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After receiving his airman’s certificate in 1941 Herbert A. “Herb” Cahill marched off to war and the Battle of the Bulge. During the war he had been an artilleryman, but his love had been flying since his first flight in a Curtis Robin for a penny a pound when he was still a child in South Hill, VA in the 1920’s. When the war ended Herb became a mechanic on Aeronca L-3’s in Fuchwagen, Germany for the Army. He was also promoted to Corporal. After leaving the Army the joy and love of flight stayed with him and he rented airplanes from Colonel Paul Rembold for many years. Early in 1968 Papa finally had the money to buy his own plane. After caring for the L-3’s and Cubs in Fuchwagen, he decided that the Champs [L-3] flew better, you could see out better because you soloed from the front seat and just over all they were a more functional plane than the Cubs. Papa thought that Charles Schultz’s character Charley Brown described the slow, gentle nature and awkward appearance of the 7AC to a tee, but so as to not run into any copywrite infringement, he spelled it “Charlie Brown”. In February of that year Herb made an offer to two New Yorkers. They had their Aeronca Champion 7AC N84123 listed in Trade-A-Plane for $1,500.00. His offer was that if they would fly it from Long Island, NY in February, he would buy it. The owners took three days to fly CB to Danville in February of that year. They were grounded by snow on the flight down. That Champ is today “Charlie Brown”, aka CB or Chuck. Soon after his purchase CB suffered hanger rash in one of Paul Rembold’s old hangers and had to have his right wing recovered. Due to lack of hangers, Chuck set out one summer before getting space in a hanger in South Boston where he lived many years. Finally, sometime in the early 1970s Chuck moved to the “new” T-hanger number 11 in Danville where he stayed until Papa’s death in February 2003. Papa flew him to countless fish fries at local fields with Curtis Earp et al. CB spent many happy hours testing the local grass and following the mighty Dan River. In 1996 I flew CB to Barnstormer’s Workshop in Griffin, GA where he was rebuilt stem to stern. The trip took a mere 9 hours with a head wind all the way. In 2000 he was given a new Continental A-65 that will power him for years to come. I flew him to Sun-&-Fun in Lakeland, FL in 2001…formation all the way with my partner Dale Engebresen in our 1947 Cessna 140. There were times cars were passing us as we followed Interstate 95 south. The trip took 13 hours with three stops for gas. In 2002 Papa flew him for the last time during Thanksgiving. Papa was 87 years old. He won an award at a local air show in South Boston earlier that year for being the oldest pilot at the show. After Papa’s death I was given custody of Chuck. He now resides in a warm hanger in Wakefield, VA and I take him out for regular exercise. Each time I hear Papa still sitting in the back seat telling me to keep the throttle at 2150 for cruise. I hear him say, “hold him off, hold him off”, as we gently set down on all three in the green grass of Merlin Field.

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Downloads	574
Date added	Jan 01, 2006
Filename	Charlie_Brown.zip
Filesize	20,799 kB

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Cazzie Dalton