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Alaska’s First Bush Pilot

WRONG FONT THOMPSON

Fairbanks, even in the 1920s called a “mining camp” by old-timers, became the center for early aviation in Alaska, partly by chance, partly because of the tremendous advantages of flying, and, helped along by the constant barrage of support of “the aviation” as he called it, from W. F. Thompson, editor of the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner. ($2/a month, delivered by carrier).

Nicknamed “Wrong Font,” for his initials (he preferred “Wandering Foot”), he loved to write. And he loved to promote. Aviation became a favorite.

Thompson was likable, attractive to both men and women. He liked to drink, and he never worried about money. “He didn’t have the faintest idea of a dollar’s worth,” according to a long-time friend. He was dapper, with a Vandyke beard, and was always immaculately dressed, head back and shoulders squared. He limped and carried a cane because of a poorly healed broken leg from a train accident. He had a world of friends, and few enemies.

Before “the aviation,” he promoted Fairbanks as “The Golden Heart of Alaska,” even though times were tough in that gold mining town during the early 1920s. When school teacher and former Army pilot (in the reserves, however) Carl Ben Eielson, arrived at Fairbanks in 1922, he often visited Thompson and reporters at the News-Miner, which then had both the editorial and printing equipment in a single room.

Under Thompson’s guidance, The Fairbanks Daily News-Miner printed everything possible about local airplanes, listing departures and arrivals, names of passengers on bush flights, and the locations of planes down in the bush awaiting repair. The purchase of a new airplane was almost headline news. Thompson glamorized pilots, who, in his eyes, were all heroes. Ben Eielson had no difficulty in talking Wrong Font into investing in the Farthest-North Airplane Company and buying a Jenny, along with Thompson’s friend, Dick Wood.

Wrong Font died at age 63, January 4, 1926, at Fairbanks. Among his legacies was the supremacy of Fairbanks as the aviation center of Alaska which lasted for years, in part as a result of his skilled and persistent promotion of, “the aviation.”

W.F. “Wrong Font” Thompson, editor of the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner during the 1920s and early 1930s. He promoted “the aviation” in his newspaper, and even invested in it with Ben Eielson. News-MiNer

Another of his legacies was his establishment of the position of Aviation Editor on the Daily Fairbanks News-Miner staff. In 1929 and 1930 this position was held by Don Adler. Adler became a student pilot at Service Airlines Flying School in April, 1930.

Following are a few bits from the News-Miner’s columns, highlighting and promoting aviation:

Monday, August 19, 1924. Wien Makes Trip to Eagle in Day. Lands River Bar. Linking Eagle with Fairbanks by air route for the first time, Pilot Noel Wien yesterday made a round flight in remarkable time and with complete success. Leaving the local field at 11:30 a.m. with Norman Wimmler, placer mining engineer of the U.S. Bureau of Mines, as a passenger, he winged his course toward Eagle, arriving at his destination and landing on a sandbar on the opposite side of the river to the town in 3 hours and 25 minutes. Returning, he took a straight course for home, landing on the local field at 8 p.m. The return flight was made in 2 hours and 45 minutes.”

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Fairbanks, May 9, 1925. Noel Wien landed afoot in Nenana last evening after walking for three days and nights from where he had landed on a bar, out of gas and out of oil. He briefly stated the facts as above and then announced that he would talk no more until he “had a bath.” He’s a Cheechako, [newcomer] and couldn’t wait until Saturday night.

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February 20, 1932: Alaskan airmen again dared death in the Northland when Nieminen and Cope flew to Cook Inlet Sunday and brought Fred “Mulligan” Gotherberg, a trapper who is ill from exposure, to the Anchorage hospital. Gotherberg, believing he was about to die, wrote a letter explaining cause of death. The letter, brought by an Indian, alerted the flyers of the trapper’s condition. Obtaining a meager description of his cabin, the flyers searched the Rainy Pass district until they found the cabin. They landed on a snow-covered flat and brought the trapper out to the hospital.

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July 1, 1933. Pilot Ed Young of the Pacific Alaska Airways hopped off this afternoon with mail and express for Livengood. Pilot S. E. Robbins arrived in the company’s pontoon equipped plane today from Nome with Sam S. Kendrick of the reindeer service as a passenger. Pilot Harry Blunt dropped into the city in another of the company’s pontoon equipped planes after a 4,000-mile jaunt around Alaska with Joseph J. Meherin and Lyle Herbert, merchandise, and Chas. Goldstein, fur merchant of Juneau.

THE FIRST ALASKA BUSH PILOT

[AUTHOR] Noel Wien could legitimately be called Alaska’s first bush pilot, for he was the first to provide consistent, year-round service for bush residents over a vast region.

Noel flew for Jimmy Rodebaugh’s Fairbanks Airplane Company during the summers of 1924, 1925, and 1926, during which time he established numerous firsts. For several years, planes he flew were often the first to land at many villages and mines. Commonly, residents where he landed had never seen an airplane.

His first flight north of the Arctic Circle (to Wiseman, May 5, 1925) was memorable for its aftermath. On his return flight to Fairbanks, high winds pushed his slow plane far to the south, where he ran out of gas and landed safely on a bar of the Toklat River. He was forty miles from Nenana, and about seventy miles from Fairbanks.

His four-day walk to Nenana from the downed plane, during break-up, became a bush pilot legend. He had a Boy Scout axe, a pocket knife, a Luger pistol, and no food. He arrived at Nenana half-starved and exhausted. He had lost twenty pounds. [And felt he needed a bath.]

LEARNING HOW TO FLY IN WINTER

While flying the Stinson Detroiter biplane between Nome and Fairbanks—with charter work at both towns—Noel and Ralph Wien developed procedures for winter flying that soon became widespread in Alaska’s fledgling aviation industry. In deep cold, upon an airplane’s landing, if it was to remain for a time, oil was drained immediately from the engine and heated before replacing it. In winter, a plumber’s pot¹ went everywhere with an airplane. With it was a tent-like canvas engine cover. To heat the engine, the canvas cover was draped over the engine, and the pot was fired up inside it. The cover concentrated the heat on the engine, and was also used to heat the drained oil. This required at least an hour, commonly more, depending on temperature, wind, size of engine, and other factors.

A gasoline-burning plumber’s pot used to heat aircraft engines during winter. It sits atop a wood-burning stove. A small tent can be folded inside the stove. If a plane is forced down in the wilderness, the tent and stove could be a life saver. AUTHOR

Airplane cowlings are designed to keep the engine cool while in flight. In deep cold, as -20 F. or -30 F. or colder, engines need less cooling, and Noel and Ralph learned how to modify with baffles and other techniques the flow of air to maintain a warm engine in such temperatures.

The Wien brothers designed new, efficient skis for an airplane. Upon landing a plane, the skis were run up on a pole or board to keep them from freezing down overnight. Wings were sawed with a rope to remove overnight frost, which, if left, spoiled lift, and could keep a plane from flying. Wing covers were soon developed—they could be whisked off the wings quickly, and were easier on fabric covered wings than sawing with a rope.

Airplane windshields were covered overnight to prevent frost from forming. Cold weather lubricants were used; some lubricants hardened in deep cold, and controls, ailerons, flaps, and other working parts didn’t work properly with them. A common modification was made to oil tanks by putting a valve and a drain in the bottom, not the side, so they drained quickly and completely.

Lagging was applied in critical areas of the engine. This was a method of insulating by winding asbestos cord around engine parts and coating it with waterglass (sodium silica gel) which sealed it from becoming oil-soaked. (Asbestos is no longer used; various modern materials are now available.) These and many other cold weather techniques kept the Wien planes aloft through long and deep cold winters.

They learned, too, to carry sufficient emergency gear so pilot and passengers could survive an emergency landing in the wilderness.

THE FOX FILM EXPEDITION

In the spring of 1928, the Wien brothers, Noel and Ralph, bought, for $3,500, from the Bennett-Rodebaugh company the two-cockpit Waco biplane C2775, powered with an OXX-6 (twin magneto) 100-hp engine. Business was good, and they planned to use it for short flights, and for abbreviated landing fields. Noel started to teach Ralph how to fly in it.

While this was developing, in April, Wien Alaska won a contract for $6,000 to fly from Fairbanks to Barrow five men and 2,800 pounds of movie-making equipment for a Fox film expedition.

The Waco would have been useless for this job. Noel hired Russell Merrill of Anchorage Air Transport and his Travel Air biplane to participate.

All went well until the two planes—the Wien Stinson Detroiter, and Merrill’s Travel Air—bound for Barrow and beyond the Brooks Range, ran into fog on the North Slope. Both planes were on wheels, and they were forced to land on a tiny frozen, snow-covered, lake.

The Detroiter, with wide tires, handled the snow well. The Travel Air, with narrow tires, bogged down. Next day, with clear weather, Noel took off with the Detroiter and one passenger and flew 115 miles to Barrow, planning to return with shovels and other equipment to get the Travel Air into the air.

When Noel tried to return to the tiny lake, which was one among uncounted thousands of lakes on the vast, flat, North Slope, he couldn’t find it. For days he flew frantically, fighting fog and snow, searching.

Merrill and his two passengers remained at the Travel Air for a week, at which time the passengers left to walk for help. Merrill waited a few more days and followed. All three were eventually found, but they were barely alive, starved, and nearly frozen. Merrill especially suffered, and was near death. He was ill for weeks afterward.

At Fairbanks there was no word from either plane, and attempts were made to get a plane from Bennett-Rodebaugh at Fairbanks to fly a search. A.A. Bennett demanded $5,000 for one search flight, and even after agreeing to that, he stalled because of one problem or another. He appeared delighted that his competitor (Noel Wien) was missing, and said that he doubted that the missing men were alive.

Finally, Matt Nieminen, from Russell Merrill’s Anchorage Air Transport, flew north with a key transmitter (Morse code radio) so he could report back. Noel and Nieminen then flew a search together, and finally located Merrill’s airplane, but by then no one was there. Nieminen’s radio was unable to reach Fairbanks, or even Wiseman, so for weeks those in Fairbanks had no word the lost planes and the men who had been in them.

It all ended well, but it was a harrowing experience for all involved—including those waiting at Fairbanks.

RALPH WIEN’S MAIL FLIGHT

That spring of 1928 Wien Alaska Airways had a contract to make three mail flights from Fairbanks to Nome. The third and last flight was scheduled for May 23. Noel was missing on the North Slope when that date rolled around. Ralph Wien and the newly purchased Waco were the only resources of the Wien company then available.

Ralph had only eight hours of dual instruction as a pilot, and had flown solo for a scant two hours. He had never made a cross country flight alone, had not figured out any navigation problems, although he had frequently flown with brother Noel on long flights. He had landed an airplane only on the relatively long and smooth Fairbanks Weeks Field.

If Wien Airways failed to make the May 23 mail run, it could have lost the mail contract. Ralph, despite his lack of flying experience, decided to fly the mail to Nome. He would honor the contract.

When the first class mail for the Seward Peninsula arrived in Fairbanks by ship and train, he loaded the 500 pounds into the front cockpit of the Waco, and, despite having a heavy cold verging on pneumonia, climbed the little biplane into the Fairbanks sky and headed north.

The route called for eleven landings, some on rough, short runways. Ralph made every one on schedule, and nonchalantly delivered the mail as if he did it every day. On his return to Fairbanks, when asked if he had any problems on the flight, he replied succinctly, “None.”

Later, brother Noel, and another veteran bush pilot, Bob Reeve, called the flight, “One of the greatest flights ever made in Alaska.”

Ralph flew commercial flights with the Waco from Fairbanks until Noel’s return on June 16.

WIEN HEADQUARTERS AT FAIRBANKS

For two years Wien Alaska Airways had provided service year around between Nome and Fairbanks. Now Noel and Ralph decided to headquarter at Fairbanks, and in early 1929 they built a big new hangar at Fairbanks’ Weeks Field. Their “fleet” of airplanes included the faithful old Stinson Detroiter No. 2 biplane C5262, a grand new Hamilton Metalplane NC10002 (see following), the Waco biplane Model 9 C2775 which they bought in early 1928, and a soon-to-be-purchased Stearman biplane C-2B NC5415. The company pilots were Noel and his brother Ralph. In July they hired pilot Frank Dorbandt and stationed him at Nome. Dorbandt had arrived in Anchorage the previous April to fly for Anchorage Air Transport.

In October, 1928, there were eight licensed pilots in the Territory of Alaska, of which six were at Fairbanks. There were seventeen airplanes (not all used commercially) in the Territory, and twelve licensed aircraft mechanics, of which nine were in Fairbanks. “The aviation” in the Territory was still a struggling, but clearly a growing, infant, and Fairbanks was its center.

THE HAMILTON METALPLANE

The Wiens continued to fly the Detroiter cabin biplane through the spring, summer, and fall of 1928. By the end of 1928 Noel had logged more than 1900 hours of time in the air, most of it in Alaska. He had the most air time in Alaska of any pilot, and was among the most experienced Far North aviators in the world.

In late fall, 1928, a smallpox epidemic struck Native villages in northern Alaska. With the Stinson Detroiter cabin biplane, Noel flew Dr. J. A. Sutherland of Fairbanks to check it out and administer vaccine at various villages, including Ruby, Russian Mission, Marshall, Mountain Village, Kaltag, Unalakleet, and Nome. On his return to Fairbanks in early January, waiting for him Noel found the Hamilton Metalplane, ordered months earlier. The Wiens were in good company with that modern airplane; Northwest Airlines had ordered eight of the new Hamiltons for their passenger service.

The December 28, 1928, News-Miner’s announcement of the airplane’s arrival read, “The task of assembling the giant Hamilton monoplane of Wien Airways which arrived in pieces on the freight train yesterday will take five days or so say mechanics for the company.”

The News-Miner’s detailed report continued enthusiastically: “The most striking features of the craft are its size and luxury. The fine quality of its fittings and its suggestion of comfort make apt the name of ‘air yacht.’ Nothing that might make for the ease of the passenger has been overlooked.

Wien Alaska Airways purchased the Hamilton Metalplane NC10002 (right) in late 1928 after flying the Stinson Detroiter C5262 (left) between Nome and Fairbanks for two years. Both planes were in Fairbanks in the summer of 1929 for this photo.