Gooney Bird
aka 2.5 of my 15 Seconds of Fame
The South Island’s resident DC-3 has made an appearance on the ole’ blog before, but now it gets a starring role.
The chief pilot recently stopped by the office for a bit of a tour. One thing led to another, and next thing you know we’ve been invited to give some of our navigation/positioning equipment a first class ride around Canterbury.
Note the red carpet treatment.
It took some cajoling, but I managed to convince my coworker Kelvin to assist.
Somewhere along the way, the newspaper got involved. Luckily, Kelvin is our designated male model. I called upon my vast experience as a hand model to demonstrate the equipment.
(click picture to get the full article).
The results were reasonable. With any luck this will lead to some new business.
[Yes, I only got a short ten minute flight out of the deal. I was scheduled to take the jumpseat on a standard sightseeing flight, but a howling nor'wester lead to concerns about the passenger's comfort, and the cancellation of the flight. As a consolation we "fast taxied" the plane from the terminal back to the hanger via a quick trip around the circuit.]
Category: New Zealand 4 comments »
September 23rd, 2008 at 10:16 am
Very cool. I’ve always wanted to fly on an airplane with radials… whenever they’ve had a b-17 in town, they always want at least $400 for 15 minutes… which is a little hard to cough up.
September 25th, 2008 at 6:09 am
The question his, how well will the DC-3 handle in the Red Bull Air Race link one link two?
Have you told Anna you signed up as a pilot for that yet?
September 25th, 2008 at 9:18 am
Red Bull Air Races, you say? I can neither confirm nor deny….
September 25th, 2008 at 9:20 am
There’s a bit of cognitive dissonance with this plane. Most recently it was flying with Air Tonga, and the interior has been kitted out with parts from the Air New Zealand 737 wrecking yard. So it’s pure 40s-50s on the outside, and early 80s faded airline seats and plastic panels on the inside.
The cockpit is stock, however…