Debbie Gary flying the Bellanca Super Viking

Here is way more information than you want, probably. I am busy writing three stories about other people, so my brain is in that writer mode. Hope this does not bore you. Checking my logbooks for dates.

I flew two different Vikings for Bellanca. The one in the video is N28061 which I flew in 1978.
The other one was N4057B, and I flew that from June 27, 1977 through October 1977. My first show in it was July 15, 16 and 17 in Detroit (15th was a press show day). My last show in that one was October 16 after the aerobatic contest in Sherman, Texas.

My first flight in 28061 was February 28, 1978 and my first airshow in it was March 25-26 in Macon,Georgia, where during my Sunday show I lost oil pressure during a hammerhead, then had a complete engine failure in it during the inverted portion of a four point roll. Since I could not get it restarted I made a deadstick landing, not lowering the gear until I was in the flare. When I coasted up toward crowd center the side of the fuselage was covered in oil. The problem, I later realized, was that if the fuel tank was not full it would gulp air, which it did in both the hammerhead and the four point roll.

We replaced the engine, just in case there was damage, though I don't think there actually was. That Monday I flew it from Macon to Peachtree Dekalb Airport in Atlanta for the engine change, then to Bob Abernathy's strip south of there so we could add an inverted oil system. We did not change the fuel. It ran fine on the left tank if it was full when I started.

The only other mod to the airplane was the gear over ride switch so the wheels did not come down at the top of a loop or hammerhead. Thank goodness for that switch or I would have had a terrible glide ratio during that deadstick landing. As it was, the turn onto final was really low. Thank goodness for my glider background!

Any other changes to the airplane were standard, such as the nose wheel retraction, which I believe was better than they had been in the past. Bellanca spent money to make the plane a little bit faster and more streamlined, the end of 1977, I think.

Now I wish I still had that airplane. It was lovely. We owned it privately for a couple year after I left Bellanca. My last public show in it was at Beaumont, Texas and the other two that followed were private demos--one for Bellanca dealers November 18 in Alexandria, Minnesota and another for airshow sponsors at a field outside Oklahoma City (Page Cimmeron) for our annual International Council of Airshow convention.

The last time I saw it was in Plainview, Texas a few years ago, I believe.

I am glad there are still Viking fans out there.

Debbie

http://www.debbiegary.com