#propeller plane

Northwest Airlines Stratocruiser Postcard

N8836C Spirit of Douglas [Douglas DC-3A] seen departing Ardmore this morning.

As this aircraft has an 84 year long history, I'm going to gloss over a lot of it.

Built in 1942 as a C-53-DO for the USAAF, it was given the s/n 42-47371 and flown to India by September that year. It was briefly given to the RAF, becoming s/n FJ712, but was back with the USAAF by December.

Under the 1st Troop Carrier Squadron, 10th Air Force, it flew airlift missions over The Hump, the Eastern end of the Himalayas, resupplying KMT forces.

After the war, it was demobbed and briefly operated in India before being purchased by Central Air Transport Corporation, Beijing, in 1946.

In 1949, it became part of the Civil Air Transport fleet, Taipei, Taiwan, under General Claire L. Chennault, formerly of the Flying Tigers and Whiting Willauer (later ambassador to Costa Rica and Honduras). Willauer would sell the company to the CIA, and it was rebranded as Air America. It was here that it gained the c/r N8836C and under Air America c/r N1794B.

In 1953, Air Asia (Air America) disposed of the aircraft, and it ended up with TEMCO Aircraft, Texas. This time as N47L.

In 1955, it was converted to a DC-3-S1C3G by Executive Aircraft Services and done up (exterior wise) similarly to a Viewmaster style DC-3. Later that year, it was operated by Southern Airways, Georgia. Allegedly as an airliner despite having been turned into a VIP transport.

Skipping ahead a few decades, it received its first name, Spirit of Enterprise, and was operating for Spirit Enterprises Inc, Wisconisn, by 2000 as N943DJ. It would wear a boring, mostly white livery for another 19 years, but received its second name, Spirit of Benovia by c. 2009.

By 2019, it was put back in Civil Air Transport c/s and had its original c/r reissued.

While I was recording these guys my classmate reminded me to shoot in 4k. I totally forgot I could do that with this camera- so upcoming pics will be better.

Also while I was gone, I got my paws on a canon powershot sx40! Pretty old by tech standards but hey! I'm not turning down a free camera- idk what I'll use it for, maybe some spotting, idk!

越えられないものは無い

Low Country boil on the grill:

Sadly, no pictures of the crab, shrimp & lobster:

Not a bad view to grill to:

Your host looking happy to be grilling but a little distracted because he hurt his back a few days ago:

A pair of airplanes in close formation. They sounded old school... possibly vintage but I couldn't find any upcoming airshows in TN or AR that might account for classic prop planes:

Unintentionally, abstract photo of a sphinx moth visiting our honeysuckle:

Bridge! from Chamber of Chills No. 17