Call me old fashioned...
- Thread starter rocketman5150
- Start date
Murdoughnut
Well sized member
Which sucks, because as a business traveler, I would have gladly paid the premium for the bump in service/space.
ComplexHiAv8r
Well-Known Member
Autothrust Blue said:
Ted, united without U n I. (You and I)
KSCessnaDriver
Well-Known Member
@A Life Aloft is the only one in this thread who gets any points. The rest of you are nerds.
Here's my entry:
Someday, hopefully soon, the one in Kansas City will fly again. The 1049 is such an awesome airplane. If they get real adventurous (and find a boat load of money) they could put the Martin 404 back in the air too.
N519AT
Ahh! This is how I change this!
And the trump card...
She's mindin' the gap. x2.
Sister ship N4887C sits in these very colors at P08 here in AZ, where she has served for years as a airtanker. T&G (IAR) restored her to her full former colors, but Delta Airlines didn't like the Delta logos, so they were ordered removed. But the DC-7 crown remains on the tail. Beautiful bird.
Area 5150
Model citizen, Zero discipline
That's awesome Mike! But, why wouldn't Delta like the logos?
Any chance you could snag a pic of her, one day? Loved the 7!
Chandler-Memorial field is where she was for the longest time. 5 miles south of Stellar Airpark (P19) and used to be home to T&G Aviation, now known as International Air Response. Ive been going to that place since about 1985, looking at the old DC-4/6/7s there that they used to use for aerial firefighting, plus the C-130s and other planes like Howard 500, etc. Cool place. Its on the Gila River Res, and the indians raised the fees for the place, so IAR moved out of there to Coolidge airport, about 10 miles south of my Queen Creek/San Tan Valley house.
3 of their former DC-7s were ex-Delta Airlines birds, and sold to them in 1968. Most all of them were scrapped on-site at Memorial field, as the C-130s were taken to Coolidge during the company move. However, one was redone in the Delta paintjob that's very nice looking, and was originally marked with Delta markings, until the airline told them to remove the Delta logos.....even though it was a firebomber.
Check out the pics below. Beautiful plane in original livery....nice and shiny for a radial-engine bird. In the interior shot, in the back of the plane, is it's original "Delta Sky Lounge" First Class seats. Even with DC-7 "Crown" logo on the vertical stab.
The bottom photo was it's sister bird from Delta, also a firebomber N4889C, but it was scrapped at Chandler-Memorial along with the rest of the DC-4/6/7s there....you can see it's former blue livery has sun bleached to a green from the AZ sun; only 4887C pictured here was saved. And it's still flying forest firefighting missions to this day.
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Area 5150
Model citizen, Zero discipline
Thank you do much for this history and story! Never get tired of hearing stories like this!
Incredible that 1 of these great 7's is still soldiering on!
WacoFan
Bigly
Someday, hopefully soon, the one in Kansas City will fly again. The 1049 is such an awesome airplane. If they get real adventurous (and find a boat load of money) they could put the Martin 404 back in the air too.
I may be off-base here but what I heard was that the Martin had serious corrosion problems and it was officially done. The DC-3 should be real nice when it's finished. I got crossways with the AHM and got banned from them...even though I was only 6 months into a 3 year membership (no refund either). Asshats. They wanted my grandpa to join when they first bought the Connie - they called and he had just retired from TWA a couple weeks before so he was current, etc and had all the Connie types. They first said what they were doing and if he'd be willing to ferry the plane back and he immediately agreed then they said "Great...you just need to cut us a check for $12k and we'll be all set!" to which he said..."Nah...I'll pass on that, but call if you need a pilot".
He explained to me that in 1959 when he qualified as Captain on the Connie he was paid something real close to $12k...and he didn't feel like dumping an entire years salary just to fly some Sh**box that they used to pay HIM to fly. The same reasoning also led him to pass on some immaculate T-6's that the Spanish air force had retired then rebuilt in 1979 or 80. They wanted $25k apiece for them. He ultimately declined for the same reasons, although he kicked himself in the ass later for that one.
KSCessnaDriver
Well-Known Member
I do always recall them saying that about the 404. But, I seem to recall a year or two ago, they had a corrosion expert in on the DC-3 and in the process he looked at the 404 and said it could be repaired. Doubt it would ever happen, but I seem to recall that. Can't find it on their website, but they've changed websites so many times in the last few years.
Honestly, if I had the money, I'd rather not be a pilot on the 1049, but a FE.
1960s airplane porn 
ChasenSFO
hen teaser
Actually, they did very well out of DAL, Southwest didn't kill them. What killed them was American reconfigured a handful of Fokker 100s to have 56(IIRC) seats to get around the Wright Amendment, then offered flights from DAL to Legend's key destionations leaving at about the same time either matching their fares or offering lower ones. On top of that, American offered 3 times the frequent flyer miles on these flights. Legend fought all this in court, but as always, American's lawyers managed to win the case and Legend was run out of buisiness. Another example of why I strongly dispise the AMR corp with their shady legal history of getting away where others could never.
Fancy little airline that I flew on, Once!
But, why oh why did they decide it was a wonderful idea to take on Southwest at Love?
Japan sorta had the same idea in WW2. They called it.......
Kamikaze!
ChasenSFO
hen teaser
Yep. All it really did was forever destroy their PHX and LAS frequent flyer bases as the 1Ks and Global Service flyers were outraged to have no first class seats into their cities on United anymore and jumped ship to other airlines. Then when TED was canceled, all it did was cause headaches as last minute aircraft swaps meant up to 12 people who paid for or upgraded to first class were now told "Sorry, but you're in coach for the next 5 and a half hours". Goodtimes.
dasleben
That's just, like, your opinion, man
Approved.
Autothrust Blue
Welcome aboard the Washington State Ferries
If they do they'd better call the most recently experienced -404 drivers in the world. I'll be waiting by the phone.Someday, hopefully soon, the one in Kansas City will fly again. The 1049 is such an awesome airplane. If they get real adventurous (and find a boat load of money) they could put the Martin 404 back in the air too.
