In 1947, however, WACO’s designers and engineers went a little crazy.

Like so many other manufacturers of the era, the company became motivated to introduce a new “personal aircraft,” targeting the scores of pilots returning from World War II. This customer base, with a unique blend of pilot qualifications and disposable income, tantalized the marketing departments of aircraft manufacturers across the country.

To stand out from the rest, WACO designed a four-place aircraft with a front-mounted single engine that drove a pusher propeller in the tail and named it the Aristocraft.

Predictably, the company touted a long list of performance advantages.

It claimed that the unique engine/propeller arrangement reduced drag, minimized propeller noise in the cabin, and eliminated the variation between power-on and power-off flight characteristics. It also promoted the ability to load and unload the airplane with the engine running without having to fight propwash, as well as the increased safety margin with the propeller positioned at the extreme aft end of the aircraft.

The airframe construction was traditional, with a metal wing, tail, and control surfaces, and a fabric-covered tubular steel fuselage. WACO subcontracted the still-novel tricycle landing gear to Firestone. It was partially retractable, sacrificing aerodynamic efficiency for utility—should the pilot land with the gear retracted, the airplane would still roll on the wheels, limiting damage to the airframe.

More notable was the powertrain. WACO utilized a 215 hp, 6-cylinder Franklin engine linked to the aft controllable-pitch, reversible propeller through a long driveshaft that extended through a shroud in the cabin. The driveshaft incorporated multiple constant-velocity universal joints with individual pressure-lubricated housings.

Because there was no propeller in the nose to provide cooling air over the engine on the ground, a blower attachment was used to do so.

Naturally, all of these design alterations added weight and complexity, resulting in an empty weight of 2,046 pounds—several hundred pounds heavier than the 1,600- to 1,800-pound range of similarly powered types like the 182, Debonair, and Comanche. Claimed performance wasn’t terrible, however, with a cruise speed of 135 mph at 5,000 feet, a 960 fpm rate of climb, and a 17,500-foot service ceiling. Maximum gross weight was listed as 3,130 pounds, which, when accounting for the 60 gallons of fuel capacity, returns a payload of 724 pounds.

WACO reportedly secured some 300 orders for the Aristocraft, but no production aircraft ever materialized.

Details are scarce, and some sources mention WACO’s inability to cope with a shrinking market. But, considering how unsuccessful other manufacturers were when faced with managing the vibration inherent in similar aircraft designs incorporating long driveshafts, it’s likely the company encountered the same problem, and it shelved the program entirely.

In the early 1960s, the Aristocraft was briefly resurrected, albeit in a different form.

Homebuilder Terry O’Neill converted it into a simpler version that utilized a traditional propeller arrangement for the front engine, intending to market it in two varieties—one certificated and another experimental. Despite flying the redesigned version, his plans progressed no further, and the Aristocraft story came to an end.

The post That Time When WACO Designers Went a Little Crazy appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

Today’s Top Pick is a 1940 WACO UPF-7.

WACO was known for crafting a range of beautiful open cockpit and cabin biplanes from the 1920s into the 1940s. That range was diverse, including what often seemed like too many configurations and variations to remember.

This UPF-7 is one such example because many observers are accustomed to seeing biplanes of this vintage with open cockpits, not sliding canopies. The built-to-order nature of the civilian aircraft industry during aviation’s golden age, however, resulted in a variety of features.

This aircraft also benefited from a 2010 restoration that included modifications and upgrades to its engine, panel, and airframe that improve its readiness for today’s general aviation missions. Flying a machine like this to vintage aircraft gatherings, pancake breakfasts, or informal fly-ins is nearly a guarantee of good times and gratification.

This 1940 WACO UPF-7 has 2,652 hours on the airframe and 112 hours since overhaul on its 300 hp fuel-injected Jacobs R755A2 engine. The aircraft is equipped with a Jasco alternator, Whelen A650 wingtip strobe and navigation lights, Cleveland wheels and brakes, RRR Russ tailwheel, Brackett air filter, Hooker harnesses front and rear, M20 oil separator, and smoke system.

The panel includes an Aspen 1000 PFD and MFD, Garmin GNC 250XL Comm/GPS, GTX 327 transponder, Garmin 496 GPS on panel mount, PM 1000 three-place intercom, ACK A30 encoder, Electronics International 7-cylinder engine monitor, and FS 450 fuel flow and totalizer.

Pilots looking for a World War II biplane trainer that is less common than a Stearman, and those who simply have a soft spot for the UPF’s distinctive silhouette, should consider this 1940 WACO UPF-7, which is available on AircraftForSale.

If you’re interested in financing, you can do so with FLYING Finance. Use their airplane loan calculator to calculate your estimated monthly payments. Or, to speak with an aviation finance specialist, visit flyingfinance.com.

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• AVweb: WACO Updates Its Classic Biplane

The post This 1940 WACO UPF-7 Is a Restored and Upgraded ‘AircraftForSale’ Top Pick appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

We don’t have much violent weather in the Ohio River Valley, but we suffer through weeks of low, gray skies, rain/snow mix, and gusty surface winds. The surface winds at the moment are 240 degrees at 14 gusting to 22 knots with a light rain/snow mix. Ceiling is 1,300 feet overcast with rime ice reports up to 9,000 feet, plus a wind shear alert—winds at 2,000 feet are from 210 degrees at 50 knots. And that wicked witch, Mother Nature, plans even stronger surface winds with high temperatures in the single digits.

I go down to the airport, KLUK, and sit in the airplane, thinking maybe I ought to take it around the patch a few times, but the thought of pulling off the heavy winter cover, preflighting, and pulling it out of the hangar for a couple landings is too daunting.

So, I’ll regale you with a great story from Lunken Airport’s early days.

It’s a special place for me, but then who doesn’t feel that way about their home field? Lunken is older than most because in the early 1920s, when aviation was “getting off the ground,” the site was uniquely natural for an airport—a big, flat area within 5 miles of downtown Cincinnati. At the time the government was pressuring cities to build airports for the new and popular airmail service.

Called the Turkey Bottoms, this mostly farmland property was eventually purchased by my ex-husband’s grandfather, Eshelby F. Lunken (Lunkenheimer Valve Company), and deeded to the city as an airport for 99 years. Later a ditzy, civic-minded aunt assigned the lease permanently to the city. Bummer.

• READ MORE: There Was Just Something About Michael

In the early ’20s, the Cincinnati Polo Club used a portion, and its members didn’t appreciate a guy landing his “flivver” on their field between chukkers—7½-minute periods in polo.

It was John Paul Riddle, a talented, handsome (even when I knew him in his 80s), and fascinating barnstormer originally from Pikeville, Kentucky, who would play a very big part in creating what is now Cincinnati Municipal Airport-Lunken Field.

I came to know Riddle in the 1980s, when the airport was planning a 50th anniversary celebration, and I was asked to write a booklet for the affair.

“Damn,” I said to an old friend, J.R. Wedekind, “I wish that Riddle guy was still alive. There’s so much I’d like to ask him.”

“He is,” said Wedekind. “Lives in Coral Gables, Florida, and, at 80-something, still plays tennis every day. I’ll give you his telephone number. He lives in a two-family house…with his ex-wife upstairs.”

• READ MORE: Martha’s Return to IFR Skies

So, I called, wondering if he’d be annoyed at the intrusion, but Riddle was, well, charming. We would talk many times in the following weeks because, like so many of us, his memories from way back were sharp and clear.

A celebration was planned, so the city and Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University (with which there was a quasi-connection) brought him to Cincinnati in summer 1987. Riddle hadn’t been at Lunken Airport for more than 50 years, but he recognized the hangars the city had built for what became the Embry-Riddle Company.

We talked for hours, he rode in my Cub, and we enjoyed a memorable dinner one night with my ex, Ebby Lunken, at a restaurant downtown. The Maisonette was an elegant, five-star joint, and the maître d’ was clearly uncomfortable. Ebby and Riddle were both quite deaf and communicated by shouting across the elegantly laid table.

Afterward, I drove Riddle back to Lunken and, as we neared the airport on a little street over railroad tracks called Airport Road, he muttered, “Oh, yes, I remember—Davis Lane.” That had been its original name many years before. I opened the door of one of the three hangars where, in the 1920s, the company had operated its flying and mechanic schools and kept the WACOs and Fairchilds used on its airmail route to Chicago. Standing in that dark hangar with this man with the rain beating down and not a word said was a rare experience.

• READ MORE: Gear-Up Landings: There Are Pilots Who Have and Those Who May Have To

Riddle was the guy who had landed in the polo field with a passenger and then hopped riders in the afternoon before returning to Ravens Rock upriver. That field at Portsmouth was unlighted, so he would circle town until the local radio announcer heard the airplane and asked everybody with a car to line the runway with their lights on.

On one of his Turkey Bottoms trips to hop some rides, a local man named T. Higbee Embry approached him and asked how much a ride cost.

“How much do you have on you?” Riddle asked.

“Twenty dollars,” Higbee replied.

“That’s what it costs,” Riddle said.

Eventually, Riddle taught Embry to fly, and from that a partnership in a flying company was formed with Embry’s wealthy mother putting up money to buy two WACOs and Riddle running the operation. By 1927, the city had taken legal possession of the land and built three hangars for the new Embry-Riddle Company. It was a success, offering airplane sales, mechanic and flight training, and an airmail contract for daily flights from Cincinnati to Chicago (CAM 24) in WACOs.

He told me wonderful stories, and we pored over old photographs and newspapers the company published. By 1930, Sherman Fairchild brokered a deal for the company to be sold to the Aviation Corporation (which later became Avco), and one of its passenger/airmail companies moved into the hangars. American Airways—later American Airlines—started life at Lunken.

Embry headed to California and Riddle went to Florida, where he would become a big name in the airplane world. Ten years after selling the Embry-Riddle operation, he contracted with the government and trained more than 700 pilots and mechanics, filling big hotels in Miami for civilian pilot training programs. Then he moved to Brazil, where he ran an operation training pilots for its government and, after World War II, founded and operated a large freight carrier, Riddle International Airlines.

I stumbled on a charming story about Riddle’s early years in Pikeville, Kentucky. He graduated from Pikeville College, trained in the military as a pilot and mechanic, and came home to barnstorm. At a Fourth of July celebration in 1923, Riddle, to the huge delight of the townspeople, flew his Jenny under Pikeville’s Middle Bridge.

When I found the still-standing memorial and read it, I laughed but couldn’t help wondering, “What’s wrong with this picture?”

This column first appeared in the April 2024/Issue 947 of FLYING’s print edition.

The post Sometimes the Flying Weather’s Fit Only for Turkeys appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

Today’s Top Pick is a 2023 Great Lakes 2T-1A-2.

The Great Lakes 2T-1A-2 traces its lineage back to the early 1930s. But after the company shut down in 1936, a string of manufacturers resurrected the design, which became a fixture in aerobatic competition during the 1960s.  

Monoplanes might have been staging a takeover of precision aerobatics at the time, but many pilots still considered wire-braced biplanes the best mounts for mastering the Aresti Catalog of maneuvers. Some of the top competitors of the era flew Great Lakes aircraft, often modified for enhanced performance.

These aircraft also gained a following with private pilots who enjoyed aerobatics as a pastime for sharpening flying skills and those who simply liked the feel of a vintage biplane. For such enthusiasts, the Great lakes has become the quintessential sport biplane, capable of cross-country travel as well as neat airshow routines. There is still demand for them, and after WACO found recent success selling its golden age models, the company expanded its line to include the Great Lakes.

This nearly new Great Lakes has 10 hours on the airframe and eight hours on its 180 hp Lycoming AEIO-360, which is equipped with inverted fuel and oil systems. The panel includes a Garmin G5, Garmin Aera 660 WAAS GPS, Trig TY-91 Cim, Garmin GDL 52 ADS-B datalink, Trig TN-70 ADS-B In and Out, Trig TT-22 Mode S transponder, G meter, and JPI EDM 930.

Additional equipment includes cockpit covers, dual cockpit heater, entry-assist roll bar handle, aerobatic harnesses and LED lighting.

Pilots who are interested in owning a classic, golden age style, aerobatic biplane in new condition and built using modern methods and equipment should consider this 2023 Great Lakes 2T-1A-2, which is available for $335,000 on AircraftForSale.

You can arrange financing of the aircraft through FLYING Finance. For more information, email info@flyingfinance.com.

• FLYING Magazine: Waco Great Lakes 2T-1A-2 Debuts
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• Kitplanes: Bringing a Baby Great Lakes Back

The post This 2023 Great Lakes 2T-1A-2 Is a Modern, Golden Age ‘AircraftForSale’ Top Pick appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

When a person owns an open-cockpit vintage aircraft, one of the first decisions to make is how radio communications will be addressed. You can utilize a portable battery-operated handheld radio so the instrument panel remains true to factory specs, you could eschew the legacy panel gauges and install a modern radio and the supporting electrical system in the name of safety and convenience—or you can get creative and have the best of both worlds.

The “both” option was taken by Bob and Bill Juranich. The brothers own the Gig Harbor Vintage Aero Museum at Tacoma Narrows Airport (KTIW) in Washington. The airport is Class D and located approximately 15 nm southwest of Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (KSEA). It lies beneath Class Bravo airspace and, as such, inside the Mode C veil generally requiring a transponder. Still, the most modern aircraft in the museum’s collection is a 1953 Cessna 195.

Most of the designs herald from the 1930s and ’40s, and several are ADS-B compliant, though they rolled off the assembly line decades before radios were standard equipment, transponders were in common use, and radar—the technological grandfather of ADS-B—had even been dreamed about for light aircraft. And here’s the best part—you can’t tell by looking at the aircraft that they feature this modern device. You won’t find radio or ADS-B antennae, which frankly would stick out like a frog in a punch bowl. These airplanes look like they have just rolled out of the factory in a time when you could spend the day at the movies for 5 cents, and the console cabinet radio was the centerpiece of many a living room.

“That’s because Bob Johnson, the master mechanic who has restored these aircraft, is really good about hiding things in plain sight,” says Brandon Bainbridge, the director of operations at the VAM, which is primarily located in a 12,400-square-foot hangar. The facility is part museum, part event space, part repository for Juranich family history, and part high-end pilot cave. You can picture your aviation-enthused forebearers having such a space.

That was true for the Juranichs, who grew up around civilian aviation in the Midwest. Their father, Joe, was a pilot and owned Northern Airport in Basehor, 13 miles south of Leavenworth, Kansas. The brothers Juranich took to aviation in their teens. Bob, the older brother, soloed at age 17 in a 1946 J-3 Cub. Bill—not to be outdone—bought his first airplane, a 1946 Taylorcraft, at the age of 18.

You will find the J-3 Cub, the Taylorcraft, and their father’s 1946 Piper Super Cruiser meticulously restored and on display as part of the museum collection. You can thank A&P/IA Bob Johnson for that.

• READ MORE: Six Aviation Museums Where You Can Land and Linger

A Storied WACO

The Juranichs have known Johnson for decades. He has overseen the restoration of several of the brothers’ aircraft, including the 1934 WACO YMF-3, a black and white open-cockpit biplane that some describe as the crown jewel in the VAM collection.

According to Bob Juranich, when WACO NC14080 rolled out of the factory in Troy, Ohio, it was destined to be a rich man’s toy. The Great Depression was underway, and the only people with the money for such an expensive hobby as flying were the folks with large bank accounts or their sons and daughters. The first owner of the YMF was Philip T. Sharples, an industrialist who in 1939 also became one of the founding members of the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association. The WACO was in Sharples’ care for about a year until he experienced a nose over. The airplane landed on its back and was damaged. The YMF went back to the factory for repairs. The next owner was Benjamin Brewster, also an industrialist— a railroad tycoon and trustee for Standard Oil.

“At the time, the aircraft was stationed at Roosevelt Field, Long Island, New York,” says Juranich, gesturing to a decal on the vertical stabilizer. “That’s the same airport Charles Lindbergh launched out of to fly the Atlantic in 1927.”

Brewster sold the WACO to Stephen DuPont, who kept it until the early 1940s. As the winds of war began to churn, DuPont sold the YMF to a flying service, where it was used as part of the Civilian Pilot Training Program. Then, as now, student pilots could be rough on the equipment. The WACO endured multiple student-induced damage events, including a collision with a snowbank that effectively ended its flying career for several decades. The bent and battered wreckage passed through many hands as a project until 2006, when Bob Juranich, who saw a YMF at a local fly-in and decided he wanted one, bought it from Harold Johnson in Moraine, Ohio.

For Johnson, A&P/IA (no relation to the previous owner), the WACO was the gauntlet of challenge being thrown down, as the airplane had not flown since 1943. Johnson, who has been turning wrenches since 1970, noted with some relief that the stock Jacobs L4 /R755-7 engine had been overhauled in the 1990s, and that was a big chunk of the work—so he could focus on the rest of the airplane. He paid special attention to the cockpit, which he determined needed to be aesthetically pleasing, period correct, and able to function safely in modern airspace.

A Special Update Process

The challenge with restoring panels in vintage designs to modern airworthiness, says Johnson, is that modern radios, navigation tools, and their support cables destroy the integrity of the design.

“I hate to see beautiful vintage biplanes with white wires going everywhere,” Johnson says with a cringe and shake of his head. “I always hide them behind tubing, put them in leather or use black friction tape or camouflage them in a way so they match the interior of the airplane.”

Go ahead and look in the cockpit of the YMF: You won’t see any radio, GPS, or transponder—but you will see a 1930s map case. Inside it, you find modern devices.

“It was Bob Juranich’s idea to hide them there,” says Johnson. “The map case looks like you carry it out to the airplane. There is even a leather handle on it. I painted it with crinkle paint to give it the right look.”

Several of the aircraft are equipped with ADS-B Out, although they are technically exempt because they were not originally certificated with an engine-driven electrical system, per FAR 91.215(b)(3) and 91.215(b) (5). Therefore, they need not adhere to the rule that went into effect on January 1, 2020, for flight in Class A, B, C, and D airspace where altitude-reporting transponders were required prior to that date. However, given that the museum is located at a busy Class Delta airport under a shelf of Class Bravo and surrounded by a Mode C veil, the Juranichs and Johnson agreed that ADS-B was a wise choice. But how to do it without installing a clunky antennae and ADS-B transponder?

“According to SkyBeacon, ADS-B can function through fabric,” says Johnson. “Both the Command-Aire and the WACO have ADS-B. Basically we just ziptied it to one rib and powered it with some nav-light wire as if it had been on the tail.”

The ADS-B pairs with the pilot’s iPad in the cockpit. The iPad is easily removed and stored when the airplane is on the ground on display and redeployed for flight.

Historic Renovations

ADS-B isn’t the only modern touch on the airplane, says Bainbridge. A few of the airplanes have been retrofitted with electric starters and batteries. Since the aircraft weren’t originally designed to have them, Johnson figured out a way to hide the modern conveniences. I won’t tell you where he hid them, but I will say you have to do a bit of a scavenger hunt to find the battery and switches for it on the instrument panel. Johnson has antiqued the panel so they look like original, fresh-out-of-the-factory equipment.

“In the Monocoupe, for example, the panel, which is metal, was made to look like it is made of wood,” Bainbridge says, adding that he spent the last two years of his Air Force career in Pearl Harbor working at the Pearl Harbor Aviation Museum, where the saying is “history matters.”

“That’s a theme I carry with me now. I want people to see these airplanes still fly. The Juranichs and Bob Johnson want to keep the airplanes flying, their ethos is ‘We don’t want airplanes that just collect dust.’”

Bainbridge shares this sentiment, and he’s been using his mechanic skills to make an interactive aircraft that will be a “kid-friendly” exhibit.

“It’s a Reno Racer just for kids,” he says. “I want them to flip the switches and turn on the lights and go crazy.”

This column first appeared in the August 2023/Issue 940 of FLYING’s print edition.

The post Be Safe But Authentic with Your New Old Panel appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

That’s how it is supposed to go—and often it does go that well, provided you do your homework before you launch for the big event.

If this is your first flight to a given airshow or fly-in, look for a pilot who has made the trip before and is willing to share information. You might even find someone who will make the flight with you.

Pick the route that works best for your aircraft, keeping in mind performance, especially when it comes to climbing over any high terrain on the way. A turbocharged Cessna T182 might not have any trouble, but the pilot of the vintage Taylorcraft might take a longer route that keeps the airplane over lower terrain.

Consider using supplemental oxygen. Though the regs say that the minimum flight crew needs to be on supplemental oxygen at 12,500 feet after 30 minutes, most pilots begin to experience hypoxia at much lower altitudes—sometimes as low as 6,000 feet—so be prepared.

Know how to calculate performance and use the avionics you’re flying with. You don’t want to be the pilot randomly pushing buttons to update a flight plan while hurtling through the air.

Be conservative about weight and balance as well as performance. While it is tempting to overload your aircraft by ‘just a little’ with all the gear you want for camping, it can come back to bite you. Remember, the OEM determined the calculations in the POH using a new airplane and a test pilot at the controls.

Have at least two methods for updating your preflight briefing in the air—a tablet and com radio, for example—and always carry a backup handheld radio. If you’ve never used a payphone (these people walk among us—payphone operation is now part of my curriculum), learn how to use it. There are places that lack cell service but still have a payphone on location, believe it or not.

Pack water and snacks for the trip, and be wary of dehydration and hunger as they make you sleepy. Drink some water before the approach to landing, as water wakes you up—and an alert pilot is a better pilot.

Plan each leg of the flight meticulously. Be careful that get-there-itis does not cloud your judgment. Build in extra days, and ID places to divert to on each leg.

Make sure you are night current and proficient before you begin the journey. There are times when a pilot finds themselves playing “beat the clock” in an aircraft not certified for night flight because the last flight segment went longer than they anticipated.

For navigation, use a combination of digital and analog methods—if the digital goes tango uniform, the paper could save your trip. Make sure both paper and digital materials are current. You do not want to fly with a sectional years out of date and enter Class D airspace thinking it’s a Class E airport—only to learn the airport now has a tower.

Be conservative about fuel burn. Make a list of all the airports that have fuel, located along your route and within 20 miles off to each side, just in case.

If you are flying with a copilot or a companion, have a discussion about cockpit duties before you leave the ground. With a copilot, make sure to designate who is the ‘pilot flying’ and who is the pilot monitoring and fielding radio calls and programming avionics.

If they are not a pilot, you can still assign them the task of watching for traffic and dialing in frequencies on the com side.

Airshow NOTAMs

By regulation, specifically FAR 91.103: “Each pilot in command shall, before beginning a flight, become familiar with all available information concerning that flight.” This means the pilot needs to know what weather to expect, be familiar with the forecasts, fuel requirements, aircraft takeoff and landing data, weight and balance, alternatives available if the planned flight cannot be completed, and any known traffic delays of which the pilot in command has been advised by ATC. If your intended destination is an airshow or fly-in, this regulation is now on steroids—expect to find a multi- page notice to air missions (NOTAM) released several days before the event.

The larger the fly-in, the larger the NOTAM. Pay special attention to the communication procedures. If the airport is non-towered, it is likely that a temporary control tower will be brought in for the event. The procedures are created to lessen frequency congestion.

Instead of having hundreds of pilots all talking at once, it’s often one radio call made over a specific landmark to establish contact. Rock your wings when recognized, then follow instructions for landing.

Most NOTAMs have traffic pattern diagrams imposed on Google Earth images for illustration—it’s easy to see where you should be and where you need to avoid when you have an image to refer to.

Pilots who have flown into airshows before—like Sun ’n Fun Aerospace Expo and EAA AirVenture—recommend having a hard copy of the NOTAM with you in the cockpit along with any digital presentation. Paper doesn’t run out of batteries.

Even if you have flown into this particular event before, still study the NOTAM, as they are often adjusted year to year—for example, traffic patterns may be altered to move aircraft away from heavily populated parking areas.

Skills for the Airshow Arrival

Brush up on specialty takeoffs and landings, crosswind approaches, and go-arounds before you head out on the great adventure. You do not want to be rusty flying into an airshow.

There is a maneuver you were probably not taught as a student pilot but you need it to establish communication and many of these events—that is rocking the wings of the aircraft.

It sounds simple enough, but the controllers who ask the airplanes to identify themselves by rocking their wings really want to see you rock those wings. Make that airplane thrash around like a 10-year-old who has had a frog put down their shirt—but don’t stall or roll inverted.

Practice approaches, especially short approaches and precision landing technique, because “land on the green dot” means land on the green dot.

Study the airport diagram for the facility and know where you will be expected to park. Usually, airshows have ground marshalers, often people on scooters wearing safety vests with FOLLOW ME on the back.

Remember to watch your wingtips as you taxi, especially when there are lots of people around. Though there may be designated pathways for pe- destrians, some people drift outside of their lanes. You don’t want to be the pilot of the Cessna 172 who hits someone in the back of the head with your wing while you taxi, or the guy in the Beechcraft Baron who decides to ignore the ground handlers and taxi into the grass—putting the nosewheel into a gopher hole, resulting in two propeller strikes.

And, in the end, if you are delayed getting to the event, learn from the experience—and realize that it will make a better story to be told around the campfire.

The post A Fond Memory: Sun ‘n Fun Aerospace Expo 2023 appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

Today’s Top Pick is a 1975 Great Lakes 2T-1A-2.

The Great Lakes 2T-1A-2 matches the image that appears in people’s imagination when someone says “biplane” with its swept wings, sleek lines and graceful proportions. The model’s ancestors date to the 1920s, but as the design evolved, its performance improved. It attracted numerous airshow pioneers and aerobatics competitors, including Harold Krier, Dorothy Hester, Charlie Hillard, and Tex Rankin. 

The Great Lakes Aircraft Company was shuttered in 1936, but the design resurfaced with new manufacturers acquiring the rights and building hundreds more, first during the 1960s and again during the 1970s. One could say the aircraft went out of production a few times but never went out of style. About a decade ago, the airplane made another comeback when WACO began reproducing it along with its current, larger YMF-5D. Like the WACOs,  Stearman, and Pitts Special, the Great Lakes have a certain timeless quality.

This 1975 Great Lakes has 1,621 hours on the airframe, 168 hours on its 180 hp Lycoming IO-360 engine and 138 hours on the propeller since overhaul. The panel includes a GNC 250 XL nav/com, King T-76A transponder and wingtip Sky Beacon ADS-B Out. The aircraft received new covering, paint, and interior in 1989.

Pilots who are looking for an open-cockpit experience in a classic sport biplane with aerobatic capability should consider this 1975 Great Lakes 2T-1A-2, which is available for $108,000 on AircraftForSale.

You can arrange financing of the aircraft through FLYING Finance. For more information, email info@flyingfinance.com.

• FLYING Magazine: WACO Great Lakes 2T-1A-2 Debuts
• Plane & Pilot: Return Of The Great Lakes
• Plane & Pilot: Great Lakes Sport Trainer

The post This 1975 Great Lakes 2T-1A-2 Is a Golden Age, Aerobatic ‘AircraftForSale’ Top Pick appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

Today’s Top Pick is a 1986 Waco YMF-5

Everyone at the airport pauses and looks up from whatever they are doing when a vintage biplane arrives. I recently was treated to a close-up view of a Waco F- series similar to this one when it lined up behind us at the fuel pumps. Many pilots dream of flying a Golden Age classic like this, with open cockpits, a radial engine, and the wind rushing past. This could be a nice opportunity to turn back the clock to an era when general aviation was evolving rapidly, driven by a steady flow of innovation.

Waco built a bunch of F models, all slightly different, but the 1935 YMF-5 is one of my favorites. It is also the version that Waco Classic Aircraft chose to bring back into production in the mid-1980s with numerous improvements. This YMF has 4,262 hours on the airframe and was covered in new Poly-Fiber fabric in 2011. New leather cockpit trim was installed this year. The YMF can accommodate two passengers in the front cockpit with the pilot in the rear.

The aircraft’s Jacobs R755-B2M engine has 814 hours since overhaul, and there are 144 hours on the wooden Sensenich propeller. Avionics include a Bendix King KX-155 nav/com, a KMA-24 audio panel, a KT76A transponder, and a Sigtronics three-place intercom.

If you are in the market for a 1930s-style flying experience with the benefit of improved manufacturing and avionics, and you enjoy turning heads on the ramp, this could be the right airplane for you. This Waco YMF-5 is available for $143,500 on AircraftForSale.

You can arrange financing of the aircraft through FLYING Financial Group. For more information, email info@flyingfinancial.com.

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• Plane & Pilot: Return Of The Great Lakes
• Plane & Pilot: Step Up To The Super
• The Aviation Consumer: Great Lakes Biplane: Docile, Sporty and Fun

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On the cover we fly back in time in a modern version of the WACO YMF series, and we hope you’ll join us as we test out this legendary design, and also look at upgrading the panel on a vintage one with consideration and care.

Inside the issue, we dive into the Piper Lance and Saratoga models on the market in Air Compare. We take a bucket-list trip to First Flight Airport in North Carolina, and give you tips on how to cope with the extensive high density altitudes of the warmer months. Plus we give you all of the columns and proficiency articles you’ve come to expect from our deep bench of expert contributors—so make sure you’ve subscribed. You’ll also get a chance to win in our Ultimate FLYING Giveaway!

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But if you are looking for something a bit smaller, more manageable, and closer to home, or a place you can fly into, opportunities abound. Many airports across the country have on-site air museums that you can get through in an hour or less, often while learning about makes and models of aircraft that you never knew existed.

Most of these places are run by volunteers and some have limited or irregular schedules, so it always helps to call ahead. Many host special events, from airshows to pancake breakfasts and barbeques as fundraisers. They might even offer rides in vintage airplanes. Of course, you might find it is best to visit during off-peak times so you can enjoy quiet time while perusing the exhibits. Below are six airport museums that you should include in future flight plans. Or if you must, you can always drive. 

Lone Star Flight Museum

Ellington Airport (KEFD), Houston, Texas

It’s busy here. Pilots flying in for a visit will have to talk with ATC and be keenly aware of the Class B airspace around William P. Hobby (KHOU) and George Bush International (KIAH) airports. But the collection—which includes the Douglas SBD Dauntless, Chance Vought F4U Corsair, North American B-25 Mitchell, and Douglas DC-3—is worth the effort of extra flight planning. The main exhibit, running through July 10, features the Women Airforce Service Pilots, or WASPs, who initially trained at Ellington during World War II.

Owls Head Transportation Museum

Knox County Regional Airport (KRKD), Rockland, Maine

When it opened in 1976, the museum consisted of a building housing two airplanes and two cars. Since then, the collection has grown to include more than 150 antique aircraft, cars, motorcycles, bicycles, engines, and other items. The focus here is on the oldest vehicles, like a 1912 Curtiss Pusher and a 1913 Deperdussin Racer. Most of the aircraft have two wings, whether from World War I, like the Sopwith Pup and Royal Aircraft Factory F.E.8, or the Golden Age, like the 1930 Pitcairn PA-7S Sport Mailwing and 1933 WACO UBF-2. Many of the exhibits are airworthy and fly regularly. The museum’s 1946 Piper J3C Cub and 1941 Stearman biplane are among the most modern machines in the collection.

Waco Historical Society

Waco Field Airport (1WF), Troy, Ohio

Fly into the 2,200-foot grass strip and visit a collection of Waco biplane designs that are nearly a century old. During the 1920s and early 1930s, Waco was a leading manufacturer of general aviation aircraft, and the museum’s exhibits include 10 complete aircraft plus parts of others, a mock-up of the Waco factory with authentic tools, and a timeline with photos of all of the models the company produced. Visitors can call three weeks in advance to arrange guided tours. The museum also runs aviation camps for kids during the summer.

Iowa Aviation Museum

Greenfield Municipal Airport (KGFZ), Greenfield, Iowa

When was the last time you saw an Evangel 4500? I had not heard of this rare light twin taildragger until I started looking into Iowa’s aviation history. The Evangel Aircraft Corp. of Orange City, Iowa, developed the design during the 1960s as a bush plane for missionary work. It needed STOL capability and had to be simple to operate and maintain in remote places. This museum has one of eight built. Many aircraft in its collection have ties to the state, from the 1931 Kari-Keen Coupe manufactured in Sioux City to the Bell AH-1 Cobra attack helicopter donated by the Iowa National Guard.

Commemorative Air Force Museum

Falcon Field Airport (KFFZ), Mesa, Arizona

The Commemorative Air Force (CAF) traces its beginnings to 1951, when five partners got together to buy a surplus Curtiss P-40 fighter. Over the next several years, the group noticed that vintage military airplanes in flying condition were becoming rare, and the group began searching for remaining examples. Along the way, they chartered as a nonprofit organization, recruited volunteers, and performed in air shows to gain public attention and support. Today, the CAF has dozens of units around the world with more than 13,000 members and a collection of more than 165 aircraft, including the  B-17G Sentimental Journey, a well-known air show star.

Planes of Fame Air Museum

Chino Airport (KCNO), Chino, California

When Steve Hinton isn’t leading the pre-game flyover of Super Bowl LVI or performing in airshows, he’s overseeing a vast fleet of warbirds and other rare aircraft as president of the Planes of Fame Museum. “Varied” seems like an understatement for a collection that includes a Lockheed P-38 Lightning, German Focke-Wulf 190, and Japanese Yokosuka MXY-7 Model 11 Ohka, but there’s much more. The museum also makes space for classic civilian aircraft, air racers, airliners, and a bunch of Eastern Bloc fighter jets of the Soviet era.

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