San Marcos, Texas

I believe it must have been 1979. There was a race scheduled in San Marcos, TX in August. There were to be Biplanes, Formula One's and possibly T-6's. My close friends Dick & Ella Blaise flew from Lake Isabella to Fallbrook in their Starduster Too so as to come to the races with me. I had built their airplane for Dick a few years prior. Dick and Ella did not realize what an adventure they were to become involved in when they decided to come along.

My crew and I had worked day and nite the last few days, to prep for our departure. The plan was for the two biplanes to leave Tuesday, with the crew resting up for a two days and for them to leave Friday in a Bellanca Super Viking. Even my wife Cheri was coming. I left the airport Monday evening to rest up for the flight. My crew worked throughout the nite. The paint gun was still shooting paint when we arrived Tuesday AM to leave. As my father used to say "What would racing be without wet paint and duct tape?"

Dick and Ella climbed in as did I and we were off. Our planned route was down through the El Centro valley, east through Arizona & New Mexico and into Texas at El Paso and then more or less direct to San Marcos. Once into the Salton Sea area we flew IFRRR, that is I Fly Rivers Roads & Railroads. Our second or third fuel stop was at Demming, NM. One of our preparations for this trip was replacement of the J-3 master brake cylinders so as provide me with reliable braking. Testing at Fallbrook looked good so we replaced the complete tail wheel assembly with one of my own fabrication, which was free castering- after all, I finally had reliable brakes- right? And who needs all that steering mechanism hanging out in the wind slowing you down?

It was on roll out when I first applied the brakes & found that the left pedal went to the floor! Now, with a free castering tail wheel and only one (right) brake, guess which side of the runway the airplane went off? The general area in Demming is desert and as the airplane went off the pavement into the sand the little 5.00x5 tires started digging in as the airplane decelerated in a right turn. I hit the mag switch just as the tail started up. Had I not experienced this myself I doubt that I would believe it. The airplane had just enough momentum to stand straight up vertical on its nose while the prop was stopping, with the last horsepower output causing the airplane to execute a 1/2 vertical roll with the spinner as the only point of contact with the ground! After this 1/2 vertical roll the airplane set itself back down on its main wheels while still partially resting on its severely dented spinner.

Dick & Ella were on final approach when all this happened. Dick was at that time over 65 years old and he later told me he thought he was having a heart attack. Witnessing his friend of over 30 years breaking an airplane was too much for him. By the time Dick rolled past me on the runway I had gotten out and pulled the tail to the ground. We pushed the airplane to the ramp and a very friendly local advised us that I could use the large hangar and anything in it I might need. Dick & Ella took the loaner car and went to a motel to rest.

I quickly surveyed the airplane and decided that I might be able to continue on to San Marcos. I called home and left the message with my mom & dad that I needed the crew to 1- bring the repair materials which I listed for them and 2- stop at Demming on their way and bring any broken pieces which I planned to leave  there. Further inspection confirmed that my only major problem was the prop. The local then told me that there was a tractor repair yard a mile away and that he had access to it. That yard had a hydraulic press. I removed the broken wheel pants and prop and we headed for the press. I had seen props repitched so I did at least have some idea of the resilience of aluminum props but this work was truly an eye opener. Only one blade was bent. The bend was about 10" out from the hub and approx. 20 degrees. Several applications of cardboard and under the press and the blade appeared fairly straight. Wow, I might still make it to race.

Reinstallation of the prop and a ground run to just over 2000 RPM showed reasonably smooth operation. I hammered on the spinner and it straightened out without cracking. I knew there would be no one in Demming with seals for first generation Rosenhan brake wheel cylinders. I elected to weld up a rigid steering mechanism for the tail wheel and since all the runways we intended to land on were fairly long I felt we could continue on to San Marcos. From prior experience I knew the airplane to be controllable with marginal brakes so long as I had positive steering.

At the time the airplane was called 'Two Bits', carried #25 and had a conventional tail with the upper wing mounted directly on the fuselage. The windshield was on top of the wing. Forward visibility at cruise speeds was excellent but at less than cruise it was abominable. I had small windows on the left and right sides of the fuselage under the wing trailing edge for visibility during take-off, landing and for ground handling but they did not help forward visibility inflight. Dick had elected that he would let me do the navigation and he would just follow me. We took off from Demming the next AM and in flight I immediately found that anything over 2200 RPM produced a vibration which loosened molars. This left me with a nose hi attitude and no direct forward visibility. As I departed Demming I decided that I could do no more good there so we would continue to the next stop in El Paso. Dick and I had no in-flight communication so he again followed me, which left us in a 'blind leading the blind" condition. I made 'S' turns all the way from Demming to El Paso at 2100 RPM and 120 MPH.

Just East of El Paso is a little strip called West Texas airport. It looked like a ribbon. I later decided that due to density altitudes in the area they made the runways quite narrow to offset the paving costs due to the needed runway length. We landed and were immediately befriended. I checked all my teeth and most were sound even after all of the vibration. Dick and Ella again headed for the motel in the loaner car. I got on the phone to home to request a replacement prop be added to the list of  'things to bring'. Tears came to my eyes when my dad told me that the crew plane had already left for Demming. I knew how tired they all were and their dedication to the sport, and myself, overwhelmed me. The result of that and further phone calls was for them to call my friend Guy Paquin so as to borrow his prop and for one crew members' father to package and drive the loaner prop to LAX for shipment to El Paso. Most of that day had been spent with our new friend looking for a replacement prop to no avail. In the afternoon the Viking landed with my wife and crew. Our local friend took my wife and I to his home, out to dinner and then back to his home to stay the nite. He would not even let me pay for dinner. What a guy!

The loaner prop arrived the next AM. It was installed and checked and we were on our way. Only two more stops and then San Marcos. I felt so obligated to our friend that after takeoff I made one round of the pattern and a high speed pass, for him and me also. On the pull up at the end of the runway I felt something go "BUMP" and the left rudder pedal moved against my foot. It scared me! I mentally checked the possibilities and felt that since the landing gear had taken a hit at Demming, and the landing gear was directly under my feet, there could be some damage I had missed in my inspections. I had a mental image of the one piece steel landing gear hanging from only one side of the fuselage. I flew alongside the Viking for awhile and they did not seem troubled so apparently nothing was visible from outside the airplane. I was not consoled by their lack of alarm. This leg of the flight, like the last, was not at all comfortable. At our next stop, Fort Collins, I made the absolute best landing I ever made in the airplane, out of the obvious concern for the possibility of a loose landing gear on the airplane. On the ramp I found the problem. I had placed two one gallon containers of synthetic oil in the baggage area behind my head, one of which had broken thru the baggage floor under the 'G' loads from the pull up at West Texas airport. It fell into the belly and on its way to rest had hit the left rudder cable, moving it against my foot. We transferred the oil to the Viking. From here the Viking was to go straight to San Marcos while Dick & Ella flew with me for the (one more) fuel stop I would need to make the distance.

Overhead our last stop before San Marcos I could see Dan Mortensen on the ramp, in his airplane,  near the fuel pit. In front of his airplane was a rather tall Texan standing in a 5' diameter puddle of his own sweat. I had previously decided that poor Dan just did not know how to handle a fuel system as it relates to priming. And the Texan was paying the price. On my landing the airplane again became uncontrollable as it had been in Demming. It again went off to the right and this time it went completely over on its back. (I knew Dick was again having a fit.) With the airplane upside down I could not remove the canopy to get myself out. I first did the appropriate. I turned off the mags, put the mixture control in ICO, turned off the main fuel valve, checked to see there was not a master switch. I repeated this, and repeated it again as a means to offset growing panic. I could smell fuel. I then heard a calm conversation coming from behind the airplane. I yelled "HELP". Dan then said "what do you want me to do" to which I replied "lift the son of a B---- up so I can get out". They lifted the tail and I extricated myself from the poor little wrecked airplane. Inspection of the tail wheel showed that my hastily fabricated steering mechanism had broken leaving me again with no steering and one brake.

Dick was a nervous wreck! His landing was not a good one to say the least. He did not want to fly anymore and elected to leave the Starduster where it sat. I told Dan how to handle the mixture control, throttle and fuel pump and propped him so he could continue on to San Marcos. We got the wreck upright and inside a lean-to hangar. We then borrowed the Texans old truck to go to the the scotch store and I called San Marcos to get the Viking to return to pick up the three of us. By the time the Viking arrived we had 1/2 a bottle, the rest being consumed inflight on the way to San Marcos. It was a nite flight and I do not remember any of it. I remained affected for 2 1/2 days, mostly at the San Marcos hotel. I am not  proud of this conduct but I was so disturbed at disappointing my crew and self that it seemed appropriate.

John Parker of (then) Formula 1 fame (Top Turkey) had brought two airplanes to the races, one of which he had sold. This left him with an extra tow vehicle. He was then based in Torrance, CA so our destination of Fallbrook was not too far out of his way. He graciously agreed that since he could use some extra drivers for the ride home his extra tow vehicle could take my airplane home on a trailer if two of my crew would assist with the driving, and we shared the fuel costs. We rented a trailer. The tow vehicle and Viking met at the wreck site and we disassembled it, loaded it and we all headed for Fallbrook. Ella got in the Viking and Dick & I flew the Starduster.

The rebuild after these incidents produced the 'T' tail configuration seen later on this airplane. During the rebuild we replaced the old Rosenhan shoe/drum brakes with second generation Rosenhan disc brakes and we built a tapered rod tail wheel spring with integral, steerable tailwheel. The airplane still retained the #25 and 'Two Bits' name but was painted black/silver/blue and raced at Reno 1981/82 in these colors and in this configuration.

I've told this story or parts of it many times but never before put it in writing. There must have been some lessons learned from all this.

Two accidents on one trip!

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