Oldies but goodies?

[Goldy]

Goldy ,tried emailing you pictures but came back undeliverable. new address?

stevegoldsworthy@gmail.com is the best one.

 

Don't forget the S....thx.

[OneCoqui]

TH-55, B-47

[280fxColorado]

1964 Brantly B2B. Many thanks to Ed @ Glasgow Aviation, Glasgow, KY.

 

 

[280fxColorado]

N51788, 1978 Enstrom F-28C-2, pipeline patrol fuel stop @ 8,000ft off the side of I-80, Elk Mountain, Wyoming. Many of the Enstroms in my logbook are >25 years old, but this one has an especially rich history. It was ditched in a lake the first day its original owner had it, brand new. My boss purchased it for $5,000 dollars, pulled it out of the lake and dried it off, and has since put nearly 20,000hrs on it. Blades are original and it's the smoothest flying Enstrom I've ever seen...

 

Edited April 24, 2013 by 280fxColorado

[Guest pokey]

nice lookin' Brantly. Never flew one, but guy i built and flew 269 for owned one back in the 70's & swore by it. He did however say that his 269 was a better performer. His 269 BTW was a 1963 model, with the old "manual" clutch & the manual trim "wheels" too, & even the old HTS tail rotor---altho i upgraded the T/R with all the LTS stuff for him,, and a whole bunch of other upgrades.

 

Only thing that really concerned me about the Brantly was how you stick your head in that little bubble on top & it is very close to those inboard blades---i never heard of any problems with that tho, just always thought i would like my head a bit farther away from the spinning rotor.

 

edited to add my B model 269: it is a 1964, been wrecked 3 times (none by me) I got it off insurance company wrecked in 1990 and been flying it ever since i rebuilt it, has all the latest upgrades too. I sure hope the new parts avialability gets sorted out soon, anyone care to pool a few bucks together and make ole sick-horsie an offer?

Edited April 26, 2013 by pokey

[280fxColorado]

Agreed. Brantly blades are uncomfortably close to your head. They sit about 2" above the bubble at rest! And damn it is loud, no muffler! It was a great flying little machine. Sort of in between a 300 CBi and and EN28 - the (lack of) power and nimble handling of the former and the stability of the latter. Centrifugal clutch and outboard blade articulation also interesting.

[Goldy]

So I wanted to bump this back up. Seeing S/N 10 of the B 47 got me thinking of doing a story on the workhorses of our industry that are still working!

 

Are there any others out there flying from the mid-late 40's ?

[bossman]

1962 UH-1B, in Viet Nam from 62 to 71. Rolled over 3 times in Nam. Back to the states, did grape spraying in CA, became a movie star (Die Hard, The Rock, Outbreak, China Beach, Under Seige, and more). Bought her and flew her to WV in 2002. She now does the fire fighting for the entire state of WV and attends many fairs and festivals as a tribute to the men and women of the Viet Nam era.

N98F.

[BH206L3]

Well the oldest aircraft I ever flew, a Beech 18 H Volpar Super 18. Airframe left Beechcraft in June 1943, then it Left Volpar in 1968, its new owner operated it in South East Asia, I flew freight in it for a bit. Oldest Helicopter the Bell 47 G 3 b1 that I learned to fly helicopters in, started life out as an H-13 in 1955 I think. Flown a old 47 G 2 for a bit, but I didn't think the data plate on that machine was the data plate as it came from the factory. Then there was a Hiller 12 c wood blades I think that one was a 1952 or so I was told. Flown lots of airplanes when I started out in them in 1975 and they were old then, and with the exception on one that I watched crash on take off, carb icing engine failure, all the aircraft I ever flown are still flying as far as I know. But its going on 40 years now so some of the old stuff that was old when I started, maybe not.