DDA DC3 flight from Antwerp 12/9/09.

[cathay belgium]

Hi,

Just want to share some pics of my historic flight I did today from Anwerp ( International ) Airport.
I joined the flight with the DDA DC3 PH-DDZ.
Really nice plane from 1944 which did Normandy as well !
DDA is a nice cousy dutch company full of old people with their hearts in the air!
( from the pilots to the stewardesses )

We boarded from Antwerp, the engines started one after the other , we'll get a peppermint,
and then we're rolling to the runaway.
We took off with a sharp turn to the left overviewing the airport and then quickly Antwerp City.
Then we followed the Schelde to Doel-Saefthinge-Middelburg-Vlissingen-Goes-Veere-Antwerpen Port-Antwerp City-
and after a quick tower run we'll landed safe in Antwerp again.
The flying height was approx. 300/400 m and the sight was nice and clear.
The noise and the feeling of 'real' flying was great.

We had the opportunity to switch seats and cockpit visits.

It was a nice experience I can recomment every plane-lover.
I hope to join them again sometime.
The trips are running from april to october mostly in Holland and are bookable on the net!

Hope you like the pics.

CX-B

PS Noticed the white Cityjet planes on the tarmac! Just ****** ! Not my cup of tea !
Altough I know things change, I surely will miss the blue F50's above Antwerp, as they were just a part of it. ( I saw them a lot during my 'KOT'time in Antwerp,altough they were black/yellow in
that days. The white is so! not Antwerp/Flanders/Belgium but so commercial basic mainstream(french ?).

IMG_7733.jpg

IMG_7836.jpg

IMG_7817.jpg

IMG_7747.jpg

IMG_7656.jpg

[teddybAIR]

Hi there,

Was this on september 12th? I was at the holdingpoint for runway 11 when I received a "hold short" from Antwerpen Tower. We listened out on the tower frequency and heard an airplane was on final for a low approach. Little did we know it was going to be a DC-3. We looked out the left window and saw that it was going to perform a low approach over the tower instead of over the runway...

Great experience!

Best regards,
bAIR

P.S: trip report from that flight can be found at http://positive-rate-of-climb.skynetblogs.be

[cathay belgium]

Hi teddybAIR,

Indeed this was this saturday 12th!
Indeed before landing we made an approach over the runaway with a sharp turn to the right passing
the tower ( with landinggear up ).
This was on request for the tower because the DC3 wasn't random at Antwerp. ( were else not? )
After the pass for the tower we overflew Antwerp City and landed.
It was indeed a very special experience!

Ciao,CX-B

[Stij]

I spotted you guys from the centre of Antwerp.

I was shopping with my girlfriend ... no, actually, she was shopping and I was carrying the bags... when suddenly I heard and saw you guys and of course I yelled "Look, a DC3!!!!". She looked at me as if I had become mad... Then I pointed to the plane to which her response was "Yeeeeeeees, that's an airplane, never seen one before?"

Woman, they'll never understand...

Cheers,

Stij

[regi]

yes Stijn, I have the same frustration.
But this report should be removed on orders of the secret service !
Passengers are allowed to visit the cockpit. So they can take control of it.
And than I see the nuclear facility of Borsele I suppose. ( nicely blurred on Google Earth )
So adding 1 + 2 and we have a deadly strike coming up within some weeks.

[regi]

by the way, for our jihadi "friends": forget about Borsele. You can see the Belgian nuclear installations freely on Google Earth and pick your choice.
But before you would decide something useless like impacting a DC-3 on a nucleair installation, please be aware that those cupolas are build to resist much stronger impacts than a DC-3, even if the central engine shaft hits the concrete. It will be a short flash, some clean up by the fire department and a bye bye service by the local iman. ( and a minus 70 virgins in jihadi heaven )
a smily here would probably offend too many people, so I leave it out.

Seriously: a flying level of +- 1000 ft. That must have been quite bumpy. Nobody got sick? I would .

[cathay belgium]

Hi Regi,

Was that Borsele on my pic?
I didn't know that and they even didn't told us on the plane!
We saw Doel very good and quite low! and I visited the cockpit then!

IMG_7721.jpg

But as far as I know the nuclear dome can resist the strike of a 747 with full thrust so I don't
tried with a DC3.
Besides why would I bother? Stij and a lot of other guys have enough trouble with 1 girl what
will people do with 70 unexperienced virgins ???
Maybe those people can try with an emirates A380 ?

The flight was a bit bumpy but as far I liked it,the plane 'slides" away a bit but that gives a bit more feeling of 'really' flying! ( togheter with the sound of the 2 wasp engines)
Nobody got sick!

Don't expect a strike in the following weeks because the DC3 visites Antwerp only once a year,according DDA -site!

Why is it why you can visit this cockpit, and not normal planes during flight?
Is it depending airline,aircraft,country,pilots?
DDA said to have the same rules as regular airlines,we got the safety instruction (full completly)
by 2 older stewardesses! ( 2 pilots,2 crew for 23pax ! )

For now..
Ciao
CX-B

For other Antwerp targets I could recomment the palace of justice and the BOERENTOREN,more
effective with a DC3,more news,more damage! (pics incl. for study )

IMG_7703.jpg

IMG_7704.jpg

Where 's Stij ?

[jan_olieslagers]

That photograph of the Doel power plant must have been made from spot over Hoevenen aerodrome, or slightly to the North. If they really flew at 1000 feet there, I can only hope they made a courtesy call on the radio: we practise engine failures there from 1200 feet. And that is hard enough for a newbie pilot even with no unexpected traffic, let alone a DC3.

[teddybAIR]

I just checked the AIP on Hoevenen and in the RMK section it mentions that flights within military hours are limited not below 700 ft AGL and it mentions nothing outside of these hours. Anybody got some groundrules on Hoevenen, because I estimate we will regularly fly in the neighbourhoud.

Best regards,
bAIR

[jan_olieslagers]

We should not forget this is class G airspace, there are no absolute rules. Knowing the habits at the aerodrome, I would recommend
-) remain at 1500' or above over the a/d and its circuit
-) a radio call is always polite
-) carefully listen on 135.00 especially during weekends: paradrop from up to FL140
(active paradrop is also indicated by orange flashlights but they're hard to dsicern from above)
-) but remember radio is not mandatory - silence on the radio is not a gurantee there's no traffic!

That said, there is very little activity on weekdays; and I am not aware of any non-radio aircraft based at EBHN. It is all a matter of good sense and politeness, and a certain sense of safety!

Happy flying,

[janhuub]

Some general info about Hoevenen can be found on this website:

www.ebhn.be

Jan

[EHBK-Resident]

too bad people are talking about some made-up terrorist attacks in this thread.
Also too bad that the pictures can't be reached anymore, because PH-DDZ is truly a beauty.

In fact, when DDA had finished the rebuild of this particular plane, a representitive of Boeing Corp. (Mc Donnell-Douglas (eg Douglas) being owned by them now), came over to inaugurate the plane.
In his speech, he noted that the last DC-3 had been built in the Netherlands.

Nothing beats the roar of a pair of Pratt and Whitney Twin Wasps.....


Here's a pic of PH-DDZ: