Was thinking about "Flight of Passage" this morning. It was one of the books I read while studying for my Private in 2002, and I was glued to it —I loved it. The memoir of two brothers on a long cross country flight in a J-3 captures the pure freedom, simplicity, and magic of flying. And if you have a brother close in age it hits some other sentimental spots.

I'd love to hear any tales or lightweight trip reports of your similar long journeys in small engine varietals of our golden age taildraggers.

I may be wrong....but the Flight of Passage plane was a PA-11, not a Jl-3, I think. If so, it would have had an 85 or 90, not a 65.....maybe.

MTV

mtv wrote:I may be wrong....but the Flight of Passage plane was a PA-11, not a Jl-3, I think. If so, it would have had an 85 or 90, not a 65.....maybe.

MTV

Early -11s had a 65.

My PA-11 is getting close. I have dumb ideas of “epic” adventures in it. I’ll let you know how it goes.

mtv wrote:I may be wrong....but the Flight of Passage plane was a PA-11, not a Jl-3, I think. If so, it would have had an 85 or 90, not a 65.....maybe.

MTV

You're right. Hopefully we can still enjoy this idea despite the pesky details.

Zzz wrote:

mtv wrote:I may be wrong....but the Flight of Passage plane was a PA-11, not a Jl-3, I think. If so, it would have had an 85 or 90, not a 65.....maybe.

MTV

You're right. Hopefully we can still enjoy this idea despite the pesky details.

Hey, I'm with you there.....I flew my PA-11 (unfortunately, equipped with a massively powerful C-90) from SW Montana to Oshkosh and back four times. Big fun, especially the first trip, with only one 18 gallon wing tank.

MTV

Geez, this topic brings back some good memories. Alaska to the Atlantic ocean and back in a 65hp 1941 BC-12D. My 100th hour in my logbook was when I entered Canada southbound.

-DP

In May 1972 I was considering university offers. My younger brother and I flew the neighbor's J-3 from near Waco, TX to Oakland, CA and then back home. Yes, we forgot the water bag!

I bought a 65hp Champ pretty much sight unseen in the spring of 2019 that was in Sebring FL. My tailwheel time was low, so I talked a friend with a ton of tailwheel time into going down with me to pick it up and we would fly it home to Northern NY, roughly 1,400 miles. Should be a fun adventure, who would want to miss out on something like that? Flew down to Ft. Meyers and stayed with a friend that drove us to Sebring the next day. Took the Champ for a spin and completed the sale. We grabbed some lunch and looked at the weather and decided to start North. I found out where a lot of my oranges come from.



We stopped at this grass strip for fuel (Can't remember the name) and got to Deland the first day with no issues. The plane was running well and the weather was good


I wasn't feeling great the next day, so Jeff flew from the back so I hopefully wouldn't puke since it was kind of bumpy. Somewhere over Georgia that plan went to crap and I mostly filled a Ziplock (I highly recommend the 2 gallon sliders). We jettisoned that over a logging operation and kept at it. Got through Georgia and into South Carolina. Grabbed some fuel and fresh air and carried on. Pretty much in the middle of SC I puked again (Thank you Ziplock!), about two minutes after that the plane started running rough. Jeff asked me what I was doing with the throttle, I replied nothing. I then started looking for airports on the iPad with my right hand, holding the Ziplock in my left. Now the plane is running like crap. Bamberg CTY (99N) was our closest choice, only 4 miles away, se we stayed over fields and headed there. We landed uneventfully and parked the plane. The airport at that time was empty, other than a Bonanza with no engine and this lovely car. Yup, those are bullet holes.


We were like WTF? There were three hangers and a office that hadn't seen anyone for at least a couple of years. Did some work on the plane and decided the carb was F'ed.


Long story short I called the only person I knew in South Carolina , a old friend from Highschool and he drove 2+ hours to rescue us. Got in touch with the airport Mgr. and we got the plane in the county hanger, which was also filled with cars with bullet holes - turns out they were all evidence for drug busts. Stayed with my friends Bill & Karen for a couple of days while we got stuff sorted out.


Found a mechanic close by that would go work on the plane and we flew home with our tails between our legs. Fast forward a month and after a carb overhaul and a couple other small items we headed back to Bill & Karen's and then back to Bamberg CTY airport.
Talked to the guy that got us going and he said, just stop by my airport (Dry Swamp 1DS) on the way out and pay me. While there we were in his hanger and noticed a Vultee BT-13. One of my hanger mates owned a BT-13 at the time so we mentioned it. Turns out the guy that fixed my Champ also overhauled the engine on the BT-13 that we knew. Small world. Any way we headed North once again. Basically uneventful this time. No breakdowns, other than a tailwheel fix and no puking. Made it the rest of the way in three days.



Shenandoah River


Don't fly over the chickens!


Preferred parking, which was great until the jet fired up.


Last fuel stop, Orange CTY, NY


Hudson River South of Albany


Made it Home sweet home


Pete

Nice one, Pete! That's what I'm talking about.

I did a good trip this past summer in a 65 HP Taylorcraft from Wisconsin to California. Two people, light gear, and across MN, IA, NE, WY, UT, NV. Via roughly the I-80 route to get across the Rockies.

I'll try to write-up the story.

I've never flown a 65 Hp anything, so nothing to directly add to your story collection. Still, any plane can seem weak and underpowered when heavily loaded in high DA conditions. I was flying back to the Pacific Northwest in a rented (and high time) Piper Archer that was full of camping gear, my date and 2 Montegue folding bicycles we bought at the show. It was a hot summer and we couldn't climb above 7500' on engine power alone, so I had to thermal the plane (at full power) to get high enough to cross the Rockies at Mullen Pass. Once at Altitude, I made sure I could hold it before heading into the mountains, and we followed I-90 religiously just in case...We made it just fine and I was supremely happy with my experience hang gliding because that's what gave me the idea of trying to thermal an underpowered plane to get to altitude. That kind of experience becomes more important as the power available decrease with aircraft make, model and engine condition. The higher altitudes needed to cross the Rocky Mountain western 1/4 of the country also boosts the need for more than just powered plane flight experience. Along the eastern seaboard, there aren't any "real" mountains, so you can get away with less power available.

In a 7AC J3 etc 65hp is not weak or underpowered

Reminds me of when I flew my Stinson across the US and into the west coast, years later folks were saying how you need like 300 HP to cross the mountains, need a “mountain flying course” and all this stuff, guess it was good I didn’t know that while I had a great time flying in all the passes and such lol


Depending on schedule I might be doing a A65 powered trip from near the Canadian boarder to about as far south as you can get in the US, if it goes I’ll be sure to take some photos and post the write up