3 minutes - take off to landing in a Stinson L-5 Sentinel N6438C ... the only one in the UK. The L-5, known as the "flying jeep" was used by both the US military and the RAF as a liaison and observation aircraft in WW2.
My Mom, whose name is Rose, was a riveter at Stinson Aircraft working the 2 pm to 2 am shift during the war. Kinda cool seeing those rivets on the side. She'll be 100 in June!
100 ... wonderful! Your Mom may have been responsible for the rivets on this aircraft. Where was the factory? (I'll forward your message to Mike, the owner at our club.)
Credit to Wikipedia: "The fuselage was constructed using chrome-moly steel tubing covered with doped cotton fabric and the wings and empennage were constructed of spruce and mahogany plywood box spars and plywood ribs and skins, also covered with fabric. The use of aluminum, which was in critically short supply and more urgently needed for other aircraft, was limited to the engine cowling, tail cone, framework for the ailerons, rudder and elevator and the landing gear fairings. The L-5 was powered by a six-cylinder 190 horsepower Lycoming O-435 engine."
I'm at my mother in laws place, she's picking through a drawer of photos and found an envelope from a Seattle area photographer (dated Sept..1953) that shows her late husbands aircraft that he co owned with a friend. Shows N6438C flying over Mt. Baker, WA.
p51bombay thanks for your comment. The owners still fly the Stinson from the airfield where my aircraft is based. Would it be possible to show a scan the old photo to them? I think they'd be fascinated. John
We just had an airshow over here at the Virginia Military Aviation Museum, In which one of the commentators was from England, and mentioned while the L5 was landing that a Stinson that was operated by a farmer landed in the wrong field (a potato field if I remember what he said correctly) in Norfolk. The Pilot just stepped a path in front of the plane and took off again. Curious If it is the same plane as this one, though I don't know how long ago that incident happened.
Apparently, it was a Taylorcraft and not the L5 ..... many years ago. The pilot was a member of the group that kept the Taylorcraft at Priory Farm and had landed it there dozens of times. He landed in the field that runs behind the hangars ...... sometimes when the crops are being harvested an uncut part can look like a runway. It's a good story!
