Official Aviation Thread...

[LateFan]

Another fun thing on Flight Aware - You can also search by actual airplane type….so I clicked on DC-3 for fun. There is ONE DC-3 in the air right now in N America, and it’s flying from Yellow Knife to Hay River Canada! Does it several times a week.

Buffalo Airways!

[mrsleeve]

^

There was a TV show that documented those guys for a couple years, they have several DC3 still flying or at least they did.

Here it is, it was a history channel show it seems

http://www.icepilots.com/show.php

[flyboyx]

When I entered the industry 20 yrs ago, there was a freight company in Pontiac Michigan that sported a fleet of 5 or 6 dc3’s. It was all cargo. Auto parts to Mexico. Every time I saw one, I always looked at it with mixed emotions. I felt so blessed that I didn’t draw that short straw in life where I had to fly that thing around North America day in and day out. On the other hand, I always wished I had the opportunity to push the power levers forward on it once or twice.

Along the same nostalgic note, I used to love flying into Miami. On the very rare occasion I would get to that city, there was an aircraft graveyard off in the far corner of the airport full of old radial engine airplanes. Dc3’s, dc6’s, beech 18’s, Curtiss c-47’s.......you get the idea. Now days I am in Miami every month or so, but sadly the junkyard is long gone.

[BlackbirdM3]

Another fun thing on Flight Aware - You can also search by actual airplane type….so I clicked on DC-3 for fun. There is ONE DC-3 in the air right now in N America, and it’s flying from Yellow Knife to Hay River Canada! Does it several times a week.

Buffalo Airways!

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Buffalo Airways also just got their Curtiss C46 Commando flying again. Last year they bellied one in after the landing gear failed to come down. They took pieces from that bird and rebuilt another they had sitting around. I think there are a total of 9 C46s that fly world wide. Only one is still in commercial use.

Will

[LateFan]

There was a freight DC-3 that used to fly daily Vancouver to Boeing Field. Flew right over our house at 6:30 every night - I'd always go outside when I heard it.

By chance, I was heading north on I-5 one day and took the exit at the north end of Boeing Field. That plane flew right over me as I was 90º to the runway, so I could watch him out both windows of the truck as he buzzed me. As he went over top and headed away, it was amazing to see how much sliding and surfing those do as they're gliding in on approach. It was cool. Looked like it took some skill and experience.

That Buffalo DC-3 is actually a C-47, and was in the D-Day invasion dropping paratroopers.

[LateFan]

Help!!

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787

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[varg]

Wow, only 15 years ago or so I would see DC-3s flying over my house regularly from PBI, headed to islands I'm guessing. Never did find what they were carrying, I think a couple of them were operated by a missionary outfit. I miss hearing them. We had some cool GA and other traffic nearby when I was a kid, was able to identify DC-3s, OV-1s, P-51s, Stearman PT-17s by sound since I heard them all going to and from PBI and LNA. Now the only distinctive sounding aircraft I hear where I live are a privately owned Huey that goes by occasionally and blackhawks when the pres is in town.

[M-technik-3]

Two of PBA's are now at Marston Mills Airport in Barnstable MA aka Cape Cod

[ThatM20Guy]

Two of PBA's are now at Marston Mills Airport in Barnstable MA aka Cape Cod

One of my good friends worked there over the summer and got to fly them!

He lived in the windmill at the airport and had a gig towing banners and doing sight seeing flights along the cape. Sounded pretty fun

[flyboyx]

Pba? Is that Provincetown Boston airways?

[LateFan]

This thing flies ?!? Haysoos what a pig.



So I'm enjoying this Flight Aware thing. Just happened to catch the Guvnor's twin prop Beech head across the state, and a big bank's private jet making hops to the Capital.

A couple of questions -
I was sitting in the couch late and heard a nice piston twin prop hotrod outside. Working hard so I assumed climbing out of the valley. Quick went to FA on my phone to see what it was, and not a plane in the sky or any flights near MSO.

I see private owners are able to block their ID (even though it's public records info). Think that's the case here? Even if he was going to a small local airfield he'd show up within 50 miles of MSO on the map.

[varg]

I was sitting in the couch late and heard a nice piston twin prop hotrod outside. Working hard so I assumed climbing out of the valley. Quick went to FA on my phone to see what it was, and not a plane in the sky or any flights near MSO.

I see private owners are able to block their ID (even though it's public records info). Think that's the case here? Even if he was going to a small local airfield he'd show up within 50 miles of MSO on the map.

VFR flight most likely.

https://flightaware.com/about/faq#vfr

[M-technik-3]

Pba? Is that Provincetown Boston airways?

Correct

[flyboyx]

I used to know a couple pilots that flew the dc3 there. They had great stories. Flying in New England all summer and the carribean all winter. One guy used to park a sailboat in the keys that he used as a live aboard when the company was down there. He used to tell stories where flight attendants would always call him when they were in town, he would take them sailing, then shag the crap out of them while they were at sea.

[BlackbirdM3]

I have a ride in this bird waiting for me if I can get to Kansas...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VXOfBCQcUD0

(I couldn't get the video to embed and work for some reason hence the full link.)

Will