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Alaska's SeaplanesKachemak Air ServiceTravel Air S6000B - NC9084 |
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| Nostalgia is evoked by any vintage aircraft, but our Travel Air 6000B registered as NC9084, has an exceptional history. For pilots and passengers alike, sharing those 70 years of memories is a treat in itself. Add a breathtaking sightseeing flight to the experience and you have memories for a lifetime. | on the occassion of Louise Vosberg's 1st airplane ride  (photo courtesy Louise Vosberg) |
 (photo Bob Van Ausdell) |
We invite your comments, experiences, and your pictures. Countless people have shared with us their memories, which we value and add to our information on NC9084. Please feel free to call, write, or email us. |
 (Photo courtesy Charles Lander) |
NC9084 (serial number 865) was originally owned by Phillips Petroleum of Bartlesville, OK. In August 1930, this plane was known as the "City of Wichita" and piloted by Charles Lander and Roger Rudd, who completed the first of three attempts in this Travel Air at the refueled endurance record. This flight lasted 11 hours and 20 minutes and ended due to a fuel leak. Several days later, the duo were back in the air in NC9084, again trying for a successful flight to break the existing refueled endurance record, but only remained aloft for 13 hours and 55 minutes. Less than a month passed before 9084, by then known as the "Century of Oklahoma", was prepared for the third attempt at an endurance flight record. Pilots Bennett Griffin and Roy Hunt completed 13 days aloft before being forced to land during a dust storm. |
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Records place NC9084 in Pampa, Texas, belonging to Keenan Brothers Flying Service barnstorming and flying charter flights. In 1936 it was flown to California by Monte Keenan for use in the Bakersfield area. By 1938, this plane was in Oakland,CA in service by Duck Airlines flying charters and aerial photography flights. Then it went to A. A. Bennett in Salmon, Idaho, who flew it out of his Flying B Ranch. Johnson Flying Service, Inc. of Missoula, MT purchased the plane in 1955 and put it into operation to service Forest Service contracts hauling smoke jumpers to fight forest fires and spray trees, along with passenger service to the back country. |
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| We've had NC9084 since 1969, when we purchased it from Johnson Flying Service. We used it on floats and wheels for passengers and freight in the Alaska bush. This aircraft has always worked for a living. NC9084 has always operated on an air taxi certificate, and in fact it still stays busy carrying passengers over the glaciers and backpackers into mountain lakes for camping trips. It was used to transport building materials to remote Native villages, baby fish for Alaska Department of Fish and Game, and moose meat and antlers to Anchorage. It even carried an injured man from Homer to Anchorage one night because there was no other aircraft available. We retired the Travel Air in 1976 when we bought our Otter. |
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In 1987, we began a complete restoration of the
Travel Air, from bush plane to its original factory configuration.
From the propeller to the tires to the tiny bathroom, painstaking hours
over three Alaskan winters resulted in the Travel Air you see today. After
the completion of the restoration in 1990, NC9084 was flown to the Santa
Paula Airport in Santa Paula, CA in service for sightseeing trips and champagne
flights to wine country. Today we operate NC9084, on a set of 1934 EDO
4650 floats from Beluga Lake in Homer, Alaska. |
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