SJS Old School

Yes, Brockways was hooked up with Mohawk until the late 70's. I can't remember if they split up before or after Mohawk became part of the Allegheny commuter group.

They flew 330's.

I tried to upload photos I took on my phone of a holiday card given to passengers by the pilots and FA's of the USToo group: Allegheny Commuter, Jetstream, Henson and Pennsylvania. I can't get it to work.
 



Making history!

In pre-historic times (mid-70s), their predecessor was Central Pennsylvania Airlines, a subsidiary of the Clarks' FBO in Harrisburg. They ran a Beech 18 tail-dragger with big radial engines, from the University Park Airport @ Penn State, to DCA (2 RT daily).

I was on board one day when we lifted off at 30 degrees right of runway heading. I looked up the aisle, curtains open, and the CPT and FO were looking at each other and shrugging. We flew on for a while, and one of the guys came back to talk to us (the PA, if there was one, was no match for the twin radials) He apologized for the 'lurch' on take-off and said we were diverting to Harrisburg to let them look at the landing gear. We buzzed the field at about 50 feet, while binoculars in the tower looked back at us. Up and around the pattern, and the guy came back again. "We're going to try a landing" (try????) He did the safety briefing, told us how to open the main door, and said: "Oh, and take off the safety before you open it." I looked, and the safety was a home-intrusion door chain. I figured I knew how to work it.

They brought it in low and slow, clear over on the left side of the wide (former air force) runway to bleed off airspeed. We touched down, the wheel rolled and bound, rolled and bound until he stood on the brakes and the tail wheel thumped down on the runway. The men in silver coats caught up with us, we took off the safety chain, opened the door and walked to the terminal. I later learned that a disk brake disk had loosened, and would bind as the weight of the A/C came off it.

The Old School Beech was back in service the next morning; I recognized the sound of the radials climbing out as I got my morning paper.

Sorry, no pictures.
 
All this talk of the glory days in my childhood stomping grounds (between MDT and IPT) makes me wish I could do more flying there.
 
Here you go! Don't you love that the card has ALPA on it but it's from the pilots and FA's?

Great story Florida Larry!

image.jpg
image.jpg
image.jpg
 
z987k said:
Those things are up there with worst aircraft ever built.
Click to expand...

I would love to hear from someone who has flown these Shorts and Metros to compare who has the most bragging right for flying the worst planes. Without any experience in the others my vote goes for the Metro, as at least the other planes pilots will have another pilot to help out in a "plane designed by an idiot to be flown by a genius."
 
ComplexHiAv8r said:
Do you know anything about Brockway Airlines?
Click to expand...
I know they flew Beech 1900C's as an East Coast regional that were white with a large yellow and smaller blue stripe. And they eventually became a TWE (TWA Express) carrier with said 1900Cs, mostly based out of BOS I think. That is about all I remember from all the random research I've done on 80s commuter airlines.
 
Beep said:
I enjoyed flying it.
Click to expand...

Me too, does not mean its a well designed airplane. The fact that it is difficult made it that more enjoyable. If there was a job that had a good QOL and pay I would fly one again in a heartbeat. The only plane I have more time in is a C152, and if someone was willing to pay me well, I'd fly one of those also.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top