The Great Biplane Adventure

The Great Biplane Adventure

November 1991  My Dad always wanted a biplane to fly. He already has two other planes which are both taildraggers and has been flying since I was a little kid. My first plane ride was at two years old and I had always thought flying was a little boring until now. Besides Dad being a pilot, I have my pilots license and am instrument rated. Also my husband Stan is a pilot with instrument, commercial, twin and glider rating. He is also a medical examiner which comes in handy for the family. Dads wife Kitten is also a pilot.

I got a message at 2pm Wednesday saying to be ready to leave for California tomorrow at 6am. Another adventure oh boy. I packed my bag and we were off the next morning. Dad, Kitten (his wife), me and Spike, their English bulldog. We all piled into their big black Mercedes Benz pulling a trailer behind. We zoomed down the highway and ran into snow, ice rain, you name it. Some kid in a truck even ran into the back of the trailer in Arizona. He bent the hitch but he kept going. The purpose of the trip is to pick up a Navy N3N biplane built in 1941. The trailer was for the spare parts the plane had accumulated over the years. Actually the trailer saved our butts in the crash. We continued on down the road and got to Camarillo, California 2 days later.

We drove to the airport and got to look at the plane. Its in pretty good shape but I dont think flown much. The tail wheel was down and weather checked badly. The engine, a 300 hp Lycoming 9 cylinder, was supposed to have been rebuilt recently. Dad thinks they nicked the front prop seal replacing the prop. This plane was owned by a museum that decided to sell it. Someone had left the master switch on and the battery was dead. They got it charged back up and soon it was started. The plane is flown from the front cockpit so Dad got in there and the owner got in the back. The guy never touched the controls the entire time. Dad taxied out and did three takeoffs and landings. Some quite comical to us on the ground. Once he forgot to lock the tail wheel and landed all over the runway. Oh well, he'll never forget that again. He has his hands full with this plane. At the same time the radio in the plane kept cutting out when the engine would idle. Not a great thing to happen at a busy control tower airport. I was listening on the hand-held radio and they were not pleased at father.. Dad said later he thinks this guy didnt really know how to fly the plane at all. There are no manuals so he's still guessing at landing, takeoff and stall speeds. Dad bought the plane that evening and the plan was to fly out tomorrow morning.

I put on lots of clothes for the journey. It was about 65 degrees but it would get much colder once we were flying. We fired the beast up and with rolling smoke took off on an adventure. Really an incredible feeling being in an open cockpit for the first time. Believe me, it wears off really quick in the cold. It feels like being in freefall for hours. The wind beats the hell out of you. Communications can be a might tricky since the wind most of the time overpowers the microphone. We had headsets on but it was very tricky getting the point across. There is also a small mirror that it mounted on the top wing that we use to confirm signals. I told Dad I would help him get out of the Los Angeles basin i.e. keep him out of the LA controlled air space. We flew through a pass in the mountains where there were a bunch of white windmills humming along. It was so neat being that close to the mountains and ground. Once through the pass we were headed toward Palm Springs. I heard over the radio a "Mayday" call from a very lost student pilot. Both Dad and I looked all over while we were flying but we never did spot her. I heard Dad mumble but I didnt understand what he said.

We landed 2 hours later 240 miles away. It was very evident what Dad was yelling about in the plane. He turned around once we were on the ground and looked down right hilarious with the one lens out and one in of his special bifocal sunglasses. I guess when he was looking over the side of the plane for the lost student it popped out. His far sight is great but he cant see worth a crap up close. This is going to be a very interesting trip I can tell. We both felt tired even after the short hop. I think the fuel guys had a great laugh when we jumped out of the plane. Dad with his one lens glasses and both of us wearing oil soaked coveralls. We had two more hops to go today and the plane is leaking a ton of oil.

It soon became very evident that you need two pilots in this plane to travel cross-country. The instruments consist of a wet compass, altimeter, turn & bank, manifold, rpm, oil pressure and vacuum gas gauge. I had an ICOM hand-held transceiver to find the VORs (radio beacons used for navigation) and use as a back up communication radio if needed. We also had one com radio in the plane. Dad and I both had VFR  (Visual Flight Rules) charts for the route and I had the low enroute IFR (Instrument Flight Rules) charts for frequencies. But the most important chart was the Rand-McNally road atlas. Kitten drove the Mercedes along the route. On the next stop we needed oil bad so Dad tried to buy a case. You would have thought he asked for the moon but after much yelling we got a case of much needed oil. I left a message for Kitten to change the overnight stopped. During the next leg of the flight we enjoyed some beautiful scenery. Dad said something to me that I didn't hear to well and I just answered, "OK". I marveled at the landscape around us and then wondered why Dad was flying all over the place. Dad got on the headset and I heard, "I've got it." Oops! We both said, "I thought YOU had it." We both thought the other was flying the plane. Albeit flying all over the place but we thought somebody was at the controls. At least the plane can fly itself if we're not paying attention. We had hoped to make the first stop Demming, New Mexico but it as not to be. We stopped in Wilcox Arizona. The folks in Wilcox were really very nice. They hangered the plane and lent us an old beat-up Oldsmoble to get to town. Kitten found us OK. She has another ICOM in the car and we can talk back and forth if were close.

The next day we hoped in, this time with more clothes on. Kitten always leaves early since she has the longer was to go. As Dad and I flew down I-70 we spotted her. Dad of course buzzed her. As we swooped down to fly close to her, one of Dads charts blew out passed me and flew out. I think we scared the hell out of the trucks and cars driving on the highway especially the ones in the on coming lane since we were flying the height of the telephone poles. I took some pictures as we swooped by. Dad pulled up to our normal flying altitude of 200 feet and assessed the chart situation. As would be expected the one that blew out was (a) the newest chart and (b) the one we needed next. Luckily I had duplicate sets and would have to guide Dad past El Paso. On one side was Mexico, a no-no to fly into and the other is a nasty ARSA(controlled airspace). There is diddly to navigate by but to Dads surprise I put him right on top of the VOR outside the ARSA and safe from the feds. We landed outside El Paso in Fabeus and bought an old chart off some friendly guy. We plotted out the course on an old tool box in the shop. Dumped in a lot more oil and fuel then took off.

We were back on the road, this time Highway 20 to Sweetwater, Texas for the night. Along the way the mountains are really beautiful. Stan and I are trying to climb the highest peaks in each state. Dad tells me that we just flew by the highest peak in Texas so I get out the camera and flick some shots off. Im really excited because its a remote mountain and I cant believe our luck of flying right over it. We continue on and soon we need fuel bad. The gauge on the plane is not very accurate so we have been figuring everything by hand using our pilot skills. The wind really started picking up along the way and we couldnt find an airport with the runway into the wind. We had to put down for fuel in Monahans, Texas. The cross-wind component of this plane is 7 knots. Which means you shouldnt land the plane in more than 7 knots of cross wind. Of course we had to land cross wind at this airport with winds from 25 to 30 knots gusting up to 35. Oh boy! Ill have to admit this was perhaps the closest Ive ever come to crashing in a plane. Dad was all over the place trying to control the plane and I was just hanging on for dear life. The wind was off the left side of the wing and at one time the wing dipped so low to the left I leaned out of the plane to hopefully balance it back. We got the damn thing landed and taxied up to the fuel pumps. The lady ran out from the FBO (Fixed Base Operator) and said she thought for sure we were going to crash. I agreed with her and tried to put on a weak smile. The wind was so strong it moved the plane. It takes three men to move it usually. Dad and I walked into the building and didnt say anything for awhile. I think we were in shock. I sat on the floor and just pulled out a Powerbar and drank a Pepsi. Dad said, "Lets go" and I got up. Just as we were going out the door the wind gauge shot up to 40 knots. I said a prayer and out the door we went. We taxied out and down the runway we went. Total distance for takeoff was about 5 feet! Then we turned 45 degrees to the runway from the force of the wind. We climbed carefully and got the hell back on the road headed for Sweetwater. Thank God the wind was coming down the direction of the runway. We landed great which was a relief to both of us. Some gal in black tights and tight top came out to put gas in the plane. She was from Australia and I guess thought thats what you wear as a "line boy". As we looked over the plane, I noticed a "fuzzy" patch on the bottom of the left wing tip. Yep, just as a thought, we scrapped it on our previous landing. Nothing a little duct tape wouldn't fix, so we did a quick repair of the wind. We found a hotel and Kitten caught up about two hours later. The weather so far had been great but we had a storm in the east right on top of where we were headed. That night we had a well deserved meal at a nice resturant. Dad kept laughing and finally he told me to tell Kitten about the highest peak in Texas. I start gushing about how I saw it and took pictures etc. etc. Then Dad couldn't keep it in any longer and said he made the whole thing up just to see if I would fall for it. Well, yank my chain he'll never ever let me live this one down.

The next morning it rained a bit and was overcast. Dad is the most impatient man I've ever met and as expected we took off barely VFR (Visual Flight Rules) in a plane with little instrumentation. Up the road we went, this time I-277. The weather really got bad and we couldn't see the roads any more. Besides it was raining and in an open cockpit its not really too much fun. We found a nice airport at Wichita Falls so we landed. Kittens car blew some fuses so that had to be fixed anyway. We dropped by a Mercedes dealer to pick up the fuses and then get a pizza for lunch. After staying all day at the airport watching nothing but the weather channel we ended up spending the night.

The next morning we took off in clear skies. We both sort of forgot about control zones and flew right into Shepard Air Force Base. It was really pretty easy to do since the highway we were following is right next to the base. Of course the flying zone is further away. I told Dad to look at those neat planes landing and taking off over to the right and then mentioned they look sort of close. Then it dawned on both of us where the heck we were. Almost immediately we hear some lady on the radio saying, "Red biplane, red biplane please identify yourself." We didn't have a transponder or anything else for that matter so we didn't answer right away. Dad just said, "Piss on 'er" and switched to the departure frequency to monitor traffic in the area. Finally we answered the radio call to tell them of our intentions. The lady came back on and told Dad he was hard to understand with all the background noise. As only Dad would do, he said it was "windy" up here and then held the mike over the side of the plane so she could listen to the "wind". Yikes that has got to be a write up to the FAA! They put another controller on, this time an older man who told us he would help us out. We followed his directions up the road; "just passed the McDonalds, find the intersection and turn right". Seriously that was the directions and they were very helpful too. We got into some terrible head winds along the way. A Volkswagen passed us on the highway, how embarrassing. We had to find a place to land since our fuel was looking pretty bad after three hours of head winds.

The place in Bristow, Oklahoma had just reopened but didnt have much for services. We were throwing out about two quarts of oil an hour so we needed some bad. The guy that ran the place said he would be getting some in Friday. Friday?! We needed some today which was Wednesday. The guy called around and there was some down the road. We hopped in this guys truck and he dropped us off at a restaurant while he went in search of oil. We ordered cheeseburgers which was highly recommended by all at the airport. They were huge! No joke they were 8 inches across. I couldnt eat all of mine. Some of the cowboys in the restaurant were eating doubles. I called flight service to get the latest weather to find out when the sun sets in Springfield, Missouri. Dad was getting impatient (how unusual!) since the guy was late picking us up. The guy finally came back and explained he got stopped by the police o the way back. Dad dumped 6 quarts of oil in "Hobbes" and we were ready. Dad named the plane after the tiger in Calvin & Hobbes comic strip. He said hes got a tiger by the tail every time he flies it. I agreed wholeheartedly. Hobbes jumped off the runway and we were off.

Lucky for us the wind was not supposed to be too bad. I was listening to the air traffic and some guy at 4,500 feet said he was getting 70kt head winds. Thank goodness we never fly that high because there was little wind down here at 200 feet. Somehow we got around Tulsa without getting into their controlled airspace and after Joplin, Missouri we followed route I-44 where the wind was less. I think we got up to around 90 mph at one point. Wow, we were really moving. We made a great landing at Springfield, Missouri Regional airport. I called around for hanger space and found a slot across the airport. The plane really looked funny in a big hanger sitting next to a DeHaveland -8 and a Lear jet. It was getting pretty cold and the temperature was continuing to plummet.

The next morning we got up early and Dad and I rode to the airport in the courtesy van. Some TWA pilots and crew were with us and we talked about our flight. Glad the plane was hangered because there was frost on everything and the temperature was around 30 degrees. We drug the plane out leaving the tell tale oil spot on the floor. Kind of like a dog marking its territory I guess. The plane started right up and after Dad contacted ground we got a call from the TWA pilots who were taxiing out. They told us to keep the charts inside the plane this flight. The visibility was around 50 to 60 miles. Some ground fog in certain areas but the highway was clear until we got to the Ozarks. I thought Dad took the wrong road but assumed he knew the way. Never assume anything! Well, nothing looked familiar and we ended up 20 miles to far to the west. WE just cut across towards Columbia, Missouri so it was not a big deal.

Dad and I both did our first cross country flights from Quincy to Mexico, Missouri to Moberly, Missouri and back. We talked about how long that flight seemed to us at the time. We got into Quincy about three hours after take off. Of course, we had to buzz the office and the jobs his workers were on. Dad checked the windsock and put it down perfect on his airstrip in the backyard. The old lady next door came over and I gave her my camera so she could shoot some pictures of me and Dad in front of a very oily plane. Shes about 70 years old and just kept patting the wings saying, "Now THIS is a real plane." We stripped off the extra clothes and I called Stan. Dad and he flew the plane out to the airport to hanger the plane. After the ten minute flight Stan commented on how windy and cold it was. He couldnt believe anyone could spend 6 hours a day in this thing. What a trip!