Dakman

There was one for sale at Ashdown Camp, Evesham, seen a couple of weeks ago. Was a fifth-wheeler, that's removed, and now has a pod on the back. Been for sale for quite a while now. Bit pricey, but at least it has full UK brakes upgrade.

........and I was piloting the DC-3....but you already knew that........back into hibernation.........

I have a set of 5 labels from the cab. What is your e-mail?. Dakman.

Interesting thread. I joined, and eventually posted under "walk out to the Dak.....", and HAD to cease posting mid-flight, so to speak, for reasons which are partly my business and diddly-squat to do with anyone else. I come on here at least twice a week, so haven't left. First I will get myself into a position where I CAN post again, and then when I WANT to post, I will probably do so. I am aware my posts were quite popular, but events became outside my control, and that's all I want to say. It is also nice that I wasn't hounded in any way. That is because of the sort of people and the kind of Forum it is. As has already been observed, it is probably the ONLY Forum not to conspire to vilify it's members in some way. I'm sure the Mods will ensure it stays that way. So my message to Swill1952xs is...... don't frighten the horses. Some, (but not me), are more timid than others, and yet they swell the numbers and thereby propel and grow this Forum simply by just signing on to have a good read, and swelling the number of "hits", one of the several yardsticks by which Sites/Forums are judged. Remember, there are three simple rules for ensuring a good landing. Unfortunately, nobody knows what they are....................

Hey, glad you liked it....plenty more where that came from, but got to be careful not to stray off the subject too much, and keep the posts to a reasonable length methinks. So look out for the climb, cruise, approach, landing, engine shutdowns, engine failures, etc etc , in due course. Meanwhile to answer some of the questions:- 1) Yes, this was quite the norm when starting a day's work away from base. 2) We had a very smart uniform, and tried to keep it clean! 3) I've never flown any aircraft I haven't walked around. Why? Well, there used to be a small syndicate who kept a small 2-seater french Jodel aircraft in a shed on a farmers strip, and flew it weekends, and sometimes did a bit of maintenance during the week. One Saturday morning, a member came up to do some solo flying. He pulled the aircraft out, checked the fuel and oil, checked the control column for "full and free movement", started up, lined up on the runway, opened up the throttle, and careered off at 90 degrees right, and ended up nose down in a ditch, writing off the aircraft. WHY? Well, one of the other members had come up during the week, removed the rudder, and taken it home to replace the fabric covering.........TRUE STORY! 4) Ordinary turnrounds did not require the turning and draining checks, only the first flight of the day, and at home base we had engineers to do that. And yes Bob, Intra became Jersey European, which split into JEA and Channel Express, and in my time I flew for both, (last DC-3 flight 29/4/81), and converted on to Viscounts, Twin Otters (JEA and British Antarctic Survey), Trislanders and Islanders, (Aurigny), BAe-146's, (TNT Airways), and latterly the gentlemans aeronautical carriage, the Airbus A300, (still TNT), with the 3-crew cockpit. So, more will come soon, but I don't want to clog up the thread! Dakman.

Walk out to the Dak, looking at it as you get nearer, as half the walkround can usefully be done from a distance, (symmetry, is it sitting straight on its u/c etc), open rear door, deploy original crew ladder, walk up to the cockpit, check all's well, with mag switches OFF. Dismount, get empty milk-bottle, (remember them?), press up under each wing tank water-drain, throw away contents until no more water shows in bottle. Do rest of walkround, removing pitot-cover and external control-locks as you go, and place at top of step for the moment. Then turn each engine over forwards by 7 blades, (two rotations), or nine blades if you have willing helpers, as they like doing it. As much as two people can manage on a cold day, while listening for hisses (cracked head or spark plug blown out, I kid you not), odd clanks as opposed to the usual ones, looking for any prop damage, or a dead stop with hyraulic lock if oil has gathered in the lower cylinders overnight. This can quite often be dispersed by turning back and fore around that compression, but you cannot start until it is dispersed. Stagger back round to the steps, mount, remove steps and close the forward half of the aft freight door. Carry locks and pitot cover forward to their stowage, and ease yourselves into the naturally reclined and surprisingly comfortable green leather pilots' seats, savouring all the while the still-present aromas of fuel, oil, leather and old machinery. Ratchet-up the seat so as to afford some sort of view forwards. Complete the before-start checks, which include brakes on pressure good, gear and flap levers neutral, pressure in u/c down-lines OK, cowl-gills open, throttle 1" open, pitch full fine, fuel selectors a/r, fuel levers idle cut-off, tail-wheel lock in. Then with main electrics and all mags on and electric fuel pumps on (if fitted), press the "energise" switch for the starboard engine for about 7-10 secs, all the while priming in 2 sec bursts, then keeping it pressed, press the "mesh" switch after checking "prop clear!" Hopefully the engine will fire, and it is kept running with almost constant priming, until the fuel lever is moved forward to "auto-rich". At this point it will either settle down into a smooth purr at 1000-1200 rpm, or backfire, or catch fire, (keep it turning, suck the flames in), or stop. Yes, I can hang wallpaper one-handed, and it definitely helps if you've crept out in the small hours and fed it some hay. Repeat for the other engine, and hope its not going to have a sulk. Nothing happens now, having seen the oil pressures rise, until the CHT's register at least 120 C. Then the hostess will pipe up "Five locks, two pins, one pitot-head cover, rear door locked, ships papers on board, 36 passengers strapped in SIR". I then reply with the flight-time and cruising altitude, weather en-route, the fact that I have just had the best night-stop ever and we must do it again sometime, and she retires aft to look after the pax and gaze wistfully out of the window. A smart disengagement of the tailwheel lock, and by use of dabs of differential brake and the odd burst of power, we taxi to the runway holding point, where we park into wind, roll forward to engage the tailwheel lock, and set the park brake. Both engines are advanced to ~1700rpm, and both pitch levers are moved smoothly back to full coarse, and back to full-fine just before the rpm stops decreasing. This is then repeated. Then still @~1700 rpm, each large red feathering button is spun clockwise to check it is not undoing off its threaded rod, and then pressed. A fiercely-powerful magnet holds it in, but we dont want to feather the engine, so the fingers have to be curled behind it to pull it out once the sequence has been seen to start. This can take all your strength, and the absence of the pre-push spin can mean that it flies off, over your shoulder, and rolls down the aisle amongst the bemused/terrified passengers. The prop then full-feathers, and with throttle shut, will just about keep running. You then ask the aforementioned stewardess if she would kindly find and return your red knob thingy, at the same time assuring her that you are NOT referring to the previous night, and she had better be quick before the engine falls off the wing. Once retrieved, the knob is screwed back on, and this time held hard in until the electric pump has UNfeathered the prop. Then with both throttles pulled full-back, idle rpm is checked, and each mag in turn, then both mags, are turned quickly off and back on again on each engine, looking for the appropriate responses. Then with one engine @ 1000rpm, the other's throttle is advanced to zero boost, and each mag checked for "mag-drop", i.e. the engine does lose a few rpm but not too many as each mag is switched off/on again. If by some miracle the plugs have stayed clean, you are ready for take-off. After lining-up, the tail-lock is again engaged, cowl-gills to "trail", booster pumps on, some into-wind aileron applied to keep the cross-wind (if any) from lifting the wing, seat lowered to the floor, and throttles s-m-o-o-t-h-l-y opened to 48" boost and a pre-governed 2700rpm. With a little help the tail rises, and you can start to see where you are going. The 1st Officer takes over the throttles as you keep the beast on the centreline, and she almost flies herself off at about 80 knots . Such is the noise that hand signals are the order of the day, and a quick signal to the F/O sees him reach down with his left hand, unlatch and pull back the mechanical u/c lock lever and immediately select the u/c hydraulic lever "up". After retraction and climbing away nicely, one finger is raised to the F/O, who adjusts the engines to 43 1/2"" boost, 2550 rpm. Soon after, two fingers are raised whereby, as he knows I'm a gentleman really, he selects 35""/ 2050rpm for the climb. We can then relax, do the after-take-off checks, reflect on last night, and wonder if we'll still have two engines running at the destination. AND THEY PAID ME!!!!! The above a small dissertation on the aftermath of one of many typically amazing French night-stops I had while flying as a young Captain with Intra Airways, Jersey, in the mid-seventies. Dakman.

Look at Vanderveen, page87, top, it's a French Laffly/Hotchkiss S15T. Can be identified as such due to the shape of the bodyside cutout between front and mid axles.

Yesterdays BBC internet news had it that they are considering closing Deepcut. What happens to the remaining records then? I can just see them being tossed into the nearest skip as a matter of expediency. :-(

Congratulations Jack! :-D And even more so for remembering!! :-D

Anyone NOT got the message yet? Anyone who continues to coast after all that has been said on here, should be locked up and banned from driving as a menace to themselves and all other road users. Just about the most stupidly dangerous thing you can do with any motorized vehicle, IMHO.

The old Midland Red D9 (BMMO) double-decker 1/2-cab had hydraulic brakes, pressurised by a pump on the gearbox drive-shaft, (fluid flywheel, separate gearbox). So when at rest or moving or shunting slowly, you had NO footbrake! Ever tried to hold a fully-loaded bus against an engaged fluid flywheel with a long elastic-like handbrake only? It called for a quite unique juggling act and a very strong arm! Once well and truly under way, the brakes were very good for the time, but coasting was of course out of the question, as the pump was on the input side of the remote gearbox!

Beg Pardon???? :evil:

When driving old slow vehicles, with vacuum, single-line air or just plain old braking systems, and horrendously low power-to-weight ratios, (and yes, I've driven quite a few), the best piece of advice was given to me in the early seventies as to how to drive and pass a PSV test on an old crash-box Bristol 1/2-cab, and that was simply this:- GO DOWN THE HILL IN WHATEVER GEAR YOU HAVE TO USE TO COME UP IT. Best-ever bit of advice I was ever given, and on really steep ones, HOLD the gear-lever in the gear in case it should jump out! Yes, it makes for a few very slow descents, but you'll always live to tell the tale, IMHO. ;-)

When I started out in MV's in 1989, fuel most definitely was NOT a consideration, even with me always running heavies. Now, the escalating cost has had the effect of maybe discouraging people from attending far away smaller rallies, and sticking nearer to home during the season. Those that do still venture far afield see themselves and their families having to make more sacrifices in order to do so, and bully for them I say. There is an unfortunate parallel in the world of restoring and flying unique or historic aircraft, which takes a whole lot of serious dough. With a few notable exceptions, those that bankroll the restorations are those that should be banned from ever flying them. But, if Mr Richman goes out and gets a few flying lessons and the requisite basic licence, nobody can stop him from being shown how to fly his toy. Over the years, I have seen the most unsuitable people get to fly someones painstakingly-restored pride and joy, and either ground-loop it and swipe off the undercarriage, or worse still, pile it in. And this includes airline pilots, who because of their thousands of hours in the logbook flying automated aircraft, are deemed to be the "right sort" by the insurance companies to sit in the cockpit. Many have little or no tail-wheel experience, and have never nursed big radial engines to keep them in one piece, and get the best out of them. The restored Bristol Blenheim, in its first reincarnation, is a case in point. It is abundantly clear from just reading this Forum that a lot of you fine people go to great personal privation to restore and run YOUR pride-and-joys, with often the domestic budget suffering while you have to order that vital part, (or even bolt, OUCH!). And now the cost of fuel makes it even more so. Well, good on you, because Mr Richman may have the money, but he does NOT have the enthusiasm, dedication, and hard-earned know-how to be doing what YOU do. Long may it continue! The only way it may devalue the MV's overall worth is if a fair number drop out of ownership by simply not being able to afford to run vehicles, and there become far less buyers to pass vehicles on to, especially the vital younger generations. Somehow I feel that time is a way off yet. Of the 12 vehicles I have owned since 1989, I made a small profit on one, broke even on another, and lost money on the rest when I passed them on. Par for the course, and part of the hobby, I'm afraid! (Sorry mods, I detected a bit of a deviation and rant in there somewhere. Rant over!)

A .......Aircraft L ........landing I ........in T ........Tokyo, A ........all L ........luggage I ........in A .......Anchorage.

Well Jack, when I was flying DC-3's in the 70's, we had a short, wizened, perfectly charming Czech pilot called Joe Rechka flying with us. At the outbreak of war, he bundled his girlfriend, his co-pilot and his wife, into a DC-2 that he was flying for a local airline, and defected to England, where he joined up and flew for the duration. After the war, he returned to Czechoslovakia and flew again commercially. Come the Polish/Czech post-war uprisings, he did the same thing again, this time escaping in a DC-3, and THIS time, he did NOT go back for fear of reprisals (like for pinching a DC-3 for starters!). I was in charge of training in Jersey, and this 26-year old was having great difficulty in getting him to do things according to our "book", and after consulting our Chief Pilot, (another amazing grizzled veteran, Bill Stuart), it was decided that as this was the 70's, and he had been flying DC-2's BEFORE war broke out, it was probably safe to assume that his way worked, and that HE was probably teaching the DC-3's a thing or two, and as long as he could still tick MOST of our boxes, he was best left alone. To fly with him as a F/O was priceless, a real privilege even. Like a lot of gentlemen of his era, he wouldn't speak much about his experiences other than what I have outlined above. A year after he retired from us, he died, back in the UK. He was accorded a full military funeral, and it was revealed that he was indeed a hero of epic proportions, and had been awarded, amongst other things, the Croix de Guerre for his wartime exploits. I well remember walking out to our Dak one winter's morning, him muttering something in his (still) broken English. "What's that?" I asked. "Bloody aeroplane, following me around, can't get rid of it!" he replied. And I really DID know he was joking.

OK, while we're here then......... "If progressive forward movement of the throttle lever does not produce:- A) More noise B) More wind C) More vibration... Then, and only then, can it be safely assumed that the engine has stopped."....(from a very early open cockpit instrument placard, I kid you not!). Also:- Q) How do you know when you have landed with the gear up? A) When it takes full power to taxy! There, see, having NO MV for the first time in 18 years is already getting to me, and its only been gone 5 hours!!! :cry:

Couldn't agree more, Tony B. While buying/using/selling over a dozen delectable heavies over the past 18 years, my (now) wife has often wistfully opined that she "prefers the ones with long bonnets". Now, what makes me think I may live to regret posting this???!!! :roll:

Good question, Tony B. Just waved goodbye to my Dodge WC-7, sold via Milweb, up north to Durham area on a C.A.R.S. and Motorsport dedicated curtainsider. I was well impressed with their kit, kneeling rear suspension and great long integral ramps, so even a Ferrari with nil nose-clearance can be loaded easily. Guys last load was £1m-worth of Bentley, and as this was a back-load organised by the buyer, I cant give you prices etc. Just to say it was travelling totally enclosed for about 240 miles, and I was well impressed. (They do a lot for Morgan, which is at Malvern near here.) Sorry, post drift! Never understood why vehicles appear on e-bay rather than Milweb or other dedicated places. Could just be that there is a whole collection of MV's existing in a "parallel universe" to ours, all out there, but with owners who for whatever reason don't wish to participate in places like this and CMV, MMI, and Milweb. I guess the impossible census of EXACTLY what is squirrelled away behind closed doors in these islands of ours would shake everyone rigid!

Regarding the gearbox coupling spiders for Scammells, I was a member of both the Scammell Register and Scammell Owners and Enthusiasts Club several years ago, (I owned an ex-Sunters Super Constructor in passing), and the subject of these couplings was a hot potato then, to the extent that they may well have got to the tooling and production stage. If needs be, well worth Googling and contacting before launching out on one's own. No need to "re- invent the wheel" twice!

Regarding the failure to pick up fuel, my Dodge WC-7 used to have a real lurker of a problem whereby it would start and idle OK, but when it went off down the road, it would always stop at the same place, about 1/4 mile away. After a bit of cranking, it would start, and just about make it back before expiring again. Definitely a lack-of-fuel problem. The previous owner renewed EVERYTHING between the fuel tank and the engine, including the carburettor, to try and find the problem, to no avail. In the end he sliced the end off the fuel tank. Inside was quite clean, but he then found the problem purely by chance. Where the fuel pipe enters the tank , there is a 90-degree elbow on the inside which holds the standpipe. This had the TINIEST of pinholes in it, well above the fuel level. Now, just reflect on the cause and effect here, and all the diagnostic-steps any one of us may have taken before finding this, (if we ever found it at all!). Recalled here to add to the already-amazing knowledge-base contained on this wonderful Forum! Hope it helps someone somewhere, sometime.

I remember in the mid-fifties standing on our front gate and watching the re-manufactured QL's and Hippos on road-test from Desborough Engineering, near High Wycombe, and being absolutely fascinated watching the prop-shafts turning, and the unmistakable sounds of these vehicles which has been with me ever since. A friend of mine's father worked there, and one Saturday we were let loose in a whole yard full of them, even if we had to be lifted up into the cabs! To cap it all, I got a ride in a Matador at the local TA Open Day. Now THAT noise really is something else, and led to my first MV being a Mat in 1989.

To stay in tune with your vehicle, a vital part of driving them, answer is probably not, and thats not being in any way unkind.

Given all the factors already described, a good, new Dak @ full-load should manage 130kts indicated, so allow say 125-135kts average. In the 70's a full-loader would manage126kts indicated. I'll leave you to work out the possible ranges.

Excellent, Excellent, Excellent! B & W's especially evocative. Seems like Up North what you don't do by halves is things!