....was stuff up the OP and somehow lose the text....

I flew out of Essendon [Victoria] to the place where I was born [King Island - part of Tassie....in Bass Strait] on a 1945 Douglas C-47 aka [now] DC3.

I hadn't been back there since I left at the age of 3 weeks....58 years ago....in one of these things going the other way....[albeit 58 years younger...me AND the plane].

It was an absolute buzz.... nothing like 'normal' commercial flights..... being able to chat to the air crew during flight, take photos, etc.

Now I just need to skin it in my flight sim....

WOW! I bet that was GREAT fun!! I love those old planes.....

Nice Paul! I flew on those while in the USAF and stationed in Athens, Greece in the early 1970's.  They had about six of them stationed there and they ferried supplies. Can't say it was the smoothest ride in the world but it sure was interesting! 

We had the old C-118's and C-124's come in there too.

Not the best model to skin .... not a native FSX so it doesn't have Spec shine....and there are bits that can't be painted.

It's outside the actual hangar at Essendon.  The building with the flag was the original Terminal...pre WW2 .... strangely devoid of detail mapping on the side.... but it's where we left from.....[the real one, not the model]...

Nice job!

Gotta loves those DC3s! Bear of a plane!

WWII era C-47's were the workhorse of the US Army Air Corp. They towed the gliders towards Normandy in 1944, ferried supplies 'over the hump', the Himalayas, into Burma. Troop transports I believe and there was a version used in Viet Nam, had a really weird name, used as a gun platform. Even built a 48th. scale model of one. Back then the cost of one was less than 10 bucks. Today..........if it is even available, ten times that. Now that was fun!

Nice one, Paul.........Those opportunities don't come round that often. I read and study a lot of WW2 aviation stuff in the little spare time that I have and one of my big ambitions is to fly in something from that era. I've flown in quite a few fixed and rotor wing craft from the 80's.......and watched the Battle of Britain flight many times...........I'd give my right arm to fly in that Lancaster! 

You can't do this on a 'commercial flight' ....

Saved up.....it was $495 a head ...all included [apart from grog at the dinner...and any cheese, etc bought] ...

I'll certainly do it again.... before the crate runs out of air-worthy hours....[and me too]....

Cool!  I am old enough to remember when those were regular (i.e. common) passenger planes.  I always looked on them as "at least they can glide in a horizontal direction".

My first flight in one was in 1954 .... I was about 3 weeks old so don't remember too much [nothing at all, actually]...

There used to be one stuck up on a stick at Tullamarine Airport [like a gate sentry] but it's since been removed and restored to flying...