CIVIE Turboprop "Bird Dog" with fat bush tires-if airless TWEELs impervious to enemy fires. Anti-SAM countermeasures-can a diesel piston engine's heat and sound signature be muffled to zero? See-thru skin invisible. Fixed-wing Grasshoppers can actually FLY 24/7/365 to escort slow transport helicopters rendering smoke screens, rocketmissilecannon fires to suppress LZs--unlike AH-64s
https://www.aopa.org/news-and-media/all-news/2011/june/01/cessna-l-19-bird-dog-a-soldiers-best-friend
Airframe manufacturer SIAI Marchetti created the SM.1019, a larger, more powerful version of the "Bird Dog". The aircraft shown here, N2525M, belongs to John Schwamm, a real estate developer from Alaska. “The 1019 is appealing because it allows you to buy a turbine-powered airplane for the price of piston power,” he says. His airplane was restored by Starr Farmer of White Wings Aircraft Services in Anchorage. Schwamm bought it for $200,000.
The pristine Bird Dog shown on these pages is owned by Troy Cobb, a retired businessman and 2,000-hour pilot. A self-declared “history nut,” he very much wanted to buy a warbird but discovered that most were too expensive for him to own and maintain. “The Cessna Bird Dog is ideal,” he says. “It is both affordable and fun, and I enjoy flying low and slow. The really good news is that the airplane is FAA-certified in the Normal category.”
He purchased N62534 (military number 56-2534) as a restoration project in 2005. The 1956 airplane had originally been based at Fort Riley, Kansas, as an Army reconnaissance airplane and wound up as a floatplane in Alaska. It never saw duty outside the United States. Cobb spent a year restoring the 4,400-hour airplane, and emblazoned it with the shark-mouth paint scheme used by the 19th Tactical Air Support Squadron that was based at the Bien Hoa Air Base near Saigon.
Cobb’s Bird Dog was finished in time to be flown to Sun ’n Fun in 2006 where it earned the title of Grand Champion in the category of post-World War II warbirds. You have to see this airplane to appreciate his attention to detail. The under-wing hardpoints on Cobb’s airplane contain dummy marking rockets that look like the real thing. The white rectangle on the fuselage aft of the cabin door was used to write in grease pencil the specific weaponry with which the aircraft had been armed for any given flight. Cobb estimates that his airplane is worth about $160,000, but most L–19s sell for between $60,000 and $150,000.
Some Cessna engineers thought during the “patchwork” design process that the Model 305 would be an ugly airplane, it turned out not to be. Almost all who fly the Bird Dog regard it as lovable, an adjective taken perhaps from the title of Minard D. Thompson Jr.’s definitive book about the L-19, "The Lovable One-Niner".
It takes some effort to haul one’s self into the pilot’s seat, and serious contorting is required to climb into the rear “observer’s” seat. Once inside, you are surrounded by military feel and ambiance. The throttle, mixture, and carburetor-heat controls are clustered in a military-style quadrant on the left sidewall. The only cockpit features that remind me that the "Bird Dog" is a Cessna are the float-type fuel gauges in the wing roots. These are identical to the gauges found in other Cessna singles of that era.
The control stick in the rear cockpit is noticeably taller than the one in front. This presumably is to provide the flight instructor with additional leverage to overpower a student manhandling the controls. The rear stick is easily removable, and the rear rudder pedals can be folded flat and out of the way to give an observer plenty of room to move around.
Although the flaps are extended manually in early models of the L–19, they operate electrically on later models.
A normal "Bird Dog" takeoff involves using 30 degrees of flaps. As the flight controls become effective, raise the tail slightly and the airplane leaves the ground at 55 mph. I prefer instead to keep the tailwheel on the ground and allow the airplane to levitate in its 13-degree, three-point attitude.
Climb rate is almost 1,000 fpm (or more when lightly loaded). At the top of climb, however, the "Bird Dog"’s performance comes to an end. Cruise flight is little more than 100 mph. If you have a need for speed, this airplane is not for you. The 213-horsepower, six-cylinder Continental O-470-11 engine swings a long, 90-inch, fixed-pitch propeller, but one model, the L–19D, has a constant-speed propeller and, in some cases, a second instrument panel for a backseat instrument student.
The L–19’s cockpit is roomy and visibility is as good as it gets in a single-engine airplane. On a warm day, you can open the upper half of the cabin door, which swings up and out, like the one on a Piper J–3 "Cub". This, plus acres of Plexiglas, help make the "Bird Dog" an effective observation and reconnaissance aircraft.
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John 3:16
Semper Airborne!
James Bond is REAL.
