Hello Folks, this month we had our event on July 2nd and I had to miss it, due to having Covid. I will tell you this, it is not fun to experience. So, I won’t go into details. And it took the whole month to get over it. As of today, I tested Negative and have for over a couple of weeks now. I still stayed home, just to be safe. But I did hear the 4th of July event went very well and the Tri-Tips Sandwiches were really good. Thanks Jim, for putting together another successful contest together, glad all had a great time.
I will see you all this coming Saturday for our July meeting and Jim has another great event planned for us. “Altitude Quest”. Closest to the target altitude wins. Jim, of course, will have a lot more information to provide to us all on Saturday. Our President, Steve Manganelli, will have some good information for us about our club in our monthly meeting.
Just a little reminder that I want to make sure everyone is up to date with TRUST and that you have your FAA # on your aircraft, Thank You all very much!
Since I was under the bug, and my new job, which has been cool so far. I get to build engine cowls for Airbus, Boeing, and now, Gulfstream, though I was not able to get any construction on the DC-3. I did however come across this:
Douglas DC-3 Flies Again After 13-Year Hiatus
The Air North C-47A conversion ‘Yukon Sourdough’ returned to service in its first step toward the airshow circuit.
With a bit of a crosswind at play, pilot Jim Sells and co-pilot Mike Macario climbed aboard Yukon Sourdough—a 1942 Douglas C-47A converted to a DC-3C. What lay ahead? The return to service flight of the airplane painted with a bold yellow-and-green livery—the colors of Air North in Canada—at the Hagerstown Regional Airport (KHGR) in Maryland.
The Douglas Gooney Bird hadn’t flown since 2009.
The Flight
The plan was to take the DC-3, N983DC, up for a short flight to test basic systems and the operation of its Pratt & Whitney R-1830-92 Twin Wasp engines. Everything went smoothly, according to Sells, and they stayed up a little bit longer than expected—about 40 minutes.
“We looked around for problems and we didn’t find any,” said Sells, save for an intermittent intercom. Macario, the group’s maintenance technician with inspection authority, wants to adjust the fuel pressures on the engines so they match, but that’s about it as far as squawks from the first flight after 13 years.
The aircraft is currently shepherded by owners Kent Casady, Malcolm Van Kirk, and Derek White—though White puts it well: “You never really own anything. You also can’t take anything materialistic with you when you die. We are just good stewards for Yukon Sourdough.”
Though Macario’s typed in the airplane—and the team has worked on it consistently for the past four years—the group brought in Sells for the test flight and to help Macario and other pilots return to currency as well.
The History
The airplane was built at one of the Douglas Aircraft Company’s wartime production plants in Oklahoma City in 1942 for the U.S. Air Force, originally carrying U.S. Air Force No. 42-92464. The registration transferred over to the Canadian Air Force, where it flew as Dakota IIIU FZ675, then No. 960. Air North, a Canadian airline founded in 1977, operated scheduled service between the Yukon and Alaska, and the company purchased the airplane in 1982, registering it as CF-OVW, a Douglas DC3C-S1C3G.
The airline painted on the DC-3’s distinctive tail art, for which it was christened Yukon Sourdough. It was sold in 1998, and its restoration was picked up by the Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA) in 2001. It was purchased from EAA by Stephen Van Kirk, Malcolm’s brother, before going to its current owners.
Once the airplane has been through its paces—and the pilots complete recurrent training—they intend to hit the airshow circuit with Yukon Sourdough as part of the D-Day Squadron’s participating aircraft.
In the meantime make sure you get all your equipment before heading down to the field, so you don’t have to go back home and grab the batteries!!!
Jovi Murek
Chairman
