Flight 19 - See The USA

[Taco]

OK, just one more.

 

[Peacemaker]

Rawlins - Greybull.

Weather.... have been struggling with weather since we left California. Plenty of cloud cover, Freezing carb temps and ice to deal with. Early morning flight out of Rawlins.

 

[Willy]

We flew on to the Greater Green River Intergalactic Spaceport. Not much there and very hard to spot in bad weather. I ended up in a nearby gully when I stalled out on short final. At least it's out of the wind.

 

[Taco]

Hello,

Well, we left KGEY the weather wasn't really bad, but during the flight it got mean! Heavy cloud covered us for most of the flight, up and down it was hard to see the ground even once in awhile, One of these Wyoming mountains almost had company I was a little lower than I should have been, but seen it in time to pull up in a hurry, but we made it. Now finding 48U became some what of a problem, lots of snow during the flight and mean on approach, that is if you knew where you were going. The area was covered with a blanket of snow, and trying to find a dirt runway at 5800 ft. covered in snow was the pits, We, being Dudley and I decided if we see some ground where the runway should have been and it wasn't covered with trees and brushes we would give it a go. Our luck held out, we made and was thankful that we had reverse props on this bird. We stopped before we went over into gulley. Rob and Willy slid pass us, at where we were parked, like they were in a race who would get to gully first. Here hopping that when it's time to take off the weather and the condition of the so called runway would be a whole bunch better. Picture at KGEY before takeoff

 

[Taco]

High all,

Dug up a picture we took after we landed at 48U, hehe that's the runway in front of DC-6A

 

[Moses03]

Moon on the rise over Wyoming.

Not sure what the regional Brit turboprop is doing out this way. Long-winded charter that got lost I guess.

 

[Willy]

Decided to park the Gee Bee for maintenance and loaded everything into the ol' Ventura. And then when getting close to Laramie, I got to chasing cars on I-80 and inadvertently ended up in the median. At least the wheels were down and I was able to get up on the roadway and take off again for the airport.

 

[Taco]

Hello there,

The picture show the DC-6 empty and ready for reloading. Now, the fun part. Hehe my takeoff was good and we were climbing ease and then Rob called and said Dudley and I were going in the wrong direction. Yuk, read the routing wrong and was headed 083 degrees , any way we got her on the right course and things went smoothly for the remainder of the flight until we started on final. All the controls on the plane were froze up and we were turning left away from the airport, and heading for the ground. Took a chance and flipped on the auto pilot and then turned it off and the old came back under control. Need to fly passed the airport a few miles and turn around for our down leg, then turned on the cross wind and then final. By golly, we made a good landing. Now to fine out why the controls froze up. "See you all later."

 

[Moses03]

On the road to Nebraska...the heartland.

 

[Taco]

Hey there! back again. hehe

It was a very nice flight from KRAP to KOGA, and for a change I was flying on the same course as the rest of Flight 19. Not only did it surprise the flight, heck, it surprise me. lol. The weather was OK clear skies and a cross wind at around 20+ kts. But, it wasn't all peaches and cream, on approach I came in way to fast and high after a few bounces we settled down and took off thru the neighbors yards stirring up one big mesh. We did save the insurance company a few bucks by not hitting any of the building as we plowed thru gardens and flower beds. Hehe, we did find our way back to the airport and parked hopping not to find a lot of damage to the DC-6. Gee! Moses show a picture of the DC-6 thru his wind screen, and by golly looks like were flying straight and level. Picture shown here is of Willy and I preparing for take off. The other two DC-4s are out of the camera view. so no picture.

 

[Peacemaker]

Greybull - Laramie.

 

[Peacemaker]

Laramie - Rapid City.

 

[Taco]

Hi There,

Boy, these ground crew people at KOGA sure parked us in a strange place almost off of the tarmac for unloading the corn dog sticks, guess any place will do. Hopefully, the people at AA have arranged for us to pickup some cargo while we are here, but who knows anymore. Hehe, we got some cargo assigned to KGRI looks like airplanes parts that had seen better times. The flight to KGRI was not a bad one, we climbed to 10,000 ft. and picked up an headwind around 35 kts. and we were on our way. For the second time the reverse on the engine gave up the ghost and shut down, so here we go again into brushes. Not to bad, but we will be needing new brakes. Of course they will needed to be shipped in, so we will have a little R&R.

 

[Taco]

here is a picture of the flight over the Nebraska landscape.

 

[Taco]

the last picture where we were all parked

 

[Taco]

Hello,

Well, Dudley and I worked thru most of the early morning making sure that everythings was completed per orders, Hehe the brakes have been repaired, new everything. We were tough on those brakes, Cargo loaded and tied down correctly, proper amount of oil has been added to the engine, and for the sake of it we made sure there was enough ADI for takeoff it needed. More than likely we won't need it, but better being prepared. Correct amount of fuel has been added to the fuel tanks plus some extra for some screw ups. Now we will go sit in the shade and have a sandwich and a cold drink, just waiting for take off time. See you all later.

 

[Willy]

Midtown Kansas City!

I seem to have wandered off into an car show

(work in progress Gee Bee paint that I was checking out)

And the heck with the usual airport corndog stands, I'm going find some KC BBQ

 

[Peacemaker]

KGRI - KMKC

Arrived on Rnav Runway 03, it looked smaller and smaller the closer I got had to use prop reverse to pull the 6 up before the end of the runway. I am much preferring this weather to fly around in.

 

[Peacemaker]

KMKC - KDSM.

I've decided to give the Carvair another chance. It flies at a snails pace compared to the Dc-6, but with a nose the size of a Barn I shouldn't be surprised.

 

[Willy]

Well, it was kind of like this. I was there at the corner of the hanger minding my own bidness, and this sleazy looking character comes up and offers to sell me an old C-119 in somewhat "flyable" condition at a ridiculously low price. And he's got a clean title to it. This sets both my brain cells to bumping up against each other about another idea I've had that a big ol' empty box with wings just kind of fits right into. So I give him the money and on his way around the corner, he tells me over his shoulder, "The sooner you get it out of KC, the better, if you want to keep it".

So, I round up Fred and after starting it up (while trying to remember how to speak "Boxcarese"), we're taxiing and off in the distance we see a bunch of flashing blue lights. I shut the radio off and swing onto the runway. Fred's got the JATO winding up and I firewall the R-3350s down the runway. As soon as the wheels are off the ground I raise them just in time to keep from knocking off a set of police car lights. I tell Fred to keep that damn jet engine going as long as he can and I'm pointing the nose north. After a bit, the jet runs out of fuel, but we're at 3000ft and scooting right along well out of KC by then so I throttle back and settle into a nice low level cruise.

We flew on into Des Moines without any trouble and never heard anything else about all the excitement on take off in KC. Anyway, I've got few phone calls to make so I can put my latest money making endeavor into action. That and hire a couple of new crew members as Fred can't cook.