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Departure of DC3 #36 |
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You know, there are things in life that make it all worth while yet draw no attention to themselves. What does that mean? Let me try to explain. For years, while working in the yard or visiting the nearest shopping mall, I would hear a mellow drone of engines. Two of them to be exact. Not really paying any attention to where the sound came from, it was a pleasant and reassuring sound. It was so different from the noise of life as we know it these days. The pleasant sound was there for a while but then it was gone. Oh, once in a while, I would break my trance, the one required to keep ones sanity, to look up and see a beautiful old DC3 climbing out with a load of cargo heading to parts unknown. You knew the old plane just took off from Hook Field in Middletown, Ohio, but you just went about your business after having a good look. You assumed the sight and sounds would go on forever. I'm sorry to say that life is full of change. One of those changes is the freight is no longer flown from Hook Field in the old DC3 and most of the old planes are now gone from the field. One left today, 12 January, 2006.. The #36 on it's tail. It was the second to last of the flying DC3's left at Hook and it's gone. There are two left at Hook. One will fly out and the other will be dismantled and trucked out. That ends an era here at Hook Field. Hook will never look the same again without the old DC3s sitting in the grass along the runway. You just don't realize, at the time, when significant change happens. It sneaks up on you. It happens in little pieces then suddenly you notice something has changed. I really feel that Hook Field needs a DC3 on the field permanently. Perhaps the one not flying could just stay there and grace the field from now on. What's really sad is that young people will never know the sight and sound of a graceful old airplane like the DC3. Perhaps something else will come along and take its place but I don't think so. What could do that? #36 departed Hook in good hands. She was flown by Kevin Upstrum and Martha Lunken. #36 was chased by Bob Schallop in a small twin which will provide transportation back from OSH for the pilots of #36. They headed towards Chicago and then to Oshkosh, WI. Yes, the place where the largest fly-in in the world happens every year. It just happens that Basler is located there. Basler will take old #36 and rework her into a modern flying machine with turbine engines, new interior and paint. #36 will become the transportation of a company exec or a well to do individual. It really doesn't matter who winds up with her as long as she lives on.... Allen |
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