The two Chases were lined up side by side in 1958, which didn't happen very often. I was on top of "Romeo" looking east toward "Sugar." Our 2800' grass strip was adequate for our operation with the Stearmans, Twin Beechs, Grumman TBMs, Chases and C-47's. Father landed our B-17G, N5017N there too.

You'll see a TBM in the top left corner of the first photo. That's our N7025C (BuNo 53842, later N60393) which was gone through, set up as an air tanker and painted real nice soon thereafter. It is shown here in 1960 between N122R and Buddy Lewis' Swift N2361B. We later sold it to the State of New York.

The middle shot shows our three other TBM-3E's: N7027C, BuNo 53915, sold, w/o 8/64; N7028C, BuNo 53775, sold, later N4173A, CF-ZTR, w/o 6/72; N7029C, BuNo 53914, sold, to Canada, crashed 5/72 in Maine, now at Quonset Air Museum, Kingston, RI.

The light colored cluster of metal out in the woods there, behind the pond, is the remains of a bunch of BT-13's that Father had bought in the late 40's and early 50's, for the engines and props for our Stearmans. The right photo shows - - aaah - - the top of a Chase fuselage.

A big storm came through when "Romeo" was on a grasshopper spray project somewhere out west. It tipped the Chase up on one wing and damaged the wing splate. You can see that they are missing in several photos and then back on. They flew it for a bit with one on and one off and there were no significant changes in flight characteristics - - which might not speak well for the effectiveness of the splates!

There was also hail in that storm and it really peppered Romeo. Father thought he should collect from the insurance company so we polished out some areas so the dents would show real well, but the insurance company declined.

Another 1958 shot, and probably more interesting. Note the wide, TBM prop blades as originally installed when they were converted to R2600-20's.

Many of my photos of N122R show it minus the fairing over the main gears. I'm not sure what that was about.

1959 now and Romeo is posing on our beautiful sod runway. These Chases were an awesome machine! Quite "masculine." Note that it now has the splates back on.

Father really enjoyed his Chases. He probably didn't have 50-hours of multi-engine time but he had 10,000 accident free hours total and he thought a lot about what he was doing. One evening he was out playing with Romeo. The first photo shows him at about the 800' point. On the second run he worked it a bit harder and was off and flying by about 600'. And the third photo shows him at the 1000' point. The Chase brochure shows some pretty amazing performance figures. Michael Stroukoff was quite an engineer!

From left to right. The Chase YC-122C loading ramp. Sorta dark but there it is. And then Father is driving our 1956 Ford Crestline V8 station wagon up onto the ramp. It was stick shift and zero to 50 in first was a real kick in the rear. (I'm not sure Father knew that but Karl and I did.) I did a lot of courting of Elaine in the wagon and was pretty good at driving and shifting with her sitting close and my arm around her. Having to share our co-owned 1957 Pontiac Chieftain was one of the few downsides of being a twin. (It was stock but "hot" but that's another story.)

Then we have Father and Bill Hunt posing for us. And that 1800 gallon spray tank is why the Ford wouldn't go in any further. As the story goes, our other Chase, N122S, was later used to smuggle vehicles into the back door of Brazil, and they could put two full sized cars in it.

Two Reports on What Happened
1) 3/28/13 phone conversation with Holger "Jorgy" Jorgensen. Now nearly 90, Jorgy, "flew everything" over the years and told me about the Chase at Golovin. It was contracted to move some cement in bags on a route that took them near Golovin. They lost one engine, and apparently abused the second one in trying to stay in the air, so they headed for Golovin. (Jorgy's life story here)

As they descended, the copilot went back and started throwing bags out the back to lighten the airplane. The water was glassy, and as the bags hit they exploded and cement and water flew up in the air. Some Native Alaskans who were fishing in Golovin Bay saw them coming, and thought it was the Russians coming and bombing them, so they headed for shore. The Chase landed in the lagoon in about three feet of water and came to a stop. The fisherman, still thinking they were Russians, wouldn't go near them, but when the pilots started waving and shouting "Help" they figured they must be Americans and went out and took them to shore. A storm subsequently destroyed the airplane in Golovin Bay. End of story!

2) 5/13 Discussion with Alaska Senator Donny Olson, in Anchorage. Senator Olson grew up in Golovin. He said that Bob Schott had contracted to fly #100,000 of cement from Galena to a DEW Line site. It was 10 loads at #10,000 each and the flight took them over Golovin. They were on their fourth load when they had engine problems.

They headed for the airport but landed in Golovin Bay and came to a stop in water that was about waist deep. It sat there in the water and froze in place that winter, and some locals cut cables out of the airplane to use on their snow machines. One night in early June then, as things started to thaw, Donny saw a large chunk of ice with the Chase in it float by and out into the ocean. A year or so later a tire came ashore and was used for years to cushion the fall of barrels that were rolled out of Olson's DeHavilland Otter.

On FAA register 4/28/12, as cancelled in 2009.