I was a crew chief in a DC-3 back in 1980 when I worked for the NC Forest Service. We had about all the seats removed in the cabin, and I loaded it up with pumps and various fire fighting equipment.

What a great job. After a while, it was like boarding a bus. Even sitting on the jump seat between the pilot and copilot became routine. This was before digital cameras, and I totally regret not taking a bunch of pics during fire season.

We would land on some remote grassy strips and I could still see the wing tips zipping past the trees. Taking off or landing was a bumpy adventure in itself!

This link that I found sure sparked some great memories. I hope you enjoy reading about the DC-3. Check out the video too.

What a beautiful classy plane that revolutionized the airline industry.

http://www.cnn.com/2014/06/04/travel/aviation-douglas-dc-3/

Closest thing to a DC-3 that I've flown in is a Beech 18.

It was very cool.

Flew in one run by Piedmont Airlines in 1967 going to Fort Bragg during a hurricane. What a ride.

I rode around in a VERY well restored one owned by a cookie company for a few airshow seasons. I tried several forms of bribery to get some yoke time, but insurance policies can be strict about such things. No cool log book entry, but fun and plush travel.

I remember flying in one when I was a kid. Landed on a grass strip at the Cincinnati airport.

Quite a workhorse�

And yes, I�ve ridden in one.

The C-47 'Gooney Bird' also has a distinguished military career.

My first-ever commercial hop � Fairbanks to Anchorage, 1958 � was in a DC-3. Wien Airlines, IIRC.

Later (1959) hitched a ride in a BLM DC-3 air-dropping stuff to crews fighting tundra fires in Alaska.

I have jumped out of two or three DC-3's several hundred times. My favorite was a hotrodded model that was headquartered in Zephyrhills, Florida for years. It would get 45-50 jumpers up to 13,000' in about 25 minutes. It looked like hell but the engines were very well maintained.

RS

My weirdest sight of a DC-3 was on a high-country fire in 1956.

We kept hearing a 'plane with radial engines very close-by � LOUD � but nothing was moving in the cloudless sky.

Standing on our fire-tool cache (the top of a huge boulder), I caught movement at the edge of my vision. I looked down.

In the ca�on far below, a DC-3 was dumping smokejumpers on another fire.

1968-Had several rides in a C-47.

First airplane ride as a 10 year old child, DC3 at an airshow in Riverton WY in about 1950, Frontier Airlines gave free rides to all the kids.

Next time in one, I flew a couple of missions in a C-47 "bullshit bomber", dropping leaflets up along the Laotian border in I Corps, fall of 1968.

New Years Weekend 1958 flew out of Salt Lake City,UT to Albuquerque, NM aboard one flown by Frontier Airlines in a snow storm, it was a milk run and it landed in every cow pasture between the two cities. What a ride, have you ever tried to pee into that little stool in the tail of a DC-3 while flying through multiple downdrafts/updrafts? It can get real interesting, don't ask me how I know.

Six months later flew on another one from D.C. to Norfolk,VA can't remember the airline.

Just a few times..

I flew as an FO on one for a while, about the time for my upgrade to Captain and a Type Rating the company went bankrupt. I enjoyed my time in the seat never the less. I was in love with flying back then, now, I look at how much or how little you are going to pay me to fly. I got a call from a operator that offered me 32K a year, and little else. A go no where job. I had enough of those.

Flyboy Flem,

Ever run into any Seawolves? The first five stories in the attached link are a series that describe quite an amazing battle, with, at the end, a Spooky showing up to end the fight. Anyone you know, per chance?

Seawolf Stories

I'll have to read the links you posted but my tour was 69-70, home was Phu Cat Air Base although we rearmed refueled at Da Nang and Pleiku frequently. Ninety percent of the time we never knew who we were providing CAS for as most RO's on the ground were more interested in the mass quantities of 7.62 we could rain down on the bad guys but most of our engagements were strictly ARMY in and around Binh Dinh province.

Just a couple of flights with Air BVI in the 80s.

I trained as Radar Navigator in 1963 at Shepard AFB Texas.

I don�t expect you to read all that but if you�re interested in the battle in question it was at Hoa Binh on 23 May 1971. The account of the battle is contained within Stories 4 & 5 so that�s all you�d have to read for that. It�s quite hair-raising, but then, I suspect you know a thing or two about that. You might enjoy reading from the perspective of those on the receiving end of your (successors') work. But again, I know you know a thing or two about that already. I found the whole series well worth reading, though.

And, if you just want the most relevant paragraph of it, here it is. Let me know if he got his facts straight. It's still worth reading about the rest of the battle, though.

As we turned for Moc Hoa once again, a "Spooky" checked in. Spooky was an Air Force DC-3, with a phalanx of mini-guns and all the ammunition in the world, the predecessor to the AC-130's of Desert Storm fame. He was Spooky to us, but was more commonly known as "Puff the Magic Dragon" in the popular civilian press. Whatever his name, he was a welcome addition. We gave him the coordinates of Hoa Binh, he reported the flames in sight, we suggested that he put his fire around the outpost on all sides. He did. Before we had fairly left the area, he commenced his run. Spooky would orbit the target and aim his battery of guns by banking the aircraft to the proper angle. Together the guns put out about 300 rounds per SECOND. That's about 75 TRACERS per second, an unbelievable stream of red that merges into a continuous flow. It literally pours out like water. We couldn't hear him shoot like we could our own guns, but we could see it vividly. All the more eerie because of the absence of gun sounds. Surreal. Nightmarish. One look at that stream and we accelerated our efforts to get completely clear of the area. Spooky put the cap on the night's activities. There were no more attacks on Hoa Binh.

I will certainly read them but more than likely that engagement could have been with a VNAF Spooky not one of ours if it was '71. My squadron probably flew the last ones marked USAF as C-119 Stingers and Shadows replaced us.

Eastern Airlines used to fly them, and I remember being on one from Jacksonville to Atlanta when I was a wee lad.

Flyboy Flem, Having you guys up there saved my young ass several times. Thank you and your teammates.

mike r

Yup, in the right hand seat.

Over the Arctic / Sub Arctic

...and over the Equatorial Forests.

Theirs a turbo conversion flying outta' Libby Field here,....every evening, ....I think it's a classroom for the Sensor spook show schools on Huachuca.

GTC

Cool stuff guys

Never rode in a DC-3, but went up in a Ford Trimotor once.

Like a previous poster, have quite a few jumps from them. Before turbo charged airplanes like the King Air became available, they were about the best jump plane available for large groups. Also have quite a few jumps from the previously mentioned Beech 18.

Besides the DC-3 that the forest service owned, we had contracted a PB4Y from out west. I think the young pilots were from Colorado. They were doing some slurry drops on a pretty big fire at the south-east coast, and told me to jump in after I loaded them down.

These guys were cowboys through and through and had brass balls. I went up into the nose and it was a blast! Coors beer was a new thing back in 1980 NC, and they brought a couple of iced down kegs with them.

Good times in the barracks after the fires went out.....

When Dad was stationed at Ladd AFB in Fairbanks Alaska from 1954-1956. I was able to fly in a C47 and a C119 flying Boxcar. Commercially I flew on Wein Airlines in a C46.

MarkAir, the successor to Wein Air, ran a tourist flight out of Anchorage back in the'90's. You could do a Prince William Sound overflight or a sightseeing fight up to Mt. McKinley.
They had completely restored two DC-3's in a first class interior and the stewardesses wore dresses and high heels, their hair was up and tucked under a cap, and they wore white gloves. They served champagne and chocolate dipped strawberries.

We opted for the Prince William Sound trip and had a blast.

I love the sound of those big radial engines.

Ed

Certainly an accurate accounting from my standpoint but our engagement with Evil Twin on Hill 474 will give you a grunts eye view of a solid stream of incoming 7.62 tracers.

I rode them often back in the early 70's. I was a little kid and my parents lived in Miami and grandparents in Key West. I was sent back and forth on them. I can't remember the airline for sure but it had a sun on the tail. I think my dad worked for National Airlines back then so it might have been them.

Have been lucky enough to go up in Gooney Birds, Boxcars, and Packets along with the Hercs.... Love em all...great thrills for a kid... helped having an old man in the Air Force....

and mentioning the Spookys.. Woody, thanks again for your service my friend... and the same to those grunts on the ground...

In 1962, Uncle Sam went to great expense to fly us out to Shemya in the Aleutians to keep the Soviet hordes at bay. A battered Reeves Alaskan Airways DC-3 with steel seats bolted to a bare deck, a couple of army blankets and a rat lunch tossed in the lap on take off. Thanking God we could not see out the windows.

Did not see a three dimensional woman for a year -- or hear one either for that matter. (It wasn't all bad.)

1B

Took a few round trips from Danang into northern Thailand during my time in the Corps. The rides were interesting to say the least.

Reeves handed out a flyer with flight regulations prior to take off.

1. Urinate, defecate, and vomit before boarding.
2, Screaming privileges are restricted to the pilot and copilot (if there is one.)
3. Immediately return any part of the aircraft that falls off in flight to its working place on the aircraft.
4. On disembarking, move directly away from the aircraft unless wearing a hardhat.
5. A handbook of handy Aleut survival terminology is available at the exits in the slim chance of of ditching over land.

Thank you for flying Reeves Alaskan Airways.

Ken is right about the spelling of Wien. The airline was Wien Air Alaska, founded by Noel Wien, a noted barnstormer and stunt flier who was the first pilot in Alaska back in the 1920s.

Noel died in 1977, so I never met him, but I was personally involved in the purchase and later sale in 1983 of Wien Air Alaska and I met Ray Peterson and brother Sig Wien.

My company bought WAA around 1979, just after the Airline Deregulation Act and in time for the second "oil shock" that wiped out its profitability. Contrary to what Merrill Wien, Noel's son, apparently thought, we were not corporate raiders at all, but simply stupid, thinking that the airline acquisition would "smooth out" earnings cycle from our financial businesses.

We loved the airline (and its three fishing camps in the Katmai National Monument) and we intended to build it up, but the purchase was a big mistake, as it turned out. The airline industry is a glamorous business, but extremely risky and almost never profitable.

My own first flights around the world, beginning back in 1964, were on (IIRC) Boeing 707s. The only flight I ever took on a DC-3 was through the mountain passes in Ecuador from Guayaquil to Quito and I did not much enjoy it.

Lots of times in northern Manitoba during the 1970's. Cold, noisy, slow, but always got to the places we were supposed to.

Yup, one of the most enjoyable rides in my aviation experience. Love the Gooney.

My dad was washed out at the very end of pilot training at Luke Field because of varicose veins by a new reporting flight surgeon.
He was sent to New Guinea as a crew chief on B17's. But ended up flying second seat on Gooney birds.
Later on when i was catching hops in VN i often wondered if the C47 i was catching a ride on had ever been in New Guinea.
I also caught a couple of hops on C117's.......Super DC3....."White Hat Airlines" out of Tan Son Nhut.

In addition to my previous post on this thread I also had the privilege of catching a hop on the Admiral of Pensacola's personal aircraft in May 1959 to Los Angles from NAS Norfolk. It was a two day trip spending the night at NAS Memphis. The aircraft was the Navy's equivalent to the DC-6B, an R6D with the interior being in Executive Dress. The pilot was one of the last Navy Enlisted Silver Eagles still on active duty. Upon arrival at Lockheed Airfield in LA I learned that the flight was the last place they sent aircraft for refurbishing before they fell out of the air.

Don't feel bad, I think a few years later Warren Buffet commented that not investing in airlines was a lesson he had to learn the hard way.

In 1960, I flew in a NW Airlines DC-3 between Billings, Helena, Bozeman and Missoula (MT) on my way to a summer job in Montana. In 1963 and 1964, I flew and jumped out of C-47's (Military version of the DC-3) as a Smokejumper. Some really neat memories.

http://www.c-7acaribou.com/album/jyphotos/jy_41.htm

We used to fly that close orbit out at the bomb dump on occasion.Sappers always trying to roman candle those guys.

In this shot, Spooky is working over an area directly behind the ROK camp, wasn't very far at all.

I flew in them a lot as a kid. Bonanza Airlines here flew them regionally. This line later became Hughes Air West.

My first flight was in a DC-3, Kansas City to Chicago.
Some years later flew from Lusaka, Zambia to Chipata in one.
Both flights were great adventures but for different reason.