Exciting Reeve Airline Service That Can Get You Drooling

[aharon]

Shalom and greetings all my pals,

Presenting exciting regular scheduled Reeve airline service from PADL Dillingham Airport located two nautical miles west of the central business district of Dillingham in Alaska to PANC Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport located 5 miles southwest of downtown Anchorage.

Very excited passengers boarding Reeve Airline DC-4 featuring well polished/buffed masterpiece livery work painted and polished exclusively by repainter named Hartmut Hekmann who is the official repainter for Virtual Aircraft Restoration Facebook group owned and operated by Hartmut Hekmann and Tobias Krause.



Time for preflight inspection!! Check out super shiny and well polished engines!!



Checking right wing to be sure there is no ice or snow build up CHECK OUT reflection of clouds on metallic shiny wing!



Checking left wing for same reason WHOA I can see cloud reflection on the wing!



Checking right engines



Checking left engines Dont you love shine?



Checking wheels you will need lobster bib to catch your drooling from seeing shine on engines!



Checking wheels



Checking to be sure flaps are set properly



Checking propeller blades to be sure there are no ice WHOA WHOA look at cloud reflection on propeller blades



Checking right propeller blades for same reason WHOA WHOA I can see reflection of mountains on engine cover



Checking front wheel



Checking tail



Cannot help admiring metallic shine



Got to activate all de-ice buttons!! I do NOT know what the pump button for alcohol is for!!



Starting left engines resulting into mind blowing exciting and massive engine start smoke



Starting right engines producing massive engine start smoke that is blown forward by powerful winter winds



Engines are ready for action!!! But wait I need to spool up engines for few seconds to be sure they are ready for action in bitter freezing winter weather



Starting to taxi to short of runway 1 to start exciting flight!



Making sure the route waypoints are ready to avoid high mountains due to the fact there is no weather radar and no terrain warning computer meaning I must avoid mountains covered by clouds.

Here are waypoints: KOWOK PIPPR NUTUW WALUS AMOTT WEWWO ICICL BOB that will enable my plane to avoid running into mountains as seen on this map showing my specific flight path



Entering into runway 1 for more taxi and backtrack



After backtracking now starting exciting take off run producing thrilling combo of massive snow splattering and engine smoke



Airborne on climb to 5,000 ft



At 3,000 ft still climbing to 5,000 ft



Now starting to cruise at 5,000 ft



Passing Wood River that is rich in salmon fishes



Passing Iliamna Lake that is the largest lake in Alaska and third largest lake in America There is offer of 100,000 buck reward by local Alaska newspaper for capture of Pacific Sleeper shark secretly lurking in the waters of that lake



Cruising across the same lake where you can see that due to so extremely sub zero freezing winter, the engines are producing condensation contrails



Checking all gauges to be sure everything sounds very kosher



Entering Cook Inlet to continue cruising where you can see that the plane is on safe side away from 10,000 ft high Chigmit mountain range that the plane is supposed to avoid



Still cruising above waters of Cook Inlet with background view of same high mountains



See how safe side the plane is cruising at 5,000 ft away from mountains



Whoa whoa whoa winter is soooo freezing that the engines are producing condensation contrails



Sunset!!





Checking gauges again to be sure that everything is working well in freezing weather



On final runway approach to runway 06R (it is 06R in era 1960s/1970s) where you can see exciting engine smokes due to constant engine power adjustments to make sure the runway approach is smooth



Amazing cockpit view of night city lights of Anchorage



look at ice on left side!!



Seconds before touchdown



Okay few more seconds



TOUCHDOWN



Snow splattering while the plane is braking down on icy runway



More snow splatter (is it fun??)



Exiting from runway toward gate with background view of Million Air building



Taxiing to gate with background view of Alaska Airline maintenance hangar



Got to look for official Reeve airline gate which is gate number A11 (oh yes I revved up the engines on purpose to produce massive engine smokes to excite airport spotting photographers)



Arrived at gate A11 while the de-icing truck is rushing to deice wings of my plane to get ready for another flight



Thank you for viewing!! Stay tuned for next exciting flight.

Regards,

Aharon

[coachharry]

Hey aharon!

Nice to see you´re having a ball with your new plane! Fly and stay safe!

[Tom/CalClassic]

Hi,

Flew that route in an Electra in the 90s, great fun. The alcohol pump is for prop de-icing, note the lack of electric black de-icing boots on the props.

[aharon]

Jul 14, 2021 9:07:34 GMT -5 Tom/CalClassic said:

The alcohol pump is for prop de-icing, note the lack of electric black de-icing boots on the props.

Thanks for explanation. How exactly does alcohol work for propellers please??

Regards,

Aharon

[Tom/CalClassic]

The prop hub has alcohol lines from a tank in the nacelle or wing. When that switch is thrown the fluid is pumped onto the props, where centrifugal force pulls the fluid from the base of the prop to the tip. This removes any ice by raising the freezing point of the ice/alcohol mixture. That is much like modern ground de-icing works today.

Some windshield deicing systems worked the same way.

[aharon]

Tom,

Thanks for great explanations on use of alcohol. I never knew that!!!

Regards,

Aharon