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November 22, 2004 - Notes from
phone conversation between Mark Calderwood and Don Ramm.
The T-34 Association's website has
attracted the attention of a bit of T-34 history. Mark and Anita
Calderwood, currently living in Europe, recently purchased Beech
serial number G-2 over there -- see the webpage for serial number G-2
on the Association's website for some of the details. (I
didn't warn Mark that I cut/paste directly to the website with little
editing so what you see the first of what I hope are many emails on
the subject that he quickly pounded out for me.) He is planning on a
full restoration by Weaver Aircraft in Carson City NV. I've asked him
to keep me informed of the restoration effort which I will feature on
the T-34 Assn website -- along with any other restorations that you
want to tell me about.
I told Mark about the T-34 Email List and
have added his email address to the list, but I can't contain myself.
I just have to pass on news about G-2. Mark, please correct any
glaring errors in what I am writing here.
Any factual errors in missive is
probably because I misunderstood something Mark was trying to tell me.
Mark has been working on warbirds since he
was 16 (I think he said that was 30 years ago) when he lived in Chino.
He is an A&P/IA. He's a pilot though I don't know how much time he's
got or what aircraft he's flown -- probably some interesting ones.
Today he works for Red Bull in Austria where his title is Chief
Mechanic and Inspector for their flying operation. See
www.FlyingBulls.com. He first flew a T-34 at Chino in the 80s and has
had his eye out for one ever since.
The chief pilot at Flying Bulls, Siggi
Angerer, an Austrian, knew about the Model 45 and asked the owner (the
Austrian equivalent of the FAA) occasionally if they wanted
to sell it. It hasn't flown since 1996 and a year or so ago they
finally agreed they no longer need it. Siggi told Mark and Mark bought
it (or something like that). Today it
sits in one of the Flying Bulls' hangars in crates getting ready for
the trip to Weaver Aircraft.
Mark has lived in Austria for the past 3
and a half years and has no plans for moving back to the states at
this time. I asked him what is going to happen to the Model 45 after
the restoration is done: Stay in the states or go back to Europe. He
doesn't know yet.
He will restore it to its original
condition. That means removing the augmenter tubes and reinstalling
cowl flaps, putting the roll bar back in, removing the passing light
which was not on the original Model 45s, etc. He is going to put a
regular prop on it but will keep the electric prop and an E-185 engine
(that's how it was originally equipped?) ready to put in at any time.
He is not going to put a "big engine" in it. He's even going to put
the instrument panel back as it once was. He said the airframe is in
great shape; no corrosion anywhere but will have Weaver Aircraft tear
it completely apart anyway. It certainly sounds like G-2 is in the
right hands.
Betty Skelton [ed: see more on Ms. Skelton
below] flew it at the Cleveland Air Races in 1949. Mark has a picture
with Betty in the cockpit of G-2 with Bill Odom on the wing. That was
the year he crashed "Beguine" and died in the process. Betty has a lot
of memorabilia that she is giving to the Smithsonian. Unfortunately,
the box will all of her logbooks was lost in a move many years ago so
she can't show Mark exactly how much time she had in G-2. Mark is also
in contact with the son of Bevo Howard [ed: see more on Mr. Howard
below] who will
dig through his father's stuff to see if he can find anything on G-2.
Mark called Charlie Nogle about it
sometime in the past year and surprised him. Apparently Charlie didn't
know that G-2 still existed. G-2 is the pre-YT-34 pictured in Lou
Drendel's "T-34 Mentor in Action" book.
G-2 has a standard Bonanza wing so,
according to Mark, the spar AD does not apply! I warned him -- with
nothing to back up my warning -- that the FAA may try to make it
apply. He said technically it is NOT a T-34 and it is classified (correct term?)
as an "Experimental" -- type certification for the T-34 didn't started until the YT-34s
(G-4 through G-6) were made. Anyway, he feels confident that he won't have to
do anything to the spar. For what it's worth: The Austrians tell him
the airplane was never used for training; never used for any serious
acro. It only has 1400 hours on it as far as he can tell!
He is trying to get the original tail
number, N8592A, back, but is apparently dealing with some bureaucracy
in Washington DC. The three "XT-34s" were the only Mentors
to be given tail numbers from the get-go: N8591A for G-1 through N8593A for
G-3.
He is in the collecting information stage
at this time. If you do have some info please pass it on to Mark via
the T-34 Email List so we can all enjoy reading about it. If you must
sending something in confidence Mark's email address is
xt_34@hotmail.com -- note the "underscore" between "xt" and
"34".
Don Ramm
webmaster@t-34.com
____________________________________________________________________
November 23, 2004 --
Several people wrote back to me
personally with corrections and
additional information on my note about G-2 -- some interesting stuff.
***
Bill Odom
set two round-the-world records in a B-24 and a B-26, but he was
scared to death flying pylons.
***
The
correct name is Bevo Howard. Bevo is what they called him instead of
Beverly. NO-ONE called him Beverly. He flew airshows in a black and
white Jungmeister in the late '40s. In 1971 he died in it
after the engine failed after an inverted pass.
Betty
Skelton flew the original Pitts, "Lil' Stinker", in the '46-'47
Cleveland Nationals. She did it with an 85 HP Continental O-192.
***
Skelton
and Howard were air race figures from the golden era of racing.
Cleveland was one of the most famous venues at the time. What is now
Burke Lakefront Airport was the site used at the time. Doolittle,
Tanner, and many others raced there as well.
[March 26 2005: Editor: I received a
correction to the above statement about Burke Lakefront Airport.
The Cleveland Air Races in the 30's & 40's were all held at Hopkins
airport (CLE), not Burke Lakefront.]
***
Try
www.bevhoward.com for info on Bevo Howard [Ed: This is
actually the website for Mr. Howard's son, also named Beverly Howard,
but he has a lot of information about his father on the site including
where the name "Bevo" came from.] He was
responsible for most USAF primary flight training. His Bucker is
displayed at the Smithsonian. As for Betty Skelton her Pitts Special "Lil'
Stinker" is also displayed at the Smithsonian. These two pilots were
responsible for the publicity for the Beech Model 45. I have a copy of
the photo of Betty and the 45 signed by the Pentagon brass who
witnessed her demo for them.
I don't know if your
interest as a site moderator compels you to present history of the 34
series but these two pilots, dare I say icons, deserves to be told to
a group of fans who may not know of there contributions.
***
Don Ramm
webmaster@T-34.com
____________________________________________________________________
February 8, 2005 -- She is in the
container finally and ready to go home. It has been tough getting
everything (paperwork) done. I broke my leg and have been out of
action for a while. We did get assigned N4208F while we are waiting
for the old N#. More as it happens. (Click
here for picture in the
container.)
Mark Calderwood
____________________________________________________________________
May 16, 2005 -- The XT-34 is the
cleanest project brought here in 25 years. There is no corrosion
anywhere. There are no scratches patches or dings. The sole exception
is a patch on the bug cowl where the nose was dinged during an
emergency landing. The engine compartment is bonanza as are the wings.
[Editor: Click
here for
picture of engine compartment sans engine. It will open in a new
window.]
Neil Weaver
BirddogN8WP@aol.com
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