Search Results for: DC-3

A story we posted recently about a pilot taking his dog flying with him generated a lot of discussion on our Facebook page, and a lot of our readers had their own photos and fond memories to share. As you might expect, we couldn’t get enough. Here are some of our favorite photos of readers […]

They were a big Irish family in Hamilton, Ohio. I’m not sure if Bernie or Joe was the oldest, but Art and Bill came along about 10 years later with another brother and three sisters somewhere in between. In 1929, after a neighboring farmer, “Pop” Muhlburger, taught the two oldest boys to fly in his […]

Once upon a time I went to Disney World … well, sort of. A man I knew owned a Piper Cherokee and wanted to fly to Pensacola, Florida, to see the Naval Air Museum. He asked me to go because he didn’t have an instrument rating and I guess he was a little sweet on […]

In what must have been a desperate attempt to meet gender quotas, the FAA hired me as an inspector in the Chicago O’Hare Air Carrier District Office in 1980. Six months later, somebody realized I knew absolutely nothing about jets or air carrier operations and farmed me out to the DuPage General Aviation District Office (GADOs then, […]

The airplane world certainly has its share of unique lingo and clever slang. I thought I knew most of it until I came across “pilot pellets” — those cheese or peanut butter crackers in every FBO’s vending machine — and “rental power” — flying a “wet” rental airplane at full throttle. A little closer to […]

Transport Canada has grounded Buffalo Airways, the Northwest Territories airline made famous for the past six seasons on TV’s “Ice Pilot NWT.” In a press release, the regulator said it is suspending Buffalo Airways operating certificate because of its “poor safety record.” The suspension took effect Monday at 11:59 p.m. “The department will not allow […]

In the past month, Preston Allen, a 24-year-old pilot dreaming of a professional pilot career, has done something most people in the aviation would consider improbable. Atlanta-based flight instructor Dan Gryder found a way to get Allen a whole slew of ratings, including a Cessna Citation CE-550S second-in-command (SIC) type rating, all within the span […]

I’m haunted by the sky … by wind and clouds, by airplanes and fliers. It’s been a gift, a blessing: struggling to acquire and hone skills; taking written exams and practicing for check rides; feeling the pride of earning a certificate or rating and the gloom of a less-than-stellar performance; teaching neophytes how to land […]

The service was at a Presbyterian church in a small town east of Cincinnati — about a 30-minute flight in the Cessna 180. I had planned to fly there and commandeer the airport’s retired police car, but my airplane wouldn’t start. When I jumped in and “cranked,” it wouldn’t fire — odd, because it was […]

Its enlightening to contrast 1959 with today. The civilian jet era had barely begun, and the skies were still ruled by DC-7s, Connies and Stratocruisers, with Convairs and DC-3s for the short hops. Airline fares were tightly regulated and four-engine airliners stopped at a surprising number of out-of-the-way places. Yet a large majority of Americans had never flown in any kind of airplane.