Meanwhile in Chicago.....
Meanwhile in Chicago.....
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Nice flight to St Louis although we seem to have landed in the middle of a winter storm. That BBQ joint behind us is looking good though.
Let Being Helpful Be More Important Than Being Right.
Here are a couple of picture of our arrival at KCPS.
Nice flight from St Louis to Ottumwa Iowa. Until I tried to stop the C-46 at KOTM. Ended up having to lift off again. It was either that or go off the end of the runway into some trees. The big Curtiss just doesn't like to stop. But while I was nosing around at the local Swap n Shop, I spotted something interesting. Tail dragging cargo hauler with enough performance to keep up with those pesky Convairs. And it's pressureized too. With all that HP, short fields should be a snap. Looks like I'll be flying for Western Express for a while.
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Western Express didn't work out as planned so it was back to the Braniff C-46 for the flight to Sioux City. This is the same airport that that DC-10 crashed at trying to land with no controls but some really great piloting made all the difference in the world. Anyway, it was a nice early morning flight with the sun coming up behind us. About 25nm out from the airport I start slowing down so that I can land when I get there. One problem quickly popped up. The #2 engine's throttle was locked up in the full position. Couldn't get that engine to slow down no how. Thought about it for a minute and figured the best thing to do would be shut it down and feather the prop. But I seemed to remember in the back of my mind that one engine operations on a C-46 could be problematic at best. But then I wasn't fully loaded either. And the only other option I had would have been to belly it in and I wasn't fond of that idea even less.
So, I hit the feather button, pulled the mixture to cut off and flipped the magneto switches to off. By this time I was about 10nm out and started a few small manuvers to get the feel of the big Curtiss with only one engine. Didn't seem to be displaying any noticeable vices, but then I wasn't planning on any aerobatics with it either. So I pulled the throttle back to idle to let the plane slow down until I could drop the flaps and wheels and see how it flies then. At 130kias, I lower it all and surprisingly, the C-46 was pretty docile. By this time, I've got the runway in sight, so there was nothing for it but to line up and give it a go. One of the best landings I've done in the Commando. Taxiing & parking got interesting a few times when I needed to turn, but I managed to get it parked. Called the office and was told that they'd sold the aircraft to Delta and I was to collect my paycheck from them. A quick paint change, a little wrench turning on the #2 and we're back in bidness for the next flight...
ETA: Just wanted to add that California Classics has done an outstanding job with the C-46. It's probably in the top 3 freeware propliners out there. Plenty of features and I've got some decent payware that isn't this good. (my panel is not stock as I've redone it several times depending on current mood.)
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Hi There!
Old Dudley P. and me self, are practicing flying the Douglas DC-4 Eastern Airline Coach just in case we change over to four engine aircraft.
Ready to go at Chicago
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Rumor has it that Santa Fe is looking at C-46s. Every airline needs some light twins.
Flew to Ft Wayne last night.
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Decatur Illinois on this leg. Great flight!
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Hey there folks,
Well, here we are in Decatur preparing to contintue on to Bowman. Shouldn't be long before we are at Midway (KMDW) at Chicago. A very nice flight.
Note; Picture came out little, enlarge picture to note other members of Flight 19
Howdy!
Something is wrong, we have had some very nice flights here lately. All in all the weather has been fair for a change, not the normal kinds of weather we usually run into. Willy and his C-46 gave us a nice but short airshow at Bowman (KLOU), yep he finallly brought her down, but will be needing new brakes.
Willy, this one's for you...
"To some the sky is the limit. To others it is home" anon.
“Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new.” -Albert Einstein
Thanks Rob!
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Nothing like working for the railroad....
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I'm being told I need a pair of striped overalls and an engineers hat
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Nice flight to Springfield. Even with flying through a storm front...
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Hi yall!
Well, we are almost to Chicago where we maybe changing over to foure engine types. The Flight from KPAH to KSPI started with a lot of rain Barkley Regl airport, and of course we needed to fly right into the large storm heading south. All in all it was a godd and fun flight. The next flight is from KSPI to KALO.
Landed at Waterloo Now to see if there are any French emperors about.
Pic is me looking for a parking spot while Taco lands...
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Pulled up to the stop and swap at Midway Chicago. The aircraft got larger.
Open for "Bidness"
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The swap at Midway, (KMDW)
Rainy afternoon into West Memphis. Might as well do the Graceland tour while we are here.
Leaving Vicksburg (from what I figured out was the short runway airport), we flew on to New Orleans intending to land at KNEW Lakefront Airport. Weather reports indicated that Lakefront has less than 1 mile visibility and the big airport there KMSY had over 6 mile visibility. We elected to divert to KMSY. It puts us farther away from the French Quarter, but it just seemed like the prudent thing to do.
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We didn't fly last night. One guy was hungover and the other was still somewhere on Bourbon Street....
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I guess its Hello folks, me head is still swiming around from doing to much soda pop down on Bourdon street! hehe.I guess that where we were! While we were waiting for the rest of Flight 19 to show up I took a tour of KMSY. Took a lot of pictures, and some picture of our plane, but somewhere along the line a C-46 of WAL cargo showed up, and parked next to the C-46 Santa Fe, hey, they don't look to bad.
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