Gotta love a DC-3
Sat Aug 27, 2011 9:22 pm
I was fortunate enough to be able to flight train for a type rating in a beautiful DC-3 that belongs to one of my customers. Thanks Hugo for the opportunity to fly your beautiful bird. Here she is:
The fine folks at Basler Turbo Conversions did the rebuild and renovation. Basler is an impressive company to say the least. A first rate group of folks who are good at what they do.
Here is a shot of the new cowling they rebuilt for N431HM:
This is my instructor, Claire, who is the Chief Pilot for Basler. Claire is a good guy who was a lot of fun to work with
The main hangar at Basler:
Here is Bob, the Designated Examiner, who did my check ride. We are all smiling which means I passed the ride. Thanks Bob and Claire. It's been a while since I have flown the DC-3, back during the Otis Spunkmeyer days, so it was a blast to get in to the left seat. The DC-3 is a graceful and gentle old lady
After the check ride Claire and I flew the DC-3 to Toronto for the owner. It was a nice to take her up to altitude and cruise for a while as opposed to shooting single engine approaches and pattern work. Look Ma no co-pilot!
A beautiful day to go flying in a DC-3...
From Toronto it was off to Switzerland to do a crack inspection on one of the Beech's. Linseed oil was found leaking out of the left wing. Linseed oil is put inside the steel tubing at the factory as a preservative. The outer wing panels will on occasion leak oil and it can be from several sources like a crack but more likely it comes from a lead solder joint at the wing attach. The problem is sometimes you don't have good access to see where the linseed oil is coming from. 98% of the time it is coming from the solder fillet which is not structural but that 2% is enough to justify the wing pull. It only takes two days to remove and replace the wing so off we went:
Sure enough it was from the solder fillet so back on with the wing and off for a test flight
This presented a good opportunity to get the Chief Mechanic into the left seat so he could fly the Beech. He doesn't get a chance to do this at all so it was a treat for him. He did real well too. Well done Fritz
Its always nice to come home. Now I have to go to Santa Rosa to fetch the Harpoon...
The fine folks at Basler Turbo Conversions did the rebuild and renovation. Basler is an impressive company to say the least. A first rate group of folks who are good at what they do.
Here is a shot of the new cowling they rebuilt for N431HM:
This is my instructor, Claire, who is the Chief Pilot for Basler. Claire is a good guy who was a lot of fun to work with
The main hangar at Basler:
Here is Bob, the Designated Examiner, who did my check ride. We are all smiling which means I passed the ride. Thanks Bob and Claire. It's been a while since I have flown the DC-3, back during the Otis Spunkmeyer days, so it was a blast to get in to the left seat. The DC-3 is a graceful and gentle old lady
After the check ride Claire and I flew the DC-3 to Toronto for the owner. It was a nice to take her up to altitude and cruise for a while as opposed to shooting single engine approaches and pattern work. Look Ma no co-pilot!
A beautiful day to go flying in a DC-3...
From Toronto it was off to Switzerland to do a crack inspection on one of the Beech's. Linseed oil was found leaking out of the left wing. Linseed oil is put inside the steel tubing at the factory as a preservative. The outer wing panels will on occasion leak oil and it can be from several sources like a crack but more likely it comes from a lead solder joint at the wing attach. The problem is sometimes you don't have good access to see where the linseed oil is coming from. 98% of the time it is coming from the solder fillet which is not structural but that 2% is enough to justify the wing pull. It only takes two days to remove and replace the wing so off we went:
Sure enough it was from the solder fillet so back on with the wing and off for a test flight
This presented a good opportunity to get the Chief Mechanic into the left seat so he could fly the Beech. He doesn't get a chance to do this at all so it was a treat for him. He did real well too. Well done Fritz
Its always nice to come home. Now I have to go to Santa Rosa to fetch the Harpoon...
Re: Gotta love a DC-3
Sat Aug 27, 2011 9:55 pm
I'm envious!
Re: Gotta love a DC-3
Sat Aug 27, 2011 9:58 pm
Wow thats alot of Shiny Hardware! Sounds (and looks) like a very cool experience. So are the other three Douglas airframes going to look like the DC-3 or will be Turbo?
Re: Gotta love a DC-3
Sun Aug 28, 2011 12:31 am
My "lottery hangar" just got updated with a still radial but all glass cockpit DC-3 or C-45! Practical and tactical + correct sound from the engines! Beautiful!
Re: Gotta love a DC-3
Sun Aug 28, 2011 9:28 am
BT-67s in the making I assume.Warbird Kid wrote:Wow thats alot of Shiny Hardware! Sounds (and looks) like a very cool experience. So are the other three Douglas airframes going to look like the DC-3 or will be Turbo?
Who or what is froissair ?
