Airplane enthusiasts fly in to Fayetteville for annual convention

Airplane enthusiasts fly in to Fayetteville for annual convention

Members of the American Yankee Association fly their aircraft in formation. Nearly 45 Grumman aircraft will fly into Fayetteville next week for a national convention of Grumman owners and enthusiasts.
Members of the American Yankee Association fly their aircraft in formation. Nearly 45 Grumman aircraft will fly into Fayetteville next week for a national convention of Grumman owners and enthusiasts.

Fayetteville residents get not only a fly-by, but a fly-in, next week.

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Courtesy Photo

Grumman aircraft are all named after cats: the Lynx, the Cheetah, the Cougar and the Tiger. This tradition applies even to its warplanes: the Wildcat, with the first wing-folding mechanism in 1940; the F6F Hellcat, which was so successful at destroying enemy aircraft in World War II; the F9F Panther, the first jet fighter on Navy aircraft carriers; and the F14 Tomcat made famous in the movie “Top Gun.”

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Courtesy Photo

Grummans on the flight line. Members of the American Yankee Association invite the public to view their aircraft and watch their flight exercises Tuesday at Drake Field in Fayetteville.

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Courtesy Photo

Pilots will compete Tuesday in a spot landing competition. Each will try to maneuver his plane to land closest to the “spot” — or line as shown in this photograph. “

The American Yankee Association, a group of owners and enthusiasts of Grumman light air craft, holds its annual convention Monday to Thursday at Drake Field airport. Forty-five planes and more than 100 people are scheduled to fly in to the airport Sunday and Monday.

Grumman games

What: Aircraft flight events, ground maneuvers

When: 9 a.m.-noon and 1:30-4 p.m. Tuesday

Where: Drake Field, Fayetteville

Rain date: Thursday

"Folks are definitely welcome" at the airport to view the aircraft on the flight line, the flying events and ground games, said Fran Levey of Salisbury, Md., conference chairman.

REINDEER GAMES

The pilots from all over the country will use their Grumman airplanes for more than just getting from here to there next week. Tuesday's scheduled activities at Drake Field might be planned for fun, but they also can show off a pilot's skill. In case of bad weather, the events will be rescheduled for Thursday.

From 9 a.m. to noon Tuesday, flight events will include pilots and their "gunners" dropping bags of flour from the open-cockpit airplanes, trying to be the closest to a target drawn on a runway. "The safest place is the X because nobody ever hits it," Levey laughed.

Also, pilots will compete to be the closest in a spot landing contest.

From 1:30 to 4 p.m. Tuesday, the ground games -- which have come to be called "Reindeer Games" by the members, Levey said -- include a Limbo contest, as pilots try to maneuver their craft between two vertical swimming pool "noodles." In other competitions, pilots steer their planes with hands and arms rather than feet and legs and run an obstacle course, trying to hit a raw egg with the nose wheel of the plane. The games also include a "Tie-Down Rodeo" to see who can most quickly secure his plane and a few rounds of mini-golf, with one pilot directing another to hit the ball in a hole with his plane.

And former military pilots will take advantage of air time to fly in formation above Fayetteville. "More than half of our members claim a military background," Levey said. "They know what they're doing."

In addition to the games, the conference includes information sessions on maintenance, safe flying, emergency procedures and more. "Cockpit Cool" will be led by Jim Viola, a flight instructor with the Federal Aviation Administration, Levey said. This session includes how to read a map, understanding radio frequencies -- including the frequency for help in troubled situations. The ground school will help pilots "get comfortable" with their aircraft, Levey said. "A Grumman is different than Cessnas and Pipers."

"I hope to learn more about my airplane (a Tiger)," said Bruce Fields, a new pilot from Oklahoma City, who plans to make the 300-mile, two-hour flight to the convention. "The 'Grumman Gang' has a lot of experience flying and with maintenance."

FLYING CATS

Most of the private aircraft seen in Fayetteville were produced during the "Grumman era," the mid-1970s, Levey said.

"The planes were originally made by American Aviation (not associated with American Airlines)," she wrote in an email.

American Aviation produced the Grummans from 1969 to 1971, when Grumman American bought the company and started producing the planes, Levey continued. Grumman American produced the Lynx, Cheetah, Tiger and Cougar from 1973 to 1977. Then the company got out of the light aircraft business.

"Since then, there have been several other companies that produced the planes: Gulf Aerospace, American General Aircraft Corporation and Tiger Aircraft. None of them lasted more than a few years. But because most of the planes were produced by Grumman Aerospace, they are known collectively as Grummans.

"The prototype Grumman was called The Yankee, so when the club was formed, it was the American Yankee Association," Levey shared.

"After that, Grumman named all its aircraft after cats. The Yankee became the Lynx. Then was the Cheetah, the Cougar with two engines and the Tiger."

But the Grumman history and reputation might stand on war craft for civilians -- although Fayetteville will not host any bombers this week.

Grumman got its start when the Loening Aircraft Engineering Corp. was sold and operations moved from New York City in the 1920s. Employee Leroy Grumman and his pals and investors started the Grumman Aeronautical Engineering Co., in an abandoned auto garage in Baldwin, on Long Island, N.Y. The company was called Grumman because he was the biggest investor, reads a history on the Northup Grumman website.

"The men kept busy by welding aluminum tubing for truck frames, while at the same time pursuing contracts with the U.S. Navy," the site reads.

Grumman introduced the XFF-1 Navy fighter in 1931, the first airplane with fully retractable landing gear and a fully enclosed cockpit. The Grumman Wildcat in 1940 included the "Sto-Wing" folding mechanism, enabling aircraft to take up less space on ships.

In 1944, Grumman introduced the F6F Hellcat. "Hellcat pilots account for 55 percent of all enemy aircraft destroyed by the Navy and Marines in World War II," reads the Northup Grumman website.

Other projects included the F9F Panther jet, one of the first jet fighters and the Navy's first jet fighter based on aircraft carriers; the Jaguar, the first variable "sweep-wing" fighter, with wings that could be retracted in flight; and in 1960, the E-2A Hawkeye, carrying advanced radar and communications equipment. "This aircraft becomes the U.S. Navy's only airborne early warning and control platform," the Northup Grumman website reads.

"Today, people would recognize the F-14 Tomcat. (Think: Top Gun.)," Levey said. "(Grumman) also produced the F-111, best known as the plane that bombed Libya in April 1986."

And Grumman Aerospace Corp. was also the chief contractor on the Apollo Lunar Module that landed men on the moon.

Merged with the Northup Aircraft Corp. in 1994, Northup Grumman today "concentrates on military and space craft and materials," Levey said.

GRUMMAN GANG

Grumman owners are a dedicated lot.

"It's almost like a cult, the group," said Rick Anderson of North Little Rock, who will attend the convention for the first time but has been a member of the organization for a number of years. He flies mostly for business, but now semi-retired, he admitted he also enjoys the 15-minute flight to a private airstrip and lake house in Heber Springs.

Levey met her husband, Ron, in a Grumman Yankee, she said. He was her flight instructor. The family later got a Cheetah, on which Levey got her instrumentation certification and her son flew his first solo at 16. Now they have a Tiger -- "My husband's dream plane," she said.

Anderson also flies a Tiger -- "Nobody had a Tiger they didn't like," he said. He earned his pilot's license in 1977 and bought a Cheetah. "I couldn't afford a Tiger back then."

"The Grummans are more maneuverable (than other planes)," Levey said, explaining Grumman owner's dedication. "It's very honest. It's quick to respond. And it warns you if you are doing something wrong. It won't let you do dumb things."

Anderson, too, rattled off a list of features of the Grumman Tiger that only a pilot could love: 180 horsepower, the low wing, rivets in the fuselage, laminate aluminum glued to the air frame, fixed-wing gear box, faster steering and the fact his Grumman uses less gasoline than other small airplanes.

"The Grumman was ahead of its time," Anderson said. "It's simple to operate."

"They say, 'You drive a Cessna. You fly a Grumman,'" Levey shared.

Levey found Drake Field when working as a travel writer for the London Insight Traveler, a tour company. The company offers an online series of driving tours, and hers ended in Fort Smith. Her contact there told her to drive home through Northwest Arkansas, stopping in Fayetteville and Bentonville -- and she drove by Drake Field.

"I keep my antenna up for airports," Levey said. "(The Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport) was newly opened, and this was just sitting there.

"The airport was ideal, and the (Arkansas Air Museum) sitting next to it sealed the deal."

Levey hopes Fayetteville's location in the middle of the United States attracts more and new Grumman flyers.

One of the new ones is Bruce Fields of Oklahoma City, who earned his pilot's license just one year ago, on July 31, 2015.

"Like a lot of guys, I always wanted to fly," he said. "It had been on my bucket list for years. I am 66 years old, and I thought, 'If I want to do that, I better get that done.'

"I grew up in Wichita, Kan., and we had McConnell Air Force Base," Fields continued. "Those were the days when you could still hear the jets make the sonic booms. (Flying) has always been such a fascination to me."

A friend is one of the AYA officers, Fields said, who tried to talk the fledgling pilot into flying with him in formation.

"I think that's a little more than I want to take on," Fields said.

NAN Our Town on 06/16/2016

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