(DC-3) Pilots may get a kick out of this... or maybe not.

[230RN]

VIDEO: THE DC3 IN COLOMBIA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-F-cBF5ZbQ

Very interesting that there were that many still punching clouds as of the date (?) of the video.  Very interesting maintenance efforts on one engine.

In one segment they are flying a load of gasoline in to a dangerous airport the pilot has never flown into before.  The copilot blesses herself before takeoff at ~22:28.

Terry, Not a Pilot but interested in anything aero, 230RN

[tokugawa]

Thanks- fun video.  The part that would really concern me as a passenger is knowing the crew does not get paid unless they fly........talk about a perverse  incentive for safety!

[Fitz]

Fun segment on basler remanufacturing DC3s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yAHcAbxuu00

[Hawkmoon]

Fun segment on basler remanufacturing DC3s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yAHcAbxuu00

You beat me to it.

I would love to own (and fly) a DC-3.

[jim in anchorage]

I worked at Anchorage airport a while back and there are several DC3's based there. Working planes, not hanger Queens. I loved the sound of those unmuffled twin radials firing up. It was like being at the drag races.

[bedlamite]

Then there's Lidia, crashed and recovered in Antarctica:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v5NicZ6aNpM

[Hawkmoon]

Then there's Lidia, crashed and recovered in Antarctica:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v5NicZ6aNpM

So did Lidia fly again?

They replaced the engines with modern turboprop units. That's what Basler does, too, and from a practical standpoint it makes good sense. However, the purist in me struggles to accept that change as "a good thing."

[230RN]

^ Me too.  

I have a primitive preference for R-r-r-r-r-Pop! r-r-r Smoke puff rrrr Bangrrrrrr flamerrrr Popopopopclank Bang big gout of smoke rrrrr bang! P-tocka-p-tocka-ptockptocka ptocka rumblerumblerumble, as opposed to a mere whine whine whine WHINE ROAR.

DC-3 Startup:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=23iCuMl00nA

Let alone with four radial engines:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJ_RSCw8v7U

Now thass what Ah'm talkin' about.

Terry

ETA: Decided not to put this bit of trivia in this post, then changed my mind.

I watch a lot of those radial startups --what the hell, I'm retired --and I always wondered what all the clanking was as the engine rotated. Was it a bad bearing? Or what?  Seemed so common it couldn't have been a bad bearing in all of them.

It's quite obvious in the second vid from about 0:47 till the engine starts, while they're cranking that first engine and everything else is relatively quiet.

Turns out after some poking around that it's the "impulse magneto" which makes all the clanking.

Here's how it works>

With the engine turning over slowly from the starter, the magneto magnets aren't moving fast enough past the magneto coils to generate a reliable decent spark.

So what they do is put a slip-cam in the magneto so that as its shaft rotates, it builds up tension in a rotary spring until the cam slips off its pawl and the shaft suddenly spins real fast for ~half a revolution so a good spark is generated.

This is repeated for each cylinder in firing order until the engine is rotating fast enough on its own to generate a good spark from the magneto.  The "clank" is from the cam suddenly being released from its pawl.

This "impulse" system appears in both magnetos.  Thus the clanking noise from the engines on starting.

[Hawkmoon]

DC-3 Startup:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=23iCuMl00nA

Now you're speaking my language.

[roo_ster]

Neat videos.  I always thought the DC3 was the mos beautiful of the prop airliners.  Heck, it is more beautiful than most any other sort of prop plane, IMO.

That first video has the fatalism I soon learned was common with those from south of the border.

[Boomhauer]

I always thought the DC3 was the mos beautiful of the prop airliners.

Even though the DC-3 is a great bird, the Connie beats the DC-3 any day of the week.

[Hawkmoon]

Even though the DC-3 is a great bird, the Connie beats the DC-3 any day of the week.

Sez you.

Another vote for the Gooney Bird.

[230RN]

Connie's pretty, but you can't just jump into her, start 'er up, and take off, can you?  I think you can do that, even without a co-pilot, in the DC-3.

Somebody enlighten me on that.

I seem to vaguely recall someone (Arthur Godfrey?  Senator Barry Goldwater?) doing that on occasion with his private DC-3.

Terry

[roo_ster]

Even though the DC-3 is a great bird, the Connie beats the DC-3 any day of the week.

Pretty, but not the wonderful lines and shapes that many 1930s aesthetic projects embody.

[just Warren]

Given their continued utility you'd think someone would tool up to make new ones.

The short-haul high-value cargo trade could use these. Instead of sending trucks from LA to PHX or LV or SF and having them take 3-6 hours to do that, put higher-value or more time sensitive cargo on a DC 3 and cut transit time by a third or better. Then off-load onto a strictly local carrier and with any luck there's a new load waiting there so you don't have to deadhead back. (However you could save about eight hours on the LA to POR route so maybe it's at ranges like that where the real value is.)


With the DC 3's ability to use short runways of almost any condition you would have a lot of options as to where you could fly into or out of. Of course I don't know the procedure of getting an airstrip approved and that alone could be a deal breaker.  The system would need a lot of flexibility to be feasible so not being able to bring new strips online could kill the idea.

So local carrier from factory location to, with any luck, very local airstrip to (very local) airstrip via DC 3 to end user location via local carrier. Is it possible to achieve enough savings to be worth it? I don't know.

Of course if this idea had value I'm sure someone would be doing it (and maybe they are somewhere (and maybe there's another plane type that is doing it)) but then maybe there are not enough DC 3s flying to be available for this concept. Because I'm imagining a huge number of planes as they would take over a significant amount of trucking traffic.

[Boomhauer]

Well for one thing to build new ones at the original price would be about 1.3 million dollars today, and I'd wager it would actually cost a good bit more due to liability and other factors.

The short-haul high-value cargo trade could use these

The freight dogs are using old Learjets, King Airs, and *expletive deleted*it like that to accomplish that mission all the time.

http://www.aopa.org/News-and-Video/All-News/2004/November/1/My-Life-as-a-Freight-Dog

Remember there is a lot that goes into operating an aircraft. Acquisition and operation costs are but one thing, finding qualified crew and paying them plus insurance is another. I don't know the specifics of DC-3 operation so I can't tell you what the insurance company is going to want as far as airfield and crew requirements. Things are different out in the bush and foreign countries to some extent, too.





 

[just Warren]

Learjets et al are fine but that doesn't do anything to fill the skies with DC 3s.

[Chuck Dye]

In earlly 1972 a friend of one of my father's officers passed through town. I had just inherited some loot and was invited to invest in a DC-3, head for Africa, and join the freelance freight business.  Life and luck intervened and it did not happen.  A few months later the same officer took me aside and said my would be partner was last seen hanging from a prop shaft somewhere in Africa. Rather spoiled me a bit on the DC-3.

[Hawkmoon]

A few months later the same officer took me aside and said my would be partner was last seen hanging from a prop shaft somewhere in Africa. Rather spoiled me a bit on the DC-3.

I think that would have spoiled me on Africa rather than DC-3s.

[grampster]

As a young guy, I remember sitting at the end of the runway and watching those old tail draggers come and go.

[Angel Eyes]

As a young guy, I remember sitting at the end of the runway and watching those old tail draggers come and go.

Is that you on the right?

[grampster]

Yep.

[tokugawa]

I want a DeHaviland Beaver on floats. Can one of you guys buy me one please? i will be especially grateful if it has a PT6 turbine conversion. If this is too much, a Helio Courier on tundra tires or maybe a C 206 on floats.....? I will send you nice postcards from Alaska! 
 

[Firethorn]

Given their continued utility you'd think someone would tool up to make new ones.

I figure that they're maintaining 'sufficient' stocks via continued expansion of airports that can sustain newer/different aircraft, refurbishment of the old ones, etc...  Just not a large enough market for a replacement, yet.