Alex in Treasure Land

Imagine that you have been given a gift so wonderful and so magical that you could spend all your days in the pure enjoyment of it … then imagine that your gift brings enjoyment to other people, makes a difference in their lives, gives purpose and pleasure and (in some cases) direction. You love to share your gift and, in sharing, your gift becomes a gift to others.

Now let’s say that your gift is partly a talent – a talent for creating pictures on canvas or paper in oil paints or acrylics or pencil and you spent six years teaching art to high school students at Oak Ridge High School in Orlando, Florida. Your students loved you and when a local defense contractor ran a contest, you entered a rendering of the Space Shuttle that blew away all competition. The company thought so much of your work that they offered you a job doing something you really love to do – creating pictures on canvas or paper with oils or acrylics or pencil.

Now let’s say your gift is also partly a gift of flight which developed into a lifelong love of airplanes and especially antique airplanes and let’s say your name is Richard E. Thompson and you channeled some of your artistic skill into the mysteries of metalwork and woodwork that brought life to eight old airplanes and helped bring to life more than that. On top of an impressive resume of tangible accomplishment in the worlds of art and airplanes, Rick Thompson has a love of history and the love of a patriot for his Country.

This brings me to Rick’s discovery of a 1934 Fairchild Model 24 C8C in Soldotna, Alaska, where it had been stored as a project since 1995. Alaska is a good place to restore an airplane because it gets real dark and real cold during the long winter months, an ideal environment for a long-term airplane restoration (preferably indoors). There are also a lot of resourceful airplane people in Alaska who know how to make parts and put things back in working order. The Fairchild eventually became an impractical idea as a bush restoration and so in 2008 Rick was able to buy it after 21 years of service, then 53 years as a derelict.

The airplane didn’t look anything like the picture above (of a restored C8C at the Hiller Museum in San Carlos CA) when Rick found it. It was, in that coded parlance of optimists, a “basket case” … bits and pieces collected for the purpose of reassembly but, for Rick and his historian’s sensitivity, the airplane has a story; once owned by a timber company in Idaho and used to keep tabs on the many and various lumber camps that were its domain. One of the airplane’s duties involved the transportation of the payroll to the camps. The workers were paid in gold, so a special compartment was built into the floor of the airplane to carry the payroll – more about this later. A freak windstorm caught the airplane on the ground and flipped it on it back, crushing the rudder, rudder post and doing significant damage to the right wing. It hasn’t flown since 1955. Its journey to Alaska was via one Ed “Skeeter” Carlson of Spokane, WA, who had once flown the airplane and who bought the wreck from the timber company in 1960. Skeeter and the man from Alaska, Frank Hinrikson ... Both very well known and highly skilled in aircraft restoration ... got busy on other projects and did not have time to begin restoration on the C8C. Rick found an opportunity to exercise his talents and skills and so a deal was struck, the parts catalogued, containerized and shipped by sea and train and land to Zellwood, Florida, where it was unloaded, re-catalogued and laid out for further evaluation in preparation for restoration.

Rick doesn’t live all that close to Zellwood and the 60+ mile, hour + drive each way became a drag on the project. Enter friends – always welcome but especially so when it comes to a multi-year commitment to bring life back to an old airplane. Some space was found closer to home, so the Fairchild was loaded on a flatbed truck, parts were gathered and moved to the neighborhood of dreams – Orlando (home of Disney World, Universal Studios, swampland salesmen and alligators, reptilian and human). Dreams are made and discarded minute by minute in this environment but as a Floridian Rick has seen enough of schemes to know which are real and which aren’t. The Fairchild is real and taking shape piece by restored or rebuilt piece.

If you are going to rebuild a 1934 Fairchild 24 C8C, you find very quickly there is a LOT of woodwork to be done. It probably helps to meet someone at a family funeral who turns out to be a cousin who also happens to make violins in his spare time! Enter Tim Bandy – cousin, new friend and violinmaker – and you now have a couple of artisans at play.

Oh, and while you’re at it, it REALLY HELPS A LOT if you have a wonderful wife and partner - Rose - who happens to have an artist’s hands and skills with needle and thread and fabrics (and who is interested – really interested – in her husband’s aviation affliction). She also makes a great lunch. From left to right, Tim, Rose and Rick take a minute’s break to pose for history. Rick’s sons, Scott and John, were also there when I visited. This is truly a family affair. Adding to the picture, Tim and Rick had heard the same story from their respective sides of the family – that they are distant cousins of none other than Amelia Earhart. Yes friends, this is a real story.

Enter my best friend of over 50 years, David Tooker, shown above inspecting the woodwork, who met Rick when they were teaching at Oak Ridge. David’s father owned the Silver Springs (Fla) Air Park from the fifties to the seventies. I pedaled my ’57 Schwinn six miles to hang around there in the low-raftered building, listening to pilots talk about their wartime and peacetime flying experiences. Every now and then if I hung around long enough, they’d let me get them a beer from the refrigerator or wash their airplanes. David introduced Rick and me at the Sun-n-Fun Fly-In at Lakeland several years ago but it was a glancing blow and it wasn’t until yesterday’s visit that I knew much about Rick. David had been telling me about the Fairchild project but hadn’t seen it for himself. We thought the airplane was still at Zellwood (a PERFECT reason to fly the Bonanza) but as it turned out, the airplane had been moved last year to Orlando, an easy drive for both of us.

There is a lot of new wood in Rick’s airplane and a fair amount of old wood, considering the age and itinerary of the parts and pieces. Rick strives to keep the airplane as original as possible, so if a part can be reconditioned, it is. The steel tube frame (which Rose glass bead blasted) is finished with 2-part epoxy. Only one small section of lower tubing had to be replaced due to having burst from water freezing – overall, the metal is in remarkably good shape.

The spruce stringers are finished with 4 coats of 2-part epoxy varnish and provide aerodynamic and aesthetic contour to the slab-sided steel tube frame.

Each stringer was produced in one piece from 1”X 7” X 22’ spruce boards, routed to shape matching the 1934 samples found in the airframe. Each was then catalogued and notes were made about the position of knots or other imperfections so that when a stringer was selected for installation, its eventual position on the airplane was predetermined. Such is the level of intense planning and preparation that goes into Rick’s restoration.

There are a lot of brass nails and straight slotted screws that go into an antique airplane that is largely made of wood!

The fore and aft stringer bulkheads are faced with oak to provide additional strength.

Entertainment is provided by a vintage Philco AM-Shortwave radio. The clock hands didn’t move while I was there – time stood still.

… Rick relies on his quite workable iMac for pictures and handwritten notes on kraft paper.

Remember the “gold box” that the timber company built into the floor of the airplane for the payroll? Skeeter asked Rick if he was going to keep the gold box under the 3^rd seat and, of course, he did. The early F-24s were originally 3-place airplanes; as is this model. Later models with larger engines were 4-place airplanes.

While cleaning the oil tank, Rick found this cap and cleaned it up … all ready for 3 gallons of Gargoyle Mobil Oil to keep the 145 horsepower Warner Super Scarab purring along.

I didn’t want to leave Rick’s corner of the world but David and I had eaten their food and distracted him, Rose, Tim, Scott and John long enough. It was a pleasure to meet them all and to be introduced to “Amelia”, as the Fairchild is to be named.

A few notes of interest:

The first owner of the Fairchild was the father of astronaut and U.S. Senator from Utah, Jake Garn. Jake’s first airplane ride could have easily been in this airplane!

Rick’s other restoration projects included a Ryan PT-22 (winner of “Best Primary Trainer” trophy at the first Sun-n-Fun Fly-In … a North American AT-6 (winner of “Best Trainer” at Sun-n-Fun) , Aeronca Champ and Chief … a DeHavilland Tiger Moth (“Best Primary Trainer” at Sun-n-Fun), a DH 100 Vampire jet, and a highly polished 1946 Cessna 140!

Some of Rick’s paintings can be seen at http://therichardethompsongallery.com/

More on the Fairchild 24 can be found at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairchild_24

Fly safe …

Alex

Flying on a different scale ...

What better thing to do on a beautiful spring day than take a ride to Triple Tree Aerodrome at Woodruff, South Carolina, for the Joe Nall model airplane meet? Campers, motor homes, airplane trailers of all description, size and length make this journey every year - it's truly the premier meet for model enthusiasts from all over the world.

Once you drive down the tree-lined serpentine driveway and reach the parking areas, it's a short walk to the first of (on my day there) four flight lines: Show Central where most of the really giant scale models show their stuff, The floatplane lake just down the hill, the 3-D area where the really radical dudes and dudettes make airplanes do things that airplanes can't do, and the all-electric area.

The runways are all grass. By grass, I mean like a huge putting green grass. You can see in the picture above where the good stuff starts and it just goes and goes. Come fall when the full-size airplanes arrive for the Triple Tree Fly-In, there had better be some really good landings to keep this beautiful surface intact!

Looking north from Show Central, the lines of airplanes consisted of aerobatic machines for the most part ...

...Looking South from Show Central, there were airplanes as far as the eye could see, all beside that immaculately manicured runway ...

Even Harry was there with his Champ!

This FlyBaby pilot is catching up on some rest after a very long cross-country ...

Further down the line you can catch a glimpse of the floatplane lake and more and more airplanes. By the time we got there over 800 pilots had signed up to fly at the event!

I really like some of the paint schemes - these builders and finishers use a variety of methods, the most popular being actual paint and vinyl appliques.

Both of the above are painted ... the quality of finish work is just remarkable.

Take this L-4 for example ... from the miniature AN cowling clips ...

... to the ribstitching, this airplane was very nicely done and the attention to detail astonishing.

Stu was there in the Cub, of course ... though I can't say I'm all that fond of the trim paint he's put on the tail. Makes it go faster, I guess ... the radical elevator throw is just perfect for practicing his English Bunts.

Son John took this picture of me behind a B-36 just like my cousin-uncle Claude used to fly. Colonel Claude just flew west and it was almost like having him there. This model flew during the midday show and sounded just great.

The featured attraction at the midday show was this 20' wingspan B-29, complete with a Bell X-1 ... and, yes, they drop the X-1 and, yes, it does have a rocket motor which they fire off and, yes, it does climb like a bat out of hell ... The B-29 is a magnificent piece of work.

Cory even showed up with his Spacewalker (although he's made it into a Spacewalker I)

This "razorback" P-47 was a real performer!

Colonel cousin-uncle Claude taxis by on his way for takeoff ...

There is a night show as well ... this airplane is outlined in tiny LED lights - pretty visible even in the bright midday sun.

When Fritts decided to call it a day, so did I ... what a fantastic day at the Joe Nall. For a lot more info and a lot more pictures, videos, etc. try googling Joe Nall model airplane or:

www.joenall.com

The next event is the Western North Carolina Air Fair, June 5-6, 2010. Be there or be square.

Fly safe!

The Towbar Rig

This "invention" is born of necessity. Actually it's not much of an invention at all, since there are many towbars out there that could do the job. It's just that they are either part, or some or none of the things I wanted. All the thing had to do was make it easier for me to push the Bonanza slightly uphill and over a door track to get it back in the hangar.

The little units that have a gas or electric motor mounted on a single wheel with forks that clamp onto the front axle are really nice but they are expensive! The reason they are expensive is that they're for moving AIRPLANES. Any thing that has AIRPLANE attached to it is expensive. What I did was scrounge up a riding lawnmower ($325 on Craig's List) some adapters from a friend for my axle ($60), a hitch socket from Harbor Freight ($12.95), and thin-wall steel square tubing ($180, including welding). It comes out to about 1/3 the cost of a purpose-built AIRPLANE towmotor AND I can always earn a couple of extra bucks for flying by mowing grass!

Taking the "ail" out of "aileron" and other good stuff

First, let's take a look at a little airport that can, and does.

Williston, Florida, is a little town located southwest of Gainesville and northwest of Ocala. They have lots of nice, rolling land there which is great for growing crops, cattle, horses and families. They also have an airport, left over from World War II when the government paved a lot of Florida for training bases and antisubmarine patrols. X60 is the identifier.

The city fathers and mothers decided that the airport would be great for growing pine trees and today the renewable pine tree stands pay a handsome dividend for the city. Fortunately, the city Fs and Ms also decided to keep the runways and have improved upon the airport mightily over the past year. New hangars, a new FBO building with all the bells and whistles, a good maintenance shop and a terrific interior shop are all located on the property. I had the interior of my Bonanza done there last year and also had new windows installed by the maintenance shop.

All the improvements will be showcased on March 27, 2010, at the Williston Airport Fly Festival. Click on the picture to get a larger, more readable copy.



I had an opportunity to stop in on my way from home base to North Carolina last week and lo and behold the new airport restaurant is open! While the city owned FBO pumped some fairly priced fuel (3.89 on March 19th), I had some breakfast ....

Carol Bibby (picture below) has a real gem of a place ... they're open for breakfast and lunch every day from 6am-4pm and Friday night they stay open for dinner until 9pm. It's about 200 feet from the FBO, so it's an easy stroll and if the weather is right and you're so inclined you can eat under the outside cover and watch airplanes or spin yarns or whatever.

Here's that picture of Carol. I told her my vast readership would make her famous.

Onward:

When I bought the Bonanza, the right aileron was warped. I knew it at the time ... the airplane flew well enough with it like that but it was a condition I wanted to fix down the road. I began looking around for a replacement last year and finally settled on a rebuilt part through a company I had done business with in the past - Select Airparts of Weyers Cave VA. Select is proof positive of the notion that if you do good work and treat people fairly you can succeed in business even from the boondocks. Long story short, Jay shipped my replacement and Jeff painted and installed it and now I have an airplane that is more stable and a tick or three faster due to drag elimination.

One thing fixed, a few more to go ...

I'm finally in a hangar at my home base of Clearwater Airpark (FL). The hangar is one of the "old ones" that the city relocated from the other side of the field when they found out that golf courses are more popular with politicians than airports. We have golf balls bouncing on the runway all the time (grrrr), but God bless rust - that's the glue that binds these tin boxes together. Long story short - the maintenance on these hangers is nonexistent so the hangar tenants do what we can to try to keep all the parts in alignment. Any attempt to refurbish is promptly rebuffed but we soldier on, fixing here, patching there. On the plus side, it's a great place for hanging out with other dispossessed souls, tinkering with flying machines, etc, and as a side benefit it keeps the airplane out of the Florida sun and wind, which we get a lot of here by the Gulf coast.

One bugaboo I have is that the interior walls of these "T" hangars don't go all the way to the roof, leaving quite a space at the top open for carrying paint overspray, dust, motes of rust, etc from one neighbor to another. A lot of the tenants have closed off these openings in years gone by - mine hasn't been updated, so I'm in the process of doing that, painting the metal walls and eventually will seal the old asphalt floor. The city actually gave me 10 gallons of sealer but a neighbor who has refurbed three of these hangars says that won't go far. (So that's my first rant in a long time and I feel better now.)

Furthermore:

The apron to my new/old hangar slopes a little so that I have to enlist help when pushing the airplane in by hand. There had to be a better way, so I channeled my farmer friend Leland from North Carolina and began cogitating upon the problem and possible solutions thereto. I knew I wanted a towmotor of some kind but the pretty ones cost about 1500 smackers by the time they arrive in Florida with shipping and all. One of the fellows at the Table of Knowledge in Clearwater suggested a riding lawnmower for propulsion and a listing on Craigslist filled that bill ... then I began looking around at towbars. The kind I decided on goes for about $260 from two companies so another suggestion took me over to a steel fabrication shop a couple of blocks from my hangar and I had them weld up my towbar for me. My neighbor, Ron, precision-drilled for the adjusting pins and retaining bolts and we hooked everything up last week -- worked like a charm. My total investment is about a third the cost of the high-priced rig. Pictures may follow.

So that's the story of a great little airport, ailing ailerons, hungover hangars and airplane pushers and pullers so I'm signing off for this month. It's time to dust off the airplane and do a little FLYING!!!

Dope(s) and Fabric

First on this month's list is Bill's new-old Comanche! Hot diggety! We flew together one day last week and enjoyed it a lot. This is a great machine! Bill has plans for paint and some other goodies which will make it even better. Congratulations!



Bill and Stu picked the best day in a couple of weeks to fly from Fla to New York. At 7,500 feet most of the way the air was smooth as glass.

Bill, Stu and Gino ready to launch the Comanche for the trip to New York.

Next, I signed up for a refresher course in fabric covering at Orlando (where all the snowbirds like to go in February) and it was COLD and WET the first day - like to have frozen in that unheated hangar on Saturday ... it was a little warmer on Sunday. The turnout was good (16 for the fabric workshop) and we got some very good hands-on instruction. Bob's hangar was a great place to learn too, but my last and only lesson was several years ago and I forget stuff like ribstitching and tapes and things like that.

The workshops are put on by EAA through http://sportair.com ... the courses are varied and many and taught by excellent instructors.

I finally got the Bonanza in a hangar at CLW and will have some fun fixing the space up the way I want it.

Fly safe!

..

-Alex-

Gino's Charles Taylor Master Mechanic Award

It was really nice to get a call from Bill to come out to the Clearwater Airpark and have a piece of cake to celebrate Gino's award from the FAA ... Bill drove down from New York especially for the event! (He helped his daughter move, too)

Ed and Bill flew over from Wellington for the festivities and we attended a catered luncheon at Big Fred's House of Boeuf right up the street.

Of course the first comment went along the lines of "who put the Monkey in 'Monkey Wrench'"

All kidding aside, there aren't too many of these given out. The award is named, of course, for the Wright Brothers' mechanic. Gino says he (Gino) taught him (Taylor) everything he knew. I can vouch for his workmanship after he wrought a miracle in Butyrate on my Cub. Rumor has it he knows how to fly, too.

Fortunately, somebody took a picture of the cake before I got there ... there wasn't much left.

The price of annual inspections just went up.

New Year's Day 2010

What could be better on a New Year's Day than to go flying with a friend?
Craig and Stu launch the Cub for a spin about the patch, so to speak.

Then, what to their wondering eyes should appear but Bill and the Bird! The same Bill who complains that the downwash from the upper wing goes right down the back of his neck in 80 degree weather, goes flying with ICE on the Great South Bay! Note: the front cockpit is EMPTY.

Steve and the Fleet were flying too but I don't have a picture as evidence.

The outer shoreline - no sun worshippers today.

There are stories of intrepid airmen who have landed on ice that forms in the bay but it didn't happen in the 14 years I was there. Global warming, I guess.

My hat's off to these guys who celebrate the fun of flying as often as possible, even when it's a bit chilly.

Mountain Flying

The finest moments spent are those in the company of good people, or in a good place. There are few places that can compare with the company of my family in the mountains I love, in a good airplane and on a perfect day.

I have a lot to be thankful for.

-Alex-

Triple Tree Fly-In 2009

This was my first trip to Triple Tree. What a place!

I didn't know if this was a travel trailer and motorhome park ...

A fishing hole ... (they were biting - catch and release)

An airport ....

A manicured golf course ...

... or a family park (kids and pets welcome if they're managed).

The answer is, it's all these things (well, maybe not the golf part) and quite an accomplishment for the owners.

Take a look at their web site: www.tripletreeflyin.com

Now, if the weather would only cooperate. The fly-in runs from Wednesday through Sunday; I was there on Friday and that turned out to be the only decent day - it rained cats and dogs all the rest of the time. Same thing happened last year.

This is a must-do next year.

Fly safely ...

One door closes - Another door opens

First off ... farewell to Champ! I really enjoyed the airplane during this past year. When I bought Champ (see May 2008 post) I was going through an awful case of taildragger withdrawal, having sold the Cub to friends at Bayport Aerodrome on Long Island. It would have been along way to commute to fly a share of the Cub so I bought Champ to retire to the NC mountains. Then I got bitten by an open cockpit bug. Dadgum bugs, they just seem to keep biting!

Champ Taxis out on one of its last flights at Hendersonville NC ...

There was a fellow at Hendersonville back in the day named Jesse Anglin who, it turned out, designed some really nifty airplanes. He was in good company. A couple of other Hendersonville residents were well known airplane people in their own right - Matty Laird, Leighton Collins, Oscar Meyer (not the hot dog guy) ... Anyway, the story goes, Jesse took a ride with my friend Chet in his PT-19, enjoyed it immensely, and set out to design a homebuilt airplane with the same wind-in-your-hair feeling he had in the PT-19. The result was the Spacewalker. It was a single seat airplane that was built with toughness in mind. A friend in the model airplane business - again, it is said - asked Jesse about a 2-seat version and the Spacewalker II was born

Voila! The Spacewalker II !

Cory and I talked back and forth for several months - he had to quell a family insurrection ... the kids didn't want to see the Spacewalker go! I can imagine. This is an airplane designed for fun .

Unfortunately, it wasn't designed for my long legs. The airplane is just terrific but when I went to get inside I was all squnched up ... by wiggling around I could get in - barely - but couldn't get my feet to work the rudder pedals properly and heels far enough back to use the brakes. I sat in that airplane and was so disappointed. (Cory said he wasn't heartbroken and wrote later that he'd put over an hour on the airplane a couple of days after I left.)

So I keep looking. There is another airplane out there with my name on it.

P.S. If you're ever in south Louisiana near Lake Charles, go to D.I.'s Cajun Restaurant. The food and family are just wonderful.

www.discajunrestaurant.biz