There are few record setting aircraft from the '20s still around and even fewer true aviation heroes. But a special plane and an extraordinary pilot are still flying today. Jim Rearden's new book "Travel Air NC9084" chronicles their history, and you can fly with them both in Homer Alaska.
Jim Rearden's new book "Travel Air NC9084" offers fascinating tales and details about an historic 1929 aircraft and the heroes that flew it.
Bill de Creeft writes in the Foreword, "They're too valuable and rare to risk now, too beautiful and shiny to fly freight into a gravel strip or to stuff in 'just one more' wet goat hunter off a high windy lake." He should know, Bill and 9084 did just that for 35 years in Alaska.
Today he flies sightseeing rides in Travel Air NC9084 from Homer, Alaska; flights that are more considerate of Kachemak Bay Flying Service's recently restored and exquisitely finished "Limousine of the Air." During the three decades that Bill worked 9084 he learned just what a capable aircraft Travel Air Manufacturing Company had built. He also learned about the aircraft's amazing history, often from the very people who made it. Named one of Alaska's Heros of the Decade by the Anchorage Times for daring and selfless rescues, Bill made some of that history himself.
With just the right mix of enthralling stories, aeronautical history, technical details, and personal insights "Travel Air NC9084" chronicles Bill and Barbara de Creeft's experiences with 9084, the aircraft's contribution to aviation history, and their "nothing by chance" encounters with the people who helped make that history.
You'll read about a 13-day non-stop endurance flight, and gasp when you realize that odd shape in the old air-to-air photo is actually a mechanic working on the engine thousands of feet above the ground and inches from the propeller. You'll read about Tex Hendrix laboring in a 1930's abandoned Texas dust bowl dance hall, replacing gas pipe used for longerons with proper aircraft tubing. You'll read about a Ziegfield dancer, smoke jumpers, a murderer, and desperate survivors--all part of 9084's history.
Jim Rearden's "Travel Air NC9084" is a chronicle of an aircraft's seventy-five years of continuous commercial service, and a pilot's 22,000 hours (21,000 on floats) of experience in the skies of Alaska. Anyone with a taste for aviation history and for adventure will love it.
The book can be ordered for $14.95 + s/h by phone (406) 549-8488, by e-mail at phpc@montana.com, or through the publishers website at www.pictorialhistoriespublishing.com.
For more information about flights contact Bill de Creeft at 1-907-235-8924 or visit www.alaskaseaplanes.com
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