JUNE 2011

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2 Straight & Level AirVenture 2011 by Geoff Robison

3 News

6 The Paulson-Poling-Teel Stinson Model 0 Okay, so a Model 0 doesnt exist... well just have to build one. by Budd Davisson

14 My Friend Frank Rezich Part IXAn Aviation Celebration for Frank by Robert G. Lock

18 Skimming Cornfi elds: The Joy of Old-Time Flying by Philip Handleman

20 Light Plane Heritage Read, But Dont Always Believe by Bob Whittier

24 Resurrection of an Alpine Stinson Stinson L-5 Sentinel restored in Switzerland by Stefan Degraef

28 The Vintage Mechanic VibrationsPart 3 by Robert G. Lock

32 The Vintage Instructor Flight reviewsPart I by Steve Krog, CFI

36 Mystery Plane by H.G. Frautschy

37 Classifi ed Ads

VINTAGE AIRPLANE 1

A I R P L A N E J U N EC O N T E N T S

S T A F FEAA Publisher Rod HightowerDirector of EAA Publications Mary JonesExecutive Director/Editor H.G. FrautschyProduction/Special Project Kathleen WitmanPhotography Jim KoepnickCopy Editor Colleen WalshSenior Art Director Olivia P. TrabboldEAA Chairman of the Board Tom Poberezny

Publication Advertising:Manager/Domestic, Sue AndersonTel: 920-426-6127 Email: sanderson@eaa.orgFax: 920-426-4828

Senior Business Relations Mgr, Trevor JanzTel: 920-426-6809 Email: tjanz@eaa.org

Manager/European-Asian, Willi TackePhone: +49(0)1716980871 Email: willi@fl ying-pages.comFax: +49(0)8841 / 496012

Interim Coordinator/Classifi ed, Alicia CanzianiTel: 920-426-6860 Email: classads@eaa.org

C O V E R S

Vol. 39, No. 6 2011

FRONT COVER: What possesses men to re-create airplanes from our aviation heritage? Im sure for each one its a different story, and for Mitch Poling, Jim Teel, and Jeff Paulson, the dream is solidifi ed in one of the largest civilian parasol monoplanes ever built, the Stinson Model O. Read all about it in Budd Davissons article beginning on page 6. EAA photo by Phil High.

BACK COVER: Roy Grinnells painting Lost in the Panhandle served as a memory jogger for our newest columnist, Philip Handleman. His fi rst of what will be quarterly installments ruminating on various aspects of vintage aviation starts on page 18. For more on Grinnells outstanding work, visit his website at www.roygrinnell.com. Painting reproduced courtesy of Roy Grinnell.

24

6

2 JUNE 2011

AirVenture 2011 is coming up fast. June is here, and its time to start your preparations to partici-pate in The Worlds Greatest Avia-tion Celebration.

Remember, you can now pur-chase your tickets and camping cre-dentials for Camp Scholler online at www.AirVenture.org.

The AirVenture website is also chock-full of information that will provide you with guidance on where to stay, camping fees, fl ying to Oshkosh (and a link to down-load the arrival and departure NO-TAM), and all of the special events planned for this years fly-in con-vention. The opening day concert will feature the band REO Speed-wagon, and the Lt. Dan Band with Gary Sinise will appear during the Salute to Veterans Day on Friday evening. You can also see Aaron Tippin in concert at the Theater in the Woods Saturday evening. And after all that fun, you have to be on the fl ightline Saturday night for the night air show. EAA has an unbe-lievable night air show planned for this years event, with even more fi reworks and amazing night fl ying. Be there and Feel the Heat!

This year is the 75th anniversary of the Lockheed 12. When was the last time you saw six or seven Lockheed 12s all parked together? Thats the plan we have; what a sight to behold!

2011 is also the 100th birth-day of the U.S. Airmail service, and EAA, in cooperation with the Vintage Aircraft Association, has carefully planned a unique tribute to commemorate this important anniversary, including an air-mail station building right on the

fl ightline and the display of EAAs newly completed Blriot mono-plane reproduction.

R.A. Bob Hoover will also be in attendance, and EAA has planned a very special celebration of The Life of Bob Hooverwar hero and legendary pilot. There will also be a special tribute to Burt Rutan, an aviation icon. The Commem-orative Air Forces legendary B-29 bomber is scheduled to attend and be on display on the main show ramp, and you can always catcha ride on EAAs B-17 or Ford Tri-Motor any day of the event. The media releases are still going out on all of the attractions planned for this year, so be sure and browse the AirVenture website regularly.

Site preparations continue in the Vintage area. The grounds are fi-nally drying out enough to allow the turf rollers to begin their work. I spent the entire fi rst week of May in Oshkosh, and things around here are really beginning to take shape. The VAA maintenance crew has now completed nearly all of its 2011 planned projects, so you will see some wonderful improvements.

Having recently attended the VAA spring board meeting, along with the EAA board sessions, and the various other committee meet-ings that are scheduled during that week, I am now headed out to the West Coast to catch up with the B-17 Tour. I found the meetings both informative and productive. I am particularly pleased to report to you that your VAA division is in a sound fi nancial position. We con-tinue to experience strong fi nancial support among our core supporters

of the Red Barn Fund. This fund, as many of you are aware, is a re-stricted fund that is only expended on the many initiatives that VAA brings to AirVenture each year. Without these critical dollars avail-able, we would not be in a position to continue at the level of initia-tives we fund today in the Vin-tage area during AirVenture. Many thanks to everyone who has sup-ported the Red Barn Fund.

Id also like to invite you to be-come a volunteer in the Vintage area. There are myriad volunteer jobs available to the hundreds of volunteers who arrive at the event each year. For example, you can be a crossing guard on a taxiway, you can ride a scooter and park aircraft in the VAA area, you can assist us with aircraft fl ow control on the taxiway, or you can even help us cook break-fast for the hundreds of attendees in our Tall Pines Cafs kitchen.

We go to great lengths every year to host our valued volunteers by providing a number of special ame-nities to make their efforts as enjoy-able as possible. Our VAA volunteer party is a must-attend event, avail-able only to those who dedicate their valuable time during AirVen-ture to the Vintage Aircraft Associa-tion. Remember, we cannot have a successful event without our volun-teer group. Come join us and feel the full benefi t of your visit to Air-Venture 2011. We guarantee you will enjoy your experience with us. I hope to see you there July 25 through July 31, 2011!

GEOFF ROBISONPRESIDENT, VINTAGE AIRCRAFT ASSOCIATION

STRAIGHT & LEVEL

AirVenture 2011!

VAA NEWS

AirVenture 2011With just more than a month to

go before the summertime celebra-tion of flight that is EAA AirVen-ture Oshkosh, we have a few items wed like to share with you as you prepare to make your journey to Wittman Field. Well have more in the July issue of Vintage Airplane. Theres even more to come in our online newsletter, Vintage Aircraft Online. Subscribe to it by clicking on the Subscribe button at the top of the web page at www.EAA.org/vintageaircraft.

Type Club InformationType club representatives who

wish to have a presence at a table in the Vintage Hangar during Air-Venture 2011 should already have been in contact with VAA Director Steve Krog, the type club hangar chairman, at sskrog@gmail.com. If youve not made your table reser-vation, please be certain to contact him as soon as possible.

A number of type clubs have chosen to combine their annual AirVenture dinner with the VAA Picnic dinner held in the EAA Na-ture Center. Tickets go fast once the convention begins, so if your club would like to have its group get-together as part of the VAA Pic-nic on the Wednesday night of AirVenture, contact VAA Director Jeannie Hill at 815-245-4464. Tick-ets are to be purchased at the VAA Red Barn prior to the event.

VAA Awards CeremonyLike last years inaugural event,

the VAA aircraft awards ceremony will take place in the Vintage Hangar, just south of the VAA Red Barn. The ceremony, which will take place after the daily air show, starting at 6:00 p.m. on Saturday, promises to be a great evening for winners and attendees alike. Af-ter the ceremony, well host a re-ception for all attendees and the winners in the Vintage Hangar with soft drinks and snacks. Plan on being there to cheer on your friends and enjoy some vintage camaraderie before we all head home the next day.

Superfl ite to SponsorAircraft-CoveringPresentations in Vintage Area

Superfl ite, manufacturer and de-veloper of paint systems for fab-ric-covered aircraft, will sponsor aircraft-covering workshops at EAA AirVenture Oshkosh 2011.

Aircraft-covering demonstra-tions presented by Superflite are part of the daily workshops offered by industry experts who help at-tendees learn and build their own skills through hands-on, step-by-step lessons. These demonstrations will be held in a special workshop

VINTAGE AIRPLANE 3

VAA Judging CategoriesMost of you reading this issue of Vintage Airplane have been mem-

bers of the VAA for quite a while. But for those of you who are not yet VAA members and are planning on bringing an airplane to be judged during EAA AirVenture, youre strongly encouraged to join the division. Why? VAA volunteers spend hundreds of hours parking aircraft, judging them, and making the VAA area the best it can be. VAA also covers the majority of the cost of the actual awards, so wed appreciate it if youd show your support for the volunteers efforts and VAA by becoming a VAA member. So its one less thing to deal with upon your arrival, give us a call at 800-843-3612 or join online at www.VintageAircraft.org. Dues are only $36 per year if youre already an EAA member!

Each year we receive inquires regarding the effective years for VAAs judging categories. Here they are:

ANTIQUE An aircraft constructed by the original manufacturer, or its licensee,

on or before August 31, 1945, with the exception of certain pre-World War II aircraft models that had only a small postwar production. Exam-ples: Beechcraft Staggerwing, Fairchild 24, and Monocoupe.

CLASSIC An aircraft constructed by the original manufacturer, or its licensee,

on or after September 1, 1945, up to and including December 31, 1955.

CONTEMPORARYAn aircraft constructed by the original manufacturer, or its licensee,

on or after January 1, 1956, up to and including December 31, 1970.

4 JUNE 2011

tent located just north of the Vin-tage Hangar near the VAA Red Barn Headquarters.

Superflite has been commit-ted to the aviation community for over 60 years, and its commit-ment to EAA AirVenture will en-hance the experience of everyone who participates in these fun, in-formative workshops, said Jeff Kaufman, EAAs director of busi-ness development.

Were happy to host our friends from Superfl ite in the Vintage air-craft area, and we invite anyone interested in the fabric-covering process to stop by its tent and learn more about aircraft covering and finishing, adds H.G. Frautschy, VAAs executive director.

Since 1949, Superflite has pro-vided fabric-covering and finish-ing materials for a large number of experimental and certificated air-craftcontinuing to manufacture the traditional butyrate dope in addition to a state-of-the-art ure-

thane system. Superflites System VI urethane topcoats have become extremely popular due to their easy application and high-gloss fi nish.

More information is available at www.Superfl ite.com.

Required Equipment: EAA AirVenture NOTAM

If youre planning to fly in to Oshkosh next month, its impera-

tive that you obtain a copy of the FAAs 2011 AirVenture Notice to Airmen (NOTAM), which contains arrival and departure procedures for the 59th annual fl y-in conven-tion. These procedures are in ef-fect from Friday, July 22, through Monday, August 1one day earlier than previous years. (The event is July 25-July 31.)

While the overall procedures are s imilar to past years , you should always review each years NOTAM and be familiar with the procedures so you dont have to fumble around in the cockpit as you head down the railroad tracks from Fisk! You can download a PDF version at www.AirVenture.org/flying/2011_NOTAM.pdf , or call EAA Membership Services at 800-564-6322 and a printed book-let will be mailed to you, free of charge. (You can also order a booklet at https://Secure.EAA.org/airventure/notam_request.html.)

Additional hints and tips for pilots arriving at and departing from EAA AirVenture 2011 are also available online at www.AirVenture.org/fl ying.

Dont Forget Your EAA Pass-port This Summer

The EAA Museum Passport Pro-gram, in partnership with the As-sociation of Science-Technology Museums (ASTC), was launched last year and has been renewed for the summer travel months until Octo-ber 31, 2011. This fabulous member benefi t provides free admission to more than 300 participating muse-ums around the world.

To use this benefit, you need to display the ASTC logo on the back of your membership card; current EAA membership cards have the logo conveniently printed on the back.

Your EAA Passport will grant free admission to you and your immediate family into most participating muse-ums on the listas long as it is more than 90 miles from your home. (Ad-ditional restrictions apply in Wiscon-sin.) See the complete list at www.EAA.org/passport for the exact policy the museum of interest enforces.

VAA Friends of the Red BarnName______________________________________________________________________EAA #___________ VAA #___________Address______________________________________________________________________________________________________City/State/ZIP________________________________________________________________________________________________Phone___________________________________________________E-Mail______________________________________________Please choose your level of participation: Payment enclosed (Make checks payable to Vintage Aircraft Assoc.)

Please charge my credit card (below)Credit Card Number _____________________________ Expiration Date _________Signature_________________________________________

*Do you or your spouse work for a matching-gift company? If so, this gift may qualify for a matching donation. Please ask your human resources department for the appropriate form.Name of Company __________________________________________________________________The Vintage Aircraft Association is a non-profi t educational organization under IRS 501c3 rules. Under Federal Law, the deduction from Federal Income tax for charitable contributions is limited to the amount by which any money (and the value of any property other than money) contributed exceeds the value of the goods or services provided in exchange for the contribution. An appropriate receipt acknowledging your gift will be sent to you for IRS gift reporting reasons.

Mail your contribution to:VAA FORB

PO Box 3086OSHKOSH, WI 54903-3086

____ Diamond Plus $1,250.00 ____ Diamond Level Gift - $1,000.00 ____ Platinum Level Gift - $750.00 ____ Gold Level Gift - $500.00

____ Silver Level Gift - $250.00 ____ Bronze Level Gift - $100.00 ____ Loyal Supporter Gift - ($99.00 or under) ____ Your Support $_______

Diamond Plus$1250

Diamond$1000

Platinum$750

Gold$500

Silver$250

Bronze$100

Loyal Supporter$99 & Under

EAA VIP Center 2 people/Full Week

VIP Air Show Seating 2 people/2 Days2 people/1

Day

Close Auto Parking Full Week Full Week 2 Days

Two Tickets to VAA Picnic Tri-Motor Certi cate 2 Tickets 2 Tickets 2 Tickets 1 Ticket

Breakfast at Tall Pines Caf 2 PeopleFull Wk2 PeopleFull Wk

2 PeopleFull Wk

1 PersonFull Wk

Special FORB Cap Two Passes to VAA Volunteer Party Special FORB Badge Access to Volunteer Center Donor Appreciation Certi cate Name Listed: Vintage Airplane Magazine, Website, and Sign at Red Barn

VINTAGE AIRPLANE 5

Dont wait for a mailing from VAA HQ before you send in your contributionto keep our administration costs as low as possible, were not sending out a mailingto each VAA member. Please send your donation today, while its fresh in your mind!

Please help the VAA and our nearly 500 dedicated volunteers make this an unforgettable experience for our EAA AirVenture guests. Your contribution does make a dif ference. There are seven levels of gifts and gift recognition. Thank you for whatever you can do.Here are some of the many activities the Friends of the Red Barn fund underwrites:

Red Barn Information Desk Supplies Flightline Parking Scooters and Supplies Breakfast for Past Grand ChampionsParticipant Plaques and Supplies Volunteer Booth Administrative Supplies Signs Throughout the Vintage AreaTonis Red Carpet Express Van and Radios Red Barn and Other Building Maintenance And More!Caps for VAA Volunteers Tall Pines Caf Dining Tent

2011 VAA Friends of the Red Barn Campaign2011 VAA Friends of the Red Barn CampaignThe VAA annual fundraising campaign fuels VAA action

6 JUNE 2011

The Paulson-Poling-Teel

Stinson Model O

Okay, so a Model O doesnt exist . . .well just have to build one.

BY BUDD DAVISSON

VINTAGE AIRPLANE 7

After presenting

the plan to Jim

over lunch, he said,

Lets do it! Just

two things: One,

you take care of

all the paperwork,

and two, it has

to be red.

PHIL HIGH

8 JUNE 2011

Weve all heard the clich that aviation isnt a pursuit or an avo-cation, but a disease. However, we should never lose sight of the fact that a clich is a clich because its built around a truth that is so per-vasive that none of us can escape it. If you dont believe it, ask Brad Poling and Jim Teel of Sacramento, California. Theyll be happy to ex-plain how once the infection sets in, theres no logical way of stop-ping it. Theres no such thing as an

airplane-specifi c antibiotic. Brad says, Ive been nuts about

airplanes since 1947 and have been part of the EAA homebuilding scene since 1978. I was building my Westfall Staggerwing in 1999 when the O escapade began. Like every-one else, Im constantly looking for neat projects to build, even though I know Ill probably never build any of them. Then I saw an advertise-ment for a quarter-scale RC model of the Model O Stinson. I didnt

even know such a beast existed, but man, I really liked the cut of its jib, so I bought the plans. That turned out to be the most costly set of plans for a model airplane that anyone has ever bought!

Models have been the pipeline through which many a home-builder came into aviation, but for Brad, seeing that simple advertise-ment pointed him in a direction he hadnt foreseen.

Brad says, I really got hooked on the Model O, and the more I looked, the more compulsive I be-came. Here was an absolutely gor-geous airplane out of aviations golden age, and Id only vaguely heard of it. So I began researching it every way I could. I found that in 1933, Lowell Yerex was under contract from the Honduran gov-ernment to buy training aircraft for the soon-to-be formed Honduran air force. He came to Eddie Stin-son and laid out his requirements. Stinson told Lowell to come back in 90 days and they would have a prototype aircraft flying for him. Bob Hall (of Gee Bee racer fame) de-signed the new fuselage and modi-fied existing SR-5 parts that were in inventory to come up with the

Jim Teel, Brad Poling and Jeff Paulson pause for a few moments under the parasol wing of the Stinson Model O.

PHIL HIGH

FREDERICK A. JOHNSEN

prototype in 90 days. The fi rst three production Model Os were pur-chased by Honduras.

It was soloed from the front, not the back, so the back seat could be used for a variety of training missions, from instru-ment training under a hood to gunnery and bombing. They ac-tually had it set up to mount a fl exible machine gun back there,

should a customer want it.An instrument hood was added

by Joe Prosser Aviation (in 1936 in Long Beach, California) after Prosser purchased the prototype aircraft, NC13817, from Stinson. The airplane was in Long Beach un-til December 7, 1941. It was then sold to a fl ight school at Love Field in Texas because all civilian A/C were grounded on the West Coast.

VINTAGE AIRPLANE 9

PHIL

HIG

H P

HO

TOS

On the right side of the panel, the small storage capability of the glove box was given up to provide a tidy spot for the transponder, comm ra-dio, ELT control panel, and the Os circuit breakers.

The structurally beefy and complex landing gear has a series of alumi-num fairings for the wing struts and bracing wires, master fully created by Rob Wagner for Evergreen Avia-tion Services and Restorations.

The front cockpit of the O was done with great attention to the 1930s-era style of construction. Each of the instruments was carefully chosen so the airplane would maintain its outstanding replica feel both inside and out.

Each of the engine instruments is attached to this neatly executed mani-fold on the fi rewall. Period brass fi ttings with copper piping was used rather than the newer AN hardware.

10 JUNE 2011

During its life, the O was owned by only three fi rms: Lycoming Motors, Prosser Aviation, and the Love Field Flight School. About a month be-fore the fi rst fl ight of our airplane, I obtained the complete FAA fi le on Stinson NC13817 from first flight sign-off to last record in 1944.

We keep hearing someone saw the prototype in such and such a place, but nothing has ever come of those stories. The FAA had no con-struction information like plans, but every so often Id stumble into a photograph or two and that kept me fi red up and searching. It went like this for about fi ve years.

Finally Brad decided to do some-thing about it, and that meant reaching out and infecting another unsuspecting soul with Model O disease. Brad knew exactly who would be a perfect host for that dis-

ease: his airport buddy, Jim Teel.In 2002, after the Westfall was

completed and flying, I went to work in earnest on the O project, Brad says. In July 2007, after I had pulled most all of the information on the O together and located an SR-5 project, I called Jim. After pre-senting the plan to Jim over lunch, he said, Lets do it! Just two things: One, you take care of all the paper-work, and two, it has to be red. The deal was, and is to this day, sealed with a handshake. Jim is not one to waste words or time.

The two of them knew they were about to take off on a grand adventure, but grand adventure or not, it didnt take too many more conversations before they realized that they needed another partner, one who was more adept than they were at projects of this size. Brad

had his baby Westfall biplane and Jim his EAA bipe, both of which would be dwarfed by the big Stin-son. So they began looking around for another avaholic who had good hands, had experience building big airplanes, and would be easily convinced. They found him in the person of Jeff Paulson at Evergreen Aviation Services and Restorations in Scappoose, Oregon.

Jeff explains his involvement this way: Im a sucker for unique old airplanes, and by that time, Id re-stored a bunch of antiques for cus-tomers and had a long background building and modifying Pitts. All of that eventually morphed into co-owning a flight service operation that also builds and rebuilds air-planes. I really love round-motored airplanes. Especially unusual ones, so when Brad and Jim showed up

ALLE

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OTO

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IGH

Flight instructor Joe Plossers Stinson Model O in Glendale, California, while it was being used for under the hood training in the Civilian Pilot Training program in 1939. Even then, it was the only one of its kind!

This airplane is big! No dinky little parasol monoplane with a 125-hp en-gine, the Model O is a big as a Stinson SR series cabin monoplane. (Those are SR-5 wings, after all).

The 300-hp Lycoming, the same one used in the big Stinson SR-5, hauls the 3,500-pound airplane through the skies with a 120-mph cruise speed.

VINTAGE AIRPLANE 11

with this harebrained scheme to build a Stinson no one had ever heard of and asked me if I would like to be a partner in the project, how could I refuse? Such a deal!

Brad estimates they had a cou-ple dozen photos of the airplane, including a few while it was un-der construction, which proved invaluable in solving certain inter-nal structural arrangements. Plus, we cant forget the original model airplane that got this whole thing started. It made a lot of informa-tional contributions.

When we really got serious about building it, Jeff remembers, we quickly realized that, when Stinson designed the airplane, they did what many aircraft compa-nies of the times had done: They borrowed components from their other airplanes and recombined

them in different ways. Where Waco for instance made a four-place, the QDC, out of their F-2 by just adding a wide fuselage, Stin-son in essence made a two-place trainer out of their four-place SR-5. This is especially obvious when you look at the Model O and the SR-5 in plain view.

Jeff says, Brad had already found an SR-5 project that had been stalled for years and included a 300-hp, overhauled R-680 Ly-coming, which was the exact engine we needed. From the begin-ning, we wanted to use the donor airplane more as a source of dimen-sional and structural information than parts, although we would be using the wings and part of the tail. Everything else was just used as pat-terns. We were as sensitive as possi-ble to the rare nature of the project

airplane parts and didnt want to use anymore than absolutely neces-sary. We still have a bare fuselage and lots of parts should anyone need them.

One of the most valuable pho-tos Brad had discovered, Jeff says, was a view of the fuselage uncovered. It was a poor-quality, grainy photo, but it gave us a tre-mendous amount of information about structural layout, fittings, and seats. We had that digitized on CAD [computer-aided design]. Since we had the dimension be-tween the landing gear mounts from the SR and the two airplanes shared the same gear, it automati-cally gave us the rest of the dimen-sions for the fuselage frame.

We then looked at the SR-5 that had a similar layout in terms of lengths, etc., and used that as

PHIL HIGH

12 JUNE 2011

a guide to the size of tubing to be used in the different locations. Plus, we used 4130 rather than the original 1025, so we picked up a lot of strength there.

The landing gear was almost totally reverse-engineered around the SR-5 gear. Its mounted out on a healthy tubing stub that protrudes from the fu-selage, providing a pivot point.

With the exception of Stearman control stick yokes, the control sys-tem is completely scratchbuilt. The control stick, for instance, is lami-nated spruce and mahogany with a conduit for PTT wiring running down the middle. We steam-bent it to the confi guration we wanted, then laminated and shaped it by hand. We really like the way it came out.

Brad and Jim came to Jeff with images of the original Model O burned in their brains. They wanted it to look as antique as possible but still be a fun airplane to fly. That meant it had to have just enough of the modern conveniences to make fl ying cross-country easy, but they definitely didnt want that to de-tract from the airplanes look, some-thing that Jeff totally agreed with.

The airplane is flown from the front, Jeff says, which is a little un-usual for a tandem airplane of this vintage, and we tried everything we could to hide radios and other mod-ern stuff. We believe the original air-planes had a glove box up front, so we built that into this one and used

it as a place to hide the radios and circuit breakers. The antennas are all behind the backseat with the GPS in the rear turtledeck under the fabric. We cant detect any loss of signal for any of them.

Brad says, Besides being a good-looking airplane, it has some inter-esting features, one of which is the crank in the front seat that folks sometimes ask about. It runs a screw jack thats just behind the firewall and is attached toand Im not kid-ding when I say thisthe oil cooler. It is retractable! The crank lets the pilot run the radiator out into the wind to cool the engine off or bring it back in. I dont think Ive ever seen anything similar.

All three of us agreed that there could be no modern instruments in either panel. That would ruin the look. Jeff, of course, knew what rocks to look under and came up with all Pioneer or U.S. Gauge instruments that we sent off to Instrument Pro in Hayward, California, for rebuild. Were really pleased with the look.

Try as we may, we couldnt fi nd a photo of the throttle and couldnt find one that we thought had the right look, so we just designed and built one that we thought looked like it was from the period.

When it came time to hang the supposedly overhauled engine, things unfortunately went south in a hurry.

Jeff says, We were told the en-gine was overhauled, but as soon as

I inspected it, I found some cracked cylinders. After talking to Brad and Jim, it was decided to send it out for a teardown and inspection. We sent it to Radial Engines Inc. in Tulsa, Oklahoma. When they tore it down, they found the rings were not only automotive rings, but they were on upside down. The valves had been rusty, and someone just took a wire brush to them. They were awful. When they broke the engine down they found that even the crankshaft was bad. The entire engine was junk! Garbage! So we bit the bullet and had them do a complete overhaul. And they built us a terrific engine and have given us outstanding support. We just couldnt ask for a better-run-ning engine.

We didnt build the entire cowl, but started off with one from a UC-78 Bamboo Bomber purchased from Radial Engines Inc. Being designed for a Jacobs, it was just a little too small, but the cowl bumps took care of that. On the original airplane, the cowling was basically one piece and didnt give good access to the engine, so we built piano hinges into the top so the sides can be opened.

At the other end we used the SR-5 tail and subtly reshaped the outlines. It trims via an SR-9 screw jack on the front spar, which is operated by cable and pulley from the cockpit. It works extremely well.

The fuselage was an entirely scratchbuilt puzzle with lots of en-

Unlike most tandem open-cockpit airplanes, the Stinson Model O is fl own solo from the

front seat, with the center section having a deep V section to provide easier access to

the front cockpit.

PHIL HIGH

VINTAGE AIRPLANE 13

gineering and head scratching. The wings, modified SR-5 panels, prom-ised to be much easier because they had something to start with. However, building a center section to attach those wings to was another puzzle.

Jeff says, We had a good photo of the center section, and without that, we wouldnt have come even close because its so much different than most center sections. For one thing, it has no fuel tank in it. Those are out in the wing panels and hold 35 gal-lons each. They couldnt be in the center section because it is a jungle gym of steel tubing. The main carry-through is a piece of tubing the size of your wrist. Two and three-quarter inches to be exact. And its 0.058! It looks like gas pipe. The curved cockpit clearance cut in the back of it goes so far forward that the trail-ing edge that is in the middle of it is over a foot forward of the rear spar. The trailing edge, that is usually a laminated wood structure, is a piece of half-inch steel and two healthy pieces of tubing cut across the whole thing, corner to corner. Then every-thing is hidden within built-up truss ribs made of 5/16 steel tubing. No way we would have arrived at that without the photo!

The SR-5 wing panels were totally disassembled because they needed complete rebuilding. Then they were shortened 2 feet and the flaps re-moved and the struts moved inboard by 19 inches. In the process they tried to stay as true to the photos as possi-ble while also using 1930s techniques.

Jeff says, In the photos its obvi-ous that all the cables and fuel lines run through the struts. This is one of the things that makes the airplane look so clean, but at the same time added a whole other level of com-plexity. At the same time, however, we used copper line and built up fittings from brass and sheet, silver soldering them together. It was a lot more work, but using the normal aluminum fuel line and AN fi ttings would have looked out of place.

This is also why there is no fi-berglass used anywhere on the airplane. We wanted to keep it as

authentic as possible, so the wheel-pants are original aluminum units and all the complex fairings were formed in aluminum.

We covered the airplane using the Air-Tech system, which worked well. Then it was time for paint.

Jim says, When we caucused on the paint, we decided to go with the original scheme. I liked red, and ev-eryone went along with that. We used claret red. Jeff didnt like using pure white, so we went with manila beige and he talked us out of using a third color. Looking back at it, he was absolutely right.

We wanted to use the original N number, Brad says, but it was al-ready on an airplane. But the owner said hed give us the number. He only had one condition: We had to buy his airplane. So we applied for 13817, which was only one digit off from the original. That came back as being reserved by the FAA for use on their own airplanes. However, it took only one letter from us, explaining our sit-uation, and they gladly gave it to us.

As of this writing, the trio and their anachronistic creation have logged more than 150 hours, includ-ing flights to Oshkosh and up and down the West Coast to numerous fl y-ins. Of course, the big question is, How does it fl y?

Jeff says, It is a very stable air-plane but heavy on the controls. The elevator trim is essential, but it does trim out really nice. Front seat vis-ibility is limited even in level fl ight because of the center section. When fl ying in formation for photo fl ights, I have to be the lead aircraft because most of the time I cant see the photo plane. On flights like that, I take a back seat pilot as an observer.

The airplane will cruise at over 100 knots. For landing I fly the ap-proach at 80 mph and come over the fence at 70. In the flare, the speed bleeds off in a hurry and it stalls at about 50 mph. Like most airplanes of the time, when you pull the power back, you are going down immedi-ately. I fly pattern altitude until fi-nal, then slip to get the nose out of the way. I have no problem getting it

down close to the threshold. In gen-eral, its really a lot of fun to fl y.

With the project finished, Brad says, I would like to thank my old friend, the late Jack Cox, for his ad-vice and encouragement that helped start this project and kept it moving forward. Thanks to Bob and Brent Taylor of the Antique Aircraft Asso-ciation for their networking help. My thanks also to Remo Galeazzi, Jim Smith, George Attman, Rex Hume, and the Sac. exec of the DGA group for sharing their aviation history and restoration skills with us.

Over the past 25 years I have scratchbuilt two experimental air-craft. A Keleher Lark and a Westfall Staggerwing biplane. Serial number 2. The O was my fi rst foray into the vintage world. I knew from the be-ginning that I was way out of my el-ement, but I thought I could pull it off if I took the time to research the aircraft, develop a game plan, and fi nd the right people to pull together and make it work. Thankfully, for once in my baby life, I got it right on all three counts. The O has been a very satisfying and fun experience. I was particularly gratifi ed at Oshkosh this year by the number of serious vintage restorers who thanked us for re-creating the beautiful O. Our O is, after all, not a restoration. To re-ceive compliments from top-flight aircraft restorers was, I felt, an honor in itself. Jim and I look forward to a few more years of O flight. When the time comes for us to turn in our wings, we plan to donate the O to some worthy museum. Hopefully one that will keep it fl ying.

Jims final comment: I have to give credit where credit is due. This project was Brads dream from the be-ginning. He had already done all the research required when he offered me the opportunity to participate. And, I have to say that Brad and Jeff did most of the work ,and I get to fl y the plane. What a great partnership!

So, three minds come together, each bringing its own different skills and goals, and an aviation icon from another era is the result. A great part-nership, indeed!

14 JUNE 2011

T o continue this biography of my friend and older brother Frank (we have decided that Frank should be my older brother and I should be his younger brotherits a long story), an update is necessary. On April 2, 2011, Frank celebrated his 88th birthday and received the Wright Brothers Master Pilot Award. Surrounded by 70 of his friends and admirers, Frank now has both the Charles Taylor Mas-ter Mechanic and Wright Brothers Master Pilot awards from the FAA, and in my humble opinion there is no person more deserving than my good friend Frank Rezich.

As Franks daughter, Kathy, searched the files for early avia-tion history of Frank, she located the military separation record from

when Frank was discharged from the Army Air Corps at the conclu-sion of World War II. Its fascinat-ing to note all the achievements that occurred during Franks service from April 11, 1944, to December 21, 1945.. What he did in this time period is amazing. On the second page of the document you can also see that Frank was awarded the Dis-tinguished Flying Cross and the Air Medal with two clusters. He partici-pated in every theater of operation of the warPacifi c, American, and European. A proud member of the greatest generation is Frank Rezich.

Although all of Franks original pilot logbooks have been lost (par-ticularly upsetting is the fact that his fi rst log showing his offi cial solo fl ight is nowhere to be found), the FAA maintains a paperwork fi le on

all airmen in Oklahoma City. Us-ing this file (the FAA calls it the Blue Ribbon File), Franks pilot paperwork was recorded, except for his original student certificate dated November 8, 1943. Fortu-nately, Kathy found the original certifi cate, thought to be long lost. Working with FAA Safety Team (FAAST) member Fred Kaiser, who is based in Lakeland, Florida, there was enough paperwork in the Blue Ribbon File to qualify Frank for the award. With FAA approval in hand,

My FriendFrank Rezich

Part IXAn Aviation Celebration for FrankBY ROBERT G. LOCK

PHOTOS COURTESY OF REZICH FAMILY COLLECTION

Above: Frank and Kathy share a moment together at the conclu-sion of Franks celebration of fl ight. Frank is proudly holding the VAAs plaque presented on behalf of the Vintage Aircraft Association and created by the VAA staff.

VINTAGE AIRPLANE 15

Frank gives his thanks to all those who attended from near and far. A master craftsman and aviator is Frank.

Frank and your humble author together displaying both Wright Brothers Master Pilot and Charles Taylor Master Mechanic award plaques. The many years of experience in the aviation industry have been good to us, but I am no match when compared to Frank. Like the Frank Sinatra song says, I Did It My Way.

Above, the tattered remains of Franks original student pilot certifi cate found by daughter Kathy in a box in Franks offi ce, showing a solo date of January 19, 1944, when he fl ew a Piper J-2 Cub, thus the endorsement of from 0-80 hp. After the war ended brother Nick endorsed Frank for 0-450 hp.

16 JUNE 2011

it was time to organize a long over-due celebration for Frank.

Even though Franks health is not as good as in the past, he and Kathy decided to make the long

trip from San Miguel, California, to Flanders Field, near Lakeland, Florida, during the Sun n Fun fl y-in. Arriving on March 30 after an all-night fl ight, Frank was ready for action. However, heavy rains and tornado warnings were present and caused considerable damage at the air show, but it did not dampen the

pending celebration, scheduled for Saturday, April 2.

The rain (10 inches over four days) made the runway soggy, and the several airplanes scheduled to

attend could not get in, except for Paul Fuller and his Great Lakes Special. As friends as-sembled, the program started at 5:30 p.m., emceed by my good friend and former FAA official Ben Coleman, who provided information about the Master Pilot award, fol-lowed by a flight biography presented by me, detailing Franks career as both a pi-lot and mechanic. Those in attendance included Franks nephew, Jim Rezich (Nicks son), and his two sons, Nick and Bug. Many other special

guests came to wish Frank well.Frank is now the proud holder

of both the Charles Taylor Mas-ter Mechanic and Wright Broth-ers Master Pilot awards given by the FAA signifying at least 50 years of faithful service to the aviation community. Additionally, a spe-cial award was presented to Frank

from the Vintage Aircraft Associa-tion and signed by H.G. Frautschy proclaiming Frank as a National Aviation Treasure.

An outstanding buffet of food was prepared by Sandy Lock, Lu-cinda Schwenker, and Sharon Lust. A special birthday cake was the final presentation with the tradi-tional toast provided by me: May the icing on your birthday cake never cave in from the weight of the candles! Plenty of food and re-freshments were provided to guests, and the party went on until well af-ter dark, with Frank holding court just like the old days, telling stories of his days at Howard Aircraft when he set up the assembly line for mil-itary-contract Howard DGAs at age 19, an amazing achievement.

Editors Note: Frank and Kathy had a marvelous time during the celebration, and he continues to en-joy a strong recovery from his recent illness. So for now, this article will conclude the ongoing saga of Frank Rezich, master mechanic and avia-tor, and truly a National Aviation Treasure.H.G. Frautschy

The center of attention is Frank Rezich, weaving tales of welding stainless steel honeycomb panels on the North American XB-70 or pressure testing the cockpit structure.

On April 2, 2011, Frankcelebrated his 88th birthday and received the Wright Brothers Master Pilot Award.

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18 JUNE 2011

ne o f my favor i t e aviation paintings depicts a lone Curtiss JN-4 Jenny nestled forlornly on the ram-bling prairie land that

defines the Texas Panhandle. The scene is of a fl ier lost amid the mo-notonous landscape, accented only by a gaunt windmill in the distance and the dust cloud of a cattle drive on the horizon. You can tell that the biplane is a barnstormers ship,

for she is decked out in a purposely garish color scheme that sports the markings of a fl ying circus.

In the background, an itinerant mechanic fetches water from an ad-vantageously located well to abate an overheating radiator. Mean-while, a cowpoke, adorned in sus-penders, bandana, and chaps, has dismounted in the middle of the herding operation to pore over out-spread maps with the pilot, himself an icon of occupational fashion,

clad in leather jacket, matching tall boots, and jodhpurs.

Close to the shadow of a droop-ing aileron, a couple of wranglers remain comfortably ensconced in their saddles, debating between themselves the appropriate direc-tion of flight for their newfound visitors. The horses show stoic de-tachment from their masters ban-ter about the route the air travelers should take. One of the men points boldly into the great out-yonder

Skimming Cornfi elds:The Joy of Old-Time Flying

BY PHILIP HANDLEMAN

nadJfb

O

VINTAGE AIRPLANE 19

as if he knows the right course for the pilot to get back on track to make his scheduled air show per-formance on time.

When I first laid eyes on this masterful oil-on-canvas in the late 1980s, I might have perceived it simply as a fine piece of work, a lovely portrayal of aeronautical life in the early golden age of flight, and nothing else. But when I saw Roy Grinnells fittingly titled Lost in the Panhandle, it had a mirror ef-fect; in its understated gritty maj-esty there was my biplane with me at the controls on the way to a fl y-ing event, enduring impediments that were assuaged by strangers, the good people of the land. Indeed, Im sure there are many pilots who would see themselves reflected in the image, for who is so adroit as

to never have had doubt about his position, or who is so equipped to have escaped dependence on oth-ers during a cross-country trek?

Indubitably, the artist could just as well have captured my similarly fortuitous experience at a little grass airstrip tucked into an all-but-for-gotten corner of the great Midwest. In the time that preceded the advent of readily available GPS receivers, I navigated the Stearman by reference to checkpoints that I had circled in pencil on a sectional chart. I gripped that rumpled piece of paper in the unforgiving slipstream during the journey as if life or death hung in the balance. From my home fi eld in southeast Michigan I headed west-ward for a highly touted gathering of like-minded antiquers in Iowa. The fi rst fuel stop happened to be in the fl at infi nitude of Indianas farm and pasture belt.

Luckily, the sod runway came into view exactly where it appeared on the chart. I throttled back and uneventfully touched down on the nicely tended bed of grass. Quite to my surprise, the airport gave every appearance of being abandoned. Without another aircraft in sight, either on the ground or in the air, I taxied to the far end of the run-way only to feel even more isolated. Unsure of what to do, I taxied back whence I had come; at least there was a stately clapboard house on the other end. Maybe the idling engine would rustle up a bystander or two.

Sure enough. Members of a siz-able extended family cascaded down the back porch, one after the other, all exuberant and attired in distinctive Amish garb. Mom, dad, brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, and cousins (or so I imagined), both young and old, even a radi-ant woman with a baby coddled in her arms, fi led out to gander at the bright yellow double-decker that had dropped into what constituted their backyard. The Stearmans ar-rival must have been the most ex-citement the quaint hamlet had had in a long while.

I didnt dare shut the engine off,

since I was having voltage regulator problems. Although I was warmly welcomed, this wasnt the place to risk a failed restart if there was no fuel for the uptake. So I shouted over the din, Do you have aviation fuel? One of the older men signaled he would have to call the airport owner. A minute later, word came that the airports fuel drum was empty.

Clearly, I would have to stop e lsewhere a long the route to quench my engines thirst. My im-promptu hosts quickly sized up the situation and independently came to the same conclusion. Without solicitation, a few of the men in the ever burgeoning crowd edged closer to the fuselage aft of the port wing and called out directions to the nearest airport that was cer-tain to have fuel. Turn left after takeoff, pick up the interstate. In minutes youll see Valparaiso and the airport on your right. As they rattled off instructions, each ver-balized leg was accompanied by brisk corresponding hand motions aligned with the recommended di-rection of fl ight.

Just then I was, in a way, like the pilot in the painting. No, the patch-work quilts of Indiana arent the sun-baked prairies of Texas. And I wasnt actually lost. But a half-century after the original barn-stormers had enlivened the country-side, infusing it with the romance of flight, I unexpectedly relived a slice of that old-time fl ying at an un-familiar waypoint in a wide-open realm that seemed to stretch forever.

The magic of the moment was shared with strangers who wore grins from ear to ear as they groped to provide guidance to a modern vagabond of the air. I gave my Amish friends, who had waved a fond farewell, a gentle wing rock while skimming the cornfields upon departure. It was a modest thank-you for their heartfelt tid-ings and an acknowledgment of the instantaneous bond that often springs from the well of goodwill at waypoints along our most ambi-tious wanderings.

20 JUNE 2011

The typical modern sport avia-tion enthusiast reads current mag-azines and books to keep himself well informed on the present-day aviation scene. He also loves to fer-ret out and devour copies of very old magazines, reprints of them,

and flea market aviation books printed long before World War II.

Nostalgia obviously has some-thing to do with the strong appeal of older literature. But its also quite true that while much of the mate-rial published in recent years deals

with the faster and more sophisti-cated types of homebuilt aircraft now so popular among those who can afford to build them and have the skill to fl y them, older literature contains much information and inspiration for those whose inter-

Light Plane Heritagepublished in EAA Experimenter September 1991

Editors Note: The Light Plane Heritage series in EAAs Experimenter magazine often touched on aircraft and concepts related to vintage aircraft and their history. Since many of our members have not had the opportunity to read this se-ries, we plan on publishing those LPH articles that would be of interest to VAA members. Enjoy!HGF

READ, BUT DONT ALWAYS BELIEVEBY BOB WHITTIER

EAA 1235

This photo of the Longster clearly shows a fourth, rearmost fl ying wire. Omission of this impor-tant detail in Figure 1 is clearly an artists error.

Figure 1: This drawing of a Longster shows only three fl ying wires running from lower longeron to the wing spars. (From 1933 Flying and Glider Manual, pages 56 to 57)

VINTAGE AIRPLANE 21

est lies in simpler, slower aircraft suitable for recreational fl ying.

After all, theres the trite but true saying, To know where were going, we must know where weve been.

On the whole it can be said that ferreting out and reading older material is both enjoyable and informative. However, all who do this should realize very clearly that everything one fi nds in old books and periodicals shouldnt be accepted naively as being the whole truth.

People engaged in the pub-lishing business sometimes say to one another, Paper will stand anything. By this they mean to acknowledge to one another that its possible to publish both golden truths and scandalous untruths. Its important for the aviation enthusiast to develop a knack for recognizing what infor-mation is sound and useful, and what is dubious and sometimes dangerously misleading.

Most people never have an opportunity to become well ac-quainted with editors. Adver-tisers like to quote what some editor printed about their prod-uct, knowing that many people even in this sophisticated age still believe that if something appears in print, it must therefore be the abso-lute truth.

But its a fact that just as in every other type of business, in the pub-lishing field, one finds all kinds of characters. Sometimes the editor of a particular magazine is a real ex-pert in the fi eld his magazine covers. But its useful to keep in mind that if hes that good, he might be of-fered a better-paying job elsewhere. If he leaves in a hurry, the magazine owners son-in-law might be made the new editor, for the sake of keep-ing things going and meeting print-ing deadlines. This new chap might know how the magazine is runbut he might not be an authority on the fi eld it covers!

Its also good to keep in mind that publishing is a business. When

you pay $3 for a magazine, most of this money is divided up between the newsstand owner, the news distributor, and the printer; not much goes to the publisher. Most of a publications income is derived from paid advertising. Ad rates are based on circulation. Editors are thus under pressure to increase cir-culation. Some will print anything that strikes them as being useful in grabbing the attention of news-stand browsers.

Yet another thing to remember is that a lot of old aviation liter-ature dates from the late 1920s.

Publishers were eager to rush books into print to capitalize on the fame of aviators such as Lindbergh, Byrd, Chamberlin, and quite a number of others. Since these famous people were busy becoming aviation masters, it was common for ghostwriters to be assigned the task of writing copy that would be published under such famous names.

A few ghostwriters knew that airplane wings arent covered with canvas and that rudders dont make airplanes turn. Oth-ers didnt know a thing about air-planes and solemnly informed readers that the radial engine that powered some famous fl yers plane was a radical engine. Or theyd have him say something like, Thats the best plane I ever drove! Such books were consid-ered good enough for the mass market, but today they should be read with this awareness in mind.

Be cautious of plans that are il-lustrated with artists drawings of the fi nished plane in fl ight. The absence of actual photographs of the finished plane could mean that no prototype was ever built and test-fl own!

As the demand for aviation books grew, publishers often went to lengths to find something to print. Its a fact that many people who are excellent pilots and techni-cians are poor at writing. Much of this hastily prepared literature was done by chaps who were sure to make chumps of themselves if they ever grasped a welding torch or a control stick. Theyd skim through a pile of magazines and books writ-ten by other hacks to make them-selves into self-appointed experts and then get to work. Heres how one of these whizzes described the tailspin: The tailspin is one of the most diffi cult stunts. You perform it by getting the machine to slide backward and then putting on op-posite bank and rudder, as in a for-ward spin.

He went on to describe an-other maneuver thusly: The Im-

Figure 2: Some airplanes used ver tical bolts through wing spar roots to attach wings to center sections or fuselages. This method had serious faults.

Be cautious of plans that are illustrated

with artists drawings of the fi nishedplane in fl ight.

22 JUNE 2011

melman turn, invented by the famous German war ace, is merely a sideslip from a stall and has the advantage of bringing the plane around in the opposite direction to which it was going.

Books written by or about famous aces during World War I have to be read with the awarenes s tha t many were rushed into print for the purpose of boosting civilian morale and promoting recruit-ment more than giving readers a realistic picture of the sensa-tions and techniques of com-bat flying. In these books the heroes never experienced fear, never worried about naviga-tion, and never hurried home with an urgent case of the trots brought on by breathing castor oil fumes emitted by their planes rotary engines. Most articles pub-lished during the war years were heavily censored so as not to in-advertently put sensitive informa-tion in the hands of the enemy. They were often very lacking in the kind of practical this is how we do it information for which todays aviation fan is searching.

In the early 1930s peoples ma-jor concern was to somehow earn a l iving as the nation slipped deeper into the economic depres-sion of those times. Garish paint-ings of weird new aircraft designs appeared on magazine covers as at-tention getters. One magazine pre-sented its trusting readers with a straight-faced account of a man in Arizona who had invented a mag-netized steel runway that would grab at a speeding planes cast-iron tailskid shoe and brake it to a safe halt. In another issue the magazine described another imaginative in-ventors proposal or a new train-ing plane designed to cope with the growing number of people who wanted to learn to fl y. It had a huge open cockpit able to seat a whole class of student pilots. At the forward end of this pit there was even a lectern and blackboard.

Paper will stand anything!Most books or magazines repre-

sented the efforts of not one but several persons. Editors decided which articles submitted by hopeful freelancers to accept and publish. A typist might redo a famous avia-tors hastily scribbled or dictated copy, misspelling some unfamiliar aeronautical terms in the process. A nonfl ying assistant editor would mark the typed manuscript with symbols telling typesetters the de-sired style and size of type to use. Proofreaders who knew spelling and punctuation well but nothing about aviation might take it upon themselves to change the French-built Salmson engine to the French-built Salmon engine. Some of this old literature has to be read with a little skepticism!

Nonfl ying draftsmen and artists would prepare illustrations. With all these people rushing to meet a printers deadline, it was always possible for unfortunate things to fi nd their way into print.

Here are some tangible exam-ples. In the late 1920s a magazine called Modern Mechanics was being published in Minnesota. The edi-tor heard about some interesting homebuilt planes that had been

built in the upper Midwest and saw in them some attention-catching material. Between 1929 and 1933, articles from this magazine were reprinted in the form of the now-famous Flying and Glider Manual.

Because this material was available and interesting in its special way, EAA reprinted these annuals in the 1950s (and again in 1990). Well versed in airplane construction, EAA Founder Paul H. Poberezny noted in his introductory state-ment that These old designs in many cases lack the techni-cal progress made between the 1930s and today.

Readers of these manuals who possess similar knowledge can easily spot poor design fea-tures as they look over those

old plans. But what of newcomers who have scant knowledge of good and poor aeronautical practices? What follows will give them a fi rm introduction to the kinds of things to beware of.

Figure 1 shows a side view draw-ing of the Longster that appeared in the 1933 Flying and Glider Man-ual. Note that it shows only three flying wires running from the lower longeron to the front and rear wing spars. This is clearly an art department error that wasnt caught or corrected by the editors, likely in the rush to meet a dead-line. In the photograph of this air-plane, and you can clearly see a fourth, rearmost wire running up to the rear gear.

Figure 2 shows a method of attach-ing the inboard ends of wing spars to fuselages and center sections that was used on a number of factory-built airplanes of the 1920s. Note that the bolts pass vertically through the butt ends of the spars. On paper this looks simple and secure.

All airplane wings flex, how-ever slightly, from engine vibra-tion on the ground and rough air in flight. This rigid type of verti-cal-bolt attachment couldnt yield easily to spar flexing, and in time

Figure 3: This type of wing root fi tting was ad-opted to overcome the shortcomings of the type shown in Figure 1. Easier to make with accuracy, and pivoting action of the bolt al-lows for spar fl exing. (From Vintage Airplane, June 1981, page 22)

VINTAGE AIRPLANE 23

the bolts would elongate the up-per and lower portions of the long holds in the spar butts. This loos-ening couldnt be seen by pilots or mechanics conducting prefl ight and periodic inspections. Sooner or later a heavy stress would allow one of the bolts to tear through the remaining wood and send the plane crashing to earth. As you in-spect this drawing, the realization will come to you that in this layout the grain of the wood offers very little resistance to the bolt tearing through it. Steel reinforcing plates helped, but in this example they can offer negligible strength; they will tear out of the wood easily. Af-ter hard lessons had been learned from failures in fi ttings of this type, it became standard engineering practice to never use wood screws in load-carrying structures.

When this type of attachment was attempted by homebuilders working with minimal shop equip-ment, another weakness showed up. It was often hard for them to drill such long holes in wood with the necessary accuracy. A gradual change was made to the type of fi t-ting shown in Figure 3. It was much easier to accurately drill the short holes needed for the wing root fi t-ting, and the horizontal bolt that attached the fi tting to the fuselage offered enough pivoting action to easily accommodate wing fl exing.

In Figure 4 we have an example of what could be either poor de-sign or human error in a publish-ing office. It shows the wing rib for the Ramsey Flying Bathtub, plans for which appeared in the Flying and Glider Manual for 1932. There is no diagonal member in the truss bay directly ahead of the rear spar. One can study plans for a hundred other planes without fi nding another truss like this. The basic rule of aircraft framework de-sign is to use triangles everywhere, because a triangle is the only geo-metric shape that has an inherent resistance to deformation.

Leaving out the diagonal mem-ber in this particular rib creates a readily deformed rectangle. Its possible the designer, W.H. Ramsey, performed calculations that satisfied him that the diago-nals in the two bays aft of the front spar would give a rib ade-quate strength for this admittedly light and slow airplane. But how is a Ramsey replica builder of to-day going to know who Ramsey was and how much he knew about aircraft engineering? Remember, most of the planes for which plans were published in magazines were built by amateur designers. Some knew airplane design surprisingly welland others didnt.

It isnt unreasonable to surmise that this unusual design repre-

sents an error made by the artist who prepared Ramsey drawings for publication. He might simply have forgotten to draw in the di-agonal. Or someone in the art de-partment who lettered the drawing might have obscured it. Figure 4 also shows the rib design for the Northrop glider, which appeared in the 1930 Flying and Glider Man-ual. Theres a diagonal in the truss bay just ahead of the rear spar. This glider was lighter and slower than the Ramsey. It comes down to thisbefore starting to build a re-production of any early aircraft, its wise to go over the plans with peo-ple who thoroughly understand airplane design and construction.

By all means enjoy reading old aeronautical literature. Doing so will vastly broaden your aeronau-tical general knowledge. But do it with the realization that you have to be constantly aware that the ma-terial can contain confusing and therefore potentially dangerous misinformation and mistakes!

Editors Note: What old aviation history books are your favorites? For fun? Or accuracy? Both? Let us know, and well share it with the rest of the membership. Drop us a note atVintageAircraft@eaa.org, or send us a note or card via the mail at: Vintage Airplane, P.O. Box 3086, Oshkosh, WI 54903-3086.

Figure 4: At top, a drawing of the wing rib for the Ramsey light plane. Note absence of diagonal in the trusswork ahead of the rear spar. At bottom, similar rib for Northrop glider has a diagonal in this space. Text explains uncertainties involving the Ramsey design. (Top drawing from 1932 Flying and Glider Manual, page 66; bottom drawing from 1930 Flying and Glider Manual, page 54)

24 JUNE 2011

Resurrection of an Stinson L-5 Sentinelrestored in Switzerland

BY STEFAN DEGRAEF

Stinson L-5 Sentinel s/n 42-99186, manufactured by the Consolidated Vultee Aircraft Corporation in 1942, received the Swiss A-96 military serial number and fl ew until 1950 as a lightweight liaison and observation aircraft in military service. If you look to the top of the rudder, you can see that HB-TRY still has its extend-able radio antennas and airfl ow cone mounted on the tail. Once the antenna was deployed by the airstream, the military crew was able to transmit their observation data.

VINTAGE AIRPLANE 25

On April 6, 2006, a nimble Stinson L-5B Sen-

tinel approached the rural and modern busi-

ness and general aviation airport of Grenchen

in northwestern Switzerland. At first glance

that seemed to be nothing out of the ordinary,

as various Swiss warbirds, mostly Bcker

Jungmann biplanes, are based at Grenchen.

Alpine Stinson

26 JUNE 2011

However, Stinson Sentinel HB-TRY, wearing full-color Swiss World War II-era red/white neutrality mark-ings, returned to its home ground after a two-year-long in-depth res-toration at Kaposvar (Hungary).

This lightweight observation air-craft had started its operational ca-reer with the 324th Fighter Group in France during the final years of World War II. Built in March 1944 by the Consolidated Vultee Aircraft Corporation near Detroit, Michi-gan, this Stinson L-5B Sentinel, se-

Having interned its USAAF aircrew and repaired the battle damage to the aircraft, the Swiss impressed Stinson L-5 Sen-tinel 42-99186 into its air force; the aircraft then received its new A-96 serial number and the Swiss white/red neutrality-markings. In March 1950 the Stinson was auctioned by the Swiss air force, becoming HB-TRY in the process. Nowadays the pristine Stinson L-5B Sentinel HB-TRY, formerly A-96, is based at Grenchen in northwestern Switzerland.

The back seat of HB-TRY is an exact copy of the World War II-era offi ce of the aerial observer, including small bags to store maps.

The spacious design of the Sentinel cockpit optimized the aircrafts wartime observation role, offering an almost unrestricted all-around view around the aircraft.

The overall restoration of the Stin-son L-5B Sentinel included an im-maculate installation of original cockpit instruments.

rial number (s/n) 42-99186, was shipped to Europe to support the Allied drive through France as an observation and artillery-guidance spotter aircraft.

During one of its observation missions on December 10, 1944, near the French-Swiss border in adverse meteorological condi-tions, U.S. Army Air Forces pilot Roy Gordon Abbot and his aerial observer, Robert H. Hubbard, mis-takenly trespassed the Swiss border and were almost immediately tar-geted by the anti-aircraft artillery of the vigilant Schweizer Flugabwehr defense forces.

Hit in the engine cowling by a small caliber shell, the aircrafts Lycoming O-435-A flamed out, forcing its pilot to obey Newtons law of gravity and to make an emergency landing in a small for-est clearing near Vacherie in the Swiss Jura region, less than 500 me-ters from the well-defended bor-der. Most likely not certain of their whereabouts and fearing capture by German forces, the crew hid it-self in a local forest but were fi nally captured by the Swiss Polizei the morning after their forced landing. As Switzerland vigorously retained and defended its political and mili-tary neutrality during World War II, the unfortunate American air-crew was interned in one of Swit-zerlands Internierungslager and

their Sentinel confi scated for mili-tary use by the Swiss air force.

After being inspected on site and transported by train to Dbendorf (near Zurich) for repair, Stinson L-5 Sentinel s/n 42-99186 received the Swiss military serial number A-96 and fl ew until 1950 as lightweight liaison aircraft by, ironically, the U.S. military attach in Bern, Swit-zerlands capital.

In March 1950 the aircraft, be-coming surplus to the Swiss air force, was auctioned and bought by its new civilian owner, being registered HB-TRY in the process. Until 1968, the aircraft was based at Bern-Belp and Thun airfi elds in central Switzerland, used as a pi-lot training aircraft and towing tug for gliders. In need of overhaul, the aircraft was stored for many years, gradually becoming non-airworthy

and a soon-to-be-forgotten avia-tion artifact.

Fortunately old soldiers never die, and the stripped remains of HB-TRY were purchased by its pres-ent owner, Hansruedi Dubler, in October 1979 and stored for future restoration. A quarter of a century later in October 2004, the Stinson L-5 was sent for repair, restoration, and rebuild to Kaposvar (Hungary). The old aircraft was completely dis-sembled and stripped to the bone, its metal frame immaculately re-paired, and its structure and wings re-covered. The immaculate resur-rection of the fully restored and shining HB-TRY eventually came to completion in June 2006. To highlight this long-awaited resur-rection, HB-TRY is decorated with shining red/white neutrality mark-ings, worn by Swiss military aircraft during World War II to prevent at-tacks from Allied or Axis fighters while patrolling the Swiss border. The 180-hp strong Lycoming O-435-A six-cylinder boxer engine of-fers its pilot suffi cient engine power to swiftly fly the 668 kilo empty mass of this flying Jeep, able to carry a maximum load of 332 kilo.

The aircraft was fl own from Hun-gary to Grenchen, near Solothurn in northwestern Switzerland, which soon became its permanent home base. At Grenchen, the reborn HB-TRY taildragger is frequently fl own by its owners and Paul Misteli, owner of Bcker Jungmann HB-UVU and leader of the Old Eagles Bcker demonstration team.

VINTAGE AIRPLANE 27

The Sentinel HB-TRY is frequently fl own by Paul Misteli, owner of Bcker Jungmann HB-UVU and team leader of the Old Eagles Squadron display team, fl ying a mix of fi ve Bcker Jungmann and Jungmeister biplanes.

28 JUNE 2011

Weve been discuss-ing vibration for the past couple of col-umns, so it stands to reason we should

also cover flutter. While many of the very early ships didnt go fast enough for this problem to occur, if not properly treated, flutter can and will lead to structural failure. A designers major problem concern-ing flutter is to determine, in the early stages of design, the lowest velocity at which a structure will fl utter. Then the designer must in-corporate features which will en-sure that this critical velocity will never be reachedthats one of the criteria used to set the maximum velocity of the airplane (VNE).

Flutter is defined as an oscilla-tion of defi nite period but unstable in character. It may be caused in a part of an aircraft by a sudden disturbance and maintained by a combination of the aerodynamic, inertial, elastic, and damping char-acteristics of the member itself. Flutter is an explosive type of un-stable vibration. It may start with small amplitude, caused by some transient force such as a maneuver or gust load. This amplitude, fed by the limitless aerodynamic en-ergy of the airstream, builds into a large amplitude vibration. When the rate of absorption of energy from the airstream exceeds that which the structure is capable of withstanding, structural failure is imminent. Illustration 1 describes

a divergent unstable type of motion; that is one with ever-increasingamplitude. The amplitude of this vibration damps out and becomes zero after a period of time. In air-craft structures these self-excited motions appear as fl utter, wing di-vergence, or buffeting.

The solution to control surface flutter is to statically balance the surface. For low-speed ships with never-exceed speeds below 200 mph, static balances are generally not necessary. For greater airspeeds, static balance for moveable surfaces is essential. Illustration 2 shows

BY ROBERT G. LOCK

Vibrations, Part 3

THE Vintage Mechanic

Illustration 1

typical balancing for a control sur-face. Balanced control surfaces fea-ture the addition of weight forward of the hinge line. Dynamic balance requires that the center of gravity of the aileron be ahead of the hinge line. The necessary redistribution of mass is accomplished by the ad-dition of balance weights at the leading edge of the surface. To stati-cally balance a control surface, the manufacturers instructions must be closely followed. When I taught assembly and rigging at Reedley College, we balanced ailerons and elevators as a practical project, a requirement of an FAA-approved A&P curriculum. Balancing of a surface will prevent instability and will prevent flutter. Illustration 2 shows three means to balance a control surface. Note that the bal-ance weights are placed forward of the hinge line. This weight will re-distribute weight mass of surface behind the hinge line.

Not to be confused with flut-ter is control surface buzz. On higher-speed aircraft control sur-faces, particularly ailerons, the buzz can produce high-frequency, low-amplitude vibrations that will be felt in the control stick or yoke. This is normally caused by worn attach points or worn bearings. A prefl ight inspection should always include shaking the fl ight controls, including the fl aps, to check for any looseness or wear in attach fi ttings.

Not only can the control surfaces flutter, so can the lifting surfaces, specifically manifested in wing flutter. When I was instructing at Reedley College, we had a coop-erative work experience program with NASA Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards Air Force Base in the Mojave Desert of California. In 1982 I took a sabbatical and worked at Dryden for five weeks. One of my assignments was to work on the DAST (Drone for Aerodynamic and Structural Testing), a converted Ryan Firebee drone fi tted with a su-percritical wingan ongoing NASA experiment at the time. After I left the desert the craft was fl ight-tested

and crashed on the fi rst fl ight. Later, I was able to watch real-time video of the craft. I saw it flying forma-tion with a NASA F-104, and then it suddenly disappeared. When the video was slowed, one could see a piece or the left wingtip come off, followed by the up and down mo-tion of the outboard wing until the structure failed. The wingtip had

fl uttered, and structural failure hap-pened so fast you couldnt see it at real-time speed. It was amazing to see, but everyone involved with the program agreed that fortunately it was a drone and not a piloted craft! Illustration 3 shows our method to conduct a weight-and-balance cal-culation on the craft.

The last week of my six-week

VINTAGE AIRPLANE 29

Illustration 2

Illustration 3

One item of note is the bucket of bolts hanging from the nose boom, used for ballast calculations. The supercritical wing was constructed from fi ber-glass; it didnt take long for fl utter to destroy the right wing panel.

30 JUNE 2011

work program with NASA was spent at the Ames Research Center at Moffett Field in Sunnyvale, Cali-fornia. Here I was able to familiar-ize myself with the Bell XV-15 Tilt Rotor aircraft and the NASA/Army Sikorsky RSRA (Rotor Systems Re-search Aircraft) helicopter. The

aircraft was designed to explore various types or experimental ro-tor systems (blades specifically) and to push the speed envelope of the helicopter. This craft was designated as a compound heli-copter because it had an airplane wing and two nacelle-mounted

turbofan engines to increase the forward speed of the craft. They were looking at various main ro-tor airfoil shapes and testing for vibration and fl utter at the higher speeds. The photos on the next page show the RSRA helicopter at NASA Ames Research Center when I was there in 1982. The craft fea-tured a pilot/copilot ejection sys-tem that shot the crew out the top of the helicopter. The rotor blade shanks contained explosives, and if the crew needed to eject, the explosives would first sever the main rotor blades. With the blades gone the crew seats would eject out the top of the cabin section. There were a number of newly de-signed experimental rotor blade types I saw, including swept and drooped tips and a couple of really advanced rotors to reduce noise. It was a very interesting program in a very interesting time.

Early helicopters were vibra-tion machines, but the work on isolation mounts and other inven-tions to reduce vibration from all those rotating components have made the aircraft a smoother fly-ing machine.

And so this ends our three-part discussion regarding vibrations. I hope youve found it interest-ing. The information presented is from a mechanics point of view and knowledge. Vibration is a very technical subject, but the more a mechanic can learn, the better the decisions on airworthi-ness can be made.

I saw it fl ying formation

with a NASA F-104, and then

it suddenly disappeared.

Illustration 4

Illustration 4 shows a sketch of what happens when wing fl utter rears its ugly head. Wing fl utter involves aerodynamic forces, inertia forces, and the elastic properties of a sur face. This phenomenon usually occurs at high airspeeds perhaps above VNE (redline). However, if the aileron begins to fl utter, it may induce vibration into the wing structure. This scenario is ap-parently what happened to the DAST aircraft, a classic case of wing fl utter.

VINTAGE AIRPLANE 31

Have a comment or ques-

tion for Bob Lock, the Vintage

Mechanic? Drop us an e-mail at

vintageaircraft@eaa.org, or you

can mail your question to Vintage

Airplane, P.O. Box 3086, Osh-

kosh, WI 54903.The Sikorsky RSRA helicopter during testing at NASAs Ames Flight Research Center.

What Our MembersAre Restoring

Are you nearing completion of a restoration? Or is it done and youre busy fl ying and showing it off? If so, wed like to hear from you. Send us a 4-by-6-inch print from a commercial source (no home printers, pleasethose prints just dont scan well) or a 4-by-6-inch, 300-dpi digital photo. A JPG from your 2.5-megapixel (or higher) digital camera is fi ne. You can burn photos to a CD, or if youre on a high-speed Internet connection, you can e-mail them along with a text-only or Word document describing your airplane. (If your e-mail program asks if youd like to make the photos smaller, say no.) For more tips on creating photos we can publish, visit VAAs website at www.vintageaircraft.org. Check the News page for a hyperlink to Want To Send Us A Photograph?

For more information, you can also e-mail us at vintageaircraft@eaa.org or call us at 920-426-4825.

Are you nearing completion of a restoration? Or is it done

Resources

Elements of Technical Aeronautics, 1942. Samuel B. Sherwin, New York National Aeronautics Council Inc. (Illustration 1).

Airplane Design Manual, 1958. Frederick K. Teichmann (Illus-tration 2).

Aerodynamics for Naval Aviators, 1965. H.H. Hurt Jr.

32 JUNE 2011

I just looked at my logbook, and I need a BFR by the end of the month. Can you squeeze me in today? Or tomorrow at the latest?

Sure, I reply. Meet me at my hangar at 2:00 p.m.Promptly at 2:30 p.m. the fl ight review candidate

Rock rolls to a stop in front of my hangar. As the prop stops, he jumps out of his plane stating, Sorry for being a bit late. I had to find my license and flight physical. Hmmm, this is going to be an in-teresting afternoon.

I suggest to Rock that he might want to chock his airplane, as it is quite breezy. He replies, No need. The parking brake wi l l hold just f ine. A quick glance at his air-plane indicates that the parking brake may not be as good as he might think, based on the number of repairs and the 12 differ-ent colors of yellow and orange paint displayed on the fabric surface. I offer Rock a set of wheel chocks and suggest he put them to good use before we be-gin the fl ight review. Not wanting to upset me, Rock obediently complies.

As soon as we are comfortably seated in my han-gar office, Rock asks, Will this take long? I need to get back for my bowling banquet. Happy hour starts at 5:00 sharp, and I dont want to miss it. I used to go to a guy who just fl ew around the patch, and it only took 15 minutes. I busy myself for a moment, checking my files to keep from saying something I may regret. After regaining my compo-sure, I remind Rock that this will take as long as we need, but it will take at least two hours. This gets Rocks attention. He doesnt want to miss out on

even a minute of the banquet.After being asked to show his pilot certifi cate and

flight physical, Rock removes the plastic card and folded piece of paper from his shirt pocket and hands them to me. After undoing all eight folds of the pa-per, I see that Rock does have a current physical.

We then move on to his airplane. Do you have the logbooks for your airplane with you, I ask? Uh, yah, he re-plies, but Ill have to dig them out of the air-plane. Several minutes later he returns with two armloads of paper.

After sorting through the miscellaneous pa-pers, Rock produces the a i r f rame and engine logs. The airplane does, in fact, have a current annual, and all seems to be in order. I subtly suggest that Rock might want to invest in an ex-panding folder in which to place all of the paper-work, so that he doesnt l o s e i t . He ag ree s i t would be a good idea.

I then ask Rock if he has a current sectional chart with him, and he re-plies that he does, but it is in the plane. Several minutes and another trip to the plane later, he pro-duces a sectional chart. When asked if it is current, Rock begins to unfold the map. Several more min-utes pass, and finally he discovers the expiration dateMay 1, 2005. Its been expired for nearly six years, Rock. You need to invest in a current chart, I tell him. He replies that he never fl ies more than 10 miles from his private strip, so he sees no need to invest in a new chart.

What about all the new windmills and new

BY Steve Krog, CFI

THE Vintage Instructor

Flight reviewsPart I

Before continuing

the taxi, I also ask him

to explain aileron and

elevator positioning

when taxiing with a

stiff breeze.

I never worry about

that, he replies.

VINTAGE AIRPLANE 33

cell towers that have been built in the area in the past two years? Dont you think you might want to know where all the obstructions are located? I offer. Begrudgingly, he agrees and purchases a new sectional chart.

For the next hour we review the chart, covering all of the new symbols followed by a discussion of cur-rency and fl ight rules. At the conclusion Rock com-ments, Gosh, I didnt know so much had changed!

After an hour and 30 minutes were ready to move out to the plane and prepare for the flight portion of the fl ight review. Rock immediately re-moves the chocks and jumps into the plane. Noting my hesitation to get in he asks, Whats wrong, you afraid to fly in this old crate? No, Im not, but lets fi rst do a prefl ight. I want to make sure all the parts and pieces are connected. I dont want anything falling off when Im in your airplane, I state fi rmly.

After an Ah darn, Rock exits the airplane and begins conducting a prefl ight. Frustrated, he says, I dont see a need for this. Were wasting time.

This airplane has been left unattended for nearly two hours, I point out. Who knows what might have happened to it while we were in the offi ce? He agrees and completes the prefl ight.

Once were both in the plane, Rock starts the engine and begins to taxi toward the turf runway. I ask him to stop and remind him that he might want to be more diligent before starting. What if there were kids around? Before continuing the taxi, I also ask him to explain aileron and elevator po-sitioning when taxiing with a stiff breeze. I never worry about that, he replies. The clock continues to tick and the engine continues to run while we have a fi rm discussion about proper control place-ment when taxiing a tailwheel airplane.

Finally, were ready to move. I suggest using the hard-surface runway, because I want to see him perform a crosswind takeoff. Again he balks at the idea. I havent used a hard-surface runway since I got my license 15 years ago, he states. All the more reason to use it today, I offer.

Taxi and pre-takeoff checklist complete, were ready to go. Observing a panel-mounted radio, I ask, What about making an announcement so others who might be in the pattern know where youre at and what you plan to do? Never use the darn thing, he replies. Well, lets use it today, I suggest.

Nervously, he punches the push to talk but-ton and stumbles through an announcement that were taking off on Runway 11 and departing the traffi c pattern to the north. It goes something like this, Ah, ah, this is 1234X taking off what was the runway again? Runway 11, and well be headed north. I calmly state that there is a fair amount of activity at our airport, and his announcement will

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