Heard a beautiful sound fly over this morning.

[John Schmidt]

Our house is in the pattern for the local GA airport, as well as the approach for OIA where the big boys go. Was doing my morning "beauty" treament and heard the unmistakeable sound of a big radial flying over...don't hear that often. A few minutes later, it came over again so I went outside and caught it on the third pass. It was a beautiful old C-47 with no paint except for the numbers, all polished metal. It shone like a diamond in the morning sun and wasn't more than 1500'. I just stood there and got my usual goose-bumps when I see/hear something like that. Then it dawned on me, this week is the Sun-N-Fun fly-in down in Lakeland, FL which is roughly 65 miles from me. The unusual traffic will increase during the week since a lot of those that fly in also stop in Orlando to take in the sights.

Soooo....guess where I'm headed later in the week. Sure glad I don't have much money, would hate to be forced into buying a Light Sport to play in.    One neat thing for bikers, we always have an area set aside right near the entrance, saves about a half-mile walk and if you get there early enough you can park in the shade.

[ChromeDome]

You have fun John and remember .... pictures .... bikes & planes.

[Michael K (Az.)]

John, you remember where I lived in Ormond Beach? The end of the local airport. Every Memorial Day (I think) they'd have a fly-in of sorts, a lot of bi-planes. Them puppies would buzz the casa 5-600 ft. or so! Cool!!

[John Schmidt]

I forgot how close it was to the a/p. When I was flying regularly I probably even buzzed you a couple times. Of course, at the time you didn't have the privilege of my acquaintance. 

[Michael K (Az.)]

Ha!


 

[Smokinjoe-VRCCDS#0005]

I had no clue what one looked like so I did a google search....Some called it " The Skytrain " .

[X Ring]

Officially it may have been known as the Skytrain but to the troops in WWII it was known as the Gooney Bird.  Fast forward 20 years to Vietnam, add 3 7.62mm mini guns and it was called Puff the Magic Dragon.   

[RP#62]

A fine old machine.  Back in the day, I used to maintain 6 of them.  I spent a lot of time changing motors all over the place.  When we were within hours of being finished, I'd call ops and tell them to send a crew to come get the airplane.  Half the time, they couldn't spare 2 pilots so they'd send a captain out (all our captain's had CFIs) and he'd fly left seat and I'd fly right seat  and he'd sign me off for dual cross country.

The one in this pic below (one of mine) and the C47 in Joes above were P&W powered.  You can tell by the length of the cowl.  The 1830 was a double row radial whereas the Wright 1820 was a single row and consequently had a shorter cowl. (We used to call the Wright- powered airplanes DC 2 and a halfs.
-RP

[Big Rig]

There was an outfit that used to fly them from Miami area into Key West in the late 70's early 80's. Had the priviledge to fly on one....500 over the keys and the flats...amazing, only wished I had a video camera for that flight...

Low and slow is what the captain said...

[John Schmidt]

Back a number of years, my former wife(also held a private ticket) and I were flying a C-172 to Mountain Home, Ark. for Thanksgiving with my folks. We usually would stop in Holly Springs, SE of Memphis for the last fuel and leg stretch. This one time after crossing over Memphis, we saw heavy weather in front so headed north with the intention of landing at Walnut Ridge, Ark. if necessary. About five miles out of Walnut Ridge we started to pick up some ice in a slight mist, but the worst weather was still to the west. By the time we landed, things were getting pretty interesting and I landed under full power....a three point arrival actually. I told my wife to check the underside of the wing for tire marks since we landed so hard. Don't think we would have stayed aloft another five minutes.

Anyway, shortly after we landed and made it into the FBO where there was also an adjoining cafe, we heard the roar of a radial and everyone went to see. It was an old C-47 with one engine out, it just taxied up close to the fence and shut down. Three Latin American looking guys got out, talked to the FBO operator, called a cab and disappeared. Later that night(we spent part of the night on their couches), the local constable decided he wanted to nose around a little so finally was able to get inside the plane...not sure what he did to gain entrance. It had windows but they were all covered with tape, that's what made him curious I guess. The plane was gutted of seats, but was full of 55 gal. drums with lids bolted down with a ring that fit around the top. He opened one up and it was full of automatic weapons. Opened three more...same thing, plus some grenades I'm told. You can imagine the excitement of a small town cop, he thought he had hit the mother lode of smuggling. So, he called the FBI, the State Police, and anybody else he could think of, all said they'd be there in the morning...first thing. So, our local goes home to get a good night's rest for his big day. During the night, we heard some commotion and peeked out. There were four large trucks with a group of maybe 20 men, unloading the plane. We decided it was time to sneak out the other end of the building, then walked about a half mile to a motel. The next morning about 10:00a.m., all the various enforcement people showed up and the local cop....with much flourish, swung open the door, only to be faced with a plane full of empty drums. He immediately jumped down my throat, wanting to know why I didn't call him. I said nothing, just showed him my motel receipt and he walked away grumbling. Always wondered who the stuff belonged to, and where it ended up that night. There was evidence they tried to get in the FBO bldg. so I'm glad we left.

[RP#62]

There was an outfit that used to fly them from Miami area into Key West in the late 70's early 80's. Had the priviledge to fly on one....500 over the keys and the flats...amazing, only wished I had a video camera for that flight...

Low and slow is what the captain said...

That was us.  We were based in Key West and affiliated with National Airlines at the time.  We flew Key West, Marathon, Miami, Tampa, West Palm and charters to Cancun.  When we got the Convairs we'd launch one in the morning to Kissimmee via Miami and the other to Kissimmee via Tampa. They'd cross paths in the middle and end up back in Key West.  We used to have a lot of fun.
-RP