Part number: AN44 for 1/4 diameter eye bolts (or AN44A if undrilled for split pin). Nominal length measured in 1/8″ increments.
Try LAS.

Looks rather like a jacking or trestling pad.

Very similar to an aluminium alloy access panel from a fabric-covered aircraft. Probably engine-bay related, as you say.

True, but I wonder how much they were paying for their trip relative to today’s prices… Then there was the time element and inability to clear area turbulence due to lack of weather radar and ceiling. Some of those flights must have been absolute misery for the passengers.
I’ve spent a reasonable amount of time on the jumpseat and in the cabin of piston multi-engined aircraft and can see both the appeal and downside.
However… given the choice of flying with Ryanair or sitting in the wicker seat of a Handley Page Hannibal to the same destination, I’d probably opt for the latter. 🙂

I’ve been a member for a while now and quite content to follow what’s going on without saying anything.
However, I feel obliged to comment on this issue of Dakota passenger flight legislation. Like others, I added my name to the government petition when news of this first came out. The response is posted below:

Ask the PM
* ..from the PM
* e-Petitions
* Petition Responses

Friday 27 March 2009
DC3-Dakota – epetition response

We received a petition asking:

“We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to act to prevent the grounding on 1st july of DC3 Dakotas due to EU legislation.”

Details of Petition:

“It appears that the EU is interferring with the enjoyment of others again. The DC3 Dakota was instrumental in keeping post war Berlin fed and watered. The EU now propose to ground the type permenantly. Fight to prevent this.”

· Read the petition
· Petitions homepage
Read the Government’s response

The Government recognises that the Dakota DC3 is a special aircraft of historic significance which has had a lasting impact on the airline industry and played a significant role during the Second World War.

The DC3 has not been grounded by European legislation. New harmonised EU rules covering aircraft operations, known as “EU-Ops”, require aircraft to hold a standard European Certificate of Airworthiness, but operators of historic aircraft are still able to undertake commercial passenger flights if they receive an exemption from the UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) from the requirement. To date no DC3 exemption application has been received by the CAA.

The European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA), whose remit is to promote the highest common standards of safety and environmental protection in civil aviation, is developing new rules on airline operations. These new rules should enter force in 2012 and will replace EU-Ops.

The Department for Transport has been working with EASA, the European Commission and the CAA to resolve how aircraft exempted from the EU-Ops requirement to obtain a standard European Certificate of Airworthiness, known as “Annex ll” aircraft, will continue to operate under the EASA rules. For the present, the CAA has informed the Commission that the UK intends, subject to appropriate conditions, to exempt operators currently using Annex ll aircraft until the EASA rules come into force. The CAA has advised the commercial operators of historic aircraft of the process that needs to be followed to obtain the relevant exemptions.

Currently, the CAA has received and granted exemptions for DH 104 Dove (a British monoplane short-haul airliner), DH89A Rapide (short-haul passenger airliner of the 1930s) and Scottish Aviation Twin Pioneer aircraft (transport aircraft built in the 1950s). The CAA has not received any exemption requests for DC 3 aircraft. If a request was received there is unlikely to be any reason why the CAA would not be able to issue an exemption
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XF828 and austernj673 seem to be right re the final tour. We really were taken for a ride…