dope sheet - eaachapter13.orgeaachapter13.org/resources/january 2016.pdf-1- dope sheet for 61 years...

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DOPE SHEET

FOR 61 YEARS — THE NEWSLETTER OF

CHAPTER 13 OF THE EXPERIMENTAL AIRCRAFT ASSOCIATION

SERVING SPORT AVIATION IN THE DETROIT AREA

Volume 61 Number 1 website: EAACHAPTER13.ORG January 2016

REGULAR MEETINGS

1ST

Thursday of Each Month.

Our regular meeting place is Ray Community Airport, in the Chapter #13 hangar (#304) located on the Northeast corner of the field. Meeting time is 7:30pm to 10pm. Burgers and dogs are available for a donation between 6:30 and 7:30pm

January Presentation Swift Fuels Chris D”Acosta, Chief Executive Officer Chris will be at our January Regu-lar meeting to discuss Swift Fuels' new avgas development, intended to replace 100LL. At Oshkosh AirVenture 2015, Swift announced a new unleaded 94 MON avgas that they are bring-ing to the market. They are also working to expand the availability of this fuel to a number of concentrated interest areas across the U.S. Below is a very brief bio of Chris' background: Experience 30 years oil & petrochemical industry 12 years was spent with Koch Industries in Wich-ita, Kansas Background in global supply chain, logistics, op-erations management, regulatory compliance, and commercial due diligence Entrepreneur in renewable energy Education B.S. Industrial Engineering, Texas Tech University, 1980

December Program

Captain Mike Grimmer By, William Appleberry

The speaker for the December meeting of EAA Chapter 13 was Capt. Mike Grimmer. Mike is a

member of the CAP Van Dyke Squadron. He is an A&P technician and gradu-ated from the program at Davis Aerospace Cen-ter. He also acquired his private pilot’s license at the Davis Center while in HS. Mike worked as an aircraft mechanic for ten years before moving into

the automotive industry. While working as an A&P, Mike joined the Air Force Reserve and be-came an avionics technician with the idea of work-ing in maintenance for the airline industry. When Zantop International Airlines was downsized, Mike wound up working for the Ford Motor Com-pany as an Engineering Technologist. Wanting to maintain his connection to aviation, he subse-quently joined the Michi-gan Wing of the Civil Air Patrol. CAP was origi-nally formed 1 December 1941. Originally, the mis-sion responsibilities were coastal patrols, border patrols, target towing for aerial gunnery training, transportation and other duties as assigned. The all-volunteer force was

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EAA Chapter #13 Officers President Rex Phelps

586 918 3838 [email protected]

Vice President Mike Fisher


Treasurer Steve Greene


Secretary Cliff Durand


Newsletter Editor Tom Vukonich


Tech Counselor Bob Hunt


Tech Counselor Ron Walters


Tech Counselor Chuck Valade


Tech Counselor Joe Haas

313 530 5876

Young Eagles Coord Dennis Glaeser


Building and Grounds Pete Dugdale


Chapter Calendar 2016

Jan 7 Regular Meeting* 7:30-10 pm

14 Officers’ Meeting** 7:30 pm

Feb 4 Regular Meeting* 7:30-10 pm


Mar 3 Regular Meeting* 7:30-10 pm


*All Regular Meetings (not all are listed) will have a pre-meeting Bar-B-Q/Setup that starts at 6:30 pm. **Officer Meetings are normally held the 2nd Thursday of each month, in President Rex Phelps’s hangar, 420C.

Civil Air Patrol (cont) initially attached to the Army Air Corps. After the war, in 1948, CAP became an auxiliary of the newly formed United States Air Force. Today, CAP has three main missions, Emergency Services, Aero-space Education and the Cadet Program. The Air Force, however, only directly funds the Emergency Services mission. Emergency services include search and rescue, disaster relief, damage assess-ment and activities of that nature. CAP volunteers and aircraft flew damage assessment missions after the 911 attacks on New York and storm evaluation and relief efforts after hurricanes Katrina and Sandy. After the Deep Water Horizon disaster, CAP flew missions evaluating the distribution and environmental impact of the oil release.

Aerospace Education encompasses mentoring kids in subjects related to STEM, science, technology, engineering and mathematics. Educational mod-ules include aircraft construction, design and princi-ples of operation. Other topics include RC models, model rockets, and orientation flights in CAP air-craft. The Cadet Program expands the aerospace program to include course modules in leadership, command and administration. The Cadet program

age range is from 12 to 21 years old and cadets typically meet an aver-age of 2.5 hours per week and one weekend each month. The beauty of all this is the Air Force recognizes the commitment on the part of the Cadets. Cadets also train and participate in the Emergency Ser-vices program as well; they complete the same requirements as the

adults allowing them to participate in SAR Ground Teams. It’s possible to earn college scholarships in the CAP program. Additionally, if an individual should enter the Air Force upon graduation from high school, they will begin their military service with one extra stripe (a promotion already). Cadets have the opportunity to attend a weeklong summer camp at the Alpena Combat Readiness Training Center in Alpena, MI, or the Search and Rescue Academy in Grayling, MI, as well as many other CAP National programs, including Powered and Glider Academies, enabling them to solo by the end of the program.

Mike, being an adult member/volunteer in CAP, is

Capt Mike Grimmer

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New Year’s History Lesson

Chap #13 Member Harlan Holien

It being the start of a new year, Newsletter staff de-cided to look at what was happening in the Chapter 50 years ago this month.

What we found was this Posting.

“Welcome to a new Mem-

ber, Harlan Holien

HARLAN HOLIEN is a 1943 graduate of Aero Industries Technical Insti-tute of Glendale, Califor-nia, where he received his A&E rating. He was in the SV-2 War Training Ser-vice and served as a Navy engine mechanic at Jacksonville, Holbrook, Ari-zona, and Cecil Field, Florida. Upon returning to Detroit, he worked at Servair at Detroit City Airport. He is now a Supervisor at the G.M. Technical Cen-ter. Harlan is married, has two children, and lives in Warren.”

Harlan remained close to and involved in aviation activities after WWII. He worked with the staff o f t h e “AAHS” (the A m e r i c a n Aviation His-torical Society) attending their events and acting as their

announcer or toastmaster, intro-ducing speakers such as Col. Roscoe Turner. Involved with the EAA from the start he became good friends with Paul Poberezny, Dwane Cole and a number of other well known names in the business.

More recently he contacted the Newsletter staff and asked Bill Appleberry and I to stop by his home. We had a chance to review a number of books, films, newspaper articles and photos that he had saved, and has now do-nated to Chapter 13. We want to thank you for your generous donation and for your 50 years of service

to EAA Chapter #13. Ed

Civil Air Patrol (cont)

rated as a Mission Observer (search and rescue), Mission Photographer and is a Squadron Emer-

gency Ser-vices Officer. CAP has a separate train-ing path for adult members who are men-toring the Ca-dets and par-ticipating in real life mis-sions. Mike also trains the Cadets to per-

form as a Color Guard presenting our National Col-ors at local high school football games, Selfridge ANGB and Toledo Mud Hens Games. More infor-mation on the Michigan wing of CAP may be found at http://miwgcap.usafaux.us/

http://www.gocivilairpatrol.com/

The CAP Van Dyke Cadet Squadron meets at the VFW Post 6691 in Fraser, Michigan on Tuesday evenings. For more information contact Mike Grim-mer a t 586.876.6529 or m ikegr [email protected].

Thank You, Mike, for a great presentation. I wish I had seen it about Fifty #%^&$ years ago!

Capt Mike Grimmer receives his

Speakers Plaque from Kevin Rice

New Years Day Fly-In 2016

Friday Jan 1, 2016 (11:00 am-1:00 pm)

Nappanee, Indiana: Nap-panee Munici-

pal Airport

(CO3)

If you were able to make it to this annual “Hangar Over” event, the Newsletter staff

wants to hear about it. Photos would be ap-preciated as well.

Thanks, Ed

Harlan in 1943

Harlan in 2015

Roscoe Turner

http://miwgcap.usafaux.us/

http://www.gocivilairpatrol.com/

mailto:[email protected]

mailto:[email protected]

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Chapter #13 Builder’s Update Submitted by Tom Vukonich

I am not as comfortable as Jim McDaniel in presenting updates on his project, nor am I as

aloof as WACO Bob Grider. Although, I do feel I stand in good company with these men, and am proud to have been accused of being in a race with them to see who will finish their project-LAST. Over a career spanning 33 years in public service, I spoke

weekly to many audiences in many venues, but I never got comfortable with it. So, instead of standing before you, allow me to fill you in on what was accomplished in 2015 on the DeHavil-land DH-4 Project. To begin, here’s a photo of the fellow, Roy McCalden and his DH-4, that got me started.

So this is what it’s supposed to look like when its done. He suggested that I build it at 75%+ scale, his was 70% scale. I started the year working on the tail. It was 90% complete, with only 90% to go. I under-stand that’s the way it works so I guess I was going about it correctly. Missing was the steel hardware, the drag-antidrug element, all of the “hard” points for the steel fittings, all of the con-nections from the tail to the cockpit and the jack screw for the trim feature along with its hinges. The jack screw was the biggest problem. Roy never mastered it either. He built a wooden bobbin about for inches tall. Every time he used it the control wire would move down the spool and had to be adjusted up at regular intervals.

I built mine to the dimensions of the original, only one and a half inches tall. I ran into the same problem he had, the control wire kept roll-ing off the spool. I found the answer in a 1917 German civil aviation magazine. The Germans captured a DH-4 and published many of the ma-chine’s details, including how the jack screw worked. The screw was re-machined and now works fine. As always there is more detective work than construction work. It would help to have a set of the plans. Anyway, its done and works. Just a little rib smoothing to finish, and covering, of course. Here is a photo of the tail.

While concentrating on other things while walk-ing around the plane, I made a habit of walking right into the tail with my face, ouch. I found that if I put these tags on it, I would notice the tags just before I walked into it. It works pretty good. Next I went back to the seats. The parts had been fabricated earlier. They needed to be as-sembled, cushions fabricated and stenciled with the original Army/Signal Corps markings. The problem is that no-body on earth makes stencils anymore. After a while it came to me that in the new world, computer-ized silk screening was the method of choice. Everyone does it, I found six places in Oxford in the business. I took my seats to

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DH-4 Project (cont)

the shop and asked if they could do the work. The owner and computer guy laughed at me. Apparently they were used to doing multi-color work on school uniforms, etc. I asked how much it would cost. Well, he says, a simple de-sign, and in only one color (black), how about $27 bucks. I said, I need two of them. He said $35 bucks. I think that is the cheapest thing I ever installed on the plane.

Next came the gas tank. It just had to be in-stalled. Right? I guess not. It seems there were a couple of problems. 1. In my lust for a maximum fuel load I made it too big. I had built a Styrofoam model to size. It fit in very closely, however, when the aluminum tank was finished it bulged a little here and there. So when in-stalled, it was rubbing a number of spots on the inside of the fuselage. Hmm, I needed help so I called Bob Hunt. He looked it over and thought it could be saved, after all a lot of effort had been invested in it. All we had to do was cut three inches of the back, and weld it back to-gether again. He v o l u n t e e r e d . Meanwhile, I cut three inched off the back of the model and put it back in the plane. I thought, OK maybe. Then came the news that all the interior baffle welds were broken and the baffle holes were too few and way too small. So I started again.

I called Aircraft Spruce. They sell fuel tanks for a variety of homebuilt kits, but nothing special. They gave me the name of the guy who does their work. I sent him photos of what I needed (downsized to fit better) and he sent me to his web site to see his work. I checked it out and found that each tank was a work of art. I hired him on the spot and was very pleased with the results. Never the less, I air tested the tank my-self. Then I filled it with water, draining it a gal-lon at a time and found the capacity to be 31 gallons. That’s three hours for this plane. Roy McCalden said that his tank held 42 gallons but

that no man alive could sit in it for more than two and a half hours. Apparently there were no ergonomet-ric consid-erations for war planes built in 1916, and then there is the other natural re-striction of nature that limits flight time. Above is the new tank, sitting on a “bench” bolted to the floor, with two “arm rests” bolted to the fuselage sides and with the metal band-ing straps over the top, mimicking the design I photographed on a 1930s aircraft I saw at AirVenture. TaDaa…. The last item recently started are the former ribs that will give shape to the top of the fuselage. These too were made a while ago. But once aligned and in place, it became evident that they were not shaped exactly the same. After trying to shape them individually, I checked with EAA builders’ tips. The trick was to clamp them all together and sand them all at once. I took a 36 inch by 4 inch band sander paper and cut it. Then I glued it to a piece of 4 inch board. Sand-ing across all of the ribs at once did the trick. They’re pretty close now. You can see them in this photo and in the picture of the fuel tank. I am now looking into how the finished top of fuselage is going to be joined with the upper longerons. Oh well, Rome wasn’t built in a day.

A n y w a y , its sup-posed to look like this when its done. Ed

Happy New Year Fly Safe

The Failed Tank

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They estimate they have 6 more years before it is flying. In addition to the B-17, they have a B-25, A-26 Invader, a C-47 that saw service in WWII, a Fairchild 24, and a Stinson 10A. The Fairchild, Stinson and B-25 are in flying condition. The others are in non-flying status. The C-47 will likely be the next pro-ject once the B-17 is

back in the air. I was delighted to see the Stinson 10, and it is in beautiful condition. Stinson in 1939 brought out a 3 seat, high wing design, called the Voyager 105 (it had a cruise speed of 105 miles per hour). Also known as the model HW-75 and the model 10 it quickly became a hot seller. In August of 1939 Stinson was turning out 3 model 105’s a day at $2995.00. The Civil Air Pa-trol used 500 Model 10’s during the war. The model 10 design was enlarged to meet an Army request for a liaison aircraft design called the L-5. Stinson won the contract and built nearly 3600 L-5s for the U.S. armed forces. After the war the L-5 was redesigned for civilian use and became the Voyager 108.

Next was the Flying Fortress. We spent 45 min-utes or an hour with one of the volunteers working on the front spar of the elevator. I think his name was Bob. Bob dropped what he was doing and gave us the Class A tour of the building. They have a small machine shop, a small plastic en-closed area where they can paint and sandblast. They work in aluminum as much as they can. They acquired a mostly complete set of drawings of the airplane from the Smithsonian Museum in Washington DC. That was $10,000 right there. Airframe structural repairs get an engineering analysis to be sure they will be up to safety stan-dards. They have lots of glass cases with artifacts from the era, the equipment and the people

Visiting Urbana, Ohio’s

Grimes Airport and Museum By Bill Appleberry

Over the last several years I’ve driven to the Dayton Ohio area several times. A number of these trips were on US 68 instead of I-75. I would pass by Grimes Field on the North side of Urbana, Ohio. On those occasions I noticed an A-26 Invader parked on the ramp. For various reasons though, I was never able to stop in and check out the airport. Every so often there would be an event at the air-port involving World War II aircraft and the veterans involved in that conflict.

In 2012 the 70th reunion of the Doolittle Raiders was held at Grimes. Looking at the coverage of that event led me to the Champaign Aviation Museum’s web page. Now that my airplane was back in the air I had it in my mind to fly there and check out the museum. So on November 25th, Tom Vukonich, my neighbor Tom Miller and I flew down to Urbana for lunch and to visit the Champaign Air Museum. The flight down was smooth and clear. We arrived around 11am and taxied up to the ramp at the mu-seum. In the front lobby is quite a nice display tell-ing the story of the Women’s Army Service Pilots or WASPS. There were a number of life size photo board cutouts of some of the surviving WASPs.

Each lady (photo above) was holding a photo of herself taken during the war. Each lady related a story she recounted about her service. It was nicely done, amusing, and very informative.

Moving into the main hangar there is a lot going on and we could see numerous exhibits. The largest aircraft taking up perhaps a third of the space was the B-17 project the volunteers are working on.

The apple of Appleberry’s eye.

Stinson 10A

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Lauri McDaniel Stained Glass Art Raffle and Annual Banquet

December 3rd and 4th set the pattern for a cheerful holiday season. Laurie McDaniel set the pace by creating yet an-other of her fabulous stained glass works of art. We can’t thank her enough for all the effort she puts into these creations, the profits of which all go to benefit Chapter #13. And although one can safely say these pieces sell them-selves, we have to give fel-low Chapter member Mark Fullmer a lot of credit for act-ing as her Vice President of sales.

This year the ticket sales brought in nearly $1000.00. Bravo.

And the winner of the raffle this year was the Martha Dugdale. And very pleased she was as can be seen in

the photograph below.

The following eve-ning Friday, De-cember 4th, the group gathered for our Annual Ban-quet. The com-pany was great and so was the food. If you missed it, we recommend that you get your tickets early next year.

One other thank you is in order. On the authori-zation of the Board, Pete Dugdale located and acquired a set of rectangular tables. They worked very well for the banquet and we will no longer be renting tables in the future. Also, the tables are of a light design, so us old guys will

no longer have to fold and tote the h e a v y wood ones around.

Ed

Visiting Urbana (cont) (soldiers). The facility is excellent. They are doing a thoroughly professional job. The Mu-seum itself is free with donation bins placed around the various exhibits. They have a nice gift shop as well. Lunch was next door to the museum, right on the airport. Although my expectations were not that high, the first thing we noticed walking to the restaurant was that although it was now around 12:30 pm the parking lot was nearly full. Entering the facility there were about 6 or 7 peo-ple waiting for tables. We agreed that was a

good sign. Our wait was only about 5 minutes and we were seated. While I don’t remember what Tom or Tom had, I had a turkey sandwich and a bowl of chicken noodle soup. The sandwich was very good and the chicken soup was home made. We had pie for desert. I had blueberry

and it was wonderful too. Obviously all the lo-cals eat here. After lunch we went back to the museum for another hour. All in all it was a very good trip. Allow at least 2 hours for the mu-seum and an hour for the restaurant.

Sources for this article are the Champaign Avia-tion Museum’s web site and WikiPedia.

Here is a link to their extensive web site: http://

www.champaignaviationmuseum.org/

Tom Miller, made

the group a trio.

Dope Sheet Staffers: Bill Appleberry

and Tom Vukonich

Mark Fullmer

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technology rather than a breakdown in the system. Old guys learning to deal with new stuff, I certainly know the feeling.

. Mike Fisher reported that the banquet went well this year. The Chapter hosted 64 members with others adding on just before the banquet began. Dick Green remarked that the new table set up worked well. Pete Dugdale reports that the tables we bought cost the chapter $200.00, an invest-ment that we will recoup within a year as opposed to renting tables.

. Our Newsletter Editor reports that he has sub-mitted our 60th Anniversary Photo to E.A.A. na-tional along with an article. Rex sent along a mes-sage that they could use it for Sport Aviation, the Chapter E-Gram or both. Keep your eyes peeled for the outcome.

. The Young Eagle program is in a holding pat-tern until spring as reported by Dennis Glaser. He is actively looking for Air Academy campers for the 2016 season. The minimum age is 12 years, if you have, or know of a likely candidate; contact Dennis.

. Pete Dugdale reports that we had a small roof leak in the hangar. Since it was noticed, the possi-ble problem has been chased down and fixed. There are some repairs to the outside awning and housekeeping issues all minor, that are being ad-dressed.

. Tom Vukonich will be doing an article on the new apparel that is being discussed and soon to be ordered. Other than that; the only issue is the fact that our printer will be closed for the Christmas and New Year holiday, so we may experience a delay in delivery of the printed copy. The electronic version will be on time.

. In the Other category, Dennis Glaser reports that he has fulfilled all the requirements to become an EAA Flight Advisor. Congratulations Dennis! We are also in the process of submitting our Chap-ter Renewal application to EAA. Pete Dugdale re-ports that the Ray Airport president, Bill McCor-mick has resigned and Doug Conciatu will be fill-ing in temporarily. Kevin Rice mentioned that last month’s presenter; Mike Grimmer from CAP thor-oughly enjoyed his visit to Chapter 13. Dick Green says look for a new and improved website some-time in 2016. No other issues were addressed; so the meeting adjourned at 8:57 p.m.

The next meeting is scheduled for January 14, 2016

Meeting Minutes for the Nov. 12,

2015 Officers’ Meeting

Submitted by Secretary Cliff Durand

December 2015 Board Meeting Highlights

President Rex Phelps opened the board meeting at 7:30 p.m. The following board members and guests attended the meeting: Rex Phelps, Mike Fisher, Steve Greene, Tom Vukonich, Bill Appleberry, Dennis Glaeser, Pete Dug-dale, Dick Green, Bob Mahieu, Laurelle White,

Kevin Rice and Cliff Durand.

. The Secretary Report was read by Cliff Durand, the meeting minutes for November 12, 2015 were accepted as read.

New Business

. Steve Greene gave the treasurer report as fol-lows: Beginning Checking Balance: $8,909.18, Re-ceipts: $1,231.00, Expenses: $284.21, CD: $13,000.00, Petty Cash: $200.00, Adjusted Check-ing Balance: $9,855.97. Steve said that he did not have an up to date membership report at this time. Dennis Glaser requested that an updated member-ship report be forwarded to him when ready, to re-fresh the database.

. The January speaker will be Chris D’Acosta representing Swift Fuels. We also have several presenters waiting in the queue to present in Feb-ruary and March. Watch the newsletter for upcom-ing presentation subjects.

. Kevin Rice is our Chapter member who has vol-unteered to handle the purchase of T-shirts and polo shirts that will sport the Chapter 13 logo. He has done a preliminary survey and has found that there is plenty of interest for new shirts. He will be getting an order together soon, so attend the meet-ings and watch the newsletter to order your new chapter duds.

. Bill Appleberry and Dennis Glaeser report that our audio system is working well. The problems that come up are usually dealing with the

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Two Pilots at Pearl Harbor

This Article by Michael E. Haskew for the

HISTORYNET website

This article was sent to us by my cousin Tom Ar-banas who thought we might appreciate it. We did, and are now passing it along to you. Most of us have seen movies where a couple of Army aviators got off the ground and into the fight at Pearl Harbor. Here then is “The Rest of the

Story” as Paul Harvey used to say.

As the story goes, two heroic American aviators led a spirited defense against the Japanese at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, but there’s more.

The gallant sortie of the battleship USS Nevada was only one example of the many acts of hero-ism that occurred at Pearl Harbor on Sunday, De-cember 7, 1941. A handful of American pilots also put up a spirited defense against the Japanese and became the first American heroes of World War II.

George S. Welch (right in photo) and Kenneth Taylor (on the left), both second lieutenants in the U.S. Army Air Corps, had spent Saturday evening at a dance at the Wheeler Field officers club, fol-lowed by an all-night card game some distance away from their home base at Haleiwa. They heard distant gunfire as the pair was discussing the merits of taking an early morning swim and the winner of the final hand was gathering his money. The lieutenants phoned ahead to have their Curtiss P-40 Tomahawk fighters armed and fueled, then hopped into Taylor’s car with ma-chine-gun bullets from planes of the second wave of Japanese attackers kicking up dust around them.

They reached speeds of 100 mph during the dash to Haleiwa.

Once aloft, the airmen were ordered to patrol in the vicinity of Barbers Point, and they shot down several Japanese planes before returning to the airfield for more fuel and ammunition. Welch re-called: “We had to argue with some of the ground crew. They wanted us to disperse the airplanes and we wanted to fight.”

One of Welch’s machine guns had jammed. Tay-lor had been wounded in the arm and leg and was advised not to get back in the air that day. Never-the-less, the two pilots prepared to climb back into the sky. Journalist Blake Clark recounted: Before Welch’s guns could be unlocked or Taylor’s wound receive first aid, a second wave of 15 Japanese planes swept in….but he and Welch took off immediately.”

The Japanese pilots soon zeroed in on Taylor’s Tomahawk. “Welch, behind them, dived on the one most dangerous to his partner, letting fly with all his guns,” Clark later wrote. “The enemy plane burst into flames and crashed; Taylor escaped. Welch followed another plane seaward, caught it five miles offshore and gave its two-man team an ocean grave.”

A total of five Air Corps pilots managed to get their planes off the ground and give battle that morning. One of them, a lieutenant named Sand-ers, led a group of planes through overcast skies at 6,000 feet. When a formation of six Japanese bombers was spotted attacking an airfield, the group chased them off. Sanders picked out the Japanese leader and sent the smoking enemy plane spiraling into the sea.

Sanders then spotted a comrade in trouble. Lieu-tenant James Sterling had closed with an enemy bomber, but another Japanese plane had gotten on his tail and was pouring fire into him. Sanders pulled in behind Sterling’s attacker, and all four planes went into a steep dive. Sanders was the only one to come out. Sterling lost his life, and both Japanese aircraft went down.

One group of Japanese planes, their cargoes of bombs expended, turned to strafe Hickam and Ewa airfields and the naval installations at Ford Island. One of those Japanese pilots saw in the

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Pearl Harbor Pilots (cont)

distance an aerial melee that very likely in-cluded Welch and Taylor. The Japanese flier reported seeing several of his comrades’ planes falling from the sky in flames. In his definitive account of the Pearl Harbor attack, At Dawn We Slept, Gordon W. Prange noted that the single American airfield to emerge from the battle un-damaged was Haleiwa. Some speculated that this was because the Japanese did not know of its existence. More likely, it was because Welch and Taylor aggressively drove off the attackers.

Taylor later recalled: “We went down and got in the traffic pattern and shot down several planes there. I know for certain I shot down two planes or perhaps more; I don’t know.” A total of 29 Japanese planes were shot down during the attack, and Welch and Taylor were officially credited with seven of them, four in their first sortie and three in the second. Taylor later ex-plained his role during the Pearl Harbor strike in testimony before a Congressional joint commit-tee investigating the Japanese attack.

Welch was recommended for the Medal of Honor for his heroism, but it was denied him because his commanding officer said he had taken off without orders. He went on to serve in New Guinea, and one year to the day after Pearl Harbor, he shot down three more Japa-nese aircraft while flying a Bell P-39 Airacobra. Then on September 2, 1943, flying a Lockheed P-38 Lightning, he shot down four more.

Welch finished the war with 16 victories. He was killed on October 11, 1954, while test-flying the F-100 Super Sabre fighter jet.

G. Welsh, Test pilot for North American

Kenneth Taylor receiving the Distinguished Service Cross for his actions at Pearl Har-bor, as did Walsh. Side note: Both pilots survived the war as Aces. Taylor remained in the service and re-tired as a Colonial. He died on November 25, 2006

Dawn Patrol Breakfast? Why not meet with EAA #113 members and friends at Three Brother's Restaurant, any Saturday morning from 8:30 to 9:30. The res-

taurant is on Joy Rd, just east of Mettetal Airport on the north side of the road before you get to the railroad crossing. See you there! And, send us a report. Ed

Ch # 113, Headquarters, Mettetal Airport

Three Brothers Restaurant

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Aircraft for Sale 1946 Luscombe 8A

This is a 1946 Luscombe 8A. Total Time: 1380, Engine Time, 460 SOH. Polished. No Electrical. Hangared. Wings Recov-ered in 2001 with all new cables and pul-leys. Owned since 1991. Some dents and dings including a dent on the left side that looks to be from a ladder. Quali-

fies for LIGHT SPORT.

Easy to fly conventional gear plane. Inex-pensive to operate. Annual due October

2016.

Contact: Jeff Davis

Phone: 313-319-5604

Aircraft Share for Sale Cessna 150

This notice forwarded by EAA Ch #13 member Larry Mage:

We have a Cessna C-150 Club at Detroit Airport, and we have a share for sale. We are look-ing for one pilot, student or pri-vate. 6204S has 2 mk 12, trans-ponder, Garmin GPS, VFR, or-ange and white paint, paint a 9, hangared, and along Conners Ave. $3,500.00 buys in. Dues are $65.00 monthly. $55.00 hourly wet and insured. We have six members. Never get over 70 hours per year and there is no minimum required annually. For further information please contact: Larry Mage 586-634-6400, or Roger Kielman 313-218-6095

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248-794-3784

[email protected] Address Service Requested

THE DOPE SHEET

Tom Vukonich, Editor First Class Mail 2961 Secluded Pines Dr Oxford, Michigan 48371

stamp

here

This Mysterious Photo of Ray Airport certainly wins the Photo of the Year Award. The picture was taken by Bob Mahieu. It transcends our usual photo fare and,

dare we say it, achieves the status of Art. Bob, you should copyright this one.

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