DC4 Pot Plane

[Randy1]

Back in 1975 I was visiting my Grandmothers.  The talk of the day was the 4 engine plane that landed in the woods so we drove over to see it.  They abandoned the plane after emptying the illegal contents.  For some reason it came to my mind today.  It might have been reading of a wish for grass runways.

I remember how ruff the landing area was and the string of lights on 55 gal drums that ran on side of the clearing.  It was amazing they didn't snap off a landing gear.  They made no effort to flatten the land out just push the trees back enough to get the wings in with a little extra.  The cleared area rolled like swells in the ocean.  No doubt it was to land and never take off.

They even made a movie about the plane.  Do a google on Polk county pot plane.

Here is a short summary of the event.

http://wikimapia.org/6141534/Polk-County-Pot-Plane

Here is a bad copy of the news article.
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_8k7m4e2TYeU/Syo8gdY3yBI/AAAAAAAAHKk/ajxqA8O0oWU/s1600-h/plkcntyplne3.bmp

[sunfan1121]

I wonder how much the police sold the weed for.

[Randy1]

I think the only caught an empty van if I remember right.

[icepac]

I vaguely remember an FBO A&P mechanic around 1980 at either tamiami or opa locka airport pointing out a DC4 or DC6 that had police tape on the doors.

He explained it had been found abandoned on the airport the year before with marijuana residue in it and truck tracks leading away from it's spot.

Apparently, the plane went to auction, was sold, and showed up shortly after at the same exact spot again with marijuana residue and tire track leading away.

Here's an interesting link to some former warbirds used to smuggle drugs.

http://napoleon130.tripod.com/id739.html

[doright]

showed up shortly after at the same exact spot again with marijuana residue and tire track leading away.

Probably because the police never cleaned the residue off the first time. Just like they confiscate (steal) money because it had drug traces and rather then destroy the tainted bills they take them to the bank, deposited it and put it back in circulation so they can steal it again.

[icepac]

The plane was confiscated, cleaned, and auctioned off.

The "short time later" is in reference to the time frame between auctioning it off and it reappearing after making another run.

It was a year between the first and second time they found it.

My point is that the same guys bought it at auction and more than made up for the buying price with what they carried on one run.

[flight17]

The guy who bought the plane wrote and produced the movie, all out of his own money.

The aircraft was bought by him at auction. The scenes in the movie where they are cutting down the forrest so the plane can land is actually them cutting down the Forrest for them to fly the aircraft back out. They were then able to use the film of it taking off as film of the rollout of the landing.

The plane itself is now at the castle air museum wearing her former MATS livery
Info on the plane/movie
http://www.apocalypselaterfilm.com/2013/02/polk-county-pot-plane-1977.html
The movie itself, which wasn't half bad in my opinion.
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=zicffBtRYcI

[Randy1]

I appreciate the additional information on that DC-4.

I can't help but think the pilot that landed the plane never saw the landing area until he was on final approach.  If he had seen the numerous, rolling, ground swells from 6 to 10 feet and stumps, I bet he would have said no way.  The pilot was either real good or real lucky.

[mike8318]

 Cedartown class of 79 here.I was living there when that happened. My dad offered to fly the plane out if they would let him have it! Guy did a good job of getting it in considering the conditions and what he had for a runway. Someone made a terrible B movie about it.

[Ripsnort]

Heh, back when weed was worth more per ounce than the aircraft was to transport it.