I Learned About Flying From That: Taking an Old Bird to Oshkosh

Jim Thomason

Friday, September 12, 2014 at 09:18 PM ET

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To see more of Barry Ross' aviation art, go to
barryrossart.com.

Key Takeaways:

A multi-year project involved restoring a rare Temco T-35 Buckaroo, a former Saudi trainer discovered in a desert boneyard, for the Swift Museum Foundation.
The delivery flight to Oshkosh encountered numerous critical issues, including a milky-white canopy requiring emergency polishing, two separate in-flight fuel leaks forcing unscheduled landings, and significant weather delays.
The journey culminated in a chaotic arrival at Oshkosh, where the pilot navigated an extremely crowded holding pattern in failing daylight and performed a challenging night landing in a day-VFR aircraft without interior lighting.

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Around 1950 the Air Force decided it needed a new trainer airplane. As you know, the Beech T-34 was the winner. My story comes from one of the airplanes that did not win.

The Temco T-35 Buckaroo was a spinoff of the Globe Swift. Saudi Arabia ordered about 15 of the T-35As, armed, to be used as trainers for its air force. Many years passed, and what was left of them was sitting in a military boneyard in the desert.