Dick O'Reilly, based at Whiteman Airport in north Los Angeles, updated us on his Interstate Cadet:
Attached are a couple of photos of my Interstate Cadet. Below is a link to a video on my YouTube channel, flying a pretty good crosswind at Whiteman Airport. Incidentally, In 1941 Whiteman had a fleet of six Interstate Cadets in its Civilian Pilot Training program. My plane was not one of them, however. Mine, equipped with a Continental C-65 engine, was shipped from the factory in July 1942 to Kadett Aviation, Colege Station, TX. It was owned by the Defense Plant Corp., Washington, D.C., and flew at Cardwell Flying Academy. In 1945 ownership was transferred to a pair of civilian owners in Ft. Worth, TX.
By November 1945 it was in California, at a Los Angeles suburb of Rosemead. It remained in that San Gabriel Valley area for a few years and in 1950 it was a trainer at the Mt. San Antonio College aviation school, where it remained through at least 1954. In the 1960s it was based at Santa Paula Airport in Ventura County, CA, where it was rebuilt twice and sold to a couple in Fresno, CA, in California's Central Valley agricultural area. I bought it from them in 2013, when it was based in Madera, CA and had been upgraded with a Continental 0-200 engine and an elecrical system in 1996.
My home airport, Whiteman (KWHP) is in the city of Los Angeles, in the San Fernando Valley, near my residence. As can be seen in the aerial photo and in the video, it is an area dense with industrial, commercial and residential use, and is beneath the Class C airspace for Burbank Airport (KBUR). The first modification I had made to the airplane was installation of a Trig 21 Mode S transponder, the first transponder in its then 71 years of flight. As one might suspect, NC37436 has more than 6300 hours and at least six 337s for major repairs of the sort expected from damaging ground loops. I look upon the frame doublers and strut welds as its well-earned badges of courage.
Dick O'Reilly
