Sport Pilot Talk

FastEddieB wrote:

drseti wrote:Damn, Stan, you were a good looking kid!

Agreed. WHAT HAPPENED???

Fifty six years, Eddie.

Getting past the thread drift and back to Ercoupe pictures, in 1979 at the annual "Wings Over Wine Country" Memorial Day airshow, Major Greg "Pappy" Boyington of Black Sheep Squadron fame was sitting at a card table signing autographed copies of his autobiography "Baa Baa Black Sheep." There wasn't anybody around, so I struck up a conversation with him that lasted fifteen or twenty minutes. What an interesting character.

Anyway, I bought an autographed copy and noticed a photo on the inside cover of Pappy standing on the wing of an Ercoupe. From his receding hairline it was obviously taken after the war, and I couldn't help but wonder what it must have been like to transition from a Vought F4U Corsair to an 85 hp Ercoupe.

FastEddieB wrote:

drseti wrote:Damn, Stan, you were a good looking kid!

Agreed. WHAT HAPPENED???

Now that was funny!

To further continue the thread drift:

Boyington was one of my heroes. Not just because of his service record, but also for the frank and open way he discussed his recovery from alcoholism.

I remember at Oskosh perhaps 35 years ago, where Boyington was set up at a card table selling copies of his memoir, Baa Baa Black Sheep. Sitting at a card table next to him was Mike Kawato, the Japanese pilot who allegedly shot him down, selling copies of his memoir, Bye Bye Black Sheep. The two former adversaries had apparently become best of friends.

drseti wrote:. . . . . Boyington was one of my heroes. Not just because of his service record, but also for the frank and open way he discussed his recovery from alcoholism.

I remember at Oskosh perhaps 35 years ago, where Boyington was set up at a card table selling copies of his memoir, Baa Baa Black Sheep. Sitting at a card table next to him was Mike Kawato, the Japanese pilot who allegedly shot him down, selling copies of his memoir, Bye Bye Black Sheep. The two former adversaries had apparently become best of friends.

Great story.

Scooper wrote:Getting past the thread drift and back to Ercoupe pictures, in 1979 at the annual "Wings Over Wine Country" Memorial Day airshow, Major Greg "Pappy" Boyington of Black Sheep Squadron fame was sitting at a card table signing autographed copies of his autobiography "Baa Baa Black Sheep." There wasn't anybody around, so I struck up a conversation with him that lasted fifteen or twenty minutes. What an interesting character.

Anyway, I bought an autographed copy and noticed a photo on the inside cover of Pappy standing on the wing of an Ercoupe. From his receding hairline it was obviously taken after the war, and I couldn't help but wonder what it must have been like to transition from a Vought F4U Corsair to an 85 hp Ercoupe.

Greg Boyington.jpg

Greg Boyington with Ercoupe.jpg

I’d like to know the context of the Ercoupe picture. Was it a PR photo? He’s getting in, but won’t be going anywhere, anytime soon, as it’s still tied down.

Sling 2 Pilot wrote: I’d like to know the context of the Ercoupe picture. Was it a PR photo? He’s getting in, but won’t be going anywhere, anytime soon, as it’s still tied down.

Maybe he is just climbing out, and the ground crew has already secured the airplane.

Sling 2 Pilot wrote:I’d like to know the context of the Ercoupe picture. Was it a PR photo? He’s getting in, but won’t be going anywhere, anytime soon, as it’s still tied down.

The closest thing I've found that may explain it is the opening of the first chapter in Baa Baa Black Sheep where Boyington explains that two years before the 1958 publication of the book he got back into flying after an absence of thirteen years (that doesn't sound right; 15 years before 1958 would have been 1943 when he was in the middle of his time flying Corsairs in the Pacific). He passed his 2nd class physical and through the help of a friend who ran a ground school and tutored him for a week he passed the written for an instrument rating. Another friend owned a flight school and let him fly a few hours "for practically nothing." He then passed a "blind-flying check." He then says a local aircraft distributor "even paid him a few dollars" while he was building recent flying hours for his ratings. Two months from the day he discovered he could pass the 2nd class physical exam, he was set to go with commercial, multi-engine, and instrument ratings on his airman certificate.

The book doesn't say where this happened, but Boyington was a native of Coeur d'Alene, ID, and the Coeur d'Alene airport is named after him. Another well known Idaho aviation pioneer, William S. Hill, Jr., owned an Ercoupe dealership in Pocatello. It's probably a stretch, but the "local aircraft distributor" Boyington mentions may have been Hill although Pocatello is over 500 miles from Coeur d'Alene.

Boyington also mentions he and his wife lived 5 minutes from the Lockheed Air Terminal in Burbank and got a flying gig with an air freight company there flying the company's executives around.

We'll probably never know the real story behind the picture of Pappy on the tied down Ercoupe.

Scooper wrote:We'll probably never know the real story behind the picture of Pappy on the tied down Ercoupe.

Probably not, Stan, but your hypothesis sounds as reasonable as any.

Love all the vintage pics! Who knew Pappy was an Ercoupe guy, that's awesome!