Wandering around the web . . . .

Who among us doesn't occasionally put our brain in neutral and just set out to poke here and there in the World Wide Web? I used to call it my electric fireplace, where I'd sit for hours staring at lights in a box.

Me auld buddy Dave must have been an influence - he wrote accompaniments to his daily dish of newspaper funnies that led me to, among others things, the music of Al Bowlly (go to Pandora and search for his channel), and a virtual cabinet of curiosities so varied and entertaining that I'd spend hour upon hour chasing the tendrils of information attached to them.

His latest prod toward web surfing was a reference to an American fighter pilot (fighter and pilot) named Frank Glasgow Tinker, who flew in the Spanish Civil War on the Republican side. A friend of Hemingway, among others, his was an action-packed life that ended in an apparent suicide at the age of 29, a result of too much boozing and PTSD. Google him and read the several biographical sketches. 

The Polikarpov I-16 "Mosca" flown by Tinker and used by him to shoot down the first ME-109b ever lost in combat

How I came up on the next subject was a diversion during a search for Frank Tinker's articles in The Saturday Evening Post. The first "GPS" addressed a need that still exists today, albeit without the modern conveniences of roads and road signs (and actual GPS). One was sold at a Skinner auction a few years back. I've never seen one.

The Post article can be found here:

http://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/2012/02/04/history/post-perspective/gps-1909.html

The web snags time and wrings the life out of it. Beware.

The CallAir's Status Report 2/24/2017

Have you ever really listened to Maurice Ravel's "Bolero"? All the way through? Really? In an abridged nutshell, it's a fairly extended musical buildup to a rousing finish. Ravel, being French, knew his stuff along those lines.

It's somewhat like that when you're waiting for an airplane restoration. 

Click on the pictures to make them bigger

The Wyoming bucking bronco on the tail is being redone to center it up and make it larger

I have tail feathers now, struts and bracing wires, interior, and a leak in the brake master cylinder. It's all good, according to Malcolm, because these things mean the last little bits are at the happening stage. 

The flying schedule is set in Jell-o: Sun-n-Fun in April (oops - not ready), the South Carolina Breakfast Club in May (nope - weather), Triple Tree in June (MADE IT!), Oshkosh in July (big disappointment - not enough test time), Homecoming to Afton WY in August (brake troubles), and the Antique Airplane Club of Greater New York in late August (nope), capped off with Triple Tree in September (weather). I make it to be about 75-80 hours' flying time after the post-restoration flight tests. Can't wait for the adventure to begin!

The CallAir - January 2017 - C.M. Wangs?

I had a particularly obnoxious friend who would tell and retell lame jokes, sometimes without taking a breath, and laugh every time at his rendition. Over and over. It's like watching today's pharmaceutical ads during the evening news. Having no talent at joke telling, or remembering for that matter, it surprised me that I recalled, nearly 50 years on, one of those annoying recitations and so now you are the beneficiary of my friend's largess. To duplicate his (re,re,re)telling, you must begin with a clean sheet of paper and write it out as you go, in an exaggerated Southern accent (he was from Massachusetts and his Southern accent was awful):

M R Ducks.
M R Not Ducks, M R Chickens.
M R 2 Ducks, C M Wangs?
L I B! M R Ducks!

I told you it was lame.

The wings are in place on the airplane, where they belong!

The best time to round up help is on a Friday when all the guys gather in preparation for lunch at Mary's Kountry Kitchen

Doesn't she look pretty in the Florida sun?

The paint scheme is as close to the original paint scheme as we could get, thanks to Major General Boyd Eddins (Ret), who worked at the CallAir factory as a teenager 

We're finally getting closer. Malcolm and Jonathan are fitting the center eyebrow next week (the part that goes between the wings and forms the upper windshield fairing) and, after measuring, the new windshield will be in the works.

I'm getting a little excited.

I Got Stripes

Malcolm said this was about 4 days worth of work to get the stripes just right.  

 The lettering within the stripe is just as it was when the airplane was new

 Careful masking makes sure the paint goes only where it is intended

Nice work! Note the Wyoming bucking bronco on the tail - the image is owned by the University of Wyoming and I made sure they were OK with my using it - all the CallAir airplanes displayed it when they were sent from the factory.

The CallAir Cadet Restoration - index of posts

Here it is, the first of 2017 and the full restoration of my airplane is just about done. Here is an index of all my posts about the CallAir Cadet. When I bought the airplane from Burt's family, I really had no idea what I was getting into. The airplane looked ok mechanically and I thought a simple recovering job might be it, but the more I looked into the history of the airplane, the more intrigued I became and, I have to admit, my heart got ahead of my head. But that's what I do. Same was true with the Bonanza I bought from a WWII Navy Ace, same was true with a couple of Cubs. Leave them better than you found them.

My own skills are just not up to scratch when it comes to projects like this - I have to leave it to professionals. 

So in chronological order:

Apr 2012: http://letsgofly.blogspot.com/2012_04_01_archive.html

Jun 2012: http://letsgofly.blogspot.com/2012/08/ok-what-now.html

Sep 2012: http://letsgofly.blogspot.com/2012/09/flying-callair.html

Dec 2012: http://letsgofly.blogspot.com/2012/12/overnight-to-warmer-climes.html

Oct 2013: http://letsgofly.blogspot.com/2013/10/on-your-mark.html

Oct 2013: http://letsgofly.blogspot.com/2013/10/a-little-history-before-we-cut-fabric_25.html

Nov 2013: http://letsgofly.blogspot.com/2013/11/the-call-aircraft-company.html

Nov 2013: http://letsgofly.blogspot.com/2013/11/the-callair-restoration-begins.html

Mar 2014: http://letsgofly.blogspot.com/2014/03/the-callair-progress-report.html

Apr 2014: http://letsgofly.blogspot.com/2014/04/serendipity.html

May 2014: http://letsgofly.blogspot.com/2014/05/untitled.html

Aug 2014: http://letsgofly.blogspot.com/2014/08/go-placidly-amid-noise-and-haste.html

Sep 2014:  http://letsgofly.blogspot.com/2014/09/meanwhile-back-at-airport.html

Dec 2014: http://letsgofly.blogspot.com/2014/12/time-do-fly.html

Nov 2015: http://letsgofly.blogspot.com/2015/11/update-on-callair-project-november-2015.html

Jan 2016:  http://letsgofly.blogspot.com/2016/01/january-2016-callair-progress.html

Feb 2016:  http://letsgofly.blogspot.com/2016/02/today-callair-update-feb-2016-pretty-in.html

Feb 2016:  http://letsgofly.blogspot.com/2016/02/callair-in-silver.html

Apr 2016:  http://letsgofly.blogspot.com/2016/04/old-yellers-coming-along.html

May 2016: http://letsgofly.blogspot.com/2016/05/malcolm-wizard-of-day.html

Jul 2016:   http://letsgofly.blogspot.com/2016/07/progress-is-just-that-and-thats-that.html

Jul 2016:   http://letsgofly.blogspot.com/2016/07/big-news-callair-is-closer-and-closer.html

Aug 2016: http://letsgofly.blogspot.com/2016/08/progress-on-callair-cadet-august-2016.html

Oct 2016:  http://letsgofly.blogspot.com/2016/10/its-october-2016-and-heres-latest-on.html

Nov 2016: http://letsgofly.blogspot.com/2016/11/the-end-of-november-2016-callair.html

We're pretty close now. All the parts have been cut out and fitted and painted and most have been secured in place. The windshield is the current Big Deal and that, hopefully, will be in place this month. Finding a replacement for a part that has been obsolete for 75 years, give or take, is a bit of a challenge but, fortunately, Malcolm has experience with fabricating things like this and so, one way or another, we'll have a new windshield.

I've quit forecasting a completion date. It'll be done when it's done.

50, now 75 Years Later

Some of my more ethereal friends over the years have placed great stock in the idea that we do not necessarily pass this  earthly plane once or even twice, more like a succession of times until we finally get "it" right. They seem pretty convinced; me, I don't know. I keep trying to get "it" right as I go this time around. That writ, I've found myself in some pretty interesting places in space-time.

There were glancing blows with the Great Beyond throughout my life, but a few stand out. 

In 1989, I happened to be The Expert (someone from out of town), flight training in Mexico. My students were very proficient pilots who had to log a few hours in the Gulfstream IV before receiving their Mexican type ratings on their licenses. One evening after toodling around to log some time, my first Mexican pilot in training, a fine fellow named Jose March, took me to a unique restaurant; a Polish establishment that was well known and later became even more so for catering Pope John Paul II's visits to Mexico. I like Polish food, having a Polish great-great-grandfather, so it was a treat to be there no matter who owned it.

The owner of the restaurant came around and chatted a bit, then the conversation got interesting; the owner learned we were pilots and revealed that he had flown during The War. He sent our waiter for a bottle of very good Polish vodka encased in a sleeve of ice and proceeded to tell us he would like to sit with us and celebrate the 50th anniversary of the day he was first shot down! I was stunned. The date was September 1, the day Poland was invaded to start World War II. We were face to face with a very special man.

Tadeusz Adam Podbereski, Flight Lieutenant, RAF

May 5, 1919 - May 14, 2006

Making his way to England, Podbereski was initially trained by the RAF on multi-engine airplanes, ostensibly to become a bomber pilot or navigator. The aircraft used was an Airspeed Ltd. AS-10 Oxford, designed by a company founded by a gent named Neville Shute Norway (later a writer of some renown under his pen name, Neville Shute. Possibly his most famous book was also a movie "On the Beach", an apocalyptic novel set, contemporarily, in the days of the cold war.) His Oxford training was apparently terminated after a really bad day in October, 1941, when he managed to damage an airplane on a night solo, landing just past midnight, then taxiing into a ditch just before midnight the same day. He transferred to single engine aircraft and was made a flight instructor.

Airspeed AS-10 Oxford

For his next adventure:

My translation of a Google translation of an entry in a Polish commemorative website: In the summer of 1942, as throughout the war, training at the Polish pilot primary school 16 (Polish) Service Flying Training School in Newton (UK) was going at full speed. On September 19, 1942, Tadeusz Podbereski was a flight instructor along with a student volunteer from the United States, Edmund (something). In flight, the wing of their airplane, a Master III (W8530), hit a tree and crashed on the White House Farm in the village of Colston Bassett, near Nottingham. The student was killed.  Podbereski survived, gravely injured. He was sent soon to East Grinstead and became one of the "guinea pigs".

Miles Master III

During our dinner (much of it liquid), I couldn't help but notice the diagonal scar across his face. Podbereski was one of the early subjects in the development of plastic surgery. The "guinea pigs" were a truly unique bunch of men, given wonderful support and special training to help them cope with, what were in the past, debilitating disfigurements. It must have worked; Podbereski survived at least three accidents/incidents during the war, emigrated to Canada where he became an engineer and participated in projects worldwide. On a fishing trip to Mexico he met and married a Mexican girl and moved to Mexico City. His restaurant, Mazurka, lives on as a testament to this truly remarkable man. (It's worth the trip, next time you're in Mexico City).

Moving right along

On September 15, 1990, I was on a Gulfstream trip to London and took the opportunity to visit the Battle of Britain Museum at RAF Hendon. The hall is filled with memorabilia, including a replica of the blackout board from The White Hart pub, signed by pilots based at Biggin Hill Aerodrome, quite possibly the busiest fighter base during the Battle. 

The blackout board was put over the windows of The White Hart at night - a practice all over England during the War. Group Captain Dickie Grice came up with the idea of signing his name on the board and told the landlady, Mrs. Preston (pictured above at a reunion after the War), "Don't let any but my men sign it." The board became an unofficial memorial when faces ceased to appear at the pub. It's now at the RAF Museum at Shoreham.

Looking through a coffee table book in that vicinity, an arm appeared next to my shoulder and at the end of that arm a finger pointed to a picture on the page. "You're looking at a picture of me!" the voice said. I turned and stood face to face with a man who introduced himself as Tony Bartley. I was stunned again. This made twice in just over a year that I could celebrate a 50th anniversary with men who, in their youth, had been my childhood heroes.

Anthony Bartley flew in 92 Squadron (Spitfires) during the Battle of Britain, then other postings. Coincidentally, I've just finished a book by a 92 Squadron mate, Geoffrey Wellum ("First Light") in which he mentions Bartley prominently. After the War, Bartley took a stint with Vickers-Armstrong as a test pilot and salesman, then turned to Hollywood. He was married, first, to the actress Deborah Kerr until 1958, then remarried another lady in the 1960s. He began writing and producing screenplays and films at the time he married Kerr. Bartley died in 2001 but left me with a brilliant memory of our sandwiches together at RAF Hendon on the 50th anniversary of the Battle of Britain.

Another day another anniversary

December 7, 1991. The 50th Anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. 

 

 I was based in Honolulu flying a G-IV, ironically, for a Japanese company. I made more than one trip to the USS Arizona Memorial while we lived in Hawaii - one of those a few days before the anniversary with my old pilot friend, Carlos, who was there on a layover with United Air Lines. You can take a virtual tour online but nothing can replace being there; seeing a post card written by a sailor from the Arizona and posted while he enjoyed a night on the town on December 6th (postmarked on the 8th when he was already dead) touched me with a keen poignancy that still gives me pause.

50, now 75 years on for the anniversaries of momentous events that have shaped my life. 

I was born between VE Day and VJ Day, 1945. My parents must have been optimistic in the fall of 1944 that the world would enjoy peace once again. Alas, people keep making the same mistakes over and over and we keep getting tangled up in wars. Maybe, if there is a next time around for me, we as a human race might learn something about how to live together. In the meantime, I hope there are a few who will stand up for what's right and good and noble so a future kid will have heroes like Podbereski and Bartley and their sort to look up to.

The End Of November 2016 CallAir Progress Report

What do you call a deer with no eyes?
     No eye deer

What do you call a dead deer with no eyes?
     Still no eye deer

When do you think you might get the CallAir out of the restoration shop?
     See above

The shirts are ready.
The hats are ready.
I found a hangar.

All I need is an airplane. C'mon guys.

It's October, 2016, and Here's the Latest on the CallAir Cadet

The frost hasn't quite made it to the pumpkin patch this third year of the CallAir restoration, but Malcolm and crew from Southern Aircraft Support in Zellwood FL are just about to organize a bumper crop of parts into a real live airplane!

 The engine has been installed and the sheet metal guru has formed and fitted the new cowlings - all that's needed are fasteners, prep work and paint.

The new 7.00x6 tires are mounted and ready. I had 6.00x6s on before and decided that I couldn't always count on nice smooth grass runways like Zellwood. That extra bit of diameter could make a difference in the real world of chuckholes and moguls.

Here's a look at the left wing, all painted up in its Federal Yellow color coat. Mr. Call liked yellow airplanes - they're easier to see in the air and easier to find when they're not.

 All in all, good progress. It won't be ready in time for the fall fly-in at Zellwood on the 29th but, as Malcolm says, it's getting closer.

Fall's colors are rapidly developing in the NC mountains - a perfect time for flying in my part of the world.

A reminder of my former life

Irland's Cub

For once I'm not a day late.

Click on the pics to see them full size

Irland has this wonderful Wag-Aero Cubby that was previously owned by another friend, Richard. The thing is, Irland has a full stable of airplanes and so decided to sell this one. We've been talking around this for a couple of months and now it's come to decision time. Last Saturday I got a chance to fly it - my first taste of a Cub in a couple of years and I'm just wishing it had been available before now.

 Clean? You could eat off any part of it. Richard is a very meticulous guy and kept it beautifully - Irland knows Cubs and it's in tip-top shape. The fuel system includes a mixture control for reasons to follow ...

Once, on a whim, Richard decided to fly his Cub to see the Pacific Ocean so he installed a supplemental fuel tank in the wing, enlisted a fellow enthusiast and launched forthwith on a great adventure. The mixture control enabled them to ask the most power available from the Continental A-65 as they crossed the high ground that stands between the east and west coasts.

The Cubby is an experimental airplane, built from plans. An improvement, many would agree, over the standard production Piper Cub is the use of a trim tab on the elevator rather than a jackscrew-adjustable stabilizer trim system.

All in all, a very nice airplane and one I'd love to own. If the CallAir weren't so close to completion, I'd buy it. Whoever does will have a good one.

Ain''t nothin better

Triple Tree !

When you need an aviation boost, go somewhere that lives and breathes it and the people are friendly, the skies clear, and the runways are like a golf course.

Bring a tent - you can stay up late that way and you don't have to drive to some cushy, air-conditioned place with color TV. This is only a fraction of the campers - there were many RVs, pop-ups and motor homes.

Click on the pictures to get a full size view

I only took pictures at one end of the field ... to get a full picture of this wonderful place and their noble mission, go to:

http://www.tripletreeaerodrome.com/index.php

For me, the best part is catching up with old friends and making new ones ... Chuck was there with his Interstate Cadet, Jack drove up from Florida as did Gary and Dick, denizens of Hobby Hill airport, near Weirsdale.

Chuck's Cadet cowling - I'm doing comparisons

 The Cadet, me, Jack and Chuck

 Three happy guys ... The day was perfect.

 The City of Monroe NC sponsors this C-46 ... crew are all current or former airline pilots

If ever a fellow needed incentive to get his airplane in the air, this is it. Find a fly-in near you or, better yet, organize one. There's nothing like it to relight the spark.