(Photo courtesy of Tyson V. Rininger)Prometheus the flying machine is part Pitts Special and the rest Skip and Christina Stewart. Starting life as a Pitts S-2S, Prometheus was modified to give Skip the airshow machine he wanted. This flying machine looks like a good ol’ American hot rod. The horsepower was increased to (400), the big three-bladed prop reminds you of oversized racing slicks, the rear canted landing gear makes it look fast sitting on the ground and the paint job yells “street rod!”

With a climb rate of 4000 fpm, max speed of 197 mph, stall speed of 58 mph, empty weight of (1146) lbs., and range of 405 miles – this is an all muscle bi-plane.

Skip is one of the most entertaining airshow pilots in the world. He has more than 8,000 hours of flying experience, is an airline transport pilot, certified flight instructor, has owned and operated an aerobatic flight school, earned gold medals in regional aerobatic competitions, served as a chief pilot for a fortune 100 company and has spent more than ten years entertaining airshow fans around the world.

Sometimes you get it right, and sometimes not. In the March issue of In Flight USA, this writer addressed the “sequester,” with threats to close FAA control towers and reduce other services related to flying safety. At that time sequester details were not known and I wrote, “Now, to be realistic, these threats will probably not actually come to pass as the calamitous results of fatal budget cuts. Even as this is being written, announcements have been made that the elected heroes of our sagging republic are going to hold last minute negotiations. This meeting will basically conclude that “the other guy” is at fault for current circumstances and nothing will be done, with current economic problems simply being put off to another day.”

EAA’s vintage Ford Tri-Motor heads out on tour in May 2013. (Air Venture Museum)

The EAA Tri-Motor was built in 1929 and over its life has served in a number of roles - from Cuban airliner to transport for forest fire fighting smoke jumpers. EAA Founder Paul Poberezny purchased the aircraft 1973 and it underwent a 12-year restoration effort.

Housed at EAA’s Pioneer Airport, the Tin Goose has been featured in two major movies - Family Jewels in 1965 starring Jerry Lewis, and Public Enemies in 2009 starring Johnny Depp.

Scotty Wilson’s Bugatti 100P Racer project has wide international interest and support, and is nearing completion in his Tulsa, Okla. hangar.

Since then he’s been working continuously at re-creating the airplane, and with a little luck and some additional resources, it could hit the runway before the end of the year.

“Ninety percent done with 90 percent to go,” Wilson said recently – a statement to which many homebuilders can relate. “It’s very close to done. We might be able to roll the plane out of the hangar in mid-June.” He hesitates to pin a date to anything, but it’s reasonably possible Wilson’s airplane could do taxi-testing and even a first flight before the end of the year, but no earlier than the Fall.

The one occasion where the retail worth of the plane in which Weaver was flying was rapidly and substantially reduced. The Ercoupe was later repaired and flown by Joe-Joe for another 20 years. (Courtesy of Steve Weaver)In recent years, even I have had to acknowledge that I have entered, albeit reluctantly, the category of the mature airman. As such, I have joined the ranks of those with a successful (read survived) flying history spanning fifty years or so and it is natural for the August members who inhabit this strata to be occasionally asked by our younger brethren about things that they consider worrisome in their own flying career.  Crashing would be one.

How many times, they will ask, have I been involved in occasions where the retail worth of the airplane I was flying was rapidly and substantially reduced?

It’s a complicated question to answer, especially if you take the Clinton-esque approach to it and say it depends on what your definition of crashing is. I choose to do that, since it reduces my record of shame by 50 percent if I don’t count flying the Super Cruiser through the top of a large oak tree as a crash. My point there being that the airplane did not come to a complete stop, which I maintain is a basic requirement for a certifiable airplane crash.

(Cover Photo by Michael Jorgensen. Provided by Warbird Adventures, Inc)

By Jan. 7, 1998 the company had been formed and the first aircraft purchased in California. It took six days to bring it home to Zephyrhills, Florida after which extensive modification had to be done. Four months later, the proud owners sat on the ramp with a shiny T-6 waiting for people to come by.

The original plan was to barnstorm around the country, but they ended up in Kissimmee by accident and set up shop out of the Flying Tigers Warbird Restoration Museum instead. The rest is history.

By Steve Weaver

Pilot’s Twilight

The evening sky with dying tint
Of gold and dreams, too quickly spent
Of Pink and promise, not to be
A lonely place, it seems to me.

For those of us who spend our days
In winter’s sun and summer haze
Our hands on wheel and microphone
Our days in flight, our nights alone

The blue to red that swiftly goes
Reminds me that my life too flows
From blue to red, to gold and gone
Too soon the night, so far the dawn.

How many times, the times I fly
I watch the day swept from the sky
I see its dying ebb and flow
Till night’s first star begins to glow

It shines alone, a lonely light
Alone as I in lonely flight

Alone as I in lonely flight.

Since my territory as a Cessna rep was almost completely to the north and east of me, I witnessed literally hundreds of sunsets during my evening flights back to home base. During one especially beautiful and lasting transition from day to night, I wrote Pilot’s Twilight.

Looking back, I suppose I was experiencing some wistfulness during this time, since in addition to being on the road all week I had no real home life either, for that had gone, along with everything else in the financial disaster I’d suffered. I think I was grieving some for my past life.

Still, as a glass half full sort of person, dark reflections occupied only a small part of my time. I threw myself into my new work, and with a net worth hovering around zero, I got a kick out of the faux wealthy lifestyle I enjoyed through the week as Cessna’s man in the field. Traveling in the spanking new twins, staying in the best hotels and eating the same fare as the rich folks somehow helped to make up for my much reduced financial state since losing my business. ]]>http://www.inflightusa.com/featured/rss-comments-entry-33219703.xmlGolden West Regional Fly InHiller Aviation MuseumJohn MontgomeryMontgomery gliderSanta ClaraThom Tayloraircraft historyaviation historyaviation pioneerbay area aviationhistoric aircraftWebmasterWed, 03 Apr 2013 19:42:49 +0000http://www.inflightusa.com/featured/2013/4/3/first-controlled-flight-1885-style.html463783:5226298:33219505Editor’s note: Our friends managing the upcoming Golden West Regional Fly-in and Airshow in California (Yuba County Airport, KMYV, June 7-9) tipped us off to this year’s special attraction, a full-sized, flyable, replica of the John Montgomery glider Santa Clara. So what is the big deal about a glider? How about the fact that it was developed in the mid 1880s and successfully flown in controllable flight about 15 years before the Wright Brothers started flying their gliders! Given the current controversy about “who made the first controlled flight?” In Flight USA contacted the builder of this remarkable reproduction, Thom Taylor, and asked for a personal account of his adventure into the world of aviation pioneer, John Montgomery. Enjoy!


By Thom Taylor

John Montgomery standing by the Santa Clara, circa 1904-5. (San Diego Air & Space Museum)As a young child I always had an interest in airplanes and model aircraft. As I grew older I developed a keen interest in history around the era of the two world wars, and the way technologies advanced in time of conflict. I also studied the history of California. When I retired, I turned to woodworking as a hobby. I quickly learned woodturning, mastered woodworking’s other skills.

After reading a book about the Wright Brothers, I decided to build a 1/3 scale model of the 1902 Wright glider using period materials and construction techniques, from the stand point of a woodworker, having no personal flying experience. The glider, which took me 1,200 hours and a year to build, is on display at the California Aerospace Museum in Sacramento, Calif. The museum’s curator asked what my next project might be, and having no idea he suggested a John Montgomery type aircraft. Like most people with no knowledge of John Montgomery I set out to learn about this most amazing Californian.

Quoted from the March 24 television airing of the CBS Program, The Amazing Race:
“Parts of last Sunday’s episode, filmed in Vietnam, were insensitive to a group that is very important to us: our nation’s veterans.
“We want to apologize to veterans – particularly those who served in Vietnam – as well as their families and any viewers who were offended by the broadcast.
“All of us here have the most profound respect for the men and women who fight for our country.”


If you are a regular viewer of CBS’s Sunday evening program, The Amazing Race, you know what the above apology is all about. To be sure, this apology is appropriate and viewed as a sincere acceptance of responsibility for having wronged a generation of Americans who have suffered greatly. The question that remains, however, is why circumstances should ever have developed in a way as to require such an apology and whether or not consequences have been shared by those who caused this egregious program to have been aired in the first place.

As aviators, we have become accustomed to an adversarial media and foolish versions of aviation plots being portrayed in movies and television. We have learned that no matter how hard we try, reporters use incorrect terminology, movies portray pilots flying planes with the motions and force needed to guide a team of horses and television news sensationalizes aviation stories with the  axiom, “if it bleeds, it leads.” Sure, we write letters, tweet our brains out, plead for help from alphabet groups and finally, develop a thick skin. Now, do not misunderstand the intent of this observation. This writer is not suggesting one simply give up. All of us involved in our remarkable industry, be it for business or recreation, must participate in preserving the rights to navigable airspace that all Americans enjoy, as verified by Title 49 of Federal law. Our forefathers learned that rights are never granted, but defended.

By Ed Downs

First a meteor smacks into Russia, and then, just a few days later, we get a close flyby of a good sized asteroid. In cosmic terms, that asteroid came close enough to give “doomsday preppers” reason to celebrate their decisions. It was close. But it is not all scary news. Astronomers who work with visible light, versus those light bands that can be seen only through the use of special instrumentation, have something to celebrate. It seems as though the summit of Haleakala on the Hawaiian island of Maui, at 10,000 feet above sea level, now sports a telescopic array that promises to be the most powerful survey telescope ever built. “Survey” means a telescope that specifically looks for things, all sorts of things, which may be heading our way. It’s called Pan-STARRS, short for Panchromatic Survey Telescope And Rapid Response System. And is the first of a four telescopes array planned.