“For a good time call…” Flying a Vintage Airplane From Maine to Alabama
One joy of having a Commercial Pilot Certificate allows me to ferry (fly from one place to another for someone) aircraft for buyers and sellers. I had the opportunity a few months ago to ferry a 1951 Super 260 Navion and it was a fun adventure.
“…we discovered we were venturing into a restricted area.”
When the buyer contacted me about taking the job, I had honestly never heard of a Navion. The Navion (Ryan Navion, formerly North American Aviation) was originally produced in the 1940’s during World War II. Another name for the Navion was the L-17A, designated by the Army. There was nothing really special about the L-17A. It wasn’t incredibly fast or powerful. It has been described to me as the “fat general’s ride” during the war. However, the accuracy of that term is unknown to me.
At some time, I believe it to be 1951, the Navion got a little kick when the Lycoming GO-435 was installed. This brought the Navion from it’s original 185HP engine to the 260HP gear driven engine. That is what this Navion has under the cowling, hence the name “Super 260.”
This was what she looked like (brown plane) on arrival to the airport in Bethel, ME. (My apologies for the small image)
My journey started weeks before the flight by reviewing documents, videos, and any other forms of information I could pull up on this vintage airplane. I didn’t want any surprises when I arrived all the way in Maine to fly her home.
Early morning, me and the new owner flew by airline from Birmingham, Alabama, to Portland, Maine. We had a short layover in the nations capitol during the trip, and the weather was perfect; preceding the perfect flying weather we would encounter, and expected, on our journey home. Planning the trip, we discovered that the area of Maine we were visiting didn’t have services readily available like Uber or Lift. We found a cab company about halfway between Portland and Bethel that agreed to pick us up at the airport and deliver us to our destination. The ride was beautiful and our driver was a sweet lady that somewhat gave us the tour guide experience as we took the 2 hour trip by car.
Flying into Portland Maine
When we arrived at the small airport in Bethel, Maine, we were met by the seller of the airplane. He was a fun guy, originally from Jersey, so we were met with a strong northern accent. You could imagine listening to the conversation between us two southerners and this guy from ‘up north.’ Interestingly enough, we had a lot in common. We said all of the pleasantries, and moved on to the airplane. The seller asked if either one of us had flown a Navion before, particularly one with a gear driven engine; to which we both simultaneously said “nope.” “So no gear box driven prop?” Me and my partner in this journey both looked at each other and shook our heads no. The guy laughed and said, “…and you guys are flying all the way to Alabama, that right?” “Yes Sir,” I replied. He kinda chuckled and motioned us to follow him.
Walking into the hangar there were cool little trinkets hanging up, but one caught my eye. Let’s be adults here fellas… it would have caught your eye also! Walking over to this calendar I couldn’t help but notice the impeccable placement of the calendar dates, logos, and fine color utilized in creating this calendar. Someone knew what they were doing in the design department. I had to flip through the calendar to see if there were any special dates I had missed, or any that were approaching. You know… I never want to be left out of missing important dates.
Probably some of the best marketing for a building material supply company I’ve ever seen. I did markup the red scribbles on here to keep it PG.
The next several hours involved a very thorough pre-flight, swinging the gears, and going over all the maintenance logs. Swinging the landing gear while on the ground involves jacking the airplane up and retracting, then lowering the landing gear to ensure safe operation. Last thing I wanted was a surprise on my first landing. Everything was successful, so me and the seller took it for a quick trip around the airport before we began our cross country adventure. By now, the sun hadn’t left us any more time, and I wasn’t going to start my night cross country flight in a [new to me] vintage airplane flying over mountainous terrain. I’m sure you can speculate the concerns, but risk mitigation is a thing. The plan was to bed down for the night and wake up early to begin the journey home.
We hitched a ride to our little bed and breakfast we found, settled in, and walked across the street to a diner for supper. The food was great, but my bed was calling; for we had a long day ahead.
Definitely not your typical sleek, new ride, but this airplane was a dream to fly.
We woke up the next morning and wound up walking to the airport. Again, Uber, Lift, and any other form of transportation wasn’t readily available in this town. The airport however did have courtesy bicycles, which was actually quite fun… however we had luggage, so cycling wasn’t a feasible option for us. The walk was only about a mile and a half, which is always a good way to start the day. Had we not walked, I would have not stopped to take this photo.
One of the few photos I took on this trip.
I will say after returning home, I was a little disappointed in myself for not taking more still photos. I shot a good bit of vertical video to fill the social media story itch, but after the spark and glitter of the social media dopamine hit subsided, I realized I had nothing that really captured our trip.
…a hard lesson learned.
Another preflight of the airplane and final weather/NOTAM check, we started her up. Taxiing this airplane is interesting; she has no toe or heel brakes. All the braking is done by a hand lever that equally brakes the left and right gear. We back-taxied to the end of the runway, taking off away from terrain, into the wind, and conveniently the direction we were heading. The stars had aligned thus far. Taking off, this girl was eager to get off the ground. You could hear it in the gentle purr of the engine, the way she soared through the air put a smile on both our faces. While new airplanes are great, there is nothing like taking a vintage aircraft up.
Our first stop was to Saratoga County Airport (5B2) in Saratoga Springs, New York. First landing was butter (Butter is term us aviators use for a great landing.). It was a 10/10 landing, if you have any doubts just ask me. (I jest.) We fueled the airplane and got a spot on accuracy of the fuel burn, which the burn rate was exactly what we had planned for. The FBO staff was very nice, and I even met a pilot from my home state. He was piloting a much larger aircraft for a company, and this airport was one of his stops.
“You guys aren’t from around here, aye?”
Our next stop was to Altoona/Blair County Airport in Altoona, Pennsylvania. This airport was a bit bigger, with scheduled flights coming in and out of this airport. We later found this out when we discovered we were venturing afoot into a restricted area on the tarmac. The fuel pumps were literally located on the far end of the airfield from the FBO, so we had some walking to do. In our defense, that red line was hardly visible to even the best of eyes. The gentleman that come running towards us explaining our error got tickled when we spoke up. “You guys aren’t from around here, aye?” We sure aren’t buddy….
While charting into restricted territory was a little bit adventurous, we had more miles to go, and time was ticking. Raleigh County Memorial Airport (KBKW) in Beckley, West Virginia was the next stop. Along the route in West Virginia there was nothing. Well… wind turbines and mountains. Staying at a high altitude is always best, in case of an engine failure, but this was one time that my glide range didn’t really matter. If the engine quit, it was trees and mountainous terrain we’d be dealing with. This was really the only leg of the trip that didn’t provide us with many fields or roads to land in, in case of the unthinkable. …but nonetheless, the views were breathtaking.
Stopping at Beckley was a good pick. The line guy, who also served as the airport firefighter, was as good as gold. He had a love for aviation and was full of questions. I remember him saying he had family in Georgia and had planned to finish up flight school down there. I offered my suggestions and the lessons learned before saying our goodbyes and taking off to our last stop for the day.
Virginia Highlands airport in Abingdon, Virginia is no stranger to me. I picked this stop because of the fantastic service I always receive from the airport staff when I fly to this airport. This stop was no different. They have crew cars, but are unable to lend them overnight. This was no problem for the guys here, as we were able to get a ride from one of the guys to the hotel. Another busy day called for some food and walking to supper seemed to be the going thing for us. Fortunately a pizza place was nearby and within a quick stroll. I will say, a stomach full of pizza and many hours of flying made for great sleep.
“For a good time, call….”
We ran into a problem the following morning while trying to find a ride to the airport. Our original plans fell through due to unforeseen events. Fortunately we were connected with someone at the hotel that knew ‘a guy.’ We arranged for pickup and when the time came a tall guy wearing a cowboy hat pulled up in a blue dodge challenger. This was a true Marlboro man, despite his slick ride. This guy was fantastic. We had a speedy, and I mean speedy trip to the airport. When we got out he gave us his card and said, “If you’re ever back in town and need a ride, hit me up!” Flipping the card over, it said “For a good time, call [info.]” I’ll definitely hit him up for a ride again.
The last leg of the trip had come. From Virginia to our home in Gadsden, Alabama, took about 2 hours. This beats a 5 hour car drive any day. …and the total trip was much faster than a 20 hour non-stop car ride. I mean, who wants to ride around in a car all day when they can fly a vintage aircraft? Not this guy! Coming through the Chattanooga area we picked up an emergency locator transmitter (ELT) while monitoring guard (aviation emergency frequency) and coordinated our findings with ATC. A few other aircraft was able to pick up on the beacon, but turns out it was nothing. Well, it was something, just not a crashed aircraft.
After the short flight back to Alabama, the ferry flight was complete. Fun times, a great adventure, and an aircraft I had never flown before was now logged in my logbook. As a pilot there is always something to learn, and this airplane was no exception. The way it started to the way it landed, was all different. It was unique, but flying a navion is something not many people have done. They just aren’t common airplanes, especially the gear driven ones. All-in-all, it was a wonderful trip and I hope to do more like it some day!
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