"Montblack" wrote in message
...

I'll be seeing someone tonight who was a stewardess for NWA on DC-3's. She
said there were some routes where they were up and down 10-12-15 times
into small airports per flight. The procedure for flight attendants was to
go "up" to the front of the plane before each take-off and do their safety
talk. She said many times they did it from the rear door because they
didn't want to hump it "up" to the cockpit area for the umpteenth time,
plus the poor guy flying from Madison to Omaha had already heard it
umpteen times.

My dad and I (10 years old) were weathered in at Medford, Oregon. Oh, we had
tried to get out in his Cessna 120, but after an hour of scud running were
fortunate enough to find Medford again and gratefully landed.

We were sitting in the combination FBO/terminal building office watching the
rain beat down on the tarmac outside the window. There was an inch or so of
water all across the ramp and the rain would make little geysers as it hit.
Overhead, the ceiling was all of 200' and drew a soggy line on the
surrounding hills.

Then we heard the pop-pop of a couple of radial engines coasting down to the
runway. A West Coast Airlines DC-3 appeared out of the clouds, seeming to
trail lines of gray as it split the center line of the runway. Taxiing up to
the terminal, the landing light highlighted the downpour. The pilot spun the
Douglas on one wheel as he hit the throttle on his side. The left engine
then spun to a stop and the "Airstair" door opened.

The copilot appeared at the opening as a ramp worker ran across to see what
had prompted the approach to minimums that day. The copilot, trying to stay
dry, kicked a crate of chickens out the door and swung it closed. The left
engine started up with a plume of blue smoke and no time was lost in taxiing
out and taking off to the North and a stop at Salem.

Iron men and aluminum airplanes. . .

Rich S.