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Possible A.O. Spray Plane?

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Chuck75

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  • HadIt.com Elder

Ran across this when doing some research on D-18 C-45 aircraft. Back in the 60's time frame, I almost went to work for a company that was heavily modifying  D-18s.

(longer nose tricycle gear, turboprop engines, new instrument panel, electronics, and interior). Some decades later, a part of the mod,. (to the wing spar), resulted in scrapping many D-18s

The mod eventually caused corrosion, and the cost of repair often exceeded the total cost of the aircraft.

"N5454V  was  operated  by ARPA’s  Combat Development  and  Test  Center  in  Thailand  as  a  sprayer  aircraft  for  “aerial  application  of
herbicides (Minutes  ExCom AAM  of  11  June  63,  in:  UTD/CIA/B3F4);  this  aircraft  was “disguised” as a private agricultural plane.

I wonder exactly what herbicides and where?

"Fate: sold  for  scrap  at  Tainan  on  10  December  74  (Summary  of  aircraft  sales,  in: UTD/CIA/B40F6); the cancellation “as scrapped” was requested on 19 December 74
(Letter   by   Clyde   S.   Carter   dated   19   December   74,   in:   UTD/CIA/B17F3);   the registration was canceled on 24 December 74 as scrapped."

And, it looked like there might be some relationship to Air America. Seems that they operated a heck of a lot of D-18s in and around Vietnam.

D18spray.jpg

Edited by Chuck75
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That is quite a find,Chuck! I sure don't think they were spraying Round Up.

 

http://www.publichealth.va.gov/exposures/agentorange/locations/residue-c123-aircraft/
And I posted more here under Wes Carter, who aggressively fought for the C 123 pilots and this directive above , and have his email addy if anyone needs.

Nothing is impossible and the C 123 story proves that,.

 

 

 

 

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Beech C-45G (10-2) N5454V AF-106 Sept. 63 USAF 51-11549 Service history: 8th C-45 acquired by Air America, newly bought in the USA (Minutes ExCom-AACL/AAM of 20 September 63, in: UTD/CIA/B7F2), initially probably financed and owned by the Pacific Corp.; officially bought by Air America only on 31 March 64 (List “Accumulated costs as of 31 Dec. 67”, in: UTD/CIA/B40F8); converted to Ten-Two in November/December 63; it departed the US in November 63 and was ready at Bangkok in December 63 (Minutes ExComAACL/AAM of 29 October 63 and 3 December 63, in: UTD/CIA/B7F2); it was a TenTwo sprayer operated for ARPA out of Bangkok; a photo showing N5454V in normal Beech 18 colors with spraying gear, believed taken at Bangkok in mid-sixties, is preserved in: UTD/Kirkpatrick/B29; a photo showing N5454V all silver is preserved in: UTD/Hickler/B32; assigned to contract AF62(531)-1757 and based at Hua Hin on 18 December 63, still in February, April, and July 64 (AAM aircraft availability of 1 February 64, in the possession of Ward Reimer who kindly faxed it to the author on 17 February 2004; Operations Circular of 1 April 64, in: UTD/Kirkpatrick/B8F4; Aircraft status as of 7 July 64, in: UTD/Kirkpatrick/B1F1); based at Hua Hin in April 65 (Aircraft list of April 65, in: UTD/Walker/B12F3); based at Bangkok between 3 May 65 and 27 October 65 (Planned Aircraft Assignments, Memos of 3 May 65, 22 May 65, and 27 October 65, all in: UTD/Walker/B12F3+4); assigned to contract AF62(531)-1845 for use out of Bangkok in November 65 (Aircraft status as of 1 Nov. 65, in: UTD/Kirkpatrick/B1F1); still in April and May 66, basic (Aircraft status as of 8 April 66, in: UTD/Kirkpatrick/B1F1; Aircraft status as of 4 May 66, in: UTD/Hickler/B1F2); lost a landing gear when landing at Gia Nghia (V-202), South Vietnam, on 31 June 66; repaired; an Air America microbus struck the left engine of N5454V, which was parked on the north ramp of Don Muang airport, Bangkok, on 18 July 67; both main landing gears were displaced laterally by the impact; returned to service on 30 July 67 (XOXO of 18 July 67, in: UTD/Hickler/B27F1; Accident report, in: UTD/Hickler/B24F1; Minutes ExCom-AACL/AAM of 25 July 67, in: UTD/CIA/B8F2); repaired; at Saigon on 19 December 67; assigned to CSG contract F62531-68-C-0007 as a basic aircraft for use out of Bangkok in May 68 (Aircraft status as of 1 May 68, in: UTD/Herd/B2); on 11 May 68, the tail wheel of N5454V collapsed when landing at Bangkok (T-09); repaired (XOXO of 11 May 68, in: UTD/Hickler/B25F13); repaired; in use at Bangkok at least from 23 July 67 to 29 October 68 (Flight crew member monthly movement report of A. J. Zarkos, in: UTD/Zarkos/B1F8); based at Bangkok as a spare aircraft 16-30 June 69, but ferried from Bangkok to Saigon on 14 August 69 to be assigned to contract AID/VN-41 for use out of Saigon in the second half of August 69 as a replacement for N9521Z (F.O.C. of 15 June 69, in: UTD/Hickler/B8F7B; F.O.C. of 15 Aug. 69, in: UTD/Hickler/B1F1); put into inactive storage at Tainan on 18 November 69; still there on 1 May 74 (F.O.C.s of 1 July 71, 15 July 71, 1 November 73, 1 December 73, 1 April 74, and 1 May 74, in: UTD/Hickler/B8F7B+C). Fate: sold for scrap at Tainan on 10 December 74 (Summary of aircraft sales, in: UTD/CIA/B40F6); the cancellation “as scrapped” was requested on 19 December 74 (Letter by Clyde S. Carter dated 19 December 74, in UTD/CIA/B17F3); the registration was cancelled on 24 December 74 as scrapped.

I have virtually all the details on most AirAm aircraft. I used to fly with them. This one was mostly used for JUSMAGTHAI runs up to Udorn or Wattay after it's brief career as a spray rig. US Ambassador used it occasionally when his AC was in for repairs. It retained seating in the cabin and was never used for cargo. For the most part, it grew cobwebs at Don Muang AB unless used for backup AC in RVN.

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  • HadIt.com Elder

From what I read, most of the "executive" D-18's were what was called a "Volpar" conversion. You quoted the entire reference that I found. A bit leery of quoting the whole

thing led me to just post the essentials. As I said, I was researching something else when I stumbled on this, and could not help but wonder what was actually sprayed. 

Down in the Deltas, and rivers, spraying was conducted by a variety of aircraft, large and small, and even small helicopters.

One base I remember had had problems with hand launch IR missiles, and F-4s taking off with full loads using AB. The solution was to defoliate a wide and long area

under the usual flight path. for takeoffs and possibly landings. I never did find any records of the spraying, or what was used. One of the ships I rode carried supplies

troops, and equipment to Cau Viet in 67. I always wondered what was in a bunch of palletized 55 gallon drums. The pallets were wrapped, so we really didn't know what was inside.

The VC were firing mortars at us from beyond a village on the north side of the river, and we had to pull of the LST ramp several times. 

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I access a librarian at the University of Texas (Dallas) occasionally to get accident photos for different A/C and choppers to buttress claims. All those references are to file folders of Air America's records right down to USAID contract they were delivering. Some contracts weren't for freight per se. Some were people freight going from one place to another. Here's a decipher:

 UTD/Kirkpatrick/B1F1) is University of Texas Dallas. Kirkpatrick was the Air Operations Center Supervisor of the region/airport in question. B1 is Bin One and F1 is Folder one. I had to search to find the P-6 Porter I crashed in for evidence. I remembered the tail #  and that it was dry season. They had the full meal deal down to a PIC statement of the crash and another from the right seater. I was the kicker that day. 

N199X crash scene.jpg

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  • HadIt.com Elder

You were darn lucky! Several people I knew crashed into trees, and that was all she wrote!

1. Young school age girl, coming back from college for the holidays on a company owned B-25 conversion.

2. One of my old aerobatic flight instructors was flying a spray plane, the engine quit, and he went into the trees.

3. An F-15 pilot that lived in the same German village we did lost power and controls some years back, and didn't get out

before the plane hit trees somewhere on the east coast. He left behind a wife and two daughters that were our children's ages.

 

One of the engineers in the same company I used to work for had a permanent "don't fly anywhere". Seems that the last three

planes he flew on crashed, and he made it out of all with minor injuries.

 

Back in the 70's, I thought I was going to have to land a "Grumman Tiger" in a field. Got lucky, and had just enough in a supposedly empty tank to make it to the airport. I had been watching fuel, but evidently the engine was using a bit more than I expected, and the fuel gage in the tank  tank I was using when the engine quit was stuck at 1/4. When I got it back on the ramp. I whacked the wing, and the gage indicator dropped to zero. It was fine the day before, and I had flown that A/C several times during the proceeding month with no problems, and nothing in the logs.

Edited by Chuck75
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PIC (Pilot in charge) Jack C. Smith (yeah right) had a nickname of JFC-the J standing for Jesus and the C for Christ. He had more incidents in Porters and Helio Couriers than any I'd flown with. This day he turned into the mountain instead of away. We were doing about 75 knots with 5 turns of flaps. It stalled the moment he turned. I had a harness on and was paying antenna wire out the belly in 1/4 mile sections. He was circling to allow me to connect a new reel (one of six on board). Great pilot but he was always outside the power curve. All AirAm pilots had interesting names. I also flew a lot with PIC Ben Franklin until he augered into a hillside VSTOL airpatch on final in 5/71. 

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