It's one thing to hear the orators waxing eloquent about the
"freedom of the press," but it is something entirely different to attempt to practice it.

Let's take airplanes for example. I will make the unqualified statement that the new 1948 Stinson is one sweet airplane. This is perfectly safe, for everbody sells Stinson. They do not have any closed dealerships, so I can't make anybody made, nor leave any dealer out in the cold by talking about them.

Really, the four-passenger Stinson selling for $5,800, fly-away-factory, is a good representative plane to talk about. It is not by far the cheapest plane on the market, nor the most expensive. It hauls a good pay load, but does not consume a prohibitive amout of gasoline.

To give you an idea of what type and price planes are now available and what they will do for you, let's look at the Stinson-Consolidated Vultee's latest brain-child, the plane that has proved so popular with "Flying Farmers"

It is a high-wing monoplane of conventional design. Has a wingspread of 34 feet and is 25 feet, two inches long. It has an enormous-looking tail which stands seven feet, six inches high, but adds stability to the aircraft.

It hauls four passengers in almost luxurious comfort, with adequate cabin sound-proofing and insulation. The Stinson comes in two models, the regular passenger ship, which hauls four people and 100 pounds of baggage, or the Station Wagon, which will carry 40 pounds of cargo.

This versatile plane is powered with a 165-horsepower engine, will cruise at 130 miles per hour at only 83 per cent full horsepower. It's gasoline consumption is quoted at 10.8 gallons per hour. With a 50-gallon tank, the safe range of the ship at 5,000 is 554 miles without refueling.

The Stinson has nice cabin appointments, beautiful upholstering, ashtrays, excellent cabin ventilators, coat-hangers, radio that works with earphones or built-in speaker, and lots of other things that come extra on other ships. The instruments that come with the ship are practical and good.

You may own all this utility for less than $6,000.

Stinson has been popular around here. Frank Seamann owns two of them. Bert Anderson has one. Paul Lowman has one. Harold "Dutch" Ford also has become owner of a Stinson, and the "Flying Preacher" Rev. Paul Hartford, uses one on his evangelistic tours.

Of course there are many other excellent airplanes on the market for more or less--as you desire. If you want something faster, you might pick a Beech Bonanza, like Stan Arnolt did. The Beech comes at a range of $7,000 to $9,000, depending upon equipment desired with it.

Down the scale slightly, we find the Bellanca Cruisair, selling for around $5,500. The Globe Swift, such as Howard Smith is offering now for less than $5,000 has high speed and "pursuit ship" performance.

The Republic Aviation's amphibian Seabee is now rated a $6,500 airplane, is proving very popular around water--not liked so well as a land plane. It has lots of utility, but it is a little clumsy to handle. It should be popular here in the lake district, however.

There are many swell airplanes which sell for much less than those quoted above. They have less horsepower, less speed, haul a smaller pay load--but they don't cost so much to operate either.

An old standby is the Piper Super Cruiser. Dale Duckwall, at Pierceton owns one; so does Paul Lowman. Charles Creighton and Mentone's Manwarings Rochester Flying Service has built a business on them. They are a three-place ship, cruise in the high nineties to 100 miles per hour, are easy on gasoline. The Super Cruiser is in the $4,000 class.

Piper also makes the ever-popular two-pace cut, which is used for training purposes, is a very safe and stable plane to learn to fly. Doesn't fly very fast, nor land very fast, sells for under $3,000.

T-Craft or Taylorcraft, has been a good trainer, is in the Cub price range, but cruises faster. Joe Carlin and Fred Strauss use T-Crafts a great deal. In the same price range is found the Aeronca. Aeronca is now producing three models, the Champion, the Scout and the Super Chief. Several of these ships are owned by farmers near Mentone--Wayne Shunk and Frank Meredith among others. They were introduced here by "Chick" Herendeen.

(Heaven help me if I'm forgetting anyone).

Luscome builds an all metal airplane which is selling far and away for the lowest price in its class at the present time. Slightly more than $2,000 will fly one away. They cruise at well toward 100 miles per hour, carry two passengers. Roy Taylor, at North Manchester, is quite a Luscome booster, owns one. Lowman has two.

The very unconvental airplane at the present time is the wheel-controlled Ercoupe, made by Engineering & Research Corp., Hyattsville Md. The Ercoupe is a slight plane to fly with the tricycle landing gear, has only one control--a wheel-but no foot rudders. They won't spin, carry two passengers, fly in the high 90's per hour, can be bought for around $3,000. Ercoupe owners in our Kosko-land are Lowman, Jim Snodgrass, Frank Hartsock, Hobart Creighton and Rochester Flying Service.

Another popular ship with the private pilot is the Cessna. With two models, this high winged, all metal airplane (fabric wing) cruises at slightly over 100 miles per hour on cheap gas consumption. The 120 model hauls two passengers. The 140 model can carry three if the third person is not too heavy. Joe Carlin pushes the Cessna. It sells in the $3,000 to $4,000 class, with a wide range of optional equipment, which runs the price up or down.

Does it cost much to run them? As far as actual flying is concerned, it does not. Compare this with the automobile. Figure five gallons of gas per hour in the average light ship doing nearly 100 miles per hour. And one hundred miles in the air would possibly be 120 miles on the ground and three times as fast. From that standpoint it is extremely economical. You cannot get away from the fact, however, that the ground care of the ship is expensive with inspection checks, insurance and upkeep. Upkeep on a plane is expensive, because you don't argue when a little something is wrong--you fix it.

All in all, if you have a special purpose that can be served by quick transportation, a medium priced airplane is a good investment. As a hobby, however, ownership is very expensive. My personal belief is that it is cheaper to rent the plane you want from an operator, if you just fly occasionally.

Warsaw Aero club meeting Thursday night, 7:30 o'clock, Smith Field office. Gonna talk about a new clubroom, giving away the new Sky Writing gold (?) trophy, and other winter-time flying plans. Get your money's worth and be there.

Warsaw Daily Times, Wed. Dec. 10, 1947