Search Results for: DC-3

The event took years to plan, months to prepare, weeks to position and practice—and one day to execute. On the early evening of June 5, 2019, as clouds brooded over the Normandy countryside, a formation of Douglas C-47s and other DC-3 variants delivered on the mission to re-create a critical paratrooper drop commemorating the 75th […]

“When the kids came over in 1944, they didn’t have GPS…they didn’t have 500 hours of time in the cockpit between them,” says Doug Rozendaal, pilot of That’s All Brother, a Douglas C-47 joining the 2019 D-Day Squadron in an epic trip across the Atlantic Ocean this week. He considers his crew very fortunate: Not […]

Right in time for the busy summer flying season, after several months of work on the surface of Runway 04-22 at Catalina Island’s Airport in the Sky (KAVX), also called ACE Clearwater Airfield, pilots can finally pop over for the immensely popular Buffalo burgers at the mountaintop airport’s restaurant – the DC-3 Gifts & Grill […]

Thirty-some years ago, when the FAA was actually paying me to go to Griffin, Georgia, and fly Bob McSwiggan’s DC-3, I heard about this larger-than-life guy named Stan Brock. To hear people talk, he was Ernie Gann, Indiana Jones and Mother Teresa wrapped up into one. A famous, handsome, adventurous Brit living like a monk, […]

Upon raising the landing gear after takeoff, the gear motor continued to operate longer than normal, and the pilot heard an abnormal sound toward the end of the sequence. The right main gear was hanging at about a 45-degree angle, and the left main gear was not visible. The pilot completed the appropriate checklists, without change. The pilot declared an emergency and ATC confirmed during a fly-by that the main gear was not extended. During the landing, the nose gear remained extended and the two main gear were retracted. The airplane came to rest on the runway and the passengers egressed without further incident.

Work to restore the well-worn runway at Catalina Airport (KAVX), located on the island outside the Los Angeles metropolitan area, is well underway. More than 100 U.S. Marines and Navy sailors, who are working with the Catalina Island Conservancy as part of a partnership with the Department of Defense, arrived in January to begin work […]

In 2018, a Junkers Ju 52 crashed in the Swiss Alps while attempting to cross a 10,000-foot saddle from south to north amid gusting winds.

Anyone who has flown in to Catalina Airport (AVX), also named “Airport in the Sky” as it is situated atop a 1,602-foot mountain on Catalina Island about 20 miles off the beach-clad shores of southern California, knows the airport has long been in pretty bad shape. Potholes and pebbles make the runway best suited for […]

The pilot-rated passenger later stated he verified that the flaps were down and the three green landing gear lights were illuminated in the cockpit during the approach. Just before landing, he heard the angle of attack indicator alarm. The airplane landed hard, and he heard a loud pop and felt the left main landing gear fracture. The airplane then slid off the left side of the runway, colliding with PAPI lights, and continued sliding until the right wing dug into the ground. The airplane then flipped over and caught fire. The cockpit canopy was jammed, but several observers helped open it and egress the two occupants.

A multimillion-dollar renovation, funded by American Airlines, Boeing and PacMin, has been completed at the American Airlines CR Smith Museum in the northeastern corner of Fort Worth, Texas, providing a hands-on experience of the operations of the iconic airline. “We wanted to refocus the experience to give visitors a greater insight into the operations of […]