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In Flight USA Articles
Learn to Beat the Hazards of Winter Flying
By Alan Smith
When summer and fall have passed and the hard cold of winter has set in we have to be careful in setting up our airplanes for safe operation. Fuel, oil and flying surfaces need special care and preflight preparation will take a lot longer than it did in the days of warm sunshine. Flying through winter skies, whether gray or blue, also needs special care as cold temperatures get colder with altitude.
On preflight being careful with your fuel is important. Never park your airplane with partial or fully empty tanks. We all know that on a cool summer night condensation will occur in partially full tanks, but, in winter, you could have ice in the tanks that would not show up in a cursory drain check in preflight inspection. Drain each tank separately by at least a quart into a transparent container and look for any solid contamination along with water. In winter, storage tanks, even those underground, can acquire rust. Fuel delivery from them drops off during the cold season and the reduction of underground temperatures can cause a slight shrinkage in metal storage facilities and let internal surface corrosion work into stored fuel. These tanks can also acquire water through condensation.
Wrong Way Corrigan - A Last Bit of Fun Before World War II
By Alan Smith
In October of 1925 when 18-year-old Douglas Corrigan went for a ride in a Curtiss Jenny, he had no idea that in thirteen years he would be both famous and notorious. What the ride did was change his goal in life from being an architect to living in the growing world of aviation. He started taking flying lessons every Sunday and after twenty Sundays he soloed. The government rules and regulations of aviation were still forming and Corrigan soon had a pilot’s license in hand. He also had good mechanical talent gained from a few years in the construction business. When his parents divorced, he had quit school and gone to work to earn money. His father was a construction engineer and Douglas had learned a lot from him.
Claude Ryan and his partner B.F Mahoney were building airplanes as the Ryan Aeronautical Company at the California airfield where Corrigan learned to fly and also had a shop in San Diego. They offered Corrigan a job as a mechanic at their San Diego operation when they decided to shut down their factory near Los Angeles and move south. It was 1927 and Corrigan saw about a half dozen partially built airplanes in Ryan’s San Diego plant. They just sat there because of cancelled orders. Corrigan went to work wondering how long this job would last.
Eddie Stinson: a True Pioneer in the Early Years of Aviation
By Alan Smith
Stinson 108-3, the last Stinson design. (Larry Westin)Edward (Eddie) Stinson was born in 1894 in Ft. Payne Alabama. Nine years later, he learned of the success of the Wright brothers in their mission to build and fly a powered airplane at Kitty Hawk North Carolina and his fascination with aviation was born.
At age 16, he dropped out of school, and headed for St. Louis where two men were building their own powered aircraft. There he convinced them that he should be their test pilot. He didn’t mention that their kite-like airplane was the first airplane he’d ever seen. He did manage to get it into the air but stalled and crashed, destroying one wing. The two gentlemen of St Louis decided aviation was not for them and gave Eddie 
Stinson Detroiter, the first Stinson. (PilotFriend)the wrecked aircraft as payment for his attempt to fly it.
The First Transoceanic Flights
By Alan Smith
Everyone knows about Charles Lindbergh and his 1927 flight from Long Island NY to Paris, but there were others that took on the Atlantic challenge and he was not the first to cross the Atlantic. The London Daily Mail had put up a fifty thousand dollar prize for the first non-stop crossing by air, and a number of pilots had their eye on that. The first actual Atlantic crossing had been made by a U.S. Navy NC-4 Curtiss flying boat in early 1919, but it was far from non-stop and took weeks with engine and navigation problems. In June of 1919, two British teams were at St John’s, Newfoundland with converted biplane bombers. They had shipped the planes over to Newfoundland to attempt West to East crossings with prevailing winds as a tailwind.
Harry G. Hawker and McKenzie Grieve planned to try with a Handley-Page bomber powered by four Rolls Royce engines, while John Alcock and navigator Arthur W, Brown were preparing a Vickers Vimy twin-engined bomber that had been built too late to be used in WW I. Both crews, of course, were thirsting for the Daily Mail prize, and both were making preparations at Lester’s Field near St John’s.
The Luscombe Silvaire Survives for 74 Years With a Life of its Own
By Alan Smith
A 1928 Velie Monocoupe by Clayton Folkerts and Don Luscomb. (Jeremy Drey)We all know the famous names that mark the history of the light plane industry. Most of them, like Bill Piper, Clyde Cessna, or Walter Beech are names that are still with us today along with the aircraft being produced by the companies they started.
Then, there is Donald A. Luscombe who really started the idea of the private light plane back in 1927 when, with Iowa farmer Clayton Folkerts, he designed the Monocoupe – the first enclosed cabin, two-seat, high-wing monoplane to be offered to the public. Folkerts built the first prototype and Luscombe teamed up with industrialist W.L. Velie, who had previously manufactured automobiles to build the model 70 Monocoupe from 1927 through 1929 and offer it as “The Ultimate Plane for the Private Flier.” 350 were built and sold, and Don Luscombe was on his way.
How Bill Piper and His Piper Cub Taught America How to Fly
By Alan Smith
We all know that a number of men played a significant role in the development of the private aircraft. We know about Clyde Cessna, Walter Beech, Don Luscombe and others, but only one really made a personal plane affordable to the masses. That was William T/ Piper of Bradford, Pennsylvania where he worked in his father’s oil business. He was well into middle age before he found himself moving into the airplane business and did not learn to fly until he was 60 years old.
Early in the century, shortly after the Wright Brothers had proved the powered airplane possible at Kitty Hawk North Carolina on December 17, 1903, Piper had been in the military, had been involved in the Spanish American War, and had earned a Harvard degree in mechanical engineering. He set out to get into the industrial construction business, but soon lost interest in that and returned to Bradford with his family to join his father in the oil business.
Kelly Johnson at the Lockheed “Skunk Works”
By Alan Smith
Clarence L. “Kelly” Johnson, a true genius of high performance aircraft design.Clarence L. “Kelly” Johnson was, without a doubt one of the most, if not the most prolific and ingenious aircraft designer in the worlds of both civil and military aviation. During his 50 years at Lockheed (now Lockheed-Martin) Aircraft Corporation, Johnson single-handedly designed and built ten high performance aircraft and participated in the design and building of 11 others. His own designs included the twin-engine P-38, which was the first 400 mph fighter, the XP-80, the first Air Force jet fighter, the F-104 Starfighter, and the U-2 and SR-71 reconnaissance aircraft. The XP-80 was designed and built in just 143 days!
Dennis Buehn Dominates the T-6 Class in 2010 and Gets the Gold
By Alan Smith
(Jerry Maxwell)Dennis Buehn of Carson City, flying his #43 Midnight Miss III practically owned the T-6 class in 2010. He won both Gold heat races the days before windy Sunday at speeds of 237.904 and 241.247 mph and was followed by John Zayak in his #37 McDonald Racer at 231.128 on Thursday and 234.927 on Saturday. Surprisingly, expected strong contender Nick Macy in his #6 Six Cat was disqualified on Saturday for a deadline cut at the start of Saturday’s heat race. And on Thursday he dropped out after one lap. I certainly was not the six time Gold winner’s year.
Flying in the Mountains
IFR Means I Follow Roads
By Alan Smith
Flying light aircraft in the mountains, especially during the winter months, has its own set of rules. Some are fairly obvious while others are a bit more subtle.
Flying a light plane through rugged mountain territory is done without some of the emergency options a pilot has while crossing the flatlands or wide valleys below. It should be clear, for example, to any pilot as he or she moves through the high peaks and canyons of a mountain range that fields in which he could safely put the airplane in the event of engine failure are few and far between.