Getting N681DG home
After a few months of weekends living in a motor home at KFLL, myself and two helpers had the airplane ready to ferry to New Smyrna Beach.
I had some expert help with James (Woody) Woodall. He was an ex Vietnam C123 crew chief that I met when he was working on Harry Doan’s C123 that was initially sold to Barry Seal then bought back and then sold to Southern Air Transport before being shot down in Nicaragua.
The only type rated pilot I could find that was willing to do a ferry flight was a gentleman well into his seventies. He had a collection of ratings that he carried in his billfold that was over a foot long. He was very proud of them and whipped them out at every opportunity.
When I first tracked him down I asked how long it had been since he had flown a Provider. He replied “about 6 months”. My first hint of a problem was when I brought him down with a friend in a Citation for the flight and he said “this is the aircraft I earned my type in”. I asked him if he had ever flown any other and he said “no”. (This aircraft had not been airborne in over 8 years).
It went down hill from there as he was exhibiting obvious signs of dementia and repeated himself frequently. He knew very little about the aircraft and it’s systems and argued with me about everything. The typical dispute ended with “Son-have you ever been upside down in a smoking Sea Fury with fuel running into the cockpit?-So there!”
He was a nice guy and had a hell of an aviation history but was a little late in hanging it up. But he was all I had. He was fine with the condition of the aircraft but was insistent about going to the FSDO office on the airport and speaking with them before we left. Even though I had the ferry permit in hand. It was just another exercise in him showing off all of his tickets.
When we got there, my FAA inspector nemesis that originally told me “The only way this aircraft is leaving this airport is in pieces on trailers” was on duty. When my guy insisted on showing him all of his credentials the inspector saw that he had a C123 type rating. He then asked him about his currency in the model. The inspector then told him that he could not act a PIC without a check flight with someone current in the model. He said that he had assumed the ferry pilot would have a blanket LOA. And of course there was no one (or any aircraft) available to give that ride and it couldn’t be done in this aircraft as it was out of annual. Add to that there was not a C123 available anywhere to get that ride in. We left dejected.
After hours of phone calls I finally got the flight re-approved due to some wording in the regs “except for ferry flight” and we returned to retrieve the aircraft. By the time everything was in order for departure it was getting late in the day. We were pressed against the “daylight” requirement for the arrival time in New Smyrna.
I got taxi clearance but when I called for takeoff I got no response from the tower. After repeated calls the airliners started trying to relay my calls with no response. The problem was is that they did not want me departing to the west over populated area. It sure would have been nice if they had just told me that. Finally after my departure window had passed I called ground and got an immediate response for my request to return to the ramp. Pretty sure that my FAA inspector friend from below the tower was there causing the problem.
Early the next morning 9L was active and coincidentally they could here me perfectly.
My ferry pilot captain briefed me on the takeoff procedures. He told me to fly the ailerons while he worked the nose wheel tiller wheel and the power levers and at his call he would take the ailerons and rotate. I was to monitor the power levers at that point. He was oblivious to the fact that I had the jets idling. The takeoff roll was uneventful except that it went on forever. The aircraft had accelerated normally but he would not rotate. We were past two thirds of the very long runway and hauling ass! Finally he said “I’ve got the airplane” and with both hands hauled the yoke back with way too much force. Felt like a 2-3G pull. I have no idea what he was thinking or what he thought he was flying but the 123 is cumbersome but light on the controls with very large booster tabs. We both pushed simultaneously with the horizon out of sight to level off as the crew chief stepped up from the back, obviously pissed off, and said “what the hell was that!” He later shared with me that that scared him more than anything in Vietnam.
Other than that fiasco the rest of the flight home was uneventful. Once in level cruise I left my seat for a bit to walk around in the back and opened the rear door and lowered the ramp. He let me do a low pass with the jets throttled up over the bay that I lived on and a low pass at the Spruce Creek Airport. We then flew it for a bit with both recips in simulated feather power and one jet spooled up with the other shuttered. It still amazes me that one of those little jets could haul that barn sized airplane along.
I did the landing at New Smyrna but the captain kept knocking my hand away when I would set the mixture on one of the engines to where I knew it would idle. (Pressure carb needed OH). He pushed it forward one last time in the flare and it quit and we couldn’t get it started again after landing.
A couple of years later the ferry pilot was killed in the crash described in the article below. I can certainly understand and relate to the circumstances described in the analysis and comments.
https://387bg.com/Aircraft/B-26%20Carolyn.htm