Douglas DC-6 / C-118

James Garland, e-mail, 14.02.2010 15:17 Around 25 years ago I worked for a company called JET WAY in Ypsilanti Michigan.We had some Lear jets and DC-6s.I was sent to Pontiac Michigan to pull 4 engines off an old DC-6 that had been flying down in the Caribbean.The plane didn't even have heaters on it as they were remove. The planes Data plate said DC-6 ship # 1.We were scraping it out.I pulled the tin off the outboard #3 Eng,grabbed the main oil to pull my self up on the maintenance stand and the oil line broke.It was so rotten.All the fuel and oil lines were rotten.The plane had just landed less than 2 hrs ago.God must have been watching out for that crew. reply

Louis Snyder, e-mail, 12.02.2010 01:07 I was in the AF and a Mechanical Assessories Repairman stationed at McGuire from 1961 to 1964 and worked on C-118's, A /C , Pressurization, Oxygen, Heating, systems. Went on the the C-135 then the C-141, was and E-4 reply

Gene Hauber, e-mail, 04.09.2010 05:09 I flew four yrs as flt mech with VR1 out of Pax River, Md from 62-66, then again in VR24 in Rota, Spain, 68-72. Got to see a good part of the world and loved every minute of it. It was a flight engineer's dream and very forgiving, almost lovable. reply

Johnny Perez, e-mail, 08.02.2010 14:25 I was an AirCrew Man on the C-118 at Naval Station Keflavic,Iceland from 1980-1984. It was the best four year tour I spent in the Navy. I enjoyed going to Europe ( England, Scotland, Spain, Italy, etc) we flew bachk to the states alot also. reply

Max T. Hansen, e-mail, 01.02.2010 05:28 Made one of the first C-118 flights from Mc Guire AFB to Thule in July 1956 . We were told that they just replaced the C-54's.Stopped for fuel at Goose Bay (I think ). My second military flight & much plusher than my first ,a B-25 hop out of Chanute Field .Worked & flew on a lot of Douglas products . Always made it . reply

Jim Dodds, e-mail, 29.01.2010 04:57 Was A & P mech on them at American Airlines 1957 till they where gone as the B-707 came on line. reply

Marty Hall, e-mail, 21.01.2010 06:03 We have 10 DC-6 /C-118's flying in Alaska and will have as long as there's 100LL available. Good plane. We have 4 hauling fuel and the rest as scheduled air carriers flying from Fairbanks and Anchorage. We've just started the process of putting DC-9's on our certificate but have no intention of getting rid of our DC-6's and C46's. The round engine still has a home in Alaska. reply

Ron Stout, e-mail, 16.01.2010 20:32 When I started work at Western Airlines(April 1,1955)the DC-6B was the queen of the fleet.I was told that if I ever dented one to just clock out and keep on going.They were a terrific plane to ride in with 66 first class seat and a four person lounge in the rear.A dream to load and unlaod compared to evey othe plane and reliable as hell.Two of Western's were later converted to swing tail cargo types in Finland and one was still at Northern Air Cargo in Alaska as late as 2001. reply

Jim McKinney, e-mail, 10.01.2010 01:38 I flew on two DC-6's in the summer of 1960. I was thirteen years old. The first was a Mexicana flight from Monterey, Mexico to Mexico City. I remember it having sleeper births that folded up into the ceiling. The second flight was a Aeronavis (now Aeromexico) flight from Mexico City to Juarez, Mexico with stops in Toreon and Chihuahua. I found that if you sit in the back of a DC-6, it is a fairly quiet plane. Seats were nice and wide and comfortable, unlike the cramped seats on todays jets. reply

sam n. rhodes adr1, e-mail, 09.01.2010 03:57 I was attached to VR-53 Memphis tn and started to fly the C-118 in 1978 I was the first flight engineer in the squadron to complete 1000 hours, 2000 hours, 3000 hours and complete over 7000 hours in this bird. Loved every minute of it. I went on to fly the DC-9 with VR-60 with over 2300 hours. I retired from northwest with over 27000 hours (no accidents) reply

Wayne "Fish" Salmon, e-mail, 27.12.2009 20:10 I flew in the C-118 for 3800 hours as a flight navigator. We had no GPS to do the work for us, it was navigation on the order of what was done in WWII and Korea. I was fortunate to have command of VR-51 at NAS Glenview for one tour. One particular flight in the C-118 sticks out in my mind. In the "118," just before you entered the cockpit, there was a series of "eyebrow" gauges that registered the engine oil quantity. We were on a Viet Nam flight and I was navigating after our departure from NAS Barber's Point. I was in the process of seeing how the pilots were doing when I noticed that #3 engine oil quantity gauge was reading almost zero, while the others were full. I was just in the process of going forwad, and telling the pilots about the oil quantity gauge, when "all hell broke loose" in the cockpit. A heading for Barber's was asked for immeadiatly. About 20 minutes of flight after the problem was identified, and dealt with, it was obvious that we didn't have enough engine oil to reach land. We were in "deep do-do." It was obvious that our only hope was Johnston Island. For those of you that aren't familiar with Johnston, it was then a top secret AF base that was not used by all military flights. We found UHF and ADF frequencies andquickly in the enroute supplement and headed towards Johnston. When we finally established com with the tower, we said that we had a problem and needed clearance to land. The reply was simple, "declare a mayday" or don't land. That was an easy question to answer, and shortly after that we landed. After turning off the duty runway, and shutting the remaining 3 engines down, the first person on the airplane was a full bird colonel, who said, "Welcome to Johnston Island, you're under arrest." We had just landed at a super secret AF base that was in the middle of a security excercise!! When the CO figured out that we really had a problem, things quited down considerably The problem was quickly diagnosed as all four engines not having the oil cooler screen nut not properly torqued down when a 50 hr. oil cooler screen check had been performed at Barber's Point. After filling up the oil tanks on all four engines, and properly securing the retaining nuts, we took off for Wake Island as the first stop on the remainder of our Viet Nam flight. The day after I returned home, I was back in my classroom where I taught 9th grade biology. Such flights really gave you a different perspective on life. reply

Tom[ T.P.] Oconnor, e-mail, 27.12.2009 08:47 I flew the C-118 21 years.VR-21 july 1962 to july 1966.Reserve Olathe-Memphis-Glenview July 1966 to Dec 1983.I was CO of VR-51[Glenview-Whidby Is.]1982-1983.I retired in 1986 with 10000 hours in the C-118.I hold alt.record[29000ft.]speed record[400kts.]with tail wind!What a neat aircraft! reply

Fred Gharis, e-mail, 07.12.2009 21:38 Flew the old C-118 from March 1965 to May 1968. AT1 radioman. Was on aircraft that crashed on takeoff at Barber's Point. Don't remember exactly when it occurred or which BUNO it was.We were taking off on a west pac with half cargo and half passengers. Nobody was hurt. Tried to take off with full flaps. reply

John Smith, e-mail, 14.11.2009 02:54 I was in VR-21 Barbers Point 1963-1965. I was a loadmaster on our C-118B's. Capt. Johnson was my squadron CO and replaced by Capt. Westerlund. The "Pineapple Airlines were slow but very dependable" Found memories of that time. reply

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