Pilot Eyes!

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OTHER RESOURCES

A copy of the Davis-Monthan Airfield Register with cross-references to pilots and airplanes is available here.

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You may view other motion picture films on this site by following this link.

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This link leads you to a book that describes and illustrates with black & white images the majority of military aircraft that landed at the Davis-Monthan Airfield between 1925 and 1936. The book includes biographies of some of the pilots who flew the aircraft to Tucson. The C-2 "Bird of Paradise" is among the types of aircraft pictured and described.

 
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MOTION PICTURES:

LESTER MAITLAND, ALBERT HEGENBERGER AND THE "BIRD OF PARADISE " AT TUCSON

Here we see about 35 seconds of the visit of Lester Maitland and Albert Hegenberger to Tucson on June 20, 1927. Their airplane is a Fokker C-2, 26-202, named "Bird of Paradise". They are on their way to San Francisco, CA to attempt a trans-Pacific flight to Hawaii.

This is a silent film. Use your cursor and the menu bar below the image to control the movie.

The film misses their arrival and we begin with the airplane being fueled from a truck. They had arrived from El Paso, TX enroute to San Diego, CA. Next we see three men standing in front of the airplane. On the left is Hegenberger, center is Maitland and the gentleman on the right is unidentified.

Next, Hegenberger and the unidentified gentleman walk under the port wing as several men attend to the port engine. Chances are that among these men are Fred Herman, Bradley Jones and Jim Rivers, all passengers in the C-2. Rivers was assigned as the mechanic for the trip.

Then the film shows the airplane preparing to taxi for takeoff, the pilots throwing the empennage around and momentarily obscuring the camera with a cloud of dust.

They wrote "Honolulu or bust" in the remarks column of the Register. Indeed, they began their trans-Pacific flight from San Francisco on June 28 at 7:00 AM. They covered the 2,400 miles in 25 hours 49 minutes and 30 seconds.

Coming on the heels of Lindbergh's trans-Atlantic flight a month earlier, their victory over the Pacific Ocean made great news and ushered in a couple of more attempts to cross the Pacific that summer. One of the more noted and successful was that of Art Goebel and Wm. Davis in the Travel Air "Woolaroc".

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You may review this and all the film clips on www.dmairfield.org here!

UPLOADED: 04/03/07 REVISED:

 
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FILM CREDITS

This clip is shared with us through the courtesy of Les Wolf & Family of Tucson.  The films come to us through Lt. Col. (RET) Alan Thomas, long-time friend of dmairfield.org.  The original film, camera and projector belonged to Les Wolf’s step dad; John Phieffer.  According to Mr. Wolf’s late grandmother Mr. Phieffer owned the first 16mm equipment in Tucson at the time.  The films, original camera and projector were retrieved during a remodel of the family home in January 1989.

At that time the Temple of Music and Art in Tucson was undergoing substantial remodeling and they discovered footage of its original construction among the film reels.  The films were donated to the Arizona Historical Society and to local TV stations, which used them in their broadcast stories about the Temple of Music and Art.

Mr. Wolf says, “My father (… now deceased) was born in Tucson (1917) and [lived] thru all that history [which] didn’t impress him as it did me.  Subsequently he “allowed” donation of these materials in our shared name; Les Wolf & family.  All my family dearly loves Tucson and its history.  On their behalf, thank you for your interest.” 

It is we who should thank Mr. Wolf and Lt. Col. Thomas!
 
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