Did I hear a DC3...
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Did I hear a DC3...
.....at about 1930Z, at umpteen thousand feet over north Kent tonight? I was giving a music lesson so couldn't rush outside to hear better but what I could hear between blasts of saxophone sounded wonderfully evocative and nostalgic. Anyone know if I was right?
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Can't answer yea or nay, but I know what you mean.
It's only very recently that I would occasionally be awoken in the wee hours and listen to a DC-6 blatting its way eastwards...
So evocative...
It's only very recently that I would occasionally be awoken in the wee hours and listen to a DC-6 blatting its way eastwards...
So evocative...
kevmusic,
Perhaps someone who knows about these matters will correcct me, but I think Aces High still has a DC3 (strictly speaking, a C47 Dakota) on a private C of A based at Dunsfold for film work, so that's one possibility. Is it registered G-DAKS?
If you think your musical ear detected a pair of Twin Wasps, you were probably right. Unlikely to have been cruising at "umpteen" thousand feet, though. Being unpressurised, the Dak tends to cruise at FL100 or lower. (FL070 or FL080 would be typical on a journey of an hour or more, but even 2000ft -3000ft on a short trip, like skirting controlled airspace around London.)
Treadigraph's DC6, of course, is a very different proposition...
Perhaps someone who knows about these matters will correcct me, but I think Aces High still has a DC3 (strictly speaking, a C47 Dakota) on a private C of A based at Dunsfold for film work, so that's one possibility. Is it registered G-DAKS?
If you think your musical ear detected a pair of Twin Wasps, you were probably right. Unlikely to have been cruising at "umpteen" thousand feet, though. Being unpressurised, the Dak tends to cruise at FL100 or lower. (FL070 or FL080 would be typical on a journey of an hour or more, but even 2000ft -3000ft on a short trip, like skirting controlled airspace around London.)
Treadigraph's DC6, of course, is a very different proposition...
Might it have been an AN-12 ? Admittedly it has 4 droning engines and it sounds a bit different to a Dak, but there seems to be regular cargo flights that pass through the London TMA and out over Kent to Europe and beyond.
SHJ
SHJ
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Twin Wasps at 3,000' in an empty night sky can sound like 'Umpteen thousand' I grant you. However, the amplitude suggested more like 5 or 6. Who knows? - I could be way out here!
Nonetheless, that lonely, plangent sound had a resonance which sent a tingle up my spine.
Nonetheless, that lonely, plangent sound had a resonance which sent a tingle up my spine.
A musician's ear instantly distinguishes, say, a distant bassoon from a French horn, either solo or ensemble. Whether kevmusic could mistake four Progress turboprops for a pair of Twin Wasp radials depends on experience and, to a lesser extent, recency.
Prior to the Dak having its public-transport wings clipped, I had been regularly hearing and identifying them passing by in several countries for over half a century – like many others on this forum. In recent years, I had often been propelled from chair to garden by a familiar, distant drone – just in time to see one trundling close to the horizon. Only occasionally did I get it wrong.
Nowadays in these parts one has to be content with the occasional Chinook: another iconic sound. Which leads me to wonder how much of the sound signature of the Twin-Wasp Dak is down to its propellers. But I think air-cooled radials inevitably transmit quite a lot of noise.
Prior to the Dak having its public-transport wings clipped, I had been regularly hearing and identifying them passing by in several countries for over half a century – like many others on this forum. In recent years, I had often been propelled from chair to garden by a familiar, distant drone – just in time to see one trundling close to the horizon. Only occasionally did I get it wrong.
Nowadays in these parts one has to be content with the occasional Chinook: another iconic sound. Which leads me to wonder how much of the sound signature of the Twin-Wasp Dak is down to its propellers. But I think air-cooled radials inevitably transmit quite a lot of noise.
I don't think one would confuse that with a Dak. AN-12s are usually up around FL200+ and sound very heavy.
SHJ
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Righto, my location is Rochester and I'm certain of this: that the a/c was a piston multi, not turbo, and that it was well above say, 3,000'. I've heard, and correctly identified, many Daks, but it's been a while so confusion with a DC6 is possible. Meanwhile, I shall keep my ears peeled for a repeat performance at the same time next Friday! A lesson in pianissimo performance will be in the offing then, I feel......
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Atlantic still have (at least) one servicable DC3, working out of CVT which occasionally we see/hear going over our neighbourhood. There is no reason why you should not see it over Kent.
Despite having seen all their fleet several times, DC3-6 or C46 neither my wife nor I can resist getting outside quickly in order to catch a glimpse of whatever it is making that multiple radial engine noise. Time was we knew that we could expect an aircraft over our house at 10.30pm every night on it's way to Germany. (this was post war by the way
) Their fleet of Electras is now sadly depleted (a few years ago they owned the biggest fleet of them in the world). Their more modern ATP aircraft have yet to garner the same appeal.
Despite having seen all their fleet several times, DC3-6 or C46 neither my wife nor I can resist getting outside quickly in order to catch a glimpse of whatever it is making that multiple radial engine noise. Time was we knew that we could expect an aircraft over our house at 10.30pm every night on it's way to Germany. (this was post war by the way
) Their fleet of Electras is now sadly depleted (a few years ago they owned the biggest fleet of them in the world). Their more modern ATP aircraft have yet to garner the same appeal.
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kevmusic:
Kev, you've made my day! A new word I've never heard of before - AND it's a way of describing my all-time favourite aircraft. Are saxophones plangent?
NS
that lonely, plangent sound had a resonance which sent a tingle up my spine
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Some sounds you just know. I remember when I was a boy in Barassie, just along from Prestwick, when I heard a Connie and sure enough it just banked round into view. I still remember it.
One day in the early 60s, I thought I heard a DC3; as I lived near Bovingdon, I was used to seeing them although this one seemed a bit louder than usual.
I was wrong - it was a B17, one of three at Bovingdon filming 'The War Lover'.
I was wrong - it was a B17, one of three at Bovingdon filming 'The War Lover'.
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Chevvron: Everything but the Flak... Read it? Wonderful...
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Yesterday [2nd December] at about 13:20 a magnificent white Catalina flew overhead our house [Runfold/Sands] heading South. As I heard before saw I expected a DC3 but the Cat was even more appreciated being so much rarer.
It might have been this one.
Photos: Canadian Vickers PBV-1A Canso A (28) Aircraft Pictures | Airliners.net
It might have been this one.
Photos: Canadian Vickers PBV-1A Canso A (28) Aircraft Pictures | Airliners.net
Is there anyone keen or potentially keen to be involved with a DC-3
syndicate in SE Queensland or in NE New South Wales?
She could be operated in Warbirds Category. An engineer or two in the team would of course be highly desirable.
Someone with the skills to keep the books too.
