August 21, 2010 - Golden Age Air Museum
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The Golden Age Air
Museum up at Grimes Airfield in Bethal, Pennsylvania, was having one
of their two annual airshows today. The weather forecast
looked excellent so I decided to fly Bruce's Cub north and check it
out. The weather was actually pretty crummy. The winds
were reasonable, the air was calm and the clouds were way high, but the
visibility wasn't any great shakes and the sun was mostly blocked by a
high, gloomy overcast.
Still, I enjoyed the airshow quite a bit. I've been wanting to go
to Grimes for quite some time to check on the progress of their DR-1
Fokker Triplane. The Golden Age Air Museum has really put together
an nifty collection which is growing every year -- and they fly
them.
This is an airshow, not a fly-in, so I had to call on Friday to get
prior permission to land. But it was no problem. A J-3
Cub? Sure, fly on in!
They had a pretty good turn out. Here, people are waiting for the
airshow to start. |
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My friend, Matt, flew with me in the Cub. He did a
good job flying the Cub, but I think he prefers the RV.
Behind Matt is a Sopwith Pup that the Museum is building
from plans. |
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| The Museum recently restored this Curtiss JN4D
Jenny which had not flown since the 1920s. They did a
beautiful job. It was so neat to see it fly. |
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| Two of the airfield's three hangars are
shown in this picture. |
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| The magnificent Jenny in flight.
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Although you can't see them very well in this picture, these four
planes are an amazing lineup and represent the first generation of the
airplanes the man on the street could own and fly. They are from
left to right: Piper J-3 Cub, 1936 Aeronca C-3, 1932
Pietenpal Air Camper and 1932 Taylor E-2 Cub. All
four airplanes flew simultaneously!
The Taylor E-2 Cub -- with only a 37 horsepower engine -- was the
forerunner of the famous Cub and SuperCub line. The Taylor
Aircraft Company went on to become the Piper Aircraft Corporation.
The Aeronca C-3 -- 40 horsepower -- was the forerunner for the famous
Champ, Citabria and Decathelon line.
The Pietenpal can arguably represent the earliest homebuilt design
built in large numbers and the forerunner of that was to come including
the RVs.
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My old Citabria Trunk Monkey friend, Tom B., is closely
associated with the Museum and does an aerobatic routine in his
Citabria. Here he is coming out of a loop. |
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| This Bunker Jungmeister also did a nice
aerobatic routine. |
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Great Lakes |
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| This immaculate 1930 Waco RNF was
recently restored and won the 2009 AirVenture Antigue Grand Champ - Gold
Lindy and the 2010 Sun 'N' Fun Best Silver Age Antique. |
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| The Golden Age Air Museum fleet.
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| The museum has been building this
Fokker DR-1 Triplane from Ron Sands plans. They have made a lot of
progress in the last year. The fuselage and wings are all done
and are close to being ready for covering. |
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The wings consist of a wood box spar and the wooden
ribs. |
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| The Triplane will be powered by that Le
Rhone rotary engine in the middle of the picture. The Le Rhone was a
French engine. The German's copied it but their version wasn't as
good. They would use French Le Rhone on their airplanes whenever
they could get their hands on one. |
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I can't wait to see this airplane fly! |
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| Heading home. There were a lot of
boats parked in the Susquehanna River having a party no doubt.
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| Looking west along the
Susquehanna. The air was just murky today. |
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| A flight that would have taken 30
minutes in the RV took an hour and a half! But the view is better
out of the Cub. |
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This was a huge auto junkyard. |
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| Some mansions north of Baltimore |
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Approaching the Baltimore Beltway (I-695) with Towson on
the other side. |
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