Next Meeting

Our next meeting will be Monday, October 19th at 7:30pm.
Snacks: Last names starting with T - V.

Table of Contents

• President's Report for October 2009
• Board doings and pending events
• Flying Others
  
  
• DC-3 Dakota
• Practicing for tail wheel landing in an F-102
• Young Eagle Co-Chair Flies A380 With Fellow EAA Member
• Humor
  
  
• Items For Sale
• 2009 Calendar Of Events
• Who Brings Snacks????
• Web Page Newsletter

President's Report for October 2009

by John Nys

October Program

We have engaged Rob Summers to speak at our October 19 meeting, 1930. Rob is a controller at Tulsa International Airport working both their tower and approach/departure control. We look forward to learning what we can do to ease their work load and facilitate our use of their air space when we land at Tulsa IAP or transient their area enroute to other airports like Jones Riverside. I am sure that many of us have utilized their services in the past and appreciate their cooperativeness. Come learn how we can work together.

Hangar Roof Repairs

John Kurt will head up our roof repair project the 17th of October, this coming Saturday. We hope to replace fasteners outside to ensure the sheet metal is securely attached. We will also be reinforcing the beams inside where necessary. We can al ways work inside if the weather is inclement which might delay the work outside. If you have a drill, saw or ladder please contact John to coordinate your assistance with equipment and your skilled hands.

Pie Auction coming in November

We are in the fall season when we will conduct a must appreciated Pie Auction in preparation for our annual Christmas party in December. Jim Smith will again auction pies so dust off those scrumptious recipes and warm up your oven so your best efforts will treat our pallets.

We are completely moved to Collinsville. This newsletter reflects our new address and my cell phone number. If you fly in remember it is obligatory that a high speed, low pass be made before you land. No one wishes to arouse the ire of the airport authorities because you arrive without executing the approved landing pattern.

Hope to see all of you on the 19th.

My new numbers are as follows:

Fly safe.
John Nys

Board doings and pending events

by Terry Boswell

Volunteers needed: Wings Over Tulsa

17 Oct.. Work day for EAA Chapter 10. John Kurt will head roof repair efforts. We will work inside if the WX is inclement because we can always reinforce existing beams. If we can work outside we will be replacing roof fasteners. Come help!

17 Oct. Vance Air Force Base Civilian Fly-In. Site for information www.vance.af.mil/civilianflyin or Capt. Williams/Healey, Ph. 580-213-7233.

23—25 Oct. Reklaw Fly in at the Flying M Ranch in the Piney Woods of East TX. Last year there were 542 a/c and over 2000 guests. We sent some 15 a/c from Chapter 10 last year.

24 Oct. Harvey Young Fly-In and Free Lunch, 5 gallons free AVGAS between 1000-1400 for Fly-Ins.

29 Oct. EAA B-17 Flights @ Riverside Jones, EAA Chapter 10 to support (This has been a superb fund raiser for Chapter 10. See Terry Hines to help. Flights are planned for 30, 31 Oct. & 1 Nov. On 2 Nov. it will fly to Enid w/ the possibility of open seats.

31 Oct Claremore Airport Monthly Fly-In, 11—1330.

16 Nov. is our annual Pie Auction to support the Christmas Party, Jim Smith, auctioneer exceptional.

12 Dec. Annual Christmas party in lieu of our normal monthly meeting. Attendance will be limited to about the 1st seventy (70) who purchase tickets.

UPCOMING EVENTS

• Postponed from 12 Sept until 7 Nov will be the Wings Over Tulsa Spirit of Tulsa Fly-In @ Riverside Jones. See John Nys to provide support. Your help is needed to provide a presence for experimental aviation.
• 19 Sept. Fly-In @ Claremore Airport 2nd Annual Fly-In (in lieu of Tulsa Fly-In @ Bartlesville due to runway resurfacing). Hamburgers/Hotdogs and door prizes are in order. Flea Market 1100-1300.
• 21 September EAA Chapter 10 Monthly Meeting, Gundys
• 26 September EAA Chapter 10 Pancake Breakfast 0730
• 26 September Annual Bean Dinner, Airman Acres, Gather @ 0900, serving @ 1200
• Claremore Monthly Fly-In, 29 Aug, 1100—1300, Claremore Int’l. Airport
• 3 October, 1800, Ice Cream Social - Orchestra, Gundys
• 4 October, 1300 Gundy’s Wing Ding, EAA 10 Chapter Hangar
• 10 October, 0900—1300, Sky Haven, Brat Feast
• 10 October. Soap Box Derby Fly-In @ Sand Springs Pogue Municipal Airport.
• 17 October. Vance Air Force Base Civilian Fly-In, Site for information www.vance.af.mil/civilianflyin or Capt. Williams/Healey, Ph. 580-213-7233
• 24 October. Harvey Young Fly-In and Free Lunch, 5 gallons free AVGAS between 1000-1400 for Fly-Ins.
• 29 October. EAA B-17 Flights @ Riverside Jones, EAA Chapter 10 to support.

Flying Others

by Terry Boswell

Recently I had the privilege of flying two different World War II veterans who were aviators.

Bob Moore resides in Claremore and flew P-40. He had not flown in about 20 years but proved he still has the touch. During his time at the controls he maintained his altitude with precision. He was most appreciative of his flight.

In Washington, GA, we flew Jack Rhodes, a P-47 pilot. Jack is 86 and suffers from lung cancer (non smoker). He also has macular degeneration of his left eye so he would not fly but was thrilled with his brief flight. In his words, “You made my year and day.”

If you have an opportunity we hope you avail yourself likewise. This was a blessing.

DC-3 Dakota

forwarded by Craig Loomiller

"It groaned, it protested, it rattled, it ran hot, it ran cold, it ran rough, it staggered along on hot days and scared you half to death’ Its wings flexed and twisted in a horrifying manner, it sank back to earth with a great sigh of relief. But it flew and it flew and it flew." This is the memorable description by Captain Len Morgan, a former pilot with Braniff Airways, of the unique challenge of flying a Douglas DC-3.

For more than 70 years, the aircraft known through a variety of nicknames — the Doug, the Dizzy, Old Methuselah, the Gooney Bird of the Navy, the Grand Old Lady — but which to most of us is simply the Dakota of the Army — has been the workhorse of the skies. With its distinctive nose-up profile when on the ground and extraordinary capabilities in the air, it transformed passenger travel, and served in just about every military conflict from World War II onwards.

Now the Douglas DC-3 — the most successful plane ever made, which first took to the skies just over 30 years after the Wright Brothers' historic first flight — is to carry passengers in Britain for the last time. Romeo Alpha and Papa Yankee, the last two passenger-carrying Dakotas in the UK, are being forced into retirement because of — yes, you've guessed it — health and safety rules. Their owner, Coventry-based Air Atlantique, has reluctantly decided it would be too expensive to fit the required emergency- escape slides and weather-radar systems required by new European rules for their 65-year-old planes, which served with the RAF during the war. The end of the passenger-carrying British Dakotas is a sad chapter in the story of the most remarkable aircraft ever built, surpassing all others in length of service, dependability and achievement.

It has been a luxury airliner, transport plane, bomber, fighter and flying hospital, and introduced millions of people to the concept of air travel. It has flown more miles, broken more records, carried more passengers and cargo, accumulated more flying time and performed more 'impossible' feats than any other plane in history, even in these days of super-jumbos that can circle the world non-stop. Indeed, at one point, 90 percent of the world's air traffic was operated by DC-3s.... More than 10,500 DC-3s have been built since the prototype was rolled out to astonished onlookers at Douglas's Santa Monica factory in 1935. With its eagle beak, large square windows and sleek metal fuselage, it was luxurious beyond belief, in contrast to the wood-and-canvas bone shakers of the day, where passengers had to huddle under blankets against the cold.

Even in the 1930s, the early Dakotas had many of the comforts we take for granted today, like on-board toilets and a galley that could prepare hot food. Early menus included wild-rice pancakes with blueberry syrup, served on bone china with silver service. For the first time, passengers were able to stand- up and walk- around while the plane was airborne. But the design had one vital feature, ordered by pioneering aviator Charles Lindbergh, who was a director of TWA, which placed the first order for the plane.... The DC-3 should always, Lindbergh directed, be able to fly on one- engine.

Pilots have always loved it, not just because of its rugged reliability but because, with no computers on board, it is the epitome of "flying by the seat-of-the-pants". One aviator memorably described the Dakota as a "collection of parts flying in loose formation", and most reckon they can land it pretty well on a postage stamp. Captain Len Morgan says: "The Dakota could lift virtually any load strapped to its back and carry it anywhere and in any weather safely."

It is the very human scale of the plane that has so endeared it to successive generations. With no pressurization in the cabin, it flies low and slow. And unlike modern jets, it's still possible to see the world go by from the cabin of a Dakota. (The name, incidentally, is an acronym for Douglas Aircraft Company Transport Aircraft.)

But it is for heroic feats in military service that the legendary plane is most distinguished. It played a major role in the invasion of Sicily, the D-Day landings, the Berlin Airlift, and the Korean and Vietnam wars, performing astonishing feats along the way.

• When General Eisenhower was asked what he believed were the foundation stones for America's success in World War II, he named the bulldozer, the jeep, the half-ton truck, and the Dakota.
• When the Burma Road was captured by the Japanese and the only way to send supplies into China was over the mountains at 19,000 ft, the Chinese leader Chiang Kai-shek said: "Give me 50 DC-3s, and the Japs (SP) can have the Burma Road."
• In 1945, a Dakota broke the world record for a flight with an engine out of action, traveling for 1,100 miles from Pearl Harbor to San Diego, with just one- propeller working. (Continued on page 4.)
• Another in RNZAF service lost a wing after colliding mid-air with a Lockheed bomber. Defying all the rules of aerodynamics, and with only a stub remaining, the plane landed, literally, on a wing and a prayer at Whenuapai Airbase.
• Once, a Dakota pilot carrying paratroops across the Channel to France heard an enormous bang. He went aft to find that half the plane had been blown away, including part of the rudder. With engines still turning, he managed to skim the wave-tops before finally making it to safety.
• Another wartime Dakota was rammed by a Japanese fighter that fell to earth, while the American crew returned home in their severely damaged — but still airborne — plane, and were given the distinction of "downing an enemy aircraft".
• Another DC-3 was peppered with 3,000 bullets in the wings and fuselage by Japanese fighters. It made it back to base, was repaired with canvas patches and glue, and then sent back into the air.

In addition to its rugged military service, it was the DC-3 which transformed commercial -passenger flying in the post-war years. Easily converted to a passenger plane, it introduced the idea of affordable air travel to a world which had previously seen it as exclusively for the rich. Flights across America could be completed in about 15 hours (with three stops for refueling), compared with the previous reliance on short hops in commuter aircraft during the day and train- travel overnight. It made the world a smaller place, gave people the opportunity for the first time to see previously inaccessible destinations, and became a romantic symbol of travel.

'The DC-3 was, and is, unique,' wrote the novelist and aviation writer Ernest Gann, 'since no other flying machine has cruised every sky known to mankind, been so admired, cherished, glamorized, known the touch of so many pilots and sparked so many tributes.. "It was without question the most successful aircraft ever built, and even in this jet-age, it seems likely that the surviving DC-3s may fly about their business forever."

But after their retirement, there will still be Dakotas flying in the farthest corners of the world, kept going with love, dedication and sheer ingenuity. Nearly three-quarters of a century after they first entered service, it's still possible to get a Dakota ride somewhere in the world. Today, many DC-3s live-on throughout the world as cropsprayers, surveillance patrols, air freighters in forgotten African states, and even luxury executive transports. Even when they have ended their aerial lives, old Dakotas have become mobile homes, hamburger stands and hen houses. One even serves as a football team changing room. Clark Gable's private DC-3, which once ferried chums such as John and Bobby Kennedy, Marilyn Monroe, Frank Sinatra and Ronald Reagan, is in a theme park in San Marino. But don't assume it won't run again. Some of the oldest hulks have been put back in the skies. The ancient piston- engines are replaced by modern turboprops, and many a pilot of a modern jet has been astonished to find a Dakota alongside him on the climb away from the runway.

So what is the enduring secret of the DC-3? David Edgerton, professor of the history of science and technology at Imperial College, London, says we should rid our minds of the idea that the most recent inventions are always the best. "The very fact that the DC-3 is still around and performing a useful role in the world is a powerful reminder that the latest and most expensive technology is not always the one that changes history," he says. It's long been an aviation axiom that "the only replacement for the DC-3 is another DC-3". So it's fortunate that at least one seems likely to be around for a very long time to come.

In 1946, a DC-3 on a flight from Vienna to Pisa crashed into the top of the Rosenlaui Glacier in the Swiss Alps. The aircraft was not damaged and all the passengers were rescued, but it quickly began to disappear as a blinding snowstorm raged. Swiss engineers have calculated that it will take 600 years for it to slide-down inside the glacier and emerge at the bottom.

Practicing for tail wheel landing in an F-102

by Terry Boswell

After USAF pilot training I was assigned to fly the T-33 at Tyndall AFB, FL in preparation for the F- 104. The Tactical Air Command planned to give up their F-104s which the Air Defense Command would acquire and station on Long Island, Charleston and San Francisco where they would form a quick reaction, interceptor force. My squadron at Tyndall flew F-102s and T-33s as targets for training by interceptor pilots. Fortunately I was able to pinch a few flights in the TF-102 where the crew sat side by side. We affectionately named the TF the “Whale.” Visibility from the cockpit of the TF was much better than in the F model. My flights were all with our squadron exchange pilot, RAF Squadron Leader Jones.

Fortunately the F-104 never materialized for other reason. The cockpit of the F-104 was designed around a single test pilot in the 95 percentile of the general population. The Starfighter was fast but that was all. It could not turn or go very far. The wings had 7 ½ foot spans. I think it flew final at 190 kts. Lots of macho but no bravado!

Eighteen months later I was transferred to Perrin AFB, TX to begin my checkout in the F-102 before going to Clark AF, Philippines. My only concern with learning to fly the Duce was final approach and landing. Visibility was down the nose because it required 18o of pitch on final approach. Further the approach speed was 180 kts plus fuel and no flaps. Neither the F-102 nor F-106 has any flaps but the B- 58 did. I regarded this phase of my flying as difficult as my ego had not grown the match the normal sense of self for a macho fighter pilot. Perrin was full of wild bomber pilots who transitioned thru the Duce before going on to the B-58. As a group they were not accustomed to the independence of solo flight.

During the transition phase the first two sorties were flown in the TF with your instructor. Since visibility was good and your IP was right there these missions were a snap. The 3rd sortie was pure tension as my instructor would be chasing with both of us in F models. A normal approach at 180 kts plus 5 kts for fuel above 2000 lbs with 18o of pitch put my heart in my throat. Our primary aid would be a good VASI system of lights.

On the first approach I wired the airspeed as well as the glide slope. To my amazement I had the proper pitch attitude. I just knew I was in position to land but never felt the customary duck walk of the Duce as she rolled on the runway. Then a small voice came over the UHF airways, “you are about 6 feet in the air” which coincidentally resembled Maj. Hanna, my IP. The next approach that same voice said, “2 feet.” On the third approach I found the rewards with a duck walk. After that, landing the Duce was not an issue.

It occurred to me that landing a tail dragger is much the same. Get on the prescribed approach speed at the proper glide angle (use the VASI lights if necessary) with a normal power setting, probably idle or close to it and you’ll have the correct tail down attitude. I soon learned to drag the tail wheel just before planting the main gear. So, we can learn about flying slow by going fast! Not a skilled tail dragger but do have a hundred hours under my belt without any ground loops!

Young Eagle Co-Chair Flies A380 With Fellow EAA Member

Recently the crew of US Air from the Hudson River, Capt. Sullenberger and First Officer Skiles agreed to head the EAA’s Young Eagle program, relieving Harrison Ford of this responsibility. We can all thank Harrison for a good job.

8 Oct. 2009 — A week after taking the job as co-chair of the EAA Young Eagle’s program w/ fellow aviator, Sully Sullenberger, also co-chair, Jeff Skiles (EAA 336120) had time for some fun. While in Toulouse, France at Airbus headquarters he flew the A380 with test pilot and fellow EAA member Terry Lutz (EAA 69308). Skiles is already familiar with the Airbus brand since he flies the A320, but who would not want to fly the largest passenger airplane in the world?

Humor

Items For Sale

FOR SALE BY OWNER
Glasair I/II RG
300 hrs TTAF
Lycoming O-320 70 hrs SMOH
Lightspeed electronic ignition
High compression pistons
Large rudder
Dual sliding canopys
Panel mount GPS, xponder, intercom and more
New 3 blade MT propeller
New custom interior
Extended wing tips 80% completed
Ready for your paint
$55,000
See at Gundy's (O38), Owasso, OK
Contact Mark Fridley @ 918-274-3574 or 9rmfridley@cox.net
(NOTE: remove the leading 9 to make email work)

Franklin Aircraft Engine
Model 4AC171 60 HP
37/8 bore x 33/8 stroke 6/2 C.R.
s/n 2052
17/32 venturi
Eisenman magnetos
complete
No log book
$1000
Contact Ken Smith 698-4129.

Lycoming O-235-0
T.C. 223, 100 HP, 2600 RPM, SM 1571-15
Two magnetos, no carburetor, otherwise complete.
No logbook
$1,000
Contact Ken Smith 698-4129.

Lycoming O-290-D2
135 HP, T.C. 229, no magnetos, has vacuum pump
engine damaged at L/H magneto mount area
L/H crankcase broken out
accessory case broken out
data plate is titled Lycoming Aviation Engine
No logbook
$1,000
Contact Ken Smith 698-4129

1946 Aeronca 7AC
Continental A65
6078 TT 167 TSMOH
LSA qualified
new struts, wing spars, and cover, Millennium cylinders
32K firm
Contact 918-371-2001

Acreage for sale
2.5 Acres with 330’ of Runway frontage
Airman Acres Airfield, Collinsville OK
Sets on dead end road.
No covenants.
Secluded area.
Build exactly what you desire.
$67,500
Contact Darren 918-857-2728

To list your aviation items for sale, contact newsletter editor Terry Boswell.

2009 Calendar Of Events

To add an item to our calendar, get the information to the newsletter editor Terry Boswell. See the contact info on the home page for e-mail, phone, and mail addresses.

Recurring events

Who Brings Snacks????

The August meeting includes our Watermelon Feed.

Web Page Newsletter

If you would like to receive the newsletter electronically off of the chapter web site (www.eaa10.org) every month, just send Secretary Marvin Williams or our web editor Bob Minich an e-mail. This action saves the chapter money on printing and mailing costs, which in turn, helps keep your dues low. It's really simple to do. We send you a monthly e-mail notice when the latest newsletter is posted online. Just click on the provided link and you are there!