Jetwhine

Aviation buzz and bold opinion

General Aviation

The Happiest Hour Among Total Flight Time

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Aviators track their flying lives one hour at a time. No matter where they are in their aeronautical journey, just starting or finally resting on retired wings. Every hour is important. Some were more exciting. Others were more meaningful because they taught an important lesson. Some lessons made the DO-NOT-REPEAT list. And then there is the hour that deserves some thought and reflection—the happiest hour.

Finding this hour was not an effortless endeavor for me. Checkrides didn’t make the initial list because I find little happiness in the deep end of the pool of performance anxiety. Successful outcomes offered the reward of relief, not happiness. Flying the trench from Arlington, Washington, to Anchorage, Alaska, fell from the list because no single hour stood apart from the sum of my ultimate aviation experience. The same goes for the air combat and formation flying courses at Sky Warriors in their blue camo T-34s.

Paging through my logbook, that was not the case for my 15-hour tailwheel transition course at Stick and Rudder Aviation of Watsonville, California, the “Academy of Flight and Taildragmanship.” On the eve of Kitty Hawk Day, December 16, 1996, I flew my happiest hour in an 85-horse clip-wing Piper L-4 with instructor John Coplantz, who grabbed two rolls of toilet paper before we walked to the bright red airplane, its white lightning bolt segmented by the Piper’s yawning bifold doors.

Toilet paper was not part of the lesson’s preflight briefing. Our mission was three-point and wheel landing practice combined with 180-degree power-off approaches in a moderate crosswind blowing 10 to 15 knots across the Watsonville Muni Airport (WVI). But the course synopsis foretold of comprehensive training — and fun. For example, after “Pitch Attitude Flying,” it says, in parenthesis, “Look, Ma. No airspeed indicator!”

Using an airplane to subdivide a streamer of toilet paper was something I’d only read about, and the tacit promise of another new experience made me eager to tackle the lesson objectives. With them successfully flown, John told me to depart the pattern and climb over Monterey Bay. At some higher altitude I don’t now remember, John dropped the first roll from the L-4’s front seat.

Watching it unroll, John challenged me to cut a 5-foot length from the top end of the streamer with the left wingtip, then to cut another segment with the right wing midway between the tip and where the strut supported the wing. With the Cub’s clipped wings, that’s not a lot of wing to work with. John continued to issue his challenges over the battery-powered intercom (Stick & Rudder’s 85-horse training fleet of two Aeronca Champs and the L-4 don’t have electrical systems).

I was having so much fun swooping, turning, and shortening the slowly-falling streamer, I didn’t think about the mechanics of flying. As I focused on my target, the Cub told me what it needed by the sound of the engine, the wind passing by the open door, and the feel of the stick and rudder and seat of my pants. And that, I’m sure, was the point of the exercise, but as the setting sun glittered off the bay, all I wanted was altitude and the freefall of the second roll.

So, what about you? What has been your happiest hour? Don’t be shy! Share it with us in the comments. Scott Spangler–Editor

Nominate a Member of Your Flying Family for a General Aviation Award

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Each of us has a flying family related not by blood or marriage but by the spirit of flight. Recognizing the contribution of an eligible flight instructor, maintenance technician, or FAA Safety Team teacher can be a challenge. So why not nominate them for this year’s General Aviation Award? The GAA board of directors just extended this year’s deadline to December 31, so if you are an industrious elf, you can get it done.

The eligibility requirements are pretty straightforward. The nominee must be actively working in the United States and hold a current FAA certificate appropriate to their chosen field. As you might expect, those with certificate actions or civil or criminal convictions are not considered.

Nominated flight instructors must be working in a Part 61, 141, or 142 educational environments. Aviation maintenance and avionics technicians can work under Part 65 or at a Part 145 repair station.  Safety Team nominees must be actively involved in the FAA Safety Team.

Start at the GAA website, click on the Nominations tab, and download the GAA Nomination/Application MS Word form. (When you finish filling it out, you upload it on the same page.)

Before diving into the nomination form, discover the guidance offered in the Suggested Reading links: Tips for Writing a Nomination; About Your Aviation CV; Application Advisors; A Judge’s Advice; and Nomination Processing.

In addition to the two-page nomination form, you can upload up to three one-page letters of recommendation, one from a peer or co-worker, one from a client who is familiar with the nominee’s work and contribution to aviation, and one from the nominee’s supervisor (see the website for details). The nominee’s aviation-oriented curriculum vitae, (aka the CV), must be no longer than two pages.

Finally, you need supporting documents or examples for each major item listed on page 2 of the nomination/application form: Professional Activities; Continuing Education & Development; and Pro Bono Service to General Aviation. If the application package does not include clear copies of the nominee’s current US government-issued ID, both sides of the current FAA certificates, and a “photo taken within the past five years, in a professional aviation setting,” the selection committee will request these things should the nominee progress to national judging.

So, if a member of your flying family is worthy of the honor, there’s still time to recognize their contributions in a truly unique way, because your effort is the nominee’s gift, reward, and individual recognition because in all aspects of life, but especially in aviation, actions speak more honestly than words or a quick online shopping interlude. And from all of us here at JetWhine.com, may you have a safe holiday shared with family and friends. — Scott Spangler, Editor

EAA AirVenture Reset Surprises

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With a week to reflect and sort the interactions and activities of EAA AirVenture 2021, my challenge was to quantify why it was the most enjoyable show of this millennium. The easiest quantifier was the people who attended. With few exceptions over the past four decades, Oshkosh pilgrims have always been decent, pleasant people, eager to share their aeronautical passions. But they were noticeably different this year.

They were truly and honestly happy to be wandering the AirVenture acres from the flight line to Interstate 41 and the fences that mark the airport perimeter at the North and South 40. More than a few people, exhibitors and everyday participants, shared their likewise observations with me. And maybe what made the EAAers’ happiness so brilliantly apparent is the cesspool of unhappiness that is the foundation of everyday life, where every interaction is another opportunity to judge, criticize, and complain.

No one seemed to embody the spirit of happiness more than Brigadier General Charles McGee, at 102 the one of last surviving Tuskegee fighter pilots. He was at the Piper media briefing, which announced its participation in the launch of the Red Tail Flight Academy, named in honor of the distinctive markings on the fighters flown by the Tuskegee Airmen in World War II. Based at New York’s Stewart International Airport, the Part-141 program will start with six scholarship students in September, increasing to 30 students a year by 2026. The 10-month program will earn its students a multiengine commercial certificate with instrument rating.

Since EAA moved its convention to Oshkosh in 1970, it was easy to see which airplanes were the most popular by the stomped-to-death grass the surrounded them, leaving a green grass shadow of their popularity when the show was over. This phenomenon has always been most apparent in the homebuilt parking area. But not this year! Not only were there no green grass shadows, airplanes never filled this area during the show, which in itself is a surprise. The only stomped to death grass was the pathway that led from the Brown Arch to the Warbirds.

The most intriguing warbird arrived on a trailer from the Air Zoon Aerospace & Science Experience in Kalamazoo, Michigan. It was clearly a Douglas SBD Dauntless, and the corroded radial engine announced with equal force that the airplane had spent a lot of time under water. What an understatement. This rare SBD-1 started its service with the Marine Corps in 1940, and ended up at Naval Air Station Glenview when the Marine scout bomber squadron got new SBD-4s. Just north of Chicago, Glenview was the home of naval carrier training and qualifications for nearly all sea service aviators during World War II. Ensign Herbert McMinn didn’t complete his approach to the USS Wolverine in November 1942. It was recovered from the bottom of Lake Michigan in 1994. Learning how it ended up with the Air Zoo is on this year’s to-do list.

Equally intriguing was an OV-10 in Navy livery, and the sign next to it said it was for sale. (It didn’t give a price, so it’s surely one of those “If you have to ask…” situations.) The OV-10 Squadron website said it was the first of seven OV-10s it plans to restore to full airworthiness. Six of the airframes were reclaimed from the National Vietnam War Museum in Mineral Wells, Texas, in 2018. The restored Bronco started flying with the Navy’s light attack squadron (VAL) 4 in 1969. The others are in various stages of restoration at Chino, California.

In a manner of speaking, AirVenture’s most popular airplane was “hiding” in the exhibit area, but there was no grass to kill because Mike Patey’s Scrappy was tied down in a mulch filled display island outside the Garmin pavilion. Let’s just call it a one-of-a-kind airplane that only Mike Patey could conceive and execute. Imagine, a Carbon Cub with an eight-cylinder IO-720 and big bush wheels that points its airboat prop eagerly skyward. Beware, make no immediate plans if you tune into Patey’s YouTube channel to learn more about his project.

In another corner of the outdoor exhibit area was this rotary-wing RV and campsite set up outside the Airbus pavilion. Okay, have any of you rotorheads out there in JetWhine land ever seen a helicopter bike rack before? Can you order one from Airbus, or is it a custom-made bolt-on option?

I found AirVenture’s final surprise in the South 40, which is just a few footsteps from Fond du Lac. Watching the volunteers park incoming airplanes in the last few open rows, I passed what I initially thought was a light station. Wrong again. It was a 21st century Charging Station that not only re-electrified the campers’s devices, it provided internet connections and running water. What more would an AirVenture camper need?

If you enjoyed this story, why not SUBSCRIBE to JetWhine, if you haven’t already, and please share it with anyone who might find it interesting. — Scott Spangler, Editor

AirVenture Reset: Marketing to the Masses

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Selling aviation stuff to pilots and flying aficionados is one of the foundational enterprises of EAA AirVenture Oshkosh. It is a multilayered effort. EAA sells indoor and outdoor exhibit space to companies, and employing a variety of tactics, some more effective than others, those companies do their best to snag the attention of the multitude of passers-by, and in this post-pandemic AirVenture reset, the exhibit buildings were busier than I’ve seen them in more than a decade.

Before the pandemic, the media presentations at EAA Press Headquarters were an integral component of this effort. The News Conference/Media Event Schedule, posted online and on the wall of PHQ, subdivided every day into 45 minute blocks, and in years past, almost everyone of them was spoken for, with the only blank spots showing up gap-toothed on the final weekend. This year the schedule essentially ended Wednesday afternoon, with only the EAA media briefings taking spots during the rest of the week.

This really wasn’t too much of a concern because most of aviation’s primary marketers stopped announcing their new products in dog-and-pony presentations on AirVenture’s stage years ago. They transferred that effort online because it’s economically efficient, and it doesn’t have a time limit or av-hardware technical problems. Another benefit of announcing new products and services online is the ability to capture their customer’s attention one-on-one, usually in the quiet, comfortable environment of their own home.

Garmin took that comfort to the next level for its AirVenture reset by air conditioning its vast exhibit pavilion, where potential customers and the curious could get a hands-on lesson from Garminites who know the ins and outs of the spectrum of avionics equipment. It was a constantly busy place and people were crowded around the panel displays at least two or three deep.

The other avionics companies, Aspen, Avidyne, and Collins each had anchor positions in separate exhibit hangars, and their representatives were likewise surrounded by the curious craning their respective necks to see what button-and-touch-screen-ology was taking place. And as I paced my way through the buildings, it was good to see many of the familiar avionics shops in their usual places and usually in deep, demonstrative conversations with customers.

Exhibit building density is one of my markers for overall AirVenture attendance. I had to recalibrate this several years ago when EAA, several years before the pandemic came to town, socially distanced the width of the exhibit hall aisles. This year, EAA added some equally wide side-to-side aisles, but at two different times on two different days, all of these aisles were as busy as the old narrow aisles were about a decade ago. On my pre-pandemic exhibit building excursions, I would peruse every aisle in a minutes-long nonstop stroll. This year, it took more than a half hour of moist, close quarters creeping.

At least that was the case in three of the four exhibit hangars. Exhibit Hangars A and C on the north side were the busiest. On the south side, Hangar B was noticeably less crowded than A and C, but it was way busier than Hangar D, home to many of the non-aviation exhibitors and the Federal Pavilion, which was sparsely populated because the pandemic precluded travel for nearly all of AirVenture’s foreign participants.

The Fly Market, just west of Hangar D was essentially unchanged, and it looked like most of its long-time denizens survived the pandemic. During the downtime it seems like they undertook some projects of their own, like mounting a DC-3 fuselage on a truck frame to make it a street-legal (?) air show hauler. But the best deal of the show this year was found at EAA’s site-wide merch tents, AirVenture 2020 t-shirts for $5.

An unexpected surprise was the pretty much naked faces of the “For Sale” bulletin boards, just east of the tower and EAA Merchandise building. Usually they are furry walls of paper fluttering in the breeze, but not this year. Could this be that people have nothing for sale, or might this reset be, like classified ads in ink-and-paper publications, another casualty of the internet?

Another surprise was how full the grounds remained on Wednesday, traditionally the crowd turnover day. With severe weather working its way east, pilots were bugging out all day, but their departures were sporadic rather than a consistent stream. The unknown reset facets have made this AirVenture interesting and unpredictable and its every day dawns with anticipation.

If you enjoyed this story, why not SUBSCRIBE to JetWhine, if you haven’t already, and please share it with anyone who might find it interesting. — Scott Spangler, Editor

Aviation Ancestry: Luscombe Lineage

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Some days, opening my email inbox is like Christmas. This day’s present was from Ryan Short, a reader, aerial photographer, and part-time flight instructor who works with students by appointment through Texas Tailwheel Flight Training. Flying his 1939 Luscombe 8A, NC25215 ($120 an hour), he specializes in tailwheel endorsements, flight reviews, and general proficiency training. He wrote:

I read with interest your article about your father [Aviation Ancestry: Discovering the Logbooks of a Life Rarely Discussed].

I am the current caretaker of N25215, a Luscombe 8A that was also assigned to the Iowa Airplane Company from 1939 until close to the end of WWII.

I’m wondering if in your father’s records there are more names, photos, or other bits of information that might help me track down more about this aircraft. I’d like to put her back in Iowa Airplane Company markings as well.

In reply, I promised a return to my father’s logbooks to compile the N-numbers of his winged classrooms, all Luscombe 8As, and the names of instructors who signed each lesson’s entry. (The photo search must wait until my next with my sister, who has the family photo albums.) In a follow-up email he shared a photo (above) he’d found of some of the Iowa Airplane Company fleet of Luscombe 8As and two of its instructors.

What got me excited about his email is learning that the Luscombe that taught my dad to fly in 1943 is still serving the same purpose 78 years later. When I opened the logbook I discovered the N-numbers of Ryan’s Luscombe, NC25215, and the one my father soloed on October 23, 1943, NC25152, were, in a manner of speaking, dyslexic siblings. But Ryan’s email got me wondering, what happened to the Luscombes on my list?

In the two months of primary training my father received, he flew seven different Iowa Airplane Company 8As. Ryan’s airplane, Serial Number (SN) 1120, was not one of them, but that was surely the luck of the draw. The registration range of the seven Luscombes spanned from his solo airplane, NC25152, to NC28846, so logically Ryan’s airplane could have been a member of the Iowa Airplane family.

If Ryan’s Luscombe (right) is still teaching, maybe some of the others my father flew are doing the same. Off to the FAA Aircraft Registry.

The FAA deregistered my dad’s solo mount, NC25152, a 1939 Luscombe 8A, SN 1076, on September 12, 2012. Its last home was Eldorado, Arkansas.

A pilot in Gilbert, Arizona, has reserved N25356. Before that, it identified a 1977 Cessna 152 in Greenville, Mississippi, that the FAA deregistered on January 22, 2013.

NC28450 is still a 1940 Luscombe 8A, SN 1317, and still carrying its fractional owners aloft in Elba, Alabama.

N28543 is a 1979 Piper PA-28-236 Dakota in Apex, North Carolina.

The FAA canceled the registration of NC28828, a 1940 Luscombe 8A, SN 1570, on July 23, 2009, which then called Atlanta, Georgia, home.

N28846 expired on November 12, 2013, and it identified a deregistered 1978 Grumman American AA-5B Tiger in Houston, Texas.

N28573 is assigned to a 1977 Grumman American AA-5B Tiger now flying in Savannah, Georgia.

The dream of flying an airplane my father once flew will remain just that, at least as far as the Luscombe 8A is concerned. Given my stature, I’m a cabin-filling control locks. But I can still hope that others might see this and share what information and or images they possess on the Iowa Airplane Company Luscombes with me and Ryan, who can be reached at Texas Tailwheel Flight Training.

If you enjoyed this story, why not SUBSCRIBE to JetWhine, if you haven’t already, and please share it with anyone who might find it interesting. — Scott Spangler, Editor