Originally Posted by
Phantom Flyer
Oh... please III Corps...stopping talking about the "three holer". I'm going to completely break down and cry.
Ye gads....was there ever a better aircraft to fly ? It would go high, go low, go very fast or very slow and glide like a bird or come down like an express elevator. Your choice. Yes at .85 it was noisy but with the -17R engines, it would scoot and the stories about what Chicago approach had the three holers do to plug up holes in the "parade" into ORD were legendary, and mostly true.
Thanks Boeing for the best ride ever for 9+ years.
(Sob)...
G'Day mates
I would rank the
Mighty Tri-Motor up there in my list of great machines I got to fly. I enjoyed that fat little wing on the -37 and the sheer fun of the -38. Although
promised fighters after my tour in Vietnam, that didn't happen and I was
exiled into the hinterlands of SAC.
I would also rank the early Lears as real fun machines, especially the -23.. a little rocket ship where we asked pax if they wanted transportation or an airplane ride. Different 'flying' but I liked the 320 also. For its time, tough to find a better cockpit.
I never flew the MT with -17 engines but did fly it with -7/-9/-15 engines and got a couple of hops in it with the re-engined -217 and -219 engine... like adding a 4th engine.
(spent a lot of time on the 737, not one of my favorites. Also the MD-80 which was an interesting machine with the high extension speeds for gear/flaps and that odd speedbrake..oh, and 'dial-a-flap'. We never used the dial-a-flap but that was/is a novel concept)