Custom Air Service 1996 year end totals for N83FA show that it was averaging 4.6 revenue flights per month. The following listing indicates that although it was a 36-year-old Carvair converted from a 53-year-old airframe, it was still producing a profit.57
Total Flights 56
Total Miles 111,090 Total Gross 694,312 Average Gross/Flight 12,398 Average Trip Miles 1,983 Total Hrs. Operated 555 Average Trip Hrs. 9.91
N83FA, Carvair five c/n 10365 had 50,558.31 total flight hours. It was powered by four Pratt & Whitney R2000-7M2 radial engines. The total engine hours were as follows: #1 engine 688.1 hrs. #2 engine 936.3 hrs. #3 engine 399.1 hrs. #4 engine 1,448.6 hrs.
In addition to the tragic loss of life a part of aviation history ended with N83FA. This air- craft flew millions of miles covering the globe for 53 years. It survived wars, weather, rebels, overloading, engine failures, and financial hard times only to be lost by an overlooked lock-pin.
12
Carvair Six
c/n 7480-6, C-54-A-5-DO, Aer Lingus
Carvair six has the distinction of being the only Carvair converted from a C-54A-5-DO. Only two older airframes were used for conversion. It was built at Santa Monica with all the features of the C-54A and fitted with R-2000-7 engines, twin boom cargo hoist, and fuselage fuel tanks. The aircraft was delivered to the USAAF on 11 April 1944 with military serial 42- 107461. It is unique to have a 1942 military registration yet delivered in 1944 because the serial reflects the fiscal year ordered not delivered. After exactly two years with the Air Force it was declared redundant and transferred to Reconstruction Finance Corporation for disposal. On 10 April 1946 it was sold to American Airlines for $90,000 USD and named “Flagship Philadel- phia.”
American received registration NC90431 and operated it for more than eight years before it was declared surplus and sold in 1954 to the aircraft broker Airplane Enterprises. The “C” was dropped from the registration 01 January 1949 becoming N90431. Within a month it was purchased by Pan Am affiliate AVENSA. It was registered in Argentina as YV-C-AVH and oper- ated for four months before being sold to Resort Airlines and returning to the U.S. as N75298. The DC-4 operator flew it on contract work for five years before leasing it to World Airways for one year. Shortly after returning to Resort on 27 June 1961 it was parked with other DC-4s at Oakland. It remained idle until purchased by Channel Air Bridge in May 1962 for the express purpose of Carvair conversion. The British registration G-ARZV was assigned on 08 June 1962. Channel Air Bridge had two Carvairs in service and a third within days of the first flight. Conversions four and five were diverted to Interocean. Aviation Traders was quite pleased to receive an order from a foreign flag carrier. Not only was it a morale boost but in the best inter- est of sales and quite easy for ATEL change the line position from Channel Air Bridge to Aer Lingus. The change in delivery prevented Channel Air Bridge from ever having more than three Carvairs. The company became British United Air Ferries under the Air Holdings consolida- tion before the next Carvair was completed. The DC-4 is the fourth purchased for conversion from Resort just prior to the company going into receivership. Like the others, it had been abused and stored in the open at Oakland. It was not disclosed when purchased but later dis- covered during tear down that it had suffered an unrecorded belly-landing requiring additional work.
Carvair Conversion
Under pressure from the Irish government Aer Lingus announced in January 1963 it planned Carvair service with a start-up date of 20 June 1963. This was partially prompted by the attempt of Channel Airways (East Anglian Flying Services) to fly the Carvair on Irish routes a year ear- lier. Aer Lingus officials estimated the Carvair would only be marginally profitable yet had
little choice since not purchasing it could cost market share. Carvair six was scheduled to be a British Carvair, but in order to make the start up deadline and secure a new contract ATEL made G-ARZV available to Aer Lingus.
The purchased agreement was signed for £175,000 ($490,175) including spares and sup- port equipment. The total purchase price for the first two Aer Lingus Carvairs was £350,000 ($980,350). The contract was viewed with considerable optimism by ATEL since this was the first order from a national flag carrier. Up until this time there had been great interest in the Carvair but no orders outside the Air Holdings group except charter carrier Intercontinental — Interocean based in Luxembourg.
The Channel Air Bridge DC-4 was transferred to ATEL and conversion began on 14 June 1962. The nose arrived by road from Southend on 09 September and the fitting to the airframe was completed on 28 October 1962. The full conversion took approximately six months to com- plete becoming the shortest to date. It first flew as a Carvair from Stansted to Southend unpainted on 20 December 1962. The British registration was cancelled on 21 January 1963 after the Irish registration was assigned. The Certificate of Airworthiness number 317 was issued 05 Febru- ary 1963 after 15 hours and 15 minutes of testing.
The new Carvair ferried to Southend for painting since Aviation Traders pushed it out ahead of schedule to make the promised delivery date. It has been reported that it was painted in BUAF colors then repainted for Aer Lingus. This is totally false since the conversion was assigned to Aer Lingus before conversion and months before it was painted. It appeared in full Aer Lin- gus livery on 23 February. The extra emergency exit on the starboard side was installed at Southend in January prior to the painting.
After conversion it retained the short ram-air carburetor intake scoops that were fitted to this early model DC-4. Most C-54/DC-4 aircraft and majority of Carvairs have the later
N75298 parked at Oakland on 07 November 1962. The cabin windows are blocked out, indicating it had been operated in cargo configuration before storage (courtesy AAHS/Robert Hufford).
non-ram long fairing extending along the nacelle. However, this DC-4 arrived with the short scoops and possibly set the standard for the other Aer Lingus aircraft. It most likely arrived for conversion equipped with the R-2000-D3 engines, which commonly had the short carburetor intake scoops.
The Aer Lingus specifications were quite different from previous Carvairs. The carrier ordered a different galley plus a 34-seat four-car twin cabin configuration. A separate passen- ger cabin with 12 seats was installed forward of the rear cabin occupying the fifth car position. An additional emergency exit was installed at the second to last round window on the starboard side on the Irish Carvairs. The 34-seat cabin was ordered specifically for Dublin-Cherbourg serv- ice.
As the only C-54A-5-DO used for Carvair conversion it required additional modifications to comply with Aer Lingus standards of uniformity. The Irish specifications required all Aer Lingus Carvairs to have the same fuel tank configuration. This C-54A aircraft was originally built with four wing tanks and optional fuselage tanks, but no outer wing tanks. The outer wing tanks and fittings were added making the six tank fuel system similar to the C-54B. The other Irish aircraft were converted from different series C-54s validating the need for fuel system uni- formity. The Irish also specified uniform avionics on its fleet. The Carvairs were delivered with the Collins FD 101 flight director, which was standard on the Aer Lingus F-27, and Viscount 808.
The Aer Lingus livery of white upper fuselage, bare metal bottom and green trim was applied at Southend between 11–23 February 1963. The blue and white passenger cabin was identical to BUAF with only a slight difference in trim. After an additional two months of fin- ish work and testing the Carvair made a second first flight on 26 February 1963 wearing the full Aer Lingus livery. The new empty weight recorded as 41,127 pounds and it was officially trans- ferred to Aer Lingus on 28 February.
The aircraft was named “St Albert,” which appeared on the port side of the cockpit and the Gaelic name “Ailbhe” appeared on the starboard side. Crew training began immediately and continued until delivered to Dublin. It was flown to Boscombe Down for compass checks on 01 March and received the Irish C of A on 08 March 1963. Aviation Traders test pilot Captain Don Cartlidge ferried the aircraft to Dublin on 14 March 1963. In a delivery ceremony Aer Lin- gus Captains McCarty and Tooke and Air Hostess Downes accepted the first Irish Carvair.
Aer Lingus
Training resumed at Dublin on 15 March 1963 and continued into April when limited cargo service began. On March 21st the Minister of Transport and Power, Mr. Erskine Childers, inspected the Carvair and witnessed a loading demonstration using the “Hylo” loader. The first flight delivered two and a half tons of mushrooms from Dublin to Liverpool and eight pianos to Manchester. It did not officially begin cross channel car-ferry service until May. The aircraft was chartered for the first Aer Lingus car-ferry revenue flight from Cork to Bristol 05 May 1963 to transport four vintage automobiles for the annual London to Brighton race. The first sched- uled revenue cross channel flight operated from Dublin to Liverpool via Holyhead on 08 May 1963 and returned via Isle of Man. It was commanded by Captain J.J. Sullivan and assisted by F/O John Howe with flight attendant Ms Brown. The Carvair cruised at 200 mph at 6000 feet. Although it was a cloudy day the flight was uneventful.
Aer Lingus put the Carvair in service with some skepticism but after it came on line and produced positive results a decision was made to order a third aircraft. Reliability was not as good as had been expected because of engine failures. Initially the engine problems were placed on the crews not being familiar with the characteristics of the R-2000 engines. It was not until 1966 just before the Carvairs were phased out that the engine overhaul contractor was changed
from Scottish Aviation to Air France. The engine failures were drastically reduced with the change vindicating the flight crews.1
Another option considered by Aer Lingus was a 55-seat three-car configuration, which would allow the operator to quickly convert from the 34-seat four-car configuration depend- ing on bookings. An additional 21 seats could be added ahead of the 12 seat forward cabin. Although considered, use of the 55-seat configuration was not utilized. All the Aer Lingus Cap- tains interviewed stated they never commanded a Carvair with 55-seats.
Car-ferry services were not operated during the 1963–64 winter season because of lack of traffic even though the summer market was moderately successful. Aer Lingus took advantage of the winter down time to return EI-AMP to Southend on 08 January for service and addi- tional modifications. After the first season Carvair six became the earliest conversion to be fit- ted with the “Rolamat” floor system, which gave the carrier the option of car-ferry or palletized cargo service. It was believed the additional option would increase cargo bookings by reducing loading and turnaround time.
BKS Air Transport operated car-ferry service during the summer of 1960 and 1961 between Liverpool and Dublin in the Bristol 170 freighter. Aer Lingus studied the BKS operation and noted that the carrier was the primary operator in the horse ferry (bloodstock) charter market. BKS discontinued car-ferry service in 1961 because of financial problems. In an effort to increase
Irish Minister of Transport and Power Erskine Childers inspected the Carvair and witnessed a load- ing demonstration using the Hylo loader on 21 March 1963. The Rolamat floor system is conspicuously absent, confirming that it was installed on EI-AMP and EI-AMR along with the raised ceiling in the winter of 1963–64 (courtesy Aviation Traders Ltd.).
profit on the marginal Carvair it was reasoned that with no car-ferry competition it may be possible to develop the horse ferry market bringing additional pressure on BKS with the larger aircraft and increase revenue.
Aer Lingus officials were concerned that the Carvair would never be profitable unless the aircraft was totally utilized. While reviewing the transport of horses, it was pointed out that the dead space in the hump behind the cockpit could be utilized. The Carvairs were scheduled to return to ATEL for installation of the “Rolamat” floor and to raise the ceiling in the cargo bay behind the cockpit to accommodate horse bookings. The modification begins under the hump area behind the cockpit and gives a cathedral like effect in the forward section of the cargo com- partment. EI-AMP is the first Carvair returned to the factory to receive this modification to increase the volume of the cargo hold. As a result seven other aircraft had the raised ceiling.
Aviation Traders was successful in selling the raised ceiling and “Rolamat” floor system to other carriers such as Ansett. Years later in 1997 when the two ex–Ansett aircraft 20 and 21 were ferried to Griffin Georgia the raised ceiling option was reviewed. Bob McSwiggan of Custom Air Service saw the option and was so impressed he reviewed the possibilities of modifying Car- vairs five and nine, which he owned. After considerable study it was concluded raising the ceil- ing would not be possible without major structural changes that would be cost prohibitive.2
Upon arrival at Southend on 08 January 1964 for the ceiling modification the nose wheel of EI-AMP partially collapsed on landing. Although there was no major structural damage to the airframe there was considerable damage to the nose wheel well and mounting. External damage was confined to the nose doors and surrounding skin.
The investigation of the incident determined that the fault was human error and not the aircraft. The aircraft was towed at Dublin prior to departure. The prescribed procedure before towing is to remove the toggle pin from the torque links to prevent damage to the hydraulic steering. The lower scissors of the torque link usually drops down freeing the lower end of the strut to turn freely. After towing the pin is to be replaced back in the torque link. The pin was removed at Dublin prior to departure. Either the torque link scissors remained together because of the weight of the aircraft on the strut or the ramp serviceman did not push the lower half down. Possibly after towing the torque link was engaged and the pin was not re-installed. Either way the aircraft had steering at Dublin for taxi and takeoff.
When EI-AMP departed Dublin the oleo strut extended when airborne allowing the scis- sors to separate, disconnecting the steering. Upon landing the nose gear shimmied violently spinning around and forcing the upper mounting through the cargo floor. The captain radioed on arrival at Stansted that he had lost steering and requested a tow. The ground crew inspected the nose gear and found that it was damaged but still supporting the aircraft. The crew was able to attach a tow bar and cautiously tow the aircraft off the active runway to the hangar.
This was an unfortunate event for EI-AMP but because it occurred at Stansted while in for maintenance recovery time was reduced. It was repaired and the ceiling modified returning to service 15 February ready to begin the 1964 summer season.
The Aer Lingus Carvair operation peaked in the summer of 1964. The car-ferry flights increased 12 percent over the previous year and the Carvair took over the cargo and mail serv- ice from the Aer Lingus DC-3s. The success was short lived because of the reliability issue of chronic premature engine failures. EI-AMP was used solely on the all cargo routes to Birming- ham, Glasgow, Liverpool, London, and Manchester during the winter of 1965–66. Captain Dible and F/O O’Callaghan flew EI-AMP to Bristol on 24 April 1966. As they prepared for the return a starter burned and failed. Fortunately the Irish Carvairs carried an extensive spares kit on board. The starter was changed for the return flight causing a six-hour delay.3Just seven days later again with Captain Joe Dible in command on an overnight freight circuit the Number Four engine went in to over-speed on takeoff. The prop was feathered and the engine seized. The aircraft landed safely on three engines. The following morning Captain Dible was authorized
by Telex to carry out a three-engine ferry back to Dublin.4This type of problem so plagued the Aer Lingus Carvair operation that it was a factor in phasing them out. Michael O’Callaghan made the last scheduled cargo flight with EI-AMP from Dublin-Liverpool-Manchester-Dublin on 30 October 1966. One week later EI-AMP was removed from service and stored at Dublin.