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GEOFF ROB ISON
PRESIDENT VINTAGE AIRCRAFT ASSOCIATON
What
is EAA to
you?
It's often difficult for me to put into
print
my
perspective on
what
EAA
means to me. I'll bet the same
is
true
for you. Because it means so much to
us,
and it's about so many things, it's
hard to get your head
around
it. It's
such a large part of my life, yet trying
to
quantify it
is
hard. The challenge
to
communicate the emotion and
passion I personally
feel
for this orga
nization
is
daunting.
So, why is
this
guy from
the
Vintage Aircraft Asso
ciation singing the praises of
EAA?
It's
simple; first and foremost, I'm an
EAA
member. Everything else I choose
to
engage in, including the
VAA
and the
B-17
tour,
is
an important part of
the
whole package.
A
long time
ago,
when
I was al
lowed
to
engage myself deeper
and
deeper into the soul of
EAA,
I came to
realize that all of the residual fun and
entertaining aspects of my member
ship had to be measured
as
secondary,
for it was the broader mission of the
organization that locked me in.
So many doors were opened for
me along the way, it hardly seemed
possible, but getting involved was
many
friends you have
met through
EAA
,
whether
it's an Oshkosh friend
or a local chapter friend. How
many
fewer friends would you personally
have?
For
me it would certainly have
meant not
having
had the
opportu
nity
to meet
so many
great people
like Steve Wittman, or
John
Miller, or
the Pobereznys. Maybe my life would
have been a little less fast paced, but it
for certain would have
had
a lot less
excitement in
it
Do
you see
yourself
as
part
of
a
larger organization ,
one
whose goal is to
further the causes
of
recreational
aviation
and
expose
it
to
as many fol
ks
as
possible?
it
is
a perfectly fair assessment of
EAA's
annual convention.
Many EAA
members
have
stated
before
that
it
is
truly impossible
to
properly describe
in
total the
event
with
mere words.
EAA
continues
to
improve our web sites with videos and
stories of what goes
on
at these events,
and
even those individuals who pore
over all of these offerings will
not
be
totally prepared
for
what
they will
eventually witness
when
they attend
their first AirVenture.
I really enjoy talking
to
the youth
who attend this event
for
the
first
time. They are typically
compl
etely
overwhelmed with
the
magnitude of
the event, and they will talk in run-on
sentences
as
they describe
what
they
observed
and
participated in
on that
first
day.
Their day may have included
a ride in (on?) a Breezy or a flight in
the Ford Tri-Motor, or maybe they
were just
hanging around
KidVen
ture, or perhaps they had the chance
to high-five Sean D. Tucker. It's just
so fun to listen to these first-time im
pressions. One would swear that their
smile
is
forever frozen
to their
face.
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G
SEPTEM ER
E
VOL.
36,
NO 9
2008
CONTENTS
Fe
Straight Level
What is EAA to you?
by Geoff Robison
2
News
5
2008
EAA
Aircraft Award
6
The Robin Alights at Sun
In
Fun
An
early cabin-class monoplane from 1929
by Sparky Barnes Sargent
4
Carolinas-Virginia VAA hapter 3 Fly-In
Alamance County Airport
by Jack Cox
8 Light Plane Heritage
Remember the Klemm
Part III, The Young Baron's Great Adventure
by Bob Whittier
4 The Vintage Mechanic
Part One: Maintenance and troubleshooting
ignition systems
by Robert
G.
Lock
8 Restoration
of
Porterfield LP-65
Serial Number 842, NC32412
by Randall Krystosek
3
The Vintage Instructor
Maintaining proficiency
by Doug Stewart
34 Mystery Plane
ST FF
EAA
Publisher Tom
Poberezny
by H.G. Frautschy
Director of
EAA
Publications
David
Hipschman
36
Wanna Be Famous?
Executive
Director
/Editor H.G . Frautschy
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AirVenture Oshkosh
2008
In the months prior to the start of
EAA
AirVenture Oshkosh 2008,
EAA
President Tom Poberezny said he was asked one question nearly
every day: Will anyone come to the fly-in convention with high fuel
prices and a struggling economy?/I
To
paraphrase the movie Field o
Dreams
If you build it, they will
come./I
EAA
developed the deepest and broadest lineup of events, an
nouncements , flight demonstrations, entertainment,
and
happenings
than ever before. And
as
a result, people did come and created one of
the most event-filled, memorable conventions on record.
The idea was to provide more value for the members and at
tendees than ever before,/I Poberezny said. Attendance at this year's
event, coupled with the fuel and economic issues, validates the
unique relationship
between
the
EAA
members and Oshkosh, be
tween the aviation community and Oshkosh, and between govern
ment
officials
and
Oshkosh.
All
EAA
members should be proud of the results and, more impor
tantly, the impact their event has on the entire aviation community./I
Numbers were up for homebuilts, warbirds, and vintage planes on
the field. The North 40 was full much of the week. A record 23,000
youths visited KidVenture. Theater in the Woods saw its largest crowd
2008
EAA Sweepstakes Winners
AeroShell Square was abuzz with
anticipation
as
the cement
mixer
with sweepstakes entries rolled into
place for the EAA Share the Spirit
Sweepstakes drawing. And the win
ners were:
First grand prize: A new Cir
rus
SR20
with a year's supply
of
fuel-Greg
Thompson,
EAA
652822, Fairfax, Virginia
Second grand
prize: A Rotor
Way A600 Talon kit-Mike
Schoenmann,
EAA
656186,
St
Clair, Michigan
Honda ST13 A
motorcycle:
John
Thibout,
EAA
374572, Na
poleonville, Louisiana
John
Deere
Select
Series X700
Ultimate
tractor: Martin Ger
hard, Chandler, Arizona
Bose
Wave
radio CD system:
Steve Hill,
EAA
583395, DeWitt,
Illinois
Canon
OS
40D
camera:
Edward Leddy,
EAA
14448,
Maryville, Tennessee
Tickets for the 2009
EAA
Share
the
Spirit Sweepstakes
aircraft-a
new Flight Design MC light-sport
aircraft-will become available later
this fall.
Pelton
Receives
EAA s
igbest onor
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Freedom of Flight Award, EAA s
highest honor, bestowed annually
to an individual whose contribu
tions to aviation closely mirror
the
integrity, entrepreneurship, and in
novativeness of
EAA
members.
EAA
President Tom Poberezny
said Pelton received
EAA s
high
est award for three reasons. We're
recognizing Jack for his leadership
as
chairman of EAA s Gathering of
Eagles; for his vision for supporting
the light-sport aircraft initiative,
as
evidenced by the announce
ment of Cessna building the Sky-
Catcher; and lastly, for his longtime
involvement in
EAA
that goes back
to his days
as
a youth growing up
in southern California
as
part of
Chapter 1.
Jack's contributions go beyond
his position
as
chairman, presi
dent, and chief executive officer
of Cessna Aircraft Company-
where he actively influences na
tional policy on general aviation
and is highly involved
with
indus
try organizations.
He
is an
EAA
Lifetime member,
belonging
to EAA Warbirds
of
America, Vintage Aircraft Associa
tion, and International Aerobatic
Club. Jack also supports numerous
grassroots activities to expose kids
to aviation, including the Build
A Plane organization that gives
young people the opportunity to
build airplanes.
The access and venues for youth
are not like they were for me 40
years ago, he said. Security at air
ports and fewer local air shows just
week. Spend some time browsing
these videos, stories, and photos to
relive the exci tement of The World's
Greatest Aviation Celebration.
Videos:
Link: www.EAA.org/video/
airventure.html
Photos:
Link:
www.AirVenture.org/photos
News and Feature Stories
From AirVenture
Today
Upcoming
Major
Fly-Ins
Southeast Regional Fly-In
Middleton Field Airport (GZH), Evergreen,
Alabama
October 24-26, 2008
www.SERFI.org
Copperstate Regional Fly-In
Casa Grande Municipal Airport (CGZ),
Casa Grande, Arizona
October 23-26, 2008
www.Copperstate.org
U.S. Spor t Aviation Expo
Sebring Regional Airport SEF),
Sebring, Florida
January 22-25, 2009
www.Sport Aviation Expo.com
Aero Friedrichshafen
Messe Friedrichshafen,
Friedrichshafen, Germany
April 2-5, 2009
www.Aero Friedrichshafen.com/html/en
Sun n Fun Fly-In
Lakeland Linder Regional Airport (LAL),
Lakeland, Florida
April 21-26, 2009
www.Sun N Fun.org
Golden West Regional Fly-In
Yuba County Airport (Myv),
Marysville, California
June 12-14, 2009
www.GoldenWestFlyln.org
Virginia Regional Festival
of
Flight
Suffolk Executive Airport SFQ),
Suffolk, Virginia
May 30-31 , 2008
www.VAEAA.org
Rocky Mountain Regional Fly-In
Front Range Airport
FTG),
Watkins, Colorado
TBD
http://www.eaa.org/videohttp://www.airventure.org/photoshttp:///reader/full/www.SERFI.orghttp:///reader/full/www.Copperstate.orghttp:///reader/full/www.Sport-Aviation-Expo.comhttp://www.aero-friedrichshafen.com/html/enhttp:///reader/full/www.Sun-N-Fun.orghttp:///reader/full/www.GoldenWestFlyln.orghttp:///reader/full/www.VAEAA.orghttp:///reader/full/www.RMRFI.orghttp://www.eaa.org/videohttp://www.airventure.org/photoshttp:///reader/full/www.SERFI.orghttp:///reader/full/www.Copperstate.orghttp:///reader/full/www.Sport-Aviation-Expo.comhttp://www.aero-friedrichshafen.com/html/enhttp:///reader/full/www.Sun-N-Fun.orghttp:///reader/full/www.GoldenWestFlyln.orghttp:///reader/full/www.VAEAA.orghttp:///reader/full/www.RMRFI.org
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It s
Amazin
g
What
Can
Be
Accomplished
in
Week
The
dozens
of meetings,
work
groups, and brainstorming sessions
held annu
ally
at
AirVenture Oshkosh involve many
of aviation's
movers and
shakers,
from
the
grassroots level to the top.
The
2008
fly-in
continued that tradition, as
EAA
hosted
representatives
from
the FAA,
all
levels of industry,
EAA
chapters,
type
clubs, other
aviation interest groups,
and
thousands of individual aviation enthusiasts.
The
flying community flocks to
Oshkosh
because this is
where
you can
see
ev
erything and
everyone.
People identify problems and opportunities and are able to
work
on
ideas, solutions,
and
strategies, all to keep airplanes flying, amateur build
ers building, aviators aviating, and preserve the
dream
of flight.
Representatives from
the
FAA
always
come
to
Oshkosh because
it's a
unique
opportunity to meet
and
interact
with aviation
's grassroots,
hear concerns, and
work
to
solve problems.
Here
's a list of just
some
of what
was
accomplished:
.VAA
facilitated a series of
six
meetings
with FAA
staffers
and vintage
aircraft
type clubs who
requested
face-to-face
meetings to address their
concerns.
•
FAA
representatives
from
the
Small Airplane
Directorate in
Kansas City
met
with VAA and EAA
staff to discuss the
next
steps in creating a
new
category of
des
ignated
engineering representatives.
• Members ofthe U.S.
House
of Representatives
Aviation
Subcommittee spent
a full
day
at
AirVenture
listening
and
talking
with
manufacturers,
EAA
members,
and
other aviation enthusiasts.
A number of working groups met to discuss refining light-sport aircraft (LSA)
ASTM
standards to make them more user-friendly
and
to help usher
in
ground
breaking technological deve l
opments,
such
as electric-powered airplanes.
.One
day FAA
officials outlined
proposed changes
for administering
and enforc
ing
the 51
percent
rule.
The next day, EAA
staff
and members had
their
say, and
in the
end,
both
sides
did
a lot of listening.
.
Warbirds
of
America and
the National Association of
Flight
Instructors
rep
Welch
Airplane Help
Brandon Abel, the grandnephew
of Orin Welch, is looking for infor
mation regarding the Welch air
plane. Any information regarding
the
aircraft, plans, etc.,
is
welcome.
Please call Brandon Abel at 850
685-9207 (he s in the Pacific time
zone) or e-mail
him
at
brandon.
V Hall
of
Fame Nominations
As
mentioned
in last month s
issue
of
Vintage Airplane
the
time
is
at
hand
to
submit
nominations
for the 2009 VAA Hall of Fame. We
have a preferred address for those
of you who wish
to
send in a nom
ination.
See last
month s
issue for
the nomination
details,
and send
it
to:
Charles Harris,
P.O.
Box 470350,
Tulsa, OK 74147-0350.
TFRWebsite
I f you re
like most
of
us, read
ing
a
temporary
flight restriction
TFR) listing written
in
all capital
letters
as
it tries to delineate
the
boundaries of
a TFR can be very
confusing
.
The
Federal Aviation
Administration
FAA) recognizes
that the
nature of
the text-only
TFR can
be perplexing and may
lead to inadvertent
TFR intru
sions.
To
help combat that issue,
the
FAA has
created a website that
you may wish to make a
part
of
your preflight briefing ritual.
The
website, http://TFR.FAA.gov high
lights in
both
text and graphical
form the lateral
boundaries
of the
mailto:[email protected]:///reader/full/http://TFR.FAA.govmailto:[email protected]:///reader/full/http://TFR.FAA.gov
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2 8
E
AIRCRAFT AWARDS
ANTIQUE
Antique
Grand
Champion
(Gold Lindy)
Addison
Pemberton, Spokane,
WA,
1928 Boeing
40C, 5339
Antique Reserve Grand
Champion
(Silver Lindy)
Jerry
Wenger,
Faribault,
MN,
1935
Waco
YPF,
N15700
Transport Category,
Champion
(Bronze Lindy)
Jim
Hagedorn, Old Crow Aviation, Columbus, OH, 1943 Grumman G-44 , N135MG
Customized
Aircraft
Champion (Bronze
Lindy)
John Hill, Jr.,
Washington,
NC ,
1941
Waco UPF-7, N32071
Runner Up
John Leppien, Alma, MI, 1940 Waco UPF-7,
N30107
Outstanding
Kenneth
Kreutzfeld, Port Clinton,
OH,
1940
Howard
DGA-15P,
NC1227
WORLD W R II ER
Champion
(Bronze Lindy)
William
Rose,
Barrington,
IL,
1944
Grumman
G-21A,
N600ZE
Runner-Up
J. Holmquist,
1949
Beech
Staggerwing
D17S, N19493
BRONZE
GE (1937·
1941)
Bronze
Age
Champion (Bronze Lindy)
Michael
Vaughan, Charleston, IL,
1940
Howard DGA-15P, N22410
Bronze Age Runner-Up
Larry Boehme , Jacksonville,
NC
, 1941 Waco UPF-7, N180LN
Bronze
Age
Outstanding Closed-Cockpit Monoplane
Glenn
Larson, Sarasota,
FL,
1939 Cessna C-165, N19498
Bronze Age
Outstanding Open-Cockpit
Monoplane
Gary
Kozak ,
Downers Grove,
IL,
1940 Ryan
Aeronautical ST-A
Special,
N8146
Bronze Age Outstanding Open-Cockpit Biplane
Curtis Arnold, Toronto, ON, Canada,
1941
de
Havilland
Tiger Moth, CFTBS
SILVER
GE (1928·1936)
Silver Age
Champion
(Bronze Lindy)
Ted Davis,
Broadhead,
WI, 1929 New Standard D-25A, NC7286
Silver Age Runner-Up
John Seibold, Rancho Santa Fe,
CA,
1929
Curtiss
Wright Travel
Air
A-6000-A
N4942V
Silver Age
Outstanding Closed-Cockpit Biplane
John
Thomason, Sonoma,
CA, 1936 Waco YKS-6 ,
N16522
Silver
Age
Outstanding
Open-Cockpit
Biplane
Historic Aviation
Museum, Creve
Coeur, MO,
1929 Zenith
Z6A,
N392V
CLASSIC SEPTEMBER
1945 THRU 1955)
Grand Champion (Gold
Lindy
)
Joe Dobransky,
Allen,
TX, 1946
Piper
J-3C-65 ,
N70111
Reserve
Grand Champion, (Silver
Lindy
)
Outstanding
Cessna
120/140
D. Troy
Westrum
,
Des MOines,
lA,
1946 Cessna
120, NC76189
Outstanding
Cessna
170/180
Donald Lindholm, Phoenix, AZ, 1951
Cessna
170A, N1424D
Outstanding
Cessna 190/195
Beau Bradley, Sheridan,
MT,
1952 Cessna
195A,
N252BB
Outstanding
Ercoupe
Ward Marsh, Dixon , CA, 1946
Ercoupe
415-CD,
NC93337
Outstanding
Luscombe
Joe Champagne,
Fairland,
OK, 1949
Luscombe
8F,
N48RR
Outstanding Navion
Gary Rankin ,Camas,
WA,
1947
Navion,
N8969H
Outstanding
Piper J 3
Raymond Cook
,
Spring
Grove
,
IL,
1946
P
per
J-3C-65,
N70971
Outstanding Piper Other
James
Hudgin,
Lewisburg,
TN, 1948 P
per PA-17,
N4612H
Outstanding Stinson
Earl Muenze,
Columbus,
OH,
1947
Stinson 108-2, N8055K
Outstanding Swift
Swift Museum,Athens, TN , 1948 Globe GC-1B, N78271
Outstanding Limited
Production
Richard
Epton,
Brooks,
GA,
1949
BOcker
BU-181, N94245
Preservation
Ray
Johnson, Marion,
IN, 1947 Aeronca
11AC
,
N3469E
Preservation
Terry
Chastain,
Pacific,
MO
,
1952
Rawdon T1 , N5160
Custom Class A(0-80 hpj
Tim and Larry Geldermann, Hartland, WI, 1947 Aeronca 7AC, N3506E
Custom Class
B
(81-150 hpj
Merrel Kenneth, Mayflower, AR, 1946
Funk B-85-C,
NC81137
Custom Class
(151-235 hpj
Hal
Cope,
Spring
,
TX
,
1946
Temco GC-1B,
N3303K
Custom Class
D
(236 hp
&higher)
James Nezgoda
,
Sandy Valley
, NV, 1947
Republic
RC-3 , N6325K
Best Custom
Runner
-
Up
Michael Lewis,
Carmel
, IN , 1953
Cessna
170B,
N4567C
CONTEMPORARY 1956·1970) W RDS
Grand
Champion,
(
Gold
Lindy)
Stephanie
Allen,
Mukilteo,
WA, 1969 Cessna
172K,
N78797
Reserve Grand Champion, (Silver
Lindy)
Mark Malone
&Miles
Malone, Camarillo,
CA,
1963 Beech
Travel Air,
N234M
Class
I
Single Engine
(0-160 hpj, (Bronze Lindy)
Bob McBride,
Mineola, TX, 1963
Cessna
150C,
N14TX
Class
II Single Engine (161-230 hpj, Bronze Lindy
Roger
Florkiewicz,
Schererville,
IN,
1968 Pper PA-28R-180,
N65KF
Class
11 Single Eng ine (231-up hpj (Bronze Lindy)
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An gr cabin class monoplane from 1929
BY SP RKY B RNES S RGENT
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Corti
f
CbaUeo,er
iD
tailed.
RobiD
3 place
C.biD ooo
plane
929
ad fr
om
viation magazine.
hi
s is a Robin with a Curtiss Chal-
lenger engine excerpted from the entire ad .
-
The poster board leaning against the Robin
is
promoting the Curtiss
World Endurance Record.
Built for Durability
The Curtiss
Robin debuted in
March 1928. Designed and built by
Curtiss Aeroplane Motor Com
pany of Garden City, New
York,
the
monoplanes were manufactured at
Curtiss-Robertson Airplane Manu
facturing Company in Anglum St .
Louis County), Missouri. (This is
now the location of Lambert Field.)
In
1929,
Curtiss Aeroplane and
in
the
June 1928 issue of The via-
tor touted
the
fabric-covered Robin
as
the
first closed-cabin plane in
the "popular-price field, " selling for
less
than $4,000
. Its fuselage was
built of
chrome-molybdenum
steel
tubing,
the
main
gear
had
a wide,
96-inch tread for safe landings and
taxiing, and a steerable tailskid fa-
cilitated
ground
maneuvering. Its
wing ribs were built of lightweight,
borne out in actual flight tests ....
Its stability and easy
fl
ying qualities
were also carefully worked
out
in
wind tunnel tests, and pilots who
have flown it say that it is the nic
est flying plane,
and the
easiest
to
fly,
in its class."
Additionally, a
company
adver
tisement in a 1929 issue of
viation
magazine promoted the Robin's "ri
gidity, ruggedness
and
durability,"
proclaiming
that detail
after de
tail, the Curtiss Robin proves itself
a
plane that's built to
last." Epton
heartily bears tes tament to the Rob-
in's performance and durability; he
delights
in
owning and flying his
79-year-young Robin.
Flying the Robin
"She flies beautifully straight,
and
she's
got
a big wing, so
short
field
performance is
quite
exceptional,
even with full fuel and three heavy
men aboard," says Epton. "She flies
and
performs like a very heavy
Piper Cub. I fly it every weekend,
and
I give rides all the time. After
all, these airplanes are for sharing. I
own it today,
and
in 50 years' time
I won't own
it-somebody
else will,
so we're all just caretakers."
Recalling
his
first
flight
in
the
Robin, Epton chuckles
and
says,
When I went to Florida to col
lect this from
Ron Waldron and
his 'partner in crime' Harry Wool
dridge, I asked
them to put
the orig
inal dual controls back in it, just so
one of them could sit in the back,"
recounts Epton. "Well, Harry was
elected, and he promptly folded
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Removing the old fabric from one of the Robin s The fuselage is painted and on its gear, with the
wings in May 1996
Wright J -5 Whirlwind engine mounted.
Waldron, Wooldridge, and Epton (left to right)
on
Epton lifts off, with Wooldridge
in
the rear seat.
the occasion of Epton s first Robin flight.
"So that was basically it.
We
indi
cated 80 mph cruising around,
and
my recollection of landing speed
is somewhat vague
because
I was
ki
nd
of busy
on that
first flight, stir
ring the soup with a big stick But I
seem to reca
ll
it was around 55 mph
over
the
fence,
and
as
soon
as
the
throttle's pulled back
an
d
th
e nose is
raised slightly,
the
airspeed immedi
He's a natural with the airplane."
He advised Epton
to
remove
the
dual controls for his flight home to
Georgia,
since
the installation
of
the
rear controls required
the
pilot's
seat
to
be moved 6 inches forward,
th
us
making
it uncomfortably close
to the instrument
panel. But Epton
didn't
heed
that
suggestion,
and
af
ter battling
a
strong head wind to
I have
to
shuffle
to
the edge of the
seat, take a very good look around
the sky then dive
down
to the floor
and reach for the valve while bend
ing
around the
control
stick
and
trying not to push it
around "
Epton's second
cross-cou
ntry in
the Robin
was
from his home
in
Brooks, Georgia,
to
Lakeland, Flor
ida. He
departed on Sunday
after
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marvelous
TIG welder,
showed up
and
took the
collector to his shop.
y 10 o clock that night, he
had
finished welding it, and we took it
back to
the
airport where Walt and
his mechanic Ben worked until 1:30
the next morning. They really did a
great job, very willingly. I t was all
about
getting
me
to Lakeland.
Passenger s view of the cabin.
The engine bolts to a 1-1/2-inch
With the skylight and full-length
thick metal-reinforced plywood
windows up front, the pilot and
board , the plywood bolts to the en-
passengers have a great view.
gine mount, and then the engine
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obin estoration
N781M's return to flying
status
is primarily due to Waldron's
ef
forts . In 1996, after
Waldron had
finished bui lding a Travel
ir
4000,
he
was offered
the opportunity to
buy
a Curtiss Robin
project-and
he just
couldn't
refuse. After all, he
had grown up around scale mod
els
of the
Curtiss Robin because it
was his
father's
favorite
airplane.
So he
and his buddy
Wooldridge
flew the airlines from Florida out
to
California.
Waldron purchased
the
project from
Charlotte
Nelson
and says
he actually
ended
up
with one
and a
half
Robins. I
had
four
wings, a fuselage
of another
Robin, lots
of
parts, and a
Wright
J6-5
engine. We rented aU-Haul
and
drove 50
mph
all the way back
across
the
country."
Although he had
numerous
parts, there were
items he didn't
have-such
as seats.
Scanning
through Trade A Plane one
day, he
saw an ad for original Robin wicker
Below: The Robin has oleo spr
g
outrigger style gear.
seats.
He
called
to
inquire,
thinking
that the seller would
want
a fortune
for
them
if
they
were in
good
con
dition.
"He was an
older guy and
told me that
when
he
put
them
in his
barn
in
1940,
they
were
in
good shape," recalls Waldron. "He
only wanted $300 for
them,
but
wouldn't ship them, so Harry and
I
drove
up to
Toledo,
Ohio,
to
get
them,
and
we also picked up
some
extra wing lift struts from him."
Waldron built two new doors for
the
airplane, using
one
old
and
rot
ting door frame as a pattern.
The
Robin
originally
had a skylight as
well
as
sliding windows in
the
doors
and
on
the
left-hand side of
the
fu
selage-plus full-length windows
on
either side of
the
pilot's seat. He
fabricated the
wooden
framework
and
metal trim
pieces
for
those
and discovered that
there's some
pretty
fancy
woodwork
up around
the
skylight,
and
the luggage com
partment was originally bigger
and
deeper-you could
crawl inside it
So
I
built
a little
one,
because
you
really don't need all that space."
He
ordered new spruce
for
the
heavy
"
I-beam wing spars and
spent
a
considerable amount
of
time straightening the original
wing ribs.
II s
far as I know,
this is one
of
the
first airplanes
manufactured
with
metal ribs, says Waldron,
II and
a few years later,
the
ribs were
all
bending
because
the cotton
was
stretching so tight
across
them .
Cu rtiss-Wrigh
t
came
out
with
a
manufacturer's service letter stating
that plywood had
to
be attached to
the ribs. [That letter stated
• ••
the
stamped metal ribs have a tendency
to collapse, especially
on
the
top
side
and
to roll
down
until
they
are
flat on top, on a line with the tops
of
the
front
and
rear spars.'] So I
straightened
the
ribs that I had
and
riveted plywood the
whole length
of
them, front to
rear,
to make
a
solid rib."
When
it came to
the landing
gear, Waldron
needed
a bit of help
from another source.
So
he con
tacted
Dick Fischer
in
California.
"He was the
biggest
help of
any
body. I
needed
springs for
the
oleo
gear legs, and
he
had
some
extras
on hand
that
he'd had made
up,
recalls Waldron. II
He
also had some
tail wheels made up
that
looked like
the
ones that Robins had, after they
switched over from
the
tailskids."
The most
challenging
aspect
of the
project was
the paper
work, since the type certificate for
the
Curtiss Robin
C 1
listed the
Curtiss Challenger
R600 as
the
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approved engine installation, and
not a Wright J6-5. Waldron chuck
les
in
retrospect,
explaining
, "The
FAA guy told me I had
to
get a let
ter
from
the manufacturer
regard
ing the change in engine types. He
didn t
know what a Curtiss Robin
was A DAR [designated
airworthi
ness representative] came out and
gave me
an
airworthiness certifi
cate,
and the
next day he called
me and told me
to
send it back to
him. I asked him,
What
do you
mean? ' He told
me
he had
to
come
back out
and
give me a special air
worthiness
certificate
for experi
said
he
had a standard airworthi
ness
certificate for me,
so
it all
worked
out
okay."
Waldron installed Ceconite fab
ric on
the
airplane
and
finished
it with Air-Tech Coatings, using a
color scheme similar to the origi
nal-cream
for
the wings
and tail
and orange for the
fuselage. The
Curtiss
Robin took
to
the skies
again
in
2004.
It
was
the
first
time
i t
had
flown since 1942, when
it
was dismantled and placed in
storage
during
World
War II.
As
for
Waldron,
he and
Wooldridge
bought a 1929 Travel Air Model
Mississippi, brothers Fred and Al-
gene
Key
set a world record for sus
tained flight when
they
flew
Ole
Miss a Robin J-l Deluxe, for 653
hours
and 34 minutes during the
summer
of
1935. These Robins re
ceived aerial refueling in order to
stay
aloft
and had
been
modified
with catwalks for in-flight engine
maintenance and a larger fuel tank,
plus
an
access
panel atop
the
fuse
lage for
receiving
supplies while
airborne . Robins were also flown in
air races
and National
Air Tours
in
the
1920s
and
early 1930s. Perhaps
the
most amazing feat was
that
of
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wasn't among
those
flown for re
cord-setting flights, it is
just
that
type
of
history that inspired him
to own and fly a
Curtiss
Robin.
And
perhaps
it may
be
said
that
N781M
is
on
its way
to making
its
own
mark in modern-day
aviation.
Among
the appreciative
onlook
ers
at Sun 'n
Fun were the aircraft
judges, who awarded it Best Silver
ge antique.
True to his English roots,
Epton
has fondly given N781M the nick-
When I would tell them Lincoln
shire,
they
would say, 'Ah
The
Poacher ' Hence my
nickname
has
been
'The Poacher' for many years.
My
mother, Marjorie
Epton, still
lives
in
Lincolnshire,
and
not
only
does she make the world's greatest
shepherd's pie, she has also been
my biggest supporter in everything
do So when she asked me if was
going to put The Poacher's name
on the
Robin, 'Of course' was my
reply. Hence the Poacher s Pony was
It's just a beautiful aeroplane.
Every time I go into
the
hangar
and she's there in her glory
with
the
morning sun oming in on her, I
can't wait to push her out and turn
her
into
the wind "
- Richard
pton
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Carolinas-Virginia
VAA
CHAPTER
3
FLy I
N
Alamance County Airport
T
he Carolinas-Virginia An
tique Airplane
Founda
tion, otherwise
known
as
EAA-VAA Chapter 3, held
its annual Spring Fly-In at
the
Ala
mance County
Airport
BUY)
near
Burlington, North Carolina, dur
ing
the first weekend in May. In
contrast to
the past few weather
plagued years, the 2008 event en
joyed good weather and, as a result,
an encouraging turnout of
both
air
craft and drive-ins. Encouraging
Y
J CK
ox
because
everyone was concerned
about
the
effect of high fuel prices
on attendance
.
I t
didn t seem to
matter a lot- the display area was
full of airplanes
on
Saturday, and
the
awards
banquet
that
evening
was a full house.
Chapter 3 is a rather unique
group. It was chartered
as
a three
state
nonprofit foundation in the
early 196 s by
the late
Evander
Britt, a Lumberton,
North
Caro
lina, attorney
and antique
airplane
collector and restorer. It was from
Bri tt
that
author
Richard Bach ob
tained the Parks
P-2A
he would im
mortalize in his books Biplane and
No t hing by Chance. By the
late
1960s
the
group s
annual
Spring
and Fall Fly-Ins had become the
largest sport aviation events held
on the East Coast and would main
tain that distinction until the Sun
n Fun Fly-In
at
Lakeland, Florida,
came along
in
the mid-1970s. With
members spread
out
over three
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8/20/2019 Vintage Airplane - Sep 2008
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stat
es-North
an d
South
Carolina
and Virginia-the group has never
held monthly meetings, as do most
local chapters, relying instead
on
its
two fly-ins and its bimon thly news
letter,
Antique
Airways, for
com
munication and cohesiveness .
When EAA's Antique/Classic Di
vision (now VAA)
was
formed in the
early 1970s, the Carolinas-Virginia
Antique Airplane Foundation be
came affiliated
as
Chapter 3 and has
been an active part of EAA activities
ever since. A number of its members
became part of the national scene.
Brad Thomas and Butch Joyce each
served long terms
as
president of the
EAA Antique/Classic Division
and
its successor-in-name, the Vintage
Aircraft Association. Evander Britt
and Morton Lester served as mem
bers of the Antique/Classic board of
directors, and Morton also served
as
a member of the EAA Aviation Foun
dation board of
directors.
Susan
Dusenbury is a current and longtime
member of the EAA board of direc
tors-and is the current president of
Chapter 3. Jack and Golda Cox, who
produced
Antique Airways
during
the
1960s, became members of the
EAA headquarters staff in January of
1970 and would head
EAA's
editorial
department until
their retirement
and subsequent return to North
Carolina
and
Chapter 3
in
1999. A
number of Chapter 3 members have
served
as
showplane judges
at
Sun
n
Fun and
EAA
AirVenture Oshkosh
over the years,
and
several continue
to do so today.
Chapter 3 s fly-ins are
open to the
Chapter
3 s
logo features
Er
nie Webb's award-winning
1928
OXX-6
powered Travel Air 2000,
which brought widespread recog
nition
to
the
chapter in
its
early
days in
the 1960s.
The evening ended with the
presentation
of awards by Chief
Judge Xen Motsinger. The winners were:
Best Experimental-2002 RV-6 , N164N, Tommy Newkirk, Gar
land , North Carolina
Best Warblrd
1943
North American
SNJ-5C
N3JC Larry Morris,
Concord, North Carolina
Best Single Engine
Contemporary-1957
Cessna 172A, N8377B,
Bob
Schaefer,
Tryon
, North Carolina
Best Multi-Engine
Contemporary-1967
Cessna 310, N221MB,
C.T.
Mendenhall, Sophia, North Carolina
Best Classic
0-
65 hp 1946 Taylorcraft BC-12D,
N95525,
Bill
Brown, Gibsonville, North Carolina
Best Classic 66-100 hp-1947 Cessna 120, N2613N, Joe and
Roxanna Mancusi, Raleigh, North Carolina
Best Classic 101-150 hp-1948 Swift, N3849K, Jeff and Donna
Smith, Asheboro, North Carolina
Best Classic over
150
hp-1946
Bucker Jungmann, N191X,
Steve Hawley St. Matthews, South Carolina
Custom Classic 1948 Piper PA-15/
17
Vagabond , N4309H, Frank
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Stan
nd
Sandy Sweikar s Grand Champion Classic 1952 Cessna
195
,
N1571D
nearby
facility, followed by a get
together at the host motel for more
visiting and viewing vintage
avi
ation movies. An awards banquet
is held
on
Saturday
night
that in
cludes a featured speaker.
The speaker
at
Burlington in May
was V Treasurer Charlie Harris of
Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Harris is one of the founders and
the
driving force
behind the
Biplane
Fly-In held each year at Bartlesville,
Oklahoma
the longtime
editor
of
the
V Chapter 10 Tulsa) news
i:3 letter,
and
the owner of a collection
of beautifully restored showplanes.
- -
An excellent,
entertaining
speaker,
Charlie Harris and Susan Dusenbury.
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Harris detailed the purposes a
nd
fo unding of the Biplane Fly-In
an
d
its ancillary effort s
to
h ono r the
men
and women who have served
our country in the military services.
He
concluded by urgi
ng
su
pport
of
the construction of the EAA Found
ers Wing within
the EAA
AirVen
ture Museum at Oshkosh-a facility
to display Paul and Audrey Pober
ezny s 55-year collection of EAA
historical material.
Special guests
at the
Burling
ton
fly-in were
VAA
Na t
iona
l Di
rector Bob Lumley of Brookfield ,
Wisconsin, and Director Emeritus
John Turgyan of New Egypt, New
Jersey. Harris, Luml
ey
and Turgyan
have
been
members of Chap ter 3
for years, even th ough they reside
Jeff
and
Donna Smith's Best Classic
101-150 hp
1948
125
Swift, N3849K.
in
other areas of the country.
On Sunday morning, a
num
ber of pilots flew
to
the nearby
im
Wilson (in the black cap) hard
at
work interviewing subjects
for
a
r-
ticles in Chapter
3's
newsletter, Antique Airways, with his Waco YK5-6 in
t
he
background.
im
a
nd
his wife, Eileen, flew the Waco
to
Alaska last year.
Roxboro, North Carolina, airport
for a fly-out brunch at the Home
stead Restaurant, with reservations
and
arrangements for ground trans
portation made by Skip Carden.
Special thanks are due to Chapter
3 President Susan Dusenbury and
Vice President Ron Normark,
who
handled most of the advance prep
arations
for
the
fly-in, plus all
the
chapter volunteers
who
assumed
the various on-field duties during
the
weekend.
Next up for Chapter 3
is
its Fall
Fly-In,
to be
held
the weekend
of
October
3-5, 2008,
at
Woodward
Field (CDN) in Camden, South Car
olina. For fly-in formation, call Jim
Wilson
at
843-753-7138 or e-mail
him at
cross
w n j m
@homesc com
Everyone
is
welcome.
mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]
-
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Light Plane Heritage
ORI
GI N LLY PUBLISHED IN E Experimenter DECEMBER
99
Remember the Klemm
Part III, The Young Baron s Great Adventure
BY B
OB
W HITIIER
Last month we told you about how
in
1929, 22-year
old EK. Baron von Koenig-Warthausen of Germany made
a nonstop flight from Berlin to Moscow-and kept on go
ing. We left him making his aerial way from Shiraz to
Bushire in what was then Persia and is now Iran.
The
latter city
had
a
good airport on which
were
based representatives of
the
Junkers aircraft firm
and
some
of
their
all-metal
commercial monoplanes.
They took their
young
fellow
countryman under
their
wing-both figuratively
and
literally
.
They showed
him the town and
sheltered his little Klemm from
the
broiling
sun
under the
wing of a big Junkers.
In Bushire,
EK.
was thrilled to receive a telegram in
forming
him that
his Berlin
to
Moscow
nonstop
flight
had won him the
coveted
Hindenburg Cup
. There
he
also
met
his hero, Baron
von
Huenefeld
pronounced
Hoonfeld),
who
had been
one
of
the
crew of
the
Junk
ers re
men that made the
first
east-to-west crossing
of the
Atlantic
in
1928. This
airman
had
stopped in
Bushire while
on
a flight
to the
Far East.
EK. s
stay
in
Bushire had its amusing moments. A lo
cal
potentate
heard that
EK.
was on his way there
and
became quite excited. Expecting a monarch
in
a
top
hat
and
swallowtail coat
to
emerge
with
great
pomp
from
a
polished
and majestic Junkers, he was
indeed
flus
tered
when
what looked to
him
like a kid
hopped out
of
the
cockpit of a travel-begrimed little Klemm.
I t
seems
of U-2s overflying
their
country. However, a visit was
somehow arranged.
Alas, on passing
through
the magic door, EK. found
himself inside an ordinary-looking
home in
which four
not at all glamorous women were going
about
routine
household tasks. This, he was solemnly assured, was
one
of Bushire's finest harems. Well, so
much
for harems.
Talking
with the
Junkers
people,
F.K.
decided
that
the most logical option open to him would be to fly on
to Karachi on the west coast of India (now Pakistan).
There
he
could get a steamer
bound
for Germany.
So he
said farewell
and
headed eastward along a coast
line where
the
climate proved to be so unbelievably
hot
and
arid
that
he sighted
not one
speck of green. By
that
time he had learned
that
pilots of open-cockpit
air
planes
in
that
part
of
the
world routinely wore typical
pith
helmets while flying in order to avoid sunstroke.
He stopped for
two
days at
Bandar
Abbas on
the
north side of the Strait of Hormuz. The British consul
there (remember,
EK.
spoke English well)
had the only
car
in
town and also the
only house with
electricity.
This place was said to be
the hottest town in the
world
and
was made all
the
more oppressive
by high humid
ity
and
thick swarms of flies.
He sighed
with
relief as
he
left this hellhole
behind
,
both for the
foregoing
reasons and because
the
soft
sand there had
so
hindered
his takeoff
that
he barely
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As he glided
in
to land, he
was startled to see the whole
huge crowd was running
righ t
into
his
path.
None
of
them
had the slightest
know
ledge of
the operating
peculiarities of these new fly-
ing machines, of
course, so
he
gunned
the
engine
and
came in
on
a
different
ap
proach-and the
same
thing
happened
again This insane
game went on for 20
mad
dening minutes until the
o local telegraph operator real
ized what was going
on
and
managed somehow to
clear
the
field.
The sand was so
soft
that only
the
Klemm's very
low
landing
speed avoided
a
nose
over.
The
pith
hel
met had shielded the top of
F.K.'s head, but
the
intense
n
California, Baron
von
Koenig-Warthausen center) poses with Tommy Tomlinson,
sunlight
unequally reflected
then
ch
ief pilot for Maddux Airlines and later prominent in th development of ma
from
the
broiling desert and
jor U.S. airlines, and Charles Spicer, builder of Grand Central Air Terminal . Ripples
the sea had badly sunburned
on
the fuselage below
th
cockpit indicate thinness of
th
plywood covering.
where
the
consulate's
mechanic made up
a
new
bolt.
Unfortunately
,
he
used
one
of
the
shop's British taps
and
the
resulting thread simply would
not
go into the
engine's metric-threaded hole. After searching all over
the
plane, F.K. removed
one
of
the
propeller hub bolts
and was relieved to find that it
would
fit the engine
properly. He replaced
the
"stolen"
bolt
from
the
hub
with
a British
one
for
which
a suitable nut was avail
able. A test
hop
showed no noticeable vibration, so
he
landed, loaded up,
and
took off again.
He found Cape Jask to be
another
godforsaken town,
it
having
no car
at
all. This required him to quickly
learn the fine techniques of riding a donkey. The help
ful telegraph operator there advised
him to
follow
the
the shoreward side
of
his
face,
while leaving
the seaward side
unaffected.
He
didn t
realize this
until
later
when he
was shocked
to
look
into
a mirror and see
that
he now had a black
and-white face.
Pressing on, he finally reached the large city of Ka-
rachi
in
India
and
was
happy
to land at a good airport
having ample facilities. Royal Air Force personnel sta
tioned there made
him
their guest of
honor at
their
fa-
cility, which was like a country club . They
made
him
so
welcome
,
in
fact,
that
he remained there
for five
enjoyable weeks. As but one example
of
the interest
ing things
he
did,
the
city's mayor took him on several
hunting trips.
Intriguing things
his RAF
acquaintances told him
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2008 -HGF]). He learned that
the
airfield at Allahabad
was at that time
the
only civilian
one
in all of India,
the
rest being
RAF
establishments.
While sightseeing on the ground,
he
observed that
many
people were spitting blood, and he shuddered
at how prevalent
tuberculosis was
in
that
backward
county.
Then
he
chanced to
learn that
what he was
seeing was merely spittle-stained red from the natives'
habit of chewing betel nuts.
He then flew on to the
holy
city of Benares
where
he was quickly informed
that
a cholera epidemic was
raging
and
advised
that
he
should
not stay
there any
longer than necessary. Hundreds of corpses were being
cremated
on the
riverbank,
and
as
he
circled
to
gain
altitude he gagged as
he
flew through a pall of smoke
carrying the odor of
burning
flesh .
The next stop
was
Gaya, and
when
he
arrived
there
he
circled
repeatedly trying
to
locate the air
field. Failing to find it, he set down
on
a dried-out rice field.
Someone
then
informed him
that
the
air
port was 10 miles outside the town.
He had to
get
workmen to
make
an
opening in
a clay dike that bor
dered the rice field, to get enough
room to take off.
Gaya
to
Calcutta was a six-hour
flight, which he was
obliged
to
make at
an altitude
of
only
500
feet because the engine had devel
oped a falling off of power. It ap
pears that
the
desert dust
drawn
in through the carburetor was the
cause. But happily this flight was
he
had done
quite
enough of risking his neck
in
wild
and remote places and should forthwith come home.
But
RAF
personnel at Calcutta
's
airfield had helped him
do an excellent overhaul on the Klemm's engine, and it
now ran beautifully. So on to Singapore it would be
On
February IS, 1930,
he took
off
and headed
for
Akyab
in
Burma
(now
Sittwe,
Myanmar),
a SOO-mile
flight
which
would
take
at least six hours. The first
part
of
this
flight
took
him over an
extremely
lonely
200-mile-wide muddy lowland
in
the region where the
Ganges and
the
Brahmaputra River merged. That bad
stretch
behind
him,
he
then flew over alternating jute
fields and stretches of forest . Then
he
picked up and
began to follow
the
shoreline of
the Indian
Ocean. He
noticed that there was
no
beach. The ocean
and
forest
met in a very distinct line
with
no place
at
all to set
On the morning of
July 12 he left his
hotel
and
hailed a
taxi to go out to
the airport.
The
next thing he
knew
he
woke
up at
5 p m in a hospital
room with doctors
hovering over him
down
safely in an emergency.
Looking
down on
the
forests, he
sighted many wild
elephants and
real
ized that even though he might make
a safe forced landing in
the
treetops,
getting to
civilization
would
pose
an
entirely new set of difficulties. Fortu
nately, the
little Mercedes kept purr
ing steadily.
He knew he had entered Burma
when
he began
to
spot more
and
more
pagodas and was glad to
land on
the
Fokker company s excellent field at
Akyab.
That turned
out
to
be a large,
modern city that was full of
automo-
biles. The funny thing was, they were
all quite unable
to
travel beyond the
city limits because there were just sim
ply no roads out there
over flat river valley country,
and
once
in
Calcutta,
he
was glad
to
be offered a
room in
the
German
consul's
comfortable home.
There he observed Christmas
and
New Year's Day
and
found it to be a strange feeling
to do
so
in
swelter
ing
hot
weather. He made sightseeing flights over the
country and was invited to go along on some hunts. A
He
planned
to
continue
on to
Rangoon as
soon
as
he had refueled, but had
to accept
an
invitation
to
stay for a few days
at the home
of
the
manager of
the
British Oil
Company
establishment. I t seems
that the
only available field in
Rangoon
was
being
used for a
bog polo match, and it would be much better to arrive
there the day after.
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hisphoto gives an idea of the baron's slight stature and the size of
his
Klemm
monoplane. The ship was big but light and was really what used to be referred
to
as
a power glider. Colors appear
to
have been natural varnished wood and
clear, doped fabric.
remained at Rangoon, he noticed
that the
culture there
differed appreciably from
what he had
encountered
in
some
other
countries
he had
visited. The people were
much
more energetic
and
progressive.
Local fliers
and
officials painted a grim picture of
the
proposed next step in EK.'s journey,
the hop
from Ran
goon
to
Bangkok
in
Siam (now Thailand). I t would be
necessary to cross high
mountains and
vast swamps.
Some regions had no t been mapped,
and
indeed, a few
had
not
even
been
explored. But
by now
EK.
consid
ered
himself to
be quite
an experienced and
capable
long-distance flier.
So to
Bangkok it would be.
Leaving
Rangoon, he hea
ded
southwest
over
the
Gulf
of Martaban and
passed
over
Bilugyun Is land.
By prearrangement, he
circled twice over
the
city of
Moulmein so
that his
progress could be noted and
telegraphed
back
to Rangoon
.
With
six
more
hours
of flight
ahead
of
him, he
was dismayed
to
find that
bad
weather
and worrying
abo ut navigation.
He had
thought
he might
stay
in
Bangkok for 10 days
but ended up staying there
for five
memorab
le weeks.
A royal
coronation
was go
ing
on, and he was intro-
duced to the new king
and
his family. The crown prince
had
been
Siam's
minister in
Berlin for several years, and
both
he
and the
crown prin
cess
spoke German. They
and F K got along
splen
did
ly.
The princess
gave
F K
a
beautifu
l Siamese
cat
named Tanim . A special
box was made for Tanim
and
fitted into
the
Klemm's
cockpit. From there
on
he
traveled
along with
his new
owner.
His first few flights
left
him
a bit wobbly,
but
he
soon
got accustomed
to ric;ling in
a plane.
An idea
had been
growing
in
F.K
.'s mind . He was
then
13,000 miles out from Germany.
Why not
con
tinue
on all
the
way arou
nd
t
he
world
and
enjoy con
founding
the it
can't be
done
skeptics? Accordingly,
he
proposed
to
fly from Bangkok across French
Indo
china
(now
Vie
tnam) to
China
itself
and then on
to Ja
pan. But people
in
Bangkok
who
knew that part of the
world very we ll earnestly discouraged him from doing
so. There would surely be
many
vexing complications
and
grave dangers.
So
again
the
Klemm's
wi
n
gs
were
removed
and the
plane, pilot,
and
cat traveled to Hong
Kong by steamer.
At
Hong
Kong,
permission to
fly
over
China
was
flatly refused.
So there
was nothing to
do but
stay
on
the ship until it reached Shanghai. There
he ma
naged
to
get permission
to
assemble
the
Kl
emm and fly
150
miles
inland to Nanking, where he met an
d
talked
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8/20/2019 Vintage Airplane - Sep 2008
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sight
and
led
him to
Tokyo, where
he landed after a nervous and tiring
six-hour flight.
There he
was given a
great
wel
come by Japanese
and
German offi
cials. During the
five
weeks
he
spent
in that city,
he
stayed with a Japa
nese family in their home of tra
ditional design
and
construction.
They all sat on cushions, slept on
the
floor,
and
ate
with
chopsticks.
EK.
was surprised at how quickly he
adapted to this lifestyle and, once
back in Germany, delighted in dem
onstrating to friends his proficiency
with chopsticks. While in Tokyo, a
fine day came along that
prompted
him to fly to and circle
around
12,OOO-foot
Mount Fujiyama, a ma
jestic and
thrilling
spectacle
from
the cockpit of his little plane.
Then plane, pilot,
and
cat boarded
a shop in Yokohama
and on
May 25
headed for the United States. During
a brief stopover in
Honolulu,
a lo
cal pilot
took him
for a sightseeing
flight
in
a Waco.
Just
as
they
came
alongside it,
Mount
Kilauea decided
it was time to erupt, providing
them
with a very unanticipated spectacle.
On June 19,
he
headed south for
Los Angeles. A
short time out he
heard
a
terrific
roar approaching
from behind. His first thought was
that
the dreaded "United States Air
Police"
that
some joker
had
warned
him about was after him for
some
unwitting transgression.
But
the
racket proved to be
coming from
the big radial engines of three Ford
Tri-Motors being flown by pilots
he
had
met
at
Alameda and Oakland.
When these
big
planes came
alongside, people in
the
win
dows flashed
placards on which
had
been painted messages such
as
"Good
Luck!"
and
"Have a Safe
Journey!" Ah, the camaraderie of
the air! Then the Fords turned
back, and F K continued south
feeling just wonderful.
The flight
was
generally
pleas
ant
and
interesting,
save for
some
Baron
von
Koenig-Warthausen
and
rough
air over desert country. EK.
his Siamese c t anlm nicknamed
was amazed at
the
immensity of
Felix y the U.S. press during his
agricultural operations in the
Im
vi
sit here.
The
ship
arrived
at
San Francisco on June 28.
The
press
had
heard all
about the boyish but intrepid
young baron,
his
adventurous journey
over
strange
lands,
and
his exotic cat Tanim. At
that
time the me
dia was
much
more
air-minded than it
is today,
and
they
lionized
EK.
Siamese cats were
then
rare
in this
country, and
they
insisted on
renaming
his
pet
Felix
after a popular comic strip character. The cat became
as
famous as his master.
The Klemm was
unloaded
and taken over Alameda
for
reassembly and
a
general
checking over.
Some
of the
pilots
there had
flown
against Germany
dur
perial Valley. The appearance of
more and
more palm
trees, some
old
Spanish missions,
and then
oil
rigs
told
him
he
was
approaching
the
Los Angeles
area . He landed at
dusk
at Beverly Hills Airport just
in time to
witness a glorious sunset. After shivering
in the
cold spring air of
China and Japan,
little Felix
reveled in the
balmy
air of
Southern
California.
The flight was made
on
8 gallons of gasoline, which
at the
prices
then in
effect cost
EK.
exactly $1.08. The
stay in Los Angeles was another whirlwind of visits
to
movie studios,
the
local
German
Club,
and aviation
groups.
Maddux
Airlines
made it
possible for him
to
realize a longstanding desire by allowing
him
to fly
one
of its Ford Tri-Motors.
Then
he paid
a
brief
visit
to
San Diego and
did
a
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8/20/2019 Vintage Airplane - Sep 2008
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Paso,
another
severe storm struck, and
he
wondered if
thunderstorms were following him
On the morning of July 12, he left his
hotel
and
hailed a taxi to go out to the airport. The next thing
he
knew,
he
woke up
at
5 p.m. in a hospital
room with
doctors hovering over him. The taxi
had
been
in
a vi
olent collision
that had
knocked him
out and
caused
bad head, face,
and
leg injuries. The doctors told him
he
had
been in critical condition for a while, but was
now out of danger, yet facing a long recovery.
Terrified by the crash, poor little Felix
had
shot
up
the nearest tree. Someone
eventually
got
him
down
and took him to the hospital, where
EK
was delighted
and
relieved
to
see
that
his little pal was all right.
During
the
two moths EK was obliged
to remain
in EI Paso, many Americans helped him with money
and legal problems arising from
the
accident.
By
Sep
tember
IS, he
had
recovered sufficiently to
resume
his travels.
A
six-hour
flight got him to Big Springs, where
yet
another
downpour soaked
the
field
and
obliged
him to
wait
until
late
in the afternoon to hop
off for
Sweetwater. He
somehow
got the impression that the
airport there was lighted, when in fact work on run
way lighting was still in progress. So
he
was obliged to
land
in the dark. The Klemm's left wheel rolled into
a
mudhole,
causing the plane to ground loop and
wreck
that
wheel and its landing gear vee.
So EK
telegraphed Aeromarine Klemm
at
Keyport,
New Jersey, for new parts. These were shipped
to
Dal
las, for some reason
involving
slow freight service
to
Sweetwater.
EK
hired a
truck
and driver, and
the
plane, with its wing folded (how many times had that
feature saved the day?), set out for Dallas. The driver
had brought along a good supply of tequila
and
drove
accordingly
on
this
nine-hour
trip.
EK
did not enjoy
it much.
Once
the
gear
had been
repaired,
he
flew
on
to
Oklahoma
City, St. Louis,
and
Chicago
more or
less
uneventfully. The rotating beacon at
Detroit's
Ford
Airport helped him find his way to that field and land
after dark. There it was discovered that the Mercedes
New York City and set
down on
the first piece of clear
land he
sighted. As luck
would
have it, it turned out
to
be Roosevelt Field
There
ensued
several days of receptions and a trip
to
Washington, D.C. On
November
IS, plane, pilot,
and cat
left America
aboard
the
steamer
Bremen for
Germany and
a
reunion with his
proud
but enor
mously relieved parents. He had
been
gone for 15 ad
venturous
months.
Baron von Koenig-Warthausen's world flight nearly
eight
decades ago gives us rich food for thought. To-
day's pilots will feel that he took unacceptable risks
with weather, terrain, and navigation. But it must be
acknowledged
that
his
only
serious
mishap
involved
a taxicab. He convincingly showed that
the
ability
to fly and land slowly can resolve assorted bad situa
tions. He showed what can be done by a patient flier
in a basic airplane.
The
sum
of aviation progress since his time, based
on preoccupation with getting from point A to pOint
B as swiftly as possible, has been
to
make private fly-
ing so complicated
and
expensive
that
it
is
becoming
out of reach for more and more people who
would
really love
to
fly.
EK
dealt
with
his plane's modest
speed by regarding it
as
being an observation platform
in
addition to
a conveyance. Remember, today many
people greatly enjoy viewing the sights below from
even slower hot air balloons. Man does
not
live by
bread alone."
By not
being a slave to a
tight
schedule,
he showed
that
a leisurely
journey
in
a small
plane
can add immensely to a person's "quali ty of life."
He
returned home with a head full
of
grand
memories
that remained with him throughout his long life.
His journey around the world gave him a postgrad
uate course in geography, the customs and cultures
of many
lands,
human nature,
politiCS, officialdom,
self-reliance, and practical aviation unobtainable
at
any
university.
The 500-
to
l,OOO-mile flights
he
made using mostly
a pocket compass and landmarks underscore the neg
ative and paternalistic mindset of bureaucrats who
feel that recreational pilots should not be allowed to
-
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BY RO ERT GLOCK
Part One: Maintenance
and
t
roubleshooting ignition
systems
First, let s review the entire igni
tion system
as
installed
on
a typical
seven-cylinder radial
engine. The
magnetos provide the spark; the
switch either grounds one or both
magnetos or opens
the
circuit
so
both magnetos operate via the pri
mary
(P)
leads. The harness carries
high-tension voltage
to
the spark
plugs, and the
ensuing arc
that
jumps the gap between the spark
plug s electrodes ignites
the
fuel/air
charge in the cylinder
combustion
chamber. Simple enough.
When
ev
erything works properly the engine
runs smoothly
and
produces rated
power. If one
component
causes a
problem, the
outcome
is anything
from an rpm drop
to
a
complete
loss of power. I ve had em all
Let s start with
the
magneto
and
cover
some problems
from
rough
running to not running at all. First
we ll look at timing of
the
magneto
to
the engine. The
manufacturer
specifies the full advanced firing
position
in
relation to crankshaft
the
right
magneto and 29 degrees
for the left magneto.
• I f
the magneto is
not
properly
timed
to the
engine, then the drop
will
be
excessive (greater than 75 rpm)
but the engine will run smoothly.
•
I f
the magneto has
a
shorted
lead or if a spark plug is fouled,
the
drop will be 150
rpm
and the en
gine will run roughly. In
this
case,
leave the
magneto switch
on the
roughly running magneto, even
though the engine
drop beyond the 75 maximum allow
able but
the
engine runs smoothly,
the
cause might be
the point
open
ing. The point gap should be checked
every 100
hours
of
operation.
To
check the pOint gap opening (Figure
I),
assure that the
magneto
switch
is in the OFF position and always
treat
the
propeller as
if
the magne
tos were HOT. Rotate the propeller
until the point cam follower is
on
the
highest part of
the
cam lobe. At
this
moment the points
should
be
opened to
the
maximum.
Insert a
feeler gauge
to
check for clearance.
It is normally 0.012-0.014 inch for a
Scintilla VMN magneto. If this clear
ance does
not
exist, carefully open
the points and check for
pitting
or
burning.
I f
the pOints are good, us
ing a small open-end wrench, loosen
jam
nut
A
and turn the points
at B until the
proper
clearance is
achieved. Hold
the
points at B with
a wrench and tighten jam nut A to a
snug torque. Rotate the propeller so
the magneto moves through four
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8/20/2019 Vintage Airplane - Sep 2008
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gap
on
a Bendix
SF magneto
. The
point
opening should be 0.010 inch
minimum,
0.012
inch
desired,
and
0.014
inch maximum
.
•
Closely
inspect
the
felt
wick
that
lubricates
the phenolic
plas
tic
point
cam follower
as
it rides on
the
hardened steel cam. Points that
slowly lose their gap opening can
be traced
to
non-lubrication of the
felt wick. Carefully
app
ly a
coup
le
of drops of oil
to
the wick
at
every
100-hour inspection to
keep
the
wick lubricated
and
pliable .
• Check
the
points for
burning
or
pitting. This
is
normally caused by
a
faulty
condenser assembly.
The
condenser keeps the
points from
arcing when
they
open, and exces
sive arcing will
eventually
destroy
the platinum surface by
creating
pits
and
valleys.
I f
this
happens,
both
the pOints and condenser
should be replaced.
• If
the
magneto suddenly fails to
operate, first check the connections
to the unit.
Occasionally
a P-lead
will
chafe
and cause a
ground,
so
the problem
is
not in the magneto,
but
in a wire
that
connects the mag
neto to
the
switch. (This commonly
occurs
as the
P-lead passes
through
the
firewall.) Or the switch
may
be
faulty
. I
have had both problems
on occasion, so it
is
worth
the
time
to inspect
the magneto
switch and
P-lead and associated connections.
I once advised
on
a 300-hp Lycom
ing R-680 installed
in
a Stinson
Re-
liant. The Lycoming
engine
uses a
dual magneto,
which is
essentially
two
magnetos incorporated
into a
send it out
for an
overhaul.
I
know
of
no mechanic who
will disassemble
a
magneto and try to
troubleshoot
it.
I
replace points and
condenser, but that
is
just about all.
f
the
magneto
drop
is around 150
rpm
and the en
gine runs roughly
,
the problem
is
most
likely a fouled spark
plug.
Conduct
a cold cylinder check
to
locate
the plug. As explained
above,
run the eng
i
ne
on
the
rough
magneto to isolate the plug. Remove
and
replace, or clean, gap, test,
and
reinstall. I usually keep a couple of
spare
good
spark plugs
in
the
bag
gage
compartment
with necessary
tools
to
remove
and
replace
them.
With
lOOLL
fuel, spark plug fouling
in these old engines
is
a continual
problem
. I'll
address that in
a fu
ture
column
on maintenance.
Figure 2
.
Once in
a great while a harness
lead
will
break down, causing an
indication of
a fouled
spark plug
.
You can
trace this by removing
the
cold plug and swapping it to the
other bank
of plugs. Run
the en
gine
and if
the problem moved to
the
other
magneto, the problem
is the plug.
I f
the problem stayed
with the
initial magneto,
the
prob
lem
is the lead.
Sometimes mois
ture
will
manifest itself in
the
terminal
end
(sometimes called
the
cigarette
end
of the lead) . Porce
rminal
sleeve
Figure 3
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8/20/2019 Vintage Airplane - Sep 2008
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Figure
average drop
in rpm
the plug not firing will
be cold. In
the
military
we used a grease
pen
cil
touched
to the ex
haust
pipe
to
check for
a cold cylinder. Another
easy method is to tape
a small
cloth
ball
to
a
pencil, drop the cloth in
water, and move to each
cylinder,
touching the
exhaust pipe
with
the
wet cloth.
If
it
is
hot
, it
will sizzle; if it is cold,
the moisture will remain on the
igure
orrect
Round wire
pipe for a short period
of time. The plug will be
so cool that you can grab
on
to it. You have just
found the
faulty plug
When
removing
a plug,
should
it
be dropped to
the floor it should be dis
carded, so be very care
ful.
At
the price of spark
plugs you
should
ex
ercise extreme caution.
Look into the firing end
of the plug (Figure
4
for
clearance
gauge traces of carbon or chem-
Figure 5
ical deposits that bridge
between the center elec
trode and the plug body;
you may be able to detect
a small carbon or chemi
Spark plug
I recall
him
saying that the spark
plugs were "frosted over." I main
tained
that since there was fire
cal deposit from
the
fuel
burn
bridging
the
gap.
If
this
is
the case, clean the
plug, check
the
gap,
and
reinstall
the plug. To equalize wear, the spark
plugs should be removed every 50
oil change. I use a special gapping
tool that can be purchased from
all suppliers. I slowly and carefully
bring the tangs to the correct gap,
making sure not to overshoot and
make the gap too narrow. Always
use a wire gauge
and
never
a flat
feeler
gauge
. Figure 5 shows the
correct
method
to reset
the
gap in
a spark plug.
.On
a trip east, the Continental
R-670-5
engine
began
to
have in
termittent rough operation. I tried
everything to determine what was
happening-carburetor
heat, power
changes, etc.,
but
the problem per
sisted . We made a precautionary
landing at a nearby airfield and dis
covered
that
the left magneto was
running roughly, with a large drop
in
rpm. I
installed
a
spare
mag
neto
and
we
went on
our way. I
later opened
the
bad magneto
and
discovered
the
rotor assembly was
broken in two,
thus causing
the
magneto to go in and out of timing
to the engine.
-
8/20/2019 Vintage Airplane - Sep 2008
29/44
Chalies
and
Sue Stites
Chapel Hill NC
1
wouldn't entrust my
49 Ryan
Navion to
just
any insurance
company. For the past seven years, I've been a very satisfied
customer
of
AUA and their
M
Vintage Program. AUA
understands what a classic means to an owner, and that care
shows in their rates and their customer service.
Charles
Stites
_
Charles
received
his
pilot s
certificate in 1980
_
Aviation
writer/photographer
for u s
and
European aviation
publications
_
Has owned Ryan Navion
N4891
K
for
over 10
years
_ Oshkosh award
winner
_
Executive Director of
Able
Flight
-
8/20/2019 Vintage Airplane - Sep 2008
30/44
Serial u b r 842, NC32412
his particular aircraft was
completed
on
Decem
ber 10, 1940,
at
the Por-
terfield factory in Kansas
City,
Missouri, and
en
tered
service on
December
22
at
the
Springfield
Flying Service
in
Springfield, Missouri. Almost cer-
tainly,
it
was
initially
used in
the
Civilian Pilot Training Program. In
1943 it was
turned
over
to
the
De-
fense Service Corporation, where it
BY
RANDALL
KRYSTOSEK
in 1976.
I t