I dunno Wombat...do I get the guernsey of youngest current Dak pilot at 25??
The DC-3 is magic, pure and simple. I've always loved old aeroplanes, and while my version of getting to fly one isn't perhaps the traditional path, (!) its been worth every minute.
She was my first airliner, and aside from 4 hours in a CAP10, my first tailwheel aeroplane...
Taxiing can be an experience...the tailwheel lock is the greatest invention ever! I took a little bit of getting used to the idea, pull the lock out, start the turn, drop the lock handle back in (with that bang as the spring drives it home under the pedestal) and manage the turn so in theory as you straighten out, the lock drops back into the wheel and you're in the middle of the taxiway or runway...that's the theory!
I had very little experience at endorsement time, and our training Captain was absolutely brilliant - both Dad and I agree there couldn't be a better guy to have trained us. After mucking taxiing up for the second day in a row, Keith kicked Dad out and we then proceeded to spend the best part of an hour taxiing around on the grass at Wigram, where I was not to touch the brakes, but taxi using only the tailwheel lock and power...brakes were a luxury and besides "use them too much and the flighty will spill the pre-takeoff champagne..." It worked but!
Starting her up is a finely orchestrated thing and a thing of beauty when you get it right! Any turbine driver watching a start from inside usually looks on in a state of shock! No boost pumps on CWS, so using the wobble pump is the order of the day. Two fingers of the right hand to the starter and booster, one finger on the left hand to the primer. Magneto master is already on as part of the prestart. Turn the engine on the starter while counting 9 blades, left hand flicking the primer (well, for the left engine...the right engine is a bit more moody and needs the primer held on a bit more...each side has its own personality!). Turn on the mags after 9 blades with the left hand, while the second finger on the right hand selects the booster...back to the primer and by then a cylinder or two should hopefully be starting to fire...play the dance with the primer, trying to find the balance of too much or too little...call the mixture into auto-rich and watch the tacho like a hawk to make sure you don't go above 1000RPM before the oil temperature is above 40 degrees...check the gauges, everything works...and then do it all again!
There is nothing more satisfying than both engines starting nicely, first go...its always a little embarassing if there wasn't quite enough primer and it runs down to a stop...trying to catch it on the primer can lead to a nice bang as it backfires and that's what you do your best to try and avoid...!
Someone sitting in the jumpseat on a flight made the comment afterwards that both of us during the takeoff roll sport massive grins right about the time the tail comes up - and its true. The noise is like nothing else you've heard, all 48 inches of manifold pressure blasting away. She sits up on the mains and its right about then that you feel her start to twitch through the yoke...she's done this before and is ready to do it again - she just loves to fly. Its about then that you get the idiotic grin.
I never realised that a machine could have such an individual personality, but the DC-3 is a prime example of that. It feels almost inappropriate to refer to a DC-3 as "it" - its generally always "her" and you find yourself talking to her as you fly.
And my favorite thing? I sit and watch out of the window and that wing and engine, prop whirling away, and the reflection of the nose in the prop dome and think of how many countless pilots have sat in that same seat, and stared out at that same sight. She's been flying just short of 60,000 hours - imagine where she's been, what she's done, who and what she's carried? Some of the conversation's she's heard, what she's done to scare people...the list goes on. It's just awesome to be flying a piece of living history, and to be able to contribute to that history.
I could ramble for a while about it...!
