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Bush Pilots: Where did they come from? And, where are they now?

By Alan Smith

A Curtiss JN-3 in military colors. These were among the earliest bush aircraft. (Courtesy of the San Diego Air & Space Museum Archive) When mot people think of “Bush Pilots” most of them think of Alaska and northern Canada. In fact there are bush pilots around the world, carrying things like food, fuel, medical supplies and (courageous) passengers. The term basically means a pilot that may depart from an airport but has no airport, runway, or landing strip at his destination. They fly airplanes equipped with larger tires suitable for landing on rough ground, floats for landing on lakes or rivers and sometimes with amphibious floats that make landing on the ground or on the water possible.

Where did this aviation specialty come from? It is generally thought that this kind of flying began shortly after the end of World War I in South Africa. The African “Bush” simply described any wilderness outside the then growing cities of the region. Some highly valued mining had begun in parts of the African countryside (Diamonds and precious metals) and those operators were in constant need of supplies. Strings of burros proved to be far too slow, and the recently developed airplane was much faster and therefore more attractive (though more expensive) than the plod of hooves through the bush country to various growing industrial projects. Some of the earliest bush planes were Curtiss JN-3 and JN-4 “Jennys.” More than 5,000 of these were built after 1917 for various nations. Most were for the United States military, but many went to nations of the world and to the early bush pilots of South Africa.

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Behind the scenes: Air Show Audio

By Clark Cook

for the Blue Angels narrator at the 2011 Lemoore Air Show. (Clark Cook)As the National Anthem is sung, all eyes are skyward as the jumper carries our nation’s colors towards the ground at airshow center. For the team at Air Show Audio, this is a critical moment in which they are prepared and ready to act in case of a malfunction in the sound system.

Air Show Audio’s motto is the “Can Do” Attitude and it certainly lives up to its name. Long before most of the performers and static displays arrive, the dedicated crew is already meticulously setting up and running sound checks. Air Show Audio utilizes a transport trailer which doubles as an observation platform for the announcer, air boss, FAA and any other essential personnel. The inside of the trailer also serves as an office for the soundboard operator. Besides providing high quality audio at airshows, Air Show Audio serves as a communications center.

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Wathen Center Educates for the Future

By David Gustafson

The Flabob Airport Preparatory Academy hosts middle and high school students.Recognizing that a million professional pilots and A&P mechanics are going to be needed over the next 20 years, the Wathen Center, which is headquartered at historic Flabob Airport in Riverside, Calif. has initiated planning to train young men and women for those professions. The Center already has a successful middle and high school program on its grounds and is moving rapidly to establish the A&P program, while upgrading its flight training operations.

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Falling in Love with a Cassutt, Part II

By Steve Weaver

Steve Weaver in the early ’70s with his Cassutt. (Photo provided by Steve Weaver)To anyone who has been stranded, immobile and silent on the side of a busy interstate, the whoosh of passing cars and the blasts of air from speeding tractor trailers rocking your vehicle is familiar. You sit in your crippled automobile on the verge and you change not a whit the traffic that ignores you and continues on its way. I can tell you though, when the stalled vehicle is an airplane, things change completely. Apparently, jaded though the public is, the sight of an airplane beside a busy road is enough to stop traffic. Within minutes multiple cars and trucks had stopped and I had dispatched one volunteer to phone the airport and tell my friend Jake to come to my aid. 

In twenty minutes or so Jake arrived, a wide smile plastered on his face. Thankfully, with the cell phone still an invention of the far future, the police had not also appeared, and we began to noodle the problem of getting the airplane back into the air.

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Falling in love with a Cassutt

Steve Weaver in the early 70s with his speedy Cassutt. (Courtesy of Steve Weaver)By Steve Weaver

In the summer of 1974 I was operating a Flying Service in the northern part of West Virginia. My days were full to overflowing as I jumped between management duties and flying, managing the bustling FBO when I could and flying when I was needed to fill-in for the other pilots. 

The charter business was booming at that time and many of my days (and nights) were spent flying businessmen and freight all over the Eastern part of the US in the Navajo, the Seneca and the Aztecs that we operated for hire. During one such trip to a small airport in the Eastern section of Pennsylvania, an ad on the office bulletin board caught my eye. 

“For Sale, 1937 J-2 Cub”, the sign said. I owned a 1939 J-3 at the time, but I’d always been curious about the earlier Cubs that used the 40 horse power Continental engines. I inquired about it from the lady running the little airport, and she stated that it had been her deceased husband’s airplane and she wanted to sell it to make room in the hangar.

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Editorial: DO Sweat the Small Stuff

By Ed Downs

We have all heard the old standby, “don’t sweat the small stuff.”  Typically, that advice is given when one needs to keep focused on the final outcome of a big issue.  The general belief is that if one takes care of the big issues, the small ones will resolve themselves.  A recent conversation, however, has caused this writer to rethink that sage advice.  My past editorials have expressed concern that our current national leadership is openly hostile towards private aviation, both personal and business. 

For example, this editorial section, and virtually every editorial section of all aviation magazines, have addressed the proposed “per flight” user fees.  While engaged in a discussion regarding these fees, the comment was made, “what makes you think private aviation is being treated in a hostile manner other than simply asking rich guys to pay their fair share?” This writer was caused to pause and think.  The suggested user fee tends to be a rallying point for those who support aviation, but is that the only issue?  Intuitively, I felt safe in the views expressed in these pages, but was I working on facts, or gut feelings brought about by personal political preferences.  What is it that has this writer so concerned about the future of our industry?

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Adventure House Unearths a Great Aviation Series from the Pulp Era

By Mark Rhodes

The pulps of the 30s and 40s are a rich (though somewhat forgotten) treasure trove of American storytelling not necessarily at its best, but maybe at its most memorable and original. Memorable and even immortal characters sprang from the pages of these publications such as Tarzan (100 years old this year) as well as Doc Savage, The Avenger and The Shadow. 

Less well known, but equally memorable was the series G-8 and His Battle Aces.  This series was penned by Robert Hogan and had an impressive 110-issue run from 1933 to 1944.  G-8 does not have the name recognition other pulp stalwarts like The Shadow might have even today; but he was a unique character in his own right.  Other popular pulp characters such as Doc Savage and The Avenger were “Renaissance Men on Steroids” having multiple world-class talents like Physician, Scientist, Inventors, Athletes and so on. G-8 was a supernaturally talented aviator and spy but he did not have the extraneous talents or limitless bank accounts of the playboy/vigilantes like The Shadow. Interestingly enough, author Hogan was a fairly accomplished aviator having been an air cadet in the First World War and also having worked as a demonstration pilot for Curtis Wright.  The Depression saw Hogan lose his job and helped pave the way for his career as an author. 

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Brazil is the Leader in South American Aviation

By Alan Smith

Embraer 190 with Lufthansa. (Mario Ferioli)As the largest nation in South America, Brazil covers nearly half the continent with a population of 201,103,330. It is just a bit smaller than the United States. Brazil’s largest cities are Sao Paolo, Rio De Janeiro, and Recife in the north. Recife has steel mills near the mouth of the Amazon, and Sao Paolo is the business and financial center in the southeast. The capital, built mostly during the 50s, is Brasilia located inland in the highlands. Brazil is bordered by every South American nation except Chile and Equador.

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The Red Hawks

U.S. Navy’s Premiere Advanced Training Squadron

By Russ Albertson

Lieutenant Junior Grade Wes Tanner breaks away from us landing at NAS Kingsville. (Russ Albertson)VT-21, the “Red Hawks,” is one of the US Navy’s premiere advanced training squadrons, located at NAS Kingsville in southern Texas.  Along with VT-22, this base is home to Training Air Wing 2 and provides advanced jet training for new Navy and Marine Aviators. 

VT-21 has its roots in training squadron ATU-202, which was established in 1951 flying the Grumman F-6F Hellcat.  ATU-202 was designated VT-21 in 1960 and since then the squadron has operated the Grumman F-9F Panther, Grumman F-9F8 Cougar, and the Douglas TA-4J Skyhawk. 

Presently the Red Hawks, along with VT-22, operate approximately 107 McDonnell Douglas/ British Aerospace T-45 Goshawks at NAS Kingsville. The Goshawk was chosen to replace the aging Rockwell T-2 Buckeye and the Douglas TA-4 Skyhawk. The T-45 is a British designed aircraft based on the Hawker Siddeley Hawk that was first flown in 1974 as an advanced jet trainer for the Royal Air Force.  In 1977, Hawker Siddeley merged with British Aerospace and continues to produce the Hawk. 

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LightSquared Faces Ever Increasing Opposition, But GPS Not Saved Yet

EAA Calls for Members Comments to the FCC

By EAA.org

After the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) concluded that LightSquared’s wireless broadband signals interfere with millions of GPS devices in use today - including for aviation navigation - the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) announced on Feb. 15 that it is asking for more public comments prior to making the final decision to withdraw the Conditional Waiver Order issued to LightSquared last year. Withdrawing the Conditional Waiver Order will kill LightSquared plans to establish a high-speed wireless data network. The final FCC decision is anticipated no later than March 31, 2012, and if the waiver is canceled it gives a complete victory to the Save Our GPS Coalition, of which EAA is a member. The coalition has been vehemently opposing LightSquared’s proposal for the past year.

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Pilot's Bill of Rights Introduced in House

Companion bill to EAA-supported Senate measure unveiled last summer

By EAA.org

Longtime EAA member Rep. Sam Graves (R-MO), along with Rep. Dan Lipinski (D-IL), have jointly introduced the House version of the “Pilot’s Bill of Rights” that would provide aviators with more protection and access to information in FAA enforcement proceedings.

The bill (H.R. 3816) is a companion bill to the U.S. Senate version (S. 1335) introduced last July by EAA member Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK). That Senate bill, which was outlined to aviators by Sen. Inhofe last summer at EAA AirVenture 2011, already has 60 co-sponsors.

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The 104th Aircraft Recovery Squadron

By Steve Weaver

I was driving the other day and I spotted a small airplane, mounted on a trailer and being towed down the interstate. I was wondering what sad occasion had brought it to such a low state and I fell to thinking about my old friend Willie Mason and the “104th Aircraft Recovery Squadron.” 

Willie came into my life in the late 60s as a flying student, while I was teaching flying and running a small country airport. Something between us clicked and in the process of teaching him about flying we became great friends. Through the next few years he taught me about the art of the small adventure. 

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World War I Aircraft

By Alan Smith

The Curtiss JN-4 ‘Jenny” that trained U.S. Army pilots prior to their travel to France to fly French fighter aircraft. (Photo byBrian Karli at Amarillo Texas in 1918/Holcomb’s Aerodrome)When gunfire began in the First World War, the airplane was just 11 years old and had been in competition for five years. In America, however, the airplane was still an aerodynamic juvenile. No one had thought about using it to wage war. That would quickly change.

The Europeans had moved far ahead of the U.S. in aircraft design and manufacturing, largely due to the willingness of their governments to invest in aviation. In 1913, for example, the French allocated $7.4 million for aircraft development while the U.S government spent a mere $125,000. As a result, during the opening years of World War I the American aviators were still flying fragile Wright and Curtiss pusher biplanes. While European designers were busy developing relatively high-performance combat aircraft, American exhibition pilot Lincoln Beachey and race car driver Barney Oldfield were amusing spectators by chasing each other around dirt racetracks. It was almost as though Americans had not yet figured out what an airplane could be used for.

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