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Your copy of the Davis-Monthan Airfield Register with all the pilots' signatures and helpful cross-references to pilots and their aircraft is available at the link. Or use this FORM to order a copy signed by the author, while supplies last.

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http://www.cafepress.com/content/global/img/spacer.gifThe Congress of Ghosts is an anniversary celebration for 2010.  It is an historical biography, that celebrates the 5th year online of www.dmairfield.org and the 10th year of effort on the project dedicated to analyze and exhibit the history embodied in the Register of the Davis-Monthan Airfield, Tucson, AZ. This book includes over thirty people, aircraft and events that swirled through Tucson between 1925 and 1936. It includes across 277 pages previously unpublished photographs and texts, and facsimiles of personal letters, diaries and military orders. Order your copy at the link.

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Military Aircraft of the Davis Monthan Register, 1925-1936 is available at the link. This book describes and illustrates with black & white photographs the majority of military aircraft that landed at the Davis-Monthan Airfield between 1925 and 1936. The book includes biographies of some of the pilots who flew the aircraft to Tucson as well as extensive listings of all the pilots and airplanes. Use this FORM to order a copy signed by the author, while supplies last.

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Art Goebel's Own Story by Art Goebel (edited by G.W. Hyatt) is written in language that expands for us his life as a Golden Age aviation entrepreneur, who used his aviation exploits to build a business around his passion.  Available as a free download at the link.

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Winners' Viewpoints: The Great 1927 Trans-Pacific Dole Race is available at the link. What was it like to fly from Oakland to Honolulu in a single-engine plane during August 1927? Was the 25,000 dollar prize worth it? Did the resulting fame balance the risk? For the first time ever, this book presents the pilot and navigator's stories written by them within days of their record-setting adventure. Pilot Art Goebel and navigator William V. Davis, Jr. take us with them on the Woolaroc, their orange and blue Travel Air monoplane (NX869) as they enter the hazardous world of Golden Age trans-oceanic air racing.

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Clover Field: The First Century of Aviation in the Golden State. With the 100th anniversary in 2017 of the use of Clover Field as a place to land aircraft in Santa Monica, this book celebrates that use by exploring some of the people and aircraft that made the airport great.

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LESTER J. HOLOUBEK


Lester Holoubek signed the Davis-Monthan Register, once on Thursday, August 22, 1929 at 10:00AM. He remained on the ground for three hours before departing the same day. He flew a Boeing FB-1, Model 15 he identified as A-6885. At the airplane's link you'll discover that Holoubek was part of a flight of three Boeing fighters being transferred from the Navy to the Department of Commerce.

Based at Washington, DC, Holoubek arrived at Tucson from Yuma, AZ and stated his destination that day as El Paso, TX. Given that he probably began his flight from the San Diego Naval Air Station on the west coast, El Paso would be a long-day's flight for such an aircraft. He noted in the Remarks that he represented the "Dept of Commerce." Holoubek became later the chief test pilot for Lockheed Aircraft Company.

Holoubek was born in Wisconsin May 31, 1901. The 1910 U.S. Census, his first, placed him living as an only child at age 8 with his parents, Joseph (age 41) and Fanny (Pell; 37) in Milwaukee, WI. Holoubek's father was a machinist.

His 1920 Census information was miscoded as "Holabeg." He was 18 years old, living with his mother and unemployed. His mother was 44, widowed and employed as a laborer in a shoe factory. They shared their home with a boarder identified as John Angelo, 40, whose occupation was coded as "Edge Trimmer" in a "Shoe Factory." They lived at 1385 9th Street (upstairs) in Milwaukee, WI. On Google Earth today, neither 1385 North or South 9th Street look to be homes from the 1920s.

I found no information about where or when Holoubek learned to fly. He would have been barely old enough to enlist in the military late in WWI. Likewise, I found no information about his education. Later citations identify him as an engineer, but I do not know where he was schooled.

By 1930, at age 30, Holoubek was married for a year to Josephine (25). They lived in Beverly Hills in Los Angeles. His occupation was coded on the Census as "Inspector" of "Flying Engines." At some point he had accepted a position with the Department of Commerce (DOC).

Not only did he work with engines, but also airplanes. He test flew the Northrop Beta 3 (NX963Y, not a Register airplane) and, on August 12, 1931, during a DOC certification flight, Holoubek took the Beta 3 up for a series of certification flights. During the flight, he had trouble with the ailerons and found the ship unmanageable. Another test pilot had experienced the same problem during an earlier flight and was able to land the aircraft safely. However, Holoubek had no great affection for the little airplane and elected to leave by parachute. The  Beta 3 augured itself into a Glendale hillside and was completely destroyed.

During the 1930s, Holoubek was documented several times on immigration forms traveling between San Diego, CA and Agua Caliente, Mexico. For example, the one below dated March 19,1931 was flown in a DOC airplane, NS27. No mention was made of their business in Mexico flying a government aircraft. Their airplane was a Stinson SM-8B, S/N 4204.

Immigration Form, March 19, 1931 (Source: ancestry.com)
Immigration Form, March 19, 1931 (Source: ancestry.com)

And below, from Sunday, December 16, 1934, the immigration form specifies the airplane registration number NC14018, which was assigned to a Waco CJC. The CJC model Waco was a 4-5 place cabin biplane. Online information states that the airplane belonged to Durant. I know nothing about Valerie Smith. Perhaps we shouldn't. She appears in another flight, below.

Immigration Form, December 16, 1934 (Source: ancestry.com)
Immigration Form, December 16, 1934 (Source: ancestry.com)

The immigration form, below, dated just four days later on Thursday, December 20, 1934 documented Holoubek flying with durant and Smith in NC14108, which is identifiable online as an Aeronca C-3. Given that the C-3 was certified only as a two-place airplane, there is a discrepancy in the number of passengers and the model identification. The immigrations officer clearly recorded the airplane registration number wrong.

Immigration Form, December 20, 1934 (Source: ancestry.com)
Immigration Form, December 20, 1934 (Source: ancestry.com)

A few months later another immigration form dated Saturday, March 23, 1935, below, reported the airplane registration number as NC14018 again.

Immigration Form, March 23, 1935 (Source: ancestry.com)
Immigration Form, March 23, 1935 (Source: ancestry.com)

 

Waco Model CJC (Source: aerofiles.com)
Waco Model CJC (Source: aerofiles.com)

 

Cliff Durant was a well-known personality from the early 1900s. Cliff Durant was a pilot and auto racer born November 26, 1890. On the immigration form, he was identified as 44 years old, suggesting they were the same person. There was no information about who was the pilot in command of NC14018. Passenger Harry Hartz (1896-1974) was a mechanic and race driver. An example of the Waco model CJC is at left.

About four months later, on Wednesday, July 17, 1935, Holoubek and Durant again traveled to Mexico, below.

Immigration Form, July 17, 1935 (Source: ancestry.com)
Immigration Form, July 17, 1935 (Source: ancestry.com)

A day later, on July 18, 1935, Holoubek and Durant again traveled to Mexico. Their trip, in Durant's airplane, was recorded on the immigration for below. This was the last evidence of Mexico travel that I found. Again there was no indication of a reason for their mid-week travels, two days in a row. Nor did I find information about the relationship between Holoubek and Durant: friends, flight instruction?

Immigration Form, July 18, 1935 (Source: ancestry.com)
Immigration Form, July 18, 1935 (Source: ancestry.com)

 

The New York Times, June 2, 1938 (Source: NYT)
The New York Times, June 2, 1938 (Source: NYT)

 

San Bernardino County Sun, February 9, 1930 (Source: newspapers.com)
San Bernardino County Sun, February 9, 1930 (Source: newspapers.com)

 

Holoubek worked for the Civil Aeronautics Authority (CAA) throughout the 1930s. An article in the San Bernardino County Sun, February 9, 1930, right, described his authorization for a type certificate for the Lockheed Sirius airplane. The flight testing was performed by Charles Lindbergh.

Significantly, Holoubek was involved with the flight testing and certification of the new Boeing Atlantic Clipper. The lead up to final certification was described in The New York Times, June 2, 1938, left. The article describes Holoubek's job as "senior flight engineer and chairman of a board of government inspectors."

Coincidentally, the Douglas DC-8, a large, land-based transport, was tested and certified the same day. Register pilot Carl Cover was responsible to test that airplane, and performed the final flights before certification. Whereas Holoubek's work with the Clipper took place in Puget Sound, and Boeing test pilot Edmund "Eddie" Allen did the flying, Cover did the flying himself from Clover Field in Santa Monica, CA. The joint testing was captured in a article by Register pilot James V. Piersol that appeared in The New York Times, June 12,1938, below.

The New York Times, June 12, 1838 (Source: NYT)
The New York Times, June 12, 1838 (Source: NYT)

Behind the scenes, in his role as CAA inspector, Holoubek had few friends. Lockheed lore has it that he made Lockheed test pilots fly with their landing gear down at night for safety purposes. This is as patently ridiculous now as it should have been then. One rumor that has been confirmed involved a Lockheed test pilot who fired a round from a deer rifle into Holoubek's house late one night, an event which precipitated the gunman's exit from the U.S. to South America.

The 1940 Census placed Holoubek at age 39 living with his wife, Marie (31) at 928 24th Street, Santa Monica, CA (about 2.5 miles northwest of Clover Field). This address today is a large, two-storey home with a red tile roof. The 1940 Santa Monica city directory corroborated his address and Marie's name. I do not know when he divorced Josephine or married Marie.

In 1940, his occupation was coded as "Aero Inspector" for the "Civil Aeronautics Authority." His income was recorded as $4,600, a handsome salary in 1940.

There is a U.S. Immigration form that documents Holoubek's travel from Bremerhavn, Germany to New York on April 26, 1948 aboard the U.S.A.T. General R.E. Callan, below. His address was listed as 155 East 67th Street in Los Angeles. The link describes the launching of the ship in 1944 as a "Liberty" model, its life with different branches of the military, and its ultimate fate with a scrapper in 1982. This ship lay a number of at anchor with other WWII-surplus Liberty ships across the Hudson River from Peekskill, NY.

U.S.A.T. General R.E. Callan, Ca.1946-50 (Source: Link)
U.S.A.T. General R.E. Callan, Ca.1946-50 (Source: Link)

 

 

In the 1950s, Holoubek moved into the ranks of management at Hughes Aircraft Company and was involved as a "loaned executive" in local Community Chest activities. He earned kudos for this activity from Hughes and other participating companies.

The photograph below, from the Los Angeles Public Library (LAPL), shows Holoubek at right. The Library's photograph caption dated October 1, 1959 reads, "Loaned Executives -- Lester Holoubek, 21209 Providencia St., Woodland Hills, left, engineer for Hughes Aircraft Co., and William A. Weaver, 8854 Lubao Ave., Northridge, test pilot for Lockheed Aircraft Corp., talk over Community Chest campaign. Men are on loan from their companies for Red Feather appeal and will work with Valley firms." 

Lester Holoubek (R), October 1, 1959 (Source: LAPL)
Lester Holoubek (R), October 1, 1959 (Source: LAPL)

The photograph, below, is from the Valley News (Van Nuys, CA), December 12, 1957. Holoubek is pictured at center with other "loaned executives."

Valley News, Van Nuys (CA), December 12, 1957 (Source: newspapers.com)
Valley News, Van Nuys (CA), December 12, 1957 (Source: newspapers.com)

Holoubek flew West on October 21, 1961 at age 60.

 

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THIS PAGE UPLOADED: 11/17/17 REVISED:

 
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I'm looking for information and photographs of Holoubek and his airplane to include on this page. If you have some you'd like to share, please click this FORM to contact me.

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Thanks to Guest Editor Bob Woodling for help researching this page.

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