Heads up for 'Air America' in half an hour

Personally I think it’s a great film, funny and great flying. Nice bit of Hollywood entertainment, but a friend of mine who’s husband was in Air America said to me the film absolutely nothing like what AA really did. Funny that for a Gibson film.

Another film I really like which also features the C123 was Operation Dumbo Drop (also based on fact, or is it “Hollywood fact” too?)

Ah okay thanks for that.
I did read that the C-123 bellying was actually pulled along by cable.
Was that a real one or a mock up as well ?

The whole scene(s) do look quite convincing, IMHO.

Don’t really remember how that worked. I did receive a letter from Tom Danaher of Wichita Falls, TX who also flew on that movie with info on some of the stuff they did. Will search for it when next going through all my stored documents.

T J

The Porter fuselage was actually dragged into the wooden mock-up of the C-123. It was run on rails laid down on the floor of the fuselage.

T J

Ah okay thanks for that.
I did read that the C-123 bellying was actually pulled along by cable.
Was that a real one or a mock up as well ?

The whole scene(s) do look quite convincing, IMHO.

Way cool movie,..apparently they really did destroy that Porter into the “C-123 fuselage”….

The Porter fuselage was actually dragged into the wooden mock-up of the C-123. It was run on rails laid down on the floor of the fuselage.

T J

Missed it last night, but I have it on tape anyway.

Great movie. Pity it’s Mel (‘The English can do no right’) Gibson.

Moggy

Its something to do with his great great great grandfather and a loaf of bread,shortly followed by a short boat ride. 😀

Missed it last night, but I have it on tape anyway.

Great movie. Pity it’s Mel (‘The English can do no right’) Gibson.

Moggy

Info on the Porter
The PC-6 is famous in the aviation world for its Short Take-off and Landing (STOL) performance on almost any type of terrain – it can take-off within a distance of 195 m and land within a distance of 130 m while carrying a payload of 1,500 kg. Thanks to its STOL performance, the PC-6 holds the world record for highest landing by a fixed wing aircraft, at 5750m, on the Dhaulagiri glacier in Nepal.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/)

TNZ

Guess the design would have been influenced.
The Storchs have pretty good stol capability too.

Be great to see a fly-off between the two of them, that’s for sure !!

TNZ

Yeh, but don’t they LOOK like Storches?
BARNOWL

Nah,…they’re Pilatus Porters. Absolutley amazing STOL capability.

Mount Cook Airlines here in NZ used to have them for ski-planes…and they put on a show once at one of the Wanaka air-shows.
In a gentle headwind they can nearly hover !!!

TNZ

Am i going silly, or do those little planes look like Storches?
BARNOWL

Spoke at length to Mark Wolfe about the flying . Some interesting stuff like rebuilding one of the flying Porters from a number of wrecks – the prop coming out of the air base’s bar where it was a ceiling fan!

Way cool movie,..apparently they really did destroy that Porter into the “C-123 fuselage”….