ON THIS DAY: McGrath BLM DC-3 in 2021
Nostalgia: DC-3 photos from Rick Freimuth
Here’s a treat: some eye candy of DC-3 aircraft along with a bonus shot of a couple Clippers in Hong Kong sent to us today from Rick Freimuth, who says, “The first one is a slide my father took in 1948 of Victoria Harbor, Hong Kong. Look to the lower right and you can see two Clippers which could be Boeing or Martin Flying boats in the harbor.”
The rest of the photos are from a fire Rick was on in October 1979, the Norton Ridge Fire camp at Indian Creek Guard Station on the the Middle Fork of the Salmon. The small strip was so busy with the airshow they called it Indian Creek International Airport.
There were at least two USFS DC-3s, a couple of contracted Twin Otters, a Beaver, Cessnas, a couple of 212s, a 205 and a 206, an Aérospatiale Alouette III and a Lama! The DC-3s still had radial engines then, just after the fatal DC-3 crash in June 1979 in the Selway River, when a right engine fell off. Ten souls were lost in that incident.
Oddly enough a backpacker saw the engine fall and took a photo of the plane. Soon after that all USFS DC-3s for passenger use were grounded.
“The turbine engine installations followed soon after,” says Freimuth. “I was in one of the last non-jumper flights that summer. We flew from Challis, Idaho to SLC with a 20-person crew for a fire in the Uintas.”
The Indian Creek Guard Station fire camp was a staging area for the huge spike camp about 20 miles away on a ridge near the fire. The spike camp served about six crews. After a couple of days we had everything a typical main fire camp had — showers, tool sharpening area, an aid station. It was a very late-season fire for those days, and we got emergency demobed because of snow. I have shots of the camp from flying into it with cargo chutes hanging in the trees, chow line, camp hootches, and helo pics. I also have a shot of a 212 dropping a belly tank load of water into a portatank, which ultimately destroyed the tank. Crazy stuff in those days. There was also a woman on the fire who was a nationally ranked wrist wrestler. She was entered into the national event in Las Vegas and she was flown out to attend it. Go figure!
Camp crew gathering to unload the plane
De Havilland Twin Otter landing at Indian Creek. Look at all the red tape around bottom of the door!
THANK YOU RICK, for the great photos and the background on these aircraft. Much appreciated!
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.
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!
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.”
“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!
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.”
“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.
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
Continue readingTBT: a beautiful DC-3
DC-3 at McClellan, March 15, 2018. N341A. Photo by Bill Gabbert
For Throw Back Thursday (tomorrow) — it was about a year ago that I discovered a beautiful DC-3 in a hangar at Sacramento McClellan Airport.
This image is low resolution, but you can get your own high-resolution copy, framed or unframed.
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
Continue readingDC-3 air tanker used for dust control in Thailand
The turbine-powered aircraft was operated by the Thai Air Force
Continue readingMann 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
Continue readingA 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, March 15, 2018. Photo by Bill Gabbert
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.