AOPA Pilot Magazine - January 2020 - 56

TOP TO BOTTOM: The

SUMMER SORTIE
Flying the Kinner Sportwing
The wood propeller looks like it's turning too
slow to produce much thrust. The engine sounds
as if it's missing a couple of cylinders. And yet
the Kinner Sportwing seems to defy gravity by
rising off the runway after a 6-second ground roll
that covers about 500 feet.
"That big wing gets it off the ground well
before you think it should," said David Devries,
owner and pilot of the restored 1935 Sportwing.
"It lets you know it's ready to go."
Devries, 75, has flown the Sportwing about
20 hours since its restoration, including the ferry
flight home to Lawrence, Massachusetts, from
Van Sant Airport in Erwinna, Pennsylvania. The
open-cockpit airplane had recently awakened
from its winter slumber to begin the summer
flying season.
With two adults wedged shoulder to shoulder in the open-air cockpit, the Sportwing climbs
at about 70 miles an hour. We level off at about
1,500 feet and the airplane accelerates to 100
miles an hour at 1,700 rpm.
"That seems slow to us," Devries said. "But in
1935, it would have felt like a Corvette."
The Sportwing is very much a period piece.
Straight-back seats, a plush interior, a fuel quantity indicator, and magneto switch that came off
a Ford Model A were standard for its era.
Forward visibility on the ground is nonexistent, and a rickety hand brake makes taxiing a
squeaky ordeal.
"Flying the airplane is easy," Devries said.
"Taxiing is difficult."
In flight, the Sportwing is slightly lighter
in pitch than roll. The roll rate is sedate at just
under 45 degrees per second at full deflection.
The rudder is light and the airplane is somewhat
twitchy in yaw as air disturbed by the open cockpit passes by the vertical tail.
The throttle handle moves up and down, not
fore and aft, but the engine responds instantly to
minor movements. We join up with a Cessna 172
Skyhawk being flown as a photo airplane, and
the Sportwing easily matches its speed and bank
angles during a 45-minute flight along the Massachusetts coast north of Boston for this article.
A compass is the only navigation instrument
in the Sportwing panel, and there are no gyros,
stall horns, or other electronics other than the
radio and transponder required by regulation.
Devries added shoulder harnesses for safety
and crimson striping for looks, but otherwise the
airplane is almost completely original.
In fact, the manufacturer's granddaughter
sent Devries a black-and-white photo of the
airplane on the day it rolled out of the factory,
and the Sportwing seems not to have aged at all
since the Great Depression.
"The world around it has certainly changed,"
Devries said. "But the Sportwing probably flies
exactly the same now as it did back then."
-Dave Hirschman

56 | AOPA PILOT January 2020

wings use extensive
external bracing to keep
the structure light, but
strong. The 84-year-old
engine looks like new
after the restoration.
A modern cylinder of
compressed air is used
for starting the engine,
in place of the balky,
original air tank.

the onboard air tank from it before starting.
That works when I'm at home," he said.
"For those times when I'm away, I bought a
small portable air tank and a hose that connects to the air starter. It weighs only about
15 pounds and fits in the luggage locker. So,
when I fly somewhere and need to start,
I plug it in and it spins right up. There's
always the option of hand propping it, too,
which I don't mind doing."
After a year and a half of flying, Devries
has identified the leaky valve, but "you
can't just call the shop and buy a new one.
It's 84-year-old equipment, so I'm looking around for someone who can custom
make a new valve to match the old one, but
maybe one designed to work better. For
now, my portable air tank works so well,
it's not been a priority."
FIRST FLIGHT

After a year under the hands of these skilled
craftsmen, the big day came at last. The then82-year-old was ready for its latest "first
flight." On July 22, 2017, the Sportwing lifted
off the grass at Van Sant under the confident
control of Larry Posey. Mention Larry's name
around here and the same sentence is uttered
by everyone: "Larry, he's flown everything."
A video of the first flight was sent to
Devries, and he knew it would soon be his
turn to fly this classic airplane. Three weeks
later, on August 26, a small group of earlymorning pilots gathered around the Van
Sant hangar as the Sportwing was pushed
out onto the dew-covered grass for Devries's
first flight. He'd flown in at dawn to take
possession of the airplane he'd dreamed of
for a decade. Although Devries has extensive experience flying vintage aircraft, he'd
make his first flight with Larry Posey in the
co-pilot's seat, primarily to assist with the
engine start and for advice on the eccentricities of this particular model. The engine
was hand-propped for the first flight of the
day, and after some taxi practice, Devries
lifted from the grass for an introductory
flight over the Pennsylvania countryside to
get the feel of the Sportwing. After landing
and topping off the tanks, Devries was ready
to make the 225-mile flight home.
LIKES TO FLY

"The most surprising thing is how the
Sportwing jumps off the runway; it really
likes to fly," Devries said. "It prefers to go
up rather than down, and you need to pull
the power and put the nose down to get it

AOPA Pilot Magazine - January 2020

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