Beech 18......

[WrightAvia]

Panthers
I flew the Panther-F9F-5-a little later....after the Korean War. Only had 4-5 months and 150 hrs. in it but loved it..... great gunnery airplane. Never flew it off the ship. I did fly the Cougar- F9F-8- and had some CV landings in it. I flew off the Hornet, Ticonderoga, Lexington and a few others but mostly the Coral Sea, later on, when the A4's first came out. I did not fly off the Randolph. By the way, none of these airplanes had an excess of power including the A4 as it was always loaded

Thanks for sharing your experiences with us!

 

[TurboS7]

I have about a 1000 hours in the beast and I love them. I keep track of all the BE-18 outfits so I can retire to them. So far there is an outfit in PHX that has some nice looking 18's. I also like the one I see at HNL but I am sure they are full of corrosion. I have only ground looped once and it was kinda funny. We has two R-985's in the back of the airplane to drop off at TUL before ferrying the airplane to ABQ. The wind was blowing real hard out of the south. We touched down nice and the tail came down, suddenly a gust hit us and the bird headed for the 90 degree taxiway. We pulled the tail lock and went with the ground loop-Yeehaa as I said "Oh sh++t". I think the mechanic with me was more suprised at my language than the groundloop. We did a 360 and rolled right out on the taxiway. Ground control said "taxi to parking", it was night and I don't think the controllers saw us go around. Unless they had seen so many 18's ground loop it was no big deal. Everytime I fly out of MDW those hot summer nights with the R-985's bellowing and barking come back, even if I have a pair of CFM56's pulling me along.

 

[crash-proof]

Here's what I can come up with;

Dwyair Air Charter, Mason City, IA shows 2 E-18s in the fleet.

Freight Runners Express, MKE shows 1 E-18.

Springdale Air Service used to have a bunch, but are they still around? Heard they went away...

Miami Valley Aviation, Middletown, OH shows 3 E-18s.

Tolair Services, San Juan, PR has 5 of 'em.

Gotta be a few more here and there I'm sure...

Add 2 from Florida Air Transport (i think?), out of FLL

 

[Huck]

My first fying job was on N930R - the one on the cover of Sport Aviation a few years back.

It was the Harley of the skies. Sounded like two John Deeres in loose formation....

Never looped it, but came close one time when I brought'em up for takeoff and the #1 hiccuped. It's something to see a windscreen full of mowed grass and runway lights.

 

[metrodriver]

freightdogfred: the company (or it's conversion) is called Dumod or something similar. They took DC3 engines (don't know which one), put an extra vertical fin on the rear a-la lockheed constellation, a fuselage plug (7 windows) and a nose gear.
The one Phillips has is said to be the last airworthy one, reg# N445DM. I got a nice picture, but don't know how to put it on the web. Maybe you can do a websearch.....

 

[freightdogfred]

That's just flat-out not true. The airplane is a little short coupled, but that's about it. The liklihood of a pilot groundlooping the airplane is a competency issue. It's very improper to imply that this is a liklihood for pilots in general. A poor carpenter blames his tools, but there is nothing wrong with the airplane.

Well, you've just got testimonials from three drivers, two who did ground loop, and a one-almost. I cannot attest to their abilities, but I'll surmise that they are no better or worse than the rest of us. (The almighty pilot-carpenter Avbug excluded, of course) I will say that the man I plagerized that phrase from had more round-motored tailwheel time than anyone I know. I will also say that in my limited aviation experience (as compared to yours) there is no aircraft that will change directions on you quicker than a Beech 18.

Metrodriver- I will do a search for that aircraft, as I would have bet a week's pay you could'nt mount that motor to a Beech 18 spar. But hey, you say ya saw it, I believe you....It must be one hell of an airplane.

 

[DC3Flyer]

Miami Valley Aviation has 3 E-18s models, well maintained. A great airplane. The Pratt & Whitney R985's are a rock solid engine, very dependable. I wish I could fly one again!

 

[cdog]

Metrodriver:
I flew BE-18s for many years(late 70s, early 80s) throughout the mid-west in the service of the auto parts industry. I saw this acft many times.
N445DM is a C-45 with 985s.

After several hrs of freezing your butt off on a January night, you land at some little arpt with poor lighting and you are not completely awake the odds of ground looping do go up.

The coolest would be a Westwind(I think) 18, Garretts with conventional gear.

 

[avbug]

Well, you've just got testimonials from three drivers, two who did ground loop, and a one-almost.

And a few others who have flown it, who haven't ground looped it, too.

You'll note that those who did didn't blame the airplane; they blamed themselves. There's nothing wrong with the airplane. We make mistakes, and that will happen. There's nothing wrong with the airplane, and there is absolutely no call to suggest that there are those who have, and those who will...any more than gear up landings.

I know an awful lot of folks who have gone long beyond their flying years without ever touching down sans wheels...or groundlooping. Go figure.

 

[TurboS7]

If you fear it ,it will happen.Below 30 kts no big deal.