School Story
Attached is a Sohio aviation biographical sketch of my father, Harry Sievers. The text describes his life in early aviation and at the end, a tabulation of all the presidents, pilots and aircraft flown by the Standard Oil Company of Ohio, Sohio. Harry Sievers is also featured at the link in the September, 1935 issue of The Sohioan, the internal magazine of the Standard Oil Company. The following was written by Harry Sievers himself.
My interest in aviation began in 1925 while attending Lake Forest College near Chicago, Illinois. My first airplane ride was with a barnstormer in an Old Standard biplane in Wheeling, Illinois, 30 miles northwest of Chicago, at a cost of $30.00 an hour. While in school, a friend of mine and I applied to the Great Lakes Naval Training Center to become Navy pilots. When we completed our exams, there were no airplanes to fly. While waiting for the Navy to get a few airplanes, my boss told me "You're wasting too much time away from work, either you join the Navy or get back to work". I gave up flying for the Navy and went back to work.
In 1925, I won a Buick car in a church raffle. I sold the Buick for $1,500 and with an additional $1,500 that I had managed to save, I bought a Waco 10 biplane powered by a 1916 Curtiss OX-5 engine for $3,000 in Dubuque, Iowa. The plane had been damaged in a hangar fire, so I disassembled the plane and hauled it to Ed Heath Airplane Company, near Chicago, Illinois, for repairs. After the plane was fixed, Wayne Bradford, a pilot operating out of a pasture not far from where I lived, now called the Chicago Executive Airport, offered to teach me how to fly for $40.00 an hour in a OX5 Swallow. After four hours of flight instruction, he had to leave Chicago to work for Sparks-Withington in Jackson, Michigan.
Since there were no pilots around at the time, I decided to teach myself how to fly. I knew how to start the engine, so I taxied to the runway and took-off. I flew around for about two hours when I attempted to land but missed the approach to the airport. So, I gave it full throttle and flew to a large corn field to practice a few touch and go's. Still not having the feel of the plane, I managed to land back at the airport. After lunch, a Navy boy asked me if I would give him an airplane ride. I said, "You've got to be kidding, I'm just learning to fly". He said, "I saw you land the plane and you look like you can fly". Well, after that comment, we took off into the wild blue yonder. This is when I finally got the feel of the plane. After a week or two, I flew to Carroll, Iowa. While in Carroll, I carried a few passengers out of a field so small that my brother had to help me turn the plane around at each corner of the field. I managed to make $300.00 that week at $5.00 a ride. The following day, my brother and I headed back to Chicago, Illinois. It was getting dark when my brother said that we can make it to Cedar Rapids, Iowa. We had driven this route many times from Carroll in a car so we both knew that the Lincoln Highway would take us to the airport. We finally landed at Cedar Rapids at dark. The next morning, we headed home to Chicago.
I continued flying, doing some barnstorming along the Lincoln Highway. On one of these flights, I had to land eight times either on or near the highway due to engine problems. Nothing too serious and got home with no real problems. In 1928, I took off for Hale Center, Texas where my parents had a ranch. I would pick up fuel along the way at gas stations since airports were few. Barnstorming helped pay for the gas. While in Hale Center, I picked up a friend to go to a ranch near Hope, New Mexico. We spent several days with Mr. & Mrs. Allie on their ranch. The cowboys entertained us by taking us out to hunt coyotes and kill rattle snakes. When we tried to take off in the middle of the day at high altitude and thin air, I could not gain any altitude. At this time in my life, I didn't know about density altitude. We were about ten feet above the ground, with the terrain increasing in height, when we were over a valley from which I could not get out. As the plane stalled trying to get out of the canyon, we landed on the wing tip rather than on the nose, wrecking the plane completely. No one was injured, so we picked up our bags and headed back to the ranch on foot. Our host had started up the road in a car knowing something had happened. We went back with Mrs. Allie to the ranch and spent a few days to rest. We were headed toward Hale Center, Texas, when I told this fellow in Roswell, New Mexico fellow about my airplane that I had crashed. He said that he would look at it and see if it was worth anything. I wound up getting $250.00 for it. I got on a train at Hale Center and went back to Highland Park, Illinois. Four wealthy friends of mine each offered $250.00 to help me buy another airplane. So, with the thousand dollars, I was able to buy an OX5 Swallow. At this time, I finally decided to take my test for a pilot's license and was issued the certificate number #6560 signed by Orville Wright.
In the fall of 1928, I was offered a job as a flight instructor in Pontiac, Michigan. After being there two or three months, I moved to Cleveland, Ohio as a flight instructor. On March 1, 1929, I got a job flying the air mail from Cleveland to Pittsburgh and back with Clifford Ball. Clifford Ball won the first government contract to fly the air mail from Bettis Airport in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to Hopkins Airport in Cleveland, Ohio in April 27, 1927. [see the link to the steno notebook record of air mail flights linked above] During this time, I taught myself how to fly blind which helped me through many winter snowfalls. We later experimented picking up the mail without landing.
October 21, 1929, I was flying from Pittsburgh to Cleveland when my motor quit due to a plugged up carburetor over Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania and had to jump-out. The second time I had to jump was March 30, 1930 over Warren, Ohio. Again at night, heavy snow and ice plugged up my venturi [a device that supplied vacuum to attitude instruments in the cockpit] on the side of the cockpit which eliminated the only instruments I had. My only way out was to turn back. Flying blind, I notice the airplane was descending due to ice on the wing, so I decided to jump. [Below is an envelope carried by Siever, annotated to verify it was carried in his airplane that night.]
U.S. Postal Service Mail From Harry Siever's Abandoned Airplane, March 30,1930 (Source: Siever)
19300329_Cachet.gif
This happened to be my last flight with Clifford Ball before going to work for the Standard Oil Company of Ohio in Cleveland the next day. Having heard about me wrecking another airmail plane, they were concerned about hiring me to be their pilot. Management decided it would be a good idea if I would take the company plane, a Ryan B-5 (NC9238), for a few weeks to show that I could handle it. Since I was getting married April 19, 1930 to Mabel Anderson in Erie, Pennsylvania, I took the company plane on my honeymoon to Carroll, Iowa. Mabel, my new wife, and I made it back to Cleveland and everything went smoothly. It was a good airplane in which I carried many passengers for work. This went on for a year, when during the depression, Sohio sold the Ryan B-5 to a car dealer in Hot Springs, Arkansas on November 10, 1931.
With no airplane, I worked at Sohio's number two refinery in Cleveland for about three months. Then Sohio decided to buy a Stinson (NC412M) [this airplane was identified as a Fleet in the Grand Central Air Terminal Register; probably an identification error by the Grand Central tower operator who noted it in the Register]. Dewey Noyes, Sohio's chief pilot, decided to leave and work elsewhere. This made me Sohio's only pilot for many years to come. The Stinson later sold to Fawset Air Lines in Lima, Peru. I flew it for about a year when Sohio decided to buy a Waco (NC12464) that was manufactured May 28,1932. This plane was cracked up August 30, 1933 and was returned to the factory to be rebuilt. Sohio bought another Waco (NC13425) that was manufactured July 6, 1933. Sohio bought a custom cabin Waco (NC14623) with a Wright powered engine that was manufactured June 13, 1935. I had accumulated over 400 hours when Waco decided to ground all of their airplanes since four of them had crashed due to wing failures. It just so happened the pilots in Findley, Ohio were observing a Waco land and saw the wing separate, so they were able to locate the problem. The only reason that we did not have a problem flying the Waco's was due to the fact that we had a heavy motor and a heavy load of passengers. The wing didn't shift as much as the lighter loaded Waco's did. Anyway, I flew four Waco's until 1937, when Sohio bought a low wing Spartan (NC17614). It was such a good airplane that Sohio bought another Spartan (NC17659) at a cost of $25,000.
It was December 17, 1945 at the 11th annual Cleveland Press Christmas Show in Ohio that Frank Sinatra put on a show for all the folks at the Public Hall. Mr. Sinatra's appearance was made possible by Mr. Holliday, president of the Standard Oil Company of Ohio (Sohio), who contributed the airplane and the pilot to fly Mr. Sinatra to Richmond, Virginia after the show. Since I was Sohio's only pilot, I was responsible to fly Mr. Sinatra's party to Richmond, Virginia. After arriving Richmond, I went onto Washington D.C. to refuel the plane. I asked if there were any servicemen who wanted a free ride to Cleveland, Ohio. A sailor, Joseph Magyar from Akron, Ohio was having trouble getting home for Christmas, so he happily accepted the offer. He was the most grateful, excited fellow I ever saw. He had just been discharged and hadn't been home with his family for Christmas for three years. Instead of landing at Cleveland, I nosed the Sohio plane into the Akron airport, almost landing the sailor at his doorstep.
In 1945, Sohio received a twin Beechcraft C-18-S (NC44566) from the U.S. Army. Transportation by air in the U.S. was very difficult at this time due to World War II. Because of the oil requirement during the war, the U.S. government gave Sohio the twin Beechcraft to haul our folks to the different oil fields in order to produce more oil. After the war ended, Sohio bought two later models, a 1946 D-18-S (NC80036) and a 1947 D-18-S (NC80326) twin Beechcraft. Buzz Finefrock was hired to fly the other Twin Beech. We flew these two Beechcraft's until 1949 when Sohio bought two World War II Lockheed Lodestars, sending the Beechcraft's out west to Robert (Bob) C. Pomeroy in Oklahoma City and to Bob Little in Billings, Wyoming. We wound up with eight airplanes, which was quite a group of planes for that time. We had flown for 30 years without an accident, when in 1957, Sohio had three airplanes crash.
The first accident occurred January 25, 1957, near Coulter Airport in Bryan, Texas when Robert (Bob) C. Pomeroy crashed a twin-engine Beechcraft that claimed the lives of all six occupants aboard. The aircraft departed Houston Hobby around 6:00 PM under IFR (Instruments Flight Rules) for Oklahoma City. While at cruise altitude, one of the engines lost oil pressure, so Bob shut down the engine which in turn lost the vacuum to his controlled instruments. There was a change-over valve behind the pilot seat to manually switch the vacuum source to either engine, which is a critical checklist item in an engine-out operation. Bob may have overlooked this due to the stress of the moment. In his descent into Coulter Airport, Bob may never have seen the ground due to the darkness and low ragged ceiling because the aircraft crashed in a level attitude. The Twin Beech crashed three and a half miles north of the Bryan Air Force base, near Coulter Airport. Bryan Air Force base closed and is now owned by Texas A&M University. Sohio had just recently purchased the Twin Beech from Monsanto and didn't have time to install an automatic section control which may have prevented this accident.
The second accident occurred October 6, 1957 while Mabel and I were on our way to Europe. When we arrived in Paris, France, I had a wire notifying me that there was a Sohio Lockheed Lodestar (N80G) that had crashed near a Methodist retreat center in Hopwood, Pennsylvania (39° 52' 27"N, 79° 42' 12" W) while heading for Johnstown Airport in Pennsylvania killing all six folks aboard. The aircraft departed Hot Springs, Virginia (Ingalls Field) at 3:45 PM and climbed to an altitude below the clouds. Just over an hour after takeoff, the aircraft struck the east side of a 20 degree mountain slope, on a heading of 65 degrees magnetic, while flying parallel to the mountain at an altitude of 2,338 feet, 162 feet below the top of the mountain. The aircraft, in level attitude, cut a swath 510 feet long and 59 feet wide through the trees. The probable cause, determined by the Civil Aeronautics Administration (File No. 2-0062) last updated June 10, 2013, was the pilots were attempting to fly VFR (Visual Flight Rules) while under IFR (Instrument Flight Rules) conditions over mountainous terrain. The distance from Hot Springs, Ingalls Airport in Virginia to Johnstown Airport in Pennsylvania is 172 miles. I had to return home while Mabel stayed in Paris to continue on to Germany to see my oldest brother's daughter and her husband.
Presidents of Sohio: (When they became president)
John Davison Rockefeller - born 1839, died 1937
Ambrose M. McGregor - (1900) Died ten months later.
Frank Q. Barstow - (1900)
Henry M. Tilford - (1908)
Walter C. Teagle - (1911) Served during the U.S. Supreme Court order for Standard Oil of New Jersey to divest itself into 33 other companies.
A. Palmer Coombe - (1911)
Wallace Trevor Holiday - (1928)
Clyde T. Foster - (1949) Joined Sohio March 1929.
Charles E. Spahr - (1957) Joined Sohio Oct. 1939.
Alton W. Whitehouse - (Jan. 1, 1970) British Petroleum Company acquires Sohio.
Pilots of Sohio:
Dewey Noyes (employed 1929, 1st chief pilot)
August Harry Sievers (employed March 1, 1930, retired Sept. 1966, 2nd chief pilot)
Howard (Buzz) V. Finefrock (employed Sept. 1939). Buzz had a heart attack and was transferred to the marketing department with Sohio.
Herman (Hank) Spiller (employed Oct. 1946)
Warren F. Noonan (employed 1947-1951, returned to Sohio July 1, 1957 and was killed Oct. 6, 1957 in a plane crash at Hopwood, Pennsylvania)
Robert (Bob) C. Pomeroy (employed 1947 and killed Jan. 25, 1957 in a plane crash)
John Hosier (employed 1948)
Robert (Bob) C. Little (employed Jan. 1949)
Bud Eklund (employed 1951)
Kenneth (Ken) Daugherty (employed 195?)
Theodore (Ted) O. Krauss (employed 1955 and killed Oct. 6, 1957 in a plane crash at Hopwood, Pennsylvania)
Robert (Bob) Lake, (employed 1956, 3rd chief pilot)
Robert (Bob) Jones, (employed June 1957, 4th chief pilot)
Theodore (Ted) Mosure (employed 1954)
Harry Anderson (employed 1958)
Jack Avery (employed 1956)
Harry Berning (employed 195?)
William (Bill) Frederick (employed 1956)
Karl Steuk (employed 1962)
Wayne Bigge (employed 1962)
James (Jim) Zato - aircraft mechanic (employed in 1945)
Airplanes of Sohio:
1929 (NC 9238) Ryan B-5
1930 (NC 412N) Stinson
1931 (NC 10785) Pitcairn PCA-2, B-14 Autogiro, flown by Blanche Wilcox Noyes.
1932 (NC 12464) Waco, mfg. May 28, 1932, cracked up Aug. 30, 1933, returned to factory for rebuild.
1933 (NC 13425) Waco, mfg. July 6, 1933
1935 (NC 14623) Waco, mfg. June 13, 1935
1937 (NC 2209) Waco, mfg. May 20, 1937
1939 (NC 17614) Spartan
1940 (NC 17659) Spartan
1944 (NC 44566) Twin Beechcraft C-18-S
1946 (NC 80036) Twin Beechcraft D-18-S
1946 (NC 80326) Twin Beechcraft D-18-S
1949 (NC 80G & 81G) Lockheed Lodestars
1966 (NC 816M) de Havilland/Hawker-Siddeley 125
1966 (NC 817M) Beechcraft King Air
Harry Sievers, Western Reserve Aviation Hall of Fame Induction, 1990 (Source: Sievers)
Harry Sievers, Western Reserve Aviation Hall of Fame Induction, 1990 (Source: Sievers).jpeg
U.S. Air Mail Jumps:
1. October 21, 1929 at Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania due to carburetor failure.
2. March 30, 1930 at Warren, Ohio due to ice.
Note: Irving Air-Chute Co., Inc., 372 Pearl Street, Buffalo, New York made the parachute that saved Harry Sievers' life and made him a member twice of the Caterpillar Club. The jumps were both made at night.
Awards:
1. Distinguished Service Award issued by the Federal Aviation Administration in 1966 for unusual courage in advancing aviation; for rendering service in the public interest with emphasis on flight safety; for achieving unique benefits to international aviation. (Silver medal with certificate). Listed in the International Handbook of Aerospace Awards and Trophies. Located at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum Library.
2. Inducted into the Western Reserve Aviation Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio on August 31, 1990, right. Other inductees included:
Wilbur and Orville Wright;
James (Jimmy) H. Doolittle, Gen., USAF;
Edward (Eddie) V. Rickenbacker;
Curtis E. LeMay, Gen., USAF;
Neil A. Armstrong;
Ernest J. King, Fleet Adm., USN;
Roscoe Turner;
John Hershel Glenn, Jr.;
Paul Warfield Tibbets and others.
Harry Sievers, retired to Naples, FL in 1967 after flying 36 years as Chief Pilot with Sohio in Cleveland, OH. He was born September 28, 1904 in Carroll, IA and died October 12, 2001 in Palm Harbor, FL. He was one of a handful of Golden Age pilots to live to see the 21st century.
