AOPA Pilot Magazine - June 2011 - 76

When enemy ground troops spotted a
Bird Dog flying low and overhead, it gave
them good reason to believe something
bad might soon happen.
would be room for him to land. The
Midway’s captain, L.C. Chambers, did
not believe that the seven occupants of
the Bird Dog could survive a ditching in
the rough sea, so he ordered $10 million
worth of Huey and Chinook helicopters
scuttled overboard to allow Bung-Ly and
his family a shot at landing on the rainsoaked,
windswept flight deck. Bird Dog
51-4981 is now in the U.S. Naval Aviation
Museum in Pensacola, Florida, and the
Bung-Ly family, sponsored by the crew of
the Midway, lives not far away.
The pristine Bird Dog shown on these
pages is owned by Troy Cobb, a retired
businessman and 2,000-hour pilot. A
self-declared “history nut,” he very much
wanted to buy a warbird but discovered
that most were too expensive for him to
own and maintain. “The Cessna Bird Dog
is ideal,” he says. “It is both affordable
and fun, and I enjoy flying low and slow.
The really good news is that the airplane
is FAA-certified in the Normal category.”
He purchased N62534 (military num-
ber 56-2534) as a restoration project in
2005. The 1956 airplane had originally
been based at Fort Riley, Kansas, as
an Army reconnaissance airplane and
wound up as a floatplane in Alaska. It
never saw duty outside the United States.
Cobb spent a year restoring the 4,400hour
airplane, and emblazoned it with
the shark-mouth paint scheme used by
the 19th Tactical Air Support Squadron
that was based at the Bien Hoa Air Base
near Saigon.
Cobb’s Bird Dog was finished in time
to be flown to Sun ’n Fun in 2006 where
it earned the title of Grand Champion in
the category of post-World War II warbirds.
You have to see this airplane to
appreciate his attention to detail. The
under-wing hardpoints on Cobb’s airplane
contain dummy marking rockets
that look like the real thing. The white
rectangle on the fuselage aft of the cabin
door was used to write in grease pencil
the specific weaponry with which the aircraft
had been armed for any given flight.
Cobb estimates that his airplane is worth
about $160,000, but most L–19s sell for
between $60,000 and $150,000.
Some Cessna engineers thought during
the “patchwork” design process that
AOPA PILOT • 76 • JUNE 2011
the Model 305 would be an ugly airplane,
it turned out not to be. Almost all who
fly the Bird Dog regard it as lovable, an
adjective taken perhaps from the title of
Minard D. Thompson Jr.’s definitive book
about the L-19, The Lovable One-Niner.
It takes some effort to haul one’s self
into the pilot’s seat, and serious contorting
is required to climb into the
rear “observer’s” seat. Once inside, you
are surrounded by military feel and
ambiance. The throttle, mixture, and
carburetor-heat controls are clustered
in a military-style quadrant on the left
sidewall. The only cockpit features that
remind me that the Bird Dog is a Cessna
are the float-type fuel gauges in the wing
roots. These are identical to the gauges
found in other Cessna singles of that era.
The control stick in the rear cockpit
is noticeably taller than the one in front.
This presumably is to provide the flight
instructor with additional leverage to
overpower a student manhandling the
controls. The rear stick is easily removable,
and the rear rudder pedals can be
folded flat and out of the way to give an
observer plenty of room to move around.
Although the flaps are extended man-
ually in early models of the L–19, they
operate electrically on later models.
A normal Bird Dog takeoff involves
using 30 degrees of flaps. As the flight
controls become effective, raise the
tail slightly and the airplane leaves
the ground at 55 mph. I prefer instead
to keep the tailwheel on the ground
and allow the airplane to levitate in its
13-degree, three-point attitude.
Climb rate is almost 1,000 fpm (or
more when lightly loaded). At the
top of climb, however, the Bird Dog’s
performance comes to an end. Cruise
flight is little more than 100 mph. If you
have a need for speed, this airplane is not
for you. The 213-horsepower, six-cylinder
Continental O-470-11 engine swings a
long, 90-inch, fixed-pitch propeller, but
one model, the L–19D, has a constantspeed
propeller and, in some cases, a
second instrument panel for a backseat
instrument student.
The L–19’s cockpit is roomy and
visibility is as good as it gets in a singleengine
airplane. On a warm day, you can
open the upper half of the cabin door,
which swings up and out, like the one on
a Piper J–3 Cub. This, plus acres of Plexiglas,
help make the Bird Dog an effective
observation and reconnaissance aircraft.
An outstanding example of this
occurred on February 24, 1967, when
AOPA Pilot Magazine - June 2011

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