chances of winning an award perhaps even the Big One Secretary Michele Facenda (who had helped with the Champs paperwork) had promised to bake a cake for him if he were successful - so on the next Monday morning Ron strode in with his trophy put it down on Micheles desk and anshynounced Youre going to have to do some baking

I already have she replied I knew you were going to win

Interior of Gregs Luscombe

Dick Stouffer Photo)

Class Winner Luscombe BE Gregg Biete Charlotte David Gustafson Photo) North Caro lina

Class I Winner Taylorcraft BC-120 Ralph Lauritsen Boone Iowa

David Gustafson Photo) Custom Class C Winner Bellanca 14-19 Ronald Joslyn Malibu California

By Edward D Williams Associate Editor 713 Eastman Dr

Mt Prospect IL 60056

An antique airplane which has been hanging in the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago since 1953 has a unique honored distinction This came about when an expert model builder made a 33-inch wingspan model of it that is considered a work of art So today both the full-size plane and the three-fourths scale model are on display in the same museum

The plane is a Boeing 40B which was donated to the museum after the close of the Century of Progress Exposishytion in Chicago in 1933 It was originally manufactured as a 40A and later converted to a 40B but the museums

The simplicity of the design is shown in this view of the Boeing 40A

plane is displayed in the colors and markings of a 40A And so the model built by Carl Buttita a commercial arshytist in Chicago is an exact copy of a 40A

When the Boeing plane NC288 factory serial number 899 was bought by Boeing Air Transport (BAD from its parent company the Boeing Airplane Company in June 1927 it cost $24500 Buttitas model which took him three years to complete was appraised at $7000

The Boeing hanging in the east court of the Museum of Science and Industry is considered of historic value

because it was one of a fleet of 24 BAT 40A aircraft that helped make transcontinental air travel possible for the first time in 1927 (See The Vintage Airplane December 1977)

Buttitas model although it was not built to fly looks every middotbit like it could It is so realistic that it later won him an important award from the Hobby Industry of America

The Museum of Science and Industry which is loshycated on Chicagos south side lakefront draws about four million visitors a year to see hundreds of exhibits depictshy

18

ing the laws of science and applications of technology in industry and other fields It is a non-profit independent institution and admission is free

The Museum was partially opened in 1933 with only a handful of exhibits By that time Boeing Air Transport and three other airline companies-- Pacific Air Transport Varney Air Lines and National Air Transport- were joined together to form United Airlines which on November 30 1933 donated the Boeing to the Museum

It took seven more years for the museum to be comshypleted so the Boeing was stored in the institutions basement until it finally was hung from the ceiling in 1939 Although the plane has been cleaned regularly and today remains in sparkling condition it has never been moved from its resting place and probably wont be for some time to come

The Boeing is part of a large aviation display which includes a number of other antique aircraft the Apollo 8 spacecraft and a full-sized model of the first class cabin of a Boeing 747

Other planes on exhibit with the Boeing 40B are a 1910 Curtiss a 1913 Morane-Saulnier a 1917 Curtiss J N-4 Jenny a Supermarine Spitfire a Lockheed F-104 Starfighter and the Travel-Air S Mystery NR1313 sponsored by Texaco and flown by Frank Hawks in setshyting a number of transcontinental records

The Museum also owns a Junkers Ju87B Stuka but it is not on exhibit in Chicago because it rests temporarily on loan in the Air Education Museum of the Experimental Aircraft Association in Franklin Wisconsin The German World War II dive bomber was restored after a cleaning accident at the Chicago Museum by the EAA Museum staff

The Model which Buttita finished three years ago is on exhibit in a special case It draws considerable interest because of its highly detailed work- down to the tiniest hinges on the doors

Boeing Air Transport (BAn probably owed its corposhyrate life to the Boeing 40A which enabled it to get into the airmail transport business

The Boeing Airplane Company first built a single Model 40 for a government competition in 1925 for the awarding of a contract for an airplane to be flown by the U S Post Office Department to replace the old de Havilshyland DH-4s it had been using since 1918 The governshyment bought the one Model 40 equipped with the old watercooled Liberty engine but did not award the comshypany a production contract It went instead to Douglas for its series of M aircraft

However the project was revived a year later when the Post Office Department decided to award Contract Air Mail (CAM) routes to private contractors for airmail The Model 40 plans were dusted off updated with the

After its Wasp engine was replaced with the PampW Hornet engine the 40A was designated the 408 and This picture of groundcrewmen unloading a 40A gives a looked like the above close-up view of the Pratt amp Whitney Wasp engine and

the dural sheet construction used throughout

latest improvements and redesigned to meet the postal requirements Designated the 40A it was powered with a 9 cylinder 420 horsepower Pratt amp Whitney Wasp enshygine a new aircooled radial engine Boeing was testing in its fighter type aircraft

The Boeing basic design with a pilot in an open cockpit was also changed to carry two passengers in a forward cabin although the awarding of the airmail conshytract and not passenger transportation was of paramount importance But the 40A could still carry 1200 pounds of mail in addition to the two hardy souls who pioneered passenger travel in 1927

It was the new designs low operating costs and high revenue potential that got BAT Boeings wholl y-owned subsidiary the low bid on the new San FranciscoshyChicago airmail (CAM number 18) route from the govshyernment BAT operated 24 of the 25 40As built The other plane was delivered to Pratt amp Whitney as a flying engine test bed This test aircraft proved its worth as in early 1928 the new 525 horsepower Pratt amp Whitney Homet engine became available in quantity and BAT quickly converted 19of its 40As to 40Bs with the installashytion of the new Hornet engine Among these was the Chicago museums NC288

According to the Model Specification and History document supplied to BAT by the Boeing Airplane Comshypany the 40A was a Three-place Landplane Biplane Closed Cabin Mailplane (3P-CiSl Factory numbers ran from 879 through 903 The first flight was made on May 20 1927 with delivery to BAT nine days later Dimenshysions were wingspan 442 length 332V and height 123 Empty weight was 2622 Ibs with a de sign gross of 4652 Ibs It boasted a top speed of 135 mph and a cruising speed of 125 mph but the actual pershyformance was closer to a maximum speed of 128 and a cruise of 105 mph It has a range of 550 miles and a sershyvice ceiling of 15700 feet

The 40A needed the altitude capability because of the rugged mountainous terrain on the 1 9113 mile San Francisco-Chicago run BAT started to use the new plane on the route with many intermediate stops on July 1 1927 When National Air Transport began its CAM Number 17 route operations with its Douglas M-4s betshyween New York and Chicago on September 1 1927 the two airlines link-up at Checkerboard Field at Maywood Illinois outside of Chicago gave the United States its first transcontinental air travel

The Chicago museum s Boeing 40B figured promishynently in th is important part of history Boeing NC288 amassed more than 6000 flight hours on the San Francisco-Chicago run and was flown many times by the famous airmail pioneer Jack Knight (See The Vintage Airplane February 1977) before it was retired

Construction of the Boeing 40A is shown in this picture of th e Boeing A irplane Company assembly line w ith A Boeing 40A NC286 - a sister ship of NC288 in the 40As in various stages of completion at Sea ttle Washingshy Chicago Museum - is show n fl ying over mountains on ton the Boeing A ir Transports San Francisco-Chicago run in

20

The Museums 40B in the coloring and markings of a 40A hangs with other historically significant aircraft in Chicagos Museum of Science and Industry The cockpit of the Boeing 40A w as simple making the

job o f duplica ting it in a model less demanding

(Museum of Science and Industry Photo)

- __ poundLlaquo

In 1933 it was used in the Wings of a Century pageant at the Century of Progress Exposition in Chicago after the Worlds Fair it was turned over to the Rosenwald Museum which later was renamed the Museum of Scishyence and Industry

Although the basic construction of the Boeing 40A was simple it had enough detail to make a model of it interesting Buttita said that he was a stickler for detail but admitted that he got carried away in making his model

When I decided to build the model I didnt intend to make it with such detail Buttita told this author I thought I could fake a lot by making the metal parts out of wood and painting them silver

But Buttita changed his mind and made every metal part out of metal and every wood part out of wood So the project which he thought would take him six or seven months eventually took three years

The more detail I put on it the better it looked he said so finally nothing could stop me and I detailed evshyerything

Buttita is an artist with the Accurate Silk Screen Sershyvice Company Chicago and his model building ability is well known

The three-quarter scale 40A is what is called a scratch model in which the builder starts from scratch as opposed to a kit in which plans and many formed parts are supplied

Buttita said a scratch model involves considerable reshysearch and study For the 40A he got a complete set of plans and all the photographs he could from Boeing and United

It took me three or four months of study before I could actually get started to build anything he said

Unlike kits which eliminate many of the interior parts that cannot be seen scratch models to be authentic must have all the details of construction such as all the ribs in the wings But that also makes them much stronger and keeps them from warping Buttita pointed out

Both the Boeing 40A flown by BAT and the Buttita model of it were constructed at the peak of the state of the art for their day

The airplane had a steel tubular fuselage with wood fairing strips and was dural and fabric covered The wings also fabric covered were built up of spruce spars and ribs The dural sheet on the fuselage covered the enshygine cowling cabin doors and compartment hatch openshyings

The two passengers sat in a cabin metal lined throughout and their seats and seat backs were upholsshytered in leather The windows of the two doors one on each side of the fuselage were made of non-shatterable glass and could be opened for additional ventilation and

21

Details of the construction of the 40As cabin door and wing struts are shown in this close-up

A close-up view of Carl Butshytitas model of the 40A shows how dedicated he was to deshytail in the models construction

Carl Buttita builder of the three-fourths sca le Boe ing 40A discusses fine points of the construction with Edshyward E Carlson chairman of UAL In c Chicago and a member of the board of trustees of the Museum of Scishyence and Indu stry before the model was put on display in the Museum

were large enough to give the passengers an excellent view of the scenery

The rear of the fuselage was braced with steel tie-rods and was heavily faired to shape although it still was fabshyric covered The tail assembly also was fabric covered but only the horizontal stabilizer was built up like the wings with spruce spars and wood built-up ribs The rest of the tail assembly was built up with welded steel tubshying It rested on a steerable tailskid The landing gear was made of streamlined chrome-moly and used oleo-spring shock absorbers

Buttitas construction problems for his model were reshysolved through the use of a wide variety of materials

The Boeing model is made of aluminum pine dentists plastic epoxy glue and Japanese silkspan paper About 40 percent of the model is metal but much of it is inside so you dont see it Buttita said These parts are the cables controls pilots seat corrugated floor panels hinges cockpit fire extinguisher medical kit and workshyable seat belts

Each part had to be hand made some several times to get them right or if they broke Buttita said I had to make 20 to 30 rims for the landing lights to get two

When you make a one-of-a-kind model you have to fabricate about 90 per cent of the parts yourself and make dies for almost everything he added

For the metal parts Buttita used small pieces of offset printers plate made of aluminum but with some tin for added strength The wood parts are made of spruce and the engine and wheels are made of the dental plastic

All the markings and lettering were drawn triple the size on paper and reduced photographically on decal paper That way they were better than if I had handshypainted them on the model he said

Buttita said he did all the construction work on a card table at home and the only power tool he used was a small electric drill

At least one other Boeing 40B is known to be on exshyhibit in another museum This is aircraft NC285 factory number 896 which was presented to the Henry Ford Museum at Dearbom Michigan in 1938 But so far it doesnt have a scale model of its own to highlight it And don t look to Carl Buttita to build one I will never do it again he sa id It was just too much work

Rebuilding AVagabond

By Larry Railing Box 5 7 -C P Avenue

Lake Mills WI 5355 7

I never realized at the time I started to rebuild or lets say restore Piper Vagabond PA-15 N4423H that so many people were interested in what Id term history So here it is

I started flying in Valparaiso Indiana around 1900 I learned in a )-3 owned by Mark Murvahill I later

graduated to the PA-12 In 1964 I graduated from high school and a year later I was married As most in like cirshycumstances I gave up flying for love until the newness wore off

My first airplane was a )-5 Cub that went down in a marsh I had started to rebuild it until Dick Wagner of Wag-Aero heard of it and made me an untimely offer This airplane was later destroyed at Burlington along with the Tri-Motor

I later owned other aircraft which included aT-Craft Somehow Dick Wagner heard of my T-Craft and flew up in a Vagabond to see it and made me an offer

I told him at that time if he ever got in the mood to sell the Vag to please call me That was in 1968

On December 26 1976 Dick called me and asked if I was still interested in the Vag I told him yes and Id come down the next Saturday morning The next Saturday came and so did I There the Vag stood on its nose just as pictures in past issues of The Vintage A irplane had shown

Dick with all his other projects had to let something go He offered me the Vag or one of two Cubs My thoughts never gave way to anything but the Vag

23

The stripped fuselage arrives at home ready for a long winter s night

Work completed the birds about ready for a runway

I climbed a ladder and pulled the tail down and began looking It was all there but in sad shape For the past four years it hadn t been outside It looked good in the dark but time took its toll The fabric was beyond even shot But it was all original Every instrument the seat and all were original In thirty years no one even drilled a hole in the panel

We tried to get the old Lycoming 65 started but no way

The next Saturday morning I borrowed a stock car trailer and headed for Lyons with my truck On the way down all was going so well until I met a car looked in my mirror and noticed the trailer to be about a foot wider than my pickup Id never given that a thought before Everytime I met another car I just got over a little I fishynally arrived at Dicks place and began taking the Vag

Fits like a sausage casing The envelopes ready for the hea t trea tment

apart I placed the wings on some racks on my truck and the fuselage or the trailer I didn t bother taking off the tail All was loaded and ready to roll in about three hours

About halfway into the dismantling it began to snow By the time I was ready to go we had gotten about three inches This worked out in my favor as it slowed everyone else on the highway down to my speed My greatest worry when hauling an airplane is when you meet a truck

All seemed to be going good The first car I met I got over to the right because of the trailer At this time I looked into the mirror and not only noticed the trailer a foot wider than the truck on each side but the horizontal stabilizer stuck out another foot on each side beyond the trailer What a shock

I stopped and tried to remove the tail but to no avail The snow kept coming and so did the end of the day It took me four and a quarter hours to go fifty-five miles By the time I got home we had eight inches of snow What a long ride

I began total disassembly right away The wings were in fantastic shape All that was needed was varnish on the tip bows I also put new cables in the whole airplane The original inspectors number date and signature are still on the spars

I worked the whole project under the watchful eyes of Paul Baker an AI from Beaver Aviation at Dodge County

The author tackles another flying surface with needle and twine

Airport He is really an EAAer I never heard of an AI so ready and willing to help restore an airplane He even came to my home after hours to inspect the fuselage as it was easier for me than taking it up there Paul says if Id hired him to do the restoring I could just hand over my paycheck for a year so he said you do the working and Ill do the looking

All the still pieces were sandblasted and sprayed with Imron primer Believe me you do have to wear a mask with that stuff

I gave Wag-Aero a call and told them what I needed for a complete cover job and not to call me until they had it all there in one pile with no monkeying around for a little of this and that

While waiting for the covering materials I began work on the engine The whole airplane had only 1100 hours and the engine 330 SMOH I just couldn t get it started I solicited the help of a local mechanic and Stinshyson owner Harold Hubrich We found three blown head gaskets one leaky valve the impulse spring in the left mag was broken and the P-Iead in the right mag the inshysulator of phenolic replaced with masking tape

I pulled the heads and Harold ground ~he valves had the mags rebuilt a complete new ignition system and the carburetor rebuilt We got her back together and bongo

- she started right off In the meantime I finished the wings and control surshy

faces I wanted to paint it all apart so a temporary gear 24

Larry applies a new cowling atter a fruitl ess encounter with sa ndblasting equipment

was made to support the fuselage The engine was never taken off Many people questioned that temporary gear I just said you had to be very careful on take-off and landshying

The actual covering was very enjoyable you could see some real progress including the stitching but that spraying and sanding Sixteen hours of work for every coat Six sandings fourteen coats and thirty gallons all total

The sheet metal was all in good shape I had planned to replace the cowl so a guy that was chicken could look in at the rubber band I tried Zip Strip to get down to bare metal with no luck at all I took all the aluminum parts over to a body shop including the boot and sandblasted them In less than ten minutes I destroyed every piece of aluminum except the instrument panel and nose bowl I then got some aluminum and began making new parts It all turned out very well

When I first brought the Vag home I contacted Cecil Ogles of Vag-News and he sent me more info than I think Piper has Among which was complete rigging

Im a little more fortunate than most- Im a tool and die model maker by trade and have my own shop Before beginning on the Vag my partner and I added on a 50 x 60 foot addition to our shop which served for a beautiful place to work over the winter to store parts until needed as well as an area to completely assemble the airplane for rigging

Its been a long time since the fuselage last shook from a run-up

Time came to go to the airport and sprout feathers There is a private strip just south of town so I went there along with about six helpers The airplane was assembled and flown two days later on June 28 1978 A year and a half after beginning

The first flight was all anyone could hope for It really flys hands off and is the easiest airplane for a taildragger to land that I have ever flown

Now for some numbers Cruise 85-90 Cruise RPM 2300 Fuel Consumption 30 gph Prop 70-36 Final and Climb 70 mph Over the Fence 60 mph Stall 40 mph Empty Weight 640 Ibs Take-off- For each 10 Ibs over 200 the passenger

weighs I added 100 feet I had the Vag at Oshkosh on Tuesday this year and

took it home and put it to bed the same night In this area we have about fifteen Vags flying with

five of them done original Myself I like to see airplanes kept original Its like a Model T with a Chevy 427 it just aint the same

The airplane is covered with Stits and the finish is Aerothane

Now that the airplanes finished work ca n proceed on the shop

I can say something most people cant about this airpshylane While at Oshkosh I went over and visited the Piper display and who would you guess was there Clyde Smith the test pilot of my airplane thirty years ago I took a couple of pictures of him and will be placing them in the log books next to his signature

The Vag is my first real attempt in restoring I did the whole airplane myse lf except the seat and the engine work Im very pleased with the end product Its all mine and paid for as well Im now enjoying the fruits of my labor and Id do it again if I could find another Vagshyabond

Oddly enough it seemed the hardest part of the whole project was the legal end Being that the FCC can t seem to find a good reason to charge for a restricted radio license I decided to send for one just in case I ever carried a radio along That took three months and the paperwork went back and forth six times The hardest part was the registration The airplane hadn t been regisshytered since 1967 The State of Wisconsin wasnt too bad That paperwork came back only once asking for an addishytional $333 because I didn t notify them within thirty days after purchase even though the airplane had been declared exempt But the Feds This took six months nine phone calls and six letters Finally I called once again and told them that after a year and a half of rebuilding with or without them I was going to fly it I think that finally did the trick

25

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Calendar of Events NOVEMBER 18-19 - MIAMI FlORIDA- Antique Classic and Cusshy

tom Built Fly-In at the third annual Harvest- A Country Fair sponsored by the Historical Association of Southern Florida at the Dade County Youth Fairground Coral Way at 112th Avenue Awards given for antique classic and custom built aircraft Conshytact Capt Ken Ufland of the Civil Air Patrol office (305) 552-3106 home after 600 pm (305) 251-5927 or Mary Dodd Russell Harshyvest Coordinator at the Historical Museum 3280 S Miami Ave shynue Building B Miami Fl 33129

JANUARY 21-27 - Sun N Fun the biggest fly-in in the southeastshyand the second biggest in the natron Its a full week of southern hospitality and flying fun daily aerial demonstrations fly-bys of antique classic homebuilt and warbird aircraft forums exhibits and static displays parties and com roasts big new food concesshysion country store for campers in our shady campsites Make motel reservations early- our free information booklet has a complete list of accommodations Write to Sun N Fun PO Box 3538 lakeland Florida 33802

(Dick Stouffer Photo)

Aeronca IICC Super Chief belonging to David E Long Keyser West Virginia

(Ted Koston Photo)

Heres a sharp Funk at Oshkosh Owner unknown didnt register

(Dick Stouffer Photo)

Another fine looking unregistered aircraft

STATEMENT OF OWNERSHIP MANAGEMENT AND CIRCULATION RlItdbyJ9U$C )681

I T1ILSOULe TOH

The Vintage Airplane E n o LlHG

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F4U CORSAIR

PLANE CHECKS The Leading Fighter 01 WWII - with a Record 01 2140 Japanese Aircraft Destroyed 28 01 which

Are Credited to Pappy Boyington Regular bank checks emblazoned with the F4U CORSAIR

- Complete the order form and write out your check Now get a deposit Slip from the same account and clearly indicate any changes or other notations as you wish it to appear on the checks (These two documents will furnish us all the data we need to make your checks compatible with your banks computer and Amer Bank Assn specs) On gift orders send your check and mark his check VOID Please allow 3 weeks for delivery

Start USing Plane Checks Now Your old checks will always be good

Identity Check Co Box 149-D Park Ridge III 60068 Activate my order for Plane Checks starting No ___ o 300middot$795 0 600-$1350 0 900middot$1875 Checks are printed with blue backgrounds and are top bound-one part deposit sUps registers and matching checkbook cover are Included In each order

o F4U CORSAIR o PIPER Assortment o BEECH AIICH1menl o UNITED DC-10

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Ship via 0 UPS (insured) 0 Parcel Post o WEST COAST add one dollar-well fly it

Ship To

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26

Interior of Gregs Luscombe

Dick Stouffer Photo)

Class Winner Luscombe BE Gregg Biete Charlotte David Gustafson Photo) North Caro lina

Class I Winner Taylorcraft BC-120 Ralph Lauritsen Boone Iowa

David Gustafson Photo) Custom Class C Winner Bellanca 14-19 Ronald Joslyn Malibu California

By Edward D Williams Associate Editor 713 Eastman Dr

Mt Prospect IL 60056

An antique airplane which has been hanging in the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago since 1953 has a unique honored distinction This came about when an expert model builder made a 33-inch wingspan model of it that is considered a work of art So today both the full-size plane and the three-fourths scale model are on display in the same museum

The plane is a Boeing 40B which was donated to the museum after the close of the Century of Progress Exposishytion in Chicago in 1933 It was originally manufactured as a 40A and later converted to a 40B but the museums

The simplicity of the design is shown in this view of the Boeing 40A

plane is displayed in the colors and markings of a 40A And so the model built by Carl Buttita a commercial arshytist in Chicago is an exact copy of a 40A

When the Boeing plane NC288 factory serial number 899 was bought by Boeing Air Transport (BAD from its parent company the Boeing Airplane Company in June 1927 it cost $24500 Buttitas model which took him three years to complete was appraised at $7000

The Boeing hanging in the east court of the Museum of Science and Industry is considered of historic value

because it was one of a fleet of 24 BAT 40A aircraft that helped make transcontinental air travel possible for the first time in 1927 (See The Vintage Airplane December 1977)

Buttitas model although it was not built to fly looks every middotbit like it could It is so realistic that it later won him an important award from the Hobby Industry of America

The Museum of Science and Industry which is loshycated on Chicagos south side lakefront draws about four million visitors a year to see hundreds of exhibits depictshy

18

ing the laws of science and applications of technology in industry and other fields It is a non-profit independent institution and admission is free

The Museum was partially opened in 1933 with only a handful of exhibits By that time Boeing Air Transport and three other airline companies-- Pacific Air Transport Varney Air Lines and National Air Transport- were joined together to form United Airlines which on November 30 1933 donated the Boeing to the Museum

It took seven more years for the museum to be comshypleted so the Boeing was stored in the institutions basement until it finally was hung from the ceiling in 1939 Although the plane has been cleaned regularly and today remains in sparkling condition it has never been moved from its resting place and probably wont be for some time to come

The Boeing is part of a large aviation display which includes a number of other antique aircraft the Apollo 8 spacecraft and a full-sized model of the first class cabin of a Boeing 747

Other planes on exhibit with the Boeing 40B are a 1910 Curtiss a 1913 Morane-Saulnier a 1917 Curtiss J N-4 Jenny a Supermarine Spitfire a Lockheed F-104 Starfighter and the Travel-Air S Mystery NR1313 sponsored by Texaco and flown by Frank Hawks in setshyting a number of transcontinental records

The Museum also owns a Junkers Ju87B Stuka but it is not on exhibit in Chicago because it rests temporarily on loan in the Air Education Museum of the Experimental Aircraft Association in Franklin Wisconsin The German World War II dive bomber was restored after a cleaning accident at the Chicago Museum by the EAA Museum staff

The Model which Buttita finished three years ago is on exhibit in a special case It draws considerable interest because of its highly detailed work- down to the tiniest hinges on the doors

Boeing Air Transport (BAn probably owed its corposhyrate life to the Boeing 40A which enabled it to get into the airmail transport business

The Boeing Airplane Company first built a single Model 40 for a government competition in 1925 for the awarding of a contract for an airplane to be flown by the U S Post Office Department to replace the old de Havilshyland DH-4s it had been using since 1918 The governshyment bought the one Model 40 equipped with the old watercooled Liberty engine but did not award the comshypany a production contract It went instead to Douglas for its series of M aircraft

However the project was revived a year later when the Post Office Department decided to award Contract Air Mail (CAM) routes to private contractors for airmail The Model 40 plans were dusted off updated with the

After its Wasp engine was replaced with the PampW Hornet engine the 40A was designated the 408 and This picture of groundcrewmen unloading a 40A gives a looked like the above close-up view of the Pratt amp Whitney Wasp engine and

the dural sheet construction used throughout

latest improvements and redesigned to meet the postal requirements Designated the 40A it was powered with a 9 cylinder 420 horsepower Pratt amp Whitney Wasp enshygine a new aircooled radial engine Boeing was testing in its fighter type aircraft

The Boeing basic design with a pilot in an open cockpit was also changed to carry two passengers in a forward cabin although the awarding of the airmail conshytract and not passenger transportation was of paramount importance But the 40A could still carry 1200 pounds of mail in addition to the two hardy souls who pioneered passenger travel in 1927

It was the new designs low operating costs and high revenue potential that got BAT Boeings wholl y-owned subsidiary the low bid on the new San FranciscoshyChicago airmail (CAM number 18) route from the govshyernment BAT operated 24 of the 25 40As built The other plane was delivered to Pratt amp Whitney as a flying engine test bed This test aircraft proved its worth as in early 1928 the new 525 horsepower Pratt amp Whitney Homet engine became available in quantity and BAT quickly converted 19of its 40As to 40Bs with the installashytion of the new Hornet engine Among these was the Chicago museums NC288

According to the Model Specification and History document supplied to BAT by the Boeing Airplane Comshypany the 40A was a Three-place Landplane Biplane Closed Cabin Mailplane (3P-CiSl Factory numbers ran from 879 through 903 The first flight was made on May 20 1927 with delivery to BAT nine days later Dimenshysions were wingspan 442 length 332V and height 123 Empty weight was 2622 Ibs with a de sign gross of 4652 Ibs It boasted a top speed of 135 mph and a cruising speed of 125 mph but the actual pershyformance was closer to a maximum speed of 128 and a cruise of 105 mph It has a range of 550 miles and a sershyvice ceiling of 15700 feet

The 40A needed the altitude capability because of the rugged mountainous terrain on the 1 9113 mile San Francisco-Chicago run BAT started to use the new plane on the route with many intermediate stops on July 1 1927 When National Air Transport began its CAM Number 17 route operations with its Douglas M-4s betshyween New York and Chicago on September 1 1927 the two airlines link-up at Checkerboard Field at Maywood Illinois outside of Chicago gave the United States its first transcontinental air travel

The Chicago museum s Boeing 40B figured promishynently in th is important part of history Boeing NC288 amassed more than 6000 flight hours on the San Francisco-Chicago run and was flown many times by the famous airmail pioneer Jack Knight (See The Vintage Airplane February 1977) before it was retired

Construction of the Boeing 40A is shown in this picture of th e Boeing A irplane Company assembly line w ith A Boeing 40A NC286 - a sister ship of NC288 in the 40As in various stages of completion at Sea ttle Washingshy Chicago Museum - is show n fl ying over mountains on ton the Boeing A ir Transports San Francisco-Chicago run in

20

The Museums 40B in the coloring and markings of a 40A hangs with other historically significant aircraft in Chicagos Museum of Science and Industry The cockpit of the Boeing 40A w as simple making the

job o f duplica ting it in a model less demanding

(Museum of Science and Industry Photo)

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In 1933 it was used in the Wings of a Century pageant at the Century of Progress Exposition in Chicago after the Worlds Fair it was turned over to the Rosenwald Museum which later was renamed the Museum of Scishyence and Industry

Although the basic construction of the Boeing 40A was simple it had enough detail to make a model of it interesting Buttita said that he was a stickler for detail but admitted that he got carried away in making his model

When I decided to build the model I didnt intend to make it with such detail Buttita told this author I thought I could fake a lot by making the metal parts out of wood and painting them silver

But Buttita changed his mind and made every metal part out of metal and every wood part out of wood So the project which he thought would take him six or seven months eventually took three years

The more detail I put on it the better it looked he said so finally nothing could stop me and I detailed evshyerything

Buttita is an artist with the Accurate Silk Screen Sershyvice Company Chicago and his model building ability is well known

The three-quarter scale 40A is what is called a scratch model in which the builder starts from scratch as opposed to a kit in which plans and many formed parts are supplied

Buttita said a scratch model involves considerable reshysearch and study For the 40A he got a complete set of plans and all the photographs he could from Boeing and United

It took me three or four months of study before I could actually get started to build anything he said

Unlike kits which eliminate many of the interior parts that cannot be seen scratch models to be authentic must have all the details of construction such as all the ribs in the wings But that also makes them much stronger and keeps them from warping Buttita pointed out

Both the Boeing 40A flown by BAT and the Buttita model of it were constructed at the peak of the state of the art for their day

The airplane had a steel tubular fuselage with wood fairing strips and was dural and fabric covered The wings also fabric covered were built up of spruce spars and ribs The dural sheet on the fuselage covered the enshygine cowling cabin doors and compartment hatch openshyings

The two passengers sat in a cabin metal lined throughout and their seats and seat backs were upholsshytered in leather The windows of the two doors one on each side of the fuselage were made of non-shatterable glass and could be opened for additional ventilation and

21

Details of the construction of the 40As cabin door and wing struts are shown in this close-up

A close-up view of Carl Butshytitas model of the 40A shows how dedicated he was to deshytail in the models construction

Carl Buttita builder of the three-fourths sca le Boe ing 40A discusses fine points of the construction with Edshyward E Carlson chairman of UAL In c Chicago and a member of the board of trustees of the Museum of Scishyence and Indu stry before the model was put on display in the Museum

were large enough to give the passengers an excellent view of the scenery

The rear of the fuselage was braced with steel tie-rods and was heavily faired to shape although it still was fabshyric covered The tail assembly also was fabric covered but only the horizontal stabilizer was built up like the wings with spruce spars and wood built-up ribs The rest of the tail assembly was built up with welded steel tubshying It rested on a steerable tailskid The landing gear was made of streamlined chrome-moly and used oleo-spring shock absorbers

Buttitas construction problems for his model were reshysolved through the use of a wide variety of materials

The Boeing model is made of aluminum pine dentists plastic epoxy glue and Japanese silkspan paper About 40 percent of the model is metal but much of it is inside so you dont see it Buttita said These parts are the cables controls pilots seat corrugated floor panels hinges cockpit fire extinguisher medical kit and workshyable seat belts

Each part had to be hand made some several times to get them right or if they broke Buttita said I had to make 20 to 30 rims for the landing lights to get two

When you make a one-of-a-kind model you have to fabricate about 90 per cent of the parts yourself and make dies for almost everything he added

For the metal parts Buttita used small pieces of offset printers plate made of aluminum but with some tin for added strength The wood parts are made of spruce and the engine and wheels are made of the dental plastic

All the markings and lettering were drawn triple the size on paper and reduced photographically on decal paper That way they were better than if I had handshypainted them on the model he said

Buttita said he did all the construction work on a card table at home and the only power tool he used was a small electric drill

At least one other Boeing 40B is known to be on exshyhibit in another museum This is aircraft NC285 factory number 896 which was presented to the Henry Ford Museum at Dearbom Michigan in 1938 But so far it doesnt have a scale model of its own to highlight it And don t look to Carl Buttita to build one I will never do it again he sa id It was just too much work

Rebuilding AVagabond

By Larry Railing Box 5 7 -C P Avenue

Lake Mills WI 5355 7

I never realized at the time I started to rebuild or lets say restore Piper Vagabond PA-15 N4423H that so many people were interested in what Id term history So here it is

I started flying in Valparaiso Indiana around 1900 I learned in a )-3 owned by Mark Murvahill I later

graduated to the PA-12 In 1964 I graduated from high school and a year later I was married As most in like cirshycumstances I gave up flying for love until the newness wore off

My first airplane was a )-5 Cub that went down in a marsh I had started to rebuild it until Dick Wagner of Wag-Aero heard of it and made me an untimely offer This airplane was later destroyed at Burlington along with the Tri-Motor

I later owned other aircraft which included aT-Craft Somehow Dick Wagner heard of my T-Craft and flew up in a Vagabond to see it and made me an offer

I told him at that time if he ever got in the mood to sell the Vag to please call me That was in 1968

On December 26 1976 Dick called me and asked if I was still interested in the Vag I told him yes and Id come down the next Saturday morning The next Saturday came and so did I There the Vag stood on its nose just as pictures in past issues of The Vintage A irplane had shown

Dick with all his other projects had to let something go He offered me the Vag or one of two Cubs My thoughts never gave way to anything but the Vag

23

The stripped fuselage arrives at home ready for a long winter s night

Work completed the birds about ready for a runway

I climbed a ladder and pulled the tail down and began looking It was all there but in sad shape For the past four years it hadn t been outside It looked good in the dark but time took its toll The fabric was beyond even shot But it was all original Every instrument the seat and all were original In thirty years no one even drilled a hole in the panel

We tried to get the old Lycoming 65 started but no way

The next Saturday morning I borrowed a stock car trailer and headed for Lyons with my truck On the way down all was going so well until I met a car looked in my mirror and noticed the trailer to be about a foot wider than my pickup Id never given that a thought before Everytime I met another car I just got over a little I fishynally arrived at Dicks place and began taking the Vag

Fits like a sausage casing The envelopes ready for the hea t trea tment

apart I placed the wings on some racks on my truck and the fuselage or the trailer I didn t bother taking off the tail All was loaded and ready to roll in about three hours

About halfway into the dismantling it began to snow By the time I was ready to go we had gotten about three inches This worked out in my favor as it slowed everyone else on the highway down to my speed My greatest worry when hauling an airplane is when you meet a truck

All seemed to be going good The first car I met I got over to the right because of the trailer At this time I looked into the mirror and not only noticed the trailer a foot wider than the truck on each side but the horizontal stabilizer stuck out another foot on each side beyond the trailer What a shock

I stopped and tried to remove the tail but to no avail The snow kept coming and so did the end of the day It took me four and a quarter hours to go fifty-five miles By the time I got home we had eight inches of snow What a long ride

I began total disassembly right away The wings were in fantastic shape All that was needed was varnish on the tip bows I also put new cables in the whole airplane The original inspectors number date and signature are still on the spars

I worked the whole project under the watchful eyes of Paul Baker an AI from Beaver Aviation at Dodge County

The author tackles another flying surface with needle and twine

Airport He is really an EAAer I never heard of an AI so ready and willing to help restore an airplane He even came to my home after hours to inspect the fuselage as it was easier for me than taking it up there Paul says if Id hired him to do the restoring I could just hand over my paycheck for a year so he said you do the working and Ill do the looking

All the still pieces were sandblasted and sprayed with Imron primer Believe me you do have to wear a mask with that stuff

I gave Wag-Aero a call and told them what I needed for a complete cover job and not to call me until they had it all there in one pile with no monkeying around for a little of this and that

While waiting for the covering materials I began work on the engine The whole airplane had only 1100 hours and the engine 330 SMOH I just couldn t get it started I solicited the help of a local mechanic and Stinshyson owner Harold Hubrich We found three blown head gaskets one leaky valve the impulse spring in the left mag was broken and the P-Iead in the right mag the inshysulator of phenolic replaced with masking tape

I pulled the heads and Harold ground ~he valves had the mags rebuilt a complete new ignition system and the carburetor rebuilt We got her back together and bongo

- she started right off In the meantime I finished the wings and control surshy

faces I wanted to paint it all apart so a temporary gear 24

Larry applies a new cowling atter a fruitl ess encounter with sa ndblasting equipment

was made to support the fuselage The engine was never taken off Many people questioned that temporary gear I just said you had to be very careful on take-off and landshying

The actual covering was very enjoyable you could see some real progress including the stitching but that spraying and sanding Sixteen hours of work for every coat Six sandings fourteen coats and thirty gallons all total

The sheet metal was all in good shape I had planned to replace the cowl so a guy that was chicken could look in at the rubber band I tried Zip Strip to get down to bare metal with no luck at all I took all the aluminum parts over to a body shop including the boot and sandblasted them In less than ten minutes I destroyed every piece of aluminum except the instrument panel and nose bowl I then got some aluminum and began making new parts It all turned out very well

When I first brought the Vag home I contacted Cecil Ogles of Vag-News and he sent me more info than I think Piper has Among which was complete rigging

Im a little more fortunate than most- Im a tool and die model maker by trade and have my own shop Before beginning on the Vag my partner and I added on a 50 x 60 foot addition to our shop which served for a beautiful place to work over the winter to store parts until needed as well as an area to completely assemble the airplane for rigging

Its been a long time since the fuselage last shook from a run-up

Time came to go to the airport and sprout feathers There is a private strip just south of town so I went there along with about six helpers The airplane was assembled and flown two days later on June 28 1978 A year and a half after beginning

The first flight was all anyone could hope for It really flys hands off and is the easiest airplane for a taildragger to land that I have ever flown

Now for some numbers Cruise 85-90 Cruise RPM 2300 Fuel Consumption 30 gph Prop 70-36 Final and Climb 70 mph Over the Fence 60 mph Stall 40 mph Empty Weight 640 Ibs Take-off- For each 10 Ibs over 200 the passenger

weighs I added 100 feet I had the Vag at Oshkosh on Tuesday this year and

took it home and put it to bed the same night In this area we have about fifteen Vags flying with

five of them done original Myself I like to see airplanes kept original Its like a Model T with a Chevy 427 it just aint the same

The airplane is covered with Stits and the finish is Aerothane

Now that the airplanes finished work ca n proceed on the shop

I can say something most people cant about this airpshylane While at Oshkosh I went over and visited the Piper display and who would you guess was there Clyde Smith the test pilot of my airplane thirty years ago I took a couple of pictures of him and will be placing them in the log books next to his signature

The Vag is my first real attempt in restoring I did the whole airplane myse lf except the seat and the engine work Im very pleased with the end product Its all mine and paid for as well Im now enjoying the fruits of my labor and Id do it again if I could find another Vagshyabond

Oddly enough it seemed the hardest part of the whole project was the legal end Being that the FCC can t seem to find a good reason to charge for a restricted radio license I decided to send for one just in case I ever carried a radio along That took three months and the paperwork went back and forth six times The hardest part was the registration The airplane hadn t been regisshytered since 1967 The State of Wisconsin wasnt too bad That paperwork came back only once asking for an addishytional $333 because I didn t notify them within thirty days after purchase even though the airplane had been declared exempt But the Feds This took six months nine phone calls and six letters Finally I called once again and told them that after a year and a half of rebuilding with or without them I was going to fly it I think that finally did the trick

25

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Calendar of Events NOVEMBER 18-19 - MIAMI FlORIDA- Antique Classic and Cusshy

tom Built Fly-In at the third annual Harvest- A Country Fair sponsored by the Historical Association of Southern Florida at the Dade County Youth Fairground Coral Way at 112th Avenue Awards given for antique classic and custom built aircraft Conshytact Capt Ken Ufland of the Civil Air Patrol office (305) 552-3106 home after 600 pm (305) 251-5927 or Mary Dodd Russell Harshyvest Coordinator at the Historical Museum 3280 S Miami Ave shynue Building B Miami Fl 33129

JANUARY 21-27 - Sun N Fun the biggest fly-in in the southeastshyand the second biggest in the natron Its a full week of southern hospitality and flying fun daily aerial demonstrations fly-bys of antique classic homebuilt and warbird aircraft forums exhibits and static displays parties and com roasts big new food concesshysion country store for campers in our shady campsites Make motel reservations early- our free information booklet has a complete list of accommodations Write to Sun N Fun PO Box 3538 lakeland Florida 33802

(Dick Stouffer Photo)

Aeronca IICC Super Chief belonging to David E Long Keyser West Virginia

(Ted Koston Photo)

Heres a sharp Funk at Oshkosh Owner unknown didnt register

(Dick Stouffer Photo)

Another fine looking unregistered aircraft

STATEMENT OF OWNERSHIP MANAGEMENT AND CIRCULATION RlItdbyJ9U$C )681

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(See inSIrUClionson levelv)~~6 35267l1 I)

F4U CORSAIR

PLANE CHECKS The Leading Fighter 01 WWII - with a Record 01 2140 Japanese Aircraft Destroyed 28 01 which

Are Credited to Pappy Boyington Regular bank checks emblazoned with the F4U CORSAIR

- Complete the order form and write out your check Now get a deposit Slip from the same account and clearly indicate any changes or other notations as you wish it to appear on the checks (These two documents will furnish us all the data we need to make your checks compatible with your banks computer and Amer Bank Assn specs) On gift orders send your check and mark his check VOID Please allow 3 weeks for delivery

Start USing Plane Checks Now Your old checks will always be good

Identity Check Co Box 149-D Park Ridge III 60068 Activate my order for Plane Checks starting No ___ o 300middot$795 0 600-$1350 0 900middot$1875 Checks are printed with blue backgrounds and are top bound-one part deposit sUps registers and matching checkbook cover are Included In each order

o F4U CORSAIR o PIPER Assortment o BEECH AIICH1menl o UNITED DC-10

o Cherokee o Sundowner o NORTH CENTRAL DC9 DArrow o V Bonanza o CONTINENTAL OCmiddot10 o Seneca II o Baron o NATIONAL DC-l0

o PITTS SPECIAL o Pmiddot51 MUSTANG 11 AMERICAN OCmiddot10 o CESSNA Allottmenl o TWALmiddot1011 o EASTERN Lmiddotl011

o Hawk o PSA727 o WESTERN 0010 o 210Centurlon o BDmiddot5 o OZARK OCmiddotg0310 o MOONEY

o YELLOW Jmiddot3 CUB o HELICOPTER (BELL)

Ship via 0 UPS (insured) 0 Parcel Post o WEST COAST add one dollar-well fly it

Ship To

Address

City State___ Zip____

26

By Edward D Williams Associate Editor 713 Eastman Dr

Mt Prospect IL 60056

An antique airplane which has been hanging in the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago since 1953 has a unique honored distinction This came about when an expert model builder made a 33-inch wingspan model of it that is considered a work of art So today both the full-size plane and the three-fourths scale model are on display in the same museum

The plane is a Boeing 40B which was donated to the museum after the close of the Century of Progress Exposishytion in Chicago in 1933 It was originally manufactured as a 40A and later converted to a 40B but the museums

The simplicity of the design is shown in this view of the Boeing 40A

plane is displayed in the colors and markings of a 40A And so the model built by Carl Buttita a commercial arshytist in Chicago is an exact copy of a 40A

When the Boeing plane NC288 factory serial number 899 was bought by Boeing Air Transport (BAD from its parent company the Boeing Airplane Company in June 1927 it cost $24500 Buttitas model which took him three years to complete was appraised at $7000

The Boeing hanging in the east court of the Museum of Science and Industry is considered of historic value

because it was one of a fleet of 24 BAT 40A aircraft that helped make transcontinental air travel possible for the first time in 1927 (See The Vintage Airplane December 1977)

Buttitas model although it was not built to fly looks every middotbit like it could It is so realistic that it later won him an important award from the Hobby Industry of America

The Museum of Science and Industry which is loshycated on Chicagos south side lakefront draws about four million visitors a year to see hundreds of exhibits depictshy

18

ing the laws of science and applications of technology in industry and other fields It is a non-profit independent institution and admission is free

The Museum was partially opened in 1933 with only a handful of exhibits By that time Boeing Air Transport and three other airline companies-- Pacific Air Transport Varney Air Lines and National Air Transport- were joined together to form United Airlines which on November 30 1933 donated the Boeing to the Museum

It took seven more years for the museum to be comshypleted so the Boeing was stored in the institutions basement until it finally was hung from the ceiling in 1939 Although the plane has been cleaned regularly and today remains in sparkling condition it has never been moved from its resting place and probably wont be for some time to come

The Boeing is part of a large aviation display which includes a number of other antique aircraft the Apollo 8 spacecraft and a full-sized model of the first class cabin of a Boeing 747

Other planes on exhibit with the Boeing 40B are a 1910 Curtiss a 1913 Morane-Saulnier a 1917 Curtiss J N-4 Jenny a Supermarine Spitfire a Lockheed F-104 Starfighter and the Travel-Air S Mystery NR1313 sponsored by Texaco and flown by Frank Hawks in setshyting a number of transcontinental records

The Museum also owns a Junkers Ju87B Stuka but it is not on exhibit in Chicago because it rests temporarily on loan in the Air Education Museum of the Experimental Aircraft Association in Franklin Wisconsin The German World War II dive bomber was restored after a cleaning accident at the Chicago Museum by the EAA Museum staff

The Model which Buttita finished three years ago is on exhibit in a special case It draws considerable interest because of its highly detailed work- down to the tiniest hinges on the doors

Boeing Air Transport (BAn probably owed its corposhyrate life to the Boeing 40A which enabled it to get into the airmail transport business

The Boeing Airplane Company first built a single Model 40 for a government competition in 1925 for the awarding of a contract for an airplane to be flown by the U S Post Office Department to replace the old de Havilshyland DH-4s it had been using since 1918 The governshyment bought the one Model 40 equipped with the old watercooled Liberty engine but did not award the comshypany a production contract It went instead to Douglas for its series of M aircraft

However the project was revived a year later when the Post Office Department decided to award Contract Air Mail (CAM) routes to private contractors for airmail The Model 40 plans were dusted off updated with the

After its Wasp engine was replaced with the PampW Hornet engine the 40A was designated the 408 and This picture of groundcrewmen unloading a 40A gives a looked like the above close-up view of the Pratt amp Whitney Wasp engine and

the dural sheet construction used throughout

latest improvements and redesigned to meet the postal requirements Designated the 40A it was powered with a 9 cylinder 420 horsepower Pratt amp Whitney Wasp enshygine a new aircooled radial engine Boeing was testing in its fighter type aircraft

The Boeing basic design with a pilot in an open cockpit was also changed to carry two passengers in a forward cabin although the awarding of the airmail conshytract and not passenger transportation was of paramount importance But the 40A could still carry 1200 pounds of mail in addition to the two hardy souls who pioneered passenger travel in 1927

It was the new designs low operating costs and high revenue potential that got BAT Boeings wholl y-owned subsidiary the low bid on the new San FranciscoshyChicago airmail (CAM number 18) route from the govshyernment BAT operated 24 of the 25 40As built The other plane was delivered to Pratt amp Whitney as a flying engine test bed This test aircraft proved its worth as in early 1928 the new 525 horsepower Pratt amp Whitney Homet engine became available in quantity and BAT quickly converted 19of its 40As to 40Bs with the installashytion of the new Hornet engine Among these was the Chicago museums NC288

According to the Model Specification and History document supplied to BAT by the Boeing Airplane Comshypany the 40A was a Three-place Landplane Biplane Closed Cabin Mailplane (3P-CiSl Factory numbers ran from 879 through 903 The first flight was made on May 20 1927 with delivery to BAT nine days later Dimenshysions were wingspan 442 length 332V and height 123 Empty weight was 2622 Ibs with a de sign gross of 4652 Ibs It boasted a top speed of 135 mph and a cruising speed of 125 mph but the actual pershyformance was closer to a maximum speed of 128 and a cruise of 105 mph It has a range of 550 miles and a sershyvice ceiling of 15700 feet

The 40A needed the altitude capability because of the rugged mountainous terrain on the 1 9113 mile San Francisco-Chicago run BAT started to use the new plane on the route with many intermediate stops on July 1 1927 When National Air Transport began its CAM Number 17 route operations with its Douglas M-4s betshyween New York and Chicago on September 1 1927 the two airlines link-up at Checkerboard Field at Maywood Illinois outside of Chicago gave the United States its first transcontinental air travel

The Chicago museum s Boeing 40B figured promishynently in th is important part of history Boeing NC288 amassed more than 6000 flight hours on the San Francisco-Chicago run and was flown many times by the famous airmail pioneer Jack Knight (See The Vintage Airplane February 1977) before it was retired

Construction of the Boeing 40A is shown in this picture of th e Boeing A irplane Company assembly line w ith A Boeing 40A NC286 - a sister ship of NC288 in the 40As in various stages of completion at Sea ttle Washingshy Chicago Museum - is show n fl ying over mountains on ton the Boeing A ir Transports San Francisco-Chicago run in

20

The Museums 40B in the coloring and markings of a 40A hangs with other historically significant aircraft in Chicagos Museum of Science and Industry The cockpit of the Boeing 40A w as simple making the

job o f duplica ting it in a model less demanding

(Museum of Science and Industry Photo)

- __ poundLlaquo

In 1933 it was used in the Wings of a Century pageant at the Century of Progress Exposition in Chicago after the Worlds Fair it was turned over to the Rosenwald Museum which later was renamed the Museum of Scishyence and Industry

Although the basic construction of the Boeing 40A was simple it had enough detail to make a model of it interesting Buttita said that he was a stickler for detail but admitted that he got carried away in making his model

When I decided to build the model I didnt intend to make it with such detail Buttita told this author I thought I could fake a lot by making the metal parts out of wood and painting them silver

But Buttita changed his mind and made every metal part out of metal and every wood part out of wood So the project which he thought would take him six or seven months eventually took three years

The more detail I put on it the better it looked he said so finally nothing could stop me and I detailed evshyerything

Buttita is an artist with the Accurate Silk Screen Sershyvice Company Chicago and his model building ability is well known

The three-quarter scale 40A is what is called a scratch model in which the builder starts from scratch as opposed to a kit in which plans and many formed parts are supplied

Buttita said a scratch model involves considerable reshysearch and study For the 40A he got a complete set of plans and all the photographs he could from Boeing and United

It took me three or four months of study before I could actually get started to build anything he said

Unlike kits which eliminate many of the interior parts that cannot be seen scratch models to be authentic must have all the details of construction such as all the ribs in the wings But that also makes them much stronger and keeps them from warping Buttita pointed out

Both the Boeing 40A flown by BAT and the Buttita model of it were constructed at the peak of the state of the art for their day

The airplane had a steel tubular fuselage with wood fairing strips and was dural and fabric covered The wings also fabric covered were built up of spruce spars and ribs The dural sheet on the fuselage covered the enshygine cowling cabin doors and compartment hatch openshyings

The two passengers sat in a cabin metal lined throughout and their seats and seat backs were upholsshytered in leather The windows of the two doors one on each side of the fuselage were made of non-shatterable glass and could be opened for additional ventilation and

21

Details of the construction of the 40As cabin door and wing struts are shown in this close-up

A close-up view of Carl Butshytitas model of the 40A shows how dedicated he was to deshytail in the models construction

Carl Buttita builder of the three-fourths sca le Boe ing 40A discusses fine points of the construction with Edshyward E Carlson chairman of UAL In c Chicago and a member of the board of trustees of the Museum of Scishyence and Indu stry before the model was put on display in the Museum

were large enough to give the passengers an excellent view of the scenery

The rear of the fuselage was braced with steel tie-rods and was heavily faired to shape although it still was fabshyric covered The tail assembly also was fabric covered but only the horizontal stabilizer was built up like the wings with spruce spars and wood built-up ribs The rest of the tail assembly was built up with welded steel tubshying It rested on a steerable tailskid The landing gear was made of streamlined chrome-moly and used oleo-spring shock absorbers

Buttitas construction problems for his model were reshysolved through the use of a wide variety of materials

The Boeing model is made of aluminum pine dentists plastic epoxy glue and Japanese silkspan paper About 40 percent of the model is metal but much of it is inside so you dont see it Buttita said These parts are the cables controls pilots seat corrugated floor panels hinges cockpit fire extinguisher medical kit and workshyable seat belts

Each part had to be hand made some several times to get them right or if they broke Buttita said I had to make 20 to 30 rims for the landing lights to get two

When you make a one-of-a-kind model you have to fabricate about 90 per cent of the parts yourself and make dies for almost everything he added

For the metal parts Buttita used small pieces of offset printers plate made of aluminum but with some tin for added strength The wood parts are made of spruce and the engine and wheels are made of the dental plastic

All the markings and lettering were drawn triple the size on paper and reduced photographically on decal paper That way they were better than if I had handshypainted them on the model he said

Buttita said he did all the construction work on a card table at home and the only power tool he used was a small electric drill

At least one other Boeing 40B is known to be on exshyhibit in another museum This is aircraft NC285 factory number 896 which was presented to the Henry Ford Museum at Dearbom Michigan in 1938 But so far it doesnt have a scale model of its own to highlight it And don t look to Carl Buttita to build one I will never do it again he sa id It was just too much work

Rebuilding AVagabond

By Larry Railing Box 5 7 -C P Avenue

Lake Mills WI 5355 7

I never realized at the time I started to rebuild or lets say restore Piper Vagabond PA-15 N4423H that so many people were interested in what Id term history So here it is

I started flying in Valparaiso Indiana around 1900 I learned in a )-3 owned by Mark Murvahill I later

graduated to the PA-12 In 1964 I graduated from high school and a year later I was married As most in like cirshycumstances I gave up flying for love until the newness wore off

My first airplane was a )-5 Cub that went down in a marsh I had started to rebuild it until Dick Wagner of Wag-Aero heard of it and made me an untimely offer This airplane was later destroyed at Burlington along with the Tri-Motor

I later owned other aircraft which included aT-Craft Somehow Dick Wagner heard of my T-Craft and flew up in a Vagabond to see it and made me an offer

I told him at that time if he ever got in the mood to sell the Vag to please call me That was in 1968

On December 26 1976 Dick called me and asked if I was still interested in the Vag I told him yes and Id come down the next Saturday morning The next Saturday came and so did I There the Vag stood on its nose just as pictures in past issues of The Vintage A irplane had shown

Dick with all his other projects had to let something go He offered me the Vag or one of two Cubs My thoughts never gave way to anything but the Vag

23

The stripped fuselage arrives at home ready for a long winter s night

Work completed the birds about ready for a runway

I climbed a ladder and pulled the tail down and began looking It was all there but in sad shape For the past four years it hadn t been outside It looked good in the dark but time took its toll The fabric was beyond even shot But it was all original Every instrument the seat and all were original In thirty years no one even drilled a hole in the panel

We tried to get the old Lycoming 65 started but no way

The next Saturday morning I borrowed a stock car trailer and headed for Lyons with my truck On the way down all was going so well until I met a car looked in my mirror and noticed the trailer to be about a foot wider than my pickup Id never given that a thought before Everytime I met another car I just got over a little I fishynally arrived at Dicks place and began taking the Vag

Fits like a sausage casing The envelopes ready for the hea t trea tment

apart I placed the wings on some racks on my truck and the fuselage or the trailer I didn t bother taking off the tail All was loaded and ready to roll in about three hours

About halfway into the dismantling it began to snow By the time I was ready to go we had gotten about three inches This worked out in my favor as it slowed everyone else on the highway down to my speed My greatest worry when hauling an airplane is when you meet a truck

All seemed to be going good The first car I met I got over to the right because of the trailer At this time I looked into the mirror and not only noticed the trailer a foot wider than the truck on each side but the horizontal stabilizer stuck out another foot on each side beyond the trailer What a shock

I stopped and tried to remove the tail but to no avail The snow kept coming and so did the end of the day It took me four and a quarter hours to go fifty-five miles By the time I got home we had eight inches of snow What a long ride

I began total disassembly right away The wings were in fantastic shape All that was needed was varnish on the tip bows I also put new cables in the whole airplane The original inspectors number date and signature are still on the spars

I worked the whole project under the watchful eyes of Paul Baker an AI from Beaver Aviation at Dodge County

The author tackles another flying surface with needle and twine

Airport He is really an EAAer I never heard of an AI so ready and willing to help restore an airplane He even came to my home after hours to inspect the fuselage as it was easier for me than taking it up there Paul says if Id hired him to do the restoring I could just hand over my paycheck for a year so he said you do the working and Ill do the looking

All the still pieces were sandblasted and sprayed with Imron primer Believe me you do have to wear a mask with that stuff

I gave Wag-Aero a call and told them what I needed for a complete cover job and not to call me until they had it all there in one pile with no monkeying around for a little of this and that

While waiting for the covering materials I began work on the engine The whole airplane had only 1100 hours and the engine 330 SMOH I just couldn t get it started I solicited the help of a local mechanic and Stinshyson owner Harold Hubrich We found three blown head gaskets one leaky valve the impulse spring in the left mag was broken and the P-Iead in the right mag the inshysulator of phenolic replaced with masking tape

I pulled the heads and Harold ground ~he valves had the mags rebuilt a complete new ignition system and the carburetor rebuilt We got her back together and bongo

- she started right off In the meantime I finished the wings and control surshy

faces I wanted to paint it all apart so a temporary gear 24

Larry applies a new cowling atter a fruitl ess encounter with sa ndblasting equipment

was made to support the fuselage The engine was never taken off Many people questioned that temporary gear I just said you had to be very careful on take-off and landshying

The actual covering was very enjoyable you could see some real progress including the stitching but that spraying and sanding Sixteen hours of work for every coat Six sandings fourteen coats and thirty gallons all total

The sheet metal was all in good shape I had planned to replace the cowl so a guy that was chicken could look in at the rubber band I tried Zip Strip to get down to bare metal with no luck at all I took all the aluminum parts over to a body shop including the boot and sandblasted them In less than ten minutes I destroyed every piece of aluminum except the instrument panel and nose bowl I then got some aluminum and began making new parts It all turned out very well

When I first brought the Vag home I contacted Cecil Ogles of Vag-News and he sent me more info than I think Piper has Among which was complete rigging

Im a little more fortunate than most- Im a tool and die model maker by trade and have my own shop Before beginning on the Vag my partner and I added on a 50 x 60 foot addition to our shop which served for a beautiful place to work over the winter to store parts until needed as well as an area to completely assemble the airplane for rigging

Its been a long time since the fuselage last shook from a run-up

Time came to go to the airport and sprout feathers There is a private strip just south of town so I went there along with about six helpers The airplane was assembled and flown two days later on June 28 1978 A year and a half after beginning

The first flight was all anyone could hope for It really flys hands off and is the easiest airplane for a taildragger to land that I have ever flown

Now for some numbers Cruise 85-90 Cruise RPM 2300 Fuel Consumption 30 gph Prop 70-36 Final and Climb 70 mph Over the Fence 60 mph Stall 40 mph Empty Weight 640 Ibs Take-off- For each 10 Ibs over 200 the passenger

weighs I added 100 feet I had the Vag at Oshkosh on Tuesday this year and

took it home and put it to bed the same night In this area we have about fifteen Vags flying with

five of them done original Myself I like to see airplanes kept original Its like a Model T with a Chevy 427 it just aint the same

The airplane is covered with Stits and the finish is Aerothane

Now that the airplanes finished work ca n proceed on the shop

I can say something most people cant about this airpshylane While at Oshkosh I went over and visited the Piper display and who would you guess was there Clyde Smith the test pilot of my airplane thirty years ago I took a couple of pictures of him and will be placing them in the log books next to his signature

The Vag is my first real attempt in restoring I did the whole airplane myse lf except the seat and the engine work Im very pleased with the end product Its all mine and paid for as well Im now enjoying the fruits of my labor and Id do it again if I could find another Vagshyabond

Oddly enough it seemed the hardest part of the whole project was the legal end Being that the FCC can t seem to find a good reason to charge for a restricted radio license I decided to send for one just in case I ever carried a radio along That took three months and the paperwork went back and forth six times The hardest part was the registration The airplane hadn t been regisshytered since 1967 The State of Wisconsin wasnt too bad That paperwork came back only once asking for an addishytional $333 because I didn t notify them within thirty days after purchase even though the airplane had been declared exempt But the Feds This took six months nine phone calls and six letters Finally I called once again and told them that after a year and a half of rebuilding with or without them I was going to fly it I think that finally did the trick

25

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Calendar of Events NOVEMBER 18-19 - MIAMI FlORIDA- Antique Classic and Cusshy

tom Built Fly-In at the third annual Harvest- A Country Fair sponsored by the Historical Association of Southern Florida at the Dade County Youth Fairground Coral Way at 112th Avenue Awards given for antique classic and custom built aircraft Conshytact Capt Ken Ufland of the Civil Air Patrol office (305) 552-3106 home after 600 pm (305) 251-5927 or Mary Dodd Russell Harshyvest Coordinator at the Historical Museum 3280 S Miami Ave shynue Building B Miami Fl 33129

JANUARY 21-27 - Sun N Fun the biggest fly-in in the southeastshyand the second biggest in the natron Its a full week of southern hospitality and flying fun daily aerial demonstrations fly-bys of antique classic homebuilt and warbird aircraft forums exhibits and static displays parties and com roasts big new food concesshysion country store for campers in our shady campsites Make motel reservations early- our free information booklet has a complete list of accommodations Write to Sun N Fun PO Box 3538 lakeland Florida 33802

(Dick Stouffer Photo)

Aeronca IICC Super Chief belonging to David E Long Keyser West Virginia

(Ted Koston Photo)

Heres a sharp Funk at Oshkosh Owner unknown didnt register

(Dick Stouffer Photo)

Another fine looking unregistered aircraft

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F4U CORSAIR

PLANE CHECKS The Leading Fighter 01 WWII - with a Record 01 2140 Japanese Aircraft Destroyed 28 01 which

Are Credited to Pappy Boyington Regular bank checks emblazoned with the F4U CORSAIR

- Complete the order form and write out your check Now get a deposit Slip from the same account and clearly indicate any changes or other notations as you wish it to appear on the checks (These two documents will furnish us all the data we need to make your checks compatible with your banks computer and Amer Bank Assn specs) On gift orders send your check and mark his check VOID Please allow 3 weeks for delivery

Start USing Plane Checks Now Your old checks will always be good

Identity Check Co Box 149-D Park Ridge III 60068 Activate my order for Plane Checks starting No ___ o 300middot$795 0 600-$1350 0 900middot$1875 Checks are printed with blue backgrounds and are top bound-one part deposit sUps registers and matching checkbook cover are Included In each order

o F4U CORSAIR o PIPER Assortment o BEECH AIICH1menl o UNITED DC-10

o Cherokee o Sundowner o NORTH CENTRAL DC9 DArrow o V Bonanza o CONTINENTAL OCmiddot10 o Seneca II o Baron o NATIONAL DC-l0

o PITTS SPECIAL o Pmiddot51 MUSTANG 11 AMERICAN OCmiddot10 o CESSNA Allottmenl o TWALmiddot1011 o EASTERN Lmiddotl011

o Hawk o PSA727 o WESTERN 0010 o 210Centurlon o BDmiddot5 o OZARK OCmiddotg0310 o MOONEY

o YELLOW Jmiddot3 CUB o HELICOPTER (BELL)

Ship via 0 UPS (insured) 0 Parcel Post o WEST COAST add one dollar-well fly it

Ship To

Address

City State___ Zip____

26

ing the laws of science and applications of technology in industry and other fields It is a non-profit independent institution and admission is free

The Museum was partially opened in 1933 with only a handful of exhibits By that time Boeing Air Transport and three other airline companies-- Pacific Air Transport Varney Air Lines and National Air Transport- were joined together to form United Airlines which on November 30 1933 donated the Boeing to the Museum

It took seven more years for the museum to be comshypleted so the Boeing was stored in the institutions basement until it finally was hung from the ceiling in 1939 Although the plane has been cleaned regularly and today remains in sparkling condition it has never been moved from its resting place and probably wont be for some time to come

The Boeing is part of a large aviation display which includes a number of other antique aircraft the Apollo 8 spacecraft and a full-sized model of the first class cabin of a Boeing 747

Other planes on exhibit with the Boeing 40B are a 1910 Curtiss a 1913 Morane-Saulnier a 1917 Curtiss J N-4 Jenny a Supermarine Spitfire a Lockheed F-104 Starfighter and the Travel-Air S Mystery NR1313 sponsored by Texaco and flown by Frank Hawks in setshyting a number of transcontinental records

The Museum also owns a Junkers Ju87B Stuka but it is not on exhibit in Chicago because it rests temporarily on loan in the Air Education Museum of the Experimental Aircraft Association in Franklin Wisconsin The German World War II dive bomber was restored after a cleaning accident at the Chicago Museum by the EAA Museum staff

The Model which Buttita finished three years ago is on exhibit in a special case It draws considerable interest because of its highly detailed work- down to the tiniest hinges on the doors

Boeing Air Transport (BAn probably owed its corposhyrate life to the Boeing 40A which enabled it to get into the airmail transport business

The Boeing Airplane Company first built a single Model 40 for a government competition in 1925 for the awarding of a contract for an airplane to be flown by the U S Post Office Department to replace the old de Havilshyland DH-4s it had been using since 1918 The governshyment bought the one Model 40 equipped with the old watercooled Liberty engine but did not award the comshypany a production contract It went instead to Douglas for its series of M aircraft

However the project was revived a year later when the Post Office Department decided to award Contract Air Mail (CAM) routes to private contractors for airmail The Model 40 plans were dusted off updated with the

After its Wasp engine was replaced with the PampW Hornet engine the 40A was designated the 408 and This picture of groundcrewmen unloading a 40A gives a looked like the above close-up view of the Pratt amp Whitney Wasp engine and

the dural sheet construction used throughout

latest improvements and redesigned to meet the postal requirements Designated the 40A it was powered with a 9 cylinder 420 horsepower Pratt amp Whitney Wasp enshygine a new aircooled radial engine Boeing was testing in its fighter type aircraft

The Boeing basic design with a pilot in an open cockpit was also changed to carry two passengers in a forward cabin although the awarding of the airmail conshytract and not passenger transportation was of paramount importance But the 40A could still carry 1200 pounds of mail in addition to the two hardy souls who pioneered passenger travel in 1927

It was the new designs low operating costs and high revenue potential that got BAT Boeings wholl y-owned subsidiary the low bid on the new San FranciscoshyChicago airmail (CAM number 18) route from the govshyernment BAT operated 24 of the 25 40As built The other plane was delivered to Pratt amp Whitney as a flying engine test bed This test aircraft proved its worth as in early 1928 the new 525 horsepower Pratt amp Whitney Homet engine became available in quantity and BAT quickly converted 19of its 40As to 40Bs with the installashytion of the new Hornet engine Among these was the Chicago museums NC288

According to the Model Specification and History document supplied to BAT by the Boeing Airplane Comshypany the 40A was a Three-place Landplane Biplane Closed Cabin Mailplane (3P-CiSl Factory numbers ran from 879 through 903 The first flight was made on May 20 1927 with delivery to BAT nine days later Dimenshysions were wingspan 442 length 332V and height 123 Empty weight was 2622 Ibs with a de sign gross of 4652 Ibs It boasted a top speed of 135 mph and a cruising speed of 125 mph but the actual pershyformance was closer to a maximum speed of 128 and a cruise of 105 mph It has a range of 550 miles and a sershyvice ceiling of 15700 feet

The 40A needed the altitude capability because of the rugged mountainous terrain on the 1 9113 mile San Francisco-Chicago run BAT started to use the new plane on the route with many intermediate stops on July 1 1927 When National Air Transport began its CAM Number 17 route operations with its Douglas M-4s betshyween New York and Chicago on September 1 1927 the two airlines link-up at Checkerboard Field at Maywood Illinois outside of Chicago gave the United States its first transcontinental air travel

The Chicago museum s Boeing 40B figured promishynently in th is important part of history Boeing NC288 amassed more than 6000 flight hours on the San Francisco-Chicago run and was flown many times by the famous airmail pioneer Jack Knight (See The Vintage Airplane February 1977) before it was retired

Construction of the Boeing 40A is shown in this picture of th e Boeing A irplane Company assembly line w ith A Boeing 40A NC286 - a sister ship of NC288 in the 40As in various stages of completion at Sea ttle Washingshy Chicago Museum - is show n fl ying over mountains on ton the Boeing A ir Transports San Francisco-Chicago run in

20

The Museums 40B in the coloring and markings of a 40A hangs with other historically significant aircraft in Chicagos Museum of Science and Industry The cockpit of the Boeing 40A w as simple making the

job o f duplica ting it in a model less demanding

(Museum of Science and Industry Photo)

- __ poundLlaquo

In 1933 it was used in the Wings of a Century pageant at the Century of Progress Exposition in Chicago after the Worlds Fair it was turned over to the Rosenwald Museum which later was renamed the Museum of Scishyence and Industry

Although the basic construction of the Boeing 40A was simple it had enough detail to make a model of it interesting Buttita said that he was a stickler for detail but admitted that he got carried away in making his model

When I decided to build the model I didnt intend to make it with such detail Buttita told this author I thought I could fake a lot by making the metal parts out of wood and painting them silver

But Buttita changed his mind and made every metal part out of metal and every wood part out of wood So the project which he thought would take him six or seven months eventually took three years

The more detail I put on it the better it looked he said so finally nothing could stop me and I detailed evshyerything

Buttita is an artist with the Accurate Silk Screen Sershyvice Company Chicago and his model building ability is well known

The three-quarter scale 40A is what is called a scratch model in which the builder starts from scratch as opposed to a kit in which plans and many formed parts are supplied

Buttita said a scratch model involves considerable reshysearch and study For the 40A he got a complete set of plans and all the photographs he could from Boeing and United

It took me three or four months of study before I could actually get started to build anything he said

Unlike kits which eliminate many of the interior parts that cannot be seen scratch models to be authentic must have all the details of construction such as all the ribs in the wings But that also makes them much stronger and keeps them from warping Buttita pointed out

Both the Boeing 40A flown by BAT and the Buttita model of it were constructed at the peak of the state of the art for their day

The airplane had a steel tubular fuselage with wood fairing strips and was dural and fabric covered The wings also fabric covered were built up of spruce spars and ribs The dural sheet on the fuselage covered the enshygine cowling cabin doors and compartment hatch openshyings

The two passengers sat in a cabin metal lined throughout and their seats and seat backs were upholsshytered in leather The windows of the two doors one on each side of the fuselage were made of non-shatterable glass and could be opened for additional ventilation and

21

Details of the construction of the 40As cabin door and wing struts are shown in this close-up

A close-up view of Carl Butshytitas model of the 40A shows how dedicated he was to deshytail in the models construction

Carl Buttita builder of the three-fourths sca le Boe ing 40A discusses fine points of the construction with Edshyward E Carlson chairman of UAL In c Chicago and a member of the board of trustees of the Museum of Scishyence and Indu stry before the model was put on display in the Museum

were large enough to give the passengers an excellent view of the scenery

The rear of the fuselage was braced with steel tie-rods and was heavily faired to shape although it still was fabshyric covered The tail assembly also was fabric covered but only the horizontal stabilizer was built up like the wings with spruce spars and wood built-up ribs The rest of the tail assembly was built up with welded steel tubshying It rested on a steerable tailskid The landing gear was made of streamlined chrome-moly and used oleo-spring shock absorbers

Buttitas construction problems for his model were reshysolved through the use of a wide variety of materials

The Boeing model is made of aluminum pine dentists plastic epoxy glue and Japanese silkspan paper About 40 percent of the model is metal but much of it is inside so you dont see it Buttita said These parts are the cables controls pilots seat corrugated floor panels hinges cockpit fire extinguisher medical kit and workshyable seat belts

Each part had to be hand made some several times to get them right or if they broke Buttita said I had to make 20 to 30 rims for the landing lights to get two

When you make a one-of-a-kind model you have to fabricate about 90 per cent of the parts yourself and make dies for almost everything he added

For the metal parts Buttita used small pieces of offset printers plate made of aluminum but with some tin for added strength The wood parts are made of spruce and the engine and wheels are made of the dental plastic

All the markings and lettering were drawn triple the size on paper and reduced photographically on decal paper That way they were better than if I had handshypainted them on the model he said

Buttita said he did all the construction work on a card table at home and the only power tool he used was a small electric drill

At least one other Boeing 40B is known to be on exshyhibit in another museum This is aircraft NC285 factory number 896 which was presented to the Henry Ford Museum at Dearbom Michigan in 1938 But so far it doesnt have a scale model of its own to highlight it And don t look to Carl Buttita to build one I will never do it again he sa id It was just too much work

Rebuilding AVagabond

By Larry Railing Box 5 7 -C P Avenue

Lake Mills WI 5355 7

I never realized at the time I started to rebuild or lets say restore Piper Vagabond PA-15 N4423H that so many people were interested in what Id term history So here it is

I started flying in Valparaiso Indiana around 1900 I learned in a )-3 owned by Mark Murvahill I later

graduated to the PA-12 In 1964 I graduated from high school and a year later I was married As most in like cirshycumstances I gave up flying for love until the newness wore off

My first airplane was a )-5 Cub that went down in a marsh I had started to rebuild it until Dick Wagner of Wag-Aero heard of it and made me an untimely offer This airplane was later destroyed at Burlington along with the Tri-Motor

I later owned other aircraft which included aT-Craft Somehow Dick Wagner heard of my T-Craft and flew up in a Vagabond to see it and made me an offer

I told him at that time if he ever got in the mood to sell the Vag to please call me That was in 1968

On December 26 1976 Dick called me and asked if I was still interested in the Vag I told him yes and Id come down the next Saturday morning The next Saturday came and so did I There the Vag stood on its nose just as pictures in past issues of The Vintage A irplane had shown

Dick with all his other projects had to let something go He offered me the Vag or one of two Cubs My thoughts never gave way to anything but the Vag

23

The stripped fuselage arrives at home ready for a long winter s night

Work completed the birds about ready for a runway

I climbed a ladder and pulled the tail down and began looking It was all there but in sad shape For the past four years it hadn t been outside It looked good in the dark but time took its toll The fabric was beyond even shot But it was all original Every instrument the seat and all were original In thirty years no one even drilled a hole in the panel

We tried to get the old Lycoming 65 started but no way

The next Saturday morning I borrowed a stock car trailer and headed for Lyons with my truck On the way down all was going so well until I met a car looked in my mirror and noticed the trailer to be about a foot wider than my pickup Id never given that a thought before Everytime I met another car I just got over a little I fishynally arrived at Dicks place and began taking the Vag

Fits like a sausage casing The envelopes ready for the hea t trea tment

apart I placed the wings on some racks on my truck and the fuselage or the trailer I didn t bother taking off the tail All was loaded and ready to roll in about three hours

About halfway into the dismantling it began to snow By the time I was ready to go we had gotten about three inches This worked out in my favor as it slowed everyone else on the highway down to my speed My greatest worry when hauling an airplane is when you meet a truck

All seemed to be going good The first car I met I got over to the right because of the trailer At this time I looked into the mirror and not only noticed the trailer a foot wider than the truck on each side but the horizontal stabilizer stuck out another foot on each side beyond the trailer What a shock

I stopped and tried to remove the tail but to no avail The snow kept coming and so did the end of the day It took me four and a quarter hours to go fifty-five miles By the time I got home we had eight inches of snow What a long ride

I began total disassembly right away The wings were in fantastic shape All that was needed was varnish on the tip bows I also put new cables in the whole airplane The original inspectors number date and signature are still on the spars

I worked the whole project under the watchful eyes of Paul Baker an AI from Beaver Aviation at Dodge County

The author tackles another flying surface with needle and twine

Airport He is really an EAAer I never heard of an AI so ready and willing to help restore an airplane He even came to my home after hours to inspect the fuselage as it was easier for me than taking it up there Paul says if Id hired him to do the restoring I could just hand over my paycheck for a year so he said you do the working and Ill do the looking

All the still pieces were sandblasted and sprayed with Imron primer Believe me you do have to wear a mask with that stuff

I gave Wag-Aero a call and told them what I needed for a complete cover job and not to call me until they had it all there in one pile with no monkeying around for a little of this and that

While waiting for the covering materials I began work on the engine The whole airplane had only 1100 hours and the engine 330 SMOH I just couldn t get it started I solicited the help of a local mechanic and Stinshyson owner Harold Hubrich We found three blown head gaskets one leaky valve the impulse spring in the left mag was broken and the P-Iead in the right mag the inshysulator of phenolic replaced with masking tape

I pulled the heads and Harold ground ~he valves had the mags rebuilt a complete new ignition system and the carburetor rebuilt We got her back together and bongo

- she started right off In the meantime I finished the wings and control surshy

faces I wanted to paint it all apart so a temporary gear 24

Larry applies a new cowling atter a fruitl ess encounter with sa ndblasting equipment

was made to support the fuselage The engine was never taken off Many people questioned that temporary gear I just said you had to be very careful on take-off and landshying

The actual covering was very enjoyable you could see some real progress including the stitching but that spraying and sanding Sixteen hours of work for every coat Six sandings fourteen coats and thirty gallons all total

The sheet metal was all in good shape I had planned to replace the cowl so a guy that was chicken could look in at the rubber band I tried Zip Strip to get down to bare metal with no luck at all I took all the aluminum parts over to a body shop including the boot and sandblasted them In less than ten minutes I destroyed every piece of aluminum except the instrument panel and nose bowl I then got some aluminum and began making new parts It all turned out very well

When I first brought the Vag home I contacted Cecil Ogles of Vag-News and he sent me more info than I think Piper has Among which was complete rigging

Im a little more fortunate than most- Im a tool and die model maker by trade and have my own shop Before beginning on the Vag my partner and I added on a 50 x 60 foot addition to our shop which served for a beautiful place to work over the winter to store parts until needed as well as an area to completely assemble the airplane for rigging

Its been a long time since the fuselage last shook from a run-up

Time came to go to the airport and sprout feathers There is a private strip just south of town so I went there along with about six helpers The airplane was assembled and flown two days later on June 28 1978 A year and a half after beginning

The first flight was all anyone could hope for It really flys hands off and is the easiest airplane for a taildragger to land that I have ever flown

Now for some numbers Cruise 85-90 Cruise RPM 2300 Fuel Consumption 30 gph Prop 70-36 Final and Climb 70 mph Over the Fence 60 mph Stall 40 mph Empty Weight 640 Ibs Take-off- For each 10 Ibs over 200 the passenger

weighs I added 100 feet I had the Vag at Oshkosh on Tuesday this year and

took it home and put it to bed the same night In this area we have about fifteen Vags flying with

five of them done original Myself I like to see airplanes kept original Its like a Model T with a Chevy 427 it just aint the same

The airplane is covered with Stits and the finish is Aerothane

Now that the airplanes finished work ca n proceed on the shop

I can say something most people cant about this airpshylane While at Oshkosh I went over and visited the Piper display and who would you guess was there Clyde Smith the test pilot of my airplane thirty years ago I took a couple of pictures of him and will be placing them in the log books next to his signature

The Vag is my first real attempt in restoring I did the whole airplane myse lf except the seat and the engine work Im very pleased with the end product Its all mine and paid for as well Im now enjoying the fruits of my labor and Id do it again if I could find another Vagshyabond

Oddly enough it seemed the hardest part of the whole project was the legal end Being that the FCC can t seem to find a good reason to charge for a restricted radio license I decided to send for one just in case I ever carried a radio along That took three months and the paperwork went back and forth six times The hardest part was the registration The airplane hadn t been regisshytered since 1967 The State of Wisconsin wasnt too bad That paperwork came back only once asking for an addishytional $333 because I didn t notify them within thirty days after purchase even though the airplane had been declared exempt But the Feds This took six months nine phone calls and six letters Finally I called once again and told them that after a year and a half of rebuilding with or without them I was going to fly it I think that finally did the trick

25

--

----

---

Calendar of Events NOVEMBER 18-19 - MIAMI FlORIDA- Antique Classic and Cusshy

tom Built Fly-In at the third annual Harvest- A Country Fair sponsored by the Historical Association of Southern Florida at the Dade County Youth Fairground Coral Way at 112th Avenue Awards given for antique classic and custom built aircraft Conshytact Capt Ken Ufland of the Civil Air Patrol office (305) 552-3106 home after 600 pm (305) 251-5927 or Mary Dodd Russell Harshyvest Coordinator at the Historical Museum 3280 S Miami Ave shynue Building B Miami Fl 33129

JANUARY 21-27 - Sun N Fun the biggest fly-in in the southeastshyand the second biggest in the natron Its a full week of southern hospitality and flying fun daily aerial demonstrations fly-bys of antique classic homebuilt and warbird aircraft forums exhibits and static displays parties and com roasts big new food concesshysion country store for campers in our shady campsites Make motel reservations early- our free information booklet has a complete list of accommodations Write to Sun N Fun PO Box 3538 lakeland Florida 33802

(Dick Stouffer Photo)

Aeronca IICC Super Chief belonging to David E Long Keyser West Virginia

(Ted Koston Photo)

Heres a sharp Funk at Oshkosh Owner unknown didnt register

(Dick Stouffer Photo)

Another fine looking unregistered aircraft

STATEMENT OF OWNERSHIP MANAGEMENT AND CIRCULATION RlItdbyJ9U$C )681

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F4U CORSAIR

PLANE CHECKS The Leading Fighter 01 WWII - with a Record 01 2140 Japanese Aircraft Destroyed 28 01 which

Are Credited to Pappy Boyington Regular bank checks emblazoned with the F4U CORSAIR

- Complete the order form and write out your check Now get a deposit Slip from the same account and clearly indicate any changes or other notations as you wish it to appear on the checks (These two documents will furnish us all the data we need to make your checks compatible with your banks computer and Amer Bank Assn specs) On gift orders send your check and mark his check VOID Please allow 3 weeks for delivery

Start USing Plane Checks Now Your old checks will always be good

Identity Check Co Box 149-D Park Ridge III 60068 Activate my order for Plane Checks starting No ___ o 300middot$795 0 600-$1350 0 900middot$1875 Checks are printed with blue backgrounds and are top bound-one part deposit sUps registers and matching checkbook cover are Included In each order

o F4U CORSAIR o PIPER Assortment o BEECH AIICH1menl o UNITED DC-10

o Cherokee o Sundowner o NORTH CENTRAL DC9 DArrow o V Bonanza o CONTINENTAL OCmiddot10 o Seneca II o Baron o NATIONAL DC-l0

o PITTS SPECIAL o Pmiddot51 MUSTANG 11 AMERICAN OCmiddot10 o CESSNA Allottmenl o TWALmiddot1011 o EASTERN Lmiddotl011

o Hawk o PSA727 o WESTERN 0010 o 210Centurlon o BDmiddot5 o OZARK OCmiddotg0310 o MOONEY

o YELLOW Jmiddot3 CUB o HELICOPTER (BELL)

Ship via 0 UPS (insured) 0 Parcel Post o WEST COAST add one dollar-well fly it

Ship To

Address

City State___ Zip____

26

latest improvements and redesigned to meet the postal requirements Designated the 40A it was powered with a 9 cylinder 420 horsepower Pratt amp Whitney Wasp enshygine a new aircooled radial engine Boeing was testing in its fighter type aircraft

The Boeing basic design with a pilot in an open cockpit was also changed to carry two passengers in a forward cabin although the awarding of the airmail conshytract and not passenger transportation was of paramount importance But the 40A could still carry 1200 pounds of mail in addition to the two hardy souls who pioneered passenger travel in 1927

It was the new designs low operating costs and high revenue potential that got BAT Boeings wholl y-owned subsidiary the low bid on the new San FranciscoshyChicago airmail (CAM number 18) route from the govshyernment BAT operated 24 of the 25 40As built The other plane was delivered to Pratt amp Whitney as a flying engine test bed This test aircraft proved its worth as in early 1928 the new 525 horsepower Pratt amp Whitney Homet engine became available in quantity and BAT quickly converted 19of its 40As to 40Bs with the installashytion of the new Hornet engine Among these was the Chicago museums NC288

According to the Model Specification and History document supplied to BAT by the Boeing Airplane Comshypany the 40A was a Three-place Landplane Biplane Closed Cabin Mailplane (3P-CiSl Factory numbers ran from 879 through 903 The first flight was made on May 20 1927 with delivery to BAT nine days later Dimenshysions were wingspan 442 length 332V and height 123 Empty weight was 2622 Ibs with a de sign gross of 4652 Ibs It boasted a top speed of 135 mph and a cruising speed of 125 mph but the actual pershyformance was closer to a maximum speed of 128 and a cruise of 105 mph It has a range of 550 miles and a sershyvice ceiling of 15700 feet

The 40A needed the altitude capability because of the rugged mountainous terrain on the 1 9113 mile San Francisco-Chicago run BAT started to use the new plane on the route with many intermediate stops on July 1 1927 When National Air Transport began its CAM Number 17 route operations with its Douglas M-4s betshyween New York and Chicago on September 1 1927 the two airlines link-up at Checkerboard Field at Maywood Illinois outside of Chicago gave the United States its first transcontinental air travel

The Chicago museum s Boeing 40B figured promishynently in th is important part of history Boeing NC288 amassed more than 6000 flight hours on the San Francisco-Chicago run and was flown many times by the famous airmail pioneer Jack Knight (See The Vintage Airplane February 1977) before it was retired

Construction of the Boeing 40A is shown in this picture of th e Boeing A irplane Company assembly line w ith A Boeing 40A NC286 - a sister ship of NC288 in the 40As in various stages of completion at Sea ttle Washingshy Chicago Museum - is show n fl ying over mountains on ton the Boeing A ir Transports San Francisco-Chicago run in

20

The Museums 40B in the coloring and markings of a 40A hangs with other historically significant aircraft in Chicagos Museum of Science and Industry The cockpit of the Boeing 40A w as simple making the

job o f duplica ting it in a model less demanding

(Museum of Science and Industry Photo)

- __ poundLlaquo

In 1933 it was used in the Wings of a Century pageant at the Century of Progress Exposition in Chicago after the Worlds Fair it was turned over to the Rosenwald Museum which later was renamed the Museum of Scishyence and Industry

Although the basic construction of the Boeing 40A was simple it had enough detail to make a model of it interesting Buttita said that he was a stickler for detail but admitted that he got carried away in making his model

When I decided to build the model I didnt intend to make it with such detail Buttita told this author I thought I could fake a lot by making the metal parts out of wood and painting them silver

But Buttita changed his mind and made every metal part out of metal and every wood part out of wood So the project which he thought would take him six or seven months eventually took three years

The more detail I put on it the better it looked he said so finally nothing could stop me and I detailed evshyerything

Buttita is an artist with the Accurate Silk Screen Sershyvice Company Chicago and his model building ability is well known

The three-quarter scale 40A is what is called a scratch model in which the builder starts from scratch as opposed to a kit in which plans and many formed parts are supplied

Buttita said a scratch model involves considerable reshysearch and study For the 40A he got a complete set of plans and all the photographs he could from Boeing and United

It took me three or four months of study before I could actually get started to build anything he said

Unlike kits which eliminate many of the interior parts that cannot be seen scratch models to be authentic must have all the details of construction such as all the ribs in the wings But that also makes them much stronger and keeps them from warping Buttita pointed out

Both the Boeing 40A flown by BAT and the Buttita model of it were constructed at the peak of the state of the art for their day

The airplane had a steel tubular fuselage with wood fairing strips and was dural and fabric covered The wings also fabric covered were built up of spruce spars and ribs The dural sheet on the fuselage covered the enshygine cowling cabin doors and compartment hatch openshyings

The two passengers sat in a cabin metal lined throughout and their seats and seat backs were upholsshytered in leather The windows of the two doors one on each side of the fuselage were made of non-shatterable glass and could be opened for additional ventilation and

21

Details of the construction of the 40As cabin door and wing struts are shown in this close-up

A close-up view of Carl Butshytitas model of the 40A shows how dedicated he was to deshytail in the models construction

Carl Buttita builder of the three-fourths sca le Boe ing 40A discusses fine points of the construction with Edshyward E Carlson chairman of UAL In c Chicago and a member of the board of trustees of the Museum of Scishyence and Indu stry before the model was put on display in the Museum

were large enough to give the passengers an excellent view of the scenery

The rear of the fuselage was braced with steel tie-rods and was heavily faired to shape although it still was fabshyric covered The tail assembly also was fabric covered but only the horizontal stabilizer was built up like the wings with spruce spars and wood built-up ribs The rest of the tail assembly was built up with welded steel tubshying It rested on a steerable tailskid The landing gear was made of streamlined chrome-moly and used oleo-spring shock absorbers

Buttitas construction problems for his model were reshysolved through the use of a wide variety of materials

The Boeing model is made of aluminum pine dentists plastic epoxy glue and Japanese silkspan paper About 40 percent of the model is metal but much of it is inside so you dont see it Buttita said These parts are the cables controls pilots seat corrugated floor panels hinges cockpit fire extinguisher medical kit and workshyable seat belts

Each part had to be hand made some several times to get them right or if they broke Buttita said I had to make 20 to 30 rims for the landing lights to get two

When you make a one-of-a-kind model you have to fabricate about 90 per cent of the parts yourself and make dies for almost everything he added

For the metal parts Buttita used small pieces of offset printers plate made of aluminum but with some tin for added strength The wood parts are made of spruce and the engine and wheels are made of the dental plastic

All the markings and lettering were drawn triple the size on paper and reduced photographically on decal paper That way they were better than if I had handshypainted them on the model he said

Buttita said he did all the construction work on a card table at home and the only power tool he used was a small electric drill

At least one other Boeing 40B is known to be on exshyhibit in another museum This is aircraft NC285 factory number 896 which was presented to the Henry Ford Museum at Dearbom Michigan in 1938 But so far it doesnt have a scale model of its own to highlight it And don t look to Carl Buttita to build one I will never do it again he sa id It was just too much work

Rebuilding AVagabond

By Larry Railing Box 5 7 -C P Avenue

Lake Mills WI 5355 7

I never realized at the time I started to rebuild or lets say restore Piper Vagabond PA-15 N4423H that so many people were interested in what Id term history So here it is

I started flying in Valparaiso Indiana around 1900 I learned in a )-3 owned by Mark Murvahill I later

graduated to the PA-12 In 1964 I graduated from high school and a year later I was married As most in like cirshycumstances I gave up flying for love until the newness wore off

My first airplane was a )-5 Cub that went down in a marsh I had started to rebuild it until Dick Wagner of Wag-Aero heard of it and made me an untimely offer This airplane was later destroyed at Burlington along with the Tri-Motor

I later owned other aircraft which included aT-Craft Somehow Dick Wagner heard of my T-Craft and flew up in a Vagabond to see it and made me an offer

I told him at that time if he ever got in the mood to sell the Vag to please call me That was in 1968

On December 26 1976 Dick called me and asked if I was still interested in the Vag I told him yes and Id come down the next Saturday morning The next Saturday came and so did I There the Vag stood on its nose just as pictures in past issues of The Vintage A irplane had shown

Dick with all his other projects had to let something go He offered me the Vag or one of two Cubs My thoughts never gave way to anything but the Vag

23

The stripped fuselage arrives at home ready for a long winter s night

Work completed the birds about ready for a runway

I climbed a ladder and pulled the tail down and began looking It was all there but in sad shape For the past four years it hadn t been outside It looked good in the dark but time took its toll The fabric was beyond even shot But it was all original Every instrument the seat and all were original In thirty years no one even drilled a hole in the panel

We tried to get the old Lycoming 65 started but no way

The next Saturday morning I borrowed a stock car trailer and headed for Lyons with my truck On the way down all was going so well until I met a car looked in my mirror and noticed the trailer to be about a foot wider than my pickup Id never given that a thought before Everytime I met another car I just got over a little I fishynally arrived at Dicks place and began taking the Vag

Fits like a sausage casing The envelopes ready for the hea t trea tment

apart I placed the wings on some racks on my truck and the fuselage or the trailer I didn t bother taking off the tail All was loaded and ready to roll in about three hours

About halfway into the dismantling it began to snow By the time I was ready to go we had gotten about three inches This worked out in my favor as it slowed everyone else on the highway down to my speed My greatest worry when hauling an airplane is when you meet a truck

All seemed to be going good The first car I met I got over to the right because of the trailer At this time I looked into the mirror and not only noticed the trailer a foot wider than the truck on each side but the horizontal stabilizer stuck out another foot on each side beyond the trailer What a shock

I stopped and tried to remove the tail but to no avail The snow kept coming and so did the end of the day It took me four and a quarter hours to go fifty-five miles By the time I got home we had eight inches of snow What a long ride

I began total disassembly right away The wings were in fantastic shape All that was needed was varnish on the tip bows I also put new cables in the whole airplane The original inspectors number date and signature are still on the spars

I worked the whole project under the watchful eyes of Paul Baker an AI from Beaver Aviation at Dodge County

The author tackles another flying surface with needle and twine

Airport He is really an EAAer I never heard of an AI so ready and willing to help restore an airplane He even came to my home after hours to inspect the fuselage as it was easier for me than taking it up there Paul says if Id hired him to do the restoring I could just hand over my paycheck for a year so he said you do the working and Ill do the looking

All the still pieces were sandblasted and sprayed with Imron primer Believe me you do have to wear a mask with that stuff

I gave Wag-Aero a call and told them what I needed for a complete cover job and not to call me until they had it all there in one pile with no monkeying around for a little of this and that

While waiting for the covering materials I began work on the engine The whole airplane had only 1100 hours and the engine 330 SMOH I just couldn t get it started I solicited the help of a local mechanic and Stinshyson owner Harold Hubrich We found three blown head gaskets one leaky valve the impulse spring in the left mag was broken and the P-Iead in the right mag the inshysulator of phenolic replaced with masking tape

I pulled the heads and Harold ground ~he valves had the mags rebuilt a complete new ignition system and the carburetor rebuilt We got her back together and bongo

- she started right off In the meantime I finished the wings and control surshy

faces I wanted to paint it all apart so a temporary gear 24

Larry applies a new cowling atter a fruitl ess encounter with sa ndblasting equipment

was made to support the fuselage The engine was never taken off Many people questioned that temporary gear I just said you had to be very careful on take-off and landshying

The actual covering was very enjoyable you could see some real progress including the stitching but that spraying and sanding Sixteen hours of work for every coat Six sandings fourteen coats and thirty gallons all total

The sheet metal was all in good shape I had planned to replace the cowl so a guy that was chicken could look in at the rubber band I tried Zip Strip to get down to bare metal with no luck at all I took all the aluminum parts over to a body shop including the boot and sandblasted them In less than ten minutes I destroyed every piece of aluminum except the instrument panel and nose bowl I then got some aluminum and began making new parts It all turned out very well

When I first brought the Vag home I contacted Cecil Ogles of Vag-News and he sent me more info than I think Piper has Among which was complete rigging

Im a little more fortunate than most- Im a tool and die model maker by trade and have my own shop Before beginning on the Vag my partner and I added on a 50 x 60 foot addition to our shop which served for a beautiful place to work over the winter to store parts until needed as well as an area to completely assemble the airplane for rigging

Its been a long time since the fuselage last shook from a run-up

Time came to go to the airport and sprout feathers There is a private strip just south of town so I went there along with about six helpers The airplane was assembled and flown two days later on June 28 1978 A year and a half after beginning

The first flight was all anyone could hope for It really flys hands off and is the easiest airplane for a taildragger to land that I have ever flown

Now for some numbers Cruise 85-90 Cruise RPM 2300 Fuel Consumption 30 gph Prop 70-36 Final and Climb 70 mph Over the Fence 60 mph Stall 40 mph Empty Weight 640 Ibs Take-off- For each 10 Ibs over 200 the passenger

weighs I added 100 feet I had the Vag at Oshkosh on Tuesday this year and

took it home and put it to bed the same night In this area we have about fifteen Vags flying with

five of them done original Myself I like to see airplanes kept original Its like a Model T with a Chevy 427 it just aint the same

The airplane is covered with Stits and the finish is Aerothane

Now that the airplanes finished work ca n proceed on the shop

I can say something most people cant about this airpshylane While at Oshkosh I went over and visited the Piper display and who would you guess was there Clyde Smith the test pilot of my airplane thirty years ago I took a couple of pictures of him and will be placing them in the log books next to his signature

The Vag is my first real attempt in restoring I did the whole airplane myse lf except the seat and the engine work Im very pleased with the end product Its all mine and paid for as well Im now enjoying the fruits of my labor and Id do it again if I could find another Vagshyabond

Oddly enough it seemed the hardest part of the whole project was the legal end Being that the FCC can t seem to find a good reason to charge for a restricted radio license I decided to send for one just in case I ever carried a radio along That took three months and the paperwork went back and forth six times The hardest part was the registration The airplane hadn t been regisshytered since 1967 The State of Wisconsin wasnt too bad That paperwork came back only once asking for an addishytional $333 because I didn t notify them within thirty days after purchase even though the airplane had been declared exempt But the Feds This took six months nine phone calls and six letters Finally I called once again and told them that after a year and a half of rebuilding with or without them I was going to fly it I think that finally did the trick

25

--

----

---

Calendar of Events NOVEMBER 18-19 - MIAMI FlORIDA- Antique Classic and Cusshy

tom Built Fly-In at the third annual Harvest- A Country Fair sponsored by the Historical Association of Southern Florida at the Dade County Youth Fairground Coral Way at 112th Avenue Awards given for antique classic and custom built aircraft Conshytact Capt Ken Ufland of the Civil Air Patrol office (305) 552-3106 home after 600 pm (305) 251-5927 or Mary Dodd Russell Harshyvest Coordinator at the Historical Museum 3280 S Miami Ave shynue Building B Miami Fl 33129

JANUARY 21-27 - Sun N Fun the biggest fly-in in the southeastshyand the second biggest in the natron Its a full week of southern hospitality and flying fun daily aerial demonstrations fly-bys of antique classic homebuilt and warbird aircraft forums exhibits and static displays parties and com roasts big new food concesshysion country store for campers in our shady campsites Make motel reservations early- our free information booklet has a complete list of accommodations Write to Sun N Fun PO Box 3538 lakeland Florida 33802

(Dick Stouffer Photo)

Aeronca IICC Super Chief belonging to David E Long Keyser West Virginia

(Ted Koston Photo)

Heres a sharp Funk at Oshkosh Owner unknown didnt register

(Dick Stouffer Photo)

Another fine looking unregistered aircraft

STATEMENT OF OWNERSHIP MANAGEMENT AND CIRCULATION RlItdbyJ9U$C )681

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F4U CORSAIR

PLANE CHECKS The Leading Fighter 01 WWII - with a Record 01 2140 Japanese Aircraft Destroyed 28 01 which

Are Credited to Pappy Boyington Regular bank checks emblazoned with the F4U CORSAIR

- Complete the order form and write out your check Now get a deposit Slip from the same account and clearly indicate any changes or other notations as you wish it to appear on the checks (These two documents will furnish us all the data we need to make your checks compatible with your banks computer and Amer Bank Assn specs) On gift orders send your check and mark his check VOID Please allow 3 weeks for delivery

Start USing Plane Checks Now Your old checks will always be good

Identity Check Co Box 149-D Park Ridge III 60068 Activate my order for Plane Checks starting No ___ o 300middot$795 0 600-$1350 0 900middot$1875 Checks are printed with blue backgrounds and are top bound-one part deposit sUps registers and matching checkbook cover are Included In each order

o F4U CORSAIR o PIPER Assortment o BEECH AIICH1menl o UNITED DC-10

o Cherokee o Sundowner o NORTH CENTRAL DC9 DArrow o V Bonanza o CONTINENTAL OCmiddot10 o Seneca II o Baron o NATIONAL DC-l0

o PITTS SPECIAL o Pmiddot51 MUSTANG 11 AMERICAN OCmiddot10 o CESSNA Allottmenl o TWALmiddot1011 o EASTERN Lmiddotl011

o Hawk o PSA727 o WESTERN 0010 o 210Centurlon o BDmiddot5 o OZARK OCmiddotg0310 o MOONEY

o YELLOW Jmiddot3 CUB o HELICOPTER (BELL)

Ship via 0 UPS (insured) 0 Parcel Post o WEST COAST add one dollar-well fly it

Ship To

Address

City State___ Zip____

26

The Museums 40B in the coloring and markings of a 40A hangs with other historically significant aircraft in Chicagos Museum of Science and Industry The cockpit of the Boeing 40A w as simple making the

job o f duplica ting it in a model less demanding

(Museum of Science and Industry Photo)

- __ poundLlaquo

In 1933 it was used in the Wings of a Century pageant at the Century of Progress Exposition in Chicago after the Worlds Fair it was turned over to the Rosenwald Museum which later was renamed the Museum of Scishyence and Industry

Although the basic construction of the Boeing 40A was simple it had enough detail to make a model of it interesting Buttita said that he was a stickler for detail but admitted that he got carried away in making his model

When I decided to build the model I didnt intend to make it with such detail Buttita told this author I thought I could fake a lot by making the metal parts out of wood and painting them silver

But Buttita changed his mind and made every metal part out of metal and every wood part out of wood So the project which he thought would take him six or seven months eventually took three years

The more detail I put on it the better it looked he said so finally nothing could stop me and I detailed evshyerything

Buttita is an artist with the Accurate Silk Screen Sershyvice Company Chicago and his model building ability is well known

The three-quarter scale 40A is what is called a scratch model in which the builder starts from scratch as opposed to a kit in which plans and many formed parts are supplied

Buttita said a scratch model involves considerable reshysearch and study For the 40A he got a complete set of plans and all the photographs he could from Boeing and United

It took me three or four months of study before I could actually get started to build anything he said

Unlike kits which eliminate many of the interior parts that cannot be seen scratch models to be authentic must have all the details of construction such as all the ribs in the wings But that also makes them much stronger and keeps them from warping Buttita pointed out

Both the Boeing 40A flown by BAT and the Buttita model of it were constructed at the peak of the state of the art for their day

The airplane had a steel tubular fuselage with wood fairing strips and was dural and fabric covered The wings also fabric covered were built up of spruce spars and ribs The dural sheet on the fuselage covered the enshygine cowling cabin doors and compartment hatch openshyings

The two passengers sat in a cabin metal lined throughout and their seats and seat backs were upholsshytered in leather The windows of the two doors one on each side of the fuselage were made of non-shatterable glass and could be opened for additional ventilation and

21

Details of the construction of the 40As cabin door and wing struts are shown in this close-up

A close-up view of Carl Butshytitas model of the 40A shows how dedicated he was to deshytail in the models construction

Carl Buttita builder of the three-fourths sca le Boe ing 40A discusses fine points of the construction with Edshyward E Carlson chairman of UAL In c Chicago and a member of the board of trustees of the Museum of Scishyence and Indu stry before the model was put on display in the Museum

were large enough to give the passengers an excellent view of the scenery

The rear of the fuselage was braced with steel tie-rods and was heavily faired to shape although it still was fabshyric covered The tail assembly also was fabric covered but only the horizontal stabilizer was built up like the wings with spruce spars and wood built-up ribs The rest of the tail assembly was built up with welded steel tubshying It rested on a steerable tailskid The landing gear was made of streamlined chrome-moly and used oleo-spring shock absorbers

Buttitas construction problems for his model were reshysolved through the use of a wide variety of materials

The Boeing model is made of aluminum pine dentists plastic epoxy glue and Japanese silkspan paper About 40 percent of the model is metal but much of it is inside so you dont see it Buttita said These parts are the cables controls pilots seat corrugated floor panels hinges cockpit fire extinguisher medical kit and workshyable seat belts

Each part had to be hand made some several times to get them right or if they broke Buttita said I had to make 20 to 30 rims for the landing lights to get two

When you make a one-of-a-kind model you have to fabricate about 90 per cent of the parts yourself and make dies for almost everything he added

For the metal parts Buttita used small pieces of offset printers plate made of aluminum but with some tin for added strength The wood parts are made of spruce and the engine and wheels are made of the dental plastic

All the markings and lettering were drawn triple the size on paper and reduced photographically on decal paper That way they were better than if I had handshypainted them on the model he said

Buttita said he did all the construction work on a card table at home and the only power tool he used was a small electric drill

At least one other Boeing 40B is known to be on exshyhibit in another museum This is aircraft NC285 factory number 896 which was presented to the Henry Ford Museum at Dearbom Michigan in 1938 But so far it doesnt have a scale model of its own to highlight it And don t look to Carl Buttita to build one I will never do it again he sa id It was just too much work

Rebuilding AVagabond

By Larry Railing Box 5 7 -C P Avenue

Lake Mills WI 5355 7

I never realized at the time I started to rebuild or lets say restore Piper Vagabond PA-15 N4423H that so many people were interested in what Id term history So here it is

I started flying in Valparaiso Indiana around 1900 I learned in a )-3 owned by Mark Murvahill I later

graduated to the PA-12 In 1964 I graduated from high school and a year later I was married As most in like cirshycumstances I gave up flying for love until the newness wore off

My first airplane was a )-5 Cub that went down in a marsh I had started to rebuild it until Dick Wagner of Wag-Aero heard of it and made me an untimely offer This airplane was later destroyed at Burlington along with the Tri-Motor

I later owned other aircraft which included aT-Craft Somehow Dick Wagner heard of my T-Craft and flew up in a Vagabond to see it and made me an offer

I told him at that time if he ever got in the mood to sell the Vag to please call me That was in 1968

On December 26 1976 Dick called me and asked if I was still interested in the Vag I told him yes and Id come down the next Saturday morning The next Saturday came and so did I There the Vag stood on its nose just as pictures in past issues of The Vintage A irplane had shown

Dick with all his other projects had to let something go He offered me the Vag or one of two Cubs My thoughts never gave way to anything but the Vag

23

The stripped fuselage arrives at home ready for a long winter s night

Work completed the birds about ready for a runway

I climbed a ladder and pulled the tail down and began looking It was all there but in sad shape For the past four years it hadn t been outside It looked good in the dark but time took its toll The fabric was beyond even shot But it was all original Every instrument the seat and all were original In thirty years no one even drilled a hole in the panel

We tried to get the old Lycoming 65 started but no way

The next Saturday morning I borrowed a stock car trailer and headed for Lyons with my truck On the way down all was going so well until I met a car looked in my mirror and noticed the trailer to be about a foot wider than my pickup Id never given that a thought before Everytime I met another car I just got over a little I fishynally arrived at Dicks place and began taking the Vag

Fits like a sausage casing The envelopes ready for the hea t trea tment

apart I placed the wings on some racks on my truck and the fuselage or the trailer I didn t bother taking off the tail All was loaded and ready to roll in about three hours

About halfway into the dismantling it began to snow By the time I was ready to go we had gotten about three inches This worked out in my favor as it slowed everyone else on the highway down to my speed My greatest worry when hauling an airplane is when you meet a truck

All seemed to be going good The first car I met I got over to the right because of the trailer At this time I looked into the mirror and not only noticed the trailer a foot wider than the truck on each side but the horizontal stabilizer stuck out another foot on each side beyond the trailer What a shock

I stopped and tried to remove the tail but to no avail The snow kept coming and so did the end of the day It took me four and a quarter hours to go fifty-five miles By the time I got home we had eight inches of snow What a long ride

I began total disassembly right away The wings were in fantastic shape All that was needed was varnish on the tip bows I also put new cables in the whole airplane The original inspectors number date and signature are still on the spars

I worked the whole project under the watchful eyes of Paul Baker an AI from Beaver Aviation at Dodge County

The author tackles another flying surface with needle and twine

Airport He is really an EAAer I never heard of an AI so ready and willing to help restore an airplane He even came to my home after hours to inspect the fuselage as it was easier for me than taking it up there Paul says if Id hired him to do the restoring I could just hand over my paycheck for a year so he said you do the working and Ill do the looking

All the still pieces were sandblasted and sprayed with Imron primer Believe me you do have to wear a mask with that stuff

I gave Wag-Aero a call and told them what I needed for a complete cover job and not to call me until they had it all there in one pile with no monkeying around for a little of this and that

While waiting for the covering materials I began work on the engine The whole airplane had only 1100 hours and the engine 330 SMOH I just couldn t get it started I solicited the help of a local mechanic and Stinshyson owner Harold Hubrich We found three blown head gaskets one leaky valve the impulse spring in the left mag was broken and the P-Iead in the right mag the inshysulator of phenolic replaced with masking tape

I pulled the heads and Harold ground ~he valves had the mags rebuilt a complete new ignition system and the carburetor rebuilt We got her back together and bongo

- she started right off In the meantime I finished the wings and control surshy

faces I wanted to paint it all apart so a temporary gear 24

Larry applies a new cowling atter a fruitl ess encounter with sa ndblasting equipment

was made to support the fuselage The engine was never taken off Many people questioned that temporary gear I just said you had to be very careful on take-off and landshying

The actual covering was very enjoyable you could see some real progress including the stitching but that spraying and sanding Sixteen hours of work for every coat Six sandings fourteen coats and thirty gallons all total

The sheet metal was all in good shape I had planned to replace the cowl so a guy that was chicken could look in at the rubber band I tried Zip Strip to get down to bare metal with no luck at all I took all the aluminum parts over to a body shop including the boot and sandblasted them In less than ten minutes I destroyed every piece of aluminum except the instrument panel and nose bowl I then got some aluminum and began making new parts It all turned out very well

When I first brought the Vag home I contacted Cecil Ogles of Vag-News and he sent me more info than I think Piper has Among which was complete rigging

Im a little more fortunate than most- Im a tool and die model maker by trade and have my own shop Before beginning on the Vag my partner and I added on a 50 x 60 foot addition to our shop which served for a beautiful place to work over the winter to store parts until needed as well as an area to completely assemble the airplane for rigging

Its been a long time since the fuselage last shook from a run-up

Time came to go to the airport and sprout feathers There is a private strip just south of town so I went there along with about six helpers The airplane was assembled and flown two days later on June 28 1978 A year and a half after beginning

The first flight was all anyone could hope for It really flys hands off and is the easiest airplane for a taildragger to land that I have ever flown

Now for some numbers Cruise 85-90 Cruise RPM 2300 Fuel Consumption 30 gph Prop 70-36 Final and Climb 70 mph Over the Fence 60 mph Stall 40 mph Empty Weight 640 Ibs Take-off- For each 10 Ibs over 200 the passenger

weighs I added 100 feet I had the Vag at Oshkosh on Tuesday this year and

took it home and put it to bed the same night In this area we have about fifteen Vags flying with

five of them done original Myself I like to see airplanes kept original Its like a Model T with a Chevy 427 it just aint the same

The airplane is covered with Stits and the finish is Aerothane

Now that the airplanes finished work ca n proceed on the shop

I can say something most people cant about this airpshylane While at Oshkosh I went over and visited the Piper display and who would you guess was there Clyde Smith the test pilot of my airplane thirty years ago I took a couple of pictures of him and will be placing them in the log books next to his signature

The Vag is my first real attempt in restoring I did the whole airplane myse lf except the seat and the engine work Im very pleased with the end product Its all mine and paid for as well Im now enjoying the fruits of my labor and Id do it again if I could find another Vagshyabond

Oddly enough it seemed the hardest part of the whole project was the legal end Being that the FCC can t seem to find a good reason to charge for a restricted radio license I decided to send for one just in case I ever carried a radio along That took three months and the paperwork went back and forth six times The hardest part was the registration The airplane hadn t been regisshytered since 1967 The State of Wisconsin wasnt too bad That paperwork came back only once asking for an addishytional $333 because I didn t notify them within thirty days after purchase even though the airplane had been declared exempt But the Feds This took six months nine phone calls and six letters Finally I called once again and told them that after a year and a half of rebuilding with or without them I was going to fly it I think that finally did the trick

25

--

----

---

Calendar of Events NOVEMBER 18-19 - MIAMI FlORIDA- Antique Classic and Cusshy

tom Built Fly-In at the third annual Harvest- A Country Fair sponsored by the Historical Association of Southern Florida at the Dade County Youth Fairground Coral Way at 112th Avenue Awards given for antique classic and custom built aircraft Conshytact Capt Ken Ufland of the Civil Air Patrol office (305) 552-3106 home after 600 pm (305) 251-5927 or Mary Dodd Russell Harshyvest Coordinator at the Historical Museum 3280 S Miami Ave shynue Building B Miami Fl 33129

JANUARY 21-27 - Sun N Fun the biggest fly-in in the southeastshyand the second biggest in the natron Its a full week of southern hospitality and flying fun daily aerial demonstrations fly-bys of antique classic homebuilt and warbird aircraft forums exhibits and static displays parties and com roasts big new food concesshysion country store for campers in our shady campsites Make motel reservations early- our free information booklet has a complete list of accommodations Write to Sun N Fun PO Box 3538 lakeland Florida 33802

(Dick Stouffer Photo)

Aeronca IICC Super Chief belonging to David E Long Keyser West Virginia

(Ted Koston Photo)

Heres a sharp Funk at Oshkosh Owner unknown didnt register

(Dick Stouffer Photo)

Another fine looking unregistered aircraft

STATEMENT OF OWNERSHIP MANAGEMENT AND CIRCULATION RlItdbyJ9U$C )681

I T1ILSOULe TOH

The Vintage Airplane E n o LlHG

IJ~OO t ~~~~~~mi=rlt bullbulllftu~~~ 4 LOCATOH MNOWH o e S 0 ULlC TlON _I CIy CO~h bullbull bull ~ 7 cod~d-=~~- 1000

J 5 LAJ~il Jt THf~ISAJ~~WFo n SIJi L uSISU OCbullbull 0 n os U LlSHIS 110 pIn~ CoT t ~~ u

N ES 110 cO LETf AODflESSE OJ UILISHER EDITOR AND ANA GING EDITOII

USLlSNS Nbull -d Add

11E0~~(1 ~dl~ezny J 1 31 J W Forest HOme QHG r--~rnklin--WI----Slll2-

1 ~cll~geJID9T~~~2~ldd~1l tl Poret lIome U~Hll HI 53

7 OWNER (ff o ~~d ~~ 0 II ~ ~II Odd 1 ~ IInI aM el 14dIUI~ ~~~nd~ I~~ bullbullbull~bullbull d odd _ vlroc i o~ 0 0 aUI I ~r of 101el of oclt If 1 0 4d 10 _ 4ltld 01 I~~ 1IIlvld l

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t FDA COMLETION BY NON~OT ORG6NIZATION5 UTHOIIIIZIO TO AL AT SfCIAL RATES IS~IIo nZ ln PSN)

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F4U CORSAIR

PLANE CHECKS The Leading Fighter 01 WWII - with a Record 01 2140 Japanese Aircraft Destroyed 28 01 which

Are Credited to Pappy Boyington Regular bank checks emblazoned with the F4U CORSAIR

- Complete the order form and write out your check Now get a deposit Slip from the same account and clearly indicate any changes or other notations as you wish it to appear on the checks (These two documents will furnish us all the data we need to make your checks compatible with your banks computer and Amer Bank Assn specs) On gift orders send your check and mark his check VOID Please allow 3 weeks for delivery

Start USing Plane Checks Now Your old checks will always be good

Identity Check Co Box 149-D Park Ridge III 60068 Activate my order for Plane Checks starting No ___ o 300middot$795 0 600-$1350 0 900middot$1875 Checks are printed with blue backgrounds and are top bound-one part deposit sUps registers and matching checkbook cover are Included In each order

o F4U CORSAIR o PIPER Assortment o BEECH AIICH1menl o UNITED DC-10

o Cherokee o Sundowner o NORTH CENTRAL DC9 DArrow o V Bonanza o CONTINENTAL OCmiddot10 o Seneca II o Baron o NATIONAL DC-l0

o PITTS SPECIAL o Pmiddot51 MUSTANG 11 AMERICAN OCmiddot10 o CESSNA Allottmenl o TWALmiddot1011 o EASTERN Lmiddotl011

o Hawk o PSA727 o WESTERN 0010 o 210Centurlon o BDmiddot5 o OZARK OCmiddotg0310 o MOONEY

o YELLOW Jmiddot3 CUB o HELICOPTER (BELL)

Ship via 0 UPS (insured) 0 Parcel Post o WEST COAST add one dollar-well fly it

Ship To

Address

City State___ Zip____

26

Details of the construction of the 40As cabin door and wing struts are shown in this close-up

A close-up view of Carl Butshytitas model of the 40A shows how dedicated he was to deshytail in the models construction

Carl Buttita builder of the three-fourths sca le Boe ing 40A discusses fine points of the construction with Edshyward E Carlson chairman of UAL In c Chicago and a member of the board of trustees of the Museum of Scishyence and Indu stry before the model was put on display in the Museum

were large enough to give the passengers an excellent view of the scenery

The rear of the fuselage was braced with steel tie-rods and was heavily faired to shape although it still was fabshyric covered The tail assembly also was fabric covered but only the horizontal stabilizer was built up like the wings with spruce spars and wood built-up ribs The rest of the tail assembly was built up with welded steel tubshying It rested on a steerable tailskid The landing gear was made of streamlined chrome-moly and used oleo-spring shock absorbers

Buttitas construction problems for his model were reshysolved through the use of a wide variety of materials

The Boeing model is made of aluminum pine dentists plastic epoxy glue and Japanese silkspan paper About 40 percent of the model is metal but much of it is inside so you dont see it Buttita said These parts are the cables controls pilots seat corrugated floor panels hinges cockpit fire extinguisher medical kit and workshyable seat belts

Each part had to be hand made some several times to get them right or if they broke Buttita said I had to make 20 to 30 rims for the landing lights to get two

When you make a one-of-a-kind model you have to fabricate about 90 per cent of the parts yourself and make dies for almost everything he added

For the metal parts Buttita used small pieces of offset printers plate made of aluminum but with some tin for added strength The wood parts are made of spruce and the engine and wheels are made of the dental plastic

All the markings and lettering were drawn triple the size on paper and reduced photographically on decal paper That way they were better than if I had handshypainted them on the model he said

Buttita said he did all the construction work on a card table at home and the only power tool he used was a small electric drill

At least one other Boeing 40B is known to be on exshyhibit in another museum This is aircraft NC285 factory number 896 which was presented to the Henry Ford Museum at Dearbom Michigan in 1938 But so far it doesnt have a scale model of its own to highlight it And don t look to Carl Buttita to build one I will never do it again he sa id It was just too much work

Rebuilding AVagabond

By Larry Railing Box 5 7 -C P Avenue

Lake Mills WI 5355 7

I never realized at the time I started to rebuild or lets say restore Piper Vagabond PA-15 N4423H that so many people were interested in what Id term history So here it is

I started flying in Valparaiso Indiana around 1900 I learned in a )-3 owned by Mark Murvahill I later

graduated to the PA-12 In 1964 I graduated from high school and a year later I was married As most in like cirshycumstances I gave up flying for love until the newness wore off

My first airplane was a )-5 Cub that went down in a marsh I had started to rebuild it until Dick Wagner of Wag-Aero heard of it and made me an untimely offer This airplane was later destroyed at Burlington along with the Tri-Motor

I later owned other aircraft which included aT-Craft Somehow Dick Wagner heard of my T-Craft and flew up in a Vagabond to see it and made me an offer

I told him at that time if he ever got in the mood to sell the Vag to please call me That was in 1968

On December 26 1976 Dick called me and asked if I was still interested in the Vag I told him yes and Id come down the next Saturday morning The next Saturday came and so did I There the Vag stood on its nose just as pictures in past issues of The Vintage A irplane had shown

Dick with all his other projects had to let something go He offered me the Vag or one of two Cubs My thoughts never gave way to anything but the Vag

23

The stripped fuselage arrives at home ready for a long winter s night

Work completed the birds about ready for a runway

I climbed a ladder and pulled the tail down and began looking It was all there but in sad shape For the past four years it hadn t been outside It looked good in the dark but time took its toll The fabric was beyond even shot But it was all original Every instrument the seat and all were original In thirty years no one even drilled a hole in the panel

We tried to get the old Lycoming 65 started but no way

The next Saturday morning I borrowed a stock car trailer and headed for Lyons with my truck On the way down all was going so well until I met a car looked in my mirror and noticed the trailer to be about a foot wider than my pickup Id never given that a thought before Everytime I met another car I just got over a little I fishynally arrived at Dicks place and began taking the Vag

Fits like a sausage casing The envelopes ready for the hea t trea tment

apart I placed the wings on some racks on my truck and the fuselage or the trailer I didn t bother taking off the tail All was loaded and ready to roll in about three hours

About halfway into the dismantling it began to snow By the time I was ready to go we had gotten about three inches This worked out in my favor as it slowed everyone else on the highway down to my speed My greatest worry when hauling an airplane is when you meet a truck

All seemed to be going good The first car I met I got over to the right because of the trailer At this time I looked into the mirror and not only noticed the trailer a foot wider than the truck on each side but the horizontal stabilizer stuck out another foot on each side beyond the trailer What a shock

I stopped and tried to remove the tail but to no avail The snow kept coming and so did the end of the day It took me four and a quarter hours to go fifty-five miles By the time I got home we had eight inches of snow What a long ride

I began total disassembly right away The wings were in fantastic shape All that was needed was varnish on the tip bows I also put new cables in the whole airplane The original inspectors number date and signature are still on the spars

I worked the whole project under the watchful eyes of Paul Baker an AI from Beaver Aviation at Dodge County

The author tackles another flying surface with needle and twine

Airport He is really an EAAer I never heard of an AI so ready and willing to help restore an airplane He even came to my home after hours to inspect the fuselage as it was easier for me than taking it up there Paul says if Id hired him to do the restoring I could just hand over my paycheck for a year so he said you do the working and Ill do the looking

All the still pieces were sandblasted and sprayed with Imron primer Believe me you do have to wear a mask with that stuff

I gave Wag-Aero a call and told them what I needed for a complete cover job and not to call me until they had it all there in one pile with no monkeying around for a little of this and that

While waiting for the covering materials I began work on the engine The whole airplane had only 1100 hours and the engine 330 SMOH I just couldn t get it started I solicited the help of a local mechanic and Stinshyson owner Harold Hubrich We found three blown head gaskets one leaky valve the impulse spring in the left mag was broken and the P-Iead in the right mag the inshysulator of phenolic replaced with masking tape

I pulled the heads and Harold ground ~he valves had the mags rebuilt a complete new ignition system and the carburetor rebuilt We got her back together and bongo

- she started right off In the meantime I finished the wings and control surshy

faces I wanted to paint it all apart so a temporary gear 24

Larry applies a new cowling atter a fruitl ess encounter with sa ndblasting equipment

was made to support the fuselage The engine was never taken off Many people questioned that temporary gear I just said you had to be very careful on take-off and landshying

The actual covering was very enjoyable you could see some real progress including the stitching but that spraying and sanding Sixteen hours of work for every coat Six sandings fourteen coats and thirty gallons all total

The sheet metal was all in good shape I had planned to replace the cowl so a guy that was chicken could look in at the rubber band I tried Zip Strip to get down to bare metal with no luck at all I took all the aluminum parts over to a body shop including the boot and sandblasted them In less than ten minutes I destroyed every piece of aluminum except the instrument panel and nose bowl I then got some aluminum and began making new parts It all turned out very well

When I first brought the Vag home I contacted Cecil Ogles of Vag-News and he sent me more info than I think Piper has Among which was complete rigging

Im a little more fortunate than most- Im a tool and die model maker by trade and have my own shop Before beginning on the Vag my partner and I added on a 50 x 60 foot addition to our shop which served for a beautiful place to work over the winter to store parts until needed as well as an area to completely assemble the airplane for rigging

Its been a long time since the fuselage last shook from a run-up

Time came to go to the airport and sprout feathers There is a private strip just south of town so I went there along with about six helpers The airplane was assembled and flown two days later on June 28 1978 A year and a half after beginning

The first flight was all anyone could hope for It really flys hands off and is the easiest airplane for a taildragger to land that I have ever flown

Now for some numbers Cruise 85-90 Cruise RPM 2300 Fuel Consumption 30 gph Prop 70-36 Final and Climb 70 mph Over the Fence 60 mph Stall 40 mph Empty Weight 640 Ibs Take-off- For each 10 Ibs over 200 the passenger

weighs I added 100 feet I had the Vag at Oshkosh on Tuesday this year and

took it home and put it to bed the same night In this area we have about fifteen Vags flying with

five of them done original Myself I like to see airplanes kept original Its like a Model T with a Chevy 427 it just aint the same

The airplane is covered with Stits and the finish is Aerothane

Now that the airplanes finished work ca n proceed on the shop

I can say something most people cant about this airpshylane While at Oshkosh I went over and visited the Piper display and who would you guess was there Clyde Smith the test pilot of my airplane thirty years ago I took a couple of pictures of him and will be placing them in the log books next to his signature

The Vag is my first real attempt in restoring I did the whole airplane myse lf except the seat and the engine work Im very pleased with the end product Its all mine and paid for as well Im now enjoying the fruits of my labor and Id do it again if I could find another Vagshyabond

Oddly enough it seemed the hardest part of the whole project was the legal end Being that the FCC can t seem to find a good reason to charge for a restricted radio license I decided to send for one just in case I ever carried a radio along That took three months and the paperwork went back and forth six times The hardest part was the registration The airplane hadn t been regisshytered since 1967 The State of Wisconsin wasnt too bad That paperwork came back only once asking for an addishytional $333 because I didn t notify them within thirty days after purchase even though the airplane had been declared exempt But the Feds This took six months nine phone calls and six letters Finally I called once again and told them that after a year and a half of rebuilding with or without them I was going to fly it I think that finally did the trick

25

--

----

---

Calendar of Events NOVEMBER 18-19 - MIAMI FlORIDA- Antique Classic and Cusshy

tom Built Fly-In at the third annual Harvest- A Country Fair sponsored by the Historical Association of Southern Florida at the Dade County Youth Fairground Coral Way at 112th Avenue Awards given for antique classic and custom built aircraft Conshytact Capt Ken Ufland of the Civil Air Patrol office (305) 552-3106 home after 600 pm (305) 251-5927 or Mary Dodd Russell Harshyvest Coordinator at the Historical Museum 3280 S Miami Ave shynue Building B Miami Fl 33129

JANUARY 21-27 - Sun N Fun the biggest fly-in in the southeastshyand the second biggest in the natron Its a full week of southern hospitality and flying fun daily aerial demonstrations fly-bys of antique classic homebuilt and warbird aircraft forums exhibits and static displays parties and com roasts big new food concesshysion country store for campers in our shady campsites Make motel reservations early- our free information booklet has a complete list of accommodations Write to Sun N Fun PO Box 3538 lakeland Florida 33802

(Dick Stouffer Photo)

Aeronca IICC Super Chief belonging to David E Long Keyser West Virginia

(Ted Koston Photo)

Heres a sharp Funk at Oshkosh Owner unknown didnt register

(Dick Stouffer Photo)

Another fine looking unregistered aircraft

STATEMENT OF OWNERSHIP MANAGEMENT AND CIRCULATION RlItdbyJ9U$C )681

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Jitw1 0melmiddotmmiddote 0_GW Ow oww JJIJtt ~ ManllgerBusiness

(See inSIrUClionson levelv)~~6 35267l1 I)

F4U CORSAIR

PLANE CHECKS The Leading Fighter 01 WWII - with a Record 01 2140 Japanese Aircraft Destroyed 28 01 which

Are Credited to Pappy Boyington Regular bank checks emblazoned with the F4U CORSAIR

- Complete the order form and write out your check Now get a deposit Slip from the same account and clearly indicate any changes or other notations as you wish it to appear on the checks (These two documents will furnish us all the data we need to make your checks compatible with your banks computer and Amer Bank Assn specs) On gift orders send your check and mark his check VOID Please allow 3 weeks for delivery

Start USing Plane Checks Now Your old checks will always be good

Identity Check Co Box 149-D Park Ridge III 60068 Activate my order for Plane Checks starting No ___ o 300middot$795 0 600-$1350 0 900middot$1875 Checks are printed with blue backgrounds and are top bound-one part deposit sUps registers and matching checkbook cover are Included In each order

o F4U CORSAIR o PIPER Assortment o BEECH AIICH1menl o UNITED DC-10

o Cherokee o Sundowner o NORTH CENTRAL DC9 DArrow o V Bonanza o CONTINENTAL OCmiddot10 o Seneca II o Baron o NATIONAL DC-l0

o PITTS SPECIAL o Pmiddot51 MUSTANG 11 AMERICAN OCmiddot10 o CESSNA Allottmenl o TWALmiddot1011 o EASTERN Lmiddotl011

o Hawk o PSA727 o WESTERN 0010 o 210Centurlon o BDmiddot5 o OZARK OCmiddotg0310 o MOONEY

o YELLOW Jmiddot3 CUB o HELICOPTER (BELL)

Ship via 0 UPS (insured) 0 Parcel Post o WEST COAST add one dollar-well fly it

Ship To

Address

City State___ Zip____

26

Rebuilding AVagabond

By Larry Railing Box 5 7 -C P Avenue

Lake Mills WI 5355 7

I never realized at the time I started to rebuild or lets say restore Piper Vagabond PA-15 N4423H that so many people were interested in what Id term history So here it is

I started flying in Valparaiso Indiana around 1900 I learned in a )-3 owned by Mark Murvahill I later

graduated to the PA-12 In 1964 I graduated from high school and a year later I was married As most in like cirshycumstances I gave up flying for love until the newness wore off

My first airplane was a )-5 Cub that went down in a marsh I had started to rebuild it until Dick Wagner of Wag-Aero heard of it and made me an untimely offer This airplane was later destroyed at Burlington along with the Tri-Motor

I later owned other aircraft which included aT-Craft Somehow Dick Wagner heard of my T-Craft and flew up in a Vagabond to see it and made me an offer

I told him at that time if he ever got in the mood to sell the Vag to please call me That was in 1968

On December 26 1976 Dick called me and asked if I was still interested in the Vag I told him yes and Id come down the next Saturday morning The next Saturday came and so did I There the Vag stood on its nose just as pictures in past issues of The Vintage A irplane had shown

Dick with all his other projects had to let something go He offered me the Vag or one of two Cubs My thoughts never gave way to anything but the Vag

23

The stripped fuselage arrives at home ready for a long winter s night

Work completed the birds about ready for a runway

I climbed a ladder and pulled the tail down and began looking It was all there but in sad shape For the past four years it hadn t been outside It looked good in the dark but time took its toll The fabric was beyond even shot But it was all original Every instrument the seat and all were original In thirty years no one even drilled a hole in the panel

We tried to get the old Lycoming 65 started but no way

The next Saturday morning I borrowed a stock car trailer and headed for Lyons with my truck On the way down all was going so well until I met a car looked in my mirror and noticed the trailer to be about a foot wider than my pickup Id never given that a thought before Everytime I met another car I just got over a little I fishynally arrived at Dicks place and began taking the Vag

Fits like a sausage casing The envelopes ready for the hea t trea tment

apart I placed the wings on some racks on my truck and the fuselage or the trailer I didn t bother taking off the tail All was loaded and ready to roll in about three hours

About halfway into the dismantling it began to snow By the time I was ready to go we had gotten about three inches This worked out in my favor as it slowed everyone else on the highway down to my speed My greatest worry when hauling an airplane is when you meet a truck

All seemed to be going good The first car I met I got over to the right because of the trailer At this time I looked into the mirror and not only noticed the trailer a foot wider than the truck on each side but the horizontal stabilizer stuck out another foot on each side beyond the trailer What a shock

I stopped and tried to remove the tail but to no avail The snow kept coming and so did the end of the day It took me four and a quarter hours to go fifty-five miles By the time I got home we had eight inches of snow What a long ride

I began total disassembly right away The wings were in fantastic shape All that was needed was varnish on the tip bows I also put new cables in the whole airplane The original inspectors number date and signature are still on the spars

I worked the whole project under the watchful eyes of Paul Baker an AI from Beaver Aviation at Dodge County

The author tackles another flying surface with needle and twine

Airport He is really an EAAer I never heard of an AI so ready and willing to help restore an airplane He even came to my home after hours to inspect the fuselage as it was easier for me than taking it up there Paul says if Id hired him to do the restoring I could just hand over my paycheck for a year so he said you do the working and Ill do the looking

All the still pieces were sandblasted and sprayed with Imron primer Believe me you do have to wear a mask with that stuff

I gave Wag-Aero a call and told them what I needed for a complete cover job and not to call me until they had it all there in one pile with no monkeying around for a little of this and that

While waiting for the covering materials I began work on the engine The whole airplane had only 1100 hours and the engine 330 SMOH I just couldn t get it started I solicited the help of a local mechanic and Stinshyson owner Harold Hubrich We found three blown head gaskets one leaky valve the impulse spring in the left mag was broken and the P-Iead in the right mag the inshysulator of phenolic replaced with masking tape

I pulled the heads and Harold ground ~he valves had the mags rebuilt a complete new ignition system and the carburetor rebuilt We got her back together and bongo

- she started right off In the meantime I finished the wings and control surshy

faces I wanted to paint it all apart so a temporary gear 24

Larry applies a new cowling atter a fruitl ess encounter with sa ndblasting equipment

was made to support the fuselage The engine was never taken off Many people questioned that temporary gear I just said you had to be very careful on take-off and landshying

The actual covering was very enjoyable you could see some real progress including the stitching but that spraying and sanding Sixteen hours of work for every coat Six sandings fourteen coats and thirty gallons all total

The sheet metal was all in good shape I had planned to replace the cowl so a guy that was chicken could look in at the rubber band I tried Zip Strip to get down to bare metal with no luck at all I took all the aluminum parts over to a body shop including the boot and sandblasted them In less than ten minutes I destroyed every piece of aluminum except the instrument panel and nose bowl I then got some aluminum and began making new parts It all turned out very well

When I first brought the Vag home I contacted Cecil Ogles of Vag-News and he sent me more info than I think Piper has Among which was complete rigging

Im a little more fortunate than most- Im a tool and die model maker by trade and have my own shop Before beginning on the Vag my partner and I added on a 50 x 60 foot addition to our shop which served for a beautiful place to work over the winter to store parts until needed as well as an area to completely assemble the airplane for rigging

Its been a long time since the fuselage last shook from a run-up

Time came to go to the airport and sprout feathers There is a private strip just south of town so I went there along with about six helpers The airplane was assembled and flown two days later on June 28 1978 A year and a half after beginning

The first flight was all anyone could hope for It really flys hands off and is the easiest airplane for a taildragger to land that I have ever flown

Now for some numbers Cruise 85-90 Cruise RPM 2300 Fuel Consumption 30 gph Prop 70-36 Final and Climb 70 mph Over the Fence 60 mph Stall 40 mph Empty Weight 640 Ibs Take-off- For each 10 Ibs over 200 the passenger

weighs I added 100 feet I had the Vag at Oshkosh on Tuesday this year and

took it home and put it to bed the same night In this area we have about fifteen Vags flying with

five of them done original Myself I like to see airplanes kept original Its like a Model T with a Chevy 427 it just aint the same

The airplane is covered with Stits and the finish is Aerothane

Now that the airplanes finished work ca n proceed on the shop

I can say something most people cant about this airpshylane While at Oshkosh I went over and visited the Piper display and who would you guess was there Clyde Smith the test pilot of my airplane thirty years ago I took a couple of pictures of him and will be placing them in the log books next to his signature

The Vag is my first real attempt in restoring I did the whole airplane myse lf except the seat and the engine work Im very pleased with the end product Its all mine and paid for as well Im now enjoying the fruits of my labor and Id do it again if I could find another Vagshyabond

Oddly enough it seemed the hardest part of the whole project was the legal end Being that the FCC can t seem to find a good reason to charge for a restricted radio license I decided to send for one just in case I ever carried a radio along That took three months and the paperwork went back and forth six times The hardest part was the registration The airplane hadn t been regisshytered since 1967 The State of Wisconsin wasnt too bad That paperwork came back only once asking for an addishytional $333 because I didn t notify them within thirty days after purchase even though the airplane had been declared exempt But the Feds This took six months nine phone calls and six letters Finally I called once again and told them that after a year and a half of rebuilding with or without them I was going to fly it I think that finally did the trick

25

--

----

---

Calendar of Events NOVEMBER 18-19 - MIAMI FlORIDA- Antique Classic and Cusshy

tom Built Fly-In at the third annual Harvest- A Country Fair sponsored by the Historical Association of Southern Florida at the Dade County Youth Fairground Coral Way at 112th Avenue Awards given for antique classic and custom built aircraft Conshytact Capt Ken Ufland of the Civil Air Patrol office (305) 552-3106 home after 600 pm (305) 251-5927 or Mary Dodd Russell Harshyvest Coordinator at the Historical Museum 3280 S Miami Ave shynue Building B Miami Fl 33129

JANUARY 21-27 - Sun N Fun the biggest fly-in in the southeastshyand the second biggest in the natron Its a full week of southern hospitality and flying fun daily aerial demonstrations fly-bys of antique classic homebuilt and warbird aircraft forums exhibits and static displays parties and com roasts big new food concesshysion country store for campers in our shady campsites Make motel reservations early- our free information booklet has a complete list of accommodations Write to Sun N Fun PO Box 3538 lakeland Florida 33802

(Dick Stouffer Photo)

Aeronca IICC Super Chief belonging to David E Long Keyser West Virginia

(Ted Koston Photo)

Heres a sharp Funk at Oshkosh Owner unknown didnt register

(Dick Stouffer Photo)

Another fine looking unregistered aircraft

STATEMENT OF OWNERSHIP MANAGEMENT AND CIRCULATION RlItdbyJ9U$C )681

I T1ILSOULe TOH

The Vintage Airplane E n o LlHG

IJ~OO t ~~~~~~mi=rlt bullbulllftu~~~ 4 LOCATOH MNOWH o e S 0 ULlC TlON _I CIy CO~h bullbull bull ~ 7 cod~d-=~~- 1000

J 5 LAJ~il Jt THf~ISAJ~~WFo n SIJi L uSISU OCbullbull 0 n os U LlSHIS 110 pIn~ CoT t ~~ u

N ES 110 cO LETf AODflESSE OJ UILISHER EDITOR AND ANA GING EDITOII

USLlSNS Nbull -d Add

11E0~~(1 ~dl~ezny J 1 31 J W Forest HOme QHG r--~rnklin--WI----Slll2-

1 ~cll~geJID9T~~~2~ldd~1l tl Poret lIome U~Hll HI 53

7 OWNER (ff o ~~d ~~ 0 II ~ ~II Odd 1 ~ IInI aM el 14dIUI~ ~~~nd~ I~~ bullbullbull~bullbull d odd _ vlroc i o~ 0 0 aUI I ~r of 101el of oclt If 1 0 4d 10 _ 4ltld 01 I~~ 1IIlvld l

o ~ ~~ ~ ~H h PrlbullbulloIt 0 01 ~CON (I Jr bullbullM ltOdd dl bull bull 100 of~ 1lkI~ ~

l-l-Jl-l---w---~fferfte

t INOWN 80NOHOLO~RS ORTO6GEES AND OTHER SECURITV HOLDERS OWNING OR HOLDING 1 ERCtNT O~ MORE or gt-____ccA OUNT OF BONDS MORTGGES OR OTHER SECURITIES 11 a~ ~

t FDA COMLETION BY NON~OT ORG6NIZATION5 UTHOIIIIZIO TO AL AT SfCIAL RATES IS~IIo nZ ln PSN)

TObullbull po ~ltgtclon _ltgt0111 0 1 110 0 bull bullbullbullbull 0 F_I ltgtc o IU ~ (C~ ~I

o t~~~o~~~O 0 ~7~~~=G ~f~~~4-~ It ~zp-GIIo 0( ~f~

~~5EU(g~l~oo~euroi~~~~cGH j~s~~A~if~~~riiE~R~~TGTL~

3195 3300 S OCCULATIO

I L THOUgH OI L S 0 CIS STSST H OO HO COUNTI S6LIS None None

1-middot TDTLDCCULATlOH oO~J dIO~1

2670

2670 -t 2679

~2-67-9--___

D I OS SUTlO sy L C I o OTH HS S L S CO L IN y HD OTH ltl COCS 250 250

C OTLonu0 rS~ofC0II401 2920 29_ ~____

copss 0 DSuTO

t ~~~~clpU~~~~o UCCDUHTpoundDbullPOILpoundD 275 ____~___

z TU0 WS gI HT

G OTAL (~Ofl--oItOUu~UltJI

None

3195

- - shy

T None

3300

O-OOWOWOII Icerlifylhlllhe 5llemenlslllde byme H glO~ _

Ib-o~ Ire cornel Ind rompkle J~ ~~ Business Manager

lZ FDA COPL~TION e-y ~UILisimiddotS--MILNO AT HE R(OULR RAlIiS Is~~rlo Ili l o l ~ M

w U s c M211 ~ In _-0 middotmiddotNo 0 0 11 _n omo _10359 0 hl tI ~~ ~~~ov ~ h b_ 0 IIlIv It h ~o $ VO 10 1010

0000bull 1m h proI I 01 hit bull v bull__mlolon 0 H bllcalon _ It 1 o ho PO___ _rlv I Ov39U S C 31121

~

Jitw1 0melmiddotmmiddote 0_GW Ow oww JJIJtt ~ ManllgerBusiness

(See inSIrUClionson levelv)~~6 35267l1 I)

F4U CORSAIR

PLANE CHECKS The Leading Fighter 01 WWII - with a Record 01 2140 Japanese Aircraft Destroyed 28 01 which

Are Credited to Pappy Boyington Regular bank checks emblazoned with the F4U CORSAIR

- Complete the order form and write out your check Now get a deposit Slip from the same account and clearly indicate any changes or other notations as you wish it to appear on the checks (These two documents will furnish us all the data we need to make your checks compatible with your banks computer and Amer Bank Assn specs) On gift orders send your check and mark his check VOID Please allow 3 weeks for delivery

Start USing Plane Checks Now Your old checks will always be good

Identity Check Co Box 149-D Park Ridge III 60068 Activate my order for Plane Checks starting No ___ o 300middot$795 0 600-$1350 0 900middot$1875 Checks are printed with blue backgrounds and are top bound-one part deposit sUps registers and matching checkbook cover are Included In each order

o F4U CORSAIR o PIPER Assortment o BEECH AIICH1menl o UNITED DC-10

o Cherokee o Sundowner o NORTH CENTRAL DC9 DArrow o V Bonanza o CONTINENTAL OCmiddot10 o Seneca II o Baron o NATIONAL DC-l0

o PITTS SPECIAL o Pmiddot51 MUSTANG 11 AMERICAN OCmiddot10 o CESSNA Allottmenl o TWALmiddot1011 o EASTERN Lmiddotl011

o Hawk o PSA727 o WESTERN 0010 o 210Centurlon o BDmiddot5 o OZARK OCmiddotg0310 o MOONEY

o YELLOW Jmiddot3 CUB o HELICOPTER (BELL)

Ship via 0 UPS (insured) 0 Parcel Post o WEST COAST add one dollar-well fly it

Ship To

Address

City State___ Zip____

26

The stripped fuselage arrives at home ready for a long winter s night

Work completed the birds about ready for a runway

I climbed a ladder and pulled the tail down and began looking It was all there but in sad shape For the past four years it hadn t been outside It looked good in the dark but time took its toll The fabric was beyond even shot But it was all original Every instrument the seat and all were original In thirty years no one even drilled a hole in the panel

We tried to get the old Lycoming 65 started but no way

The next Saturday morning I borrowed a stock car trailer and headed for Lyons with my truck On the way down all was going so well until I met a car looked in my mirror and noticed the trailer to be about a foot wider than my pickup Id never given that a thought before Everytime I met another car I just got over a little I fishynally arrived at Dicks place and began taking the Vag

Fits like a sausage casing The envelopes ready for the hea t trea tment

apart I placed the wings on some racks on my truck and the fuselage or the trailer I didn t bother taking off the tail All was loaded and ready to roll in about three hours

About halfway into the dismantling it began to snow By the time I was ready to go we had gotten about three inches This worked out in my favor as it slowed everyone else on the highway down to my speed My greatest worry when hauling an airplane is when you meet a truck

All seemed to be going good The first car I met I got over to the right because of the trailer At this time I looked into the mirror and not only noticed the trailer a foot wider than the truck on each side but the horizontal stabilizer stuck out another foot on each side beyond the trailer What a shock

I stopped and tried to remove the tail but to no avail The snow kept coming and so did the end of the day It took me four and a quarter hours to go fifty-five miles By the time I got home we had eight inches of snow What a long ride

I began total disassembly right away The wings were in fantastic shape All that was needed was varnish on the tip bows I also put new cables in the whole airplane The original inspectors number date and signature are still on the spars

I worked the whole project under the watchful eyes of Paul Baker an AI from Beaver Aviation at Dodge County

The author tackles another flying surface with needle and twine

Airport He is really an EAAer I never heard of an AI so ready and willing to help restore an airplane He even came to my home after hours to inspect the fuselage as it was easier for me than taking it up there Paul says if Id hired him to do the restoring I could just hand over my paycheck for a year so he said you do the working and Ill do the looking

All the still pieces were sandblasted and sprayed with Imron primer Believe me you do have to wear a mask with that stuff

I gave Wag-Aero a call and told them what I needed for a complete cover job and not to call me until they had it all there in one pile with no monkeying around for a little of this and that

While waiting for the covering materials I began work on the engine The whole airplane had only 1100 hours and the engine 330 SMOH I just couldn t get it started I solicited the help of a local mechanic and Stinshyson owner Harold Hubrich We found three blown head gaskets one leaky valve the impulse spring in the left mag was broken and the P-Iead in the right mag the inshysulator of phenolic replaced with masking tape

I pulled the heads and Harold ground ~he valves had the mags rebuilt a complete new ignition system and the carburetor rebuilt We got her back together and bongo

- she started right off In the meantime I finished the wings and control surshy

faces I wanted to paint it all apart so a temporary gear 24

Larry applies a new cowling atter a fruitl ess encounter with sa ndblasting equipment

was made to support the fuselage The engine was never taken off Many people questioned that temporary gear I just said you had to be very careful on take-off and landshying

The actual covering was very enjoyable you could see some real progress including the stitching but that spraying and sanding Sixteen hours of work for every coat Six sandings fourteen coats and thirty gallons all total

The sheet metal was all in good shape I had planned to replace the cowl so a guy that was chicken could look in at the rubber band I tried Zip Strip to get down to bare metal with no luck at all I took all the aluminum parts over to a body shop including the boot and sandblasted them In less than ten minutes I destroyed every piece of aluminum except the instrument panel and nose bowl I then got some aluminum and began making new parts It all turned out very well

When I first brought the Vag home I contacted Cecil Ogles of Vag-News and he sent me more info than I think Piper has Among which was complete rigging

Im a little more fortunate than most- Im a tool and die model maker by trade and have my own shop Before beginning on the Vag my partner and I added on a 50 x 60 foot addition to our shop which served for a beautiful place to work over the winter to store parts until needed as well as an area to completely assemble the airplane for rigging

Its been a long time since the fuselage last shook from a run-up

Time came to go to the airport and sprout feathers There is a private strip just south of town so I went there along with about six helpers The airplane was assembled and flown two days later on June 28 1978 A year and a half after beginning

The first flight was all anyone could hope for It really flys hands off and is the easiest airplane for a taildragger to land that I have ever flown

Now for some numbers Cruise 85-90 Cruise RPM 2300 Fuel Consumption 30 gph Prop 70-36 Final and Climb 70 mph Over the Fence 60 mph Stall 40 mph Empty Weight 640 Ibs Take-off- For each 10 Ibs over 200 the passenger

weighs I added 100 feet I had the Vag at Oshkosh on Tuesday this year and

took it home and put it to bed the same night In this area we have about fifteen Vags flying with

five of them done original Myself I like to see airplanes kept original Its like a Model T with a Chevy 427 it just aint the same

The airplane is covered with Stits and the finish is Aerothane

Now that the airplanes finished work ca n proceed on the shop

I can say something most people cant about this airpshylane While at Oshkosh I went over and visited the Piper display and who would you guess was there Clyde Smith the test pilot of my airplane thirty years ago I took a couple of pictures of him and will be placing them in the log books next to his signature

The Vag is my first real attempt in restoring I did the whole airplane myse lf except the seat and the engine work Im very pleased with the end product Its all mine and paid for as well Im now enjoying the fruits of my labor and Id do it again if I could find another Vagshyabond

Oddly enough it seemed the hardest part of the whole project was the legal end Being that the FCC can t seem to find a good reason to charge for a restricted radio license I decided to send for one just in case I ever carried a radio along That took three months and the paperwork went back and forth six times The hardest part was the registration The airplane hadn t been regisshytered since 1967 The State of Wisconsin wasnt too bad That paperwork came back only once asking for an addishytional $333 because I didn t notify them within thirty days after purchase even though the airplane had been declared exempt But the Feds This took six months nine phone calls and six letters Finally I called once again and told them that after a year and a half of rebuilding with or without them I was going to fly it I think that finally did the trick

25

--

----

---

Calendar of Events NOVEMBER 18-19 - MIAMI FlORIDA- Antique Classic and Cusshy

tom Built Fly-In at the third annual Harvest- A Country Fair sponsored by the Historical Association of Southern Florida at the Dade County Youth Fairground Coral Way at 112th Avenue Awards given for antique classic and custom built aircraft Conshytact Capt Ken Ufland of the Civil Air Patrol office (305) 552-3106 home after 600 pm (305) 251-5927 or Mary Dodd Russell Harshyvest Coordinator at the Historical Museum 3280 S Miami Ave shynue Building B Miami Fl 33129

JANUARY 21-27 - Sun N Fun the biggest fly-in in the southeastshyand the second biggest in the natron Its a full week of southern hospitality and flying fun daily aerial demonstrations fly-bys of antique classic homebuilt and warbird aircraft forums exhibits and static displays parties and com roasts big new food concesshysion country store for campers in our shady campsites Make motel reservations early- our free information booklet has a complete list of accommodations Write to Sun N Fun PO Box 3538 lakeland Florida 33802

(Dick Stouffer Photo)

Aeronca IICC Super Chief belonging to David E Long Keyser West Virginia

(Ted Koston Photo)

Heres a sharp Funk at Oshkosh Owner unknown didnt register

(Dick Stouffer Photo)

Another fine looking unregistered aircraft

STATEMENT OF OWNERSHIP MANAGEMENT AND CIRCULATION RlItdbyJ9U$C )681

I T1ILSOULe TOH

The Vintage Airplane E n o LlHG

IJ~OO t ~~~~~~mi=rlt bullbulllftu~~~ 4 LOCATOH MNOWH o e S 0 ULlC TlON _I CIy CO~h bullbull bull ~ 7 cod~d-=~~- 1000

J 5 LAJ~il Jt THf~ISAJ~~WFo n SIJi L uSISU OCbullbull 0 n os U LlSHIS 110 pIn~ CoT t ~~ u

N ES 110 cO LETf AODflESSE OJ UILISHER EDITOR AND ANA GING EDITOII

USLlSNS Nbull -d Add

11E0~~(1 ~dl~ezny J 1 31 J W Forest HOme QHG r--~rnklin--WI----Slll2-

1 ~cll~geJID9T~~~2~ldd~1l tl Poret lIome U~Hll HI 53

7 OWNER (ff o ~~d ~~ 0 II ~ ~II Odd 1 ~ IInI aM el 14dIUI~ ~~~nd~ I~~ bullbullbull~bullbull d odd _ vlroc i o~ 0 0 aUI I ~r of 101el of oclt If 1 0 4d 10 _ 4ltld 01 I~~ 1IIlvld l

o ~ ~~ ~ ~H h PrlbullbulloIt 0 01 ~CON (I Jr bullbullM ltOdd dl bull bull 100 of~ 1lkI~ ~

l-l-Jl-l---w---~fferfte

t INOWN 80NOHOLO~RS ORTO6GEES AND OTHER SECURITV HOLDERS OWNING OR HOLDING 1 ERCtNT O~ MORE or gt-____ccA OUNT OF BONDS MORTGGES OR OTHER SECURITIES 11 a~ ~

t FDA COMLETION BY NON~OT ORG6NIZATION5 UTHOIIIIZIO TO AL AT SfCIAL RATES IS~IIo nZ ln PSN)

TObullbull po ~ltgtclon _ltgt0111 0 1 110 0 bull bullbullbullbull 0 F_I ltgtc o IU ~ (C~ ~I

o t~~~o~~~O 0 ~7~~~=G ~f~~~4-~ It ~zp-GIIo 0( ~f~

~~5EU(g~l~oo~euroi~~~~cGH j~s~~A~if~~~riiE~R~~TGTL~

3195 3300 S OCCULATIO

I L THOUgH OI L S 0 CIS STSST H OO HO COUNTI S6LIS None None

1-middot TDTLDCCULATlOH oO~J dIO~1

2670

2670 -t 2679

~2-67-9--___

D I OS SUTlO sy L C I o OTH HS S L S CO L IN y HD OTH ltl COCS 250 250

C OTLonu0 rS~ofC0II401 2920 29_ ~____

copss 0 DSuTO

t ~~~~clpU~~~~o UCCDUHTpoundDbullPOILpoundD 275 ____~___

z TU0 WS gI HT

G OTAL (~Ofl--oItOUu~UltJI

None

3195

- - shy

T None

3300

O-OOWOWOII Icerlifylhlllhe 5llemenlslllde byme H glO~ _

Ib-o~ Ire cornel Ind rompkle J~ ~~ Business Manager

lZ FDA COPL~TION e-y ~UILisimiddotS--MILNO AT HE R(OULR RAlIiS Is~~rlo Ili l o l ~ M

w U s c M211 ~ In _-0 middotmiddotNo 0 0 11 _n omo _10359 0 hl tI ~~ ~~~ov ~ h b_ 0 IIlIv It h ~o $ VO 10 1010

0000bull 1m h proI I 01 hit bull v bull__mlolon 0 H bllcalon _ It 1 o ho PO___ _rlv I Ov39U S C 31121

~

Jitw1 0melmiddotmmiddote 0_GW Ow oww JJIJtt ~ ManllgerBusiness

(See inSIrUClionson levelv)~~6 35267l1 I)

F4U CORSAIR

PLANE CHECKS The Leading Fighter 01 WWII - with a Record 01 2140 Japanese Aircraft Destroyed 28 01 which

Are Credited to Pappy Boyington Regular bank checks emblazoned with the F4U CORSAIR

- Complete the order form and write out your check Now get a deposit Slip from the same account and clearly indicate any changes or other notations as you wish it to appear on the checks (These two documents will furnish us all the data we need to make your checks compatible with your banks computer and Amer Bank Assn specs) On gift orders send your check and mark his check VOID Please allow 3 weeks for delivery

Start USing Plane Checks Now Your old checks will always be good

Identity Check Co Box 149-D Park Ridge III 60068 Activate my order for Plane Checks starting No ___ o 300middot$795 0 600-$1350 0 900middot$1875 Checks are printed with blue backgrounds and are top bound-one part deposit sUps registers and matching checkbook cover are Included In each order

o F4U CORSAIR o PIPER Assortment o BEECH AIICH1menl o UNITED DC-10

o Cherokee o Sundowner o NORTH CENTRAL DC9 DArrow o V Bonanza o CONTINENTAL OCmiddot10 o Seneca II o Baron o NATIONAL DC-l0

o PITTS SPECIAL o Pmiddot51 MUSTANG 11 AMERICAN OCmiddot10 o CESSNA Allottmenl o TWALmiddot1011 o EASTERN Lmiddotl011

o Hawk o PSA727 o WESTERN 0010 o 210Centurlon o BDmiddot5 o OZARK OCmiddotg0310 o MOONEY

o YELLOW Jmiddot3 CUB o HELICOPTER (BELL)

Ship via 0 UPS (insured) 0 Parcel Post o WEST COAST add one dollar-well fly it

Ship To

Address

City State___ Zip____

26

Larry applies a new cowling atter a fruitl ess encounter with sa ndblasting equipment

was made to support the fuselage The engine was never taken off Many people questioned that temporary gear I just said you had to be very careful on take-off and landshying

The actual covering was very enjoyable you could see some real progress including the stitching but that spraying and sanding Sixteen hours of work for every coat Six sandings fourteen coats and thirty gallons all total

The sheet metal was all in good shape I had planned to replace the cowl so a guy that was chicken could look in at the rubber band I tried Zip Strip to get down to bare metal with no luck at all I took all the aluminum parts over to a body shop including the boot and sandblasted them In less than ten minutes I destroyed every piece of aluminum except the instrument panel and nose bowl I then got some aluminum and began making new parts It all turned out very well

When I first brought the Vag home I contacted Cecil Ogles of Vag-News and he sent me more info than I think Piper has Among which was complete rigging

Im a little more fortunate than most- Im a tool and die model maker by trade and have my own shop Before beginning on the Vag my partner and I added on a 50 x 60 foot addition to our shop which served for a beautiful place to work over the winter to store parts until needed as well as an area to completely assemble the airplane for rigging

Its been a long time since the fuselage last shook from a run-up

Time came to go to the airport and sprout feathers There is a private strip just south of town so I went there along with about six helpers The airplane was assembled and flown two days later on June 28 1978 A year and a half after beginning

The first flight was all anyone could hope for It really flys hands off and is the easiest airplane for a taildragger to land that I have ever flown

Now for some numbers Cruise 85-90 Cruise RPM 2300 Fuel Consumption 30 gph Prop 70-36 Final and Climb 70 mph Over the Fence 60 mph Stall 40 mph Empty Weight 640 Ibs Take-off- For each 10 Ibs over 200 the passenger

weighs I added 100 feet I had the Vag at Oshkosh on Tuesday this year and

took it home and put it to bed the same night In this area we have about fifteen Vags flying with

five of them done original Myself I like to see airplanes kept original Its like a Model T with a Chevy 427 it just aint the same

The airplane is covered with Stits and the finish is Aerothane

Now that the airplanes finished work ca n proceed on the shop

I can say something most people cant about this airpshylane While at Oshkosh I went over and visited the Piper display and who would you guess was there Clyde Smith the test pilot of my airplane thirty years ago I took a couple of pictures of him and will be placing them in the log books next to his signature

The Vag is my first real attempt in restoring I did the whole airplane myse lf except the seat and the engine work Im very pleased with the end product Its all mine and paid for as well Im now enjoying the fruits of my labor and Id do it again if I could find another Vagshyabond

Oddly enough it seemed the hardest part of the whole project was the legal end Being that the FCC can t seem to find a good reason to charge for a restricted radio license I decided to send for one just in case I ever carried a radio along That took three months and the paperwork went back and forth six times The hardest part was the registration The airplane hadn t been regisshytered since 1967 The State of Wisconsin wasnt too bad That paperwork came back only once asking for an addishytional $333 because I didn t notify them within thirty days after purchase even though the airplane had been declared exempt But the Feds This took six months nine phone calls and six letters Finally I called once again and told them that after a year and a half of rebuilding with or without them I was going to fly it I think that finally did the trick

25

--

----

---

Calendar of Events NOVEMBER 18-19 - MIAMI FlORIDA- Antique Classic and Cusshy

tom Built Fly-In at the third annual Harvest- A Country Fair sponsored by the Historical Association of Southern Florida at the Dade County Youth Fairground Coral Way at 112th Avenue Awards given for antique classic and custom built aircraft Conshytact Capt Ken Ufland of the Civil Air Patrol office (305) 552-3106 home after 600 pm (305) 251-5927 or Mary Dodd Russell Harshyvest Coordinator at the Historical Museum 3280 S Miami Ave shynue Building B Miami Fl 33129

JANUARY 21-27 - Sun N Fun the biggest fly-in in the southeastshyand the second biggest in the natron Its a full week of southern hospitality and flying fun daily aerial demonstrations fly-bys of antique classic homebuilt and warbird aircraft forums exhibits and static displays parties and com roasts big new food concesshysion country store for campers in our shady campsites Make motel reservations early- our free information booklet has a complete list of accommodations Write to Sun N Fun PO Box 3538 lakeland Florida 33802

(Dick Stouffer Photo)

Aeronca IICC Super Chief belonging to David E Long Keyser West Virginia

(Ted Koston Photo)

Heres a sharp Funk at Oshkosh Owner unknown didnt register

(Dick Stouffer Photo)

Another fine looking unregistered aircraft

STATEMENT OF OWNERSHIP MANAGEMENT AND CIRCULATION RlItdbyJ9U$C )681

I T1ILSOULe TOH

The Vintage Airplane E n o LlHG

IJ~OO t ~~~~~~mi=rlt bullbulllftu~~~ 4 LOCATOH MNOWH o e S 0 ULlC TlON _I CIy CO~h bullbull bull ~ 7 cod~d-=~~- 1000

J 5 LAJ~il Jt THf~ISAJ~~WFo n SIJi L uSISU OCbullbull 0 n os U LlSHIS 110 pIn~ CoT t ~~ u

N ES 110 cO LETf AODflESSE OJ UILISHER EDITOR AND ANA GING EDITOII

USLlSNS Nbull -d Add

11E0~~(1 ~dl~ezny J 1 31 J W Forest HOme QHG r--~rnklin--WI----Slll2-

1 ~cll~geJID9T~~~2~ldd~1l tl Poret lIome U~Hll HI 53

7 OWNER (ff o ~~d ~~ 0 II ~ ~II Odd 1 ~ IInI aM el 14dIUI~ ~~~nd~ I~~ bullbullbull~bullbull d odd _ vlroc i o~ 0 0 aUI I ~r of 101el of oclt If 1 0 4d 10 _ 4ltld 01 I~~ 1IIlvld l

o ~ ~~ ~ ~H h PrlbullbulloIt 0 01 ~CON (I Jr bullbullM ltOdd dl bull bull 100 of~ 1lkI~ ~

l-l-Jl-l---w---~fferfte

t INOWN 80NOHOLO~RS ORTO6GEES AND OTHER SECURITV HOLDERS OWNING OR HOLDING 1 ERCtNT O~ MORE or gt-____ccA OUNT OF BONDS MORTGGES OR OTHER SECURITIES 11 a~ ~

t FDA COMLETION BY NON~OT ORG6NIZATION5 UTHOIIIIZIO TO AL AT SfCIAL RATES IS~IIo nZ ln PSN)

TObullbull po ~ltgtclon _ltgt0111 0 1 110 0 bull bullbullbullbull 0 F_I ltgtc o IU ~ (C~ ~I

o t~~~o~~~O 0 ~7~~~=G ~f~~~4-~ It ~zp-GIIo 0( ~f~

~~5EU(g~l~oo~euroi~~~~cGH j~s~~A~if~~~riiE~R~~TGTL~

3195 3300 S OCCULATIO

I L THOUgH OI L S 0 CIS STSST H OO HO COUNTI S6LIS None None

1-middot TDTLDCCULATlOH oO~J dIO~1

2670

2670 -t 2679

~2-67-9--___

D I OS SUTlO sy L C I o OTH HS S L S CO L IN y HD OTH ltl COCS 250 250

C OTLonu0 rS~ofC0II401 2920 29_ ~____

copss 0 DSuTO

t ~~~~clpU~~~~o UCCDUHTpoundDbullPOILpoundD 275 ____~___

z TU0 WS gI HT

G OTAL (~Ofl--oItOUu~UltJI

None

3195

- - shy

T None

3300

O-OOWOWOII Icerlifylhlllhe 5llemenlslllde byme H glO~ _

Ib-o~ Ire cornel Ind rompkle J~ ~~ Business Manager

lZ FDA COPL~TION e-y ~UILisimiddotS--MILNO AT HE R(OULR RAlIiS Is~~rlo Ili l o l ~ M

w U s c M211 ~ In _-0 middotmiddotNo 0 0 11 _n omo _10359 0 hl tI ~~ ~~~ov ~ h b_ 0 IIlIv It h ~o $ VO 10 1010

0000bull 1m h proI I 01 hit bull v bull__mlolon 0 H bllcalon _ It 1 o ho PO___ _rlv I Ov39U S C 31121

~

Jitw1 0melmiddotmmiddote 0_GW Ow oww JJIJtt ~ ManllgerBusiness

(See inSIrUClionson levelv)~~6 35267l1 I)

F4U CORSAIR

PLANE CHECKS The Leading Fighter 01 WWII - with a Record 01 2140 Japanese Aircraft Destroyed 28 01 which

Are Credited to Pappy Boyington Regular bank checks emblazoned with the F4U CORSAIR

- Complete the order form and write out your check Now get a deposit Slip from the same account and clearly indicate any changes or other notations as you wish it to appear on the checks (These two documents will furnish us all the data we need to make your checks compatible with your banks computer and Amer Bank Assn specs) On gift orders send your check and mark his check VOID Please allow 3 weeks for delivery

Start USing Plane Checks Now Your old checks will always be good

Identity Check Co Box 149-D Park Ridge III 60068 Activate my order for Plane Checks starting No ___ o 300middot$795 0 600-$1350 0 900middot$1875 Checks are printed with blue backgrounds and are top bound-one part deposit sUps registers and matching checkbook cover are Included In each order

o F4U CORSAIR o PIPER Assortment o BEECH AIICH1menl o UNITED DC-10

o Cherokee o Sundowner o NORTH CENTRAL DC9 DArrow o V Bonanza o CONTINENTAL OCmiddot10 o Seneca II o Baron o NATIONAL DC-l0

o PITTS SPECIAL o Pmiddot51 MUSTANG 11 AMERICAN OCmiddot10 o CESSNA Allottmenl o TWALmiddot1011 o EASTERN Lmiddotl011

o Hawk o PSA727 o WESTERN 0010 o 210Centurlon o BDmiddot5 o OZARK OCmiddotg0310 o MOONEY

o YELLOW Jmiddot3 CUB o HELICOPTER (BELL)

Ship via 0 UPS (insured) 0 Parcel Post o WEST COAST add one dollar-well fly it

Ship To

Address

City State___ Zip____

26

--

----

---

Calendar of Events NOVEMBER 18-19 - MIAMI FlORIDA- Antique Classic and Cusshy

tom Built Fly-In at the third annual Harvest- A Country Fair sponsored by the Historical Association of Southern Florida at the Dade County Youth Fairground Coral Way at 112th Avenue Awards given for antique classic and custom built aircraft Conshytact Capt Ken Ufland of the Civil Air Patrol office (305) 552-3106 home after 600 pm (305) 251-5927 or Mary Dodd Russell Harshyvest Coordinator at the Historical Museum 3280 S Miami Ave shynue Building B Miami Fl 33129

JANUARY 21-27 - Sun N Fun the biggest fly-in in the southeastshyand the second biggest in the natron Its a full week of southern hospitality and flying fun daily aerial demonstrations fly-bys of antique classic homebuilt and warbird aircraft forums exhibits and static displays parties and com roasts big new food concesshysion country store for campers in our shady campsites Make motel reservations early- our free information booklet has a complete list of accommodations Write to Sun N Fun PO Box 3538 lakeland Florida 33802

(Dick Stouffer Photo)

Aeronca IICC Super Chief belonging to David E Long Keyser West Virginia

(Ted Koston Photo)

Heres a sharp Funk at Oshkosh Owner unknown didnt register

(Dick Stouffer Photo)

Another fine looking unregistered aircraft

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F4U CORSAIR

PLANE CHECKS The Leading Fighter 01 WWII - with a Record 01 2140 Japanese Aircraft Destroyed 28 01 which

Are Credited to Pappy Boyington Regular bank checks emblazoned with the F4U CORSAIR

- Complete the order form and write out your check Now get a deposit Slip from the same account and clearly indicate any changes or other notations as you wish it to appear on the checks (These two documents will furnish us all the data we need to make your checks compatible with your banks computer and Amer Bank Assn specs) On gift orders send your check and mark his check VOID Please allow 3 weeks for delivery

Start USing Plane Checks Now Your old checks will always be good

Identity Check Co Box 149-D Park Ridge III 60068 Activate my order for Plane Checks starting No ___ o 300middot$795 0 600-$1350 0 900middot$1875 Checks are printed with blue backgrounds and are top bound-one part deposit sUps registers and matching checkbook cover are Included In each order

o F4U CORSAIR o PIPER Assortment o BEECH AIICH1menl o UNITED DC-10

o Cherokee o Sundowner o NORTH CENTRAL DC9 DArrow o V Bonanza o CONTINENTAL OCmiddot10 o Seneca II o Baron o NATIONAL DC-l0

o PITTS SPECIAL o Pmiddot51 MUSTANG 11 AMERICAN OCmiddot10 o CESSNA Allottmenl o TWALmiddot1011 o EASTERN Lmiddotl011

o Hawk o PSA727 o WESTERN 0010 o 210Centurlon o BDmiddot5 o OZARK OCmiddotg0310 o MOONEY

o YELLOW Jmiddot3 CUB o HELICOPTER (BELL)

Ship via 0 UPS (insured) 0 Parcel Post o WEST COAST add one dollar-well fly it

Ship To

Address

City State___ Zip____

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Are you restoring a Classic Q~ CUSHION UPHOLSTERY SETS

~Gnt dJ4 ~~ I~

Jj FINISH IT RIGHT WITH AN

t~ INTERIOR All Items Designed for Easy

DO-IT-YOURSELF INSTALLATION

UPHOLSTERED FOAM CUSHION SETS WALL PANEL SETS bull HEADLINERSmiddot CARPETS

Airtex interior upholstery items are all made up into complete assemblies ready for you to install Your choice of three fabric s tyles and twenty colors Luxurious cut pile carpets in seven colors wrinkleshyfree Duraliner headliners baggage compartshyments seat slings and fire wall covers are also available for Clas sic planes

RE-COVER ENVELOPES Available for all Classics and some Antique models in Ceconite 101 102 and cotton Airtex makes the worlds finest envelopes

dolplpound AIRCRAFT FINISHES Nitrate amp butyrate dope enamelurethane thinners reducer retarder and primers Complete stock of re-covering supplies

Send $100 for Catalog and Our Fabrics Selection Guide

tJ~ p~ Jnc DEPT R LOWER MORRISVILLE ROAD

FALLSINGTON PA 19054

(215) 295-4 115

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