Post by LOU on Jul 19th, 2011 at 2:12am
Peter,
I arrived at TWA a few months after the last Connie was grounded. I would have loved to have flown the Connie, but that was not to be. I spent many hours at KLGA as a kid, watching the planes takeoff and land.
Here is a picture of me and a few friends in the 50's, looking at the planes from the observation deck. I'm the one on the left. Notice the Martin 404 taking off. Where we were standing is not the place to be when the Connie was started. You would have been covered with oil from the engines.
I'm sure your Dad has fond memories of the DC-3 that was real flying. I still think the DC-6B would be a great plane for the folks at CS to model. When I started with TWA the main base was in Kansas City, Mo. The training center was cool old building in the downtown area. I was just out of college so going back to school was easy. The Flight Engineer course was very complete. We were taught by old time F/E's who knew the plane rivet by rivet. Today, the schools are different and the level of detail you learn about the plane is very basic. I really enjoyed learning all about the systems and the way they worked and why. The course was five months long back in the early days, now it's just a few weeks and out the door.
Lou
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I arrived at TWA a few months after the last Connie was grounded. I would have loved to have flown the Connie, but that was not to be. I spent many hours at KLGA as a kid, watching the planes takeoff and land.
Here is a picture of me and a few friends in the 50's, looking at the planes from the observation deck. I'm the one on the left. Notice the Martin 404 taking off. Where we were standing is not the place to be when the Connie was started. You would have been covered with oil from the engines.
I'm sure your Dad has fond memories of the DC-3 that was real flying. I still think the DC-6B would be a great plane for the folks at CS to model. When I started with TWA the main base was in Kansas City, Mo. The training center was cool old building in the downtown area. I was just out of college so going back to school was easy. The Flight Engineer course was very complete. We were taught by old time F/E's who knew the plane rivet by rivet. Today, the schools are different and the level of detail you learn about the plane is very basic. I really enjoyed learning all about the systems and the way they worked and why. The course was five months long back in the early days, now it's just a few weeks and out the door.
Lou
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