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An Early, large “Super Cub”

mvivion

mvivion

SPONSOR
Bozeman,MT
I attended the Montana Antique Aircraft Association’s annual Three Forks Fly In last weekend, and managed to catch a ride in an early (1928), Cub-like, airplane.....a 1928 Travelair 6000.

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Owner and rebuilder Hank Galpin took five of us for a hop around the valley....said it was easier to fly around, than to taxi into his tie downs than to push the beast into the tiedowns.

Missouri River Headwaters:

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Copilot was a young lady from Brittany, France....a PhD in Microbiology, currently doing post doctoral research on microorganisms living in the hot pools of Yellowstone. And learning to fly on the side, obviously an overachiever, but a nice young lady named Margo:

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Hank took ten years to “rebuild” the plane, which flew out of McCall, ID for many years, then Alaska, where Hank bought the wreck. His goal for the last several years has been to fly at least 100 people per year in this airplane:

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A real class act. Would that we had many more like him.

Thanks for the ride, Hank!

MTV
 

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The Travelaire 6000 is a very cool bird.

Not many left.

Helped in some of the restoration work on the one at the Alaska Aviation museum.
Those windows are 1/4 inch thick plate glass, and the seats are wicker.
Those huge struts are round pipe/tubing with fairings attached
 
cubpilot2 said:
The Travelaire 6000 is a very cool bird.

Not many left.

Helped in some of the restoration work on the one at the Alaska Aviation museum.
Those windows are 1/4 inch thick plate glass, and the seats are wicker.
Those huge struts are round pipe/tubing with fairings attached
Click to expand...

Yep, it’s disconcerting to tap one of the struts and get a dull thud, rather than a metallic ring....then you realize it’s a fairing. Big airplane, and Hank basically built it. There wasn’t much left of the wreck when he got it.

And yes glass windows, and they all crank down just like older cars.

MTV
 
I think the Travelaire 6000 May be my favorite airplane. And Hank is a true gentleman and likes to share his plane and passion.

35BAA404-F4FF-4A81-AC03-4C50A57D9313.jpeg

Here is a picture of another 6000. This one is in the Museum of Mountain Flying in Missoula. I took this picture during the AOPA fly in this past June.

33E0F57E-275A-477B-912A-89E06DF43AC6.jpeg

And here is another picture of Hank and his 6000 with my wife looking out the window.

RobertC on this site used to fly these for Johnson’s. Maybe he will chime in?
 

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Another picture of three 6000s at the Hamilton MT fly in June of 2017. All three live in western Montana.
 

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Cool airplane.
And one day I aspire to have a moustache like that.
icon12.png
 
spinner2 said:
I think the Travelaire 6000 May be my favorite airplane. And Hank is a true gentleman and likes to share his plane and passion.
RobertC on this site used to fly these for Johnson’s. Maybe he will chime in?
Click to expand...

The Travelaire 6000 was one of the workhorses for Johnson Flying Service early on, and was involved in many adventures and misadventures. I can't tell the N number from this old photo, but they made a great platform for delivering smoke jumpers. You will note that Bushwheels are not new.

79730031.jpg

This is the Travelaire that I got to play with. This picture was taken as it was being prepared to travel to Homer after being sold. It has been a while, but I believe it sold for around $12-14,000. Of course I thought, "who would do that?". N9084 had a very productive life in Alaska. Johnson's sold the Travelaire that Hank has at about the same time. His made the trip in pieces after crashing in a river. It was hard to not roll down the window and signal a turn when having passengers on board. Good times.
IMG_0153.jpg

I don't know the number of times that N9804 has been rebuilt, but this is how it looked the last time I saw it. I would love to jump in it and take a quick flight again, but collectors seem to have a dim view of that idea.

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robertc said:
The Travelaire 6000 was one of the workhorses for Johnson Flying Service early on, and was involved in many adventures and misadventures. I can't tell the N number from this old photo, but they made a great platform for delivering smoke jumpers. You will note that Bushwheels are not new.

View attachment 38403

This is the Travelaire that I got to play with. This picture was taken as it was being prepared to travel to Homer after being sold. It has been a while, but I believe it sold for around $12-14,000. Of course I thought, "who would do that?". N9084 had a very productive life in Alaska. Johnson's sold the Travelaire that Hank has at about the same time. His made the trip in pieces after crashing in a river. It was hard to not roll down the window and signal a turn when having passengers on board. Good times.
View attachment 38404

I don't know the number of times that N9804 has been rebuilt, but this is how it looked the last time I saw it. I would love to jump in it and take a quick flight again, but collectors seem to have a dim view of that idea.

View attachment 38405

View attachment 38406
Click to expand...

Looks like the old smoke jumping pic is NC450N
1bff3e299b074b610b11401027a4dfbd.png



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
RaisedByWolves said:
Looks like the old smoke jumping pic is NC450N
1bff3e299b074b610b11401027a4dfbd.png



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Click to expand...

You made me do some research as to why it was de-registered. it wrecked in the Bitterroot range by El Capitan peak on a para-cargo run to supply a fire. Rebuildable in today's world.

IMG_1184.jpg
 

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I met Hank and his Travel Air today at the AAA fly in at Blakesburg, IA. What a great guy and fabulous
airplane. Talked for quite a while. Would have been nice to get a ride,
but too many people to start that trend. If there was anybody on the
field who DIDN’T want a ride in that, they would have to turn in their
member card!

Rich
 
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