At 20:16 09/04/01 -0600, Ivan Van Laningham, wrote
>So my advice to you is either don't look out the windows at plane parts
>_or_ start drinking heavily.
Given that there are several hundred it not thousands of the birds still
working daily worldwide I don't think you have to worry too much.
Back in the early seventies when I was putting myself through university
after a three year air-crew stint in the RCAF I flew DC-3's right seat for
40 or 60 or so hours. I will never forget the feeling that those things
had in the air. Rock steady except on final when there was always a bit of
a fatlady waddle down the aisle type of feel, smooth as anything through
however much of a turn you wanted to crank in, and one son of a bitch of a
cold bugger to be sitting in because the heaters were probably designed by
the same people who designed Land Rover heaters.
If I won a lottery and I wanted a Land Rover type of intensive maintenance
aircraft I'd snap up a DC-3 right away. But if I had lots of money and
still wanted ultra reliability in the air, superb handling, and outstanding
STOL capability I'd go for a Twin Otter. (Again, right seat time only)
Shortly after moving here to Calgary about five years ago I went to the
local aviation museum and found to my great distress that the DC-3 they
have parked on their front lawn is a NorthWest Territorial Airways 3 that I
had flown. I went back to the museum with my logbook to show them that
their "museum artefact" was something I had first hand knowledge of and
they were gracious enough to open it up and let me clamber through it.
Makes one feel really old (NO! I am not restarting the Youth thread!) to
find part of your past in a museum.
Rick Grant
1959 Series II "88"
VORIZO
Rick Grant Communications
Media and Crisis Management
Calgary Ottawa
www.rickgrant.com
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Tue Apr 10 2001 - 03:05:34 EDT