Working DC-3s

LDJones

LDJones

Touchdown! Greaser!
Gone West
Joined
Sep 6, 2011
Messages
10,998
Location
Twin Cities, MN
Display Name
Jonesy
Home Airfield
KMSP / KFCM / KSGS
Over 70 years in service and still going strong. Interesting look at airline ops in Columbia....

 
I occasionally see one pop up on FlightAware. Also, there is a missionary group that has a couple with turbine conversions that show up fairly regularly.

I wonder what they're planning on replacing the DC-3s with? Most of the turbine stuff is either much smaller or expects paved runways.
 
FormerHangie said:
I occasionally see one pop up on FlightAware. Also, there is a missionary group that has a couple with turbine conversions that show up fairly regularly.

I wonder what they're planning on replacing the DC-3s with? Most of the turbine stuff is either much smaller or expects paved runways.
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There's also Kenn Borek Air, which has a bunch of the turbine-converted DC-3s. They do the extreme north and extreme south work.
 
Let's not forget the proud men and women serving the great state of Florida flying DC-3s for Mosquito Control ! A dauntless task indeed.
 
Buffalo Airways (of Ice Pilots fame) still uses them. And wasn't there a gathering at Oshkosh two years ago? Some designs still survive. Others get retired too soon (Beech Starships).
 
Funny you mention it...I saw a Beech Starship departing Addison (KADS) yesterday. Never expected to see one in person.
 
MSPAviator said:
Going off topic a bit, but how come the Beech Starship was a failure and the Piaggio Avanti a relative success?
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The story I heard had to do with sales. By the time the aircraft got to market, its price was more in the range of a light jet, technologically deficient, and it was slower.
On the other hand, Burt Rutan kept his as did four other people. Beech parked the remaining ones out in the desert.
Want your own?
 
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Provincetown-Boston Airlines used to run them back when I was in law school. I flew out there with a classmate, his wife and the gal I was dating at the time. We parked a Piper Dakota underneath the wing of one of the DC3s and camped out with the airplane. DC3 provided great shade.
 
I flew on a passenger charter in South Africa on a DC-3. Spent most of the flight standing up at the hydraulic panel watching the pilots.
 
There's a lady out of the Cincinnatti FSDO who does the check rides for DC-3 type ratings. She used to use our airport (I17) for short takeoff/landings on the check rides.

We don't get a lot of big aircraft flying in and out, and you could always tell it was her on the field, even with the hangar doors closed!
 
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