Next Meeting

Our next meeting will be Monday, February 15th at 7:30pm.
Snacks: Last names starting with D - F.

Table of Contents

• President's Report for February 2010
• Board doings and pending events
• Air & Space Smithsonian article



• Another use for Duct Tape
• A Pilot's Report Of No.13 From the Raid on Tokyo
• How to humbly land a C-124 and get your comeuppance too!



• Items For Sale
• 2010 Calendar Of Events
• Who Brings Snacks????
• Web Page Newsletter

President's Report for February 2010

by John Nys

February Program

Our planned program for this month is Bob Zeng. He is a Professional pilot flying out of Tulsa, with a lot of interesting experiences to share with us. Most recently, trips to Haiti, with aid for the Earthquake victims.

We recently received a check from the EAA, for the sum of $2,103. This is our share for supporting the B-17 visit last fall. Our appreciation goes out to all of the volunteers and especially Terry Hines for coordinating those volunteers.

Air Academy scholarship changes

This year we are sending Weston Powell to the EAA Air Academy. He was selected last year but the enrollment for his age group was already closed. This has pointed out to us that we needed to change the timing of our selection process. This year and hereafter we will handle the selection process in September and October. The deposit check will go in the first week of January, along with all of the rest of the required Chapter renewal paperwork. Problem solved!

Our January program was Jim Bridenstine of the Tulsa Air & Space Museum. He outlined the Rocket Races which are to be kicked off here in Tulsa. There has been a reschedule on that event. Originally to be in March, it is now scheduled for April 24th which is a Saturday. If the weather interferes, that would fall back to Sunday the 25th. Probably a wise decision considering the terrible weather we have endured this year.

Wild Onion Fly-in

Our kickoff to the fly-in season is The Wild Onion Fly - In Breakfast, Saturday, March 20th, at Tenkiller (44m), 8 a.m. to 11 a.m. It is put on by Chapter 1040 and will take place regardless of the weather. Mother nature has not smiled on them very often in past years. Hopefully we'll see some sunshine.

Fly safe.
John Nys

Board doings and pending events

by Terry Boswell

The continued cold weather means the continued meeting of EAA Chapter 10’s “kitchen cabinet.” At least it was warmer in the kitchen than in the hangar. Bob Zeng, Omni Aviation is on tap for our Feb. 15 program. He recently returned from relief flights to Haiti so he will be able to give us a good rundown on that specific effort and other missions Omni flies.

Please come prepared to volunteer to assist the 1st Rocket Racer, date under review. Terry Hines, our volunteer chairman and Bhrent Waddell, assist. Let’s make this event a success for Tulsa and our Chapter.

Skunkworks article

The March 2010 issue of Air & Space, Smithsonian has a length article on Kelly Johnson: Behind the Legend. The article “Head Skunk” by Peter Garrison details Kelly’s long history with aviation and Lockheed. Kelly made an early impact several aircraft that he considered unstable. His work with the Constellation left him thinking Howard Hughes was a dangerous pilot. He fathered the P-38 during WW II and the P-80, before establishing the “Skunk Works.” From that group came the F-104, the U-2 and finally the SR-71. Several classified projects were canceled under his analysis. This article is worthwhile because his contributions were exceptional.

Paper airman certificates to be replaced

Pilots cannot exercise the privileges of their PAPER pilot certificates after March 31, 2010. Certificates issued under 14 CFR Part 63 and 65 will expire March 31, 2013.

Still have a paper certificate? Mail processing takes 4 to 6 weeks but online process only 7 to 10 days. See me if you need an address or visit the FAA web site to get more details.

Air & Space By Smithsonian

Another use for Duct Tape

from the web

During a private "fly-in" fishing excursion in the Alaskan wilderness, the chartered pilot and fishermen left a cooler and bait in the plane. A bear smlled it, and this is what he did to the plane.

PHOTO HERE

The pilot used his radio and had another pilot bring him 2 new tires, 3 cases of duct tape, and a supply of sheet plastic. He patched the plan together, and ... FLEW IT HOME!

Duct tape? Never Leave Home Without It! The plane was fabric over steel tubing. No structural damage. How else you gonig to get it out?

Call a tow truck?

(Followup on this story...)

A Pilot's Report Of No.13 From the Raid on Tokyo

forwarded by Craig Loomiller

(continued from the November newsletter)

Early the next morning I was enjoying a leisurely breakfast, expecting another full day on board, and I noticed that the ship was pitching and rolling quite a bit this morning, more than normal. I was reading through the April 18^th day plan of the Hornet, and there was a message in which said, “From the Hornet to the Army – Good luck, good hunting, and God bless you.” I still had a large lump in my throat from reading this, when all of a sudden, the intercom blared, “General Quarters, General Quarters, All hands man your battle stations! Army pilots, man your planes!!!” There was an instant reaction from everyone in the room and food trays went crashing to the floor. I ran down to my room jumping through the hatches along the way, grabbed my bag, and ran as fast as I could go to the flight deck. I met with my crew at the plane, my heart was pounding. Someone said, “What’s going on?” The word was that the Enterprise had spotted an enemy trawler. It had been sunk, but it had transmitted radio messages. We had been found out!

The weather was crummy, the seas were running heavy, and the ship was pitching up and down like I had never seen before. Great waves were crashing against the bow and washing over the front of the deck. This wasn’t going to be easy! Last minute instructions were given... We were reminded to avoid non-military targets, especially the Emperor’s Palace. Do not fly to Russia, but fly as far west as possible, land on the water and launch our rubber raft. This was going to be a one-way trip! We were still much too far out and we all knew that our chances of making land were somewhere between slim and none. Then at the last minute, each plane loaded an extra ten 5-gallon gas cans to give us a fighting chance of reaching China.

We all climbed aboard, started our engines and warmed them up, just feet away from the plane in front of us and the plane behind us. Knobby, Campbell, Bourgeois and me in the front, Williams the gunner was in the back, separated from us by a big rubber gas tank. I called back to Williams on the intercom and told him to look sharp and don’t take a nap! He answered dryly, “Don’t worry about me, Lieutenant. If they jump us, I’ll just use my little black broomsticks to keep the Japs (SP) off our tail.”

The ship headed into the wind and picked up speed. There was now a near gale force wind and water spray coming straight over the deck. I looked down at my instruments as my engines revved up. My mind was racing. I went over my mental checklist and said a prayer! “God please, help us!” Pas the twelve planes in front of us, I strained to see the flight deck officer as he leaned into the wind and signaled with his arms for Colonel Doolittle to come to full power. I looked over at Knobby and we looked each other in the eye. He just nodded to me and we both understood.

With the deck heaving up and down, the deck officer had to time this just right. Then I saw him wave Doolittle to go, and we watched breathlessly to see what happen. When his plane pulled up above the deck, Knobby just let out with, “Yes! Yes!” The second plane, piloted by Lt. Hoover, appeared to stall with its now up and began to fall toward the waves. We groaned and called out, “Up! Up! Pull it up!” Finally, he pulled out of it, staggered back up in the air, much to our relief!

One by one, the planes in front of us took off. The deck pitched wildly, 60 feet or more, it looked like. One plane seemed to drop down into the drink and disappeared for a moment, then pulled back up into sight. There was a sense of relief with each one that made it. We gunned our engines and started to roll forward. Off to the right, I saw the men on deck cheering and waving their covers! We continued to inch forward, careful to keep my left main wheel and my nose wheel on the white guidelines that had been painted on the deck for us. Get off a little bit too far left and we go off the edge of the deck. A little too far to the right and our wing-tip will smack the island of the ship. With the best seat on the plane, we watched Lt. Bower take-off in plane number 12, and I taxied up to the starting line, put on my brakes, and looked down to my left. My main wheel was right on the line. Applied more power to the engines, and I turned my complete attention to the deck officer on my left, who was circling was circling his paddles. Now my adrenaline was really pumping! We went to full power, and the noise and vibration inside the plane went way up. He circled the paddles furiously while watching forward for the pitch of the deck. Then he dropped them, and I said, “Here We Go!” I released the brakes and we started rolling forward, and as I looked down the flight-deck you could see straight down into the angry churning water.

As we slowly gained speed, the deck gradually began to pitch back up. I pulled up and our plane slowly strained up and away from the ship. There was a big cheer and whoops from the crew, but I just felt relieved and muttered to myself, “Boy, that was short!”

We made a wide circle above our fleet to check our compass headings and get our bearings. I looked down as we passed low over one of our cruisers and could see men on deck waving to us. I dropped down to low level, so low we could see the whitecap waves breaking. It was just after 0900, there were broken clouds at 5,000 feet and visibility of about thirty miles due to haze or something. Up ahead and barely in sight I could see Captain Greening, our flight leader, and Bower on his right wing. Flying at 170 mph I was able to catch up to them in about 30 minutes. We were to stay in this formation until reaching landfall, and then break on our separate ways.

Now we settled in for the five hour flight. Tokyo, here we come! Williams was in the back emptying the extra gas cans into the gas tank as fast as we burned off enough fuel. He then punched holes in the tins and pushed then out the hatch against the wind. Some of the fellows ate sandwiches and other goodies that the Navy had put aboard for us. I wasn’t hungry. I held onto the controls with a firm grip as we raced along westward just fifty feet above the cold rolling ocean, as low as I dared to fly. Being so close to the choppy waves gave you a true sense of speed. Occasionally our windshield was even sprayed with a little salt water. It was an exhilarating feeling, and I felt as though the will and spirit of our whole country was pushing us along. I didn’t feel too scared, just anxious. There was a lot riding on this thing, and on me.

As we began to near land, we saw an occasional ship here and there. None of them close enough to be threatening, but just the same, we were feeling more edgy. Then at 1330 we sighted land, the Eastern shore of Honshu. With Williams now on his guns in the top turret and Campbell on the nose gun, we came ashore still flying as low as possible, and were surprised to see people on the ground waving to us as we flew in over the farmland. It was a beautiful country.

Campbell, our navigator, said, “Mac, I thing we’re going to be about sixty miles too far north. I’m not positive, but pretty sure.” I decided that he was absolutely right and turned left ninety degrees, went back just off shore and followed the coast line south. When I thought we had gone far enough, I climbed up to two thousand feet to find out where we were. We started getting fire from anti-aircraft guns. Then we spotted Tokyo Bay, turned west and put our nose down diving toward the water. Once over the bay, I could see our target, Yokosuka Naval Base. Off to the right there was already smoke visible over Tokyo. Coming in low over the water, I increased speed to 200 mph and told everyone, “Get Ready!”

(to be continued)

How to humbly land a C-124 and get your comeuppance too!

by Terry Boswell

C-124 Globemaster II

When I first went to work for NORDAM in 1994 we had a retired Air Force Master Sergeant Leo Barryhill in our quality control division. Leo was an inspector to be feared because of his no nonsense approach to evaluating repairs. Leo had been around for a while and would not be buffaloed by anyone. He had seen it all many times before. He relayed this story from his days as a flight engineer aboard the C-124 or Old Shaky flying from Charleston AFB, SC.

There was a certain pilot, Major Jones (NRN) who was so caustic few would fly with him. Once he was crewed with Major Jones and a new lieutenant on a mission that took them from Charleston through South America for many days. As they made their way back across the Gulf of Mexico and approached MacDill AFB, FL the major turned to the lieutenant and informed him he would show the lieutenant how to land the C-124 when they arrived. About 50 miles out he took control of the aircraft and began a stern lecture on his techniques for greasing the landing. Leo commented that this was just a continuation of a running commentary for the past two weeks which Leo viewed as oppressive.

As they approached final Major Jones called, “My throttles,” which relieved Leo of his duty to set the power and synchronize the engines. Just as he flared Leo extended and feathered the cowl flaps. There were four large cowl flaps on each engine. Naturally the bottom dropped out and they fell to the runway in a landing that rivaled an F-4’s. Major Jones cut loose with a barrage of cursing that startled the lieutenant. As the shocked lieutenant turned toward Major Jones he caught Leo’s movement retracting the cowls. A slight smile appeared on the lieutenant’s face; nothing else needed to be said. Justice had been administered!

Items For Sale

FOR SALE BY OWNER - Price reduced
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
$47,000 Reduced
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

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.

2010 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????

If your last name starts with D through F then January is your month to bring a snack for the meeting.

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!