INCOMPLETE
Born May 5, 1891 died May 28, 1963.
Glover Ruckstell won the July 4, 1915, 200-mile race
at Indianapolis, IN driving a Peugeot. As of July 2001,
he was ranked 214th on the all time list for that race. The
same year, he competed at Tacoma, WA on a two-mile Board
Track. He completed the 125 laps, 250 miles, in 2:57:03.0,
or 84.722 MPH.
Glover E. "Roxy" Ruckstell He founded Scenic Airways. When GCA went Scenic out of business ca. 1930, he provided cashflow to form Grand Canyon Airlines (GCA). He worked with two other Register pilots in the GCA endeavor, Irving Kravitz and Jack Thornburg.
Below is an image from Ruckstell's pilot log. Although difficult
to read at this size, try saving it off to your image viewer
and magnifying it. You should be able to read everything
just fine.
Among the inscriptions on the page, you can see that he
held Transport pilot certificate No. 10,006, which he earned
July 24, 1930. He took instrument flight instruction, and
became eligible for the blind flight test and S.A.T. rating
(actually Scheduled Air Transport Rating, SATR) in April
1935. See this link to our pilot Gilbert
Budwig for more on the SATR. Budwig's work formulated
and established the rating within the U.S. Department of
Commerce. Ruckstell also held mechanic license 6177, and refers
to his Federation Aeronautique Internationale license for
1931, number 7965, which is available available to you as
a scanned image (see below). Significantly, Ruckstell landed once at the Grand Central Air Terminal, Glendale, CA on May 5, 1931.
This PDF download
gives you a scanned image I made of
Ruckstell's Federation Aeronautique Internationale license,
1931. His license, as were all of them of this era, was signed
by Orville Wright. Thanks to the San Diego Aerospace
Museum for allowing me to share this, and the next, image
with you (credit, left sidebar).
This PDF download
gives you a scanned image I made of
Ruckstell's logbook pouch. The pouch is a
mini-history unto itself. What an interesting artifact this
is. It held the pilot's log book, engine
log and aircraft log, important legal documents all, which
the pilot in command and aircraft
owner are responsible to maintain. Penned on the canvas is
his address in West Los Angeles, as well as his attachment
to Grand Canyon, AZ. As well, the registration numbers of
the aircraft he flew are also inscribed on the canvas in
ink. The pouch seems to be a give-away premium from the
Richfield Oil Company.
Of the eight readable (a couple more are unreadable) registration
numbers inked on the canvas pouch, three of the aircraft
landed at Tucson at one time or another. J-5 Travel Air NC4835 landed April 30, 1928 flown by Dr. J. Bert Saxby. J-6 Travel
Air NC9813, landed
on September 16, 1930 flown by Roy T. Minor. Stinson NC12146 landed on April 24, 1935 piloted by Ruckstell himself. The
other aircraft, Lockheed NC/NX965Y (once flown by Amelia Earhart), NC8869, NC17749, NC4960
and NC12223 are not among those that landed and registered
at the Davis-Monthan Airfield or any other airfield of the Delta Mike Airfield, Inc. Registers.
Ruckstell maintained a business. Image available here on
this site.
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THIS PAGE UPLOADED: 03/23/06 REVISED: 08/09/13
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