Archive » June 22, 2007

Plane Talk

By Robert Perry

Men and Their Planes

Solvang resident Carl Walston, 74 grew up near a dirt airstrip in Belmont, California just south of San Francisco, his hometown.  It was then, while Carl was in the 8^th grade that he first saw a Culver Cadet, a two place compact single engine, low wing monoplane, and knew one day he wanted to have one!  Little did he know that serial number 191 had already been built and he would only have to wait until November 1995 to find it and make the purchase!

The Culver Cadet is a creation of legendary aircraft designer Al Mooney.  Produced from late 1939 until 1942, there are most likely only 20 still flying of the original 359 Cadets built by the Culver Aircraft Company.  Carl found tail number N29398 in Wallkill, New York.

Carl's journey toward ownership of the Culver Cadet took him from his roots in San Francisco to Stanford University where he was on the Gymnastics team and later its paid coach.  Meeting his future wife Mimi, a native of Selma, California at Stanford, Carl later was drafted into the U.S. Army where he retired as an officer in the artillery after three years of service.

After the military Carl joined his family's investment firm of Walston & Co. in New York City and eventually managed 26 offices across the Eastern U.S. During Carl's tenure at Walston & Co. he served on the executive committee, and ran the largest and most profitable division in the business.  Walston & Company eventually became the nation's 5^th largest "wire house."  In order to better manage the wide flung offices of his business Carl began training for his private pilot license in September 1961.  Earning advanced ratings Carl flew a succession of powered aircraft including the twin engine Cessna 310 and Commander 500, and the Piper Comanche single engine.

Carl later became involved with competition soaring and competed in three national championship soaring meets.  One of Carl's most hair raising moments in flying came during a soaring competition when he flew too close to a building thunderstorm and was sucked into the storm cloud and pushed upwards at more than 5,000 feet per minute!  Carl finally pointed the glider at the ground and found an exit from what could have been a deadly encounter with a dangerous storm.

After a long and successful career in the investments field Carl found more time to devote to his long time desire for one of Al Mooney's creations, the Culver Cadet.  Finding his airplane was the start of a 4-½ year project in restoration to this mostly wooden aircraft.  Although the Cadet sold for just over $2,400 when new, the restoration project came to far more than $100,000!

However, what Al Mooney designed and Carl Walston restored, cannot be recreated in a modern airplane for anything less than $150,000, and would have far less classic appeal than this little red speedster.  With a wingspan of only 27 feet and an overall length of 17'8", and powered by a Continental 75 horsepower 4 cylinder engine, this little red airplane is able to cruise at 120 miles per hour while burning only about 4 gallons of gas per hour.  With slotted elliptical fabric covered wings the Cadet remains controllable even at low airspeeds but will spin easily if provoked into the stall with a dropped wing.

Although the Cadet was built for full aerobatics and originally was approved, the short-coupled aircraft is prohibited by its type certificate from performing aerobatics, as pilots were sometimes not able to handle the quick spinning Cadet.

Not having a starter is no problem for Carl.  "It's a snap" he comments about having to hand prop the Continental engine to life.  Carl regularly flies out of Santa Ynez Airport and is a member of local EAA chapter 491.

Fly Safe,
Robert "Captain Bob" Perry
Titan Tornado II SS N899HC