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Swift N3378K
A brief history of 3378K
Story by '78Kilo's Caretaker, Jared Smith,
Huntington Beach, CA
My father and I first saw '78K in '90 or '91 at the annual spring fly in
at Concrete, Washington. She was sitting in a dirt floored hangar looking
pretty forgotten in a faded yellow coat of paint. About a year later, 78K's long
time owner, Dick Hartman had a difference of opinion with the owner of the
hangar and decided to sell her. He flew her down the Skagit Valley to Oak Harbor
on Whidbey Island. He was a braver man than I, for when I gave her the once
over, the checked finish on the Beach Roby propeller indicated the lack of
recent care.
Dick was also a braver man than Joe Watson, who eventually bought her, removed
the wings and had her transported on a flatbed truck to her new home in Creswell
Oregon. Joe reinstalled the wings, striped the old yellow paint applied invasion
stripes and "stars and bars" decals, replaced the C-125 and the
controllable propeller with a mid/high time O-300 and McCauley prop. After
flying her for a year or so, Joe decided that he wanted more of a good thing and
put 78K for sale in February of '94 to finance the purchase of a 180 or 210 hp
Swift.
Meanwhile, I was thinking about acquiring an airplane in a detached and
un-serious sort of way. Gazing at the want ads in the Seattle Times a little
note in the aviation section announced the availability of a Swift. I had seen a
few, thought they were cute, and knew nothing about them. Later that day I was
at my folks house for some forgotten occasion and I spied a calendar with a
beautiful P-51D adorned with invasion stripes and stars and bars. My mind jumped
from that image to the ad for the Swift and I showed it to my father. His
comment was, "Why don't you give him a call?"
That brings this tale to the first picture, 78K, a little rough, but still a
Swift, and like that calendar P-51, adorned in invasion stripes and stars and
bars.
This is one of the biggest grins my father has ever revealed in public,
after a ride around the patch. We were hooked! We enjoyed about a year of fun
when that "mid/high" time O-300 started blowing oil out the breather
and then mixing metal into it as well, signaling the need of a rebuild. That
accomplished and the engine reinstalled on a new mount from Kosala, '78K took to
the sky again. What a change! We had to re-pitch the prop from 56" to
59", and it still acted like a climb setting. Being a rocket engineer,
leaving good enough alone was impossible. After rebaffling the new engine
installation, a controllable cowl flap was designed, fabricated and installed.
The drag reduction program continues to the present.
In the summer of '98 I moved from my hometown area around Seattle to Sunny
Southern California in an effort to stay in the rocket engineering business. A
few months were required to find a new hangar and I returned to Seattle to buy
Dad's half and take the toy south. Free of my father's steadying influence I
decided to strip the decals and try to return the ol' bird, exterior back to
original. A few months of weekends sanding and polishing takes us to the
present state as seen in the following images taken by Denis at the recent
Harris Ranch fly-out and "beef festival".
Some preexisting hangar rash on the ailerons and flaps as
well as stories of corrosion in vertical stabilizers motivated me to re-skin as
well as re-rib and in one case re-spar those surfaces. That done, I used the
darker blue on the "Globe" decals to match the original blue that
graced the flanks of the Swifts at the factory. Imron "Pepsi
blue" matched the decal pretty good. Subsequent research indicates that
this might be a little brighter than original (I still think it look good
though). More motivation was discovered with some cracks forming on the somewhat
crazed front transparencies. A nice clean and clear windscreen sure is welcome
in sunny SoCal. I suspect these activities are the opening shots of a
progressive restoration.
I am especially happy with the gear doors, they were so pitted that a flap
wheel sander was used for the initial rubdown. Lucky that they were made of
thick sheet to start with.
The panel is nearly original, the compass and center group are original. This
makes keeping track of the total time for the logbooks easier. The trim on the
glare shield is made of aluminum. It was there when I bought her, and seem to me
to suspiciously similar to the cowl trim used on those old Mercury outboard
marine engines.
Editor's note...
In terms of pure recent flying time Jared and '78Kilo are the most active
Swifters in Southern California right now by a wide margin. Not just short hops
either. In 2000 Jared flew '78Kilo to the "Swift Mecca of the North",
Lake Elmo, MN and then on to Oshkosh. He again flew to Oshkosh in 2001 and this
time returned home with the "Best Swift" award. Well done Jared...
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