The 1986 CELEBRATION: the 50th Anniversary of the DC-3

These images were all shot at Abbotsford Airport in British Columbia during the Celebration Flight of the 50th Anniversary of the DC-3 over the Expo Canada grounds in Vancouver, B.C. in the summer of 1986.
DC-3 anniversary photo by Bill Bailey
DC-3 anniversary photo by Bill Bailey
Bill Bailey took almost all of these photos except for a couple that were captured by a friend of his.

NOTE:  These are just the first few of the photos;
he sent a boatload of images. Stay tuned for more!

“I was working for the Museum of Flight in Seattle,” says Bailey, “and I used a few friends’ contacts to get ride passes for my best friend and  ‘Brother from another Mother’ W.R. (Bill) Downing and his son Garrett. The three of us were assigned to N3FY owned by Salair, along with a couple other airplanes in the group.”
There were 23 planes involved, says Bailey. “There were supposed to be 24, but the last one (another Salair airplane) was held up waiting for freight; it is shown making a flyby among the last few images after we had landed. There is also the Canadian aircraft ‘Odyssey 86’ that was heading out on the start of a successful around-the-world flight.”
DC-3 anniversary photo by Bill Bailey
DC-3 anniversary photo by Bill Bailey
“After we were driven out to the flight line from the terminal area we had some time to wander about and shoot photos of the various airplanes before an assembly call to mount up on our assigned airplanes. After start-up and then sitting for a few minutes, we waddled out in line and took off in a line astern formation with a 30-second separation. They had applied for a formation flight weeks before, but Transport Canada said NO WAY!
DC-3 anniversary photo by Bill Bailey
DC-3 anniversary photo by Bill Bailey
We could barely see each other in the cloudy/foggy sky. After takeoff we flew around for a few minutes to get everybody in line and then headed over to the EXPO site and did the flyover, then from there it was over Vancouver Island, then a left turn to the San Juan Islands and descend to minimum altitude and we buzzed Ernie Gann’s house. I couldn’t see him, but the guys in the cockpit could and they said he was jumping up and down and waving like crazy.”
DC-3 anniversary photo by Bill Bailey
DC-3 anniversary photo by Bill Bailey

“From there another left turn over to Bellingham, then inland and another left to head north back to Abbotsford. After landing it was all grins, backslapping, and ‘Man, that was fun, let’s do it again,’ until it started to rain, so then the party was over. Most of us got soaked getting back to the terminal area since our transportation was the same as it had been going out — in the back of an open pickup truck.”


This post and photos are from Bill Bailey, who describes himself as a “hardcore certified airplane nut.” He says his specialty is seaplanes and flying boats, “but if it has wings, I’m interested. My computer/backup hard drives have over 500,000 images of aircraft including firebombers. My dad was a pilot starting in the early 1930s, building time, flying for a number of small outfits, and he got his seaplane rating in a Gulf Oil Co. Grumman Goose in 1939. On December 1, 1941 he started flying for Pan American Airways during WWII as an instructor training Army and Navy pilots on flying boats in the Sikorsky S-40s and S-42s and then later he switched over to the DC-3 / C-47, still training military pilots — and later still the DC-4 as a Check Airman for PAA, giving check rides to PAA line pilots. Before PAA he had been a corporate pilot with a company in New Orleans, and after leaving PAA in January 1949, he returned to the same company  and started flying Grumman Widgeons, which is where I got my interest in them. I’m now known as ‘Mr. Widgeon,’ a handle my wife first gave me when I was looking for my first email name, but has since grown to be a lot more.”

“I have a pretty large collection of Widgeon images, over 220 of the 317 Grumman and SCAN-30 (a French-built Widgeon) airframes. I have ridden on over 14 different Widgeons, flown eight of those, and helped rebuild two of them. I also helped two authors with their books with Widgeon information. I’ve ridden in all of the other Grumman Amphibians except the Duck (Goose, Mallard and Albatross), so if anyone has a Duck and gets near the Twin Falls, Idaho area, please let me know — I’d like to check that last box!”

Thanks ever so much to Bill Bailey for the photos and history!! 

 

Happy Anniversary DC-3 and her fans

Miss Montana, in case you didn’t know, was the jump ship at Mann Gulch in 1949. Her story’s here. The [late] tanker pilot Chuck Ott of Alaska and Montana fame used to say in his retirement years that he’d really like to fly a DC-3 one more time before he died. I don’t think he got to.

Miss Montana

KPAX TV — the best broadcaster in Montana — has a terrific collection of info and photos online. And thanks to Connor and  EAA.org for the heads-up!

Restored Mann Gulch DC-3 test flown before leaving for Normandy

Volunteers hope to fly the aircraft to Europe to commemorate the 75th anniversary of D-Day June 5-6

Miss Montana takes off on its first flight in 18 years. Screen grab from a shaky video shot in a helicopter.

The restoration of the DC-3 that dropped smokejumpers on the Mann Gulch Fire in 1949 is nearly complete as the departure date for its flight to Normandy looms. Named Miss Montana, the plane had not been flown since 2001, meaning the volunteers working on the project for the last year or so have had plenty on their to-do list.

Sunday’s test flight, the first time it has left the ground in 18 years, went better than expected said Jeff Whitesell, who will be the chief pilot when it leaves Montana later this week for Normandy to help commemorate the 75th anniversary of D-Day on June 5-6 along with many other DC-3s that are being flown in from around the world. A group of 15 men and women will parachute from Miss Montana during planned events in England and France.

Later in the week, after the test flights, Miss Montana took to the air again and dropped jumpers. That video is below.

Another DC-3 that hopefully completes its restoration in time to fly to Normandy is a project being conducted by Mikey McBryan of Buffalo Airways. Buffalo, based in the northern part of the Northwest Territories, operates several air tankers, including a P3 undergoing major maintenance at Sacramento McClellan Airport. (UPDATE May 16, 2019: Darryl tells us the Buffalo DC-3 will not go to Normandy, but they hope to have it finished by D-Day.)

 

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Beautiful day in CYHU. Forecast was rain. 😉 Going to put fuel in for the first time!

A post shared by Mikey McBryan (@mikeymcbryan) on

Volunteers prepare Mann Gulch C-47 for a flight to Normandy, France

It will participate in a commemoration of the 75th anniversary of D-Day in World War II

C-47 D-Day
On D-Day 821 C-47s flew in a V of Vs formation to Normandy.

For months volunteers have been working on the C-47 that took smokejumpers to the Mann Gulch Fire in 1949. The blaze claimed the lives of 12 of them and also one former jumper who had been fighting the fire for 4 hours before the others arrived.

The Missoulian has an interesting article about what is being done to the plane to prepare it for a flight to Europe to participate in a commemoration of the 75th anniversary of D-Day in World War II. Below is an excerpt from the article:

…[Kim] Maynard, of Missoula, was one of the nation’s first female smokejumpers in 1982. She and husband Al Charters, a former Green Beret high-altitude jump specialist — the “sky god,” she called him — were among the first to sign on to a crew that will take to the skies over Normandy, France, with vintage chutes for the 75th anniversary of D-Day in World War II.

Like dozens of other volunteers, they’ve been showing up for months to work on the iconic Douglas C-47 Miss Montana that’ll take them there.

“When this came to the museum it was the Mann Gulch plane. Now it’s getting a whole new life,” Maynard said, referring to the aircraft’s history in its Johnson Flying Service days. Fifteen smokejumpers were dispatched on a fire north of Helena in 1949. All but three died that tragic August day.

The mission in the museum hangar is to make Miss Montana airworthy to join the D-Day Squadron and Daks Over Normandy and fly on to a commemoration of the Berlin Airlift. Then she’ll return to spend her next life traveling across the country, representing Montana and those who died in the service of the United States…

FYI: A C-47 is a variant of the Douglas DC-3. From Charlesmcccain.com:

According to the history section of Boeing (which acquired the legacy corporation which had merged with the Douglas Aircraft Company), only 455 DC-3 commercial aircraft were actually built for the airlines. After making requested modifications to the DC-3 design, a further 10,174 aircraft were produced for the armed forces as the C-47 military transports during World War II. The design specifications are slightly different.

DC-3 air tanker used for dust control in Thailand

The turbine-powered aircraft was operated by the Thai Air Force

BT-67 DC-3 Thailand
A BT-67, modified from a DC-3, is used to improve the air quality in Thailand. Thai PBS photo.

Thai PBS tweeted this photo of a DC-3 dropping water in an effort to improve the air quality in Thailand on January 15, 2019.

The air tanker made several drops of 790 gallons each near Don Mueang Air Force Base and in the Chatuchak area.

Thai PBS described the mission. This excerpt has been very crudely translated by Google Translate:

The Air Force brought the BT-67 aircraft from the 46th Airborne Division, Phitsanulok Province to carry 3,000 liters of water in the tank under the machine. Flying water droplets at a height of about 1,500 feet around the Don Mueang Air Force Base as the first area In order to alleviate PM 2.5 dust problems that are beyond the standard value until they start affecting health.

Type 2 transport aircraft, or BT-67 aircraft belonging to the 46th Air Force Division, Phitsanulok, are aircraft that the Air Force uses to support the missions of the Royal Rain Flying to control wildfire. And water spraying, water spray, alleviating haze / dust problems. In which the flight of the water lapses, each flight will carry water to scatter about 3,000 liters per trip. Scattering water from the height above the target area Which will cause water droplets to spread over a wide area And capture with dust to alleviate the severity of the problem.

It is not clear from the roughly translated article if the water drops are expected to physically remove particulates as the water drifts downward, or if it will wet the ground to reduce the amount of dust that becomes airborne.

The aircraft has had its radial engines replaced with turbine engines. The conversion by Basler results in the aircraft’s model name changing from DC-3 to BT-67.

According to Wikipedia:

The conversion includes fitting the airframe with new Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6A-67R turboprop engines, lengthening the fuselage, strengthening the airframe, upgrading the avionics, and making modifications to the wings’ leading edges and wing tips.

Due to the slightly higher fuel consumption of the turbine engines of the BT-67, compared to the original piston designs fitted to the standard DC-3, range on the standard fuel tank, with 45 minute reserve, is reduced from 1,160 to 950 nautical miles (2,150 to 1,760 km). Basler provides a long-range fuel tank which increases the aircraft range to 2,140 nmi (3,960 km).

Thanks and a tip of the hat go out to Isaac.
Typos or errors, report them HERE.

Mann Gulch DC-3 to fly to Europe for 75th anniversary of D-Day

Much work has to be done on the aircraft before the event in 2019

Above: Removal of victims at the 1949 Mann Gulch Fire. USFS photo.

The aircraft that dropped the smokejumpers who attacked the Mann Gulch Fire in 1949 is scheduled to cross the Atlantic next year to take part in the 75th commemoration of D-Day. The fire in Montana on which 12 jumpers and one fire guard died in 1949 is infamous among wildland firefighters as its memory lives on when more generations read about the tragedy in Norman Maclean’s book Young Men and Fire.

The Missoulian has the story about how numerous volunteers are mobilizing to work on the 74-year old aircraft’s airworthiness and regulatory compliance — it has not been in the air since 2001.

Below is an excerpt from the article:

It seems preposterous.

Take an historic, over-the-hills smokejumper plane that was last airborne in 2001, fix it up to federal standards, and fly it to Europe next year for the 75th anniversary of D-Day. Maybe even drop jumpers into France, pulling ripcords of old-fashioned round parachutes and wearing suits their grandfathers used during the Normandy invasion in France on June 6, 1944.

And while you’re there, hit Germany to take part in the 70th anniversary commemoration of the Berlin Airlift (1948-49).

A beautiful DC-3

While at Sacramento McClellan Airport last week I couldn’t take my eyes off a particular airplane. It was a DC-3 with a highly-polished bare metal finish. Built in 1939 for Major General Henry ‘Hap’ Arnold, it was used for VIP transport for himself and military command staff, as well as other high ranking officials including the Secretary of War. It was based at Bolling Army Airfield, Washington D.C.

DC-3 at McClellan
DC-3 at McClellan, March 15, 2018. Photo by Bill Gabbert
DC-3 at McClellan
DC-3 at McClellan, March 15, 2018. Photo by Bill Gabbert

In case you’re wondering, the bottom photo was not captured or converted to black & white. It’s just that virtually all that was there was black, shades of gray, or white.  The images above are low resolution. You can get your own high-res copy, framed or unframed, and without the watermark.
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