- Joined
- Oct 28, 2014
- Messages
- 5,142
- Display Name
- Jack Fleetwood
After all of these years, I finally captured a Bird Dog! Pretty cool airplane.
Air-to-Air Cessna O-1 Bird Dog
- Thread starter Lowflynjack
- Start date
- Joined
- Oct 28, 2014
- Messages
- 5,142
- Display Name
- Jack Fleetwood
Ok, I learned something new! I had no idea that 9 Bird Dogs were built in 2001 with NOS parts, with all original parts!
wanttaja
Final Approach
- Joined
- Jun 7, 2008
- Messages
- 5,667
- Location
- "War-Torn" Portland
- Display Name
- Ron Wanttaja
- Home Airfield
- Twin Oaks Airpark
One of my favorite planes! I have about 15 hours in a Bird Dog. How I got them was a bit off-the-wall.
In the mid-'70s, Civil Air Patrol picked up a bunch of surplus L-19s. They're excellent search airplanes...but even then, it was tough finding people willing to fly them. Not only were they more expensive to fly (squadron members had to pay $13/hour vs. $10/hour for the PA-18 or Citabria), they were ex-trainers that, perhaps, had been around the pattern too many times. The gear was glitchy.
Couple that with, even then, the rarity of pilots qualified to fly taildraggers, and the Bird Dogs didn't get much use. CAP required a minimum of 300 hours total time, and (I believe) 100 hours taildragger for a checkout, and ten hours of dual. There were few takers.
Enter Ronald J. Wanttaja, Cadet Colonel, Civil Air Patrol.
CAP regularly offered familiarization flights to cadets in its airplanes. I usually took my flight solo, as I'd learned to fly on the squadron Citabria. This was the first time the Bird Dog was available for familiarization flights. I signed up for a ride in it... not solo, of course.
Unbeknownst to me, the senior member (CAP major) flying the airplane was the Wing (state organization) check pilot for the Bird Dog. I was wearing my wings on my uniform, showing I had my Private. He asked how many hours I had, and asked what I'd been flying. When I told him I had 200 hours in a Citabria, he offered to let me take the front seat and fly.
I don't remember much about that flight, but when we landed, the major asked if I would be interested in a checkout. I told him, "Of course!" but that I had only 200 hours vs. the 300 required. He said "Never mind that."
One problem: He was located in a town ~200 miles away, and I'd have to do the checkout at his airport. Not the major of a problem; my grandparents lived just 30 miles away. So I arranged to show up for a weekend to start my checkout.
The Cessna 305/L-19/O-1 Bird Dog is one heck of a machine. If I couldn't have a Fly Baby, I'd have a Bird Dog. It has a lot of Cessna 170 heritage in it, which means a nice wide fuselage for a tandem airplane. The pilot sits waaaaayyy up high in the front. The side windows several inches away. The side windows are slanted outward so you can lean over an look straight down.
Everything is military, from the paint to seat to the pilot's harness to the panel layout to the throttle with multiple switches on it. One of the things I REALLY got a kick out of was the master "solenoid." It wasn't a solenoid, it was a big bar with L-shaped ends and a thumbwheel in the middle. You pushed the bar into the lower panel, and it physically connected the battery to the aircraft power bus.
I loved the way it flew. Light controls, seemed almost immune to stalls, you could turn tightly over a point with confidence. It had Cessna Barn Door flaps before the barns got downsized. They lowered to 60 degrees, letting you land almost anywhere.
It's been 50 years, and I only remember two specific instances during the checkout.
The first was the major saying, "Have you ever done a loop?" When I answered in the affirmative, he had me loop the Bird Dog. This was, apparently, part of the Army training syllabus.
The second was my final landing. A bit of a crosswind had come up. I'd landed OK. Then the nose darted right...probably a combination of the crosswind and the beat-up gear.
I slammed on left rudder to catch it...and a half-second later, I heard the major's foot hit HIS left rudder pedal below me. My reflexes had been faster than his.
At that point, he signed me off. Five hours of dual (vs. the 10 CAP required), 200 hours total time (vs. the 300). I was one of the few (if not only) CAP Cadets ever signed off to fly the Bird Dog. Our squadron's Bird Dog was based at the airplane right next to my college, and I was able to duck over there and fly it between classes.
Sadly, I was just marking time to go on active duty. About three months later, I got my orders, and apparently the Bird Dog languished, unloved, after I left.
Here's a picture I took of some of my cadet buddies. The guy on the far left recently retired as a Major General.
Ron Wanttaja
In the mid-'70s, Civil Air Patrol picked up a bunch of surplus L-19s. They're excellent search airplanes...but even then, it was tough finding people willing to fly them. Not only were they more expensive to fly (squadron members had to pay $13/hour vs. $10/hour for the PA-18 or Citabria), they were ex-trainers that, perhaps, had been around the pattern too many times. The gear was glitchy.
Couple that with, even then, the rarity of pilots qualified to fly taildraggers, and the Bird Dogs didn't get much use. CAP required a minimum of 300 hours total time, and (I believe) 100 hours taildragger for a checkout, and ten hours of dual. There were few takers.
Enter Ronald J. Wanttaja, Cadet Colonel, Civil Air Patrol.
CAP regularly offered familiarization flights to cadets in its airplanes. I usually took my flight solo, as I'd learned to fly on the squadron Citabria. This was the first time the Bird Dog was available for familiarization flights. I signed up for a ride in it... not solo, of course.
Unbeknownst to me, the senior member (CAP major) flying the airplane was the Wing (state organization) check pilot for the Bird Dog. I was wearing my wings on my uniform, showing I had my Private. He asked how many hours I had, and asked what I'd been flying. When I told him I had 200 hours in a Citabria, he offered to let me take the front seat and fly.
I don't remember much about that flight, but when we landed, the major asked if I would be interested in a checkout. I told him, "Of course!" but that I had only 200 hours vs. the 300 required. He said "Never mind that."
One problem: He was located in a town ~200 miles away, and I'd have to do the checkout at his airport. Not the major of a problem; my grandparents lived just 30 miles away. So I arranged to show up for a weekend to start my checkout.
The Cessna 305/L-19/O-1 Bird Dog is one heck of a machine. If I couldn't have a Fly Baby, I'd have a Bird Dog. It has a lot of Cessna 170 heritage in it, which means a nice wide fuselage for a tandem airplane. The pilot sits waaaaayyy up high in the front. The side windows several inches away. The side windows are slanted outward so you can lean over an look straight down.
Everything is military, from the paint to seat to the pilot's harness to the panel layout to the throttle with multiple switches on it. One of the things I REALLY got a kick out of was the master "solenoid." It wasn't a solenoid, it was a big bar with L-shaped ends and a thumbwheel in the middle. You pushed the bar into the lower panel, and it physically connected the battery to the aircraft power bus.
I loved the way it flew. Light controls, seemed almost immune to stalls, you could turn tightly over a point with confidence. It had Cessna Barn Door flaps before the barns got downsized. They lowered to 60 degrees, letting you land almost anywhere.
It's been 50 years, and I only remember two specific instances during the checkout.
The first was the major saying, "Have you ever done a loop?" When I answered in the affirmative, he had me loop the Bird Dog. This was, apparently, part of the Army training syllabus.
The second was my final landing. A bit of a crosswind had come up. I'd landed OK. Then the nose darted right...probably a combination of the crosswind and the beat-up gear.
I slammed on left rudder to catch it...and a half-second later, I heard the major's foot hit HIS left rudder pedal below me. My reflexes had been faster than his.
At that point, he signed me off. Five hours of dual (vs. the 10 CAP required), 200 hours total time (vs. the 300). I was one of the few (if not only) CAP Cadets ever signed off to fly the Bird Dog. Our squadron's Bird Dog was based at the airplane right next to my college, and I was able to duck over there and fly it between classes.
Sadly, I was just marking time to go on active duty. About three months later, I got my orders, and apparently the Bird Dog languished, unloved, after I left.
Here's a picture I took of some of my cadet buddies. The guy on the far left recently retired as a Major General.
Ron Wanttaja
- Joined
- Oct 28, 2014
- Messages
- 5,142
- Display Name
- Jack Fleetwood
Nice story! I've flown many cool planes over the years, but no Bird Dog time for some reason. My story of flying an unloved airplane would be in a T-6.
I looked at a Bird Dog as a photo plane. You pull the rear stick out, take the back of the seat off and relocate it to the front of that seat and now you're facing backwards with windows on either side that open upward. I love shooting from them. I can shoot from both sides in the same flight! The drawback... the same O-470 engine I have in my 182 with the same O-470 fuel burn, but a lot more drag. I can fly 150 MPH in my 182, a Bird Dog is 115 MPH on a good day.
Dana
Final Approach
Nice! Does Air Repair own the TC now, allowing them to build new planes?
I never flew a Bird Dog but I came close. When I was in my 20s I kept my T-Craft at Colts Neck airport in NJ. There was a low budget (aren't they all?) banner towing operation there using two very ratty Bird Dogs and one equally ratty Stearman. The banner firm owner offered me a job towing... I told him I didn't have a commercial, only a Private, and he said, "I don't care, I've seen you fly."
I actually thought about it, being young and foolish and really wanting more Stearman time, but he wanted all day, every Saturday and Sunday for the entire summer, and I had a life (and more importantly, a new girlfriend), so I declined. Just as well... a few weeks later one of the Bird Dogs crashed on an island when the engine quit during a pickup. Pilot not hurt, but it would've been an unpleasant investigation if a non commercial pilot was flying.
And yes, I married the girl and she still supports my flying.
I never flew a Bird Dog but I came close. When I was in my 20s I kept my T-Craft at Colts Neck airport in NJ. There was a low budget (aren't they all?) banner towing operation there using two very ratty Bird Dogs and one equally ratty Stearman. The banner firm owner offered me a job towing... I told him I didn't have a commercial, only a Private, and he said, "I don't care, I've seen you fly."
I actually thought about it, being young and foolish and really wanting more Stearman time, but he wanted all day, every Saturday and Sunday for the entire summer, and I had a life (and more importantly, a new girlfriend), so I declined. Just as well... a few weeks later one of the Bird Dogs crashed on an island when the engine quit during a pickup. Pilot not hurt, but it would've been an unpleasant investigation if a non commercial pilot was flying.
And yes, I married the girl and she still supports my flying.
