Any fans of the Douglas DC-3?

bigwheelzip

bigwheelzip

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A recent thread showing the modern "Glass Cockpit" points out our technical progress in comfort, speed, and safety. All good things.

But sometimes, I wish I still had the option of a DC-3 for a regional hop. Yes they were loud, and they vibrated, but they refused to be ignored. They were integral to the experience of travel, not incidental to it.

It's like when we have to go somewhere, and hubby looks at the weather and says "Let's take the motorcycle". The journeys always more fun on the bike, than the car. :)

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7YECHxEOyY8[/ame]
 
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LOVE that sound. Reminds me of my childhood. We used to go sit at the airport sometimes and just watch the planes takeoff. It was even more enjoyable at night, when the rest of the world was asleep.

As for the DC3, great plane. Probably the only commercial tail-dragger still in use somewhere today. Classic plane. Same catagory for me as the B52 and C130. Still in service today. :D
 
Back in '74/'75 I was considering going to Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University; Their pilot training syllabus included the multi-engine rating done in a DC-3. Cost: $150/hour for the DC-3 time. Today a lowly Cessna 172 is knocking on $200/hour, and I doubt there's a DC-3 for rent anywhere.
 
The last time I flew on one of these was island hopping down in the Caribbean. I don't know if they're still in use down there or not.
Jim
 
They are still heavily in use around Alaska, mostly used to haul cargo and transport fish across the State from the various canneries and processing plants. Amazing planes.
 
we had two C-47's at Rhein Main AB in Germany. when they were rotated back to the states one of them made it all the way back and the other made it as far as the airport in Iceland. there was a debate as to whether it was worth fixing it or not to finish it's trip back to the states and never heard anything more. there are probably damn few airports that haven't had a C-47 land on them at one time or the other. just a basic airplane that worked very well
 
My first flight in airplane was on a United DC-3 in 1954 when I was 10 years old. Eleven years later I flew on a Navy R4D (DC-3) from Osaka to Kobe, Japan. It was the only Navy transport I ever flew on that had parachutes on the back of every seat!

Here is another video that is also pretty interesting:

EAA Video Player - Your Source for Aviation Videos
 
There is still at least one I think 2 still flying out of Houma, Louisiana A DC 4 also. I hear them overhead every once in a while, it is a unique sound I'll never forget. I used to fly in them overseas often when I was still working. I remember one in Panama, on a local flight through a rainstorm rain was streaming into the cabin, they used to call it "La Llorona" "The Crybaby" because it dripped engine oil all over the runways.
They are Noble machines for sure to still be flying after so many years.
Steve W
Here is a link to the flying operations in Houma
Airborne Support, Houma, Louisiana
 
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Yep, we also had R4Ds (the "Skytrain" or "Gooney Bird") in the Marine Corps. As an aircraft electrician I worked on them at the DaNang AB in 1966 and have quite a few flight hours on board.

Of special note, among other things, is the fact that the steel landing gear pins are up in the landing gear well. In order to get in to that area to insert those pins (before takeoffs and after landings) you absolutely have to come in from the sides or from behind those spinning propellers. IF you forget and come straight forward after the pins are inserted or removed, you're going to have a really, really bad day!

The Douglas Aircraft Company built a really fine aircraft some of which are still in service today.
 
to understand why it got it's name the "gooney bird" all you have to do is watch a rookie pilot land one. tail draggers are a little different. it does an amazing imitation of a real gooney bird
 
Traveled many a mile on DC-3s when they were still the airliner in this country.

A C-47 is the only plane I have ever, briefly, flown myself. It was a rush--I was eighteen at the time.

The C-47/DC-3 is, in my opinion, one of the most versatile and important aircraft ever designed. Next in line is the C-130.
 
bigwheelzip said:
A recent thread showing the modern "Glass Cockpit" points out our technical progress in comfort, speed, and safety. All good things.

But sometimes, I wish I still had the option of a DC-3 for a regional hop. Yes they were loud, and they vibrated, but they refused to be ignored. They were integral to the experience of travel, not incidental to it.

It's like when we have to go somewhere, and hubby looks at the weather and says "Let's take the motorcycle". The journeys always more fun on the bike, than the car. :)

HISTORIC Swissair Douglas DC-3 Start Up & Take-Off - Great Sound! - YouTube
Click to expand...
It's ironic that you mention that plane. I don't know if you were referring to my pic of the B767 cockpit from "our old jobs", but if so, I became a pilot because of my Dad who flew C-47s in WWII, which is a DC-3.
It's still one plane I have not flown yet but really want to before my time is up.
 
First plane I ever flew in. It had to be about 1951 or 1952. It was the Minneapolis Tribune's company plane. My father was a columnist. I do not remember the occasion, but it was a pretty short flight, less than an hour.
 
I remember, as a small kid in the 1950's and 1960's, laying on my back on the grass and watching the DC-3's and other prop jobs heading east after leaving the SLC airport. The mountains surrounding the valley are fairly high on the east and west sides and the planes had to gain a few thousand feet to get out of the valley. On hot days in the summer, they seemed to just hang there, the engines wound up, making a unique sound. They flew visibly slower than the 4 engine Douglas jobs.

One of the U.S. airlines (I think United) had a beautifully restored DC-3 they flew around the country a couple of years ago. They did mini ground tours of it at the SLC airport. It was worth the trip to see it. They were so much smaller inside and out than I remember going through one as a kid.

It's still a beauty of a workhouse. You just have to love the look of that fierce nose and cockpit.
 
Flew quite a few miles in one. I think every air base had a couple for local area transplantation (and the base commander to joy ride in). Flew from England to Wiesbaden Germany and back a few times but the most memorable was the weekend when I was on duty (in France) and one of our F84's returning from Wheelus AFB Libya stopped at Pizza Int airport to refuel and couldn't get it restarted. So they flew us 2 jet engine mech's, and an airframe specialist to Pizza. I got the plane going (starter ignitor plug), but by the time we got all ready to leave the Pilot (winked) and said looked like bad weather, so we stayed the night in Pizza. Then got actually socked in with Fog for two more days. Finally got off and flying over the Alps Capt. banked plane to the right then to the left several times, I opened up the drape between the cargo area and cockpit and asked Capt. what was going on and he said "Mountains are 12,000 ft and the wings are icing up and can't get over 10,000 ft altitude so he was banking in between peaks. He had the little side window open and was scraping ice off the windshield with a K-Bar. Then when he radioed ahead for landing he was told the base was in the middle of a snowstorm and we couldn't land. We were redirected to Marseilles. By then we were all about broke and we were pooling our money to be able to afford rooms and a little to eat that night. The next day Capt. got in the air and again told we shouldn't try to land because of snow, he told them we were coming in, and put it down on a half covered runway with maybe 6" of snow. Took darn near 2 weeks to get reimbursed for our expenses.
 
How could you.......

How could you NOT love the DC-3. They've seen about everything and aren't finished yet.

I have a thing about old planes anyway. A propeller plane uses the air to its best advantage and I love to see them bounce off the wind. A jet, as cool as they are, treat the air like an obstacle. It's not just faster, it's different.
 
Loved flying on the company owned DC3. Working at AUTEC on Andros Island in the early 70, we flew in and out on one either Island hopping or back to West Palm and it was customary to applaud each time we landed.
 
The Goon will always be special to me. I was assigned as a crew chief in 1971 in Vietnam on an EC-47. I'd been assigned to a Ranch Hand unit the flew C123s but they were shutting down spraying operations because the health problems from the herbicides. I worked on the Goon for balance of my time there. Back in the states I was a crew chief on the B-52 but my best memories are of the C-47. I did get to fly on the C-47 a few times but we didn't normally have flying crew chiefs.
 

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I used to fly out of Fort Leonard Wood Mo on Skyway avaiation. They had a fleet of the old ladies and their own collection of them at a smaller airport.

I've sit there and watched the rivets vibrate up an down, they were pretty thin in the middle.
 
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Jessie said:
It's ironic that you mention that plane. I don't know if you were referring to my pic of the B767 cockpit from "our old jobs", but if so, I became a pilot because of my Dad who flew C-47s in WWII, which is a DC-3.
It's still one plane I have not flown yet but really want to before my time is up.
Click to expand...
Yes, your thread brought me back to those days, and that 767 got my thoughts airborne.
Funny coincidence about it being your dads plane.
I made the connection because at the early 80's time-frame of my office pic in your thread, I was working south of Augusta, GA, where Provincetown-Boston Airlines used to fly DC-3's to FL.
I would take that flight at every opportunity, even though more modern options were available. The low and slow flight combined with the sound and feel, and made an immersive flight experience. I loved the look of the plane also.
 
The Douglas DC-3 / C-47 Skytrain probably did as much, or more, to win WWII as any single fighter plane.

57f4c2bc18d8b8a6b95982f4b683b49f.jpg
 
shouldazagged said:
Traveled many a mile on DC-3s when they were still the airliner in this country.

A C-47 is the only plane I have ever, briefly, flown myself. It was a rush--I was eighteen at the time.

The C-47/DC-3 is, in my opinion, one of the most versatile and important aircraft ever designed. Next in line is the C-130.
Click to expand...

The first aircraft I EVER flew in 1963-64' Lake Central Airlines from Indy to South Bend. Great experience for a 6 or 7 year old.

There used to be an airstrip 10 miles south of Indy that had a Parachute School that used REAL C47's. When I got the money up to do a static jump, (teenager thinking 82nd and 101st into Normandy!), the DEA stepped in and busted the outfit for flying weed in from Columbia!
 
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