Travel Air Restorers Association

The Travel Air Restorers Association (TARA) is an independent, nonprofit organization, formed in 1990, dedicated to the preservation of Travel Air aircraft, their history, engineering drawings, related artifacts, photographs and documentation with the objective to keep these aircraft flying for today's and future generations to enjoy and appreciate. To this end TARA will seek to promote the exchange of information and data among it's members and the public through it's newsletter, it's website and through both national and regional Fly-In's. Learn More

The December 2015 Travel Air Log newsletter will be the last from me for while. I have enjoyed running TARA for the last 25 years and it is now time to turn the reins over to someone else. I have asked a few people about their interest to take over but as of now that person has not come forward. Phil Wyels after doing it for many years wants someone to do the Membership Chairman task as doing the drawings and membership is too much for him. The task includes receiving all the dues checks and updating the membership and mailing lists and then mailing the checks to the Treasurer. To date no one has volunteered for this position... I don't want to do it also. Eric Berens has volunteered to be Treasurer which is great but more help is needed. I hope to take this time to do improvements to our website which is another task I have been over seeing with the web master. The bottom line is don't send in any dues for next year and if you have paid for more then 2015 you will receive a refund if requested. What money we have after a planned donation to the Kansas Aviation Museum for a Travel Air display will be used to upgrade the website. If you would like to be our membership chairman or president please let me know. Do continue to send address, phone and e-mail address changes so that I can send out special notices when needed. Let's keep in touch and let's continue to keep the Travel Air's flying!
            Jerry

• Terry Bryn's Travel Air Takes Flight After 64 Years

  Following the link below are a few photos of the just completed restoration of Terry's 1928 Travel Air NC6455. One photo shows test pilot Tom Hegy (left), restorer Kent McMakin (center) and Terry Bryn (right). Another is Terry sitting in NC6455 at the 2015 Grass Roots fly in at Brodhead, WI.
  The project was delivered to Kent McMakin in Brodhead, WI on Sept. 22, 2010 for a complete restoration. The test flight was on Oct. 6, 2015 which was 64 yrs. and 3 months to the day from its last known flight on July 6, 1951. Tom Hegy, a Wisconsin native and Wisconsin Aviation Hall of Famer was gracious enough to be the test pilot. The project got to be a little bit longer than expected but well worth it. Everyone is hoping for a window of some good weather with tolerable temperature to ferry it back to North Dakota from Brodhead, Wisconsin.
  
  HOME SWEET HOME.
  It took 7 days from Wisconsin to North Dakota due to a small mechanical problem and being stranded in two different towns in MN because of rain and being forced to stay in Wahpeton, ND two nights because of the high winds on Wed. afternoon and Thurs. Final leg from Wahpeton to Dazey on Fri. Nov. 20th 2015 was short but a little on the chilly side (25 degrees).
  
  Here are some photos of Terry Bryn and his Travel Air NC6455.

• Travel Air in Africa

  Danielle is an owner of a Travel Air 4000 in Namibia, Africa. Her partner just left the project and she is looking for some new investors, pilots,…. Please find her documentaton attached with some links to Youtube videos and the lodge. Maybe you can help her find some enthusiastic partners?
  
  Danielle Rentsch
  Fangenstr. 32b
  8713 Uerikon
  Switzerland
  
  +41 43 818 09 16
  +41 79 352 57 26
  [email protected]

National Travel Air Reunion/Homecoming, Wichita, KS

by Jerry Impellezzeri

The Travel Air Wichita Homecoming celebrating 90 years since the founding of Travel Air, Inc. was a very memorable event by all who were able to attend. Here is my story of the event and what happened and some of my experiences.
I was planning to fly my Travel Air to the event but a series of misfortunes prevented this from happening, which I will not dwell on, so I decided to drive for two and half days to get there. One nice thing was that the further east I went the lower the gas prices from $3.39 in California to $1.89 in Texas and Kansas. The weather for the trip was also good... windy but good which made the drive enjoyable. I arrived in Andover (just east of Wichita) on Wednesday (9/16) afternoon and checked into the motel and went direct to the airport to see who was there. The wind was blowing about 25 mph from the south, which is not a good sign, but fortunately it was blowing mostly down the runway. I was expecting a few Travel Air's to have already arrived since activities were planned for the next day, but to my surprise there was nobody there. So now I'm beginning to worry. I did join up with our host, Hector Camacho and he confirmed that no Travel Air's have showed up yet. I then get on the phone to find out where everybody is at... are they just a few miles away or is the event going to be a bust!

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