WWII plane scheduled for departure

CHICO — A World War II -era plane used to train pilots will be leaving its Chico home by the end of October.

The Vultee Valiant BT-13 has been based at the Chico Air Museum for several years and is considered a treasure because of Chico’s long history with those kind of training planes.
Owner Rene Vercruyssen of Chico, who bought the plane in 2016 out of a love of war-era planes, said he hopes aviation lovers from throughout Northern California will come for a final visit.

The plane will be settling into Ukiah, where another plane lover and the BT’s long-time mechanic lives. It has been an expensive, but passion-filled relationship for Vercruyssen, who has treated veterans to flights and commits the plane to various veteran functions annually.

This World War II-era BT-13 will be leaving the Chico Air Museum at the end of Oct.. (Laura Urseny/Contributed)

“I’m selling the BT-13 to the man that has been keeping it in safe and airworthy condition all these years I’ve been flying it,” Vercruyssen said. “Nick Bishop owns West Coast Wings in Ukiah. He is one of the few gurus intimately familiar with all things BT-13. Without Nick’s involvement, I don’t know how I would have kept Cornelia Fort going.”

Vercruyssen dedicated the shiny BT-13 to Cornelia Clark Fort, a flight instructor in a small civilian aircraft in Hawaii when Pearl Harbor was attacked by the Japanese. She later flew BT-13s as a WASP (Women Airforce Service Pilot), flying finished aircraft from the factories to air bases across the nation. She was the first female pilot killed in service to the country during the delivery of a BT-13 from Southern California to Texas.

Vercruyssen’s BT-13 bears the likeness of Fort, along with the names of other women who ferried planes throughout the country during WWII. The Chico Air Museum has an exhibit dedicated to Fort.

The BT-13 is especially significant to the museum because several hundred were based at the then-Chico Army Airfield, which opened in 1942. It’s estimated that roughly 5,000 pilots trained in Chico on the BT-13s, which were transferred here from Moffett Field in the Bay Area.

The museum is based in the first hangar built at the airfield.

Fond memories

In an earlier interview with this newspaper, Vercruyssen said among his attractions to the plane was the engine roar, which to him sounds like “God’s Harley-Davidson” in reference to the powerful motorcycle.

Vercruyssen bought the BT-13 in January 2016 in the Florida Keys and flew it back to Chico, finding out midflight that it lacked a heater.

“One of my overnight stops was in Farmington, N.M.,” he recalled. “The temperature on the ramp the next morning was 18 degrees. That’s when I discovered the previous Florida owners had long ago removed the unneeded heater assembly.

“I was in shorts and a Hawaiian shirt, but I had packed a sweatshirt hoodie with a belly pouch. The fuel lineman took pity on me and gave me a box of chemical hand warmers. I put a dozen of them in the pouch and rotated my hands in and out to keep the feeling in my fingers.

“I wasn’t the poster child for the quintessentially prepared Boy Scout on this trip.”

Vercruyssen established plenty of memories on that trip, including flying 100 feet above the Mississippi River, “racing freight trains across the Texas plains, and finally climbing over the mighty Sierras to glide down into the valley.”

Next journey

Vercruyssen said that Nick Bishop’s son, Eli, is a crop duster pilot and is “fully checked out in the Valiant, so she will be in good hands for a long time to come.

“I’ve been flying the Vultee for nearly 10 years. It’s been a great experience, but it requires a good bit of commitment to keep it properly maintained and to fly it enough to remain a competent pilot in the old taildragger,” in reference to the wheel in the back.

“Handling these vintage planes safely is a specialized skillset. It is time for me to move on and let another steward take care of Ms. Fort.”

The silver BT-13 is center stage at the Chico Air Museum, which is open 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Thursday through Sunday at 165 Ryan Ave. Admission to the nonprofit museum is free. More information is at chicoairmuseum.org.