I remember well the arrival of the DC 3
She still had an airline interior ( light blue /green seat) and a military exterior paint scheme
The corrosion was mostly in the lower fuselage section under the toilet area ( as would be expected)
The late Gary Taylor ( CWH 1st Cief Engineer) headed up the restoration and organized a volunteer team to c/out the work.
The interior was fully stripped out of all airline seats and head liner. The fuselage was then cleaned and re zinc chromated . A decision was made to install a new biege head liner and myself an a couple of others installed it over a couple of w/ends,
I recall also removing all the floor boards and coming across pamphlets from some airline in the Carribean , so she must have been there a bit.
Once the restoration was complete, it was decided to put the airline seats back in as we planned to take her to the CAF 1982 Show at Harlingen Tx .
That year we filled the airplane with wives and members and away we went. Weather kept us at Paduka Kty over night( that is an adventure and story all by itself LOL)
After a few days and a great show we headed back to Hamilton but had trouble over Memphis Ten.
We had oil flowing back over the wing from the port engine,, An emergency was declared and we landed at Memphis Intl.
Upon investigation, it was found that the oil take was clogged and the heated oil expanded and came out an over flow port (?). This was corrected tank flushed and we were once again on our way.
A side note : I remember while at Memphis we came across the original Memphis Belle that was parked at a Tech school. We were able to climb all thru it (:
We got home without further issues and I remember the pilots Stu Brickendon and Harold Schultz letting me sit in the right seat at night over Detroit
....what an awesome view
The DC3 today looks a lot different that it did at that time. Subsequent volunteer crews once again removed all the civilain interior , put most of the original military interior and equipment back in her and then painted her in a more accurate paint scheme. She looks really great and it one of the higher time DC3's flying.
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