EAA493 Mailing List: Re: Leon York Service on KLST

[Don Smucker (dws_jmc]

Don T., that was a very nice eulogy!  Well put.

The pilot/passengers were as follows:

1.  Don Smucker, pilot, Cynthia Marcus, spotter asst.  Stinson.  N8737K.
2.  Gerry Hatch, pilot.  Larry Marcus, spotter asst.  RV-7.  N778WP.
3.  Ted Reed, pilot.  Johnny Williams, co-pilot/spotter.  Cessna 172.  N5013A.
4.  Don Treadwell, pilot.  Nancy Treadwell, co-pilot, spotter.  Cessna 172 (Texas Taildragger).  N2059O.
5.  Art McNamara, pilot.  Solo.  RV-6.  N642RV.
6.  Omer D. Price, pilot.  Solo.  RV-7.  N990D.
7.  Fred Jones, pilot.  Norm Beauchamp, co-pilot/spotter.  RV-9.  N463DG.
8.  Joe Christian, pilot.  Dale ("Al") Elliott, co-pilot/spotter.  Bonanza.  N61JC.

Jade Chandler, (my wife) told the people in her car (she drove with Steve and Nancy McDuff and Bill Yeates to the cemetery) a Leon story.  One time Leon stopped by our hangar.  This was in later years when he was still flying, but much more infrequently.  I asked him if he wanted to go flying.  His eyes lit up, said he had wanted to fly in my Stinson, had a little Stinson time (what plane didn't he have some time in?? - I heard somewhere that his current planes were something like the 55th and 56th planes he owned - or something along those lines), but not one with a big engine and constant speed prop.  Said he would stop back by in just a bit.  A few minutes he was back and we clambered into the airplane and had a good flight.  When we got back down Jade was there.  We were standing and talking, and Leon was near a red ant nest.  Jade warned him about them and we discussed the pests for a bit, including that if you disturbed their mound their tendency is to swarm up your leg and seemingly all wait for a common signal before they all start biting at once.  Jade said, I have a story to tell about those critters.  Jade and I were at the Wagon Wheel flea market, a huge flea market in Pinellas County, Florida.  Jade managed to stand on an unobserved red ant mound - of course the ants swarmed up her legs, waited for the cue then dug in with a vengeance.  Jade stripped out of jeans on the spot, in the middle of a large crowd.  Those critters will evoke that reaction.  Leon's eyes lit up again, and he said he had a similar story, Texas style.  It seems he spent the day in his hangar at Ducote quietly working on a prop.  Spent some hours there, as he described in his slow droll way, shaping the prop and not moving much.  Afterwards he want back to the house.  Joyce had company, so Leon sat down in the living room with Joyce and the company.  As Leon was sitting there he felt and saw a large lump working up his pant leg, over the knee and on up.  Leon said he got out of those trousers on the spot in quick fashion.  Out of the pants crawled a Tarantula!

Great times to remember, time spent with Leon.

Don Smucker

On Friday, January 17, 2014 2:44 AM, Don Treadwell <donald [at] treadwellphotography.com> wrote:

    For anyone waking up early Friday there was a nice segment on Leon York on the ten o'clock news Thursday night.  It will most likely be repeated Friday morning at 6 AM on KLST and at noon if they still have a noon show. KSAN runs many of the same news segments so it will probably be on KSAN also.  It would be great if someone could record the segment and show it at the next chapter meeting on the 21st of this month.

    A special thanks to Don Smucker who spent many hours coordinating the fly over that was shown during the news story.  I saw two Cessnas followed by an RV, so that must have been #3, Ted Reed, #4, Don Treadwell, and #5, Art McNamara.  John Goble appeared on camera and talked about Leon designing and building airplanes in the 1950s and being one of the first members of the EAA.

    Nancy York asked for a list of all those who participated in the fly by, their number and their passengers.  I know Don wrote that down during preflight, so please pass that on to Nancy nly1 [at] verizon.net  She may also be on this reflector.

    Don Smucker was #1.  Our flight leader prepared us so well that he had very little to say once airborne.

    Gerry Hatch was #2.  Gerry also spent many hours preparing and planning for the fly over.

    Ted Reed was #3. Don Treadwell and Nancy were in #4.  Art McNamara was #5 and solo.  Art did a wonderful job of avoiding me when things got slow.  Omer D. Price was next in #6.  Fred Jones was #7 with Norm Beauchamp.  Most fittingly, since Leon had owned every model of the V-tailed Bonanza during his life time, the last airplane in the flight was #8, Joe Christian and his Bonanza.  Al Elliott flew with Joe.

    I know I have left out some of the copilots and passengers but I'm not sure which planes they were in.

    I was privileged to fly many hours with Leon in his airplanes and mine.  He had the type of personality that people gravitate to.  A tall, lean Texan that was quiet spoken with a quick, broad grin that you just knew even Gary Cooper envied.  He made me feel like a special friend and I think I saw that in many of his friends.  He was a wonderful story teller.  He had a story about anything and everything that you could imagine.  We flew all over Texas and Oklahoma taking pictures and telling stories about flying Howard DGAs with their big radial-cylinder engine, Beech Travel Airs with two 180 HP Lycoming engines, and all manner of Beechcraft, Mooney (he was a Mooney dealer at one point), and experimental airplanes.  He owned a Stearman after the war that he purchased for very little cash as government surplus.  He tried to fly home in the winter and nearly froze from the cold.  They had to help him out of the cockpit when he landed, his glove was frozen in the shape of the control stick.

He saw a tiny advertisement in the back of a flying magazine that invited all interested to join a newly formed group called the Experimental Aircraft Association.  He promptly sent off his membership fee and became member number 57.  He designed and built several airplanes over the years.  He taught himself the math involved with designing propellers and built propellers for his airplanes, improving the performance of his RV-6A aircraft.  So I was in awe of his ability to design and craft propellers from wood that emulated constant speed propellers.

    Many of the stories that he really enjoyed telling involved some error that he had made in the past.  As aviation expanded after the war Leon flew into an airport that he was familiar with from earlier visits.  As he landed he looked over to his right and low and behold, there was a brand new control tower!  Now when did they build that he wondered?  Leon would laugh and then tell how he had to talk to the men in the tower and explain why he hadn't bothered to call them prior to landing.

Don

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