2107-News-Letter
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Thunderbird Field EAA Chapter 1217 July 2021 Scottsdale, Arizona PRESIDENT’S CORNER The company website is Greetings from my corner of the hangar. Last www.flyinglegendusa.com for the Tucano month John Koplin took us on a journey Replica. Folks that want to see the Jabiru through space and a tour of the International Supercharger project can look at it on Space Station. The amount of engineering www.n530mh.tumblr.com and logistics that went into creating it was Guests are always welcome! amazing. A big thanks to Chapter member John Davis for getting the speaker lined up. AIRVENTURE HAPPY HOUR It has now been a 23-year tradition of Chapter With the summer heat in the blast furnace 1217 members attending the Oshkosh mode there isn't much action unless you get AirVenture Fly-In to get together one evening to the airport at sun up for a couple of hours. and compare sightings and stories. This year A few weeks ago Jerry Lane and John Davis on the first day of the Fly-In, we will have our stopped by and we put the wings on my annual AIRVENTURE HAPPY HOUR AND Curtiss Jr. on a scorching hot day. Now it’s FISH FRY at WENDT’S ON THE LAKE. just a matter of putting jury struts on, rigging Come and join us for some traditional the ailerons and a dozen or so nuts. Wisconsin food and libations. That’s on Hopefully the magic box of parts that came Monday, July 26th around 7 pm. with it is about empty. If you want to plug it into your GPS, the The annual Oshkosh pilgrimage will start for address is N9699 Lake Shore Road, Van me on the day after our meeting this month. Dyne, WI 54979-9703 (920) 688-5231; If you are attending, stop by our Chapter www.wendtsonthelake.com. They are located 1217 Happy Hour and enjoy a Spotted Cow 3.8 miles south of the seaplane base. or two, and some of the local delicacy of fried Lake Perch. BOLT ON ZIP TIE TAB See you around the aerodrome! Terrible wiring and loose hoses and brake lines have plagued homebuilders for years. A Curtis company named TMR Customs has come up with a CNC laser cut Zip Tie Tab that sells for JULY CHAPTER MEETING $15.95 for a pack of ten. For more info on The July meeting of Thunderbird Field EAA how you can order this new product check out Chapter 1217 will be held on Thursday, July their website at TMRCustoms.com 15th, beginning at 7 pm in the Thunderbird Room, Scottsdale Airport Terminal building. The address is 15000 North Airport Drive. For our July meeting we have recruited Jack Norris to talk about the Tucano replica kits he is selling. The plane is an all metal, two- seater where the back seater has an elevated seat so they have excellent forward visibility. The plane is a scaled down version of the Shorts Tucanos that are based on the south side of Deer Valley Airport. SCOTTSDALE AIRPORT UPDATE As for Watson, he would go on to complete Scottsdale Airport has received an $11 million 35 missions in the war effort and in a radio federal grant for runway rehabilitation. The interview remarked that he hoped Mayor La project focuses on rehabilitating the runway Guardia, would forgive him. La Guardia, and will provide no new renovations to the hearing of Watson’s plea, sent him a cable airport itself. This is the largest federal grant stating: ever received by the airport and will cover “Delighted to get your message. All is expenses to ensure the airport’s infrastructure forgiven. Congratulations. I hope you never is maintained in excellent condition and best run out of altitude. Happy landings. Will be serve all aircraft customers. seeing you soon.” The project is strictly rehabilitation and does It turns out the daughter of one of these pilots not increase the length or weight capacity. might fly with us at a tour stop this summer, The airport has always had the ability to so she told us about this amazing story and handle much larger aircraft with the limiting we wanted to share it with you! factor being the runway width. No mention has been publicly made about increasing the THE TOP TEN FLYING FILMS width. Want to start an argument with fellow aviation nuts, bring up the topic of best airplane films The airport closed on July sixth for forty-five of all time. It seems aircraft have appeared days for the runway improvement project. on screen since the early days of the silent FAMOUS FLYOVERS film era. At first, they were perceived as While flyovers are common at sporting events objects of wonder and stars in their own right. today, one particular flyby in 1943 caught Then they became tools of war – an endless spectators and players by surprise as it was fascination – and finally they came to be totally unplanned! regarded as just another means of transport, Lt. Jack W. Watson of the U.S. Army Air only interesting to screenwriters when they Force and his crew, along with three other went wrong or were hijacked. crews, were flying to Maine as a stopover Films that really have something to say about enroute to England. As they passed New the thrills and romance of flying – films that York City, the 21-year-old freckled-face are stuff of inspiration to pilots – are few and Watson realized that the World Series was far between. Happily, they do exist and many just starting and decided to do an impromptu of them are available to stream online. So, visit. The flight of four Flying Fortresses taking my highly subjective top ten in reverse buzzed Yankee Stadium where the Yankees order: were taking on the St. Louis Cardinals in Game 1 of the 1943 World Series. They #10 One Six Right enjoyed it so much, they decided to make two We have been waiting for years for a film that more passes, on the third pass flying so low, would capture the spirit of contemporary one reporter said it looked like they would clip private flying – a film about people like us and the stadium's flag poles! aircraft like the ones we all fly. Early web previews and trailers suggested that One Six New York Mayor Fiorello La Guardia, who Right, the story of California’s Van Nuys attended the game, was outraged and Airport, might be that film, albeit in demanded the USAAF investigate. They did, documentary format. but given the need for pilots in World War II, the four pilots, including Watson, were given a Sadly, for all the stunning aerial footage that $75 fine and the matter was dropped. was shot, the end result was a very ‘American’ kind of talking-heads effort that is actually quite tedious in places. July 2021 www.ThunderbirdField.com Page 2 There are some lovely episodes – a couple Continued on page 3 figuring in the extras included in the original The Flying Legends Tucano that this month’s speaker will be talking about DVD release – that almost justify putting One Of course, it is a wartime flag-waver – but Six Right into my top ten, but it is included not Germans and Italians are portrayed as more for what it represents than its qualities people, not the kind of mindless automatons as a film. who are the ‘enemy’ in so many Hollywood As to that ultimate private flying film? Well, we war films. are still waiting… Much of the flying footage is done with models, although the full-size Schneider #9 The First of the Few Made in 1942 and billed as ‘the immortal story floatplane replicas taxying across water-tank of the Spitfire’, The First of the Few is actually based studio sets are wonders in their own a less-than-accurate and highly romanticized way. account of the gestation of that great aircraft. First of the Few factoid: if the fighter pilots At the same time, it captures the feel of those David Niven is seen talking to at the start of distant times – the story runs from the the film appear to be convincing characters, it Schneider Trophy era of 1920s to the middle is because they were not actors but the real of WWII – in a way that nothing made today thing – serving wartime RAF Pilot Officers could match. and NCOs. July 2021 www.ThunderbirdField.com Page 3 #8 Those Magnificent Men in their Flying movie poster pride of place in their Machines workshops, A firm favorite with old-aeroplane people, to Continued on page 4 judge by the number of them who give the An in-flight view of the Flying Legends Tucano Those Magnificent Men was a big-budget renaissance of RAF Booker, now better 1960s film that entailed the construction of a known as Wycombe Air Park. number of flying replicas. #7 The Blue Max For what was intended to be a comedy, great Based on Jack Hunter’s well-researched WWI attention was paid to Edwardian period novel, The Blue Max is about as close as any clothes, cars and sets, and aeronautical film has come to matching the aerial advisor Allen Wheeler made sure the aircraft spectacle of Howard Hugh’s legendary 1930 were equally authentic – so much so, that masterpiece, Hell’s Angels. most of them could only be flown safely in the By the time The Blue Max was made, flyable early morning or late evening hours. WWI aircraft were few and far between, so In particular, the Antoinette proved downright 20th Century Fox commissioned Fokker DVII dangerous until it was rebuilt with ailerons in and Dr1 replicas as well a pair of Pfalz scouts place of wing-warping and a more modern and a couple of very convincing SE5s.