DC-6 landing dirt airfield with reverse thrust?

[ikkim1985]

As from discussion forum Topic Landing on grassy field.

I've found this video with DC-6 landing at dirt airfield
It says it's Pretoria, South Africa.
I wonder what airlines this is.. private cargo?
and.. just after landing.. huh? is that reverse thrust I hear??
Won't that affect to the airplane's engine?



and also nice full video of this aircraft and scene here, 7minutes

www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Hmx1yqB3XQ

regards,

[okami]

Hi Kim,

That particular plane was on its very last flight - it was DC-6B s/n 45329 ZS-MUL "Empress of Suva", owned by Drakensberg Truck Manufacturers - their primary activity is the manufacturing of armoured personel carriers and armoured trucks.

The aircraft was ferried to their property for preservation - it had previously been stored at Swartkop for over a decade, and was in danger of being scrapped due to rising parking and maintenance costs, and the Air Force needing space at the airport. She was literally stripped out and lightened, and the dirtstrip where she flew was lengthened by 800 meters (from an original length of 500 meters!) so she could land there.

Cudos to her owners for not cutting her up and transporting her by flatbed truck as many others would do, though, looks like she has some chance of flying again.

Airframe history:
- 1957/00/00: built as DC-6B
- 1957/08/15: delivered as CF-CZV to CPA, "Empress of Suva"
- 1961/00/00: to Transair Sweden as SE-BDG
- 1965/00/00: to Braathens SAFE as LN-SUT
- 1967/00/00: to Greenlandair as OY-DRC "Amalik"
- 1980/00/00: to Air Atlantique as G-SIXB
- 1980/00/00: to Air Swaziland as 3D-ASA
- 198x/00/00: registration change: 3D-ASB
- 1987/00/00: to Aerostar International as N90300
- 1987/00/00: to Interocean Airways as C9-ASR
- 1990/00/00: to Avia Air as ZS-MUL
- 1992/00/00: to Trans Air Cargo as 9Q-CJE
- 1998/00/00: to SAA Museum Society as ZS-XXX
- 2005/00/00: sold to Peter Bauman
- 2010/00/00: to Drakenbergs Truck Manufacturers
- 2010/10/29: registration change: ZS-MUL
- 2010/12/04: last ferry flight, Zwartskop-Wallmansthal

[Tom/CalClassic]

Yep, they didn't have to worry about the engines after that last flight.

My CV-340 manual says:

"Exercise caution in using reverse thrust on runways covered with dust, snow, or other matter which would reduce visibility... Loose sand, gravel, etc. when blown forward, may be traveled through, damaging propeller and other parts of the airplane. Snow and slush also can cause damage to wing flaps during reversing."

[johnl]

Saw this one once at EGHI, in very shabby Greenlandair livery (think she actually belonged to Air Atlantique by then, but never got the AA paint job). Her sister ship, G-SIXC (cn 45550/1032), is still at Coventry, where she serves as "The DC-6 Diner"
www.airbasecoventry.com/diner.html

[ikkim1985]

Thank you for the detailed description John and Okami~!
Using props at the sandy dusty field is unusual to see.. hmm....

regards,

[capflyer]

Yes, but being a very short strip, you use whatever braking assistance is available.

[acourt]

Absolutely. On a short airstrip, you should make use of maximum braking immediately. It's always better to have to reduce braking to get to a taxiway, than to suddenly realize that you need more braking...and runway!

Use of reverse is a judgement call on contaminated runways. Like Tom said, anything that gets thrown up from the runway can damage the aircraft. Slush and snow can be blown onto the aircraft to refreeze, or block static ports and pitot tubes. Inadvertent assymetric reverse can cause directional control problems. Reverse thrust also aggravates a skid.

What I wonder about the video is whether the pilots shut down the engines during rollout, or if the engines took care of that themselves!

[herkpilot]

One more clip of big aircraft in the dirt

www.youtube.com/watch?v=diX3x6ffvSA

enjoy

Hy

[ikkim1985]

Of course, I understand that on shorter runways you need maximum deceleration.
But before that, isn't the conditions of runway is needed to be concerned before doing so?
a bit out of issue but You can't land 737 to Luckla airport with max decelerations(reverse and max brakes).

Well.. the situation on the video has some special reasons, but concerning the condition of runway. (full dirt and natural grass and dirts and rocks.. runways) and as it holds on almost at the middle of the runway. maybe it seems to be the reverse thrust wasn't so that neccesary.

I could be wrong cause I'm not that much familiar with bush or the classic dirt "Natural" Runways operations. Hmm....

regards,

[capflyer]

If it took you half of the runway to stop with full reverse, then you needed to use reverse because if the brakes failed, you'd be able to roll to a stop by the end (hopefully).

As for the engine shutdown - I suspect when they tried to bring the engines back into forward thrust, the dust "choked out" the carburetors during the prop transition where there is no air being blown into the cowling. During the transition between forward to reverse and vise-versa, there is a period as the prop goes "flat" where the engine is almost stopped and the airflow is extremely turbulent. When we did ground checks of reverse on the CV-240s, especially when the engine wasn't 100% warmed up, we'd frequently have the engine die or nearly die during this period, even with a clean ramp.

[acourt]

Capflyer,

Great info! Thanks. The shutdowns in the video didn't exactly look planned. It's nice to hear the mechanics of what may be happening.

Al

[capflyer]

I wish I'd gotten video of when we did some tests on a plane that'd been sitting for 3 months without running and tried to transition the props the first time. The coughing and snorting fire that occurred was pretty spectacular (thankfully nothing serious or damaging to the engine as the mechanics told me afterward), especially when the #2 died the first 3 times they dried to transition. They actually had to start it with the throttle in reverse the second time because it had transitioned too far and it would hurt the prop governor to have tried to start it with the throttles forward. Was pretty cool when it caught and started revving up into reverse, blowing crap all over the hangar (not really).