I thank the Lord almost every day that I am here and able to put this story on paper.
My tour of duty during the Korean War ended when I was discharged in April of 1951. However I had a friend named Swenson who had a 1949 Mercury car and 1948 74 Harley Davidson motorcycle who wanted me to stay around Camp Chaffee, Arkansas, just outside Ft. Smith, until he was released from service so we could travel back home together. He was from Oregon and I was going back to St. Maries in Idaho so we had made plans that when we left the area we would take turns driving the car and riding the motorcycle. It sounded very exciting to me and what an opportunity to see some our country. It would be a trip of about 1500 miles.
The day after my discharge I went to the local airport, where I had rented planes a couple times, and asked the operator if they could use a good flight instructor.
He said, "As a mater of fact I am looking for a couple instructors. Just how much experience do you have"?
He looked over my logbooks and then asked me, When can you start?"
"How about right now?"
I told him what my plans were, including that I wasn't sure how long I could stay because I was planning to go to Idaho as soon as my friend was discharged. He said he understood and that it would be OK. We became good friends and it turned out to be a wonderful time for me, as I gained experience in several different airplanes types. The flying involved giving instructions to the several students enrolled at that time, but also to fly charter flights for the soldiers who would come from Camp Chaffee and charter planes to take them home for week ends. I remember flights to Colorado, northern Kansas, Oklahoma, Missouri and other points. It seemed like you could see forever when flying over Kansas. One highway looked like a piece of string that went from horizon to horizon without a curve and there were no bumps in the horizon, it was really flat. I was from Idaho where there were mountains. It turned out that Swenson wasn't discharged until August and I really enjoyed the good time while waiting for him.
We left Ft. Smith around the middle of August. The trip to St. Maries was very exciting and at times was a little frightening. One incident I remember was in Yellowstone Park. I was riding the motorcycle. We came up behind a long string of cars. They were going too slow for me. I lost patience and started passing them. When I got past them there was a hairpin curve. My speed was too fast to make it around so I had to lie the cycle down and skidded to a halt. Would you believe not one car stopped to see if I was hurt? Swenson stopped and together we put the cycle back on its wheels. There wasn't any damage except to my dignity. We continued on, I hoped with a little more patience. We arrived in St. Maries during the last week in August and after a couple days of cooling off, Swenson drove on to Oregon. He came back in a week with a friend and picked up his motorcycle. I never heard from him again. We had had a good time traveling together.
I went back to working with my brother Norman in his machine shop in St. Maries during which time I made a shrewd but honest financial deal and acquired enough money to buy half interest in a Model 8A Luscombe with my friend Jack Trummel who was interested in flying and had earned a private flying license. We purchased the plane from Lamb's Flying Service. This was the school where I had earned my Private and Commercial flying license. The registration number was N71407. It was my favorite of all the planes used by the school. It always seemed to me like it was a little faster and a little more maneuverable than the others. Although the Luscombe is not an aerobatic airplane, it is stressed for 4.5 Gs positive and 2.3 Gs negative and it was very sensitive on the controls. A real joy to fly, you could do loops, spins, split "S", aileron rolls and the snap roll. I would practice all of these maneuvers, but my favorite was the snap roll.
The snap roll is performed beginning with the plane in level flight at a cruise speed of 80 MPH. Then you pull the stick back as fast as you can (snap it) making the wing stall (lose lift). Quickly depressing either left or right rudder all the way will roll the plane 360° left or right depending on which rudder you depressed. The very first time I tried a snap roll the plane did the 360° roll but kept on rolling for another 180°, ending up upside down before I could recover. To recover all you had to do was neutralize the stick and rudder, but it must be performed at the right second. Needless to say, I always had plenty of altitude when practicing. I practiced Snap Rolls until I could make my recovery in level flight every time. I really didn't think they were much of a problem.
Loops were fun and easy. All you had to do for them was start a shallow dive and when the speed reached about 100 MPH start easing the stick back while increasing power. You keep putting in the backpressure and watch for the horizon to appear upside down, then you can relax on the backpressure and reduce throttle and wait while the speed builds up and start a pull out at the bottom. If you felt a bit of turbulence about the time you level out you know it was a good loop because you had just flown through your own prop wash that you made when you started the maneuver.
A split "S" is started from level flight at cruise power. You just start a climb, add a little power and start an aileron roll either left or right. Then you let the plane keep rolling until it is inverted, stop the roll, and add in a little more back pressure. It will start coming down like the backside of a loop. Keeping the back pressure in until you are level again allows you to go merrily on your way and feel the pure joy of flying.
The spin is similar to the snap roll except instead of entering it with cruise power you throttle back and put the plane into a glide. Then bring the stick back slowly and slow the plane down until it stalls (quits flying). Depressing either left or right rudder causes the plane to fall off to the selected side and start spinning. To recover, just neutralize the rudder until it stops spinning, then relax pressure on the stick and it will then start diving. You can then bring it back to level flight with back pressure, add power and bring the speed up to cruise.
I practiced all of these maneuvers until I was satisfied that I knew them fairly well and finally developed a little routine with them. I would start with a snap roll and instead of making a normal recovery, I'd let it fall off into a spin. After about two or three turns in the spin I'd make a recovery and go into a loop, after which I would do a split S. Then if I were in the right position I would begin a glide and make a landing. I called it a "split S to the chocks". I don't know how it looked from the ground, but inside the plane it felt wonderful.
Norman was considered the best all around mechanic in the area. He had developed a special pulley block that was used by the logging companies to help skid logs from the forest into the decks, where they were loaded onto trucks. This device was called a "Traveling Block" because it traveled with the log that was being pulled in. They were used very roughly and required replacement or repairs quite frequently. "J.E Hall Logging" was a company that used this special block. Their headquarters was in Elk River, Idaho about 45 minutes by air from St. Maries. From time to time they would order more blocks or bring in a few to be repaired. One morning Norman told me that the J. E Hall logging company had called him and asked if we had six traveling blocks available and could deliver them right away. He told them we could deliver them the next day and if they were in that much of a hurry we would deliver them by air. Norman decided to go along on the flight. Early on May 9, 1952 we loaded up the traveling blocks and took off for Elk River.
Elk River is a peaceful little town located in Central Idaho. The uneventful flight was over some very beautiful, rugged scenery. There had been a large sawmill there, but it had gone out of business and the huge lumberyard was cleared for a small airport to be built. The south end of the grass runway is about a hundred yards from the end of the main street. We could walk to any place in town.
It was still early in the morning, so after delivering the traveling blocks to J. E. Hall Co. we walked over to our cousin Carmen's house. Carmen and his wife, Leona had a butcher shop.We hadn't seen them for a while so Norman thought it would be a good time to visit with them. They were surprised to see us. Since they were just sitting down for breakfast, we were invited to join them. During breakfast they brought us up on the local news and we told them how things were going in St. Maries.
Carmen had to go open his butcher shop so he walked down to the airport with us and waited until we had the engine started and waved goodbye. As he was walking up Main Street, I started the take off. I climbed out about four or five miles and executed a 180° turn to go back over town. Having gained only about 500 feet I could see him clearly as he walked along the sidewalk. The airspeed indicator showed 80 MPH. The thought of doing a snap roll went through my head and before I knew it I did one. But the plane didn't snap roll, it went into a spin instead. I was horrified and the ground was coming up fast. I can't recall doing anything to the controls, but the next thing I knew we were going down Main Street in level flight below the level of the buildings. I made a pull-up over the wires coming up and we were in the clear and climbing away from town. I was so scared that I could hardly think. I guess reflex action had saved us. The flight home was in silence. Norman was either so mad at me or scared that he couldn't talk.
I sure didn't feel very proud of what I had just done. Later when I was alone I debriefed myself to try to figure out what went wrong. I also made a vow that I would never again put anyone's life in danger with my impulses and I can honestly say that I never did. I came to the conclusion that I had never practiced any maneuvers with passengers. Norman's added weight was just too much. Also, Elk River is about a thousand feet higher in elevation. Although the airspeed was only 80 MPH, the throttle was on full power because I was still climbing. There just wasn't enough power left to do a snap roll and so the plane just dropped off into a spin. I think I also got down into ground effect (an altitude less than one wingspan) which helped in the recovery. It came close to being a fatal error.
About two weeks after the flight to Elk River, two men dressed in suits and looking very official came into the shop and asked for me. I admitted who I was and asked them what they wanted.
They said, "We are from the FAA office in Spokane, We have been informed that you were doing some erratic flying over Elk River on the 9th of May and would like an explanation".
I was real surprised and thought to myself, I can't tell them that I was so stupid that I tried to execute a Snap Roll right over town at a low altitude, so I gave them an explanation.
"Yes, I was over town and was watching my cousin walk up the street. I must have been not paying attention to my flying because I got a stall out of a climbing turn. I guess it must have looked pretty bad".
"You have an instructor's rating don't you?"
"Yes, I do, I guess I was just getting careless."
We talked for a few more minutes and they seemed satisfied with my answers and left. Maybe they felt sorry for me, I don't know. Norman would not get into an airplane with me for about twenty years but finally he got over it. I finally asked him one day if he remembered the flight over Elk River.
He said, "Yes I do"
"What did you think about it?"
"At first I thought it was all right until I looked over at you and saw that you were scared, then I got mad. What I remember most was a telephone pole spinning around below us".