The DC3 was pressed into action this afternoon to ferry a handful of desperate travellers from Christchurch to Wellington, after hundreds were stranded due to atmospheric ash.
The "museum piece" plane - which comes complete with real curtains on the windows and fake roses for each passenger - was still able to travel because it flew below 10,000 feet and had a propeller engine.
Full story at stuff.co.nz
My wings are like a shield of steel.
Greetings Batfink. I was just about to scribe an item on our New Zealand DC-3 ashcloud operations but shall Reply to yours instead. As a dinosaur DC-3 driver, I chuckled to myself when I saw the dear old machine operating on our TV news. It looked so natural and "right" on approach and landing with an expanse of kerosine burners all parked up with terminals full of folk trying to obtain information.
What was very puzzling for some days was why Air New Zealand kept operating at the same time as Qantas and Jetstar ceased all operations. It certainly puzzled the travelling public! I have heard that the particle size over NZ was down to about one micron. Air NZ sinply flew at levels well below the ash stream and accepted the increased sector fuel-burn. However QANTAS has a high reputation for safety protocols...but then so does Air NZ....confusing methinks.