N4385N was born a Cessna 195, registration mark NC4386N, and granted a Certificate of Airworthiness in 1947. This plane is the 19th 190/195 airframe built. Serial number 7019 was first sold by Cessna to the 1) Clinton Aviation Company at Denver's Stapleton Field on 12 September 1947. The plane was sold 26 February 1949 to 2) Harry L. Couch and Joe Aimonetta of New Castle Wyoming. Shortly thereafter an Aircraft Status Change was filed with the CAA indicating that the Registration was being cancelled due to an accident which occured on 13 June 1949. NC4386N was then sold to 3) Roy Lamoureaux of Casper Wyoming on 10 January 1950. 4) James N. Ray of Cody Wyoming took ownership on 15 January 1953 with a $6522 Chattel Mortgage against the plane. The ownership of Mr. Ray ended with a repossession on 17 June 1953 by 5) Interstate Aircredit Corp of Minneapolis Minnesota, the lienholder. It appears as though Mr. Ray did not surrender the logs, as the records that are present were started 3 January 1954 with a tach time of 316.9 hours. 6) Aircraft Distributors, Inc. of Kansas City Missouri purchased the plane from the Interstate Aircredit Corp on 29 June 1953. The next owner, 7) Frank C. Hoffman Jr. of Jacksonville Illinois, took ownership on 11 February 1954. NC4386N was then sold by Frank Hoffman Jr. to his company, 8) Alamo Airways of Las Vegas, Nevada on 25 June 1954. 9) Peter Gluckmann of San Francisco took ownership with a Bill of Sale dated 22 November 1954. Peter Gluckmann was nicknamed "the Flying Watchmaker" and is famous for being the first man to fly around the world solo, done in a Meyers 200A in 1957. Gluckmann made a poorly documented attempt to fly this 195 around the world in 1956, as evidenced by the picture below of Cessna 195 serial number 7019. This picture was taken in 1956 with the registration mark N238B, with the name "City of San Francisco" displayed across the front side of the plane. It is unknown how far he was able to go on this attempt, and the logs show the ferry tanks being removed from the plane within weeks of the picture taken in England. Gluckmann installed the Continental W-670 240hp engine on this plane, presumably due to the lower oil consumption of the engine leaving more payload for fuel. Gluckmann, after setting the record in the Meyers 200A, disappeared on a flight after leaving Tokyo while trying to better the record in a 250 hp Bonanza which carried 400 gallons of fuel.  The end of Gluckmann's ownership was 8 September 1956, the plane being sold to 10) Vest Aircraft and Finance Company of Denver Colorado, an aircraft dealer who sold the plane later that month to 11) Clarinda Flying Service of Clarinda Iowa. Clarinda Flying service owned serial number 7019 until 1959, and after about 3 years of ownership on 22 March of that year title transferred to 12) Richard Dempster of Atchison Kansas. After about 5 years of ownership, Dempster sold N238B to 13) Marvin L. Middlebrooks and Jack MacDermott of Fort Worth Texas on 9 September of 1964. About a year later, MacDermott sold his share of the bird to 14) Lloyd Leach, and a $2814.77 Chattel Mortgage was recorded. 15) Middlebrooks became the sole owner of the aircraft on 24 February 1968. Middlebrooks, after nearly 30 years of ownership, sold the plane on 2 August of 1993 to 16) Henry F. Rogers and David G. Mosby (a United Pilot) of Yelm Washington. Rogers and Mosby appear to have done a fantastic restoration on this plane. The registration mark was changed to N4385N, likely when the plane was painted, notably just one tick off the original registration mark of NC4386N. There is a 1960's dated accident report that shows a 195 with this registration mark being destroyed, which at that time appears to have been serial number 7020. It appears that 17) Mosby bought out Rogers half share in 1994. 18) Ronald L. Thompson of Carefree Arizona purchased serial number 7019 in 1995. 19) Rodney Hill, also of Carefree Arizona, took possession of N4385N in 1997 with a bill of sale executed 21 October of that year. JW Duff, a Denver area aircraft parts legend, bought this plane in 1999 after a 1998 downwind landing attempt resulted in an accident which took this 195 out of commission. The 20) current owner, a retired 747-400 Captain for Continental Airlines, purchased this aircraft from JW Duff in August of 1999 and she was put back into service on 2 June 2000. Please don't hesitate to call with questions on this Golden Age of Aviation Cessna. This plane is hangared in the Denver area and available for inspection on appointment. |
