Photos & Story by Dave Weiman
It was Sunday morning, June 30, 2013, and we were having Internet issues that needed to be resolved before I departed for a Sunday fly-in breakfast. The later it got, the less options I had. I needed a fly-in that continued to at least 12:00 noon. Once I got the plane out of the hangar, I looked at my options in the “Calendar of Events” in Midwest Flyer Magazine.
The “Lake In The Hills Fly-In Breakfast” in Lake In The Hills, Illinois looked to be my best option. The airport was just 34 minutes away, and it has a hard surface runway – a nice option during this period of rain every night, followed by temperatures in the 90s during the day. So I departed and landed with 15 minutes to spare.
Most of the 530 people served breakfast by EAA Chapter 790 had left, and all but a handful of the 75-plus aircraft that flew in, were gone as well. Remaining were a dozen volunteers from the chapter serving breakfast and cleaning up.
Chapter greeter, Ron Liebmann welcome me to the event, and introduced me to other chapter members, including Ole Sindberg, 79, a chapter director. “I used to be vice president until I was voted out,” Ole noted with a smile.
Something I have learned when visiting pilots in the Chicago area is that many are either active or retired airline pilots, and most fly or have flown with United. United Airlines is based at Chicago O’Hare.
Ole was quick to let me know that he built and apparently owns the only “Prescott Pusher” flying today, and offered to show me the plane. There it sat in one of dozens of “Portaport” hangars, featuring low ceilings over the wings and a higher area for the nose and tail. There’s no wasted space, and no space to waste! Portaport hangars were built to be portable, some equipped with a trailer hitch, so all one needs to do if the airport lease gets too expensive is to unbolt it from its concrete pad, fold it up, and tow it to a different airport.
The Prescott Pusher resembles an over-sized Bede Aircraft BD5, but larger. The aircraft seats four people, and the BD5 seats only the pilot.
The Prescott Pusher is powered by a 280 hp Lycoming O-540 and Ole claims it can cruise at 200 mph at 12,000 feet, burning 11 gph at 75 percent power. In comparison, the aircraft will cruise at 140-150 mph and burn 8.5 gph at 44 percent power.
The stall speed is high at 80 mph, and the aircraft requires a minimum of 2500 feet of hard surface on most days to takeoff. The rotation speed is 90 mph.
Ole said that pilots have been known to pull back on the elevator prematurely, only to find themselves going vertical once airborne, oftentimes stalling out before they are able to get the aircraft under control. “The aircraft flys straight like a jet,” said Ole.
“Are you sure that’s not knots,” I asked him. “Everything with the Pusher is in miles per hour,” Ole replied.
It took 11 years for Ole to complete “N40LE, ”while he was flying Boeing 727s and 767s for United. Following retirement, Ole flew 747s for Global Peace Initiative in Africa and India.
At age 79, Ole says that he exercises regularly to stay fit to fly. “This is not an aircraft which is wheel-chair accessible,” he said. Ole has flown the Prescott Pusher to EAA AirVenture in Oshkosh, Wisconsin since he built the plane, and at press time, he planned on flying it there this year as well.
Before leaving Lake In The Hills Airport, I stopped by “Blue Skies Flying Services,” which is very much in the business of promoting flight training. Signs stating “Learn To Fly Here” were on each side of the building, and a neon sign stated that the flight school and gift shop were open! Mike Carzoli is president of the company that also provides aircraft maintenance (www.blueskiespilotshop.com).
