Jellystone Air Park: BB&C Flying Service, Part One

Sign courtesy of Dic Kruse

It was September 1989. Wayne Broome was working in Conway, South Carolina, fourteen nautical miles inland from Myrtle Beach on South Carolina's Grand Strand. As Hurricane Hugo approached the southeast coast Wayne moved his 1947 Taylorcraft BC-12D seventy-one nautical miles northwest to the Richmond County Airport in Rockingham, North Carolina, safely out of harm's way---or so he thought. Hugo made landfall slightly north of Charleston, South Carolina as a Category 4 hurricane with winds gusting up to 160 mph. The storm tracked to the northwest and was still a Category 1 hurricane when it passed seventy miles west of Rockingham. Unfortunately, seventy miles was too close. Gusty winds caused a Cessna Cardinal to break free from a tie-down and smack Wayne's pride and joy on the right wingtip, breaking the aileron and cracking both wing spars. Heartbroken, Wayne disassembled the airplane and placed it in a storage unit, hoping to make repairs as soon as possible.

Life is what happens while you are busy making other plans. John Lennon

Wayne's Taylorcraft first entered the Jellystoners' zone of consciousness in 2006 when Wayne and Brother Baker were paired together at Freedom Airlines. You can learn a lot about a person when you sit beside him (or her) six to nine hours a day, three or more days a week, flying a monthly schedule. After one leg you know if your flying partner is a true aviator, or someone just collecting a paycheck flying airplanes. You can see where this is heading; Wayne and Brother Baker got along famously! While swapping life stories Wayne described how his little yellow T-Craft came together with a Cessna Cardinal in the Big Blow of 89---and how for seventeen years he was hoping to make repairs as soon as possible, but life kept getting in the way. . .

In 2010 the Brother Baker asked Wayne if he would consider selling N5113M. The Taylorcraft seemed like a reasonably simple first project for the restoration department at Jellystone Air Park. Wayne said, "No." Then he commissioned a drawing depicting a Hawkins & Powers C-54, his dog Spot, and the Taylorcraft. Maybe the drawing would be the spark to get the fire burning. . .

Drawing by Joe Baker, 2010

Eight years later we gave it another try. This time Wayne said, "Yes."

Remember the wisecrack about the old hound dog chasing an automobile? What's he going to do when he finally catches the car? The Jellystoners had just offered to purchase, sight unseen, a seventy-one year old tube and fabric airplane that had not seen the light of day in twenty-nine years. . .

Brother Barbeau was out of town; so with flashlight and Maule fabric tester in hand, Brother Baker and I met Wayne in Rockingham, North Carolina on a hot day in June of 2018. N5113M was everything Wayne said it would be, and more. It was a complete airplane, all of the parts were in one place. The fuselage tubing was corrosion free, even the tail post---a nice surprise, because this is a known problem with tube and fabric airplanes that sit for long periods. Wayne's attention to detail---preserving the engine; storing the airplane in a level attitude; keeping metal parts off the floor---was our good fortune. Even the circa 1973 fabric tested OK, except for the big hole in the right wingtip. Another surprise: Seaplane doors! The 337 Form in the logbook is beautiful, and the doors are works of art---but as far as we can tell, One Three Mike has never been on floats.