GOLDEN AGE Air Museum

Auliard, Gilles

This growing museum is preserving vintage aviation

"It became a family joke. When we bought our fourth airplane, my three sisters asked me what we intended doing with those planes. I looked at my father, and we both answered: 'We're going to start a museum!' It was just plain family fun when we started."

Opened since 1997 at Grimes Airport in Bethel, Pennsylvania, the Golden Age Air Museum (GAAM) is the brainchild of Paul Dougherty and his father Paul Sr. and is rapidly becoming one of the main focus points of restoration and exhibition of antique aircraft in the northeastern US. The collections are maintained with a manic sense of detail and the grounds are on par with the best PGA golf course.

Paul continues: "We had a lot of options for our museum, but setting up a non-profit organization was the way to go. In this case, people are willing to help. We now have the right mix of people, great pilots, aspiring pilots, and ground crews. It costs us a lot of money to keep it going, but it is a lot of fun."

Fun is the word that immediately pops in mind when discussing Grimes. The field still has an innocence lost by other bigger, better-known places with the same function. The buzz is out among pilots.

Walter Grimes, a local businessman, initiated the construction of the airport which officially opened on 21 October 1946, and was intended as a satellite for nearby local airports. Grimes had two grass runways, both 300O×100-ft, one running east/west (still in existence today) and a north/south runway. The airport grew unexpectedly and became home of an FBO offering charter flights, tie downs, fuel, flight instruction and maintenance. Every day for a while, a DC-3 was making the shuttle to New York, carrying crates of chickens that were raised in the numerous chicken coops surrounding the field. Some of these structures still survive today. The airport ran until the 1980s - the traffic slowly coming down to a trickle. At this point in time, the owner intended to close the aiiport and turn it into a racetrack, but neighbors liked things the way they were. They pooled their resources and purchased the airport. To keep it going they had to subdivide and sell some of the lots, but the airport kept on running on a smaller scale, later becoming a skydiving center.

Then the two Pauls entered the picture: "We started looking for a place to harbor our planes when we acquired our fifth machine. We looked around for old and low-use airports. We approached the couple running Grimes in 1995. It was a courtship that lasted over a year. We purchased the land and the buildings in 1996. We tore clown the old hangar, which was a 200-year-old converted barn in sorry shape, as well as the T-hangars. We basically started with dirt. For six months I lived in a camper on the field."

Back at the beginning of the their involvement in antique aviation, the first airplane acquired by the Doughertys was Cessna 195 N195PD (c/n 7460). Built in 1949, it was delivered in 1950 to the Chief Drilling Company of Oklahoma, which used it as a company aircraft. It changed owners many times before being damaged in a take-off accident and pushed aside on the field. Acquired in 1985, it took four years to restore to its present condition.

Paul recalls: "I saw this airplane for the first time at Warrington Airport around 1971. The owner never really took care of it and it more or less always was in a state of disrepair. My father used to lift me up so I could see inside the cockpit. In 1983,1 started hanging around the airport, being a line person at the FBO, pumping gas while learning to fly. The 195 was wrecked that year in a ground loop incident on its way to Oshkosh. The fuselage ended up badly twisted. We tried to acquire the Cessna without any success. It came down to a fire sale following a messy divorce. Everything had to go. At the time, the airplane was worth about $8000. We figured out that we could pick it up for cheap. At the auction, we were bidding against the owner who wanted to buy it back. We rapidly arrived at our maximum bid of $3500, splurged for another $100, and won the auction. It took us four years to restore and we took it to Oshkosh when it was completed and won a Golden Wrench award."

This started Paul's obsession with perfection in antique airplane restoration. After checking the competition at Oshkosh, he discovered that he could do better. He elected to look for an E-2 Cub. Being tipped off that there possibly was one in a barn not too far from his home, he checked it out only to discover that it was "a fairy tale." However, a Taylor showed up for sale in Trade-a-Plane shortly thereafter. John Barker, at the time director of Old Rhinebeck, was the owner and a 10:30 pm phone call settled the transaction. The following day, Paul took the 195 to Old Rhinebeck and signed off the papers and became proud owner of a very rare Taylor E-2 project.

Designed in 1930 by G.G. Taylor and advertised as "America's safe airplane," the E-2 Cub was the first in a long line of aircraft models to carry the Cub name. The Taylor Aircraft Corporation, which became the Piper Aircraft Corporation, produced this example in 1932 as serial number 54. It was acquired in 1991 after being stored for over 50 years. The restoration to original condition was completed over a three-year period. This airplane is one of the oldest E-2s know to exist.

Paul continues: "We did the restoration in my father's garage. At some point, we had a disagreement with an Oshkosh judge so we never took the airplane there. It never was judged on a national scale, but won multiple local and regional awards. This airplane is a great ride and increased even more our love of old airplanes."

Great ride indeed! As an avid aerobatic pilot, Paul pushes the airplane into some very basic, very gentle aerobatics. In his words: "The Taylor can take it, but I would not try that with the Pietenpol.

"The next airplane we acquired was the Great Lakes. In the same time frame, I had a partnership in a Pitts. I love doing aerobatics and the Great Lakes popped up for sale. I sold my interest in the Pitts and the Great Lakes sat for a while. My father and I restored it in the basement of my house. During the completion of this project, we found the Star Cavalier. We did not know what it was and checked our reference books. We thought this was a pretty neat airplane. We bought it sight unseen. We went to Oklahoma to pick it up, only to discover that we actually bought two for the price of one. Approximately at that moment our idea of the museum started."

The Star Cavalier was manufactured by the Star Aircraft Corporation in Bartlesville, Oklahoma. Competing for sale with the popular Monocoupe line of airplanes, the Cavalier was designed as a more rugged aircraft. Phillips Petroleum, who backed the Star Corporation, used several of the little airplanes to fly in and out of unimproved oil drilling sites. The type certificate (ATC 138) for the Model B was issued in April 1929, while the Model C obtained ATC 255 in October 1929. The Cavalier was built in six different models and about 55 examples over a five-year period. The GAAM 1929 Cavalier B (N451, c/n 105) was chosen to advertise the Star line of aircraft and was painted in a similar manner and flown on a goodwill tour with the famous Travel Air 5000 Woolaroc. The Woolaroc won the legendary Dole race from San Francisco to Hawaii. This aircraft is one of the very few Cavaliers to survive and is held in storage awaiting restoration to flying condition. The Model E was the last of the series, improved with more horsepower, a larger tail and an outrigger style landing gear. It proved to be more versatile than the previous models. The GAAM example (N350V, c/n 121) was the first Model E built and is awaiting restoration.

"After we found the Winstead Special (see Air Classics December 2004), we always wanted an early model Pietenpol with a Ford A engine. We found this one in Maryland. The fellow who owned it was not ready to sell, but was willing to trade for a Corben Baby Ace. One more time we were lucky and found a Corben in a vacant lot in Allentown. Not long after, we traded it in. We finished the Pietenpol pretty fast; it is a very simple plane. However, in my view it is very historically significant."

The Pietenpol Air Camper was the design of Bernard H. "Bernie" Pietenpol of Cherry Grove, Minnesota. Bernie was a self-taught engineer who learned to fly in the 1920s, designed his own airfoils and did his own stress analysis on the airplane. His first design, dubbed the Ace, was built in 1928. The Ace was a single-place open cockpit monoplane made from wood obtained at the local lumberyard, fittings fabricated from a blacksmith shop, and a covering of bed sheet material finished with clear varnish. The landing gear was constructed of gas pipe and motorcycle wheels. The prop was hand-carved from black walnut and powered by an Ace four-cylinder water-cooled engine. The airplane flew very well and accumulated over 50-hrs in the first two months following completion.

Several design modifications followed during the next five years; however, the basic design remained unchanged. During the process, the airplane became a two-seater. The split axle landing gear with air wheels improved takeoff and landing characteristics. The Ford A engine became the standard power plant turning a 78x42-in propeller. His design was such a success that the editors of Modern Mechanics magazine featured the airplane in their yearly Flying and Glider Manual for 1932. The article stated "You can built her for $500" and featured a full set of plans for the homebuilder. The final design and drawings of the Air Camper were completed in 1934. No further changes have been made to the original drawings.

In 1933, a small factory was set up in Cherry Grove to make metal parts and convert the Ford A engine. Milling and woodwork was done in Wycoff, Minnesota. Airplane kits and aircraft materials were shipped from both locations. Completed airframes were flown from a small grass strip located west of Cherry Grove. Throughout the years various engines were used: Ford A, Ford T, Ford V-8, Velie, Kinner, Lycoming, Franklin and Continental, all with good results. To date, over 500 Pietenpols have been built - mostly by homebuilders and more are built currently than in the 1930s, a great testimonial to the quality of the original design.

"I had been dreaming about a Curtiss Jenny for a lot of years, and we finally found one and brought it home. We are now rebuilding it. The list is just endless, it goes on and on!"

Kept at the Golden Age Air Museum are also a few airplanes that are the property of the museum, be they acquired by Paul for the museum or donated to the museum by a member. One example of the former is the Dormoy Bathtub, acquired specifically for the GAAM, while the Aeronca C-3 (N17404, c/n A-717, powered by its original Aeronca E-113 engine) is an example of the later, being donated by the late Jim McCord. Built in 1936, the Aeronca was originally owned and flown by the Hughes Flying Services. Sporting its sponsor's name, Oldsmobile, Mr. Hughes would land and takeoff from a specially-equipped Oldsmobile sedan at airshows in the late 1930s. The Aeronca restoration is well advanced, and the airplane should take back to the sky next spring and, possibly, repeat its famous performances for the Grimes spectators.

The museum also needed a good ride airplane for the summer season. Resources were pooled to buy the 1931 Kinner-powered Perth Amboy Bird CK N726N (c/n 4037). In nine months, the Bird was back in the air and has been taking people aloft over the peaceful central Pennsylvania countryside for a few years. Recently, the GAAM added the Breezy GE-1 N2766 to the fleet of ride planes, the machine being busy last summer raising funds for the museum's projects.

Other airplanes belonging to members are based at Grimes. Being a volunteer for years, Andrew King entrusted Paul with his magnificent Ryan M-1 until he sold it in 2003. He replaced this unique machine with Fleet 7 N756V (c/n 337) now harbored in Bethel. Coming from nearby Maryland specially to participate in the GAAM activities, Andrew never misses an opportunity to bring along a good ride. Our last visit saw him land at Grimes with Bob Coolbaugh's award-winning Monocoupe 90 N543W (c/n 542). Among other airframes based at the field is Eric Lunger's Fly Baby N197EL. A product of the fertile mind of the late Peter Bowers, the Fly Baby won in 1962 an EAA competition for the best homebuilt. In its monoplane or biplane version, the Fly Baby has been a favorite of the homebuilding community since.

With the increasing interest in the museum and the ever-increasing number of airframes preserved on the premises, space became a premium at Grimes. To alleviate the problem, the construction of a new hangar was recently started and further expansions are in the works.

In a very short time, Paul and his dedicated team have created a haven for old airplanes lovers in a very bucolic setting. The Golden Age Air Museum is well worth a refreshing stop in the middle of "nowhere" Pennsylvania.

A great big thanks to Paul Dougherty and all the GAAM volunteers for their help in the preparation of this feature. Special mention to Andrew King for flying the Fleet photo platform and John Mazure for his formation skills with the T-6.

Copyright Challenge Publications Inc. Apr 2005
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