The Venerable DC-3

[Karl/Pa.]

(Comments on Douglas DC-3 by Lee Lane which will bring back memories

to all old time pilots)

The DC-3

Old Airplane

I had the privilege to fly the DC-3 for thirteen thousand plus

hours here are a few things I remember flying the DC-3.

The DC-3 was not pressurized it leaked bad, light showers outside

moderate to heavy inside. We carried in our flight bag half of a

clear plastic shower curtain to cover your lap to keep approach

plates and your pants dry. You could always tell a DC-3 pilot by

his shoes, the

windshield wipers operated by hydraulic motors and they dripped

hydraulic fluid on your shoes, it was impossible to shine your shoes.

Flying over the mountains of West Virginia , Tennessee and North

Carolina in winter you encountered a lot of ice. The props and

windshield were deiced by alcohol. The DC-3 would carry a lot of ice

as long as the props were clean, when you got into icing conditions

to conserve alcohol you would wait until she began to slow down then

turn on the prop alcohol, one prop blade would always deice before

the other two and she would vibrate and the whole airplane would

shake violently. Then you would run the props full increase rpm to

full decrease rpm several tines which would usually clear the other

two blades. When the ice came loose it would sound like 50 calibers

hitting the side of

the airplane.

In line with the props was a metal plate covering the aluminum skin

this was to keep the ice from penetrating the fuselage.

In the late forties and fifties the DC-3 had no airborne radar.

Flying over the Appalachian and Smokey Mountains during the

thunderstorms season became quite interesting. At night you would get

your eyes as close to the windshield as possible to watch and time

the lighting flashes and try to determine the heavy part of the

storm. In the daytime you used your gut feeling which way to go.

Sometime it wor! ked and sometime it didn't. You would hit

downdrafts of 2,000 fpm use full power to slow the decent, then

came the updraft 2,000 fpm power off and gear down to slow the

updraft.

We flew with the side windows open a lot too keep cool, I can still

hear the thunder and smell the ozone from the lighting. Flying

between six and nine thousand feet I am sure we flew through tops of

tornadoes many times, or at least it felt like it. The old gal would

shake rattle and role but she always stayed in one piece.

One of the few times flying the DC-3 I was deeply concerned.

Charleston W. V. the night before had a severe winter storm come

through leaving the runways covered with snow and slush . The next

morning I was ferrying a DC-3 to Charleston to originate a flight to

Cincinnati . My crew was Hubert Vanhorne first officer and Ronnie

Vogler purser.

Being the first flight to land that morning the tower advised me the

breaking action was checked by car and was fair with some slush.

Past experience tells me when they say fair means one thing "be

careful". Was given runway 23 the wind calm and cleared to land, had

the old gal slowed down and touched down three point in the numbers.

Every thing was normal until the breaks were applied, then all hell

broke loose like she was sliding on a bead of ball bearings.

Opening and looking out the side window, the slush was as high as the

tires and a go around at that point was impossible. If you have ever

landed at Charleston you know if you go off the end of the runway as

they say in WV "it's a fur piece to the ground feeler," and that was

not going to happen on my watch.

We unlocked the tail wheel, eased over to the left side of the runway

and raised the tail to level flight position. This had us coming in

with left engine and right rudder at the 90 degree position to the

runway coming in with right engine neutralizing the rudder, sl! iding

ba ckwards down the runway on my ass and used wide open engines to stop.

My friend Roark in the tower said Tory that's better than reverse.

Washed the slush out of the wheel wells with no damage, boarded

passengers and flew to Cincinnati .

I have flown many airplanes Single engine land and sea, multi engine

land and sea, gliders turbo props and jets I know without question

the DC-3 is the only airplane that would let me pull this off. "The

old gal was eating out off my hand". And I will always love her for

that. She is the only airplane I flew I can still remember the

takeoff and landing check list.

The Dc-3 has flown in many configurations. On floats, skis, towed

gliders, as a glider with engines removed and with a jet turbo engine

installed in the nose.as a test stand.

I have over 400 people in my address book and receive Email from all

over the World. Keep them coming. The aviation pictures and stories

are great. I like to pass them on for everyone to enjoy.

The following History of the DC-3 Email was sent to me by a friend

who flew first officer for me on the Boeing 727. He now flies a

Boeing 767 based in India .

Enjoy,

Tory Vaughan

Now the DC-3 has been grounded by EU health and safety rules 'It

groaned, it protested, it rattled, it ran hot, it ran cold, it ran

rough, it staggered along on hot days and scared you half to death.

'Its wings flexed and twisted in a horrifying manner, it sank back to

earth with a great sigh of relief. But it flew and it flew and it flew.'

This is the memorable description by Captain Len Morgan, a former

pilot with Braniff Airways, of the unique challenge of flying a

Douglas DC-3.

It's carried more passengers than any plane in history but - Now the

DC-3 has been grounded by EU health and safety rules. The DC-3 served

in World War II , Korea , and Vietnam and was a favorite among pilots.

For more than 70 years, the aircraft known throu! gh a var iety of

nicknames - the Doug, the Dizzy, Old Methuselah, the Gooney Bird, the

Grand Old Lady - but which to most of us is simply the Dakota - has

been the workhorse of the skies. With its distinctive nose-up

profile when on the ground and extraordinary capabilities in the air,

it transformed passenger travel and served in just about every

military conflict from World War II onwards. Now the Douglas DC-3 -

the most successful plane ever made, which first took to the skies

just over 30 years after the Wright Brothers' historic first flight

- is to carry passengers in Britain for the last time.

Romeo Alpha and Papa Yankee, the last two passenger-carrying Dakotas

in the UK , are being forced into retirement because of - yes, you've

guessed it - health and safety rules. Their owner, Coventry-based Air

Atlantique, has reluctantly decided it would be too expensive to fit

the required emergency escape slides and weather radar systems

required by new European rules for their 65-year-old planes, which

served with the RAF during the war.

Mike Collett, the company's chairman, says: 'We're very saddened.'

The end of the passenger-carrying British Dakotas is a sad chapter in

the story of the most remarkable aircraft ever built, surpassing all

others in length of service, dependability, and achievement. It has

been a luxury airliner, transport plane, bomber, fighter, and flying

hospital, and introduced millions of people to the concept of air

travel. It has flown more miles, broken more records, carried more

passengers and cargo, accumulated more flying time, and performed

more 'impossible' feats than any other plane in history, even in

these days of super-jumbos that can circle the world non-stop.

Indeed, at one point, 90 per cent of the world's air traffic was

operated by DC-3s. More than 10,500 DC-3s have been built since the

prototype was rolled out to astonished onlookers at Douglas' Santa

Monica factory in 1935. With its eagle beak, large square windows, !

and slee k metal fuselage, it was luxurious beyond belief, in

contrast to the wood-and-canvas bone shakers of the day, where

passengers had to huddle under blankets against the cold. Even in

the 1930's, the early Dakotas had many of the comforts we take for

granted today, like on-board loos and a galley that could prepare hot

food.

Early menus included wild rice pancakes with blueberry syrup, served

on bone china with silver service. For the first time, passengers

were able to stand up and walk around while the plane was airborne.

But the design had one vital feature, ordered by pioneering aviator

Charles Lindbergh, who was a director of TWA, which placed the first

order for the plane. The DC-3 should always, Lindbergh directed, be

able to fly on one engine.

Pilots have always loved it, not just because of its rugged

reliability but because, with no computers on board, it is the

epitome of 'flying by the seat of the pants'. One aviator memorably

described the Dakota as a 'collection of parts flying in loose

formation', and most reckon they can land it pretty well on a postage

stamp.

Captain Len Morgan says: 'The Dakota could lift virtually any load

strapped to its back and carry it anywhere and in any weather safely.'

It is the very human scale of the plane that has so endeared it to

successive generations. With no pressurization in the cabin, it flies

low and slow. And unlike modern jets, it's still possible to see the

world go by from the cabin of a Dakota. The name, incidentally, is

an acronym for Douglas Aircraft Company Transport Aircraft.

As a former Pan Am stewardess puts it: 'From the windows you seldom

look upon a flat, hazy, distant surface to the world. 'Instead, you

see the features of the earth - curves of mountains, colours of

lakes, cars moving on roads, ocean waves crashing on shores, and

cloud formations as a sea of popcorn and powder puffs.'

But it is for heroic feats in military service tha! t the le gendary

plane is most distinguished. It played a major role in the invasion

of Sicily , the D-Day landings, the Berlin Airlift, and the Korean

and Vietnam wars, performing astonishing feats along the way.

When General Eisenhower was asked what he believed were the

foundation stones for America's success in World War II, he named the

bulldozer, the jeep, the half-ton truck, and the Dakota. When the

Burma Road was captured by the Japanese and the only way to send

supplies into China was over the mountains at 19,000 ft, the Chinese

leader Chiang Kai-shek said: 'Give me 50 DC-3s and the Japs can have

the Burma Road .'

In 1945, a Dakota broke the world record for a flight with an engine

out of action, traveling for 1,100 miles from Pearl Harbour to San

Diego , with just one propeller working. Another in RNZAF service

lost a wing after colliding mid-air with a Lockheed bomber. Defying

all the rules of

aerodynamics, and with only a stub remaining, the plane landed,

literally, on a wing and a prayer at Whenuapai Airbase.

Once, a Dakota pilot carrying paratroops across the Channel to France

heard an enormous bang. He went aft to find half the plane had been

blown away, including part of the rudder. With engines still

turning, he managed to skim the wave-tops before finally making it to

safety.

Another wartime Dakota was rammed by a Japanese fighter that fell to

earth, while the American crew returned home in their severely

damaged - but still airborne - plane and were given the distinction

of 'downing an enemy aircraft'.

Another DC-3 was peppered with 3,000 bullets in the wings and

fuselage by Japanese fighters. It made it back to base, was repaired

with canvas patches and glue, and then sent back into the air.

During the evacuation of Saigon in 1975, a Dakota crew managed to

cram aboard 98 Vietnamese orphans, although the plane was supposed to

carry no more than 30 passengers.

In addition to i! ts rugge d military service, it was the DC-3 which

transformed commercial passenger flying in the post-war years.

Easily converted to a passenger plane, it introduced the idea of

affordable air travel to a world which had previously seen it as

exclusively for the rich.

Flights across America could be completed in about 15 hours (with

three stops for refueling), compared with the previous reliance on

short hops in commuter aircraft during the day and train travel

overnight. It made the world a smaller place, gave people the

opportunity for the first time to see previously inaccessible

destinations, and became a romantic symbol of travel.

The DC-3's record has not always been perfect. After the war,

military-surplus Dakotas were cheap, often poorly maintained, and

pushed to the limit by their owners. Accidents were frequent. One

of the most tragic happened in 1962, when Zulu Bravo, a Channel

Airways flight from Jersey, slammed into a hillside on the Isle of

Wight in thick fog. All three crew died and nine of the 14

passengers, but the accident changed the course of aviation history.

The local radar, incredibly, had been switched off because it was a

Sunday. The national air safety rules were changed to ensure that

never happened again.

'The DC-3 was, and is, unique,' wrote the novelist and aviation

writer Ernest Gann, 'since no other flying machine has cruised every

sky known to mankind, been so admired, cherished, glamorized, known

the touch of so many pilots, and sparked so many tributes. 'It was

without question the most successful aircraft ever built and even in

this jet age it seems likely the surviving DC-3s may fly about their

business forever.'

This may be no exaggeration. Next month, Romeo Alpha and Papa Yankee

begin a farewell tour of Britain 's airports before carrying their

final passengers at the International Air Tattoo at RAF Fairford on

July 16. But after their retirement, there will still be ! Dakotas

flying in the farthest corners of the world, kept going with love,

dedication, and sheer ingenuity.

Nearly three-quarters of a century after they first entered service,

it's still possible to get a Dakota ride somewhere in the world. I

recently took a DC-3 into the heart of the Venezuelan jungle - to

the 'Lost World' made famous in the novel by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

It is one of the most remote regions on the planet - where the

venerable old planes have long been used because they can be

manoeuvred like birds in the wild terrain.

It's a scary experience being strapped into a torn canvas chair,

raked back at an alarming angle (walking along the aisle of a

stationary Dakota is like climbing a steep hill) as you wait for take-

off. The engines spew smoke and oil as they shudder into life with

what DC-3 fans describe as 'music' but to me sounded like the

hammering of a thousand pneumatic drills. But soon you are skimming

the legendary flat-topped mountains protruding from the jungle below,

purring over wild rivers and the Angel Falls , the world's highest

rapids.

Suddenly the ancient plane drops like a stone to a tiny landing strip

just visible in the trees. The pilot dodges bits of dismantled DC-3

engines

scattered on the ground and avoids a stray dog as he touches down

with scarcely a bump. How did he do it without air traffic control

and the

minimum of navigational aids? ''C'est facile - it's easy,' he

shrugged.

Today, many DC-3s live on throughout the world as crop-sprayers,

surveillance patrols, air freighters in forgotten African states, and

even luxury executive transports. One, owned by a Houston lumber

company, had mink-covered doorknobs while another, belonging to a

Texas rancher, had sofas and reclining chairs upholstered with the

skins of unborn calves.

In Jaipur , India , a Dakota is licensed for flying wedding

ceremonies. Even when they have ended their aerial li! ves, old

Dakotas have become mobile homes, hamburger stands, and hen houses.

One even serves as a football team changing room.

Clark Gable's private DC-3, which once ferried chums such as John and

Bobby Kennedy, Marilyn Monroe, Frank Sinatra, and Ronald Reagan, is

in a theme park in San Marino . But don't assume it won't run

again. Some of the oldest hulks have been put back into the skies.

The ancient piston engines are replaced by modern turboprops, and

many a pilot of a modern jet has been astonished to find a Dakota

alongside him on the climb away from the runway.

So what is the enduring secret of the DC-3?

David Egerton, professor of the history of science and technology at

Imperial College, London, says we should rid our minds of the idea

that the most recent inventions are always the best. 'The very fact

that the DC-3 is still around and performing a useful role in the

world is a powerful reminder that the latest and most expensive

technology is not always the one that changes history,' he says.

It's long been an aviation axiom that 'the only replacement for the

DC-3 is another DC-3'.

So it's fortunate that at least one seems likely to be around for a

very long time to come. In 1946, a DC-3 on a flight from Vienna to

Pisa crashed into the top of the Rosenlaui Glacier in the Swiss

Alps . The aircraft was not damaged and all the passengers were

rescued, but it quickly began to disappear as a blinding snowstorm

raged. Swiss engineers have calculated that it will take 600 years

for it to slide down inside the glacier and emerge at the bottom.

The most asinine ruling ever dreamed up by a nightmare bureaucracy!!!

I especially appreciate the part requiring "escape slides". On it's

belly, one can step down from the aircraft floor to the ground. And,

the article left out the tale of the "DC-2-and-a-Half". After being

shot up by Japanese fighters, the damaged wing of a DC-3! was rep

laced with one from a DC-2. It was then loaded up with refugees and

flown to safety.

[Niner]

I took a few photos at the USS Alabama Memorial Park a year or so ago.

[Niner]

Duncan took this one at a museum in France.

[joseyclosey]

This one is a regular visitor to the Flying Legends airshow at Duxford, Cambridge. They are lovely aeroplanes.

Joe

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v14/j ... s07038.jpg[/pic]

[PeterN2]

Last year, there was a Dakota going round the Country giving flights before it went out of public service. A friend went on one of the flights from Leeds/Bradford airport. It cost about £100 for a flight. I didn't know about it until after the event or I would have gone on one. Too late now

Regards

Peter

[joseyclosey]

Air Atlantique based in Coventry used to fly passenger flights in their fleet of DC3s Peter.

Unfortunately red tape intervened.....

http://www.classicflight.com/goodbyeDakotas

Farewell to Passenger Flying

On July 15th 2008, our faithful Dakotas will end their long and flawless passenger carrying duties. But this isn't the comfortable retirement of respected old ladies; we know they have it in them to outlive us all - as anyone who's flown in them will confirm.

Sadly, but not surprisingly, it's spiralling regulations that have achieved what time couldn't. European legislation has decreed that all passenger-carrying aircraft must comply with certain criteria - whatever their age. Some of these modifications would be prohibitively expensive; some are actually impossible to carry out on the DC-3.

The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) has been immensely supportive and helpful, and we're grateful for the help they've given us. But time is passing, and it looks ever more certain that 16th July - the implementation date for the EU-OPS legislation - will see our Daks no longer allowed to carry passengers

[Woftam]

There is still at least one going strong in aussie. A Western Australian company operate one for tourist flights.

http://www.about-australia.com/travel-g ... sic-wings/