Tuesday, March 08, 2011

VietnamWar Fun - Really

Seaboard World DC-8 lands at
Marble Mountain Vietnam
Bit of history that I was unaware of.  From a guy who worked at Trans International Airlines. Names have been removed .... (cuzzin ricky)

My sister is the little blonde flight attendant in this Super 8MM footage shot by a GI in 1969.
 
This event is pretty well know history among the "Non Sked" flight crews flying the MAC charters in and out of Viet Nam, but I had no idea it had been filmed. Marcia found it recently.

What's interesting is, once Seaboard World Flight Opns got the word on what happened, they contacted Douglas Aircraft Corp for advice Douglas said "take it apart and ship it home".

FAA said the same thing..........you can see from this footage how the flight crew decided to handle the matte
r.

8 comments:

Steve_in_CA said...

Nice short-field take-off. Nice hot short-skirted stews. How I miss those days.

Anonymous said...

Why remove the names? Very kewl, still, I'd prefer to fly with the fellows who can pick out the correct runway.

Casca

B....... said...

Being a bit obtuse I didn't get it until I watched Part 2, Seaboard DC-8 lands at Marble Mountain RVN 1968 69.

Anonymous said...

And some nice eyeball liberty for the troops.
Lt. Col. Gen. Tailgunner dick

Anonymous said...

I rode Trans International both ways. Obviously, the return trip was more enjoyable. Although that was subject to question at the time. Pilot flew thru a humoungous thunderstorm, had these gigantic lightning flashes seemingly right outside the aircraft and scared the bejabbers out of me. Live thru Veet Nom and get killed on the flight home, oh crap. I vowed to kick his a$$ if we lived thru it. But, inasmuch as we made it, all was forgiven.

I hope he is still alive and enjoying a well deserved retirement on some beach somewhere.

H The Comet

DougM said...

Later investigation showed that they had inadvertently assigned two takeoff pilots to the flight but no landing pilot.

Wabano said...

Yup! The diesel eight freighter is a rocket ship when empty.

My first ride was on the jumpseat of a DC-8 63(the stretcho) between El Paso and Tucson with Rosie.
Cappie told us: "I'll show you guys what this thing can do"!

We took off east, so he level off first at 5,000feet, sped up to 350kts, pulled up vertical, then over upside down...
after rolling blue side up, I noticed both artificial horizons where spinning like tops! Can do, YES!

Another time, we went to Port au Prince, roared in on final at 350 knots,
went full reverse on all four, dropped flaps and gear then landed like a flower!!

The whole fire department was waiting for us, saying we made so much noise
they thought we where about to explode!!!

Yes, the DC-8 is like the DC-3,
they STILL cant make an airplane to match it!!!

Built by Douglas' Spring, Cable and Bellcrank factory, the Eight had a fat wing that could not match the numbers of Boeing 707,
but the Seven-O has been retired commercially 40 years ago and only live in the Air Force
thanks to the taxpayer's billions, while the Diesel-8 still truck on for eternity, like the good old DC-3

Check Buffalo Joe's operation in Yellowknife:
http://www.icepilots.com/

Peter said...

I never flew the 707 or the DC8 but an American fellow pilot in Air Algerie defined the difference for me:
"The DC8'a a pointer, the 707's a sinker!"
The DC3? It becomes a part of you.

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