Eastern Airlines DC-7B in flight

[earl1937]

Guys, you got to view this! click on......... http://marcbrecy.neuf.fr/DC7.htmL...... If you like to see and hear heavy "Iron", you will love this vedio!

opps, sorry guys, something not right, its in spanish! Maybe someone can figure this out, I can't! I just copied the address as it was sent to me and I clicked on it and it when stright to the DC-7 film. HELP!!

[The Fugitive]

I don't know if this is the same one, there are a number of them.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SipD9Bk-Wow&feature=related

[earl1937]

I don't know if this is the same one, there are a number of them.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SipD9Bk-Wow&feature=related

Didn't see the right one on utube, the one I am reffering to has Capt "Sullingburger" of the famous river landing in NYC at the controls. Don't understand what is wrong, as a friend sent me the address in a email, I clicked on it and when right to the right one!

Hey finally woke up! the correct address is.....http://marcbrecy.perso.neuf.fr/DC7.html.......

[colmbo]

Gotta love the sound of a radial coming to life:

Difference Between A Radial Engine And A Jet Engine
 
Round engines are commonly known as Radial engines. The piston Jugs are > placed in a circle. Hence "Round" engines. Turbine engines are known as Jet engines. We gotta get rid of those turbines, they're ruining aviation and our hearing. 

A turbine is too simple minded, it has no mystery. The air travels through it in a straight line and doesn't pick up any of the pungent fragrance of engine oil or pilot sweat. Anybody can start a turbine. You just need to move a switch from "OFF" to "START" and then remember to move it back to "ON" after a while. My PC is harder to start.
 
Cranking a round engine requires skill, finesse and style. You have to
seduce it into starting. It's like waking up a mistress On some planes,
the pilots aren't even allowed to do it. Turbines start by whining for a
while, then give a lady-like poof and start whining a little louder.
 
Round engines give a satisfying rattle-rattle, click-click, BANG, more
rattles, another BANG, a big macho FART or two, more clicks, a lot more
smoke and finally a serious low pitched roar. We like that. It's a GUY
thing.
 
When you start a round engine, your mind is engaged and you can concentrate on the flight ahead. Starting > turbine is like flicking on a ceiling fan:
Useful, but, hardly exciting.
 
When you have started his round engine successfully your Crew Chief looks up at you like he'd let you kiss his girl, too! Turbines don't break or
catch fire often enough, which leads to aircrew boredom, complacency and inattention. A round engine at speed looks and sounds like it's going to
blow any minute. This helps concentrate the mind.
 
Turbines don't have enough control levers or gauges to keep a pilot's
attention. There's nothing to fiddle with during long flights. Turbines
smell like a Boy Scout camp full of Coleman Lamps. Round engines smell like God intended machines to smell.



We had a sign low in the nose of the B-24 bombardier window that said:  "Jets are for kids"

[Widewing]

Back in 1976-1977, I qualified as a Flight Engineer in the C-118. This is the military version of the DC-6. We used a pair of C-118s to provide logistic support to Guantanamo Bay. They were old, but reliable and quite lively. Four R-2800s, totaling 10,000 hp. As part of a typical pre-flight, I would start the engines, call the tower and taxi to end of the taxiway for a run-up. Then, taxi to the terminal.

Here's a neat video of a retired KLM DC-6 being horsed around at a Euro airshow.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TleV9fQQdC8&NR=1&feature=endscreen

Here's my qualification certificate (the yeoman who typed it up, misspelled my first name).



 

[earl1937]

Back in 1976-1977, I qualified as a Flight Engineer in the C-118. This is the military version of the DC-6. We used a pair of C-118s to provide logistic support to Guantanamo Bay. They were old, but reliable and quite lively. Four R-2800s, totaling 10,000 hp. As part of a typical pre-flight, I would start the engines, call the tower and taxi to end of the taxiway for a run-up. Then, taxi to the terminal.

Here's a neat video of a retired KLM DC-6 being horsed around at a Euro airshow.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TleV9fQQdC8&NR=1&feature=endscreen

Here's my qualification certificate (the yeoman who typed it up, misspelled my first name).

(Image removed from quote.)

 

Great video, thanks for sharing with us! I saw a C-119 taxing out, I guess for takeoff. Wonder when this was filmed?

[earl1937]

Gotta love the sound of a radial coming to life:

Difference Between A Radial Engine And A Jet Engine
 
Round engines are commonly known as Radial engines. The piston Jugs are > placed in a circle. Hence "Round" engines. Turbine engines are known as Jet engines. We gotta get rid of those turbines, they're ruining aviation and our hearing. 

A turbine is too simple minded, it has no mystery. The air travels through it in a straight line and doesn't pick up any of the pungent fragrance of engine oil or pilot sweat. Anybody can start a turbine. You just need to move a switch from "OFF" to "START" and then remember to move it back to "ON" after a while. My PC is harder to start.
 
Cranking a round engine requires skill, finesse and style. You have to
seduce it into starting. It's like waking up a mistress On some planes,
the pilots aren't even allowed to do it. Turbines start by whining for a
while, then give a lady-like poof and start whining a little louder.
 
Round engines give a satisfying rattle-rattle, click-click, BANG, more
rattles, another BANG, a big macho FART or two, more clicks, a lot more
smoke and finally a serious low pitched roar. We like that. It's a GUY
thing.
 
When you start a round engine, your mind is engaged and you can concentrate on the flight ahead. Starting > turbine is like flicking on a ceiling fan:
Useful, but, hardly exciting.
 
When you have started his round engine successfully your Crew Chief looks up at you like he'd let you kiss his girl, too! Turbines don't break or
catch fire often enough, which leads to aircrew boredom, complacency and inattention. A round engine at speed looks and sounds like it's going to
blow any minute. This helps concentrate the mind.
 
Turbines don't have enough control levers or gauges to keep a pilot's
attention. There's nothing to fiddle with during long flights. Turbines
smell like a Boy Scout camp full of Coleman Lamps. Round engines smell like God intended machines to smell.



We had a sign low in the nose of the B-24 bombardier window that said:  "Jets are for kids"

Ah, for the good old days!! Never to be again I guess. To lay your hand on the power quadrant and feel the power those engines were producing is a feeling that most turbine jocks will never have the pleasure of enjoying. To once again to have to have a good instrument scan, instead of watching a HSI or HUD. Made you feel like you had accomplished something. Not to belittle todays electronics, but the old raw data instruments made you feel as tho you were part of the bird, not just riding in it. I guess in ones twilight years, we crave those old feelings once again, because in those days we were all "bullet" proof and used a growling, snarling metal monster to master the skies and go anywhere the fuel load would let us. To work your way around those towering C.B.'s in the south Pacific and central America, and to fly towards a thunderstorm at 240 knots and it was so big, it never changed shape in one hour!!! To know that you had a challenge ahead to get "your" people on the ground in one piece, with out any, or at the least, minmum bouncing around during letdown and landing! Those days are gone forever my friends, so I'll just lay in my hammock on the back porch, drink my mint julep and think about the "gooooood old days".

[colmbo]

A round engine at speed looks and sounds like it's going to blow any minute. This helps concentrate the mind.

A standard check for us on takeoff was gear and flaps up, first power reduction then each pilot scanned his wing for fire and/or leaks.  Then occasionally during flight you looked out at your side to check for fire or leaks.  It certainly gets your attention when the right seater says "Uh...four is smoking."  In that case a slight power reduction and the smoke lessened.  We "thought" we had probably developed an oil leak around a pushrod tube ---- no sign of loss of power, smooth running --- we continued the flight.  Landed about 20 minutes later and as I climbed out the wife said the airplane "sounded different" as we taxiied in.  I grabbed a ladder to look #4 over to find our "leak".  When I pulled the bottom access panel off there was a 1 inch piece of piston ring lying on the inside of it.  Hmmmm.  Maybe that is from the cylinder change we did in Alaska a few days ago.  Didn't see anything big on bottom of engine so climbed the ladder to look the front of the engine over and noticed I could look right through the #1 cylinder under the head.  The head and come off and was retained only by the baffeling.  That explained the smoke and the funny noise.  I've got almost as much time changing jugs and engines as I do PIC in the B-24. 

[Old Sport]

Yeah, was about to say that the biggest difference is that special black paint they use on the engine nacelles...   

[earl1937]

A standard check for us on takeoff was gear and flaps up, first power reduction then each pilot scanned his wing for fire and/or leaks.  Then occasionally during flight you looked out at your side to check for fire or leaks.  It certainly gets your attention when the right seater says "Uh...four is smoking."  In that case a slight power reduction and the smoke lessened.  We "thought" we had probably developed an oil leak around a pushrod tube ---- no sign of loss of power, smooth running --- we continued the flight.  Landed about 20 minutes later and as I climbed out the wife said the airplane "sounded different" as we taxiied in.  I grabbed a ladder to look #4 over to find our "leak".  When I pulled the bottom access panel off there was a 1 inch piece of piston ring lying on the inside of it.  Hmmmm.  Maybe that is from the cylinder change we did in Alaska a few days ago.  Didn't see anything big on bottom of engine so climbed the ladder to look the front of the engine over and noticed I could look right through the #1 cylinder under the head.  The head and come off and was retained only by the baffeling.  That explained the smoke and the funny noise.  I've got almost as much time changing jugs and engines as I do PIC in the B-24. 

One of the jobs I had when I started civilian life again was a first officer job on a DC-6B, flying Levi blue jeans to Porta Rica, where they sewed them together and placed tags on them for sale in dept stores. I only lasted about 65 days, because the first thing I noticed was poor maintenance practices and when we were told that the one we were going to fly on a particular night, that once we got airborne, shut down #3 and restart it after we got to destination, because of a bad oil leak. Wouldn't have a problem doing that with no cargo, but with 18 pallets of jeans, didn't sound like a good idea to me, so I quit on the spot! Turns out the mechanic's hadn't been payed in 3 weeks and refused to do anything about the oil leak until they were paid. Can't blame them for that! I didn't realize what I was getting into when I took that job. First thing the flight engineer would do after takeoff and we were established in climb congf., he would take about 4 or 5 boxes of paper towels, wet them, and start stuffing them around the cargo door opening, so it wouldn't whistle so bad because of pressurizing the aircraft for altitude flight. Ramp rats with "fork lifts" are the worst enemy of a cargo aircraft back in those days.