The Triple Tail Tour

Getting back to the original subject (you guys are worse then me, and I'm senile)...I'm in for a tour.
So, to me the first question is where to start and not surprisingly, Columbia is an easier start 'cause it's only 4 or 5 hours away form me. As previously said - we do have more triple tails there than anywhere else. The wx is rarely a factor. ( I almost drowned getting out of my cot at OSH one year...guess I should have preflighted the tent before I left EUG. Has there ever been an OSH show WITHOUT CBs?).

If we do go to OSH or Sun n Fun we will just get lost in the crowd and maybe make one line in a few pubs.

Why not put out a LOT of publicity about a tour, especially at the airports we would go to and the surrounding ones. We can make like the Oregon Antique tour and make arrangements long before we go. Add to that notices at the airports that we will have a mass(!??) fly-in. 'Course that also brings up the potential issue of formation flying?

This brainstorming is getting painful but seems to me that there are all sorts of airshows in CA around the time of the Bellanca Flyin.
There's Watsonville, Merced, Golden West (West Coast ver of OSH). We could try to hit a few of them.

So gents back to the original thread - where do we go from here? We need to get the word out to more Bellanca owners than seem to participate in the forum.
 
All the fly-ins you mention are on the west coast, and all the major aviation publications are on the east coast, Larry. Although I prefer living on the former, I do not at the moment, alas.

Thus I could not participate, but I could do many other things, such as press and promotion. Fact is, the largest number of really nice triple tails are on the west coast.

Putting together a four ship or other formation takes lots of work and practice among dedicated people whose work could have little impact on PR though some find it fun to do. I'd hate to see it tried and go wrong, whereas less can go wrong if we show up and get seen up close.

Jonathan
 
If I'm available, I'll definitely participate in a triple tail tour. I'm home and free until March but I may go to Iraq again March-May and be home for the summer...

BTW, I owned a 1950 Ercoupe and loved it but after my first flight in my Cruisair, I had no regrets about selling it. The Ercoupe was a lot of fun and easy to maintain but very slow and very, very cramped. After 1 hour in the cockpit my legs and hips ached. There is no comparison to the flying qualities and utility of the Cruisair over the Ercoupe.

Tim
 
Same goes for my first love, my Luscombe - those original bench seats are something awful. Fortunately mine has the extended baggage mod and Cessna 150 seats on rails that I can move back and recline just enough...well...enough to endure four hour legs and still manage to pry myself out of the aircraft :)

My unique challenge to long distance flying is the hinged rudder pedal I strap my foot into, topped off with bungee cables, so that I call pull for right rudder and pull for left. I can't allow ANY free play there. Thus, during long flights, I unstrap my foot. I'm lucky to own two very straight airplanes. First item on my pre-landing checklist is, of course, to strap my foot back into the rig.

On the way to Blakesburg one year in the Luscombe my GPS went Tango Uniform, and I employed VOR nav. On the final leg I figured I'd follow the radial from the Ottumwa (OTM) VOR, and pick up a radial there that would lead me to nearby Blakesburg. But, as I looked at the chart I figured I'd fly direct to Albia (closer to Blakesburg) using regular old pilotage, and follow the road to Blakesburg.

Yep, I got lost. Then I saw a biplane and followed it. Any biplane in that area has got to be bound for Blakesburg. Sure enough! I entered the left downwind, left base, and turned left to final.

It was only when I was in the flare I discovered I'd not strapped my foot in...I had no right rudder. Hitting the throttle to go around would have lurched me to the left and into all manner of aircraft far finer and rarer than my wee Luscombe. I managed to stop without incident.

Later my Luscombe buddies gave me a nice Continental Luscombe Association leather jacket. The callsign monogrammed on it was "Bungee."

My goodness, how checklists can so easily vanish from your thought scan when things go awry. My Cruisemaster, possessing things like flaps, adjustable prop pitch, and retractable landing gear made me more keen regarding checklists, as if my Luscombe lesson was not enough :oops:

Folks say the triple tail front seats are small and cramped. Compared to those in little airplanes, though, I feel like I'm sitting in the command chair of a Starship.

Jonathan
 
Uh...that's pull for right rudder and push for left...a pull-pull system would be a strange control system that would be as hard to imagine as would the need, in flight, to apply full BOTH rudder pedals <cough>.
 
I have the bench seat in my Ercoupe. It is an Airtex but it is pretty worn being about 15 years old so it is not very comfortable. My last Ercoupe had the same Airtex seat but it was new and it was pretty comfortable but it had rudder pedals that took up leg space. It was OK solo but with two people and the bench and peddles it could be cramped if the passenger was a full size adult. A friend of my just bought an Ercoupe with no peddles and Pacer buckets in it and it feels much roomer. I don't know what the Masters have but the bench in my Crusair isn't anything to rave about. Does anyone have the Airtex seats in their Crusair?
I guess fast and slow are relative terms. 110MPH on 85 HP and 5.5 gal/hour isn't to shabby. Mostly what I would like to have in my Ercoupe is more climb.

Kevin
 
The Cruisemaster has adjustable seats that operate in a manner that would never be approved in this, the era when Cessna had to pay tens of millions to settle a lawsuit when someone couldn't seem to get the seat pins into the floor rail holes and perished on takeoff when his seat slides back.

You have these curved channels with sabre tooth notches. You have horizontal pins on the bottom of the seat. The idea is to get the pins into the proper notches on each side of the seat, which is not as simple as it sounds. Get it wrong and - wham - the seat slides back.,,,actually it flies out of the channel. That's problem number one.

Problem number two is the notched channels are of a gauge of aluminum much too weak to hold up for any meaningful length of time. They crack and - wham - the seat detaches from the rails in a cockeyed manner. Each side of every one of my rails has needed a sturdy gauge riveted reinforcement.

Problem number three: the rails curve in a manner that means that if you move the seat back you sink. I suppose some engineer thought that people who needed more leg room also had correspondingly long torsos. G.M. was a little guy. I doubt he could either understand or test settings for people six feet or taller. I have a long leg and a relatively short torso. Thus I use a THICK pad from Oregon Aero to avoid my sight picture vanished far below the glare-shield. My friend, Russell, is shorter than I, but has a normal length torso. I believe he became so tired of having to get that booster cushion off the seat (it fastens on quite well) when he flew my Bellanca, that he made me take that damned cushion with me when I moved east :)

This seat design created my shortest relationship with a flight instructor ever. I climbed in, strapped in, and made ready. He climbed in, sat down and - wham - he was on his back. This is also a fond memory because he was a fat, arrogant, nasty cuss of an a**hole whom I only tried to use because he had time in Bellancas. I subsequently found a great guy to instruct me...after a reinforcement was added to the final side of the final original channel.

Jonathan
 
Count me in on a couple of fly-ins. I think it's a great idea and fun. I'll offer our airport as a gathering spot for OSH. We have camping. We have limitted shower facilities available. We can even come up with some grills and food. We're the nice grass strip about an hour from OSH that Robert mentioned.

Just let me know and I'll make it happen.
 
Wow, finally someone says he'll come up with the girls for the event. At last somebody knows what an effort like this tour will take!

Bravo, Glenn!

Jonathan
 
IF I had the scratch (lost the kitchen disposal, the fridge needed repairs, and the cats needed their shots- all gone $$$) heck yeah I'd be there :D
AS things stand I still feel 2 more years is about the right timeframe for finishing up. Will there still be fuel to purchase? If so, will it top $10 per gallon? It would be just my rotten luck to finish the Cruisair only to find I can't afford to put fuel in it... :x

I really long to fly en masse to OSH, SNF, Blakesburg (sp), WCFI. ECFI, SERFI, Copper State, EVERYWHERE :D
Can you imagine the confusion on the plane parker's face as wave after wave of triple tails arrived? I'm McLovin it :)
 
I would also be interested in joining the tripple-tail air tour. As Larry was saying, a good starting point would be Columbia, CA; we will be there for the Bellanca fly-in.

Allen 1413B
 
I can arrange to sell fuel at our costs at C55, no credit cards. Cash or check. Price was $4.33/gal last month.

Dancing grills OK?
 
Dancing girls would be a prudent way to draw attention to our beloved birds, Glenn, along with The Triple Tail Swimsuit Calendar, coming soon to the Club Gift Shop....

KIDDING :!: :!: :!:
 
If the tour heads out west, there is a great Fly in at Watsonville on May 23-25. A miniature Oshkosh. Of course we have the west coast Bellanca fly-in at Columbia on June 6-8. On those same dates there is an EAA fly in at Marysville. Marysville is about 90 Nautical Miles from Columbia. Perhaps one AM all the triple tails at Columbia could fly en masse to Marysville and do a fly by. With a little coordination it could become an official event at the Marysville fly-in so we could have the airspace clear of traffic for the few minutes it would take us. We wouldn't be away from the Columbia fly-in that long and it would be a great excuse for us to all fly together. Looking for something to do between Watsonville and Columbia? There is the Merced Antique fly-in on June 1-2. Always well attended. The Grand Triple Tail Tour sounds like a great event and I don't know how much solid planning is going on or are we all just having pipe dreams. I would love to join the tour if it hits the West Coast, but don't know about cross country at this point. Peter S
 
Has anyone ever thought about a Bellanca home coming tour. I live around 85 airmiles to the East of Alexandria MN and manage a cruisemaster perfect airstrip (9Y2). East Gull Lake airport is right in the center of a whole bunch of resorts and there is great flying in the area. If anyone is ever passing through give me a ring, I would be more than happy to extend a discount at the resort I work at. Check out East Gull Lake airport on http://www.airnav.com it is a very neat airstrip.
 
A worthy idea, even though the vast majority of our airplanes were made in New Castle, Delaware. Giuseppe Bellanca had gone bust before a fellow, with the unfortunate name of Downer, set up shop in Minnesota and started making Cruisemasters again. As I've said, perhaps too often, the ultimate insult to Bellanca's name - he being as Sicilian - was to give the final model an utterly Scandinavian name :lol:

Jonathan
 
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