Air Classics – Where History Flies, May 2024
English | 100 pages | pdf | 78.46 MB
As I watched the fog roll in this morning, I was also listening Ato television commentators discussing the new government restrictions on the types of cars we will driving in the near future along with how we will drive them. I will not go into my thoughts concerning the correctness of the current administration interfering with our lives on the automotive level but I am wondering how this will creep into the world of historic aviation. As we all know, especially those of us in California, the prices of l00LL av gas just keep creeping up and up. I was at one “destination” airport a few weeks ago and the price for l00LL was hovering at $10 per gallon – I guess this pricing is somewhat akin to those gas stations near freeway ramps. These high prices are just not good for the continued operation of large piston-engine aircraft. For example, not that many years ago, we took a couple B-25 Mitchells on a cross-country jaunt. At each fuel stop we put in an average of 600 gallons per aircraft. As some of our pundits are fond of saying, “do the math.” The bottom line is not good. On our flight, each bomber was filled with enthusiasts and the fuel cost was evenly split, which made the operation much more manageable but, at the same time, the fuel cost then was under $5 per gallon. In Britain and Europe, they are paying much more. That also means there is less flying and with less flying, then we see a drop in proficiency.
America is capable of producing massive amounts of energy – energy in all forms. Yet we have so many governmental restrictions on the production of energy that we have to go begging on our knees to those fine folk in the Middle East, Venezuela, and other locations where the ruling classes are not exactly friendly to our country. In even the most basic economic reasoning, this current thought process makes little to no sense. Wouldn’t it be better if we all just gathered together with the goal of producing as much energy in this country as possible? And by that, I mean every type of energy – petroleum, gas, wind, electric, etc. to completely cut off dealing with the despots of the world?
Historic aviation is only a minute fraction of energy utilization. How about some sort of price relief for operating these aircraft? I do not mean the benefit of an IRS 501C3 (classification for a museum) but something more general where operators of aircraft ranging from a Piper Cub to a Flying Fortress could enjoy fuel price relief? There are smarter people than myself that can figure this out.
We have already seen a couple companies pull out of the competition to create a substitute for lO0LL. Cost is one factor but, in our increasingly litigious society, liability is also a big, big reason for abandoning this quest. Years ago, we had the company B-25 at a relatively large Warbird airshow. After getting home late Sunday night, we had a frantic message – “do not operate your aircraft!” What on earth? Turns out the show’s fuel supply was contaminated. All aircraft owners at the event were urged to ground their aircraft and have immediate engine inspections. Sure enough, when the Wright R-2600s were opened up there was damage and both engines had to be pulled and overhauled. All this was at the fuel company’s expense and it amounted to over a hundred engines. As I recall, no lawsuits resulted and I think owners were happy that the fuel company responded so rapidly and in such a positive way.
So, should the FAA step in and say that lO0LL is here to stay because of safety? Perhaps so but I am not convinced they want to go up against today’s “social justice police.” If we go by current California prices and figure you are operating a Warbird that has an average hourly fuel burn of 60 gallons then that per hour fuel bill – not counting insurance and all the other things that factor into operating a vintage aircraft – can start to get unreasonable. One P-51 owner recently told me, “I like giving rides in my plane at no charge but I have to figure that every ride costs about the same as a large flatscreen TV set.” He was correct of course but then he also had the means to offer such largess to his prospective passengers.
Perhaps the new Masters of the Air television series will give the average person an idea of why we fly these aircraft. But I doubt it. My non-flying friends are usually quite frightened about going aloft in a vintage aircraft and perhaps rightly so. Any form of flying poses a certain element of risk and when the equipment is 80-years-old then that risk factor can certainly increase. It doesn’t help when the news media sensationalizes accidents such as the tragic midair between the Commemorative Air Force’s Flying Fortress and Kingcobra.
I do not mean to be negative this month, but we have to factor in another problem – finding professional people that want to work on and maintain these types of aircraft. The last few years have seen a very large drop in the number of skilled people that want to work on historic planes (for example, see GossHawk’s advertisement in this magazine issue). Younger A&Ps see little glamor restoring or maintaining such planes. One shop owner said, “The last year has seen a revolving door for employees. They get hired, stay a couple months, and then find a job with the airlines or with a military contractor where they can make much more money compared to what the average restoration shop can pay. Plus, they have virtually no interest in these ex-military machines – it just doesn’t compute to a younger person’s way of thinking.”
On a recent visit to Chino Airport, admittedly a hotbed of such things, I counted nine aircraft under restoration – and there were more but those were just the ones I directly saw. Everyone had the same problem. “We sent a prop out twice to one of the few overhaul shops that still does this type of work,” said one restorer. “The first time it came back, we opened it up and found rusted parts. We sent it back for a re-do and they attempted to charge us the full price for a second overhaul even though it was their work that was shoddy. In the end, we did it ourselves. It took a bit longer but we got exactly what we wanted and we also know that the propeller is now the best that it can be.” Over the next few years, I believe that we will see more consolidation in restoration shops and, by that, I mean that each shop will offer an increasing number of services. For example, a person can have Aero Trader overhaul a B-25 Mitchell while also having the R-2600 radials rebuilt in the company’s engine shop. Such consolidation makes sense but there are only certain shops that can afford to bring these services together under one hangar roof.
Down in New Zealand, Avspecs has again done the impossible – creating another flying de Havilland Mosquito. The small but skilled staff is completely dedicated to getting these complex warplanes back in the air. While the airframe was being built that would go to Rod Lewis and Charles Somers, Vintage V-12s was busy overhauling the twin Merlins that would power the plane so we see a wonderful chain of cooperation that stretches from Texas to California to New Zealand. And then, who gets to test fly the plane? Steve Hinton, of course. Our small community interacts returning rare aircraft to the sky and that is the way it should be – everyone working together for a common good. We just have to make sure that current negative political influence is kept far away from our goal of not only preserving history as we do in the pages of Air Classics but also our freedom to fly that history to remind and educate Americans on how aviation shaped our world.
MICHAEL O’LEARY /PUBLISHER
CHALLENGE PUBLICATIONS
[email protected]
6 AIR CLASSICS/May 2024
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