On Wed, 13 May 2009 23:08:43 +0000, bdoneill wrote:

The two flights up and back in the C-47 were almost worth getting sick!
They were never-to-be-forgotten journeys the way flight was meant to be
experienced, versus the antiseptic, sardine can misery of flying
commercial today.

You remind me of the TWA trip from NYC to LAX (with a refueling stop in
Denver) in (iirc!) a DC-7 in 1955. I had enlisted, just graduated from FT
(Fire Control Tech) school in Bainbridge, Md., and was assigned to the
U.S.S. Eversole, DD-789. She was home-ported in Long Beach (amazing, huge
floating crane at the shipyard, back then).

I sat near the wing root, and the hours of noise and vibration were, in
all, rather difficult. Ofcourse, the flight took longer, too. Back then,
there was still some of the sense that flying was something special, and
the crew had a sense of pride in being part of flying.

Regards,

nb
who saw no action, only Taiwan patrol