Palmas (Canary Islands) entering Europe
via Cascais (Portugal) and Avignon (France).
After a 12-day journey ZS-NTE nally arrived
at Zweibrücken Airport on June 5.IRELAND
Early last year, it was announced that ZS-
NTE was to be painted in retro Aer Lingus
livery. The project was initiated by the Irish
Historic Flight Foundation (IHFF), with the
support of the Irish airline.
The venerable Dakota went from
Zweibrücken to Shannon on June 13, where
it was resprayed in a livery launched in
1956, coming out in the colours of EI-ACD,
named St Gall. The big unveiling ceremony
took place on July 20 at Dublin Airport.
Aer Lingus showcased the aircraft at a
number of events, including the Foynes Air
Show and Bray Air Display.In September, the aircraft participated
in the two-day Airliner Classics Fly-In,
hosted by Speyer Airport, Germany. This
has become a yearly aviation event,
showcasing vintage and piston engine
airlines in an informal setting. For the event
the aircrew were Flippie Vermeulen, Noel
Flynn and Ulrich Spielmann,THE FUTURE
The plan is to keep the aircraft in Aer
Lingus colours for the next three to ve
years. It is tted with 28 seats in a 2-2
con guration. There is a crew jump seat
beside the rear passenger door. It also has
a radio operator’s station behind the cockpit
and a cargo area, too.
The seats were previously used in a
South African Airways Boeing 747SP. The
aircraft has already been invited to moreevents than it could possibly attend. It
returned to Zweibrücken for storage over
the winter of 2017/18.
Looking ahead to next year the
aircraft is due to attend the 2019 Daks
over Normandy event, marking the 75th
anniversary of D-Day on June 6, 1944 on
which US C-47s were heavily involved. It
is planned to have about 25 DC-3s/C-47s
from the US and Europe gather at Duxford
(Cambridgeshire) and Caen (close to the
landing beaches) for commemorative ights
and jumps over Normandy.
In addition, the armada of DC-3s
Dakotas and C-47 Skytrains will continue to
Berlin to celebrate the 70th anniversary of
the Berlin Airlift, which ran from June 1948
to May 1949, when the USSR blocked land
access to the city and supplies had to be
own in.FROM THE COCKPIT
Flippie Vermeulen explains what it is like to fl y this historic aircraft.
When I sold ZS-NTE to Peter Adrian it was on
the condition I should assist with the delivery ight
from Rand Airport in Johannesburg, South Africa,
to Zweibrücken in Germany and help with the
maintenance and ight operations in Europe for as
long as the aircraft remained on the South African
register, which, of course, I gladly agreed to.
What we didn’t know was that it was going to
be a challenge getting the aeroplane registered in
Europe and, two-and-a-half years later, it is still on
the South African register and, yes, I am still ying
ZS-NTE in Europe.
Needless to say, it was quite emotional for me to
be ying a 73-year-old C47/DC-3 over the regions
where signi cant battles of World War Two took
place, where the DC-3 played such a signi cant
role. It was all the more so since I was able to share
the experience with my son Bennie Vermeulen,
the manager of our maintenance organisation at
Springbok Aviation Services, who also prepared the
aircraft for our ight to Shannon.
The temptation normally is to y these vintage
planes at the lower levels under visual ight rules
(VFR), but transiting some of the highest density
traffic areas in the world could be a challenge,especially if you do not know the area. Captain
Noel Flynn, my colleague and friend responsible for
our ight planning, chose to put us on an instrument
ight plan (IF) at FL100. This would place the
control of our ight path squarely on the shoulders
of Air Traffic Control (ATC).
London ATC, in its usual calm and efficient way,
routed us just north of Southend, over Lambourne,
missing the traffic patterns of London Stansted and
London Heathrow, past Luton, Cran eld, passing
just to the north of Coventry towards Liverpool,
before crossing the Irish Sea for Dublin.
Transiting the London area at ‘low level’ was a
huge contrast to my previous experience of ying
the Boeing 747s and A340s into Heathrow Airport
for decades with South African Airways. The ease
with which it all happened under the watchful eye of
ATC was absolutely amazing.
Flying at FL100 is an absolute pleasure, unless
the outside air temperature (OAT) is zero degrees
and the 73-year-old lady is leaking like a sieve.
Passing the London area completely cold and
soaked caused some serious innovation on
Bennie’s part until he eventually managed to open
the heater ‘spill valves’ and get some warmth intothe cockpit. We developed serious respect for the
bomber crews of World War Two.
My last time in Shannon was in 1997 with the
Swiss Air (SAA Historic Flight) DC-4 ZS-AUB, on the
way from Geneva to Gander and New York. Landing
back in Shannon for the rst time in 20 years was, to
say the least, really special.
This was also an emotional experience for both
me and Bennie as this would be the last time we
were to see ZS-NTE in the most beautiful livery
of Springbok Classic Air. When we next saw the
aircraft in July, it was repainted in the equally
beautiful livery of Aer Lingus.
Of all the aircraft I have displayed at airshows
during the last 30 years, the DC-3 is most de nitely
my favourite. It is big, slow, agile for its size and
sounds beautiful.
The venues at Foynes and Bray are two of the
nicest places I have ever displayed and those
shows now rate among the highlights of my ying
career. I am truly grateful to have been asked to be
part of ZS NTE’s operation in Europe.
I would like to thank Peter Adrian, the owner of
ZS-NTE, captains Uli Spielmann and Noel Flynn,
and the IHFF for making it all possible.56 Aviation News incorporating Jets March 2018The spotless Douglas DC-3 ZS-NTE, in retro Air Lingus colours, makes a low pass at the 2017 edition of Airliner Classics. ‘NTE’ shared the ramp
with another DC-3, from Switzerland. Stefan Schmoll52-56_prop_aer_lingusDC.mf.indd 56 02/02/2018 13:38