JANUARY 2010

T he holidays have come and gone, and heres hop-ing each of you experi-enced a wonderful and joyous Christmas season. Happy New Year to you all as well. The holidays were especially excep-tional for my family. I am blessed with the fact that nearly all of my immediate and extended family live reasonably close by, and therefore the farthest travel we must endure during the holidays is to the in-laws, who mostly live within a couple of hours of our home. I am especially blessed with the fact that my three grandboys are a mere 20 minutes from my home. Heres hoping that 2010 will be yet another grand year for all of aviation, as well as aviators. The year 2009 was a remarkably busy time for your Vintage Aircraft Association. A lot was accomplished during the year, including the new Vintage Hangar on the AirVenture grounds in Oshkosh and a much improved business relationship with EAA. A lot of work remains ahead as we continue to improve on the benefits of being a member of the Vintage Aircraft Association.

The winter solstice has passed, and we are now in my favorite time of the year, where the days are fi-nally beginning to get a little lon-ger, rather than shorter. This is a really good sign that we may ac-tually have a spring sometime this year. Old Man Winter has really been barking at us here in North-east Indiana. The winds and low temps have been especially brutal so far. Oh, how I long for those

days of having the fresh-air breezes blowing in through the open doors of the hangar. I think Ill have a lot of icicles to deal with before that happens again.

I realize that I make it sound like there is no fun at all in aviation through the winter months, and of course this is not actually true. There is the sensational Skiplane Fly-In at EAAs Pioneer Airport ev-ery January. This fl y-in also serves as a birthday celebration for EAAs first lady, Audrey Poberezny. This years event is scheduled for Janu-ary 23, 2010.

By now you have all had the op-portunity to review the newly re-vised format of the January issue of Sport Aviation magazine, EAAs flagship publication. I am confi-dent that this new format will be well-accepted by the membership as a significant enhancement of this publication. My hat is off to everyone at EAA who had a hand in this giant step forward in improv-ing Sport Aviation. It is exceptional in all areas when compared to similar magazines, aviation or oth-erwise. Congratulations to the lead-ership as well as the staff members who had a hand in this remarkable enhancement.

Speaking of publications, be sure to check out the VAAs relatively new e-newsletter. Its easy to sub-scribe to, and it is chock-full of in-teresting news items relevant to the vintage aircraft movement. Simply go to www.EAA.org/vintageaircraft and youll see a hyperlink near the top of the page to subscribe.

This past fall saw a lot of activ-ity at the Vintage Chapter 37 Han-gar here at home. With the Harold Neumann Monocoupe now back in the hangar, we have renewed our efforts to see this project through. We are now re-installing the in-terior in the fuselage and are also busy with installing the fully re-stored instrument panel and the skylight assembly. We are planning another visit to Oshkosh sometime this winter to prep and paint the one-piece wing assembly.

We are finally approaching the end of our hangar addition here in Auburn, Indiana. I know, I have probably mentioned this in at least two or three other columns, but in actuality, by the time you read this column it will be officially com-pleted. Stop and see us if you get anywhere close to KGWB in Fort Wayne, Indiana. We would be happy to show it off to our fellow VAA/EAA members.

Remember, its time to run your checklist and buckle your seat belts, because 2010 is shaping up to be yet another exciting year for the Vintage Aircraft Association.

VAA is about participation: Be a member! Be a volunteer! Be there!

Lets all pull in the same direc-tion for the good of aviation. Re-member, we are better together. Join us and have it all.

Come share the passion! See you at EAA AirVenture OshkoshJuly 26-August 1, 2010.

GEOFF ROBISONPRESIDENT, VINTAGE AIRCRAFT ASSOCIATION

STRAIGHT & LEVEL

Midwestern Winters and Monocoupes

IFC Straight & Level Midwestern Winters and Monocoupes by Geoff Robison

2 News

4 A Biplane Dream Comes True Earning her ticket in an RNF by Andy Heins

7 Whats the Story With That Prop? Jim Nelsons 250 Comanche by Budd Davisson

12 One Harlows Hallowed Family History From grandfather to grandson by Sparky Barnes Sargent

18 My Friend Albert Vollmecke Part I: His early career by Robert G. Lock

22 Light Plane Heritage The Powell Racer by Jack McRae

26 Mystery Plane by H.G. Frautschy

28 The Vintage Mechanic Instrument systems by Robert G. Lock

33 Type Clubs

39 Classifi ed Ads

VINTAGE AIRPLANE 1

A I R P L A N E j a n u a r yC O N T E N T S

S T A F FEAA Publisher Tom PobereznyDirector of EAA Publications Mary JonesExecutive Director/Editor H.G. FrautschyProduction/Special Project Kathleen WitmanPhotography Jim Koepnick Bonnie KratzAdvertising Coordinator Sue AndersonClassifi ed Ad Coordinator Lesley PobereznyCopy Editor Colleen WalshDirector of Advertising Katrina Bradshaw

Display Advertising Representatives: Specialized Publications Co.U.S. Eastern Time Zone-Northeast: Ken Ross609-822-3750 Fax: 609-957-5650kr40@comcast.net U.S. Eastern Time Zone-Southeast: Chester Baumgartner727-532-4640 Fax: 727-532-4630cbaum111@mindspring.com U.S. Central Time Zone: Gary Worden and Todd Reese800-444-9932 Fax: 816-741-6458gary.worden@spc-mag.com; todd@spc-mag.com U.S. Mountain and Pacifi c Time Zones: John Gibson916-784-9593 Fax: 510-217-3796johngibson@spc-mag.com Europe: Willi TackePhone: +49(0)1716980871 Fax: +49(0)8841 / 496012willi@fl ying-pages.com

C O V E R S

Vol. 38, No. 1 2010

FRONT COVER: Jim Nelsons Piper PA-24 Comanche is one of those neat airplanes that at fi rst glance you may miss the many fascinating details that make up this modi-fi ed family speedster. Read all about it in Budd Davissons article beginning on page 7. EAA photo by Bonnie Kratz.BACK COVER: The Harlow PJC-2 is often referred to as a Baby Spartan. They are both professor/student aircraft projects from a time when that type of arrange-ment created some of the greatest aircraft of the past century. Read about this res-toration by Matt Malkin of Seattle, Washington, in Sparky Barnes Sargents ar ticle star ting on page 12. Photo by Gilles Auillard.

7

12

4

VAA NEWS

2 JANUARY 2010

VDER UpdateSince the announcement earlier

this year that the FAA was creating an addition to the designated engineering representative (DER) program administered by the regional aircraft certifi cation offi ces (ACO), the VAA has spoken or written to more than three dozen members interested in applying to become a DER. During our conversations, its become clear there are some misconceptions r ega rd ing the qua l i f i ca t ions needed to be appointed a vintage DER (VDER).

The VDER program is a specifi c designation under the umbrella o f t h e D E R p r o g r a m t h e qualifi cations needed for becoming a VDER are nearly identical to those needed for being appointed a DER by the FAA. It isnt a DER light program, nor does it create a new program for those who have no engineering expertise. Thats not to say the appointment cant be made if someone is not an engineer; i t s imply means app l i cant s mus t p rove the i r expertise to be considered for the appointment. As stated in the Vintage DER Checklist, The intent of the authority is to allow individuals who dont meet the conventional DER appointment criteria to become VDERs with l imited approval authority in multiple technical specialties for repairs and/or alterations of specifi c makes of vintage airplanes and/or engines.

I t i s i n t e n d e d t o a l l o w a person who has both real-world maintenance experience with a specific vintage aircraft type and the appropriate level of engineering expertise to create engineering-related data that is acceptable to the ACO. The goal of the program is to streamline the data-creation process , shortening the t ime

needed to gain an FAA approval for modifi cation or repair data.

That data s t i l l needs to be engineering-based, with a good dose of real-world maintenance added into the mix so that the data can be applied to subsequent work done on similar aircraft. An example of an ideal candidate for a VDER appointment would be an engineer who has been working with a particular type club on its vintage aircraft, but who perhaps is currently only an airframe DER or something similar.

VDER applicants educational background would have both maintenance and engineering components; a person with an aircraft maintenance engineering degree would be a good candidate, as would an aeronautical engineer who is actively involved in type club maintenance-related activities. Another good candidate would be an airframe and powerplant m e c h a n i c w i t h i n s p e c t i o n authorization as well as engineering expertise who has been regularly creating data the flight standards district office (FSDO)/ACO find acceptable without additional engineering work.

Without a formal engineering degree, applicants must show the FAA they have the engineering expertise to generate the data. An example would be someone without a formal engineering degree who has worked with his local FSDO and ACO to create data related to field approvals. If his engineering work has been shown to be acceptable to the FAA, that experience can be used to show compliance with the requirements for a VDER appointment.

The FAA can then choose to, upon his or her appl icat ion, add a VDER designation to the appointment when the applicant can show that he or she has

engineering expertise to deal with the changes related to that type of vintage airplane.

I hope that helps explain the expectations of the FAA with regard to the experience and educational r e q u i r e m e n t s f o r a V D E R appointment. If youd like to review the material concerning becoming a VDER, you can read our checklist, created in cooperation with the FAA, at www.VintageAircraft.org/der/der_checklist.pdf.

An Airport Christmas (Valley) StoryThe airfield at the wonderfully

named Christmas Valley, Oregon, is not a facility one would think would be in the center of a national aviation debate. The airport has only five taxiways leading to a single airstrip, primarily used by homeowners with their private aircraft hangared adjacent to their houses.

EAA came to the aid of those aviators, however, when their airport access was threatened by a new FAA policy announced through a Compliance Guidance Letter issued on September 30, 2009. The letter outlined a policy that would eliminate through-the-fence (TTF) operations at publicly owned or financed airports. TTF operations, prior to the letters date, were defined as those where the owner of a public airport permits access to the public landing area by residential homeowners with aircraft based on land adjacent to the airport and/or commercial operators offering an aeronautical a c t i v i t y. H o w e v e r, t h e n e w policy clearly stated, Under no circumstances is the FAA to support any through-the-fence agreement associated with residential use

T h i s p o l i c y w h i c h w a s fo r warded to EAA and other assoc iat ions for comment in mid-October, two weeks after its issuancewould severely restrict

VINTAGE AIRPLANE 3

private individuals, businesses, and emergency services from direct access to airports adjacent to their property. EAA immediately stepped in to defend aviation access for airports where TTF operations provide economic benefits and more to both a community and an aviation facility.

Meanwhile, the residents at Christmas Valley found themselves in a quandary. FAAs new policy would cut off access from the airfi eld where they had specifi cally purchased homes because of the airport access. EAA members at that airport contacted staff headquarters in Oshkosh to get help sorting out their options.

In early October, EAA wrote to the FAA, stating how the new policy would effectively shut out Christmas Valley residents, the areas primary airport users, which could eventually lead to the airports closure. This is just one example o f hundreds o f similar situations throughout the nation that shows how restricting TTF access could threaten an airports future.

EAA staff asked members to join them in reviewing the FAAs document and to pos t the i r comments at Oshkosh365 (www.Oshkosh365.org). These comments wil l be considered when EAA submits i ts of f ic ia l response, emphasizing a long-standing policy that promises to consider all local factors when determining whether to allow TTF operations at airports.

For example, the Oshkosh365 online network showcases a home video produced by a couple in nearby Creswell, Oregon, whose home adjacent to Hobby Field includes a hangar for their aircraft. The video personifi es the everyday aviators who use airport access as much as most of us use driveways for our cars and trucks.

EAAs e f fo r t s have a l r eady produced at least one piece of good news. On November 19, EAA received a letter from the FAAs acting associate administrator for

airports, Catherine Lang, stating the agency would work with local authorities at Christmas Valley to better reflect its public purpose. Currently, previous TTF residential operations can remain, preserving homeowner access at the fi eld.

But this issue is far from settled nationwide. EAA staff and members wil l continue to work toward allowing airport access nationwide wherever it reasonably makes sense to develop aviation facilities. Your input is welcome as part of these efforts to promote aviation participation and to support the fl ying community.

The Final WordBy Earl Lawrence, EAA Vice President of Industry and Regulatory Aff airs

The FAA released a new Airport Compl iance Manua l , o r FAA Order 5190.6, this past October. The document went f rom an original 94 pages to 691 pages! This policy covers the compliance items an airport must meet to qualify for federal funding of a i r p o r t i m p r o v e m e n t s . T h i s funding comes from fuel taxes paid by pilots and aircraft owners like you.

E A A c o n t e n d s F A A O r d e r 5190 .6B was i s sued w i thout appropriate public input that would have helped facilitate broad community acceptance. Not only was there a lack of public input in the development of the vastly expanded policy, but the FAA also published the revision with an immediately effective date. Knowing the potential damage this policy change will have on thousands of airport managers, business operators, and pilots, EAA believes its only proper for the FAA to have a process for public review and comment.

Making the situation worse, the FAA made the statement, Under no circumstances is the FAA to support any through-the-fence agreement associated with residential use. It made that statement with the knowledge

that thousands of p i lots and aircraft owners live in homes with TTF access, and that the general-aviation community is particularly passionate about the dream of living near or with their aircraft. The FAA listed many reasons why it believes you should not have clear access to a public airport, but EAA believes that each issue noted could be easily addressed.

I n s t e a d o f f i g h t i n g T T F activities, I think the FAA should actively support such activity and work with communities to develop standardized criteria on how such agreements can be made while protecting the safety and viability of our nations public airports.

What do you say? Share your comments in the Hangar Talk forum on www.Oshkosh365.org.

Its Electr(on)ic! EAA Off ers More E-Newsletters

Two new electronic newsletters have joined the EAA family of publications: Briefi ng was launched in November for EAA Warbirds of America members and warbirds lovers, while Light Plane World, for ul t ra l ight and l ightplane enthusiasts, launched in early December. Still to come is an as-yet unnamed publication for the International Aerobatic Club and aerobatic enthusiasts.

Other e-publications include:Experimenter, for homebuilt

aircraft enthusiasts; Vintage Aircraft Online, for

members of the Vintage Aircraft Association;

Aviation Insider, the Young Eagles e-newsletter;

Reach for the Sky, for those interested in learning to fl y;

Bits and Pieces, the e-newsletter for Canada; and

E-Hot l ine , EAAs f lagship weekly e-newsletter, which reaches 90,000 members weekly.

Its easy to subscribe to EAA e-publications. Simply visit www.EAA.org/subscribe and select from the menu which titles you wish to receive.

4 JANUARY 2010

T his story begins in the spring of 2003 when I became acquainted w i t h a w o n d e r f u l woman, Susan Theo-dorelos, who possessed a zest for life. Over the coming months, we could always be found at the airport or a fly-in, which, looking back, shouldnt be too sur-prising; shes always been pursuing adventure in one form or another. Susan grew up the daughter of a naval aviator, moving frequently from city to city and country to country. She always maintained an interest in fl ying because of her father. She even collected airplane photos and built models. After re-ceiving her undergraduate degree, like her father, she joined the U.S. Navy, rising to the rank of lieuten-ant commander until she left the service in February 1993. Following her tour in the Navy, she went back to school and obtained her law de-gree. Upon graduation, she secured a position with the U.S. Air Force at Wright-Patterson in Dayton, Ohio.

Over that first summer, Susan had the opportunity to ride in nu-

merous antique aircraft and quickly developed a love for antique open-cockpit biplanes. Her favorite ride of the year was at Brodhead, Wiscon-sin, in a 1930 Waco RNF owned by John Livesay of Pana, Illinois. She remarked to me after the fl ight, If I ever had a chance to buy a biplane, an RNF would be my fi rst choice.

She loved to fly, both as pas-senger and as a pilot. She was a natural. Finally I asked, So why havent you ever learned to fly? She stopped and thought about it for a few moments and simply an-swered, I guess I never really con-sidered it. The very next sentence was, How do I start?

I explained what she should do in order to get the best training; she needed to go to Red Stewart Airfi eld in Waynesville, Ohio, and fl y either its Piper J-3 Cub or its Aeronca 7AC Champ. As far as Im concerned, if you learn tailwheel fl ying to begin with, everything else is easy. My bi-ased opinion is that it makes you a better pilot, as you truly learn how to control the airplane. I also had only one choice for an in-structor, Emerson Stewart, son of

owner Cubby Stewart. Emerson has grown up in tailwheel airplanes and is a local air show pilot, known for his amazing dead-stick routine in his Citabria.

Susan began instruction in the Aeronca 7AC in June of 2003. Over the summer she took lessons pri-marily in the Champ but also a few in the J-3. By late fall she was close to solo, but then the typical Ohio bad weather hit. She did not resume flying again until Septem-ber 2004, and on October 7, 2004, she soloed the Aeronca 7AC with a total of 13.2 hours logged. It was a dream realized, and Susan returned with a smile on her face and tears of happiness in her eyes. Her very fi rst thought was to make an excited phone call to her father, the Navy pilot. Naturally, he was extremely proud and was always keen to hear how her lessons were going and what fl ying adventures we had. She was able to make a few more solo flights before winter once again stepped in and stopped her fl ying.

While at EAA AirVenture Osh-kosh 2005, we received bad news. Susans father had been hospital-

A Biplane Dream

Comes True

Earning her ticket in an RNFSTORY AND PHOTOS BY ANDY HEINS

VINTAGE AIRPLANE 5

ized while visiting friends in At-lanta. Sadly, after a successful operation, her father suddenly col-lapsed and died. It was after the fu-neral that Susan made a decision. She would fi nish her fl ying, and she would do it in a biplane. Not just any biplane, but a Waco RNF, if she could fi nd one for sale.

The search began, but there were not many for sale. In fact, there were only two out of the 21 still fl yable that were being offered. We contacted one of the sellers, Pam Cooley, and made arrangements to come inspect the airplane. Pam and I had been friends for nearly 20 years. Pam had purchased the airplane as a complete basket case in 1991 and completed the resto-ration in 1994. Susan and I went to look at the airplane and a deal was quickly sealed. Best of all, Pam agreed to deliver it!

Fast-forward to October 28, 2005. Susan and a host of friends were

there patiently waiting with all eyes strained toward the east. Soon, Su-san heard the distinctive sound of a radial engine and quickly spotted the RNF in the distance. As the RNF entered the pattern, I looked over at Susan, and tears were streaming down her cheeks. She was simply overcome with emotion that this was truly happening. Pam circled around and set up for landing. Just as she was on short final I heard the power come in, and she flew it down the runway in a nice pass for all to enjoy. Susan was beyond giddy. After zipping around the pat-tern again, the Waco gently glided down to a perfect wheel landing on the pavement, and as the tail came down it rolled to a stop. Pam taxied the RNF over to the hangar and shut down. As Pam climbed down from the cockpit, Susan gave her a big hug and a heartfelt thank you! Pam laughed and then said, If you have changed your mind let me know,

because this was a ball, and Im will-ing to take it back. To which Susan replied, No way, its my airplane now! We all had a great laugh and pushed the Waco into the hangar and opened a bottle of champagne to celebrate the arrival.

We were only able to make a few fl ights in the RNF prior to bad win-ter weather setting in. As spring 2006 arrived, Susan resumed her flying lessons. She became reac-quainted with the Aeronca Champ and quickly soloed again. We then had her go to the Piper J-3 to get used to not being able to see for-ward, especially when taxiing. She soloed the Cub in 6.8 hours on March 30, 2006. Susan fl ew it solo several times, and then we moved her to the Waco. After 5.6 hrs of dual instruction in the Waco she so-loed on May 21, 2006. At this point in time, over a three-year span, Su-san had a grand total of 29.7 hours logged and had soloed three differ-ent types of airplanes. She was now in command of her own little red biplane, and she never looked back. She could be found nearly every night at the airport either taking a lesson or fl ying around by herself.

Over the next three years Susan spent a lot of time fl ying the RNF. In fact, just one month after soloing the Waco, she led a four-ship for-mation of Wacos on a short cross-country fl ight to the National Waco Club reunion! She continued to get 90-day signoffs to remain current, but she just didnt take that last step to finish. What she dreaded most was having to fl y something else besides her little Waco to ac-complish the requirements for ra-dio work and instrument and night flying. Finally, she had to relent and go fl y a nosewheel airplane, a Cessna 152. Over this past summer she completed all the remaining requirements and now faced the checkride. The previous summer Susan had spoken to a local exam-iner, Martha Lunken, a local legend in her own right, about the possi-bility of using the Waco RNF for her checkride. Martha seemed to think

Our two Wacos, a 1935 Waco YKC-S, NC14620, and a 1930 Waco RNF, NC663Y.

Susans bright red and yellow Waco RNF.

6 JANUARY 2010

that might be possible and told Susan to call when she was ready. With her requirements completed and 206 hours now in her logbook, Susan called Martha. True to her word, Martha agreed to do the en-tire checkride in the Waco! Now all we had to do was wait for weather.

October 20 was the day, and we awoke to blue skies with scattered clouds. The only issue was going to be the winds, which were fore-cast at 12 knots gusting to 20 knots from the south-southwest, mean-ing a direct crosswind to our east-west runway. Obviously we both

were concerned, but Susan felt she could handle the situation. I, my-self, was having sympathy check-ride pains and was feeling nervous! Soon Susan disappeared and began the oral with Martha. After an hour or so they returned to the hangar to commence the flight. She was still smiling, and the crowd was growing bigger. They climbed into the Waco after the preflight, and I propped the airplane. The first thing Martha said over the battery-operated intercom was, I love that smell! They taxied out and quickly disappeared to the west.

After an hour or so of pacing back and forth in the hangar and trying to keep busy, we heard a ra-dial engine entering the pattern. The winds had not died down, and we all stood out front to watch the

landing. Susan turned fi nal, slipped down, and gently touched at the ap-proach end to the runway, rolling only about 50 feet before coming to a stop. As they taxied up to the hangar, I saw my wife was all smiles. Martha was smiling too and obvi-ously was having a good time. As they climbed down from the Waco, Martha declared that the little RNF was a fine-flying airplane, and she commented on how well Susan fl ew it. She remarked that of all the checkrides she has given over the years, this had to be one of the best, with maybe only her P-51 Mustang checkout beating this one. Needless to say, Susan was ecstatic, and she should be. She certainly has to be one of the only female pilots alive who can say she took her checkride in a 1930 Waco RNF!

So why havent you ever learned to fl y?

She stopped and thought about it for a

few moments andsimply answered,

I guess I never really considered it . . . How do I start?The Cub proved to be helpful as Susan transitioned to an airplane with less vis-

ibility over the nose.

Susan soloed in this Champ.

Andy, Susan, and the flying Corgi, Maggie.

If you stood at the end of Row 91 on the EAA Air-Venture Oshkosh grounds, where J im Nelson had his Comanche parked,

you could absolutely count on peoples reactions to it. Theyd be walking along and casually glance over at Jims airplane. Maybe theyd smile slightly at its pleasing appearance. Theyd be in the process of continuing to the next airplane, when theyd catch a glimpse of the Coman-ches prop, do a double-take wor-thy of a vaudeville comedian, grab the sleeve of the guy next to them, and make a beeline for

the prop card, hoping it would explain what they were seeing. Theyd be staring at the unique flaps hanging off the back of each of the blades, with a thought balloon over their head that said, What the . . . ?

Its a shame that the unusual prop, which well explain later, overshadows many of the more subtle details on what is a very subtle airplane. The airplane, a 62 Comanche 250, is also unique in that it has never been restored. At least not in the conventional sense of the word. It hasnt spent years in a hangar, having every single piece of skin and mechanism mas-

saged, straightened, caressed, and painted within an inch of its life. In fact, it is one of those airplanes that midway in its life, its new owner, Jim Nelson, most recently of Spearfi sh, South Dakota, started on such a long string of continual upgrades that the airplane never reached the point that it actually needed restoring. It has been in progress for so long, more than 20 years, that although the years went past, they never caught up with it. Even though it is 47 years old, it never spent a single day abandoned on the back tie-down line being ignored. It is just a good old airplane that was kept fl ying.

VINTAGE AIRPLANE 7

Whats the Story With That Prop?

Jim Nelsons 250 ComancheBY BUDD DAVISSON

BONNIE KRATZ

8 JANUARY 2010

Jim is retired from several careers, the fi rst being a U.S. Air Force naviga-tor who, among other things, spent much of the Cold War in an RB-47 snuggled up against the borders of countries such as China and Russia.

He said, I went in the Air Force in 51 and stayed in for over 31 years, almost a third of it as aircrew, first on B-29s in Korea, then KC-97s, RB-47s and fi nally, AC-47 gunships and C-47, flareships in Vietnam. I was fortunate enough to be involved in the engine wars, where there was a major amount of engine develop-ment going on in qualifying the en-gines that would be powering the F-15, F-16, B-1, and B-2 bombers, to name just a few. What made it re-ally fun was that, as deputy for pro-pulsion, my systems program offi ce (SPO) managed those engine pro-grams for aircraft programs. Plus it was during the Reagan years, when there was plenty of defense budget to go around. When I got out in 84 I almost immediately went to work for General Electric in their aircraft engines group. I also spent some years on the board of Allison Ad-vanced Development Co., as well as doing some consulting work for the USAF on jet engine development and management.

I started pilot training in the Forbes AFB aero club, gaining my license in 1959. I fl ew in aero clubs at several other bases, gaining time in a variety of single-engine air-craft. Id spend eight hours in an RB-47 training for overseas deploy-

ments, then transition the next day into a Cub or an Aeronca. They also had Cessnas, Mooneys, Bonanzas, T-34s, and the Comanches.

Forbes is where I first flew in, and fell in love with, the Coman-che. Id fly my family all over the place in them and especially liked that it was a fast, efficient hauler that was also pretty hard to load out of CG limits.

I bought my fi rst airplane a little over 21 years ago, and it was this very same Comanche, serial number 24-3158, built in the last half of 1962. It was sitting in Cincinnati, and it was defi nitely nothing special. It was just a good, old, very sound airplane, with 1,100 hours on the engine. I bought it knowing that my goal was to update it where needed and make it very much my airplane.

Much of what I was doing professionally at the time was en-gineering oriented, and I was con-stantly solving problems and trying to be more efficient with our pro-pulsion projects. But those were huge projects, and even though I was in management, they werent mine. The Comanche was going to be mine, pure and simple. I had a whole series of things I wanted to do to it, but I was in no hurry (nei-ther was our budget!). They would get done, when their time came, although in truth, by the time I got to some of the updates, it was time to redo some of the earlier ones. For instance, even though Ive owned the airplane over 21 years and

have been updating it constantly the whole time, Ive done the in-strument panel three times, as I changed direction or new equip-ment was introduced.

The airplane was based at Lunken Airport in Cincinnati, where I was working at GE. At the time, 1987, Dennis Walter, now at Clermont County Airport, Sportys home base, had his shop at Lunken and installed a new interior for me. At the same time we shaped the seats for more comfort. I did a little panel work at that time, but only to get rid of the old autopilot and add a new DG.

The airplane was never down for any long period of time, but we were constantly doing something to it, so its a little hard to put all of the modifi cations in order.

Jim Nelson and his wife Ruth.

BONNIE KRATZ

CR

AIG

VAN

DER

KO

LK

VINTAGE AIRPLANE 9

Shortly after the interior was in-stalled, copper wiring replaced the aluminum wiring of that eras Co-manches, followed by a full panel of King radios and Johnston wing-tips. Those were specially shaped to fl are upwards just enough to let the wingtip vortices spill around the wing in such a way that it im-proved the tip vortex action and, especially, aileron sensitivity. The tips also had the running lights faired into them. That was the fi rst of many little changes we made with the goal of reducing drag and improving performance.

Drag reduction was why we changed the gear legs from the double-fork units to the single-fork ones. On the double-fork legs, the

The late Roy LoPresti spent a lot of time engineering revisions to the Comanche to make it even faster. The changes include a new cowling with full-length nose wheel door and door motor, fl ap track fairings, fl ap gap seals, horizontal stabilator mass balance, and counterweights. The modifi cation to the Hartzell propeller with the very noticeable trailing edge extensions, or fl aps, is also a LoPresti design, manufactured by Hartzell.

The Johnston wingtips are specially shaped to fl are upwards to allow the wingtip vortices to spill around the wing so that aileron sensitivity is enhanced.

Many pilots see the Piper Comanche as one of the sleekest four-place airplanes ever built in its original form. The design has lent itself well to modifi cations that enhance the already good performance of the low-wing four-place speedster.

those were huge projects,

and even though I was

in management, they werent

mine. The Comanche was

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brake assemblies and part of the fork hang out into the airfl ow. The 337 for the installation requires some wing rib doublers for the sin-gle-fork installation and results in the brake assemblies and fork being completely retracted into the wheel wells, with a much cleaner lower-wing surface resulting. I also took the airplane to Webco in Newton, Kansas, for installation of half-inch glass all around during this period.

Even though he spent a lot of time working on the airplane, it flew more than it sat, and he and his wife and family thought noth-ing of crossing the country in it.

It was on one of those trips, when the engine was just about

at TBO, 2,000 hours, when we de-cided it was time we overhaul it. Living in Prescott, Arizona, at the time and operating often at 11,000-15,000 feet in the Arizona, Colo-rado, Utah, New Mexico areas, it was taking higher power settings to maintain speed and altitude. We fi gured since we were going to have to do the engine, we might as well do several other needed improve-ments, which we had planned to eventually do to the airplane and make it as effi cient as possible.

When talking about effi ciency of an airplane, that is another way of saying itll be made to go faster without adding any more horse-power so the miles per gallon go up.

More speed, same fuel burn. And with a Piper Comanche that meant the obvious: LoPresti speed mods.

While completing the engine overhaul at Arizona Air-Craftsman in 1998 and knowing my two-bladed prop was not going to pass the new AD for that series, we installed the LoPresti-designed, Hartzell-built, three-bladed, swept propeller (scimi-tar shape) and Comanche 260 engine counterweights to allow operation to 2700 rpm versus the Comanche 250 operating limits of 2550 rpm. The prop also has trailing edge fl aps to provide some additional ram air into the LoPresti cowl, which had yet to be installed.

In the spring of 1999, I took the airplane from Prescott to Vero Beach, where Roy LoPresti had his speed mod operation and had him do his cowl modification program on the airplane. That included his cowling with full-length nose wheel door and door motor, flap track fairings, flap gap seals, horizontal stabilator mass balance, and counterweights.

Everyone comments on the shape of the prop blades, Jim said. They are scimitar shaped to cut down the local Mach number in the airfl ow at the tips so they are further from going transonic, which makes them more effi cient and quieter. The little trailing edge flaps were devel-oped by LoPresti, and his tests show that besides increasing the manifold pressure by nearly an inch because of the airfl ow pulses into the induc-tion system, the cowl design evens out the airfl ow across the cylinders. This provides better cooling and con-sistent cylinder head temperatures. When were flying, it warms up quickly, curing the takeoff and climb to just below redline [problem], then, no matter what were doingcruis-ing, maneuvering, holding, letting down, whateverthe CHT tempera-tures stay relatively stable.

This is the entire LoPresti pack-age, and it works. This airplane originally only did 176 mph against the factory-claimed 180 mph at cruise power, which many Coman-ches did achieve. I caution anyone

The new medium/light blue interior with sculpted seats keeps a vintage 60s feel to the airplane, while a neatly installed suite of modern avionics keeps the airplane up to date in modern airspace.

CRAIG VANDERKOLK PHOTOS

VINTAGE AIRPLANE 11

that they need to carefully cali-brate what their airplane will do in its original form before doing any modifi cations. I had calibrated the true airspeed annually over the 12 years I had owned it before modi-fi cation. I have similarly calibrated the true airspeed many times since modifi cation and am confi dent in the 10-14 mph increase in TAS for my airplane. I have seen, on the oc-casion of a very calm fall or winter day, with close to standard atmo-sphere, TAS of 190-plus at 8,000 feet. However, I am typically in the range of 185-190. Recently, for ex-ample, I cruised consistently at 188 mph at normal power settings at 7,000-9,000 from Spearfi sh, South Dakota, to Kansas City, then to At-lanta and return. We went after this as an engineering project and care-fully calibrated everything, so we know that the 185-188 mph were now seeing at cruise is real, as is the fl at-out top end of 193-195 mph. So we actually did improve the perfor-mance a significant amount with no change in fuel burn per hour.

Since he was doing major things to the airframe, it seemed like a good time to do the panel again.

The instrument panel was done in bits and pieces going all the way back to the beginning, but the trend was to make it more mod-ern, which, considering that I was brought up on steam gauges, meant working in more glass and an S-TEC 30 autopilot, which required installation of a gyro-stabilized fl uxgate heading system, with the autopilot itself done in two stages. We went through a King 135, then a Garmin 300 and a Sandel EFIS. I also replaced the King 155 radio

with an SL30. I have just added a Garmin 496, yoke-mounted, that is tied into the Garmin 300 and rep-licates the 300 output to the San-del, but also provides weather and terrain information. This combina-tion now comes close to the capa-bilities of a Garmin 430.

When you start playing with avionics, you never actually fi nish. We did put the Sandel EFIS right in the middle of the instrument T where its in the center of your scan. But, who knows? I may yet change that again.

I have also installed an electric horizon as a backup to the vacuum horizon. In the many panel modifi ca-tions, we also moved the engine in-struments to the pilots side and put the mechanical CDI/glide slope on the right side, because the Sandel pro-vides an electronic CDI/glide slope.

After the stint at LoPrestis, the air-frame was defi nitely beginning to ac-quire a work in progress look as the various panels, including the cowl-ing, were still in primer. Plus, other than the speed mods, nothing had been done to the airplane to improve its cosmetics. It was time for a paint job to replace the 1982 Imron.

We took the airplane down to Arizona Aeropainting in Eloy, Ari-zona, in 2000 to have it stripped and painted. After stripping we found some prior repairs under the old paint that we didnt think had been done very well. So, I took the unpainted airplane to Chan-dler Aviation, in Chandler, Arizona, where we installed some new wing skins and several new wing ribs to provide a virgin surface for the new fasteners. We also replaced some skin on the horizontal stabilator to

assure all structure was sound be-fore painting.

We also replaced the coffee can air scoop on the top of the fu-selage with a Comanche 260 ven-tral fi n and air scoop and removed the rotating beacon on top of the fuselage replacing it with a Whelen three-light system. Finally, we added Knots 2U wing-root fairings and a small nose wheel. We then returned the aircraft to Eloy to fi n-ish the painting. The airframe itself was pretty clean, no corrosion, so by replacing the questionable skins, and doing an excellent strip and paint job, we wound up with a re-ally clean airframe.

We primed it and top-coated with Matterhorn White Jet Glo trimmed with Fighter Blue and Flight Red Acry Glo paints. That was nine years ago, and the paint has held up beautifully, without crack-ing, chipping, rough spots, etc.

As he stood back and looked at his airplane Jim came to an inescap-able conclusion, From both a per-formance and an appearance point of view, theres really not much else we can do to it. And when I look at the instrument panel, I cant help but smile: This airplane has avionics capability (GPS, moving map, etc.) that was unknown to us when fly-ing the polar areas in RB-47s to get to the positions needed to gain the elec-tronic reconnaissance data needed to program equipment in our B-47 and B-52 bombers during the Cold War. In fact, in looking back, Id have to say that we were working with some pretty crude equipment, although it was the most advanced available at that time. Even though we had ra-dar, electro-mechanical navigation computers, and such, we still did a lot of celestial navigation over the polar areas.

Id also have to say that Im really pleased with the way the Coman-che has turned out. Its everything Id hoped it would be. However, I saw the new-generation Garmin at a booth a few minutes ago and.

After more than 21 years, why should he stop updating now?

BONNIE KRATZ

12 JANUARY 2010

Matt Malkin of Seattle, Washington, is a dou-bly fortunate young man. First, he inherited his grandfathers rare airplane, and second, his wife, Wendy, is happy to hop in the 1940 Harlow PJC-2 and fl y with him. Last fall, the cou-ple attended the AAA annual fl y-in in Blakesburg, Iowa. Matts PJC-2 turned many a head during the long weekend, and for quite a few, it was their fi rst time seeing an air-worthy Harlow.

The Harlow is a unique airplane in that it was the successful result of a class project. Just imagine de-signing and building a full-scale air-plane as a college student, guided by the expertise of Professor Har-low, who had real-world experi-

ence as an aircraft engineer. The fi rst model was the PJC-1, followed by the PJC-2, which incorporated a larger rudder and vertical stabilizer.

Being similar in appearance to the Spartan Executive, yet smaller in stature, the PJC-2 has sometimes been called the baby Spartan. Eleven PJC-2s were built prior to the United States active engage-ment in World War II; today, there are only six listed on the FAA regis-try, one of which is in the EAA Air-Venture Museum.

Engineer Max Max B. Harlow was a Stanford

University aeronautical engineer-ing graduate who started using his engineering skills in 1928. He was chief engineer, or design engineer,

for aircraft companies such as Secu-rity National Aircraft Corp. of Van Nuys, California, and Kinner Air-plane & Motor Corp. Ltd. of Glen-dale, California. Harlow had his hand in a variety of projects for Lockheed, Kinner (Sportster K and Envoy C-7), Northrop, and Douglas (DC-2), as well as providing input on the Hughes H-1 Racer. Harlow began his professorial aeronautical career at Pasadena Junior College (PJC) in 1935. He soon persuaded admin-istrators to allow his aeronautical students to design and build an air-planethe all-metal PJC-1under his direct supervision. The students embarked upon the rather unusual project in late 1936. According to the Pasadena City College (formerly Pasadena Junior College) website

One Harlows

From grandfather to grandsonBY SPARKY BARNES SARGENT

VINTAGE AIRPLANE 13

(www.Pasadena.edu/about/history/missing/harlow/harlow.cfm), the first step was building an experimental plywood mock-up of the fuselage, which the students used to deter-mine cabin space and size. Then they went to the drawing board, design-ing and refining the design under Harlows watchful eye. Next, they built airframe components and pro-cured items such as the powerplant, propeller, wheels, and tires. Final as-sembly was completed at the local airport, and the airplane was ready to be test fl owna mere 10 months after the project had started.

Aviation historian and author Jo-seph Juptner wrote that the PJC-1 was test flown on September 14, 1937. As the last part of its certi-fication tests the PJC-1 was loaded

with 400 lbs. of lead shot for the critical spin test; crossed-controls during this maneuver had promoted an unrecoverable flat spin, so the pilot parachuted out and the air-plane was destroyed. the second airplane (PJC-2) was completed with limits in place to eliminate crossed-controls; it thus came through with its government approval [ATC #659] in August 1938. The Harlow Aircraft Co. was incorporated in 1939 with some money from Howard Hughes, and the plant was set up in a hangar on the Alhambra Airport [in Califor-nia]. (U.S. Civil Aircraft Series, Vol. 7)

According to the Aircraft Year Book (1941), Harlow Aircraft Co. com-pleted the development of two types, one a 4-place cabin plane of all-metal construction, powered with a 145 hp

Warner engine and fi xed pitch Cur-tiss metal propeller, and the other a 2-place enclosed tandem trainer of all metal construction powered with a 165 hp Warner engine and a Ham-ilton constant speed propeller. Dur-ing the year Harlow secured an order of PC-5A trainers for export.

Construction FeaturesThe all-metal PJC-2 was designed

to be strong and relatively simple to build. Its neatly tapered, semi-monocoque fuselage was composed of narrow lengths of Alclad sheet riveted to transverse rings and lon-gitudinal extrusions. Its one-piece, cantilever wing was wide at the wing root and tapered toward the tip, and it also was semi-monocoque con-struction, with a NACA 23012 airfoil

Hallowed Family History

SPARKY BARNES SARGENT

section. The PJC-2s perforated, split-type fl aps were electrically operated and had 45 degrees of defl ection. The cantilever tail group was metal, with the exception of the elevators and rudders, which were fabric-covered. The Harlow sported electrically op-erated retractable landing gear and a lockable, full-swiveling tail wheel. The 21-inch wheels were equipped with hydraulic brakes, and Aerol (air-oil) shock absorbers cushioned the short-coupled airplanes touchdown. The PJC-2 originally sold for $6,985.

Matts four-place PJC-2 is now powered by a 165-hp Warner, with an Aeromatic 220 self-adjusting pro-peller. The airplane measures 23 feet

14 JANUARY 2010

Wendy and Matt Malkin enjoy the Harlow, in part thanks to the family heritage; Matts grandfather owned the airplane before him.

Matt hopes to return the panel to its original confi guration.

Matt likes the performance of this Aeromatic 220 self-adjusting propeller.

Close-up view of the Harlows stream-lined metal fuselage.

GILLES AUILLARD

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4 inches from nose to tail wheel, and its one-piece wingspan is 35 feet 10 inches. It has an empty weight of 1,661 pounds and a gross weight of 2,294 pounds. It carries 34 gallons of fuel and burns about 9.5 gph while cruising at 138 mph (max 160 mph) for a range of nearly 500 miles.

Grandpa MacCalifornian John C. MacPherson

owned Serial No. 7 from 1960 until 2003. During World War II, Mac was a primary fl ight instructor, teach-ing in PT-19s, at Hemet, California. He worked a variety of jobsone as a commercial fisherman, fishing al-bacore up and down the West Coast. He also owned a wrecking yard in Lancaster, and he was an aircraft and powerplant (A&P) and inspection au-thorization (IA) mechanic for a very long time in Salinas, said Matt. He retired from the military in 1963 as a lieutenant colonel. One of his claims to fame is that he fl ew the N9M fl y-ing wing in 1945 while he was in the Army Air Corps at Muroc Army Air base [now Edwards Air Force Base].

Serial No. 7 Serial No. 7 was completed Au-

gust 5, 1940. Originally powered by a 145-hp Warner S-50A, it was equipped with a Curtiss fi xed-pitch metal prop. Interestingly, this PJC-2 was first owned by the Civil Aero-nautics Administration (CAA) in Washington, D.C., and was used for business purposes. Records show that it had certificate number NC67 in

1940 and 1941. CAA pilots flew it 118.5 hours in its first year, and in May 1942, they increased its range by having an auxiliary fuel tank in-stalled in the baggage compartment. Historian Juptner, in his U.S. Civil Aircraft Series, Vol. 7, stated, The Harlow was a lovely little airplane of very advanced design. The fi rst large order came from the Bureau of Air Commerce which stationed the airplanes in districts scattered around the country for use by government inspectors. Even tho the prototype (PJC-1) had crashed in an unfair spin test, the Bureau felt somewhat obligated for the mishap and gave the subsequent examples a clean bill of health, as it were. The government inspector-pilots enjoyed the little Harlow, and were more than happy to use it in their work.

After World War II, a February 19,

1946, bill of sale stated: That the War Assets Corporation, a corporation created by Reconstruction Finance Corporation . . . is authorized, by the Surplus Property Board to dispose of the following described property owned by the United States of Amer-ica and which has been declared to be surplus pursuant to said Surplus Property Act of 1944: 1 Harlow Air-craft, Model PJC-2 Manufacturers Se-rial No. 7, Identifi cation No. NC-67 [and a handwritten NC65296], For and in consideration of the sum of One Thousand, Seven Hundred and Fifty Dollars . . . unto I. Lease whose address is Dublin, Georgia. I. Lease sold the Harlow PJC-2 Interstate the very next day to 34-year-old N.A. Kalt of Dallas, Texaswho ended up buying and selling the airplane three times in the next fi ve years.

Throughout the years, the airplane

VINTAGE AIRPLANE 15

The tallest fellow (third from the left) in this group shot from World War II is Matt Malkins Grandpa Mac.

Matt Malkin and his sister Anya on the wing of Grandpa Macs Harlow.

16 JANUARY 2010

was based in a variety of states, in-cluding Michigan, Florida, Missouri, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and California. Matt, commenting on one facet of the airplanes history, said, An inter-esting claim to fame for this Harlow is that the maintenance logbook is signed by William Barnes, Pancho Barnes son.

In 1954, Serial No. 7 was owned by Kansas City Flying Service and Air College Inc., and they completely overhauled the airplane. John C. MacPherson bought N65296 in De-cember 1960 from James K. Stuart of Lancaster, California.

Family MemoriesMatt inherited NC65296 in Octo-

ber 2003 after his maternal Grandpa Mac passed on. The family decided that I would be the one to take care of it, refl ected Matt. Grandpa orig-inally bought the airplane in Lan-caster, California, and in the 1970s he moved to Salinas, California, where he had it the majority of the time he spent with it. His flying was all just private flying, for pleasure. During the summers my mom and my sister and I would visit him. I did [fl y with him in this airplane], and there are photos of my sister and [me] stand-ing on the wing. I was probably 8 or 9 years old then, so its likely that this was the first small plane that I was ever in. I do remember my grand-father being a pretty positive influ-ence in my young life; he was a man of good humor and just a real gentle characterand someone I admired greatly as a child.

Matt soloed in a Cessna 150 and has logged close to 800 hours since then. Like his grandfather, his fl ying

is all for pleasure. He transitioned to tailwheel fl ying in an Aeronca Champ and recalled that he had never been in a plane that light or that small, and I really enjoyed it. My fl ying club had a Citabria, so Ive done Citabria fly-ing as well. The PJC-2 is my fi rst air-plane, and it was probably Grandpas very fi rst airplane, too. My mom used to go fl ying with Grandpa in this air-plane, and so did my unclehe said it fl ies great upside down!

Grandson MattSince the Harlow was down south

in Salinas and Matt was living in Se-attle, he literally traveled the extra miles for about nine months in or-der to bring NC65296 into airwor-thy condition. Every month Id go down there, said Matt. Id fl y com-mercially to San Jose, rent a car, stay with my grandmother at her house, and spend a weekend working on the plane. It was generally flyable, though out of annual, and it needed a bunch of minor things. Clay An-derson helped me work on it, and I also worked with my Uncle Tim, who was a mechanic, and he knew the airplane well, since hed worked on it with Grandpa.

When the PJC-2 was ready to be flown, Matt had the good fortune of finding a local instructor at Sali-nas who had once given Mac a bi-ennial fl ight review in the airplane. He checked me out in itthe Har-low has brakes on both the left and right sidesand we flew together on several weekends. I never felt un-comfortable in the airplane, Matt said and smiled. Its actually fairly well-behaved, though its a little short-coupled, so on the ground you

watch out. But I think Im fairly con-servativeboth weatherwise and all other formsso I try to just main-tain within what I know my capabili-ties and my envelope to be. When I was speaking with Grandpa about the Harlow before he passed on, he told me to maintain 90 mph on fi-nal, and Ive always done that. He never really said why; I think its just that he wanted me to be safe. Its a fairly honest airplane; the stall char-acteristics are a little bit odd because it does drop the left wing pretty hard, but I think that has to do with [the fact that] over the years its been ground-looped, and its had a gear-up landing, so its been a little bit twisted here and there.

Today the airplane is flying fre-quently in the skies above Seattle, and Matt is happy to have the opportunity to keep his grandfathers spirit alive by flying and caring for the Harlow. He loved this airplane, said Matt thoughtfully. He certainly had style, and I think this was one of his ways of expressing it. He was very frugal, and I think this airplane represented some-thing very extravagant for him, and it refl ected his sense of style and class.

Matt hasnt changed the Harlow very much in the six years hes been flying it. The interior upholstery is what his grandfather chose in the early 1990s, and the sheepskin cov-ering on the door handle was his grandmothers special touch. The in-strument panel probably isnt origi-nal, and at some point Id like to bring it back to original, said Matt. I had the yokes chrome-plated not too long ago. I think the airplane was originally polished, but this paint scheme was what my grandfather chose. I do think about him when I fl y itone particu-lar time was when I fl ew my mom and my stepfather around, and it made me think about the family aspect of the Harlow, which is something unique to a rare airplane like this. I feel that Ive been handed this tremendous privi-lege, and its an honor.

Thats quite an honor, indeedand its likely that Matt will fl y the familys hallowed Harlow far into the future.

GILLES AUILLARD

Remember, Were Better Together!

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18 JANUARY 2010

Albert A. Voellmecke (the original spelling was Vollmecke, but he changed it because people in America could not pronounce his name correctly) was a native of Os-nabrueck, Westphalia, Germany, born in 1901. He was a 1925 graduate of the Technical University of Braun-schweig with a degree in mechani-cal engineering with an aeronautical option. Soon after his graduation he was appointed technical head of the Aeronautical Research Association, a government-financed organization maintained in connection with the university. It was while serving in this capacity that he assisted in launching the gliding competitions in 1925.

At the conclusion of World War I, the Treaty of Versailles had limited Germany to production of aircraft powered with engines up to only 80 hp. Subsequently the Germans became experts at building and fly-ing gliders. They created glider clubs for young boys and perfected the art of gliding. Vollmecke competed in glider contests and was a fi rm believer that glider experiments in Germany, France, and other countries did more to advance flying after World War I than any other factor.

In 1923 he won second place in a competition held in Wasserkuppe,

Germany, remaining aloft for two and a half hours in an engine-less plane, depending solely on the mountain air currents and his delicately attuned flying sense to sustain his flight. He was widely known in Germany as one of the original promoters of the annual gliding competition that did much to stimulate the advancement of aeronautical science.

Vollmecke designed and fl ew some of the most successful gliders of the time. In Figure 1, a glider rests on a lawn near a building in Germany. This photo, found in a bound volume of aircraft inventions and patents dated 1919 and given to me by Mr. Voll-mecke, shows what very well may be an early picture of one of his designs. There is no way to determine this fact, but this is not a clipping from a book or newspaper but a very early black and white photograph. There is a vague similarity in the shape of the rudder top and size of the vertical stabilizer when compared with the shape and size of his Command-Aire model 3 and 5 designs.

The Arkansas Democrat published a story about Albert Vollmecke on November 6, 1927, and reported, In his homeland, they refer to Voll-mecke as a cousin of Captain Gustav Tweer, famous German ace who, at

the age of 23, succeeded the great Im-melmann as squadron commander when the ace of aces was shot down over the lines in WWI. Tweer was of-fi cially credited with bringing down 32 planes, a record that was surpassed by few on the other side. By a strange freak of fate he survived all his air bat-tles only to lose his life while testing a new plane behind the lines. The plane caught fi re and Tweer fell to his death when he leaped from the burning machine at a height of 100 feet near Hanover. Vollmecke was too young to enter the German air service until the closing year of the war, when he attended an army fl ying school. The hostilities came to an end after he had fi nished the course and been assigned to an air unit on the western front.

Vollmecke told the story of a brave German aviator who was engaged to his sister. This aviator died when his fl ying machine caught fi re in the air and he jumped from the craft before it hit the ground. Could it have been this man, Gustav Tweer? Tweer was born July 5, 1893, in Osnabrueck, Germany, and died November 1, 1916, in Hanover, Germany, at the young age of 23. He learned to fl y and earned German pilot license number 180 on April 18, 1912. He became a protg of the French looping and

My FriendAlbert Vollmecke

Part 1: His early career

BY ROBERT G. LOCK FIGURE 1

VINTAGE AIRPLANE 19

diving aviator Adolphe Pegoud. The photograph in Figure 2 is Tweer and his Bleriot monoplane.

Pegoud had met Louis Bleriot and learned to fl y in a Bleriot monoplane. Pegoud made the fi rst parachute jump from an airplane from an altitude of 250 meters on August 13, 1913, and accomplished the first loop on Sep-tember 21, 1913, in a Bleriot Type XI machine. Pegoud died in World War I when he was shot down by a former student from Germany. He was only 26 years old.

In 1914 Tweer met Bleriot in France. He learned flying and be-came an early Sturz- und Schlei-fenflieger (diving and looping pilot) like Pegoud.

Figure 3 is a German postcard showing the Frenchman Pegoud looping his Bleriot monoplane. Note this illustration is very similar to the card in Figure 3 showing the Ger-man Tweer. Both aviators died young; Tweer at the age of 23 years and Pe-goud at the age of 26 years.

A rare postcard (Figure 4) shows Tweer looping his Bleriot monoplane, the feat he learned from Pegoud, who was considered the first art flier. Tweer organized imperial flight day on June 1912 on the Vehrter running place, a racecourse in Germany. He made several flight demonstrations of looping and stunting before his death. He is buried in Osnabrueck on the Johannisfriedhof, the city of Voll-meckes birth.

Vollmecke was employed by the Ernst Heinkel Flugzeugwerke, Germa-nys second largest manufacturer of aircraft, as a designing engineer. He had been with Heinkel for three and a half years before coming to the United States in January 1927 as a company representative and scout for the fac-tory. Heinkel had designed a small low-powered training airplane, and the factory was interested in seeing if the airplane could be manufactured in the United States under license.

He was also instructed to report on American aviation developments and transmit to his employer all worth-while new ideas he discovered. He found the fi eld of civilian aviation so active and promising that he decided to sever his connection with Hein-

kel and remain in this country, if he could make a satisfactory connection with an American fi rm.

The opportunity came when he learned, through an aviation publi-cation, that Arkansas, Aircraft Com-pany of Little Rock, Arkansas was seeking a highly qualified expert to serve as chief engineer. When com-pany offi cials learned of Vollmeckes exceptional qualifications, they de-cided he was the man they were look-ing for and promptly offered him a contract, which he found acceptable and signed immediately.

He took charge of the Arkansas Aircraft Companys plant at the foot of East 17th Street in late September 1927. Vollmecke immediately pro-vided a touch of German efficiency for the design and production of air-planes. Naturally, Vollmecke hoped to put into practice some of the ad-vanced ideas he gathered in connec-tion with his work as a designer in Germany. The officials at Arkansas Aircraft Company offered him a free hand in the introduction of innova-tions, within reasonable limits.

Charles M. Taylor, vice president of Command-Aire Inc. in 1929 and 1930, reported on one of Vollmeckes innovations brought over from Ger-many. Vollmecke had an interesting program in mind which he post-poned and then abandoned when he started designing for Command-Aire. His plan was a novel way for fast delivery of newspapers throughout the country. Carrying a load of daily

FIGURE 2

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20 JANUARY 2010

newspapers in cargo type airplanes with built-in hoppers, papers would be jettisoned over a designated spot from where local carriers would pick them up and deliver them to their customers. [See the company sta-tionary in Figure 5.] Some mornings when I pick up my morning paper it looks like they were using Voll-meckes invention. The ships were painted bright colors so people on the ground would know when the news-paper ship was approaching.

The Heinkel Double Decker bi-plane was to be manufactured in two sizes. The Model 39 had a payload capacity of 1,150 pounds for freight or passengers, and the Model 40 had a payload capacity of 2,500 pounds of freight or 10 passengers (includ-ing two pilots). A bundle of 100 aver-age-size newspapers would weigh 28 pounds, thus in one trip the Heinkel H.D. 40 could deliver 8,707 papers. You can see the colorful paint scheme in Figures 6 and 7.

The March 19, 1929, issue of AVI-ATION magazine carried a story re-garding the Heinkel H.D. 40 German freight and express plane (Figure 8), which was to be manufactured in America and powered by an Amer-ican engine. The Arkansas Aircraft

Company of Little Rock, Ark., manu-facturer of commercial airplanes, an-nounces it is now preparing to put in production a type of plane suitable for freight and express carriers by air lines operating on regular schedules. This plane can also be furnished with a patented mechanical dropping de-vice for the handling of certain com-modities. This device was primarily designed for the delivery of newspa-pers, and several of the large Euro-pean newspapers are now using this plane equipped with the dropping de-vice in the daily delivery of their pa-pers to distant towns. [Figure 9]

The plane was designed by the Ernst Heinkel Airplane Works of War-nemuende, Germany, and is known in Europe as the Heinkel model H.D. 40. It is through Albert Vollmecke, chief engineer for the Arkansas Air-craft Company, who until recently was associated with the Heinkel Works in Germany, that arrange-ments are being made to manufacture this plane in America.

The H.D. 40 follows Heinkel prac-tice in construction in that it has a large welded steel tubular fuselage with high lift wood wings. It is planned that these planes will be powered with Pratt and Whitney Wasp or Hornet

engines or with Wright Cyclone en-gines. The plane was designed in com-pliance with the requirements of the German Technical Department for Aeronautics at Adlershof. Neither Ar-kansas Aircraft nor Command-Aire ever constructed the airplane, which was to be manufactured in the United States under license to Heinkel.

The Arkansas Democrat newspaper dated Sunday, November 6, 1927, re-ported the following interview of Albert Vollmecke, Just before my de-parture from Germany I saw, under construction, a huge plane designed to carry 100 passengers. It will soon be ready for testing and I believe it will prove a success marking the beginning of a new era in commercial fl ying. This plane, built primarily for experimental purposes, will be driven by six motors of 1,000 horsepower each. Vollmecke predicted that the trans-Atlantic planes of the near future would be big hydro-planes that would fly at great height, perhaps 15,000 feet and more, thus soaring high above all fog and atmo-spheric disturbances. This was pre-dicted just after Charles Lindbergh had fl own solo nonstop from New York to Paris. Vollmecke offered another fore-cast for the future. Diesel engines will eventually be substituted for gasoline

FIGURE 5 FIGURE 6

VINTAGE AIRPLANE 21

motors. The fuel consumption of the diesel is much lower than the types of gasoline motors that were in use for aerial purposes. This, he predicted, would help solve one of the most trouble-some problems of long-distance flightthe excessive weight of the fuel that had to be carried. All this in November 1927!

Vollmeckes ideas on air-craft design came mostly from Germany. In his collection of technical books was a three-volume set of design ideas for every type of aeronautical de-vice one could imagine. Gustav V. Lachmann wrote one such technical paper that Vollmecke commonly referred to. It was authored July 1925 in Germany but recorded by the National Advisory Committee for Aero-nautics (NACA) in Washing-ton, D.C., in July 1926 (Figure 10). The title is Development of Light and Small Airplanes. Vollmecke was always looking for the ideal light low-powered airplane. He was looking for ef-fi ciency and safety, and his de-signs refl ected this philosophy.

This poor-quality photo-graph in Figure 11 comes from Dr. G. Lachmanns NACA re-port number 370. It is a small low-powered lightweight ship produced by the Ernst Hein-kel Airplane Works in Warne-muende, Germany. Asked if he had designed or helped de-

sign this airplane, Vollmecke said no, but he had fl own it on several occasions. Vollmecke added, The wings folded for storage, and it had full-span slotted ailerons. The wing brace struts and fittings were poorly designed. While doing acrobat-ics a wing failed and the air-craft was destroyed. Note the full-span ailerons as developed and reported on by Dr. Lach-mann in his May 1926 report as published by the NACA in Technical Memorandum num-ber 393, dated January 1927. In his report, Dr. Lachmann con-cluded, There is no doubt that this form of lateral control has greatly increased the safety of fl ight in the region of the stall. It is quite likely that it could, with advantage, be applied to fighting airplanes, as the abil-ity to start a turn rapidly and to maintain lateral control when stalled with full engine, on a turn of minimum radius, is of very great importance. Both model and full-scale ex-periments were made to see whether the drag of the air-plane had been increased by the somewhat drastic alterations in the shape of the wings in the region of the ailerons. On the model the increase in drag co-efficient was about 0.001, and on the full scale airplane was too small to be detected. It was

FIGURE 7 FIGURE 8

FIGURE 9

FIGURE 10continued on page 32

22 JANUARY 2010

The Powell Racer, which was fl own in the 1925 Na-tional Air Races, was one of the most successful light-

planes built at that time. It is one of the few airplanes that has the distinction of having won every race in which it was entered. Its extremely small size can be appreciated by comparing the scale drawings with those of the Lin-coln Sport biplane and the Pietenpol Air Camper. Powered with a Bristol Cherub engine, the little ship won the Aero Digest trophy, the Scientifi c Ameri-can trophy, and $2,000 in prize money. It clearly showed the superiority of the horizontally opposed engine over the converted-motorcycle engines then used in most of the lightplanes.

The Powell Racer was the result of some very skilled design and con-struction work by Professor C.H. Pow-ell, who was at that time in charge of the Aeronautics Department of the University of Detroit. Professor Pow-

ell had previously been employed in the Aerodynamics Department of the Sopwith Aviation Company in England, and the design of the racer shows the effects of his experience there. It was built along conventional lines scaled down to a wingspan of 15 feet 9 inches with extreme attention paid to detail design in order to save weight and decrease drag for high performance. The design and con-struction were done with the help of Powells students, and the aircraft was intended as a practical application of the theory taught in the aeronautical engineering courses.

The fuselage was of all wood con-struction consisting of four main longerons and several lighter string-ers, with bulkheads of 3/8-inch ply-wood. The entire fuselage aft of the fi rewall was covered with 1/16-inch birch plywood.

The landing gear consisted of two welded Vs of streamline steel tubing

with a steel channel spreader bar sup-porting the two-piece axle. Each axle was hinged at its inboard end, which was about one-third of the distance between the wheels. Shock absorb-ers were rubber shock cord wrapped around the outer end of the axles and landing gear struts. The tires were 17-1/2 inches in diameter.

The wings were of conventional two-spar wood construction with plywood web-type ribs using the RAF 15 airfoil. The wire bracing was of streamline 10-32 drawn steel tie rods. Because of the high drag of standard wire fi ttings, a special type of end fitting was designed that could be buried in the wing and still allow the wire to swivel in all direc-tions without putting a bend in the threads. This was a difficult prob-lem, as the rear spar was only 1-3/4 inches deep and the front spar was 2 inches deep. Ailerons were used on the lower wing only with a torque

Light Plane Heritagepublished in EAA Experimenter February 1957, May 1989

Editors Note: The Light Plane Heritage series in EAAs Experimenter magazine often touched on aircraft and concepts related to vintage aircraft and their history. Since many of our members have not had the opportunity to read this se-ries, we plan on publishing those LPH articles that would be of interest to VAA members. Enjoy!HGF

THE POWELL RACERBY JACK MCRAE

EAA 93

VINTAGE AIRPLANE 23

tube drive from the cockpit. The up-per wing was built in one piece. The short span allowed the dihedral to be built in with no splicing.

The tail surfaces were constructed with a plywood web making up most of the structure. The hinges for the tail surfaces consisted of continuous strips of leather, which worked well.

The elevator control system had a pushrod back as far as the rear seat and a cable system from there to the eleva-tor. The aileron control system used torque tubes and push-pull rods. The rudder was operated by rudder pedals with a conventional cable system.

A standard 8-gallon fuel tank was

installed in the fuselage forward of the cockpit, but for the races a special 2-1/2 gallon tank was made.

The Bristol Cherub engine used was imported from England. It was rated at 22 hp at 2500 rpm, but it was run at speeds up to 3200 rpm. The displacement was 66.8 cubic inches. A larger fuel pump was installed, and three-ring pistons were used instead of the standard two rings. The weight of the engine was 81 pounds, and fuel consumption at cruising speed was 1.4 gallons per hour. The propel-ler had a 4-foot 3-inch diameter and a 3-foot pitch and was a special Curtiss Reed metal type.

At the 1925National Air

Races held at Mitchell Field,

New York, the Powell Racer

was fl own byJerry V. Dack of

Dayton, Ohio, and proved to be the

fastest lightplane entered.

24 JANUARY 2010

At the 1925 National Air Races held at Mitchell Field, New York, the Powell Racer was flown by Jerry V. Dack of Dayton, Ohio, and proved to be the fastest lightplane entered. Its best lap speed was 76 mph in the Scientific American Trophy Race and was about 8 mph faster than the second-place winner. The little ship was very responsive to the controls, and the pylon turns were flown in a manner that resembled the larger Curtiss racers. On account of its small size the Powell Racer appeared to be fl ying extremely fast. The engine ran smoothly without any of the diffi-culties that continually bothered the motorcycle-engine-powered ships. An altitude test was made by pilot Dack, during which time he reached 9,800 feet in 38 minutes. He was forced to return at this point due to the cold weather, although the airplane was still climbing at a good rate and had suffi cient fuel available to continue.

After its success at the National Air Races, the Powell Racer was re-turned to the University of Detroit, where it was used for experimental work in the test lab. It was eventu-ally broken up in the course of static tests performed by the aeronautical engineering students.

In the 1932 edition of the Flying and Glider Manual there was published a how-to-build article by Orville Hick-man on an airplane called the Powell P.H. Racer. These plans were based on the original Powell Racer, but they in-cluded a steel tube fuselage and tail surfaces and other changes. It is not known if any airplane of this modi-fi ed design was ever built.

References:Aero Digest, October 19, 1925Aviation, December 31, 1925Flying and Glider Manual, 1932

The specifi cations of the Powell Racer

Empty weight 310 pounds

Gross weight with 150-pound pilot and 2-1/2 gallons fuel

475 pounds

Wing area 76 square feet

Fuel capacity 8 gallons

J U L Y 2 6 A U G U S T 1

J U S T A R E M I N D E R . . .You can buy your tickets online now and save time and money.

Go to www.airventure.org/tickets and get to the fun fasterand cheaper. SEE YOU THERE!

26 JANUARY 2010

We enjoy your suggestions for Mystery Planesin fact, more than half of our subjects are sent to us by members, often via e-mail. Please remember that if you want to scan the photo for use in Mystery Plane, it must be at 300 dpi resolution or greater. You may send a lower-resolution version to us for our re-

view, but the fi nal version has to be at that level of detail or it will not print properly.

Our October Mystery Plane was an interesting multiengine airplane from the Curtiss factory. Heres our fi rst answer:

The October Mystery Plane would be a Curtiss Kingbird. Probably the last

Kingbird that existed was (NC622V) operated by Alaska Coastal Airlines out of Juneau until it was wrecked in 1952? It was wrecked at the Tulsequah Mine just on the Canadian side of the border on the Taku River about 50 miles from here. They get an enormous amount of snow in that area, and rather than plow the runway, they just compacted the snow with a Caterpillar tractor. The Kingbird with its large Airwheels usually had no problems. The accident happened in early spring; the tires broke through the crust and the airplane ended up on its back and was not rebuilt. My dad, Don Bedford, worked on the King-bird a lot because Alaska Coastal was mostly a seaplane operation based out of downtown Juneau, and the Kingbird was based at the airport 10 miles out-side of town but near my parents home.

Send your answer to EAA, Vintage Airplane, P.O. Box 3086, Oshkosh, WI 54903-3086. Your answer needs to be in no later than February 15 for inclusion in the Apr i l 2010 i s sue o f Vintage Airplane.

You can also send your re-sponse via e-mail. Send your answer to mysteryplane@eaa.org.Be sure to include your name plus your city and state in the body of your note and put (Month) Mystery Plane in the subject line.

by H.G. FRAUTSCHY

MYSTERY PLANEThis months Mystery Plane comes to us

from an e-mail sent by Bill Goebel of Rhome, Texas. Its a scan of a photo he recently purchased on eBay. The outline certainly looks familiar, and the slats add a bit of technical interest to the shot.

O C T O B E R S M Y S T E RY A N S W E R

VINTAGE AIRPLANE 27

The construction of the Kingbird was fairly conventional (steel truss wing spars and aluminum ribs, fabric-covered aluminum structure tail surfaces, etc.) except that the fuselage structure was aluminum tubing secured together with aluminum gussets and rivets.

The fuselage was so flexible that a heavy load or hard landing could (and did) wrinkle and even tear the fabric. The wing spars were used for many years as the core of the roof structure in a wood shed here. We just rounded up the spars, vertical fins, and a few other bits and pieces and shipped them to the Aviation Heritage Museum in Anchorage. The original Kingbird engines were Wrights rated at 300 hp. Coastals airplane had later Wrights installed that were rated at 420 hp. But the installation called for throttle stops limiting them to 300. The airplane was said to be a marvel-ous performer. Legendary bush pilot and founder of Alaska Coastal Airlines Shell Simmons when he was in his 80s told me that if he was just a little younger, hed round up a Kingbird and go barn-storming in the States.Dennis Bed-ford, Juneau, Alaska

And a portion of a note from Dave Jackson of Toulon, Illinois: The photo in Vintage Airplane is the D2 fl own by Walter Beech and Owen G. Harned in the 1930 National Air Tour and shows the aircraft waiting to be fl agged off from the starting line. They finished in sixth place. The Vintage Airplane version of the photo has the race number, #9, blacked out. Much more information about the Kingbird can be found in Joseph P. Juptners U.S. Civil Aircraft Series Vol. 4, page 158.

Plus this bit of information: A Kingbird D-3 was operated in the Skag-way, Alaska, and Whitehorse, Yukon, area by White Pass Airways and later by British Yukon Navigation Co. from 1931 to 1942.Gerry Norberg, Win-nipeg, Manitoba, Canada

It seems the Kingbird had a per-sonal connection for a few of our members. Here are excerpts from two notes we received. From Craig Kern, Dayton, Ohio:

My father, Frank B. Kern, was a production test pilot for the Curtiss-Robertson Division (Lambert Field, St.

Louis, Missouri) of the Curtiss-Wright Corporation from August 1929 until December 1930. During this time he fl ew Curtiss Robins, Thrushes, and the Kingbird. He fi rst fl ew the Kingbird on February 28, 1930, and delivered the fi rst Kingbird (NC600V) to Eastern Air Transport at Richmond, Virginia, on December 9, 1930. He subsequently re-tired from Eastern Air Lines on October 25, 1967, after flying his last trip to Vietnam in a DC-8-61.

And this little addition: As a per-sonal side note, the chief engineer and chief test pilot on the project was H. Lloyd Child. Lloyd was the pilot for my fi rst airplane ride in August 1937 in Buffalo, New York.Pete Jansen, Seattle, Washington

Other correct answers were re-ceived from Brian Baker, Sun City, Arizona; Allen Herr, Yuba City, Cali-fornia; Andy Heins, Dayton, Ohio; Wayne Muxlow, Minneapolis, Min-nesota; Tom Lymburn, Princeton, Minnesota; Wayne Van Valkenburgh, Jasper, Georgia; and James Stubner, Mercer Island, Washington.

28 JANUARY 2010

Our subject for this issue is instrument systems. Discussion will focus on the primary instrument panel, those instruments required by regulation 91.205 (b) for visual fl ight rules daytime fl ight. These instruments would be airspeed indicator, altim-eter, magnetic direction indicator, engine tachometer (for each engine), oil pressure and oil temperature gauges (for each engine), a coolant temp gauge for liq-uid-cooled engines, a manifold pres-sure gauge for each altitude engine, and a fuel gauge for each fuel tank. Also needed is a landing gear posi-tion indicator for aircraft equipped with retractable landing gear.

The owner may wish for further instrumentation, but the above gauges are required equipment. Other instruments may be added by necessity, such as an ammeter if an electrical system is installed, a fuel pressure gauge if a pressure-fed fuel system is installed, and a turn and bank indicator or a rate-of-climb in-dicator. All instruments should be installed using brass hardware. This is done to protect the compass from magnetic deviation. Now, lets look at the primary instruments individ-ually, starting with the compass.

COMPASS: The magnetic compass is preferably installed in line with the center of the fuselage. Ac-curacy of the compass is affected by metallic objects that are magnetic. Therefore, non-magnetic hardware is always used for installation. Compass deviation is caused by anything magnetic located nearby, such as steel hardware and/or electrical wires. Deviation can be corrected by swinging the compass once the air-plane is completed. You will need a correction card

to install directly below the compass. There are two methods to correct a compass for deviation; use a com-pass rose at the local airport or use a master compass. The most common method is to place the airplane on a compass rose and make mechanical corrections to the instrument in the N-S and E-W headings. On the face of the compass are two screws marked N-S and E-W. These screws rotate tiny magnets to cause the

compass card to move. Always use a non-magnetic screwdriver when ad-justing. I take a small piece of brass brazing rod and fl atten it to turn the screws. The most accurate compass correction will be with the electrical system ON and the engine run-ning and the tail positioned as it would be for fl ight. Most folks dont run the engine. If there are no elec-trical wires near the compass, then theres no need to activate the elec-trical system.

SWINGING THE COMPASS:Place the aircraft on the compass rose with the main landing gear on the E-W line and the tail wheel on the N-S line (longitudinal axis aligned over the N-S line), and then move the N-S screw until the com-pass reads 0 degrees (north). Move

the airplane 180 degrees, line up on N-S and E-W lines, and note the compass reading. Example: If the com-pass reads 176 degrees instead of 180 degrees, adjust the heading until the compass reads 178 degrees (take 1/2 of the error and adjust the N-S screw). Then repeat the process on the E-W direction. Once the cardinal headings are adjusted, dont make any more adjust-ments. Now, place the airplane in the north heading and note the compass reading on a piece of paper.

BY ROBERT G. LOCK

Instrument systems

THE Vintage Mechanic

An airframe andpowerplant

mechanic (A&P) cant make anyadjustments to

aircraft instruments other than

swinging the compass.

VINTAGE AIRPLANE 29

Then move the airplane so as to change the heading by 30 degrees, noting the compass reading, until back to the north heading. Your fi g-ures can then be transferred to the compass correction card that will be installed just below the compass. If there are heading errors of more than 10 degrees, the compass must be overhauled or replaced. Figure 1 details a typical compass correc-tion card.

TACHOMETER (Figure 2): All old tachs were mechanically driven off the engine accessory case. There were no electric or recording tachs

made in the early days. Use care when measuring the length of the drive cable and housing; dont make it too long, as excessive coils or changes in direction can cause friction and errors in rpm indica-tion. Note the direction of the tach cable drive at the engine, and make sure the drive cable is wound in the direction of the engine drive, not in opposition to the drive direc-tion. Also note that the drive cable is slightly longer than the housing so as to properly engage in both the engine drive and tachometer

instrument fitting. I lubricate my drive cables with graphite grease during assembly. There is an oil seal or other type of mechanism in the engine drive to keep oil from en-tering the tach drive housing and eventually getting into the instru-ment. If oil ever appears in the in-strument, check the oil seal on the accessory case of the engine. The tachometer should be redlined at maximum operating rpm. A simple red radial line adjacent to the ap-propriate rpm will suffi ce. Have the instrument overhaul shop install the red line at the time of overhaul or place the marking on the instru-ment glass. If the marking is placed on the glass, provide a small white line crossing from the instrument case to the glass so any glass rota-tion can be detected.

OIL PRESSURE GAUGE (Fig-ure 3): Oil pressure gauges are Bourdon tube instruments. Inside the instrument is a small semi-circular tube that springs out un-der pressure. This tube drives the needle through a series of gears and rocker arms. Aluminum tub-ing is used to connect the instru-ment to the pressure port on the engine. The most common tube di-ameter is 3/16 inch, although 1/4 inch may be used. There s