This is an excerpt from the book I am working on,. I thought you guys might enjoy it!
That misty rain is cold this morning! About to do my walk around on this DC-6B, and fly my first trip as captain on this bird. I had about 70 hours in the right seat and 4.5 in the left seat, working on my type rating.
I have my trusty retractable 6 foot tape measure and my flash lite, so lets see if everything is in order for this 35 year old captain in 1969. Its late October and we have just had a weak cool front pass thru yesterday, so weather for departure should be no problem.
Tires appear in good shape and the PSI is good, now lets see up in the wheel well, everything looks good, no hyd leaks that I can see, now for the oleo strut, should be 6 inches of chrome showing, with the load we have on board today. All landing gear extention arm and braces look good, all cotter pins in place, now lets see about the nose wheel. Tire looks a little worn, but ½ inch of tread showing so everything looks good here.
I am fortunate that I have a good crew with me today, Josh is 55 or thereabouts and has about 2,000 hours in the 6B and 750 in a 7C so he would come in handy in a tight spot. Gene is my flight engineer and boy, does he have the experience, about 8,000 hours in a Lockheed 1049G with Eastern and over 6,000 hours in C-46 and DC-4’s for freight outfit up North somewhere,. Both good men and I look forward to a relaxing flight to San Juan, P.R. this day.
No write ups on the book except for high time on #1 and high fuel flow on #3, some vibration on last two flights, but nothing to be concerned about. As I read the entry about the vibration, for some reason, I had an uneasy feeling about that entry, but I am not a nervous Nelly, so dismissed it from my mind, signed off the log and told Gene to fire up the engines.
Engine start up went smooth and we called ground for our clearance, which was direct to Greenwood, maintain 8,000, intercept V-185 to SAV, then V-492 to Stacy intersection, then V-437 to Daytona, then V-492 to MIA, land and let the feds from customs look at everything, get our clearance and be on our way. I flight planned us at 240 knots, its just easier to figure distances if asked by ATC for estimate on such and such. That works out to 4 miles per minute and sometimes we beat that by 10 knots or so, but 240 is a good a we beat that by 10 knots or so, but 240 is a good average for us. And with DME, and they want to know what time by so and so intersection and its 40 miles away, that is easy to figure, 10 minutes.
Engine runup is good, just a little higher fuel flow on #3, but not a problem with fuel as we should arrive in Porta Rica with about a hour reserve.
Only unknown is the low pressure area Northeast of Porta Rica, about 400 miles, which is showing signs of intensifying and could become a hurricane before to much longer. The forecasted track is to pass North of Porta Rica by about 200 miles, so other than a few heavy rain showers and maybe a T.S or two, should not interfere with our flight. Now I have another uneasy feeling to think about, the vibration and now a weather system which they don’t really know what its going to do. Oh, well, nothing to do but kick the tires and light the fires and jump off into the blue, what little was showing right now.
We roll out onto the runway 22 and I lock it down to check everything, HSI looks good, altimeter set, 29.94, oil pressures and temps in the green, controls free and trim tabs set, flaps 20 degrees, tell Josh, give me the V numbers, but we have ample accerate-stop distance on this runway, 11,100 feet by 150. Tell Gene to apply the water when he wanted to but by first 1,000 feet.
I call for takeoff power, release the brakes and keep her straight with the nose wheel steering. As we approach 70 knots, I notice a slight vibration in the wheel and I remark to Gene that the nose wheel must be where the vibration is that they wrote up because I felt it then. Josh calls V-2, 90 knots and I am holding her steady with rudder now, VR, 115 knots calls Josh and I apply a firm back pressure, raise the nose to hide the end of the runway, she breaks ground nice and smooth, I call for gear up and tell Josh to go ahead and milk flaps up. Letting it accelerate to 180 knots and everything is nice and smooth. On the gauges now, going through 2,000 feet, contacted departure, turn left 180 degrees, climb and maintain 8,000, were his instructions.
Not much happened on the way to MIA, we landed, cleared customs and prepared to takeoff again to Porta Rica.
(to be cont")
