I Found the Only Flying Grumman C-1 Trader!

Good morning! What a crazy past few weeks it’s been! Hours after arriving back home from five days in Oshkosh, I found myself working an aid station at mile marker 70 of the Crazy Mountain 100 Mile race here in Montana. Stepping off the plane, my feet were a little sore and I had some sunburn from AirVenture, but I didn’t dare breathe a word about that nonsense to the super-humans coming into our aid station 🤣

To put this race into perspective, the first runners to pass through our station had already been running for 16 hours! The last few runners would come through over the next 10 hours and each one still had a marathon+ to go! Not to mention it was through grizzly and mountain lion country, with 40 degree temperature swings at night, in a race that typically takes between 20-30 hours to finish (when not up and down literal mountains).

This obviously has nothing to do with aviation, but a good pilot is always trying to better himself inside and outside of the cockpit and getting a small glimpse into the ultra running world made me think of more ways to do just that ✈
-Rob Roy

In today’s email:

• A Flying Legacy: The U.S. Navy’s Grumman C-1 Trader

• Photo Dump From Oshkosh ‘24

• Around the Skies: New Plane Alert - Sparker LSA, MOSAIC Inbound, EAA AirVenture 2024 Breaks Attendance Records

• PilotTube: The Coolest Seaplane Fly-in I’ve Never Heard Of

THE BUSINESS OF AVIATION

Up Close and Personal with a One-of-a-Kind Grumman C-1 Trader

For those of you that don’t know, I flew the C-2A Greyhound during my time in the Navy. She’s an incredible plane and one that’s adored by any Sailor who’s ever received packages from loved ones while at sea, but its predecessor was the real trailblazer for the Carrier Onboard Delivery (COD) mission and first flew in the 1950s. The Navy needed to find a new anti-submarine aircraft and one of the Grumman variants that followed (and better fit the cargo mission) was the Grumman C-1A Trader.

I had the honor to meet the owners + crew of the only flying C-1 Trader at EAA AirVenture 2024! I’ve been told that I’m unrecognizable without a mustache or a flight suit, but it eventually came out that I was the guy from “those C-2 Greyhound videos on YouTube” 🥸

I want to give special thanks to Curtis Foote, the C-1’s Crew Chief and subject matter expert, for spending so much time with me and allowing me to sit in the cockpit to relive the glory days. There were a lot of similarities between the C-1 and C-2 and it was cool to get a glimpse into the Navy’s past.

I also spent some time with David Huffman, the owner of this incredible flying machine. To say we hit it off would be a major understatement. In fact, there may be an opportunity for me to not only film a video of his C-1, but to also fly in it. Fingers crossed if the stars align in the not-too-distant future.

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PHOTOS FROM MY TIME AT EAA AIRVENTURE 2024

This my have been the most beautiful plane in Oshkosh — a 1937 Spartan Executive from Triple Tree Aerodrome. If anyone has a contact with this organization, I would very much like to feature this airplane on my YouTube channel!

The seaplane base was probably my favorite part of AirVenture. Of note, it was a 10 minute bus ride to get there from the main airfield, but the vibes were something out of the Caribbean. No seriously, there was a guy playing steel drums and people lounging in the shade watching planes taxi across the water. The only thing missing was a hammock strung up underneath the wing of my [someday] floatplane.

One of the dozens of P-51s on proud display in the Warbirds section. This particular Mustang, “Old Crow,” has been restored to honor America’s last living triple ace - Clarence "Bud" Anderson.

When I took this photo (less than two weeks ago), I had no idea what or who this aircraft represented. Watch this informative video below to find out for yourself.

AROUND THE SKIES

The Sparker, a MOSAIC-ready LSA made by TL-Ultralight, made a splash at Oshkosh 2024. The Sparker joins other models like the Sting and Sirius and features a spacious cockpit, a Rotax 916 iS engine, three Garmin G3X Touch displays and a parachute recovery system.

What is MOSAIC you ask? Modernization of Special Airworthiness Certification — it’s a proposed FAA regulation that would expand capabilities for light sport aircraft, experimental amateur-built airplanes and warbirds, such as removing weight limits, allowing more seats and introducing new technologies like electric and hybrid propulsion. You can read all about it here!

This year’s EAA AirVenture set a new attendance record with approximately 686,000 attendees and more than 10,000 aircraft having flown in. The event also hosted over 1,600 sessions, 15,000 campsites, nearly 6,000 volunteers and international guests from 98 countries, raising $2.8 million for aviation education programs 👀

PilotTube

I had no idea this Washington Seaplane Pilots Association fly-in was a thing, but I’ll be sure to not miss out on it next year! Ironically enough, the event took place on a lake in Idaho… 🤔

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