As for the DC-3, that is on my list of cool planes. Boy O Boy how neat that would be to buy one and "Do her up rite!" and have the money to fly it like I do Delmar. I don't think going back to work would be able to support that project LOL but that would be a motivation. Imagine instead of taking the Aerobat up for a Saturday Morning flight... take the DC-3. " Cool factor unparalleled !! $1000 hamburger flight and you might as well buy the burgers for everyone on the plane as well. Ha ha. Ah.... good thing dreamin is free. Have a great day !
Gene, in 1974 I got my PPL in a Cessna 150 at Clark Air Base, The Philippines. While there my wife and I got to ride in a Navy C-47 in the morning from Clark to Subic Bay Naval Base...the morning air was relatively cool and it was a pleasant flight....the flight back a few days later was in the afternoon and it was nasty hot inside! Well one day it was odd as all of a sudden 23 C-47s were parked on the "tarmac"! They stayed there a week or so and then I noticed they had all been moved to a grass field on base. I went over to them and no one was around them so I climbed up into the pilots seat and "dreamed!" A few days later I noticed a whole bunch of Filipinos were milling over it like Poobs fire ants....me being the curious type went over to check them out and the foreman said to me "we take all the good parts from all of these and we make 3 good airplanes....BUT we have no engines! Then he laughed and said BUT we get we get!" I was totally appalled at the professionalism of his "mechanics" as they were literally taking the wings off with hand hack saws!
Yes that DC-3 in Tucson was sad! I thought like you it sure would be cool to get her going again but you either have to be rich or have rich friends.
I used to be loadmaster for BarbieIII, a WWII B-25 based in Phoenix at Falcon Field until they sold her to a museum in NY. One of the co-pilots of Barbie acquired a beautiful DC-3 and had special arrangements with the Commemorative Air Force so they could give rides to the public with her. The pilot is a great guy and he needed volunteers to help keep her going...so you could actually fly with her for free except for the time you spent helping out with her...I was thinking about it but just don't have the time...so Gene you can have DC-3 dreams and they may not cost as much as you think for the real thing!...And if you lived here the DC-3 pilot is such a cool guy he would let you take some time at her controls as well!
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