Around Thailand in a DC-6 -- Flying Cargo in Southeast Asia

By Joe Thompson (3 November 2005)

Have you ever been someplace, heard a specific sound or smelled an odor that triggered a past memory? Most of us have. And for some old aviators MSFS allows them to selectively “regress” to a by-gone era and relive events from their aviation past. Where does the reality stop and virtual begin? Or does it? You be the judge.

Being the CEO of your own virtual airline, Mercator (http://www.flymercator.com), has distinct advantages. For one, while my line pilots are out flying scheduled revenue runs, I normally fly Non Revenue Proving Flights (NRPF) to develop new lines for our flight schedule which already contains over 1,300 airport destinations in over 156 countries and territories. I also never pass up an opportunity to fly a bird that I have little or no experience in. Thus is the case when I recently received a call from an old friend who asked if I would be interested in checking out in our DC-6B. So I was off to Thailand.

After a fitful nights sleep in my hotel room near Don Muang Airport, Bangkok I arose at 0300L to fly a cargo run in one of my company DC-6B’s from Bangkok (VTBD/BKK) to Mae Hongson (VTCH/HGN), then over to Ubon Ratchathani (VTUU/UBP) and eventually recovering back at BKK. In the left seat would be Pete Stockermann with over 15,000 hours. The FE/Loadmaster would be Ernie Hilton with over 11,000 hours and I was going to be in the right seat. Both Pete and Ernie are licensed A&P’s along with holding ATP certificates. With that kind of experience riding with me I was pretty sure I would not get myself into too much trouble.

After arrival at the airport we were briefed by dispatch and signed for the flight. Engine start was scheduled for a 0515. With our over-stuffed “brain bags” containing aircraft operating manuals, company SOP’s, NAV data, and miscellaneous gear in hand we proceeded out to the ramp.

We were flying N6MC, parked at stand 109 at the Thai cargo terminal. The sight that greeted us wasn’t good. Several mechanics were huddled under the un-cowled #3 engine and it was then we learned that after doing some night maintenance they had decided to test run it before our arrival. Well you guessed it! Number 3 would not start and now the hunt was on for the gremlin. One thing I’ve learned over the years in aviation – don’t expect an accurate answer to the question “When do you think it will be fixed?” But we asked anyhow and we got “In about an hour give or take”, so we mounted the stairs and settled in and waited and sure enough, an hour later it was fixed – a bad wiring harness on the second bank of cylinders of the P&W R-2800 Double Wasp engine.

Ernie completed his walk around while Pete and I prepped the cockpit. The front office of DC-6 can be an intimidating place with plenty of switches, gauges, throttles & prop levers and the like to panic the novice. It was daunting but I managed to get everything in the right position – with a little help from Pete. Finally Ernie climbed aboard and we were ready for engine start. Staring the engines on a DC-6 is an exercise in manual dexterity and team work. Ernie’s right hand goes to the overhead panel and flips switches. I hang my head out the side window and signal that the prop is clear. Ernie calls “Three selected, three boosted, three clear, three turning”. I count the blade rotations and indicate when 12 rotations are complete. Pete, in the left seat then calls “Switches On” and Ernie rotates the #3 magneto switch and the huge P&W Dual Wasp comes to life…with a lot of smoke to announce their new status. This routine is repeated until we have four good engines on line. We then do the run-up and after completing the required checks I throttle back and Pete calls Ground Control and we finally move off our spot.

Engine start….finally…Don Muang Airport, Bangkok.

We are cleared for immediate takeoff so I maneuver us onto the centerline of Runway 21R, apply the brakes, and advance the throttles to give us 30” of manifold pressure (MAP). Then brakes off and I push a fistful of throttles forward until we have 59” MAP and the WASP engines thunder into a crescendo of noise as we accelerate down the runway. Pete calls “V1” then “Rotate” and I apply backpressure. “Positive Rate - Gear Up” and we climb out. Flaps are retracted on schedule and passing 500’ AGL I adjust the power & props to 38” MAP & 2300 RPM and we begin a slow – 500 fpm – climb to our cruise altitude.

After several heading changes we eventual intercept our outbound airway (A464) 33 DME north of BKK and headed northwestward. This leg is 370 NM and we are expecting 1+50 ETE. Weather is forecast to be good, with some building clouds and low level turbulence as we enter the mountains in the vicinity of Chiang Mai. With the excitement of the takeoff behind us, we settle into the enroute routine of panel checks, ‘Howgoesit’ calculations and idle chit-chat, broken with an occasional radio transmission. At cruise altitude I make another prop/throttle adjustment to give us 35” MAP and 2300 RPM. Ernie closes the cowl flaps which had been partially open during our climb and the air speed needle slowly climbs to 205 and settles down. The engines assume a low, throaty rumble as we bore holes thru the cool morning air. Ah…life is good!

As we approach Chiang Mai the clouds begin to thicken and the increasing mountain foothills start to play hide and seek with us thru holes in the cloud deck below. Over Chiang Mai I disengage the Heading Hold and roll us into a gentle turn to the left, and once established on Airway W9 re-engage the Heading Hold. Only 68 NM to go before Mae Hongson (VTCH/HGN).

The tempo starts to pick up as we re-compute our Top of Descent (TOD) point and talk about the upcoming approach. Mae Hongson sits in a narrow valley, surrounded by steeply rising terrain in all quadrants. Runway 11-29 is 6561’ LOA. Due to the steep terrain on the west end of the field you land on runway 11 and takeoffs on runway 29. The approach system is a DVOR DME utilizing an IGS track. I ask Ernie what exactly was the difference between a standard VOR and a Doppler VOR and he starts a mantra chant about “…the carrier is amplitude modulated by the reference signal and frequency modulated by the variable signal and…” Well the short answer is it’s more accurate which is the reason they installed one here for this dangerous approach. Pete reminds me, as we brief the approach, that under no circumstances should I descend below 7,000’ until inside 10 DME from the DVOR. There is a ridgeline that runs north-south which has speared more than one aircraft in the past. We pass the ridgeline at 7,000’ and continued our descent to 5000’ . The approach plate calls for a 4 DME arc flown to the north to intercept the Final Approach Fix (FAF) 3 DME and 3,300’ to the west of the DVOR. Then a 105 degree track inbound to the runway. So around we flew as I slowed to 150 KTS IAS, Ernie opened the cowl flaps for some cooling, and we hung out the flaps, dropped the gear and I powered up to hold approach speed. Mae Tower cleared us to land and as we passed 1000’ AGL Pete armed the Martin bar on the pedestal.

This is what you’ll actually see – hopefully – when you approach Mae Hongson (VTCH/HGN)

Here’s my view as we begin our final approach. Little room for error here!

Well I got us down, we powered up to brake and then turned around at the runway end and taxied back to our assigned spot on the ramp. Mae Hongson is a small provincial town in the far, northwestern reaches of Thailand, tucked in a fold of the border with Myanmar (Burma). You may have seen a National Geographic magazine or TV show in the past that highlighted tribal women who had elongated necks encircled with numerous brass rings. Well Mae Hongson is where they live. Its remoteness has kept most tourist traffic to a reasonable level but we had work to do…well at least Ernie did. He was also our loadmaster so while Pete and I headed into the terminal to check the paperwork for the next leg Ernie got to work with the loaders ensuring that the right stuff got offloaded and that no one punched a hole in our fuselage in the process.

Mae Hongson Ramp

Our next leg from HGN to Ubon Ratchathani, also known as Ubon (VTUU/UBP), looked good. No significant weather enroute but there was some “garbled traffic” concerning a possible delay on the ramp at Ubon due to some cargo delivery glitch. We tried to get it clarified but the responses only got more confusing so we decided to drop the subject and hope for the best we got there. . Within the hour Ernie reported that we were ready to go so we all mounted our trusty stead and strapped in. Checks complete, four good engines turning we taxied into position and held. A last quick check, power up and off we went. Getting out of Mae Hongson is just as tricky as getting in and on several occasions I caught the Radar Altimeter jump down then back up as we passed a hill on our way around the 4 DME DVOR arc in a reversal of our arrival. Eventually we cleared the eastern ridgeline and settled into our climb. Our route was back up W9 to Chiang Mai then W16 to Chum Phae where we would pick up G473 to Ubon. The distance was 470 NM and we planned on 2+15 ETE. Again we settled into the monotony of the enroute phase swapping flying yarns about our previous exploits in the wild, blue yonder to make the time pass quicker.

Arrival in Ubon Ratchathani proved uneventful. We came in from the NW, entered the pattern on a wide, looping downwind for runway 23, configured the bird for our approach and was cleared to land.

Turning final for Ubon RTAFB runway 23 with the Mun River visible off our nose.

We were scheduled to on/off load materiel on the military side of the field. In fact Ubon is actually a Royal Thai Air Force Base (RTAFB) that is shared with the civilians. The only commercial traffic is Thai Airlines and Air Asia. Unfortunately after we parked we learned that the garbled message up in Mae about a possible cargo delivery delay was reality. Explanations differed but the gist was we were looking at several hours on the ramp and not departing until sunset.

Engine start at Ubon as the sun sets.

Well the pay’s the same and we had our own tour guide in the form of Ernie Hilton. Ernie was an old Ubon hand from the Viet Nam era. Back in the late 60’s he was attached to the 16th Special Operations Squadron (SOS) at Ubon and flew as a CP aboard an NC-123K “Project Black Spot” aircraft. Ernie has plenty of tales to stand neck hairs at attention and he told us a few as we tried to kill the time. We also borrowed a vehicle and Ernie gave us the grand tour of the base and retold war stories – stories that had been told thousands of times but never lose their attraction.

And as the sun began to dip below the horizon we were finally cleared for departure and not a moment too soon. So with the ship buttoned up we fired up the engines and headed out to the active.

Runway 21L Bangkok welcomes us as we finish a long day.
The routine of lineup, power application, climb out and finally settling on our cruise altitude seemed to slide by in a continuous blur and all the while the huge R-2800 P&W’s hanging off the wings continued to drone on in their soporific tone. But soon we were at our TOD point and we started our gradual descent to terra firma. Bangkok ATIS was calling for reduced VIS in rain showers and as we got closer and lower the visibility did turn south on us but the rain was spotty.

And as all good aviation stories should end we picked up the PAPI several miles out and with one final gentle kiss of the tires on the tarmac we were back in Bangkok. We taxied in and parked and after completing the shutdown I released my harness and pushed my seat back and just sat and enjoyed the silence. I thought about Robert Stack and John Wayne piloting their DC-6 from Hawaii to SFO in Ernest Gann’s magnificent “The High and the Mighty”. And what I had just accomplished felt good. As Pete slid out of his seat he tapped my shoulder and said “Good job Boss, let’s do it again some time.” Does it get any better than this? I think not.

Credits

The talent and efforts of designers like those listed below have enriched my MSFS experiences far beyond anything imaginable. When they can produce an aircraft or a piece of scenery that triggers sights, sounds and smells from past experiences then their talents are truly remarkable. Many Kudos’ to them for their unselfish efforts.

DC-6B Aircraft by California Classics
Tom Gibson & Greg Pepper - Designers
Mercator livery design & repaint by the author

DC-6B Panel by Ken Mitchell
Panel modifications by the author

Scenery by Martin Strong
Thailand Mesh
Bangkok Scenery
Mae Hongson
Ubon Ratchathani

Comments are welcomed by the author

Joe Thompson
ceo@flymercator.com

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