EAA Chapter 25

Chapter 25 member Steve Adkins is building a Hummel UltraCruiser. Check out his project website at: http://quid.us/hummel/.

Charles Peter “Chuck” Doyle was born to be a pilot and stunt man. Impressed with Charles Lindbergh’s 1927 solo flight to Europe, Doyle talked his father into taking him to the Minneapolis Airport where he was given an air ride in a Navy trainer. In his teens, Doyle owned a Harley Davidson motorcycle and cut classes at Washburn High School to ride to the airport and hang out. In the summer after his junior year, he offered to trade the motorcycle for flying lessons, but instead was given work helping to rebuild airplanes. He soloed in an airplane that summer and borrowed money to purchase his own Travel Air biplane. During the 1933 fall homecoming football game at the high school, Doyle buzzed the field and was promptly dismissed from school. He would finally graduate from Washburn in a colorful 2002 ceremony!

At the airport, Doyle earned a living working on airplanes, selling tickets for barnstormers, and performing daredevil stunts. In 1935, Doyle made his first parachute jump at the Minnesota State Fair and towed his first aerial banner for Griffith Shoe Polish. He had learned the fine art of skywriting from local veterans and rigged his plane to fulfill local Pepsi Cola assignments. In addition to the flying, Doyle also began to take part in other thrill show events at fairs and celebrations across the country, performing such stunts as driving his motorcycle through burning board walls, head-on auto crashes, crashing airplanes through ‘houses’ built within fairgrounds, as well as climbing from his speeding motorcycle to an airplane by means of a rope ladder hung from the airplane. He used his motorcycle and ramps to jump over cars long before Evel Knievel was born. Despite the spectacular lifestyle, Doyle was never injured.

During WWII, Doyle worked briefly for Northwestern Aeronautical Corporation in St. Paul, building gliders that were used by the Army to land troops behind enemy lines. In 1942, despite having no college education, he was hired by Northwest Airlines in January of 1942 after Pearl Harbor as a training instructor and taught at Rochester, Minnesota. When Northwest was contracted by the Army Air Transport Command, he was assigned to fly Northwest transports in Alaska, making flights as far out as the Aleutian Islands.

Following the war, Doyle bought war surplus aircraft, flying, restoring and racing them at Reno, Nevada. Many of his airplanes found their way into museums, including three in the Air Force Museum at Dayton, Ohio, and a Curtiss Pusher aircraft that hangs in the MSP Airport’s Lindbergh terminal. Doyle’s airline career with Northwest continued until his retirement at age 60 in 1976 after 34 years, but his flying career wasn’t over. From his home airstrip in Apple Valley, Doyle continued to sky-write and tow banners. The airstrip’s signboard heralded “UFOs Welcome.“ He owned and flew dozens of aircraft and had his hand in many Minnesota aviation projects, including the publishing of a Minnesota aviation history book. When the City of Apple Valley condemned his property for highway right-of-way, Doyle moved his planes to Fleming Field South St. Paul MN.

He knew everybody in aviation and lived flying and restoring airplanes every day of his life. Both sons, Chuck Jr. and Brian, were taught to learn to fly by their father and are pilots and continue the family’s tradition for the love of aviation. Daughter Shannon would fly only with her father but respects their love for flying.

In 1992 He was inducted into the Minnesota Aviation Hall of Fame, in 1996 the OX-5 Hall of Fame, and in 2003 Warbird Hall of Fame. Chuck was a member and supporter of many other fine aviation organizations, including EAA Chapter 25. Chuck Doyle is survived by two sons, one daughter and four grandchildren.

A memorial service will be held Friday, May 2nd, 11:00 AM at Shepherd of the Valley Lutheran Church, 12650 Johnny Cake Ridge Rd., Apple Valley, MN, with a gathering of family & friends one hour before the service. Private family interment at Ft. Snelling National Cemetery.

Long-time chapter member and past Chapter  President Paul Wilcox passed away on Sunday, October 28th, at home.  Paul was a Naval aviator during World War II and involved actively in Twin Cities aviation for many years. Funeral services were held on Thursday, November 1st, at Christ Episcopal Church in Red Wing.  We urge all members to share their memories of Paul via this website. Please email Jon Cumpton at jcbroke40@aol.com if you would like to do so, or simply add a comment here.

On September 26th, Jim Koepnick, EAA Sport Aviation photographer, visited Osceola’s Simenstad Municipal Airport to complete a series of ground and aerial photographs of Dick Navratil’s new Pietenpol. Photo 1, EAA’s Cessna Centurion, was piloted by Janet Davidson, who flew over with Jim from Oshkosh for the afternoon. It was perfect fall weather for the activity.

Dick had just completed a few modifications after his first two days of test flying. After shooting some photographs on the ground and going through a pre-flight briefing on flying “photo formation”, the two airplanes took off for a 45 minute aerial shoot.

Of course the beautiful pictures you see in Sport Aviation may look easy to shoot, but the only thing that makes it easier is the removable photo door on Photo 1. In this case, the Pietenpol only does about 65 mph, so the Centurion was flying close to stall speed the whole time. Then the photo plane had to be up-sun, fly at different altitudes for different shot angles, and worry about how the subject airplane looked against the background of the terrain. Watching Jim and Janet in action  showed how hard they work to get such beautiful results.  And those results included an array of beautiful shots against the fall colors and lakes of Wisconsin. Look for a feature article by Jim Busha in an upcoming issue of Sport Aviation.

Once again, the Coffey family campsite served as “Chapter 25 Central” for transient Chapter members without a campsite of their own at this year’s Airventure. And, in the case of your Chapter President, an added bonus of a parking space convenient to the Airventure grounds. Sightings included Pat Halligan with some NWA pilot friends in tow and Ron Oehler visiting from his nearby campsite with former president Steve Beach (now in Witness Protection in another city as are many former presidents). Then there was Gary Rosch, Harvey Havir, Norm Tesmar, Peter Denny, Jim Ladwig — not to mention the annual sighting of Jeff Coffey himself. Jeff took out time from remaking the AOPA Website for the annual pilgrimage to the shores of Lake Winnebago. In the photo above, he waves the ceremonial first brat off the grill for Pat Halligan’s benefit.

by S. Steve Adkins

from On Final February 2006

Acknowledgement: My thanks to Chris Cooper whose counsel enabled me to receive my Third Class Medical Certificate.

For a number of years, I had noticed increasing discomfort when breathing cold air. Simply… my lungs hurt. I bought a couple of devices to warm the air including a simple dust mask. More recently, I experienced symptoms similar to being out of breath when hauling brush up a steep hill. I wrote it off to old age until the symptoms got more severe. Another clue of health problems was that my iceboating buddies seemed to think pain from cold air is unusual. Note: the only place you can find warnings about sensitivity to cold air is on the web.

After reporting these symptoms to my doctor, I was immediately put on four medications and sent to the Minnesota Heart Clinic. Diagnosis: Angina. Shortly after that, I was given a stress test accompanied by a heart echogram. Soon I was on the operating table where the surgeon was installing two stents in arteries that were 95% blocked. It is a painless procedure. You go home within 24 hours. (Read on …)