If you read or hear about a DC-3...

Aaack, Dave, that's awful!! I'm glad it missed your house. I just barely got home and will go check the news site.

I understand they're still using these old crocks on commercial operations over there Dave. Even the newest have to be 50-odd years old. Are there many of them?

GG

quote:

Aaack, Dave, that's awful!! I'm glad it missed your house.

Not as glad as Dave is.

Obviously not enough turns on the jolly old elastic, what?

Emo

There are a lot of those old gooney birds around. They are work horses all over the world where they can not afford the new fancy jets. They are also great for old short runways, and the non modified ones are tail draggers. Being tail draggers, they are useful on grass and packed dirt runways that are all theat some countries have available. Also, they would still make a good dope runner, etc..

Glad to hear that pilot had the smarts to land it while he still had the control to do so and not wait till it stalled out and spun down into some house, church, playground, mall, etc.

Also, glad you are OK as was everyone else.

I'm not too surprised the airframes are still going. I had a look underneath the centre-section of one a few years ago - more rivets than the Forth Bridge!

What surprises me is that the engines are still going, or are they converted to turbo-props these days?

GG

[_Survivors!_]

R2

quote:

Originally posted by Dave:
...that crashed in Ft. Lauderdale, FL today; it was less than 16 blocks due east from my house. Scary!

How far is 16 blocks, Dave - how big is a block?

As the 'plane was full of fuel I'd guess that 'far enough' would suffice.

[_ M A P _]

R2

quote:

Originally posted by Gardengnome:
I'm not too surprised the airframes are still going. I had a look underneath the centre-section of one a few years ago - more rivets than the Forth Bridge!

What surprises me is that the engines are still going, or are they converted to turbo-props these days?

GG

As far as I know, they are still the plain gas engines. Some of the turbo-props have a bad habit of running away. That is part of the reason the old USAF C133 cargo planes were finally banned (besides the cargo door).

Besides the cargo door - what?

I found this quote; "If there was a flaw with the C-133, it was their tendency to fall out of the sky for unexplained reasons", but no mention of runaway turboprops or cargo doors.

GG

quote:

Originally posted by Gardengnome:
Besides the cargo door - what?

Another reason the cargo planes were banned? First reason is the running away habit. "This is part of the reason ..."

That's what it sounds like to me.

quote:

Not originally posted by Gardengnome:
I found this quote; "If there was a flaw with the C-133, it was their tendency to fall out of the sky for unexplained reasons", but no mention of runaway turboprops or cargo doors.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Gardengnome, June 16, 2005 05:02AM (PST)

"Lol"

quote:

That is part of the reason the old USAF C133 cargo planes were finally banned

Very interesting Shop.

Remind me never to accept a lift in one of those old crocks! 52 built, 10 lost in crashes, and 6 of those over water so the cause not established. 20% loss rate!

A remarkably similar crate to the C130 Herc - high wing, high tail, four turboprop, sponson undercart and rear cargo doors. The uninitiated would easily mix the two up, yet the Herc is still being built over forty years on and the Douglas is (best) forgotten.

I wonder how they got it so wrong.

GG

quote:

Originally posted by Mike From West Yorkshire:

How far is 16 blocks, Dave - how big is a block?

Mike,
Sorry about the delay, but I sometimes don't log on to the forums every day. I believe there is a unit of linear measure called a "BLOCK", but I don't know what it is. I live on 1st Avenue just south of 56th Street and the DC-3 went down on 56th Street near 17th Avenue. That is about a mile or so from my house.

block:
a: the piece of wood on which the neck of a person condemned to be beheaded is laid for execution