Beauty in the Thursday evening sky

[3393RP]

A few minutes ago I was outside pulling weeds, and the unmistakable sound of round engines caught my attention. Just a mile or so south of me, and flying around 3,000' AGL, was a DC-3, heading east,. presumably after taking off from KTKI.

There wasn't anything remarkable about the aircraft; it wasn't brightly painted or highly polished. But the classic planform of the wings, with its angled leading edges meeting the ruler straight trailing edges, had a beauty that has graced the skies for almost 90 years.

The stately progression of its flight to some destination in the east, with the sun glinting off the aluminum of a design that forever revolutionized the manner in which man has traveled across the Earth, caused the sights and sounds of the craft to slowly fade. This brief encounter with the Genesis of air travel has made my evening special, and imprinted an image in memory that will remain for untold years to come.

 

[Zeldman]

My first commercial airplane trip was in a DC-3. The stewardess, as they were called back then, took me up to the cockpit, as it was called back then, and introduced me to the pilots. Both were skinny as rails and were wearing baggy khaki uniforms. I think back and think they both probably flew C-47s over the hump back in those unpleasant days of WWII.

The stewardess made fresh sandwiches and fed the passengers. Real sandwiches, not plastic wrapped things made a week earlier.

The airline was TTA, commonly known as Tree Top Airlines but actually Trans Texas Airlines. From College Station to Houston Hobby. Bush Intercontinental had not been thought of yet. At Houston we got on a 707, the old way of walking cross the ramp and climbing the stairs, no jet bridge, and went to Atlanta.

I think that DC-3 ride will forever stand as my most memorable flight, even as a passenger.

 

[3393RP]

My first commercial airplane trip was in a DC-3. The stewardess, as they were called back then, took me up to the cockpit, as it was called back then, and introduced me to the pilots. Both were skinny as rails and were wearing baggy khaki uniforms. I think back and think they both probably flew C-47s over the hump back in those unpleasant days of WWII.

The stewardess made fresh sandwiches and fed the passengers. Real sandwiches, not plastic wrapped things made a week earlier.

The airline was TTA, commonly known as Tree Top Airlines but actually Trans Texas Airlines. From College Station to Houston Hobby. Bush Intercontinental had not been thought of yet. At Houston we got on a 707, the old way of walking cross the ramp and climbing the stairs, no jet bridge, and went to Atlanta.

I think that DC-3 ride will forever stand as my most memorable flight, even as a passenger.

I still have my junior Captain certificate from Frontier Airlines, presented during my first flight on one of their Convair 580s. It was around 1966.

But my first commercial airline flight was in 1965, on an American Airlines DC-3 from Albuquerque to Dallas Love Field. It was a few days after Christmas, and the approach was made over downtown to Runway 31. I was looking out a left side window, and spotted the lighted bright red rotating Pegasus neon sign on top of the old Magnolia Petroleum building.

Both flights are good memories.

 

[Jim_R]

My dad flew C-47s in WWII (I know he made it as far east as Karachi during that time, but AFAIK he didn't fly the hump). Afterward, he worked as a corporate pilot for United Gas in Shreveport, LA, then Pennzoil in Houston after they bought United Gas. My older siblings recall flying the company DC-3 on its shuttle service between Houston and Shreveport to visit the grandparents there, but that service was gone by the time I came along.

I have not yet flown in a DC-3, but I'd really like to. I need to make that happen.

 

[Mikey52]

I flew one called happy Charley. It made many trips over the hump. But it didn't have the normal r1830's on it, it had r2000's.