Re: Silverton Airport/Alaska NNG

KevinM Wrote:
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> Helios are way cool. Decades ago, I was lucky
> enough to get 100 hrs in an HT-295...a converted
> Army U-10D. That was a very rare bird, which was
> converted as a tricycle gear airplane. It lost
> some of its versatility (max demo cross-wind of
> just 8 knots!), but the STOL capability was
> definitely still there. At MGTOW, that critter
> would clear a 50 ft obstacle from a standing start
> in 630 ft. Power was a 295 hp Lycoming GO-480,
> with the prop turning about 2200 RPM and the
> crankshaft turning at 3400 RPM. 30 years later, I
> still miss that airplane. It was one of the two
> coolest types I have ever flown...the other was a
> Lake Amphibian.

Great airplane .... bit expensive to run, though. John's would fly at 28 knots, though it would wallow a bit. It was always fun when we had a good wind and we'd fly over town backwards to amaze the tourists.

I don't know if things are as lax in AK nowadays, but we flew down to Juneau one day ..... the guys in the tower asked if we could set her down right on the numbers on the runway ..... we cruised in slow, landed three-point on the numbers, kicked left rudder, turning onto the ramp with absolutely no roll out on the runway/ The radio came on and there was applause from the tower crew. Probably those good old days of cracking jokes on Flight Service radio, and so on, are long gone.

Skip Luke
Switchman (ret): Grand Canyon Railway;
Engineer (ret): Georgetown Loop RR Inc., Sumpter Valley Ry., Monticello & Sangamon Valley;
Dispatcher(ret): Illinois Central, White Pass & Yukon, Burlington Northern Ry.
Mariner, Musician, Miner