By STAN KASPRZYK

FlightLog Archive

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Aircraft Flown

Flying the N3N on Floats - June 2026

In March of 2021, I enjoyed my first flight in an N3N with Tom Jensen from the Evergreen Sky Ranch airport near Black Diamond, WA. I have flown Tom's N3N a number of times since then, but I recalled meeting a team after my first N3N flight that was collecting the parts from Tom's hangar of a second N3N that Tom had acquired. That team was led by Addison Pemberton, who planned to restore the N3N, and also build floats for the N3N in a configuration last flown by the US Naval Academy in the early 1960s. In 2022, I stopped by the Pemberton's hangar at Felts Field in Spokane, where the N3N restoration was coming along nicely.

Addison Pemberton and his family and crew are known for their first-rate restorations and efforts to preserve the early history of flight. Addison Pemberton and his team have restored and flown some of the most amazing vintage aviation classics from their Spokane, WA home at Felts Field. The Boeing 40C was a major early project. The Boeing 40C was sold to the WAAAM museum in Hood River, Oregon in 2018.

The Pembertons have restored and maintained an amazing number of vintage aircraft at their facilities at Felts Field, including a Grumman Goose amphibian, a Custom Cabin Waco, a 1931 Stearman Speedmail, a 450 Stearman, a Travel Air 4000, an early ’60s Cessna 185, a Piper Super Cub and the U.S. Navy configured N3N-3 on floats.

The U.S. Navy's primary flight training schools used N3Ns extensively throughout World War II. A few of the seaplane versions were retained for primary training at the U.S. Naval Academy. In 1961 they became the last biplanes retired from U.S. military service.

In early June, I instructed at a NATA formation clinic at Richland, WA, flying T-28s, a T-6 and a Nanchang CJ-6. While there, I met Jay Pemberton, who was flying his T-6 in one of our formation training flights. Jay mentioned that he and his Dad were planning to bring the N3N on floats to the upcoming Tanglefoot Seaplane Splash-in at Priest Lake, ID later in the month. I mentioned to Jay that I've been flying Tom Jensen's N3N, but an N3N on floats experience would be awesome.

In late June, my wife Mary and I arrived early at the Tanglefoot Seaplane Splash-in at Priest Lake, ID, and the first seaplane I saw as we approached was the N3N, moored at the end of the seaplane ramp. Jay 'twisted my arm' to fly right away, since the splash-in looked to get busy. After donning a life vest, I gingerly lowered myself into the front cockpit, careful not to bump or scratch anything in the museum-quality cockpit.

The N3N's engine start was smooth, and we taxied to the far southern end of Priest Lake to begin our takeoff roll northbound, accepting a bit of a tailwind with the ample lake surface in front of us. Because of the tailwind, it did take a bit longer to get on the step and get airborne than I had anticipated, but the view of the required pitch attitudes from the open cockpit was outstanding. Jay had me fly along the eastern shore of the lake as we headed north, looking for a more sheltered cove to practice a water landing. The N3N with floats obviously has more drag than the geared configuration, but pitch forces felt similar, as did the aileron forces, which are a bit heavier than the Stearman, which N3Ns are often compared with.

Jay demo'd an approach and water landing, and I was amazed how easy it was to judge our height above the water with the open cockpit and the view of the lower wing and floats. Jay greased in the landing, then we powered up for some more maneuvering, with Jay giving me the flight controls for some steep turns to get a better feel for the flight control forces.

Too quickly we returned back to the Tanglefoot dock after another smooth water landing, giving the bird up to the next pilots waiting for their N3N opportunity. Thanks Jay for the orientation flight! I need to get back to Felts Field for a full N3N water checkout soon!

Dakota Flyby-Moses Flight - June 2026

I had the great opportunity to lead an F-15 reunion in Minot, ND for members of the 5th Fighter Squadron in early June. The 5th Fighter Squadron only had Eagles at Minot AFB from late 1984 until 1988, when the squadron disbanded and the Eagles were dispersed to Air National Guard squadrons.

I had planned to fly my Warrior to the June reunion, but thunderstorms in the mountains of Idaho, Montana and North Dakota made me switch to the airlines. Two other former F-15 squadron pilots were able to bring their own birds, a Cessna 182 and a Bonanza A36, from Florida and Texas. I had coordinated with Warren Pietsch at the impressive Dakota Territory Air Museum about the best location for a memorial flyover, and he said he often does flybys right over his museum at the end of runway 31 at Minot (KMOT). We coordinated with Minot tower, who were very accommodating, helping deconflict airliner arrivals and allowing us to re-position as needed and to fly up initial after the memorial flyby.

Knowing we originally wanted at least a 3-ship, Warren volunteered to 'loan' me one of his Mooneys to stand-in for my Warrior. My former 5th Fighter Squadron ADO (Assistant Director of Operations), Ralph 'Root' Moser, pre-briefed the flight the day before. Root had earned a new callsign of 'Moses' later in his flying career, after 'parting the waters' with an errant bomb off an F-4 into a lake near the bombing range.

We launched as 'Moses' flight, with 'Root/Moses' leading in his 182 and Phil 'Lebeau' Nicholson as #2 in his Bonanza A36. I launched as #3 with Warren Pietsch in his green Mooney M20F. After lifting off, Warren said "It's your airplane, you fly the formation". I initially positioned us in trail behind the two-ship, but after a moment to get a feel for the Mooney, I easily slid into the left wing position, mirroring the spacing set by #2, and also providing for a more symmetrical flight as viewed from the ground. The flyby went perfectly, even with gusty winds and turbulence, with a Vic bomb burst as we flew the 3-ship over the reunion attendees, then returning to initial for a pitch out over the museum for landing. I had a great time flying with my former F-15 wingmen again, and with a warbird legend, Warren Pietsch!

We then joined the rest of our reunion F-15 pilots and spouses for photos by the F-15 on display outdoors, painted in 5th Fighter colors, followed by a private tour of the impressive Dakota Territory Air Museum, with 4 P-51s, 2 P-40s, a Spitfire, Hurricane, P-47, Wildcat, Harvard and multiple other Oshkosh award winners on display, plus another hangar full of classic and vintage civilian aircraft. It's an amazing collection, with almost all the birds flyable! Root, Lebeau and I also got a private tour of Warren's Thunderbird P-51, originally owned by Jimmy Stewart.

The nineteen former 5th Fighter Squadron F-15 pilots and spouses enjoyed an epic reunion, having a blast reminiscing and catching up on old friendships after 40 years. It was amazing how we could pick right up where we left off after all these years!

Richland NATA Formation - May 2026

After hosting an outstanding informal formation clinic at the Richland, WA airport in 2025, Scott Urban and the Richland team decided to host a formal NATA formation clinic in 2026. Joining on the Richland ramp in late May were seven T-6s, four T-28s, two Nanchang CJ-6s and a YAK-18T. Scott and Desiree Urban, with great support from Bill O'Neil and the Richland airport team, provided an outstanding venue, with two large hangers for briefings and meals, ample ramp space and multiple working areas in the nearby airspace.

Arrival day on Thursday had the hottest temperatures of the clinic, with highs in the low 90s, and a storm system that parted just as it approached the airfield after the evening flying was over. Friday through Sunday had pleasant temperatures in the high 70s, with breezy but very flyable conditions. Ben 'Evil' Cook provided formation and safety briefings before the formal NATA formation flying began, and 'Smokey' Johnson passed on lessons learned from his recent Florida NATA clinic.

I had flown a number of formation instruction flights from T-28 backseats both at Bremerton and Richland, and happily joined the T-28 group again, getting five enjoyable flights with Charlie Goldback and Pete Blood in their T-28B N2207Y, working first on getting the rust out, flying two- and three-ship T-28 formations, then four-ships after those. After normal airwork of station keeping, fingertip, route, echelon turns and diamond formation, we spent most of our efforts on pitchouts and rejoins, getting a lot of great exercise, especially in the sometimes demanding afternoon turbulent conditions.

I was also able to score a flight with Ben 'Evil' Cook in his SNJ-4, then a flight with Jeff 'Spank' Hanoff in his Nanchang CJ-6 in a fun dissimilar formation of two Nanchang CJ-6s, Tom 'Chox' Spreen's YAK-18T and Miguel 'Ozzie' Nelson's T-6.

Great food and war stories at the bar capped off an outstanding formation clinic, with all attendees looking forward to Richland 2027!

Winter Sling Formation - Feb 2026

After a very rainy early winter in the Great Northwest, we entered a period of foggy mornings and sunny afternoons in early February. I had been able to fly some impromptu formation flights with local Auburn pilots, and wanted to continue some formation training with Sling TSi pilots that we started last October. I was able to get three Sling TSi's available for a Friday afternoon flight, and canvassed my local instructor cadre for availability to help with formation training support. Unfortunately, two of my instructors were busy with 'work', flying in T-38s and 747s, so we were only able to accommodate a two-ship instead of our first Sling TSi three-ship.

The weather on Friday was amazing for February in Seattle, with sunny and clear conditions and afternoon temps up to 63 degrees! Chris flew his Sling TSi from Harvey Field (S43) to Auburn, and Rob flew his TSi from Boeing Field (KBFI). Our timing was perfect, not only for the weather, but also to take advantage of the Auburn airport's generous 'Aloha Friday' lunch, with pulled pork, chicken and pizza. Brian and fellow instructor Steve are based at Auburn, and the weather was so nice, we briefed over lunch on the outdoor picnic benches in front of the Auburn airport office.

I had flown a Sling formation flight with Chris and Rob in October, but this was Brian's first exposure to formation flying, so I covered the basics in a fairly thorough initial briefing, after passing on links to a FAST formation manual earlier in the week. With only two available instructors, we decided that safety took priority, so even though Rob sat through the entire briefing, we only launched a two-ship. You'll be up again next time, Rob.

Although I've flown three other sling TSI's, this was my first flight in Brian's beautiful new Sling TSi, first flown last summer. Brian and his wife Margo, both pilots, had completed their TSi in time to fly to Oshkosh 2025, and were flying it often in the Northwest skies. Brian and Margo's hangar is adjacent to mine at Auburn, so I had been checking out their bird locally. When Brian expressed interest in joining our formation group, I also noted that he could get some good in-flight air-to-air photos of his new bird.

Conditions were perfect with clear skies and light winds as we departed in trail from Auburn's runway 17, with Chris and Steve leading to the southeast while Brian and I joined from trail. I demonstrated close fingertip formation, showing the visual references for a crisp 45 degree line, then flew route, cross-unders and echelon formation. After swapping leads, Chris got practice on the wing in close fingertip, route formation and cross-unders. We swapped the lead again, allowing Chris to lead a pitchout so that I could demonstrate a rejoin for Brian, then giving the controls back to Brian to practice fingertip and route positioning on the descent back to the Auburn airport. We split the flight on our entry to downwind and accomplished single ship landings.

Our debrief back in the Auburn airport also allowed us to sample the remaining food from the 'Aloha Friday' lunch, where we reviewed lessons learned and techniques for the future. All enjoyed a great flight on a warm and glorious February Friday in the Great Northwest!

Flying the RV-9A - Nov 2025

I have really enjoyed flying many of the Van's Aircraft designs, including the RV-6, RV-7, RV-8, RV-10, RV-12 and RV-14. Having never flown the RV-9 series, I was intrigued when I saw an article in the May 2025 EAA Sport Aviation magazine about an RV-9A built and flying here in the Puget Sound area. I contacted the owner, Steve, and found out he was flying out of nearby Paine Field, and wouldn't mind showing me his RV-9A. I mentioned to Steve that I enjoyed flying RVs, and also teaching formation flying. Steve mentioned that he was looking to get some good air-to-air photos of his bird, so we coordinated to try to fly a formation photo shoot when our pilot schedules, compatible aircraft availability and weather allowed.

Steve mentioned that his friend Mike owned an RV-14 that would be compatible with the RV-9A, so we set up a formation flight on a rare November day with a forecast break in the weather. I met Steve at his hangar at Paine Field, and checked out his gorgeous workmanship, paint job and avionics suite in his RV-9A. I'd recently been flying Sling TSi's, a Bristell and RV-12s that also had dual large G3X displays, Garmin 650xi navigators and a Garmin autopilot, so I felt right at home in the cockpit. When Mike arrived with his RV-14 from Frontier Airpark, I briefed him on the formation plan, and briefed his right-seater Dennis on the operation of my Canon R6 and my new anti-reflection hood to take crisp in-flight photos of the RV-9A.

Steve and I took off in trail in the RV-9A from runway 16R, with Mike leading and initially climbing away from us with the 210-HP IO-390 in his RV-14, so I used cut off geometry in the turn to close with our IO-320, then had Mike set up a 110-knot climb speed for us to rejoin. I rejoined straight ahead to close formation as we climbed toward the Cascade foothills and Mt. Pilchuck. I felt right at home with the very smooth flight controls, and easily set up in close fingertip on Mike's right side as we climbed to 6000 feet. As briefed, Mike flew three shallow-banked 360s for in-flight photos of the RV-9A between Mt. Pilchuck and Three Fingers mountain, while Steve took iPhone photos of Mike's RV-14 as I hung in close. We hit a bit of turbulence over the mountains, but I had enough control to easily stay in tight. After Dennis noted that he'd successfully taken a ton of shots, I flew in loose formation in the descent back to Paine Field. I had briefed Mike to request an overhead pattern with Paine tower, since they were quite familiar with formation flying from the numerous warbirds based at Paine, so we flew up initial, pitched out and landed on 16R, debriefed and viewed a few quick iPhone photos. The RV-9A, like all RV-series aircraft is a joy to fly, with smooth, responsive flight controls, great visibility, sticks vs yokes and impressive cockpit avionics. Thanks for the RV-9A flying opportunity, Steve, I'll gladly fly her anytime!

The close formation flying and great weather provided a perfect opportunity for excellent photos, both from the Canon and the iPhone Pros. Steve was so pleased with the photos, he updated the main image on the Aircraft For Sale website with one of the images from our photo shoot. He's actually selling his gorgeous RV-9A, with a plan to fly an RV-14 as he builds an RV-15, once the RV-9A is sold.