DC-3 Dakota farewell tour

[JessTheDog]

Apparently these venerable beasts are being grounded by European aviation regulations, in case someone wants to storm the cockpit and fly into a building somewhere (at a plodding pace, allowing QRA crews to have a cuppa before scrambling!)

There is a farewell tour.

22-23 March (past) Coventry
19-20 April - Doncaster
27 April - Coventry
9-11 May - Jersey
18 May - Coventry
24-25 May - Biggin Hill
26-27 May - Manston
30-31 May - Southend
31 May - Norwich
4-8 June - Coventry (hang on, sure this isn't a He-111?!?)
13-14 June - Durham Tees Valley
15-16 June - Edinburgh
18-20 June - Blackpool
27-29 June - Cardiff
30 June-1 July - Exeter
2-3 July - St Mawgan
5-6 July - Bournemouth
7-8 July - Belfast
9-11 July - Blackpool
12-13 July - RIAT Fairford
14-15 July - Coventry (again)

Weblink is classicflight.com with a phone number 08703 304 747

I have more details for the Edinburgh flights
Sunday 15th June – dep at 11:00 or 14:00
Monday 16th June – dep at 11:00 or 14:00

Duration of the flight is approximately 20 minutes

Flight is scheduled on board G-AMPY / KK116 which took part in the Berlin Airlift, 60 years ago!

Cost is £75.00

[clunckdriver]

What,retire the Gooney Bird? My good lady and I are thinking of buying one as our retirment toy, In Canada we still have DC3sC46,C54,B18,still earning their keep,Thr Bassler PT6 version should keep the airframes flying for the next 60 years, what next out of the EU? ground the Shuttleworth trust?

[US Herk]

Do you know why they're being grounded? Is it simply avionics/airspace compliance-type stuff? Or is there some other reason?

Basler version is front-line airlifter for many African (and other) nations. DC-3/C-47 are still the best birds out there for many niche markets.

[ranger703]

A shame that Inverness is not on the schedule,considering the number of years the old gal operated from here on Oil Pullution duties.

[S'land]

I think that you will find more about the DC3 problems in this thread.

http://www.pprune.org/forums/showthread.php?t=312445&highlight=dakota

[rafmatt]

They are not grounding them!
They are only stopping there commercial flights you will still be able to see them flying but only as a display aircraft.

[angels]

You're right rafmatt, but a short while before he died, my dad took a flight in a Dak over the D-Day beaches in Normandy. Daks had successfully got him from one swamp to another in Burma during the war and he fancied a last flight in one before his demise.

How sad that pen-pushing tossers whose parents/grandparents were liberated by -- amongst others -- brave young men jumping from Daks, should now deny folk such as my dad an opportunity to fly in the venerable beastie.

The whole affair is pathetic.