A long time ago when I was seventeen I was smitten by
aviation's allure on a DC-3 flying across Montana. The reason was not import,
it was high school football after-all. The trip was the event on the venerable
DC-3. Below is a video from a you tube archive demonstrating a Colombian flight.
Flying onboard Aerovilla Douglas DC-3(C-47A-80-DL) HK-3292 (c/n 19661) engine start + cockpit views. Departure from Villavicencio META to La Padrera, Capt. Joaquin Hernan Sanclamente & copilot Pablo Maurico Tovar (Date September 1999). see also
It was bubble gum at 6,000 feet to open the ear
canal and equalize the eardrum pressure. The FL10 was to be maintained even
going over the Rocky Mountains or the Continental Divide as "we" high
school chaps would call it. Taking off from Missoula, MT or MSO airport on a
vintage charter airplane was a common expectation as none even knew what a 737
was in 1969. Prop planes and prop jets were the common equipment at the smoke
jumper capital of the US Forest Service in Missoula.
The two hour flight to Billings, Mt was a big
adventure as all first flights are, where later a Johnson Flying Service Ford
Tri-Motors was the next adventure.
The aviation bug invested every imagined or
experienced flight from that point forward. The "football" trip
ruined my aviation innocence. The view from the starboard side of the Rocky
Mountains hundreds of feet below was stunning, then a look at the engine caused
fear and angst as sparks continually shot backwards as the motor made a popping
noise. The one flight attendant seamed uninterested at the noise as she made
sure everyone had a candy bar and a fruit for every passenger. An updraft from
the Rocky Mountains caught the wings and flexed them skyward making a bending
tin noise as the movie title "Pushing Tin" suggests.
Pushing Tin Trailer
John Cussack
Flying wasn't just
enjoyable it was an adventure and football didn't matter at all.
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