Aircraft N19460 Data

Airframe Info

Manufacturer:	Aeronca
Model:	65-TL    Search all Aeronca 65-TL
Year built:	0000
Construction Number (C/N):	L4320T
Aircraft Type:	Fixed wing single engine
Number of Seats:	2
Number of Engines:	1
Engine Type:	Reciprocating
Engine Manufacturer and Model:	Cont Motor A&C65 SERIES

Aircraft

Registration Number:	N19460
Mode S (ICAO24) Code:	A17A4A
Certification Class:	Standard
Certification Issued:	1987-11-04
Air Worthiness Test:	1973-05-02
Last Action Taken:	2006-01-17
Current Status:	Valid

Owner

Registration Type:	Individual
Address:	Texarkana, TX 75502 United States
Region:	Southwestern

User Comments

Rick Rice, 2007-06-10 04:00:00

I owned this airplane while I was in college at Arkansas State University. It was rebuilt by Dean Taylor of Senath, MO. Dean brought the airplane home in a cotton trailer and showed it to my father who was an accomplished aircraft restorer. Daddy asked him how much he paid for the airplane and Dean told him $75. Daddy told him that if he stopped right there he'd only be out $75 and that that would be a cheap lesson in buying bargain airplanes. Dean was crushed and asked "can it not be restored?" Daddy told him that it was certainly restorable, but that it would require a tremendous amount of work. Dean said he didn't have much money, but that he could put a lot of time into it. Daddy provided a lot of coaching and mentoring, and maybe some welding, but Dean did almost all the work himself. He recovered the plane with Razorback-brand fiberglass cloth. He couldn't afford an engine or propeller, so my dad loaned him a fresh over-hauled A-65-8 Continental and a wooden Sensenich prop. The exhaust system on N19460 was from a Piper J-3 rather than the original Aeronca type, so the cowling had to be modified from the original to accommodate the difference. (The airplane was originally manufactured with a 65 HP Lycoming, hence the 65-TL designation, but since the type certificate for the 65- models allowed for installation of a 65 HP Continental, the aircraft essentially became a 65-TC, even though the designation remains 65-TL for registration purposes.) Dean kept the airplane for a few years, then lost his medical certificate. He was going to sell the plane and as I was about to head out to college, I asked him if he'd sell it to me. He did, at a bargain price. He wanted $5,500 for it in the fall of 1977, but he said that $2,000 of that price would have been for the engine and prop, so he let me buy it for $3,500 since the engine and prop belonged to my dad. He allowed me to pay for it at the rate of $100/month with no interest, and he said that I only needed to pay him when I could afford it. Meant that I didn't have to make a payment at all if I was short in any month!! He gave me such a great deal because my dad had been so helpful to him in restoring the plane. I kept N19460 from 1977 through 1982 or '83. I added wheel pants to the plane and other than that, I sold it in a condition that was very similar to the way it was when I bought it. I can't recollect for sure how much time I put on N19460, but I think it was in the neighborhood of 300 hours. I sold it when I bought a Cessna UC-78 (Bamboo Bomber). I think I sold it to a fellow from Wynne, AR. Seems like his first name was Rocky. I think I sold it for $5,500, but can't say so with certainty. I seem to recollect that the 65-TL series of Aeronca were the predecessors to the 65-TAL series, which were later designated as 0-58B's by the military. O-58B's evolved into L-3's. I think the primary differences in the L-3's and N19460 were the presence of greenhouse glass in the L-3's, installation of a rear seat that could be rotated 180 degrees to the rear and the installation of a writing desk for use by the rear seat observer in the L-3 version. I've also heard but can't substantiate that the vertical tubing that connects the horizontal members of the fuselage is sloped in a different direction on the military versions than on the civilian -TL versions. I got to fly an L-3 some while I was in college because my Alegebra professor, Dr. Charles Scanlon of Jonesboro, AR owned one. We became good friends and the friendship started because we owned similar type airplanes. N19460 sat outside all the time that it was owned by Dean Taylor. I was able to keep it hangared all through my college years, but it moved back outside when I graduated from college and moved back to the farm in SE Missouri. The Razorback fabric held up extremely well during the outside storage. Some of my favorite flying memories are from the time I kept N19460 tied down in my back yard when I lived at my grandparent's old homeplace near Bragg City, MO. I flew it almost every evening after work, as it was in the back yard and all I had to do was release the tie-down ropes and take-off from the runway behind the house. I remember flying N19460 up to Sikeston, MO several times to go dove hunting, and I'd use duct tape to secure my shotgun to the wing struts. I used to fly N19460 back and forth from our ag strip south of Kennett, MO to ASU in Jonesboro, AR (about 45 miles distance) by skimming the crops the entire distance between airports. I'd pull up over tree lines or high line wires, but would dip back down to just above the crop whenever possible. I'd just flown from home back to school using that method when the ground was really wet due to extensive rains. I got in the plane the next day to take off from the mile-long runway at JBR and a piece of the propeller leading edge separated from the prop just as I lifted off the ground. Since I was over a long runway I simply throttled back and landed. Had it happened the day before, it's almost certain that I'd have torn the airplane up trying to land in a wet field as the vibration at operating RPM was enough to almost tear the engine from the mount. I also landed N19460 in a cotton field late one evening as I flew through a whirlwind after buzzing a friend of mine on a cotton picker. I was young and inexperienced, and when I hit the whirlwind, I thought the plane was coming apart it shook so violently. I chopped the throttle and set up to land on a cotton turn row, but just before touching down, a cotton picker pulled onto the turn row where I was preparing to land. I scooted over and landed in the not yet harvested cotton, across the rows, and the airplane handled it just fine without even hinting at turning over. After inspecting the plane the next morning, I determined there was nothing wrong with it, and I flew it from the field without incident. The last thing I remember about N19460 was flying it through a high line wire while chasing a friend's pick-up truck down the highway. God was with me and preserved me without injury to me at all and only a minor injury to N19460. When I saw the single wire I jerked the stick back almost out of reflex, and doing so prevented the wire from coming through the windshield. Instead, it hit the airplane at it's strongest point; right where the landing gear attaches to the fuselage. It skinned the fabric on both landing legs, but that was the extent of the damage. Fortunately, the prop was turned to a position where it cleared the wire!! I can't take any credit for the miraculous escape; only for being stupid enough to be flying so carelessly. N19460 was the first airplane I ever owned, and it was a very forgiving aircraft that deserved better treatment than it got from me. God preserved me through some very reckless flying experiences as a young man and most of the really stupid things I did at that time were done in N19460. I learned that it's not wise to allow an unsupervised teenager to own and fly an airplane unless the teenager has a lot better judgement and sense of integrity than I did. I'm thankful every day that I didn't hurt someone else or myself. N19460 was well designed, well built and restored, and very accommodating of a young, reckless, and inexperienced pilot. I hope she continues to fly for many years to come.