I worked for an outfit that had two Chieftans and a P-Navajo...the Navajo
was used when the Chieftans were in for maintenance. One dark night, taking
off from Oakland in the P-Navajo with the plane so packed that I had to
crawl over the packages to get to the cockpit (the truck driver closed the
door for me), the left engine stumbled at about 400 feet entering the clouds
but cleared up as soon as I retarded the left throttle. I thanked the
controller for his "cleared to land any runway" transmission and continued
to Seattle. After landing, I had to call ground control to have them send
someone over to open the door. The Navajo had a fuel controller problem and
never flew again (for that company). After thinking about what I would have
done had there been a fire or similar mishap, I quit.

Bob Gardner

"Dan Luke" wrote in message
...

"Bob Gardner" wrote:

Having been one, I consider freight dogs those poor souls who fly general
aviation planes carrying small boxes, not cargo-carrying jets. DC-3s,
Twin Beeches, 310s, Chieftans, et al...that's the essence of
freight-doggery.

Agree.

I see these guys in their jeans and tennis shoes loading war-weary Barons
and 210s at BFM and taking off into weather I wouldn't try on a bet.

Those are some no-**** airmen, baby, and they have my respect.

--
Dan
T-182T at BFM