February 2002

Hello Folks,
We started the year 2002 with our first regular meeting at White's hangar in Willow Springs having good attendance and, as usual, Ron White's good breakfast cooking—and a good visit among friends. After the meeting the Chapter directors got together and gave some thought to plans for the year 2002, which will be brought before the membership at our coming meeting. Speaking of this meeting, I would like to inform you that it will not be on our regular day. Instead, it will take place on February 16 at 12:00 noon, at White's hangar, so that we all can join in and help Don Anderson celebrate his Dad's birthday. Ron White will provide and prepare the meat. The rest of us should bring a covered dish, salad, or dessert, because we want to make this party a real feast. Andy Anderson, Don's dad, is one of the pioneers of aviation in the Ozarks and has introduced many a kid in the area to aviation—and to great and successful careers in airline transport. Our member, Bill Ghan, was also inspired by Andy to teach building airplanes in high school shop classes. Bill later on went on to teach classes for other shop teachers, enabling them to teach their students to build airplanes. So Andy's influence had a snowball effect on aviation and the homebuilders' industry. For those of you who have never met Andy, here is a brief account of Andy's contribution to airplanes and the conservation of historic flying machines. I myself am proud to own one of two original Andy Anderson designs, a Scampy biplane.

The name Andy Anderson is widely known in the Missouri aviation community. He exemplifies the ideal of "experimenter." Andy will be 88 years old on February 22. Don Anderson supplied us with some details and highlights of his Dad's achievements.

Missouri Aviation Pioneer Andy Anderson was born in Dow City, Iowa and grew up on the farm there. When he was only eleven years old, he designed a glider, built it, and jumped off the roof with it! Next he built another glider called a Rhone Ranger. This one he pulled behind a car on a 200-foot rope. His next idea was his own design for a "biwing" airplane, which he built from lumberyard and hardware store materials. It was powered with a four-cylinder motorcycle engine. This biplane still exists and has been restored.	Andy Anderson
The next project Andy built was a Pietenpol Sky Scout, powered with a Model T engine, in which he taught himself to fly. This was when he was somewhere around 18 to 20 years old. Eventually he stalled it in a turn and cracked it up.
Then he bought a 1928 (or 1929?) model American Eagle in 1937. Andy took a whole two hours of instruction in it, then flew passengers all the next day for a dollar a ride. In 1946, Andy bought a new Aeronca Champion and started doing ag spraying in Dennison, Iowa. The airplane had a tank that would hold 40 gallons of spray solution, but the engine was only 65 horsepower; he changed it to an 85-HP engine for greater safety.	Old photo of Andy with his 'American Eagle'
When Andy came to Missouri, he managed the airport at Cabool in 1951 and 1952; then managed the Willow Springs airport in 1953 and 1954. He finally settled in Mansfield and started restoring airplanes in 1956. Over 80 airplanes were placed in the "Wings and Wheels Museum," a joint venture with a friend. Andy now lives near Kansas City. He continues to fly and he continues to restore airplanes. Happy Birthday, Andy Anderson!

Centennial Re-Creation
Andy Anderson also built and flew a Wright Flyer—commonly known as the "Vin Fiz." Today, Bill Ghan has secured the plans for the Vin Fiz and is building a new Vin Fiz model. All the outboard wing panels have already been built. He lacks the

Vin Fiz wing panel	One of Bill's AutoCAD sketches

upper and lower inboard panels, the fuselage, rudders, running gear and props and the chain drive to drive them. It's getting pretty expensive, though, so he'd welcome some "scavenger hunt" items—or, most of all, some cash funds for materials to finish the project. Your physical presence at mutually convenient times would also help finish the project in time to celebrate the centennial of flight and would be very much appreciated. I hope that some of you can help Bill out. He's already put much time and money into this effort. There's nothing official about this, of course—just a neat thing in which to have a part. I have included Bill's wish list and a sketch of the Wright Flyer. This is a demonstration project similar to what the Wright Brothers did before there was a CAA or, as we know it now, the FAA.

Member Bio: Living a Dream
This month's member bio comes to us from Kent Clotfelter. I hope we can someday take advantage of Kent's technical expertise in the form of good advice in our pursuit of building that "perfect" airplane.

Kent Clotfelter

"As long as I can remember, I have been interested in flying. It was a long trip getting here. I started lessons after I graduated from high school. It was ten years from my first lesson until getting my pilot's license. In those ten years, the Vietnam War, six years in the Navy and four years in college happened. The Navy made me a Nuclear Submariner because I wanted to be a airplane mechanic." That Navy training led to something big, however, as Kent earned his degree in aerospace engineering, and his master's degree in mechanical engineering. From there, he added engineering management, and even began work on a Ph.D. All of this has been backed up with years of experience. Highlights include several years working for the Electric Boat Division of General Dynamics in the Trident program, and for Pratt & Whitney in the development of turbofan engines. A brief period was spent in working for companies involved in developing hydrogen-oxygen fuel cells and transport equipment for components of the space telescope. Since becoming an independent contractor, most of his projects have involved helping nuclear facilities around the country refine their engineering and management procedures. "I've had an interesting career in which I practically never did the same thing twice. My current business card lists me as a 'Professional Engineer in Engineering and Management; Consultant and Contractor in the Nuclear, Aerospace, Marine, and Mechanical Fields.' I was on assignments only about 46 months of the 1990s, although I worked mostly more than 60-hour weeks whenever I was working. "I am pretty much retired now. I might still leave on an assignment now and then, but pretty much I am living my dream of having a hobby farm, flying, building homebuilt aircraft and doing other shop projects. Pegasus Ranch Aerodrome is named for my wife's hobby of training and riding horses and driving a buggy, and my hobby of flying and building homebuilt aircraft. I have a Cessna 150, and a Starduster II that is down for rebuild. It was damaged in an emergency landing when the engine cut out. The landing was OK, but the rollout ended in a hay bale." Here's the information for finding Pegasus Ranch:   Location: 12 miles NW of Houston, MO Designator: 2MO5 Coordinates: 37° 22' 55.169"N, 92° 12' 38.580"W(37.38199139, -92.21071667) - Est. Elevation: 1430' MSL - Estimated Variation: 03E (1985) Runways: 01/19 Length: 2,700 x 100 ft Surface: Turf Runway Lights: Edge, Intensity: Med Kent adds, "The big news this year was the marriage of our only son, Craig, to his longtime girl friend, Whitney, in June at Lubbock, Texas."   Kent and his Cessna 150 Starduster II Bonnie Clotfelter & "Nobel"

Buzz Thunderbee by Squawk

Following the Sun

When I found out that Buzz Thunderbee was going to Florida for the winter I asked him if I could hitch a ride since winter is always pretty miserable for a dairy farmer. I thought, "Here is my chance to get away," but the little bug told me 'no,' it would put him way over his gross takeoff weight and besides, if he could take someone along, it wouldn't be me, anyway. So I guess I'll see you at the meeting on February 16 at noon, and you will hear from me again in March.

Regards, Fred Kalhoefer
Newsletter Editor

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