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for airplane lovers

kreinke

New member
I was at home working on Mom's Eulogy. Kept hearing a big turbo prop going overhead. Looked out the window and saw a Basler DC3 conversion doing a slow pass banked over my house. I'm thinking "Cool. Don't see one of those every day." Ten minutes later it flies over again...then again. It turns out that he was practicing take-offs and landings on the grass runway at Adams Airport.
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Our air force and CIA pilots get re-qualified to fly Basler conversions because Columbia and other countries still use them as transports. So I go to the airport with digicam in hand. There's a small contingent of local airplane owners parked with their cars out by the runway as amazed as I am. I get permission from the airport director. "Yeah go ahead. Ride the bike out there just stay off the runway." So I do some dual sporting on a VFR and here she taxis right by me heading to the tarmac where I was when I talked to the airport guy.
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They allow me to park my bike next to the plane for a photo. One of the most iconic airplanes of all time with arguably one of the world's most iconic motorcycles.
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Not only that I get to hear all kinds of stories and get to walk up inside the thing!
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Trust me. The 6000# winch in the floor may seem strange but it's a very long uphill walk to a big taildragger's cockpit. Imagine trying to push cargo up to the front.
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Yep, thats their corporate plane.
The converted model is actually labeled the BT-67. (Basler-Turbo 67)
It's pretty amazing to see the before and after when they convert these things. They'll do everything from full luxury to gun ships. And I mean gun ships. Some of their customer work ups for Columbia included reinforcements for machine gun mounts and side windows to shoot out of. These planes are used in their war on drugs.
BTW, I've had a few white knuckle landings at that airfield in a Cessna 172 with a crosswind. My parents had a house on Friendship Pond (Lake) :bolt

:laugh
 
Schweet....I love the sound of the old big radials....ever been to the air Races in Reno....it's rumblicious!:laugh
 
Nice. They did those conversions at Oshkosh, right? No doubt, that's one of the sturdiest airframes ever.

We've got two converted C-47's based here. I hopped a low and slow sunset champaign flight along the Mississippi with a couple cuties on one of them a few years ago. It has a complete corporate interior along right up to the 24K gold plated fixtures. Imagine a G-5 interior in a DC-3.

...Sometimes, it's who you know!
 
that is so cool! I have been doing some writing regarding my father's career in the RCAF and post-war. He died a test pilot in 1949 while testing a beat off BT-13 trainer. Anyway, after the war he flew the DC-3 for Rimouski Airlines in Quebec. PM sent to you. Thanks for posting.... and the background story about the current use is especially interesting. - Bob
 
Buzzing Black Forest

Though the days of flying low and fast over Germany have long since past... riding a Bimmer is a close second:thumb
 

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Just when you think someone invented something new... this very stealthy looking plane was invented by the Germans, but not until it was too late for them, at the end of WWII.

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But this is what I aspire too

But retirement and the time required for this project are years away...


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Mary and I had the great opportunity to go flying in this 1942 Vultee BT-13A while traveling through Florida last April

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.... Mary's self picture while flying. The look sums up what many feel while flying.

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Rinty--Good visual recognition

Photo of West German RF-4 from Bremgarten AB (35 Squadron) taken during summer '84.... US - German Air Force orientation flight

Looks like an F4 wing...

Though the days of flying low and fast over Germany have long since past... riding a Bimmer is a close second:thumb
 

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