Official Aviation Thread...

[flyboyx]

Something like that

[LateFan]

"cargo operation"

race car driver

learjet

pulled circuit breakers

colorado

.85 mach

hmmm...


But your speed explanation was much better than "yes."

[LateFan]

Seattle Times story...

https://www.seattletimes.com/business/boeing-aerospace/a-lack-of-redundancies-on-737-max-system-has-baffled-even-those-who-worked-on-the-jet/

"...managers mandated that any differences from the previous 737 had to be small enough that they wouldn’t trigger the need for pilots to undergo new simulator training.

That left the team working on an old architecture and layers of different design philosophies that had piled on over the years, all to serve an international pilot community that was increasingly expecting automation.

“It’s become such a kludge, that we started to speculate and wonder whether it was safe to do the MAX,” Ludtke said."

[LateFan]

Change of topic! DC-3s!!

Our very own DC-3, now dubbed Miss Montana, will be flying to England and France for the 75th D-Day anniversary. It isn't running yet. They're supposed to leave in a week for CT, then to the UK in early June.

The Miss Montana is a locally famous plane, usually called the Mann Gulch plane, acquired by our little flight museum some years ago as a static display. It dropped a crew of hotshot smokejumpers into a fire near Helena in 1949, in what is now the Gates of the Mountains Wilderness. The fire blew up suddenly and killed 12 people. Sad thing for the plane to be known for in my opinion - it had nothing to do with actions on the ground. The Norman Maclean novel "Young Men and Fire" is about this event.

So now she gets a new life as Miss Montana, dropping paratroopers over Normandy.

They acquired a second DC-3, an original Western Air Lines sleeper plane, as a training and practice plane. It spent WWII in Alaska. It's been lumbering around the valley all this week, after spending a few weeks in Oregon training crews there. People assumed that was our plane doing shake-down, but they're still working on electrical issues.

They've got wizard mechanics and a bunch of pilots here getting ready.



Those cylinder heads are cool.



Actor and pilot Treat Williams will be one of our pilots.




Kathryn Burnham, a British pilot who has flown DC-3s half her life, is in town getting re-certified on the DC-3 in the US as she'll be flying General Hap Arnold's own DC-3 (C-47) transport out of San Francisco to the event.


Our plane is scheduled to leave for the CT rendezvous May 13 - that's Monday! How many hours does a plane like this need to be certified? They're flying across an ocean!

https://missoulian.com/news/local/british-pilot-in-missoula-training-for-d-day-event/article_4bf261ea-9384-53cf-a39c-e0f78ea2fd1e.html#tracking-source=home-top-story-1

“You look at them when they sit and you tell me that isn’t a smile,” she said. “That’s a happy old airplane.”

[LateFan]

This says we're 1 of 30 C-47s going to Normandy.

https://www.daksovernormandy.com

[flyboyx]

one of the pilots i fly with is apparently independently wealthy. he has his own personal dc3 that he is flying over there to be one of the 30.

his airplane is an absolute beauty. it was restored by Basler out of oshkosh, WI. i'm not sure but i think it is the same airplane they show on their web site. the one with the original radials(not the turboprop conversion)

honestly, of the 30 that are planning to take part in the flyover, we will be lucky if on that day there are 25 that are actually able to complete the mission. old airplanes like this break down a lot.

[flyboyx]

might as well watch this video while we are on the subject

https://www.baslerturbo.com

[mrsleeve]

Read about that restoration effort in Missoula a few weeks ago in the paper.... absolutely awesome

[LateFan]

might as well watch this video while we are on the subject

https://www.baslerturbo.com

I’ve always loved DC-3s. One used to fly over in Seattle every evening at 5:30, Vancouver to Boeing Field with freight. You could see it slide and skid through the air on approach.

Those Basler planes are interesting - a total rework, not just engines. Do you know the reason for extending the cockpit forward? Is it balance / weight, or something aero?

I wonder if ours might be one that doesn’t make it, if they get it running the night before. Doesn’t it need a period of break-in time flying?

[flyboyx]

well, it says that they added several inches of cargo space behind the wing. in order to keep the weight an balance centered, i presume they would need to add something in front of the wing too.

hopefully they will fly the seattle airplane around a bit in the states and work out the bugs before they decide to take it over the atlantic. the actual flyover will likely be nothing more stressful to the aircraft than simply taking off and flying it around locally.

[LateFan]

She's in the air! She took off this afternoon for the first time since 2001. She flew around the valley a few times with a photo chase helicopter alongside. We heard the chopper first and ran out to see her fly right over us. Pretty sweet. VERY smooth engines, and hardly working at all. Buzzed the airport where a large crowd was watching.

The paper says "piloted by Jeff Whitesell, with co-pilot Frank Moss and chief mechanic Randy Schonemann."





Here she is back in the day, dropping smoke jumpers...


Here are the 15 US-based DC-3s flying to Normandy -

http://warbirdsnews.com/warbirds-news/d-day-squadrons-mighty-fifteen-the-american-contingent-flying-to-normandy.html

A bunch of these planes were actually at D-Day, which is really cool.

In here I see that General Hap Arnold's plane was the only C-41A designation built. It was a VIP transport for Command staff.

"...based at Bolling Army Airfield in Washington, D.C. as a part of the 1st Staff Squadron. The aircraft was well appointed, and the main cabin was equipped with swivel seating to allow for inflight meetings. The forward cabin was originally configured with four sleeping berths and upper skylights, similar to those found on the original DSTs (Douglas Sleeper Transports). The military disposed of the aircraft soon after the end of WWII, and before too long, she entered civilian life as an executive transport..."

[flyboyx]

i read through that story you posted. my buddy's airplane is #4.

if you click on the legend airways link in the story and scroll down toward the bottom of the page, you can see a photo of a very filthy brandon taking a selfie in the polised fuselage.

[LateFan]

Oh yeah! That's a nice one.

I saw ours several times yesterday. It's cool how slow they can fly. Passed right over me, I counted the rivets. The engines are so smooth. Apparently there's a radial wizard in ID who rebuilt them. The props were redone in the Seattle area.

The story in the paper says this plane was ditched in a river in PA(?) way back when. Everyone survived that and climbed out on a wing, but the pilot and several others drowned trying to swim ashore in freezing water. It was recovered and rebuilt.

The Miss Montana logo / nose art comes from a local woman whose father had it on the nose of three different B-25s he flew in WWII campaigns. The girl was her mother.

[LateFan]

Anyone know why the engines are so far forward of the wing on these? Since a radial isn't all that deep, I'm curious why it's mounted how it is. Maybe it's weight balance, or packaging for the wing spar and landing gear...?

[varg]

CG. It's pretty common in general though, just look at any number of prewar airliners or even GA twins at your local airport