Yup, the DC-3 is still flying after nearly 80 years of active service. After watching this video I'm not so sure I'd want to go up in one of the planes featured herein. The maintenance practices are, shall we say, suspect, but the skills of the pilots in this video most certainly are NOT. Towards the end of the film the co-pilot crosses herself before take off... and I would too, even though I'm not Catholic. Every little bit helps.
I'm "of an age" where I flew as a passenger in a USAF C-47 that was still in active service back in the mid-60s. I also flew in DC-3s operated by THY and MEA in the 1950s. All of my flights in this type were in better circumstances... read as: comfort... than those depicted in this video... by far. That said, it's good to see the old girl is still flying.
I'm "of an age" where I flew as a passenger in a USAF C-47 that was still in active service back in the mid-60s. I also flew in DC-3s operated by THY and MEA in the 1950s. All of my flights in this type were in better circumstances... read as: comfort... than those depicted in this video... by far. That said, it's good to see the old girl is still flying.
Well, that's real.
ReplyDeleteI flew to Houston on a Diesel 3 when I first started as a ramp rat for Tree Top Airways, back in '66 I think. I actually would feel better in one of those than the modern air transportation experience, which has always been too much of a cattle-car situation for my comfort.
The pail-and-a-dipstick refueling method is pretty basic, ain't it?
I actually would feel better in one of those than the modern air transportation experience, which has always been too much of a cattle-car situation for my comfort.
DeleteI'll agree, to a point. My experiences in the Diesel-3 (nice turn of a phrase, that) were great. But that was back in the day when there was but one class in air travel and everyone was treated like the folks who ride in first class are treated today. I still don't think I'd want a seat on one of those Colombian DC-3s, though.
I think I'd rather take a boat up the river. They are marvelous planes though. The opening sequence showing the co pilot talking on the radio brought back memories from just the early 80s. I don't think anybody realizes how women's voices were almost indecipherable on long haul radio using stone age microphones with any atmospherics.
ReplyDeleteYou and me both on the boat thing, Curtis. I, for one, never knew that women's voices and old-time radios didn't go well together.
DeleteI actually flew in a DC3 out of La Paz, Bolivia. My husband (who had been born there to American Missionaries, was in the Army as a Blackhawk pilot later to transfer to the USAF as a C9 pilot) & I along w/our 8 month old daughter made a trip to Bolivia in the early 80's. We arrived in La Paz and he found us transportation to the Beni (where his folks were). Because of the altitude of La Paz (14,000 feet) we had to circle FOREVER to get over the mountains. Meanwhile, this reminded me of the bus in "Romancing the Stone", I was sitting up front looking back on all the assorted passengers (I swear there was a pig and a chicken or two) while my husband was up in the cockpit chatting away with the pilots! What a ride!
ReplyDeleteAnd what a story, Anon! Thanks for that.
DeleteI commented once before on one of your posts about the DC-3 that I once flew in the old Ozark Airlines civilian version as a pax back in the early 60s. We have its longevity due mainly to having been designed before a) the age of computers, and b) before there was much in the way of long-term experience with metal fatigue in ALL of aviation, so the built-in "fudge-factor" for size/strength of structural members was HUGE.
ReplyDeleteI recall that previous comment, Virgil. Good points about the DC-3's longevity, too.
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