The Wandering Minstrel

DrJim, who blogs at Every Blade Of Grass, liked the expression so I decided to use it as the title of this post. Jim was commenting on the post yesterday about Miss Piggy.

Clickable image - Sitting in the H-4 Cockpit

As we continue to sort through all the old junk in the closets and drawers, we find little nuggets like this ancient photo of me sitting at the controls of The Spruce Goose. It was on a slide when I found it last week so I took it to the photo shop to have it scanned onto a CD ROM.

The story dates back to 1982 when I and a contingent from the Hughes (Aircraft) Radio Club were invited to take a private tour of the H-4 Hercules in Long Beach, CA, prior to opening the exhibit up to the public. The huge wooden airplane was in a dome adjacent to the Queen Mary.

We got the whole deal. We walked out into the wings of the plane where an engineer was stationed behind each of the eight giant R-4400 Pratt & Whitney radial engines. I even got to climb up on the top of the Goose (covered in plastic tarps) and walk on the wings and fuselage. It was incredible! Everything was there - the 20 passenger seats behind the cockpit, the radio rack with all of the original ARC radios from that era and the cockpit itself in its original condition.

Of course, I wasn’t the only guy to sit in the same seat occupied by Howard Hughes that day, but I was the best looking (according to The Better Half, that is).

My Mom (still around at age 90) says I was present the day Hughes lifted the Hercules off in Long Beach Harbor in 1948. My Dad had taken the family, Mom, me and my two brothers, to witness the taxiing-turned-test-flight. Sadly, I was taking a nap in the car and can’t remember the event. I was five at the time.

Back in the early 1980s, I had the pleasure of serving as flight instructor to primary student Fraser Heston. A mutual friend and former student, Ralph, introduced Fraser to me and wanted to have Fraser take his primary instruction in Ralph’s Piper PA-18 Super Cub, a descendant of Piper’s Venerable J3 Cub. I was one of the few taildragger instructors at SMO then, so I got the job.

Clickable image: Fraser Heston posing by Ralph’s Super Cub (found during the big house cleaning)

One of the big events was when Fraser was to have his first solo flight. His Father, the immortal Charlton Heston brought the family to witness the event. After a few trips around the traffic pattern as dual instruction, Fraser was ready to make his three take-offs and landings to a full stop (touch and go landings don’t count for taildraggers). I got out of the airplane near the gas pit where there was an observation deck. I introduced myself to “Chuck” and his family as Fraser taxied out for take-off.

Fraser’s three trips around the pattern were flawless. His landings were smooth and uneventful - which is a good thing. We cheered from the observation deck as Fraser taxied back for each subsequent takeoff. after the last landing, Fraser taxied to the tie-down area next to the observation deck and we all met him there.

Chuck proposed a toast to the event. The family brought a bottle of champagne and several little plastic champagne glasses. Chuck had to pour the champagne into glasses on the horizontal stabilizer of an adjacent Cessna since Ralph’s airplane’s horizontal stabilizers aren’t horizontal on the ground. We toasted to Fraser’s perfect first solo flight. The family then adjourned to have brunch in Westwood Village.

The Better Half and I were honored to be invited to the screening of “Mother Lode” a few weeks later. We both met with Charlton Heston, the star of the film, and with Fraser, the writer and producer. On the way out, The Better Half (literally) bumped into Lou Ferigno, star of “The Incredible Hulk.” That was a fun night.

I am very proud to have these events in my pilot logbook. I still brag about having this experience from time to time. This is one of those times.

Old Glory waves in the foreground as the Blue Angels fly overhead. Clickable image.

Today, I grilled up a pork tenderloin for today’s entreé along with some chicken breasts to be used later in the week for Caesar salads. The better half grilled up another chicken breast marinated southwestern style for tomorrow’s main meal, soft chicken tacos. After we finished grilling, I sliced the tenderloin up and the Better Half served it with cinnamon glazed carrots, homemade apple compoté and steamed broccoli. A nice heart-healthy low-sodium afternoon feast. Clickable image - warning - drool alert!

The airshow part of this story is a fallout from a P-51 Mustang and P-40 Warhawk flyover made at the unveiling of the long-lost Swamp Ghost, a WW2 B-17 that was recently salvaged from a New Guinea swamp where it crash landed during the big war. Evidently, the original two aircraft scheduled for the overflight were joined by some other war-bird enthusiasts and made several passes over our area - we’re about a mile and a half from the Torrance airport where several war-birds are headquartered. The thumbnail image shows four of the eight aircraft that overflew our house today. Clickable image to see all eight.

On our way home from a family visit today, Marine One, a flight of three, passed almost directly overhead as we were driving about seven miles southeast of LAX. The Obamination was leaving town after another wasteful political junket to La La Land.

Last week, the Better Half and I observed two C-17s on approach to LAX. I wondered at the time why that might have been and now I’m assuming they carried the motorcade and security vehicles into the Airport for this week’s careless waste of taxpayer money.

Clickable image - the third aircraft was in trail of these two helicopters.

t’s been a lot of years since I piloted one of these. It’s an Aeronca Champion or ‘Champ’ for short. These were built after the second world war and were in direct competition with the Piper J-3 Cub. I have flown and instructed in both types and, believe me, they are a lot of fun to fly.

Image: Aeronca Champion

We were shopping in a strip mall near Torrance Zamperini Field when this nicely painted Champ flew over us on a short approach to runway two-niner left. A wave of nostalgia went through me as it sent me back in time to the days of dead reckoning, seat-of-the-pants, plus ‘needle, ball and airspeed‘ flying.

Earlier today we were out doing errands and stopped at Zamperini Field in Torrance to see the EAA’s “Aluminum Overcast,” a restored WW2 B-17 (like the Memphis Belle). What a beauty! The Better Half got this (clickable) shot of the magnificent plane when it taxied up to the crowd waiting in front of the General Aviation Building.

The EAA offers flights aboard the plane that are booked in advance of the tours. They also offer guided tours of the aircraft for a small fee (free to active duty military and veterans). They offer merchandise for sale in a nearby trailer/store and accept donations to keep the “Overcast” flying.

I wasn’t at the airport early enough to get any video of the B-17 in the air, so I’ll put up this video I took a couple of years ago when it visited here. I got the overflight shot when it crossed the threshold of runway 11 Left at the airport on one of the landings. The other part of the video was taken on the tarmac near midfield. The props look weird in the video since they were in sync with the frame rate.

The aircraft will be here at Torrance for the rest of this weekend. Their next visits to the Southern California area are:

• April 13 - 14, Chino, CA
• April 16 - 18, Van Nuys, CA
• April 20 - 21, Oxnard, CA

Check their website for schedule, fees and booking.

Clickable image: T-38 Talons on Flatbeds

Last week, I posted about seeing aircraft being hauled on flatbed trucks. In the comments to the article, DrJim and I speculated about the destination for the Talons. We thought either a rich collector or perhaps a museum like Pima Air Museum in Tucson.

Today, the Better Half snapped another photo of a third Talon on a flatbed (bottom) in the same location we saw the first two. The two at the top, each with a different tail number, were headed out last week.

I now speculate that the Talons are headed for the Davis-Monthan “Boneyard,” in Tucson, AZ. There are a couple of places near Tucson that aircraft are ‘mothballed’ after their service life. Davis-Monthan and Pinal Airpark in Marana. The former is used for military aircraft while the latter for retired commercial airliners and such. Since this is the third military T-38 Talon that we have seen near I-10 in Arizona, I now strongly suspect that Davis-Monthan is the destination.