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The
Crown Royal Special
May 18, 2011
The PA-12 I was flying wasn't developing full power and the
oak trees at the end of the little pasture I had landed in the
night before were starting to fill the windshield. I needed to
decide quickly if I would rather fly into the trunks of the
giant trees or pancake into the leafy tops. The choice of
perhaps surviving a crash into the tops of the trees as opposed
to the certain death that would come in the collision with the
sturdy and massive trunks made the decision easy. I eased the
stick forward and followed the gentle slope down the pasture,
down to where the trees were rooted, aiming for the very bottom
of the oaks as my speed built. At the last second I pulled the
stick back and the aircraft zoomed toward the green expanse
towering over me. This was going to hurt.
I was
thinking of this November 1971 experience last week when I went
to Pennsylvania to inspect and fly a PA-12 in preparation for
listing it for sale. The Super Cruiser I was flying in 1971 was
the last one I had flown and it had the original O-235 engine
developing 105 horsepower. I had purchased it for the princely
sum of $1,600 to add to my flight school fleet and with it I
taught flying students and I also used it for charter, hauling
both passengers and freight.
It was a great airplane
for hopping passengers too, since the rear seat was wide enough
for two small to midsized riders. It would generally haul
anything you could get through the door and I recall once
arriving home from Detroit with a truck transmission in the back
that had been loaded by a fork lift. We almost never got it out
because we couldn't get enough men around it in the confines of
the cabin to lift it.
 Imagine
then, my curiosity when I learned that a PA-12 I was to fly and
list for sale, N4433M, sported under a custom designed cowling,
a Lycoming 180 horsepower engine. AND it had Super Cub flaps and
VG's. Whoa! This will be fun
On Monday midmorning, I
arrived at the Finleyville-On-A-Hill Airport, which lays just
Southeast of Pittsburgh, and found Jim Kirk, the affable
old-airplane aficionado who would show me the PA-12, waiting for
me. His hangar, where the PA-12 is stored, is one of the tiered
hangars perched on the steep slope of the airport and is where
he keeps his immaculate Waco UPF-7 and also his Taylorcraft.
The airplane, looking like no Super Cruiser I'd ever
seen, stood tall and stout on its modified gear, shod with
tundra tires and resplendent in immaculate white paint and the
royal purple trim that caused it to be named The Crown Royal
Special. I spent a few minutes examining the airplane and I soon
realized the name was appropriate for an airplane with a
pedigree like this one. It was built by Cubs Unlimited with the
owner furnishing an open check book, and it is obviously one of
the finest examples of their work. With over 30 modifications to
enhance its already legendary abilities, the airplane was
stunning. I couldn't wait to fly it.
I helped Jim push
it from the hangar, gave it a quick preflight and belted myself
into the front seat. Jim leaned in and showed me the location of
all the doo dads necessary for flight under positive control,
wished me fun and disappeared into the hangar. It was just the
Crown Royal Special and I.
My memory of how my PA-12
sounded when started all those years ago was quickly
reclassified as 'tinny' when the Special came to life. The
airframe thrummed with the power of the idling O-360 as I picked
my way through the maze of hangars and climbed the hill (you
have to see this airport) up to the runway. A run-up and
checklist revealed no faults that would prevent flight, and I
advanced the throttle.
I've never experienced a
catapult launch, but the takeoff of the Special must be similar
to one. The big tires had barely started turning when the stick
told me it was time to raise the tail and a split second later
the slightest of back pressure peeled the big tires from the
runway. It was an elevator and not a shy one either. We shot
skyward and I found myself throttling back to avoid levitating
into the Class B airspace above me.
Slow flight
reveled that with the flaps and VG's, the airplane would fly at
28 mph indicated. Control response was still excellent and a
picture of all the unimproved strips where I could land this
airplane and successfully take off again, danced through my
head.
Ah, you are wondering, what about the
unsuccessful take off of my own Super Cruiser in 1971?
 Well,
it wasn't completely unsuccessful, since we burst through the
top of the Oak trees, limbs and leaves exploding in every
direction and I was shocked to find we were still flying. The
airplane had shuddered, shook itself and come out the other side
of the tree, less some belly and gear fabric. The next day I
visited the site by car and found the propeller had cut off
limbs as thick as my wrist and my appreciation for the tough
little airplane increased dramatically. I still have a twig
incased in plastic with the date, November 1971 engraved on it.
It's a souvenir from the tree that I found in the air intake of
the airplane and the date is the occasion when a good airplane
kept me from dying.
Oh yes, and why wasn't it
developing full power? I have to confess that I had taken off
with the carburetor heat on, a simple and basic thing to check,
but I had missed it and it almost cost me my life. Perhaps the
fact that the Super Cruiser took it on the chin for me and I was
spared is the reason I love the PA-12 in general and The Crown
Royal Special in particular.
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