DC3 TALES
Thread Starter
DC3 TALES
Back in my greasy-three days with some of the
Daks we wore round the traps . . rain-making . . .
fodder dropping when the floods came . . . . all
manner of perverse exploits .. . . ropeable berry
fruit farmers ready to murder the
cloud-seeder (just doing his job) after losing their entire
crops to hail.
. . . old hand (teeth cut on Ansons & Hudsons)
with Eanie Weanie
called Toby who demonstrated
out at 'The Lake' a short short fielder
to a newish chum in the R seat. Over the fence at 70 . .
. power right off . . .
... the mains contact . . . Tobe, his backside
sliding up the seat back goes hard on the anchors . .
hauling back back back
further to counteract the . . . . SH** OH DEAR!!! .. .
too much Tobe . .. . props plow up the field a bit
before tail drops back with a wham . .. . himself,
face like a plate of condemned veal taxies to the shed . .
bent blades sounding like a mini typhoon approaching
. .. . . . they didn't sack him . . . that time.
(or ever . . . just froze him out . . much later . . RIP Tobe)
Daks we wore round the traps . . rain-making . . .
fodder dropping when the floods came . . . . all
manner of perverse exploits .. . . ropeable berry
fruit farmers ready to murder the
cloud-seeder (just doing his job) after losing their entire
crops to hail.
. . . old hand (teeth cut on Ansons & Hudsons)
with Eanie Weanie
called Toby who demonstrated
out at 'The Lake' a short short fielder
to a newish chum in the R seat. Over the fence at 70 . .
. power right off . . .
... the mains contact . . . Tobe, his backside
sliding up the seat back goes hard on the anchors . .
hauling back back back
further to counteract the . . . . SH** OH DEAR!!! .. .
too much Tobe . .. . props plow up the field a bit
before tail drops back with a wham . .. . himself,
face like a plate of condemned veal taxies to the shed . .
bent blades sounding like a mini typhoon approaching
. .. . . . they didn't sack him . . . that time.
(or ever . . . just froze him out . . much later . . RIP Tobe)
Join Date: Oct 2003
Location: Canberra Australia
Posts: 1,300
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Fantome
Did you do rainmaking out of RAAF Richmond?
If so please remind me of the name of the Sqn Ldr CO of the unit. I relieved him for some weeks whilst he was on leave and had a ball seeding growing Cumulus and watching them rain about 40 minutes later. Too bad we lost an aircraft east of Sydney. Presumed to have broken up in severe turbulence in a CB.
Did you do rainmaking out of RAAF Richmond?
If so please remind me of the name of the Sqn Ldr CO of the unit. I relieved him for some weeks whilst he was on leave and had a ball seeding growing Cumulus and watching them rain about 40 minutes later. Too bad we lost an aircraft east of Sydney. Presumed to have broken up in severe turbulence in a CB.
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Brisbane
Posts: 374
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
We had a similar racket coming from a DC-3 prop.
The old boy with millions of hours in big round engines shouted ... he always shouted... (loud big round engines)... "Sounds like an exhaust gasket's blown".
He stopped her. I got to jump down and check the engine and found a peice of celophane paper from a lolly had been caught on the leading edge of the prop, with half over the front and half over back so it stayed there flapping.
Pretty loud for such a small thing but then have you blown a gum leaf whistle?
The old boy with millions of hours in big round engines shouted ... he always shouted... (loud big round engines)... "Sounds like an exhaust gasket's blown".
He stopped her. I got to jump down and check the engine and found a peice of celophane paper from a lolly had been caught on the leading edge of the prop, with half over the front and half over back so it stayed there flapping.
Pretty loud for such a small thing but then have you blown a gum leaf whistle?
Join Date: May 2006
Location: Yearning for sun and sea
Age: 82
Posts: 249
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
sixtiesrelic, yes all the time as a kid when we lived in Huskisson in 1948!!!
Sorry, bit of a drift.
But I do remember a very long BEA flight in a Dakota from Malta to Northolt when aged 9. I remember on a visit to the cockpit, the pilot stuck his hand out of the window, not quite sure what he was demonstrating but it stuck in my memory!
Sorry, bit of a drift.
But I do remember a very long BEA flight in a Dakota from Malta to Northolt when aged 9. I remember on a visit to the cockpit, the pilot stuck his hand out of the window, not quite sure what he was demonstrating but it stuck in my memory!
Last edited by GANNET FAN; 27th Sep 2011 at 08:57.
Join Date: Jun 2001
Posts: 1,451
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Max Collins, (the man many of a cetain age will remember as the best trumpet player in the world who didn't need a trumpet) used to, pre flight, note at what window the most likely passenger was sitting. He had a small skeleton on a piece of string, the string carefully marked so he'd know when the skeleton was directly over the chosen one's window.
I understand it got some rather amusing results in the cruise - but I never worked out how he kept the skeleton or the string from fouling the #1 prop.
I understand it got some rather amusing results in the cruise - but I never worked out how he kept the skeleton or the string from fouling the #1 prop.
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Brisbane
Posts: 374
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
You have to really try to hang something out as far as the prop tips. Slipstream tends to keep things close to the airframe.
I held a video camera out to take footage back along the airframe and I needed two hands and not very far out either.
I held a video camera out to take footage back along the airframe and I needed two hands and not very far out either.
Hoskins 1967. I was a green F/O but had been taught the art of the three pointer well during my endorsement and on the line with a very accomplished ex Fleet Air Arm skipper.
Flying for the first time with a particular Captain - we will call him Jim. Anyway his leg, he wheels it; my leg I three point it, and the inevitable debate about which is best for short slippery strips ensues.
His leg into Hoskins and I rib him gently, suggesting it was real slippery yesterday, so why not three point it "Garn Jim, you can do it" and all that. CRM had not been invented back then ! So he decides to prove a point and wheels it on down slope towards the beach and gets on the anchors. I look out my side window and note that the main wheel has locked up, so call out something to the effect of "we are skidding". At least it was straight, so his side must have been locked up as well. When it becomes obvious we are soon to go off the end and into the water if we don't do something, he gives it a boot of rudder and a burst of power and around we go through nearly 180 degrees. It slides off the end but only just. After we get out and get the punters off, a couple of Landrovers and some ropes around the main gear haul it out of the dirt and we are back in business.
Needless to say, I got the rest of the flying that day and no more comments about three pointers.
And he bought me beer for a very long time after to buy my silence.
Re the skeleton on a string trick - later when I got my command I had a teddy bear set up with a fishing reel and used it to good effect on North Sea operations when the boys off the oil rigs had too much to drink on the way home. As soon as one of them sighted Teddy, the hostie (who was in on it) said she could see nothing, so no more drinks for you my boyo.
Flying for the first time with a particular Captain - we will call him Jim. Anyway his leg, he wheels it; my leg I three point it, and the inevitable debate about which is best for short slippery strips ensues.
His leg into Hoskins and I rib him gently, suggesting it was real slippery yesterday, so why not three point it "Garn Jim, you can do it" and all that. CRM had not been invented back then ! So he decides to prove a point and wheels it on down slope towards the beach and gets on the anchors. I look out my side window and note that the main wheel has locked up, so call out something to the effect of "we are skidding". At least it was straight, so his side must have been locked up as well. When it becomes obvious we are soon to go off the end and into the water if we don't do something, he gives it a boot of rudder and a burst of power and around we go through nearly 180 degrees. It slides off the end but only just. After we get out and get the punters off, a couple of Landrovers and some ropes around the main gear haul it out of the dirt and we are back in business.
Needless to say, I got the rest of the flying that day and no more comments about three pointers.
And he bought me beer for a very long time after to buy my silence.
Re the skeleton on a string trick - later when I got my command I had a teddy bear set up with a fishing reel and used it to good effect on North Sea operations when the boys off the oil rigs had too much to drink on the way home. As soon as one of them sighted Teddy, the hostie (who was in on it) said she could see nothing, so no more drinks for you my boyo.
Thanks for the 'memories'....
As a kid we used to live in Cairns and fly every year or so to SY for the family gathering at Christmas......
Who can forget the 'Flight Log' which was duly filled in by the Flight Crew, in pencil, and passed from seat to seat, recording something like
'VH-AEU, Over Hinchinbrook Passage, at 6,500ft, with a tailwind of 12 kts, estimating arrival at Cairns at xxxx,.......
I actually have one...somewhere...I'm looking.....it WAS a 'Fair' while ago,....
Cheers
As a kid we used to live in Cairns and fly every year or so to SY for the family gathering at Christmas......
Who can forget the 'Flight Log' which was duly filled in by the Flight Crew, in pencil, and passed from seat to seat, recording something like
'VH-AEU, Over Hinchinbrook Passage, at 6,500ft, with a tailwind of 12 kts, estimating arrival at Cairns at xxxx,.......
I actually have one...somewhere...I'm looking.....it WAS a 'Fair' while ago,....
Cheers
Join Date: Feb 2004
Location: Granite Belt, Australia
Posts: 841
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
I wondered why I never had my paper back books returned from one particular DC3 Captain... until I flew with him as a cabin attendant. After he'd finished reading them he tore the pages out and threw them out the window during flight.
In those days you didn't question a Captain!
In those days you didn't question a Captain!
Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: -28.1494 / 151.943
Age: 68
Posts: 463
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
As a kid we used to live in Cairns and fly every year or so to SY for the family gathering at Christmas......
Gees Griffo you must have been in the wealthy mob in Cairns, I can remember doing the same Christmas trip each year from about 1959 but we got seats on the 'Red Rattler', for a few years then went upmarket on the Sunlander & Brisbane Limited to Syd (maybe how come I ended up a Train Driver)
Join Date: Jul 2000
Location: London
Posts: 1,256
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Recruited for Qantas in the '60s for my jet experience. Due to a delay to the start of our 707 course, sent to Narromine for six hours on the DC3. One of our course had a lot of difficulty as he had been all through jet trained as was the new system in the RAF.
Enjoyed the experience but never found out why we did it.
Enjoyed the experience but never found out why we did it.
Thread Starter
Cloud-seeding out of Richmond . . .. . different mob, I think. All my time was with Maslings. Plenty of input from CSIRO all along. The DC3 lost without trace off Sydney - are you thinking of the Airlines of NSW training flight one? (3 POB as I recall.) It was definitely a 1960 occurrence.
The demasting of a yacht off Darwin by a RAAF Dak occurred early to mid sixties. Must be someone round here who recalls how what when and why.
(ummmm . .. . why? . . . well why not? In a word. . . lairising.)
The demasting of a yacht off Darwin by a RAAF Dak occurred early to mid sixties. Must be someone round here who recalls how what when and why.
(ummmm . .. . why? . . . well why not? In a word. . . lairising.)
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: France
Posts: 610
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
DC3 lost off the coast of NSW
Fantome:
I cannot remember a search for a DC3 off Sydney in 1960, I was at the Royal at Bankstown in those days.
Rainmaking with Maslings started in 1965. If any was done at Richmond, would it have been with the two Cessna 310's out of Tamworth.
Tmb
I cannot remember a search for a DC3 off Sydney in 1960, I was at the Royal at Bankstown in those days.
Rainmaking with Maslings started in 1965. If any was done at Richmond, would it have been with the two Cessna 310's out of Tamworth.
Tmb
G'Day AvG......
My Dad worked for 'generous' SY based company after the war, and it was 'a condition of service' that we got to see the respective families annually....
Took the '3', CNS - TL, then to BN. Then sometimes a '4' to SY.
As I remember, I didn't like the '4' too much, the windows were too small and too high from the seat for a kid....
And usually the '3' Captain would allow a kid into the 'holy of holys'......
NEVER happened in the '4'......
The things that just stick in yr mind....
My Dad worked for 'generous' SY based company after the war, and it was 'a condition of service' that we got to see the respective families annually....
Took the '3', CNS - TL, then to BN. Then sometimes a '4' to SY.
As I remember, I didn't like the '4' too much, the windows were too small and too high from the seat for a kid....
And usually the '3' Captain would allow a kid into the 'holy of holys'......
NEVER happened in the '4'......
The things that just stick in yr mind....
The late Reg Lewis from: http://www.pprune.org/military-aircr...t-ww11-35.html See Post 691
Flying for what eventually became Air India just after the war:
"On another occasion the stewardess would come into the cockpit to take the two empty plastic coffee cups from the pilots. Unlike modern pressurised aircraft, the DC3's side windows could be and frequently were opened. Once as she leant across the Captain to open the window to throw the cups out, he knocked her hand away and shouted "Don't ever do that. Can't you see that the other window is open ? If you had opened my window there would have been a terrible vacuum and we would all have been sucked out of the cockpit " Later on, the Captain put the aircraft on "George" as the automatic pilot is affectionately called,
opened both the windows, pressed the stewardess call button then he and the First Officer, hid amongst the bags in the baggage just behind the cockpit. The poor girl came up to find an empty cockpit, both windows open and the aircraft flying serenely along on it's own . Hysterics were usually the outcome of that one.
Another favourite was the "Toilet Flush". Remember this was India were only "Untouchables" cleaned toilets. On her first flight the Captain would ask a new stewardess if she had been briefed on flushing the toilet. Absolutely horrified" she would answer "No" The Captain would point to a large lever across from the side of his seat. "Whenever a passenger comes out of the toilet, you must come up here and pump this lever twenty times to flush the toilet " he would gravely tell her and the unlucky girl would come up every ten minutes or so , blushing furiously, hiding her face and pump away at what was the hydraulic lever, used to boost the system and used for emergencies."
Flying for what eventually became Air India just after the war:
"On another occasion the stewardess would come into the cockpit to take the two empty plastic coffee cups from the pilots. Unlike modern pressurised aircraft, the DC3's side windows could be and frequently were opened. Once as she leant across the Captain to open the window to throw the cups out, he knocked her hand away and shouted "Don't ever do that. Can't you see that the other window is open ? If you had opened my window there would have been a terrible vacuum and we would all have been sucked out of the cockpit " Later on, the Captain put the aircraft on "George" as the automatic pilot is affectionately called,
opened both the windows, pressed the stewardess call button then he and the First Officer, hid amongst the bags in the baggage just behind the cockpit. The poor girl came up to find an empty cockpit, both windows open and the aircraft flying serenely along on it's own . Hysterics were usually the outcome of that one.
Another favourite was the "Toilet Flush". Remember this was India were only "Untouchables" cleaned toilets. On her first flight the Captain would ask a new stewardess if she had been briefed on flushing the toilet. Absolutely horrified" she would answer "No" The Captain would point to a large lever across from the side of his seat. "Whenever a passenger comes out of the toilet, you must come up here and pump this lever twenty times to flush the toilet " he would gravely tell her and the unlucky girl would come up every ten minutes or so , blushing furiously, hiding her face and pump away at what was the hydraulic lever, used to boost the system and used for emergencies."
4Greens,
Why did you do it ----- because everybody joining QF had to do their time on -EDC or -EDD.
The prevailing wisdom, at the time, was that if you couldn't fly a Dak, you were undoubtedly a poofter, a dunce and Yetti 3rd Class, and certainly not a real pilot.
For blokes who had never flown a tail wheel aircraft before, we generated some lovely rubber marks on the runway at Tamworth, off the edge and back on the runway a bit further down.
And, as even ex-military pilots discovered, your performance on the Dak. determined whether you were assigned to the DC-4, Electra or straight to the B707.
Tootle pip!!
Why did you do it ----- because everybody joining QF had to do their time on -EDC or -EDD.
The prevailing wisdom, at the time, was that if you couldn't fly a Dak, you were undoubtedly a poofter, a dunce and Yetti 3rd Class, and certainly not a real pilot.
For blokes who had never flown a tail wheel aircraft before, we generated some lovely rubber marks on the runway at Tamworth, off the edge and back on the runway a bit further down.
And, as even ex-military pilots discovered, your performance on the Dak. determined whether you were assigned to the DC-4, Electra or straight to the B707.
Tootle pip!!
$100,000 will get you 7 of the things on Ebay these days ...
7 DAKOTA DC3 AIRCRAFT FOR SALE
(Well, bidding closed today, and the $100,000 was just the starting bid - no takers though!)
7 DAKOTA DC3 AIRCRAFT FOR SALE
(Well, bidding closed today, and the $100,000 was just the starting bid - no takers though!)