Name that Flying Machine
Gnome de PPRuNe
Join Date: Jan 2002
Location: Too close to Croydon for comfort
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Have a bash at this...
I reckon the pilot might be recognisable!
I reckon the pilot might be recognisable!
Gnome de PPRuNe
Join Date: Jan 2002
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Age: 60
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Warm - not the final form of this US one-off.
Those years of reading Flying have paid off! I recognized it immediately - Pete Garrison's Melmoth. Do I get extra marks for naming the pilot?
Treaders' photo is of the early version, when it had a conventional stabilizer and an aluminium turtle-deck.
Melmoth met a sorry end and Pete had a lucky escape at Orange County Airport:
Treaders' photo is of the early version, when it had a conventional stabilizer and an aluminium turtle-deck.
Melmoth met a sorry end and Pete had a lucky escape at Orange County Airport:
The career of Melmoth 1 ended, after nine years and 2,000 hours, at what is now John Wayne Airport in Orange County. I was holding short of the right runway waiting for takeoff clearance when a Cessna landing on the left went out of control and plowed through me. Both planes were totaled, but no one was hurt.
Join Date: Jul 2007
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SNIP
my own research, which appears on another forum, concerning the Itford competition (q.v. http://sussexhistoryforum.co.uk/index.php?topic=2277.15). If it interests anyone, there is a good deal on that forum concerning early gliding in Sussex and the county's pre-war gliding clubs.
my own research, which appears on another forum, concerning the Itford competition (q.v. http://sussexhistoryforum.co.uk/index.php?topic=2277.15). If it interests anyone, there is a good deal on that forum concerning early gliding in Sussex and the county's pre-war gliding clubs.
Gnome de PPRuNe
Join Date: Jan 2002
Location: Too close to Croydon for comfort
Age: 60
Posts: 12,609
Received 288 Likes
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Those years of reading Flying have paid off! I recognized it immediately - Pete Garrison's Melmoth. Do I get extra marks for naming the pilot?
Treaders' photo is of the early version, when it had a conventional stabilizer and an aluminium turtle-deck.
Melmoth met a sorry end and Pete had a lucky escape at Orange County Airport:
Treaders' photo is of the early version, when it had a conventional stabilizer and an aluminium turtle-deck.
Melmoth met a sorry end and Pete had a lucky escape at Orange County Airport:
In 1975 when I was already quite smitten with small aeroplanes and pretty good at recognising most types, a T-tailed, tip-tanked object went zotting across the small patch of sky visible from our sitting room window - nothing in the books like it. A pic of it at Biggin Hill appeared in Air Pictorial later on, ahhhhh!
Garrison bought it over the Atlantic non-stop I think as long distance flying was its goal and he and his wife had some longer adventures across and around the Pacific. James Gilbert and, I think, Manx Kelly had a go at Booker. Following the accident in 1982 Garrison was already thinking about Melmoth II, a redesigned and much improved version of the concept which has been flying for some time and with which he is still tinkering.
You have control!
Join Date: May 2011
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Funnily enough, Melmouth came up in conversation the other day. I too spotted it right off. Garrison was asked about the best clothes to wear for long distance flying. He said probably a skirt, except for stepping down on arrival..
DW
DW
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Sorry, FP. I can't explain that. I have no problems using firefox and chrome - but I'm only acessing it from France, rather than the other side of the world!
Join Date: May 2008
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You have to be a registered user to access attachments to posts. The reason for this is that it goes some way to obstructing those who want to reap a harvest but don't want to sow any seed!
Last edited by fauteuil volant; 7th Apr 2020 at 13:39.
treaders,
Thank you. I knew that Pete had been in England, but I didn't know what he did while he was there. I'm envious that you saw Melmoth.
It was designed for long range flights - 580 litre fuel capacity and a range of 3400 miles! He flew Gander to Shannon non-stop in 1975 and then Cold Bay, Alaska to Hokkaido in 1976. Having done a flight, two-up in a Stinson 108, to Oshkosh and back (~2000 nm, 11 hours each way, with frequent stops) and a three-hour solo flight through the Rockies, I can't imagine spending half a day in Melmoth's cockpit.
He has a great website about the construction of Melmoth 2, which includes pictures of Melmoth (1):
Melmoth1 pictures
The site also contains a great blog on the construction of Melmoth 2, starting in 2002 and still being added to as recently as last month. A fascinating read, which I haven't finished yet. It has much self-deprecating humour:
Slouching toward airworthiness
Read from the bottom up.
It's beautifully written, as befits someone with an English degree from Harvard. How often do you read a homebuilt blog with a title referring to a Greek nymph, that refers to the poetry of A.E. Housman?
Here's something just as speedy but a bit more roomy:
Thank you. I knew that Pete had been in England, but I didn't know what he did while he was there. I'm envious that you saw Melmoth.
It was designed for long range flights - 580 litre fuel capacity and a range of 3400 miles! He flew Gander to Shannon non-stop in 1975 and then Cold Bay, Alaska to Hokkaido in 1976. Having done a flight, two-up in a Stinson 108, to Oshkosh and back (~2000 nm, 11 hours each way, with frequent stops) and a three-hour solo flight through the Rockies, I can't imagine spending half a day in Melmoth's cockpit.
He has a great website about the construction of Melmoth 2, which includes pictures of Melmoth (1):
Melmoth1 pictures
The site also contains a great blog on the construction of Melmoth 2, starting in 2002 and still being added to as recently as last month. A fascinating read, which I haven't finished yet. It has much self-deprecating humour:
Progress on the intercooler project, which began two years ago, has sped up markedly. One of the reasons for this -- not, I'm sure, a very sensible one -- is that I would like to get the system finished, along with the oil cooler ducting to the new hot-air cloaca on top of the cowling, so that the plane is at least complete, if not clean, in case I contract COVID-19 and die.
Read from the bottom up.
It's beautifully written, as befits someone with an English degree from Harvard. How often do you read a homebuilt blog with a title referring to a Greek nymph, that refers to the poetry of A.E. Housman?
The Tangles of Neaera's Hair
The mountains, like the shoulders of indifferent giants, remind me that The Roman and his troubles now / Are ashes under Uricon.
The mountains, like the shoulders of indifferent giants, remind me that The Roman and his troubles now / Are ashes under Uricon.
fv,
I can see why you might say that, but you would be wrong!
I can see why you might say that, but you would be wrong!
dook,
I suggest you remain unconvinced.
I suggest you remain unconvinced.
