I have standardized on the Sigtronics SPA400n for high noise cockpits. It works in the P-51 quite well and that is a VERY loud cockpit. I always have to adjust the squelch after takeoff and then again when I bring the power back to cruise.
Works well in the PT22 but you obviously can't let the mic get into the wind.

Sigtronics will modify any SPA400 to an N for a reasonable cost.

I use Bose 2 headsets for really loud cockpits because they work better with the lower frequencies than the Bose 10 or 20. I don't like the leather soft helmets so I just use the headset by itself.

I am very happy with the Becker 4201 and I use them in all of my aircraft. I do not use their built in intercom.

When Bose came out with the prototype of the 10 they sent me an early version and I did a flight test in several of my planes. It did not work well in the Mustang or even the T-34. They agreed that it wasn't as good with the really loud low frequencies. I even video taped the testing and showed them how many negative G's before it would come off my head in the Extra 300.

One of the highlights for me of Airventure this year was handing a check to Tom Brown for his 1936 Waco ZPF 6 project. It's not a flying airplane by any means at this point consisting of drawings and a part of a fuselage. But, hopefully, in a few years it will once again be flying.

The project is the fifth acquisition out of a planned six Waco F models. My hope is to eventually have an example of all the principal F models made by Waco during the decade from 1930 to 1940.

Information and history of this airframe, which is one of only 5 F6's made (and only one is currently in flying condition) is on my website here:

https://dreamwacos.com/waco-zpf-6/

I got the PS Engineering 1200 installed in the F3 and flew it into and out of Airventure. It worked great! I could leave the intercom on all the time and hear controllers well as well as communicate with my front seat passenger. When in isolate mode it is obviously clearer as there is no background noise.

Passenger was wearing a DC headset with a leather mike muff cover.

I know guys who like to fly their open cockpit biplanes across the country. They enjoy seeing the sites low and slow. I've done it. I get it. But its not my favorite thing to do in an open cockpit biplane. After a while it's tiring. And in the summer as the day wears on its hot and can get fairly bumpy, or even turbulent, down low.

I prefer shorter flights, often only an hour or so, to local destinations or no destination at all. I could do that every day. I've been at it the last three days in a row and am looking forward to more aimless flying tomorrow.

The FF picture below defines "piddling" around to me. Doing nothing much, going nowhere, no plan, no purpose, nowhere to be, no deadline except fuel, fun til it's time to head to the barn.

This morning when I got to Page Airport I thought I'd do a few landings for fun. Coming through the inversion layer around 100 feet to cool ground air on a warm morning is like diving into a cool swimming pool, or wiping a cold glass of tea across the forehead on a hot day. Doing it over and over again is almost sinful.

Such is the aviation poetry of life...

And?

As open cockpit weather approaches I've added another biplane to my small collection. This one is really exciting...

In 1931 after the Curtiss Wright Corporation acquired Travel Air they built a relatively newly designed airframe as a follow on to the 4000. This was called the CW 14 Osprey and it went on to be a fairly successful seller primarily to South American militaries. They also built a couple of similar high performance models for sportsmen pilots called the B-14-B. One of those crashed and was destroyed before the decade was over and the other one survives in Walt Bowe's Ala Doble Collection and you can see it here:

https://www.aladobleflyingcollection.or ... ir-b-14-b/

They also built one fire breathing, souped up version of the airframe as a race plane specifically for the young Casey Lambert, scion of a wealthy St. Louis family called the B-14-R. They never made another. It's registration number, NR 12311 is unusual as the R stood for restricted and is different than the more familiar NC designation. After owning it a few years the plane passed through a number of hands until it landed, like a dead roach, on its back as a result of a freak windstorm in 1952.

There it remained, figuratively, until a restoration was begun in the 1990's and it finally flew again in 2006. However, its restoration continued with a new owner beginning in 2012 and was finally finished in 2018 when Steve Thomas, owner of Poplar Grove Airport in Illinois flew it. After a few flights its engine began making metal and the propeller and engine, a Pratt & Whitney 985 450 horsepower model were overhauled.

I first saw Walt's B-14-B a couple of years ago at his airport in California. It stood out from his amazing collection and is beautiful with its hulking, streamlined appearance. Steve's B-14-R, painted as Lambert had it in 1931 is similar but more powerful. Steve agreed to sell it to me, with about 35 hours on it since restoration, last fall. He wanted to make some repairs and annual it before turning it over so it just changed hands this week.

I'll be leaving it at Poplar Grove until Airventure where it will be displayed as part of the 100th Anniversary of the Travel Air Company. Then it will come home and be on display, and flying, at my museum The Caldwell Collection beginning in early fall.

I've attached a couple of photos, from one of Steve's hangars last summer when we were parked next to it prepping a Waco for Airventure. One has my friend Rob Lock, whose restoration shop, "Waldo Wright's Flying Service" will be located at the museum, and whose late father Bob, a highly respected antique restorer, helped in the restoration. Below is a link to Steve's maiden flight. The video is short but shows the amazing power and beauty of the the airplane.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eWXfbG7RE6A

You can learn more about the airplane's history, Casey Lambert and its restoration on my website www.dreamwacos.com and soon on the museum's site www.thecaldwellcollection.org

I hope you'll come visit to see this incredible plane when we open in October!

Tony - this is amazing. I am going to plan a trip up to visit.

At Last - A Rose Parrakeet!

A few years ago I saw an ad in Barnstormers for something I'd never heard of before. It was a single hole, certified biplane that was just bigger than a Texas dragonfly raised on a too green stock tank. This pretty little thing was called a "Rose Parrakeet" but unlike its namesake it was red not green. I called more out of curiosity than anything else and ended up halfway freezing to death standing outside a restaurant while simultaneously learning a lot about one of the world's smallest certificated airplanes and irritating the heck out of my wife.

It was winter. Not the best time to buy a biplane. And this one was on the east coast and not easy to go see. So I didn't. But I started reading about them and idly keeping my eyes open in case I ran across one. Eventually I did and then, like when you stub your toe and notice you're bumping into things constantly, they began to turn up. But I was busy with bigger stuff - Wacos to be precise - and never seriously considered buying one.

A couple of years ago I began to call on planes I saw advertised, found the New Rose Parrakeet website: https://www.roseparrakeet.com/ and read whatever I could find that the late Barry Taylor wrote about them. Last year I got sort of serious and flew out to look at several. One in Shreveport that is absolutely beautiful, and a Lindy winner, was an experimental and the cockpit was too short for me. Another in frozen Iowa, restored by Barry, was too much money for what work it needed. The last one I went to see was around the corner from my old hangar at Sonoma Skypark.

NC 14882 was tucked into a corner of a box hangar with a few pieces off. It is a Rose-Rhinehart Parrakeet 4A-C. It's a certified plane but built under license by long dead Parrakeet aficionado Doug Rhinehart. It's not just certificated but apparently the FAA required every one of the handful of planes he built to be tested as if it was being certificated. The paperwork pile is just about as big as the airplane.

Not that the plane is big. It has a 20 foot wingspan! And it's only 16 feet long. Pilots much over six feet should just walk on by. But it's cute, extremely strong with a VNE of 226 mph and a very capable aerobatic performer.

Well, it would be, except serial number 506 was built in 1972 and covered with Irish linen. And has never been recovered. So, while it will probably fly the fabric might come off faster than an Earl Scheib $39.95 paint job (for those of you old enough to remember that!). So, while sitting pretty in the hangar it needs to be recovered before doing any loop the loops.

The owner and I hit it off and the next thing I know we've been chatting about airplanes and life for five hours. He wanted me to make an offer. I demurred saying he should name his price and if I liked it we'd shake hands and if not we'd part friends. He thought about it a bit and named a number. We shook hands and we're friends. He'll take the plane apart for me which is a pretty simple task and I'll come get it in a Penske truck. My plan is the museum will display it for a year or so until we get caught up on some other projects and then we'll cut the cover off and Rob will teach me to do fabric work.

Here's the Collection page on the plane with some pictures:

https://www.thecaldwellcollection.org/c ... ield-35-70

What a fabulous find! There is something heart achingly beautiful about the Rose Parrakeet, and the only term I can find (and that you can understand), is that it has that "je ne sais quoi" about it that makes it unique.
If I recall correctly, the originator of the design may have lived in New Mexico. I recall seeing one in Fabens, Texas, many years ago, that may have belonged to the early partners in the venture. As I remember, there were some disputes among the principals, but fortunately, the airplane survived, and a number, such as yours, are out there for us to admire and covet.
Congratulations, and with luck, I will get top see it before long.

Tom

I just caught up on he history of the Parrakeet from the website. Some of my recollections above are in error, but the site is fascinating in its detail about Jack Rose.
At least I did get the two "r"s in the name of the airplane...
TN

Tom,

It's an interesting history. Doug Rhinehart, who owned at one time or another 6 of the 8 aircraft Jack Rose built was not just a huge fan but is ONE of the New Mexico connections. The first guy Rose made a deal with to build airplanes was Hannaford who tried to rename the plane and basically hijack it. The FAA tipped Rose off and they split the sheets. That didn't stop Hannaford from selling plans for decades. I have an advertising comparison showing Hannaford basically stole Rose's ads word for word in addition to stealing his plans and intellectual property.

The other NM connection is a guy named Ed Sweat. When Doug Rhinehart died in a plane accident (not in a Parrakeet) he'd build three airplanes (one of them now the Collection's) and two additional fuselage's one of which Ed Sweat used to build an aircraft he called the Pajarito (little bird). Sweat registered the one he built as experimental and he later also copied plans put his "Pajarito" on them and sold them. This brings up the fact than anyone who is looking at a "Parrakeet" that isn't a certified version needs to be very careful with the inspection before buying as they aren't all the same.

With that said, I looked at what was at one time N200ES, the one Sweat built, and is now N567PS in Shreveport in January. It's a beautiful airplane and very well restored having one a Bronze Lindy at Airventure some years ago. The owner is a very talented AI and has maintained the airplane beautifully. The plane is fairly well known in Keet circles. The problem is that I couldn't fit my legs and feet in it well enough to feel safe because the seat is ever so slightly forward and the floor next to the rudder pedals is flat where it's cupped or recessed in the certified versions. But its reasonably priced and if anyone is interested I can put you in touch with the owner.

Which leads me to my last point, which is your first "Fabulous find". I found this one by introduction from a friend who knew about it though it wasn't advertised. This is how I've found almost all the airplanes I've purchased. That's unusual certainly but points out the value of connection, and research, in unearthing gems. They're out there!

P.S. Along with the plane we got a treasure trove of historical information including original plans, every issue of the Parrakeet Pilot's club newsletter, a number of magazines with Parrakeet articles from the 1960's and 1970's, letters and other memorabilia from Doug Rhinehart, FAA certification documentation and a lot more. The guy who sold it to us had been collecting information back into the 1960's. This is becoming a recurring experience as people who love their airplanes believe we'll take good care of them (and we will) but also help to tell their stories (and we'll do that too). I hope that makes the Collection ultimately more interesting and valuable than just seeing old airplanes but it is requiring a lot of document storage space! From this seller we have also received a commitment for a large library of aviation books, most out of print, as we have from one other long time collector - so we're constructing a library space for research - as well we will continue to reprint a lot of long out of print material online.

Absolutely fascinating, thank you. We remain consecrated to the history and romance of these wonderful biplanes. Your institution of a museum dedicated to them is admirable.
A good friend, John McGuire, established the War Eagles Air Museum. As the principal of Southern Union Gas, he was a great pilot, and a promoter of vintage war planes. His museum holds a veritable treasure trove of them. He has flown West, and I remain a docent in his museum, and owner of his Pitts S2A, (now sold), and Great Lakes.
The Louisiana Parrakeet seems attractive. I have no issue with the cockpit size, as I have similar stature (and perhaps disposition) of Mr. Ross Perot. I'm headed to NOLA for a medical meeting at the end of the month, and would be interested in taking a side trip to check out the "Keet".
If you can, I would appreciate a contact to the owner via PM.
Best regards,

Tom

Tony what a great story and great acquisition! I really need to head up to Oklahoma to visit. Perhaps Tom can join us! I’ll bring the Waco and Tom can bring the Great Lakes.

Could be this one.
https://www.barnstormers.com/classified ... akeet.html

It is. It's very nice. I crawled all over it.