February 2005-
On Sept.15, 2004, and again on Sept. 19, 2004, Captain H. James Poel—a 61-year-old retired American Airlines Boeing 777 captain—made the first flights in a reproduction of the 1911 Curtiss A-1.
The Curtiss A-1 “Triad” was the United States Navy’s first airplane and the first amphibious aircraft to be flown in this country. The reproduction A-1 (built, owned and operated by the Curtiss Museum in Hammondsport, New York; (www.linkny.com/curtissmuseum) made its initial flights from the southern end of Keuka Lake in the Finger Lakes District of Upstate New York, the very location from which Glenn Curtiss had staged the original A-1 flights in 1911.
As the basic root of the family tree for all the seaplanes that have followed it for the next 93 years, we present the story of this unique reproduction aircraft and the firsthand experiences of the pilot who flew it.
PFA: First, Captain Poel, tell us something about the Curtiss Museum itself.
Jim Poel: The Curtiss Museum has been in its present location for a little over five years, and has been around this area in one form or another since the early 1980s.
This is the spot where Glenn Curtiss lived and worked in his early days in aviation and Keuka Lake is exactly the spot where Curtiss conducted his initial flights of the original A-1. It was, frankly, quite a thrill for me to share what probably were the same feelings that Glenn Curtiss had when his original A-1 lifted off from the very same spot on the very same lake.
PFA: How did you get involved with the museum?
Jim Poel: My wife Lovada and I have a summer house in this area, and I began to volunteer in the restoration shop a few years ago. The A-1 reproduction project has been going on for the past three years, and it took lots of effort from lots of volunteers to make it happen.
A nice side benefit of working at the Curtiss Museum is that all the volunteers start off at exactly the same top-of-scale pay rate.
PFA: Zero?
Jim Poel: Exactly.
As far as how I got selected to make the flights, I like to say that the selection process occurred at the only meeting that I wasn’t able to attend, so I became the pilot.
PFA: Well, you obviously have lots of piloting credentials that made you a good choice. What’s your flight time, and what sort of aviation background did you have that helped you qualify for this assignment?
Jim Poel: I have about 24,000 hours of total flight time. When I retired from my airline job I was flying the Boeing 777 to Japan. I’ve always been active in the General Aviation world—I came up that way—and have owned lots of airplanes that ranged from small singles to light twins.
The most directly related experiences have come from my association with seaplane operations—I owned a Piper J-3 on floats, and have flown a number of Cessna float planes. But my most significant seaplane experience has been with my Republic Seabee, which I’ve had for several years. In some ways the Seabee is very similar to what Curtiss created with the A-1—a flying boat with a pusher prop and wingtip floats.
PFA: Tell us about the flights themselves.
Jim Poel: I gave it lots of thought before that first flight, and I came up with several questions that I really wanted to know the answers to. How would the A-1 handle on the water without a stepped hull? Even Curtiss must have been concerned, because he invented the stepped hull a year and a half after the first A-1 flights.
Another question was where to set the stabilizer trim and the canard—another important point, because I certainly wanted to have lots of nose down authority. Since it was adjustable, we opted to set it as it was set in many of the old photographs. I wondered how I was going to maintain pitch attitude awareness since there was virtually nothing in front of me when I was in the pilot’s seat.
Another control question was how effective the shoulder yoke control of the ailerons would be. In the A-1, the ailerons—which were mounted midway between the upper and lower wing panels and, thus, created no asymmetrical drag and no adverse aileron yaw that would require corresponding rudder input—were controlled by the pilot’s shoulders moving left and right. Turning the control wheel was used to activate the rudder.
PFA: Obviously, there was lots to think about. Was the weather being cooperative that day?
Jim Poel: It couldn’t have been better. For our first two flights, we had clear skies, less than five knots of wind and a temperature of 80 degrees Fahrenheit. Keuka Lake was no more than light ripples.
After engine start, and while warming the OX-5 engine up—we had volunteers holding onto the airplane with ropes so it wouldn’t taxi out until I was ready—I checked the pitch authority and the A-1 seemed to respond well.
When I gave the signal, the rope was released and I began to taxi out on the lake. I added power to taxi and the nose immediately responded by coming up some—that’s when I knew for certain that it would fly. Working the ailerons through the shoulder yoke was more effective if I grabbed the seat frame with my right hand for leverage.
Turning the A-1 around with the rudder, I headed back toward the shore and directly into the light wind. I added power slowly and held slight back pressure on the wheel. As the A-1 gained speed the spray from the float moved aft, the nose came up further and the aircraft lifted smoothly off the water in a most delightful manner.
There was no popping off the water or awkward rotation problems—things I had been concerned about before the flight. Matter of fact, I wasn’t exactly sure when the A-1 left the water. At about 15 feet of altitude I leveled off. Since I was headed back toward the shoreline, I immediately began the landing phase. The plan was to point the nose down until I was two or three feet above the surface, then back off on the power and let it settle in with a slightly nose-high attitude.
This is basically what happened, except that with nothing in front of me I wasn’t really certain of my pitch attitude. The A-1 just landed itself, and beautifully. There was no pitch-over tendency at all, just a smooth settling.
Later, watching the video, I could see that I had actually touched on the right float first—something that I had no sensation of from the pilot’s seat.
PFA: You flew again that day?
Jim Poel: Yes, immediately. I taxied back out on the lake, and this time I rotated the A-1 more abruptly and the aircraft lifted off more positively. As I was leveling off, a gust of wind caused the airplane to balloon up to 50 or 60 feet of altitude—higher than I wanted to go. So, there I was at 50 feet, with the airspeed increasing and the available lake in front of me rapidly decreasing.
Since most of the flying with the A-1 is done at full throttle and because the airplane has such a high drag profile, a drastic reduction in engine power is something that you should reserve for a very special occasion—which I now decided that this current situation had quickly become.
I pushed the nose down and decreased engine power. The A-1 descended at a steep angle but was gliding nicely. I added some engine power at the flair, the wing dropped slightly and I landed on the right float first, then the hull. The touchdown itself was quite smooth. Having had two successes out of two tries, I decided that we had done enough for one day.
PFA: The third flight was a few days later?
Jim Poel: Yes. On September 19, a cool and windy day. The breeze was from the northeast at 10 to 15, the air temperature was 55 degrees, and the waves on the lake were nine to 12 inches. I taxied out in a crosswind, lined up into the wind, then applied full power. The nose came up, the spray moved back, and we were airborne in about three aircraft lengths.
I leveled off at 15 feet and then began the landing maneuver. In spite of the wind and the lake conditions, the touchdown was stable and smooth. The biggest problem I had was in trying to turn downwind while taxiing—it took idle power and a need for me to wait while each wave shoved the nose a little further around. When I was finally headed downwind, I taxied back to a happy crowd.
PFA: How would you summarize your overall piloting impressions of the A-1?
Jim Poel: The aircraft was a delight to fly. It was light and responsive and basically it wanted to fly. The control system—although quite alien to the conventional control system that pilots today are accustomed to—worked very well.
These three short flights were the most memorable ones I have ever experienced. It was a wonderful trip back in time where all of us involved in the project actually experienced a historic moment being replayed.
From my point of view, that accurate replay of a significant moment in aviation history made all the efforts that had been put in by so many volunteers more than worthwhile. We’re going to fly the Curtiss A-1 again next year, in September of 2005. Come out and watch.
Editor-at-large Thomas Block has flown nearly 30,000 hours since his first hour of dual in 1959. In addition to his 36-year career as a US Airways pilot, he has been an aviation magazine writer since 1969, a best-selling novelist, and the owner of more than a dozen personal airplanes.
