Dudley Henriques wrote in
:

Bertie the Bunyip wrote:
Dudley Henriques wrote in
:

Bertie the Bunyip wrote:
Dudley Henriques wrote in
:


Every now and then at some of our shows I'd get a chance to sit
down and jaw awhile with the Formula 1 race pilots. Steve Whittman
was at a few of these ("war stories" gab sessions) Steve had some
amazing stuff from the "old days", and would have us all laughing
like idiots telling us about flying some of the old planes.
I actually got a taste of what he was talking about when I flew a
Cassutt race plane one afternoon. Actually, you don't really FLY a
Cassutt, you WEAR a Cassutt :-) Even the Pitts wasn't as sensitive
on the controls as that beast. But it was great fun and I caught
on quickly after it scared the s**t out of me on take off. I
rotated and went to 100 feet before I could ease off the tiny bit
of back pressure I had used to do that :-))
In my opinion, the guys who flew those early planes were REAL
pilots!!
:-))
You were lucky to have met him. I'd seen him at Oshkosh and sun n
fun a few times, but wasn't part ofthe elite that got to meet him.
Elite? Not THIS bunch!! More like us being us covered from head to
foot with engine oil and hydraulic fluid and all of dying for a cold
coke with Whittman the only guy there with enough loose change for
the battered old coke machine in the back of the hangar:-))


You know what i mean...


Any of those things had to be a handful. the fuselage area, even on
the inline engined ones, was vast ahead of the CG and the tail
surfaces tiny. Add that to some fairly sensitive wings and pilots
with fairly limited experience in low performance airplanes and
it's a wonder that any of them survived! Lots didn't, of course.


Bertie
Yeah, true enough. Even Whittman came to a tragic end after all he
had accomplished and done. I seem to recall hearing both he and his
wife died when the fabric failed on their Tailwind some years back.





Yes, hard to believe that such an experienced builder could make such
an elementery mistake. He was using some sort of tight weave nylon
covering, and , as you did with cotton in the past, just doped it
onto the wood sheeted wing of his tailwind. It bubbled up in flight,
not having properly adhered to the surface.

A real shame. Such a sad end for such a talented guy. If anything,
what happened should serve as a constant reminder of the inherent
dangers involved in aviation and that no matter how long we've been in
it, and no matter how much we know and have experienced, it can rise
up and bite us in the ass at the exact instant we let our duard down
and become complacent.
I know it was that way for me anyway. I never once lost that slight
"edge" of awareness that danger was there with me wherever I went.
This "feeling" actually got stronger as the years went by.
I've always felt that this single thing is what managed to get me
here, sitting in the den retired with it all behind me, but SAFELY
behind me
:-))

Yeah,every once in a while I learn something that is so big and so
fundamental that it frightens me that I'd been flying around in
ignorance of it for so long and worse, makes me wonder what else I might
be flying around not knowing..

this happened to a friend of my father's in a Cessna Bobcat many
years ago. His son and he made a repair and then went flying as soon
as the dope dried. They were alarmed to see a large bubble forming in
the upper surface of the wing as they motored along.
They got away with it though..


Bertie

Ah yes, the old UC78 Bamboo Bomber??? I still remember Sky King from
when I was a bit "younger". Never got to fly one, but heard it was a
fine old airplane indeed.


Yeah, not many left now. A buddy of mine nearly bought one with his
brother when they were both fairly young, but they walked away from it
because of the daunting task of rebuidling the wing. The friend of my
dad's from the story had sold his by the time I'd gotten into his
neighbothood, but I did get a ride in his Apache. My first in a light
twin.

Bertie