logbook Volume 6

Volume 6, Number 1

Feature Articles:

Roman Ohnemus and the Apache Princess
by Roman Ohnemus with Tony Caruso

Miracle at Landing Zone Ross
by Robert B Robeson

On the Road with “Salmon Ella”
by Michael Prophet

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Volume 6, Number 2

Feature Articles:

A View From The Flight Deck - More Tales
by Charles E. Larsen

Set’em Up White Mice
by Douglas C. Dildy
with Frans Scheve

Too Many Trips to the Well
by William Sorenson

Volume 6, Number 3

Feature Articles:

Defending Illinois’ Skies
by David R. McLaren

The United States Navy liked to brag that Illinois has never been attacked while they were guarding its shores. However, the United States Air Force (USAF), as well as the Illinois Air National Guard (ANG), can make the same statement with far more accuracy. They have the assurance that their role was much more of a deterrent force. In the 1950s, the USAF, and later the ANG, placed armed fighters in various locations throughout Illinois in order to defend Chicago, as well as St. Louis, Missouri, and other metropolitan areas with due seriousness during the Cold War.

My Apprenticeship in Battle
by Ernest E. Kowalik with John R. Bayer

Ernest Kowalik entered the Army in July 1942, and was trained as a pilot. He took pre-flight at the Aviation Cadet Center, San Antonio, Texas, and had primary at the Missouri Institute of Aeronautics in Sikeston, Missouri. In addition he had basic flight at Randolph Field, Texas, and Liaison Pilot training at Fort Sill, Oklahoma. Ernest became a Liaison pilot, assigned to the 88th Infantry Division, the first all-draftee division to see combat, and among the most highly decorated. As related to John R. Bayer, Lt Kowalik tells his story of flying in combat as a liaison pilot. Great reading.

Airmail Canadian Style
by Herb Kugel

Airplanes and dog sleds delivering the mail. Airmail developed differently across the world, but in Canada, with its vast, sparsely settled distances and its brutal, icy winters, this development faced difficulties. Although from its beginnings, the development of Canadian airmail was entwined with the growth of American airmail, Canadian airmail developed in its own unique way. Canada was not far behind the U.S. when, on 15 May 1918, the first regular United States airmail service began between New York, Philadelphia, and Washington, DC. On 24 June 1918, Captain Brian Peck was the first pilot to fly the mail in Canada, flying from Montreal to Toronto in a Curtiss JN-4 Canuck, an airplane, better known by its American name - Jenny. Together with the mail, Peck filled his plane with bottles of alcoholic beverages; the plane was so heavily loaded that it could not fly much above 40 feet.
This is just one of the many stories related by canadian author Herb Kugel. 

Volume 6, Number 4

Feature Articles:

Off the Ice - VX/VXE-6
by Steve Hallex

Known familiarly as “The World’s Southernmost Airline,” VX-6 was later re-designated Antarctic Development Squadron SIX (VXE-6). From 1955 to 1999, this squadron flew in support of the U.S. Antarctic Program’s annual Operation DEEP FREEZE. Although they flew literally dozens of rescue missions worthy of a good adventure yarn, most of their activities were the stuff of operations reports and flight logs, and would be considered normal military duty if not for the extraordinary conditions in which they were performed. Their core missions included the transportation of equipment and personnel, the delivery of necessary supplies, and a few charitable mail drops, including a mid-winter drop to the South Pole in 1967. Additionally, in the early years, aerial mapping was another mission; quite necessary considering that most of the continent was still uncharted when the unit arrived.
Author Steve Hallex relates VXE-6s history. 

Sundowner of the Skies
by Mary Garden

Seventy-five years ago an unknown novice aviator by the name of Oscar Garden landed his second-hand de Havilland Gypsy Moth on a dusty airstrip in the far north of Western Australia to become the fourth person to fly solo from England to Australia. It was 4 November 1930, and at 27 years old, he was the youngest and by far the most inexperienced.
The following telegram was sent to England: “Arrival of Mr. Oscar Garden after his solo flight from England was quite unheralded. It was not even known he was here until a motorcar went to the aerodrome on other business and found him overhauling his Gypsy Moth. He is proceeding to Sydney. The Sun newspaper commenting on his casual arrival at Wyndham says: ‘As Wing Commander Kingsford Smith has dubbed himself Vagabond of the Air then Mr. Garden should be known as Sundowner of the Skies’.” (Sundowner describes a wandering Australian swagman who arrives out of nowhere on sundown).
Some years later in 1935 the Isle of Man Weekly Times said: “Mr. Garden’s flight ranks with those of Kingsford Smith and Bert Hinkler.” The aviation magazine Wings in 1971 called it: “an intrepid piece of airmanship ranking with the achievements of such names as Kingsford Smith, Bert Hinkler, Amy Johnson, C.W.A. Scott and others who were making aviation history and blazing trails.”
Yet, who has heard of this man and this feat? Mary Garden - Oscar Garden's daughter - tells the story

An Interview With William Holloman
by Jack Flanagan

Still At Work: NASA’s Veteran McDonnell Douglas DC-8-73
by Stephan Force

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has been using a McDonnell Douglas DC-8-72 jet aircraft as a flying science laboratory since the mid-1980s. The platform aircraft, for years based at NASA’s Dryden Flight Research Center, Edwards Air Force Base, California, collects data for many experiments in support of scientific projects serving the world scientific community. Included in this community are NASA, federal, state, academic and foreign investigators. Data gathered by the DC-8 at flight altitude and by remote sensing has been used for scientific studies in archaeology, ecology, geography, hydrology, meteorology, oceanography, volcanology, atmospheric chemistry, soil science and biology.
The DC-8-72: The NASA DC-8-72 is a four-engine jet transport aircraft that has been highly modified to support the Agency’s Airborne Science mission. The aircraft was originally delivered, in April 1969, to the Italian airline Alitalia as a Douglas DC-8-62H. In January 1971, the aircraft was purchased by Braniff Airways, who operated it for just over four years. After that it was owned by a number of leasing firms until NASA finally bought it in February 1986. Two months later it was upgraded to –72 standards with the installation of four CFM56-2C high bypass turbofan engines. Stephan Force chronicles this hard working airliner. 

The Last Flight of the Queen Ann
by George A. Larson