Some Personal Flying History

Received FAA Private Pilot License, Single Engine Land, 1960. Did all my training with the Progressive Flying Club in Hawthorne, CA. Flew Cessna 120s, 140s, 150s with a Piper Tripacer and Super Cub thrown in for good measure. "Logged" about 1000 hrs in various General Aviation aircraft, mostly with the AiResearch Flying Club in Torrance, CA. (Actually logged about 500hr and quit recording since we had no asperations of grandeur beyond Private Pilot SEL.) Flew Cessna 140, 150, 170, 172, 177, and 182, and a Beech Bonanza 35 with AiResearch. Took the Instrument exam and passed but decided the currency requirements were not something we wanted to endure for the rest on our flying career. A time came when my stepson could not fly with us on our traditional holiday trips north to Lake Almanor. Then the Flying Club started making unfriendly rules regarding our operations, so we dropped out of it. By that time we also had stuff like a wind surfer that we wanted to transport and it didn't fit the planes in the club. 

Took a couple of 1 hr lessons in Sailplanes, Schweizer TG-3A and a 2-32 at El Mirage, CA. The TG-3A was strictly a primary training glider and was not fun to fly at all due to gross adverse yaw. The 2-32 was the direct opposite, a high performance sailplane with excellent performance and nice handling characteristics (low adverse yaw). Decided the hassle (assembly, disassembly, chase crew, et al) was greater than the reward, and did not pursue. 

Took Skydiving Jump School at Elsinor Jump Center and made a couple of static line jumps from a 172. Decided the thrill wasn't worth the time (spent mostly waiting around for another ride), energy and money. Total air (under chute) time about 10 min. 

Became interested in hang gliding in 1978 and took instruction at Joe Greblo's Windsports Soaring Center in Van Nuys, CA. Earned a USHGA Hang II pilot rating and bought a beautiful Cirrus III Hang Glider from Joe Greblo. Flew local sites, e.g., Parker Mtn, Guadalupe Dunes (near Pismo Beach), etc. Became inactive when my "driver" retired and didn't have any friends who were into it.

Became interested in Ultralights circa 1982. Took a lesson at Riverside Flabob Airport in an American Aerolights Eagle 215B weight shift UL. Did taxi runs and ground handling. While waiting on the runway for surface winds to subside a little a gust of wind raised the nose and eventually blew the Eagle over backwards just sitting there (with me all the way forward in the sling)! Helpless feeling.[g] The instructor (and UL owner) then got paranoid of the surface winds and terminated the session. And the next one. And we quit making the trip out there from Hermosa Beach just to sit there watching the wind and him saying "no, too windy."! Even tho we did enjoy flying the trip both ways in a 172, it wasn't sufficiently satisfying to continue. Didn't get our pre-paid money back either. :-( 

Kept current with the UL scene thru magazines and the web. Started getting serious about possibly buying a UL after retiring to Chico. My brother had a Mooney Mark 21 hangered in Oroville and is a member of the Oroville EAA Chapter 1112. It seemed possible that certain models with foldable or removable wings might fit in the hanger along with the Mooney. In 1999, started doing web searches looking for motorgliders. Looked for Bright Star SWIFTs, MitchellWing A-10s and B-10s, Falcons, Devon Stratton D-8, Sadler Vampire, and Earthstar Soaring Gull. Wanted something that was UL legal (or close) and had decent soaring performance so it was good for something besides flying around low and slow, while having the wing fold/removal and trailerable features.   In late summer 1999, got into serious discussions on a Bright Star SWIFT w/ motor pod with the owner in Puerto Rico. Major problems were the location (me in California) and security of transfer (like no escrow procedures). Meantime, a couple of MitchellWing A-10s became available in Iowa. (One A-10 had been advertised in Joshua Tree, CA, but I got to that one too late. :-( ). Eventually, bought the "green one" (S/N 123) and had it delivered to Ameriplanes, Inc., the current manufacturer of MitchellWings A10s(single place) and T-10s(two place). They happened to be only 14 mi. away from the outfit we bought it from in De Soto, IA. They installed electric start on the Zenoah G25B-1 engine and the battery so we can get reliable air starts after doing engine off soaring. Also bought a BRS-5 750 Softpack chute thru Ameriplanes. The leadtime was 5-6 weeks which meant we would be picking up the plane before it got there, if things went as scheduled. 

In Oct. '99, flew commercial airline (America West) to Kansas City, Mo., rented a U-Haul Thrifty Mover truck (14' box) and drove to Terry & Susan Thornton's Sunrise B&B at Culver "International Airport", KS. There we got 3 hrs of dual instruction with Terry Thornton in the T-10 that belonged to Ameriplanes and got signed off for solo in the A-10 (that was still in Iowa). Original plan was to drive to Ameriplanes in Winterset, IA, fly my A-10 around, load it on the trailer that we bought along with the A-10 and tow back to Calif. Well, winds in Winterset (and all the way up from KS) were not suitable for ULs that day. And the A-10 wasn't really ready to fly anyway, lacking an airspeed indicator, inspection/verification of the stabilator trim, CG/weight and balance, etc.. So we loaded "JL" up (we named our A-10 "JL" after author Richard Bach's "Jonathon Livingston Seagull") after trading trailers with Larry Smith, the owner/President of Ameriplanes, to get a 2" hitch that fit the U-Haul, and started back to Calif. 

The trip back was relatively uneventfull except for a thundershower out of Des Moines, IA, the first night. Fortunately, there were no severe wind gusts to adversely affect the trailer and its load, which has considerable area up high (the folded winds) for cross winds to leverage on. Think it helped to be behind the big (empty) box of the truck. There was a section of I-80 out of Grand Island, NE that was atrocious with rough undulations in the right (truck) lane. It set up resonances in the truck suspension and in the trailer that seemed to exist at all speeds above 50mph and we wasn't prepared to drive slower than that. [g] So we spent several hundred miles in the left lane which was much better. Got back to Sacramento, CA, in three days and turned the U-Haul in there and picked up our Blazer that had been left at the Sac. airport parking. Transferred JL w/trailer to the Blazer and finished the trip to Chico. 

Close inspection after arriving back revealed a certain amount of travel damage. The vibration, et al, caused two rips in the nose pod where Ameriplanes had mounted the battery, broke the starter solenoid mounting bracket where it was mounted to the engine, lost the balance weight on the right stabilator, broke the front wheel pant bracket, and developed rips in two of the wheel pants. Trailering does seem to have a down side. [g]

JL was now at home in the Oroville hanger shared with the Mooney. We eventually figured out how to shoehorn it in without even having to fold the wings. [g] The left wheel had to be jacked up about 8" (on a special dolly we built), then the left wing cleared the prop and cowl of the Mooney and could overlap. So JL would roll in nose-by-nose with the Mooney.

Update 2000 - My brother sold the Mooney due to health reasons and we had to move out of the hanger. We rented a space in the Oroville Foundation of Flight (OFOF) "Dan Cook Briefing Hut" and moved it in. Need to fold the wings this time. :-)

So that's how we became a MitchellWing A-10 owner. And it will (hopefully) be the source of further fun, learning and experiences to be detailed on this site as the events transpire (not necessarily immediately [g]).