INCOMPLETE

Born May 5, 1891 died May 28, 1963.

Glover Ruckstell won the July 4, 1915 200-mile race at Indianapolis, IN driving a Peugeot. As of July 2001, he was ranked 214th on the all time list for that race. The same year, he competed at Tacoma, WA in a two-mile Board Track. He completed the 125 laps, 250 miles, in 2:57:03.0 or 84.722 MPH.

Glover E. "Roxy" Ruckstell provided cash flow for Grand Canyon Airlines in 1931.

Below is an image from Ruckstell's pilot log. Although difficult to read at this size, try saving it off to your image viewer and magnifying it. You should be able to read everything just fine.

Among the inscriptions on the page, you can see that he held transport pilot certificate No. 10,006, which he earned July 24, 1930. He took instrument flight instruction, and became eligible for the blind flight test and S.A.T. rating (actually Scheduled Air Transport Rating, SATR) in April 1935. See this link to our pilot Gilbert Budwig for more on the SATR. Budwig's work formulated and established the rating within the U.S. Department of Commerce. He also held mechanic license 6177, and refers to his Federation Aeronautique Internationale license for 1931, number 7965, which is available available to you as a scanned image (see below).

This PDF download gives you a scanned image I made of Ruckstell's Federation Aeronautique Internationale license, 1931. His license, as were all of them of this era, was signed by Orville Wright. Thanks to the San Diego Aerospace Museum for allowing me to share this, and the next, image with you (credit, left sidebar).

This PDF download gives you a scanned image I made of Ruckstell's logbook pouch. The pouch is a mini-history unto itself. What an interesting artifact this is. The canvas pouch seems to be a give-away premium from the Richfield Oil Company.

It held the pilot's log book, engine log and aircraft log, important legal documents all, which the pilot in command and aircraft owner are responsible to maintain. Penned on the canvas is his address in West Los Angeles, as well as his attachment to Grand Canyon, AZ. As well, the registration numbers of the aircraft he flew are also inscribed on the canvas in ink.

Of the eight readable (a couple more are unreadable) registration numbers inked on the canvas pouch, three of the aircraft landed at Tucson at one time or another. J-5 Travel Air NC4835 landed April 30, 1928 flown by Dr. J. Bert Saxby. J-6 Travel Air NC9813, landed on September 16, 1930 flown by Roy T. Minor. Stinson NC12146 landed on April 24, 1935 piloted by Ruckstell himself. The other aircraft, Lockheed NC/NX965Y, NC8869, NC17749, NC4960 and NC12223 are not among those that landed and registered at the Davis-Monthan Airfield between 1925 and 1936.

Ruckstell maintained a business. Image available here on this site.

UPLOADED: 03/23/06 REVISED: