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The 1974 Oshkosh charts took up the entire living room floor!
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Across ‘The Rocks’ approaching the Golden Windermere Trench. |
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At St Andrews, Tony’s old RCAF instructor George Clark, watches Tony preflight Bessy. The Mooney nearby is loading up for Oshkosh. |
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Bessy arrives at the EAA Warbirds of America ramp, Oshkosh 74. |
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Bessy’s Crew Quarters and Delta HQ at Oshkosh 74. The Warbirds briefing tent is across the fence, and Warbirds of America Headquarters Shack beyond. A visitor awaits assistance.
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Delta’s HQ ingenious combined Tent, Notice board, and patio. |
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A rare radial engined Cub arrives at the convention. |
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The immaculate Pietenpol model B Ford engine installation. |
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Tony & Bessy , left, ready to go for the Warbird Air Show. |
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Big Paul Poberezny’s shirt sleeve arrival in his superb North American P-64, a surprisingly close cousin of the Harvard/T-6 series. |
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The Mary and Sue Parish are thrilled with the gathering at Lake Lawn. |
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Tony admires the Hickey ‘Irish Air Force’ Replica Plans SE5a |
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Tony taxies the Hickey SE5a for the daily Fly-By circuit.
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Pretend WW1 Pilot’s view of Oshkosh from the Replica SE5a. |
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The Mary and Tony wish you a Happy New Year from the Delta Heritage Air Park Briefing Room in the Old Coffee Shoppe. |
The last page
It’s a strange moment for an old guy to reach the last page in his pilot log. This cannot be! …How come it’s held together with bits of crackelly sticky tape, twice as thick as it used to be, and what’s all the bumf stuffed between the pages?
Surely I only got it a few months ago at flight School, so why’s it so tatty and held together by a couple of perished rubber bands? Currie Field, was it? Last week? 1953? Sigh!
So the comfy flying world I know ends in 15 more lines! Barely enough to get me to Oshkosh. Maybe I’ll pinch some pages from Mary’s book and stick ‘em in? This must be the popular mid-life crisis I’ve heard about? Oh oh! I feel nostalgia coming on. Sigh!
FINDING BESSY…
Since 1969, I’d been flying around Pitt and Delta in Canucks, One fifties, Turbi’s and the J-5. I’d discovered Chapter 85 EAA and been drawn in to the intense world of homebuilding and Fly-Babies, Jodels, Volksplanes and the like. They were a great bunch of guys. Delta Air Park was in it’s Hey-Day, and the excitement was catching.
I met Mary, and she was as keen as I. We put a lot of work in trying to restore a vintage Waco Cabin, but were beaten by the logistics. I was nostalgic about all the Harvards about the place, so Mary said, “If that’s what you want, let’s get one!”
It’s a long story, but in the blink of a 1971 eye, we bought Bessy off the Delta Airpark owner, Darmel Diston,.
I could barely believe it. A bit scruffy, but all the bits were there, and they worked! What more can a guy want?
Before long the grungy paint was stripped, the engine peered at, and a lovely new Delta Air Force paint scheme bloomed under the skills of Eldon Bauer and Del Hearndon. She was beautiful!
We took a trip ‘Across the Rocks’ to Airdrie, to the inaugural Western Warbirds meet, then flew up to Penhold to show Mary where I earned my wings, and flew round the old farmhouse that held all the lovely Pierce girls back in ’53.
We drove out, the dear old couple made us tea, then sent us off to see the girls as they were now on their own farms.
SO NOW WHAT?
The big talk at the club was Oshkosh, Mecca for those who fly for fun. The previous year Big Dan and Gogi had caused a sensation there with their inspired Replica WW 1 SE5a’s.
Now, apparently, everyone planned to go. They might not actually go, but they planned to, and we caught the excitement.
New plane, new paint, sweet engine… We would GO!
The sheer volume of charts overwhelmed us. A set each. Mary The Navigator complained she saw nothing from the back anyway. Her big job at lift-off was to set her clock to ‘noon’, thus providing an instant ‘time in the air’ check, a calculation I’d earlier found impossible across time zones and all, after a couple of hours behind Bessy’s big radial.
To avoid grounding by zealous control towers, simply because we contacted them on 121.5, the most useful of our 60 watt, ten channel ex-military radio. It conveniently splashed over a couple of freqs either way for an effective but iffy 50 channels.
However, one foggy day at Boeing Field, after some argy-bargy with their tower, they wouldn’t let me leave, and Mary had to catch the bus home. So, for the Big Trip, I borrowed a BaySide 90 channel, so-called portable from my friend Ed ‘The Zeke’ Zaleski at Airplane Supply.
I managed to cram it down between the seat and the trim panel behind the flap lever. Apart from the minor inconvenience of switching plugholes to speak to my navigator. “Sorry Dear, I gotta unplug for a bit, …Click!” It worked most places except St. Andrews, which had a hump or something between the tower and the button of 04. …
Anyway, after loading our orange Pup Tent, sundry poles, suitcases, oil, water, a bunch of ‘what if’ food, curly tie downs, axe, purses and all, we were ready to go. We figured 10 hours in the air, and a couple of days.
OSHKOSH OR BUST…
The planned route was Delta, Airdrie, Regina, St. Andrews, U.S. customs at International Falls, and Oshkosh. We called my old RCAF instructor, George Clark, in Winnipeg, and he was so excited he phoned all the towers enroute to ask if we’d been through yet. “He’s my old student, you know!”
He met us at St. Andrews in his trendy plaid pants. Mary said we looked a right pair, jumping up and down, slapping, hugging and shouting.
We went flying next day, and he tearfully confirmed he hadn’t lost his touch. Dear old George. He still mourned being let go from the Air Force, with all the other surplus pilots. He was now a sales rep for Bolls Liqueurs. Sigh.
A Mooney nearby loaded up for Oshkosh, and we passed a few words. Checking the registration today in my 1975 Aircraft Registry as I write, I see the owner of CF- NIM was some guy called John Davidson.
ENQUIRE WITHIN…
After some radio mish-mash with the tower, we eventually got away to International Falls, and a fascinating flight it was, devoid of the any real road grid navigation system. We quickly learned about Lakes of the Woods and other identical landmarks. Thankfully, after an hour, the Falls showed up, and we were efficiently cleared into the Great America.
We were thrilled to speak with a chap with a P47 Jug traveling to the fly-in. He’d be there quicker than us! But after a mere two hours we actually landed at the hallowed Whitman Field. Unbelievable. The marshals efficiently ushered us along to the Warbirds area and there we were!
After signing in, we lugged our tent and stuff over the fence looking for a camp spot. It was all rather daunting. A big chap drove up in a cut down red VW and said “Hi!” After some chat, we pointed out Bessy, and asked where we might put our tent?
“How about right here!” he said, pointing at the ground by the fence. And he drove off.
So we set up our little orange tent, complete with a couple of folding chairs, right by the Warbird HQ. Taking a felt pen, I wrote right on the tent, EAA Chapter 85, IAC 18, and Western Warbirds HQ, Delta Air Park, Vancouver, Canada. For Replica WW1 SE5a Plans, ENQUIRE WITHIN. And we were set.
We had a great time. We went off and looked at all the strange planes, saw Betty Bach and her Tiger Moth, a J-3 Cub with a radial, a Pietenpol and its beautiful Model B Ford, Our new friend Red One with his P-64. It was paradise.
SHOW BUSINESS…
The EAA Warbirds of America flight line was fantastic, so many planes. Rows of T-6’s, Harvards and P-51’s.
Gerry Walbrun gathered the T-6 guys for a show briefing. I was surprised to find my recent flying with the Western Warbirds and military training gave me ‘Old Salt’ status with the guys. We did the show as a collection of three plane formations, and it was exciting and a lot of fun.
The precision start up of about twenty T-6’s at the drop of a flag was fantastic, except for Bessy being about 15 seconds late because of the inertia starter. The Americans have direct drive, something I wasn’t aware of!
It’s very exciting being in the Oshkosh Warbird show. It’s so prestigious and you feel very proud. The kids who offered to wash the plane after we landed got back seat rides in the show. One of their Dad’s was rebuilding a 1934 Waco Cabin.
After the ’75 show, everybody flew down to Lake Lawn for lunch. A genuine luxury golf resort, its airstrip accommodated B-25’s, Mustangs, a horde of Texans and other exotic warbirds.
On route we joined loosely with the Canadian Warplane Heritage Harvard formation, whose leader called us a ‘Bogey’ at three o’clock. Walter Davidson of Fort Langley, later bought one of these Harvards, and joined our Western Warbird Flying Circus.
New SNJ owner Sue Parish was a bit unsure of the route, and tagged along with us. Sue’s husband Pete had a Wildcat, and Sue soon moved up to a pink P-40, eventually running her own Warbird Museum at Kalamazoo. Oshkosh is a truly amazing place; you meet lots of fascinating airplane people.
For those of us who remember the fantastic flying machines of WW 2, Oshkosh is a veritable paradise. Those aircraft were wonderful pilot’s airplanes. Totally unbelievable even when they’re among it!
SE5 FLY-BY…
Wandering through the thousands of homebuilt planes on proud display is mind bending. There’s every kind of imaginative design. One young fellow turned up in what he called the flying bicycle.
The airframe fuselage was really thin, like a big wing rib! He sat on a saddle within it all. A real open plane cockpit. It was quite the sight flying about. There was even a flying outhouse!
To my delight I came upon a green Replica Plans SE5, purportedly of the Irish Air Force. Looked very nice, built by a guy called Hickey. I mentioned that I drew the plans, and we got in quite a discussion about how everything went together.
Flies tail heavy he said. “You wanna fly it ?” Hickey asked.
After all he’d said about the trim, I wondered!
“How’d it get here?” I asked. Seemed his young friend flew it halfway across The States to reach Oshkosh. So it flew OK!
What the Hey! It’d be great to fly a WW1 SE5a over the largest air meet in the world. Even if it was only make believe!
So away I went like the Magnificent Man in his flying machine! Dumdidiyum Dum, and domdidiyomdom! Hey Ho Floating around! Flying the pattern in that new-old biplane was an unexpected thrill.
It flew absolutely fine! The dreaded nose high attitude was just like the prototypes. Not really noticeable at all, unless you are looking for it. It’s awesome to think how many of these delightful little fun planes have been built around the world. All dreamed up by those old Delta regulars, Gogi and Dan. What a great job. The nostalgia is unbelievable.
And so sadly, all these good things came to an end, so we mounted old Bessy, and headed West to Everleth for gas. Winnipeg for overnight, Regina and Lethbridge for gas.
We actually couldn’t find the tower at Lethbridge, it was not where expected! We were home by nightfall. 11.5 hours in the air, versus 9.5 eastbound. So the prevailing wind made a two hour difference.
Bessy does 160 miles an hour when indicating 130 knots. That’s pretty good. At Reno, flat out, they average about 220 MPH.
What a wonderful flying experience. We’d really used Old Bessy to go places. A true Magic Carpet.
WHAT NOW MY LOVE?
Nav Can called and invited me to join them to discuss the future of our local ‘Class F’ practice Areas, of which there are quite a lot. Practice Areas, Acrobatic Zones, whatever.
This claws in the North Practice Area, Fort Langley Area, the various small circles for hang gliders to mess with. I said I was happy with these zones as is. But we’ll see what ‘they’ have to say. I meet with them 11am on Friday 18 Jan.
The Boundary Bay Airspace Review will go ahead, so we’ll see what comes out of that for us. We don’t seem to have a champion these days. So keep up on what’s to-do in your area and if you don’t like it… SAY SO!
Fly Safe…
Tony Swain is a COPA director representing B.C. and Yukon. He has also been a COPA member for more than 20 years and has been an active participant in many aviation groups. He flies many types of aircraft and is concerned about the rights of sport pilots.
Photos courtesy The Swain Archive