Baby, Oh Baby: A great little biplane

The Baby Great Lakes flies right into the category of “once you’ve seen one, you won’t forget it!”

It is tiny, even smaller than a Smith Miniplane. Folks of average height will tower over the top of its 4-foot, 6-inch structure. It’s very short coupled, with a wingspan of 16-feet, 8-inches and a 13-foot, 6-inch long fuselage.

Born in the brain of Barney Oldfield back in the 1950s, this aerobatic biplane has a steel tube fuselage and wood wings, covered in fabric. Originally a one-off design, folks took a shine to this diminutive sport flyer, and plans were made available through the Barney Oldfield Aircraft Company in Cleveland, Ohio.

Two of these tiny biplanes arrived at Antique Airfield (IA27) for the 2021 fly-in, constituting half of the known flying fleet. Michelle Beachy flew her Baby Great Lakes 292 nm from Kokomo, Indiana, while Chris Hiatt flew his Super Baby Great Lakes 764 nm from San Antonio, Texas.

Michelle’s Baby

Michelle has always loved biplanes, and was attracted to the Baby Great Lakes because it has an economical fuel burn. She can squeeze close to two hours’ flight time from its 11.5 gallon tank.

N1989K has an empty weight of 529 pounds with a gross weight of 850 pounds. Powered by a Continental A-65-8, it lands at 50 mph, cruises at 118 mph, and has a top speed of 135 mph.

N1989K was built in 2005 by Rodney Williams of Michigan.

“He never flew it, and before he died, he sold it to his cousin,” Michelle recounts. “He never flew it either, and after he passed away, we bought it from his widow in 2019. It sat for about 15 years, and I’ve been flying it a few months.”

“My husband, Ron, has been busy trying to get all the gremlins worked out,” she continues. “None of the gauges worked, and the fuel vent wasn’t big enough, so when I took off with half fuel it quit on me — that was exciting! The Stromberg carburetor was really bad, so now we have another carburetor and it’s working great.”

At a very tender age, Michelle was literally in the lap of aviation — she was only a week old when her father flew the family to visit grandparents in Arkansas.

“Flying got too expensive, and he quit, but never stopped telling flying stories, so I always wanted to fly,” Michelle says. “I was in my 30s when I finally started taking lessons, and my mom wasn’t too happy about it.”

Nevertheless, Michelle persevered. After earning her private pilot certificate in a Cessna 172, she racked up most of her hours in the Taylorcraft they own, plus some time in Aeroncas, a Citabria, and a Luscombe. Just prior to flying the Baby Lakes, Michelle flew with a friend in a Christen Eagle.

“That scared the heck out of me, but it was good practice,” she recalls. “The Baby Lakes is squirrelly and tries to ground loop — but it’s very controllable. I do have to use the brake and the rudder to keep it straight.”

“It’s a little hot rod, even on a 65-horse engine — I love it,” she continues. “This airplane is unusual because it has a canopy, but even when I take the canopy off, I don’t get buffeted because I sit down low enough in the cockpit. It’s real responsive in the air. I never wanted to do aerobatics until I flew this, and it’s stressed to 9 Gs. Now I want to get some aerobatic training!”

Ron, who gets a kick out of being Michelle’s wingman in his Starduster, accompanied her to Blakesburg. They live on Glenndale Airport (8I3), a private grass strip established in 1965 in Kokomo.

Michelle and Ron hosted a fly-in in June 2020 at Glenndale. It was reportedly the largest turnout of Baby Lakes owners to date, with a whopping four in attendance. Chris Hiatt was one of them.

Chris’ Super Baby

Chris is based at Cannon Field Airport (53T), which is home to The Alamo Liaison Squadron. He’d always wanted a Stearman, but when he stumbled across the Super Baby, he was charmed by its potential for economical, fun flying.

Built in 1981 by Bill Pratt, N822CH had 91 hours on it when Chris rescued it from becoming someone’s Christmas decoration in 2018.

Pratt, now in his late 80s, provided Chris with a builder’s statement: “I spent 23 years in the Air Force. Was a Staff Sgt aircraft mechanic before going to flight training. Flew AC-47s (Spooky gun ships) in Vietnam, then flew RF-4Cs and F-4Ds for seven years before retiring. Just before retiring I decided to build a homebuilt and decided on the Baby because it was open cockpit and acrobatic, and low cost.”

Bill then confessed to being a “natural born scrounge,” sourcing MS and NAS hardware and other parts where he could find them.

For instance, he wrote: “You may have noticed it sits about one inch lower than other Babies. This is because I found a bent wing strut from a Piper Cub and the not bent section was two inches short from what was needed for the gear legs. I think it looks neater that way anyway. I almost cry though when I think about the three blade prop not being on her any more, but I am very glad that she ended up with someone who seems to love her as much as I did.”

Chris hauled the airplane home on a 6×10 utility trailer, and since it hadn’t flown in 30 years, he decided a ground-up inspection and restoration was in order. He’s now put more than 225 hours on it — and he’s still grinning!

Chris grew up with aviation. His father was an ag pilot.

“My first flight was when I was five years old, sitting on my dad’s lap in the Stearman crop duster,” he says. “A Stearman was the last airplane that we worked on together, before he passed away.”

At 5 feet 11 inches tall and 215 pounds, Chris pretty much fills the Super Baby Lakes’ cockpit, and he can almost peer over the top of the upper wing. N822CH weighs 585 pounds empty and has a gross weight of 850 pounds.

His ambitious cross-country to Antique Airfield took 8.6 hours, consisting of a series of 1.5 hour legs. Landing at Ponca City, Oklahoma, he joined up with buddies for the rest of the flight.

Accompanying him were Steve McGuire in his Cabin Baby Ace SJ (which Steve and friend Jim Tate built); Chris Swan in his Baby Ace (which Steve built); and Scott Rower in his Aeronca Champ. Chris hopes to enlist Steve’s help in a year or so to doll the Super Baby up and make it look like a Stearman.

Chris describes the Super Baby as “a solid airplane, but I definitely wouldn’t recommend it to be anyone’s first tailwheel airplane. Mine doesn’t have a steerable or lockable tailwheel — it’s full castering. You have to use the Cleveland brakes to steer it and it does go through brake pads.”

A proud Army combat veteran, Chris retired in 2013 after 26 years.

“I spent a lot of time in a lot of war zones, and when I got out of the military I was seeking some kind of adrenaline. This kind of fills that adrenaline void — from the time you start this until you turn it off, your senses are heightened,” he says.

“It doesn’t have any bad tendencies that I wasn’t prepared for, having taken a lot of aerobatic training, but it spins faster than anything I’ve ever spun, and it just does everything so much faster,” he adds.

“It has 16 gallons fuel, and if you’re out doing full-blown aerobatics, you’re probably going to burn 11 to 12 gph. But if you pull it back to an economy cruise of 125 mph at 2,200 rpm, you’re barely burning 7 gph. Its top speed is 155 mph and it stalls at 57 mph. I come over the fence at 100 mph, and then get it down into ground effect and it bleeds off the speed in no time.”

With a 145-hp Lycoming O-290G stuffed under the cowling, N822CH provides its pilot with an attention-getting, power-packed performance.

“I have over 1,000 hours in all kinds of airplanes, but none of them high performance. I’d never flown anything that has this horsepower-to-weight ratio, so that was the biggest thing on takeoff,” Chris notes. “Unless you’ve experienced a climb rate of 2,000 fpm, you can’t describe it to somebody. It’s just exhilarating. It’s so exciting!”

“I love it, and I’m lucky that I get to be the caretaker for a little while,” he adds with a smile.

Love for the Barney Oldfield Baby Great Lakes, regardless of the number of ponies pulling it through the sky, is delightfully prevalent among its owners. As for Chris, he plans to keep it “until my faculties are not fast enough to keep up with it!”