Tug

[JohnW]

Ahhhhhhhh. The Flying Sweet Potato! Shades of Sky King-the original "Songbird"! My Dad got Kirby Grant's autograph in his logbook when he bumped into him one day at Lock Haven, and as Pug knew them both, he introduced them to each other. He signed it "Sky King" in large flowing script, then added "(Grant Kirby)" underneath. I dunno it to be a fact, for sure, but I believe that may have been when they were buying the "second generation" Songbird that replaced the Sweet Potato, cause Grant left in a brand new twin a short while later.

Does anybody remember what Penny's Cousin (Sky's Nephew in the series) was named (I do...)? Just a little trivia...no prizes being offered.

Sure look like PA-20 nosebowls, eh?... but then, why would Piper spend an extra 500 dollars on a separate stamping die???

[GeronimoDriver]

Sure look like PA-20 nosebowls, eh?...

Agreed... Remember too that the Apache was originally the "Twin Stinson" acquired by Piper. It has Stinson 108 heritage in it, indeed, If we cant find something obscure for it (door handles etc), a good place to look is the Stinson section of the Univair catalog. Piper used the Cub airfoil on it though.

Packy?

[Ed Brown]

Piper used the Cub airfoil on it though.

Warm spot in my heart for the Apache, as I got my multi-engine rating in one.
I just read not too long ago that the same airfoil is also used on the Aztec.
The Aztec has a great load carrying reputation, and it will also carry a huge amount of ice.
I once took a turbo Aztec down to Santiago Chile. Coming out of Medellin Columbia enroute to Guayaquil Ecuador, the MEA was FL-220. That's the highest I ever got in an Aztec.

[51-pa22]

Does anybody remember what Penny's Cousin (Sky's Nephew in the series) was named (I do...)? Just a little trivia...no prizes being offered.

Gloria Winters as Penny

[JohnW]

Yeah, no. Sky's Nephew was a boy, and unless the young lady that played Penny was wearing a LOT of makeup, I doubt that she played the role of her own male cousin in the show.

Furthermore, the question is NOT what the kid that played him's real-life name was...the question is intended to enlighten those that never "noticed it" what the CHARACTER's name on the show was. Its kind of a "Oh, REALLY!?!"

btw, "wikipedia" (or any wikiclone) is cheatin'.

[51-pa22]

ok
i wont Clip.... this one :D errrrrrrrrrrrr

BTW
My lisdexia kicked in again

let me try again and I will not spoil it for anyone

I'll just say Pan-Am

[Rick-CAS]

I'll try Clipper. Sky King was way before my time. I have seen pictures of Sky and the Songbird though.

[JohnW]

Yeah (yeah). Clipper. I'm gonna go with "you're old enough to have known that" (although it's somewhere around one in 250 that I have ever asked that remembered it -after about 1970, or so- and most of those even then usually chew on it for a minute or so and then say "I musta missed that." I do have to admit admit...it "dates" those of us that COULD know the answer.

Now, Rick...I'm thinking the Pan Am reference "did it for ya". Most people know why the PA-20 wasn't still called a "Clipper" (but I'm thinking that it would have still been "Pacer" all the same. It IS a separate and distinct Type Certificate, after all) and that's a reasonable "guess". "Half credit" for that, fair 'nough? Rick, did you know there were "officially" TWO "Songbirds" over the course of that show? A Sweet Potato (Apache) and [I BELIEVE] an Aztec later (might have even been a Geronimo, but I don't remember the "timing" of when they started using "the new airplane" and when the Geronimo came out, but I THINK the Geronimo mod was somewhere around 1964 or so, no? That would have been quite some time after the show ended (late '59 or early '60, if my "early memory" equates to my broken collarbone anywhere near correctly). Unofficially, I SWEAR that there was also some air shots of a twin tail (that would be the "Twin Stinson"), but I guess "we" weren't supposed to notice...after all, even to this day, every airplane accident in the World today involving something smaller than a B-707 has been a "Piper Cub" (but...I guess you don't have to know ANYTHING to be a reporter on TV news).

Now back to the earlier diversion; wasn't there SOMETHING about "Archer" involved with the Geronimo, too? I'm pretty sure the Geronimo nose was grafted on from a Twin Comanche, baggage compartment and all (questioning my memory again!), no? But I recall seeing "periodicals" of the time referring to them as "Piper Archer Gerominos" (that would be pretty much have had to have been "Flying Magazine", and that was even by then mostly quarter-million dollar machines that I had no hope at the time of ever owning anyway). Is that right???

Ta heck with it! I'm going flyin', I ain't gonna BOTHER doing a Wiki of my own! More fun to get this stuff from another "Old Geezer, that been there, done that" than to cheap out believing what somebody on the Internet THINKS is the was it was. I gotta say, though...Wiki's pretty good, considering that "proofing" is the venue of the READER, and not the requirement of the WRITER.

[51-pa22]

John
heading out myself to do final tune on a pair of O-360s on my little metalized cub twin.

know of the bamboo bomber and 310 and have seen reference to a Beech.
Quite suprized on on Sky King in an Apache
I Will need to dig more for that one
Me thinks the Archer in the P&P article might be a typo the editor missed.
Anyway
out for some fresh air

[GeronimoDriver]

John
heading out myself to do final tune on a pair of O-360s on my little metalized cub twin.

know of the bamboo bomber and 310 and have seen reference to a Beech.
Quite suprized on on Sky King in an Apache
I Will need to dig more for that one
Me thinks the Archer in the P&P article might be a typo the editor missed.
Anyway
out for some fresh air

I have heard other references to the "Archer Geronimo", I think the "Archer" part was used very early and dropped when Piper introduced the "other" Archer.
Since I am ~2400 miles from the Pacer I worked on the Apache today, finally got around to rebuilding a leaky brake cylinder and bleeding the system. I even started cleaning out the wheel wells, yay.