Gary,
When I was flying on the Pacific with World Airways, we spent a lot of time in Honolulu on layovers ... .
Blueldr, When and what aircraft were you flying for World Airways? I've still got cramps from my last and only flight on a World 747 in 1978 from Oakland to Europe. 6' 2", middle seat -- Can you spell DVT? They must have shoehorned 700 passengers on that flight--it gave new meaning to the term "high density seating". They must not have had time to reconfigure the seating from the last charter of pygmies from the Congo. But the price was right for a kid just out of high school!
Capt. Blueldr greets 700 World Airways passengers circa 1978
0917charlie.jpg (140.12 KiB) Viewed 11957 times
Last edited by n2582d on Thu Dec 10, 2015 5:00 am, edited 1 time in total.
Gary,
I left World Airways about 1966, I was flying the DC-6 on Logair and on a contract to Kwajelain Atol in the south Pacific.
I vividly remember landing at Boeing Field in Seattle on a Logair stop and askkng what in hell was that crazy looking rig. It looked like the cockpit of an airplane about thirty or forty feet above the ground on a four wheelde chassis with a towbar attached. It was a mock up cockpit of the 747 ansd they towed it down the runway to let the flight test crews learn what it was going to look like in the 747. I thought the Boeing guys were BSing me when thwy told me what it was. Then came the 747.
Dick,
Not being familiar with Kwajelain Atol I looked it up on Google Earth. You can't get further from nowhere than that! How long did it take to get there from Hawaii in a DC-6? What did you have for alternates? What were you using for navigation? Loran, I presume. You've mentioned in the past about using four-course range navigation. Did you ever learn celestial nav? Here's a website that might stir up some old memories.
Flying a H-295 from St. John I managed to find Santa Maria in the Azores but with GPS that was easier than finding the airports on my first solo cross country. Flying to a pimple in the Pacific had to take Atol on the sphincter muscle!
Gary,
On the Pacific in the old DC-6 we, thank god, flew with a navigator and just went where he told us.
It was just about ten hours to HNL from OAK and just about the same time to KWAJ from HNL The navigators principally used Loran for navigation on the Pacific.
Due to the seat spacing and the food service, it was considered first class. All but the speed. About 240.
It was made difficult to be a big time airline pilot flying across that vast Pacific Ocean in a magnificant four engined airliner knowing that two years or so before, a petite young lady named GERALDINE MOCK had done it in a four place, single 230 HP engined, Cessna 180 using a radio compass for navigation.
I always considered it miraculous that that much guts could be packed in such a small woman.
If you've not read her book, "38 Charley", you really should.
BL, I sent you that book from our public library! Heh, you've forgotten more about aviation than I'll ever know; I think I can overlook that you wouldn't have remembered that! It is a fascinating book. Now speaking of woman pilots, Pacific atolls, etc., you were around when Amelia went missing. What are your recollections on that? I have heard/read many of the remarks of her skills--or lack thereof--as a pilot and the ability of Fred Noonan, her navigator. What's your take? That had to be a subject of conversation on those long DC-6 flights to dots in the Pacific.
Last edited by n2582d on Thu Dec 10, 2015 10:53 pm, edited 1 time in total.
When Amelia went missing, I was pretty young and not really into aviation yet. As I remember, everyone was unpleasantly upset and there was a lot in the news about it. The news never mentioned her apparent real lack of airmanship. She, and particularly her husband, had a potent story going about her.
All of the detrimental stuff came out in later years. Her navigator also had a less than sterling reputation, He apparently was considerably over fond of the grape, which also came out later.
When I was flying down in that part of the Pacific,I do remember a few times that someone or other would bring her name up, but I don't remember any of us spending much time on it.
The guy that runs that "Tighar" outfit is apparently still cashing in on her.
Gary, that picture of the World Airways pax back in 1978 is quite nice, as waaay back then.... everyone wore their Sunday Best! You should see them these days, now that pax wear their Casual Clothes.
'53 B-model N146YS SN:25713
50th Anniversary of Flight Model. Winner-Best Original 170B, 100th Anniversary of Flight Convention. An originality nut (mostly) for the right reasons.
But the price was right for a kid just out of high school!
Heh, you've forgotten more about aviation than I'll ever know; I think I can overlook that you wouldn't have remembered that! It is a fascinating book. Now speaking of woman pilots, Pacific atolls, etc., you were around when Amelia went missing. What are your recollections on that? I have heard/read many of the remarks of her skills--or lack thereof--as a pilot and the ability of Fred Noonan, her navigator. What's your take? That had to be a subject of conversation on those long DC-6 flights to dots in the Pacific.
