Most beautiful general aviation craft ?

I dunno - I do like the Beech 18 but there is something about this old bird that grabs me - everytime I see one I have to go check it out!

A serious top 10 contender! The Spartan Executive.. Yeah baby...

Somebody has spent a lot of money and loving time on these airplanes - I love them all!

I don't have the knowledge some of you on airplanes. For that matter other than airline trips here and there I have only flown in a handful of small airplanes and 2 of those were helicopters.

I must say that Beech 18 is a beautiful airplane.

People need to remeber something about the twin beech. The Lockheed 12A Electra Jr. came out in 1936. Well before Walter Beech's abomination. While it is true that the twin beech started on blank sheet of paper. What people forget is that it was a sheet of carbon paper!

The Electra was everything the twin bitch should have been. It had great single engine performance and handling ability it was an awesome short field airplane and it was built like a brick shithouse. She was also easy to handle on the ground and a dream in cross wind.

The twin bitch has none of these qualities. Walter should have taken the time to copy the Electra a little more carefully.

My bro-in-law just bought a perfectly restored Howard DGA, one of my faves. It's absolutely beautiful and just drips class. Haven't had a hop yet. Don't have pics yet to post, either.

Does anyone have a pic of a DGA in their files?

RG

Here ya go..

An also ran...

Hey! Thanks Striker!

You know that 190 Cessna has a real classic look about it except for those darn gear legs.
There's one that lives at Love Field, near Prescott. I've been told that it is not an easy ship to fly. What's the word on that?

Now, if somehow some fairings could be wrapped around those spring legs...

RG

There are three of them here at the local field (1000 yards from me) that fly on sundays. Never flown one but apprears by the way they move at very low altitude that they are like a flying HUMVEE...lots of torque and a pretty big wing.

quote:

Originally posted by RG Rhodes:
Hey! Thanks Striker!

You know that 190 Cessna has a real classic look about it except for those darn gear legs.
There's one that lives at Love Field, near Prescott. I've been told that it is not an easy ship to fly. What's the word on that?

Now, if somehow some fairings could be wrapped around those spring legs...

RG

That is actually a C-195, I learned how to fly in my dad's 195. My first solo was in a 195 and I did most of my private in a 195. They are not that hard to fly you just get real used to not seeing much over the nose with the tail down.

Ours was powered by a 275 HP Jacob and had the Cleveland brake conversion. N9353A that just brought back some memories.

The tailwheel strut was always going flat and those dinky little electric flaps were a bit of a joke when they worked. She had one mag and one coil. You started in on the coil then switched over to both which brought the mag on board.

Ours was polished aluminum with British Racing Green stripes and a brown leather and green felt interior. It had one Narco Mk12 radio that didn't work when it got hot and a single needle omni that seldom worked at all.

quote:

Ours was powered by a 275 HP Jacob

There's an operation in Oklahoma doing fuel injection conversions of the Jacob...that with some modern upgrades here and there would make for a slick machine...

I used to fly one of these too. The Lodestar isn't prettiest but she was great airplane for 1939 technology. The Lodestar was my first type rating.

Not this particular one mind you. But here is an example of an L-18.

I love the Twin Beech. I got my multi in one in 1963 and flew them until 1987. It takes a guy with smart feet to fly one, but I have put them in places that one would think they wouldn't go.

You have to stay sharp when flying one. They are unforgiving. But I have landed them in 35 knot direct crosswinds, so flying the 18, like all other airplanes of that design period, is totally dependent on techinque.

I also flew the Lodestar quite a bit, and the DC 3. The 18 is great training for any medium tail dragger. But they will kill you if you get behind one, just like most other airplanes will.

In my humble opinion, the Beech 18 is one of the greatest of the general aviation aircraft.

Jet,

It is getting pretty rare to find anyone with round motor tail wheel time. I guess we are rapidly becoming the last of the breed.

Who'd you fly Lodestars for?

Do you guys remember Atari Air Cargo out of Mirana? They had Lodestars, and Beech 18's.

Vemo,

Are you sure you are not talking about Atore Air Freight out of El Paso, Tx. They had L-18's and C-46's.

yeah, I do remember seeing their aircraft on the ELP frieght ramp. I remember the L-18 with the spider web paint, pretty cool. I wonder what happened to to Atore??

They went out of business in about 1988. I have flown both of their L-18's. One went to Australia I trained the guys who bought it. The other went to Ennis Montana I trained that guys pilot too.

N1940S was in Ennis last I knew and N56LH went to Australia. I heard that it is now down in New Zealand.

If anyone watched the episodes of "Wehrmacht" on the Military Channel this past weekend you were able to see a British Airways Lockheed L10.
"Perhaps British Airways Limited's best-remembered action was that it was on one of the airline's Lockheeds that British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain flew to meet Adolf Hitler for the discussions that concluded with the Munich Agreement. Photographs of Chamberlain emerging from his plane at Heston clearly display the "British Airways" logo around the aircraft door."
Not only an historical event but another beautiful airplane!

Surestrike,
Do you remember a pilot, Mark Lamoix? He flew at Atori. I flew with him in Colorado, I also worked at the missoula smokejumper base with him. He was at Atore also

quote:

Originally posted by surestrike:
Jet,

It is getting pretty rare to find anyone with round motor tail wheel time. I guess we are rapidly becoming the last of the breed.

Who'd you fly Lodestars for?

Yeah, we, and the airplanes are dying breeds.

I always wanted to fly a C-46 and tried to get on with an operator out of MIA, but didn't make it.

I flew a Lodestar, Beech 18's and an Aero Commander 560A for International Paper Company in the 60's. We had the first Pacific Airmotive single tail conversion of the 18 that was produced. Had a training wheel (nosewheel) on it. I didn't like it. You had better single engine control with the twin rudders.

I truly loved to make that Twin Beech walk the dog. One of the finest GA aircraft ever built.

The Lodestar I flew, N72907, showed up about 1986 at Tamiami Airport. Later I heard it was conficated in Puerto Rico as a pot hauler.

N80482 was the taildragger Beech that IP owned. It had radar and dual Collins IFS's in 1964. IP always had the top of the line stuff.

In 1997, I was doing some skydiving down in the Keys. There were two 18's being used as jump aircraft out of Islamorada. One had N80482 on the side. I asked the pilot/owner if he had the books. He said he did and when I asked him if it was a former IP aircraft, he confirmed it. That was deja vu, if nothing else. There I was, a 747 captain in 1997, skydiving out of an airplane I first flew in 1964, 33 years earlier. Blew me away.

jd,
I always enjoy seeing aircraft I have flown in faraway places. I saw an old greasey convair I had spent alot of time in Bogota one morning. It made me chuckle because I broke a captain's raybans when I tossed the logbook on her glareshield, he was a tough sonofabitch. it's funny the things that are stored in your memory!
Whenever I go by a freight ramp I always scan the aircraft to see if there are any familiar tail numbers out there.
Oh, the pilot I was looking for is named Lavoie.

quote:

Originally posted by Vemo:
Surestrike,
Do you remember a pilot, Mark Lamoix? He flew at Atori. I flew with him in Colorado, I also worked at the missoula smokejumper base with him. He was at Atore also

Yeah,

I flew a smoke jumper season with Mark LaVoi (SP?) out of Fairbanks AK. Same guy he used to fly for Atore.

Last I heard he was having some troubles with the law.

Did you fly at Aspen Airways with Mark?

I'll admit my "lottery dream" airplane is both a twin and a Beech, But a Beech 18 ain't it...

somebody give me next week's powerball numbers
so I can place an order for a KingAir 350ER...
(ain't NO point in taking the time to dream in "coach")

AD

I flew with mark at aspen in 1987. The company closed the doors in 1988 and I don't know what happened to him.
He had a little place in Mirana where I used to crash at, he built it out of pop bottles and adobe!

quote:

Originally posted by surestrike:

quote:

Originally posted by Vemo:
Surestrike,
Do you remember a pilot, Mark Lamoix? He flew at Atori. I flew with him in Colorado, I also worked at the missoula smokejumper base with him. He was at Atore also

Yeah,

I flew a smoke jumper season with Mark LaVoi (SP?) out of Fairbanks AK. Same guy he used to fly for Atore.

Last I heard he was having some troubles with the law.

Did you fly at Aspen Airways with Mark?

Lotta taildragger pilots had problems with the law. During the pot hauling heydey, Twin Beeches, Lodestars and DC-3's could be found in substantial numbers at impound facilities from San Deigo to Miami. Fortunes were made by many pilots who could get down and back and evade the long fingers of the law. Many died.

quote:

evade the long fingers of the law

Nah, they use P-3's. Used to base them in Galveston, I think. Some were in Panama until they got run out of there and are now in El Salvador. If the communists win the elections next month, they'll probably have to find another place to roost.

Excluding the AWACS, these are all supremely beautiful AC. Still, I have a soft spot for my old P2V Neptune.

Yeah, the 707 is a beautiful airplane. It really looks great in the up-engined version the Air Force flies. We had them at Southern and I could have transitioned, but all they did was fly night freight for Burlington and I was having the time of my life as a Herc captain hanging out in all sorts of interesting places.

JD,
I heard a story about a Southern Air Herc Captain who blocked an Eastern 727 on a gate in Miami, wouldn't move until Eastern found his checked bag!
Wasn't you was it??
Southern was a hell of an airline.

That wasn't me, but I would have done it.

Yeah, we did things at SAT that were remarkable. Went places no one else would go. The Africa years were some of the most challenging. I made over 100 countries and all seven continents with Southern. Flying the Hercs, we picked up all kinds of really exciting contracts and saw a lot of out-of-the-way places tourists will never see. We got blown up and shot at, ended up in jail in exotic places, flew nap of the earth over Angola, Papua New Guinea and Ethiopia...and on and on.

It was an exciting time in aviation and Southern Air Transport was one of the most unique companies in aviation. I wouldn't trade the experiences for Donald Trump's money, and I really miss the action. Retirement is a terrible thing.

JD,
Congrats on a great career!
What was the mgmt. like at Southern? They must have given you guys a lot of rope working in that environment. When you were flying those out of the way trips how often were you in contact with Southern?

When I got hired at SAT in 1987, I though I had died and gone to Heaven. It was great! We were treated well, particularly offshore, where we got per diem, (read haz duty pay) and all expenses, laundry, food, etc., covered.

SAT underwent a management change around 1992, though, and things deteriorated badly. They lost sight of who was out there making the money and started a war with the crews. It went downhill from there. Out of desperation, we voted the Teamsters Airline Division in to represent us and the war escalated. Management was greedy, stupid, and incompetent. They finally bankrupted the company in 1998.

SAT was one of the must unusual airlines to ever exist. We did almost everything almost everywhere. The motto was "Anything, anytime, anywhere, for almost anybody" and that's the way it was. The variety of contracts was likely the most unusual of any company who ever existed. From night freight in 707's for Burlington Express to oil field support in Papua New Guinea for Chevron and a myriad relief contracts in Africa, to hauling newspapers at night across the Irish sea in mid winter for Aer Lingus, we did it all. I flew everything from asparagus to dynamite, including troops and refugees out of Somalia. Other than flying combat, and we spent a lot of time in hot war zones, I'd guess it was the most interesting job in aviation, while it lasted.

Retired Marine and Air Force colonels, Army rotorheads, former cropdusters and banner towers, the crews ran the gamut of aviation backgrounds. We were probably the most varied group of pilots and aircrew ever assembled under one banner.

I really miss the Herc days and will until I die.

And, to answer you question, we were always in contact with Operations through HF radio relay links, primarily ARINC in Houston and Miami and Berne Radio in Switzerland. Flight releases were issued for every flight, no matter where we were.

In Antarctica, we had no HF because of the ozone layer depletion, so the project manager who flew with us was authorized to issue flight releases.

When on lengthy offshore assignments such as Africa and PNG, the project manager issued flight releases. Most flying was done under Part 121, but ferries were done under Part 91, which allowed management to screw the crews on duty time and fly us until we were completely exhausted. That happened often during the later years. It got really nasty near the end.