"Once upon a time ..."

Isn't that the way all fairy tales start?

Well, this isn't a fairy tale, but it does fly, and the story started a long time ago ...

Before getting to the story:  This picture was taken at the 2005 Merced West Coast "Antique Aircraft" fly-in held each year in California. It is a photograph of a full sized 1964 Liberty Sport Biplane belonging to Ralph Belden, and it took first place in the "Biplane" category.

If you like biplanes the "Liberty Sport" is a good one to model. It is colorful, looks almost "Military" with the right color scheme, and is a smooth flying aircraft. It is not an aircraft for a "beginner", but with the CG moved forward it is reasonably stable and fun. As with any biplane, there is a bit of "set up" at the field, but the finished look is rewarding of the effort.   If you are interested, a set of plans for an almost 1/4 scale version (78 inch top wing I think, for 40 to 60 cc gasolene engines) is available from Wendell Hostetler, and "Kit Cutters, Inc." has a 77 inch wingspan, almost 1/4 scale kit that can be had for $250.00.

But ...   back to the story ...

In the very early 1980s Fox Hobbies had a kit of the "Liberty Sport" biplane (kitted by Sig Manufacturing Co.) on their shelf. They had it for quite some time before Giles purchased it.   In Giles' own words, "I had noticed the Liberty Sport kit kept laying on the shelf at Fox's Model Shop.   After about a year, I asked Ken what he would take for it.  He said, "How much do you have?"  I only had thirty dollars, so I offered that amount thinking it would not be enough, but Ken said I had the kit.  It laid around our old home place (where I was born), till we moved here."

The "Liberty Sport" kit was an exact scale kit, but was one in Sig's line of "Builder Kits".  What that means is the parts were not "die cut" or bandsawed.  That's right, the parts were not cut out!  Sig printed the outline of each part onto the various sheets, planks and strips of both balsa and plywood and it was the builder's responsibility to cut the parts from the sheets accurately.

In 1999, I was flying two biplanes. One was a Carl Goldberg "Ultimate" with a 1.08 two stroke (which I still have and fly on occasion) and the other was a "Phaeton" kitted by Balsa USA, with a Fox Eagle .74 on it. Giles approached me one Sunday afternoon and asked if I liked biplanes. The answer was obvious, so he asked if I would like to have a "Liberty Sport", to which I asked, "for how much"?  The price was right ... a "few flights" after it was finished, so, I picked it up at Giles' house and started the construction. Not in a hurry, I worked on it "off and on" for a couple of years, then set it up and didn't work on it again.

In 2006, after talking with Giles, I offered it to Cecil, with the caveat that both Giles and I got to fly it a couple of times each. Cecil is a good builder and jumped at the chance. It has taken almost 30 years, but the other day, on November 7, 2007, the Sig "Liberty Sport" flew for the first time.   Cecil had equipped it with a new .90 Four Stroke engine so we ran the engine a bit, completed a range check of the radio equipment, and determined all looked "good". We had a little trouble with the fuel filler valve while refueling, but the engine started easily and I was lucky enough to get the first flight. I pointed the nose into the wind and added power. The "Liberty Sport" raised it's tail and lifted smoothly off the runway after about 100 feet. I began a gentle climbing left turn away from the pit area when the engine, suddenly, coughed and just quit! We, later, determined that the fuel tank was empty! Apparently, the fuel filler valve was not letting fuel into the tank and I had taken off with just enough fuel to get airborne.   This being a new, unfamiliar airplane, and not even mine, I certainly did not want it to crash!  I didn't think I had enough altitude or airspeed to complete the turn back to the runway, and not knowing how slow it would fly before it dropped a wing, I leveled the wings, straightened the rudder and tried to set it down as gently as I could. Everything looked good, but the tall grass grabbed the landing gear and it broke away as it was designed to do. There didn't appear to be any other damage, but to be cautious, Cecil decided to take it back home and make certain all was OK before another flight.

It's a great looking airplane, and Cecil did an outstanding job building and finishing it. I just wish the tank had fuel in it!   Look for it at the field!