Communiqué - EAA Ch 1--Homeeaach1.org/Design/Comm4v1_FullR4.pdfDurand #13 airfoil. The leading edge...

Communiqué Issue # 4 Volume # 1

Low Aspect Ratio Aircraft Part 2

Ed Marquart is one of the Master Craftsmen of FlaBob Airport and the designer of the marvelous Marquart Charger. He has a great history of building with Bill Turner a number of full scale replica racers from the 1930s: the Brown Miss Los Angeles, Gee Bee Model Z, Miles and Atwood Special, Howard Pete and the deHavilland DH 88 Comet.

Early in Mr. Ed Marquart’s carieer he helped build the Lanier paraplane prototype. We are very lucky to have him at FlaBob Airport and also have him share his knowledge, photos and film of a flying Lanier Paraplane. Once again we witnessed an outstanding presentation and a great piece of aviation history.

The Paraplane or Vacuplane was the concept of Edward H Lanier and son (Edward M), from Miami and Jacksonville FL, and Covington KY. 1943 the company (E M) Lanier Aircraft Corp, Marlton NJ.

Of interest is that the elder Lanier was also inventor of the ice cream cone, which he calms he created while an exhibitor at the 1898 Columbian Exposition in Chicago. Although he had a profitable business selling cone-making machines, his real fascination was with flight, and he is said to have built several aircraft during this period, details of which are unknown.

Ed Marquart stated that Lanier’s vision for the design was the ice cream cone. The elder Lanier had long since noticed that when a paper cone cover was dropped, it always landed, open end up, on its tip. Along the way they uncovered a baffling attribute. If the open end of the cone was enclosed with a cover, it descended more rapidly than an uncovered one. Clutching on this straightforward occurrence they experimented with paper cones.

Ed Marquart and his able assistant giving the design group another outstanding lecture; with the Lanier Vacuplane XL-4 model on the screen. Ed mentioned that this aircraft had a landing misfortune when a young man was showing off for his girl friend one day,

Their assumption was that somehow the open ended cone provided or encompassed stability. It seemed obvious that the shape of the cone imparted stability. Somehow it was able to also produce lift. But they had no explanation how the lift was produced or how to use this idea in an aircraft.

Other literature states that a vaudevillian's trick hat also played into their vision. This is where Vaudeville Theater saga comes into the act; per say. At a show they witnessed a performer who sailed his hat out over the audience. I guess he did not want to buy lots of hats so he figured out a trick to have it return to his hand as if attached to a rubber cord. The Lanier’s asked the performer how the hat trick worked. He stated that the brim had to be turned up and the hat sailed bottom up to make it work. That opened the doors to grand vacuum theory for the Lanier’s. They believed that there was some unknown aerodynamic foundation at work. The open end of the hat's crown was creating lift like

the open end of a paper cone when dropped. They did not seem to care how it worked at this time; just that it achieved lift. This guided the support for the Lanier’s "vacu-cell" in a research craft called the XL-1.

They built the XL-1 aircraft in Miami around 1928. It looked like it had a large shallow box atop the fuselage. The XL-1 flew and the Lanier's claimed that it was extra stable and proficient at shorter takeoffs and landings than it would have been without the new “vacu-cell” device. The Lanier's built a second aircraft named the XL-2 with an 85 hp engine. This was built at Lunken Airport in Cincinnati in 1930. It looked a lot like to the XL-1. It had a further developed 98 sq. ft. “ vacu-cell” mounted atop.

The mid-wing was left uncovered at the root to allow air to flow up through it to act against the cone shaped bottom surface of the “vacu-cell” and transmit a means of stability. A 20 mph forward speed at touch down was calmed. It was also spin and stall proof. But, there remained skeptics who would not accept the “vacu-cell” ideas.

The Lanier’s needed to prove the “vacu-cell” idea with convincing research. So, in 1931 Ed H. Lanier went to University of Miami for help (I

assume with some cash for a contract study) in building a new research aircraft which was named XL-3. What they built and tested was an aircraft with no wing. It was merely a vacu-cell which was to provide all the lift and stability.

Ed Marquart explaining the XL-3 and what appears to be a canard surface just aft of the engine cowl. The surfaces were actually the airplane's ailerons they where totally within the prop wash and were much too sensitive.

It seems at this point they started calling it the “Vacuplane” and it became a school undertaking with student effort. Six patents were secured by E.H. Lanier from 1930 to 1933 for airplane designs that were intended to be exceptionally stable. A feature of five of these was a flow induced “vacuum chamber” which they thought provided superior stability and increased lift compared to typical wing designs. Initially this chamber was in the fuselage, but later designs placed it in the wing by replacing a section of the upper skin of the wing with a series of angled slats. {Vacuplane series of experiments to explore Lanier's ideas on low-speed flight. Relative US patents from 1930-33: #1,750,529, #1,779,005, #1,803,805, #1,813,627, #1,866,214, and #1,913,809.}

The XL-3 Vacuplane had an 85 hp LeBlond engine, single place, fully enclosed cabin with a airfoil shaped pylon extending above the fuselage to the “vacu-cell”. The “vacu-cell” had a chord of eleven feet, two inches and a span of eight feet and nine inches. The “vacu-cell” also had a straight leading edge but was tapered at the rear. The bottom surface tapered upward toward the tips generating a forceful dihedral result. It was believed, this lower surface dihedral gave the vacu-cell its natural stability. So it became a very important part of their lift stability system. The shape of the “vacu-cell” looked as if to follow a Durand #13 airfoil. The leading edge was normal back to about foot or so with a upper cover. The remaining area was opened; this can be seen in the above photo of the XL-2 number 816Y. Vacu-Cell had a total of 84 sq ft. lifting surface, so that with the XL-3's gross weight of 931 pounds, the "wing" loading was just over 11 pounds per square foot. This brings us to part two of the newsletter on the subject of low aspect ratio wings. Aspect ratio of the vacu-cell was .82 to 1. This most likely produced the lift and flight characteristics of the Vacuplane then any other concept. {As you might recall; from the last newsletter on Low Aspect Ratio Design.} In 1932 NACA researcher Charles H. Zimmerman authored NACA Report No. 431 which stated: "there is a range of aspect ratios extending approximately from 0.75 to 1.50 wherein end flow causes a marked delay in the breakdown of the longitudinal flow as the angle of attack of an airfoil is increased " and " it is possible within this range to obtain maximum lift coefficients considerably higher than can be obtained for an airfoil of this same section (Clark Y) having an aspect ratio of six." This was similar to the Arup flying wing, which had a plan form similar to the heel of a shoe. Also noted was the fact that an ultra low aspect ratio wing had to have a curved trailing edge to produce the effects noted in Report No. 431. The Lanier vacu-cell was very similar to the Arup wing, with a tapered trailing edge approximating the curved ideal shape. Zimmerman's other NACA Technical Note No. 539 stated: "lncreasing the dihedral of airfoils of low aspect ratio results in large decreases in drag at values of lift corresponding to climbing and slow cruising speeds." Others have thought that the cavity or Lanier vacu-cell could have been generating vortex lift assumed by Witold Kasper. According to Kasper, at high angles of attack a sort of horizontal tornado could be induced on the top surface of a specially designed wing which would generate large amounts of lift. He called the phenomenon "vortex lift" The idea was to adopt the vacuum principle for inherent stability, especially at stalling conditions. Low speed was achieved by placing an upwardly-open concave cell ("vacuum cell") in the center section of the aircraft, most often blending into

the fuselage. Slots were also involved. Hence reduced air pressure evolved in the cell which, of course, had a positive influence on the lift. Most Vacuplanes involved the University of Miami aeronautics department and its director, Prof F. H. Given, to some degree, but, details are sketchy. The Vacuplane documentation is chaos, and likely no one will ever sort out all the facts. The University did a wind tunnel tested a 1/12 size model in October of 1933. Ralph R. Graichen supervised and compared the vacu-cell with a Clark Y airfoil. The Clark Y airfoil stalled at 14 degrees; the vacu-cell hung on up to 34 degrees AOA. The vacu-cell appeared to show no predisposition to spin out of the stall with a aspect ratio of less then or equal to 1.5. It has an affinity to be stable through the usable angles of attack and center of pressure did not move more than 2% throughout this range. This did not provide all the answers the Lanier’s wanted, but, they now knew how much induced drag was produced. What did this all prove at the time? That depends on whom you ask, but one thing is for sure, the XL-3 Vacuplane did fly. From what has been written it flew quite well. It flew at 90 mph. Take off was about 75 feet, maintained altitude at 25 mph, and descend "like a parachute" to touch down and stopped in 33 feet. The succession of the XL-4 helped solve some of the XL-3 problems which came to light during flight testing. The University of Miami's modified the XL-3. The vacu-cell was widened 2.5 feet on each side so traditional edge ailerons could be

added. The fuselage aileron canards where removed. But, disc shaped endplates 3 feet in diameter were added to the tips. It now became the XL-4, the Vacuplane with better roll control and a top speed of 110mph. The outstanding STOL distinctiveness remained. Odd thing happened after all the testing, the Lanier’s discarded the XL-3, XL-4 design. Maybe they felt it was time to move from a pure research aircraft to a more practical research design or even test their theories on a different shape aircraft. Their next Vacuplane was the XL-5, a smaller, lighter research plane powered by a 2-cylinder, 36 hp Aeronca engine. The vacu-cell became the fuselage with single pilot sitting right in the middle

of the 7 foot wide tube. It became a lifting body type shape with Vacu-cell narrowing all the way to the standard tail surfaces. There where short wings extended out from the vacu-cell to mount the ailerons. The wings could be folded downward, I guess this made it a "tow able" aircraft. The span was 14 feet 4 inch when fully extended. Gross weight 574 pounds, empty weight was 350 pounds. Payload load of 224 pounds with a range of 250 mph. Take-off runs where in the area of 90 feet. The entire airframe was built up out of welded steel tubing with fabric covering. A number of pilots found it stable enough not to slip or dive in a stall. In landing it had a tendency to favor a steep descent with control maintained at minimum forward speed. Top speed was over 95 mph with landings happening at 30mph, with a 700 fpm rate of climb.

The ice cream cone business must have been exceedingly first-rate because the Lanier’s kept building more research aircraft. They did another rabbit trick and turned the XL-5 into the XL-6. The wing span was augmented to 17.5 feet. This caused the top speed to go up to 110 mph, just like the XL-3 and XL-4 wing increase caused it to go up in speed. The XL-6 weight went up to 621 pounds with the increase in span.

Like most civilian designs progress slowed until close to the end of World War II. The Lanier Aircraft Corporation was established at Bristol, PA in 1943. A new model was designed and identified as the Model 120. The name also seemed to change to Paraplane from Vacuplane. One wall of the shop was painted white and a full size side view of the aircraft was drawn right on that wall. Around 1946 Ed Marquart was working for local aircraft company and a friend told him about an innovative new light plane being built. Ed went to go see the project. He encountered Edward Lanier (the son) and they spoke about the Lanier Paraplane and how it came about. Ed liked what he saw and provided his skills on an after hours and Saturday morning basis. His was paid with shares of stock in the company. Ed stated he still has those certificate shares which states 1100 shares. Ed figures they must be worth at least negative 1 penny by now. He made a great point about sometimes you work to try to accomplish something further than financial benefit. Ed saw this as an opportunity to accomplish or be in on the ground floor of something original, revolutionary and enjoyable. Ed’s recollection was that the tubular fuselage was well along by the time he came on the location and was sitting in a simple jig. One of the uncharacteristic elements was the drawings. When he and other assistants needed to cut a new piece of tubing to fit into the structure. They simply walked over to the wall took a dimension off the full size drawing. They then began producing parts right of the wall. There were some drawings of smaller components on paper, but most of the airplane came right off the wall. The tubular structure of the Model 120 Paraplane was largely fabric covered, with aluminum tail surfaces, vacu-jet vanes and ducts from the slots to the wing cavities. Ed Marquart says that clips were placed around the tubing and the sheet metal was riveted to the clips. The landing gear oleo-rubber shocks where built to withstand the parachute-like landings the Paraplane was capable of making.

This photo of the Paraplane 120 with 0-145 Lycoming was taken by Ed Marquart when he worked for Lanier.

Ed Marquart shows us a photo of the twin rudders

Ed Marquart, shows double tail. Para plane 120, 65 hp Lycoming, February 1949, before test flight. Marlton, NJ airport, Al Ryan standing next to aircraft. Ed stated the tail was changed to a single rudder almost after the first flight.

Ed remembers the cabin was a fully enclosed design but was narrow so two seats were staggered to allow shoulders to overlap. Only the pilot's left seat had controls. As originally conceived and built, the Model 120 Paraplane was powered by a little 65 hp Lycoming 0-145 and had twin rudders. This was changed to a single vertical fin and rudder for better control at slow flight inside the props slip stream.

Ed Marquart shows the single tail. Ed says look close and you see a larger tail then the paint job.

The wingspan was 20 fl. 5 in., the length was 22 fl. and the height was 6 fl. 4 in. Empty weight was 870 pounds, which was a lot more than the 600 pounds that had been originally projected. The gross was 1,325 pounds. The Paraplane was painted a medium blue all over, with red on the leading edges of the wings and tail surfaces. A gray stripe with a yellow border ran down the fuselage, with the legend "Every field an airport" painted in it in blue. The N-number, 9060H, and other markings were in white. The main gear leg fairings were unpainted aluminum. The 120 wing operated on the same belief with new devices to control the lift force in the vacu-cell. The test pilot was former Navy fighter pilot Leo J. Riley. The wings still had cavities on the

top surface of the wings which extended towards inboard section almost to the tips. The wing was divided into three sections with hinged tops called vanes. Ed brought a drawing of how the special lift devices operated. The pilot opened and closed these doors to alter the quantity of lift created. New to the 120 was a full span slot that took air from the bottom surface of the wing just behind the leading edge. The air was forced up (the scoop) within a venturi formed channel and exhausted a concentrated velocity of air (the vacu-jet) into the front of each of the cavities (the vacu-cell) on the top side of the wing. The idea

was to force feed the cavity with high velocity air to create more lift when it was needed. The mouth of the slot on each wing also had a door, or vane, which could be opened and closed from the cockpit. In practice, the vanes were opened just slightly for takeoff, were closed completely for cruise flight and were opened fully for landing. At the full open landing position, so much lift was produced that a gliding descent of 40 degrees was possible without an increase in speed, according to the younger Lanier. "It lands something like a parachute," he was quoted as saying The following quotes are from pamphlet for the Paraplane which Leo J, Riley helped write: "The Paraplane takeoff and landing distance required is so short that airports are not a necessity for its safe operation. In this respect, it approaches the safety minimums required for rotary wing aircraft. Its speed, unlike that of rotary wing airplanes, is normal per horsepower. "The Vacu-jet system greatly contributes to its safe, short takeoff, high angle of climb, and safe, steep descent landing. The Para- plane's rate of climb is very much higher than comparable conventional aircraft.” "The Paraplane stability and control has been excellent, and one of the most outstanding characteristics is its lateral stability in all attitudes of flight. Lateral control exists with power off, even after rudder control has diminished at so-called stalling speeds. There is no tendency toward a Dutch roll…” “There is a very short roll after landing. "The extreme short takeoff and landing with relatively steep angles of climb and descent allows the Paraplane to get out of and into a field over high obstacles. "These test airplanes have been very much overweight and used as flying test beds for the Vacu-jet devices and other improvements to be incorporated in production design Paraplanes for FAA Certification. Therefore, it is highly gratifying to me to realize that the outstanding performance shown by these experimental Paraplanes should be greatly increased in the highly streamlined, proper weight, production engineered versions to follow."

All the above statements by Riley would only stand as sales pitch if it was not for Ed Marquart’s color film he had taken showing some impressive take offs and landings which he shared with the Design Group. Thanks Ed, a piece of history many of us would not have ever seen.

Flying Magazine and the Philadelphia Inquirer newspaper wrote articles about the Paraplane landing at Municipal Stadium in Philadelphia. Ed Marquart was there that day also. A row of vehicles and a dump truck are shown in the background of the photos. Riley made

remarkably short takeoffs and landings for the press. There are photos and story in Flying Magazine on page 25 of the October 1950 issue. The landings that the Paraplane accomplished thoroughly demonstrated its character. The aircraft descended slowly but surely with a very sharp angle. Ed stated that the aircraft needed more horsepower. The 65 hp Paraplane, was tail heavy. The 65 hp

Lycoming was weak and was replaced with a 90 hp Continental C-90. It was mounted about two feet farther forward. Ed also stated that this caused the top airspeed to go about 5 mph slower. The modified aircraft was christened the Paraplane II. It was also tested by a University Aeronautical Department at Princeton University.

Paraplane landing over an hanger and touching down less then 200 feet later. From Ed’s Marquart’s film

Ed Lanier lift top; L.J. Riley top right; Ed took this photo of photographers taking photos for the magazine.
The follow reports where produced:
1. FLIGHT TEST ANALYSIS OF PERFORMANCE OF THE PARAPLANE EQUIPPED WITH VAC.U-JET AND VACU-CELL DEVICES # 198

2. FLIGHT TESTS OF LANIER PARAPLANE # 189

3. STABILITY, CONTROL, AND PERFORMANCE OF THE PARAPLANE WITH WIND TUNNEL EVALUATION OF THE VACU-JET DEVICES #158

The reports are good reading if you get a chance. Some statements from the reports on the Paraplane follow: The results of this study indicate that the performance of the Paraplane was about average for a plane of its class. The power off, maximum lift coefficients ran along normal magnitudes, (CL = 1.54). It was found that the greatest lift coefficient in the clean configuration was obtained by the application of flaps alone, ( CL = 0.43). with the additional application of doors and scoops, an additional increment, (CL = 0.04) was obtained, The doors and scoops alone, in comparison to the clean configuration gave

only a small increment increase, (CL=0.15) The effect of power on maximum lift coefficient was large in all configurations in comparison to power off lift coefficients. This effect is attributed to the characteristic of this airplane, with low aspect ratio to attain high angles of attack at stall giving it a larger vertical thrust component. As was found in the power-off case, the greatest contributing factor to maximum lift was the application of flaps. (CL=2.48). Power effects increased the maximum lift coefficient in the clean configuration, giving ( CL = 0.36) and with flap down gave, (CL =0.51), little additional effect was realized by the addition of the test devices. It is the author’s opinion that the Vacu-jet device compares favorably with normal. slot-type high lift devices with the additional advantage that it is controllable in flight, However it is felt that the extended lip of the scoop, in the down position of the Vacu-jet, creates enough additional drag over conventional type wing slots, to make the use of the Vacu-jet of no consequential improvement over conventional wing slots.

Ed Lanier furthermore purposed on paper a four seat aircraft. Which Marquart stated was always nice to do. Along with what that was the idea I will call the STUCKY air stations. Ed Lanier called them ParaPorts, a tiny airport on 15 acres or so with a 400 ft. runway that only a Paraplane could safely use (or a helicopter). They would have a motel, restaurant, hangars, maintenance facility. They would also have services for cars. Lanier's idea was to string Paraports along the entire Interstate Highway system at relatively short intervals so that Paraplane travelers would never be far from food, fuel, service, a place to spend the night (and money) or avoid bad weather. Since we do not see any of these flying STUCKY’s we know they came to pass. To bad they seem like a reasonable idea.

Another University; Murdoch University also wrote a paper on the

Paraplane called: IMPLEMENTING LANIER’S PATENTS FOR STABLE, SAFE AND ECONOMICAL ULTRA-SHORTWING VACU-AND PARA-PLANES They reviewed the patents and other literature to come to their conclusion based on mathematical modeling. Here are some of their statements: Six patents were secured by E. H. Lanier from 1930 to 1933 for aeroplane designs that were intended to be exceptionally stable. A feature of five of these was a flow-induced “vacuum chamber” that it was thought provided superior stability and increased lift compared to typical wing designs. Initially this chamber was in the fuselage, but later designs placed it in the wing by replacing a section of the upper skin of the wing with a series of angled slats. We investigated this wing design using inviscid aerodynamic theory and viscous numerical simulations and found no evidence to support the claims made. Rather we suggest that any improvement in lift and/or stability seen in the few prototypes that were built was due to thicker airfoils than was typical at the time.

Do we have a deal for you; hold on; low cost; magic lift; easy sign up; the aircraft of your dreams; don’t wait; 60 years of design study; and a complete set of steak knifes :)

An Interview With Ed Marquart (The following was graciously lifted from The Wing Nut, newsletter of EAA Chapter 1, dated 1 June 2001. No way could I do a better report.) In January, it was my privilege to interview Flabob’s Pioneers of Aviation for our 48th Annual Open House and Fly-In. Before this, I did not realize the rich history that is Flabob Airport. Over the next five months, in alphabetical order, I will be reprinting those interviews, so that all of us at EAA Chapter One may know who we are and the stock from which we came. Poet George Herbert once said, “When a friend asks, there is no tomorrow.” No truer words could be said of Ed Marquart. He is known as the man whose door is always open. It is safe to say that there is not a homebuilder at Flabob Airport who has not benefited from Ed’s kindness and expertise. As an aviation pioneer of Flabob Airport, Ed Marquart began designing his first experimental in 1955. He started with a test model, the MA3 Marquart Maverick. As a “personalized airplane,” it was strictly experimental. Ed used it to explore his design ideas. He opened his shop at Flabob Airport on August 1,1958. At that time, he moved on to designing the model MA4, a single-place, biplane named the Marquart Lancer. After the prototype was built, Ed worked on fuselages for other people. “The prints are out there for this plane, but I didn’t push their sale,” Ed commented. In June of 1955, Ed joined EAA Chapter One. Immediately, he was drafted as Vice President and served for approximately 3½ years. He was then elected and served two and half years as President of the Chapter. In 1966 through 1967, Ed pulled out plans of the MA5, first realized in his garage before he moved to Flabob Airport. The MA5 Marquart Charger was finished in 1971. That year, Ed flew it to Oshkosh for AirVenture. The Marquart Charger made it to Fly-In’s around the western United States. He again flew the Charger back to Oshkosh in 1973. Ed explained, “There are about 450 sets of prints out there today and 85 MA5’s in the air, with 100 still being built.” Ed’s expertise has been sought on many different planes. In the middle 60’s, Ed was contracted to build a replica of a 1912 Curtis Pusher, which now sits in the Planes of Fame Museum in Chino, California. He built a set of clipped wings for the Taylorcraft that acrobatics pilot Margaret Richie flew. Clayton Stephens worked on the fuselage. After flying that Taylorcraft, Margaret moved over to the Stephens Akro when it was completed. Ed then designed another set of clipped wings for Art Scholl, who was putting cut

down Taylorcraft wings on his J-3 Piper Cub for aerobatics work. “I was always in the middle of the Fly-In’s and found them very enjoy-able” Ed states. One man he knew on the field was Ed Allenbaugh, a good friend of Flavio’s. “He had helped a lot with racing airplanes years ago. Allenbaugh built a number of them,” Ed recalls. “One called the Californian and another called the Allenbaugh Grey Ghost.” Ed enjoyed Mr. Allenbaugh’s opinions, because he had done so much in the field of racing. At that time Mr. Allenbaugh was building a “roadable” airplane. He wanted a plane in which he could fold the wings and drive it home. Unfortunately, Mr. Allenbaugh passed away before completing the project. In the 1970’s, Ed got into building replica-racing planes for Bill Turner and his company Repeat Aircraft. He built a Brown Racer B-2 for Bill, called the Miss Los Angeles. Three years later, Ed again worked for Bill Turner on the Gee-Bee Model Z. Leon Atwood, one of the original designers of the Miles and Atwood Special, found out Repeat Aircraft was building replicas and asked if they would build a replica of the Special. Bill contracted with Ed Marquart for the job. Ed also had opportunity to work on the wing lay-outs, the fuselage layouts and the tooling on the DeHaviland Comet sponsored by Tom Wathen. This talented Pioneer of Aviation also worked on the layouts for the fuselage, tapered wing configuration, and the tail feathers of Bill Turner’s Turner (Roscoe)/Laird Racer. Ed got them started on that project and then moved on to bigger and better things. “My wife, Shirley, backed me up on a number of things, assisted in restoring a number of aircraft many years ago. She’s gone along with my vocation and avocation.” Ed states. Ed has had the privilege of meeting many an aviation great, including Matty Laird of Turner/Laird fame; Tony LeVier, a great race and test pilot for Lockheed Aircraft; and renowned aviators Claude Flagg, Frank Tallman and Paul Mantz. Thank you, Ed, for your contribution to Sport Aviation, Flabob Airport and EAA Chapter One.

- D. K. Heller

The picture Show

At our forth meeting we viewed one of the timeless series of video programs by brilliant German aeronautical engineer Dr. Alexander Lippisch dealing with wind

tunnels. To fly, man first had to understand the flow of air over aircraft surfaces. This meant

that he had to build instrumented laboratories in which wings, fuselages, and control surfaces could be tested under controlled conditions. Thus it is not surprising that the first wind tunnel was built a full 30 years before the Wrights' success at Kitty Hawk. The utility of the wind tunnel is obvious today, but it was not the first aerodynamic test device. Early experimenters realized that they needed a machine to replace nature's capricious winds with a steady, controllable flow of air. They recognized, as Leonardo da Vinci and Isaac Newton had before them, that they could either move their test model through the air at the required velocity or they could blow the air past a stationary model. Both approaches were employed in the early days of aeronautics. The simplest and cheapest contrivance for moving models at high speeds was the whirling arm-a sort of aeronautical centrifuge. Benjamin Robins (1707-1751), a brilliant English mathematician, was the first to employ a whirling arm. His first machine had an arm 4 feet long. Spun by falling weight acting on a pulley and spindle arrangement, the arm tip reached velocities of only a few feet per second. Frank H. Wenham (1824-1908), a Council Member of the Aeronautical Society of Great Britain, is generally credited with designing and operating the first wind tunnel in 1871. Wenham had tried a whirling arm, but his unhappy experiences impelled him to urge the Council to raise funds to build a wind tunnel. In Wenham's words, it "had a trunk 12 feet long and 18 inches square, to direct the current horizontally, and in parallel course.'' A fan-blower upstream of the model, driven by a steam engine, propelled air down the tube to the model. With the advent of the wind tunnel, aerodynamicists finally began to understand the factors that controlled lift and drag, but they were still nagged by the question of model scale. Can the experimental results obtained with a one-tenth scale model be applied to the real, full-sized

aircraft? Almost all wind tunnel tests were and still are performed with scale models because wind tunnels capable of handling full-sized aircraft are simply too expensive. In a classic set of experiments, Osborne Reynolds (1842-1912) of the University of Manchester demonstrated that the airflow pattern over a scale model would be the same for the full-scale vehicle if a certain flow parameter were the same in both cases. This factor, now known as the Reynolds number, is a basic parameter in the description of all fluid-flow situations, including the shapes of flow patterns, the ease of heat transfer, and the onset of turbulence. Wilbur (1867-1912) and Orville (1871-1948) Wright, operating from the unlikely background of bicycle manufacturers, built their first flying machine in August 1899. It was a simple, 5-foot span, unmanned biplane kite rigged so that it could be maneuvered by twisting or warping the wings (somewhat like birds do for control). Kite tests led to the construction of their first unpowered manned glider in 1900. Twelve test flights with glider No. 1 proved that their pitch and roll controls worked. The glider, however, was generating far less lift and more drag than they expected.

To find out why their first glider did not perform as predicted, the Wrights set up a remarkably simple experiment using natural winds to compare the relative lifting forces of flat and cambered surfaces. In effect, they built an aerodynamic balance that showed unequivocally which of two test airfoils developed more lift. This "wind tunnel without walls'' confirmed the Wrights' growing belief that the accepted aerodynamic design

tables they were using were seriously in error. Sobered by these revelations, the Wrights increased the wing area of glider No. 2 to 290 square feet. The initial trial flights at Kitty Hawk disappointed them still further. The highly cambered wings created pitching movements that could not be controlled. After several near disasters, airfoil curvature was reduced, and the craft behaved much better. The Wrights returned to Dayton with mixed feelings. Glider No. 2 had flown, but, from the standpoint of their expectations, the 1901 Kitty Hawk tests were a disaster. Their morale sagged. "Having set out with absolute faith in the scientific data, we were driven to doubt one thing after another, till finally after two years of experimentation, we cast it all aside, and decided to rely entirely upon our own investigations.” They began with a comprehensive series of experiments with a wide variety of airfoils. In the short span of 3 months these tests produced the basic data needed for building their 1902 glider and the powered aircraft to follow. During this short span of time, the Wrights leapfrogged other aerodynamicists the world over. The heart of any successful wind tunnel is its balance system-the apparatus that measures the aerodynamic forces acting on the model. The Wrights built two balances-one for lift and a second for drag. The balances never measured actual forces; they simply compared test airfoils with reference airfoils or the forces on calibrated flat surfaces. This approach allowed the Wrights to rapidly pit one airfoil against another and select the best from many configurations. The first post-Wright wind tunnel laboratory dedicated to aeronautical research was built in America, despite the lack of aeronautical interest in this country. Almost coincident with the Wrights' small developmental wind tunnel, Albert Zahm, a professor at Catholic University in Washington, D.C., began operating a wind tunnel with the unheard of test section dimensions of 6 x 6 feet. Who sponsored this tunnel? Not the U. S. government and not Catholic University, but a wealthy industrialist, Hugo Mattullath, who saw a commercial future in aviation far beyond the frail, almost ridiculous craft then straining to stay aloft for a few moments. In France, Gustave Eiffel, of Tower fame, also built a private aerodynamics laboratory with personal monies. Eiffel's interest in aerodynamics went back to the turn of the century, when he had dropped bodies of various shapes from his Tower to test air resistance. His 1909 wind tunnel on the Champ de Mars was 1.5 meters in diameter and of the open-jet type; that is. the return airflow was not channeled by special walls Air jetting from a special nozzle was directed into the test section at speeds up to 20 meters per second and was routed back to the nozzle by the walls of the building rather than a separate return passage. Eiffel ran over 4000 tests in this rather primitive facility be fore he moved on to a larger, second-generation tunnel with higher air speeds. To learn more about wind tunnels I have a Book called: WIND TUNNELS OF NASA by Donald D. Baals and William R. Corliss, SP-440. This book

was in print by NASA but not any longer. They have it posted on a web site to read. If you would like a free copy (OK not free as a tax payer you paid for it) I can send you a PDF copy in the email. It is a large file of about 7.5 Megs. Contact my email: [email protected] and I will send it out to you. All the above was taken from the book, it is 137 pages long and worth reading very; informative and a good read.

What this is and what it is not! It is important to remember that this newsletter is merely a conduit for information passed among members sharing their experiences. Its established purpose is fellowship and encouragement. It is NOT the intent to give authoritative advice on aircraft construction or design. The Editor and the contributing writers disclaim any liability for accuracy or suitability of information that is shared. You can assume that all or some of the information in each issue is not correct for aircraft design. This is simply a collection of notes which where taken at the Design Group meeting and placed with other items into a newsletter format. Lots of items will come from the meeting as best as one can interpret what is stated. Many items will come from other sources such as books and internet files (Grabbing from any source to make it useful and a lot will come from the internet to expand what was talked about at the meeting. I will take it where I can get it). Speak out if you were wrongly quoted or something misinterpreted, no harm was implied, only lack of knowledge in understanding and interpreting what was said. If others would like to contribute articles, stories and materials feel free. This newsletter is also located at this Web Site for download or viewing. This Web Site is hosted by EAA Chapter One and I would like to thank them for this services.

http://www.eaach1.org/design.html

What have we learned in the last two newsletters?

You got people tossing heals off shoes and ice cream cones for aircraft design. Watch out for individuals hurling bowling balls around the airport. Robert Jordan

A LITTLE HELP NEEDED I would like to have better scans of the FLYING Magazine Oct, 1950 article and the Private Pilot Magazine January 1967 article if someone has them. I will use them on the online and future prints. THANKS

Contact my email: [email protected]

Coming Issues

The Lockheed Little Dipper

Landing Gear Design All Wrong

Popular Mechanics (1932) p. 917

Named by its designer, a research professor at the University of Miami, the "vacuplane", an airplane of unusual appearance has been successfully flown. Two types thus far have been developed, but both have the distinguishing features of extremely short span and a hollow airfoil with baffle fins replacing the usual top covering. The wing in horizontal section has a shape somewhat like that of a bird in flight, but is fitted at the end with disks to reduce the wing-tip vortex and to add to lateral control. The cabin of the ship is highly streamlined with resulting low resistance. Lateral balance in the earlier tests was obtained through "flipper" controls placed in the propeller slipstream, but the later type was equipped with ailerons. The hollow character of the wing, with its open and baffled top, is said to add greatly to the lifting power of the airfoil vacuum and allow the plane to take off and land at low speeds. Performance in the air was considered good enough to warrant the statement by the pilot that the plane virtually flew itself.

Popular Science (April 1935)

A modified and improved design of his "vacuplane", differing markedly from its predecessors (P. S. M., Jan. '32), was recently demonstrated by its inventor, E. H. Lanier, at Miami, FL. This odd craft is provided with suction cells on its upper surface, which are said to increase the lift and reduce the required wing area. The new model weighs 360 pounds, is only 16 feet long, and is reported to have a speed of 96 mph. The plane is shown above with its inventor, at left, comparing notes with his pilot on the machine's performance.

Popular Science (January 1932)

"Short Wing Vacuplane Gets Lifting Power From Vacuum Cells"

The "Vacuplane", a strange new type of airplane, has made its appearance at the University of Miami, Florida. Its abbreviated wing, open at the top, is lined with hollow chambers or "suction cells". These are said to make its lifting power equal to a conventional plane of greater wingspan. Several planes of this type have been constructed under the direction of Prof. Fred H. Givens, head of the university's aviation department, following in general the original design of E. H. Lanier, Cincinnati inventor. More than 15 successful flights have been made. In the latest model, illustrated here, round "tip-loss boards" at the ends of the wing increase the lifting force by preventing the formation of air vortexes. Ailerons that control the plane's banking are mounted on the fuselage behind the propeller.

AIRPLANE

Manufacturer: Lanier Aircraft Corporation Type: Paraplane-Commuter 110, single place (STOL) Serial No. PL-8B Span: 20 ft. 7 in. Length: 21 ft. Fixed type landing gear (Special design of low drag and maintenance) Gross wgt: (Normal) 1280 lbs. (Ferry) 1400 lbs Useful load: 500 lbs Fuel: (Normal) 24 gals. (Ferry) Built in, 20 gals. All tanks located in wings. Oil: 8 qts. Engine: Lycoming O-320 150 hp. Wing area: 111 sq. ft. Propeller: McCauley, metal fixed pitch Airplane equipped with flaps, flaperons and Vacu-jet (Natural BLC)

PERFORMANCE

Top speed: 165 mph. Cruise speed: 151 mph. Range: 625 mi. plus 45 min. fuel reserve Miles per gal.: 17 Takeoff speed: Under 30 mph. Landing speed: Under 30 mph. Takeoff distance at normal gross wgt.: 20 yds. Landing distance at normal gross wgt.: 20 yds. Rate of climb: 1500 ft. per min. plus Takeoff over 50 ft. obstacle: 55 yds. Slow flight with good control: 25 mph. Slow flight with power without loss of altitude: 15 mph. Ceiling: 23,000 ft. (compensated carburetor)

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cover story

Protracted ProjectAllen Potts’ 17-year Marquart Charger challenge

Jack Cox

Allen Potts, then ofKalispell, Montana,came to the attention

of the sport aviation world inJune 1986 when he displayedhis newly completed 150-hpWag-A-Bond at the annualMerced, California, fly-in. Itwas a stunning airplane fin-ished in red with gold pin-striped maroon trim.Homebuilders and antiquersalike admired it for Allen’ssuperb workmanship and hismany innovations—amongthem a top-hinged, swing-upcabin door for ease of entry

and egress.Although the Wag-A-

Bond’s paint was still curing,Allen was already committedto a new project: a MarquartCharger. He had purchasedthe plans from Ed Marquart,had bought the metal wingfittings and flying wires fromKen Brock Manufacturing,and had even visited JimSmith and Remo Galeazzi inCalifornia to learn as muchas he could about their twoOshkosh Grand ChampionChargers (see EAA SportAviation, October 1982 and

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June 1985).Even though he was a first-time

builder, Allen completed the Wag-A-Bond—from scratch, no kits—inthree years of typical evening andweekend spare-time work. It wouldtake 17 years to complete theCharger, however, during whichtime Allen would experience a lot ofchanges in his life.

Beginning of an OdysseyOnce a maker of classical guitarsand having built the Wag-A-Bondwings, Allen started on what he con-sidered the easiest part of the proj-ect: the Charger’s all-wood wings.Next came the fuselage and all theother welded components.

“Compared to something like theWag-A-Bond, the Charger fuselage iscomplicated and difficult to build,but I’m living proof anyone canbuild it,” Allen jokes. “I weldedeverything, except for some of theBrock wing fittings, which are love-ly things. I just took every fuselagestation as a project and kept at ituntil it was completed, then wenton to the next one.” The stainlesssteel firewall was a challenge forAllen, but eventually, it too, wassoon completed.

Unique among homebuilt air-planes, the Marquart Charger hascantilever main gear legs somewhat

similarin conceptto those ofthe StinsonReliants ofthe late 1930s.Ed Marquartdesigned them to bewelded out of .090-inch thick4130 steel—tapered box sectionswith four flat sides.

“Initially, I couldn’t figure outjust how these four pieces—twowide ones and two narrow ones—should go together. So, I called Edand asked whether the narrowpieces should go on the wide ones,or the wide ones on the narrowones. ‘Neither,’ Ed said. ‘Just take alength of angle iron and clamp thepieces to it with the edges justtouching, then fill in the ditch withweld. Start out tack welding thepieces together, every 4 to 6 inches,then run the weld seams completelydown the entire edges of the gearlegs.’ What I had feared would bethe most difficult weld of the proj-ect turned out to be the easiest.

“Welding the axles on was achore, however. Getting them onstraight and true took some carefulalignment, but eventually, it wasdone. Once completed, the airplanetracked perfectly straight, so all theeffort paid off. The gear legs both-

eredme a lit-

tle at firstbecause I didn’t

understand thegeometry, but if you do it right, youfall in love with them.”

Once the Charger’s primary struc-ture was completed and the second-ary components and systems begangoing in, Allen employed a numberof the lessons he had learned fromJim Smith and Remo Galeazzi. Theslave struts connecting the upperand lower wing ailerons were madewith one size larger tubing thancalled out on the plans, and all thesheet metal on the fuselage wasbutted together rather than over-lapped. Additionally, a 6-inch widechannel was installed down the sideof the fuselage, from the firewall tothe rear cockpit, in which the wiringand many of the control mecha-nisms were neatly mounted. Raisingthe hinged side panels providescomplete access to the back of thechannel for inspection and mainte-nance—as well as admiration of themeticulous workmanship. A full setof flight and engine controls was

34 MARCH 2004

mounted in each cockpit, but onlybasic instruments were installed upfront, mainly for symmetry, Allensays.

“When I started building theseats, I called Remo and asked if hehad any tips. He said, ‘Yeah, widenthe rear seat 2 inches.’ I asked why,and he said, ‘Because you can—there’s nothing back there to keepyou from increasing the width ofthe seat by 2 inches.’ I followed hisadvice. The seats were covered withleather, which is the only way to goon a sporty airplane like theCharger.”

A Maule tail wheel, which Allenrebushed to new tolerances, wasused along with 6:00 x 6 Clevelandwheels and brakes.

On the advice of Ed Marquart,Allen bought a freshly majored 150-hp Lycoming O-320 near the start ofthe project and had it sitting in hisshop through most of the 17 years ittook to complete the airplane. Hebuilt his own crossover exhaust sys-tem, using mild steel pipes ratherthan stainless steel.

“I had used mild steel on myWag-A-Bond—just regular carexhaust pipes—and never had acrack. I don’t care who builds them;stainless steel pipes will eventuallycrack. I knew I would suffer a bit ofa weight penalty with mild steel,but its crack resistance seemed moreimportant to me.”

Allen had used the Stits (nowPoly-Fiber) covering process on hisWag-A-Bond and was quite happywith it, but he decided to try some-thing else on the Charger.

“I used Ceconite and both nitrateand butyrate dope, partially becauseI had never done it and I wanted tohave the experience, but partiallybecause Remo recommended it. Ithought if he liked it, it was goodenough for me. It turned out verynice—the tapes lay down so beauti-fully with the nitrate dope—but,boy, does it take the time and num-ber of coats! You’re basically spray-ing pure lacquer thinner with a littlebit of stuff in it.”

A Bit of BackgroundAllen is a native of Billings and grad-uated from Eastern MontanaCollege there. He met his wife,Toddy (Claudia), in Billings andlived in the area until the late 1970swhen they moved across the state toKalispell. Allen was in the graphicarts business, and Toddy became thedirector of special education forthree school districts in northwest-ern Montana. Eventually, theywould move to their present homein Lakeside, a small community justa few miles south on Flathead Lake.

Allen says everyone will alwaysremember the infamous 9/11 date,but for him the even more infamousnumber is 9/13. On that date he suf-fered a heart attack—from which herecovered, but to date, it’s still keep-ing him out of the pilot-in-com-mand seat.

During the long gestation of hisCharger, Allen had many visitors

come through his shop, two ofwhich, Jim Claypool and MontyMontgomery, were so impressedwith his workmanship that they putin a bid for first refusal in the eventAllen ever decided to sell theCharger. Allen’s heart attackchanged everything, with the resultthat the project, then up throughsilver, was sold to Jim and Monty—with the provision that Allen wouldwork with them to complete it.

Jim Claypool is a native ofVancouver, Washington. He attend-ed college at the University ofWashington, and afterward thePeter Kiewit construction companyemployed him, where, it turned out,he would spend his entire 30-yearworking career. Based in Seattle, heultimately became a vice presidentof the firm and retired in 1987 atage 50. His friends of some 40 years,Monty Montgomery and his wife,had moved to Montana in 1985,

Left to right, builder Allen Potts, Jim Claypool, and Monty Montgomery.

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own late model NASCAR NorthwestTour race team. Very successful, theteam would win a couple of cham-pionships and be in contentionevery year. Now running a limitedschedule, Jim’s driver scored twowins, a second, and a third duringthe 2003 season.

Monty Montgomery began racingmotorcycles in the 1950s—and is stillat it in his early 70s! Last year he par-ticipated in a race on a half-mile trackin Missoula—and won. This is thetype of flat track racing in whichcompetitors go into a turn at 100miles per hour and power slidearound it with the bike laid overalmost flat, supported by the rider’ssteel-soled boot. Monty also did a lotof desert racing—those wild melees inwhich as many as 800 riders chargeout over the desert as fast as they can.

In the mid-60s he also racedinboard hydroplanes at speedsapproaching 130 mph. Those werethe days when the driver sat behindthe engine, and the aptly named lit-tle beasts were as prone to fly asskim the surface of the water.

Both Jim and Monty began flyinglater in life. Jim learned to fly inCessna 150s and 152s in 1991 andtalked Monty into a partnershipbuilding a GlaStar in the mid-1990s.

This prompted Monty to learn to fly(at his wife’s insistence), and he andJim bought a Citabria in 1998. Everthe charger—Jim says he is “72 andgoing on about 37”—Monty beganflying at 65 and has already loggedaround 700 hours of flying time.

Back to Building—and FlyingAfter they bought the Charger, Jimand Monty decided to have the longdormant 150 Lycoming rebuilt andupgraded a bit. It was sent to AeroSport Power in Canada where 9.25-to-1 pistons were installed, alongwith the replacement of the rightmag with a Lightspeed electronicignition system. A lightweight B&Cstarter and alternator were alsoinstalled. Coupled with the usualhot rod-type internal cleanup andbalancing of rotating parts, theupgrades increased the horsepowerfrom 150 to 175, according to AeroSport Power’s dynamometer.

The engine installation includedprovision for heat to both cockpits.The heat muff was stuffed withstainless steel Chore Boy dish scrub-bers to slow down the airflow andallow it to absorb more heat beforebeing piped into the cockpits.

Meanwhile, Allen was complet-ing work on the fiberglass fairings.

“The big lower wing root filletstook four months to complete.Trying to determine where the holesfor the flying wires passed throughthem was a real pain. You just hadto do your best estimate on theangles of the wires, cut the holesoversize, and then re-glass them toget a close fit around the wires. Iused Cherokee wheelpants, modi-fied to accept Cessna access doorsfor airing the tires.”

When the airplane was ready forpainting, it was trucked to Camas,Washington, to Jim Claypool’scousin, Les Scott, who specializes inpainting Stearmans. Jim and Montyhave Harley Hawgs with replica1937 sidecars attached, so Allentalked them into having theCharger painted in matching Harleycolors: Sinister Blue Pearl and

Diamond Ice.“Les did a beautiful job,” Allen

says, “and I learned a little some-thing about paint from him. Heused a PPG polyurethane base coat,but switched to an Imron clear coatbecause he could reduce it up to 15percent, which makes it flow betterthan the PPG clear, Les says. Afterwe got the airplane back toMontana, I told Jim and Monty itneeded just one more touch:Electric Blue pinstriping around thetrim. They agreed and flew in ayoung fellow from Kennewick,Washington, who is the Northwest’spremier pinstriper. He freehands thestripes with brushes like they didback in the 1950s and did a beauti-ful job. He also painted on Jim andMonty’s names—and mine as thebuilder. I got a little choked upwhen I saw that. It was their air-plane now, and they didn’t have todo that. They’re just great guys.”

When it was assembled for thefinal time, the wings were riggedusing a Smart Level and plumbbobs—and it hasn’t needed adjust-ment since, Allen says.

Monty Montgomery, who was anaccomplished taildragger pilot bythis time, made the first flight onFebruary 12, 2003, and flew offmost of the FAA-required 25-hourtest time. The only developmentwork required involved the pro-peller. A 74-by-56-inch Sensenichmetal prop from a 150-hp SuperCub was used initially, but with theCharger’s engine boosted to 175 hp,more pitch was needed. A switchwas made to a 74-by-60-inch propfrom a Piper Pacer, but it too, wasshort of pitch. Finally, the Pacerprop was re-pitched to 62 inches,and that has proven to be just aboutperfect, according to Allen.

Since it was built very closely toEd Marquart’s plans, the weightsand performance figures forN413AC came out very close to Ed’sspecs for a 150/180-hp version ofthe Charger. Best of all, however, ithandles as nicely as everyone saysthey do, according to the owners—

and after visiting them there, Jimand his wife decided to build ahouse there, also. Today, they main-tain homes in Bellevue,Washington, and Marion, Montana.

Monty Montgomery was origi-nally from Ontario, Canada, butmoved with his parents to southernCalifornia in 1946. He was an automechanic for a time, but went towork for his father-in-law in thedrilling equipment manufacturingbusiness after he was married. Afterhis father-in-law’s death, Montywent into the drilling business,rather than manufacturing theequipment, and specialized in bigholes—anything from 2 feet indiameter up to as much as 21 feet.He did a lot of work on the NorthSlope of Alaska, drilling the holesfor bridge supports and some of thevertical support members for theAlaskan oil pipeline. He retired in1985 and settled in Montana.

The tie that would ultimatelybind the lives of Allen Potts, JimClaypool, and Monty Montgomerytogether was their need for speed.All love Harleys, snowmobiles, racecars, and airplanes—anything thatgoes fast in any dimension.

Jim has long been a fan of autoracing and eventually started hisLA

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38 MARCH 2004

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commendably stable and with beau-tifully harmonized, light controlresponses.

Allen says that one interesting lit-tle quirk was discovered early in thetest period that may be of interest toall tandem-seat, open-cockpitbiplane builders. Typically, N413AChad a lot of turbulence in the rearcockpit, an annoyance that is usual-ly attributed to downwash off thetop wing. Allen, Jim, and Montyfound, however, that when theyremoved the front windshield and

put a cover on the front cockpit, theturbulence in the rear ‘pit was elim-inated. The obvious conclusion,they believed, was that the frontcockpit’s windshield, which was thesame height as the rear windshield,was the deflector of the airstreaminto the rear cockpit, rather thanthe top wing. As a result, they cutdown the height of the front wind-shield—and, sure enough, the rearseat turbulence went away. It mightnot be the same on all biplanes,they say, but it works on their

Charger.Last summer, with Jim and Allen

hauling the baggage in Jim’sCessna 182 and Monty flying theCharger, the trio set out forOshkosh, and except for somegusty wind at a fuel stop at Austin,Minnesota, they had an enjoyableflight to Wisconsin. The Chargerwas one of the homebuilt sensa-tions at EAA AirVenture Oshkosh2003 and ended up with a BronzeLindy on awards night.

It was an evening tinged with

just a touch of bittersweetness forAllen Potts. Not certain that he canget his medical back, he’s facedwith the possibility that his flyingdays are over.

“That’s okay,” he says. “I haveno regrets. I’ve enjoyed everyminute of my years of building andflying, plus I know a few guys whowill let me ride with them.”

One thing was certain. Allen leftOshkosh last summer justifiablyproud of his 17-year effort to pro-duce an award-winning MarquartCharger.

Ed Marquart and His MA5 Charger

Ed Marquart is one of sport aviation’s pioneersat the now-famous Flabob Airport in Californiawhere he shares inspiration with well-known air-

plane-building personalities in EAA Chapter 1 such asRay Stits and Lou Stolp. His first airplane design wasstrictly a test model—the MA3 Marquart Maverick—that Ed used it to investigate his design ideas.

He opened his shop at Flabob Airport on August 1,1958—just five years after the founding of EAA—and

designed the model MA4, a single-place biplane hecalled the Marquart Lancer.

The prototype MA5 Marquart Charger was finishedin 1971, and Ed flew it to Oshkosh. Since that hum-ble introduction, Ed has sold more than 400 sets ofplans.

Plans for the classic biplane are still available fromEd, who can be reached at P.O. Box 3032, Riverside,CA, 92519-3032, or 909/683-9582.

Ed Marquart, EAA 198, holds court around a Charger at an early fly-in.

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July 2005 • (c) Paul Berge www.ailerona.com 1

The journey playsout as a mind moviewhere the reels are runin no particular or-der...

Westward Into The FogBIPLANING

L

Paul Berge’s biplane Journey of Discovery from Ailerona, Iowa toMonterey, California (originally published in Antique Airfield Runwaymagazine)

by Paul Bergeike blackened teeth in the lowerjaw of a long dead titan, themountain ridge northeast of El

hours later on the same turf but witha changed pilot re-educated by a trulyamazing biplane.

About the BiplaneIt’s a Marquart Charger (MA-5) andwas designed by Ed Marquart of Riv-erside, California’s Flabob Airport andbuilt 25 years ago by Dr. Roy C. Wickerof Quitman, Georgia. Not many werebuilt over the years, perhaps a hun-dred, but at every stop on my trip,someone would slowly walk towardthe biplane with that respectful I-think-

I-recognize-it look.“Is it a Skybolt?“Nope, Marquart Charger,” I’d an-

swer while unbuckling the four-pointharness and pulling myself out of thecockpit by the handles on the upperwing, a maneuver that, by itself,makes owning a biplane worthwhile.

“Marquette, huh?”“No,” I’d say and swing first one

leg then the other over the rim to climbdown the wing. “Marquart—‘quart,’”and spell it out to drive the name deepinto the stranger’s consciousness. Af-ter that, I’d list the specs: “Four wings,four ailerons, two seats, but I’m usingthe front seat for baggage,” pointing tothe metal lid with the compass on topcovering the front cockpit.

“Aerobatic?”“Yeah, but I’m lousy at it.

“What’s it got for an engine?”“Lycoming O-360,” and I’d pop

the cowling open so heat rolled pastus.

“Hundred and eighty horsepower,swinging a McCauley fixed-pitchprop.”

“Inverted fuel?”“No.”“Smoke system?”“Only where oil leaks onto the

exhaust.”“Fast, is it?”

“For a biplane, sure, but speed’snot the selling point. Cruises about ahundred and five knots at sixty-fivepercent power, faster if you wannaburn more gas, which since it useshundred octane costing more thansingle-malt scotch, I don’t alwayswanna do.”

“Burn about twelve gallons anhour?”

“More like ten, stop-to-stop,” I’dsay. “Makes the math easy enougheven for me.”

I’ve never liked math, so roundnumbers work best, and in roundterms the Charger flies at Cessna 172speeds—the old straight tails, not thestuffy new ones at a quarter mil each—while burning Cherokee 180 fuel rateswith the advantage of having only halfthe Cherokee’s range and load capa-bilities.

Advantage? Absolutely, becausewith a Charger you make lots of stops,and if you arrive in Lordsburg, NewMexico in a Cherokee no one walksthrough the ramp’s furnace to ask youabout your airplane. They don’t standbeside it while their sneakers melt intothe hot pavement and stare at thestacked wings laced together withshiny flying wires and bug-crustedstruts. They don’t ask the Cherokeedrivers where they’re from, are theymad, or what’s it like to ride across the

Paso, Texas blocked what I’d thoughtwould be a shortcut to Carlsbad, NewMexico. But, whatever I’d thought inmy former life before departing on this4000-mile biplane ride rarely matchedwhat the mountains and desertsviewed from an open cockpit had toteach. In short, there was no way I wasgetting over that ridge without a seri-ous handshake from the ghost ridersdancing among the craggy peaks. It had begun two weeks earlierwhen I left Iowa in a Marquart Chargerheaded to Watsonville, California forits annual Memorial Day fly-in andspaghetti fest. I’d worked at that air-port in the 1970s, and this was my firstreturn flight. Doing so in a biplaneseemed the perfect way to fly acrossboth miles and time, only I didn’t re-alize how broad both spectra were.The miles, I could measure on chartsthat ripped apart in the cockpit’s wind,but above landscapes so wide themind was sucked into unseen hori-zons that reworked all concepts ofplace and time.

Looking back, now, the journeyplays out as a mind movie where thereels are run in no particular order—a mountain landing in Ruidoso, NewMexico with density altitude at 10,000feet shares the screen with a hellishfire bog called Blyth, California wheretriple-digit heat on a deserted air fieldmade me feel as though I’d flown offthe planet and into a place whererattlesnakes complained about theheat.

Still, when all these disparate im-ages are raked together, sorted, andlaid end for end, the trip begins witha cool morning take-off from a smallgrass strip in Iowa and ends 45 flying

“

”

(c) 2005, Paul Berge www.ailerona.com)

2 (c) Paul Berge www.ailerona.com • July 2005

sky with nothing above their brains buta coat of SPF 500 sunscreen and acanvas flying helmet?

When I landed in Kansas afterdodging Toto-eating thunderstorms,the owner of a Hawker bizjet that’dlanded behind me rushed over tocircle the biplane in awe saying howmuch better it must be to see the worldfrom my machine than from his kero-sene tube-o-comfort. I offered to swaphim even, but guys who own jets andwear dreamy dot.com smiles havemore sense than biplane pilots like mewho’ve been too long in the air and arein need of a bath, real food, and aclean rag to wipe the oil leaks drip-ping from the cowl.

He smiled, climbed into his jet,and ordered the two pilots up front towhoosh him back into his worldwhere, no doubt, that night over whitewine in Aspen he’d retell his friendsabout the gray-haired, smelly bi-winged bum he’d met in Kansas,“Pass the brie, please, Clarissa…” and

the Marquart would fade from hismemory.

For 25 years this Marquart—builtfrom plans, no kits—has turned headsand brought smiles to flyers and non-believers alike. Ed Marquart appar-ently spent years designing what wasfor him the best of all biplanes, and I’d

Marquart. It’s a funny name to say(sounds like the Aflack duck clearingits throat), but it’s a good biplane to fly.

Structurally, it’s nothing exotic andthat adds to its charm. Wood wings—spars and ribs—with a welded steelfuselage lined with aluminum string-ers form its Lauren Bacall waistlineabove a tight tail, all covered in cot-ton and dope that’s still tough after 25hangared years. N645’s US Navy paintscheme is a tribute to its builder’s(Wicker) wartime career as a NavalAviator.

The tail looks too small, and in thatmomentary transition from tail-highwheel landing to tail-down taxi, it feelsbriefly inadequate especially in cross-winds. While it wheel lands assweetly as a Citabria, AeroncaChamp, or Cessna 140, it’s easy tooverreact to the turning tendencies atslow speeds—at least in this Charger,I can’t speak for others.

Since I routinely operate from a2200-foot grass strip in Iowa, the mile-long runways so common out Westseemed like child’s play, but at thehigher density altitudes—routinelyabove 5000 feet—my touchdownstended to be hard. Until I got the hangof higher altitude ops an embarrass-ing whiff of burning rubber accompa-nied each arrival. With faster touch-down groundspeeds and the lack ofsoft grass to correct my sloppy tech-nique, landings were, well, spirited attimes.

Where I’ve been used to a softrumbling touchdown on dewy turffollowed by a short roll as the tailwheelacted like a hook in the grass, the heat-soaked pavement in Benson, Arizonasquealed as scrub raced past, runwaylights threatened to clip the lowerwing tips, and coyotes ran for the hills.

The temptation is to bring the taildown too soon, which simply in-creases the angle of attack, adds lift,and makes the arrival even squirrelier.Full-stall landings might be better, but,hell, I like wheel landing. The secretis to trust in Ed Marquart’s design andallow the biplane to roll without toomuch pilot-induced interference.Properly rigged and aptly flown—

Below: Thad Fenton (on left) and au-thor (at cowling) in front of the EAAChapter 119 hangar at Watsonville, Ca(WVI). (Photo by Curtis Kelly.)

say he got it right.Walk around one and study the

shapes. As your eyes pass the imagesto your brain you’ll see a Great LakesTrainer, or perhaps just a hint ofBucker in the swept wings. Many seea Steen Skybolt until the Chargerowner explains how Rubinesque inthe waist and tail Skybolts are by com-parison.

Others see Starduster or Hatz—allgems in their own ways, but in the endthis biplane with so many influencesin its pedigree is a unique item—it’s a

Guys who ownjets and weardreamy dot.comsmiles have moresense than biplanepilots like me...


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meaning don’t get too aggressive—theCharger rolls straight. Thankfully, ithas the old Goodyear brakes, whichare so crappy there’s little chance ofaggravating the situation with ama-teurish braking.

Takeoffs can be a directional chal-lenge, too, at high altitudes with fullfuel and light winds. That little bit ofextra runway needed before lift-offgives more exposure to stupidity (aka:Pilot Induced Stupidity Syndrome).

The trick is to feed the throttle insmoothly and anticipate the left-turn-ing tendencies both from normaltorque and p-factor as the power in-creases and from the gyroscopic left-turn tendency induced as the tail rises.Then, gently correct with the merestbreath of right rudder while holdingaileron against the crosswind—allbasic stick-and-rudder techniqueused at sea level but magnified some-what by heat, altitude, and the self-induced anxiety of knowing that athousand miles from home is a dumbplace to drag a wing tip.

The Marquart was never overgross even with two on board, andwith many of its 180 horses availableon take-off (assuming you lean prop-erly), if all else fails just squeeze backon the stick to coax the whole bundleof wires, wings, and sweaty ownerclear of the ground. Lower the noseinto ground effect, and as the speednudges 85 knots, climb away. Onceclear of the taller cacti, oilrigs, andcowboy hats, a 95-knot climb givesdescent cooling but never good for-ward visibility.

Although never over gross, the CGdoes shift aft with weight, which aidscruise speed but took all nose-downtrim from the biplanes screw-jack trimsystem. While stalls in this swept-wingbiplane are somewhat benign, prac-ticing them at low altitude when fullyloaded isn’t advisable, so close atten-tion to airspeed and coordination—asin any airplane—is a must in the pat-tern.

Limiting FactorsThe Marquart is blind over the noseto the rear seat pilot in command. My

beginner’s tendency was to lower thenose too much for cruise. The resultwas a 200 foot-per-minute descent—good airspeed, but down you go.

Properly trimmed you won’t seemuch past the cowling in level flightso occasional pitch dips or gentlebanks are in order throughout cruiseto spot traffic and TV towers. In aCherokee or other traveling machinethis might be considered a design flaw,but the biplane mind knows thatstraight-and-level is not a goal here. Infact, it’s nearly impossible to travelmore than two minutes without roll-ing left, then right, while tilting yourhead back to watch for Fokkers, or togaze over the cockpit’s rim in envy ofthe buzzards circling through nearbythermals.

The biplane’s mission is to fly notto travel. Getting to a destination is ahappy byproduct of the adventure.Before taking the biplane plunge youhave to ask yourself, “Do you want toget somewhere or do you want to besomewhere?” In open-cockpit, you’realways somewhere even though itmight be nowhere near your intendeddestination. Time, somehow, loses itsearthly grip in flight.

Still, my destination was northernCalifornia along the Monterey Bay,and en route I stopped in Van Nuys topick up Curtis Kelly, a friend who’s

also a tailwheel pilot. From Van Nuys,where I’d irritated just about every airtraffic controller with my microphone-in-the wind voice, to Watsonville,Curtis rode in the front seat while Idiscovered how miserably windy itgets in the back when the front holeis open. The problem is the wind-shields.

A quick look at the two cockpitsshows each with a windshield equalin size. Both were transplanted froma Ryan PT22—classy but that frontscreen generates hurricanes in theback. Picture the slipstream flowingalong the fuselage when the front seatis buttoned up; it hits the rear screenand coils into space leaving the solopilot grinning in relative calm. I canfly alone from the back seat wearinga baseball cap turned ‘round and apair of sunglasses without fear of los-ing either.

But when you open the front seatfor guests and tack on the forwardwindshield things change. The windnow smacks the front glass, which, be-cause it stands so tall, deflects the blastinto the under side of the upper wing

Above: The Marquart Charger on theramp in the 100-degree heat atBenson, Az (E95).



where it ricochets down onto the rearpilot’s head. The sensation is like los-ing an hour-long pillow fight. Thefront-seater, meanwhile, sits in com-fort, confused why the guy behind himis so punch drunk on landing. Thesolution, I’m told, is to cut the frontwindshield down by a third to reducethat deflection. Since I can’t bringmyself to damage a 60-year-old air-plane part, I’m having a smaller wind-

shield made from Lexan®. We’ll seehow that fits and report back. Eitherthat or you’ll see a Lexan windscreenfor sale on e-Bay in a month.

Despite the backseat pummeling,I found that by wearing gogglesthroughout the flight with a front seatpassenger I could survive with onlyminor brain damage, which my neu-rologist assures me isn’tpermanent…isn’t permanent...isn’t

per…(Thwack!).I’m fine, really.Engine heat was another issue

even before the journey. With theLycoming turning money into power,a lot of heat needs to escape and usu-ally through the firewall and into thefuselage, where with the front cock-pit sealed shut, it quickly flows to therear seat to cook the pilot’s feet. Beingopen cockpit does nothing to cool

When planning your next vacationtrip don’t ask me for help, becauseI can’t draw a straight line let alonefollow one. Over two weeks and 45biplaning hours, we coveredroughly 4000 miles from Indianola,Iowa (IA66) to Watsonville, Califor-nia (WVI) and back again. Along theway, I smoked the tires at 34 differ-ent airports, several of which I vis-ited twice. Some stand out as excel-lent stops while a few have alreadyfaded into heat-soaked blurs.Lordsburg, New Mexico, for in-stance, conjures wavy images ofcrushing heat and the sudden ap-pearance of Border Patrol wagonsfull of temporary visitors about to beprocessed back to Mexico. All in all,a depressing stop.

The route from Iowa wanderedsouth to Lubbock, Texas taking ad-vantage of a slot of clear air betweentwo cold fronts. Lubbock (LBB) Air-port is about the size of Delawareand home to the WWII Glider PilotsMuseum next door to Aero Lubbock,a descent FBO that—oddly—doesn’tallow you to camp overnight on itscouch.

From Lubbock we pushed westat dawn into New Mexico. It wascool on the ground and had I stayedlow I could’ve enjoyed a smooth rideall the way to Lovington. Instead Iclimbed into the inversion layer ofheat. When descending back intoLovington 100 mile later, I discov-ered the mistake and stayed low forthe next leg to Roswell where aliens

invited me into their mother ship forrefreshments and what I thoughtwere rather probing questions. I re-fueled, gawked at the dozens ofghost airliners parked nose totailpipe on the ramp awaiting theguillotine, and launched in the latemorning heat for the high countrywhere up the mountains west ofRoswell is Ruidoso, New Mexico.The name means “Noisy River,” notterribly clever but a pleasant enoughtourist trap with a great airport at the6800-foot level. The temperaturewas in the 80s making the densityaltitude 9600 feet, my highest den-sity altitude operation of the trip. Thebiplane handled it fine, both land-ing and the cool morning departurethe next day.

The short trip from Ruidoso toAlamogordo was marked by con-trast. At Sierra Blanca the air wascool, the scenery stunning withsnowy mountain peaks and rollingforests—most of which catch fireeach summer to clean out all themansions built over the winter. Drift-ing down the slopes towardAlamogordo, the land turns dryagain with the White Sands moon-scape and missile range stretchedout as far as I could see to the west.At Alamogordo I asked advice aboutheading to El Paso and was told,“Stay close to Highway 54 and youwon’t get shot down in the restrictedareas that straddle the highway for70 miles.”

Next stop, Dona Ana County

(5T6) west of El Paso with 8500 feetof wide runway. From there Inter-state 10 shoots north than west, so wetook a shortcut along a railroad to-ward Deming, New Mexico. Fuelstatus was good, and we pushed onto Lordsburg, arriving in time for theborder festival. Then, off to Benson,Arizona, where it was so miserablyhot (“But a dry heat”) that we spentthe night. The Benson FBO wasgreat. They loaned me a van to headinto town and the next morning Ireturned it to depart at dawn whenthe desert is beautiful, and all thescorpions and snakes are too tiredfrom a night of eating each other topester you too much.

Casa Grande (CGZ) is a must forany AAA member. Not because theairport is exceptional—it’s niceenough and has some cool air-planes—but just because the peopleare, well, they’re some of us. In par-ticular, there’s a small shop near theself-serve pumps run by a mechanicnamed Sonny. I think he’s beenthere since Goldwater bought theland from Spain and was tremen-dously helpful clearing up a plug-fouling problem. The problem was Iwasn’t leaning properly. I was lean-ing like a wimpy Easterner, and inthe hot highlands the Lycoming de-mands aggressive leaning as soon asthe engine starts.

From Casa Grande I attemptedto fly direct to Buckeye, Arizona(BXK) with radar service through the

The Good, The Bad, The Hotter ‘n Hell Stops


(continued on next page)


things below the belt. In fact, the opencockpit acts like a chimney drawingheat onto the pilot. A pair of NACAvents at thigh level brings in some air,but still the heat persists, and know-ing I’d be headed to places namedDeath-By-Heatstroke, Arizona, I cuttwo vents into the boot cowling andpadded the firewall on the passengerside. The results were good; heat wasgreatly reduced. Still, near the surfaceon scorching days it’s bloody hot inany airplane.

Sadly, in winter that heat isn’tthere, so you’ll freeze your butt in theMarquart in January. Its detachablebubble canopy helps on sunny winterdays, but the key word is detachable.On a particularly cold morning I triedto taxi with the bubble canopy par-

tially latched only to dis-cover how easily it be-comes detached from theairframe, taking rivets, eye-glasses, and my choicestswear words with it.

All the comfort issuesfrom wind and heat wereminor and in no way over-rode the tremendous joythis open-cockpit biplaneoffers. I’ve been flying and teaching intailwheelers such as Champs andCitabrias for years, but the step into thebiplane life unlatches and demandsa whole new appreciation of the sky.

Biplanes are made for grass, butthe Marquart mixes well with the bigstuff. Returning to Van Nuys fromCamarillo, the tower growled at me to

proceed direct to the end of the run-way and keep my speed up because

Above: Pilots Curtis Kelly (left) andPaul Berge pre-departure mug shotsat Van Nuys, Ca. (VNY). (Photo byStephanie of Hollywood.)

Phoenix Class B airspace, but Phoe-nix Approach was highly uncoop-erative, so I flew west of the SierraEstrella range and into Buckeye,which is infested with gyrocopters.No FBO, but self-serve 100LL wasavailable and I was soon headed tomy favorite desert vacation spot ofall—Blyth, California, elevation 397feet MSL and located equidistancebetween nowhere and nothing.

This is one bleak place whereyou don’t want to land after the FBOcloses, because even the gila mon-sters won’t talk to you. I fueled therein late morning on the way to VanNuys, and it was a good enough stopfor fuel, ice cream, and runningwater. But on the return trip, Itouched down at 5:30 PM, thirtyminutes after the FBO had lockedup and left. The place was desertedand miserably hot without muchshade—a truly dangerous place tolinger. There’s no outside phone, nowater, and nobody within survivablewalking distance.

Luckily, my cell phone workedand a less-than-enthusiastic motelierpicked me up. Blyth, too, was aWWII military field and still retainstraces of the old ramps and hangars.Strangely, the city built a sprawlingpower plant off the end of runway 8

when they had the entire desert toput it elsewhere.

From Blythe we crossed PalmSprings to land at Banning Airport(BNG) in the Banning Pass where thewind always blows straight downrunway 27. Little traffic for an airportso near to L.A., but the FBO wasfriendly and I refueled and launchedfor the final leg into Van Nuys, whereI displayed to all on several ATC fre-quencies just how little I knew aboutsouthern California landmarks by re-marking to tower that there was noway I could tell the Ventura Freewayfrom the Four-O-Five, at which pointhe sighed and asked me to make ashort approach to get out of his hair.Marquarts can make short ap-proaches, so honor was saved, andwe taxied to Million Air, which to mysurprise, was one the best FBOs ofthe entire trip. No doubt, they mis-took me for Harrison Ford, becausealthough I bought only ten gallons ofgas they gave me a free covered tiedown spot and let me use the indoorplumbing. Way better than Blyth.

Other good stops on the trip in-cluded: Camarillo and Paso Robles,California. The former (CMA) has agreat café and loads of war birds; thelatter (PRB) has pretty scenery andgreat wines within tasting distance.

Watsonville has a good Mexican res-taurant (Zunigas) on the field.Guymon, Oklahoma (GUY) was anunplanned escape from fog butturned out to be a terrific airport witha smattering of Beech 18s and a DC-3 on the ramp. There’s also a goodMexican restaurant in tow. Anotherfog stop was Marysville, Missouri(EVU) run by Kevin Rankin, whobent over backwards to help.

The cheapest avgas en routewas at Lovington (E06), a skid markof a town in the New Mexico oilfields. A former TWA pilot whodoesn’t fly anymore but does hisbest to keep the rest of us aloft runsthe airport.

My favorite airport of all,though, was Hooker, Oklahoma(O45). No FBO, no traffic, but a greatname for their local baseball team:“The Horny Toad Hookers.”

You don’t learn things like thisfiling IFR in a Cessna 210; real va-cation gems only come fromtaildraggin’ around in an opencockpit biplane looking for a placeto refuel, grab a cheap meal, andskirt whatever weather, mountains,or government-restricted airspacethreatens ahead. Just don’t call meif Hooker doesn’t live up to yourexpectations.



a jet was to follow. Debates over shock-cooling aside, the Marquart can giveATC good climb and descent rates anda decent speed to short final, wherewith power back you gently lift thenose to bleed off speed to make therunway and a reasonable turn-off.

Several times when wheel land-ing at towered airports, I had to ignorecontrollers asking me to make a turn-off while the tail was still in the air.Landing at Salina, Kansas, for in-stance, the tower controller—swamped with two airplanes—harped at me to make the first inter-section, but with one wheel barely onthe ground at that point, I ignored him(I’d been a controller for 17 years, so Iknow how to ignore authority). Whenhe repeated the request and told meto “expedite my taxi,” I lowered thetailwheel and politely explained thatunless he wanted to call the wrecker,I’d need to be a little more cautious inground ops.

Inexperienced line personnel ex-hibit a similar lack of understanding

when directing tailwheel airplanesinto tie-downs. They’ll signal me to aspot and then wave at me to taxi di-rectly toward them until I can no longersee their arms. They get the messageand step aside when the spinning propkeeps coming despite their signals tostop.

EnduranceThe Marquart Charger, like many bi-planes, isn’t known for its range. It’sdesigned to run about the sky on prettydays having fun. Cross-country tripsare best planned with the knowledgethat you’ll make lots of stops.

The Charger holds 28 gallons, 27of which are usable, divided among

gauge on the rear instrument paneland is accurate to within 15 gallons.Two five-gallon aux tanks are in thetop wing. Each tank has a tiny fillerneck, so the airplane was regularlyflushed clean with avgas at each re-fueling. Reaching the upper tanks isan awkward balancing act whenstanding on a stepladder’s warningplacard: Do Not Sit Or Stand…

With 27 gallons burned at ten gal-lons per hour, the Charger gets roughlytwo-and-a-half hours range if you don’tmind landing in the desert. I plannedone to one-and-a-half-hour legs, net-ting from 100 to 200 miles dependingon winds.

Drinking bottled water en routeassured that I wouldn’t be tempted tostretch that, although, over Santa Bar-bara when that extra cup of morningcoffee called ready to leave, I seriouslyconsidered standing up to relievemyself while Curtis flew.

The fuel selector is located in therear cockpit. I’d normally take off onthe main tank, climb, and then leveloff and set power and mixture. Then,I’d switch to aux and hit the timer. Fiftyminutes later—about one hour into theflight—I’d switch back to main whereI knew I had at least an hour left plusa few gallons sloshing around in theupstairs tank. The longest leg I flewon this trip was 1:40.

I did run a tank dry over the Okla-homa panhandle. It’s surprisingly easyto do when you’re not paying attentionand, instead, staring at a wind turbinefarm below. The sound of coughing si-lence, however, gets the messageacross and with boost pump on it wasonly a few agonizing seconds beforethe engine growled back to life. A fewmore and my heart did the same.

The RouteHeaded across country you’re goingto cross mountains at some point. Ichose the southern route for severalreasons, but mainly because in yearspast I’d flown two northerly routes viaInterstate 80 and even further northalong Interstate 90 through Missoula,

three tanks. The main holds 17 gal-lons in the fuselage forward of thefront cockpit. It has an electric fuel

Below: Guymon, Oklahoma (GUY).An unplanned stop for thunderstormsand fog turned out to be one of the best.

I followed a high-way across a vast ex-panse of dryness lead-ing to Carlsbad, NewMexico


”

“


Montana. Foul weather blocked theseroutes for the entire time.

The southerly route from Lubbock,Texas (home of the WWII Glider PilotsMuseum) through El Paso, Lordsburg,Benson, Arizona, Tucson, Phoenix,Palm Springs, Banning, and acrossLos Angeles offered lots of fuel stops,easy-to-follow Interstate 10 (a comfortif the engine quit), plus lower terrainwhen compared to routes throughWyoming or even via Albuquerquealong the old Route 66. High tempera-tures were a concern but just a fewthousand feet above most terrain theair was smooth, and wearing tee shirt,shorts, and cloth helmet I was com-fortable.

The scenery from up there wasmind bogglingly stark yet beautiful,and I’ll admit at times it felt intimidat-ing since I was used to lush greenIowa. I carried lots of water but I’dmade the mistake of not drinking regu-larly on the first legs and found my-self dehydrated—a syndrome that’snot automatically recognized but eas-ily prevented.

Unto the MawSo, somewhere northeast of El Paso,Texas, after a week and a half in theMarquart Charger, I followed a high-way across a vast expanse of drynessleading to Carlsbad, New Mexico mynext fuel stop. On the map, the roadbowed to the right but looking aroundthe biplane’s nose I saw a wide valleydotted with green circles from pivot-point irrigation.

The desert literally bloomedthrough here and beaconed for me toshave a few miles off my safety routealong the highway and go direct. Iveered away from the concrete ribbonand felt good following the lily padsacross this sea of brown. To my rightwas a giant salt flat, a place that woulddrain all traces of moisture from anyill-fated traveler who landed there. Tomy left were miles of a New Mexicothat routinely ate up conquistadors,silver prospectors, and Iowa lamebrains like me with no respect for its

harsh immensity and ourown insignificance.Ahead, the lily pads quitat the base of a mountainridge where at the southend the blackened teethof the long dead titan of-fered a foreboding spec-ter. I checked the gasgauge and timers know-ing I had plenty of fuel,especially with thetailwind, but the closer I came to thehills, the louder the ghost riderslaughed until the lily pads disap-peared and I saw I’d need to climbeven higher to cross the last few dozenmiles of earth that looked as though ithadn’t softened since whatever volca-nic heave that created it had cooledmillions of years before. And it wasthen I chickened out and turned to-ward the highway I’d abandonedmiles back.

Green gave way to salt flats andthen climbed into the rugged teeth ofa ridge that loomed well above myhead poking out from my tiny biplaneshell. The wind pushed me along atgroundspeeds over 150 knots, amaz-ing for a boxy old pile of cotton, wood,and wire.

As I paralleled the ridge headedfor the left turn that would reconnectme with the relative comfort of thehighway the thought dawned thatwhatever wind pushed me sosmoothly along this ridge would likelyprove amusing when I made the turnto the leeward side. It was then theghost riders laughed, and the windhooked me around the mountain’spoint like a scrap of litter swirlingdown a storm drain. Still smooth, theair seemed to reach a giant envelop-ing arm that turned me over the high-way, and as I accepted the shove I feltthe biplane sink—and not just a little.

The VSI pointed down 500 feetper minute and I cracked the throttle,which only amused the mountain, asthe winds now tumbled in a waveacross the ridge and sat like acrushingly soft weight on the biplane.

No lenticular clouds, no dust, no mo-bile homes swirling past, just a bluesky dying over me, taking me towardthe desert floor despite the biplane’snow full power climb and prayerfulutterances from the cockpit.

Finally, when the ghost riderswere fully amused and I’d turned tothe safety of the flat lands to my right,the sky seemed to wink, as in, “Got yerattention, now, didn’t we?” And I nod-ded politely toward the toothy ridge,giving a quick salute from a sweatypalm, and said, “Hey, I’m just learn-ing.” And the mountain let me, andthe biplane, pass.

It would be three more days ofdodging Kansas thunderstorms, scudrunning beneath foggy decks, andturning back when I was only 30 milesfrom home before the journey decidedI’d learned enough…

For now.

The End© 2005, Paul Berge

All rights reserved. No part may bereproduced without permission.

Contact Ahquabi House Publishing,LLC for permission to copy.

www.ailerona.com

Ahquabi House Publishing11872 G58 Hwy

Indianola, Iowa 50125


Above: Lost in time (and in what fewthoughts might be had) somewhereover California’s Salinas Valley. (photoby Curtis Kelly)

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DDDeeesssiiigggnnn GGGrrrooouuuppp 222 Meeting # 7

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