"The Douglas A-26 Invader"
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Just came across this website. Link after link after link. Great pictures and stories about this aircraft.
http://napoleon130.tripod.com/index.htmlI found this link interesting. Apparently, it was a favorite among Drug Smugglers.
http://napoleon130.tripod.com/id739.html This was an interesting story for N240P:
Note: Ownership history and uses are a little sketchy from 1972 to 1977 but they must have been interesting since the aircraft was seized from drug-runners by T.L. Baker of the Potter Co. Sheriffs Dept in Amarillo on Jan 10th 1977 after a pilot had landed the aircraft on one engine and walked away from the airplane and authorities became suspicious. A testament to this is that at a particular air show a few years ago two gentlemen in dark sunglasses seemed rather intrigued by the airplane; finally one of the gentlemen approached a crew member and asked what color the aircraft had been before Ranger Wing acquired it. When told it was white with grey trim he exclaimed "My God it's the "Grey Ghost"!! We chased that sucker up and down the Gulf Coast!! Never could catch him, he'd drop down on the deck and throttle the engines up and leave us standing there! The two gentlemen were DEA agents!!
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58Skylane offline
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Those are bad ass planes! They could do 300mph on the deck, only downside were thirsty R2000s with a fuel line that was bigger than a water hose. There are still a few Onmark conversions out there with executive interiors and Standard Airworthiness.
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N300RE offline
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very cool Pat...good find....!
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jomac offline
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Sat Jan 24, 2015 10:53 am
Hi guys - interested to see the A26 discussion here - I had the joy of flying the A26 as a firebomber for 3 seasons - still one of my favourites! They used the P&W R2800 not the 2000 as mentioned above - but I will agree they were thirsty - we would use roughly 600 gallons for every 4 hour session (and up to 10 gallons of oil ). Had a ball with them and was sorry to see them finally retired at he end of the 2004 season.
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ghan offline
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ghan wrote:Hi guys - interested to see the A26 discussion here - I had the joy of flying the A26 as a firebomber for 3 seasons - still one of my favourites! They used the P&W R2800 not the 2000 as mentioned above - but I will agree they were thirsty - we would use roughly 600 gallons for every 4 hour session (and up to 10 gallons of oil ). Had a ball with them and was sorry to see them finally retired at he end of the 2004 season.
I passed through White Horse in May1985. I watched them takeoff and land all one afternoon. They were flying retardant steady all day long and those are long days up there that time of year.
There are several still sitting at the Red Deer airport. You can see them on Google maps. If you zoom out a little and pan around there are some more. They are the yellow ones.
https://www.google.com/maps/@52.1827331 ... a=!3m1!1e3
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tcj offline
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tcj
That is the company that I flew for (airspray1967 ltd) most of the flying I did for them - 18 seasons -was in alberta . Wish I could think of a valid excuse to buy one of the remaining ones for myslef
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ghan offline
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They have quite the lineup at red deer. I'd also love to buy an old A-26 for myself, but there's no way I could afford to keep fuel in it.
Thanks for sharing the story Pat.
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A1Skinner offline
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You bet! I don't remember how I came across that website now. I think I was Googling another aircraft and happen to stumble across the link about the A-26 be the Drug Runners aircraft of choice back in the day.
Lots of great reading for hours upon hours with lots of great pictures.
And yes, if I ever hit the big Mega Millions Lotto, this would be a fun plane to have and about once a month for a couple of hours.
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58Skylane offline
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ghan wrote:That is the company that I flew for (airspray1967 ltd) most of the flying I did for them - 18 seasons -was in alberta . Wish I could think of a valid excuse to buy one of the remaining ones for myslef
ghan, did you ever know a guy named Mark Crossman? If I remember, he flew for airspray....was my best friend.
John
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hardtailjohn offline
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Sat Jan 24, 2015 10:37 pm
Hardtailjohn - sorry that name doesn't ring a bell with me - I was with airspray from 1990 thru 2008 and knew everyone in the company during that time period - it is possible that he flew with our competition - conair from abbotsford bc
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ghan offline
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ghan wrote:Hardtailjohn - sorry that name doesn't ring a bell with me - I was with airspray from 1990 thru 2008 and knew everyone in the company during that time period - it is possible that he flew with our competition - conair from abbotsford bc
I'm pretty sure it was Airspray...but before that time. I know it wasn't Conair. I remember he was typed in B-25's and seem to remember him saying it was Airspray? Yellow B25's???
Thanks anyway!
John
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hardtailjohn offline
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God put me here to accomplish a certain amount of things...right now I'm so far behind, I'll never die!!
Ahh - airspray only ran the a/b26 never t he b25 - the only operator in this area with the b25 was northwest air lease from ft smith - they had the wood buffalo national park contract for many years with the yellow b25s - I'll bet that is who he flew for
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ghan offline
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Sat Feb 07, 2015 10:27 am
58Skylane wrote:You bet! I don't remember how I came across that website now. I think I was Googling another aircraft and happen to stumble across the link about the A-26 be the Drug Runners aircraft of choice back in the day.
Lots of great reading for hours upon hours with lots of great pictures.
And yes, if I ever hit the big Mega Millions Lotto, this would be a fun plane to have and about once a month for a couple of hours.
Hey Pat; you have a totally unrelated PM.
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Mister701 offline
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