AVIATION

One day we went to the Piper dealership and my mom arranged an introductory flight in a Piper Cherokee 140, a single engine low wing all metal four seat aircraft. The older instructor was named Frye(?). He was a quiet and nice older guy. Hey, when you are around 8-9 years old, every male is an older guy! The plane was pretty new and he let me sit up front with him while my mom sat in the back. We flew over Phoenix for a while and he let me take over the controls and perform some turns. Oh my! I was hooked! I decided right then and there I would become a pilot someday. It would take another 20 years, but I eventually did. Piper was always my preferred aircraft company after that flight.

When I was a bit older, I decided I wanted to fly in as many models of aircraft as I could.

My mom and I flew on a Golden West Airlines de Havilland of Canada Twin Otter from Apple Valley to Los Angeles International. That was fun, and it was amazing to me that the throttle handles were located on the ceiling between the pilots instead of on the floor between them. 

A bit later, my mother and I flew on a small commuter airliner flight from Phoenix to Tucson, Arizona. Apache Airlines was the commuter airliner for the entire State of Arizona at the time. Apache Airlines had begun its operations at the Tucson airport in 1946 and eventually had expanded to serving nine cities throughout Arizona and also Las Vegas, Nevada in 1971.  At the time they used British built de Havilland Dove and Heron small airliners which could seat up to about 11 passengers. The Dove airplanes were powered by two British Gypsy 6 cylinder inverted piston engines. About 550 of this type were produced between 1946-1967.  The Heron used 4 of the Gypsy engines and about 149 were built between 1950-1963. Apache also had the Riley Turbo Skyliner “A number of Herons were fitted with 290 hp (216 kW)Lycoming IO-540 flat-six piston engines.” The modifications were carried out by the Riley Turbostream Corporation of the USA. Apache also had ordered some turboprop converted aircraft that were known as the “Carstedt 600 Jetliner” modified by Von Carstedt Inc, of Long Beach, California. The conversion used a Dove aircraft as its basis and switched the original British piston engines for two American Garrett AiResearch TPE331 turboprop engines.  The fuselage was also lengthened, the wing fuel cells were relocated to the outboard of the turboprop engines, and passenger seating capacity was increased from 11 to 18. Only six of these Carstedt conversions were built.

I remember our flight being full, a little turbulent over the hot desert, but otherwise uneventful. Later, I’m not sure how long, maybe a few weeks to a few months, an Apache Airlines flight en-route from Tucson to Phoenix crashed in a cotton field near Coolidge, Arizona. All 10 passengers and 2 Pilots were killed, which included the daughter of the Tucson Airport Manager. I remember seeing on television a picture of lone shoes, women’s and men’s, lying on the ground near the crash site. I was too young to comprehend all this, but would later realize we were on the same type of aircraft, possibly even the exact same aircraft! An investigation ensued, and it was found that the Carstedt Starliner conversion which was done at the Long Beach, California airport had improper engineering so that the wing spar bolts had not only poor tolerance and poor quality control, but were also corroded with underrated steel hardware which resulted in the separation of the right wing shortly before the crash (see the links for the actual NTSB report.) I remember being with my mom at the airport not long after the crash and overhearing her talking to the Phoenix station manager. The station manager told my mom that it was very difficult to have to tell the people waiting for the inbound flight from Tucson that it was never going to arrive as it had crashed. I doubt he told them they all had perished. What a terrible thing to have to convey to the loved ones!

Shortly after the crash which occurred on May 6, 1971, Apache Airlines ceased operations and filed for bankruptcy. Very sad. Another airline, Cochise Airlines, was started in September of that year with different aircraft and managed to survive financially until, due to competition and expansion costs, it ceased operation in late 1982.