Aircraft N6282 Data

When working for the late Sidney Shannon at his Shannon Air Museum in Fredericksburg, VA in the late 1970s and early 1980s, I flew this Travel Air many times. In the 3.5 years I was with the Museum, I put approximately 20 hours on the ship. The Travel Air was a delightful flying aeroplane, if a bit underpowered. The OX-5 never gave us any trouble when flying, but often would "stick" a valve if it just sat in the Museum too long. Judicious use of an oil can and a mallet, though, would usually free the valve. The engine always started and ran just fine. Climbing and turning at the same time was something the 2000 was loathe to do; generally the nose would have to go down to maintain airspeed. But for all that, the ship handled just fine. On a hot day with two people in it...even if the second person was a small one such as my son was at the time, she didn't break any climbing records! This aeroplane was properly restored with no brakes and a tail skid, so it was necessary to operate off the grass runway at Shannon Airport. Someone somewhere along the way had modified the aeroplane with the throttle on the left side of the cockpit instead of the original right side. It's unusual for a tandem-seat, open biplane to have the throttle on the right; most have it on the left. Francis Clore and I, however, changed it back to the way it SHOULD have been (the original throttle lever was in place). I'll admit it was "different" flying that sort of ship with the stick in my left hand, but it became "natural" after only a few take offs and landings. The only other modificatins to my knowledge was the construction of the fuselage frame. When the aeroplane was restored originally in Wichita, Kansas, instead of using hard wire bracing in the fuselage, steel tubing was used for the added strength. This could not be seen and I think it was a very good idea. Handling the Travel Air on the ground without brakes and with a tailskid instead of a wheel was really not much of a problem...just don't get NEAR anything. I enjoyed my few hours flying the Travel Air.