Aircraft Information
> Aircraft Make: DeHavilland. Model: DHC-3. Nickname: Otter
> Aircraft Mil Civ Description: Airplane SE Piston
> FAA Category and Class: Airplane Single Engine Land (and Sea)
> Engine Description: single piston (radial)

Aircraft Experience
> As of: 11/4/2024
> Number of Hours Flown: 41
> Number of Times Flown: 26
> Other Aircraft Models Associated: Turbine Otter (never flown one)

First Flown Information
> Sequence First Flown: 21
> Date First Flown: 3/11/1986
> Location First Flown: NAS Patuxent River, MD (KNHK)
> Who and/or What Organization First Flown With: USNTPS, Chris Wheal

Recollections: The NU-1B (DHC-3) Otter, lovingly called “The Nub” at USNTPS, served the same mission at TPS as the U-6 Beaver about which I’ve written extensively.  The Otter is MUCH bigger (just remember: “The big airplane is the smaller animal”) and noticeably less powerful (considering it’s higher weight).  I flew the Otter way less than the Beaver.  

These two designs, by the same company, fly very differently.  It starts on the ground.  The Otter has a powered tailwheel system which is locked for takeoff (as opposed to the Beaver’s manually steerable tailwheel which doesn’t lock).  The Otter’s powered system lags, which causes some tendency for a pilot induced oscillation when just taxiing and, I’m sure, would be really bad were it retained for takeoff and landing (instead of locking it).  You also need to make sure it’s not too windy out when you go flying, as the Otter can easily get STUCK on the ground, owing to the huge side area of it’s fuselage, combined with the relatively ineffective tailwheel steering.

On landing, the Beaver is a sweet 3 point landing airplane…you have good pitch control all the way throughout the landing flare.  On the other hand, if you try a 2 point or “wheeler”, the Beaver will typically skip back into the air, requiring the pilot to “stick the landing”, by pushing forward in what is an uncomfortable application of the pitch control.   The Otter?  Totally different.  It loves to wheel-land, absorbing much of the force of a harder landing caused by pilot technique.  But, if you want to 3 point a landing in the Otter, you have to enter the initial flare at exactly the right altitude and airspeed and then, just as the airplane starts to enter the final flare, you make essentially a full aft yoke input and pray it was exactly at the right time.  Usually it’s not, causing a “ker-flump”, and the feeling and look of a poor landing by a gooney bird. Lots of stuff to write about in the Otter, which makes it a wonderful airplane for the USNTPS curricula.

Aircraft Information
> Aircraft Make: Piper. Model: PA-18. Nickname: Super Cub
> Aircraft Mil Civ Description: Airplane SE Piston
> FAA Category and Class: Airplane Single Engine Land (and Sea)
> Engine Description: single piston

Aircraft Experience
> As of: 11/4/2024
> Number of Hours Flown: 94
> Number of Times Flown: 47
> Other Aircraft Models Associated: J-3, various L-birds

First Flown Information
> Sequence First Flown: 147
> Date First Flown: 6/4/2004
> Location First Flown: Kenmore Air Harbor, WA
> Who and/or What Organization First Flown With: Kenmore Air, Kevin Thomson

Recollections: This entry includes “Super Cubs” manufactured by Piper, as well as sijmilar-looking but newly made and improved Super Cubs built by Cubcrafters of Yakima, WA.  My Cubcrafters flying included certification flight tests and production audits.  

My first supercub flight was in a Seaplane at Kenmore Aviation.  

Most of my Super Cub flights are in one airplane, N333TM, a tow plane operated by the Puget Sound Soaring Association (PSSA), near my home in Seattle.  As of this writing, I’ve towed 311 gliders airborne and look forward to many more years of towing out of this gorgeous, one-way-in-opposite-way-out field nestled against the first line of ridges on the west side of the Cascade Mountains. My logbook shows 57 flights but that’s because flights are all lumped into one day when you’re doing tow operation. I’ve flown N333TM 45 times but done 311 tows.

Aircraft Information
> Aircraft Make: Cessna. Model: 210. Nickname: Centurion
> Aircraft Mil Civ Description: Airplane SE Piston
> FAA Category and Class: Airplane Single Engine Land
> Engine Description: single piston

Aircraft Experience
> As of: 11/4/2024
> Number of Hours Flown: 54
> Number of Times Flown: 15
> Other Aircraft Models Associated: T210, C-T210L, P210

First Flown Information
> Sequence First Flown: 139
> Date First Flown: 9/3/2003
> Location First Flown: Mid-continent airport, Wichita, KS (KICT)
> Who and/or What Organization First Flown With: fellow FAA Test Pilot Ralph Rissmiller

Recollections: The Cessna 210 comes in a variety of models, including a pressurized version.  It is an excellent cross-country airplane and all my flights were done when I was in Wichita, KS as an FAA Test Pilot.  The 210 that I flew (N5267V) was unpressurized but it was turbocharged and had an oxygen system.  My logbook shows both personal and professional trips from Wichita to Burbank, CA (for a Test Pilot symposium), Little Rock AR (to visit my great friends Lee and Connie Khinoo), Rochester, MN (with fellow tester and great friend Derek Morgan), several trips to Olathe, KS for meetings, and my first attendance at the world’s largest airshow, Oshkosh, WI “Airventure”, where I was “on duty” with the FAA.

It’s not clear to me why this airplane’s production was halted, in favor of the fixed gear, strutted 172/182/206 designs that continue.  Seems like it could’ve given the later Cirrus-type airplanes a run for their money.  

Aircraft Information
> Aircraft Make: Beechcraft. Model: A-36, B-36, etc. Nickname: Bonanza
> Aircraft Mil Civ Description: Airplane SE Piston
> FAA Category and Class: Airplane single engine land
> Engine Description: single piston

Aircraft Experience
> As of: 11/4/2024
> Number of Hours Flown: 64
> Number of Times Flown: 32
> Other Aircraft Models Associated: V-tail, etc (see Wikipedia)

First Flown Information
> Sequence First Flown: 66
> Date First Flown: 3/3/1990
> Location First Flown: Unknown
> Who and/or What Organization First Flown With: Unknown (probably USNTPS Qual Eval)

Recollections: Sometimes my logbook fails me.  In the case of my first flight in the venerable Beechcraft Bonanza, I have a flight logged with no detail…no location or who I flew with.  I suspect it was a Qualitative Evaluation at USNTPS, based on the timing.

My second flight in a Bonanza, a whopping 12 years after my first flight, was on a project with the FAA.  I was a Test Pilot in the FAA’s Wichita Aircraft Certification Office (ACO) and was assigned to fly an A36 Bonanza on a series of flights to qualify a Known Icing system, utilizing TKS fluid.  This project, conducted with a company called AS&T and flown with Dave Henry, was a very interesting experience and marked my first exposure to testing and projects associated with “known ice certification”.  We flew thru some pretty bad ice and the TKS system did an excellent job. Over the course of my FAA career, the theory and practice behind icing certification (which is much more than just flying in icing) became one of my very favorite technical disciplines.

I was able to fly the Bonanza on a number of other projects and always enjoyed this sold Beechcraft design which, like the Baron, has continued in production to this day.  

Aircraft Information
> Aircraft Make: North American. Model: T-28B. Nickname: Trojan
> Aircraft Mil Civ Description: Airplane SE Piston
> FAA Category and Class: Airplane Single engine Land
> Engine Description: Single piston (radial)

Aircraft Experience
> As of: 11/4/2024
> Number of Hours Flown: 84
> Number of Times Flown: 46
> Other Aircraft Models Associated: T-28A (smaller motor), T-28C (tailhook)

First Flown Information
> Sequence First Flown: 3
> Date First Flown: 12/1/1980
> Location First Flown: NAS Whiting Field, FL
> Who and/or What Organization First Flown With: Capt Leonard Blanton, USMC, Training Squadron Six (VT-6)

Recollections: You can read about the T-28–and it’s impact on my life and flying career–in the “About me” section of this website. 

Suffice it to say, the T-28 is always on my short list of favorite aircraft. 

In 2023, my relationship with the Mighty Trojan was renewed, after a 42 year gap, when I had the opportunity to fly one as part of a formation clinic at which I was teaching.  Thanks to Charlie Goldbach of Spokane, WA, I was 22 years old again.  The Trojan handled just as beautifully as I’d always remembered.  Now I WANT ONE.  🙂