91 Years Young, Larry Bartell Is Still Flying

By ANN Senior Correspondent Kevin O'Brien

Any time at Airventure that I start feeling old and sorry for myself, I go hang out at the OX-5 Aviation Pioneers tent. Then I soon find myself simply feeling sorry for myself.

I happened to walk into the tent as volunteer Larry Bartell and another old-time birdman were playing a small game of pilot one-upsmanship.

"I'm ninety-one," Larry volunteered, with a big grin. I'd never have guessed -- if I had been asked to name his age, I'd have said about seventy.

The other pilot bristled. "Well, I'm ninety-one AND A HALF." Heck, I could see he was older than Larry -- he looked about seventy-FIVE.

Larry nodded graciously, and accepted that he was a mere whelp compared to this other man, who had, if I recall correctly, five months on him.

Then Larry dropped the Big One.

"Ah, but do you still have your medical?"  The other pilot looked at the ground. He still flew, but with a safety pilot as nominal PIC.

Larry, on the other hand, still flies his plane. What kind of plane?

"A Bonanza. A 1947 Bonanza. It was ahead of its time then, and it still is." He's flown the engine to the point of overhaul twice, and he expects to overhaul it at least once more. "They aren't making many of the planes they made then, but they still make the Bonanza," he said with pride.

"What did you learn to fly in," I asked Larry, expecting to hear a story of Liberty-powered Travelairs, or at least Wacos or Stearmans or something. But no, Larry learned in a thoroughly modern plane, fully enclosed, side-by-side seating and all the latest conveniences: a Taylorcraft.

He was delighted to hear that the T-craft was back in production.

The OX-5 Aviation Pioneers was founded in 1955 as a sort of membership club for old-time barnstormers. The original membership requirements were stringent: you had to have flown an OX-5 powered airplane, like the Curtiss Jenny, or worked on them; historians were accepted as a sort of associate member, based on the vote of the general membership.

Its motto was: "Aviation History by those who lived it!"

The problem with such an organization is obvious: even in 1955, most of your OX-5 era pilots were getting long in the tooth, and 1955 was a while ago. Or, to paraphrase Peter, Paul and Mary, "OX-5s live forever, but not so little boys." The organization has now closed its office, but will continue to exist, and anyone can join by sending in an application with the requisite fee.

It's probably a pretty good way to meet some interesting people.

Larry Bartell, for his part, volunteers at the OX-5 tent every year at Oshkosh. His wife comes with him and also works her heart out at the tent. They leave his plane at home and drives up with a lot of "stuff"
for the display.

You can't miss the OX-5 Aviation Pioneers' tent: it has a Curtiss OX-5 engine on a display stand in front of it!

Next year, stop in and say hello to Larry.

He'll be 92.

FMI: www.ox5pioneers.org