I got off a three day trip on a Friday night
with the excitement of horror of having to leave the next morning of Ohio
to get the Baby Great Lakes home. Through non reving on AA and the
allowance of a jump seat on United Express, by 1630 I was in Youngster
Ohio. I was met by a 6'4" gentleman asking everybody that got off
the plane if they were looking for a Baby Great Lakes. I finally
answered the question properly and was then whisked away to the waiting
company bird, a Cessna 150! Let's see, to six footer plus,
and each at or over 200 pounds (with my equipment), a rather warm day,
and . .. sure it will lift us!
About 20 minutes later we landed at Salem
Ohio, where the Baby Great Lakes and a small crowd of on lookers were waiting
to see the fellow from Texas. Amongst them stood (or should I say
squatted) the Baby Great Lakes. Here was probably the first of many
comments about the need for a radio control transmitter!
A quick walk around and inspection of the
external obvious, did please the eye and saw nothing major that glared
at me. There were things that gave away it's age, and that the full
stitts process had not been used in the covering process. Things
like cracking paint and limited ring worm. All controls were operating
in the correct direction and without apparent restriction. I'm still
looking for things that can be removed to lighten the empty weight a little
towards the design 475 pounds. I see a few pieces of metal on the
fire wall that I don't know if the ever had a purpose, old magnetos, a
metal prop, and various other overbuilt items. I'll have to study
the weight and balance before I start just pulling things out.
Trial fitting. I stepped in and sat
down, finding it cozy and awkward. All controls were easily accessible
though not always in the best place for creature comfort. At cruise
throttle settings the throttle knob is right in the middle of one's left
thigh! Throttle on the left with the ignition and carb heat, on the
right only control is the tail wheel lock, well placed and out of the way
in any phase of flight. The seat was placed and upholstered to place
one in a slight forward lean that I grew to understand was a form of slow
torture for lower back pain! Though plush on the initial sitting
the lower pad also had no sustained cushioning traits. I can still
feel the setter bones! Next came the test of parachute and me in
the plane. Though, I knew it wa possible, I felt it was against my
better judgment to do the initial flight with it strapped on due to the
restriction of motion from being crammed so tight in there. I think
with a major seat rework, it all may fit fine.
Taxi tests. I jumped in with flight
suit and goggles, and after an extended session of propping finally got
it to make a noise and blow some air. Taxiing takes some getting
used to having to use differential braking to swing the castering tail
wheel. Once stabilized, taxiing at speeds of 35 mph are not a problem.
Next I lined up with the grass runway and locked the tail wheel down and
tried some mock take off runs. All the warnings, to never give full
power when learning to fly a Baby Great Lakes were and are still heeded
today. Easily maintaining runway centerline at 50 mph speeds convinced
me that I had to go fly. Looking around I see a nice long runway
with very tall pines at the far end in the left side of the runway.
Will try to be above them if possible to avoid turbulence.
Power at about 1500 rpm, aircraft accelerating
and throttle advancing together till about 50 mph as back pressure is relaxed.
Throttle advanced on to about 2000 rpm, the aircraft broke ground
rather handily. Though I advanced the throttle to about 2200 I didn't
want to change much more. As in not arguing with success. The
first thing that struck me was the engine sounded terrible, to the point
that I wandered if I should land! Leaning forward getting my leather
covered melon out of the prop blast revealed that same comforting sound
that my Cessna 140 makes. Climbing at 80 to clear the trees, then
up to 2500 to get a feel for it.
Elevator was very light and responsive, rudder
was stiff but responsive, and ailerons were stiff and sluggish. Stalls
and slow flight were manageable somewhere between 55 to 60. One thing
that did bother me was a fairly large vibration at about 80 mph in the
climb caused by one of the flying wires setting up a harmonic. Now
comes the hardest part to me, landing an airplane that I have never flown
before. I set up a powered glide at about 85 to 90, and flew a continuos
turn from downwind to final. With all the drag of the flying wires
and struts, one doesn't need flaps or slips to get it down in a reasonable
glide slope. Flared out in ground effect, pulled the throttle and
it suddenly drops to the ground. With the tail wheel locked it's
track is controllable with ease.
Taxied back, walked around a while and got
the adrenaline levels down and started to work on the only problem obvious,
and that was the flying wire vibration. We tried tension changes
both directions, but didn't like the results of either attempt. We,
then just put it back about where it was, an tried it again. Starting
was again a problem, but did get it running and headed out for more testing.
Just tweaking the flying wire the little we did, changed the aerodynamic
flow enough to get rid of the vibration. The second flight consisted
of a few more stalls and wing overs trying to get used to it's handling
oddities. Went back landed and installed the GPS for the next mornings
flight out. 
Showed up early Sunday morning, fueled the
Baby and checked the oil. All looked well, so I suited up and jumped
in. All hands shook, engine started and we were off to the runway.
I sincerely hope they didn't want a final fly by, cause I knew I had about
1200 miles in front of me and wanted to get started knocking them off one
at a time.
Heading south west, compass read 330 degrees!
Can't get lost that way! I knew it was going to be a long day when
the GPS refused to read over 65, due to the 38 mph forecast head winds.
Another quirk of this bird is that while heading 330 degrees, it will never
run out of fuel! You guessed it, the fuel gauge doesn't work either!
At that time I decided that it would only be an hour leg until I could
determine a predictable fuel flow, then stretch it out a little at a time.
This is one of those post card mornings.
Leaves are starting to change and the sun highlights a few patchy areas
of ground fog in-between the hills. Judging from the ground speed
I set my sights on the first fuel stop of Cambridge Ohio. Just over
an hour later I plopped down on my first hard surface runway. Not
bad! Still bouncing it, but no shame, I'm having fun! The local
police officer/line boy, Jeff Anker, came out and offered the proper, copious
head swelling amounts of interest and compliments to make me feel good
about the day that followed. After filling the tank, and the overflow
filling the fuse and my flying helmet sitting on the right wing root, I
see that I'm burning about 4.8 gallons per hour and could probably stretch
the next leg to about 1.5 hours.
Starting was even more difficult this time,
but after great effort between myself and Jeff we had it running and me
taxiing out to the runway. About four individuals stood waiting to
see the little biplane launch from the fence. Doing the standard
checks, I find with extreme disgust, the left mag was not running at all!
Now comes the decision. I flew to Oshkosh and back in the Sonerai
with only one mag. So, do I go on? Making the only right decision
not knowing how far the other mag was from failure, I headed back to the
gate to start making it a very long and non productive day.
I don't remember his name but there was a
fellow there waiting on his son to complete his flying lesson of the day.
Though he apologized for his lack of knowledge about airplanes, he felt
his history in lawn mowers might be helpful. When you think about
it, the mag is exactly like the ignition system of a lawn mower.
After running home and getting some of his tools, he informed me that it
was probably the fault of the condenser. We tried everything,
even me holding onto the plug wire hoping to get the whatever shocked out
of me! The fellow even talked me into holding onto the coil, and
after dancing around a while I did verify to him (he already knew) that
the coil was healthy!
Resigned to the fact of needing parts, then
came the search for somebody that may have parts to a antique magneto on
a Sunday morning. (I knew I should have stayed for church!)
There just happened to be a fellow in the next town that was a very talented
individual, available and had the part. He put it in and I test flew
it for the prescribed eighteen minutes to make sure it was not the coil
failing at high temps.
A small point here. From this point
on, the engine, cold or hot, starts on the first or second blade every
time! By now it was late afternoon and I headed back into the wind
to the next stop to be determined airborne. Heading west instead
of south for terrain reasons, and hoping to pass the front and get some
needed relief from the winds. I later was pushed south a bit to avoid
some heavy rain in the Columbus Ohio area and landed in Lancaster Ohio.
Just over a hundred miles from the early morning start, I now resigned
to spend the night here and let the front pass so I could get a better
start in the morning. Besides, when I left for the hotel that evening,
the local sky divers still hadn't found one of their jumpers! One
thing neat about traveling in such a cute little bird, is that it will
fit in any corner of any hanger empty or full!
The next morning started a rather uneventful
day with fuel stop's in Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Arkansas. Though
small things of note could be brought up at every stop, I'll abbreviate
for my sanity reasons. I must have answered the question about a
radio control transmitter 5 more times. I flew down the Ohio river
until it joined the Mississippi at Ciaro Illinois. At Ciaro, IL.
they had no airplanes in their hanger other than R/C's! Now as the
headings started turning more southerly, the cramps in my back, legs and
rear, were making for some interesting exercising and stretching, in flight
to maintain sanity. Ground speeds were now running about 105 consistently,
and my math was telling me that if I kept pushing I could make it home
this Monday. 
You had to feel like a barn stormer
of day's gone by running across the nation at 2500 feet being able to study
all the little farms and chicken houses as they passed by. The farm
lands slowly turned into the hills of northern Arkansas as I pushed into
the town of Searcy Arkansas. These fellows were very helpful and
interested in the airplane and my needs of food and rest. I'm afraid
the time I spent here cost me the completion of the trip. I finally
broke out of there, after leaving my address and phone number again,
to a possible buyer, and headed out over what was to be the most rugged
terrain of the trip.
There are some pretty good sized rocks and
hills in the southwestern part of the state. Pretty, but limited
the availability of forced landing sites. I finally found the airport
in De Queen AR, and found it to be mainly a fire fighting base for the
forestry department. After a few phone calls I was able to rise some
one out ot the airport to fill my tank, fuse and helmet once again, and
was out to the runway.
All preflight checks done, throttle forward,
I launched again. The airport is surrounded by big trees and the
rolling turbulence that comes with them. Just after lift off I was
thrown into about a 45 degree bank to the left and, like a good little
barnstormer, I slapped the stick to the right to counter the roll, and
the stick refused to move! It was locked in the center with only
about a half inch of total movement available! No time for that now,
a quick kick of the right rudder brought the left wing up and I climbed
above the trees.
I knew only at this point that I wasn't going
to reenter that air rapids and try to get this thing back on the ground
in those conditions without my ailerons! Headed for home and staring
at the sun setting through my cabane struts I had to play with my options.
Large airport, CFR, cross wind, lights, etc. . . . . I finally aimed
my sights for Bohnam Texas, where a friend lives where maybe I could bum
a couch for the night. I still held Paris Texas out of an option
in case it got too dark or I felt my ability to control the airplane would
be less than needed for the runway at Bohnam.
Available aileron with the rudder was adequate
for the cruise segment but was of course concerned about the approach and
landing. This time of the evening the convective bumps seemed to
be waning and the wind seemed to be a light but steady breeze. Just
after sunset I turned about a 3 mile final and started jockeying for the
cross wind landing to come. Not enough aileron to maintain a straight
line ground track with out the wing being too low at touch down, so I started
a timed and consistent rhythm rudder tap that would keep the track
good and the wing at a reasonable bank for touch down. I hate to
be this way, but from here, it was rather anti climatic! Landing
went quite well thank you! I taxied in and called my friend and owner
of the neatest Radio Shack/Hobby store you will ever see. Worth the
trip up just to see the model airplanes he has hanging from the ceiling!
One scale, very scale, (rib stitching and all) Stearman biplane has better
than a 10 foot wing span! He want's to hang my Baby Great Lakes next
to it some day.
After a quick inspection the morning, I found
that doing things by the "Book" during the reassembly had caused the failure
of the ailerons. A common law in putting a bolt or screw in an airplane
is that the bolt will face, Down, Back, or In towards the fuse. The
area where the aileron pushrods bolt to the control horns are covered by
a fairing. This fairing was crafted so that if the bolts were put
in "properly" by the book, they would strike the fairing and bind.
Though the bind was not critical, after 13 hours of small corrections,
a hole had been rubbed in the fairing and the threaded end of the bolt
fell into that hole and pinned itself not to move again! I pulled
the bolts off both sides and reversed their orientation and all tested
good to go. by the way, the other fairing was not far from locking
down also. If this aircraft was built to convention, the mechanic
that assembled it would have assembled it to convention, and this problem
would not have occurred! Something to think about when building.
The final departure was with out incident
and the final hour to home was enjoyable. cool morning light winds
etc. . . . I didn't even bother to install the GPS for
this mornings travels. Before landing I did get to wave at a few
friends out standing in their fields. This is what a open cockpit
biplane is all about!
The airplane is fun and has now proved itself.
Average fuel burn was just under 4.5 gallons per hour, and only two quarts
of oil were added during the trip. I guess that ain't bad considering
how long it has been stored with steel wall cylinders. Since I missed
our Chapter's fly in yesterday I don't have any immediate plans to fly
it, but am looking for an excuse. After reading all this, I guess
the one thing you all can say in unison is, Ain't you glad he only went
one way!?