DC3.

[Siddley Hawker]

CP was jxxx mxxxx Pxx at the time. man... so long ago!!..

Colonel Sanders! I knew him at Wheeler in 1967. He had been based in either Fort Chimo or Frobisher with the Dornier, I believe.
Send me that info via e-mail.

[302sc]

WOW !! nobody would have called him that to his face in fort chimo. He was a BIG man with BIG HANDS last I heard some years ago was that he went to TC in Montreal.

[Moose47]

<<<<<Siddley Hawker
Colonel Sanders! I knew him at Wheeler in 1967. He had been based in either Fort Chimo or Frobisher with the Dornier, I believe.>>>

Speaking of Wheeler, did you know the pilot (Chapman) and engineer who were killed (along with the pilot's wife) in 1967, when their Beech 18 on flats hit a crag on the Mealey Mountains in bad WX. The pilot's son Brent and I were in school together at R.C.A.F. Station Goose Bay at the time.

Cheers...Chris

[Siddley Hawker]

Yeah 302 that's where he went.

Moose I never met Chapman, but I knew of him. The guy in the right seat of the Beech was Gordon Waye, whom I did know. Went to high school with him and we had a beer together the night before they left Sept-Iles. He was on his way to Goose to pick up a 180 to bring back here for change over. They hit a mountain between Lake Manitou and Magpie Lake, right on the airway. I heard Chapman's wife survived the impact, she was thrown clear and died of exposure. It was a couple of days before anyone got in there, the weather was pretty duff.

[302sc]

J C

I did

[Siddley Hawker]

302 was there a Laurentian DC-3 pilot in Scheff, initials RL, when you were there? He had a bit of a checkered career, at one time having spent some time as a guest of uncle Fidel down in the workers paradise. His connection with the Schefferville area had come about earlier, back in 1953 or so. He'd left Narsarsuaq for Goose with a Lockheed Lodestar, with a load of Arab gentlemen, eventual destination Montreal. They lost all their radios out over the Labrador Sea, and had absolutely no idea where they were, running on time and heading. Eventually they were getting low on gas, when all of a sudden they saw a light shining up through the clouds. The pilot thought it was the lights of a weather ship in the Labrador Sea, off the coast somewhere, and made the decision to ditch alongside. He did a split ass turn down through the clouds, and there was a lit runway, so he cranked the gear down and landed. He'd briefed the passengers for a water landing, and didn't have time to unbrief them, so the people on the ground were greeted by the sight of this unidentified airplane landing, rolling to a stop and the door opening, with the first thing out being a life raft, followed by four or five gentlemen in robes and burnooses (burneese?). Here's where the story gets good. They had apparently picked up a helluva SE wind out of Greenland which blew them in over the land a couple of hundred miles. The light they saw was the ceiling projector from the old airport at Menehik dam, just south of Schefferville. The met man there from Hollinger Ungava Transport was training a new guy and was showing him how the ceiling projector worked. HUT always left the runway lights on on all the strips along the railroad just in case they had an unscheduled trip. How's that for fate is the hunter?

[Cat Driver]

Great story S.H.

The world sure has changed hasn't it? I often wonder how some of us ever survived some of those long trips back in the days of dead reckoning and celestial navigation with the dubious help from an ADF using the BFO.

Now with GPS it is child's play.

Was he one of the guys that got locked up by Castro for drug running and after their release one of them joined the DOT and got killed in a twin commanche doing a single engine approach into Malton on an instrument check ride, spun in.

[Siddley Hawker]

Cat I don't think so. This guy was working for a certain organization in the US at the time and was running something else.
I got the story from one of the old HUT pilots and RL was the name he gave me.

[canwhitewolf]

302 was there a Laurentian DC-3 pilot in Scheff, initials RL, when you were there? He had a bit of a checkered career, at one time having spent some time as a guest of uncle Fidel down in the workers paradise. His connection with the Schefferville area had come about earlier, back in 1953 or so. He'd left Narsarsuaq for Goose with a Lockheed Lodestar, with a load of Arab gentlemen, eventual destination Montreal. They lost all their radios out over the Labrador Sea, and had absolutely no idea where they were, running on time and heading. Eventually they were getting low on gas, when all of a sudden they saw a light shining up through the clouds. The pilot thought it was the lights of a weather ship in the Labrador Sea, off the coast somewhere, and made the decision to ditch alongside. He did a split ass turn down through the clouds, and there was a lit runway, so he cranked the gear down and landed. He'd briefed the passengers for a water landing, and didn't have time to unbrief them, so the people on the ground were greeted by the sight of this unidentified airplane landing, rolling to a stop and the door opening, with the first thing out being a life raft, followed by four or five gentlemen in robes and burnooses (burneese?). Here's where the story gets good. They had apparently picked up a helluva SE wind out of Greenland which blew them in over the land a couple of hundred miles. The light they saw was the ceiling projector from the old airport at Menehik dam, just south of Schefferville. The met man there from Hollinger Ungava Transport was training a new guy and was showing him how the ceiling projector worked. HUT always left the runway lights on on all the strips along the railroad just in case they had an unscheduled trip. How's that for fate is the hunter?

**********************************************************************

I used to work in schefferville ( knob lake) back in 1962 or so and there was a lodestar crash outside of schefferville, probably not the same one, but this one landed at one time without a lot of damage but was stuck out there

[302sc]

Cat


he was not that specific guy R.L has been now living in florida for several years, he got invited to the crowbar hotel in cuba but not for running drugs. we met and did a few trips together in KL on skis after his release from cuba.

I think he must be around late seventies or early eighties now . he also wrote two or three books on his rather unique adventures in aviation.definitively worth reading .and on that subject I wish all the pilots of the 50,60, and late 70, having flown dc-3 c-46 and other round engined planes up north from the canada line to the dewline and north of it would put their aviation stories on a specified thread then we could leave a legacy to younger pilots cozy in their air conditioned cockpit with glass ,GPS, and soon 3 D visuals of what the north meant for that previous generation of pilots running in basics instruments in the dark no alternate whatsoever inaccurate weather at best and often no heat . surely we are a hinge generation for we had just enough new technology to venture in unforgiving territories but no redundancy if in trouble.

so retired piston pounders from this era lets have it. cat driver should start, he is good with words.

[Cat Driver]

deleted

[302sc]

I posted a picture and it was very small and not too clear I have managed to resize it I am still practising but it show details a bit better

[bmc]

Siddely....think it's time to invite Cat on the mailing list?

[Cat Driver]

Back to Castros guest, I was wrong about running drugs it was explosives and the guys name was R.L. as I recall but the R.L. I knew definitely is not living in Floriada as he died in a Twin Commanche.

[crankedup]

On the 14th of January 1993, the Central Mountain Air DC-3, banked to 90 degrees during a turn to port while climbing through 800 feet. It went nose over and made a rapid descent and crashed near Bronson Creek. Unfortunately, both pilots were killed.

Cheers...Chris[/quote]

I knew the captain flying this one and curious if it was ever determined what caused the crash.

[crankedup]

On the 14th of January 1993, the Central Mountain Air DC-3, banked to 90 degrees during a turn to port while climbing through 800 feet. It went nose over and made a rapid descent and crashed near Bronson Creek. Unfortunately, both pilots were killed.

Cheers...Chris

I knew the captain flying this one and curious if it was ever determined what caused the crash?

[Siddley Hawker]

Siddely....think it's time to invite Cat on the mailing list?

Definitely!

Cat I remember that accident with the Commanche, but I was unaware of the name of the inspector. Didn't they get below Vmc and go in, something like that. This RL is someone different. I believe at one time he was CP for Don McVicar at World Wide.

Check your PM's.

[xsbank]

Take-off with rudder lock on?

[Doc]

Take-off with rudder lock on?

Getting it around the patch with the rudder lock should not be a huge problem, though that's something you'd notice on the take off, for sure. Nobody can take off in the Doug with their feet flat on the floor.
Making a journey with one aileron lock in place, and not even noticing it till you get off at your destination, is no problem at all. You look a bit silly, but it flies totally normal.
Landed in ZSJ one day, only to find the flap hanging down one one side. A little more aileron than normal, but I wrote that off to the cross wind.
I've departed a couple of times with the pins still in place. Don't know many who haven't done that one.
Learned the value of keeping 50 gallons a side in the aft tanks, that only I knew about.
The things we used to get away with!
Wiebenville, with just enough vis to crawl around above the trees. Trying to figure out where "that" lake was on the map, so we could find our way back.
Take offs that shook the bungee mounted panel so bad you couldn't even read the dials.
50" of MP just to initiate taxi.
A bunch of stuff best left unmentioned.....the good old days weren't always good....

[302sc]

Doc

in wiebenville
did you also drive the old bulldozer up and down the runway with the homemade grader
I remember doing the dozer run, sometime it was so cold, I would jump and jog beside the dozer while it crawled up and down the runway in blinding snowstorm .

[Cat Driver]

It was so cold in the Yukon one winter I saw a pair of dogs with jumper cables trying to get a rabbit started.

[Cat Driver]

so retired piston pounders from this era lets have it. cat driver should start, he is good with words.

Do you really want me to write some stories about flying DC3's when there were few modern aids and no hangars to work in?

You mean stories from the days of the wooden ships and the iron men.

As to my being good with words how come there are so many complaints about my posts and the threads get pulled?

I can understand you wanting me to write some stories but is it worth the effort only to have the threads pulled?

Did you read the story I wrote for Todays Pilot in England about the time I got lost in the Arctic?

[just curious]

I did, but I liked the pictures better

[Cat Driver]

But if it had not been for me you would not have had the chance to have supplied the pictures.

For sure neither of us got rich from it.

P.S.:

I just read the story again and you got your name in the article three times and mine is only there once.

Next time you write the story and I'll find the pictures.

[Moose47]

G'day

C-GRMH was brought into Canada from the U. S. It was registered as C-GRMH with Sky
Services Limited on the 22nd of October, 1975. From there it was to Air-Dale in 1976. The aircraft was subsequently sold back to an operator in the U.S. on the 18th of June, 1985.

Cheers...Chris