Flight Training - August 2024 - 8

UNUSUAL ATTITUDE BY DAVE HIRSCHMAN
A flying friend, Ryder Adams,
happened to be at Torrance Airport
(TOA) with his Beech Baron, and he
could fly the prop to his home in Arizona.
I'd be in Arizona the following week for
the AOPA Fly-In at the Buckeye Air Fair
and could meet my propeller there.
Herron turned the prop over to
Editor at Large DAVE HIRSCHMAN joined
AOPA in 2008. He has an airline transport
pilot certificate and instrument and
multiengine flight instructor certificates.
dave.hirschman@aopa.org
'JUST WHAT WE DO'
The used propeller for sale in Southern California seemed like
just what my RV-4 needed, but completing the deal and getting
the propeller to the East Coast-based airplane presented some big
hurdles. The obstacles weren't insurmountable, however, because
of some timely help from family and the flying community.
First, I called my brother Harry, an airline pilot who flies out of Los Angeles International
Airport (LAX), and told him I was considering buying a propeller located at
the Compton Airport about an hour's drive away. It turned out that he was flying to
LAX the next day (from Auckland, New Zealand) and would take a detour to check out
the prop on his drive home.
The next day he called and said he was at Compton, the prop looked great, and its
logbook was complete. I transferred the funds to the seller, and Harry loaded the prop
into his pickup truck and drove home to Santa Paula. The prop was wrapped in plastic,
not boxed, so shipping it to the East Coast would require some packing.
But I had another idea. A corporate pilot who flies a Maryland-based Cessna
Citation happened to be going to the Hawthorne Airport (HHR) in a couple of days
and had room to transport the prop in the jet's cargo bay. The prop just needed to get
to Hawthorne for pickup.
Harry was flying with a friend in a Cessna 185 Skywagon and volunteered to drop
the prop at Hawthorne the day before the jet arrived. He brought the prop to
Hawthorne and left it with a note for the Citation pilot.
My elaborate plan fell apart the next day, however, when bad weather and the
Citation's changing schedule eliminated the airplane's California stop. Now, the prop
was stranded at the line shack of a busy FBO and needed rescue.
I called AOPA colleague Alicia Herron who lives in Torrance, California, and told
her about my stranded prop. She kindly drove to Hawthorne the next day, put the prop
in her F-150 pickup, and, as a memorable aside, happened to meet pilot/actor/aviation
advocate Harrison Ford in the FBO lobby.
Herron took the prop home with her while I plotted the next step-finding a prop
box and shipping it to Maryland. But Harry had a better idea.
8
FLIGHT TRAINING AUGUST 2024
Adams, and Adams transported it to his
hangar in Payson, Arizona. About 10
days later, I ferried the AOPA fuel demo
Baron to Buckeye and retrieved the prop
in Payson with a big assist from Adams'
wife, Chris. Ryder was out of town, so she
helped me load the metal constant-speed
propeller through the Baron's baggage
door, and then I continued on to Buckeye.
After the fly-in, I planned to fly the
Baron home to Frederick, Maryland, but
there was a last-minute detour. The Baron
and I were sent to Ada, Oklahoma, for
five days to gather performance data on
unleaded G100UL aviation fuel from Adabased
GAMI. (The Baron uses unleaded
fuel in its left engine and avgas in the
right engine, and a digital engine monitor
records temperatures, pressures, and
settings constantly.)
The Baron and I flew more than
30 hours that week at Ada (with the
propeller lashed down in back) before
the flights concluded. Then the Baron
and I flew the final six hours home
to Maryland. In all, the propeller had
covered about 5,000 nautical miles by air.
Once on the ground at AOPA
headquarters in Frederick, Maryland,
aviation mechanic extraordinaire Carlo
Cilliers (aka " the airplane whisperer " )
put the prop in his Toyota pickup and
took it to the hangar my RV-4 shares with
his award-winning Mustang II and Hatz
Classic creations.
It took overnight stays in two
apartments, two hangars, an FBO, and
an airport office, drives in three pickup
trucks, and flights in two Barons, as well
as special handling by brother Harry,
Alicia Herron, Ryder and Chris Adams,
and Carlo Cilliers, to get the prop where
it belongs.
I finally got a chance to thank Adams
for his assistance when I met him in
person at the AOPA Fly-In at Buckeye,
and he was nonchalant.
" Helping each other out is just what
we do in the aviation community, " he
said. " It's a big part of what makes all
this so worthwhile. " FT

Flight Training - August 2024

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