RNCollins
TUG Lifetime Member
- Joined
- Jan 2, 2016
- Messages
- 3,329
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- 399
- Location
- Borscht Belt
- Resorts Owned
- Tradewinds, Divi, Quarter House, Casa Ybel
D-Day Squadron Marks Milestone Atlantic Crossing
https://www.flyingmag.com/d-day-squadron-marks-milestone-atlantic-crossing
By Julie Boatman / Flying Magazine / www.flyingmag.com / May 23, 2019
A group of historic Douglas C-47s make a successful Atlantic crossing for the Normandy commemoration.
“When the kids came over in 1944, they didn’t have GPS…they didn’t have 500 hours of time in cockpit between them,” says Doug Rozendaal, pilot of That’s All Brother, a Douglas C-47 joining the 2019 D-Day Squadron in an epic trip across the Atlantic Ocean this week. He considers his crew very fortunate: Not only did they have advanced tools and weather reporting (and 50,000 hours of experience in the cockpit), but they also didn't see much of the water during the entire crossing. “We were on top of the clouds nearly the entire way. As an Iowa farmer, it was easy to imagine that there was nothing but cornfields underneath.” The psychological boost he found was incredible.
The North Atlantic hadn’t witnessed the crossing of a Pan Am Airways Douglas DC-3 flight since 1963. So when Clipper Tabitha May landed at Prestwick on Tuesday, May 21, it’s no wonder her arrival attracted much attention. She was the first to arrive of the 2019 D-Day Squadron. The 1945-built airplane was originally designated as a C-47 (the military version of the airplane), and she’s joining a dozen more U.S.based Douglas DC-3/C-47 aircraft in crossing the ocean to participate in a series of commemorative events led by Daks Over Normandy in Duxford, England, and Caen, France, from June 2 to 9, to honor the 75th anniversary of the invasion of Normandy—we know it as D-Day....”
Douglas C-47 aircraft representing the D-Day Squadron line up at Oxford, Connecticut.
Photo Courtesy John Lott
https://www.flyingmag.com/d-day-squadron-marks-milestone-atlantic-crossing
By Julie Boatman / Flying Magazine / www.flyingmag.com / May 23, 2019
A group of historic Douglas C-47s make a successful Atlantic crossing for the Normandy commemoration.
“When the kids came over in 1944, they didn’t have GPS…they didn’t have 500 hours of time in cockpit between them,” says Doug Rozendaal, pilot of That’s All Brother, a Douglas C-47 joining the 2019 D-Day Squadron in an epic trip across the Atlantic Ocean this week. He considers his crew very fortunate: Not only did they have advanced tools and weather reporting (and 50,000 hours of experience in the cockpit), but they also didn't see much of the water during the entire crossing. “We were on top of the clouds nearly the entire way. As an Iowa farmer, it was easy to imagine that there was nothing but cornfields underneath.” The psychological boost he found was incredible.
The North Atlantic hadn’t witnessed the crossing of a Pan Am Airways Douglas DC-3 flight since 1963. So when Clipper Tabitha May landed at Prestwick on Tuesday, May 21, it’s no wonder her arrival attracted much attention. She was the first to arrive of the 2019 D-Day Squadron. The 1945-built airplane was originally designated as a C-47 (the military version of the airplane), and she’s joining a dozen more U.S.based Douglas DC-3/C-47 aircraft in crossing the ocean to participate in a series of commemorative events led by Daks Over Normandy in Duxford, England, and Caen, France, from June 2 to 9, to honor the 75th anniversary of the invasion of Normandy—we know it as D-Day....”
Douglas C-47 aircraft representing the D-Day Squadron line up at Oxford, Connecticut.
Photo Courtesy John Lott