Fleet Model 1 Words of Recognition
My friend Scott Woods offered to let me share his hangar at Brodhead Airport for the 2024 flying season and I jumped at the chance. We moved the Waco UMF 3 from Sun N Fun directly to Brodhead and I showed up a couple of weeks later to check things out and found Scott’s pretty little Fleet Model 1 in the corner. I’d seen photos of it but in person it was just a very nice little plane! I say little only because sitting next to my Waco it looks small.
About the size of a Great Lakes biplane, the Fleet was designed by Reuben Fleet when he was with Consolidated Aircraft, and he spun off a separate company to build and sell it. There were several Fleet models in the end including the popular Model 2 and Model 16. A Canadian plane really it has some similarity in design to de Havilland airplanes which I’ve long admired (and as a complete, unrelated coincidence the wife of an earlier owner of my UMF 3 was one of the famous de Havilland sisters who were cousins of Sir Geoffrey de Havilland the founder of that company).
The Model 1 was designed, as so many other airplanes of the late 1920’s as a trainer. Scott’s plane is unique in that delivery from factory when it was new was accepted by Paul Mantz, the famous movie flier and holder of the record for 46 outside loops in a Fleet Model 1. Scott’s plane was a denizen of northern California and was ultimately restored by Paul Seibert over a period of thirty years before his death. Paul didn’t get to finish the plane and when Scott acquired it from Paul’s widow, he took it to Nando Mendoza at West Coast Air Creations to finish the restoration.
Originally equipped with a Warner Scarab 110 horsepower engine Paul decided to use a 145 horsepower Warner in his restoration. Technically, that would make it a Model 10f but unless we want to make Fleet engine designations as complicated as Waco, let’s just leave it a Model 1 shall we? Paul’s restoration was faithful to the unique airframe design of the Fleet including the use of stamped metal ribs and two cockpit panels full of period correct overhauled instruments.
Scott and his wife Annie, an accomplished aviatrix herself decided they wanted to sell the plane and move on to something else and Scott asked if I’d like to buy it. I’ve looked at a few Fleet advertisements and lots of photos over the years and have always liked its lines, especially the uniquely designed tail feathers. Knowing Scott, and Nando, who finished up Paul’s labor of love I looked it over carefully as it sat in the hangar next to my Waco. It’s a beautiful restoration and an intriguing airplane but I decided to pass as I’m really looking for a Waco RNF.
But after leaving Brodhead I kept looking at the photos I had of NC 607JM. I thought how rarely one of these models comes on the market. I thought about the fact that it only had 35 hours since restoration. I was intrigued with the idea of operating a “greaser” engine (without an overhead rocker box oiling system you must manually grease the rockers every 5 hours or so). I thought about the fact that an RNF would likely have the same engine and that it would be better to be stockpiling rare Warner parts for two planes than one. I sat in it again and spent time looking at the correct panel with correct antique instruments and working the very well-designed heel brakes.
I reached out to my friend Andy Heins of the National Waco Club who suggested I speak to Fleet expert Cam Harrod. Cam was helpful in sharing what was important to look for in Fleets and said that Scott’s plane “was one of the nicest out there”. Hmm.
Back in Brodhead I looked at the plane over again very carefully. Pretty. Well built. New. Period correct mostly. (The mostly is because – very unusually – the Fleet was designed to be flown from the front cockpit and this restoration, as are most American Fleet restorations according to Cam Harrod, has the main controls in the rear cockpit.). I was tempted but still not ready to buy it.
A week or so later I was back in Sonoma working with Oren Redsun and Nerio Festa to finish up the re-restoration of my Waco YKS 6 Scott called and we decided to have lunch. He brought along the Fleet’s logbooks. I have often said that great sales people just help people make the decision they want to make. Scott is a successful real estate broker and he’s apparently mastered this lesson! A nice lunch, a few questions and a meeting of the minds and I was the new owner of NC 607M.
