Article Number Four*

By ANN Correspondent Tom Griffith

I made my way over to the line of biplanes that made up the first row of Tour aircraft. They included a pair of New Standards and a Travel Air. I spoke with Clay Adams, one of the Tour pilots who flew the Travel Air (NC-397M, an E-4000, built in 1929). He wore period clothing, complete with a white long-sleeved shirt and necktie. He said that the weather hand finally allowed him to wear the outfit in comfort -- previous days had been maybe 20 degrees higher, he said. I asked him if he had seen the Stinson Trimotor, the one plane that hadn't arrived yet. He said that he knew that it was having an "engine problem" in Wichita and that it might not make the trip to Tulsa. I knew that settling for a flight in another of the Tour aircraft would be like the time I had to 'settle' for a ride in a B-25 when the Lone Star Flight Museum's B-17 was having engine problems.  I'd manage somehow!

This was before I'd found out that the problem was wet magnetos, already discussed in a previous article. I let him talk to the other visitors and made my way over to the two New Standards.  Strangely enough, the most striking thing that I saw there was the pilot of one of them: Rob Lock. Rob is a pilot who is head and shoulders above the rest of us, in more ways than one. He's an accomplished pilot and he's 6'10" tall. In his presence, we felt like Hobbits next to some kind of giant. His dad, Bob, is the pilot of the other New Standard. I watched him help kids into the cockpit of the big New Standard biplane. He told the kids that the plane was 74 years old, which was even older than he. It was easy to tell from observing this father and son team that they enjoyed their "jobs" as Tour pilots and they simultaneously educated and entertained the folks gathering around them.

Two of the most popular planes were both Sikorsky Amphibions (Sikorsky misspelled "amphibian" on purpose), the single-engine S-39 and the S-38 twin. The S-39 had giraffe spots and the S-38 had zebra stripes. They portrayed original Sikorsky aircraft that made a long air safari tour of Africa in the early 1930s. Waldo Anderson (above) signed autographs as the upper part of his body protruded through a door on the top part of the S-38's passenger compartment - like most of the pilots, he was in period clothing. He eagerly answered questions about the 'Amphibion' and didn't seem to tire of answering the same questions as one part of the crowd moved on and new folks came up to start the process of getting his autograph and asking questions all over again.  Once again, I preferred to be the observer and "passively interview" the man by his words and actions.

I kept looking to the sky, to see if the Stinson Trimotor was in the pattern when the "tail end Charlie" Aviat Husky landed. The Tour has two of  these 2003 model Huskies: one is the scout plane and it flies in first to each airport on the tour, just ahead of the first wave of Tour planes.  The second one stays behind the "pack," to make sure that everyone gets there, or helps them get to an alternate airport (remember, pilots: every flight away from the area of your airport of departure requires your finding alternate airports to land at if you have problems before reaching your intended destination!) if problems develop.

The Husky pilot had to fly a side slip due to the left crosswind and made a textbook landing. As he was taxiing in, I found a Tour person near a taxiway (Tour personnel had passes with blue neck cords, and were easy to spot) and asked about the Stinson Trimotor. It was he who told me that the exact problem was wet magnetos, but that they had been dried out with blow dryers and that my ride would be arriving shortly. Hope springs eternal, but to hedge my bets, I phoned Suzanne (I want to thank  the inventors of the cell phone - again!) and she said that she'd line me up with another plane if need be, but it looked like the Stinson was en route and I was still "on" with that aircraft.

I stayed on that end of the line of Tour aircraft, as close as I could get to the runway that my Trimotor would be using. I plopped down onto the asphalt and put the telephoto lens on my trusty old Canon AE-1 to get ready for the Stinson to arrive. After what seemed like an eternity, a dark blue speck appeared beyond the end of the runway and as it got larger, I saw the three round engines and heard their beautiful sound. The pilot, John Mohr, whom I would be meeting with later and who would be MY pilot to take me back to Texas, flew a left downwind, turned base and made a graceful final approach to Runway 36L. My shutter was clicking as the plane neared the earth and continued to do so as he touched down and rolled out. When NC-11153 (her tail number) taxied to the ramp area on Taxiway Lima, the three Lycoming radials made a low rumble as John followed the marshalling personnel. They had the audacity to keep ME back with the rest of the onlookers - didn't they know who I was???

The big blue beauty taxied to her parking spot and the engines were shut down. They kept us back while the fuel truck rolled up and began to pump avgas (it seems that the Tour ships all run OK on 100LL) into her tanks. When this was all finished, we got to go up and take a close look at her. John and his wife, Lyn, had walked away and I noticed a young man, Ryan Mohr (they all had Tour name tags on them to help us out!), standing by the nose of the plane. I introduced myself to him and told him that I was going to be a passenger on this plane for the leg to Ft. Worth. He told me that his dad, John Mohr, would be my pilot and that he was over at the big Spartan School of Aviation hangar filling HIS tank with barbeque. I naturally took a bunch of photos and looked inside the Stinson. I was surprised at how small it was relative to the Ford Trimotor and the Bushmaster Trimotor, one of each being parked nearby.

There were eight (or nine - it was hard to tell) passenger seats, most of which had "passengers" already. These "passengers" were NOT, however, human - the seats had guitar cases, a tuba case and I think a case with a drum kit in them. Ryan told me that the pilots and Tour personnel liked to make music on their overnight stays on the Tour, and that NC-11153 was their aerial "band bus."  There was, however, an open seat, right behind the flight deck, and that would be MINE. I was going to be the only passenger, with John in the left seat and Lyn in the right seat. I decided to be polite and NOT ask to get to sit in the right seat. It's really cramped up there and exchanging people from the back to either of the front seats would present a logistic and safety problem. Ryan told me that the windows besides the seats all slid back, so I would be able to take photos of the other planes as we winged our way to Meacham Field in Ft. Worth, where my family would be waiting for me. I made another call to Louise to tell her that my plane was here and that I'd already checked it out.
 

To make a long story short, John and Lyn made their way back to NC-11153 and after introducing myself to them, we talked about the plane and the flight we'd be making together. Both of the Mohrs were gracious and informative. I couldn't have had a better crew on my American Airlines Stinson Trimotor.

In my next article, we find out that the popular WB-TV show, Charmed isn't the only place where the "Power of Three" has magical powers.

[*Yes, you eagle-eyed readers: we did indeed accidentally switch this article (the REAL "Number Three" with Tuesday's article, the real "Number Four." We promise to sort this out later, when we archive the series. The good news: Article Number Five will follow -- at least we got that one in order --ed.]

FMI: www.nationalairtour.org