I took some photos of the AA DC-3 at Sparks Aviation this morning. Some of the pilots might enjoy this, particularly the cockpit photo. These images are full size on my G+ page, so you can look at details. Feel free to download them, but please don't use them without my permission:
(https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-lq9fjJv9DCA/UCf03sOc0eI/AAAAAAAAHl8/VxAr1Ra6d_g/s640/AUG_12_2012_ejwagner_037.jpg)
Oops! Forgot to include the link!
https://picasaweb.google.com/114874700548780474647/AirplanesVintageTin?authuser=0&feat=directlink (https://picasaweb.google.com/114874700548780474647/AirplanesVintageTin?authuser=0&feat=directlink)
Are they flying it around? I could have sworn I saw an unpainted aluminum DC-3 flying over my house yesterday evening. The prop noise is decidedly not modern.
Quote from: nathanm on August 12, 2012, 06:36:33 PM
Are they flying it around? I could have sworn I saw an unpainted aluminum DC-3 flying over my house yesterday evening. The prop noise is decidedly not modern.
I saw that as well. Good looking plane.
Quote from: Hoss on August 12, 2012, 06:38:09 PM
I saw that as well. Good looking plane.
Indeed. I'm sad that so many of their new airplanes will be painted. Damn composites. ;)
I think they were offering evening flights for $150/seat. I'd love to go, but SWMBO would have my head on a pike in the front yard. It costs $10/minute in aviation fuel at cruise to keep this plane in the air. I talked with one of the pilots too, and he said that the original avionics had all been replaced with much more modern equipment. It's a DC-3 with GPS.
Quote from: Ed W on August 12, 2012, 08:15:37 PM
I think they were offering evening flights for $150/seat. I'd love to go, but SWMBO would have my head on a pike in the front yard. It costs $10/minute in aviation fuel at cruise to keep this plane in the air. I talked with one of the pilots too, and he said that the original avionics had all been replaced with much more modern equipment. It's a DC-3 with GPS.
I could go for $150 for some time I could log in the right seat (I have a multi-engine rating but not a DC-3 type rating) but not just for a ride in the back.
Quote from: Red Arrow on August 12, 2012, 08:25:04 PM
I could go for $150 for some time I could log in the right seat (I have a multi-engine rating but not a DC-3 type rating) but not just for a ride in the back.
That's how they hooked the pilot. He works at AFW and was offered some flying time if he was willing to volunteer for the restoration work. He showed me the galley installed earlier this year, patterned on an original one from a sister ship in a salvage yard. They carefully removed the original, then used it to build an exact replica. It's a nice piece of sheet metal work, and I should have photographed it, but didn't.
Quote from: Ed W on August 12, 2012, 08:57:05 PM
That's how they hooked the pilot. He works at AFW and was offered some flying time if he was willing to volunteer for the restoration work.
I can believe that and would probably jump on the opportunity if it were available.
Quote from: Ed W on August 12, 2012, 08:15:37 PM
It costs $10/minute in aviation fuel at cruise to keep this plane in the air.
In round numbers, 100 gallons/hour, of avgas. Then there is oil since round engines are not as conservative with oil as modern engines. But, round engines sure do sound nice. Stop by RVS on a weekend when the warbird guys are flying the AT-6s and T-28s. The P-51 sounds great too but it's a totally different sound.
I grew up under the approach to the old Bettis Field, now the Allegheny County Airport just outside Pittsburgh. When I was a kid, DC-3s were commonplace for cargo flights and several went over every day. The sound is distinctive, and even now that drone will get me out of the house and peering at the sky some afternoons. I want a good telephoto lens for the Olympus!
One of the volunteers said that the radial engines on the DC-3 are the same as found on B-17s, and that the engine cowlings are interchangeable. That B-17 I photographed crashed and burned in a field in Indiana about 2 years ago.
Quote from: Ed W on August 12, 2012, 09:32:57 PM
I grew up under the approach to the old Bettis Field, now the Allegheny County Airport just outside Pittsburgh. When I was a kid, DC-3s were commonplace for cargo flights and several went over every day. The sound is distinctive, and even now that drone will get me out of the house and peering at the sky some afternoons. I want a good telephoto lens for the Olympus!
I don't quite remember picking up dad at Phila Int'l when he rode on DC-3s on Agony Airlines. I remember the DC-6s. I always wanted him to come in on a Lockheed Constellation but that was the wrong airline and wrong route. Dad did say he got some right seat time (not logged) on some of those classics. Times were different then.
Edit:
Looking at Allegheny Airlines on Wikipedia, it may have been Convairs rather than DC-6s but I'm not sure.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allegheny_Airlines
The Constellation is quite possibly the sexiest airplane ever made, a Jaguar V-12 XKE kind of sexy.
Quote from: Ed W on August 12, 2012, 09:55:44 PM
The Constellation is quite possibly the sexiest airplane ever made, a Jaguar V-12 XKE kind of sexy.
Yep, I saw the "Save a Connie" at Muskogee a few years ago. It's amazing how big they weren't compared to even a small jet airliner today.
http://www.airlinehistorymuseum.com/connie.htm
There is a spiffy vintage war planes museum in Santa Teresa, NM, just over the border from the west side of El Paso. They say that all of their planes are flyable, though I wondered when I peeked into the intake of an old jet and saw that the engine was missing. The exhibits focus on WWII and Korea and include aircraft from both sides. Nothing as beautiful as that B-17, but the P-38 Lightning comes very close and is in pristine condition.
http://www.war-eagles-air-museum.com/ (http://www.war-eagles-air-museum.com/)
For those not aware, there is a great airplane museum in the old Beech factory on the Liberal, Ks. airport. Well worth the drive or short flight there.