Warbird Information Exchange

i got my commercial ticket in a 205hp Navion at Sheble Aviation, out of Blythe, back in April 1986, I loved my brief bit of time in that airplane.

Thanks for the info. I hope to fly one again soon. Love the visibility and roominess. Quite comfortable especially compared to the V-35 Bonanza or Swift GC-1A. I thought the ailerons were stiff, maybe this was to make it more stable in turbulence (?) I also noticed it has a significant amount of drag that picks up in the full flap base to landing if you reduce the power too much. (Like a Maule M-7 or Waco.)
They could have made it so much lighter and smaller, lots of unnecessary surface area. Huge aircraft compared to the Beech V-35 with the 185 hp. engine

Marine Air,

What you are describing is what makes the Navion, well the Navion.

The drag from the high-camber wing cancels a lot of speed in the old bird. Add to that the famous North American wing dihedral and Walla! aileron movement needs a little input. Makes the airframe stable in turbulence, back to me earlier statement about staying married. Push the canopy open about a foot (locked) and enjoy you own personal flying convertible. Put those massive 1940's flaps down, ever see a DC-4 with the flaps down?, put the gear down, pull the power and drop like an old rock. The closest I've seen on the dial was a decent of 2200' per minute. I wasn't sure because I was floating in my seat. With all that hanging down a Navion can take off and land in little over 600 feet of runway. Yes it's under powered. Cruise in 110 MPH, while VNE is 190 MPH. So she could go a little faster, but hey I have more Navion time in my logbook this way!

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Vosburgh Airfield, P.O. Box 207, New Cuyama, CA 93254
jason.vosburgh@vosburghairfield.com
Cell: (805) 766-3880

http://www.airnav.com/airport/5CN4

http://www.VosburghAirfield.com

NC91104 in 1946.



The panel of NC91104.



NC91104 today.



------------------------------------------------------------
Vosburgh Airfield, P.O. Box 207, New Cuyama, CA 93254
jason.vosburgh@vosburghairfield.com
Cell: (805) 766-3880

http://www.airnav.com/airport/5CN4

http://www.VosburghAirfield.com

Since this is related...how many Riley Twin Navions were there? I got a ride in one out of Palo Alto Airport (CA) in the mid to late 50's. I sat in the back while my dad and the pilot were in front. We flew south to San Jose but did not land there and then back to Paly.
I remember my dad telling me I was fortunate that day.
Just curious.

11-27-13
Was able to get to my old photo album and located a B&W that I took of it, could only make out two numbers of the tail ...65. The only one that matches these two numbers is
TN-16, AKA n10429/NC86553H

Also, the one that I flew in had tip tanks.

Tom,

Here you go: http://twinnavion.com/aircrafthistories.htm



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Vosburgh Airfield, P.O. Box 207, New Cuyama, CA 93254
jason.vosburgh@vosburghairfield.com
Cell: (805) 766-3880

http://www.airnav.com/airport/5CN4

http://www.VosburghAirfield.com

Thanks so much, that's a huge help. Cannot get to it right now, but I have an old photo album and the Riley twin may be in there. If I can get a tail number later, I'll try to remember to add it here.

Here's the bird I really would love to own:



Like a chariot in the sky. With your two horses charging forward! (I know cheesy cheesy.)
The twin Navion has an Achilles' heal: the nose gear fork. The nose gear was designed for a single, not a twin with more yaw on landing. I sold a fork to a guy outside of Seattle who had a nose gear failure, and this plane is sitting in a hanger (currently?) from a nose gear failure. They said it's been rebuilt five times!

Unknown date - N722T suffers from a nose landing gear collapse.
October 2011 - Michael Callison from the museum provides us with this update:
The landing light holes were fiberglass over to repair a previous damage from previous accidents. TT-90 has been major repaired around 5 times. Lots of different parts on the aircraft have different serial numbers. We installed the landing lights on the gear legs and put gear doors back on the mains. The engines were overhauled last in 1963 which was quite a while ago. The compressions are good but the right engine was starting to make metal and probably has a camshaft starting to go. Needless to say we would like to get this one back into the air. We spent over $5,000.00 on have the exhaust completely rebuilt before the accident. The replacement nose piece will have landing lights back in it.
October 2013 - advertised for sale

Anyone know more about this?

------------------------------------------------------------
Vosburgh Airfield, P.O. Box 207, New Cuyama, CA 93254
jason.vosburgh@vosburghairfield.com
Cell: (805) 766-3880

http://www.airnav.com/airport/5CN4

http://www.VosburghAirfield.com

seen at blue ash airport june 2005.

hard to mistake sunken lunken airport. june 2011.

O.K. I can't buy her ...but you can!

Twin Navion N722T

We want $15,000 for everything. We have extra cowling parts, 2 engines firewall forward but the crankshafts are not good due to corrosion. Aircraft needs nose repair completed and props. Engines run good but should be overhauled and they have had a prop strike so minimum crankshaft AD need complied with.

Michael D. Callison
President
Iowa Aviation Heritage Museum
515-505-9111 Cell

Whoever pics her up for this bargain price I want a full privilege to a free ride someday.

Best,

Jason

------------------------------------------------------------
Vosburgh Airfield, P.O. Box 207, New Cuyama, CA 93254
jason.vosburgh@vosburghairfield.com
Cell: (805) 766-3880

http://www.airnav.com/airport/5CN4

http://www.VosburghAirfield.com

Navion Folks:

Good day!

I remember this one real well #81284. OAFB c. 1992. The owner was a friendly guy with a super clean metallic scheme Navion!