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Who did Ernest Gann fly for?

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ePilot22 said:
I would love to fly a DC-3! AM21!

Tom

then just apply to Piedmont and fly the Dash in the NE. Replace EWR with LGA and the DC3 with a Dash8. Base yourself in LGA or SYR and you can pretty much fly the same stuff. Colgan and Commutair will also give you the same routes.

When I lived in SYR from the the top foor of my apartment building you could pretty much see the "railroad instrument approach" to the original syracuse airport he talks about. Its also the same airport that he sucks the gear up too early and causes Ross to milk the DC2 into the air.

I say the "original syracuse" airport because the one thats there today is not the one he flew into. The SYR airport Gann flew into located south of the thruway (90) and west of 81, just south of the fairgrounds in the town of Amboy. One of the hangars is still there which is located off a road the happens to be called Airport road.

I was driving along that road one day back when I lived there and as I came around a corrner on the road the hangar in the woods cought my eye. The area is fenced off and used as a dirt landfill. The hangar houses trucks and equipment. The local library had info about the airport which included that Lindy and Airhart (sp?) had both landed there at some point.

AA and Robinson (the forerunner to Mohawk, now part of U) were the only airlines that served the airport. Actualy from what I'm able to tell Robinson wasn't a sked airline at that point (pre WW2) and was just charter and a flight school. I believe Robinson had something to do with Ithica also.

The SYR airport we know today (north of the city) was built during WW2 as a B-17 training base. Some of the orginal base can be seen on the FBO side (south) and north where the control tower and employee lot is located. After WW2 the govt gave the land to the city who decided that it would make a better airport for commercial use than the one Gann had used.

try a google search for : abandoned and little known airfields this guys site has all the info.
 
Ernest Gann

EG

The one thing that remains constant since his time is that he became a writer as an unemployed airline pilot. He had to change careers because he couldn't find any work. I don't think he really flew all that much.

Skyline
 
He had about 10K hrs if I remember right from "Twlight for the God's" his TransPac ferry trip in a DC-3
 
I think you're wrong about that. He did lots of writing while he was employed as a pilot. He was somewhat of a celebrity wherever he flew in the latter part of his flying career. I second the opinion that "A Hostage to Fortune" is a great read. I've read almost all of his books and he is second to none in aviation lore. The only other decent writer has been Stephen Coonts and his stuff is a little too Tom Clancy for me. Gann was the best and I wish the Duke had gotten more down because he's the only other pure "heart of Flying" writer I've read.
 
cezzna, and everybody, for that matter:

I agree that Gann is one of the best aviation writers. There is another one, though: Antoine de Saint-Exupery.
His style is very similar. He writes about a lot of the same era/type of flying Gann wrote about, but on the other side of the pond, i.e. Europe.
St. Ex also did a lot of pioneering in South America and North Africa.
"Night Flight" is like a carbon copy for what freight dogs do today-just different airplanes, and (marginally!!!) better technology.

Hey, is Gann still alive? This could be a dumb question.
 
Gann died about 10 years ago. Was living up in Friday Harbor, WA at the time. I believe his widow may still be alive and living there. Another good aviation author from that neck of the woods is Richard Drury (sp?). Retired Tiger/Fed Ex pilot.
 
You think the guy paid for his DC3 type?
 
Does anybody have a good source for Gann's books these days? It seems like you can find Fate is The Hunter anywhere, but the others are all pretty hard to come by.
 
I have purchased many of his books on e-bay. Do a search under Gann and you will find any and all of his books. Most are very cheap to buy. If any certain book isn't there at a given time, keep checking back and it will eventually turn up. I've been trying to find some of his original oil paintings as he was a prolific artist in his later years. I did see one on e-bay and bid it up to $400 but the reserve was not met. Always thought it would be awesome to have an original GANN hanging in my house!
 

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