Chapter One

Howdy Folks,

Some of you folks fly and some don't. I'm going to do my best to make my emails interesting to all of you. I will try not to pound you with too many pictures but I do have to say this is a once in a lifetime trip and I feel very privileged to be able to do this. I'd like to share this trip with all of you.

I'll start with some history. In 2001 I bought a Black Bird biplane with red/orange wings from a man in Michigan. It's a strange story. I prepared myself to go and pick up the plane by taking many hours of flying lessons in aircraft that have a tail wheel. As a point of information, aircraft insurance companies require that a new aircraft owner must take 10 hours of flying lessons in his new plane from a certified instructor for the new owner to be insured in that make and model aircraft. With the help of the biplane seller I found a great instructor. After my 10 hours of lessons I was to start my trip across the USA from Michigan to Seattle. The instructor was moving my new/antique biplane from the seller's small airport to an airport a few miles away where the instructor was based. I was to take my rental car and drive over to the new airport. The instructor was alone and just after take off the engine quit and my new plane was wrecked. It cartwheeled and broke all four wings, the engine and the tail. The instructor wasn't injured badly but did have two great black eyes. It was the best imitation of a raccoon I've ever seen.

Now we are on to today. I received a Christmas card from another Bird biplane owner and the text said, "Sam, picture yourself in this!" The picture was of his Bird. After the trauma of the last biplane short story I wasn't sure I wanted to chance it again. With some therapy from my wife, along with encouragement, I bought the next Bird biplane.

This is a 1931 Perth Amboy Bird model BK. All airplanes are designed with a specific purpose in mind. Mine was designed to be a barnstorming airplane. "A ride seller". It is probably the most docile of all biplanes. It was known as such a forgiving airplane that Charles Lindbergh bought one for his wife-to-be Ann Morrow to earn her pilot's license in. He could have asked any airplane manufacturer for a plane and they would have given him one as a promotional gift. He bought a Bird. That says a whole bunch for Bird biplanes.

There is an adage in aviation that goes something like,  "An airplane that looks good usually flies good". I find my Bird biplane beautiful, and it flies beautifully. Technically it is a sesquiplane rather than a biplane. All this means is that one wing is 50% or less the size of the other wing. The operating speed envelope is probably the greatest pleasure of the plane. It lands around 40 miles per hour. It cruises at 85 miles per hour. It's probably not the fastest way to cross the USA. I'm sure I could easily be beaten in a race with a car. On the other hand I could beat a horse and probably beat AMTRAC too.

I expect to start across the country sometime around Monday or Tuesday, the first week of June. The airplane and I will start at an airport on Long Island, NY. I'm flying from the Atlantic coast to the Pacific coast. It'll always be "weather permitting". I'll email pix and text along the way.

This first set of pictures are the contrast between the way I got to the East Coast and the way I'm going back to the West Coast.

A Boeing wing and Bird wings.

A Boeing engine and a Bird engine.

Dear me, there is quite a contrast. All the best,  Sam Dodge