FAA & 1970s - 1980s
Douglas DC-3
These DC-3 FAA aircraft were rebuilt Navy R-4Ds, upgraded.
In December 1969, I joined FAA, Flight Inspector Field Office (FIFO) in Atlantic City, NJ. In the spring of 1970, I was transferred to the Columbus, Ohio FIFO and flew out of Columbus doing Navaids Flight inspection over Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, West Virginia, and part of Pennsylvania. At times we used a V-35 Bonanza aircraft for flight inspections.
In 1972, Columbus FIFO closed down and I was sent to the Bedford, MA FIFO which operated all over Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and northeastern New York.
Then in 1974, the Bedford FIFO closed down and I went back to the Atlantic City FIFO, which now covered the sixteen northeastern states – Maine to Virginia and west to Pittsburgh.
Great flying nearly every day, five days a week, with nighttime inspections at Newark, NJ, JFK, and LaGuardia.
In 1974-75, we started to get North American Rockwell AC-1121-B Jet Commanders with some automatic flight inspection equipment and the DC-3s were retired.
At this time, my total C-47, Gooney Bird and DC-3 flight time approached six thousand hours.
We also used the Piper P-23 Aztec, Beechcraft C-33 Debonair, Beechcraft V-35 Bonanza, and Cessna Cardinal RG, mostly for radar flight inspection. Also used Beechcraft Baron and Beechcraft Bonanza A-36.
Douglas DC-3
This is N-7AP, which served as one of the first DC-3s in the FAA’s Flight Inspection fleet, registered as N-7, from 1947 to 1976. This aircraft was delivered to the USAAF as a C-47 in 1943, shipping to Australia during WWII. This aircraft was then acquired by the FAA (then CAA) in 1947 and converted to a DC-3C for Flight Inspection, among the first aircraft in this new role. Donald flew this aircraft out of Atlantic City in the summer of 1976 right before it was retired from the fleet, one of 24 DC-3 aircraft he flew as a Flight Inspector. Ohio University acquired this old bird from the FAA in 1976 and still owns it today. It is believed that this is the only airframe still in existence that Donald flew. Photo courtesy of Ohio University.
North American-Rockwell/IAI AC-1121-B Jet Commander
This is N-80, the first of five Jet Commanders used by the Atlantic City FIFO to perform navigational aids flight inspection in the 16 northeast states. I flew this aircraft from 1975 to 1984 out of Atlantic City, several thousand hours.
