Ken Kotik Memorial

We went to Ken Kotik's Airport Memorial Service last night. Ken was a fairly well-known aviation artist and owned a L-4B Cub. I think Ken would have liked this composite picture as he was doing a series similar to this photo. His series was called "Flights of Faith" as he was a very religious man. The sky is unretouched as a storm was approaching.

My Cub

Picture taken in December 1976 of our Cub.

The Cub

I really didn’t want another airplane. I had a Fairchild 24R that I co-owned with Al Stix, a local businessman and antique airplane collector. That airplane was basically mine as he and I were the only ones on the insurance and he never flew it. I’ll always be grateful to him for making it possible to have a great airplane like the Fairchild. And I couldn’t really afford it at the moment as I had lost my job the previous January. I did have a bit of income coming in from contract flying though and I had just interviewed for a “real” job. And if that one didn’t work out, I rationalized, I could write stories about flying my two airplanes much as Richard Bach had done in the 1960’s. Or at least I thought I could.

November niner-two, six-three-zero was built in October of 1946. She left the Lock Haven factory painted as most Cubs were, Cub-yellow with a black lightening bolt down both sides. She started life as a trainer up in Ames, IA.

My family would be her 5th owners. I had known the previous owner since 1973 as he was a friend of my dads. He had recovered the airplane twice, rebuilt the engine a couple of times and the best part was he had let the airplane sit outside all of eight nights in that 25 years period. He had taken a path away from the Cub when she bent a rocker arm in 1996. Now he was into old cars and tractors and although he had the cylinders for her engine, he had never had them on the airplane.

My son said “I’ve always wanted a Cub.” There wasn’t anything that he didn’t “always want” so I took that as being it would hold his interest for a couple nights…maybe. I had taken him for a Cub ride when he was 4, but he didn’t remember it. My daughter was too young to voice an opinion either way. My wife needed convincing and for this I turned to two friends for help. Both had had antique airplanes for years and were very knowledgeable about the ways to convince wives as well as how to take care of the little, sometimes cantankerous ( a certain red-and-crème Fairchild 24 that will remain nameless! ) but always full of adventure beasts. One friend, Glenn Peck, I had known for about 15 years. He and I always flew to Oshkosh together, me in whatever I owned at the time and he in one of the Historic Aircraft Restoration Museum (of which he was Director of Maintenance) airplanes. Glenn owned a Porterfield and a Stinson SR-5 and had rebuilt about 30 tube-and-fabric airplanes as well as performing untold annuals, Major Repairs or Alterations (Form 337) and several quick fixes. And that’s just on my planes! He had grease under his nails older and more experienced than me so I trusted his judgment. The other, Andy Kisela, flew Corporate for a firm in Detroit. He had a Commonwealth Skyranger, a Stinson 108, a de Havilland Tiger Moth and a couple other assorted airplanes cluttering up his garage and hangar. They both said the same thing. “If you can get it cheap enough, restore it and fly it, you’ll never lose any money. If you have to sell it, it will sell right away as a good Cub is always in demand. It’ll be a great father-and-son bonding project, the two of you can recover it, learn it inside and out to where you know every single piece, every single nut and bolt. It’s something Skyler (my son ) will treasure for ever. “

It would need a little work. New tires and tubes, the engine case was on the mount but the cylinders were off. I didn’t even ask about the mags or carb because my friend told me it all was there, sitting on a cement floor, covered in dirt, but in its hangar. The wings were covered in Stits and the fuselage in ceconite, both having been done in the early 1990’s.

“How could I lose?” I thought to myself. “I’ve known the airplane and its owner for as long as I could remember. It’s a Cub-the perfect training airplane and one that won’t cost an arm and a leg to go fly for thirty minutes every evening. “

What sealed the deal was when Glenn said he would supervise/help/tutor Skyler and myself during the rebuild.

She said yes. Just tell her if I needed to get anything expensive (which to her means over $5) before I bought it. It was a good investment, both monetarily and emotionally. I called my friend later that morning and said I’d take the aircraft. He was relieved. The airplane was going to a good home at a place where there were people who knew how to take care of her and who would fly her.

I now owned a Cub.

Liquid Gold

The Ranger engine in the Fairchild uses oil. It loves oil. The joke amoung Fairchild owners is when you land, you check the gas and top the oil. It was designed with loose tolerances to be run with 60-weight oil. Any lesser weight oil and the engine starts losing oil pressure after an hour. 60-weight is impossible to find at any FBO, you have to take it with you. I buy oil by the 55 gallon drum. Every oil change takes 5 gallons. A drum lasts about 5 years with the amount of flying I'm doing. Even so, with the dramatic increase of the price of crude, the direct operating cost of the airplane has skyrocketed.

Here Skyler pours some of the liquid gold into a gallon container so we can put it in the airplane.

Creve Couer Remote-Control Flying Club (CC RC FC)

A few of the guys go out when the sun gets low and the winds die down to fly Remote Control airplanes. Most of these planes are the Park Zone (tm) Cub and Super Cub, but there is one T-28. Two of the guys were into flying before, so they have the gas powered planes.

Sky has graduated from the Air Hogs Aero Aces (tm) and is learning to fly a Super Cub. He's holding his own in the flying and having fun hanging out with the guys.

Whatever happened to the Barnstormers?

My family went to Jefferson City, MO today to visit the Barnstormers on their last stop. It was like seeing old friends although I had met many of them just 10 days previous.

The weather was cool, windy but felt good.

When the CAA introduced Licensing of Pilots and Planes in the late 1920's, it all but put an end to the barnstormers. But what did these pilots do over a winter? If they broke down and couldn't get parts? I bet many barnstormers did it a season and then had to find work, either in the mail service or settle down and get a "decent" job.

I was thrilled to be a part of the 2008 Tour. I hope to do it again.

Top-Chris Price does a TV interview.

Middle-Gary Lust with his Travel Air 4000

Bottom-Frank Flanagan and Clay Adams.

Flying the Zenith

Glenn Peck banks the 1929 Zenith Z6a during a photo-shoot Monday.

Curtiss JN-4C Canuck and De havilland Dh-4 fly together!

The Historic Aircraft Restoration Museum's Curtiss/Canadian JN-4C Canuck and their De havilland Dh-4 flew the first time together Saturday June 21st. This marks the first time since probably the late 1920's that both of these aircraft were in the air at the same time. Glenn Peck flew the Dh while Al Stix had the honors in the Canuck. Terry Chastain flew me in his Rawdon to take the picture.