....was stuff up the OP and somehow lose the text....
I flew out of Essendon [Victoria] to the place where I was born [King Island - part of Tassie....in Bass Strait] on a 1945 Douglas C-47 aka [now] DC3.
I hadn't been back there since I left at the age of 3 weeks....58 years ago....in one of these things going the other way....[albeit 58 years younger...me AND the plane].
It was an absolute buzz.... nothing like 'normal' commercial flights..... being able to chat to the air crew during flight, take photos, etc.
Now I just need to skin it in my flight sim....
Oh....that thing in the air in the background is Elsie ....an Erickson Air Crane water bomber....just coming down-under for our bushfire season.
When we got back there were two.... 'Elvis had entered the building'...
WOW! I bet that was GREAT fun!! I love those old planes.....
Those things are a bit of a thrill. I've been on several, not sure if they've been that exact model, but close enough. "We" (whoever that was) used to call them "puddle-jumpers". There's something a little raw about being on them, seems like the way we were meant to fly. Jets are kind of a detached experience by comparison. Jets will get you there a lot faster though The props will get you places the jets won't though.
Nice Paul! I flew on those while in the USAF and stationed in Athens, Greece in the early 1970's. They had about six of them stationed there and they ferried supplies. Can't say it was the smoothest ride in the world but it sure was interesting!
We had the old C-118's and C-124's come in there too.
A not-too-scruffy photo at about 100-120 knots over Melbourne heading North to Essendon Airport. The MCG is top-right, the Tennis Center is the roofed stadium just below. The spire is the Arts Center, and the railway station center-left is Flinders Street.
Not the best model to skin .... not a native FSX so it doesn't have Spec shine....and there are bits that can't be painted.
It's outside the actual hangar at Essendon. The building with the flag was the original Terminal...pre WW2 .... strangely devoid of detail mapping on the side.... but it's where we left from.....[the real one, not the model]...
Oh ...and the 'O' in the call-sign should be a rounded square, not an ordinary 'O'.... but I got lazy....
Nice job!
Love planes from that era. Must have been a gas.
Apropos of nothing in particular, I got to 'fly' a full 737 simulator for a couple of hours at Southwest's flight training facility in Dallas a couple of years ago. Stuck a few landings, did some simulated rough weather & even formation flying in the thing - ton of fun. My only flying experience prior to that was as a commercial passenger.
My pilot co-conspirator made me promise not to tell, but the things are remarkably easy to fly (in usual attitudes, that is). Hardest thing about it was steering it on the ground.
Gotta loves those DC3s! Bear of a plane!
Wow, Lucky you...too bad.. not had a money to paid for training fly aircraft nor buy own aircraft...
WWII era C-47's were the workhorse of the US Army Air Corp. They towed the gliders towards Normandy in 1944, ferried supplies 'over the hump', the Himalayas, into Burma. Troop transports I believe and there was a version used in Viet Nam, had a really weird name, used as a gun platform. Even built a 48th. scale model of one. Back then the cost of one was less than 10 bucks. Today..........if it is even available, ten times that. Now that was fun!
The old Gooney Bird was called Puff, the Magic Dragon.
In Vietnam, the AC-47 gunship, called Spooky or Puff the Magic Dragon, could be devastating on a night combat mission.
http://www.defensemedianetwork.com/stories/the-beloved-gooney-bird-turns-75/
Nice one, Paul.........Those opportunities don't come round that often. I read and study a lot of WW2 aviation stuff in the little spare time that I have and one of my big ambitions is to fly in something from that era. I've flown in quite a few fixed and rotor wing craft from the 80's.......and watched the Battle of Britain flight many times...........I'd give my right arm to fly in that Lancaster!