My Dad was a Crop duster who flew and restored many Stearmans. He gave me my fist ride at 5 years old, on his lap, in an open cockpit Stearman. I’ll never forget that ride and I have always wanted my one biplane. Turns out my expendable income hasn’t yet risen to the Stearman range but I’m having a blast in my Super Baby Great Lakes.
N822CH was completed in 1981 by Colonel William Pratt of Colorado. The Oldfield Baby Great Lakes was designed by Barney Oldfield to use an A-65 or similar. Colonel Pratt was an F4 Phantom pilot and an Air Force Maintenance Officer who “acquired” a zero-time Lycoming O-290G military ground power unit that he decided to hang on the front of my 16-foot wingspan biplane.
The plane transferred from hangar to hangar and state to state until it eventually made it to my hangar in San Antonio, Texas. The list of test pilots stayed at zero and I acquired the plane with only 91 total hours.
I/we spent 9 months chasing off gremlins and I now (8/18/19) have 15 hours “riding” this beast that I have named Jekyll and Hyde.
It’s a blast to fly, but I’m glad I had nearly a thousand tailwheel hours before I took on this adventure.
