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That Old Familiar Sound

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  • That Old Familiar Sound

    That Old Familiar Sound

    I happen to live in Indianapolis on the five mile final to runways 22 at Indianapolis International (Wier Cook) Airport.

    As I was fiddling in the front yard, working on a continuing joint project of my grandsons and I which they call Fort Cardell, a name they created from the first letters of their front names. I had a bunch of cedar stockade fence donated to me by a neighbor. When the last visited they put to work stacking it around the fort so they could have some 'security'. The wind kept blowing it down so I am busy storing it for a future project (cedar lasts forever, nearly). I attached a railing at the gutter line and am pinning the palings so they'll STORE orderly and the kids will still have their fence.

    Anyway, I heard the familiar throb of round engines, two of them, coming from the north. As the aircraft approached I could see it was a DC-3 and as it passed over I could read DELTA AIRLINES painted along its glistening fuselage. The aircraft was making a right turn-in to the airport and its landing gear was scissoring downward out of the nacelles.

    I surmised, since, ahem, I am worldly and knowledgeable about such things, that it was returning from Oshkosh's EAA Convention and making a fuel stop at our airport on its way back to Atlanta.

    Several years ago I saw a Delta DC-3 at Oshkosh. If you were lucky enough to go aboard (and I wasn't) you had to wear special slippers to keep from soiling the interior with common shoes.

    It is a gorgeous restoration. I can't say this is the same aircraft but you can interpolate. I wished I'd had some kids around to tell them that was the first airliner type that I ever saw, back in 1937. You see, I am not only worldly, I am OLD. Enjoy . . . . . .

    Len_Ashburn@Prodigy.Net

  • #2
    Re: That Old Familiar Sound

    Len,

    I'm maybe not as "old" but I still remember the -3 when in service. Back when I was a kid in Reno, that airplane mainly served what was then called.. I think... Canon Airport.

    There were a few Fairchild TP's in and out, as well as some types, I was too young to know/care about, but for the "bigs" like United, you'd hop on a -3 take off, circle a few times to gain enough alt to get over the mountains and then off to the west and SFO to connect with the "real airplanes" of the day...

    First time a B727 came to town, it was like watching a rocket ship take off!

    Wayne
    Wayne Sagar
    "Pusher of Electrons"

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    • #3
      Re: That Old Familiar Sound

      Ah, I recall DC-3s in service as corporate aircraft with P&G based at KLUK. They followed with Gulfstream Is, IIs, IVs and a few Challengers. And now they are upgrading to G-V/550s. Remember, choosy mothers choose Jiff! I'd be a choosy mother about my A/C, too!
      Rutan Long EZ, N-LONG
      World Speed Record Holder

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      • #4
        Re: That Old Familiar Sound

        Originally posted by Peashooter
        Ah, I recall DC-3s in service as corporate aircraft with P&G based at KLUK. They followed with Gulfstream Is, IIs, IVs and a few Challengers. And now they are upgrading to G-V/550s. Remember, choosy mothers choose Jiff! I'd be a choosy mother about my A/C, too!
        Peas, like most of us, I still get a glassy feeling whenever I see a -3 *anywhere* and or in any state of repair/disrepair.

        It's certainly been said before but that airplane either came along at just the right time or it's one hell of an airplane (or both) I suspect, it is, indeed, one HELL of an airplane, based almost solely on how many are still "workers" in the freight business...

        I've yet to fly on one but hope to rectify that come November.. (fingers xed)

        Wayne
        Wayne Sagar
        "Pusher of Electrons"

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        • #5
          Re: That Old Familiar Sound

          My one-and-only DC-3 ride was on Island Airways from St. Thomas to San Juan in 1990. I was on a bare boat charter with my bro and our wives. Our Twin Otter was taken by the preceeding flight due to equipment malfunction. So the airline marched us over to IA to ride the -3. Our wives were petrified, but my bro and I were all over it. I nabbed a seat by the left engine and enjoyed the whole sensation, cowl shake and all.

          My very first airplane ride was in a Ford Tri-Motor. I was about 4 and we took the ride over the islands from Put-In-Bay on Lake Erie.

          For being born in 1956, I sound like a frickin' old-timer! It was so last Century...
          Rutan Long EZ, N-LONG
          World Speed Record Holder

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          • #6
            Re: That Old Familiar Sound

            My first ride in -3 was a couple of years ago at the Grass Valley Air Fest.
            What a treat!!!

            Lonnie

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