This thread reminded me of an email from my cousin Dominic, we used to discuss airplanes a lot... he was a flight engineer on a C-54 most of his AF career.
This was from back in 2012 before he passed away and I had just sent him a pic of a DC-3 on ski's like the one I posted earlier in the thread. I just found it and thought it was worth sharing:
"Hi Cuz
That's pretty neat, the C-47 was a real work horse in the USAF and around the world for many years, they were still flying them in South America when I went down on company business.
After graduating from Aircraft & Engine Mechanic school at Shepard Air Force Base in Texas, my first assignment was Westover Air Force base in Springfield, Ma., a group of us flew up in a C-47.
I will always remember the refreshing smell of the Pine trees when they slid open the cabin door as we taxied in, all we smelled in Texas for months was oil coming from the many oil wells in close proximity to the base.
Although I had been to a half dozen aircraft and engine mechanic and flight engineering courses coupled with close to 3000 hrs of flight time in the USAF, it was still not enough to go to work for the commercial airlines so I was in hot pursuit of getting my Federal Airframe and Power Plant mechanic licenses and also wanted to get my commercial pilots license.
Well, as faith would have it, I managed to get both licenses but could not afford to continue on to the pilots course, by this time I was out of money and the first order of business was to get a job so that I could feed Claire and Dom Jr. :-) This is how I ended up in quality control at Sikorsky from where I had a great career and retired. It all worked out for the best.
The C-54 in which I accumulated close to 3000 flight hours was a essentially a 4 engine version of the the C-47, Douglas sure built some rugged and reliable aircraft.
Dom"
Topic: Question for DC-3 (Read 624 times)