A JANUARY PHOTO SHOOT

It all started with a phone call the night before telling me to be at the airport for an 11:00 briefing for a long awaited photo shoot. The subject was a recently re-restored 1938 Beechcraft SD17S Staggerwing owned by a retired businessman from West Vancouver. We wanted to get some air to air shots for a magazine article and this was the first day that both the weather and everyone’s schedules coincided. The plan called for using a Robertson helicopter, a 4 place R44 as the camera ship as we could take the doors off for unrestricted sightlines. It seemed like a good plan, everyone inside and warm except the photographer – me.

Photo ship pilot & owner, Roy Heaps

The air temperature on the ground was -4C[i] with calm winds, sky clear and a million. How can it get any better? I had a borrowed arctic type flight suit and an all Canadian Toque. Gloves were a problem though, if they were to be warm, they’d be too thick to operate the cameras. Oh well, tough it out bare handed and get on with it.

Everyone involved got together and arrangements were briefed for altitude, direction of flight for the best light and the backgrounds, airspeeds and radio frequencies were confirmed. As the R44 cruises at 110, it was agreed by all that the Staggerwing, being faster, would form up on the helicopter as required.

The air was smooth with no wind to speak of. The local mountain peaks were clear with a coating of fresh snow made which made for an excellent backdrop for the bright yellow Staggerwing.

Staggerwing over north shore mountains

During the shoot, the helicopter pilot would yaw the helicopter towards the Staggerwing to help position the shots and this of course put even more cold air into the back cabin. At one point I became concerned when it appeared that I had a camera failure. I switched to a backup camera only to have the same issue. As it happened, both cameras were fine; it was my hands that weren’t. I was losing feeling in my fingers and couldn’t feel the camera controls.  The pain from the cold quickly became unbearable. (See foot note.) However, as we changed locations or the Staggerwing repositioned, I took the opportunity to get the gloves back on and restore some semblance of feeling to my hands.

All went well and as a result, we got the last of the pictures we needed.

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[i] A quick check with “Professor” Google, a temperature of -4C and an airspeed of 110 mph = a wind-chill of -43C!

Reno Air Races

Cottonmouth #20 and the race crew - note the T shirts.

Back in 1991 my friend Jim McRae and I decided to drive from Vancouver to Reno to see the 28^th National Championship Air Races and the associated air show. The races featured many well-known pilots, three time winner Lyle Shelton in Rare Bear, Bill Destefani in Strega and Skip Holm in Tsunami. A totally new design, the Pond racer made its debut.  This composite twin designed by Burt Rutan would be flown by Rick Brickert. This unique aircraft powered by two 6 cylinder automotive racing engines fostered hopes of defeating the much larger war bird racers. The daily airshow included such as then current notables as Jimmy Franklin and Johnny Kazian, Joann Osterud, Leo Loudenslagger and of course Mr. R.A. (Bob) Hoover.

Seafury Cottonmouth Race #20

Jim, a longtime volunteer at sports car races and a frustrated race driver at heart drove his new Honda Civic while I navigated. This was the same division of talents that we had refined during long cross country trips in his Champ. There was slightly more trepidation in the Honda than in the Champ however.

We drove straight through to Reno and checked into the Peppermill and slept the sleep of the just and exhausted. I had stayed in the Peppermill numerous times in the past while in Reno on business and while the hotel had the feature of familiarity and good rates, it was also the unofficial hotel for some of the race teams.

After breakfast the next day we bussed out to the race venue at Reno Stead Airport where we purchased the necessary passes including the obligatory "pit pass". It was as necessary to get into the pits as breathing for two aviation nuts. Besides that, we knew one of the unlimited racers and who knew what might come out of that.

A long time friend of Jim's was a former BC Lions football player and war bird owner, Jerry Janes. Jerry and his crew had brought his #20 Hawker Sea Fury, “Cottonmouth” for the race week and as luck would have it, his pit was next to Lyle Shelton's #77 Bear Cat - Rare Bear. Lyle was to win the Unlimited race on Sunday and set a new race record of 481 mph in the process.

Jim wangled our way on to Jerry's pit crew and we were promptly given the “vital” task of polishing the Sea Fury. Polishing this beast to a high gloss was to make a huge difference in the win potential. The Sea Fury is a big plane and the task was made more challenging by the amount of oil deposited by the 2700 hp Curtis Wright 3350-26WD. This task occupied us for most of the weekend. Very little other work was needed as according to the crew chief Russ Popel, “you have to come ready to race, otherwise stay home. “  With the original 2480 hp Bristol Centaurus engine, the Sea Fury had a top speed of over 400 mph and with the more powerful Wright it should be competitive in the Bronze and maybe even in the Silver races This particular aircraft was one of 35 built for the Royal Canadian Navy and still had the wing folding feature and I would be reminded of this fact much later in the weekend.

Pond Composite unlimited racer

The race weekend proceeded with the usual suspects winning their respective classes. Gold on Sunday was won by Rare Bear followed by Strega and Tsunami. The highly touted composite Pond racer suffered an engine fire and pilot Rick Brickert declared a mayday, pulling up and out of the race. This surprised no one in the Unlimited pits as they, the Pond crew, had managed to alienate most of the unlimited teams and so there was little sympathy for their misfortune. At he end of the day, some of the unlimiteds were wearing a "Pond kill" on their cowlings. 

Emotions were running high in the unlimited pits

John Muszala flew “our” #20 Sea Fury to a six place finish in the Silver race as Jerry had come down with a bug on Saturday.

Late Sunday after the end of the Gold race as I was focused on cleaning the last of the oil off the side of the fuselage, I was surrounded by the noise and bustle of the crew as they packed up preparing to go home. Suddenly it started to get dark and I detected movement overhead. I was startled and dropped to the wing walk, fearing that something was about to fall on me. That was not the case as it was just the outer wing panel folding up and over me. Sheepishly I got up and finished my task, thankful that no one had spotted my brief moment of terror.

Fans of all descriptons

The ride home on the following Monday must have been uneventful or perhaps I was too tired to care. It was an exciting weekend and an exceptional opportunity to see the races from the inside.

“Being at the right place at the right time”

Ray-Ban Gold Pitts S2B

I was at the airport recently with my wife looking over some issues that concerned our hangar when I spotted George Kirbyson. He is one of the six local pilots who own our “condominium” hanger at the Langley, British Columbia airport. By the way, our hangar contains an interesting variety of aircraft; a ‘41 Porterfield, a Fairchild 24R, a Piper Family Cruiser, a Piper Pacer, my Stinson 108 and George’s Pitts S2B.

IFR Capable Back Seat of Pitts S2B

George’s Pitts is painted black and gold in the striking colours of “the RayBan Golds”, an aerobatic team that George was part of in the 80’s and 90’s. That team included the founder, Bill Cowan (Left Wing), Rod Ellis (Lead), George Kirbyson (Right Wing) and Al Hauff (Slot). 

At multiple Abbotsford International Airshows over the years, I had watched this team put on incredible displays of formation aerobatics little knowing that I would one day share a hangar with a member of the team.

Fast forward back to this sunny winter day when George offered me a ride and of course I immediately said yes.

After a brief stop at the fuel pumps George gave the most comprehensive pre-flight briefing that I have ever had. It included how to put on the parachute, how to get into the airplane, attach the five point harness and the secondary seat belt and in the worst case scenario, how to jettison the canopy, how to get out of the airplane and also how to use the parachute. By the way the canopy comes completely off to allow certain no longer flexible geriatrics to get into the aircraft in the first place.

He then briefed the flight which would include turns around the nearby Golden Ears mountain peaks, an opportunity for me to fly – more or less right side up followed by more serious things such as loops and rolls.

We turned on to the active runway and the acceleration provided by the 260 hp engine was incredible as was the climb out at 80 mph and 4000 fpm!

After a tour of the local mountain tops and some nearby valley lakes we headed for the practise area where he said “it’s your airplane”. After some straight and level flight and some (by my standards) steep turns, I began to feel more comfortable with the stick instead of the wheel I was used to. However, things do change.

My first attempt at an aileron roll required his help as I sort of fell out of it into what he thought might have been a split S. I then paid more attention to his instructions and actually felt quite proud of my second and third tries.

By now we had been at this for a while and the effects of the upwards to 3.5 “G’s” were starting to be apparent.

He then demonstrated a loop and when I seemed a bit hesitant, he demo’d it again. While I declined his offer to try one, I did consent to riding along on a hammerhead. I then cried uncle as the need for the sic sac was getting more apparent.

At that point George kindly headed back to the airport to land. However – being who he is the landing had to include a low approach and a hard left break to join the pattern.

After thanking him for what had been an awesome opportunity and experience, we put the airplane back in the hangar and I headed for home.

As I said, the effects of G loading are accumulative and there were moments during the drive home that I didn’t think I would make it – and no sic sac! But so what!? It was fun and I’d do it again in a heartbeat.

A recent article by Patty Wagstaff in Plane and Pilot sparked some memories. In that article she wrote about learning to do and then performing inverted ribbon cuts. That article inspired me to share my experience of ribbon cutting from the viewpoint one of the ones on the ground holding the poles.

The Abbotsford airport has hosted an annual airshow for what seems to be forever. I started attending in the mid 70’s and have only missed one show since. Let’s see, at 3 shows per weekend that would be around 117 days at that particular airshow. Another regular was Art Scholl. Art was an aerobatic pilot who not only flew airshows and competitions but also worked for the movie industry, flying in movies such as The Great Waldo Pepper, The Right Stuff, Blue Thunder and finally, Top Gun. Aviation and airshows lost a great personality when he was killed flying a sequence in Top Gun in California in the fall of 1985. We all miss Art, his wife Judy and his co-pilot-dog Aileron.

He was a regular at the Abbotsford Airshow in British Columbia through the 1970’s and 1980’s. Art would come to Abbotsford and perform in a borrowed Piper J3 and in his highly modified “Super” D H Chipmunk. The ribbon cut was the climax of his show and was a huge crowd pleaser. It was the ribbon cut that I remember most vividly. One year during the Friday show, I was selected to hold one of the two poles that supported the ribbon.

That year the airport had resurfaced the show runway with nice black asphalt just prior to the annual airshow. Airshow weekend weather was “clear and a million” with temperatures in the high 90’s. This created some interesting air over the runway as Art would find out.

During Art’s show, his ground crew would set up for the ribbon cut, readying the poles and ribbon and briefing the volunteers on when to raise and how to hold them. They were in contact with Art by radio and when he was ready we were told to raise the poles. We were also told to concentrate on keeping the poles vertical and not to watch Art. Like that would happen!

As Art descended to the show line, he rolled inverted and approached the ribbon. I saw what looked like “lock to lock” movement in the ailerons as he dealt with the hot rising air over the runway. Large power changes were also apparent as he appeared to control altitude with throttle. In spite of my best intentions, I never saw him cut that ribbon. I closed my eyes just as he passed through. If you have ever been that close to an inverted airplane that was no more than ten feet away from you both horizontally and vertically, you will understand.

I was disappointed in myself for my lack of intestinal fortitude and total inability to watch what was clearly a once in a life time opportunity.

Well, the stars were aligned on Sunday and I was once again asked to help out. It was a great experience and one I have never forgotten. This time I kept my eyes open. I can’t imagine how it feels to fly that sequence but I do know that standing out on the runway holding the poles has to come a close second.