THE SIGHT & THE SOUND 2/19 : Reeve Aleutian L-188 N1968R inflight documentary from Bethel to ANC
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- čas přidán 26. 08. 2024
- In July 1997 I was invited to spend a week in Alaska doing some extensive flying on the route network of legendary Reeve Aleutian Airways and to sample the ultimate Electra experience, a chance never to be missed. The following days will be filled with pure flying heaven from early morning hours until after midnight, getting to know what flying life is alike alongside the Aleutian islands of Alaska and Unalaska, onboard vintage and piston engine aircraft.
This is a video diary of the following days in the air.
Day #1 : Friday, July 11, 1997
Flight : RV 182
Aircraft : Lockheed L-188C Electra
Registration : N1968R
Former registrations :
VH-ECC (Qantas Empire Airways)
ZK-CLX (Air New Zealand)
Later registration :
C-GHZI (Air Spray 1967 Ltd)
Built : 1959
From : Bethel (BET)
To : Anchorage (ANC)
Take off : 13.20 h (2120 UTC)
Touch down : 14.33 h (2233 UTC)
Flying time : 1 hour 13 minutes
Flying distance : 650 km
Altitude : 21.000 ft / 6.400 m
Flight Captain : Minton, John
First Officer : Martin, Tim
Flight Engineer : Satterfield, Gary
Cabin Crew : Kammermeyer, Debra
Cabin Crew : Frankel, Kim
Something magic about the Electra I got stung at a young age and still marvel at it
N1968R is the aircraft which had the #4 propeller assembly detach in flight in 1983 causing flight control issues and the subsequent diversion to Anchorage.
The sight and sound of the Allison Engine and going from low speed ground idle to high speed ground idle just before turning around on the runway before take off brings back many good memories about those engines. Thanks
Every seat was first class!
I'm glad we're still able to experience this Sound in New Zealand with Air Chathams convair 580s on passenger flights. It might not be the L188s but it does have the same engine :)
Allison 501-D13!
Incredible to see this magnificent aircraft again. I flew on ZK-CLX in the 60's when she was operated by Air New Zealand (originally TEAL). I was a Chief Flight Steward in those days. Usual configuration was 12 first class and 64 economy pax. CLX came from Qantas and replaced another Electra lost in a training accident at Whenuapai Airport in Auckland earlier. Air New Zealand operated three L-188 Electras and were eventually replaced by DC8's.
I love the sounds of these engines. I played this video while o fell asleep and trust me. I fell asleep in under 5 minutes
When Reeve was coming out to Bethel, I always chose to fly with them and on the Electra. The seats were enormous compared to the cattle car seats of Alaska, the whole plane was more roomy, people were overall nicer. Too bad they finally had to close their doors.
This brings back memories from when I was a kid.... Spending hours and hours watching the scenery and wondering how and what these propellers did and falling asleep. I'm now an aeronautical engineer. Thanks for sharing!
What an awesome video!
Thanks !
I worked 21 years at EA,used to get jump seat on the L-188 every now and then,great airplane,the crews loved them.
Great Video, I remember N1968R very well. I was stationed at the Naval Station in Adak, Alaska in 1968, some 46 years ago. One of my jobs was to pick up cargo at the airport. N1968R was new to Reeve Aleutian, it was their baby. N1968R was the first leg to Anchorage on my trip home. I remember seeing N1968R at Honolulu (HNL) in 1999 on a vacation trip. She sure got around this planet. I hope that she's still flying! Thanks for sharing your great video. it brought back great memories.
My very first airplane trip was on an Electra when I was a two month old infant on May 6th of 1963. Eastern Airlines flight 648, my mom flew with me as a lap child from Charlotte to Washington DC. I have some very vague memories of this flight. My moms says I cried during the takeoff roll and the climb, but later quit crying and went to sleep, probably when we reached cruising altitude. As a two months old infant, not knowing what was going on, I was probably frightened by the noise when the props were revved up to 1,400 RPM. As we were climbing to 25,000 feet, my ears were popping. I used to think that it was the pressurization of the cabin that caused my ears to pop. But now, it's my understanding that it's the change in altitude. When I lived in Ithaca NY, my ears would pop when I drove down the Ithaca Freeway, (NY 13) by Cayuga Lake.
As a small child, four and five years old, the Electra was my favorite aircraft in the Eastern Airlines fleet because it had props. I also knew this aircraft by the sound of it's engines and props as it flew overhead.
During the twelve years that I lived in Ithaca NY, 1991 thru Twenty O Two, and flew back to my native Charlotte NC for Christmas etc., I flew out of Ithaca on the regional turboprop airliners that were known as "puddle jumpers" with US Air Express, which later became US Airways Express. I flew to one fo the hubs at NY LaGuardia, Philly, and Pittsburgh where I caught a main line jet on to Charlotte.. The turboprop aircraft I flew on out of Ithaca included the Beechcraft 1900 C & D models, Jetstream 31, Shorts 360, and my favorite of all of those aircraft, the DeHaviland Dash-8 100 series. It sounded most like the Electra, and it's cabin was most like that of a regular airliner though the wings were over the fuselage like those of a C-130. The Dash-8 had a two and two seat configuration, and all of the amenities of a regular airliner. The Beechcraft 1900, which was a 19 seater, struck me as a very primitive airliner, no lavatory or galley, no flight attendant, and no overhead compartments. My most fondly remembered Dash-8 flight from LaGuardia to Ithaca was coming back from my grandmother's funeral in January of 1996. Our flight attendant was someone who used to waitress at Joe's Restaurant where I worked as a silverware roller, and she knew me. After she had finished serving drinks during the cruise portion of the flight, she kneeled in one of the two empty seats in front of me, and we had a long conversation about my fascination and fondness for turboprop airliners. We talked about how I say that flying in a propeller driven airliner is "Real Flying", like one would say that driving a manual transmission vehicle is "Real Driving". We also talked about how most people don't realize that a turboprop engine is a turboJET engine with a propeller attached. That's why they call it a turboprop. Most people think it's a turbocharged piston driven propeller engine that's basically like that of a Porache or a Mazerati. But if you listen to the turboprop engine fire up, you can hear the whine of the jet engine as the propeller starts to rotate and gain speed. When it reaches ground idle when the propeller is spinning at 500 to 700 RPM, and the prop blades become virtually invisible, the "Chafe Cutter" or "Box Fan" sound is added to the whine of the engines. In takeoff and inflight, the low pitched drone of the props is most pronounced. That's what leads many to believe that a turboprop engine is an old fashioned piston engine. But that low pitched drone is produced by the props, not the engines.
An old fashioned piston prop engine starts up differently than a turboprop. While a turboprop engine basically starts up like an electric fan, the propeller of a piston prop engine only rotates slowly when the starter is turning the engine over. When it actually fires up, the propeller rapidly goes into a 500-700 RPM spin, and a lot of white smoke comes out of the exhaust stacks. During takeoff and inflight, the drone of the propellers is accompanied by the putting of the piston engines, and the piston prop aircraft basically sounds like a lawn mower. Also, particularly in a night flight on a piston prop aircraft, you can see flames from the fuel combustion coming out of the exhaust stacks, which is alarming to those who are used to jets or turboprops. Those people think that the engines are on fire.
I keep coming back to these Lockheed Electra videos for that great turboprop sound. I love the sounds that those props make. In ground idle and taxiing, they make a "Chafe Cutter" sound, similar to that of a box fan. In takeoff and inflight, spinning at 1,000 to 1,400 RPM, they sound like the wings of a Mexican Hornet or "Cicada Killer", creating that low pitched drone.
I remember 1968R when it was leased by NWTAir in the late 80's. Flew on it a number of times. What an aircraft.
I have photos of C GHZI in front of Aero Union hanger just prior to being converted to an air tanker. I was there on contract in fall of 2003 and never saw the completed conversion.
It was my first plane on Varig Airliners. Great machine!
My first flight on a Lockheed Electra was an Eastern Airlines hop from New Orleans to Houston sometime around 1965. I fell in love with this airplane and still have fond memories of it. A classic bird !!
Went to Adak on a much older DC3, but came home on this one. What a difference. And what good memories. Thank you for posting this.
Nearly an hour of mostly watching propeller blades turn. Watching the landing gear extend was quite a thrill. Interesting that this is the same aircraft that lost the #4 prop. Saw the episode of "Air Disasters" about that incident. Outstanding airmanship by the crew!
A unique view of a singular aircraft. My compliments----and thank you.
That's some awesome footage, very thorough, well preserved, and a good transfer. Great work capturing this airplane during an era before video became commonplace.
I worked on these engines as a turboprop jet engine mechanic in the U.S. Navy. Great memories!
Darrell Aldridge my dad still works on those today at Airspray Aviation services. They fight forest fires and the sounds of those engines are the best thing in the world
Very nice. Thank you for sharing.
The l-188 Electra’s are still being used today! Mostly for freight hauling and fire fighting
You were one lucky dog. Thanks for the post!
qué super máquina éste electra, se debe considerar la incorporación de éste sistema de propulsión tan seguro, tras las observaciones pertinentes de su efectividad!
Miss this sound.....
Always welcome to Come to New Zealand sometime still operate the Convair 580 on regular passenger flights on Air Chathams
The Electra. Takes 20 minutes just to get the engines started.
Excellent Video, great aircraft and sound.
I love those sounds of Allison 501D turboprop engines, not very similar to military T 56, but it was produced sightly same sounds between commercial 501D and military T 56 of C-130, P-3, and E-2. Anyways, keep yout videos. Love your video.
Allison 501 D-13
Thanks much for the memories, I was stationed on Adak 72-75 and worked for Reeves in my off hours. Great stuff of course we did everything from selling tickets to unloading and loading no matter the weather. I got to fly out to the rest of the chain to help unload, got to see Kiska harbor up close with a low level flyby. So stops at Amchitka, Shemya, and Attu. Enjoy!
Me ha traído muchos recuerdos, gracias!
Fantastic, and the wings stayed on!
john harris no shit
super- fantastic-L-188 Aircraft
I was stationed at Cold Bay Air Force Station from 1974-1975, and flew from Cold Bay to Anchorage twice on Reeve. Interesting.
I was at Shemya in 74. Reeves all the way.
Stopped over Cold Bay, Aug 1973 on the way to Adak. After we took off, I noticed an extremely well dressed elderly man with what appeared to be a diamond studded walking cane.. It was Bob Reeve. I wish that I could have gotten him to sign my ticket.
I think that this beautiful plane flew about 5 years the Electra L188 of the Loockeed, in airlines aerocondor of colombia in Barranquilla, and during all those thousands of hours of flight experience a series of experiences flying in bad weather, in conditions of storms, creation of ice and other adverse conditions, but this aircraft was like a modern plane that was worth manning.
The props are especially fun to watch on a computer or TV screen. The 60 cycle flicker creates optical illusions of the props going slow or backwards. The Electra's props rotate to starboard. I believe on some turboprop airliners, the port and starboard props were counter rotating.
The 737 MAX of its day.
While we don't operate the L188s in New Zealand I'm glad We Air Chathams still operate the Convair 580s as passengers so the sound still lives on
EAL 656 January 1, 1960 MIA to EWR.
Much work needed on engine 4 before we were allowed on.
It had just flown in from San Juan.
Something was wrong with engine 4.
My first Electra flight was in 1965...KOOL
Not much activity from this plane since about 2014, but it's had such a storied life... at least 55 years of service around the world.
Buffalo Airways still uses the L-188
I was referring to this particular airframe. I think there are about 10 Electras either airworthy or stored in the Northwest (Canada & Alaska).
Our Electra's had a club lounge down back, very salubrious.
HERMOSO VIDEO...
You probably get the most noise and vibration from the props if you're seated right between them, than if you're further aft. However, unlike many people, I personally love the sound of the props. One friend of mine said that a turboprop airliner was like a "school bus with wings", bumpy and noisy. I don't really think that a fan jet airliner is really all that much quieter. You just get a different sound, more of a roaring sound than the bass hum that you get in the turboprops. Much of the public is also convinced that the turboprop engine is an old fashioned piston driven engine, like those of the old DC-7 airliner. Observant people like myself, can tell that the turboprop engine is indeed a jet engine with a propeller attached. You can definitely tell it if you listen to the engine when it fires up. The engine whines as the propeller starts to turn and gains speed. An old piston prop engine starts up differently than a turboprop. On a piston prop engine, the prop only turns slowly when the starter is turning it. Then, when the engine catches and fires up, the prop rapidly goes into a spin with a lot of smoke from the exhaust.
I hope the wings don't fall off....
aviation was prime in the 90s dc10 md80 and md 111
"Piston engine aircraft?" Hmmmm. Worked on these for 8 years. The Allison 501-D13 was not a piston engine.
How reliable were those Allisons ? Remember that quite a few (earlier) Electra's came down, but not if this was due to engine failures. C 130's engines seem to have excellent records.
Hendrick Otto They adjusted the pitch of the Electra engine nacelle up by 3° and that resolved the whirl-mode flutter issues that brought down 3 of the Electras between 1959-1960.
Many thanks Albert.
Albert Calis : no that stopped the vibration and cabin noise issue. Strengthing the engine mounts and wing including thicker wing skin solved the whirl flutter mode problems.
Much of the public is convinced that a turboprop engine is a "Turbocharged" piston driven propeller engine. It's not! It's a turboJET engine with a propeller attached. If you listen to it when it fires up, you can hear the whine of the jet engine as the propeller starts to rotate and gain speed. When the prop reaches full ground idle speed, approximately 500 to 700 RPM, the prop blades become virtually invisible, and they make that "Chafe Cutter" sound like that of a box fan. In takeoff and inflight, when rotated at 1,000 to 1,400 RPM, the props make a low pitched drone like the wings of a Mexican Hornet or "Cicada Killer".
In this video, it seems that the cabin of an Electra is a lot like that of a DC-9 airliner, in terms of it's seat configuration. It has two rows of seats on the port side, and three rows of seats on the starboard side. On an Electra that had a first class section, I would guess that the first class seats were forward of the air stair door, and the coach seats aft. In first class, it would be a two and two seat configuration, two rows of seats on both port and starboard.
No, on the Electra, as on all propeller aircraft with 2-class cabins, first class was at the rear, the quietest part of the cabin, the opposite of jets where first class is at the front.
@@viscount757 Thanks, I didn't know that, but it makes sense.
Super paint job, I love the cheat lines around the windows. Did the 188 always use the thick and stubby type of props? There isn’t a lot of wiggle room between the fuselage and the prop tips so it would have to use a shorter prop but I don’t recall seeing the Sir Stubbies before. I get that the turbo fan has different needs than the big mamm’s on the Connie
the same Electra from flight 8 in 1983
the engines sound so quiet...
dragonflyxj trust me, they’re not! My dads firefighting company uses these airplanes still they even have the reeve Aleutian airways flight 8 (the one where the propeller sliced through the fuselage) anyways, my dads company ripped out the interior of these planes and it’s not quiet
Would I be correct in guessing that the factor which kept these babies active on the Aleutian Route so late was the short runways of the islands?
so cute
Deregistered in the United States in 2001, and exported to Canada.
Wasn’t this the plane that had the engine failure and landed?
Dang, you went on some planes that had accidents.
Turbo prop. rpm remains constant and speed is determined by prop
pitch.
I wouldn't be sitting that close to those spinning death wheels.
Funny thing... As I watched the Engines spool up, I had a little vision of the a propeller blade coming off and striking the cabin...
I about Dumped my drawers when I later saw in the video, that the actual event had happened !!! What the Hell.... Do people actually have premonitions of long past historical events from videos of the same involved craft many years later ? What kind of Telepathic process is that ? A sort of remote viewing of history ?
16:37 approx. she leaves the ground , 17:04 she looks like 1k feet. Looks like fun.
👍👍👍
N121US
Remember?
watching the climb up i kept involuntarily trying to clear my ear tubes XD
6:08 Shall I assume that was the seat then? 🤭💨
49:58 = 🎵🎶🎼📯🔉📢🎷🎸🎹🎻🥁❤
Turboprop Jet Engines. No pistons!
10000 rpm at idle when up rpm 13000 rpm
This is the same plane that lost its prop in flight.
June 8, 1983 while enroute from Cold Bay, AK to Seattle, WA. It diverted to Anchorage for an emergency landing.
My dads company bought the plane after the incident and it still flying today, fighting Alberta forest fires
In Flight sim FSX they have a Reeve's electra to fly and it is 1968R, this same plane....
me to
When they fire up the engines, I believe they begin with the inner starboard engine. Then, outer starboard engine, inner port, and then outer port.
The size of the props in proportion to the people is astounding, considering how fast they spin. It's my understanding that in takeoff, the props crank out a maximum 1,500 RPM. Once airborne, they're spooled down to approximately 1,100 RPM. The engines shown firing up are the port engines, seen from the port side of the cabin.
I love the sound of the props, the "box fan" sound in full idle and taxiing, and bass hum in takeoff and inflight. At high RPM, the props buzz like the wings of a bumblebee.
Some say that driving a vehicle with a manual transmission is "real driving". I say that flying in a propeller driven aircraft is "real flying!!
Unlike today's airliners, I bet the Electra has much more legroom. I've known lots of women who absolutely cannot sit without crossing their legs thigh to thigh.
My musician ears tell me that the drone of the props stayed at nearly constant pitch throughout the flight, with a note that calculates to 1,100 RPM during takeoff and dropping only slightly at reduced power in level flight. Likewise with a C-130 during a military band trip. That appears to have been standard procedure with the Allison 501/T56 engines. They ran at nearly constant speed which they maintained at different power settings by adjusting the propeller pitch. Note the two different meanings of the word "pitch" here.
In videos of piston-engined planes such the Constellation, the RPM is reduced a lot more in level flight, typically to about 3/4 of what it was at takeoff power.
The pitch of the props is changed by changing the angle of the prop blades. If you're seated between the props, you can see the angle of the prop blades change. I think that the props are especially fun to watch on a TV or computer screen, because the 60 cycle flicker produces optical illusions of the props going slow or backwards. It's awesome!