Search Results for: DC-3

After reading, rereading and ruminating over an article on the direction of relative wind as affected by slips and skids, I still wasn’t getting it. Because I don’t have Peter Garrison’s number, I called another friend who has written extensively about all things aeronautical, and as expected, he patiently dumbed it down to where even […]

Some ’specially fun flying recently: a ride in EAA’s B-17, a DC-3 I brought back home to Hamilton, Ohio, from where it had flown for many years as a freighter, and then a Cessna 195 I took from Hillsboro, Ohio, to Port Clinton on Lake Erie. I rode back to Lunken Airport from Hamilton in […]

Somewhere among all your stuff, there’s undoubtedly a stash of old logbooks. Mine are on a bookcase in the den—except the most recent of six, which is sitting open on the dining-room table, patiently waiting to be updated. It’s been several years since that’s happened, but I keep stickers for flight reviews and jot down […]

Congress created the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics in 1915 “to supervise and direct the scientific study of the problems of flight with a view to their practical solution.” What would eventually become the world’s largest and most productive aeronautical-research establishment began as a committee of 12 unpaid men with a budget of $5,000 per […]

The smartest of smartphones these days can handle plenty of meaty chores like text, audio, photo and even video editing. When it comes to gaming though, most fall pretty short. Nowhere is this more apparent than when we airplane geeks try to recreate our flying with any of the flight simulator apps. Even Laminar Research’s […]

Miss Montana, a restored Douglas C-47A/DC-3C that was used in aerial firefighting after World War II, returned to Helena, Montana, on Monday, August 5, 2019, to commemorate a mission in which 12 of 15 smokejumpers, plus one person on the ground, lost their lives fighting the Mann Gulch Fire following their drop from the airplane. […]

The D-Day Squadron, which flew 15 C-47 variant airplanes to Europe for the commemoration of the 75th anniversary of the Normandy Invasion and the 70th anniversary of the Berlin Airlift, reported at EAA AirVenture on its successful mission and plans for future airshow and education outreach. Eric Zipkin, chief pilot and aircraft commander on Placid […]

For what seemed like forever—OK, so it was four weeks—I was housebound late last winter, hobbling around with a humongous cast on my right foot. Weather was consistently gray, cold and brutal in the Ohio Valley and moping around the house isn’t my style, but I got through, reasonably sane, thanks to some great memories. […]

Herding 15 C-47 and DC-3 aircraft for a trip across the Atlantic was no small task, but the D-Day Squadron did just that to help commemorate the 75th anniversary of the Normandy landings. Next week, 10 of the Squadron’s airplanes will visit AirVenture in Oshkosh. The D-Day Squadron is hosting a press conference on Thursday, […]

A prominent Alaskan airline and tour company voluntarily ceased operations in late May after two fatal crashes involving its floatplanes in a week. A total of six people, most of them cruise ship passengers, died May 13 when two Taquan aircraft collided while taking the passengers on a flightseeing trip. On May 21, a pilot and passenger died when a Taquan commuter flight from Ketchikan to Metlakatla Harbor cartwheeled on landing and came to rest inverted with the cabin submerged. On May 22, the airline issued a statement saying it had stopped flying indefinitely and that the tragedies left the company and staff reeling.