DC-3 lands itself

[NutmegCT]

Thanks Mike. Here's a photo showing that wing spar, which looks about 2.5 or 3 feet high. Even has a step to help get over it when walking down the aisle.

Notice the gourmet lunch: coffee, sandwich, and a bright shiny apple.

 

[Gliderman8]

Thanks Mike. Here's a photo showing that wing spar, which looks about 2.5 or 3 feet high. Even has a step to help get over it when walking down the aisle.

View attachment 78366

Notice the gourmet lunch: coffee, sandwich, and a bright shiny apple.

And all passengers are well dressed.

 

[NutmegCT]

and no nachos on the floor or screaming kids kicking the seat back.

 

[YakkoWarner]

And only 10 passengers, plus no middle seat armrest confrontations. Looks more like flying private charter than commercial airline.

 

[NutmegCT]

At a modern equivalent of $5000 for coast to coast air travel, it *was* more like flying private charter!

 

[DrEntropy]

We got a mystery-meat sandwich and an apple in a white cardboard box, along with a half-pint of milk on those "Klong" birds. Another reason I took advantage of that: "give 'em whatever they ask for" card! From motor pool to whatever was flying to where orders told me to go. And we could log time for the trip.

 

[SaxMan]

The DC-3 did have one Achilles Heel: It had miserable stall characteristics. If you ran out of airspeed, it had a nasty tip stall that would put you into a spin. It took about 3,000 feet to recover from a stall. There are two crashes that occurred in Montgomery County, MD in 1957, where the DC-3s stalled and spun in on training flights, one from Capital Airlines one from the Air Force.

I remember interviewing a former Capital Airlines pilot. He told me the DC-3 was a good airplane, but it would "turn around and bite you" if you got inattentive. Another story he told me was that many Capital pilots came straight out of the Air Force flying the latest tricycle gear fighter jets. They'd put these fighter jocks behind the controls of the DC-3, and the DC-3 would end up embarrassing them. These guys had a hard time handling a large tail dragger like the DC-3.

It's a stately and majestic aircraft, and the fact that so many are still airworthy 80 years later is a testament to their design.

 

[Basil]

and no nachos on the floor or screaming kids kicking the seat back.

I wasn’t on that particular flight

 

[charlie74]

This one (a C-47) in Hamilton, Ontario is available to ride in and it has signatures of actual paratroopers who jumped at D-Day from this very aircraft. The rest of the museum is worth checking out too…

 

[JPSmit]

This one (a C-47) in Hamilton, Ontario is available to ride in and it has signatures of actual paratroopers who jumped at D-Day from this very aircraft. The rest of the museum is worth checking out too…

View attachment 78453

yes it is - amazing museum!