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El Piloto Chido

Well-known member
Joined
May 17, 2006
Posts
73
Anyone know how things are with their recent mgmt changes? They're apparently looking for Capts. and a D.O.

Any ideas on pay? Where do they send their engines for overhaul- someplace decent, (like Tulsa), or to the lowest bidder?

Any info would be appreciated.
 
Down to one airplane and one being built up, they were shut down a couple of months ago (shut down voluntarily under FAA pressure--FAA had concerns about their motors), and recently lost an airplane when the cockpit burned off.

Best to stay far away.
 
They said in their recruitment ad: "FLY IN PARADISE!

I pondered the idyllic bliss of pushing bug-infested wooden pallets up a 20 degree
deck angle (rough guess...) in 100 degree heat and decided that, no, it didn't sound like paradise. Even with real live radials.
 
Hardest work I ever put in this profession was behind the yoke of the 3,the flying was awesome, the lifestyle exhausting, i think i was "fatigued",for a decade.
 
Roger on all the above. The last cargo outfit I saw that took halfway decent care of their -3s was Rhoades. They had an oldish guy work on them, sometimes falling asleep on his ladder, but he really cared for those engines. Their piston Convairs were a different story though.
 
Miami Valley Aviation, no longer in business, had very nice airplanes.....some of the best. I flew 1,000 hours in them and didn't have a single engine failure.
 
Roger on all the above. The last cargo outfit I saw that took halfway decent care of their -3s was Rhoades. They had an oldish guy work on them, sometimes falling asleep on his ladder, but he really cared for those engines. Their piston Convairs were a different story though.

I beg to differ. At Rhoades in the 3, I had 6 inflight engine shutdowns in 150 hours. The old mechanic, "Granny" is indeed a radial guru. However, Rhoades' parts dept. wasn't very supportive. We operated with what we so endearingly called "bushel basket engines".
 
it all depended on who did the overhaul,precision engines ,out of everett,wa. was hands down the best,we almost always made tbo,especially with r2800s on the cv340,at the end we switched to some cheap place out of oke city for the 1830s,and the 3s suffered,those pos engines crapped out at about 600 hrs,nose case failures,etc.,it was a merciful thing to sell the fleet back in '97,God's grace no one ever got hurt at my outfit, everyone was always able to limp to a runway single engine.
 
God's grace no one ever got hurt at my outfit, everyone was always able to limp to a runway single engine.

Which says a lot for the airplane.....and the pilots
 
Which says a lot for the airplane.....and the pilots
Thanks amigo,during those years we were flying in excess of 100 hours per month,those airplanes were imprinted in our DNA,still are,the DC3 is the finest ship ever known to man,and it was the grace of God we never hit the wrong equation of bad load,high density altitude,too short runway,bad weather plus engine failure all at the same time. God's grace,we all survived a graduate level education right out of the Ernie Gann,and St.Ex school of hard knocks.Awesome flying,horrible lifestyle,but truly awesome flying.
 

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