DC-3 first flight 70 yrs ago

Richard

Richard

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On December 17th, the National Aviation Hall of Fame will observe the 70th anniversary of the first flight of a DC-3 and the 102nd anniversary of powered flight as part of festivities at the Santa Monica, California Airport.

So begins an article on the upcoming event in the Pacific Flyer mag wrap. (Gotta name the source) For more of the article go to www.pacificflyer.com or contact the NAHF at www.nationalaviation.org for information on the event.
 
Richard said:
On December 17th, the National Aviation Hall of Fame will observe the 70th anniversary of the first flight of a DC-3 and the 102nd anniversary of powered flight as part of festivities at the Santa Monica, California Airport.

So begins an article on the upcoming event in the Pacific Flyer mag wrap. (Gotta name the source) For more of the article go to www.pacificflyer.com or contact the NAHF at www.nationalaviation.org for information on the event.
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Thanks for the links.
Duggy (so cute) The DC3.
Only needs a half mil a year to carry on.
Not too bad for so much airplane and quite a lot of actual flying.
 
Tim said:
good DC-3 sight.

http://www.centercomp.com/dc3/
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There is no airplane, not one, that I want to fly in my short lifetime more than the DC-3. I have often thought about really, seriously pursuing flying again and getting a job schlepping whatever around the Caribbean (sp?) and Alaska just to fly one of those beautiful birds.

Cheers,

-Andrew
 
astanley said:
There is no airplane, not one, that I want to fly in my short lifetime more than the DC-3. I have often thought about really, seriously pursuing flying again and getting a job schlepping whatever around the Caribbean (sp?) and Alaska just to fly one of those beautiful birds.

Cheers,

-Andrew
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Hurry
 
astanley said:
There is no airplane, not one, that I want to fly in my short lifetime more than the DC-3. I have often thought about really, seriously pursuing flying again and getting a job schlepping whatever around the Caribbean (sp?) and Alaska just to fly one of those beautiful birds.
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I think you find them fairly easily. I think I've come across one or more DC-3s drying out the sun at 4 or 5 cross country refueling stops. The last one was in Tennessee.

Sucker is HUGE. I gotta imagine that it takes a lot of physical effort to move those huge control surfaces connected with unassisted cables and pulleys.
 
mikea said:
Sucker is HUGE. I gotta imagine that it takes a lot of physical effort to move those huge control surfaces connected with unassisted cables and pulleys.
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Not really, they're pretty well balanced.
 
I fondly recall riding in the back of one of these in Vietnam: full of local folks, chickens, pigs and various other creatures. 'Course, they all slid toward the tail as we sat on the ground. Pretty funny to be sittin there watchin a pig slide toward the tail, then slip and slide trying in vain to climb back up on the slick floorboard!!

When we ran down the runway and the tail lifted, all creatures made it back to their desired place, but in a pretty keyed up mode!! The loud engines definitely made an impression.

Shortly after landing, all creatures, parcels and persons not secured slowly slid toward the tail again :D. I'd really like to see how they do the weight and balance on that!! (Well, maybe not!)


Best,

Dave
 
The mechanic at my airport maintains a couple of DC-3s for a local freight outfit. He also flies them as a reserve pilot. Told me a story about losing an engine at 100' on t/o. He just raised the gear, let the good engine pull him around to the crossing runway, put the gear back down, and landed without further incident. Nothing happens fast in that plane, he said.
 
Dave Siciliano said:
I fondly recall riding in the back of one of these in Vietnam: full of local folks, chickens, pigs and various other creatures. 'Course, they all slid toward the tail as we sat on the ground. Pretty funny to be sittin there watchin a pig slide toward the tail, then slip and slide trying in vain to climb back up on the slick floorboard!!

When we ran down the runway and the tail lifted, all creatures made it back to their desired place, but in a pretty keyed up mode!! The loud engines definitely made an impression.

Shortly after landing, all creatures, parcels and persons not secured slowly slid toward the tail again :D. I'd really like to see how they do the weight and balance on that!! (Well, maybe not!)

Best,

Dave
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There's a great chapter reminiscent of that type of scenario involving a battle with a full load of metal beams told in, Fate Is The Hunter. He says things in a little different way than you though...
 
Twenty years ago, marking the DC-3's fiftieth, the PBS series Nova ran a great special called, "The Plane That Changed The World." One segment featured Provincetown-Boston Airlines, which was then still using DC-3s in regular service. One of them, N36PB, was said to be the highest-airframe-time airplane in the world.

Since then N36PB has been sold and returned to its original registration (NC18121) and markings (Eastern Air Lines). It is on display at the Pearson Air Museum at Pearson Field in Vancouver, Washington (link to photo). By now its airframe time has been passed by some B-747 and DC-8 freighters, but at 91,400+ hours this DC-3 is still the highest-time piston airplane.

My DC-3 adventure was on June 27, 1972. I was a 20-year-old CFI at a small school at Long Beach, CA, and had never flown anything larger than a Turbo Aztec. An acquaintance from a large school across the field came in the office with a problem. A DC-3 had been sold and he had to ferry it that day from Long Beach to the new owner at Medford, Oregon. He needed a FO to be legal and asked if I could do it. For several thousanths of a second I debated whether I should take the rest of the day off and go. The boss was encouraging, so off I went.

N1213M was a converted C-47, had later been a corporate transport for a tire company, and was nicely appointed for about fifteen passengers. Most recently it had been used for DC-3 crew training by Ron's flight school. Ron gave me the basic numbers (I still have the card with the power settings scribbled on it) and procedures, and we launched. About an hour into the four-hour trip, as we were listening to country music from a Bakersfield station on the ADF, Ron got up to go to the lav. He said, "If you lose an engine it takes a lot of rudder," and left.

I was alone on the flight deck of an airborne DC-3!

Ron returned before anything could go haywire. When I went back to the lav, he took that opportunity to investigate how quickly the rudder could be kicked from stop to stop.

We landed at Medford and secured the aircraft. Ron signed my logbook, attesting to 4.0 hours first officer time in the DC-3. That would have cost me a pretty penny at his flight school, but all I had to pay was my airfare back to Long Beach. What a bargain!

I recently learned that N1213M had been in storage at McAllen, Texas, for several years until it was destroyed about two years ago.

-- Pilawt
 
My only DC-3 ride was in back from Florida to South Dakota with 2 dolphins. My job was to keep them calm and sponge them all the time. They were going to a tourist trap I used to work at near Mount Rushmore... Pebbles and Belinda..... the pilot was told to fly low because dolphins have high blood pressure and their eyes don't handle low cabin pressure well - don't know if that was true, but we made the whole trip below 5000.
 
Kelly said:
My only DC-3 ride was in back from Florida to South Dakota with 2 dolphins. My job was to keep them calm and sponge them all the time. They were going to a tourist trap I used to work at near Mount Rushmore... Pebbles and Belinda..... the pilot was told to fly low because dolphins have high blood pressure and their eyes don't handle low cabin pressure well - don't know if that was true, but we made the whole trip below 5000.
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You worked at Marine Life? Really? When?
Us landlocked cowboys had no idea that there was anything swimming in water bigger than a 9 lb trout or 6 lb walleye until Marine Life opened its doors (well, maybe except for the occasional monster paddle fish they would take out of the Missouri river). I grew up in Custer and to this day cannot make myself stop in tourist traps. I never figured out the logic...from Rapid City to Mt. Rushmore, one passed Marine Life, Bear Country USA (a late comer), Reptile Gardens, Cosmos and a few other junky little dives... what the heck do any of them have to do with the flora and fauna of the Black Hills? (other than harvesting greenbacks from touri).

"If it's tourist season, why can't I shoot one?"

Just kidding (sort of) ... if it weren't for tourists, that part of the country would be way worse off than it already is.
 
I trained seal lions, dolphins and did scuba shows... 1972 to 1975! wow that's a while ago.... they finally tore the place down a few years ago. I am the same as you about being jaded about tourist traps. Although I have to admit Reptile Gardens was actually an upper class attraction. Nothing beats Harney Peak tower at night though for the Black Hills.
 
Pilawt said:
...

I recently learned that N1213M had been in storage at McAllen, Texas, for several years until it was destroyed about two years ago.

-- Pilawt
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Have you read Gordon Baxter's Logs of a Pasture Pilot? In it, he recounts taking his wife to visit a field (I believe it was near Huntsville, TX) where he had seen a number of retired DC-3s and Convair twins (she had flown the line with Braniff as a stewardess, and these were the planes she'd served in).

When they arrived, they found that the planes were all in the process of being scrapped, and his description of what he found, how his wife was affected, is so poignant, it brings tears to the eyes.

This, then, is how I felt when I read that one sentence, in your post above, Pilawt. You story brought me there with you, and I smiled at your opportunity to fly the big Douglas. With these planes, I guess the ending is all too predictable, but that makes it no more appealing, does it?

Thanks for sharing!
 
SCCutler said:
Have you read Gordon Baxter's Logs of a Pasture Pilot? In it, he recounts taking his wife to visit a field (I believe it was near Huntsville, TX) where he had seen a number of retired DC-3s and Convair twins (she had flown the line with Braniff as a stewardess, and these were the planes she'd served in).
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I remember that. I think I read it in one of Bax's Flying columns. Dianne found a metal food service box, I believe, in one of the old airplanes, and said, "These are Convairs to me."

All the way on that DC-3 flight from LGB to MFR, I couldn't get Ernie Gann out of my mind.

That's what airplanes do to you.

-- Pilawt
 
Kelly said:
I trained seal lions, dolphins and did scuba shows... 1972 to 1975! wow that's a while ago.... .
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SCUBA ... 1975 ... I took my open water exam in Pactola Reservoir in 1975.
Depth: 35'
Visibility: < 2'
Water Temp: 50°F
Theme song to JAWS running thru my head - really bad timing watching that movie the night before the dive...

Kelly said:
Nothing beats Harney Peak tower at night though for the Black Hills.
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Cicero Peak tower on the 4th of July!
 
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