Sullivan Special

Although, I had taken the sticks of the Freshman for a few minutes, it had crashed before I got to fly it again.  Because I needed a trainer, my dad replaced it with a Cessna 152 from a Pilot kit.

The test flight didn't go well.  It may have been over-powered with an OS 0.40, causing an over-sensitive elevator and the plane snapped and spun into the ground at the bottom of a loop.  That was replaced with a Pilot J-3 Cub ( powered by the OS 25 that was in the Eaglet 50 ), which was so snakey, it ground looped and cartwheeled before it ever got off the ground.  We figured it wouldn't be a very good trainer.

So, my dad built a Frankenstein trainer, using the tail from the Freshman and the wing from the Cub, but making it a low wing airplane with tricycle landing gear.  I remember the local hobby shop owner giving us the main landing gear from a Goldberg Sky Tiger kit.  The nose wheel was a heavy duty, double strut design.  Dad wasn't messing around anymore!  The fuselage was a custom job, joining everything together.  We called it the "Sullivan Special" ( SS ).  My grandfather used to race cars in the 1930s and he had a car called the "Sullivan Special", so there was a connection there.

A picture from the Virgil days, probably summer, 1986.  The SS is in the background with a Sig Mustang 450.  A Goldberg Falcon 56 Mk.II in the foreground, owned by George "POPS" Sheridan

I started flying it in the winter of 1986, finally getting my wings on Sunday, April 13.  I had tried on the Saturday, but the instructors wanted to see some consistency.  The only one who had ever seen me fly was my dad.  I continued to fly it for that summer and then moved on to the Telemaster and then a Sig 1/6 Cub ( clipped wing ).  The engine ( Saito 45 ) came out of the SS for the Sig Cub and I remember my dad asking me, "You aren't gonna fly that any more, are you?", referring to the SS sitting on the basement floor, engineless.  "Nah", I replied and it was scrapped.

A closer view of the SS.  It may be the ugliest airplane ever built, but it did the job.  The Cub wing was replaced at some point with this rectangular wing.  I don't remember why.

I wish now, that I had kept it.  Since I have a Freshman, a Saito 45 and the plans for the Pilot J-3, I can build the wing and tail.

With a couple of old photographs to go on, the fuselage can be reproduced with reasonable accuracy, and voila, my replica trainer!  The wings were covered with yellow Solartex and the fuselage was red Monokote.  Since I was in Air Cadets at the time, I think I will choose the scheme of the CT-134 that the RCAF was using for primary training.