step back in time 176

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By Dennis Guentzel

It was not until I had contracted with Roy Redmanor the restoration o my Waco aperwing that Inally became interested in any aviation history o

that period. Until that time I had, regrettably, ignoredthe earliest days o Northwest airlines and the barn-stormers and aircra that gave roots to our careers.

Naturally, I jumped at the chance to relive some o those early days o aviation and share the experience o ight in the 20’s and 30’s with 20 other antique ownersby joining the “American Barnstormers our.”

Te American Barnstormers our was co-oundedby Clay Adams a Northwest/Delta 757 Captain and Sar-ah Wilson, owner/pilot o “Stearman Flights Inc.” and isconducted every two years, visiting a diferent group o cities each year. Te our or 2010 covered a span o 19days and seven cities in the Midwest; Mason City, ea,S.D. (right next to Sioux Falls), Watertown, Aberdeen,Bismarck, Jamestown and Alexandria.

Having been properly vetted by the organizers (I’m

sure they were more interested in the airplane than thepilot), I joined up with a ravel Air 6000 restored andown by Hank Galpin o Kalispell, Mt. We departedBozeman on a our leg, eight hour ight to Mason City,to begin the tour.

On the aernoon that we arrived, a total o 17 air-cra assembled or the start o operations the next day.Te group included ve ravel Air 4000’s plus a Model4-D, our Wacos, two Fairchild 22’s, Hank’s ravel Air6000, a Stinson JR-S, a New Standard D-25 with our

passenger seats in the ront cockpit, a ’43 Stearman anda 1909 Bleriot Monoplane, the only replica in the group.Te Bleriot actually ew, but or transport rom townto town it was loaded onto a trailer because it simply got there aster that way. Aircra came rom literal ly all directions, as we had birds rom Maine, Virginia,Pennsylvania, Florida, Caliornia, Montana, Minnesotaand Wisconsin.

Te aircra and their pilots were divided into twogroups: the “ride haulers” and the “display” aircra. Terider haulers were the six aircra that had a “Letter o Authority” with the FAA to give rides or pay. Te rest othe aircra had another purpose in that we were basi-cally display aircra or most o the day, but took to theair each aernoon to “ballyhoo” or business. en o uswould parade around the city in typical Barnstormerashion (at today’s legal altitudes however) to attract at-tention and draw the local olks to the eld where they could sign up or a biplane ride. It worked quite well in

most localities – we were scheduled to be on the ramprom 10:00 AM until 6:00 PM, but some days the ridehaulers still had olks lined up well past that time. Whilethey continued to y, we put our airplanes away andthen hit the bar to await their arrival or dinner.

Te uniorm o the day was pilot’s choice as long is itt the period, i.e. knickers, knee high socks and bow tieor perhaps mail pilot garb with boots, breeches, khakishirt and tie.

Almost every pilot had a nickname or handle, a tra-

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climb aboard, she hit the throttle and was of theground without him. Aer several gyrations overthe eld she was nally talked down to a ratherbouncy landing in ront o a delighted crowd.

For me, one o the many highlights o the ourwas EAA’s Young Eagle program that we incorpo-rated into the daily parade ight in each o the threeSouth Dakota cities. For those o you who are notacquainted with the program, the ExperimentalAircra Association has an introduction to ightprogram or kids between the ages o 8 and 17. It’sree to those who sign up and have parental consent.

Several o these young people were taken alo eachday during our parade ight.

In Aberdeen I drew Abby, a litt le 12 year oldwith long red hair who had never beore been in anairplane o any type. She was actually going to buy a ride with her own money until she was steered toone o the EAA reps who signed her up or the reeride. I was concerned that she may have been a littleapprehensive since her rst airplane ride was in anopen cockpit with all that noise and wind, but thatconcern was quickly dispelled. o describe her asexuberant is an understatement. She hooted and

Clay “Pork Chop” Adamsand his Travel Air

1909 Bleriot


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giggled the whole trip around Aberdeen. At onepoint she blurted out, “Look at my hair—its blowingall over the place!” It was all over my windscreen. “Iknow Abby, just try to get it under control beore Ihave to land this thing!” Another loud giggle. Shewas one o the most delightul passengers I’ve everhad!

While in Watertown, we were treated to break-

ast at the Lakes Area echnical School were wespoke to a regular xture there, Northwest’s JoeAmendt. Te school has a 727 behind the hangerand Joe invited us aboard or a little nostalgia. Ourairplanes were housed overnight in a hangar builtin 1934 and had walls constructed entirely o eldstone.

Te hangar that housed all our aircra in BISwas a round rooed structure just north o the oldterminal location. It also was built sometime in the30’s. Out ront was a mail box that still had North

Central’s Herman on its side.Also while in BIS, a local vintage car clubbrought in some cars to add to our vintage aircradisplay. It was quite a scene in ront o that old han-gar – with model A’s and biplanes lling the ramp.

Te only incident on the tour occurred whiledeparting BIS or JMS. Te ravel Air 4-D ate anexhaust valve during the climb out, but pilot BurceMcElhoe did a nice job o putting it down in ahayeld just east o the airport. It was towed to theshelter o a nearby barn and repaired on the spotwith a new cylinder and piston shipped in the nextday by Fed EX.

Hal the un o the our had to be just getting

Eunie and myself behind my Waco



to the next airport. We would leave airly early so asto be set up and ready to go by 10:00 AM at the nextcity. We didn’t exactly y in ormation, it was morelike a gaggle, with airplanes in groups o three orour that were compatible in speed. We did tightenit up some as we came overhead the eld, well, youknow, just or show.

Te last stop on the tour was Alexandria, Min-nesota, where we spent the three day 4th o July weekend. Te weather was warm and humid but thewind that had plagued us or much o the last weekin N.D. had subsided. Te winds and bumpy rides

however, hadn’t detracted rom the thrill peoplemust have experienced on their ights, judging by all the big smiles we saw.

With the our over, old “Handlebar” Hank andI departed AXN or Montana early the next day.Hank headed his ravel Air 6000 west with me athis our o’ clock. We pressed on the entire day, mak-ing BZN by dinner time. Again we split the eighthours o ight time into our legs, but exceeded a 12hour duty day by just a little due in part to an early

and lengthy lunch in Mobridge, waiting or someweather to pass.

I have to say that putting in eight hours o ightin that old open cockpit gives one a renewed appre-ciation or the challenges acing the guys that really had to do this or a living in the early days. Pilotslike Charles Holman that ew the night mail romSt. Paul to Chicago summer and winter, in the oldNorthwest Airways JYM’s (same as the aperwing,but 13” longer) deserve a lot o respect.

Would I do the our again? Well, thinking backnow about joining up, I have to say it was un, but

it was a really long trip with lot o nights in a hotelroom again and long days baking in the sun on a hotramp and then there was all that windy weather andhmmm… we met a great bunch o people and didsome really un ying and... gee, I can’t help think-ing that i they decided to do another one o theseours… like maybe to BZN or HLN would be un,then up to Kalispell would be really neat… then onto Coeur d’Alene… and maybe even Pasco Wash-ington... and, well, you get the idea.

Eric Preston andhis 1909 Bleriot

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