by Nigel Hitchman
Walt Bowe and Carlene Mendieta again invited us to Ala Doble Fly-In on 27/28 September held in partnership with Marginal Aviation as their “Last Ditch” fly-in. With their fabulous collection of vintage aircraft already being better than you see at most fly-ins, it was great to see around half of their aircraft flying, there was also a nice selection of interesting visiting aircraft.
New to flying at Ala Doble this year were the Avro Avian (N)7083, 600hp Stearman Goliath N55562 P51A N51Z, Waco 9 (N)C2668, Kreider-Reisner KR.21 NC209V plus Lincoln-Page LP-3 NC136W which we were hoping for, but didn’t fly due to an engine issue despite several people working hard to fix it and newly restored Arrow Sport M NC18764 which is still having the Menasco engine run in.
Visiting aircraft included Charles Somers DH89A Dragon Rapide NX663HG, Russell Williams Ryan SCW NC18914 flown all the way from the Seattle area, Jon Ricciotti’s Waco S3HD N14048 flown all the way from Poplar Grove, IL, Turbine Goose N640, Grumman FM-2 Wildcat N5HP together with a flypast of Goldfinger P-51D N551MB. We also had 4 Bucker Jungmann’s, three flown up from Gillespie Field in San Diego by Chris Overson, John Hickman, and Dave Stillinger joining Eric Presten’s from Sonoma and a very nice Piper J-2 Cub.
Highlight for me was the Avro 594 Avian N7083 also marked as G-EBUG, which is painted to represent the Avian flown by Lady Mary Heath solo from Cape Town to England in 1927 and then sold to Amelia Earhart, who became the first woman to fly solo across the continental USA in it in 1928. It was painted like this when Greg Herrick bought it for a re-enactment of Earhart’s flight which was flown by Carlene Mendieta in 2001. The aircraft was originally delivered to Australia in 1928 and was restored by Lang Kidby in the late 90s, brought to England including a visit to the PFA Rally as VH-UFZ and then flown to Australia re-enacting the first solo flight from England to Australia, which was done in an Avro Avian by Bert Hinkler in 1928. I was very privileged to get to fly this historic Avian, currently the only one flying in the world, thanks very much Carlene and Walt.
Dragon Rapide NX663HG was restored by Avspecs for Charles Somers, making its first flight at Ardmore, NZ in February 2023 and was then shipped to Sacramento and re-assembled and flown. The visit to Ala Doble was its first public appearance in the US. It’s the former ZK-AKU which was built as RAF HG663 and delivered to the RNZAF as Dominie NZ528 in 1943, registered ZK-AKU in 1946, and was flown in the London-Sydney air race in 1969.
The Arrow Sport M NC18764 is the only one built with a Menasco engine, around 100 similar Arrow Sport Fs were built in the late 1930s powered by a Ford V-8, and while some still exist, none are flying. NC18764 just completed a full restoration with Rick Atkins and is still being test flown and the having the engine run.
The P-51A Mustang N51Z is a composite based on recovered remains of 43-6006 (which crashed in 1944) from Alaska rebuilt by Moon Spillers in the 1980s using a P-51D wing. It flew as Polar Bear and was restored again by John Muszala/Pacific Fighters and made to look like an XP-51 for John Dowd, flying again in 2017, and bought by Walt Bowe earlier this year.
The modified, fared-in 600hp Stearman, Goliath was built by Jim Younkin to continue the tradition of the 1930s Al Williams Gulfhawk and painted in Al’s bright Orange colours. Flown by Bobby Younkin it would cruise at 185mph and first appeared at Oshkosh 1989. It disappeared for many years and was bought by Walt a couple of years ago.
The N5HP Grumman FM-2 Wildcat is part of the Dakota Territory Air Museum and was at Ala Doble all week, flown by Bernie Vasquez who is based here. Bernie gave us a view of his airshow routine with a practice display. He says it’s a great aerobatic aircraft, like an Extra 300 on steroids!
The highlight of the event was seeing the five Curtiss OX-5-engined aircraft flying together in formation, no one can remember the last time this happened. Five Curtiss Jennys flew at Oshkosh 1989, but not in formation. There could have been sixth, but the Lincoln Page LP-3 couldn’t be got running satisfactorily. Those in the formation are 1926 Waco 9 NC2668, 1928 Waco GXE NC6974, 1927 Waco 10 N4779, 1929 Command Air 3C3 NC583E and 1928 American Eagle NC7157. What an amazing sight!
With many aircraft flying all day long, fabulous catering and most of all meeting up with many friends, it was a wonderful fly-in. Thanks goes to Walt and Carlene, Bernie Vasquez, the rest of the Ala Doble crew, Marginal Aviation, and the many volunteers who did everything from cleaning, fixing and servicing the aircraft to emptying the garbage!
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Emma Quedzuweit is a historial researcher and graduate school student originally from California, but travels extensively for work and study. She is the former Assitant Editor at AOPA Pilot magazine and currently freelance writes along with personal projects invovled in the search for missing in action aviators from World War I and II. She is a Private Pilot with Single Engine Land and Sea ratings and tailwheel endorsement and is part-owner of a 1946 Piper J-3 Cub. Her favorite aviation experience was earning a checkout in a Fairchild PT-19.
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