The Tiger Moth Saga--1940-2015

By

George Elsea

George and The Tiger Moth

T-5703: Service with the Royal Air Force

The first of over 8,700 de Havilland DH-82a "Tiger Moths" was produced in 1931. Serial number T-5703 was delivered to the Royal Air Force in June of 1940. It went into service at the 9^th Elementary Flying Training School at RAF Ansty, southwest of Birmingham, England. With some down time for occasional repairs it served as a primary trainer until put into storage at the end of WW II.

G-AMES: Civilian service in the UK

Freed from military storage in 1958 it was sold into the civilian world, restored professionally and sold to its first civilian owner in 1960 carrying bold registration letters "G-AMES". In June 1963 it was resold to four of us pilots stationed at RAF Lakenheath in Suffolk, England. Mike Love, Bill Douglass, Jim Learmonth and I became the owners.

Bill and Jim flew the airplane from the point of sale to our hangar at Cambridge airport taking time to circle to watch a cricket match. The bold registration numbers resulted in furious claims of low flying and interrupting the sport. The police action and newspaper accounts led to a court case which ensured the fame of G-AMES for years to come. When Douglass and Learmonth were reassigned a year or so later Mike and I bought out their shares. We continued flying it out of former RAF base Swanton Morley for local and cross country adventures within the UK and other European countries.

In 1966 Mike Love and I explored options for taking it to the US. The US Navy said "No" to hopping a ride on a carrier. We deemed the water over the North Atlantic to be too cold. We calculated a flight from the west coast of Africa to South America with the front seat occupied by a custom built auxiliary gas tank. That scheme would get us within 150 miles of land. Not close enough. So Mike located an old house trailer. He opened one end like a sardine can and, with wife Betty, removed all the contents leaving a large wobbly box on wheels. With angle iron scrounged from the Lakenheath junk yard we built racks for the various airplane components which also served to make the structure rigid.

With G-AMES components firmly strapped in Mike towed it to the port of Southhampton. He jacked it up, removed the axle and wheels and stowed them inside. With the box sewed up it was shipped to New York as a container. He left Lakenheath on his way to Bien Hoa a month ahead of me. On leave in the US Mike bought a Checker station wagon from his brother, fitted a trailer hitch and drove to New York. At the port he collected the container, refitted the axle and wheels and towed G-AMES to the family barn in Wyoming where it stayed until our SEA tours were over.

N-5300: Service in the USA

In mid 1968 I was stationed at USAFA and Mike was at Cannon before going to Test Pilot School. I located an old hangar on a former airfield serving as a cow pasture near Colorado Springs. I was able to rent it. Mike towed the container from Wyoming and I began the reassembly and FAA certification (the hard part). With lots of help from Bill Ouellete and others (the most essential was Tony Burshnick who was the only one tall enough to hold the upper wings in place while I fitted the bolts.) With all inspections and FAA certifications completed in 1969 the now N-5300 Tiger Moth was ready to fly.

I was a bit concerned about how it would handle 6000+ feet altitude for takeoff in August heat in Colorado. My wife, Evelyn, was concerned about the can of assorted nuts and bolts left over after the reassembly. In the event there was no problem lifting off before reaching the cow pasture fence.

I flew around USAFA and the Colorado Springs area until it neared time for me to return to SEA. It became Mike's turn to have the airplane. Mike arranged for a hangar at Tehachapi Airport not too far from Edwards AFB. The most awkward bit about flying the Tiger Moth to California was fuel. At that time the engine could not take the leaded fuel which was sold at airports. In Colorado I used unleaded gas from a nearby marina but it proved to be scarce on the projected route to Tehachapi. Marine gas turned out to be available in Albuquerque and Kingman AZ but not at the airports.

To solve the cross country problem Mike removed the rear seat from his Checker station wagon and fitted a 55 gallon drum. He added a refueling hose long enough to reach the fuel tank on the top wing of the Tiger Moth and a pressurization line to connect the Checker's # 1 spark plug hole with the drum. With that setup we filled the airplane and the 55 gallon drum in Colorado Springs, Albuquerque and Kingman and filled the airplane from the Checker at the intermediate stops. We got the airplane to Tehachapi in nine flights spread over four days.

Mike's Fueling Rig in Action

After that Mike had possession of the machine while I had assignments to Korat, Armed Forces Staff College, Ramstein and Soesterberg. He arranged for a wheel to be installed in place of the standard tail skid; the skid worked very well on grass but proved to be worthless for directional control or braking on the hard surfaces at US airports. (On one cross country flight I had to get out of the cockpit with the engine ticking over to lift the tail around to point the airplane toward the runway for takeoff.) Mike also had brakes added for engine run-ups and stopping at gas pumps. He flew the airplane to Alabama when he attended Command and Staff at Maxwell and returned it to Mojave airport near Edwards for his subsequent test pilot assignment.

Mike and Betty Love on a (sort of) high-speed pass
My trusty Austin Healey is in the foreground.

While I was a Soesterberg Mike was taxiing N-5300 back to his hangar at Mojave when a gust of wind flipped the plane upside down causing no injuries but considerable damage. The parts went into his garage at his quarters on Edwards. He sent the engine away for overhaul and conversion to be leaded fuel capable. That was the status when he was killed in 1976 in a malfunctioning F-4. The Tiger Moth was restored by Al Turner at Tehachapi Airport while I was off to Air War College, Kalkar, Germany and the Pentagon. It was next flown in 1985 in California by Al.

Instructed by Al Turner, Mike and Betty's sons learned to fly in the Tiger Moth in California while living there in the family motor home. For the trip to their home in Albuquerque Tom, the older, flew the Tiger Moth solo to Sedona AZ accompanied in loose formation by Al and Betty in a chase plane. (Betty remembers listening to the Cessna's intermittent stall warning chirping all the way.) Robin, the younger son, drove the motor home. They met at the Sedona airport where the boys switched places: Robin flew the Tiger Moth to Albuquerque, Tom drove the motor home. Robin continued training to get his private license and flew N-5300 out of Albuquerque until he was ready to attend university. At that point in 1987 it was again my turn.

I ferried the Tiger Moth to a grass field near Scott AFB part way with Robin Love and part way with my son, Roy. After retiring from the Air Force in 1988 I flew it to Virginia and ten years later to Texas where it has remained. I have since become the sole owner. Most of my flying has been local or short cross countries to get expensive hamburgers or annual inspections. Longer cross country trips are discouraged by airports which now-a-days refuse to allow hand-propped airplanes. The best flying has been with friends or kids in the EAA Young Eagle program.

Since '63 the Tiger Moth has flown cross country flights with many en route stops in England, Scotland, Norway, Germany and places in between. In the US it has flown from Colorado to California to Alabama, back to California, to New Mexico, Illinois, Virginia and Texas. All of those flights were made in the pre-GPS days. With the standard 74 knots of airspeed, and compass, clock and paper charts in a windy cockpit, big rivers and railroad tracks were always welcome sights.

USAFA '60 aviators with experience in N-5300

I don't have any more photos of flying with classmates. A review of the logbooks shows that I flew with: Dick Meyer, Bill Ouellette, Ralph Lalime, Bob Badger, Jerry de la Cruz, and R.G. Head. Tony Burshnick was too large, but his son Joe did have a flight. Not Class of 60 but known to us: Dean Wood '59 and Ken Staten '61. Mike Love flew with Leon Goodson and Don Thurman (this is not clear in the log). There may have been others; we didn't always name passengers in the logs.--George

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Addendum: My Tiger Moth Experience

by

Les Querry

I had my shot at a T-Moth experience a few years ago, but, unfortunately, not with George. The only T-Moth in this country judged in better condition than George's belonged to the husband of a friend of Marty's. When he said, "Do you want to go for a ride?" My response was, "(expletive deleted) yes."