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Flight Simming with Carlyboy in his Dakota DC3.
This is where Mascha sits! I have been fortunate to have absolutely the best crew that any DC3 has had out
of Interlaken!! (umm OK my DC3 is the ONLY Dc3 to work out of Interlaken). But my crew are the best (as soon as they get back
from the pub we'll take a photo and show you).
Who is Mascha... check out her page on this site!
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Most of my virtual flying around the Oberland has been from Interlaken airfield. Now 'non operational' this
used to be a military airfield with a selection of my favourite military aircraft ever ( apart from the Dak of course) The
Hawker Hunter.
The subject of a terrific April fools joke, Mike Parkin was to be entertainments officer of a new airline
to operate from Interlaken. The story made it to the press! I think the airline was to be called 'Balmers'. Regular visitors
to the Oberland will probably know that this is the name of the Interlaken Youth Hostel! I prefer the name Ample Air though.
The name sadly derived from a line that I have voiced on a thousand radio commercials in my career 'with ample parking'. And
at this point I should add Mr Parkin is not full of figure, vigour yes, figure no. My word I'm rambling again!
One
of my colleagues at JMS has taken a keen interest in all this flight simulator nonsense, and between us we’ve been struggling
through getting from Airport A to Airport B using the Instrument Landing System. You see I admit to being a novice. I also
admit to being bamboozled by all the technicalities of flight, abbreviations and as for some of the cockpit instrumentation,
well just where do you start.
As
I mentioned Mike tried to teach me a bit about setting the ILS frequencies, headings and the autopilot, then regaining control
just in time to manually ‘flare’ on landing. For me half the problem is with the keyboard shortcuts. It’s
the same with my train simulator. I’ll be chugging along quite happily when I press the wrong key on the keyboard and
end up sanding the track instead of braking. I guess the other half of the problem for me is giving it time… I just
haven’t got any. Maybe I should invest in a laptop and do some simming on the train. Now there’s an idea! On second
thought, I spend all day looking at PC screens!
| Owners of a good few Daks |
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| ...and I'm building a model one! |
Let’s consider my old girl, the Douglas DC3, not Liz. It is undoubtedly
the most successful transport aircraft in history. Dating from the 30’s and 40’s it seems difficult to believe
but it was then a ‘luxury’ aircraft, with revolutionary facilities like cabin heat, insulated walls and running
water in the toilet! 1st class executive comfort, particularly in the variant which was called ‘Skylounge’
It boasted just 14 seats for daytime flying. If you wanted to travel at night another variation of the DC3 was the Skysleeper
complete with bunk beds! The DC3 was, and Is, a classic.
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